Page 79 of Still Bruised
Foster
I’m not with anyone else. I have no plans to be with anyone else for the foreseeable future. Are you sleeping with other guys?
A message bubble appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Then was gone.
It never returned.
Foster’s heart sank. He’d thought he’d felt a connection the night before, but apparently not. One blissed-out orgasm did not make them into something more, no matter how much he wanted it to. Jude had been perfectly clear what the terms were. Fuck him, make him come, and leave. After watching Jude snuggle into bed last night, he’d desperately wanted to crawl in beside him.
He’d left instead. He hadn’t wanted to cross the line again and get yelled at.
Sleeping alone hadn’t been anywhere near as enjoyable.
While Jude might be able to turn off his feelings and keep it physical-only, Foster was struggling to do that. What he experienced with Jude was far more profound than anything he’d shared with another person. It was hard not to have emotions tied into their nights together.
He was free and newly single. He should be experimenting. Maybe if he fucked around on occasion, it would make it easier to keep things casual.
Yet the idea of being with another man while he wasownedby Jude didn’t feel right, either.
Jude had him in a stranglehold.
Mind, body, and soul.
Too bad it wasn’t mutual.
Foster
I’m not with anyone else. I have no plans to be with anyone else for the foreseeable future. Do you?
Jude staredat Foster’s last text message as he finished up his lunch. He lowered his phone to his father’s desk once again, leaning back in his chair. Closing his eyes, he breathed deep, trying to clear his mind. He couldn’t allow Foster to reel him in.
Half a day since that orgasm and his body didn’t act right. He felt like his bones were made of Jello and all he could think about was going upstairs to nap away the lethargy.
No man had gotten him off half as good before. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to throw his rules out the window and beg for more orgasms like that one.
He sensed it wasn’t just about the orgasm, though.
It was the way Foster looked at him when they were together. The way he jumped to do whatever Jude said with little question. Foster’s willingness to hold space where Jude could work through his resentments was surprising. Jude had purposefully been rude, abrasive, and downright mean at times, searching for limits that didn’t seem to exist—at least not on Foster’s end.
Foster just sat there and took it, wagging his golden retriever tail and looking up at Jude with adoration in his eyes.
Was he a masochist? Did Jude’s dominance wind him up?
Maybe it was simply the fact that Foster hadn’t had an intimate relationship with a man before. It was new to him, and perhaps everything was bright and shiny, even when it wasn’t.
If there was no bitterness between them, could it be bright and shiny?
Jude shook his head. What the fuck was he thinking? They’d fucked a few times over the course of a few weeks. It was just sex and nothing more and wasn’t going to last much longer. Either he enjoyed it while it lasted or not at all.
He cleaned up his lunch mess and then shoved his phone back into his pocket before returning to the cutting room floor.
If he couldn’t keep the line firm between them, he’d have to end it sooner than later. He didn’t want to do that, but no way was he allowing himself to fall for Foster Price.
