Page 43 of Proof Of Life
My gaze strays to his dark tight nipples, to the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his half-healed scars and his tats. I’ve seen his body a thousand times, and yet it feels as if I’m seeing it for the first time. Seeing him through the eyes of a lover instead of a friend, and I don’t know how or why, but it’s fucking working for me on every level.
“I’m close,” I breathe in a husky voice. The wet squelching sounds coming from the suction of his fist sound like the filthiest porno and I can feel my balls draw up tight, ready to spill.
“Me…too,” he pants.
I rock my hips, fucking into his tight grip, and when his fist closes over our heads again on the next upstroke, I lose it and shoot thick white ropes over his knuckles.
“God, yeah.” I’m sweating and breathing like I ran a damn marathon. “Come with me, Reaper.”
Brandt looks into my eyes and holds my gaze as he comes, a satisfied sigh crawling from his throat. He continues to stare at me as he licks his knuckles clean, and he smirks like a kitten with a bowl of cream. Fuck, I wasn’t expecting that, but damn, it’s hot.
He’s hot.
And he’s fucking mine.
When I come out of the shower, the bed is empty.
I peek through the curtains, but he’s not out on the deck, either, nor is he in the kitchen, and the TV is turned off in the living room.
What the fuck?
I don’t know where else to look, and fear makes my heartbeat spike. Out of desperation, I wrench open the front door, and there he is, in the driveway, sprawled out across the hood of his Jeep. A curl of white smoke escapes from his nostrils. He’s smoking my last blunt.
“Jesus Christ, you just took ten years off my life.”
He blows out the smoke in a lazy stream, and his eyes water. “Payback’s a bitch for the kitchen earlier.”
He’s right. Now we’re even. “How did you even get up here?”
“Upper body strength,” he says with a half smirk. “I wanted to watch the sunrise. I figured since we were already awake…” West finishes with a shrug.
I jump up on the hood and prop my back against the windshield, crossing my legs at the ankles. “Pass.” West passes it to me and I suck a long hit of the smooth, stinky sweetness into my lungs. Immediately, my anxiety melts away like chocolate left out in the heat.
As we watch the sun rise above the horizon, neither of us speaks. I don’t know where West is, but I’m lost in my head, back in the bed we shared less than an hour ago. The first time I ever slept with a girl, my mind was blown. It was incomparable to the gratification my right hand provided. Sinking into her tight heat, getting lost in her warm body, I didn’t think anything could beat that.
But West… fuck, I’m ruined for anyone else. I felt almost high from the excitement. My pleasure and lust were magnified by a hundred. Comparing what I felt with him to being with women was like comparing fighter jets to Christmas trees. They had absolutely nothing in common.
“How’s your skin feel?”
“Better. Thanks for the lotion. I need to do better at keeping my skin soft while I’m healing.”
I pass it back to him and he sucks it between his lips. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”
“Don’t start your pity party bullshit. I don’t want to be invited. We’re a lot better off than everyone else we knew. We have a lot to be thankful for.”
“Just sitting out here thinking.” He blows up the smoke, trying and failing at perfectly shaped rings. “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. The Army doesn’t want me. The rest of society probably doesn’t either.”
“That’s not true at all, and you know it. You have a clean slate from here on out. Anything you can dream up, you can do.”
“Christ, you sound like a recruiting officer. I think I read that on a poster somewhere.”
He takes the last hit and crushes the roach on the sole of his boot before flicking it into the grass.
“So what is it you want to do? What does Weston Wardell want to be when he grows up?”
West chuckles. “I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought.” He turns on his side, facing me. “What does Brandt Aguilar want to be when he grows up?”
My lips stretch into a grin. “I should’ve become a fucking mailman like my mother wanted.”