The Bodyguard (Red's Tavern 7)

And even though it was a small step, right now, it felt huge.

A few minutes later, his palm ran down the length of my arm and settled on the side of my hip. I was still only in my boxer briefs, and when I felt him grip a little harder on my hip, my cock started to harden again.

As if on cue, he moved his body up close to mine under the sheets, wrapping himself around me like he wanted to hold onto me for dear life.

I could feel his cock pressing up against my hip. And now I was hard as hell all over again, now in a dreamlike haze.

He moved so that he was on top of me, straddled over me in the bed.

I fucking loved when he straddled me.

“You are the best thing that has happened to me in a long time,” he whispered. I could see his eyes in the dim light, so wild above me. We were both exhausted as hell, burnt out, and ready for sleep, but right now, that only made this seem more inevitable.

“I just need you to know that I am here to stay, Theo,” I said, reaching a hand up and gently stroking the side of his face. “Pay me or don’t. Fuck me or don’t. Say whatever the hell ridiculous things you want. The fact is that I got involved, and now I care about you way too damn much to ever walk away.”

The look that passed over his face almost made it seem like he was in pain. But really, I knew what I was seeing.

I was seeing his wall finally drop. Even just a little.

He was letting himself trust me. Some part of him finally believed what I was telling him.

He leaned in and crushed his lips to mine a moment later, and for the first time, I could tell that he was all in, too. There was no hesitation in his kiss, and no doubt that this was more than just some little sexual experiment.

“I need you so fucking badly,” he whipsered as I wrapped my arms around him, pulling his body as tight as it could be to my own.

“You have me,” I said. “You’ve had me. The whole time.”

I kissed the side of his neck and turned his body, pressing him flat against the bed. My hand found its way to his cock a moment later, and already, it felt like coming home.

I made my way lower under the covers, kissing all the way down his chest, his stomach, and his hips. His skin was so soft it seemed unreal. Within moments, my mouth was wrapped around his cock again, and I was back where I belonged.

Where we belonged, now.

This time, I could tell that Theo wasn’t overthinking every little thing. The wall, at least for now, was fully dropped. Instead of being still, he was gently rocking his hips in rhythm with my mouth, fucking into me like he was desperate to come, now.

“I want you to come in my mouth, Theo,” I said as I pulled off, then swirled my tongue around his tip. “I want all of it.”

I plunged down onto his cock again, taking all of his length.

“I will give you everything,” he whispered, his words coming out a little ragged and broken as he tried to speak.

His fingertips were gripped onto the sides of my head now as I worked up and down on his cock.

“God, yes,” he whispered again a few moments later. “I’m going to come, Roman—”

I hummed around his cock, and soon, I got my wish. A low, desperate moan escaped him and his cock pulsed as he came on my tongue.

It was like a damn gift. Probably the best gift I’d ever gotten.

The kind of gift I wanted to get every goddamn day.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he came, and then his body slowly went a little more slack, melting back onto the bed. “You’re… you are…”

I swallowed around him and pulled off, pressing one final kiss to the base of his cock before coming back up to the pillows. I reached over to the nightstand where Theo had a glass of water, and I took a swig.

“You are just…”

“Shh,” I said softly, settling back into bed next to him. “You can just relax.”

“You are just the fucking best,” he said. “I’m plenty relaxed, but there’s no way I’m not telling you that.”

I couldn’t keep a smile off of my face.

There he was. The defiant, playful, confident spark was back, for the first time since getting to Los Angeles. Theo had been like a ghost of himself ever since he’d started thinking about that prick Garett again, and after the awful shit that happened at his house, he’d been even worse.

But he was still in there.

That was the Theo I had come to be very, very fond of.