Strong Signal (Cyberlove #1)

by Megan Erickson

  He pulled back, quirking an eyebrow, and like a bastard he didn’t follow my request at all. He tugged my T-shirt over my head, then ran his fingers down my neck and over my collarbone before tweaking my nipple. I arched my back.

  “How about you get naked first?”

  Right, Garrett was in charge. And that was fine with me. His fingers rippled down my ribs, circled my bellybutton and then slid beneath the elastic of my waistband before snapping it.

  As he explored my body with single-minded focus, I ran my hands through his hair. It was as thick and soft as it’d appeared on camera, and was still bleached gold in some places while dark in others. I smiled, and he grinned back while leaning into my caress and simultaneously sliding my sweatpants off.

  Lying on the bed naked as a clothed Garrett devouring me with wild eyes was just about as hot as it had been in my imagination. Actually no, it was hotter. Way hotter.

  And it got even hotter when he ripped off his shirt and bent back down to attach his mouth to my neck. With a firm hand on my hip, holding me down, he ran his tongue along my shoulder, tracing my collarbone. I slid my fingers over his back, up the knobs of his spine, and oriented myself to the fact that he was really in my bedroom.

  Right beside us was the computer I’d used to communicate with him for months. It was a mind trip that he was now in my bed while those calloused fingers—I knew he’d have callouses—wrapped around my dick. He stroked and I groaned as he swirled a tongue over my nipple.

  His hips were moving, thrusting into me through the thick layer of denim until he growled and jerked away. With impatient motions, Garrett discarded his own clothing. I couldn’t look away from him, all gloriously naked six-foot whatever of his body. The V of his torso, the muscular stomach and shoulders, and thighs that were thick and slightly furred. There was a lot of power packed into his body, and I couldn’t wait until I had time to explore him. I wanted to see his ass, but he was already back in bed and pulling me onto my side to slip one of those meaty thighs between my legs, nudging my balls.

  “I hope you have enough lube and condoms.” Garrett dipped a finger into the top of my crease before sliding it down, close to my hole. “Because I plan to fuck the hell out of you for the next two weeks.”

  I’d wondered if Garrett’s mouth would be as dirty in person, or if it had just been part of sexting and Skype. Now, I knew. And I loved it.

  I reached down, my fingers slipping through the wiry hair around his dick before gripping it hard and stroking. The red, slick head of his cock slipping through my fist, and Garrett thrusted into it, his hips moving rapidly. His finger was pressed against my hole now, and fuck, I had ideas. So many ideas about what we could do, how we could draw this out—

  With a strangled cry, Garrett’s dick pulsed and he came.

  At first, I thought maybe he’d just leaked precum like a faucet, but nope. His head was back, eyes squeezed shut, and his neck cords were straining. It was an epic release. All over our bodies, the sheets and my hand.

  I…had underestimated the pent-up arousal of a deployed soldier.

  After wiping my hand on the sheet, I sat up to see his face. He hadn’t opened his eyes. In fact, he was squeezing them harder.

  “Hey,” I said softly, cupping his face and rubbing my thumb along the corner of his mouth. “The least you could do is look at me after I give you a hand job.”

  He opened his eyes but refused to meet my gaze.

  “You’re still not looking at me.”

  Garrett finally turned his face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. What’s wrong?”

  “I came like fucking seconds after you touched my dick.”

  “It was at least a minute,” I scoffed.

  He stared.

  “Okay, maybe like thirty seconds.”

  Rolling onto his back with a groan, Garrett covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe that happened.”

  I couldn’t tell if he looked fuckable or ridiculous with his legs hanging off the bed and his softened dick still thick and long against his thigh. I straddled him and tugged on his wrists until he lowered his hands.

  “Garrett.”

  He continued to stare at the ceiling.

  This was cute, but it was seconds away from being irritating. “You came all this way so you could ignore me?”

  He shot up so fast I would have fallen off his lap if he hadn’t grabbed my waist. “Shit, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’m embarrassed.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I didn’t…I didn’t get to make you feel good or do anything—”

  “Stop,” I said, holding my hand up. “Stop right there. Do you plan on leaving now? Like, getting a little handie and then bailing back home?”

  Garrett’s dark brows snapped together. “No fucking way.”

  “Okay, then there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You just came home from a nine-month deployment. Of course you’re not going to have crazy stamina. And to say I didn’t get anything out of that is a lie. You touched me. You made me feel wanted. And I got you off. Do you want to know how awesome I feel because I could make you shoot that fast?”

  At last, a grudging smile appeared at the corners of his lips. “It was because it was you, too. I thought about this so much. I’d planned for our first time together to be perfect, but the first time you touched me, I—” He shook his head. “Your taste, the way you smell and feel, the sounds you make. Fuck, even the way your body moves. God, Kai. I didn’t think I could want you more, but I fucking do.”

  We were kissing almost before he’d finished his sentence. I explored his mouth and inhaled his scent until it imprinted in my nostrils. I touched his prominent brow, ran my fingers over his eyebrows, then crested his cheekbones.

  “I’m glad you opened the door,” he said softly. “Thank you for giving me a shot.”

  My desire to kiss him again strengthened the longer I stared into his eyes, but I changed the subject. “I bet you’re hungry, right? Let me get you something.”

  Garrett squeezed my side again. “I can always eat.”

  “Just lay down and relax.” I climbed off his lap. “We’ll eat, refuel, then go for another round, all right?”

  “You got it.” He sat on the edge of the bed with his feet on the floor, his arms braced behind him. “Thanks for not making me feel like a two-pump chump.”

  I wanted to beat every guy who’d made him feel self-conscious. He was sexy as fuck, and as much as I planned to mount him while he was here, he’d have his stamina back in no time. “Are you kidding? I slammed a door in your face and made you text me until you fell asleep in the hallway. And you’ve yet to make fun of me.”

  “Do you want to talk about that? I can wait.”

  I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yeah. Let me get some food first. I’ll just say, uh, I don’t leave my apartment much. My only friends are people on stream Chat and Shawn. I don’t do…” I waved a hand. “The world.”

  Instead of shifting his eyes away from the crazy person, Garrett nodded in understanding, looking completely unfazed. “I get it. Why do you think I brought a fucking laptop overseas so I could avoid other people? The world sucks.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, it does.”

  “We probably have more in common than you think, baby. Don’t be afraid…to show me who you are.” He closed his hands around the side of the bed, crinkling the blankets further. “Anyway, let’s eat. Then maybe we can talk and actually do some of the shit we talked about.”

  “Ten-four.”

  I gave him a likely incorrect salute, pulled on my pants, and left the room.

  Refusing to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I searched for real food. While heating up beef and vegetable soup I’d made the day before, I leaned against the counter and stared down the hallway. I hadn’t told him the full story but at least he knew I wasn’t some club kid with a packed social
life.

  I had no idea where this could go or how long he was staying, but fuck it. He was here and he’d bought me a stuffed panda, dammit. He’d made an effort to understand me, and so far…he wanted me despite everything. It was a miracle, or maybe just a sign of his patience, and another reminder that this guy had managed to become an important part of my life.

  With two bowls of soup, I walked carefully down my hallway. When I reached the bedroom, I started to declare that food was ready but swallowed the words. Garrett was asleep on his back, his head on a pillow, and his feet tangled up in my sheet. The guy was exhausted.

  Why hadn’t I considered how badly he needed to sleep? He’d fallen asleep in my damn hallway.

  I set the soup to the side and carefully drew the sheet up over his body. I did it slowly, of course, admiring the fine lines of his body, the curve of his hip, the cut of his abs. His dog tags laid on his chest, rising and falling with each breath. His mouth was open and the tenseness of his expression was gone, making him look younger.

  A man was asleep in my bed for the first time ever, and it felt anything but wrong.

  I took off my pants and slipped into bed next to him. I snuggled as close to him as I dared, until the hair on his arm brushed mine. With the heat radiating from his body, I was yawning in no time, lulled to sleep by his steady breathing and contentment soothing me.

  * * *

  Garrett

  I awoke with a jerk, fully expecting myself to be in my too-small bed on the FOB with a scratchy sheet half-covering me. Instead, an unfamiliar ceiling stretched above me while a soft plush mattress supported my body.

  Right. I wasn’t in Afghanistan anymore. My deployment, and my enlistment, was over.

  But there was still the chance I’d look around and find myself in the childhood home that had now become unfamiliar to me. There was a big possibility I was in my mother’s sagging colonial with a scraggly too-large yard surrounding us, and my father’s never touched hobby cars still rotting out in the driveway. It was possible Kai wasn’t there.

  Slowly, I felt around beside me and exhaled once my fingers brushed smooth skin. God, he was soft. And he smelled so good. Pushing past my moment of paranoia, I turned my head. There was no stopping the smile that stretched across my face.

  Kai was lying on his side next to me with his hands pillowed under his face and his body sprawled elegantly. With his silky black hair shading half his face and his full lips parted, the guy was beautiful. It struck me much harder than it had the moment I’d found his Twitch channel, because he was here. He was next to me. He was real.

  And he was still naked with the deep golden rays of the setting sun highlighting every part of his body.

  My dick went from semi-hard to throbbing as I dragged my eyes over his lean frame. Bared flesh and a tempting body that had previously been draped all over me pretty much screamed “prime for touching,” and I did not ignore that call.

  Sweeping my hand over the warm flesh of his thigh, I followed the sharp curve of his hip and settled my grip at the small of his back. Part of me wanted to wake him with wet kissing and my lips wrapped around his dick, or my length pushing against his ass, but the other part me was wary of startling him awake. If he woke up as disoriented and confused as I’d been, it could very quickly turn into disaster. During my first enlistment, Ramirez had tried fucking me while I’d been dead asleep in a crappy tent, and I’d started fighting and cursing like he’d been trying to shove a rifle in my ass. His broken nose and knocked out teeth were the two primary reasons we’d stopped fooling around. Nothing spelled “the end” like a missing canine.

  So I took it slow with Kai. Traced the bumps of his spine with my fingers, brushed my lips against his shoulder, then his clavicle, before sucking lightly on his neck. His warm breath drew in sharply, and my erection pulsed at the soft moan that dripped from his mouth.

  “I was going to fuck you awake,” I murmured against his damp skin. “But I wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

  “I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I honestly might have freaked while half-asleep.” Kai rolled on his back and brought me with him. He locked his legs around my knees, trapping me between his thighs and grinding our dicks together. “But I’m ready now.”

  “You sure?” I asked, the words punctuating each kiss. “We could just—”

  “I’m sure.” Kai rocked up against me, panting harshly. “I need your hands on me. Need to know this is real.”

  It was all I needed to lose myself in him. The taste of his lips and sweaty skin, and the feel of his damp cockhead dragging against mine. I forgot everything as he explored the inside of my mouth—where we were, how long I’d been here, my promise to check in with my sister after I made it to my mysterious destination, and the fact that a couple of hours ago I’d been sure this had all been in my head. None of that mattered. Especially when Kai flipped us again with his surprising strength, and straddled me.

  With each knee on either side of my hips, Kai buried one hand in my hair and braced the other against my shoulder while he did his best to suck my tongue into his mouth. It was no longer possible to figure out which moans belonged to whom, or whose heart was racing the fastest. When I wrapped my arm around his hip to slide down to his ass, we were completely wrapped up in each other. And when I delved my finger into his ass, we were connected in more ways than one.

  “Oh fuck,” Kai breathed against me. “It’s been so long since anyone touched me like this.”

  I withdrew my finger and slicked it with saliva before returning it to his ass, fucking it faster as he continued writhing and humping me like he couldn’t get enough. My nuts tightened and my toes clawed at the sheet. Already I could feel the sharp lance of fire burning inside me—the desperation to get off fast and hard because this was almost too much teasing for my starved body to handle.

  “You like when I play with your ass?”

  “Yes,” he panted. “Please, yes.”

  “Please what?” I stilled my finger and shuddered when he released a protesting growl.

  “Please don’t stop fingering my ass, Garrett.”

  I could have burst right then and there. The sound of my name on his lips, when he was squirming and panting and flushed with desire, nearly pushed me over the edge. It didn’t help when he yanked my head back and sank his teeth into the side of my neck, or when he began grinding against me in earnest, like he wanted me to blow my load early yet again.

  But I held it together. Somehow. And I pumped my finger into his ass until he was vibrating against me and reaching frantically toward his side table for a condom or lube. His fingers brushed random objects and knocked them off the top, but he didn’t reach the drawer.

  “Goddamn it,” he hissed. “Shit.”

  “I could get—”

  “No, you’re not going anywhere.”

  Kai sat up and scooted forward until he was straddling my chest. He leaned forward to reach the drawer and I took the opportunity to wrap my lips around his cock. Something else crashed to the floor but Kai was too busy grabbing the back of my head and humping my face to care. It was a mess of saliva and pre-cum and wet pleading cries, and I loved every minute of it. Especially when I shoved two fingers into his tight little ass and gave him what he wanted from both ways.

  “Oh fuck, Garrett. Oh my God.” My only response was to hook my fingers up and fuck him deeper. Kai gasped, hunched forward, and yanked my hair. “Babe—no, fuck. Not yet—I wanna come with your dick in me.”

  “Let’s make it fucking happen then.”

  I suckled on the tip of his dick while he got what he needed. The movement was reluctant when he pulled out of my mouth, and I licked the taste of him from my lips once his dick was freed. Tearing my eyes away from his erection was a feat, but the sight of him red-faced, damp lipped, and staring at me with gleaming eyes was amazing. I’d seen him get wild on Skype, but it was nothing compared to the heat of his body and the smell of his musk.

  And pumpi
ng into my own hand had been nowhere close to the tightness enclosing my dick when he rubbered and lubed me. There was only the briefest of hesitations before he slid right on.

  “Oh shit.” I clamped my hands on his hips and squeezed my eyes shut. It was too good. Too fucking good. “Oh my fucking God.” Kai rocked against me and I thrashed my head back and forth, whimpering. “Fuck baby, not yet. Not yet. Feels too good.”

  Kai dipped his head down with a breathless chuckle. “Your dick is so big.”

  “Too big?” I rasped. “You’re so fucking tight.”

  “It’s perfect.” He worked his muscles around my dick, squeezing and milking slowly as he covered my face with kisses. “You’re perfect.”

  I opened my eyes to find him gazing down at me with an expression so tender that I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know what to think. Because this shit felt like more than just pent up sex after months of cyber banging. This felt like the start of something serious, and…it was too early to think like that. There was still too much unsaid. Too much unknown. That moment at the door had proven it.

  I tangled my fingers in his hair, yanked his face down, and kissed him hard. Hard enough to block out the thoughts and the doubts and the questions as I adjusted to the feel of a vice around my cock, and started pounding him.

  He slammed down while I pushed up, and I still couldn’t get enough. An internal chant of more more more played over and over in my head until it filled with white noise and the freight train rush of my boiling blood. Soon we were just panting against each other’s swollen mouths, eyes locked and tongues still coiling together as he rode me to completion.

  I came so hard my brain short-circuited. My breath caught in my chest as each rush of semen flooded the condom, and I distantly heard myself making strained sounds. When my eyes focused again, it was to Kai throwing his head back as his hand flew over his dick. Sound filtered through the drum of my own heartbeat, and I heard him crying out loud enough to pass through the walls of his apartment.

  “Oh fuck,” he cried out. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck—” the mantra broke off when I hitched myself up on my elbows and drew him into my mouth. Kai released with a wild cry. I swallowed down every drop, enjoying his taste and the way he whimpered my name.