care.
Fantasy-Bryce shot his load down my throat, the thick, hot spurt of it sliding down as I came in real life with a shout. My cum shot out, coating my fist and my belly in hot pools.
I groaned at the emptied feeling, mortified by the sudden and demanding urgency of that jerk session. It had taken the edge off. My skin no longer felt pulled taut and the crackling anticipation of my nerves had dulled to a low hum.
But it was just the edge that was gone...not the hunger.
And what the fuck was that? I was the one who liked to be in charge. I might bottom, but it was on my terms and with my rules. And I never fantasized about giving pleasure, only taking it. Yet that had been the hottest fantasy of my life and even now my tongue was licking at my lips as if searching for some remnant of Bryce’s taste.
I dragged a finger through the cum on my belly and brought it to my mouth, hesitating for just a second before licking it off.
A harsh shudder dragged through me, and I knew for certain then that jerking myself off hadn’t moved me from danger to safety.
Oh, no. I’d just dug the hole deeper.
11
Bryce
Saturday started with a text from Aiden saying he had to work that morning, which meant we’d only have a couple of hours to work on our project before I had to go to Get Ink’d that afternoon. I texted him to tell him I’d meet him at his job when he got off, instead of him coming to meet me at the shop.
He didn’t bother telling me where he worked.
So I spent the first part of my morning snooping around online until I figured out where he worked—the tech shop in the mall. I snorted. I couldn’t imagine him possibly having the kind of customer service skills expected there. He was a brilliant little shit.
A brilliant little shit who was beginning to haunt my every thought. Before, at the library study hall, that conversation had…
I’d replayed it a lot. The way Aiden had shifted continuously in his chair. No, not shifted. He’d squirmed. His cheeks had been flushed and his lips wet, and there had been a moment when we’d locked eyes that I knew he was thinking the same inappropriate thoughts that I was.
That had rocked something in me. What was more than that, we’d had a real conversation. One with feelings being brought out into the light and acknowledged. Getting to know one another more deeply, more intimately…
Well, I’d spent the time between then and now shook. Aiden had apologized. We’d reached an actual understanding. Not like the truce from before, but something that felt firmer and more real. Yes, we were going for the same job. Yes, our personalities clashed. But we also had a lot in common. Drive and motivation, a competitive spirit, and—
Desire. Because I’d let my guard down and looked at him with the secret desire I’d been working so hard to stifle. And Aiden had returned the look. Tit for tat.
Lord, now wasn't the time to begin entertaining real thoughts about taking Aiden to bed. I had worked not to blame myself for the attraction. That would be dumb, because even a blind man could see he was gorgeous. But attraction didn’t mean action, and I thought I’d had my emotions under control.
Now I wasn’t so sure. But we needed to get this case study done, and then we’d probably never talk to each other again. If I could just stop spending time with Aiden, I was sure my feelings for him would disappear. This was nothing more than proximal attraction.
The mall wasn’t crowded, too early on a Saturday for the teenagers to be hanging around. It was mostly moms with strollers doing laps around the floors and window browsing. The smell of the mall was the same as it always was, like cloth and cleaner and cold air.
When I’d been a kid, the mall had already been going out of fashion. But my friends and I’d clung to those remnants of mall cool, bringing our skateboards to the parking lot and getting slushies at the food court. We’d met girls there and walked around holding hands. My friends because they were trying to score a hot girlfriend.
Me because I’d been trying to pretend I was something I wasn’t.
My stomach lurched, realizing that as much as I associated the vaulted ceilings and sounds of