Fish Out of Water (22 page)

Jackson reached between them and stroked him hard, until Ellery saw stars in the effort not to come.

“
Yes
!” he begged, angry at himself for giving in. “God, yes, take me, dammit! C’mon, Jackson,
fuck me
!”

Jackson fumbled with the lube briefly, and again that terrible, terrible controlled gentleness, the slow circles around his sphincter, and gentle one-finger penetration after.

Ellery groaned and pushed forward some more, impaling himself and allowing that finger to saw back and forth, pushing gently, opening him up for the bigger intrusion to come.

One finger. That was all, and Ellery was gibbering, all intentions of holding out forgotten. He started to shake with orgasm, and Jackson squeezed the head of his cock through the condom.

Which was so thin it didn’t feel like it was there at all.

Ellery let out a sound that wasn’t human as what should have been his orgasm rolled through him, surging under his skin, washing him hot and cold. When it was over, sweat sheened his skin and Jackson had three fingers in his ass, and Ellery was done.

He arched his torso off the bed and screamed, “Fuck me, motherfucker! I fucking need! Fuck me!”

Jackson yanked his fingers out so fast Ellery keened at the ache, and then… oh God, it was huge, painful by its very existence, and it battered into his body like the mast of a giant sailing ship.

Ellery howled and shoved his pelvis down so he could take more of that thing up his ass.

“Want it want it want it,” he chanted, until Jackson gave a last little thrust and grunted, lodged all the way in. Ellery’s muscles contracted and released in a wave, radiating from his asshole out, leaving him to scrabble helplessly at Jackson’s shoulders as he moaned and begged for more.

“Oh God. Jackson… please… for fuck’s sake, move. Please move… please… I need you to…
yesssss
!”

Jackson began to rock back and forth rhythmically, hard and slow, each thrust punctuated by the slapping together of their skin.

Every thrust was another revelation of stars behind Ellery’s eyelids. He could have come already, with Jackson’s fingers, with the first penetration of his cock, and with every thrust to the hilt. He could have exploded, filling the condom with come—but he didn’t.

He held on, held on to his orgasm, controlled it with every last ounce of power he had.

Because Jackson wasn’t just fucking him, he was kissing him, showering his face with kisses, with gentle blessings, with reassurance.

“You’re awesome, God, so sweet. Could fuck you forever…. It’s okay, let go….”

So sweet.

Ellery opened his eyes and saw Jackson, his jaw locked, his shoulders shaking and sweating with control. Oh God. Look at them locked in this dance to see who would be in charge. Ellery wanted to give in—with all his flesh, he did.

Instead he reached up and cupped Jackson’s cheeks with both hands and hauled him down for a kiss, so filthily intimate that the steady power-fuck stalled out and Jackson melted into him, muscular arms buckling as his practiced dance became a sweaty grapple.

Jackson moaned into his mouth, the effort that had kept him in control suddenly destroyed by a simple kiss.

Ellery kept kissing, raising his heels up to force Jackson as deep as he could go. God, so close.

With an effort, he ripped his mouth away and whispered in Jackson’s ear. “Come.”

Jackson lost it, rutting inside him mindlessly, making rabid, feral snarling noises in the hollow of Ellery’s shoulder.

“
Come
!” Ellery cried, and oh God,
yes
, he felt it, a mighty pulse inside his ass as Jackson mewled in pleasure and pain and gave in, ceded the reins to Ellery’s hands as he came, vulnerable and needing, inside Ellery’s body.

Ellery nuzzled his ear, whispering, “I’ve got you. It’s okay, I’ve got you. Come. I’ve got you. I’ll protect you. Don’t worry. Just come.”

The spasms finally stopped, and Jackson collapsed against him, shuddering. His abdomen squashed Ellery’s cock, still swollen from arousal, still on the cusp of orgasm, against his own stomach, and Ellery squeezed, pushing Jackson out.

“But….” Jackson pulled back, chest heaving, and regarded Ellery from puzzled, nearly crossed eyes. “But you didn’t—”

His muscles were slack and soft, which was the only reason Ellery could flip them over with a few quick heaves of his legs and stomach. And then he lay, hands on Jackson’s biceps, groins mashing together. Jackson’s come was running out of the condom, and Ellery sat up and pulled it off. It hit the trash can next to the bed when he tossed it.

“But….”

Ellery bent his head and kissed him again, hard, and then pulled up and kissed down his throat. Jackson groaned, tilting his head back, and gave Ellery complete access. Ellery pulled hard on the skin, hard enough to mark, and Jackson bucked his hips, his dick filling slowly with blood again.

“My turn,” Ellery murmured, licking a soft line down Jackson’s collarbone. He wrapped his lips delicately around a tulip-pink nipple, and the low moan that followed told him he’d done that just right. He pulled a little harder and Jackson moaned a little deeper, and again, until Jackson was grinding and thrusting up and Ellery was pinning him down. He kissed across that muscular chest, stopping to graze the tender pinkness of the scarring there with his lips. Jackson pushed gently at his head, and Ellery met his eyes and shook his head.

And kissed it again—gently, in case there was still pain, but purposefully—because this was important. Ellery knew the scars were there, and he knew what caused them, and they were part and parcel of the man.

Jackson looked away, and Ellery kissed his scars one last time and moved to the other nipple. He licked it first and then pulled, and harder, before he fumbled with the lubricant without stopping his tormenting suckle.

He managed a healthy dollop on his fingers and then reached into Jackson’s crevice, hoping Jackson wasn’t too tender for this to feel good. He slid his slicked fingers respectfully between Jackson’s cheeks, shifting to get his hand in to work. Gently, he slid a little bit of lube across Jackson’s pucker, and the whine of arousal gratified him
very
much.

“You like that?” he asked.
C’mon, man, tell the truth. If you say no, I have to stop.

“Nnngh… ahhh….”

Ellery slid just his fingertip in at that second syllable, and he studied Jackson’s face, closed eyes, slack expression, and hoped—
oh God, let this work
.

He slid it in deeper, and Jackson braced his feet against the bed, spread his knees, and bore down, swallowing his finger in one lunge.

“Mm,” Ellery murmured, pulling it out a little and sliding it back in. “You like this?”

“Nungh….”

“Come on, Jackson. I’ve got to come like a motherfucker, and I need you to use your words.” He slid it in again and added a second finger.

“Oh… oh… oh my God,” Jackson moaned. “Oh—
yes
!”

Oh yes!

Ellery scissored his fingers, stretching, while he nuzzled Jackson’s chest and sucked on his nipples. He damned the fact they didn’t have a washcloth. He wanted to suck that amazing cock some more. They didn’t, and Jackson needed to be tested, but it would happen.

Instead, he pulled his fingers out and scooted up again, positioning himself at Jackson’s entrance.

His cock ached fiercely.

“Jackson, man, you need to ask me for this.”

Jackson’s eyes opened reluctantly, and his mouth dropped, lower lip wobbling. He was lost, so lost. Ellery nudged him gently, but hard enough to let him know that he wanted it.

“You need to ask.”

Jackson closed his eyes. “Please,” he begged softly. “But… slow.”

“Yeah.”

Ah… slow. So slow. Sweat dropped from Ellery’s forehead to Jackson’s cheek as he pushed in gently, and with every millimeter, tight flesh snapped around him, holding him like a velvet vise.

“Good?” he asked, holding on to himself desperately.

“Yesss,” Jackson breathed, closing his eyes. “Faster. Harder. Now.”

“
Yes
!”

Ellery shoved his hips forward, and Jackson’s joyful scream rewarded him. Oh
yes
, faster and harder, pushing into that delirious heat. Jackson started a low, stuttered moan of pleading, and Ellery didn’t let him down.

“You need this, you fucking need it, and I’m gonna fucking give it to you!”

“Yes,” Jackson conceded. His eyes were closed, his thighs were spread, and he was melted, pliable as butter against Ellery’s body, and all Ellery wanted was for him to be lost in what Ellery could provide.

“Fucking
mine
, you hear me?
Mine—
no one else’s, you’re fucking
mine
and I fucking want you. I want you, and I’m taking you, and I’m never giving you back!”

Oh yeah, he meant it. Six years watching this body rough-and-tumble into his life, his workplace, his
dreams
?

“Oh,” Jackson breathed, and then, just when Ellery thought he was going to
die
from deferred orgasm, an amazing thing happened.

Jackson let out another moan, this one low, guttural, ripped from his pelvic floor, and blessed heavens, he
came
, another climax wrung out of him, seed jetting out in a hard spurt, limbs twitching feebly and going limp as the last bit of his energy and will was spent with his come.

Ellery took one look at Jackson, slack-jawed, bemused, vulnerable, and sexed out, and his orgasm steamrolled through him, starting with his toes and working its way up to his groin, where it exploded outward.

He screamed, entire body twitching, no more control over his limbs than a piece of spaghetti had in a boiling pot. Climax rocked him. He poured come into the condom in Jackson’s ass and collapsed, sobbing, face buried in the hollow of Jackson’s shoulder.

He couldn’t have moved if someone had put a gun to his head.

After several moments of harsh breathing, sweating bodies stuck together unable to move, he became aware of a few things at once.

One was that his eyes were burning, slow tears leaking from the corners. Another was that Jackson was still giving fractured little moans with every tenth breath, almost like sobs.

The last thing was that Jackson had raised a shaking, clammy hand to Ellery’s hair and was gently, so gently, stroking it back off his forehead.

Ellery pulled away just enough to see his expression, and he looked… haunted. A little frightened. Alone. Ellery lowered his head for a kiss, and then another, and another. He pulled away and whispered in Jackson’s ear.

“It’s okay, you know? I’m here.”

Jackson nodded and looked away, and Ellery turned his head so his cheek was on a muscled shoulder. His softening cock slid reluctantly from Jackson’s ass, and he swallowed.

It was okay. Jackson wouldn’t believe it just yet. Why should he? As far as Ellery could see, the world hadn’t done Jackson Rivers many favors. Good friends he’d fought to keep—that was one.

And now Ellery Cramer was another.

But how would he know that with just one fuck? He’d learn.

ELLERY HAD
rolled to the side so they could cool off in the air-conditioning, and their breathing returned to normal before he heard the knock at the door.

Ellery shot up, muttering, “Shit! That’s probably your car. I’ll go sign for it.”

“I can sign for it,” Jackson said, casting him a look of annoyance. “Stay there.” His smile broke up the irritation. “I like looking at you naked.”

Ellery felt the color flush up his throat, and he smiled shyly from under the fall of hair at his brow. “Nice to hear,” he said softly. Jackson winked and slid into his jeans commando-style, then strode to the front door in a hurry.

Ellery lay back on the bed and listened to the muffled sound of voices, and when Jackson returned, he was skeptically jingling the keys to the SUV. “You really think nobody’s going to notice that car?”

Ellery smiled a little. “Only if they look at your obsessive-compulsive litter in the back.”

Jackson frowned and shoved the keys into his pocket. “How do you know about that?”

“Did you ever have a crush on someone, Jackson?”

Jackson narrowed his eyes. “Not of the stalking kind,” he said. “I mean… I thought you were hot, but I didn’t care what you ate for lunch.”

“No?” Oh, of all things, how was this not a human touchstone? “How do you not have a crush in school?”

“Well,” Jackson said, throwing himself across the bed jeans and all, “you spend your first years worried about getting beat the hell up or getting food. Then you lose your virginity at fourteen to your buddy’s twin sister, and vice versa, and you pretty much fill in the empty places that way until you split up after high school. And
then
you’re a grown-up, and if you see someone you like, you ask them out, and if they say yes, you go out, and if they say no, you ask the person next to them and see.”

Ellery laughed like he was supposed to and ran his hands through the haphazard tumble of Jackson’s dark blond hair. “And then you get scared and hurt and you become a walking condom commercial,” he said softly. “I think I see.”

Jackson’s eyes darkened, and he swallowed angrily. “Don’t feel sorry for—”

“I don’t.” Ellery closed his eyes and then looked at Jackson head-on. “I… I want you to know where I’m coming from. For the last six years, you’ve been sardonic and dangerous and… and fucking
hot
. And I had a crush, you understand? So when we actually make it into bed together, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to get deeper. It’s going to mean something. I may not be your high-school sweetheart—”

Jackson snorted.

“—
but
that doesn’t mean what we just did isn’t important to me.”

Jackson let out a sigh and turned his head away, resting his cheek on his outstretched arm. “Can’t we just go back to fucking?” he said plaintively. “It’s always so much easier when it’s just—”

“Making love.” Ellery cupped his cheek and scooted so they were lying face to face. “It doesn’t have to be important, Jackson, but c’mon. Talk to me.”