Status Update (#gaymers) (11 page)

“I’m...I’m not sure you can.”

“Look. You still need a ride, yes? And a date for the wedding?”

Two days ago, he would have swallowed his pride and said yes. Two days ago, what he cared about most was not disappointing his family when what he should have been worried about was disappointing himself.
I
deserve better than a crappy apology and a shifty not-really boyfriend.

“No,” he said firmly. “I don’t need you. Just let me get my stuff.” He headed to the RV’s side door.

“What? You’re going to hitchhike back home? Tail between your legs?” Trent snorted and blocked his path. “I knew you were just a pansy ass, but you can’t forgive an honest mistake?”

“No. I can’t. Because I thought we were friends at the least. And friends don’t leave friends in the desert. At night. In winter.
To freeze.
”

“Fine.” Trent shrugged, a menacing grin on his face. “You don’t need me, you don’t need your stuff.”

Ulysses chose that moment to lunge forward, barking, dragging Pixel and Adrian toward Trent.

“Hey. Hey! Call off your dog!” Trent’s voice went higher and he held up his hands.

“
Ulysses.
” Noah’s firm command sounded as he rounded the RV. He came to a stop next to Adrian. His voice was gruffer than Adrian had ever heard it, and Adrian bet this was how he terrified his students. “There a problem here?”

“No.” Adrian didn’t step back, keeping himself and the dogs up in Trent’s personal space until Trent stepped back from the door. “I’m just grabbing a few things that belong to me.”

“I’ll hold the dogs.” Noah took the leashes. “You sure you don’t want to call the police? Report anything stolen?”

“Hey, hey. No need for that.” Trent’s voice was too jovial. “He’s getting his crap back. Then he’s all yours, cowboy. Good luck with that.”

Adrian grabbed his duffel, his electronics bag, and Pixel’s stuff in record time, emerging to see Trent and Noah in a stare-off.

“You got everything?” Noah’s voice didn’t betray any emotion.

“You sure about this?” Trent didn’t give Adrian a chance to answer before continuing, “I care about you baby. I don’t want you stranded here. Or going all alone to that wedding.”

Adrian paused a moment, waiting for Noah to say he wasn’t stranded, but Noah’s mouth was a hard, thin line, and he didn’t meet Adrian’s eyes.
Crap.
Was he going to be stranded again?

It didn’t matter. Adrian straightened his shoulders. “I’m sure.”

“Let’s go.” Noah sounded angry, and Adrian wasn’t sure who with. Noah led the dogs away at a rapid clip.

Juggling all his stuff, Adrian followed, not sparing a parting glance for Trent. “Wait up.” He caught up with Noah at their—
Noah’s
—RV. “Look, you don’t have to take me.”

“I don’t?” Noah’s forehead crinkled. “I thought you just turned down your only other option.”

“No. I don’t want you feeling obligated. I’m not that far from home now. I’ll call my mom, confess everything.”

“Maybe...” Noah opened the door to the motor home, stepped up. “Maybe I
want
to be obligated.”

“You’re not mad at me?” Adrian followed him in. He dumped his stuff on the couch before helping to towel off the dogs’ feet.

“Mad?” Noah shook his head. “Why would you think that? I’m proud of you. You stood up to that big bully. I was worried...”

“Yeah?” Adrian prompted.

“I was worried there might be a problem. I
hate
public arguments.”

“I’m sorry.” Adrian remembered what Noah had said about his family.

“And...” Noah took a deep breath. “I might have been worried you were about to take his apology. He did offer you everything you wanted.”

“No, he didn’t,” Adrian said quietly, stepping toward Noah. He backed Noah against the door. “Not hardly.”

“What about the wedding?”

“What about it?” Adrian’s face was millimeters from Noah’s. “I was being a big baby. It’s better to go alone than to put up with Trent another moment.”

“What if...what if you don’t have to go alone?” Noah’s voice shook.

“You know someone with a shirt and tie who wouldn’t mind my company for a few extra hours?”

“I might.” Noah’s smile was crooked. “I know someone who’s probably about to be stranded in Denver with bad weather anyway. And who doesn’t find your company all that hideous.”

“Not that hideous, huh? But you hate crowds and formal things, right?”

“I think I can cope,” Noah said, each word cautious as if he were stepping on rocks to cross a river.

“We could leave whenever you needed.” Adrian threw him a rope. “I won’t leave you alone with my family either. But I would love you to come.”

“This way you don’t have to tell them the truth. I can be Trent.”

“No, you can’t.” Adrian kissed him, hard and fast. “If you’re coming with me, I’m going to tell them the truth tonight. You deserve to meet them as...Noah,” he finished lamely, unable to say what he really wanted.
My boyfriend.
I
want that to be the real part.
If Noah could be brave and face his fear of parties for him, Adrian could man up and tell his family who Noah really was.

“But you can’t—you can’t tell them
everything
okay. Don’t mention where exactly I teach.”

“You don’t have to meet them as
with
me if you don’t want. I know dating is something new for you. You can simply be my new friend if you want.”

“I’m coming with you,” Noah said, voice more sure now. “I know this is just temporary, but right now, in Denver, I want to be
with
you.”

Adrian kissed him for real, mouth claiming, heart expanding under the pressure of myriad new emotions. He’d do everything in his power to make sure Noah didn’t regret this. He wanted to be with Noah too, wanted more than this temporary moment of togetherness.

Chapter Eleven

“Are you sure about this?” Adrian’s brother-in-law eyed Noah’s RV as though it were one of his court cases, waiting to implode with evidence of wrongdoing. “You can always crash with us tonight. It’d be a tight squeeze, but we’d be happy to have you.”

Ha.
Adrian’s older sister had a four-thousand-square-foot home in Cherry Hills Village. The only “squeezing” that would happen would be Evan trying to suppress his discomfort with him. He’d been the first one to volunteer to take Adrian back to the RV park under the guise of “testing out the snow” in his new Land Rover. More like he’d be tired of listening to his wife and mother-in-law lecture Adrian. Thank God Emily was involved with super-secret wedding-eve stuff and couldn’t get in on the Gottlieb attack front. But now that they were actually at the RV park, Evan seemed to be having an attack of big brother-in-law guilt over leaving Adrian with Noah.

The snow had already been coming down hard when Adrian and Noah hit Denver, and by the time they reached Greenwood Village, the streets had been slick with fresh snow on top of the slush of the past two days. He’d had Noah drop him off at his mother’s, so that Noah could get safely to the RV park, which was closer to the wedding venue, before the weather worsened. Also, he’d wanted to spare Noah the confrontation with his family. He knew his family. Tonight had been full of recriminations, but by tomorrow their public faces would be firmly on, Adrian’s sins momentarily forgiven.

“I’ll be fine,” Adrian told Evan, who was tapping his black leather gloves against his heated steering wheel. The heater in the Rover was set to Sahara, and Adrian missed the motor home’s drafty interior. And its owner. Mainly the owner.

“Are you really going to bring this guy tomorrow?”

“He rescued me,” Adrian explained for the twenty-sixth time. “He’s a great guy. Way better than my first date. And this way Mom and Emily’s seating chart isn’t screwed up—”

“Yeah, because
that’s
why you wanted me to bring you back here at ten at night. Adrian, don’t you think Mother and Rachel have a point? You do tend to be a bit...impulsive.”

“Good night, Evan.” Adrian reached for the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Still in parental mode, Evan didn’t drive away as Adrian climbed the steps to the RV. Adrian tapped at the door, the welcoming barks of the dogs lifting his tired shoulders.

“You came back!” Noah opened the door, smiling wider than Adrian had seen before. He wore a fluffy blue cardigan over his plaid shirt, and his reading glasses were perched on his nose. He looked every inch the professor and Adrian was
definitely
hot for teacher.

“Of course I came back. You have my dog. And my computer.” Adrian gave Evan one last wave before shutting the door. He pulled Noah to him as soon as it shut.

“That all?” Noah’s grin hadn’t drooped.

“No. Not all.” Cupping Noah’s face, he kissed him. Noah met him eagerly, opening for his lips and tongue. More than a greeting, it was a promise that what they shared wasn’t simply convenience. Adrian tried to tell Noah with his kiss that he chose him. He’d stood up to his family. He’d turned down Trent. He’d spent all day choosing Noah, over and over, and now he wanted to curl inside him, climb into the beautiful space they made when they came together.

Noah seemed to be on the same page, kissing him frantically while he worked the zipper on Adrian’s jacket. Their glasses collided, making Adrian laugh. He plucked Noah’s off his face and set both pairs on the counter before resuming his attack of Noah’s mouth. They stumbled their way onto the couch, displacing indignant doggies. Adrian’s jacket hit the floor along with Noah’s cardigan. Adrian worked the buttons on Noah’s shirt, determined to get his hands—and mouth—on Noah’s glorious chest. He’d always had a thing for guys hairier than him, and he loved the thick fuzz coating Noah’s pecs and stomach.

He kissed his way down Noah’s front, reveling in his little gasps and moans. He tweaked Noah’s nipples before licking them. Noah moaned, but he didn’t seem to go as nuts for nipple play as Adrian did, so he continued on south, letting his knees hit the carpet next to the couch. His body knew the destination even before his mind.

“I want to suck you.” It wasn’t an offer he made very often—oral wasn’t his particular favorite, but at that moment, he wanted to give Noah another first, wanted to
be
the first. He wanted to know Noah’s scent and his taste and the sounds he made.

Noah inhaled sharply but didn’t say anything.

Adrian traced the hair above Noah’s belt. “It’s okay to say no. We can do what we’ve been doing or even nothing at all.”

“You’d be okay with going straight to bed and sleeping?” Noah sounded skeptical, but Adrian was serious.

“Yeah. I didn’t come back for sex, Noah. I came back for
you
. I want one more night with you, but I’d be happy as long as you let me hold you again.” He knew he sounded beyond corny, but it was the truth. It was going to be hard enough letting Noah go. He could get sex elsewhere, but this connection he shared with Noah didn’t come along every day. Sad truth of LA living was that it was far harder to find someone to snuggle with than to find a quick fuck. And it had only been three days, but he craved Noah’s embrace even more than his cock.

“Adrian?” Noah’s voice was strained.

“Yeah?” Adrian blew softly on Noah’s belly, ruffling the trail of hair around his belly button.

“I’m not sleepy.”

“Thank God
.
”

“Your mouth is two inches from my fly. I reckon I may never sleep again.” Noah’s usual carefully modulated voice got a lot more Southern when he was turned on, more slang creeping in. It was kind of adorable.

“And you’d like me to do something about that?”

Noah nodded sharply, eyes dark puddles of need.

Carefully, Adrian unzipped Noah’s fly and rained kisses over the briefs covering his bulge. He waited until Noah was panting before withdrawing his cock. For such a slim guy, his dick was surprisingly thick with an oval-shaped head that Adrian couldn’t wait to feel. Following the impulse, he traced the crown with his tongue.

“Oh
.
” Noah was a pretty quiet guy in bed, so Adrian took that small sound as high praise. Adrian felt blessedly free of expectations—Noah being a virgin was strangely freeing. Other guys had liked to speed him up, grab his hair, try to haul him up and down their meat. More than one guy had complained that he liked teasing far more than the actual sucking off, which was totally true—licking and teasing and rimming were far more fun than trying in vain to deep throat. But Noah wasn’t demanding like those other guys. Noah was all soft moans and breathy sighs from the play of lips and tongue, and Adrian felt free to explore as much as he wanted.

“
That.
” Noah’s cock leaped against his tongue when Adrian discovered the sensitive spot on the underside of the head. He worked Noah’s frenulum with a variety of little licks and sucking kisses.

“Oh. Dre. The things you do...” Noah, Professor Taciturn, was reduced to babble by no more than the flicker of his tongue. This was some heady stuff.

“Yeah. That’s it, baby, let go.” He sucked, not sliding down the shaft, instead making out with the head of Noah’s dick. He didn’t have to try to cram all of Noah’s dick in his mouth to get an appreciative gasp. This was the sort of oral sex he adored—he could show off his tongue dexterity without triggering his cranky gag reflex.

“Do...do that swirly thing again.
Please.
” Noah’s eyes were scrunched shut and he bit on his fist between words.

Adrian fucking loved that that was about as bossy as Noah got in bed. A whimpered request he was only too happy to grant.

“Close.” Noah reached down, but instead of pressing on Adrian’s head like Adrian expected, he grabbed Adrian’s hand, squeezed tight. Adrian’s heart tripled in size in a single beat. His pulse sped up, muscles tensed like he was the one approaching orgasm.

He wanted to make Noah come in his mouth, and considering that he finished most blow jobs with his hand, the urge was unexpected. But knowing that he could get Noah off with nothing more than his favorite kind of teasing and licking made his dick throb.

Noah squeezed hard on Adrian’s hand as Adrian sucked the head back into his mouth, added a little bob partway down the shaft. He tried to find a rhythm that would finish Noah.

“Oooh. That’s...
Dre.
Do the tongue thing again?”

“Will that get you off?” Adrian asked between licks to Noah’s frenulum. “This?”

“
Yesss.
”

“Tell me when. I want to swallow it.”

“You do?
Oh God.
” Noah’s whole body tensed, straining toward Adrian but not pushing. Adrian rewarded his restraint with frantic flicks of his tongue all along the underside of Noah’s cock.

The thick vein throbbed against his tongue. “Tell me.”

“Now. Oh God. Now. Right now.”

Adrian sucked him in as far he could, swallowing hard as Noah unraveled. He tasted like salt and bleach, but also something far sweeter. Triumph galloped through his veins. His own body gave a hard shudder, like he too was spent.

He wrapped his arms around Noah’s waist, rested his head against Noah’s warm belly. Noah’s hands tangled in his hair.

“I missed you while you were gone. I don’t want to miss you.” Noah’s voice was a soft slash of a knife to Adrian’s soul. He knew exactly what Noah meant. He’d missed Noah while he was hanging out with his family, missed the quiet companionship they had together. It felt weird, longing for the smile of a man he’d met mere days ago, but even a few hours apart from Noah had him hungry for the reunion.

“I don’t want to miss you either.” He nuzzled Noah’s stomach.
This is everything I need.

* * *

The church where Adrian’s sister was getting married was a frigid fifteen-minute walk from the urban RV park. Noah’s hands felt weirdly empty without Ulysses’s leash to hold. He glanced over at Adrian. They were on a side road, walking in tire ruts to avoid the slushy sidewalk. In another life, Noah would be braver. He’d grab Adrian’s hand, no matter who was looking, but today, all his courage was used up in anticipation of being Adrian’s date. Standing next to Adrian and not freaking out might be all he could manage. PDA was beyond his limited coping skills.

They arrived minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin. Noah stamped the snow off his feet in the vestibule.

“Thank goodness they’re doing a small ceremony and didn’t need me to be in the wedding. No monkey suit for me.” Adrian hung up their coats on the long metal coat rack.

“I bet you’d hate a classic tux,” Noah whispered. “You look good like this.” Adrian’s outfit was total hipster dress-up: vintage maroon-and-black jacket, black shirt, bow tie, slim-fitting dress pants, and chunky shoes.

“So do you, Prof.” Adrian had to be bluffing. Noah’s faculty-reception standard uniform of blue shirt, tie and the same gray suit he’d owned since graduate school weren’t anywhere near as snazzy as Adrian’s outfit. Being back in his hipster clothes, all cleaned up, made Adrian seem even more out of Noah’s league.

Not that Noah even had a league. Or at least he hadn’t before.

Everything’s about to change.
The dry crackle of energy that often preceded a panic attack hit him with a fast, pointless thrum of his pulse. In a moment, for the first time, he’d be
out
.

Giddy up.
His chest joined in on the fun, tightening with each overcharged beat of his heart.

When he’d impulsively agreed to attending the wedding, all he’d been thinking about had been getting more time with Adrian. He’d been so damn proud of Adrian standing up to Trent. He hadn’t thought about what it would mean when—

“Addie! You made it!” A very pregnant, small dark-haired woman in a strapless wedding dress came barreling out of a little room off the vestibule. This had to be Emily. She threw herself into Adrian’s arms with such force that Noah worried that she might do herself some harm.

When Adrian had said she was pregnant, Noah had assumed the vague sort of pregnant, like the flat-waisted brides back home who married to a rumble of rumors. This? Noah was pretty sure Adrian was going to be an uncle before Christmas, and Noah wouldn’t bet against today.

She released Adrian, and when Noah got a good look at her face, his heart got all tangled up in his ribs. She glowed. The same sort of radiance Ruth had had on her wedding day and the same sort of proud mother-to-be secret smile Ruth had worn for months with her pregnancies. And Emily shook her head at Adrian with the same sort of big-sister indulgence Ruth often used. Noah missed Ruth so much he ached.

You should call her.
Tell her about...
About what precisely? The non-progress on his book? The fears about tenure? Or how all of that had been shoved aside by the six-foot force of nature currently beaming at his sister and patting her stomach. Tell Ruth about Adrian?
Never.
And now his heart hurt for an entirely different reason.

“Why didn’t you come by the house this morning?” Emily asked. “I wanted to see you before we left for the salon!”

Please lie.
Noah tried to beam the request at Adrian’s shoulder. Book deadline or no, they’d spent most of the morning in bed, tangled up in each other.

“Oh we had a lazy morning. Played with the dogs.” Adrian’s grin put a lot of innuendo in
lazy
. He pulled Noah close, wrapped an arm around him. And okay, they were doing this PDA thing. Right now. “This is Noah by the way. My...date.”

“Noah, huh?” She offered him a well-manicured hand with a giant solitaire engagement ring. “I should ask you all sorts of questions, since I’ve been hearing all morning about Adrian’s mysterious rescuer, but I think I’ll leave that to—”

“Emily! We’re about to start!” An older, taller version of Emily emerged from the double doors to the sanctuary.

“My mother,” Emily finished lamely.

“Good grief.
Adrian.
What are you wearing? And why are you late?”