Fairyville (Fairyville #1)(8)
Author: Emma Holly

Alex blew out a bitter laugh. "Everybody doesn’t have a past that’s going to make you, personally, feel betrayed."

"Me?" Bryan’s voice still wasn’t cautious, just confused and kind.

Alex weighed whether telling him now or letting him find out later would be worse. If Bryan came with him, Alex knew he’d hear the stories. No way had people forgotten how Fairyville’s favorite quarterback fell from grace. Briefly, Alex considered leaving Bryan behind, then dismissed that option as the worst of all. Alex liked to think of himself as stoic, but being hated with the intensity that most Fairyvillers hated him was more than he could face alone.

His own scorn for himself was enough to take.

He lifted his head and met Bryan’s near-black eyes. Bryan was Italian on his mother’s side, his olive skin darkened by stubble, his mouth cut like a statue. He looked rough and mean and had as good a heart as anyone Alex knew. Alex trusted him. He just wasn’t sure Bryan ought to trust him back.

Unused to the scrutiny, Bryan shifted in his crouch.

"I know how you feel about me," Alex said. "I’ve known almost from the start."

This was a bombshell Bryan wasn’t prepared for. He opened his mouth, shut it, then tried again guardedly.

"It occurred to me once or twice that you might." The fists his hands were making on his knees belied the mildness of his tone. "But I always knew you didn’t swing that way. To tell the truth, I appreciate you pretending not to know. It made it easier to be friends."

Alex shook his head. Bryan so wasn’t getting this. "Do you know I can hardly go two days without having sex? Do you have any idea how many times I’ve come into this bathroom to jack off because I couldn’t last?"

A flush swam up Bryan’s swarthy face. "I’m not sure I need to—"

"I’ve got news for you, Bryan. Your business partner is a sex addict. Have been since I was fifteen. I’ve been working on it lately. My control, that is. Two whole weeks, this time. Two whole weeks without a partner or a release." Just saying it made his body tighten with restlessness. Alex stood up from the toilet, forcing Bryan to rise and back away.

Something about the retreat compelled Alex to follow.

"Hey." Bryan’s hands raised to fend him off, but Alex didn’t care if he was crowding him.

"What happened today, the hell I’m going to face tomorrow, is barely a distraction. I stay off the stuff for two weeks, and I’m ready to climb the walls."

Bryan was breathing harder, though he probably didn’t want to be. They were both nearly the same height, and when Alex slapped his hands on the wall to either side of Bryan’s face, it brought them nose to nose. Bryan squirmed against the tile, as if he were hoping to miraculously dig himself a hole and get more space. He could have saved himself the trouble. Alex couldn’t miss how blazing hot his body was.

"Uh, you know, Alex," Bryan said, trying to laugh it off. "For a man of my persuasion, this position you’ve got me in might be considered a come-on."

Alex kissed him, hard and deep, his tongue shoving against Bryan’s as if he meant to f**k him with that. He didn’t let him go until he’d tasted all of him.

"Jeez, Alex," Bryan gasped, his face beet-red. "If you know how I feel about you, you shouldn’t be—"

Alex kissed him again, longer and slower, pushing his body into Bryan’s until the other man moaned helplessly.

"Don’t play with me," Bryan said, his eyes taking on the glitter of angry tears.

Alex put his hand between Bryan’s legs, squeezing the erection he knew was there. It was a good one, firm and thick. Alex let the deftness of his fingers prove he knew how to bring it higher. Soon Bryan had filled out the front of his pleated khaki’s, his hard-on straining the smooth cotton.

Starting to breathe hard himself, Alex rubbed him all the way up and down, curling his grip over the crown to give those nerves the extra friction they’d be screaming for. The way the cloth stuck to that bulging knob told him Bryan was liking that.

"Christ," Bryan said, squirming for a whole new reason. He licked his lip, clearly wanting another kiss. Alex leaned in closer.

"I don’t only f**k women," he said, his voice low and harsh. "I let you think I was completely straight, but I’ve been f**king men all along."

Bryan went very still.

"Remember Eric Stedtler?" Alex said, perversely wanting to turn the knife, though whose chest he’d sunk it in was hard to say. "From the lacrosse team?"

"Noo," Bryan breathed, his eyes like plates.

"He was my second male partner."

"Well, damn, who was your first?"

Alex’s temper jumped again. He ran the heel of his palm hard down Bryan’s shaft. "You want a recitation of my sexual history or a piece of what you’ve been wanking off to for the last ten years?"

Bryan pushed at his chest, the anger Alex had been expecting finally coming to the fore. His panting breaths sounded like a train. "Fuck you, man!"

"Oh, I was thinking it would be the other way around."

"You were—" Bryan stopped, mid-tirade. His eyes narrowed. "You’re serious."

"As a heart attack. Now are we going to do this or not?"

Bryan paused for two seconds.

"Hell, yeah," he said and pulled his pine-green polo shirt over his head.

His heavily muscled chest was worth admiring, but Alex had his own priorities. He had Bryan’s zipper down while the shirt still covered his face. Liking the way this left his partner trapped, Alex eased his c**k out with both hands. Nothing could have stopped him from stroking it right away, or from feeling anything but greedy as it grew bigger.

"Shit," said Bryan, finally wrestling free of the shirt. His stomach jerked as Alex wrapped his base and pulled. "I didn’t lock the door."

Alex was too far into his lust to do any more than shush him. He went to his knees, his focus on what he held. He licked the shining head even as he rubbed it round and round with his thumbs. Such delicate skin this was, so sensitive. Bryan tasted sweet as honey, his little slit leaking clear fluid. With a moan of pleasure, Alex pressed the meaty thickness between his lips.

Bryan fisted Alex’s hair and groaned, half ecstasy and half panic. "I’m gonna go too soon if you keep that up. Oh, God, Alex, your mouth is sweet."

Alex had never qualified as any sort of mystic, but he did have one gift. He always sensed how long he could tease his partners before they came, often better than they did. He liked Bryan’s edge of panic, but it didn’t worry him. Bryan was still rising, not on the brink. Alex sucked him, firm but slow, letting himself enjoy the act, letting himself love the melting smoothness of this rigid flesh.