by J. R. Gray
"Vance..." He drew out my name.
"I want to go home. Tell them I'm sick, tell them anything you need to."
He checked his watch, and I tried to keep my attention on the porcelain in front of me so I didn't overthink where we'd been ten minutes ago.
"It's getting late. I don't think they'll mind if we go."
We had a good reason with sectionals continuing tomorrow. He didn't move though, so I sat back on my heels, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
"What?" I asked at length when he didn't move to arrange our exit.
"I'm not leaving you here."
"I'll be fine."
"I don't want you to get yelled at for being in areas we shouldn't be..." He trailed off, pushing to stand.
"And getting caught together is better?" My tone became bitter, and I wondered if he'd notice.
"Yes, actually. My father is the one running. It makes me pretty bulletproof."
"For everything but being with me." I forced myself to my feet, ignoring how lightheaded I got. I put a hand on the wall to steady myself.
Harden tried to grab my arm, but I pulled out of his grasp.
"What's your problem?" he asked, radiating hurt.
"I'm upset." I tried to shove past him, but he blocked my exit.
"Did you ever consider I'm upset too?"
"This is your choice." I shoved him hard, knocking him back a few steps.
"How the fuck do you gather?" He shoved me, crowding in the doorway again. "Do you think I want to keep us a secret? I've never wanted you to feel like a secret. I can't help that he's running." Harden's voice cracked.
I forced myself to look at him. "No, but you do decide what we are."
His brow pulls, and something I couldn't quite read came over him. Anger set in. His jaw tightened, and he grabbed my shirt. Before I knew what happened, he shoved me into the wall, knocking the wind out of me.
His face was in mine and his teeth were bared. "What the fuck do you take me for? I can't believe you doubt me."
"Doubt what? You just told me you couldn't do this." I struggled against his grip, trying to wrench it off my shirt. My shirt ripped, and his fingers remained iron-clad.
"I told you I couldn't hide for how ever many years. I didn't say a damn word about not doing this with you."
"Wha-what?" I stammered.
"You fucking belong to me, Vance. If you think I'm going to let my father or anyone else tell me no, you don't know me very well." His eyes penetrated mine with all his intensity.
I swallowed hard, expecting him to storm off. "I'm sorry."
He shoved me again, this time pressing his body into mine, roughly grinding his hips against mine. "You should be."
I pressed my shoulder blades against the wall, using the leverage to dry hump him. "Forgive me?"
"After I fuck you." He spun me around, pressing me face-first into the wall, his forearm in my back. His free hand shoved down my slacks, exposing my ass for his fabric-covered hard-on to rub against. "Tell me how much you want me inside you, Vance."
"I need you."
"More." He freed his erection and spit between us.
I gasped as his saliva dripped down my split. Two fingers rubbed over my opening, massaging the moisture there.
"Harden, please fuck me. I have to feel you." I had to feel his need for me. I craved the lust between us. The love sealed in the way he kissed me and the way we joined.
"I know you have more in you." He pressed his head to my hole. "I've never felt closer to you than when I'm inside you." He breached my body and my heart. Entering me, stretching me wide open. Bare, fully connected. "Feel that?"
"Yes." I moaned, biting my bicep so I didn't scream out.
"I've never wanted another person this way, Vance. I think about being inside you every minute of every day, but it's so much more than getting off." He pressed further, sliding himself home, lips hovering over the nape of my neck. "I can't get close enough to you. I want to be inside your skin, and before you tell me how irrational it is, I know."
"No!" Words escaped me. I grabbed at any part of him I could reach, not sure what I hoped to accomplish but trying to drag him closer. My nails bit into his back and hips. "I get it."
He fucked me raw, sliding in and out, burying himself over and over. Each time he sat fully seated inside me, I wished I could freeze the moment in time.
His quiet voice found my ear. His lips making love to me there, fucking my mind as hard as my body. "I might die if I don't have your mouth."
Harden grabbed my chin twisting my body until it met his. We were fused at this moment, love binding us. I'd never felt more connected to him.
"Like that?" he breathed into my mouth, keeping himself fully inside me, only rocking to keep up the stimulation.
"Closer," I demanded, digging my fingertips into his back.
"If only I could, Vance. I would. If I could fuck you raw for the rest of my life..." Harden trailed off.
"You can..." I pressed my forehead into the wall, not wanting to see his reaction. Or maybe I didn't trust mine. We both had our whole lives in front of us. I wasn't sure he'd think a high school relationship would last. But God, I wanted it to. I wanted to be with my best friend forever.
His lips found my ear again. "Promise?"
I nodded, not trusting my voice, not trusting anything in the universe at that moment, too scared to latch onto the idea this might actually work.
"Vance," he purred my name, trying to draw me out of my shell.
"Just keep fucking me."
"Turn around."
Before I could object, he pulled out and manhandled me, bringing us face to face. He flattened his body to mine, and our mouths clashed. He kissed with veracity, not leaving room for doubt. He didn't have to say anything. I felt it in the intensity and need flicked across his tongue. In the press of his body, and the pulse of his dick.
He cupped my face with both hands, slowing down the kiss, making me be patient even while I whined, rubbing my hips into his, sliding our cocks together. He shook his head with a laugh, stroking his thumbs over my cheekbones.
"You are the most beautiful being I've ever laid eyes on." He kissed where each thumb had brushed, then returned his lips to mine, whispering soft love over them.
"You're killing me here."
"I'll touch your dick in a minute. I'm trying to be sweet!" The laughter against my mouth told me he wasn't really cross.
"That's not how you're killing me." I put my hands over his, drinking in the adoration in his eyes, our rumpled clothes half-stripped.
“Why am I killing you, Vance?" The way he purred my name would have had me begging to come had he been inside me.
"The things you say..." I shook my head unable to put into words the things he did to me.
He stilled my face with his grip. "Do you know why I say them?" he asked.
"Because you're trying to kill me, I'm convinced."
He laughed but refuted my reply with a shake of his head. "Not even close. I say them because they're true. Every one of them. You're too good for me." He brushed his thumb over my lips then placed a kiss there.
"Too good for you?" I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. "You're the next president's son. You could be with anyone you wanted. You have everything going for you, and what am I?"
"You're my best friend, and you make me better. You always have."
“How?” I started to shake my head again, but he stilled it.
"Do you not believe me?" he asked. "Don't say you don't believe me."
I wouldn't say it. I couldn't say it.
"Good. I'd have been annoyed if you said you didn't believe me." He dropped a hand from my face, and I instantly missed it.
"Give it back."
His brows rose as he wrapped his fingers around our dicks. "You want it on your face or here?" He fucked his point home by stroking us together.
"I regret my request."
"Good." He slid hi
s other hand from my cheek to my throat. He didn't squeeze but he rested it there, possessive. One of the hottest things he'd ever done. "Now...you want to know how you make me a better person?”
"Yes," I whimpered as his fingers swiped over our heads.
"Because you've kept me on the ground. I could have become the spoiled rich kid who gets anything and everything he wants. I could have been so many things. Kids of governors are often fuck ups. But because of you, I didn't need any of that. I wanted to spend all my time with you, and I didn't realize it until the last few weeks, but I've been in love with you for a long time. I don't want anyone else. I only want you."
I fought against his hold on my throat to slam my lips into his, kissing him with all the feelings gushing through me. There weren't enough words or actions to show him what he meant to me.
He smiled into my lips, joy infectious and spreading heat through me.
"Wrap your leg around me."
I did what he asked, and he released his grasp on me, slipping lower to press his head into my hole again.
"Fuck your hand," he said as he pushed inside me.
He didn't fuck me. Instead, he took his time, making love to me as we kissed. There was nothing like being with Harden, and there would never be anyone like him.
He took a part of my soul and stripped me down.
"I love being inside you."
"Not as much as I love you inside me," I said through a moan. "I don't know what sex is like with anyone else, but I can't imagine it's better than this."
"It's not better." He looked between us as he said it, watching himself sliding in and out. "Nothing is better than this, right here with you."
"Stop sweet-talking me. You're going to make me come." My words were meant playfully, but he shoved his tongue into my mouth and smirked.
"I'm not stopping. I want you to come over and over and over." He grabbed my hip and rocked me over his cock in a deep grind.
I couldn't take it anymore, his tip hitting my prostate relentlessly, exactly how he loved. I clenched down around him, chasing his tongue, needing as much connection as possible.
"That's right. Give it all to me," he grunted between kisses.
I painted his chest and abs, lost to the bliss of us. Of being lucky enough to be loved by him.
"I love getting to come with you." He kissed my lips softly this time, his movements slowing.
"Did you?"
He shook his head. "Not yet. I didn't want to take away from yours."
I glared at him. "This wasn't a show!"
"Yes, it was." He brushed his lips along my jaw to my ear. "The best kind of show."
"If I didn't like you inside me so much, I'd complain!"
"You're going to like the next part even better."
I gave him a confused look.
"Wrap your arms around me and hold on tight."
"Why?" I did as he asked.
"Because I'm going to fuck you until I come." He drove into me, hitting me into the wall. “You could ride my dick all day and it wouldn't be enough. Nothing would be enough. I want to pour my soul into yours until I can't tell where I end and you begin.”
“Fuck, Harden.” I had no other words.
I squeezed my legs around him, holding on for dear life while he fucked me with abandon. Sweat pooled between us, mixing with my cum, sticky and sweet.
I was hard again before he finished, rubbing between our abs, tightening my hold on him to get even more stimulation. Grabbing him, wishing I could get inside of him somehow.
"Do you want my cum, Vance?"
"Yes."
His only answer came in the form of filling me, moans of pleasure with each thrust of his hips, his cum dripping down my thighs. And I was the only one who got him like this.
We stayed like that long after he was soft. Finally, I made him put me down, everything aching from the fuck. He didn't give me space to rearrange my clothes. He pulled me into a hug, crushing my chest to his.
I buried my face in his neck, suddenly feeling the weight of everything that had happened tonight. The weight of what we had to get through in the next couple of years.
“Why are you hiding?”
“Because.” There wasn’t really a reason for it.
"We're going to figure it out."
"Promise?"
"I do."
Twenty-One
Harden finally let me go, and we started to fix our clothes. I paused to watch him. He stood in front of the mirror with a glow about him, trying in vain to fix his hair. I don't remember messing with it, but it stood on end, the product in it beyond fixing. No matter how he tried to smooth it, it had a mind of its own and kept popping back up.
"I think you're fighting a losing battle there."
He looked at me in the mirror. "I can't leave it like this."
Coming up behind, I reached around him to turn on the water, welling my hands in an attempt to help the situation. I smoothed over it, slicking it back, much like he looked in the pool.
He turned his head side to side inspecting my work. "Not how it looked when we got here, but better than nothing."
"Better than sex hair, but we don't have an excuse for it." I brushed my hand down my wrinkled shirt. "We look too much like we were banging. We need a better excuse."
"I doubt they'll even notice. We shouldn't even still be out. I'm going to tell the governor we are taking the car home."
I held his eyes in the mirror. "I'll hang back while you talk to him. I don't think I'd be able to keep a straight face around him."
Harden nodded. "Sure. I’m going to tell him we are taking the car to your place, right?”
"If you'd rather."
"I would. I don’t want to hide tonight, Vance.”
I turned towards the door, but he grabbed my hand, pulling me back to him.
"We are never going to get out of here if you start this again."
He laughed, brushing his lips over mine. "You'd let me fuck you again?"
"Are you kidding? I already want you to again."
He smiled, deepening the kiss, and I almost thought we'd end up naked when he pulled back. "Let's go do it in your bed."
I nodded, eagerly brushing my fingers through my hair. "Better that way. We'll never get your hair to lay flat if we do it here."
He flipped me the bird and pulled open the door. "Shit. It's late." He walked backwards through it. "You need sleep for your other two races tomorrow."
"I'm not going to qualify for the final heat in them. The hundred is the only one I had a chance in."
"You shaved a shit load of time. It's possible." Harden seemed lighter than he had been in weeks. The sight made my heart swell.
"I'd have to do way more. It's not possible."
"What did I tell you about positive thinking?!" He shot me a grin. "Plus, you need to place well enough to get us the points."
"Fair." I stopped dead as we came around the corner to find the governor standing in the hall.
Harden spun around when he saw my face, stopping just short of the governor. "Father."
"I knew it."
"What?"
"What are you two doing?" the governor demanded.
"We were bored." The lies came off Harden's tongue with ease.
"Don't lie to me." There was a stiffness to the governor I'd never seen before.
Harden's voice dropped, becoming serious. "I'm not lying to you."
"I told your mother," the governor said through his teeth. "I knew it." A quiet rage burned in his posture. Like he'd combust at any second and take us all out with him.
"Told her what?" Harden's voice came calmer than I expected. There wasn't anger there, nor fear. He sounded like he'd asked what was for dinner.
"You aren't really going to deny it, are you?" The governor narrowed his eyes and smoothed a hand over his shirt, attempting to contain his anger. "A little beneath you, don't you think?"
"I haven't denied anything at all." He slid his hands in h
is pocket, holding his calm.
I envied him. My hands shook, so I mirrored his actions, sliding them in my pockets so they wouldn't be noticed. I didn't dare speak. This was a battle of ego I wanted no part of.
We'd been caught. I wasn't sure what Harden thought he'd gain with the attitude.
"I guess you haven't...yet."
"Can we go? Vance and I need sleep." He pointed to his head. "Recovering before tomorrow."
"You have nothing else to say for yourself?"
"What would you like me to say?" Harden asked, and I began to see what he was doing. He held the calm high ground, daring his father to say openly what he suspected.
It wasn't like my father. He hadn't caught us in the act.
"What were you two doing back here?"
"Exploring. We got bored of your party." Harden glanced at his watch. "We've already stayed later than we should. Excuse us."
"You are leaving with him?" the governor asked.
"Am I not allowed to stay over at friend's houses on weekends?" Harden asked. "Am I being punished for something?"
"Are you going to continue to treat me like I'm an idiot, Harden?" The governor scowled. "I don't appreciate it.”
"I'm not sure what you're referring to."
"Don't tell me you're claiming he's a friend."
Harden shifted, the only visible reaction he gave. "I've always been friends with Vance. Best friends."
"But you're more now."
"And?" Harden asked, not even trying to deny it.
My mouth dropped open. We were really out? I waited for the world to crash down around us.
"And you believe it to be okay to spend every night of the week at the house of the person you're sleeping with?" he asked, triumph shining through his tone.
"So when we sat down and had the discussion about safe sex, and you and mom being supportive of healthy teenage sexual activity, you were, what, only speaking about women? Or have you decided that sleeping next to someone is more monumental than fucking?”
"Harden," the governor growled out. "Don't you dare speak to me in that tone!”
"Don't deflect from my question because you've decided there is attitude laced in it. I'm not going to let you gaslight me and reprimand me when I've done nothing wrong." Harden must have thought a lot about this to have the argument so well thought out for his father.