“Me too.” I managed the barest attention to the necessary exchange of information before Jude was back at it, bobbing his head up and down, faster now. “Oh fuck. Keep doing that.”
Jude seemed to like the encouragement because he went that much more enthusiastically, sucking harder and milking my shaft with his tongue. Somehow, he figured out how to increase the friction across my cockhead on the upstroke, and a familiar tension gathered in the small of my back.
“Gonna come.” I eked out the smallest of warnings before the orgasm hit.
My hips surged upward, but Jude stayed right with me, drinking down my come with sexy-as-hell audible swallows. I was gonna replay those sounds for years. Instant arousal. Fuck. Everything Jude did got me off like never before. His enthusiasm. His sounds. His firm grip on my hip and my balls.
I wanted the orgasm to last forever, but eventually, the pleasure ebbed. As I came back to bodily awareness, Jude flopped next to me, hand already on his cock. I had every intention of helping, but I got distracted by his eyes fluttering shut as he licked his shiny lower lip. I wanted in on that, so I rolled to my side to kiss him. As soon as our lips touched, Jude came. I swallowed down his groans, and my tired cock pulsed, not enough to get hard again, but definitely taking notice.
“Damn.” I shook my head at him, more than a little impressed. His love of oral was a hell of a turn-on. “You weren’t kidding.”
“Good?” He grinned, knowing damn well it had been way more than good. And his renewed confidence was the best part of the whole thing.
“Awesome.” I grinned right back.
The energy between us was free and easy. I let my head drop onto his chest. After cuddles were definitely new, but as Jude’s arms came around me, I settled in like we’d been doing this for years.
He kissed the top of my head before gesturing at the rumpled bedding surrounding us. “We might need to sleep in the other bed.”
“No objections.” I caught his meaning that he’d like to sleep together as opposed to retreating to our separate spaces. I liked that idea a lot. The mere thought of spending the night pressed against his warm, bare skin was enough to make desire spread across my chest, warm and thick like honey. “Shower first.”
If Jude could voice his wants, I could do the same. I’d spent years schooling myself to never look at others in the locker room and to shower as efficiently as possible. Jude was a chance to finally explore so many parts of myself I’d never met before. And he was a friend, a huge bonus. I glanced at the bedside clock, wishing with everything I had that morning and the real world simply wouldn’t come.
Chapter Fourteen
Jude
No matterwhat intentions I set prior, mornings after were inevitably awkward, even with a friend I liked as much as Carson. Maybe especially with a friend like Carson, because I was so wary of ruining things between us. While I’d liked everyone I’d hooked up with over the years, there was something about Carson that set him apart from other friends. I liked him on a level that was more than a little scary.
Accordingly, when my phone alarm blared, we each stumbled around, not quite looking at each other, getting ready in a quiet that was slowly killing me.
“We should get breakfast,” I said as I buckled my belt, needing to break the silence as much or more than I needed food.
“Yeah.” Carson rolled his neck from side to side. “Here?”
“It’s included.” Like many chains, a basic breakfast buffet was included. Nothing fancy, but I was thrifty enough to take advantage when free breakfast was offered.
“Easy.” Carson shrugged like he had little opinion on the matter and finished pulling on his work boots.
He followed me to the elevator in more loaded silence. I pushed the button two times. Carson stayed my hand before I could do it a third time.
“Don’t be weird.” He met my gaze finally, a firmness to his eyes that reassured me.
“I’m not.” I was a terrible liar, and Carson chuckled and shook his head.
“We’re cool.” He gave me a fast pat on the shoulder as the elevator arrived. “Promise.”
“Good.” I was reassured that he wasn’t about to wriggle out of our friendship, but I was still hyperaware of his presence as we grabbed plates and made our way down the buffet set up in the lobby. We piled our plates with sausage patties, scrambled eggs, and toasted English muffins. Carson added a danish from a pastry case that I reluctantly skipped.
We found a table where we could sit across from each other. As I sprinkled pepper on my eggs, Carson added two packets of ketchup to his.
“You put ketchup on scrambled eggs?” I wrinkled my nose.
“Yep.” Carson continued right on doctoring up his plate to his taste. His casual tone made it clear he did this all the time. “Made chow hall eggs edible.”
“I guess that works.” I didn’t want to judge, but I personally found the idea unappetizing. It also hit me that there was so much I still didn’t know about Carson. And I wanted to. In fact, I wanted to know every little detail about him, from how he liked his eggs to what brand of shampoo he used. I gestured at him with my fork. “Any other strange food preferences?”
“Hmm.” Carson finished his bite of eggs as he thought. “No olives. No pickles. No pineapple.”
