I blinked away the panic. He’d said a minute. And besides that . . . I was losing it. He was a free agent. Maybe he just saw us as fun.
“Yeah, someone.” Chris undid my pants, but didn’t go any farther. “Obviously, it didn’t come to anything.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause it didn’t. Who cares?” There was an edge in his voice that I’d never heard before. “Are we doing this or . . .?”
I hooked my thumb in the band of his underwear and used my other hand to grip the side of his face. There was something off. Something about his tone, his whole demeanor, wasn’t right. But . . . was it really my place to keep pushing for info if he didn’t want to share? Damn. I wished Jace was here. He was the intuitive one. My specialties were working until I passed out and fucking my lovers until they did the same.
“Hey,” I said gruffly. “If you don’t want to mess around—”
“I do.”
“You sure? Because—”
“Fuck, Aiden. I said I do.” Chris thudded his head against the wall and closed his eyes. He inhaled once and then again. “Damn.”
I slipped my hand from his underwear and dipped my head down for a kiss. Slow but firm, and just a swipe of my tongue along his lips. Instead of him turning his face away like I’d expected, pulling the tough guy route while he was obviously feeling vulnerable or angry, he parted his lips for me.
Chris moaned when I slid my tongue into his mouth to dance along his own. He jerked me against him with impatient hands once I slid my fingers through his hair—longer than usual—to deepen the kiss.
The tension eased from his body. I made a hungry sound against him, and shoved my hand down the back of his jeans, pressing my fingers into the seam of his ass through his cotton briefs. He broke the kiss with a harsh breath, panting.
“Where’s Jace?”
“In the other room. Told me to warm you up for him.”
Chris grinned as I kissed him again, one brief touch then another along his stubbled jaw. The scratchiness suddenly made me aware that this was the first time I was seeing him not clean shaven.
“What are you doing later?” I murmured between trailing kisses. “Can you come over?”
“I dunno . . .”
“Please, sweetheart?”
His grin grew, dimples popping out. “You don’t got plans already, sweethawt?”
“Kept my evening open in case a certain bad little boy who likes makin’ fun of my accent wanted to come home with us.”
“Who you calling little, though?”
“Calm down,” I said, snorting out a laugh. I dropped my hand to his underwear again. This time, I peeled them down so I could get out the dick beneath. Having his heavy length in my hand never failed to make my mouth water or for the filthy base part of me want to slobber all over it. Not seeing the need to fight that urge, I lowered myself to my knees.
“Come on, Christopher. Be a sport. I want to fuck you so bad.”
He grabbed the base of his dick, gnawing on his lower lip the way he did, and painted my mouth with his pre-come. “Jace wants me to?”
“Yes.” I licked the tip. “We talked about it earlier.”
Chris smiled again, slighter this time. “Okay. I’ll go.”
I thanked him by taking his dick down my throat, and he said you’re welcome by tangling his fingers in my hair and giving me a deep face fucking. It didn’t last long—mostly because he was riding my face like he hadn’t been touched in ages. The taste of his come on my tongue was enough to make my own eyes roll back.
I rose to my feet after swallowing every drop, and he remained slack against the wall. His breath came hard and his eyes were shut, so I tucked his swollen dick away and zipped him up.
“Lemme do you,” he said finally.
“Nah. I’ll wait for later.”
He came to awareness faster, frowning. “Why?”
I shrugged. “I just wanted you right now. I can wait. For real.”
Chris searched my face again, and I seriously wished Jace were here. He was so good at reading people, and I didn’t know what the hell was going on. All I knew was that Chris was knee deep in some serious uncertainty, and I wanted to fix him up. I kissed him again.
“Hour or two?”
“Make it two,” he said, voice still thick. “Wanna kick it with my boys for a while.”
“Sounds good.”
We left the coat room and were back out in the main living area when I realized I’d never fixed my jeans. Just after I zipped up, I looked up to see Raymond standing a couple feet away mean mugging me.
Chris had already walked over to watch the game, so it was just me and Ray. I fixed my belt and raised an eyebrow.
“Let me holler at you for a minute, Aiden.”
Fucking great. I wiped my mouth with my forearm, not giving a single fuck when his lip curled, and swept my eyes around. David was looking at us, but judging by how he was doing his best to bury his face in a glass, he didn’t want to be involved. Which meant this wasn’t going to end well.
I jerked my head back the way I’d just come, and now I was going into the damn coat room with Raymond. Minus the fun stuff.
“What can I do for you, man?”
“You can quit fucking around with Chris.”
I’d known where this was going, but him coming right out with it hadn’t been in my expectations. I huffed out an incredulous laugh.
“Say again?”
“You heard me.” Raymond stood eye-to-eye with me, and even though I had a good thirty pounds of muscle on him, he was right in my face. “I am dead serious right now.”
“About me not fucking Chris anymore?”
A muscle in Raymond’s jaw ticked—the first sign that he hadn’t known about my previous times with Chris. He’d kept it a secret from his closest friend.
“Look, Ray, I appreciate your concern—”
“Fuck your appreciation. And fuck your condescending bullshit.”
His voice rose, deep and loud and aggressive in a way that got my blood pumping and my adrenaline going. And it made me want to amp it up.
“Nah, fuck you.” I could hear my accent getting thicker. “Who the fuck are you to step to me trying to tell me who I can have sex with? I didn’t know Chris had two fathers.”
“No, motherfucker, you just didn’t know he had real friends. But guess what? He does. Just like Tonya does. And from where I’m sitting?” Raymond took a step closer and thumped his finger against my chest. “It sure as fuck looks like you and your sister and the rest of your rich friends think y’all can just cherry pick from the PR squad from Queens to get your rocks off.”
My lips moved but no sounds came out. Frustration built in my chest, turning to anger, and the further he got in my personal space, the more furious I became.
“That’s not what this is,” I gritted out. “Not by a long shot.”
“So, what is it? Tell me. What the fuck do you want with Chris?”
My nostrils flared as I took several deep breaths, trying to calm down but unable to with his hostile pretty boy face so close to mine. He was waiting for an answer, and he wasn’t going to back down until he got one, but I was stumbling over one that mattered.
“What are you so worried about?”
Raymond’s eyes narrowed incredulously. “My dude—he is not like you. He just started being comfortable with his attraction to guys, but he is—he’s—” I could see the words he didn’t want to put in the open. Chris was sensitive, he was insecure, he had no confidence, he was easily battered. “He’s not into sex clubs and open relationships with randoms getting to fuck people he likes.”
“How do you know? You didn’t even know I’d had my dick in him already.”
Raymond’s lip curled in a snarl. “Because I know Chris. And I know if you hurt him just because you want to stretch out some newly queer Boricua ass, I will knock your fucking teeth out.”
There were zero doubts in my mind that he would follo
w through, and that set my temper from rising to shooting through the thermometer. I closed the already minimal space between us and lifted my chin.
“Try.”
The door opened just as his body tensed.
“What the hell?”
We didn’t look away from each other until David wedged his small blond self between us and shoved Raymond back.
“Either you two are about to make out or beat the shit out of each other,” he snapped. “And both are problems for me.”
“We’re fine,” Raymond said flatly. “Just having a chat.”
“Yeah.” I sniffed and forced myself to look away from the heat in Raymond’s intense dark eyes. “Just talking about some shit.”
“Yeah, okay.” David rolled his eyes. “Is everything settled?”
Neither of us said anything, and he made a sound of disgust. “Just stay away from each other.” He grabbed Raymond’s arm and proceeded to drag his pissed off six-foot-three boyfriend out of the room. Raymond left but not without another warning glare.
“Merry Christmas, fuckboy,” he said over his shoulder.
The door slammed shut, muffling David as he scolded him.
The tension drained out of my body, and I slumped against the wall just as Chris had done a few minutes ago.
Caleb was going to kill me.
I needed a drink.
* * *
The End
* * *
To read the follow-up novella where Jace, Aiden, and Chris get their happily ever after, order CITYWIDE now!
* * *
To read about how Aiden became involved in QFindr with his brother Caleb, order FIRST AND FIRST.
* * *
To read more about Raymond and David, order SUNSET PARK and INTERBOROUGH.
* * *
For more Santino Hassell news and access to stories like this, join his Patreon and the Get Hasselled newsletter!
Also by Santino Hassell
After Midnight
Stygian
* * *
The Five Boroughs series
Sutphin Boulevard
Sunset Park
First and First
Interborough
Concourse
Citywide
* * *
The Community Series
Insight
Oversight
Sightlines
* * *
The Barons
Illegal Contact
Down by Contact (coming soon)
* * *
Cyberlove
Strong Signal
Fast Connection
Hard Wired
Mature Content
A record-breaking heat wave engulfs the Five Boroughs, and emotions run as hot as the temperatures.
* * *
Citywide
© 2017 Santino Hassell
A record-breaking heat wave engulfs the Five Boroughs, and emotions run as hot as the temperatures.
In Rerouted, Chris Mendez is trying to live a drama-free life. That doesn't include another threesome with Jace and Aiden Fairbairn. But then a citywide blackout leaves them trapped together, and Chris is forced to re-examine everything he thought he knew about relationships and his own heart.
In Gridlocked, former Marine Tonya Maldonado is keeping real estate heiress Meredith Stone on permanent ignore. Mere isn't Tonya’s type. Not even close. Who cares if she kisses like a dream and has the filthiest mouth this side of the East River? But then a security detail at a summer party ends with her saving Mere's life and discovering they have more chemistry than she’d ever imagined.
In Derailed, Stephanie Quinones escapes the heat and her complicated love life by going on a company retreat. Trouble is, it's a couples’ retreat, and she lied about having a boyfriend. Unfortunately, the only person willing to play pretend is her on-again/off-again fling, Angel León. They’re currently "off again,” but after a week in the woods, Stephanie realizes she wouldn’t mind them being permanently on.
* * *
Enjoy the following excerpt from Citywide:
* * *
It wasn’t until I finished scribbling that I looked up to see Aiden leaning against the doorway. He looked like porn with his muscular arms and bedroom eyes, a big lug from the Rockaways who wanted to take care of me real good even though his method bordered on the right side of rough, but I managed to glance past him.
“Where’s Caleb?”
“Sent him home to Oli.”
“Appreciate it,” I said. “I work better alone, and he was on that next level of worried. Would have paced behind me the whole damn time.”
“He would have.” Aiden extended his arm to flick the bill of my cap. “What are you gonna do to thank me for saving you from that experience?”
I left my cap skewed sideways and arched my scarred brow at him. If there was one thing to be said about Aiden, it was that he never changed. He knew what he wanted and he’d come at you like a bull to get it.
“You didn’t sabotage your own company just to set up some weird-ass seduction, did you? Because I’mma tell Caleb, and that poor bastard won’t ever forgive you.”
Aiden burst out laughing, eyes twinkling, as he yanked me into one of his big bear hugs. I was a strong dude, but he had so much mass on me that I felt dwarfed once he squeezed. I’d been brought up affectionate, so I felt qualified to say that Aiden gave the best hugs. Second maybe only to Nunzio.
“You always smell so good,” Aiden rumbled in my ear. “I could fucking eat you.”
I scrambled my way out of his muscular arms and backed away, holding out a wagging finger. It was ridiculous, especially when he began advancing on me like a red-haired panther in his slick biz cas outfit while I slid all over the floor in my chanclas.
“Calm yourself, Aiden. I’m here to work, not to fuck.”
“You can do both.”
Aiden lunged at me. Lunged. Like a cartoon character. Or a horny Batman villain. Laughing incredulously, I spun away from him and took off running through the great purple expanse of QFindr offices.
“I’m going to spank that round ass of yours when I catch you,” he called after me. “Fucking brat.”
I skidded to a stop by a strange array of standing desks and workout equipment lined up along a wall of windows. He’d loped behind me, grinning broadly, and clearly enjoying my shenanigans. He always did. They always did. My refusal to act like an adult eighty percent of the time was ninety percent of my charm.
“We’re not fucking, you big orange bastard.”
“‘Orange’?” Aiden huffed. “Don’t be a dick.”
“My bad. We’re not fucking, you big ginger bastard.” I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Better?”
“Much.”
Aiden crossed the distance between us in two long strides and grabbed the front of my shirt. He was all over me again, barely giving me room to think or breathe or exist without him touching me. His tongue lashed against my mouth with a wet demand for entrance that I instantly acquiesced to. I slanted my mouth, groaning when he slid his hot tongue inside, and slammed my hips against his as he gripped me tight with his huge hands.
The last time I’d tasted that Aiden flavor of chewing gum and beer had been a couple of months ago at Stephanie’s birthday party. The event had been a strange mix of working class and celebutante, with my boys from the block rubbing elbows with her new friends from the Upper West Side. We’d had a blast partying until dawn at her friend Mere’s fairy-tale mansion, but it had been Aiden and Jace in the spare bedroom with their quick hands that had really blown my mind. While everyone danced and drank and enjoyed each other two floors below, Jace and Aiden had shared my body.
Aiden pressed his fingers to my lips, trying to shush me, but nothing worked except for him sliding them into my mouth. I sucked messily as my hands shook where they were gripping Jace’s shoulders.
He was squeezing me so tight, slamming back on my dick relentlessly, and it was almost too much. Between th
e feel of being encased by his tight muscles and heat, and Aiden inside my own ass, I was losing my mind. The perfect rhythm I’d managed just a moment ago was a disaster, and I could feel my orgasm approaching.
“More,” Jace pleaded, gripping the metal headboard and rocking backward. “Chris, please. Just use me.”
Aiden’s hips rutted against me in a particularly violent thrust. His groan was muffled as he released, and I imagined him biting his fist. Once he pulled out of me, I flipped Jace onto his back, pressed his knees back, and fucked him until he was shouting and coming without touching his dick.
“Fuck,” he whispered, once we’d collapsed in a sweaty pile. A dreamy smile crossed his lips, eyes shut, as I trailed kisses down his face and neck. “I haven’t come that hard since that night at Liberty with the football players.”
My entire body went rigid, my heart slamming in my chest. When Aiden chuckled and ruffled Jace’s hair, my stomach sank.
Even the memory felt like a kick in the nuts. I hadn’t been angry, because I’d known they went to Liberty X. I’d known my experiences with them were random flings. For all I knew, the football player hookup had been months or even years ago. And yet, my jealousy had nearly strangled me until I’d abruptly bailed on them. Cue the lack of returning text messages and avoidance.
I jerked away from Aiden, breathing hard. He didn’t get the hint, or maybe didn’t notice I was trying to nudge one in his direction. He cupped my face and trailed wet kisses along my jaw, making soft sounds of pleasure as though he was worshipping me with every touch.
“Stop,” I rasped. “I’m here to work.”
“You can work later.” Aiden stopped pawing me only when he realized I was continuing to hold my body away from his. He searched my face, brow furrowed and meaty hands now placed on his hips. “What’s wrong?”
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