breathe and whine and whimper. Heat built, unfamiliar, centered deep in him, flooding every inch of his body until Brian said, “I love this. Love you,” and shoved a fraction harder.
Nick slid his fingers up his dick and white oblivion flashed through him. He came, hard as he ever had, in thick jolts and nerve-crackling tremors and wordless groans. Dimly he heard Brian saying, “Yeah. Oh, yeah. Mm. Ah,” and then, “Fuck. Fuck!” and he’d have laughed if his nerve-blind body could’ve managed it. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and rode out the aftershocks until their arms gave out, dropping them in a sweaty, sticky, gasping heap.
It was hard to breathe with Brian’s weight smooshing him flat, but he couldn’t manage to care. Every molecule of him was limp and soaked in satisfaction. After a moment, Brian rolled off him, pulling free a bit too fast. Nick hid his flinch. It was a tiny pinch against a sea of endorphins.
“Wow.” Brian chuckled. “Now I know why you like topping.”
“I like this too,” Nick muttered to the pillow, his eyes still closed. “I made you say ‘fuck.’ Twice.”
Brian nudged his ribs. “I made me say ‘fuck.’”
“Bit of both?”
“Sure.”
Nick flopped over toward Brian, who pulled his noodle-boneless body into a hug. Without opening his eyes, he burrowed his face into his favorite spot, where Brian’s wide shoulder met the tender skin of his neck. The smell of sweat and sex was the best cologne in the world. He thought maybe he could sleep, except he was too sticky and yeah, he’d have to get up soon. Shortly. He shoved his face in harder against Brian’s skin.
Brian brushed Nick’s hair with gentle fingers, then cupped the back of his head. “Life’s not as real when you’re not here. It’s like you turn the colors up to eleven.”
He let that sink in to where he’d needed to hear it. “It’ll feel real tomorrow when we try to find a rental with almost no income between us.”
The rub in his hair became a sharp tug. “Let me enjoy tonight.”
He almost dumped all his other worries into Brian’s listening ears, but screw that. Brian was right. He felt too good. He’d waited too long for this. He rolled his head and met Brian’s warm gaze. “Let me clean up a bit, and I’ll make damned sure you enjoy tonight a few more times.”
Chapter 4
Brian turned away from the little rental house and gave the latest landlord a weak smile over his shoulder as Nick pulled him aside. Nick hadn’t been kidding when he said they’d look for housing immediately. This was address number four on Nick’s list.
The owner hiked his pants, and bent to pull one of the thousand weeds lining the long driveway, acting bored but chewing tobacco as if he wanted to grind it into submission. Brian had a feeling he was torn between needing the money and not wanting to rent to northern city slickers, even though they’d been careful not to give off any gay vibes as they looked the place over. Money seemed to be winning out, though.
Nick murmured, “What do you think? Could you live with this one?”
Brian could’ve lived with any of the places they’d checked out. This one was almost a shack, run down and not clean. The roofline was lopsided, and it was basically a box with windows. But it was surrounded by open woods and fields, there was no sign of water damage on the ceilings, and no weird smells rose from the drains. “Sure. Can we afford it?”
Nick raised his voice. “Mr. Edwards, what was the deal? Three months cash in advance?”
“Yep,” the landlord said, sounding more eager. “Eight hundred a month, plus the pet deposit. If you do the move-in cleaning, I’ll take a hundred dollars off up front.”
“Right.” Nick rubbed his forehead.
Brian kept his voice low. “How much is that? Can we afford it?” He hated being dependent again, but he hadn’t had time to save any new money yet. He had the old money in his Minnesota bank account from Finding a wanted criminal, but there was no safe way to withdraw it. He’d changed his last name for a reason. He had nightmares of being tracked down by Turov’s men, of grabbing hands and gunshots and blood, and Damon had said to leave that money be.
Before Nick could answer, Charlie came around the side of the house. He wandered up beside Nick and nudged him, voice low. “It’s not going