At the foot of Greg’s bed, Landon feels safe and protected, and he easily falls into sleep.
* * *
A loud noisestartled Landon awake and he flailed, his hand slamming into something hard in someplace there shouldn’t be something hard. Landon blinked and forced the room into focus, realizing he’s eye-level with his black dust ruffle and the loud noise was him rolling out of bed and landing on the floor. Landon kicked free of the sheets that were tangled around his legs, then lay on his back staring at the dark ceiling.
After the first night Greg had made him sleep on the floor, he’d spent many nights at the foot of Greg’s bed, tangled in the sheets Greg had allowed him, or sometimes the blanket. Sometimes, Landon would deliberately come without permission to see what punishments Greg could come up with.
Landon only hated himself for a moment when he realized his cock had hardened during his dream, and he hated himself even less when he jerked himself off on his floor, wondering what kind of sheets Greg used now.
7
Gregory
Gregory was running late.He was due to meet Aaron and some friends for brunch, but he couldn’t muster the interest to get out of bed. He fiddled with the hair above his ear, where his one solitary gray had lived its short life, and scrunched his nose thinking about how kind time had been to Landon. With his other hand, Gregory rubbed the pads of his fingers across his own hip, immediately aware that Landon’s skin, as it had always been, was softer than his. He groaned, thinking of the way Landon had stopped on the stairs when Gregory had told him to, and his cock swelled when he remembered falling to his knees in front of the first man he’d ever loved.
Landon had meant his counter-demand as a snide challenge he didn’t think Gregory would accept, and Gregory hadn’t missed the flicker of surprise that danced across Landon’s face when he did. It may have been half a lifetime ago the two of them had started this journey with each other, but he’d never lost sight of what a treasure the gift of submission was.
Offering control to another wasn’t something that should ever be taken lightly, and he often looked back at how deep he and Landon had explored as teenagers, dabbling in a lifestyle that quickly enveloped them whole. In that moment the night before, Gregory remembered how big he’d always felt when Landon had supplicated in the past and, as his knees hit the floor, he was flooded with feelings long forgotten.
Landon had been everything, and when he’d told Gregory about Columbia, it hurt him in ways he’d never been able to comprehend. Gregory hadn’t ever stopped loving him. If anything, Gregory made the decisions he hadbecausehe loved Landon.
He cut Landon off very soon after the break-up because he didn’t know what else to do. He’d been hurt, upset, angry, devastated—his brain felt like an F5 tornado of bitter rage spinning out of control. He felt manic and desperate and the absolute last thing Gregory had wanted was to deflect any of those feelings onto Landon.
He realized his first night alone in Florida that a long distance relationship between two horny college freshmen was a recipe for disaster and resentment. He’d never wanted Landon to resent him.
Gregory had done what he thought was best for both of them. As he got older, he thought that sure, maybe…probably, he should have talked it through more with Landon, but he’d also known him well enough to know Landon would have begged him to change his mind and give them another chance. At the time, he hadn’t seen another way to make a clean break.
Gregory rolled to his side and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was nearly eleven. With a sigh, he threw back his blankets and dropped his feet onto the floor. He typed out a text to Aaron to let him know he was running late, grabbed a towel he’d left hanging over his bedroom door, and padded down the hallway to the bathroom.
After a quick shower and shave, he returned to the bedroom to dress, pulling on a pair of gray jeans and a dark-blue henley. He pushed the sleeves up to his forearms then sat on the edge of the bed to put on socks and shoes. His phone buzzed, and he snatched it, assuming it was Aaron giving him shit for being late.
Gregory swiped his finger across the screen and it lit up with a text message from an unknown number.
Unknown: I am probably overstepping, but are you able to talk?
Gregory squinted in confusion and keyed out a reply.
Me:I think you’ve got the wrong number, friend.
A reply came through quickly.
Unknown: Is this Gregory?
Me: Who’s this?
The phone showed the telltale three dots indicating the person was typing a reply, then they went away and returned, went away, returned. For a brief moment, his heart fluttered, wondering if it was Landon. He was about to type out a question asking as much when the reply finally came.
Unknown: This is Verity from Rapture.
Gregory fumbled his phone when it started to vibrate and ring. He thumbed the green phone icon and accepted the call.
“Hello?”
“Gregory?” Verity’s honeyed voice flowed through the speaker.
“Yeah,” he replied, somehow painfully aware of his own, scratchy baritone.
“How are you? Did I wake you?” Verity asked him, as though this phone call required awkward pleasantries.
