Play by the Rules

by Frey Ortega

  With each thrust he made, I could feel the soft, springy hairs around his cock rub against the cheeks of my ass, and even against my hole. I leaned in close to his body, feeling the rivulets of sweat begin to shine on his body as we shared our heat. He leaned in close enough that I felt his heartbeat.

  “Fuck, you’re so hot,” he whispered heatedly in my ear. He angled his thrusts, trying to find out how best to please me. His cock was so thick though that any minuscule difference in his thrusts rubbed a different part inside me that I didn’t know could be touched. Pretty soon, he touched something inside me that made my cock twitch to life. It felt good. It felt more than good, it felt like a warm pleasure that built steadily.

  Then, he continued to thrust. In and out, in and out--his thrusts were measured and slow, but gaining momentum and building to a crescendo. He moaned, and it echoed deep in his chest. I could almost hear it emanating from there.

  As he snapped his hips forward and back, I sighed and tried to stifle my moans, and I could feel pleasure building up inside me, growing stronger and stronger. I felt him becoming harder inside me, if it was possible, and I could also feel myself getting stiffer. My hips were swiveling to meet his thrusts. I bit down on my lower lip and I grasped at something—anything—that would help anchor me from the way he thrusted into me. I grabbed the headboards.

  He leaned down, and pressed a kiss on the top of my head. Honestly, I wished he would go lower, and just kiss my lips, but I realize maybe that would bend and arch his back impossibly. I would have to settle for doing that during foreplay.

  Curse our immense height difference!

  His thrusts became erratic. Faster, even. He slid home over and over, until I could feel the heat that had pooled up inside me begin to grow stronger and stronger, threatening to bubble over. My toes curled. I was moaning in dulcet tones, with a much higher timbre of voice than I usually would have.

  Crap. Was that me? I sounded so strange. But I was so caught up in the moment, so caught up in the feeling of Joe’s hand around my cock, pumping it up and down as he thrusted into me over and over.

  “I’m coming,” he managed to groan out. “I…I can’t stop…Emmett!”

  Hearing my name come out of his lips anchored me to the moment. I immediately wrapped my arms around his shoulders and drew him down, bearing his weight on me. I could take it. I was sturdy enough, but he was a good foot taller than me and in spite of the fact that I wanted to kiss his lips, instead I managed to pepper kisses all over his chest and nipples. If I leaned up, I could kiss his chin, but that might have pulled a muscle I did not want to strain. Not right now, anyway, when we were in such a frantic, needy part of our lovemaking.

  Because that’s what this was. Lovemaking.

  “Come for me,” I whispered. I don’t know if he heard me, but it was maybe the most self-confident thing I’ve ever said in my entire life.

  It worked, though. Within a matter of moments, he started to jerk and spasm, and at the same time, I felt that heat inside me let loose and free, exploding into a million fireworks and stars behind my very eyes. I spurted rope after rope of seed between us, painting our stomachs and lower bodies.

  He slowly wrapped his arms around my body and hoisted me up a bit until I lay on top of him, and we rested, catching our breath. I lay on top of his solid, muscular body, and I smiled as I looked up at his face.

  As soon as I did, he cracked a smile.

  “Ready for round two?” He asked. His chest rose and fell with steady, but rapid breaths.

  I chuckled. Even if I had said no, it would have been a lie. I wanted to do it again. As many times as possible, so long as he wanted to do it with me. I was content, and all I could think about was how there had been this switch inside my head that told me I needed Joe.

  Was it that sort of imprinting one did with the person who takes their virginity? Perhaps. But this was also paving the way for something more. For something new, for the both of us.

  It didn’t matter how many times we did it at that moment, or the fatigue I felt from all the exertions of our fucking and our lovemaking, the hunger in my stomach, or the slight amount of chafing on my body.

  What mattered was that I was in Joe’s arms.

  And oddly, I was okay with knowing that.

  Everything else could wait.

  Chapter Nineteen

  We spent the weekend at Joe’s house, and needless to say, it was the kinkiest, sexiest, most romantic—and least logical—thing I’d ever done. I awoke to Joe staring at me, the both of us naked, his arms slung around me and mine around him, and I felt a bubble of self-consciousness threaten to throw me off-kilter again.

  Oh no. He woke up before me. I had morning breath. What if he’s had sex with me now and he doesn’t want me anymore? What if—

  “Stop it,” Joe suddenly said, his voice raspy and low, but his face relaxed and contented. “I can hear you overthinking from here.”

  “I swear you’re a mind reader,” I replied, unable to help the smile that slowly spread across my face. “How do you know when my brain is up to no good?”

  Joe stirred a little bit. He wrapped his big arms around me and drew me to his chest before chuckling. I could hear his soft heartbeat against my ear, and I felt his solid warmth against me.

  No judgment, no condescension in his movements—just affection.

  I still didn’t know how to react to it on a deeper level, but I knew to let it be.

  “It’s your eyes,” Joe said. “You give it away when you’re thinking too much. Your eyes flicker a little. And you get really still, like you’re about to keel over.”

  “So basically, when I’m thinking too deeply about something, it looks like I’m about to die at any moment is what you’re saying,” I muttered, and leaned forward to gently, teasingly, bite him on the forearm.

  He chuckled. “Ow,” he grunted. “I don’t consent to this boyfriend abuse.”

  “Oh, it’s boyfriend now, is it?” I asked, trying to sound saucy. I even raised my eyebrow at him and offered what I thought was a sly smile.

  “You still think we’re not going to end up together, even after all that?”

  “I didn’t say that,” I replied. “I was just thinking…I liked the sound of that.”

  “Yeah?” Joe asked, almost as though he was a little surprised.

  For once, I knew my answer was a resounding, absolute, yes. “Yeah,” I echoed back at him. “No takebacks, though.”

  “No? Not even when you’re being a brat?” Joe looked down at me and raised his own eyebrow. I immediately leaned upward to kiss him on the lips. I would have scrunched up my face considering we’d been in bed for the better part of two days, just doing things as honeymooners would. We had sex—or made love, as the more romantic among us might say—we stayed in the bedroom and watched television while eating in our pajamas, and got to know one another better without any disturbance from the outside world.

  Well, aside from the occasional break to talk to family. Or, in Joe’s case, his agent and his publicist, to make sure they knew he wasn’t dead and he was just taking the weekend off for himself. And after the good job I’d done on writing Joe’s article, I knew his publicist could rest assured Joe was going to look the way they wanted him to look.

  I did good. I went out of my comfort zone, and I got what I wanted.

  Maybe it was what I needed, too, in the end.

  “No, not even then,” I said, nodding. “Boyfriend privileges. Since we’re doing the whole…discussing-the-relationship-and-labeling-what-we-are sort of thing.”

  “We’re talking about privileges, then?” Joe slowly turned toward me and looked me straight in the eyes. He had a playful smirk on his face. “Fine. I want the privilege of at least two dates a week.”

  I scrunched my face up at him. “It’s not my schedule that’s going to be a problem. How about this? We have two dates a week, one of them can be outside, and one of them can be a low-key night in?”

&nb
sp; “Because the last one we had went so well?”

  “Touché, but that’s not the point,” I replied, chuckling. “I just think it might be fun to be at home and really spend time with each other.”

  “Because we’re seriously trying to see if we have a future together, you mean?”

  It was nice to have Joe trying to fill in the blanks so that I didn’t accidentally put my foot in my mouth again.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean,” I acquiesced. He was saying all the right things. I was just smiling and nodding and looking up into his beautiful, deep brown eyes.

  Joe cupped my cheek and made little circles with his thumb against it. I smiled from ear to ear. I felt helpless under his charm. It was interesting what a change in perspective could do to a person.

  “It’s funny,” I started to say. “If we were doing this a couple of days ago and you were this close to me and being so affectionate, I might have tried to run away. I might have tried to rationalize everything and put myself down in the process.”

  “And now?”

  “Now…I mean, I still want to rationalize things,” I said, but quickly added, “but I’m also happy with the way things are going and I don’t want to ruin a good thing. After all, the rational explanation is just that you like me and you want to see where this is going. If I keep overthinking it, I’m not really giving you a fair shot.”

  Joe’s smile seemed to be like mine. It went from ear to ear as he wrapped his arms even tighter around me and kissed me. “Good man. I like to think of relationships kind of like food. You have a couple of ingredients and you toss them in a pan. If you pull it out of the fire too quickly, it’ll be inedible. If you keep it in the fire for too long, it’ll be inedible too. You just have to make sure everything is done in the right time before you serve it up to plate.”

  “And when the plate is perfectly served?” I asked.

  “Then you know the relationship is a dish worth savoring,” Joe said. “And you can have it over and over, of course. Maybe even for the rest of your life. Maybe.” He emphasized that last part a little too much, but I got why. Perhaps he was trying to reassure me that it wasn’t like he was expecting this big, long-term commitment, although I admit that having that happen wouldn’t have been the worst thing that could have come from this new situation between the both of us.

  I’d already fucked it up once. I didn’t want to say or do anything that could fuck it up again. Chances were, though, that the longer we were together, the bigger the probability that either one of us was going to fuck it up, or that one of us was going to call it quits. That was just the jaded reality of things.

  But I was inclined to believe Joe when he said he wanted to try to be serious with me. He wanted a serious relationship. He wanted a boyfriend. Maybe he wanted a life partner. Was that going to be me?

  I gulped. He had one hand slowly caress my cheek, and he slowly smiled as he leaned in and pressed his forehead against my own. We were mere inches from one another now.

  I smirked. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to have quality time with my man,” Joe replied. “That’s something I can do now that you’re my boyfriend, right?”

  People usually bristled at labels. Hell, I hated a majority of the labels thrown my way. Joe’s boyfriend was not one of the labels I disliked.

  “Yeah, you can definitely do that,” I said. Shit. I couldn’t stop smiling. Even though we were naked, even though I was vulnerable, and even though he was staring at me so expectantly, so…emotionally, I couldn’t stop the way my smile was spanning from one side of my face to the other. I was downright beaming, and I couldn’t help it.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said suddenly.

  I knew it would immediately fluster me, so I chuckled, and coyly pressed my head against the bottom of his chin. “No, you’re beautiful,” I responded. “But…thank you.”

  Joe laughed. “See? Was it so hard to take a compliment?”

  We spent a couple more minutes just rolling around in bed with each other. I heard him turn on the television and put it on low, just to have some ambient noise in the background. I immediately grabbed my phone from the nightstand, and my eyes widened to a barrage of notifications from a lot of different people.

  My eyes widened. “Crap,” I muttered.

  “What’s up?” Joe asked.

  “Wait, let me read it,” I said. I scrolled down for the first notification, from Dale. It was yesterday.

  Just as a heads up, the articles about Joe Kaminski’s date are going to go up any minute now, so you may want to steer clear of the internet for the time being if you don’t want to see them. I also suspect that old friends might come sending you a message inquiring about the news any minute now…

  I sighed. They gave me one day of peace and quiet, and Joe and I went ham on that and decided to gun for two days off. I really shouldn’t have spent the weekend that way. “Well, there’s no stopping this train now,” I muttered. I swiped up. Notifications from my group chat about the date, messages from my mom, my sister, my brothers, and even my father, as well as some “friends” who had forgotten I existed for a long time before trying to add me back on every social media platform I was a member of.

  I had an alert for whenever my name popped up in the news, and aside from a couple of people who thought I was this Asian dude making videos on the internet, I was pretty much a non-entity. Until now.

  Phantoms Quarterback Joe Kaminski Comes Out, and He’s Dating!

  You won’t believe who Joe Kaminski is dating!

  Eligible Bachelor No More: Joe Kaminski’s Mystery Date!

  “What?” Joe asked, looking down at me. He had grabbed his own phone and was reading something on it, swiping it up before pressing the lock button on his phone and looking down at me. “Is there something on my face?”

  Love in the time of millennials. Who knew? I looked up at him and smiled. I offered up my phone to him, showing off the alerts that had popped up on my phone.

  “Some paparazzi managed to snap a couple of shots of us when we went out for our date,” I said. This wasn’t the time to mince words. “And the company’s been trying to get them to hold back on it, but they can’t do it any longer. It’s also why I pushed to finish your article first. Beat them before they do any damage to the credibility of the reporter, and whatnot.”

  “Being in a relationship with the person you’re writing about probably won’t help, though,” Joe said, smirking. “But it doesn’t matter. You wrote a great article. I’m reading it on the Stylish website right now.”

  I sighed. “You’re right. I didn’t think it all through. Maybe I should have asked someone else to write the article.”

  “Or, and here’s a better idea,” Joe, wrapped his limbs around me and kept me in place, cuddling me against his body. Someone might’ve thought he was some kind of tentacle monster the way he clung to me with his arms and legs. “You let an expert, like, say, my publicist, or the magazine you work for, tell you what your options could be before you overthink it all through yourself?”

  “If I didn’t know any better, I would say you spent a good deal of time underneath the spotlight, Mister Kaminski,” I joked. I knew he’d been followed around by paparazzi and attended a couple of red carpet things in the past few years. It was just one of the perks of being the quarterback for the Phantoms. “I know what you mean. I’ll try not to overthink things.”

  “God forbid my boyfriend learns to relax,” Joe muttered, rolling his eyes heavenward. “Whatever will I do with my boyfriend who agonizes over every single thing?”

  “Keep him, feed him, don’t let him drink water after midnight?”

  “So you’re a gremlin, now?” Joe laughed. He actually bellowed out like some kind of thunderous, Viking god slamming a mug of ale on the counter. It wouldn’t have been too much of a reach to see him that way, truth be told.

  He wiped a stray tear from his cheek from his laughter, letting it falter off befo
re pressing a kiss to my cheek and taking a deep breath to calm himself down. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked me. I looked at him and tilted my head questioningly.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked.

  “This might be a lot to handle coming out of the gate,” he said. “You know, it might not be as bad now as if I was still in the spotlight, but people are going to be inquiring into your life and you might get some haters just purely for existing. I just don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.”

  “Overwhelmed is my status quo, Joe,” I deadpanned at him, raising my eyebrow and smiling. “It’s okay. I know what I’m getting into. If anything, this is just…a side dish. Borrowing your metaphor here, but the main course is always going to be us. And sometimes I might fuck that up, but I’m always going to try my best to make sure we make the best dish, together.”

  “If anything, I should be the one to feel a little pressure,” Joe said. “I’m the one with all the past flings and relationships. I have to be on my best behavior and prove how serious I am to you.”

  He threaded a hand through his hair and bit down on his lower lip, looking at me with half-lidded bedroom eyes. He was probably half-kidding, but I appreciated the levity.

  I leaned up close to him, placing my ear against his chest and listening to his heartbeat. “You’re also the rulebreaker. You’ll probably find some sort of way to get under my skin and make sure I can’t live without you, or something,” I muttered underneath my breath. “You’re too smart for your own good, you know.”

  “Just smart enough to know I can’t rationalize and apply logic into everything this world has to offer,” he said. “Including how I feel about a certain person with a wonderful body. Which, by the way, is up there when it comes to the best sex I’ve ever had. Are you sure you’re a virgin?”

  “You’re a flatterer and a liar and I completely approve,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But I’ll learn. You’ll see.”

  “I know you will. And you have to believe me when I say you’re great. See?” He pulled down the sheets to show that his cock was pointing straight up. He even made a point of making it twitch right in front of me.