Twenty-Six

*********

*********

TOBY

With bowl in hand,I twist the spoon out of the ice cream as I head for the stairs. I'm licking the spoon as I pass the side door and nearly jump out of my skin when there's a knock.

I freeze. No one uses the side door but me.

Glancing back toward the empty house, I think to myself that this is how murder stories start. I'm going to make the evening news.

Pulling the spoon from my mouth, I stick it back into the ice cream before peeking beyond the curtain. I sigh in relief when I recognize the person on the other side and then grin like it's Christmas because it's Atty.

Flipping the lock, I swing the door open. "Hi," I say.

He grins. I love the way his eyes track down my body. It makes me all warm and gooey inside.

"Did I forget you were coming over?"

Atty shakes his head. "No." He hesitates. "Is this a bad time?"

"Not at all." I grab his shirt and pull him inside. He comes easily enough, pressing his body against mine as soon as he's over the threshold. His mouth lands on mine, his hands drop to my ass as he pulls me roughly against him. Fuck, I love this.

"Shut the door," I tell him. "I'm going to put this away."

He nods and I leave him on the stairs. Later, I tell my ice cream, It'll be you and me time. Promise. I shut it in the freezer and meet Atty on the stairs. Taking his hand in mine, I pull him up and into my room, shutting the door behind us.

Then I turn and press into him. "Still wearing your plug?"

His cheeks heat and he nods. "Mmm." I bought more thongs because he didn't like wearing the same one for more than a day. Not that I blamed him. I don't wear my underwear longer than twenty-four hours either.

With my hands on his hips, I guide him backward until we fall onto the bed together. But instead of letting me be on top of him, he rolls us so he's hovering over me.

The hesitation I saw at the door is shining in his eyes as uncertainty. I swallow, nerves now dancing through my chest.

"What are we?" Atty asks.

My heart jumps at his question. "What do you want to be?"

He sighs, eyes hooding. "No. I don't want you to ask questions in return. I want you to tell me what we are."

"Mmm. I can see that." I gently push him off me so that we can both sit. Then I climb into his lap and wrap myself around him. "I'd love to, but that's just not how this works. So how about this? I'm going to ask you some questions. Don't think too long about them; just answer. Together, we'll decide what we are. Okay?"

Atty's arms are tight around me. "Yeah, okay." He's tense. Something is bothering him, but I'm not sure what. I feel like maybe this is a step in the right direction, though. He hasn't wanted to think too much about what we're doing. That he's asking suggests maybe he's ready to face it.

"Do you like talking to me?"

Atty nods.

"Do you smile when you see that I've texted you?"

His lips curl against my neck. "Yes."

"Do you look forward to spending time with me?"

He sighs. "Yes."

I tangle my fingers in his hair and close my eyes. "Do you enjoy sex with me?"

Atty snorts. "I think you know I do."

I grin. "Do you want to keep having sex with me?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to keep spending time with me?"

"Yes." His tone is insistent, as if he's trying to convince one of us of that.

"Tell me why you say it like that."

I'm totally going to ignore the way my heart is racing right now.

His nodding is almost imperceptible. "I love spending time with you."

"But?"

"No," he says, shaking his head. "No buts. I just do. The noises are so loud when I'm not here."

He's still struggling with his sexuality and identity. I'm guessing the ‘noises' he mentioned have to do with that.

"Atty, do you want to be with me?"

"I do. It's just… I know how unfair it is that we… hide. I don't want to hide. But I'm just not ready to answer people"s questions. How can I when I don't have answers?"

"There's something really sexy about a secret relationship," I tease.

He huffs. "Yeah. But for how long?"

"Atty—"

"I don't know when I'm going to be ready to face the world, Toby. I can't ask you to keep us a secret forever."

"We're not a secret though, are we? My friends know. You said that you told your friend last week. We're not a secret. It's completely okay to keep our private life private."

Atty's quiet. But… I know what he's saying. And I don't disagree. Having a secret relationship is fun. For a while. But I don't always want to be his dirty little secret. I want a relationship where we can be in public together. Hold hands. Kiss. Hug.

"I don't want to do that," he says, sighing. Tears sting my eyes because I feel like this is it. This is the end. "Because I want everyone to know. I'm not ashamed of you, I don't want to hide you."

The relief I feel has me gasping for a minute. I hug him tightly against me. When did I fall so hard? "Another question." He nods. "What kind of future do you want with me? Is this casual or?—"

I'm surprised when he pulls me back so he can look into my eyes. "No! I don't want casual at all, Toby. I guess maybe this is what drove me here today. I'm ready for serious. I want to settle down and have a family. To get married. To have a life partner." He stares at me and fuck, it feels like he just wrapped his hand around my neck. I'm not sure I enjoy it like he does. "I need to know if those are things you want too. Because if you don't, I don't think I can keep doing this."

Finding my voice is very fucking hard. I can't believe he wants those things. With me? Did he say with me? "I…"

"You're younger than me," he continues. "The years aren't huge, but early twenties and late twenties can really be very different lifestyles. I don't want you to regret it later if you don't get to whore around or sow your… what's the saying?"

"Wild oats," I finish, my voice breathless. "You want that stuff with me?"

Atty's expression softens. "I… Yes. I can see that life for us," he says quietly. "Strangely, I think I could see that life from the moment I saw you. I told Marie I wanted a fairy tale. To be swept off my feet. For someone to take my breath away. I wanted our chemistry to be volatile. You're all of that, Toby."

"There aren't any gay fairy tales," I say, because why would I say something just as sweet right now? "The gay stories they tell? They don't end in happily ever after."

He grins. "Yes, there are. You and me. You're my prince charming and my dragon master. But you're also the princess I want to spoil and give the world to."

"No, baby. You're the princess."

Atty smiles and rests his forehead against mine. "I want that future. I want you in it. My partner. I just need to know where you are."

"Yes, I'm there. I'm so fucking there, Atty."

"You're not going to regret it later when you didn't get to whore around for your twenties?"

"Ridiculous," I mutter, pressing my mouth to his. We fall back on the bed as I kiss him hard. "I've already whored around. I want my baby girl."

He hums into my mouth. His arms remain tight around me while we kiss, but then he moves them further down my body. Touching my hips, my waist, then down to my thighs, pulling my legs on either side of him.

He's hard. I love how fucking hard he always is for me.

"Boyfriend?" Atty asks into my mouth.

The way my chest tightens is quite alarming. I might have a heart attack. "Yes," I whisper. I tangle my fingers into his hair again, and pick my head up just enough to look into his eyes. "Boyfriend."

His smile is soft, sweet.

"My friends are having a small gathering on draft day. Come with me? I will introduce you as my boyfriend."

Fuck the way my insides melt. "You don't have to."

"They're a safe place. I want to. I might not be ready to broadcast this to the world, but please understand that it has everything to do with me and nothing at all to do with you."

"I know, Atty. And I need you to understand that you'll never be facing those questions and outside pressures and prejudices alone. I'm right beside you."

He sighs. "I know."

It's right there. On the tip of my tongue. I want to tell him I love him because I think he's right. It's not just him who saw our future laid before us when we first saw each other. I fell for him right then and there. If there was ever a moment of love at first sight, this is it. We are Romeo and Juliet without the shit ending.

We're not going to live a tragedy, but the love story—the gay fairy tale—that the world deserves.

We kiss for a long time. It remains sweet and loving. Just this moment of admitting how we feel extended to sharing something more intimate, expanding the moment further. I get lost in him. The way his hard body moves below me. How his hands glide over me, almost reverently. His hard dick—hard for me!

The taste of his mouth. Smell of his skin. All those sexy sounds in the back of his throat.

After a while, I slip off his body to lie alongside him, still partially draped. Sliding a hand down, I bypass his cock to reach between his legs. He bends the knee of the leg I'm not practically humping to give me access to his ass. I shove at his sports shorts until they're off and I'm left stroking his cock through the silky thong.

A groan slips out as I trail the fabric along his crack to find the end of the plug over his hole. "Fuck's sake," I groan. "This never stops being hot."

He grins, pulling my face to his so our mouths come together again. I continue to toy with the plug, pulling it just a little and listening to him inhale sharply. Pressing on it and feeling him squirm beneath me. Moaning.

At the end of my patience, I bring up my hand and shove the thong aside so I can grab his cock. He's so swollen. The hot skin pulled tight.

Pulling off him for a minute, I drape my body across his so I can reach the nightstand and grab the lube. His hand lands on my ass and he jerks his hips up. We're not at all aligned, but I grin all the same.

"God, I can't get enough of you," he growls. It's sexy and deep and makes my cock leak. I swear, there's this decibel his voice reaches, so low I feel it in my bones, and it's a direct frequency to my cock. It's a good thing his tone goes the opposite way when I fuck him, or those moments wouldn't last long.

I stay where I am when his hand moves over my ass. I spread my legs, just to see what he'll do. His hands always land on my ass, but he's never actually tried to touch me other than my cheeks. I'm surprised when his fingers press between them, however they're stopped right away by the tight fabric of my shorts.

I'm about to curse my shorts when his hand leaves, but then he's sliding it up the back of my thigh and below the fabric. I'm only wearing shorts, so he doesn't have anything else in his way.

His finger brushes up my crack and stops just over my hole. I can feel his nerves, but they don't override his curiosity. His desire.

I desperately want to look at his face. To see what he's thinking, but I don't want to put pressure on him, so I stay as I am. Fucking needy. I spread my legs a little more for him and am rewarded when his finger presses gently against my hole.

Then a little harder. He rubs around it and then a little more insistently.

Trying to be somewhat stealthy without appearing pushy, I slide the lube toward him and then rest my head on the bed.

Atty inhales. A minute later, I hear the cap. His hand leaves me and I wiggle my way out of my shorts. "Want me to stay like this?" I ask, keeping my needy voice as quiet as I can so he doesn't hear how desperate I am for his touch.

"Uhh," he answers, but then he pulls my leg up so it's nearly over his shoulder. "I just want to see," he says. "Is this uncomfortable?"

I shake my head. "Nope."

His finger returns. My man has zero patience. He rubs lube over my hole and then proceeds to gently but insistently press inside. I groan, my breath catching when the ring of muscle finally releases and he slides in to his first knuckle. Atty freezes. But then he's pushing deeper.

Still with no patience because he almost immediately has his entire finger in my ass. He wiggles it around, brushing my prostate and making me gasp. Then he's moving it in and out of me in such a way that makes me think he's done it before.

I had every intention of jerking him until he begged for release, but when I look over my shoulder to peek at his face, he's hypnotized as he watches what he's doing. I've never watched someone finger me before and I can't look away.

Atty's lips are parted, his head raised so he can see. His breaths are slow, shallow puffs against my leg. His eyes, pupils blown wide, are locked onto my hole.

I'm watching him so intently that I miss when he begins pushing another finger inside me until he's already doing it. I moan, angling my ass toward his hand. His slick fingers go deep and his eyes flicker to mine.

Our gazes lock, and I think our panting syncs. There's no looking away, and the way it makes me burn inside is epically intense.

"This okay?" Atty asks.

I nod.

"Can I make you come, Toby?"

I'm not entirely sure he planned it, but as soon as my name is out of his mouth, his fingers curl and he hits my prostate in such a way that my entire body jerks and my eyes roll. "Fuck. Yes, baby girl. Make me come."

His touch becomes expert. I swear, he's prepared for this moment his entire life as he works me over. My hips rock, rubbing my cock against his thigh and wanting his fingers deeper. Honestly, it's not long before I can't contain my orgasm and I cover his leg. I almost feel like a blushing virgin with how quickly I came for him.

"Yeah, that's…" Atty starts while my head is still fuzzy. He's still got his fingers in my ass, but now he's just… examining? "Addictive."

I drop my head. And here I thought it couldn't get any better than watching him come for me.