Page 111 of Hard to Hold

“There’s too much beauty where I’m standing right now not to take advantage of it. The night. The moon. You.” He lifts my chin so I’m forced to look in his eyes. “Dance with me, Nox.”

My heart sighs the softest of sighs as our feet begin to move.

Body to body.

Heart to heart.

Another memory to cling to.

And when I rest my head against his chest, I allow a lone tear to slide down my cheek and go undetected.

Just one.

Because Johnny was right. Tomorrow, I’ll begin to keep Rush at arm’s length.

* * *

“Lennox,” Rush calls in his slurred voice from where he’s sprawled on the couch—legs spread, arms over the back of it, sunglasses on even though it’s nighttime. “Leave all of it and come and give me some loving.”

“Let me just pick up some of these glasses and bottles,” I say as I survey the damage. It was a heavy night of drinking, but not heavy enough for everyone but Rush to want to go out and continue the party elsewhere. “It’s the last thing I’m going to want to do in the morning.”

“Leave it.” Rush’s feet clomp across the floor. “Johnny has maids. Hell, I have maids. Do you have maids?” he asks as he grabs me by the waist and playfully pulls me against him. “If you don’t, you deserve one. I’ll make sure you have one.”

“Thanks.” I laugh as his hands roam up and over my breasts while I try to keep walking. “But my place is small and I’m rarely there.”

“Lennox,” he says repeating my name in a chant as I pick up the ice bucket and a few glasses beside it. “You’re ignoring me.” He pouts like a child as he steps in front of me to block my path.

“Let me pick up, drunk boy.”

“You Americans and your ice,” he says, plucking an ice cube out of the bucket in my hands before trying to toss it down my top. “You’re in love with your ice more than you’re in love with me.”

And while I hear the words, I take them for what they are: he’s drunk and the word love is meant just how he says it. But a tiny part of me dies at the sound of it. The part of me who’d love to hear it for real.

“You all kept saying I’d fall in love with ice, but other than hurting my teeth, I think you’re crazy.”

A small smile plays over my lips as an idea comes to mind. “I bet I can make you love it right now.”

“You’re mad.”

But when I drop to my knees in front of him, I definitely have his attention.

“Nox?”

“Mmm?” I undo his shorts and pull them down over his hips so his hardening cock springs free.

“What are you doing?” His smile is playful as he reaches down and grabs the base of his shaft.

“Sucking your cock to shut you up.”

“In that case, I’ll start talking.”

But when I place my lips around his cock and apply the warm, wet heat of my mouth and tongue, his words fail him until only a strangled cry fills the room.

“Nox. Yes.” His hand finds its way to the back of my head and tightens around my ponytail as I take him as deep as I can before sucking as hard as I can on the way back out.

Moaning as the taste of him hits my tongue, I lick the slit at his crest before starting the whole process all over again.

I work him slowly to the point where his breathing is shallow, his hand is helping guide my head, and he leans against the wall at his back for support.