“Yeah,” Noah said, because that about summed up everything he was feeling. He clicked the toy up to its highest setting, and Aspen cried out, jerking their hips up in time with the thrusts of their fingers.
Aspen was going to be glorious once they got the hang of the new prosthetic. Noah had helped them order one with a custom rod insert that would fit over their dick so they could thrust into it while thrusting the prosthetic into Noah, Rachel, or anyone else they played with.
“You feel so good,” Aspen whimpered.
“So do you…god, Asp, harder.”
Aspen slammed their fingers into him over and over while they reached for his dick and started jerking him in frantic strokes.
“You’re making me so hard and wet…I love your hole…love that you let me play with it, and make you feel good, and I—I love you so much, Noah,” Aspen babbled.
Aspen’s thread, which nowadays was more like a chord, all the many facets of their history, friendship, and trial relationship braided together, pulsed brightly in Noah’s chest.
“Love you,” Noah grunted as he pressed the toy down harder.
Aspen threw their head back and shouted, and Noah slammed his hips down once, twice, and on the third time, everything inside him unspooled. He came with a wrecked noise that seemed to rip through him, tearing out everything he couldn’t say until he was left sobbing into Aspen’s neck.
“Oh, babe… I’ve got you. I’m here,” Aspen said, withdrawing both of their hands so they could throw their arms around his shaking back.
“It was…never about me. All those calls and texts. It’s not that they want me to find someone to love, who loves me, so I can be settled and happy—or any of the other bullshit they tried to sell me. They just wanted someone who would smile pretty in photos at—at Braxton’s shotgun wedding,” he sobbed.
His back was screaming, and his knees protested at the position he was in, but he didn’t care. He tried to make himself as small as he could, curling into Aspen’s arms like it was the last safe space left in the world. Two smaller but still substantial threads thrummed in his chest, and he knew that that wasn’t entirely true.
“Oh fuck,” Noah said, giving in to the pain and tipping over onto the couch. Aspen followed him down, wrapping themself around him like the best kind of throw blanket. “I need to talk to Charlie.”
“Do you want to call him?” Aspen asked, stroking their fingers softly down his face. “I bet he could make you feel better.”
There wasn’t an ounce of jealousy or hurt in their voice. Just genuine hope that someone Noah loved would love him back.
Noah fumbled around until he could grab Aspen’s face, and he pressed his tear-soaked cheek to theirs. “You make me feel better.”
Aspen wrapped their legs around him, hiding his nakedness with their body. “I’m glad, but I bet if we get Charlie, it will bedoubly better. And if you wanted to throw Rachel in, you’d have the trifecta!”
Noah had never had an easy time making friends. Between his parade of unsuccessful significant others, Aspen, and then Charlie, he’d thought his life was pretty full. This trial relationship was proving to him there was so much more to life, and he was so grateful…but sadly, that didn’t detract from the shitty situation he was currently in.
“I have to tell Charlie I can’t help with a fundraiser in December. I mean, I can help set it up, but I probably won’t be here for it.”
“Oh, babe, that’s no problem! I’m sure I can handle it, and if not, I can enlist Blair and Rachel to help, too.”
Noah nodded, the skin of his cheek pulling against Aspen’s. He groaned and tipped his head back against the side of the couch, staring up at the ugly popcorn ceiling. “Maybe there’s something you can do at the salon? That way, you have all the support you need for it.”
Aspen squirmed around, tucking their head under Noah’s chin. “I’ve actually been thinking that might be a really good option.”
Noah ran his hands down the familiar, slightly clammy skin of Aspen’s back. He counted the knobs of their spine and pressed into the left side of their lower back, which always seemed to hold the most tension.
“I promise I’ll do everything I can to help upfront.”
Aspen squeezed him tightly. “I know, babe. You always do the absolute most.”
Chapter 9
Aspen
“Y’all really can’t help yourselves, can you? Doing the absolute most, all the damn time,” Blair said as she pushed her way through the crowd gathering in front of the salon.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aspen said as they struggled to get the large banner they’d ordered to lock into place. The sign read:
December 20th only:
