I attempted to cut the tension with humor. “Please tell me you washed any comey bits off you.”
He burst out laughing. “Comey bits?”
“You know what I mean.” I nudged his shoulder. “Gross.”
“How about you?” he scoffed.
“I didn’t hook up with anyone,” I admitted.
“I didn’t either,” he replied, and I held in a gasp. I hadn’t been expecting that.
“Why not?” I finally looked at him, but he didn’t meet my gaze. Instead, his fingers were twisting the end of the comforter, something he did when he was anxious.
“I don’t really know. It didn’t feel right.”
“Really? Because you seemed pretty into him.”
“Yeah, sure, he was hot,” he said, releasing the fabric, then pushing his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. Stop interrogating me. You’ve walked away from plenty of men.”
“True, except it’s normally the other way around.”
“Not tonight. That guy was into you, I could tell.”
“I’m surprised you even noticed.” I sounded more bitter than I’d wanted.
He pressed his shoulder against mine. “I’m your wingman, remember?”
My chest tightened. “Yeah, I remember.”
Sighing, I stared at the ceiling, trying to get my pulse under control. For wholly illogical reasons, I was struggling while lying beside my best friend, who was so familiar to me, I even knew his scent—tonight mixed with his cologne and sweat.
“Unfortunately,” he said in a scratchy timbre that reverberated through my skin, “I’m still horny as hell.”
“Ugh, same.”
7
Elliot
I couldn’t sleep, and given Morgan’s heavy panting, neither could he. I’d made my way home and into the comfort of his bed after turning down a hookup. The honest truth was, I’d been more interested in what Morgan was getting up to with the guy he’d left the club with, and I hadn’t been sure what I’d be walking into. To say I breathed a sigh of relief that the guy wasn’t here with him was an understatement. I’d never cared so much, not when it came to something purely casual, so this strange heaviness I was feeling in my chest was new. And it was more than just protectiveness or security. It was almost possessive. Like I needed to make sure the guy was worthy of Morgan, even for a hookup.
Totally fucked up and not something I was ready to admit out loud.
Given my wildly uninhibited thoughts as well as my need to rub one out, it was best that I did something about it—alone. “I’m going to my own bed to jerk off before I poke you with my stiffy. See you in the morning.”
“Wait,” Morgan said as I lifted the covers, his voice thick and strange.
“Morgan?” I asked, but for some reason, I couldn’t meet his eye. The air in the room had shifted, and the tension was stifling.
“There’s something I keep wanting to ask you. It’s about the other night when I walked in on you…and you suggested…” He swallowed roughly. “Would you have wanted to watch me with him?”
“I think so, yeah.” The pressure in my chest subsided a little. “It’s sex, and you’re both cute, so…”
“Have you ever thought of me in that way before?” His voice was so timid, I turned to look at him, needing to be sure he was okay. The only light in the room came from the moonlight filtering in, but I could see his face was flushed.
“Sure, over the years. I think it’s natural,” I replied, and Morgan nodded, which sent a thrill through me. He was acknowledging in his own way that he had as well. “But it always came down to not ruining our friendship.”
“Same for me.”
“Glad we got that settled,” I said, feeling more relaxed. “I think it’s okay to get turned on around each other sometimes. We’re only human.”
“True. We do everything together, even sleep in the same bed and feel horny at the same time, so I think it’s natural too.”
“Right? The receptionist at the campus clinic even thought we were related,” I teased, remembering our last doc appointments. At least Morgan kept us on our toes with our schedules. I didn’t know what I’d do without him, and I certainly didn’t want to find out. “Those who PrEP together, stay together.”
He snorted. “You dork.”
I reached for my phone on the nightstand. “On that note, I’m gonna pull up some porn and jerk off. Unless you want to watch it with me. We’ve done it before.”
“That was anime,” he pointed out.
“It was hot, though, wasn’t it?” I squirmed a little, thinking about how surprised we’d both been by the sensuality of it. That such a thing even existed.
“Yeah, it was, but we were pretty innocent back then.”
“True.” I smirked. “Even more so when we practiced kissing.”
“Oh my God! That was so we could pretend we knew what we were doing.”
“And then we died laughing,” I said, my chest squeezing at the memory. “But it still felt good because it was you.”