Prologue
Four Years Prior
Three hours after Gage’s high school graduation, his best friend’s lips were around his cock. Aaron, who was five years older and had recently graduated with his master’s degree from UCB, looked up at him with dark eyes before swallowing him to his hilt. It was the sexiest thing Gage had ever seen.
Aaron nosed against his groin, then tightened his lips and drew back at an excruciatingly slow pace. Unable to help himself, Gage slid his hands behind Aaron’s head and held it in place.
“Don’t go,” Gage whispered. He pushed Aaron just a little, the short hairs on Aaron’s head slipping through the cracks between his fingers. The room was dimly lit, starlight invading the room through its uncovered window—just enough for Gage to see all of Aaron’s details. “Need you. I need you so bad.”
Aaron’s eyes blinked open, and he glanced up at Gage from his groin. The desire in them was marked by sorrow. Then, as if to do away with it, he tilted his head and let Gage back into his throat. Pleasure speared through Gage. His fingers tightened against Aaron’s scalp, and he gasped in delight. Aaron’s mouth was tight, but the way his throat constricted around Gage’s cock was beyond amazing.
He wanted to chase that pleasure again and again and again.
Gage pushed his hips until his body was flush with Aaron’s lips and he couldn’t enter any farther. Aaron gasped around his cock, then choked. Tears beaded in his eyes, and Gage’s mind went haywire. He didn’t want to harm Aaron—he never wanted that—but it was his first time feeling anything so good, and he didn’t want to give it up.
Aaron would pull away if he didn’t want it, wouldn’t he? He’d push away to catch his breath.
A convulsion gripped Gage’s shaft as Aaron’s throat fought the invasion. Gage bit back a cry. He pushed a hand through Aaron’s hair, wanting to speak, but finding words impossible. His touch was gentle and delicate. In it, he hoped Aaron understood what his lips couldn’t convey.
I love you. I love you so much.
The pleasure Aaron treated him to returned those words in kind. Aaron had come back from Californiafor him—dropped to his kneesfor him.
Gage was his and no one else’s.
If his heart had any say in the matter, it would always be that way.
At last, Aaron pulled back, parting from Gage’s cock. He coughed and wiped his mouth on his arm, then looked up at Gage with fire in his eyes and dove back in. His lips sealed behind Gage’s tip, and his tongue went to work, flexing and twisting as best it could.
Gage couldn’t hold back anymore. With a choked cry, he came.
He couldn’t help himself.
Seeing his protector on his knees, swallowing his cock, turned him on too much to dream of holding back.
Aaron swallowed, then parted from Gage’s cock again, but his tongue never left Gage’s body—it trailed across the glossed, pink skin leading to Gage’s slit. A trickle of cum had escaped the corner of Aaron’s mouth, and as Aaron moved his head, the starlight reflected in it and made the mess visible. Without thinking, Gage ran his finger through it to clean it up, then presented it to Aaron’s mouth. Aaron’s tongue moved from the head of his cock to his finger and swirled around it before he leaned forward and took the offering between his lips. Gage, still hard despite his orgasm, watched raptly.
And when Aaron’s gaze turned upward to look at him again, Gage didn’t miss the burning intention in his eyes.
A look like that told Gage everything he needed to know—he may have already come, but Aaron wasn’t done with him yet.
Aaron sucked at his finger. His tongue slid around its tip, then dipped down its length. From time to time, he glanced up at Gage, challenging him with his eyes. It was a look that said, “Are you really done so soon?”
No. Not even close.
All too soon, Aaron’s lips parted from Gage’s finger. Gage took his hand away from the back of Aaron’s head, letting him back off. Given freedom, Aaron sat back on his calves and looked up at Gage, the need in his eyes as smoldering as ever. For those eyes, Gage would do anything.
“I love you,” Aaron told him. He spoke quietly, but also with unwavering certainty. “I love you now, and I’m going to love you forever.”
The sound of Aaron’s voice was staggering in its intensity. It came from a place deep inside Aaron—a place that Gage had never seen before that moment. It jogged loose his stuck tongue. Words flowed.
“I love you, too,” Gage whispered. He wished he had something more beautiful to say, but his thoughts were slow to process, and his heart was too full and fluttery to be of any help. Speech wasn’t what his body wanted to focus on—it was more concerned with touch, and sight, and maybe soon, taste.
Aaron rose. He took Gage’s hand and tugged him close, and Gage instinctively slotted against his chest. His head found its favorite crook—the space where Aaron’s neck met his shoulder—and breathed Aaron in. They’d been out in the sun all day, and the scent of summer clung to Aaron’s clothes and mixed with the woodsy, spicy notes of his bodywash. Beneath it thrived the natural notes that Gage always associated with Aaron—something wild and fresh and sweet, like the desert at night. He never wanted to be without that scent again.
“Let me take you to bed,” Aaron whispered. The invitation set Gage’s fluttering heart into flight, and he closed his eyes and tightened his hold on the man he loved. “I’m so proud of you. So fucking proud.”
“It’s not like graduating high school is a big deal,” Gage murmured, embarrassed, even though he knew that it was. Alex, his sort-of cousin and other best friend, had almost dropped out, and after that, had barely managed to scrape together his graduation requirements. But Gage wasn’t Alex—his life hadn’t fallen into ruin. He was in love with a man who would care for him forever, and who had his best interests at heart. Their future was going to be wonderful, and they had all summer to celebrate it before Aaron left for Munich to pursue his PhD. “I should be the one proud of you. You just got your master’s degree. High school isn’t much compared to that…”
