Page 48 of Learn Your Limits
Chapter thirty-six
Reid
With final exams being next week, helping Milo decorate his home for Christmas is exactly the kind of distraction I needed. I'm not worried about the exams themselves, more so what comes after. Because as soon as I finish the final exam for Milo's class, he'll no longer be my professor and our relationship will no longer need to be hidden.
I'm excited, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also feeling a bit apprehensive about everything.
Well, not everything. Not about Milo. He's probably the only thing in my life that Iamsure of.
But knowing that by the end of next week, the semester will officially be over and I'll finally be able to tell my family and friends about our relationship...ThatI'm nervous about.
Wes and Matt will likely give me shit for keeping it from them and for being involved with one of my professors, but they'll be accepting. My parents on the other hand will be disappointed, and that’s putting it lightly. I’m not ready to face them, but there’s comfort in knowing that I won’t have to do it alone.
“The ornaments are supposed to be hung on the tree,Muñeco,”Milo teases, his voice carrying over the pop-punk covers of Christmas music playing in the background as I finish removing the tissue paper from another ornament. I’ve been unwrapping them one-by-one and laying them out on the couch, too focused on admiring them and the uniqueness behind each one to bother hanging them. Every ornament has either been passed down from his family or is something he picked up while traveling, and I can’t help but think about adding to the collection someday when we get to travel together.
“Do you buy an ornament every time you travel somewhere new?” I ask, slowing down to carefully unwrap the ornament in my hands before setting it aside.
“I try to,” he answers while opening another storage tote. “Experiences are precious to me, and the trinkets serve as a mnemonic object to better recall the memories.” Milo opens the tote, and sitting at the top is a bag from the art shop we visited during our weekend away. Lifting the bag carefully, he opens and pushes aside the tissue paper to reveal a small palette and brush ornament.
“I bought this when you ran out of the art shop.” Milo smiles while inspecting it, then passes it over to me. My heart begins to pound in my chest as I take the ornament from him, swiping my thumb over the surface of it.
That was the first time he had ever called me his boyfriend. It was also the moment I knew that I was in love with him.
Not because he was spoiling me with new art supplies or because of the way the wordboyfriendrolled off his lips with such ease, but because a single word had never had such a huge effect on me before. The word left his lips, and it was like the future suddenly rolled out in front of me, painted in endlessly vibrant strokes of color.
I knew if I didn’t get out of the shop and get some fresh air, I was going to tell him exactly how I felt. But telling him that I’m in love with him when we still have to keep our relationship a secret doesn’t feel right.
When I tell him how I feel, it’s going to be when I can finally claim him and be claimed by him in public.
With the ornament in hand, I walk over to stand in front of the tree and carefully hang it so that it’s eye-level. Milo’s arms wrap around my waist as he steps up behind me, pulling my back to his chest as his head rests on my shoulder.
The ornament from the art shop is the first one I’ve actually hung on his tree, and just like at the cabin, it gives me a glimpse into what holidays with him might look like.
I imagine our future holidays together looking a lot like today. Days filled with listening to Christmas music while we decorate the tree, baking cookies and cuddling up on the couch to watch silly Christmas movies, and sipping hot chocolate while we drive through random neighborhoods to look at all of the lights. Not to mention all the festive events that pop up around town this time of year and the trip we would likely make to visit his family.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when Milo invited me over for the weekend to help him decorate for the holidays, but it’s already been the most fun I’ve ever had when it comes to celebrating the season.
Growing up, my mother was always more concerned with our home looking picture perfect than she was with creating lifelong memories. We never had any sentimental decorations, no fun holiday photos that were displayed just for the season, and we definitely didn’t do any family baking. Everything about the Callahan home at Christmas time was always perfectly curated to fit a very specific image.
Being here with Milo and helping him put up what few decorations he has is quickly turning this into the best Christmas I’ve ever had, and it’s still a couple weeks away.
We stand there admiring the sentimental token from our vacation together, Milo’s arms wrapped around my waist as his thumbs move slowly back and forth across my lower abdomen through the fabric of my shirt. The gesture is sweet and loving, and yet it still sends a jolt of electricity straight to my cock, causing me to press back against him.
He chuckles, and his hands slide to my waist, pulling my hips back as he grinds his hardening length against my ass. “The sooner we finish decorating, the sooner we can get dinner in the oven and relax on the couch.”
Milo’s comment spurs me into action. It doesn’t take long after that for us to get the rest of the decorations on the tree, though we would’ve been done sooner if he hadn’t been right behind me, shifting ornaments around and grumbling about how I couldn’t just hang them all in one spot. I’ll admit, I didn’t even think about hanging some on the back of the tree. I mean, it’s facing the wall, who is even going to see them? But Milo insisted that all of the ornaments be evenly dispersed.
By the time dinner is in the oven and we’re laying on the couch with a holiday movie playing, all I can think about is how it’s been way too long since we were last able to take our time with each other. Milo’s office hours are limited, and every heated moment we have managed to steal for ourselves has had to be quick.
Our plan to spend weekends together hasn’t worked out the way we’d hoped. With the semester nearing its end, my father has been pushing more than ever for me to spend my free time shadowing various higher-ups at Callahan Marketing Inc. And when I’m not suffering through that, I’ve been either spending my time studying or keeping up appearances with Avalon.Though she’s in a similar situation, her relationship is one that must be kept secret for entirely different reasons.
Now that I have Milo all to myself for the weekend and we don’t need to rush, I’m desperate for him. While he was getting dinner ready, I took a moment to slip away and prepare for him. As much as I want us to take our time with one another, I also want to be ready for him. And I’ll admit, seeing the way his eyes darken and lust overtakes his features any time he discovers I'm wearing a plug, sends a wave of heat pulsing through my body.
With my head on his chest and my legs tangled between his, my hand trails down his stomach until I reach his hip, wrapping my fingers around his side.
He shifts subtly, and I pause my movement, my hand resting at his waist where my fingertips have slipped under the hem of his shirt. Keeping my focus on the movie takes effort that I should be damn near praised for as I wait for him to settle. When he does, I slowly begin to move my hand up his torso, my nails gently raking over his chest as I grind my hips into his once more.
His hand moves to the smooth expanse of skin just above the waistband of my black microfiber jockstrap, and my body immediately feels as though it’s been tossed into an inferno. Heat surges through me as his fingers slip beneath it.
