The Storm Before the Calm (14 page)

“Got it bad, huh?” Meredith shouted across the bar.

“Huh?” Taking my eyes off Max was difficult, but when I turned to look at her, she was staring back at me with an expression of understanding.

“Max. You really like him, huh?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Oh yeah.” She smiled. “But that’s a good thing. I think you’re good for him. I have a feeling about you. I do that… get feelings about people. And I think you’re a good one. It’s about time he found a guy who was right for him.”

“Has he had a lot that were wrong?” I asked, suddenly aware Max had a past I had never stopped to consider. I’d never asked him about previous boyfriends or lovers or whatever. I’d been looking so far forward, I’d forgotten about the backward part.

“A few,” she said noncommittally. “None at all like you.”

I must have looked disappointed or worried because she added, “Not that many. Don’t worry.”

I tried to laugh. Maybe I should have asked him about them before things got serious. Wait. Were things serious? They felt serious for me, but what did I know? I’d never done the dating thing before. How was I supposed to know how all this worked?

Max finally finished his set and came back toward me, prancing in his tight little shorts, his ass swaying from side to side as he walked. He was temptation incarnate. I noticed the other men staring at him, following him with their eyes as he strutted past, but his gaze was fixed directly on me.

“One more dance,” he said, grabbing my hands, then hauled me off the stool and dragged me back to the middle of the dance floor.

“Are you having fun?” he asked as he fitted his hips back against mine. Where moments ago the music had been too loud and the lights garish, everything faded back, dimming in comparison to him.

I nodded, and he looked pleased. His hands were all over me, and I was loving every second of it. I felt worshipped as we moved on the dance floor, oblivious to the people around us. We were a part of the undulating masses, but we might as well have been all alone for the attention we paid the others.

I slid my hands into Max’s hair, feeling the dampness of the strands at the base of his neck. We were both sweating, and yet we kept moving. His body was hard against mine, his muscles, his erection, and it made me feel hotter than the sweltering temperature in the room. The longer we stayed, the more I wanted him and the more frustrated I became. I wanted to touch him, explore him, and taste him, but somehow I thought dropping to my knees in the middle of a crowded dance floor might be bad form, even in a nightclub.

“Come home with me,” Max said against my ear, and I nodded. I wanted to. So badly.

He took my hand again, and we strode off the dance floor and behind the bar.

“Use a condom!” Meredith shouted after us as we walked through the door.

Chapter Sixteen

W
E
TOOK
a cab back to Max’s place. Although the subway system was efficient, a taxi was much more direct, and neither of us was in the mood for wasting time. It took every ounce of willpower to keep my hands to myself in the back of the cab. I knew seeing two boys making out would be nothing new for the driver, who was so obviously used to the whole thing, but I had standards. Sort of.

We tumbled out in front of a brick walkup somewhere in Chelsea, Max’s hand on my ass as we hurried toward the door. I waited impatiently for Max to unlock it and pull it open before we were marching up the steps, pausing on each landing to thoroughly grope each other through our clothing.

I was so turned on, I thought my clothes would melt off my body. His hands were everywhere, and it still wasn’t enough. I needed more.

We finally made it to his apartment on the third floor. As he kissed me, his left hand tangled in my hair, he jiggled the key in the lock and pushed the door open, slamming it on the wall behind.

“Whoa, what the fuck, dude?” I heard someone yell from inside the apartment.

“Shit,” Max muttered under his breath before calling back, “sorry, Danny!”

“Who—?”

“My roommate,” Max interjected before I could jump to any conclusions. “I thought he was supposed to be going out tonight. Come on. I’ll introduce you, and then we can hide out in my room. He won’t bother us.”

I followed him into the apartment, which was neater than I would have expected from two twenty-something guys. A large red couch sat in the center of the living room facing the extra-large TV mounted on the wall. Surrounding it were street signs of all shapes and sizes. There were two armchairs along the wall with the window that appeared to open onto the fire escape. It looked like something out of a movie.

But what was the most shocking was the hard-core pornography playing on the TV.

“Uh, are we interrupting?” I whispered, leaning into Max.

He laughed. “No. Danny’s a grad student at NYU. He’s writing his dissertation on the sociological implications of pornography on marginalized groups in America.”

“And he has to watch a lot of porn?”

Max smirked. “I doubt it. I think he just likes it.”

I was doing my best to keep my erection tamped down, but it was difficult when moments before, Max’s tongue had been in my mouth, his hands snuck up under my shirt, and now there was a litany of various moans and slapping noises coming through the surround sound.

“Danny, this is Charlie. Charlie, this is Danny.”

Danny paused the porn mid-orgasm and stood to shake my hand. It was by far the most awkward moment of my life, but Danny didn’t seem fazed.

“Nice to meet you, man. Max hasn’t shut up about you all week.”

“Uh… nice to meet you too.” I didn’t know what to say, but Max spoke up.

“We’ll be in my room,” he said, sweeping me out of the living room and down the hall to his bedroom.

“Sorry about that,” he said as he closed the door behind us and clicked over the lock. “I didn’t know he was going to be here.”

We were finally alone, and Max looked at me earnestly. He pulled me into his arms, and when he kissed me, suddenly Danny was all but forgotten. His fingers twirled in my hair as he drew me to him, nuzzling and nipping at the tender flesh along my shoulder. My head fell back, and he kissed up the column of my throat to my jaw.

His hands fell to the hem of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head before dropping it to the floor next to us. He followed next with my pants, pulling them carefully off me, then bent down, pressing kisses along each of the white scars that marred my skin. Sliding his thumbs across each of the marks, he touched me as though his touch could heal me, as though he was literally trying to kiss me better.

As he stood, I tugged at his shirt too, not wanting to be alone in my nudity. My fingers fumbled with the buckle of his belt, clumsy from lust. I managed to pull the leather through, and once loosened, I hooked my thumbs through his belt loops and tugged. His pants pooled around his feet. I left his underwear on for now, suddenly nervous about crossing that final threshold.

I sat back on his bed, pulling him down with me until he was covering my body with his. We were both incredibly hard, our cocks straining against the fabric of our underwear, rubbing against one another. My head was swimming, and my senses were on overload. It was so much to take in, so much to process. The feeling of Max’s stubble against my neck, the softness of his lips against my ear. I could smell the shampoo he’d used and taste the saltiness of his skin.

Max’s hands were everywhere as his mouth moved over me. “Wanted this for so long,” he said against my chest. “Want you so much.”

A quick intake of breath was all I could manage in reply when Max swirled his tongue around my nipple.

“If it’s too fast, you tell me. Say the word and we’ll slow down or stop. Okay?”

I had no idea how he was managing coherent speech. I barely managed to nod in acknowledgment.

Max rolled us onto our sides, and I breathed against his mouth, trying to consolidate the sensations with the emotions. His hand massaged my lower back, his fingers dipping beneath the band of my underwear each time he moved. My cock was throbbing in his other hand as I held absolutely still, waiting to see what came next. Up and down he rubbed as he started to slowly stroke me through the fabric. There was friction and pleasure but not enough. It was wonderful and maddening all at once, and my head didn’t know what I wanted, but my body did.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as the tips of his fingers slid along the cleft of my ass, I arched my back, rocking backward. I couldn’t ask for what I wanted, but Max seemed to understand. He skimmed one finger across the puckered skin, right where I wanted him.

I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned, the intensity of it so much more than I thought it would be. When I looked down at Max, the expression on his face was one of awe and hunger, his lips slightly parted, his eyes smoldering. He pulled his hand away, and I whimpered in protest until I watched him suck two fingers into his mouth, swirling his tongue around them in a move that made me tremble.

And then his fingers were back, slick pressure where I needed it, and I kissed him hard, sucking his tongue as I lost all sense of propriety and gave myself over to my base needs. I thrust my hips backward, begging him with my body to satisfy my deep need to be filled.

With that movement, it was as though I’d broken the dam of his resolve. He growled, shoving his hands forcefully against my shoulders and flipping us back over to where I was pinned beneath him. He kissed me again, dominant and bruising, before he pulled roughly at the band of my underwear.

I planted my feet on the bed and lifted my ass for him as he tore them off me and tossed them across the room, and then my cock was momentarily in his fist before it was down the back of his throat. I’d never felt anything like the wet heat that surrounded me, and I gripped the sheets beneath me, digging my fingers in and compelling myself not to come.

He sucked me down and pulled off again, circling his tongue around the tip and concentrating on the sensitive spot underneath. My hands flew to his hair, running through it. I watched as he took me down, all the way to the root, his nose buried in the mat of curls at the base of my dick. I groaned loudly, unable to keep the sounds inside as he took me right to the edge.

I almost didn’t notice him slip a finger in his mouth as he blew me, but then I could feel the gentle pressure at my entrance. There was nothing I wanted more than to feel him inside me, and moments later, I got exactly what I wanted when he slid one finger in. It stretched but didn’t hurt, and the thought that Max was inside my body made me desperate for more.

I canted my hips forward and back, alternating between thrusting deep into his throat and impaling myself on his finger. I couldn’t decide which felt better. The sensations melded together, and when Max shifted and hit something deep inside me, I didn’t fall over the edge, I flew.

My body trembled as Max took me deep, swallowing down every drop as I came. It took me a long time to come back to myself, and he was with me the whole time, slowing his movements and bringing me down gently.

“I love your skin,” Max murmured once I’d somewhat regained the ability to think. He kissed along my stomach and all the way back up until he was lying next to me. “It’s so pale and I can see everywhere my hands have been.”

I blushed, which was silly considering what I’d just done, what I’d just let him do to me, but the thought of it made me both shy and insanely happy. I kissed him, tasting myself on his tongue, a subtle bitterness that served as a reminder of what he’d done for me. I slid my hands down his sides, yearning to make him feel as good as I had.

He was hard beneath my hand as I pushed inside his briefs and wrapped my fingers around the rigid shaft. As I gently squeezed, testing my grip and marveling at the feeling of touching another man for the first time, he gasped his approval. Spurred on, I began to stroke, in awe at how velvety his skin was and how easily my hand slipped over his flesh, the way eased by precome leaking from his tip.

I propped myself up, moving so I was on my hands and knees above him.

“Charlie, you don’t have to….”

“I want to. So much. I just… I don’t know if I’ll be any good.”

“Anything you do will feel good,” Max promised. “Just touch me however you want.”

I nodded solemnly and shuffled down until his groin was at eye level. With one hand, I lifted his cock and bent down, licking tentatively at the head. The taste of precome bloomed across my tongue as I pulled his head into my mouth, sucking gently.

I felt him shift, and when I looked up, I saw he’d propped himself up on his elbows and was watching me with an expression of unadulterated hunger. I was so turned on by the way he was looking at me that every inhibition I’d had dissolved in an instant. I bent forward once more and swallowed him down as far as I could.

And then I gagged, coughing and sputtering as mortification replaced lust.

Max slid his hand along my jaw, tilting my head up to look at him. “It’s okay. Go slow. I’m sorry. I should have warned you. Here,” he said, picking up one of my hands and sliding it around his cock. “Use your hand so you don’t go down as far.”

His words were gentle, and I wanted more than anything to make him fly like he’d done for me. I bent forward again and did as he’d said, using my hands along with my mouth. Spurred on by the grunts and groans falling from his mouth, I sped up, sucking with each upstroke and stroking with my tongue on the way down.

Before long, I felt him become impossibly harder beneath my tongue.

“Charlie,” Max panted. “I’m c-close.”

I closed my eyes and kept going, wanting more than anything to taste his pleasure. I didn’t have to wait long before jets of come filled my mouth. I swallowed it down, but there was too much. Max slid his hands under my armpits and hauled me up to him, then slid his thumb along the corner of my mouth, wiping away the few drops that had escaped. And then we were kissing and sliding against one another in slow, languorous movements