STORY EXCERPT

Jeremy started to step into the apartment, but Dylan shoved him back onto the stoop, following him out and pulling the door closed behind him.

“Are you fucking mad?” Dylan raked a hand through his tousled hair and hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “You’re gonna wake my sister and her kids. You do that, and there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I’ve already paid those dues. I paid this weekend. The whole fucking weekend having to live with what I did, or what I didn’t do.” He rushed his words, desperate for Dylan to hear everything he had to say before he lost the chance to explain himself. Jeremy shifted, suddenly uncomfortable under Dylan’s closed glower. The man stood before him in a pair of gym shorts and T-shirt, looking appealing and sexy to a degree that simply shouldn’t be legal. “I got home and you weren’t there.”

Dylan lifted a brow and crossed his arms over his chest. “And you thought it was a good idea to track me down in the middle of the night?”

“Yes!” Jeremy reached for his shoulders. Ice crackled along his spine when Dylan leaned away from him. “Dylan, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I was a dick. I know it—“

“Hey, wait.” Dylan lifted a hand. “We’re not going to talk about this now. It’s almost two in the morning.”

Jeremy grabbed his wrist when he reached back for the doorknob. “No. We are going to talk now because I don’t want to go back to our apartment without you.” Jeremy wedged himself between Dylan and the door, forcing his friend to look him in the eye. The nearness to Dylan lit him on fire, a fire he no longer cared to fight. “I want you. I want you to come back home with me. I don’t want to be without you. I’m a fool for not seeing it sooner, but I’m seeing it now.”

Dylan licked his lips and looked away, his forehead creased. His mouth set in a firm line. His jaw ticked as he ground his teeth.

Good signs. All good signs.

Jeremy cupped the side of his face. Dylan twisted his head, pulling out of the tender touch.

“Please. Let’s go get a hotel room somewhere nearby so we don’t disturb your sister, and I’ll help you get everything out of here tomorrow morning.”

Dylan shook his head. “No.”

The hopeful grin that had been plastered to Jeremy’s face waned. Dylan looked at him, torment and stubbornness stirring in his eyes.

“No.”

“No?” Jeremy repeated.

“You heard me, Jeremy.” Dylan sighed. “I’ve tried to be everything you could want, but even someone like me comes to a breaking point. That breaking point was when I saw how easily manipulated you were by that asshole. Six years of friendship. Six years of secrets. Six years, Jeremy, for a man you’ve known barely two months.” He gave Jeremy’s hand on Dylan’s wrists a pointed look. “When you won’t listen to reason, I’ve got to wonder about logic. I won’t leave myself vulnerable to be hurt like that again. Not by you.”

Jeremy’s soul wept, but he refused to walk away. “Dylan, don’t do this.”

“I didn’t do it.” The look Dylan pinned him with was as lethal as a spear in skilled hands. “You did.”

Dylan grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. Jeremy reached back and pulled it shut, fighting against Dylan’s resistance.

“No. We’re not ending six years like this.” The door slammed, rattling in the frame. He forced Dylan away from the building, down the handful of stairs to the landing. “I won’t let us end like this. Whatever it takes, I’ll earn your forgiveness.”

Jeremy dropped to his knees, hitting the concrete with a force he’d regret come the morning. He wrapped his arms around Dylan’s waist, fisting his fingers in the man’s T-shirt. Despite the moisture hanging in the air, he could smell a hint of Dylan’s arousal and tried desperately not to notice the bulge in the shorts.

A very difficult feat by the size of the bulge and the nearness to his face.

“I know you want me. I know it, Dylan. I want you, too. Only you. No one else anymore. I’m done. I’ve had my fun. I’m over it, and I want to be where I belong.” Jeremy pressed his cheek to Dylan’s lower stomach. A thrumming energy filtered through his nerves at the intimate contact. “Right here.”

“Jer, let go.”

“I can’t. I won’t.”

Dylan’s hands tangled with his as he tried to pry his fingers away from the T-shirt. “Jeremy. Seriously.”

“No.”

Somehow, Dylan broke free of him, sidestepped his attempt to grab him again, and stormed up to the apartment. He disappeared inside the dark hallway. By the time Jeremy stumbled to his feet, his eyes stinging with tears, and reached the door, it was locked. He twisted at the knob and banged on the door.

“Dylan, please don’t.”

ADULT EXCERPT

He should stop this. He needed to stop this. They had to talk before this went any…

Jeremy’s hand slid over Dylan’s cock. Dylan growled, thrusting his erection hard into Jeremy’s fingers.

Screw the talk.

Jeremy sat up, his dark gaze meeting Dylan’s. The man hooked his fingers around the waistband of Dylan’s shorts and eased them over his jutting cock. The earthy, tangy aroma of their twin arousal assaulted his nostrils, bringing a fierce ache to his jaw.

Dylan’s gaze dropped to their cocks. Jeremy’s dark, wide head glistened with cream. His taut shaft strained against the force of his engorgement. The damn man slid that hard length against Dylan’s, unleashing the hunger he’d kept caged all these months. Yes, he so remembered every fine detail of Jeremy, the ridges along that silky stretch of skin, the shape of his mushroomed tip, the flavor of each precious drop of cream as it slid over his tongue.

Jeremy picked something off the back of the sofa. In the dim light, Dylan recognized the small bottle of lubrication. It jacked his anticipation to peak levels.

“I don’t want to wait any more. I’ve been an idiot long enough,” Jeremy said, his voice low and packed with emotion. When Dylan looked up at him again, all of the sincerity and claimed love shimmered in his eyes. “Please, baby. Please take me back. Take me.”

This man was his greatest weakness. He could never say no to Jeremy.

Right now, if that made him the biggest fool to exist, he didn’t care.

“You want me to take you?”

Dylan snatched the lube from Jeremy’s hand and squeezed it onto his hand. He dropped it beside his hip, rubbed the slick liquid between his hands, and grabbed both cocks. Jeremy groaned, dropping his head back. He rocked against Dylan, their dicks gliding together, clasped in Dylan’s hands. Dylan’s nostrils flared at the sight, the friction, the intimacy of having Jeremy with him again.

“Then tell me you’re mine, Jeremy.”

Tonight, he was playing for keeps.

No negotiations.

Jeremy folded forward, hands on Dylan’s shoulders. “I’m yours. Only yours. Forever, Dylan.”

Dylan caught the back of Jeremy’s head and pulled him down, taking him in a kiss that unleashed a year-and-a-half-worth of suppressed desires with each sweep of his tongue. His lube-coated fingers slid through his wet hair, coming to his nape, and turning him toward the floor. Jeremy slid off the sofa, and Dylan followed him to the plush rug, lying him back and hovering over the man.

Jeremy tore off Dylan’s shirt, leaving his hands to run all over Dylan, his chest, stomach, back, and shoulders. Every reachable inch of flesh, Jeremy touched and traced, flicking those humming nerves into overdrive. Dylan groaned into their kiss, plundering, drinking, wanting more, needing more. He ground his hips against Jeremy, the contact and connection striking up an internal inferno that had no means to be extinguished.

Dylan pressed away, breathing heavily. For a long moment, he stared down at Jeremy, soaking up the pink tint to his cheeks and the storm of lust coating his eyes. Slowly, Dylan sat back on his heels, drawing the tips of his fingers along Jeremy’s cut form, tracing the edge of muscle that created his pecs, down the cobblestone path that were his abs. The rise and fall of his chest was inconsistent, but the slight beat he caught ran rapid.

Jeremy’s hands fell over Dylan’s, stopping him as he molded his thumbs along Jeremy’s hip bones. “You are so beautiful, Dylan. I’ve always thought you were one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen.”

The confession struck him deep in the heart, unfurling a frantic crest of love. “And yet, I’ve never been on your radar.”

Jeremy shook his head. “No, baby. You’ve always been on my radar, front and center. I just always thought you were being friendly, not interested.” Jeremy’s fingertips brushed over Dylan’s cock, making his shoulders stiffen as a burst of fiery heat spread down his shaft. “But I’ve never been able to get you out of my thoughts. Ever.”

Dylan rolled onto his feet and pushed off the floor. When Jeremy opened his mouth to speak, Dylan pressed a single finger to his own lips. “Shh. Don’t move.”

“It’s on the sofa,” Jeremy said. Dylan chuckled, shoving his shorts down his legs and kicking them away. He looked over the sofa and found a square packet. When he turned back to Jeremy, the man reclined on his elbows, his knees spread. A smile played along his mouth. “I know you that well.”

“And I know you better,” Dylan said, tearing open the packet and retrieving the condom. He rolled it down his cock, picked up the lube from the cushion, and prepared himself to take Jeremy.

At last.