Brighter Shades of Light

by Jaclyn Osborn

  The moment was sensual and romantic, like all the unspoken things between us found a way to surface without having to say a word. My kisses told him I loved him, and his touches made me believe he felt the same.

  My erection rubbed against his cheeks as he sat back, and I concentrated on my breathing. It had been so long since I slept with someone that I worried I wouldn’t be able to last long.

  Cody popped open the bottle of lube and squeezed some into his hand. His eyes closed as he reached around and fingered his backside. I would’ve gladly done it for him, but it was clear he was too eager to wait. So was I.

  The sight made my cock twitch beneath him. His torso stretched beautifully, and I couldn’t help but glide my hands up his chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath the soft skin. When he squirted more lube in his hand and stroked me, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning.

  “Ready for the ride of your life?” He waggled his eyebrows.

  I couldn’t speak.

  His grin widened when I nodded. He was more than aware of the effect he had on me. He guided my cock to his entrance, and I held my breath. His brow furrowed as my tip pressed against his tight hole.

  “Don’t rush it,” I said, rubbing the top of his thigh. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I felt his hole stretch to take the rest of my tip. Once it eased inside, he breathed a relieved sigh and paused for just a moment to let his body get accustomed to my girth. And then he started moving. Our gazes locked as he rolled his hips, gliding up and down my slick shaft.

  His tight heat nearly pushed me over the edge.

  It had, indeed, been way too long since I had had sex. A mouth felt incredible, but it was nothing compared to a warm body. Because it was more than just Cody riding my cock that had me close already. It was all of it; the sensation of being inside him, the way his hands gripped my chest, and the euphoria in his eyes. His pleasure heightened my own.

  “I love that you kept these on,” Cody moaned, touching my glasses. “You’re like a sexy nerd.”

  My chuckle cut off into a whine as he stopped moving. When I bucked my hips up, he went up as well, denying me the satisfaction of thrusting back into him.

  “Why are you teasing me?”

  “Because it’s fun,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

  As he braced his hands on my chest and starting moving again, I stretched out my legs and scooted down the mattress a bit. His knees were on each side of me, and I grazed my nails up his thighs. I was close to orgasm but wanted to hold off until he came first. So, naturally, I started mentally reciting the elements on the Periodic Table to distract myself a little.

  “Get out of your head, Sebastian.” Cody peered down at me underneath long lashes. “I’m here. Not there.”

  He would’ve laughed had he known what I was thinking about. Now wasn’t the time to tell him, though.

  “You feel so good,” he said, moving faster. His cock bounced with his movements, and I took hold of it, stroking him. “Ah, fuck. Just like that.”

  Cody whimpered, and his muscled body tensed. His movements faltered, and I took over, pumping into him as my hand stayed on his cock. I drove my hips upward so fast he had to bend forward and hold onto the headboard to keep his balance.

  When he started to shatter into a million pieces above me, crying out his release, I finally let go and followed him. My toes curled as a pleasure so intense shot through me.

  He collapsed on me, his skin sticky both from sweat and from the mess he’d made on my chest when he came. I put my arms around him and kissed the side of his head. My heart threatened to burst from my chest as I held him.

  In such a short time, Cody had come to mean more to me than anything in my life.

  “Does this count as extra credit?” Cody asked, turning his head to gaze up at me with heavy-lidded eyes.

  “Favors won’t do you any good in the long run, Mr. Miller,” I said, playing along. “Work hard and let your grade reflect that.”

  “Damn.” He wiggled and nuzzled my neck. “I thought this was me working hard.”

  I combed my fingers through his hair and shook my head, amused.

  Love wasn’t logical. There was no formula to explain it; everyone experienced it differently. But I loved Cody.

  As we lay together, the realization of that love was both soothing and terrifying. I held him closer, dreading the moment I had to let go.

  Cody kissed my neck, and I tilted my head back on the pillow. He touched my bare chest, and my fingers glided along the cords of muscle in his arms. Every part of me wanted him. Sexually, emotionally. He not only staked his claim on my body but on my very soul.

  I wasn’t sure if I believed in the idea of souls, but if I did, mine would belong to him.

  I shut my eyes, concentrating on the way his heart thumped against mine and each breath he took. I was happy. Not content, and not just making it through the day…but truly happy. All because of him.

  I must’ve dozed off because when I opened my eyes, the light streaming through the bedroom window was fainter than it had been.

  Cody wasn’t in bed with me.

  Groggy, I sat up and squinted around the room. Everything was blurry, and it took me several moments to realize why. I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I’d had them on before I fell asleep. My heart fluttered when it occurred to me Cody had taken them off for me. I felt around the bedside table for them and put them on. Much better.

  My body ached from the exertion of muscles I hadn’t used in a while, but I also felt less tense than before. I stood and recovered my briefs and pants from the floor before putting them on and leaving the room.

  Noise came from the kitchen, pots or pans being moved around and the rustle of something being opened. Coffee was brewing, sending a delicious aroma down the hall. Before I rounded the corner, I heard a sizzling followed by a soft humming.

  Cody stood in front of the stove, cooking bacon in a cast-iron skillet. He was wearing boxers and one of my T-shirts instead of his own. Seeing him in my clothes made my body stir, even though I was more than sated.

  “Breakfast for lunch?” I asked, coming up behind him.

  “More like dinner.” Cody tilted his head against mine as I kissed his shoulder. “You were asleep all day.”

  “I apologize.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” He flipped the bacon and set the spatula down before facing me. His messy dark hair made him appear even younger, another reminder of our differences. “You needed it. When I tried to wake you up, you didn’t even budge. I take it you spent all night in your study?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Uh huh.” His eyes narrowed.

  “Since I slept the day away,” I said as I slid my arms around him, “will you stay the night with me?”

  “Hell yeah.” Cody beamed. After kissing me lightly on the lips, he turned back around to remove the bacon from the skillet. “Have you graded our tests yet?”

  “Yes.”

  I had been pleasantly surprised at his exam. Cody had done a lot better than he thought—a seventy-five percent. It was still passing.

  “What did I make?” he asked.

  I laughed and grabbed two mugs from the cabinet. “Now, Mr. Miller. Just because you’ve burrowed your way into my heart doesn’t mean I’m going to give you special treatment.”

  “Have I really?”

  I looked over at him, his suddenly-serious expression out of place for the lighthearted conversation. “Have you what?”

  “Burrowed my way into your heart.”

  “Yes.” I stepped toward him, reaching for his hand. He met me halfway and stood with me, chest to chest, our fingers linked. “Without a doubt.”

  When he didn’t respond, nerves coiled in my gut. What if we weren’t only on different pages, but reading out of completely different books? Our relationship had progressed without us putting a label on it.

  On Halloween, he said he had fallen for me. But he had also just had
an orgasm at the time and been nearly asleep. A drowsy mind sometimes made us say what we didn’t mean.

  “Know what I think?”

  I smiled. “What do you think, Mr. Miller?”

  “That we’re both a little broken.” He laid his head on my shoulder. “But we fit together perfectly.”

  A spark. A flame. A mighty blaze. Cody had set me on fire, the flames burning away all the misconceptions I had about myself.

  “Do you want my honest opinion, Sebastian?” Emily had told me months ago in my office. “If all of your relationships fail, with lovers and with friends, maybe it’s not everyone else who doesn’t fit. The common denominator in all instances…is you. The experiment won’t ever be successful because other people aren’t the problem. You are.”

  But Cody said we fit together. That our broken edges slid into place perfectly.

  I no longer believed I was the part of the equation that didn’t fit. I had only needed to find the other half that completed mine.

  Chapter 18

  Cody

  The first snowfall of the year couldn’t have come at a better time. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and classes were out for the holiday. I packed a bag and stayed the weekend with Sebastian, and when Sunday came around, he hadn’t wanted me to leave, so I stayed another night. Then more after that.

  We woke up to snow falling outside the bedroom window, soundless and beautiful.

  Sebastian kissed my neck, and I leaned into him. Our limbs were tangled around each other, and my ass was sore from the pounding it’d taken over the past several days. But fuck, I loved it.

  I loved him. He was everything I’d ever wanted in a man, someone who kept my interest for longer than a night or two and who I could challenge to a battle of wits—even if he always won. He was someone I could see myself with long-term. Not to mention he had lips that drove me crazy and hands that sent me to the stars.

  No one else had ever made me come as hard as Sebastian did. I didn’t know if he had a magic cock or something, but I couldn’t get enough.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked between kisses.

  “The Periodic Table.”

  Sebastian smiled against my throat. “You will never let me forget that, will you?”

  “Nope. You shouldn’t have told me.” I wrapped my arms around him and flipped him to his back. “But I’m glad you did. I’ve never laughed that hard.”

  “Oh, I remember. I’m glad you find so much enjoyment in it, Mr. Miller.” His hands kneaded my shoulder blades.

  “God, don’t stop.” I hung my head on his chest, groaning. Yep. Magic hands, as well as a magic cock.

  “I’ve been called many things in my life, but God isn’t one of them.”

  I lifted my head and smiled. “Did you just make a funny, Dr. Vale?”

  “Make a funny?” His brows rose. “I suppose I did.”

  The snow piled higher outside as we lay in bed, kissing, touching, stroking. Sebastian rolled me over and got between my legs, holding my arms above my head. His blond hair curtained around his face as he looked down at me, his lips so close to mine but not close enough. Never close enough.

  Still stretched from last night, I needed very little prep before I was ready to take him again. A condom was torn from the pack and lube was generously added, slicking his long, thick cock. He fucked me slow but deep, and the headboard bumped against the wall with each hard thrust.

  I wrapped him in my arms and hooked my ankles around his legs, meeting his thrusts with a slight rising of my hips.

  “Let go, Cody,” he said, his voice laced with desire.

  When I came, I bit his shoulder and groaned so hard I’d probably go hoarse. He pounded into me harder, faster, and my orgasm went on and on. Pretty sure my eyes rolled into the back of my head. His thrusts lost rhythm as he started coming, too.

  “Fuck yeah, baby,” I encouraged, squeezing his ass and tugging him harder. I loved the feel of his orgasm, how his dick twitched and pulsed inside me.

  We showered together afterward. As we stood under the water, I grabbed the bath sponge, squeezed shower gel on it, and began washing his back. Showering with him, both of us naked and right up against each other, was as intimate as the sex but in a different way.

  “I’m crazy about you, you know,” Sebastian said, turning to face me.

  Without his glasses, I saw hints of gold in his green eyes. The water made his wavy hair stick to the sides of his face, and I lifted a hand to move it aside.

  “Feeling’s mutual.” I ran a thumb along his prickly jaw. He kept a smooth face, but he hadn’t shaved yet this morning. The slight stubble was so fucking sexy. “I know we haven’t really talked about what we are. What we’re doing. But this isn’t just some casual thing for me, Sebastian. I…”

  The words were right there on the tip of my tongue, but saying them was proving harder than I thought.

  “I know,” he said, touching my bottom lip. His expression showed he knew exactly what I failed to say. “I know.”

  He pressed his mouth to mine and gripped my waist, pulling our bodies closer.

  We hadn’t said those three little words yet, but we didn’t have to. They were only words, after all, uttered from thousands of people’s lips every day. Saying I love you wasn’t as important as showing it.

  After the shower, I cooked us breakfast while Sebastian started the coffee. We moved around each other easily in the kitchen, as if it had become a routine. In a way, I guess it had. He grabbed the cutting board from the top of the microwave and sliced up fruit to go with the cheese omelet. He said it made the meal seem healthier.

  “Did your mom know about you and Leon?” I asked, as we sat at the table to eat.

  Leon had been brought up in conversation a few times, and I was curious about him. Maybe a little jealous, too, if I were being honest. Although I had no reason to be. The poor guy was dead. Sebastian didn’t seem like the type to get close to people, though, so my interest was piqued about the man who’d swept my beautiful chemist off his feet.

  Sebastian stilled. “Yes, she knew.” He cut off a piece of his omelet and chewed slowly. “After Leon died, she told me I needed to find a woman to settle down with. She wanted to see her only son get married before she died.”

  “Is she still alive?”

  “No. She died from a stroke two years ago.”

  “Damn. I know you said you weren’t that close with her growing up, but I’m sorry for your loss. It’s good you didn’t get married just to please her, though.”

  Sebastian’s eyes flashed to mine, and something in his expression made me pause in my chewing. Before I could ask what was wrong, a car door slammed from outside.

  “Were you expecting someone?” I asked, jumping up from the table. Fuck, if it was a colleague of his or someone else from the university, they couldn’t see me here. I was just in a pair of boxers, so if they walked in, it would be kind of obvious it wasn’t a study session.

  “No.” Sebastian stood, his brow drawn tight, and walked into the living room. He moved the blinds with a finger and peered out the window. “Goddammit.”

  I gaped at him. “I’ve never heard you cuss before.”

  He shot me a worried look before running his hands through his hair. “Cody, I need to tell you—”

  He froze when there was a knock at the door.

  “Sebastian?” a woman’s voice said from the other side.

  Confused, I stared at Sebastian. He looked terrified. And guilty. I debated running down the hall to hide but he was already opening the door.

  “Emily,” he said, his back turned to me as he greeted her. “Why are you here?”

  Wow. He sounded cold as ice. Was he like that with everyone?

  “I know how you are about forgetting to go grocery shopping,” Emily answered. Sebastian’s six-foot-two stature blocked my view, and I couldn’t see her. “I wanted to stop by and drop some things off. Soup, milk, eggs. The snow’s accumulatin
g on the roads, and you might not be able to get out for a while.”

  “You could’ve called. I don’t need anything.” His distant tone sounded robotic.

  “Whose truck is out front?” she asked.

  I sucked in a breath.

  “That is none of your concern,” Sebastian said coolly. “You should leave before the weather worsens. It was foolish to come here.”

  “I heard from Claudia that you were seeing someone. Is that true?”

  Who the hell was Claudia?

  “I can’t fathom what would possess her to say such a thing,” Sebastian said with a growl. “She knows nothing about me or my life.”

  “Well, she said she made a move on you, and you rejected her. I almost pulled her hair out when she told me. She was convinced you were seeing someone else.”

  “Emily, this isn’t the time to—”

  “There’s never the time with you, Sebastian! You’re busy grading papers, researching, or working on experiments that don’t mean half as much as the people in your life do. As much as I do. You chose all of that over me.”

  “Stop acting like a child,” he snapped. I wasn’t used to hearing him lose his temper. Strong bursts of emotion were uncommon for him. “Who I date and who I fuck means nothing to you anymore. You lost that right when the divorce papers were signed.”

  Divorce papers?

  “So you are fucking someone? I wonder if she knows how big of an ass you are.” Emily slammed her palm against the door and shoved it open before barging into the house.

  Her eyes went wide when she saw me. I was sure I mirrored her expression.

  The already-awkward situation became even worse when I realized she was a professor at the university. I had never taken her classes, but I had seen her around campus. Red hair, brown eyes, porcelain skin, and a petite build, she was beautiful. And fucking pissed, judging by the glare she aimed my way.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Um.”

  Sebastian closed the door and walked over to me, placing his hand at my lower back. “Emily, you need to leave.”