burying my mouth against his neck as I pulsed around him, inner thighs shaking, wrapping my arms around his shoulders to hold him against me while I caught my breath. It was while I did that, that his forearms slipped under my shoulders and he did the same, holding me so close, his mouth against the column of my throat, dick throbbing and twitching as he impaled me with every inch, hugging me to him like he feared there was really somewhere else I would rather be while he shuddered through his orgasm.
He lay over me panting, my legs still around his waist but loose, my arms still over his shoulders. I swept my hand up and down the column of his damp spine. Jonah kissed my jaw and neck as his palm stroked my thigh from hip to knee and back up.
After a long time of him softening in me, kissing as much of my chest as he could as he tugged at the collar of my shirt, I couldn’t help but smile at him after he brushed his nose against mine some more.
“We don’t have to do this every night,” I told him, kissing his chin. “But we can if you want to.”
His white teeth flashed. “If you’re going to insist….”
I laughed, and he kissed me, his mouth hovering over my ear.
“Lenny?”
“Hmm?” I pecked his neck.
His breathing turned heavy. “I wasn’t going to ask you to come with me.”
That had me dropping my head against the pillow and blinking up at him.
His thumb moved over my eyebrow before his mouth descended and his lips brushed my temple, and he whispered, “Because of your life here. Because I don’t want to take you away from here. But….” Those lips trailed over my forehead, pausing right there in the middle. “But I want you to come with me. You and Mo. I want us to be together. I want my family with me.”
He… he wanted me to go with him? Us go with him?
“I don’t want to be without you.”
I lost every single one of my words.
“I don’t need an answer now, or any time soon. I don’t deserve an answer to begin with… but I’m leaving soon. And I have you to thank for it. You were right. If I can keep playing, I should. I want to. I missed it so much while I was out, but now… I’ll have to miss you and Mo if I do. But I’ve been thinking… even if you don’t come… I’ll come back as soon as I can. My contract could be for a year, after that, I could… I could retire. Come here, possibly. Or you could go with me to see home. You and Grandpa Gus and Peter. I’ve saved most of my income. I could build us a house big enough for all of us. I just want you with me, Len. And if I have to wait a year or two or three, I’ll do it, but I would always rather have you now than not.”
I hadn’t even….
Go with him? Mo and me?
I wanted to ask him if he was serious, but this was Jonah. Of course he was serious.
Go with him?
Go with him?
His mouth trailed over my forehead, dry and warm, until his nose was there too, and he was nuzzling me. Then both of his hands were there, under my shoulders, holding them tight. “I don’t make up for everything you would leave behind, but I would try my best, Lenny. I would try my best every day if you’d consider it.”
And that was what I did. Every chance I had. Even if it felt like a lead weight that had been dropped on top of my soul.
We did other things too.
I loved brushing my teeth with him beside me in the mornings. I loved seeing him greet Mo first thing, with cuddles and kisses and his lovely voice singing Māori lullabies into her ear. I loved his sleepy face and the way he smelled and how unafraid and open he was to touching me all the damn time. A hand on my hip. An arm over my shoulders. A chin against my head. Fingers threading through my own every chance they had.
If I hadn’t already been in love with him, it would have been over for me in those following weeks.
Regardless of what he was training, he would come and get on a bike with me any time I got on and we’d race.
If