dicKmedown:Gonna come for me? Gonna come in my ass?
BigOnBacks:Fuck yeah
My fingers shake as I spill down my fist with a shout. My release blazes through me, and I squeeze my eyes tight. I stroke myself through the aftermath, small shivers running through my body. I haven’t come this hard in months. My brain feels foggy as I slowly blink my eyes open; the headache long gone.
“Holy shit.” I wipe my hand on the sheets. I wonder if he’s gotten off, too. Maybe he wants to do it again sometime. Hell, I’m up for it. I pick up my phone from where I dropped it on my chest, but when I start typing, I notice he’s already offline. I guess he wasn’t lying. Fast and hard. Right. Time to hit the shower.
Chapter Three
Kayden
“Hey, Little K,” Caleb smiles at me crookedly, and the fine lines around his gray eyes crinkle. He jogs up the steps to the front deck at my parents’ house, and I get up from the Adirondack chair, where I’ve been waiting for him for the past twenty minutes.
“Shut up,” I laugh. “You’re late.”
“Just a little.” He comes to a stop in front of me, still smiling his ridiculously charming boy-next-door smile. He shakes his unruly hair out of his eyes, then rubs his scruffy chin as he takes me in. “You’re bulking up?”
A warm sensation spreads in my chest, and I recognize the feeling for what it is.Pride. I nod, biting back a smile. “Just a little.”
“Looks fucking good. But don’t go getting any ideas.” He flexes his right biceps, muscles bulging behind his white T-shirt. “I can still take you.” Caleb’s referring to Dad’s pull-up bar in the garage, where we sometimes go head-to-head in real dude-bro style, and yet, heat shoots up my neck, the online encounter from earlier flashing through my mind.You think you can take me?I shiver, and Caleb must think I’m cold, because he gestures for me with his hand.
“C’mere,” he drawls, then wraps his hand around the back of my neck and pulls me against his chest. “Good to see you, K.” His deep, familiar voice dips even lower around theK, and I relax against him, fisting the hem of his T-shirt.
“Good to see you too, Caleb.” I wrap my arms around his waist and squeeze him back. “What’s with the truck?”
I noticed when he drove up that it was in the company truck with the logo on the side and notMarilyn. “Wanna avoid taking me for a ride after?”
“Never. My girl has a flat.” He eases me away from his chest, and I reluctantly let go of his T-shirt.
“Scorned ex-lover?” I tease him because it wouldn’t be the first time.
“Fuck you, smartass,” he laughs, then ruffles my hair. “Lovin’ the new look, by the way. Curls look cute.”
“Cute? Really?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with cute?”
“Nothing. And I’ve always had curls, Caleb.”
His voice lowers as he reaches out and swipes a stray lock out of my eyes. “Yeah, but you used to hide them.”
It’s true. I did. I used to hide a lot of things, but never again.
“I like them better now.”I likemyselfbetter now. I shake out my hair. It’s a short mod, with length in the back and in the front. I saw Paul Mescal with that haircut inAll of Us Strangers, and the next day I went out and got it.
Caleb just smiles, then moves past me, and I catch a whiff of his cologne, notes of bergamot and sandalwood wrapping around me. I close my eyes briefly and let it all sink in. I’m home. For good. I’m Kayden. I’m safe, and I’m happy. Well, happy-ish, at least.
Caleb frowns at me at the threshold of the front door. “You coming?”
I open my eyes and nod. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
The whole house smells of casserole. Mom’s cheeks are flushed bright pink when I find her in the kitchen. She’s wearing the apron I made for her in middle school. It’s been washed so many times over the years that the dandelions have faded into a pale yellow, and if you didn’t know they were dandelions, you wouldn’t be able to tell.
“Honey, could you pass me the colander on the counter? Oh, hi Caleb. How are you?” Mom breezes by at a fast pace, a pot of steaming peas in her hands.
“Hi, Viv.” Caleb waves, then snatches the colander before I can.
I stick out my tongue at him, and he winks.