"I thought you"d want to f.u.c.k me."
"I do," I said. "And when it happens, I"m going to make it so good for you, Eli." I licked his lips. "You"ll see. I"m going to make it everything you thought it would be before you tried it that first time." I kissed him. "You"re going to love it."
"Oh G.o.d."
"But that"s not what I want for the bet."
"It isn"t?" he asked breathlessly.
"Nope." I shook my head. "When I win this bet, I want you back in my mouth, screaming my name when you c.u.m."
He was trembling again, so I pulled him close, covered us with the blanket, and wrapped my arms around him. After all the tears and the emotional ups and downs, not to mention three o.r.g.a.s.ms in one night, I knew he had to be tired.
"Go to sleep, baby. Everything will be better in the morning." I kissed his forehead and he clung to me. "I"m going to win the bet. You"ll see. I"m going to take such good care of you, Eli. But right now, you need to sleep."
Amazingly, he did.
Chapter 14.
Seth Cohen.
BASED ON ON the grittiness in my eyes and the exhaustion in my limbs, I guessed that my internal alarm clock had woken me close to my usual six o"clock hour even though I"d gotten to sleep well after midnight. That meant Eli should have been sleeping for another few hours because while I"m normally an "early to bed, early to rise" kind of person, he"s more the "stay up, sleep in" type. And yet, he wasn"t curled up next to me in bed. the grittiness in my eyes and the exhaustion in my limbs, I guessed that my internal alarm clock had woken me close to my usual six o"clock hour even though I"d gotten to sleep well after midnight. That meant Eli should have been sleeping for another few hours because while I"m normally an "early to bed, early to rise" kind of person, he"s more the "stay up, sleep in" type. And yet, he wasn"t curled up next to me in bed.
Without raising my head, I patted the empty s.p.a.ce on the mattress and croaked, "Eli?"
"I"m right here," he said.
I blinked my bleary eyes and tried to focus in the direction of his voice. It took several seconds, but then I noticed him sitting on the floor. His hair was wet, like he"d just showered, and he was leaning against the wall with his legs bent at the knees and pulled protectively against his chest.
I twisted onto my side and said, "Why are you awake?" My voice sounded hoa.r.s.e and tired to my own ears.
He shrugged and kept staring at me.
As my brain slowly reached consciousness, I started noticing more details. "Why are you on the floor?"
"Because there isn"t a chair in this room."
That was true, but it didn"t actually address my question. "Why aren"t you in bed?"
"I"m wearing shoes and the same jeans I"ve had on for the past few days, and I don"t want to get the bed dirty."
We were talking in circles. "When did you get dressed?"
"After my shower.
"And you decided to get up and shower because?"
"It was morning."
I considered asking him why he"d woken up so early, but that sounded very much like a repeat of the question I"d asked at the beginning of that annoying little exchange. So instead, I said, "Eli, take off your clothes and come back to bed."
"Really?" He sounded genuinely surprised.
At first, I was too tired to understand his reaction, but then some more fog cleared from my mind and I remembered our bet.
"I"m not freaking out," I pointed out. "My feelings haven"t changed with the rising of the sun. Now get your cute b.u.t.t back into bed so I can cuddle with you and go back to sleep."
"You"re tired."
Good. He understood. "Yes."
"So you"re not really awake yet?"
"I don"t want to be, but you keep talking instead of snuggling." I blew out a frustrated breath. "Eli, come to bed."
He stood up and hesitantly approached me. "Should I keep my clothes on?"
"Are you cold?" I furrowed my brow. "I"ll wrap myself around you and cover us with the blanket so you"ll be warm."
"It"s not that." He fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt. "But...."
"What?"
He chewed on his lower lip and looked at me from underneath his lashes. "I don"t want you to get upset if you wake up and I"m in your bed naked."
"But I"m asking you to get naked," I huffed.
"Well, right now now you are, but you"re not really awake yet." you are, but you"re not really awake yet."
If my inability to follow our conversation was any indication, he was right about that.
"You think when I wake up I"ll suddenly develop an aversion to your d.i.c.k?"
"Not suddenly, but-"
"Eli, dammit, I won the bet. It"s morning. I still want you to move in with me and I still like your d.i.c.k, which I will prove by worshipping it over and over again for the rest of our lives, but first I need more sleep. So, please, in the name of all that is good and holy, take off your clothes and get back into bed!"
"The rest of our lives?"
I was never going to sleep again. I"d just be talking all the time. "I"m a commitment kind of guy. You know this."
He gulped. "Yeah, I know."
"Good. Because I"m done with the two of us playing around the edges of this thing. The tension was killing me."
"Edges? What edges?" he asked breathlessly. "I had no idea there were edges."
I"d been working up to telling Eli I wanted to be with him ever since he broke up with his last boyfriend and I"d really upped the ante since he"d moved back home-little comments, a good bit of touching... I"d even bought the house he"d he"d liked most. No way he had missed all that, even though he"d found out about my one male hookup and turned my well-orchestrated plan into a shambles before I"d gotten to the part of my plan where I said the words. liked most. No way he had missed all that, even though he"d found out about my one male hookup and turned my well-orchestrated plan into a shambles before I"d gotten to the part of my plan where I said the words.
"If we"re both in town, we don"t go more than two days without seeing each other," I said. "We spend practically every minute when one of us isn"t working together. We talk on the phone multiple times a day. Do you do that with anybody else?"
He shook his head.
I arched my eyebrows. "Neither do I. See? Edges."
He kept playing with the shirt he had yet to remove. I would have yanked the thing off him myself, but I was too exhausted to get up.
"That"s because I, uh,"-he blushed and dropped his gaze-"well, I maybe stalked you a little."
I sighed tiredly. "At the beginning, maybe, but for the past few years that hasn"t been true. I call you as much as you call me." I looked into his eyes. "It"s been a long time since the days when you happened to show up at my office around the time I was ready to go home."
His cheeks reddened again. "I did that because I wanted to be with you," he rasped.
"I know. I want that too, which is why I"m keeping you. Now get in bed."
"You"re keeping me?"
Was I being unclear? Maybe I was using too many words and I needed to take the simple approach. "Yes."
"Okay, fine," he said, reluctantly. He peeled off his shirt and toed off his shoes. "But you don"t get to be mad at me when you"re fully awake."
I sighed, said, "I promise," and then I flipped the blanket up to make a spot for him.
"I didn"t make you suck me off. You did that all on your own." He shuffled from one socked foot to the other. "I didn"t even ask you to."
"No, you didn"t," I agreed, trying not to smile because I knew he was actually worried. It was hard, though, because he was unbelievably cute.
He unb.u.t.toned and unzipped the tight jeans he still favored and then glanced at me and said, "You know, uh, some people would say going down on a guy is pretty gay."
"Well, some people some people are masters of stating the obvious." are masters of stating the obvious."
"Did you-" He sniffled. "Did you used to go down on your girlfriends?"
No sleep ever again. Ever. I let go of the blanket, rolled onto my back, and stared at the ceiling. "Do you really want to talk about my exes?"
"Uh-huh."
He didn"t sound sure, but he was an adult, had been for some time, and I had to take him at his word.
"Yes, I did with two of them." It had been one of my favorite things to do, actually. I rubbed my hands over my tired eyes, took a moment to mourn the fact that they wouldn"t be getting more rest, and then looked at him. "I"ll tell you anything you want to know, Eli. I won"t keep secrets from you. But are you going to let me hold you while we talk about this or are you too anxious?"
"I"m not anxious," he said defensively.
"I know you too well for you to pretend, so don"t bother." I slowly sat up. "My vote is for you to be in this bed so I can touch you while we talk." I opened my arms. "How about it?"
After another couple of seconds of hesitation, he climbed onto the mattress and into my arms. He was still wearing his socks, which I didn"t point out because I thought he looked adorable barea.s.s naked with white gym socks. I got us situated under the blanket with me lying on my back and Eli resting his head on my chest. His soft d.i.c.k and b.a.l.l.s were pressed against my thigh, and I found I liked how that felt. I gave him a squeeze.
"So what do you want to know?" I asked as I gently stroked his hair.
"You had s.e.x with them?"
"My ex-girlfriends? Yes. I only had intercourse with one of them, but s.e.x in general? Yes."
"Did you like it?"
"Yes."
"And you liked doing what we did last night too?"
I gripped his chin and tilted his head so I could look in his eyes. "I loved loved what we did last night. That was the best experience of my life." what we did last night. That was the best experience of my life."
He trembled. "Seth, if we do this, I don"t think I can-" He gulped. "I don"t think I can share you."
I jerked in surprise. "Who the h.e.l.l said anything about sharing?"
"You"ve only been with women before, and you said you liked it with them-"
"So if a guy dated a few brunettes and then he falls for a redhead, does that mean he"s going to cheat?"
"That"s not the same thing," he said.
"For me it is." I took a few breaths to clear my anger at his a.s.sumption. Understanding myself hadn"t come easily, so expecting all the pieces to quickly fall together for him wasn"t fair. Plus, after a few years reading and learning about people"s impressions of bis.e.xuality, I knew he wasn"t alone in thinking we couldn"t be monogamous. "We"re all attracted to a range of people, right?"
He didn"t answer.
"You"ve been with other men, Eli. I"m not the first. And you were attracted to them. Right?"
"Yeah."
"But there are some men you"re not attracted to. I mean, you"ve been asked out and turned men down because things didn"t click?"
He nodded.
"It"s the same deal for me. Some people turn me on and some people don"t. The only difference is, with you it"s men and with me it"s people people. That"s all." I paused. "You with me so far?"
He nodded again.
"Okay. So if you"re with me and a man you find attractive comes on to you, are you going to take him up on it just because he"s your type?"
"No!" he shouted adamantly.
"See?" I said with a smirk.