“There’s nothing sexier than seeing you turned on,” Max rasps.
I open my eyes to see him looking at my face hungrily.
“God, I want you,” he whispers, shoving himself further against me. His words and arousal are enough to make my entire body clench with need, causing heat and pressure to burn low in my belly.
I lean forward and kiss along his jaw, feeling the prickly roughness from his scruff, and it excites me even further. I arch my body against his, silently begging him.
“Tell me you want me.” Max’s voice is a pleading whisper, and I pull back slightly to look at his face and see doubt in his eyes that I don’t understand nor recognize.
I place both of my hands on his face staring into the blue abyss where I completely lose myself and any inhibitions that I have left. “I want you,” I softly confirm, tightening my legs around his waist. “I want all of you, Max,” I whisper, dropping my hand to land on his chest over his heart, feeling the warm steady beats accelerate.
Max closes his eyes, accepting my words, and when he opens them I find a resounding calmness as he squeezes my thighs and pulls me back slightly before plunging inside of me, taking the air from my lungs as he kisses me with an immeasurable amount of hunger.
We never make it to the park. Max leaves the confines of my bedroom only once, and that’s to answer the door when we order Chinese takeout late in the afternoon.
We spend the rest of the day lazily sprawled out on my bed like it’s a sanctuary, taking time to slowly and thoroughly study one another’s body and the reaction from each part as it’s nibbled, kissed, sucked, and licked in a mind-blowing, tantalizing experience. Periodically we speak, whispering secrets and truths, dreams and fears. It’s the most perfect afternoon of my entire life.
The next day I walk into Philosophy and take my seat, smiling to myself as I unpack my laptop. Fingers drum along the edge of my desk and I look up to see Wes giving me a tight smile. I’m sure the shock on my face is evident as he sits at the desk that has been unoccupied on my left as his smile grows.
“Hey, stranger. Hey I just wanted to—”
Thankfully Professor Parker walks in before he can finish. I feel my eyebrows furrow, trying to understand what he’s doing in here, but Professor Parker doesn’t seem surprised by his presence at all.
When class ends I again wait for Nate to get up before I stand, grab my bag, and head outside while reaching for my phone. I see that I have a text from my dad when I hear someone approaching me.
“Ace, hold up a sec.”
I look over my shoulder to see Wes and don’t slow my pace as I continue toward the track.
“Okay, so this is really awkward,” he says, and I stop, turning to allow him to finish because he’s right, this is really awkward. If he wasn’t one of Max’s friends I would probably keep walking but we need to clear things up. “I had no idea.” He starts again. “I mean, he’s mentioned you several times, but I didn’t realize that Ace was short for Harper.”
“It’s okay,” I say, shaking my head. “It really isn’t important. I just want us to forget about it and pretend it never happened. I won’t leave him, Wes. We have a really great thing between us.”
“You didn’t tell him, did you?”
“No,” I answer, glancing ahead at the field, feeling a bit ashamed that I didn’t. “I don’t want to harm your friendship, and I’m going to assume you have no intention of harming my relationship.”
Wes nods in understanding. “I swear. I would never do that to Max. We’ve known each other for like ten years,” he explains, placing one hand on his chest to display his sincerity.
“Then there’s nothing to tell.” I shrug as I turn to head toward the track again.
“Maybe we could go running together. Try to be friends, since I’m going to be around Max and all.”
I stop and glance over my shoulder and see his hopeful expression. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Wes. You’re Max’s friend.”
The next few weeks fly by as we attend classes, work on papers, read assigned chapters, and work on various projects. Wes and I have slowly become friends after we were paired together on a project for Philosophy. I start seeing him more and more as he comes around to visit Max. He’s actually a pretty decent guy as much as I initially hate to admit it. He’s easy to get along with and seems to sincerely care for Max. He even has a pretty good sense of humor. Although he has a tendency to quote shows I’ve never watched. I repeatedly explain to him that I grew up in a house with six women and that Seth MacFarlane really didn’t grace us with his presence much. We even begin running together pretty consistently, mostly because of having a fairly similar class schedule. Occasionally Max joins us, but he prefers going after classes, saying that the exercise at the end of the day helps him get out of school mode.
“Ace, we’re seriously running out of time. We need to figure out what we’re going to do for your birthday!” Kendall complains, stirring a bowl of pancake batter that I placed beside the stove, waiting for the griddle to get hot.
“Stop stirring!” I say, waving her away.
“Birthday. What are we going to do for your birthday?” Kendall asks, sounding more annoyed.
“I don’t know. I’m sure there’ll be a hundred parties going on that we can attend.” I pour a measuring cup of batter and watch the first pancake form.
“Wow, it smells really good in here,” Jameson says groggily as he sits at the kitchen table looking half asleep. “We have a pitcher?” he asks, eyeing the glass pitcher holding orange juice.
“Shhh, we’re discussing birthday plans,” Kendall snaps, waving her hand at him dismissively.
“That’s right. Ace, when’s your actual birthday? I know Kendall mentioned celebrating on Halloween.”
“It is Halloween,” she says.
I look at Jameson questionably. Kendall’s never a morning person, but she’s in a particularly grouchy mood this morning, especially for something that seems so trivial.
I dish up some bacon and hand Jameson a bowl filled with scrambled eggs before returning to the stove to flip pancakes.
“It’s Saturday. Saturday mornings I’m supposed to wake up and see this beautiful face,” Max says, holding my face in his hands. I smile and lean forward to kiss lips that are minty from toothpaste. He grins, standing before me wearing only a pair of black mesh shorts. “You’re in trouble.” He growls quietly, lightly biting my ear.
“We’re in trouble,” Jameson says, taking a piece of bacon, “We’re being domesticated. We have a pitcher.” He waves his hand in front of it.
Max ignores him and kisses me again.
“Can you guys wait like fifteen minutes? I’ve been hearing about these pancakes for the last couple of months.” Jameson groans.
I laugh and plate some pancakes. As I pour more batter, Max wraps his arms around me from behind and holds me tightly against his chest as I continue flipping and pouring.
“You’ve permanently ruined me of every other pancake. My mom’s going to be heartbroken,” Jameson says between mouthfuls.
“It’s the chocolate chips,” I confess.
“No, it’s the deliciousness,” Jameson mumbles, making me laugh.
“You know, we could go to the haunted house,” Kendall suggests, scrolling through her phone.
“You want to wear your naughty nurse costume through a haunted house?” I ask her dubiously.
“No, just for something to do. We could go this weekend!”