Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

"FUCK. THAT'S GOOD. That's really good."

Elijah gritted his teeth and moaned at Ty's flurry of praise. In truth, he didn't feel like he was doing much to earn it. He lay on his back, hands tied together above his head and attached to the headboard. Ty sat atop him, nails digging into Elijah's chest as he rode Elijah's dick.

"That's so fucking good," Ty moaned again, throwing himself down Elijah's cock. "God, yes, right there."

Ty babbled like Elijah was the one aiming at his prostate and not Ty himself. He speared himself with glee, repeating the motion when he apparently found the right spot inside himself.

Elijah did his part by resisting the urge to shift and drive up into Ty. It was getting more difficult by the moment as Ty's vigorous riding sent sparks crackling through Elijah's body. With his eyes closed, he had an entire fireworks display going on behind his eyelids. Ty was a flurry of noise and heat and desire, his breaths like nails scratching down Elijah's chest.

Elijah allowed himself the small concession of straining against the tie securing him to the headboard. It was just an ordinary tie, one Ty apparently owned from all the way back during his high school graduation. The plain red silk now forced Elijah to keep his hands above his head and off of the man bracing against him.

Fuck, he wanted to touch Ty. His slim waist, his bucking hips, his pretty cock. Despite all their time together, right now it felt like Elijah had never gotten to touch him in his entire life.

The denial burned as good as the arousal searing through Elijah's entire body as Ty both indulged and tormented him. The fragile threads of his self-control frayed with every jerk of Ty's hips. Warmth enveloped him, flushing through his whole body as Ty sank down to take him deep.

"Ty," he gasped as the threads broke one by one, a rope fraying a single fiber at a time.

Then it snapped, and Elijah couldn't stop himself from pushing at the tight, welcoming heat of Ty's body. The moment his hips moved, a tiny shrieking voice in the back of Elijah's mind worried he'd ruined this, but Ty nearly screamed, his nails biting at Elijah's chest.

"Oh my god," Ty huffed. "Do that again."

Elijah's body responded before Ty could even finish the request. His hips jerked, the lust boiling inside him set loose at last. Even with his hands bound, he found purchase on the mattress beneath him and threw himself up at Ty, who met his every motion. Elijah's voice rose to join Ty's, and though it would never be that sweet, that lovely, that free, he still relished the sound they made together with their bodies so gloriously attuned.

Elijah creaked an eye open to watch Ty sway atop him, his body a sinuous curl as he bent into the pleasure. He yearned to reach for his sweaty skin, to caress every bare inch of it, to stroke him to bring him to the edge. But Ty had been getting better and better at these knots, and the more Elijah pulled, the tighter the tie cinched around his wrists. It was a climbing knot of some sort. Elijah could probably figure it out in a moment when he didn't have the most beautiful man he'd ever met bouncing atop his cock, but right now there was nothing in his brain but the storm of need Ty had unleashed in him.

Ty reached for himself, pumping furiously. Elijah yearned to replace Ty's hand with his own, to deliver that ultimate release himself, but he lay at Ty's mercy today; he could do nothing but surrender.

Ty clenched around him and Elijah gasped, eyes slamming shut. He couldn't pry them open now, no matter how much he might want to. The drumbeat building in his chest, thundering through his veins, knotting his body into tight, tense readiness, was too loud to deny. Elijah could only moan and jerk his hips, needy and pathetic, bound and restrained and lost to the whims of the man atop him.

"Shit, I'm not going to last, Ty." The words were strangled between his teeth. Elijah wasn't sure if Ty ever heard them, or ever cared. He simply kept chasing his own bliss, slamming himself onto Elijah until they were both a cacophony of senseless cries.

It ended in a blur for Elijah, a static rush of heat and release and exquisite tension. For a moment, he was so taut, so desperately on-edge, that he could weep. Then his whole body let go, everything going slack as the lust burst out of him.

Ty continued, but it was a distant haze for Elijah. His body tried to follow, hips thrusting up but accomplishing little as Ty brought himself to his edge with his pumping hand and rolling hips. Then he slumped down atop Elijah, right there on the mess, both of them too ruined to care yet.

Elijah enjoyed the moment while he could, letting their deep breaths push their chests closer together. But it soon became too uncomfortable and they had to break the moment to get through the necessities, including untying Elijah.

Elijah didn't even manage to leave the bathroom before Ty returned to him, hugging him from behind, leaning his head against Elijah's shoulder as he let out a contented sigh.

"Man, that was good," Ty said.

"I don't feel like I contributed much with my hands tied like that," Elijah said.

Ty looked up to meet Elijah's eyes in the mirror. "Don't underestimate yourself."

Fuck, how his body wanted to respond to that, wanted to leap into the glint in Ty's eyes, but it was way too soon. He turned in Ty's arms to place his back against the counter with the sink set in it. It didn't help. This way, they stood hip-to-hip, so close Elijah could pick out the flicker of a smirk tip toeing along the corner of Ty's mouth.

"If you want to try again and do ‘more work' this time, that can be arranged," Ty said.

Of course he wanted to. Who wouldn't want to with Ty looking at them like he meant to devour them? But even as his cock attempted to answer for him, Elijah's body ached. He wasn't cut out for sex five times in a row like a twenty-something. Even when he was actually Ty's age, Elijah didn't recall having such ridiculous stamina.

"We were going to climb today," Elijah said, even as Ty slid down to his knees.

"Uh huh."

"This is already a late start. We let half the day slip by."

"Mhm."

"We're going to hit the worst part of the day if we delay much longer. The rock will be hot."

"Yeah."

Ty obviously wasn't listening. He put his mouth to use convincing Elijah to delay their climbing trip just a little longer, and soon Elijah could do little but grip the edge of the counter and agree.

THEY MISSED ANY opportunity for a morning climbing session. The sun rose, baking any granite not tucked under the protective shadows of the treetops into an oily mess. It made for a lazy — and vigorous — start to the day. By the time Elijah finally convinced Ty they should do something other than lay in bed, the sun was setting, dragging the heat of the day below the horizon with it.

They left their rented cabin behind and headed into the forest. Here, as back at that cabin, they found themselves utterly alone. Which was probably a good thing considering the amount of noise they'd made this morning. Thank god for the luxury of climbing in the middle of the week when most people were at work.

Ty stretched his lanky limbs when they arrived at the boulder they wanted to try and tossed aside their protective climbing pads and gear. Even though they'd left the bedroom behind (finally), another of those contented sighs escaped Ty's lips as he limbered up for a different kind of exercise than what they'd indulged in so far.

"Man, I do not feel ready for this at all," Ty said as he sized up the boulder.

"Well, it would probably help if we'd actually climbed on our first day here," Elijah said.

He shot a look over at Ty, who chuckled. Yesterday, they'd reached their cabin nice and early, meaning to squeeze in an evening climb … and promptly tumbled around in bed for the rest of the night. Keeping up with a twenty-something was going to be the death of Elijah long before some sort of climbing accident. But … Elijah didn't regret it. He didn't regret Ty. He didn't regret them . He didn't regret this strange new life he'd fallen into since meeting the guy all the way back in Vail.

I should send Jane a "thank you" card.

If she hadn't convinced him to stop feeling sorry for himself and go to that comp, he never would have met Ty. He would probably still be bumming around the same crags in Colorado that he'd been climbing for years and years, sad and pathetic and dreaming of lost glory he'd never regain.

Instead, he'd let Jane drag him to that competition. And then he'd met Ty and his whole world had opened up again.

He'd competed. He'd competed and left with a silver medal! Elijah had no plans to bother with competitions when the next IFSC season started up, but he'd be there in the front row rooting Ty on every time. And before then, he and Ty had this — time for just each other while camping out in beautiful places and doing what they loved most.

It was a better retirement than Elijah had ever dared hope for. It was a better life than Elijah had ever dared hope for. All because of Ty.

"Hey."

Ty's voice snapped Elijah out of his thoughts.

"You wanna climb or what? You can't blame me for delaying this time." Ty's smile curled at the edges, signaling just how willing he was to "delay" once again.

Elijah shook his head, striding up to Ty, slipping a hand behind his head to pull him into a kiss. He lingered against Ty's lips, tugging the bottom one between his teeth as he drew away.

"Yes," he said. "I want to climb. Put on your damn shoes."

They had plenty of time for "delays" later. They had plenty of time for whatever they wanted. The rock wasn't going anywhere, and neither were they.