Page 33 of Harboring Secrets
We’d gone back to his place, which was still a sea of boxes and unorganized furniture. I offered to help him unpack, but he’d laughed at me and tugged me down onto his couch.
“Mom to a heart attack. She’d been unwell for a while, but kept brushing it off as indigestion. Dad was older than her by about fifteen years, and he just kind of faded away after she died. Within a few months, he was gone too.”
“Shit. That sucks.”
“It did, but I came out the other end okay. Eventually.” I loved the way Brodie kept wanting to touch me. Breakfast had kicked down one of the walls between us and every moment we spent together after it drew us closer together. “What about your dad?”
“Gone. Died. I don’t even remember him. He did some bad shit that put my family in a tough spot for a long time. So it’s probably good that I don’t remember him.”
“That sucks.” I echoed Brodie’s words back at him.
Brodie dragged his fingertips across my wrist, then up higher, tracing the veins that showed through my pale skin. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore.” His hands trembled against my skin. A sign that he was as nervous as I was.
We hadn’t been together since the morning of the day I got that stupid phone call. And while it wasn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, a lot had happened between us in that time.
“What do you want, Brodie?” I had to know in words, not assumptions. I’d give him anything he wanted, but nothing he didn’t tell me he was ready for.
Brodie rolled his eyes and shuffled closer, pressing our knees together. “Isn’t it obvious?”
He was a beautiful temptation. Light brown hair that was the perfect length to always be in his face, to always need me to push it off his face. He looked at me with his hooded eyes and his teeth pressed into his bottom lip.
“I don’t want to make a single mistake with you. Not again.”
Brodie moved slowly, telegraphing every motion as he rose to his feet. He put his hands on my shoulders, then sat in my lap, one leg on either side of me, straddling me. Caging me in.
“Not kissing me right now would be a mistake, Liam.”
I wondered if Brodie could feel the way my heart slammed against my ribs. Did he feel the way I shook when I put my hands on his thighs and slid them toward his hips? Did he know how terrified I was of fucking this up again? He’d given me a second chance, but it also felt like a last chance. One more shot to get it right. And if I fucked up, it would all go away. His smile. His voice. The way he looked at me—like he was looking at me now.
“Liam.” He leaned in, bumping his nose against mine. Warm breath washed over my face. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a kiss around here?”
I kissed the trace of a smile off his face. Our mouths came together. I moved first, but he moved faster. He grabbed my face and rose up on his knees, making him taller than me for a change. The angle pressed me backward, so I leaned against the back of the couch, letting it take my weight. I wound my arms around Brodie and kissed him like I hadn’t kissed him for a thousand years.
Our hours apart had been weeks. Eons. A desert of loneliness and regret vanished as Brodie licked his way into my mouth. His hands slid into my hair and he held me like he wanted to punish me for leaving. For not explaining better why I had to go. For being stupid and almost ruining everything.
Kissing Brodie never got old. It never would. He kissed deeply. Passionately. With his whole body.
He lowered himself down and plastered his body to mine. Hips swiveled, grinding our cocks together. God. There weren’t words for how badly I’d missed him. Needed him. I’d been so fucking stupid and I still hated myself for it. I’d never forgive myself for hurting him.
All I could do now was try to make it up to him.
We kissed for an eternity. Until my lungs screamed for air and my face ached from it, and only then did I let him pull away. But he didn’t go far. He grabbed the hem of my shirt and rucked it up, urging me to raise my arms so he could tear it off over my head.
Once my shirt was gone, I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up in one swift motion. I flipped him onto his back and pinned him between me and the couch.
A laugh tore out of him and it was like music. And suddenly everything was okay. He wrapped his arms around me and gazed at me with those liquid brown eyes, like melted chocolate.
He didn’t have to ask before I kissed him, but it was just a taste this time. I wanted to ravish him. To spoil him. Lick every inch of his body until he squirmed and begged and sobbed with need for me.
I shoved his shirt up his body then tugged it over his head. His arms I left tangled in the fabric as sort of a makeshift bondage. Laughter pealed out of him as he wriggled his arms.
“Do you think this will seriously hold me?” His eyes danced with humor and another brick of regret fell away.
“I think you’ll like what happens if it does.” Tenderly, I dragged my hands down his bare torso, softly catching his nipples with the pads of my fingers as I went. He hissed in a breath and stopped wriggling. Well, his arms did. His hips thrust, seeking friction I wasn’t yet providing.
Holding his gaze, I leaned over him and took his nipple in my mouth. In a lot of ways, we were starting over. But in some, we were picking up where we left off. I knew Brodie’s body already, but explored as though it was my first time with him. I toyed with his nipples. Sucking and licking. Nibbling made him yelp and laugh and get too squirmy, so I shelved that for another time. I kissed my way up to his armpit. Underneath his deodorant, he smelled like himself. It was an achingly familiar scent, all skin and salt and musk and man. I wanted to bury my face there and breathe him in until every cell in my body smelled of him.
My mouth caressed the curve of his neck. The delicate hollow of his throat. I kissed the pulse points on his neck, then mapped my way slowly down the center of his chest. Brodie was a panting mess by the time I got to his belly button. My fingers were clumsy from excitement and arousal, but I managed to get his pants open and free his cock.
