He looks around and drags his eyes over me slowly, lingering on my exposed abs and licking his lips.
“I could have skipped the pancakes with you looking edible as hell this morning.”
Heat rises in my cheeks, and I smile.
“Should I have stayed away longer?” Juno teases.
“Oh hush. Like I haven’t had to suffer through your morning-after flirting.” I take another sip of my coffee and Butch plates the pancakes, including one for Juno. “Andmy man even thought of you. None of your ‘special friends’ ever thought to include me in breakfast.” I hold up the extra plate in their direction. And then my words actually register in my brain.“I mean… not that you’remyman. You’reaman and you’re making breakfast… for me… and for yourself… and for Juno.”
“Shh, quiet time,” Juno murmurs helpfully, and Butch chuckles.
“Here are your pancakes.” He hands me the plate, blessedly not addressing my awkward rambling or that big, fat elephant I just invited into the room.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
BUTCH
The playful bickering between Juno and Percy while we eat is nice. It kind of reminds me of my siblings, or my friendship with Fender.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Juno says, standing up to carry the syrup smeared plate over to the sink. “I hardly got any sleep last night, so I’m going to crash.” A smirk flickers on their face. “I’ll put on my white noise machine, so don’t worry about being too loud or anything.”
Percy groans and waves Juno away.
“Sorry about that,” he says as Juno heads down the hallway, leaving the two of us alone again.
“For what? It’s not like it’s a secret that we had sex.” I stab my fork into the last bite of food on my plate.
“Right, I just didn’t know if you felt comfortable broadcasting it or getting teased about it.” Percy licks the syrup off his lips and stands up, taking both of our empty plates over to the sink to stack them on top of Juno’s.
I turn in my chair, watching him as he fusses around, tidying up the kitchen.
“Rocky, I would take out a billboard telling the whole damn neighborhood I got to fuck that cute little ass of yours.”
His face pinks and he bites his bottom lip, looking at me over the counter for a few seconds. I couldn’t guess what he’s thinking right now if my life depended on it.
“Take a shower with me?” he blurts. “Just a shower though. I don’t think my ass could take another round just yet.” He huffs a laugh.
“Can I at least wash your back for you?” I flirt, and he nods. “Then, hell yeah.”
He finishes wiping down the counters and then I follow him down the hall to the bathroom. It’s a lot like the one at my apartment—cramped and full of fixtures that look like they were probably installed when the building went up. He pulls back the shower curtain and the pipes groan a little when he cranks the water on.
When he turns back to me, he looks a little shy.
“I’ve never taken a shower with anyone before,” he admits, tugging his shirt over his head and dropping it on the floor between us.
“I have, but it was at a gym, before I worked at Sweat. It was, uh…” I rub the back of my neck and chuckle. I probably shouldn’t bring up any past hookups right now, so I just let that hang between us until he barks out a laugh.
“Does that kind of thing really happen? I always wondered if that was real or just salacious stories on the internet.”
“If salacious means slutty, then yeah.”
Percy sputters another laugh, and we both finish undressing. The air in the bathroom starts to get heavy and foggy, and I greedily catalog all of the faint bruises and bite marks staining his skin from my hands and mouth last night. After just a few seconds, I can’t take it anymore. I close the small gap between us and pull him into a kiss.
He sighs against my lips, and his body instantly melts into me. I cup his ass cheeks gently, and walk him backward towardsthe shower, only breaking the kiss long enough for us to get in without breaking our necks. Our mouths find each other again as soon as the hot water starts pelting our skin. I can taste the sweetness of the syrup still on his lips and the tartness of the blueberries I mixed into the pancake batter.
“Will I be too greedy if I ask to wash your hair for you too?” I grin against his lips, and he smiles right back.
“You’re going to spoil me for anyone else,” he warns, nuzzling his nose against mine.
