Bad Company (13 page)

“We’ve been to J.J.’s.”

“I’ve found you there twice. It doesn’t count.”

They both turned down dessert when the waitress asked, and Nate paid the check.

“Do you want to go to one of the dance clubs?” Nate pressed back against the railing to get out of the way of a couple coming up the marble steps into the restaurant.

Kellan pushed forward when the couple had gone by. “Maybe another night. I want to be sharp for my meeting tomorrow. Let’s go home.”

Nate’s chest did that squeeze thing again, this time pinching up in his throat with a sting that would have brought tears to his eyes if he wasn’t so pissed at himself for getting caught up in his juvenile fantasy.

They didn’t have a home together. And even if Kellan was a little or a lot bi-curious, he wasn’t gay. Tomorrow he’d be a happy, wealthy heterosexual once more.

The scooter didn’t roar like a Harley, but its puttering and the way they had to sit made it hard to talk as they went back through Oldtown to Butcher’s Hill. But conversation didn’t start up again when they were back in the apartment. Kellan sat on the couch and played the guitar while Nate worked on his columns.

It wasn’t really goodbye. Nate knew he could trust Kellan to come through on his promise about the information. That was a chance to see him again. And Kellan would say he’d keep in touch, and Nate would get some emails and texts once Kellan had a phone again. But they’d taper off. At least it wouldn’t be like it had been last time, when Kellan had gone from feeling like a part of Nate to being a cruel stranger. There’d be that all-important closure.

When they pulled out the sofa bed and climbed in, Nate should have known what was coming. After the flirting and the awkward silence, Kellan wouldn’t be able to resist. Tonight it was a sigh and a wriggle against Nate’s side. Neither of them had worn a shirt to bed since Kellan made his point about the heat, and Nate wouldn’t use an ozone-depleting air conditioner until it was full summer. Nate kept his breathing even and glanced over. Kellan’s eyes were shut, face relaxed. Nate was ready to let things go, but Kellan reached out and teased a curl of hair right next to Nate’s nipple, and that was it.

Nate grabbed Kellan’s wrist, fingers as tight as he could make them.

“Nate?” Kellan was still clinging to the whole I-was-asleep facade. He’d pitched his voice low, but it wasn’t very effective with how quick his breathing was. “Um, sorry. I thought it was Yin.”

“Bullshit.” Without releasing Kellan’s wrist, Nate got hold of the other one and pinned them over Kellan’s head as Nate rolled on top.

Kellan tried a smile, but he couldn’t seem to make it work. He licked his lips, and Nate ground his hips against Kellan’s and kissed him hard.

Kellan didn’t fight him, but he didn’t kiss back, only left his lips parted enough to let Nate’s tongue slide in. He teased the inside of the lips he’d been bruising, and Kellan’s legs dropped open around Nate’s. He worked his hips in tight jerks and then a long slide, angling to make his cock stroke next to Kellan’s. Kellan’s nipples got stiff enough to catch in the hair on Nate’s chest, but it was the way Kellan groaned into Nate’s mouth at the exact second that Nate felt the answering hardness against his dick that made Nate lose his mind.

They were moving together, a sheen of sweat on their chests, cotton pulling and tugging on their cocks. Nate wanted that last barrier gone, but—

He let go of Kellan’s wrists and lifted his head.

Kellan bucked against him. “Fucking finish it.” He grabbed Nate’s shoulders. “Don’t pussy out now.”

Nate pressed himself up and got his hands on the waistband of Kellan’s briefs. “Lift up and kick ’em off.”

Kellan cooperated enough that Nate felt the damp—Christ, that was more than sweat—cotton slip down next to his calf. Nate would have ripped his own in half but just shoving them under his balls was enough. That first brush of hard, silky skin sent a shudder down Nate’s spine and brought his balls up tight. He was so desperate to remember how to move his diaphragm that he almost missed the look of surprise on Kellan’s face.

“So what do you think? You like cock? Like it hard against yours?”

“Shut up and get us off, Gray.”

“Oh I will.” This was his world Kellan was playing in now, and Nate had never had any complaints. Thinking about whose dick was riding hot and slick next to his made his hips work faster, made the friction so much sweeter.

He held Kellan’s head between his hands and kissed him. “Yeah. You like it. You’re gonna come so hard…”

Kellan yanked Nate’s head down and held him for a kiss. It might have been to shut Nate up, but the way Kellan’s tongue scraped over his, the moans leaking between their lips, told Nate Kellan was more worried about what would come out of his own mouth.

Kellan grabbed Nate’s ass, squeezed and drove Nate harder against him. Nate shifted so the base of his cock gave Kellan’s balls a rub, and Kellan’s head fell back off the side of the mattress. His hips fucked back, fingers digging in hard as he panted, “C’mon. C’mon.”

Nate bent his head and sucked hard on Kellan’s nipple, and Kellan’s big body went still and tight before his hips moved in quick jerks and his dick spat wet and warm between their bellies. Nate worked his nipple until the panting and the motion slowed, until he heard Kellan take a gulp of air.

Nate started to lift his hips. He’d throw Kellan a towel and finish himself in his hand in the shower, giving Kellan time to freak out and get the spunk off him—maybe time enough to fall asleep.

Hands spread across Nate’s ass, Kellan slammed Nate back down.

“No. Finish, damn it.”

The growl in Kellan’s voice rushed pressure from the hands on Nate’s ass, to his balls, to his cock. Nate shifted up, aiming his dick for the groove on Kellan’s hipbone. So fucking close and he didn’t want to come, didn’t want it to be over when he was looking down at those eyes glittering in the dark, the flash of teeth as Kellan bit his lip and urged Nate harder.

Kellan lunged up and nipped at Nate’s neck, catching a tiny bit of skin right over his throat with a sweet spark of pain. He moved his lips to Nate’s jaw, sucking, using his teeth.

“Don’t leave a—fuck.” It tore through him hard and quick, no way to back off and make it last. Nothing to stop those perfect spasms of pleasure breaking through him, firing off arcs of come from his dick until he was dry and his balls were still trying to work up one more shot. He caught himself on his arms before he fell against Kellan’s chest.

“What? Do I have bad breath all of a sudden?”

“No.” Nate slid off and sat on the edge of the mattress, rubbing his jaw. “You’d better not have left a hickey.”

“What’s the problem? Everyone where you work knows I’m crazy for you.”

“Right.” Nate pulled his underwear off the rest of the way and wiped at the come on his dick, in his pubes, on his belly. “Do you want to get cleaned up first?”

“Is that the way it works? You get each other off and then take turns scrubbing off jizz?”

Nate felt like he’d run straight up from the harbor, exhaustion sparking and shuddering in his muscles, twisting his gut with nausea. He wasn’t in any shape to take on another one of Kellan’s challenges.

“No.” He turned and gestured between them. “That’s how
this
works. Unless you want to lick it off.”

“The way you’re acting you’d probably bite it off. Don’t you get mellow and happy after you come?”

“You want to cuddle?”

“Guess not.” Kellan rolled off the bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Chapter Fifteen

Kellan spent about eight minutes in the bathroom, three cleaning up and the other five wrapping his head around the fact that what he was cleaning up was his come mixed with Nate’s because they’d kind of had sex together.
So you had gay sex
, he said in his head as he looked at himself in the mirror.
And you really liked it
.

It had been a lot rougher than he’d thought it would be, which he liked, but then again, he’d never had that kind of sex with a girl, at least not since he’d convinced any of them to take their pants off.

So would he like it with another guy not Nate? He only really knew Eli. He couldn’t see doing it face-to-face like that with Eli, maybe if he was facedown and Kellan put his dick in the crack of Eli’s ass? That made his balls try to stir shit up again. So maybe anything could get him horny. No surprise there. He’d fuck until his dick was raw any day.

At the moment, Kellan was going to have to come down on the side of being bi. He whispered it at the mirror.
I’m bi.
And that was all right so far. Or it would be all right if the actually gay guy Kellan had had sex with wasn’t the one freaking out and acting like a dick. He would have thought Nate might show a little concern about what Kellan was thinking, about whether he was freaking out.

But when he got out of the bathroom, though it had only been eight minutes, Nate was in bed curled up on his side.

Kellan tried to burn a hole in Nate’s back with a glare and didn’t get so much as a twitch. Then he turned on some soft needy eyes, and Nate still didn’t move.

“I’m the one who should be freaked out, you know, dude.” Kellan climbed in and lay on his back, arms folded across his chest.

Nate didn’t say anything.

“Is this some kind of payback for me being a dick to you in high school?”

“No,” Nate said, without turning over.

“What is it then?”

“It was sex. You wanted to know what it was like. Now you do.”

Now Kellan knew, but now he also had a whole shitload of fresh questions. One new piece of info was that Nate was a different person when he was—fucking. There was probably another word for what they’d done, but fucking was close enough.

“Is that what happens most of the time? Is it like that usually? Or blowjobs? Or do you usually do the butt thing?”

“Sex for gay men is a lot of different things—like it is for anyone who isn’t convinced penis-in-vagina penetration is the ultimate expression of human sexuality.”

Now Nate sounded like one of his columns. Kellan had read some back issues online.

“Hey Gray, I’ve been reading your column for a long time and I hope you can help me.”

Nate shifted but didn’t roll over.

“I always thought I was straight, but there’s this guy I’ve been friends with for years, and we just had sex for the first time. He seemed really into it when we did it, but now he won’t talk to me or even look at me. I’m really confused because I thought we were friends even without the sex stuff, and I don’t know if I’m bi or straight or what. I just wish he would talk to me. Are all gay guys only in it for their dicks? Signed, Bi-Curious Friend.”

Nate flopped over on his back.

“Hey Bi-Curious, That guy is a major asshole. Run. Right into the arms of a guy who can and wants to help you figure this out. No, not all gay guys are in it for their dicks, any more than all straight guys are, but sometimes we’re more honest about it.”

Kellan tipped his head to see Nate’s expression in the light from the bathroom. There’d been a trace of a smile, but now Nate’s eyes looked serious, staring back at him as Nate went on in the same tone.

“You say you were friends for a long time before the sex stuff. Maybe he’s the one freaking out because you’re the one who changed the rules. Maybe he doesn’t like to think of himself as your test drive on a stick shift. But if he’s not talking to you, I guess you’ll never know. Good luck, Gray.”

“
Run
. You say that a lot.”

“A lot of people are in really shitty relationships with selfish assholes.”

“And you don’t think assholes can ever change?”

“People are who they are. Someone who fucks up is usually going to keep doing it. Cheaters cheat and liars lie.”

Kellan rolled onto his side facing Nate. “That’s your philosophy of life? For an advice columnist you’re a big downer.”

Nate shrugged. “Try seeing some of the mail I get. People suck. Sometimes they just want me to give them permission to be bigger assholes to the people they love.”

“I know what Gray would say to that, ‘Run.’ But you know what? I think he’s full of shit.”

Nate rolled away again.

On his way into the offices of Brooks Blast Energy Drinks’ CEO, Kellan stopped to say hi to Tina, his dad’s secretary. She probably knew more about Brooks Blast and the Brooks family then any of them. She gave him a sweet smile. “He’s waiting.”

The man and the office seemed smaller than they had the last time Kellan had been summoned to stand in front of his father’s desk.

Geoffrey looked up as if he was surprised to find Kellan standing there, like he hadn’t sent Shep out to bring him in. He hoped Shep would also be bringing him back. Kellan was going to need a map to find buses back to Nate’s apartment.

“Kellan. Take a seat.”

“I’ll stand, thanks.”

“I wanted to have our meeting in person so that I could be sure I have your complete attention, but to help you focus, this…” his father slid a computer-printed check across his desk, “…is a cashier’s check made out for five hundred thousand dollars. And here is your phone, the account reactivated.”

Of all the things Kellan missed, money, cars, having underwear that didn’t give him a wicked wedgie all day, he missed his phone the most. He’d spent the first week reaching for it constantly. It was insane that with all that money on the table, Kellan was thinking more about his phone. The fact that his father had put it there said he knew it too.

“And is this payment for my time taking the meeting?” Kellan reached for the check, but his father put his hand over it.

“Not quite. I must say I’m impressed.”

Kellan couldn’t help the burst of pride that heated his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had given him any kind of compliment.

“And what’s so impressive?” Kellan folded his arms across his chest.

“That despite your previous habits of chasing everything in a skirt, the Gray boy managed to turn you queer in barely a month. I have to hand it to him.”