There was a pause, and Grady wondered if it was too much, too quickly, but then Deacon nodded.
Grady sat up, Deacon did too, and Grady reached for his shirt. “Let’s get this off. We don’t have to do more than kiss, but I want to feel you.”
Another nod from Deacon.
Grady tugged at his tee, and Deacon lifted his arms, helping Grady to pull it off. He removed his own shirt next, then kissed Deacon again, let his tongue explore Deacon’s mouth as he leaned the other man to his back. Grady lay on top of him, settled between his legs, and asked, “Is this okay?”
“Yeah.” Deacon’s voice was hoarse, thick with lust and confusion, sadness tinged with happiness, the latter something Grady wanted to grow until there was no more pain left in the man beneath him.
He savored Deacon the way Deacon had done with him—took his mouth, nibbled his lips, kissed and sucked his way down his neck, flicked his earlobe with his tongue.
He didn’t stop there. He traveled south, let his mouth journey along the expanse of Deacon’s warm, brown skin. Rubbed his cheek against the tight, dark curls of hair on his chest, bit his nipples gently, one, then the other, before kissing away any possible sting.
“Christ…it’s been so damn long since I’ve been touched like this. I can’t get enough.” Deacon arched toward him, bowed his back off their pallet on the floor. Grady kissed his way down Deacon’s sternum, before licking a path back up. He’d wanted to keep going, to bury his face between Deacon’s legs, inhale his scent, and lap at his balls before taking his cock to the back of his throat.
Instead, Grady just held himself above him, trembled when Deacon’s large, warm hands held his waist, then trailed up his sides and along his back. Grady smiled down at him, so damn wide, it practically split his face open, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself, couldn’t believe he was there, that he had Deacon beneath him.
“You look awful proud of yourself,” Deacon said, returning his grin.
“I’m happy,” he admitted, and Deke sobered.
“Me too.” He pulled Grady on top of him again, their kiss fierce and hungry. Deacon growled into his mouth, and Grady swallowed the sound like a starving man, rutting against him, Deacon’s thick erection meeting his. When he did it a second time, Deacon froze.
“Too much?”
“No. Just new.” Their mouths were pulled together again, a force Grady couldn’t control even if he’d wanted to. It was a messy kiss, sloppy and needy and so fucking good. He thrust his groin against Deacon’s again, just their underwear and sleep pants between them, as they took what they both seemed to need.
Just as he felt a tingle at the base of his spine, as his legs began to tremble, pleasure shooting through him until he feared he’d damn near come apart, Deacon’s hold on him tightened. His eyes squinted closed, his body rigid and shaking, each of them losing themselves to their orgasm.
They didn’t speak, Grady afraid to breathe as he rolled off Deacon and onto his back. He risked looking over, saw the shadow of the fire dancing along the wall. Jesus, he hoped he hadn’t screwed this up. That he wasn’t going to lose the man who’d become so damn important to him. “We okay?” he asked. “You and me? It doesn’t have to happen again if you don’t—” Deacon’s lips silenced him, a hard press of their mouths together before he pulled back.
“I’m not that guy. I don’t fuck around with people unless I feel something. Hell, Grady. I’ve never even had an orgasm with anyone other than you, Patricia, and myself. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t want you. Can’t totally understand it, don’t know what it all means, but we’re okay. Don’t know what I’d do without you right now, if I’m being honest.”
Grady pulled him close, felt…right, all the way down to the marrow in his bones. “I don’t know what I’d do without you either.”
They’d figure out the rest of it later.
They lay there for a few minutes before Deacon said, “We should change. I’ll give you something to wear.”
They didn’t undress in front of one another, Grady going into the bathroom after Deke gave him a pair of sweats. When he came out, Deacon was in another pair himself.
The second he hit the hallway, the lights fluttered, then came on. They looked at each other and chuckled.
“You playing some kinda trick on me?” Grady teased.
“I was gonna ask you the same.”
It was almost too perfect.
“Bed or the floor?” He wasn’t sure if Deacon would want him in his bed. Yeah, he’d invited him over, but that was the room he’d shared with his wife.
“Bed.”
Grady tried not to show how much he liked the answer.