“Good. Because I need you to answer a question. Do you think I pick just anyone to be my best friend?”
“No,” I admit. “I don’t.”
“That’s right. I picked you for a reason. Are you telling me I’m not a smart person?”
I can’t stop my smile. I turn my cheek to Trevor’s chest, finding Todd holding up his phone, both he and Lumi waiting for my response. “You’re the smartest person I know.”
“Damn straight,” Lumi says. “So stop thinking you’re inconsequential. Neither of us will be leaving your life any more than that guy currently wrapped around you. Trevor, you’re hugging him, right?”
“I am,” Trevor confirms.
“Good. Are you getting it, babe?”
“Yeah,” I say hoarsely, swiping at my cheek. “You’re here to stay.”
Todd nods, Lumi lets out an approving sound, and Trevor kisses the top of my head, his arms wrapped around me so tight I can’t move an inch.
It’s funny how the smallest moments can be so memorable. You’d never know it at the time, but looking back ten, twenty years down the road, it’s those tiny pieces that stick with you, like edges of a puzzle making your whole. It’s the friendships that won’t let you go. The people who love you through thick and thin. The reassurances that you’re accepted for who you are, even when you feel like such a mess.
No, they’re not always earth-shattering at the time. But the tiniest tremor can shape the world as you know it. A promise from a friend. A flame flickering into life.
A seed, waiting for the right moment to grow.
So small. Yet so, so very big.
Maybe I knew at twenty-five, even if I couldn’t yet see it, that right then, on the floor of my bedroom, my forest had already begun to grow.
Chapter 32
Trevor
“Ah, fuck,” Isaac groans, his hand holding my head in place as he pushes back against my tongue. “You keep that up and I’m gonna come.”
“Isn’t that kind of the point?”
He huffs. “Not until…after. I want…to watch you and—ah.”
Isaac swats my head a couple times. I give him one more long lick before kissing his ass cheek and sitting back on my heels. His other hand is planted against the door of the private room we’re in within the studio, his pants around his heels. I trail my fingers along his thigh, back over his ass, spread his cheeks again so I can see his hole.
A thunk sounds from above me, Isaac’s forehead hitting the wood. “Appreciating your handiwork?”
I smirk. “You look so pretty when you’re desperate.”
He chokes out a sound. “Me or my asshole?”
“Both,” I answer, grabbing the plug Isaac picked out. He lets out a groan as I slip it inside his perfectly tongue-fucked hole. “Are you ready for this?”
He turns around, expression serious as he tugs up his pants. “Yeah, Trevor. I am.”
“If you change your mind at any time—”
“Then I fire off a text to one of the assistants and he stops the scene. I know.”
I let loose a breath. A laptop is already set up on the coffee table behind me, which will display a live feed of the recording inside Studio 1. Everything has been planned to a tee. “And you’re sure you want to watch from here?”
Isaac holds out a hand, helping me to stand and then tugging me over to the couch. He shoves me down and climbs onto my lap, a small grin on his face. “I’m sure. If I’m in that room, we both know you’re going to be looking at me instead of Cade, and you need to focus on your scene. I’ll be fine until you return to me.”
I let my eyes slip shut as Isaac brushes his mouth against mine, the kiss both soft and biting. His hands trail over my pecs, down my stomach, stopping to unzip my pants.
