Chapter 23

23

Ash

I stir in bed but can't move much since Colin's arms are hooked around me as he tugs me close to his chest, his legs entangled with mine, his morning wood resting between my ass cheeks.

In the days since I came inside him, we've shared plenty more fucks, like we're trying to wear our bodies down with the workouts.

I take a moment to enjoy just being in my boyfriend's arms.

The boyfriend I love and who loves me.

The boyfriend who gets me more than anyone in the world.

My alarm goes off, and I reach over to the nightstand, silencing it.

Colin's grip tightens around me. "No," he mutters before planting a kiss on my nape. "It's the weekend. Just stay here for a few more hours."

"We said we'd go to the Peach State Spring Festival with the guys," I remind him.

His nose rubs against my neck as he shakes his head. "No, let's get Lance to tell them we died."

"Won't they be suspicious when they see us around campus?"

"I hear Wyoming's nice this time of year?"

I laugh. "I don't know that we need to move to Wyoming if we bail on the guys."

Colin groans. "Really? You think Atlas is gonna be totally cool if we slight his boyfriend?"

"In that case, I should start looking up flights to Cheyenne."

I move for my phone on the nightstand when Colin rolls, taking me with him to the opposite side of the bed. I love when he manhandles me.

"Fuck, Colin."

"If you say so." He pushes his hard cock against my ass, and I feel his smile against my neck. He reaches around, feeling my cock, which is a semi now, but as he plays with it, I get even harder.

"You're not getting any dick unless we get the fuck up and get ready."

"Cruel Ash."

"Damn right."

"I can be cruel too," Colin says before biting down on my shoulder and giving a firm thrust against my ass.

My face heats up as he pumps my cock.

"Oh hell," I mutter. "No, no. We're being good this morning. And you can spend the day craving this ass…and I'll give it to you later."

Colin growls. "I'd be so mad if you didn't make it sound so sexy."

"Let's take a shower."

I pry away from him, and we grab our things and head into his private en suite bathroom—a luxury afforded to him since he's a junior and star athlete. Mere mortals like me must use the communal one in the hall on our floor.

As cruel as I intended to be, I don't manage to keep from jerking off with him in the shower—that would require willpower I don't fucking have—and after we clean off, we brush our teeth and throw on some clothes.

When I step out into the hall, Colin snatches my hand and spins me back toward him, his lips mashing down against mine, one hand sliding under my shirt, the other around to my ass.

"Morning, guys," Payton's voice comes from farther down the hall, and we part to say good morning before glancing back at each other.

Colin winces. "It's getting more difficult to feel naughty with you around here since everyone knows."

"Yeah, last time we left the door open, Payton just walked by and shrugged. Doesn't really have the same effect. "

As much as I love being out with my boyfriend and everyone in the house knowing about us, I miss some aspects of the sneaking-around-and-in-secret gig. It was fairly exciting and erotic.

"So we're in agreement," Colin says. "We gotta start fucking outside Marty's room?"

I burst into a laugh; my boyfriend always knows how to make me laugh.

"We'll definitely get a reaction then, but you know, if we can't do that here, maybe we need to make extra trips to a certain bathhouse in Peachtree Springs."

Colin nibbles at my bottom lip. "You read my mind."

We've only been that one time. Really, I've been perfectly content just fucking around with my boyfriend, and I haven't really felt like there's any hurry, since I know we'll have plenty of time for that.

After a quick make-out session, we head downstairs and find some guys are already in the kitchen. Atlas, Troy, Brenner, Lance, and Taylor—the crew we're heading to the festival with—lounge around, chatting over breakfast.

"Look who finally made it out of bed," Troy says as he spots us.

"Leave them alone," Atlas says. "They're in their honeymoon period, so they had to get off at least once."

Troy rests his hand on his chest. "Just once? I hope not. If so, you guys have to get back upstairs."

"Shut it," I say, heading to the pantry for my grits.

We fix breakfast, catching up with the guys, when Marty and Payton join us. "Wait, is this our crew for the festival?" Marty asks.

"Yeah," I reply.

He glances between Troy, Atlas, Colin, and me. "We aren't crashing some kind of stepbrother double date, are we?"

That gets us all laughing.

"It can't be a stepbrother double date," Atlas says. "Brenner and Taylor are coming. And you, Payton, and Lance."

"Sorry," Marty says. "Just adjusting to the new normal."

"Don't be jealous because you don't have a stepbro you can smooch on," Brenner says.

"Well, who the hell needs stepbros when you have frat bros? Am I right?"

Lance chuckles. "Marty, did you just insinuate you want to smooch on other frats?"

"Yeah, it's called a joke."

"I'm sorry. I've been here for two years, and I didn't realize you did those."

"Shut the hell up," Marty says with a grin.

"I mean, there's gotta be plenty of that going on in here, right?" Brenner says, sliding onto the stool beside me. "I'm not really a frat type, but all these guys under the same roof… Shit has to be happening behind the scenes."

"There's some of that," Troy says.

"Not as much as you'd think…or hope," I add.

"That's not what I heard," Brenner says. "I hooked up with this guy Dax last month. He's brothers with someone at Sigma Alpha."

Dax? Brenner heard something from him?

Colin and I exchange a look.

"We met Dax at TaskFrat," Colin says, turning his attention to Brenner.

"What did he tell you?" Lance asks.

"That there are some hot guys at Alpha Theta Mu who can get real wild."

"Did he?" Colin asks.

"That's all he'd say, so I figure he must've had a three-way or some shit like that while in town."

"Or some shit like that," I mutter, sneaking another glance at Colin, who's smirking.

"He didn't get into specifics," Brenner adds, "but definitely played on my fratty fantasies."

It's nice hearing that Dax didn't run around blabbing about what we shared. Kind of like we could tell he was the right guy to share that side of ourselves with.

"I felt like everyone was straight when we were freshmen," Marty says, "and now everyone' s falling out of the closet. We should have a board up on the fridge and just tick off as we steadily lose more and more straights. I feel like Lance, Payton, and I will be the last of the straights by the time we're seniors."

"If I find out it's you and me on the same side," Lance says, "I'll start sucking dick not to be."

"Guess it'll just be Payton and me, then. Right, Payt?"

"Sounds like Lance will need a dick to suck," Payton says, "and I'm always here for my bros."

As everyone gets to laughing, Marty rolls his eyes. "You all love me and you know it."

"Don't worry," Lance tells Brenner. "There's plenty of guys messing around under this roof."

"That's what I want to hear," Brenner says. "That guys are just running around, sucking each other off left and right."

"Well, some of us are," I say.

"Whoa, whoa," Marty says. "Too much info."

"I know you don't know Brenner well," Taylor says, "but you're just setting him up to say not enough info."

"Don't take my line!" Brenner snaps.

"Then don't take so long to say it."

I have a feeling this crew will have a great time at the festival. And I'm not wrong. When we get there, we hit up the arcade for a while, then ride roller coasters, hit the bumper cars, and take a spin on the Ferris wheel before some of us split up. Taylor wants to spend more time in the arcade, and Lance, Marty, Troy, and Atlas were gonna have another go at the bumper cars, but I'm still dizzy after that last coaster, so Colin and I head across the festival to a food truck we saw that sells wings and funnel cake—our favorites.

En route, Colin's hand grips mine.

I notice it's firm enough to let me know he's mine, but loose enough that I don't feel like he's dragging me around the place. Like so many things with Colin, it's just right.

"Aren't you glad I got you out of bed for this?" I ask.

Colin groans. "I don't know if glad is the right word. Think we could have had a perfectly fine day in bed." He winks.

"Maybe that's true."

"That was funny, what Brenner said about Dax. I bet they had a real fun night."

I laugh. "Right? But it was nice that he respected what we did enough to keep it secret."

"I had a feeling he was cool. It's nice to know we trusted the right guy with that."

"I agree." As I gaze at Colin's pretty mug, an impulse creeps through me, and I grab the back of his cap with my free hand, twisting it around to the front.

"I'm gonna have to start punishing you every time you do that."

"Punishing me? Oh, aren't we the kinky two? What did you have in mind?"

"Every time you do that, you're gonna have to clean yourself up after we mess around."

I glare at him. "It can't be a punishment if you wouldn't be able to follow through with it even if you wanted to."

Colin winces, leaning closer and whispering, "Then I guess it can't be no dick for a week either. I'm gonna have to think real hard about this."

"Careful, Col. You're not that clear-headed when you're thinking hard."

"Shut up and kiss me."

I grin ear to ear as I lean into him, accepting a soft kiss, enjoying that I'm still learning all Colin's kisses.

The soft ones.

The rough ones.

Every variant in between.

Wondering which ones I haven't identified yet, and eager to discover them.

As he pulls away, a voice comes from beside us. "Colin Phillips."

We turn at the same time. I don't recognize the woman, but I feel Colin tense up, so I pull my hand away from his, wondering if maybe this isn't how he wants someone outside our friends to find out about us.

"Mrs. Raeger. "

"I thought that was you," she says, offering a hug.

Now that I've gotten a good look at her, she does look familiar, but I still can't place her.

"What are you doing in Peachtree Springs?" Colin asks.

"We're visiting Andy for the day. He figured we could come here. How's your mom doing?"

Oh, she's a friend of his mom's; that's why he tensed up.

"She's good. Busy right now. But it's been too long. Since she moved to North Carolina, we barely see each other anymore."

Now that she's been talking for a bit, I realize I do know her. She's dyed her hair blonder, but I've seen her at Steve's birthday parties.

Her gaze shifts to me. "Oh," she says, taken aback. "I don't know why, but I didn't recognize you right away, Ash. I thought you might have been…" She hesitates. "One of Colin's friends."

She seems flustered, which given what we were doing when she showed up, isn't a huge surprise.

Glancing between us, she says, "It's so good seeing you both. I should search for Andy and his dad. Tell your mom I said hi, will you?"

"Of course."

After she heads off, we continue a few yards, stepping into the line for the food truck, surely both of us considering the implications of our run-in with a friend of his mom's.

"Well…something like that was bound to happen," Colin says.

"I'm sorry. It does feel like we've been in our own little bubble. I probably should have said something about holding hands in public."

Colin glares at me. "What?"

"I just want you to do this at your own pace. You shouldn't have to be out before you're comfortable."

He moves closer. "Ash, I'm very comfortable letting the world know how I feel about you. And it's about time we talked to our parents about us…unless you don't want to talk to them about it."

"It's not a conversation I want to have with them," I confess, "but I knew that's where this was all leading."

He smirks. "It will be a weird conversation."

"You think they'll wonder about those sleepovers we had when we were teenagers?"

Colin laughs. "Probably."

It's finally our turn in line, so we order wings and a funnel cake. As I grab extra napkins, Colin says, "That whole interaction made me realize that we do need to have a serious conversation."

A serious conversation?

When I turn to him, his expression is so intense, it's making me nervous .

"If I'm holding your hand, Ash, you don't pull yours away. That's gonna be a big Step Don't from now on."

And he's got me laughing again. "Yeah, that's a good Step Don't."

"Also, no hogging the funnel cake." He grabs for it, but I pull it out of his reach.

"Now you're pushing it."

We share a smile and another kiss.

"Mmm," I say. "Well, maybe it's good that we ran into Mrs. Raeger. Guess it's time to have this conversation. Now everyone will know I'm yours and you're mine."

"Yeah, they will," Colin says, his lips tugging into a gentle smile—the sort of smile that soothes my concerns about sharing this with our parents. Awkward as it may be, I want everyone in the whole goddamn world to know how I feel about this guy.

And how he feels about me.