23. Ethan

CHAPTER 23

ETHAN

Ethan was used to sleeping alone and it should have been strange to share a bed with someone. But sleeping with Mickey wasn't weird at all. It was the most right Ethan had ever felt in a long time. He woke well before the sun and rolled over, wrapping Mickey in his arms. He dragged kisses across the back of Mickey's neck and breathed deep, inhaling the scent of him.

Mickey stirred a little, letting out a sleepy moan before snuggling in closer.

"You're warm." Mickey sounded happy. His voice was still thick with sleep, but Ethan swore he could hear him smile.

Mickey liked warm things. The fire. The blanket Ethan kept on the couch for cold nights. He was like a cat that way, gravitating toward any heat source. Ethan wondered if it was because of his time on the streets. Not that he was about to ask. Maybe another time, but not today.

Today he wanted to luxuriate in this feeling. It had been so long since Ethan hadn't woken up alone. Not that he'd change anything in the time spent between. The past was what had shaped him and despite not liking parts of it, and outright hating others, it couldn't be changed.

Ethan pressed another kiss to the back of Mickey's neck. "I'm glad you stayed."

He dragged his hand down Mickey's side. Mickey let out a happy sigh and rolled over onto his other side. Winding his arm around Ethan, tangling their feet together, Mickey smiled at him, small and shy, and leaned in, not caring that their breath was still sleep-sour. Ethan dragged Mickey closer as he kissed him.

Mickey's fingers played with the hair at the back of Ethan's neck and Ethan shivered.

"I want to spend all day in bed with you," Ethan confessed, like it was a sin to be this happy.

"I'm not sure I've ever spent a whole day in bed." Mickey's smile grew. Happiness spread up his face and lit up his eyes. He looked like a whole different person lately, not that Ethan would say that out loud. The Mickey he'd met had been a shadow of a person. Cold and tired and forgotten. Mickey had walked around with shoulders that were permanently rounded like he was trying to make himself as small as possible.

Now, Mickey shone. His happiness was a light, a beacon. And when he looked at Ethan, he couldn't help the way his insides wobbled.

Mickey dragged a hand down Ethan's chest. "If we spent all day in bed, maybe you'd want to top me?" Mickey bit his lip and looked at Ethan with hooded eyes.

"Anything you want," Ethan promised.

"Oooh, anything is pretty open-ended. Are you sure about that?" Mickey's fingertips made circles on Ethan's chest, swirling through his hair. Mickey watched his fingers and Ethan watched Mickey.

"Anything."

Ethan kept his gaze trained on Mickey and he noticed the way a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The slow glide of Mickey's gaze as he raked it over Ethan's body and the slash of color that appeared on his cheeks when he realized he'd been caught staring. Everything about Mickey endeared him to Ethan all the more. And then Mickey's fingers slowly danced their way up. Up Ethan's chest and up the side of his neck and up into his hair until they tugged Ethan down into a kiss.

It was slow and sensual and almost chaste at first. Just a hint of parted lips as they moved together, then a seam cracked open and Mickey's tongue was there, slipping into Ethan's mouth. Mickey let out the happiest of sighs when Ethan swept his hand down Mickey's back. He let his touch wander further and his fingers brushed against the crease of Mickey's ass.

"Please," Mickey said against Ethan's mouth. He kissed him again. Again and again until they were writhing together, a mass of sweat-slick skin. They couldn't stop touching and grinding. Ethan was so hard his dick was leaking where it stayed trapped between them. Mickey was no better off.

"Please," Mickey pleaded again, and this time his fingers tightened in Ethan's hair and he swiveled his hips, grinding their cocks together.

"I've never—" Ethan didn't need to finish his sentence. Couldn't. Because Mickey was kissing him again.

Pulling back, Mickey stared into his eyes. "I promise I won't hurt you."

Humor danced in his eyes as he waited for Ethan's brain to catch up.

"Brat."

Mickey's smile grew. "We don't have to."

His words were a whispered promise. He'd be fine if all they did was kiss, but Ethan wanted to feel Mickey's heat wrapped around him. He wanted to bury himself so deep he might never leave. Everything Mickey asked for, Ethan wanted to give him.

"Tell me what to do," Ethan told him.

Mickey rolled Ethan onto his back and straddled him. With his hand planted on either side of Ethan's head he stared down at him and smiled, bright and beautiful. Ethan itched to tell him that, but he couldn't make his lungs work. Couldn't speak for how fucking much he felt for Mickey.

Ethan smoothed his hands up Mickey's legs. "Tell me what to do."

Mickey brushed a quick kiss against Ethan's mouth, then grabbed the lube off the nightstand. He handed a condom to Ethan, who wordlessly tore it open and rolled it down his cock. God, when was the last time he'd done that? Before he could formulate an answer to that, Mickey had squirted lube into his hand and was reaching back and… holy fuck.

"What are you doing?" Ethan asked stupidly. He knew what Mickey was doing, but it was still early and his brain wasn't getting a lot of blood at the moment.

Mickey's eyelids fluttered and his perfectly kissable lips parted in a tiny gasp.

"Mickey." His name huffed out past Ethan's lips on a sigh. A prayer. A fucking dream. Ethan never would have thought to wish for something this amazing. Someone this wonderful. Someone who looked at him the way Mickey did. But it was here right in front of him and Ethan would be a fool to let it go. "Mickey, please." It was his turn to beg.

Ethan wanted to kiss the smirk off Mickey's face. Already, Ethan was climbing the walls. His need thrummed under his skin like a living thing, hungry and hunting. Then Mickey slid forward. Bracing one hand on Ethan's chest, Mickey reached around behind him and lined Ethan's cock up with his hole.

A breath to steady himself was all he got before Mickey was sliding down, taking Ethan's cock inch by inch. Mickey's smirk faded. His mouth hung open and a low moan tore out of him. Soft at first, but it intensified as he took Ethan deeper and deeper. And deeper. Until all of Ethan was inside of Mickey.

Ethan sucked in a desperate breath of air, flooding his brain with oxygen. He hadn't breathed the whole time and the sudden rush of air made his head swim. Or maybe that was just Mickey.

Unable to resist another second, Ethan yanked Mickey down into an urgent kiss. Mickey's tongue tangled with his and then suddenly Mickey was moving. Sliding up and down, riding Ethan's cock as he practically fucked Ethan's mouth with his tongue. It was frenzied and obscene. Ethan dragged his hands down Mickey's back. Gripping onto Mickey, he spread his cheeks and arched his hips, snapping them upward, driving himself deeper.

Mickey broke the kiss and buried his face against Ethan's shoulder. If the noises Mickey was making were intended to be words, Ethan didn't understand a thing he was saying. It was all breaths and keening moans and whimpers that made Ethan's balls tighten.

In a fit of need, a sudden urge, Ethan rolled them over, putting Mickey on his back. Mickey blinked up at him, a little surprised. A lot shy. Ethan lowered himself down, blanketing Mickey. He slanted their mouths together and kissed Mickey languidly. He rocked into Mickey, taking his time. Driving Mickey ever so slowly mad.

Mickey buried his fingers in Ethan's hair and kissed him with a ferocity that Ethan wasn't expecting. It had Ethan reaching between them, making sure Mickey got to the finish line first because Ethan was right there.

The grip Mickey had on Ethan's cock took his breath away. Ethan couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but chase the most basic instinct, snapping his hips and jacking Mickey, marveling at the way his dick felt so fucking right and perfect in Ethan's hand.

Mickey came, arching and bucking and pressing his heels into Ethan's ass, urging him deeper, harder, not letting him let up for a second, until Ethan was there too. Shattering. Annihilating. Utterly fucking ruining him, Ethan came. He cried out, his voice hoarse and thick, destroyed. He came until he couldn't come anymore, until every drop of cum was wrung out of him and there was nothing left inside him, not even dust.

Ethan collapsed on top of Mickey, who instead of complaining, wrapped his arms around Ethan's neck. After a few short minutes, Ethan pulled out and Mickey hissed.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No." Mickey reached for Ethan, tracing the lines of his forehead where his brow was pinched together. "It's just been a while. You were perfect."

Pride swelled in Ethan and he kissed Mickey. Chaste, compared to the other kisses they'd shared, but it still got Ethan's blood pumping again. If he was twenty years younger, he could probably go another round.

"Stop it," Mickey told him.

"Stop what?"

"Whatever thought rolled through your head to put that look on your face."

Ethan sighed and slowly untangled himself from Mickey. Not that he went far. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the condom off. Mickey joined him and bumped Ethan's foot with one of his.

"We had a good time, Ethan. Mind telling me what happened?"

"I'm twenty years older than you and?—"

"And no matter what, we can't change that. I know it bothers you, but does it bother you too much? Do you want to stop seeing me?"

"No." Ethan answered without hesitation. He grabbed Mickey's hand and tangled their fingers together. "I don't want to stop."

Mickey took a deep breath and let out a sigh. He squeezed Ethan's hand. "I know it bothers you, but it doesn't bother me. So maybe try to let it bother you a little less." Mickey leaned over and kissed Ethan on the cheek, then plucked the condom out of his other hand.

"I'm going to take a piss and get rid of this. Did you want to shower with me?"

"I'll start coffee and meet you there in five."

"See that you do." Mickey was fucking hot when he got all bossy on Ethan. That was something else for Ethan to digest. Later. Right now he needed to piss and get coffee going, then head for the shower. In that order. Ethan used the bathroom in the hallway, letting Mickey have some privacy in the en suite.

While he scooped some coffee grounds into a fresh filter, he thought of what he was going to tell his kids. And also when. And how. It had to be soon. He'd probably put off the whole "by the way your old man is bisexual" thing long enough. But it had never seemed important. Jonah and Taylor had basically come out at the same time, so they had each other to lean on about the whole sexuality conundrum. And Colby had only recently come out as bisexual when he started dating Milo. Ethan had never imagined ending up with someone else, so a big reveal never seemed necessary.

Instead of fretting about the decisions of the past, because it would have been convenient if his kids had already known that he was bisexual, Ethan shoved all that to the side and joined Mickey in the shower.