As they ate, Dylan couldn’t hold the smile back. Even if they were just roomies who had casual sex—almost every day, several times a day—everything was so easy between them. It just felt natural. Warm. Comfortable. Familiar.
They talked about everything and nothing, momentarily pushing away the stress of their daily lives. Dylan loved it; coming back to a house that wasn’t empty anymore. Thanks to Jared, he had a home now.
As dinner wound down, Jared leaned back in his chair and looked at Dylan with a playful grin. “How about a massage to help you relax?”
Dylan hesitated. He wanted to accept, to feel Jared’s hands soothing his aching muscles, but feared the confusion rattling his guts lately.
For the past two weeks, since they’d started hooking up, his mind had been a tangled web of emotions and desires, all centered on the man sitting across from him.
Did he like Jared? Yes, very much. But he was in his twenties, and Dylan was running straight towards forty. Hell, Jared hadn’t even learned to read when Dylan started jerking off. He was barely starting his pubescent era when Dylan had already finished university. Whenever he thought about it this way, something inside of him stirred. It was creepy. Besides, he knew himself, and was aware that those feelings wouldn’t develop much further. That shit never happened. Not to him, anyway.
Dylan chuckled with discomfort. “You’re not my boyfriend, Jared. You don’t need to do all this for me.”
Jared rolled his eyes, seemingly unfazed as he walked to the kitchen and placed the dishes in the sink. “Who said anything about dating? I just wanted to play a little.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Fuck, this man.
“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep my eyes open through a massage. I’m too tired.”
“That’s fine. If you don’t, you’ll just pay me back in the morning.”
“Ugh,” Dylan protested, loving the atmospheric shift. “Fine,” he said like this was torture—it was not.
“That’s my man,” Jared whispered against his lips before biting him. “Now go take a shower while I finish cleaning up, and I’ll meet you in your bedroom in a bit.”
Once fresh and renewed, feeling like maybe he could pull off one round, Dylan went from his bathroom to the bedroom, completely naked. Jared was already there with everything settled—the music, the oil, and even a towel spread over the duvet.
“Took you a while,” Jared said, ogling him up and down. “Happy that you’re happy to see me too.” He smirked.
Jared was dressed in a pair of tartan pajama pants and an oversized tee, but Dylan’s dick still reacted to the sight of him and the memories of the previous night. Because, yeah, his body had a mind of its own when it came to this guy, who, by the way, had the best hip roll, and always, fucking always, hit all the right places.
“Shut up.” Dylan tapped his forehead with two fingers as he approached. “You give me a massage and then we’ll see if I suck you.”
“You will suck me.”
Laying on his stomach, Dylan’s heart raced when Jared straddled him. As his friend’s hands started working on his sore muscles, he let out a content sigh. It was as if he had memorized every knot and pleasurable spot on his body.
“I have to admit,” Dylan mumbled, his voice relaxed and soft, “this feels nice.”
“Good.”
The room filled with a comfortable silence, broken only by the sounds of Dylan’s heavy breaths and the soft music playing in the background.
Minutes passed, and the initial uneasiness melted into a state of pure bliss. Dylan closed his eyes, allowing the soothing sensations to wash over him. However, his brain refused to shut down.
No matter how hard he tried to ignore reality, a massage was probably one of the most intimate acts he could think of. The connection they were sharing, with their skin warming up to each other and their breathing synchronizing... nothing matched the intensity squeezing his heart right now.
Dylan’s conflict deepened as the turmoil swirled in his mind. He wanted to reach out, to touch Jared and make him feel an ounce of the pleasure he was feeling. Making him feel cared for, safe, and understood made Dylan’s chest puff, like he was some sort of superhero. But he didn’t want to give false hope.
And here I thought I was gonna fall asleep the moment he put his hands on me.
“You good?” Jared asked.
“Mm-hmm…” Dylan replied, wondering if the disarray in his mind was easy to read through his body.
“You’re kinda tense.”
“It’s hard to relax when your dick is taunting my ass.” Dylan accompanied his bluntness with a soft wiggle of his hips. There was no way he was going to let Jared peek at all the fears and doubts swimming in his head.
