“You said you’re from a strongly bred line. You’re horses, then? Because I know they always keep track of horses’ breeding lines and things like that. They keep the blood pure. Little twisted, if you ask me.” He smirked and leaned farther back into the couch, as though he’d won whatever was happening between us.
“Is this a joke to you?” I asked, sounding more outraged than I’d wanted, but I was tired of being laughed at, being the one everyone got to make fun of. I was a human with feelings, too. “AmIa joke to you?”
“No.” He leaned forward then and rested the tips of his fingers on my knee. My gaze dropped down to where he touched me, and my cheeks heated again. “Do you want me to be honest with you, Max?”
I nodded fast.
“I’ve barely spent any time with you, except in the office, but in the small amount of time you’ve been in my house, you tried to rearrange my Christmas tree ornaments and have taken out all the plugs from their sockets in two rooms. Did you do it to your room, too? I bet you’ve rearranged other stuff, and I never realized until now how particular you were with the staples. You always made sure they were perfect, and when they weren’t, you pulled them out and did them again.” He shrugged and squeezed my knee. “I think you have OCD, or something close enough, whether it’s mild or not, and I think you should see someone.”
“You don’t know me,” I said pitifully, my voice weak.
“No, I don’t. Do we need more wine for this?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Standing, he walked out of the room, leaving me to my thoughts. My gaze slid to the Christmas tree again, dark with the lights no longer flickering. I’d been silly, right? But that’s how I’d always been, always worried about the appliances since I was a young teenager. My family never thought anything about it, although they took the chance to make fun of me, with Giles teasing me the TV would catch fire if the plug was in the wall for too long. But they’d never mentioned mental illnesses. They never would, though. As Kalinskis, we didn’t talk about those sorts of things.
JP came back into the room, two glasses in hand. I assumed he’d opened another bottle, and I couldn’t say no. I didn’t drink much, but it might calm my nerves, so I accepted when he offered, taking a desperate sip and wincing at the bitter dryness.
“Good?” he asked, dropping onto the seat beside me again and sipping at his wine. The firelight flickered against his features, and I stared, unable to look away from the youthfulness of his face. How old was he? Older than me, for sure.
“Yeah.” I mapped the edge of the glass with my thumb and sighed.
“Let’s move on to another topic.” He took a bigger gulp, and I watched his Adam’s apple again, my stomach burning up like it had before. He didn’t stop drinking until the wine was gone, and afterward he settled the glass on the coffee table. Then, he shifted closer, and I stilled, unable to make myself break eye contact with him. “Do you like men or women, Max?”
I gasped and flailed in a way I hadn’t expected, the glass slipping out of my hand. I attempted to catch it and mostly succeeded, the glass safely in my hand once again, but some of the wine had spilled over the edge and onto the floor.
“Oh no, I’m….”I’m sorry.I placed the glass on the coffee table and fell to my knees. No sooner had I moved, than I realized I had nothing to clean the mess with. Hot tears of shame filled my eyes. I’d fucked up again. What was new?
“Hey.” JP was behind me, tugging me to my feet even as I struggled against him, and then I was pressed against his chest, my hands splayed across his gray shirt. He seized my chin and raised it, and I let him until I stared up into the deepest brown eyes I’d ever seen.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered helplessly, pushing myself up on my tiptoes. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I wished I’d had enough wine to blame something on it.
“Don’t be. Funny how you can say it when it’s not necessary.” He slanted his mouth over mine and kissed me hard.
The world spun, and excited pleasure speared through me in ways I’d never felt before. I was kissing a man. No, he was kissing me. It didn’t matter. I had his lips on mine, and all my worries felt like memories, swept away like a tide of water as I floated in this brilliant fantasy I’d always dreamed about.
I’m kissing someone!
5
JP
Max pressed himself against my body and quivered in place like he was going to snap into a million pieces, yet his lips were a soft trap beneath mine. I wanted to delve between them and be stuck forever. Excitement had me wrapping my arms tight around his back and lifting him for better access as I flicked my tongue out to explore him. I tested his boundaries and swept across the silky inside of his bottom lip, and he gasped out a tiny whimper. His tongue held a hint of good Merlot, and the perfume of my cardamom-and-pine shampoo simmered from his body in an aromatic cloud, which had my head buzzing and ran tingles down the back of my neck. Right now, he belonged to me in every way that counted.
He was my boy.
I fucked my tongue deeper into his mouth and then sucked on his soft bottom lip until his leg came up to wrap around my thigh, just below my ass because he wasn’t tall enough to reach higher. My cock twitched and plumped, stealing my breath. I slid my hands down to palm his asscheeks and press my fast-firming hard-on against the needy bulge he rutted against me.
This is a horrible idea for so many reasons—feels good.I humped forward, and he shivered against me.He never even answered my question.But he was kissing back fairly enthusiastically, so at the very least he wantedmeto kiss him, even if men in general weren’t for him. I was more than fine with that.
Straightening up just enough to break our lips apart, I swallowed hard and stared down into his pink-tinged, angular face. His dark eyes were squeezed shut, almost like he was scared, and that twisted up all my worst protective instincts.
“Do you want this, Max?”
He didn’t answer. His chest rose and fell faster than I thought might be healthy.
“Boy,” I murmured sharply. “Do you want this?”
He shuddered and rolled his hips against mine, using his leg to hoist himself higher on my body. The change in position brought us even closer, and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open against the wave of pleasure that powered through my gut and tightened my groin. My shaft pulsed pleasantly.
“Boy?”
