Chapter 5

Chapter Five

ELIJAH BARELY REMEMBERED leaving the restaurant. He hoped one of them had paid for the drinks. No one was shouting and chasing them, so he figured he must have at some point, but most of the evening was a blur ever since that hungry kiss at the bar.

The night air was a burst of cold to the face, but it did little to sober Elijah with Ty still gripping his hand and dragging him along. Ty used all the length in those legs of his to eat up the cobblestones. Despite being only slightly shorter, Elijah felt like he might have to run to keep up.

Ty was digging his phone out of his deliciously tight jeans and typing with his free thumb. Elijah didn't know how he could move this quickly, drag Elijah along, and type all at the same time, but Ty didn't even stumble as he turned them downhill and toward the houses and hotels.

"Something wrong?" Elijah said when Ty's phone buzzed at him and he typed out a quick reply to whomever he was texting.

"Huh? Oh, no. Just double checking something."

He stuffed his phone away and kept pounding down the street, but a knot of worry snuck back into Elijah's overheated brain. What if all of USA Climbing was in that house? What if they were about to see Ty burst in with Elijah in tow? What would they think of him? He could become a pariah in the whole climbing community, some creep preying on up and coming talent.

Ty must have sensed Elijah stumbling beside him. He squeezed Elijah's hand and said, "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah," Elijah said. "Yeah. Just. You're sure this is okay? I mean, I'm way older than you. I'm not trying to pressure you or something."

Ty burst out with a laugh. "Dude, I kissed you first. And now I'm practically dragging you to my room. How much clearer can I be? Do I need to sign a contract? Damn."

"What about your team, though? You said they're out? What about…" In the morning? He couldn't say that. That implied there would be an "in the morning."

"Okay, first," Ty said, "they literally don't care. The coaches have their own place where they're staying because we are in our twenties and they know damn well that shit happens. Second, that text was my roommate. He really is out for the night. I can show you the message if you don't believe me."

Elijah shook his head. "I believe you. I just had to ask."

Ty shook his head, but he was smiling. "Can we please keep walking now? I am not sure how much longer I can remain decent in public with you looking at me like that."

Elijah nodded, too afraid to speak. Ty was the one who couldn't remain decent? How could that possibly be right? Elijah was the one being dragged away by a guy at the peak of physical perfection. And that kiss. Ty had devoured Elijah's mouth more hungrily than he'd devoured his burger. If that was any indication of what was to come tonight, Elijah would be hard-pressed to keep up.

The horniness took over and the worry abated, drowned out as Ty pulled Elijah along with a sure, determined grip. The doubts and fears still whined in the back of Elijah's head, but they grew fainter and fainter the longer Ty's hand was in Elijah's and the more Ty threw giddy, devious glances back at him as though checking that Elijah was still there.

As though he could possibly run from this.

He was way too far gone for that. When Ty burst into a house, Elijah barely remembered to be scared that there could be people in the living room. He thought he heard something in the kitchen, but Elijah didn't see a single soul aside from Ty as they charged up the stairs and ducked into a bedroom .

The moment the door shut, Ty crowded Elijah in against it. Elijah heard the click of a lock, then they were truly alone and Ty was chewing on his bottom lip again in a way that sent all the blood in Elijah's body rushing straight to his cock.

"Finally," Ty said, as though he was the one who'd been waiting all night for this.

Then he dove forward. His kiss pressed Elijah's back against the door. Elijah melted into those hot, hungry, searching lips. Ty massaged Elijah's mouth open, then darted his tongue in to explore. Elijah leaned heavily against the door behind him and groaned, all the painful, tedious care he'd taken at every step of this finally ebbing away.

He reached for Ty as Ty went on licking into his mouth. A swipe along the roof sent tingles rippling through Elijah's whole body. Elijah clutched that lean body so close to his, running his hands down Ty's sides. He stopped at slim hips and pulled Ty in against him.

Ty was just as excited about this as Elijah. The evidence was plain to both of them. They moaned into each other mouths at the tangible hardness pressed between them. Elijah wasn't sure if it was his own hips moving or Ty's or some combination, but soon their bodies and mouths found a writhing rhythm. Heat built between them, a blanket falling over them to wrap them around each other.

Ty broke away suddenly, gasping for breath. "Fuck," he said. "You're so hot. "

Before Elijah could laugh at the absurdity of that statement coming out of such an obscenely beautiful face, Ty started walking backward, pulling Elijah with him as he stumbled toward the beds. They didn't even get their shoes off before they tumbled onto a mattress, Elijah's bulk landing atop Ty's more wiry frame.

Elijah forgot about shoes and pants and everything else the moment he was on top of Ty. All that mattered was the frantic race to get their bodies closer, to touch and lick and kiss anything they could reach. Elijah ground his hips down against Ty's and Ty arched up at him, eager to meet him. He tilted his head back as he did, exposing a tantalizing stretch of throat that Elijah dove after with his lips.

Ty hissed in a breath as Elijah sucked at his neck, winding a hand in Elijah's short, sandy hair. "Shit, how did you know that's my weakness?" Ty rasped. Then his voice devolved into breathy panting.

Elijah ravished his neck. He could have stayed there the whole night testing out new ways to make Ty moan under him. But they both still had way too much clothing on for comfort. Elijah reluctantly pulled away, pushing himself up on his arms to gaze down at Ty. His face was a mess of heat and lust, his eyes bright as starlight, his lips trapped open as gasps puffed past them.

Elijah forgot every word he'd ever known. All he managed was "clothes. "

Thankfully, Ty understood. "Yeah, clothes. Way too much of them."

They both scrambled up, moving in a frenzy, desperate to be back on each other rather than separated by this arbitrary distance. Ty threw his trendy leather jacket to the floor and peeled off his shirt next. Elijah busied himself doing the same, but it was impossible not to notice the perfection of that lean body before him. Again, Elijah had to wonder if he'd ever been in that kind of shape. Every inch of Ty seemed chiseled by a sculptor aiming to make the ideal climbing body. There wasn't an ounce of him that wasn't taut muscle. His scraping breaths puffed out his lean chest and made the hard planes of his six-pack even more stark.

Elijah was almost embarrassed to take off his shirt and be compared to this. But Ty didn't let him. He scooted forward, pulling Elijah's shirt off himself and crawling into his lap.

Ty nearly toppled them off the bed when he slung his arms over Elijah's shoulders and pressed their bare chests together so they could kiss again. Elijah sank into it, all his self-conscious worries evaporating as he ran his hands down Ty's smooth, muscled back. He skimmed his fingertips along the corded strength that trailed all the way down to the waist of Ty's painfully tight jeans. Lord, but the guy had to be dying in those things if he was half as riled up as Elijah .

"Pants," Elijah groaned against Ty's mouth.

"Yeah," Ty said. "Yeah, great idea. Shit."

They didn't separate this time. Ty simply reached down and undid Elijah's pants to free him. Elijah might have gasped in surprise, but before he could Ty was freeing himself as well. He was still in Elijah's lap, so Ty easily reached around both of them, clasping his hand around both of their hard cocks.

Elijah could do little but gape down at the hand wrapped him as Ty leaned back to give himself space to work. He gripped Elijah's shoulder with his free hand, nails biting at Elijah's skin as he started pumping. It was so much better than any mere handy. There was something about the added friction of being squeezed against Ty that made every smooth pump of Ty's hand that much more tantalizing.

Elijah held Ty steady by the hips as he started not just moving his hand, but also rolling his whole body into the motion. It was enough to leave Elijah dizzy. Moments ago, he'd been enjoying a beer in one of the restaurants around here; now he had Ty's hand on his dick while the guy sat in his lap.

This wasn't going to last if he didn't do something to slow it down, but did he even want it to slow down? The motion of Ty's hand felt so damn good it left Elijah almost out of his head with pleasure, until he couldn't possibly think straight enough to figure out something as delicate as whether this was moving too quickly.

Then Ty leaned in and said, "Damn, I just want to ride you, but I don't think either of us are quite ready for that tonight."

Elijah nearly came just from those silky words caressing his ear. He held himself together by a thread and gritted out, "You're going to be the death of me."

"Then I better make it worth it."

Ty dragged Elijah down atop him, his hand still wedged between them. From here, Elijah could kiss him again, which was well worth the shift in position. It also let Elijah thrust into Ty's hand. He fucked along both of them every time he moved his hips. Somehow they were still half-tangled in their pants, but neither of them seemed prepared to stop just for that. When Elijah even thought about pushing himself up to kick his legs free of his jeans, Ty jerked up into his hand and bit at Elijah's lip as though begging him to stay right where he was.

Elijah was happy to oblige. He sank against Ty's lips, sank into his hand, sank his weight down atop Ty until their flushed bodies met like a flint and steel trying to spark a fire. Ty spread his legs around Elijah. Elijah propped himself up on his arms to give Ty space to work, then rolled his whole body into the sweet grasp of Ty's hand.

As much as he would have liked to keep their bodies in contact at every possible point, Elijah lost Ty's lips somewhere in the tumble. The pang of the separation lasted only an instant; then Ty was moaning, his breath puffing against Elijah's ear as his pleasure rang out through the room. Some small shred of coherent thought reminded Elijah that there were other people in this house, other professional climbers from around the U.S., in fact. But he shifted forward, grinding his cock against Ty's, and Ty let out such a sweet, pleading noise that the thought evaporated as quickly as it arose.

"I can't last much longer like this," Elijah rasped. This was all happening in a tumultuous blur, but he owed Ty some sort of warning before he lost the ability to issue any at all.

If Ty heard him, he didn't respond, except to moan and stroke them both harder. Was that a yes? Elijah definitely needed more than that before he lost it right here all over both of them.

"Ty," he said, but it came out more like a moan than a request.

"Yeah," Ty replied in a burst of hot breath. "Yeah. Do it. Fuck."

It wasn't going to get much better than that, not least of all because neither of them seemed capable of stringing together more than a couple words at a time. Elijah's arms burned like he'd been on the climbing wall too long. His shoulders begged him to collapse while his balls drew up so tight and aching he felt like they might explode. He let go of the final threads of hesitation, following the urgent pleas of Ty's moans, diving into the heat consuming his body in a ravenous swell.

The room faded away. The idea of other roommates faded away. All that remained was the heat and pressure breaking Elijah down to his most basic, primal desires. He gasped and raced for the edge like a sprinter dashing madly after the finish line. Elijah plunged into Ty's hand with abandon and received answering bucks of pleasure beneath him.

By the time the edge crashed into him, Ty was stroking so furiously Elijah feared he'd get a rug burn on his dick from the frantic motions. Elijah stuttered as the tension snapped out of him and onto Ty's torso. He came so hard spots of color burst behind his closed eyes.

And it didn't even stop there. For a few delirious moments, his body just kept going, aftershocks thundering through him while Ty's hand pumped madly. It was almost too much, especially when his body was finally depleted, but Elijah gritted his teeth and endured until Ty was arching up and moaning and writhing as he added to the mess painted across their chests.

Elijah collapsed atop Ty the moment he could. Their chests pressed closer as they gasped for breath, heedless of the filth smeared between them. Elijah's limbs were far too weak for him to care about cleaning up. The thought floated outside him somewhere, a distant concern for some future Elijah whose bones weren't made of jelly .

"Holy shit."

The words brushed past Elijah's cheek, hardly more than an exhale from the man beneath him.

"You should not be allowed to be that good at climbing and sex," Ty said.

Elijah snorted a laugh. He didn't feel particularly good at either, especially compared to Ty himself, but that argument would only sour the postcoital coziness. Instead, he forced himself up onto his arms again. Below him, Ty wore an expression of supreme bliss, an oddly quiet countenance for his bright, lively face. Had Elijah really been the one to cause that? The thought shivered through him, dispelling the lingering heat.

"You got a towel or something?" he said.

"Mhm," Ty said, waving vaguely at a bag on the floor.

Elijah went to roll off the bed, but Ty stopped him before he got far.

"You're not leaving, are you?"

The fear in Ty's eyes stabbed into Elijah's chest. He kind of assumed he would be leaving soon. Or, at least, that he should be leaving soon. He didn't belong in a twenty-something's bedroom.

"Not yet," he offered.

It seemed a good enough response for the immediate moment. Ty released Elijah to fish through the bag on the floor and find a crude means of cleaning himself up. He pulled his damn pants off first, finishing the job that had gotten lost in the scramble of their desire for each other. Jesus, when was the last time Elijah had been so horny and riled up that he hadn't even managed to get his damn pants all the way off? Part of him worried he was about to wake up from a dream. This whole night blurred around the edges, taking on a surreal quality even in the moment.

"Come back," Ty said from the bed.

Elijah returned to the bed, but sat on the edge. He should have started cleaning Ty up, but some piece of him wanted to leave their combined mess splattered across his six-pack. He'd done that. Somehow. He'd caused that beautiful disaster.

Elijah shook himself and toweled Ty off. Ty lounged, accepting the treatment. But when Elijah finished, Ty scooted over in the narrow twin bed and raised his arms, beckoning Elijah down to him.

"I don't really think I should…" Elijah said.

"Stop it," Ty said. "If you're about to call yourself old or whatever, then just stop it. It'd be way worse for you to leave than to just stay."

"Stay?" Elijah scanned the room. There was definitely a second bed, a second set of bags, evidence of a whole second human. "What about your roommate? You said he's out for the night but surely he'll be coming back at some point. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to find a random guy in his room."

"He told me I could have the room for the night," Ty said. "He's gonna shack up with Claire…" He trailed off at the end, as though realizing his mistake halfway through his sentence.

"You told me he went out."

"Technically I said he was out . Which he is. He's just out … and about … in the house."

"In this house?" Elijah said.

"Technically…"

Elijah froze and Ty sat up with a huff.

"Will you chill?" Ty said. "He knows I was planning to bring someone back with me. I've done this for him a billion times. He owes me one. Besides, he's been into Claire for ages. This is not exactly a hardship, trust me."

When Elijah still hesitated, Ty pried the dirty towel out of his hands and tossed it to the floor. He cradled Elijah's hands in his.

"Please," Ty said. "Just stay here with me tonight. I really, really want you to."

"The bed is small."

"Good, then we'll have to snuggle."

"What about the morning, though?" Elijah said. "What happens when we wake up and your whole team sees some old guy here?"

"They're going climbing in the morning."

"The day after the comp?"

"Hey, as you keep saying, we're young."

"Aren't you meant to go with them then?" Elijah said .

"Yeah, but it's not like it's required," Ty said. "I'll just tell them I want to sleep in instead. Which I do." His eyes raked up and down Elijah. "I really, really do."

It was difficult resisting that hungry gaze, not to mention the fact that Elijah's body was still so weightless he'd probably have to float back to his hotel room rather than walk. Whatever Ty had done to him tonight, it had drained the last of Elijah's stubbornness out of his body. Perhaps he'd live to regret it, but tonight, Elijah could not resist the temptation of the warm grin and calloused hands tugging him down to the mattress.

The grin only spread when Ty got what he wanted and Elijah stopped resisting his pull. And though that twin bed was incredibly cramped with two adult climbers crammed into it, it could have been a king-sized mattress stuffed with down once they turned on their sides so Elijah could hug Ty against his chest. Some part of Elijah's brain was still screaming, but most of his body drifted on a current of warm contentment. When Ty's breaths lengthened and deepened, Elijah's followed.