Cover Up

by L. A. Witt

  As if Lucas could’ve moved if he’d tried.

  Nate sat up and guided himself in. Lucas’s vision blurred as Nate’s cock breached him—fuck, he was thick and . . . God, yeah . . .

  Lucas spread his legs wider and, as if from a distance, heard himself swearing as Nate worked his cock into him. As impatient as he’d been, he was glad Nate had taken the time to finger him. The guy was thick enough that he could easily cause some serious pain but considerate enough to make sure Lucas felt nothing but mind-blowing ecstasy as he slid in deeper.

  “Fuck,” Nate breathed. “You feel so good.”

  “So do you.”

  Nate said something Lucas couldn’t comprehend. He wasn’t sure if Nate was slurring incoherently, or if his own mind just couldn’t make sense of it because Nate was all the way in now, completely bottomed out, with his hips pressed against Lucas’s ass. The stretch was intense but not painful. Quite the opposite—it was amazing. Exactly how this was supposed to feel. The curse was definitely broken.

  Nate rocked his hips faster, finding a steady rhythm, and Lucas swore he’d gone past aroused and was straight up getting high off this man.

  “Oh God, do it harder,” Lucas pleaded. “You feel so—oh yeah!”

  “Like that?”

  “So much. Holy . . . ungh . . .”

  Nate hooked his elbows under Lucas’s knees and leaned forward, rolling Lucas’s hips back just right, so his cock felt perfect inside him. And he kept slamming in hard, just the way Lucas liked it.

  Lucas reached between them and started pumping his own cock, and if he hadn’t been in heaven before . . . holy fuck. There were times when he could take or leave bottoming, but Nate’s dick was downright addictive. It was like he knew exactly how to ride Lucas so his senses went utterly wild.

  Above him, Nate grimaced with exertion, cords standing out on his flushed throat and sweat gleaming on his forehead. The view was almost unbearably hot.

  Lucas teased Nate’s nipple with his thumb, which sent a shiver through both of them. Nate bit his lip. He squeezed his eyes shut. Lucas knew that look, and he teased Nate’s nipple again as he rocked his hips in time with Nate’s hard thrusts.

  “I’m gonna come,” Nate moaned, and he shuddered. “Oh fuck, you feel so . . . oh God . . .” He threw his head back. His thrusts were suddenly erratic, but the angle was perfect, and Lucas dug his fingers into Nate’s arm and pumped his cock as his own orgasm closed in fast.

  “Don’t stop,” Lucas pleaded. “Oh, yeah, don’t—fuck!” His whole body jerked and cum erupted from his cock onto his stomach.

  Nate glanced down, breathed, “Shit, that’s hot,” and suddenly he was shuddering again, more violently this time, cursing and thrusting until he sighed and collapsed on top of Lucas, shaking and panting. Lucas wrapped his arms around him, his own head spinning and his body trembling. Even as Nate pulled out, they didn’t separate, instead holding onto each other without caring about all the sweat and cum between them. One more point in Nate’s favor—he didn’t seem to mind when sex got messy. There was no disgusted lunge for a towel to make sure he’d wiped away any traces of Lucas. No scramble for the shower before anything dried. They’d clean up, of course, but there was something to be said for a partner who didn’t go from ramming it home to needing outbreak-level decontamination in a matter of seconds. That always put a serious damper on the afterglow.

  Nate wasn’t like that, though. He lay over Lucas, head resting on his chest as they caught their breath. When Lucas started stroking his hair, he was surprised the guy didn’t start purring.

  After a moment—probably not more than a minute or two—Nate pushed himself up and dropped a soft kiss on Lucas’s lips. With a sleepy, almost drunken smile, he said, “Join me for a shower?”

  “You bet.” Lucas lifted his head and kissed him again. “Unless you’re in a hurry to kick me out?”

  Nate snorted. “Kick you out? Are you kidding?” He sat up slowly and paused to take off the condom. “I’m already thinking of ways to bribe you into staying longer.”

  Lucas laughed as he sat up too, joints aching deliciously. Sliding a hand up Nate’s thigh, he said, “I don’t think you’ll have to twist my arm.”

  They shared a long, lazy kiss, then moved into the bathroom for a long, lazy shower. Nate still wasn’t in any hurry to scrub away all traces of Lucas. Sure, he made an effort to get clean, just like Lucas did, but he seemed much more interested in kissing while the hot water fell over their shoulders.

  Cupping Lucas’s ass, Nate kissed him and slurred, “We really should do this again.”

  “Of course we should.” Lucas trailed a finger up Nate’s spine. “Especially since I still want to be on top.”

  Nate just shivered. “I’m totally game for that. To be honest, I thought you were a top from the start.”

  “I can be.” Lucas shrugged. “I like it either way. There isn’t much I don’t like.”

  Nate drew his tongue along the inside of Lucas’s lip. “Is that right?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I like the sound of that.” Nate paused, eyebrows knitting together. “You, uh, think your boss is going to say anything about this later?”

  Lucas’s face burned again. “Probably. But if he’d been really pissed off, he’d have let me have it. Now he’s just going to give me shit until the end of time.”

  “But he won’t be mad?” Genuine concern creased Nate’s brow.

  “I doubt it. I mean, I . . .” Lucas avoided Nate’s eyes.

  “Hmm?”

  Lucas swallowed. “I’ve . . . kind of been distracted for the last week. I think all the guys in the shop knew something was up, and Colin probably figured that once you came in tonight, I’d be useless for the rest of the night anyway.”

  Concern slowly morphed into amusement, and one eyebrow arched as Nate’s lips quirked into a wicked smile. “And was he right?” He trailed a finger around Lucas’s nipple, just skirting the most sensitive skin. “Would you have been useless for the rest of the night?”

  Lucas sucked in a breath as the light touch hardened his nipple. “For anyone but you? Absolutely.”

  Nate licked his lips. “So if I said I wanted to get you all turned on and get started again . . .”

  Lucas took Nate’s hand and guided it down. “What do you think?”

  Nate sucked in a breath as his fingertips grazed Lucas’s hardening cock. “Sounds like I’ve got my answer.”

  Chapter 9

  It was funny how much more comfortable Nate’s king-sized bed was when Lucas was in it. Or maybe after two orgasms, Nate was just too relaxed to feel anything but satisfied and perfect. His body ached, and he swore he could still feel Lucas’s thick cock stretching his hole, and yeah, turned out it was possible to feel even better than he had after their first night together. This was pure bliss. He wasn’t even in any huge hurry to jump back into the shower, and Lucas didn’t seem to be, either. They’d cleaned up as much as they could with some tissues, and that was fine with Nate. A little sweat never hurt anyone.

  He turned on his side and draped an arm over Lucas’s smooth, flat stomach. The tattoos caught his eye, and he traced one of the lines snaking across Lucas’s pec. One arm was almost completely covered in ink, from the wrist all the up onto his shoulder and chest. The other, not so much. It was mostly abstract, with Celtic and tribal lines twining in between what looked like band logos and a skull with a sword through it.

  “So why don’t you have any tattoos on this arm?” Nate caressed the unmarked skin of Lucas’s right arm.

  “Still working on that side. I know guys younger than me who already have full sleeves or even shirts.” Lucas shook his head. “I’m trying to pace myself. Keep some room for the tattoos I’ll want when I’m older.”

  “That makes sense. But you do have this one.” Nate gently turned Lucas’s arm, studying the bracelet of text tattooed around his slim wrist. “What does it say?”

  Lucas shifted his ga
ze to the ink. “That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. It’s in Italian on one side, German on the other. Since my mom is Italian and my dad is German.” He met Nate’s gaze, a hint of sheepishness in his expression. “I, uh, did it after my second divorce.”

  “And it doesn’t remind you? Of the divorce, I mean?”

  Lucas seemed to consider the tattoo for a moment, then shrugged. “Not really, no. I’m over it.”

  “Good to know that happens eventually.” A second too late, he realized how much bitterness had slipped into his tone. He cleared his throat. “Sorry, I . . .” Shit. How was he supposed to come back from that?

  It was Lucas’s turn to run his fingers over a tattoo. In this case, the tiger on Nate’s arm. “Can I ask you something personal?”

  “What made me and the ex get matching tattoos?”

  Biting his lip shyly, Lucas nodded. “Or, well, I can figure that part out. But why tigers? If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay.”

  “Nah, it’s fine.” Nate sighed. “Basically, it was the same thing that made us get matching rings—we were a couple of love-struck idiots who thought we’d always be together. No way in hell I imagined then that in a few years, I’d be regretting the tattoo and petitioning for the government to let us break up.”

  “I can relate, believe me,” Lucas muttered. “Onward and upward, am I right?”

  “Yeah. You’re definitely right.” And the topic of exes was going to drag tonight’s mood way down if they didn’t shift gears. “So, is it, uh, against protocol to say I’d like to do this again after tonight?” Nate winced. “I’m sorry. I’ve been out of the game for so long, I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do now.”

  “We’re not supposed to do anything.”

  Nate eyed him quizzically.

  Lucas smiled, trailing the backs of his fingers down Nate’s arm. “I mean there’s no rules. It’s whatever we want to do.” He inclined his head. “What do you want to do?”

  Nate brushed a few strands of hair off Lucas’s forehead. “I think you know exactly what I want to do.”

  “Meet up and fuck as often as humanly possible?”

  “I’m a hundred percent on board with that idea.”

  “Good. Me too.” Lucas grinned, but it faltered. “Fair warning, though—whatever we’re doing, I’ll have to juggle it with my work schedule.”

  Nate nodded. “Of course. I get how it goes with crazy schedules, so don’t sweat it.” He slid a hand up Lucas’s forearm.

  “Except my schedule is really crazy—I’m working three jobs right now, including the tattoo shop.”

  “Holy shit. When do you sleep?”

  “Sleep? What’s that?” Lucas laughed bitterly. “Eh, it’s only temporary.”

  “How temporary? I can’t imagine sustaining that for very long—and believe me, I know a thing or two about working long hours.”

  Sighing, Lucas rubbed his eyes. “Well, I hope it’s only temporary, anyway. I’m hoping the apprenticeship will get my name out there and get me some clients. Only problem is, I really need to be able to commit to more hours a week than I already do. But before I quit one of my other jobs, or reduce my hours, I need to be making money.”

  “Which means you need to be committing to more hours a week.”

  “Exactly.” Lucas scowled. “And you want to know the irony of the whole thing?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m working myself to death to pay for my student loans, and I’m not even using my fucking degree.”

  Nate winced. “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t have gotten either of the tech-support jobs without it, but it’s not like I’m doing a damn thing at either place that I learned about in school. I don’t even know why they required a degree.” He rolled his eyes. “I keep telling myself I really should’ve just gone into tattooing right off the bat.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because my parents insisted I needed to have a degree. Some kind of career to fall back on if tattooing didn’t work out.”

  Nate arched an eyebrow. “Have they seen your work?”

  “Yeah, but they’re hung up on the whole starving-artist thing. I guess they thought I’d wind up living in their basement until I’m fifty.” Lucas laughed humorlessly. “Still might at this rate. But hey, at least I’ll have that stupid piece of paper to put on the wall.”

  Nate wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  “Anyway.” Lucas cleared his throat. “All that’s my problem, but it may make things a little tricky with finding time to hook up.”

  “That’s all right. Between work, trying to sell my house . . .” A divorce that can’t be over soon enough. He waved a hand. “I’m crazy busy, too. But I am more than happy to carve out whatever time I can for more of this.”

  Lucas grinned, sliding closer to him. “Maybe it’s a good thing our schedules are limited.”

  “Why’s that? Because we might kill each other if we fucked like this all the time?”

  “Exactly.”

  Nate chuckled, running his fingers through Lucas’s damp hair. “Maybe, but what a way to go.”

  “Good point.” Lucas kissed him, but neither of them made much effort to turn this into more than languidly making out. Nate wasn’t sure he had another round left in him. Though if Lucas wanted him to, he’d sure as shit try.

  Holding Lucas close, he couldn’t get over how surreal this all was. He hadn’t been expecting to get involved with anyone any time soon. In fact, he’d been damn opposed to the idea. After Caleb, he was done with relationships for a while. Maybe for good.

  But hooking up with Lucas? Taking a page out of Jon’s book and just having sex for fun? Fuck yeah.

  In the back of his mind, he remembered all too clearly when Jon had startled himself—and everyone who knew him—by falling in love with Matt. They, too, had insisted they were just hooking up, and now they were talking about moving in together.

  This was different, though. Jon hadn’t been burned like Nate had. Relationships had never appealed to Jon, but they’d never bitten him in the ass like Nate’s marriage had bitten him. For Jon, accidentally stumbling into a relationship was like sampling a flavor of ice cream he’d insisted he wouldn’t like and ending up loving it. For Nate, it would be more like taking another bite of something that had already given him food poisoning—not gonna happen.

  As he lost himself in Lucas’s perfect, soft kiss, he decided he could handle this, though. No strings. No commitment. No inevitable heartbreak at the end. Just two guys giving each other the kinds of orgasms that didn’t happen with one hand and a magazine.

  Yeah, he decided as he held Lucas closer. This was exactly what he needed.

  * * *

  Just got off work—be there soon.

  Nate smiled at the text. Suddenly the movie on the TV screen didn’t hold his interest anymore, and he was too restless to sit on the couch. To keep himself busy, he moved into the kitchen to clean up the handful of dishes left from when he’d made himself dinner earlier.

  It was crazy how quickly Lucas had become a regular fixture in Nate’s world. Despite juggling three jobs, he was here more nights than not, and it wasn’t at all unusual for Nate to slip off to work in the morning while Lucas was still snoozing in his bed. They’d been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and Nate was loving every minute of it. Why the hell hadn’t he gotten into this whole casual-sex thing a long time ago? It was great!

  The best part was that he didn’t just feel good when he had Lucas in his arms. Lucas had to work a lot, so they couldn’t be together all the time, and Nate was surprising himself by beginning to enjoy his own company. After he’d thrown Caleb out, Nate had struggled with being alone in this place. More than once he’d been tempted to rent an apartment somewhere until the house was sold; anything to avoid being here. The emptiness and the memories had made his skin crawl.

  Ever since Lucas had come into the picture, though, Nate didn�
��t feel quite so stir crazy when he was by himself. This was quickly becoming the place where he and Lucas drove each other wild, not the house where his marriage had imploded.

  He liked being with Lucas, and he was starting to like being by himself, too. It was a nice switch, being comfortable with his own company while also having someone he looked forward to seeing. It was a nice switch to not feel like shit all the time. There was still plenty going on his life to make him feel like shit—struggling to sell the house, his divorce hanging over his head—but at least there was something that didn’t. Something that made him feel hot and wanted, not to mention utterly satisfied.

  And, now that Lucas was on his way over, Nate was restless in a way he’d only known since they’d met. One text, and his dick was already at half-mast, his mind going crazy with fantasies about how tonight might play out. Sixty-nine on the couch? Fucking Lucas in the shower until neither of them could move? Kissing lazily under the covers until they fell asleep? If ever there’d been a man who checked every one of Nate’s boxes, it was absolutely Lucas. Even in the happiest years of his marriage, Caleb had never been able to satisfy Nate so effortlessly and completely.

  Somehow, Lucas had been cursed with bad sex before now, which blew Nate’s mind. The man was just way too giving, talented, and enthusiastic to be involved with bad sex.

  The sound of the beat-up Honda’s engine turned Nate’s head, and he smiled.

  Ah, there you are.

  A moment later, footsteps—also familiar—came up the walk, and Nate was at the door to let him in.

  As soon as he saw him, though, Nate’s heart sank a little. Fatigue radiated off Lucas, and not like it did when they’d spent a weeknight together and Nate’s alarm kicked them out of bed at five-thirty. More like he was barely keeping himself upright.

  “Hey.” Nate stood aside to let him in. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just tired.” Lucas shuffled in and shrugged off his jacket with what looked like a ton of effort.

  Nate shut the door behind them. “Long day?”

  “So long. The company just released a new software upgrade, and it is buggy as fuck. So our phones were ringing off the hook tonight, and we kept having to call the designers and ask what the fuck, and . . .” He groaned. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”