long, glorious slide. It was hot, perfectly wet, a graze of teeth before they disappeared behind his tucked lips. Archer curled his fists in the sheets so he wouldn’t grip Julian by the hair, but he couldn’t stop his hips from pumping, and Julian took it all. He took him deep, with a relaxed throat and soft fingers gently rolling his balls until he was fairly sure his soul was going to erupt from his body.
“Stop.”
Julian did. Without a second of hesitation, he pulled back, swiping his hand over his mouth as his heavy, heated gaze locked onto Archer’s. “Too much?”
“I need you.” The words tumbled from his mouth, heavy with truth, with need, on the verge of begging as he shifted over so Julian could stretch out beside him. “I need to touch you.”
Julian’s cheeks went darker than before, and he couldn’t meet Archer’s gaze as his hands began to explore every glorious, exposed inch of him. “I know I’m not as good looking as…”
“Please don’t,” Archer interrupted. He brought both hands to Julian’s face, then dragged his thumb across his bottom lip. “Everything about you is attractive to me. Everything.”
Julian swallowed, then nodded and leaned in. “I believe you.” They were kissing again after that, Archer’s painfully hard cock, sticky with spit, dragging along the cut of Julian’s hip. He hadn’t brought lube with him, and he had to assume that Julian hadn’t either, so this would have to be enough.
And it was, Archer knew. With Julian pressed against him and their hands working between their bodies, it was perfect. The weight of Julian’s hard dick in his palm—the way it throbbed, sliding through his foreskin as Archer gripped him—was nothing short of life-changing. He was far from the first person Archer had fucked, but this felt like his entire past was being re-written so his beginning was starting here.
This was his trillionth of a second after the start of the known universe, gravity binding them together, forming matter.
He came a few strokes after Julian got his hand back on him, and he pumped his softening dick into the circle of fingers as Julian found his own release, letting out a chest-deep, furious grunt in the crook of his neck. Archer felt Julian spill against his lower belly, the thick ropes of hot come dripping into his hair, and Julian’s body trembled as he let go.
Their breathing was matched, hitched in all the same places as they somehow molded more perfectly together. Archer’s leg was between Julian’s thighs, Julian’s hands had found their way around Archer’s waist. Come was going to dry between them, and Archer couldn’t give a single, solitary fuck because he had never felt more like he belonged than in that moment just after.
His heart eventually slowed, and he no longer felt the pulse beating against the inside of his throat, and he let himself pull back to find Julian staring ahead with wide eyes. He held his breath for a moment, wondering if this was when the regret would set in, but then Julian looked at him with absolute wonder, and touched his cheek with the tips of two fingers.
“You’re real.”
Archer almost laughed, but he settled for a smile instead and nosed along Julian’s jaw. “I’m real.”
“You’ll stay?”
Archer swallowed thickly, because it was still complicated. Julian still deserved the truth, but confessing would only make things worse. Julian was not in love with Bryce—that much was obvious—but he was still hurting, and he couldn’t bring himself to add to it.
“I’m not here for any reason, any obligation.” Archer took Julian’s hand away from his face, using his thumb to spread his fingers wide, then kissed the center of his palm. “I’m here because you want me to be, and I’ll be here until you don’t.”
“What if that’s never?” Julian asked, but before Archer could answer, he took it back. “That’s not my fifth question.”
Archer bit his lip, then urged Julian’s arm to wrap back around him and hold him. “So ask me what you really want to know.”
Julian’s lashes fluttered as his eyelids lowered, and he nodded before dropping his forehead to Archer’s collarbone. “Have you ever been in love?”
Archer let his fingers drift into Julian’s hair which was damp with sweat. They’d both need a shower, and they both very much needed sleep. He felt the edge of one of Julian’s hearing aids, then moved to knead against the back of his neck, smiling when Julian let out a soft, happy groan. “No.