Leon

"Elliot!" I barked, leaning against the fence post. "Get off the barn. You're supposed to clean it, not climb it like a monkey!" He shouted something back that I couldn't make out, and I frowned at Reno in confusion, who was standing closer than I was.

Reno rolled his eyes. "He said…you know what? Hold on. Elliot! Get your stupid ass down before you break something. If anyone is going to break something on you, it's going to be me! Stop giving Leon a hard time when he's a cripple."

"I'm not a…" I stopped as Elliot gave a loud laugh and began climbing down the outside of the barn he'd been scaling. I honestly had no idea what had prompted him to get up there in the first place since I couldn't see an animal, which was his typical lure for stupid decisions, or something interesting, which…well, he had a lot of lures for his stupid decisions.

"We don't use cripple anymore," Reed said as he sat in the shade, flipping through a new book he'd grabbed from the library. "And even if we did, he needs another week or two before he can do more than just stand around."

After the past week of being unable to do that, it was a godsend. It was fantastic to have Reed around. Fantastic and a little weird, but sitting in my cabin all day would drive me nuts. After three days, he'd finally decided I could handle a walk, only for me to realize I would need breaks, which were as annoying as walking was painful.

Now, though, I could walk and stand around without feeling like my bones were grinding against each other. It was just a general ache that swung between being annoying and stopping me from going too hard on myself. Of course, I also had my own personal reminder with me at all times. It was nice when I needed company but not so great when I knew he was watching me closely to ensure I didn't ‘overdo it.'

"You guys take the fun out of everything, you know that?" Elliot asked as he made it back to us.

"That's us, the fun suckers," Reno grumbled, shoving a pitchfork toward Elliot. "Now help me clean up all this shit before I make you do it by hand."

"That's gross, you're gross," Elliot informed him without the slightest malice or annoyance in his voice.

"I'm beyond disgusting," Reno said, putting his hand on Elliot's lower back, dangerously close to his ass, I noticed, and gave him a push. "Now get to work!"

Elliot only laughed, giving Reno a wink over his shoulder. I couldn't see Reno's face anymore, but I thought he might be smirking as he followed Elliot. It had been a while since I'd been able to really watch the two of them interacting, and for the first time, I felt a sense of calm and relief.

"Leon," came Reed's soft voice from behind me. Anyone else might think he was simply getting my attention, but I could hear the note of warning.

"It hasn't even been twenty minutes," I told him in a low voice so I wasn't overheard. Which wasn't likely now Elliot and Reno were further away, bickering, and the closest group of guys was banging, fixing up a barn while the animals roamed about. "I'm not going to keel over."

"Leon," he repeated, and I had to roll my eyes at the persistence. There was no way I could argue when he wasn't giving me anything to argue with. It was something he discovered in our senior year, and it still drove me crazy.

"God save me. I'm surrounded by pains in the ass," I muttered as I pushed away from the fence and went to where he was sitting on the bench. I joined him, trying not to be too obvious about the ache in my back, but winced when the drop jarred my spine. "And the pains in my back."

"You probably wouldn't have to deal with those if you listened to your body," Reed said, flipping a page without looking up.

"Okay, well, it's my body, not yours, but you're the only one I keep hearing doing all the nagging," I told him, purposefully ignoring the ache despite having just acknowledged it. Two could play at the stubborn game, and it didn't matter if he'd say I started the game in the first place.

"Your body was telling you to sit down and take a breath long before I said anything."

"Again, it's my body. So unless you started being able to hear things for me, then?—"

"It's almost the end of the day, and you've been walking and standing around as much as possible. When you've been standing too much, you lean on everything as subtly as you can. When that stops working, the pain gets worse, and you start to get cranky and lose patience. Which is exactly what you've been doing for the past ten minutes, evident by the fact that you're getting grumpy with me."

He hadn't once looked up from his book, and I glared at him. "You're really annoying. I hope you know that."

"Mmm," he said in an undisturbed hum. "Reno and Elliot seem to be getting on just fine on their own."

"I've spotted that," I said, knowing full well he was distracting me from the original topic, but it was nice to talk about the progress those two had made. "I'm thinking I might send them out on their own."

"Oh? Where?"

"Eh, I know you've never been put on that duty since the clinic pretty much snatched you up from day one."

"It wasn't day one."

"It was the first month."

"True."

"But sometimes guys get sent out onto the plains. Usually, it's because animals get loose. Usually, goats or sheep, but sometimes just to scout around and see if anything has changed on the unused property."

"Ah, right," he said, looking up from the book. "I've treated a few cases of dehydration and severe sunburn from those little missions."

I sighed. "We give them the tools necessary to survive out there without getting hurt and the information they need, but some people just don't learn."

"And you think Elliot and Reno are ready for that? They're Tier Threes."

Sometimes, it was easy to take for granted that another Tier One would understand how things around here worked, even knowing Reed's experience at the ranch had been unique. "It's usually at the end of a Tier Three's time at the third tier. It's a sort of final evaluation to see if they can do much without being supervised so closely and thus are capable of being bumped up to the second tier."

"One hell of a risky way to test people," Reed noted but didn't sound bothered.

It wasn't like he was wrong. There were plenty of things that could go wrong. Reed had already pointed out one of them, considering some guys did get hurt, which is why we never sent them out alone. Sending Elliot and Reno would be even riskier since it was usually a group activity, so if one or two of them got hurt, there was always more to back them up and bring them back to safety.

The other risk was that someone might try to take advantage of their newly granted expansion of freedom and make a break for it. That, again, was usually covered because there was more than one person out there to serve as reminders of what they weren't supposed to do. The other, far less humanistic reason was sheer pragmatism. There was little out there for miles but unforgiving wilderness that could kill you in a few days. The only option, even if you could survive, was to risk crossing the lands of other ranches in the area that had a quiet agreement to bring anyone suspicious back to Isaiah Ranch, and the only direction that didn't lead toward the ranches was straight to the border. And considering the presence of cartel movement in the area, well, it was better to run into a nosy ranch hand, in my opinion.

"Which just makes me want to ask, how did they test you?" I asked curiously, realizing he had never gone through the normal process.

"I honestly have no idea," he said with a laugh. "It was just, little by little. They started letting me do more and then expecting more from me. Honestly, there isn't much that separates me from the doctors at the clinic. I mean, there is, in terms of job experience, I'm beat there, but most of the same duties and responsibilities are there."

"Huh, I guess I never really thought of how much freedom you have there. Like being able to take pills out of the clinic."

"And being able to treat and diagnose people. Which isn't something I should do, so one of the actual doctors has to sign off as if it were their own. The only one left who even bothers to question or double-check my work is…well, obvious."

I snorted. "It's so rare to hear you bitch about someone. So it's funny how much of a hate boner you have for him."

"It's him with the hate boner," Reed said, closing his book after marking the page. "Probably the only boner the old bastard has had in years."

"What a lovely, kind thought," I said with a grin.

"No kinder than he deserves," Reed huffed. "And I should point out that you have a lot of freedom yourself."

"Oh yeah. Chained to my ex-boyfriend, who monitors me like my personal health machine, I am living the dream."

"If it makes you feel any better, I can leave you unsupervised soon. After tonight, I can go back to my cabin and sleep in my own bed, and you can be free."

"And I'm sure you would love to sleep on something better than the cot on the floor," I said with a snort. Reed hadn't complained, but I knew that thing couldn't be comfortable. It was basically a glorified pillow. Not that trying to cram both of us into my bed would have been all that comfortable. Well, it could have been if we made an effort to give each other space, but that came with…difficulties, namely the kind that involved a lot of physical contact.

We had been behaving ourselves since that first kiss, which continued to live free of charge in my head. We were both careful not to let touches linger and quickly pulled our gazes away if they lingered too long. Yet that kiss was always sitting between us, keeping me primed for something more. Even when he was the perfect professional gentleman, examining me without any subtext, I could still feel a humming energy beneath my skin as he checked my pulse, tested my mobility, and any other poking and prodding he had to do.

Despite what he'd just said, a strong song of disappointment sang in my head at the thought of him returning to his cabin. Once upon a time, I had been overjoyed to finally have space, a cabin where I could decompress without someone else's presence. Yet having Reed around wasn't the same as ‘someone else.' It was Reed.

It was odd having him around all the time, like time hadn't passed despite knowing it had…at first. The time it had taken for me to adjust and grow used to his presence had been almost frightening in how fast it had been. Now, it had gone beyond that, and I was disappointed he would be moving out of my cabin.

"Did you tell Mona I was upgraded to trusted status?" I asked him with a snort.

"If she's going to put me in charge of making sure you're okay, then she can accept when I make the medical decision that you're fine to be on your own," he said with a shake of his head. "And if she can't, she probably shouldn't have put me in charge in the first place."

Sometimes, that sheer confidence he carried around with him could be annoying, but it was mostly enviable. It wasn't often he questioned his decisions, and it was downright rare for him to regret it. Maybe I would have been the same if I'd grown up responsible for only me and my life instead of two others, or maybe I would always worry about whether I was doing the right thing because that's just who I was.

"Well, the one thing you can confidently say about Mona is if she's not happy with something, she'll let you know," I said with a little laugh.

"That's very true," he said, squinting at the sky. "It's about dinner time, isn't it?"

"That it is," I said.

"So, are you feeling up to eating with everyone else, or do you want to dine in with me again?" he asked, glancing at me.

It was asked so casually, but there was a hint of something in his voice. I didn't quite want to call it hope, but it was very close. The question was what did he hope I would decide, which was far trickier to answer.

"Your last night with me, huh?" I asked.

"Sure, you seem strong enough to get around on your own. Hell, after I make you sit down for a couple of hours, get food into you, and one of those pills, you'll probably be back to your baseline for the rest of the night," he said with a shrug. "You might not be a teenager anymore, but you're still young enough to bounce back, and you're in good shape and eat well, which is a big player in recovery. In another week, you'll probably only have faded bruises and some minor aches."

At the very least, it was nice to have my head cleared of the stabbing agony that had followed me around for the first few days. The pills he gave me were good enough to take the edge off the pain, which I was going to need tonight since I'd decided to exert myself. The pills hadn't touched the damn migraine, but it was blissfully gone, leaving me alone in my head.

"I want to stay here and relax for a while," I said, knowing I needed it before I got to my cabin and also to please him. "The bell won't be for another twenty minutes or so."

"Alright, you can head back on your own," he said with a smile, setting the book in his lap. "I'll get us some food. Then come back, and we can chow down. I'm sure you're hungry."

I was ravenous, but that wasn't important. "Sure, we can have our last supper."

"Mmm, would that make us Jesus and Judas?"

"That would involve touching someone's feet. I'm good."

* * *

"Ahhh,"I groaned as the wonderfully hot water gushed down my body, soothing the ache in my muscles. I returned to the cabin and sat around for almost fifteen minutes, wondering what was taking Reed so long before deciding to shower.

We both used my shower, but again, there was that unspoken understanding not to tempt fate. We always timed our showers apart and gave the other space. We never came out in anything other than our clean clothes, which felt oddly prim after being used to dealing with male nudity in prison and the shared quarters of the previous cabins I'd been in.

Now, though, I was content to soak and groan as the hot water took the edge off my aching body. Everyone knew I'd been hurt. It wasn't easy to keep a secret in this place, let alone a public display of disaster. That didn't mean I had to make a complete spectacle of myself, and it was nice to let loose and be a little fragile in this slice of aloneness.

However, good things were not meant to last, and I knew I had to detach myself from the shower eventually. With a beleaguered sigh, I turned the water off and stepped out to dry off. I paused halfway through when I heard shuffling on the other side of the door.

"Reed?" I called through the thin wood.

"That's who I am," came the reply.

"Give me a second," I said unnecessarily. It wasn't like I was going anywhere or sitting in the bathroom all night.

I finished drying and grabbed the loose pants and shirt I'd been sleeping in since Reed had started staying with me. I briefly considered the underwear before leaving it on the sink. It wasn't like I needed it, even if going commando was usually a bad idea for me if I had company over. Little Leon wasn't all that little and could make a spectacle of himself, but I'd be okay if I didn't pull out the dance moves I didn't have or start jumping around. Plus, it was more comfortable when you were just lounging around.

I walked out and stopped when I saw the small table beside the window was covered with containers. "What…is all this?"

Reed set down a closed pitcher on the table and smiled. "I told Rip we were going to celebrate the fact that you're no longer a cripple. So he decided to customize the food a bit, pretty sure he overdid it. There's no way we're eating all this."

"I'll say," I said, looking through the containers. "A burger with the works, including bacon and Swiss. Green beans the way he makes them, cheddar biscuits, and is this his herb butter?"

"Seems that way."

"Mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes with containers of all the shit to slather on it, ribs, three different slices of pie…is that strawberry rhubarb?"

"Yeah, he asked your favorite, and I threw that out because I remembered, and lo and behold, he had one ready."

"He just happened to have one of the pies he only makes like twice a year?"

Reed looked to the side and then back to me guiltily. "Well, I might have already guessed this would be the last night, so I spoke to him at breakfast."

"Really?" I asked with a sigh. "He already busts his ass to make everyone the best food in existence. And you added more?"

Reed pointed at one of the seats. "Sit. Look, he offered and he seemed enthusiastic, alright? Honestly, I think he was excited to be able to do something fresh and customized for someone. The guy doesn't get to let loose and do shit like this."

I sighed, knowing that was probably true. He was a Tier One like Reed and I but had been here longer than us. His graduation from the program was bound to happen soon, but I doubted he would leave. And I doubted even more that Mona would deny him the chance to stay on as the main cook. From what I'd heard, there had been a drastic uptick in the quality of food served at the ranch when Rip came on. Mona wouldn't pass up that quality if he wanted to stick around.

"And," Reed said as he sat across from me, "it would be a waste of his food if you let it get cold because you're worried about his feelings."

"Fine," I said with a huff because there was no argument I could make against that, and I took the offered seat.

It only took me a few bites to realize he was making a point I couldn't argue against. The green beans were wonderfully slathered in butter, and the onions and garlic were perfectly cooked, adding to the fresh, natural flavor of the beans. The potatoes were mashed just enough to give them a few rustic chunks, and I took them with the herb butter and some of the bacon while Reed slathered on cheese and sour cream.

"God," I moaned as I bit into the burger. "How does he always cook them perfectly? Even when he makes them in batches, they're flawless."

"The man has the talent and the passion," Reed said as he began nibbling the ribs. "I'll give him that."

"He sure does," I said with a chuckle, taking another bite, cutting off anything I had to say.

It took us the better part of an hour to eat our way through the buffet of delicious food, and I was surprised by how much we managed to get through. The downside was that the leftovers would inevitably go to waste as we weren't provided with fridges. I'd never thought to ask about that logic, but it was probably one of the many ways to keep the bills down when food was only in the dining hall.

I took my final pill for the day with a glass of the well-loved lemonade made on the ranch while the two of us cleaned up the remnants of the meal. I kept finding Reed glancing my way through the clean-up process but never got a sense of what was on his mind while we bagged it up and put it in the lockable trash can outside.

It was only when I returned to the cabin and sat on the bed that I realized. "Oh, when did you have time to shower?"

He looked down and shrugged. "Oh, when I went to check on how the food was going, Rip told me it would take a while. So I stopped by my cabin and grabbed a quick shower and some fresh stuff to sleep in."

"Oh," I said, hoping I didn't sound as disappointed as I felt. We went out of our way not to put ourselves on display for one another, so it wasn't like I would miss out on a free show. Maybe it was just a reminder that this was going to be our last night, and soon, I would be without his company again.

"I think I need to hibernate for a while, go into a food coma," he said, dragging the roll-up cot out and unfolding it. He grabbed the pillow he'd brought from his cabin and used it to prop himself up so he could read. "If I start snoring, wake me up after twenty minutes."

"Or you could just sleep."

"Or maybe I don't want to sleep through the night before I'm ready."

"And you call me stubborn."

"They do say it takes one to know one."

I rolled my eyes, grabbed the latest book I'd been reading, and flipped it open. However, it didn't take long for my thoughts to drift from the book and return to the soft sounds. It took another twenty minutes before I realized I had read only a few pages and had been rereading the last one for about five minutes.

"My brain is not working tonight," I said, putting the book on my chest and sighing. "Doesn't want to read."

"What are you reading anyway? Or attempting to read."

"Oh, uh, this series about a world where supernatural creatures are real and were hiding among humanity for generations. But some shit went down, and now everyone's integrated. Follows this woman, a witch, a bounty hunter and mercenary wrapped into one."

"Hmm, action?"

"There's some romance. Quite a bit, but it's not the focus. The love of her life died pretty horribly in the last one."

"Geez," he said, pushing himself up to look over the edge of the bed. "Depressing."

"She'll bounce back," I said with a smirk. "She's tough. And not one to give up easily."

"Sounds like you're enjoying it, so why the struggle?"

"I don't know."

"I bet you do."

"Okay, Mr. Know It All."

He chuckled, resting his arms on the bed and then his head on his arms. "I don't know, I just know something's up. Might as well tell me what."

I sighed and closed my book, knowing I wouldn't get any reading done anyway. "I just…I got used to having you around. It"s weird that it only took a week to happen, but here we are. And then I just…I haven't really been, like, thinking about it, but it's been on my mind. So it's kind of weird just to lay around like we did all week."

Getting it out made me feel downright stupid. Of course, there wouldn't be any fanfare for him not returning to my cabin. There hadn't been much for him coming to stay for a week. Unless you counted my getting crushed by a wall, I didn't count that. I sounded like my teenage self all over again, except all the internal fretting was now on the outside.

Reed watched me for a moment before pushing himself onto his feet and sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. It was the closest we'd allowed ourselves to get, and I tried not to focus on his butt lightly pushed against my hip. "I honestly didn't know if you'd want to make a bigger deal out of it than I already did."

"Dinner is supposed to be a big deal?"

"A customized meal I had a hand in seemed almost too much."

I frowned. "You've never done too much for me."

"Really?" he asked, making himself more comfortable, which resulted in pushing back against me more. "Because you always gave me shit for doing too much for you."

"Well, alright, I guess I did," I admitted. "And probably always will. I just…I complained, but I didn't really mean it."

"Is that so?" he asked with that smirk that I loved and hated, making me even more aware of his presence so close to me.

"It is," I said, propping one leg up and beginning to wiggle it back and forth. "We both know I'm bad at expressing myself."

His eyes darted from my face to my leg. "Well, I guess that's where it comes in handy that I'm occasionally good at reading you then, isn't it?"

"That…probably comes in handy," I admitted with a chuckle, still bouncing my leg.

"Would it help if I said I've been thinking how strange it will be to be away from you?" he asked with a small smile. "That I'm almost sad about it?"

"I get it," I admitted. "It's nice to know I'm not alone in that. Doesn't help us much, but?—"

He reached out, laying a hand on my stomach, and shook his head. "You amaze me sometimes, you know that?"

"Why?" I asked in confusion, my leg now jiggling, and I hoped he took it as excessive energy building up from me feeling better now the rest and pills were helping.

"For someone who's had to deal with so many things you couldn't stop happening or fix, you're always trying to find solutions," he said with a smile. "Maybe there doesn't have to be anything we can do to make this better. We just have to let it happen."

"Not my best quality," I admitted.

"True, but there is something you could do to help me."

"What's that?"

"Stop bouncing your leg so much."

"Oh shit, sorry. I didn't realize I was bouncing you."

"Not that," he said with a smile that made my stomach tighten. "But when you keep bouncing all over the place, you're making a bit of a spectacle of yourself."

"Huh?" I asked, looking down at my leg, which had stilled now that he'd called attention to me irritating him. All I could see was my pants and nothing out of place. After seeing nothing, I gave my leg the same shake I had been doing before and grunted in understanding. "Ah, that, uh, that's what I get for not wearing underwear tonight."

"I can behave myself to a certain extent," he said with a smirk. "But when you make him dance like that, it's a little distracting and tests my endurance."

Just having him acknowledge my dick and admit that its very existence was enough to test his ‘endurance' was enough to make it do exactly what I had been avoiding. I didn't need to look down to know that the previous lump was becoming far less a lump and more a distinct presence.

I leaned my propped-up leg over to cover it but froze when Reed's hand slipped over and grabbed me. If I had started to get hard at the thought of being close to him and his thoughts being slightly dirty, then I was on the fastest track imaginable to complete hardness at him grabbing my dick.

"Sorry," he said softly without even trying to remove his hand. "But you being easy has always made me easy as well."

I wasn't sure if I should take offense to being called easy but I was far more focused on the fact that his hand felt really good on me. The last time he'd touched me had been an accident, one that he had started to take advantage of. I had only been able to find the willpower to stop him because my body had been fresh from its injuries. Now I'd had enough time to heal, medicine that was helping, and was completely relaxed, so whatever pain I had was easy to ignore.

Which meant I didn't even try to fight the urge to reach down, grab the waistband of my pants and pull them down. Reed had to pull his hand away, but the result was my cock springing up to rest against my stomach. Reed wasted no time bringing his hand back up and wrapping it around me again, this time without fabric between the careful but enthusiastic touch of his hand and my eager skin.

"You know, I almost forgot you were big," he chuckled, making my eyes flutter slightly as his thumb brushed the underside of the head.

"And I'm suddenly more than happy to remind you," I said, torn between watching the heat in his eyes grow stronger and him slowly jerking me off.

"I bet," he chuckled.

"Come here," I said, reaching out to take hold of his shirt and pull him toward me.

He came without a fight, our mouths pressing together, practically smashing together as they met. I missed the feel of his hand on me when he drew it away, but then his hand was on my shoulder and the other on my face as he lay beside me to kiss me properly. Our lips parted, tongues dancing as he caressed my cheek.

There was no denying the harsh twist in my back as I pushed against the bed, but I ignored it as I rolled atop him. He groaned softly when my cock brushed against his, our bodies pinning them for a moment. That moment didn't last long as I kicked off my pants and reached down to free him from his.

"Want to know something funny?" he asked as I gripped the two of us in one hand.

"What?" I asked, chasing his lips with mine.

"I was always a little self-conscious at the beginning of our relationship."

"Why?"

"Because the size difference was…noticeable."

I looked down as if not realizing what he was talking about. I remembered noticing his dick wasn't as big as mine when we'd first fooled around, but I'd also been around long enough to know mine was outside the norm. In the end, I might have noticed because it was difficult to miss the difference, but it wasn't like the guy was tiny, and most of all, I never cared.

"Pfft, please tell me we don't have to deal with that," I said with a chuckle.

"Fuck no," he grunted. "I got over it after a few months. Plus, I'm old enough now that seeing your dick again is just fucking exciting, not insulting."

"Good," I grinned, kissing him again. "Because I want you to use it."

His eyes widened slightly. "As happy as I am that you've let go of your ‘begrudging to bottom' ways, we don't have anything for that."

For a moment, I was torn, disappointed we didn't have anything to use as lube, and surprised he thought I meant I wanted to bottom. Not that I necessarily objected to it, though I could understand his surprise. Bottoming had never come easy, and I'd tried with more than just Reed. Honestly, I wouldn't object if that was what Reed wanted to do, and I remembered enjoying myself despite extensive discomfort in the beginning.

"Well, it's a good thing I was going to say I wanted you to fuck my mouth," I said with a snort. "I don't exactly have the endurance or ability not to hurt myself from doing anything too active."

Reed blinked and then grimaced. "Shit, you're right. We shouldn't have started this, well, I shouldn't have started this."

"Uh, you sure as hell aren't finishing it right now either."

"Oh really?"

I gave our cocks a few light tugs, enjoying his amused smirk faltering slightly. "Yeah, really. I could use the relief, couldn't you?"

"I have been a little too preoccupied to take care of myself," he admitted with a chuckle. "I hope you're not expecting a show of stamina."

"You never were good at hanging on when I was sucking you off," I told him as I continued jerking us off carefully, nibbling his jaw. "Especially after I finally managed to work off the last of my gag reflex in the second year."

"Fuck, I almost forgot," he said, arching his neck to give me access to more skin to nip and lick. "Get on your back."

Once, we'd tried to see if one of us was more likely to be in charge than the other, and the results had been mixed. It turned out we were both bad at being submissive and liked pushing each other. And like an old familiar piece of clothing, we were slipping into those roles again without thinking.

"As you wish," I said with a slight note of sarcasm, but I did release us so I could roll onto my back.

"Good," he said, pushing up and sliding down my body.

"What are you doing?"

"You go first. I always get lazy after I come, you know that."

"Some things never change," I said with a snort.

"And take that damn shirt off. I want to see every part of you while I'm sucking you off."

There again, the ease of bossing one another around and not fumbling over our words bashfully. I would bet money he wasn't this forward with a new sex partner and probably wasn't as foul-mouthed, either. It had taken us a few months before we'd got used to talking to one another so freely during sex, and once that train had started rolling, there had been no stopping it. Now, that old comfort was slipping into place as smoothly and cleanly as if it had been there all along.

"Better," he all but purred when I managed to get my shirt off. Honestly, I was happy he hadn't commented about me pulling something when I'd taken my shirt off in a hurry.

Which was replaced by something so much hotter and alive when I watched his mouth come down over my cock without hesitation. A new wave of heat passed through me as he ducked his head, taking me into his mouth. My brow rose slightly even as the pleasure and anticipation built when he took nearly three-quarters into his mouth and throat before pulling back.

"Damn, okay," I said with a chuckle. "I see time, and some of your boyfriends helped. Used to be you'd lose it before you reached halfway."

"I could throat them," he said, popping off my dick. "Seems I still can't with you…and yes, I can see you being smug right now."

I didn't even bother trying to get the smirk off my face. "A little."

"More like a lot," he said. "It's a good thing you make smug look good. So yes, be smug, you were the biggest dick I ever had."

"Count me as smug," I said with a laugh, which quickly turned into a moan when he took me into his throat again, not going slow this time.

I wasn't sure if he intended to take away my smugness, but I had to hand it to him, he did it quite well. Now, all my attention was locked on what he was doing, watching him in the glow of the overhead light. It occurred to me that all someone had to do was glance through one of the windows, and they'd see my dick being worked over by Reed, and I didn't care in the slightest.

All that mattered was the sight and feel of what Reed was doing. It wasn't even that I'd missed him more than I'd ever let myself realize. I had missed feeling this comfortable, this at ease with someone. There was no need to wonder if the person on my dick was going to mess up and get me with their teeth or if they were going to spend far too long sucking on the head when it was the constant motion I liked most. Reed knew what there was to know about me, and I knew he was thoroughly enjoying himself, which meant I could sit there in the growing pleasure of his mouth taking me in as far as it could.

"Fuck," I breathed. "Reed, I?—"

To my surprise and extreme disappointment, he pulled off just as my stomach began to tighten. I stared at him in shock, and he shrugged. "Trust me."

I blinked as he sat up and scooted closer, gripping the base of his dick and aiming it. For a moment, I could only stare at him stupidly, allowing him to rub his cock along my bottom lip, and I…tasted him. He had always been more of a leaker than I was, which wasn't saying a lot, and the taste of him so excited and eager brought me back into the moment.

Generally, I preferred to be in control of giving a blowjob, but just like moments before, I knew there were not going to be any issues with Reed. The head slipped into my mouth, and I felt its weight on my tongue as he pushed slowly, testing himself and me. The angle wasn't the greatest, but after picking his hips up, he was able to slide into my throat, pushing far enough that my nose pressed against his hip bone.

"God," he said, hovering over me, eyes locked onto mine with a fierce heat. "I forgot how fucking good you look like this."

Not to be outdone, I reached up and grabbed his bare ass, finding his hole. He smirked, drawing free from my mouth. That gave me all the time I needed to wet my finger and bring it back around, his cock once more finding my mouth.

He sank into my throat at the same time as I managed to get my finger inside the tight heat of his ass, making him groan. This used to be the way we could get away with throwing some anal into what we were doing without risking getting too naked when we might need to dress quickly. It was also usually the only way he could get anything into my ass in the first year of dating.

However, Reed had no such issues and began rocking his hips. Sliding into my throat to back up onto my finger. I wanted this just as much as I wanted to watch him do something like this on my cock, and I swore if this didn't somehow freak us out after the orgasm cleared, we were going to find a way to get me inside him.

I used my other hand to slowly stroke myself, not needing to do much to stay on the edge where he'd left me. Between watching Reed suck me off only a couple of minutes ago and now watching his face as it twitched with pleasure, his eyes never leaving my face, the feel of him around my finger and sliding into my throat…I stayed at the edge all too easily.

"God, I hate it when I'm right," he groaned, pulling free from my mouth.

"Are we edging now? Seriously?" I complained. "We better the fuck not be."

He chuckled, pulling his ass off my finger. "No."

I watched him twist around and suddenly realized what he was doing. On all fours, his dick dangled down into my face, stiff as a board and still wet from my mouth, and now he was hovering over mine. He briefly used his hand to grab the base of my thick cock and bring it to his lips before returning it to the bed so he could use both hands to hold himself up.

I wasted no time in doing the same, my heart racing as the warmth of his mouth returned, sucking me into his throat. I groaned as his hips pushed his cock almost to the hilt, and I could feel it throb with every pulse of his furious heartbeat. I was in his mouth, and he was in mine, and I could feel the very edge I'd been riding finally break.

With a groan, I surged forward, burying his cock entirely in my throat and letting the muscles squeeze it as my body gave in at last. I blasted into his mouth, Reed swallowing eagerly as his body hunched into me. Another groan escaped me as he pumped into my throat, my cock sending another wave of overwhelming pleasure through me when his moan vibrated the already overly stimulated shaft.

Reed slumped to the side, flopping onto his back, freeing us from one another. The taste of him was on my tongue despite most going directly down my throat, and I could see a little dribble on my stomach from my dick. I turned to look at him, our eyes meeting and smiling.

"Still sorry?" I asked with a little smile.

"Not even the slightest," he said, patting my stomach roughly.

"Sleep in the bed with me tonight?" I asked, my heart tripping over itself at the request.

"Yeah," he said without missing a beat and smiling widely at me. "You bet."

"Good," I said, closing my eyes and telling myself to ride out this high because come morning, I would probably have second thoughts…and then thirds.