Attachment Strings (7 page)

Protect what was mine?
Ridiculous
.

It didn’t prevent me from following on Alex’s heels. I glanced over my shoulder and mouthed
thank you
to Parker. Said man grinned, gave me the thumbs up, and turned to mustache-man. Good. Maybe he’d be lucky too.

T
HE
walk to the hotel passed in silence. I guess neither of us knew what to say. Either that or we both feared putting our foot in it. Alex lingered behind when I went over to the clerk at the desk and asked for room 17. Unfortunately, it was already occupied. We got room 19, which was also located at the end of the hallway. I beckoned Alex over with a curt nod of my head.

“Woof.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said ‘woof’. I thought that would be the appropriate reaction to your command.”

“I did not…. Oh, forget it.” I turned around and led the way. “Didn’t take you for the touchy guy.”

“I’m not.”

His lower lip slipped out a bit, not enough to qualify it as a full-blown pout, though. Slightly irritated, I said, “You sure seemed to be half a minute ago.”

“Your attitude seriously lacked half a minute ago.”

I swiveled around so fast he bumped straight into me. He made a surprised noise and I seized the opportunity to ask calmly, “Would you’ve liked it better if I had said something along the lines of, ‘Hey sweetheart, want me to carry you over the threshold’?”

Alex’s eyes widened to an almost comical size. A shocked silence surrounded him as I glowered at him. He irritated the hell out of me. Every ounce of my being was out of whack because of him and what should have been a nice romp in the sheets turned into a… at least it didn’t play out the way I would have liked.

Alex shook his head slowly. His demeanor bordered on bashfulness. “No. I’ll go with the commands.”

“I did
not
give you a command.”

Shyness fled and gave way to open annoyance. “I’m not good at obeying, so you’d waste your time anyway.”

“You’re giving me a headache.”

“Isn’t that excuse supposed to come after being in a relationship for several years? You’re going fast.”

I had enough. An alarmed expression settled over Alex’s features when I stepped forward. Before he could open his mouth, I threw him over my shoulder and carried him over to our designated room. He shrieked at first but soon laughed when it became clear that he couldn’t wriggle his way out of my hold.

“Keep your head down,” I told him as I unlocked the door.

I kicked the door shut with the heel of my shoe and proceeded right over to the bed. I threw him on it and watched him bounce. When he looked at me, there was a sudden glint lighting up his eyes. Propping himself up on his elbows, he said, “Geez, you’re really strong.”

The honest awe in his voice caused me to laugh. “You still think you can overpower me?”

I kicked off my shoes and pulled at his when he replied, “If I’m able to surprise you, yes. Otherwise probably not. Now, don’t let that go to your head. How much time do we have?”

“Same as last time.”

“All right. I believe you wanted to show me how good you are at this fucking business?”

I growled, lunged, and we spent the next minutes in a haste of shucking clothes. We rolled and tussled around until finally skin touched skin, eliciting moans of pleasure and hunger from both of us. Alex straddled my hips and arched his back when I pulled at his cock. Gasping, he said, “Wish we were in the mirror room.”

“I’ll reserve it for the next time.”

Alex stopped his rocking motions and stared down at me. Long strands of hair covered his forehead and fell into his eyes, almost obscuring them. I wondered what I had done or said for him to stop and was about to ask him, but first I reached out with my hands to brush away his hair. Huskily, he said, “I’d like that.”

Like what? Oh.
Next time
. Freudian slip much, huh? I cleared my throat. To my utmost surprise, I heard myself saying, “Me too.”

I must have gone crazy due to hormonal overload.

“You don’t look convinced,” Alex stated.

“Neither do you.”

Color rose in his cheeks. His gaze danced away from my face and darted around the room for a few seconds. Did he even know how much this gesture gave him away? His nonchalant act was almost cute when he said, “Let’s skip that part and go back to what we were doing.”

Two could play the game, so I quipped, “A man after my taste.”

“Speaking of taste….”

Alex crawled up on my body and nudged my lips with his cock. Without hesitation, I swallowed him whole, eliciting a yell from him. He braced his arms against the headboard and I watched his tendons strain, his veins pulsing visibly as I sucked him.

Soon his legs began to tremble and he was cursing a blue streak above me. I wrapped one hand on the base of his shaft while playing with his balls with the other one. A tug at the sac had him lurching forward, almost choking me in the process.

“Sorry,” he wheezed.

I gave his cock a last lick, then ordered, “Lube.”

He dove for his jeans, threw the strip with condoms on the bed, and uncapped the tube. I groaned when he curled himself up on his left side and slipped two fingers into his hole. Who would have thought that watching someone preparing himself could be so hot?

As I watched him, I kept pushing into my own hand, tightening my grip more and more. I couldn’t bear watching him for long. I scooted down on the bed so my head was level with his groin and gently pulled his hand away. I replaced his fingers with mine and slowly fucked him. He groaned and writhed. I rubbed my nose into his pubic hair, sometimes licking a trail along his shaft and sometimes nibbling at the soft flesh of his inner thighs. He almost squealed at that.

“Jeff,” he gasped out.

“What do you want?”

“You, inside me. Preferably within the next two seconds.”

I chuckled. “Might take me a few more seconds.”

“That’s torture and probably forbidden by law.”

I pushed against his gland. Alex jerked and cried out. Frantically, his hands scrambled to get a hold on my hair. He tugged until I complied before he shoved a condom into my hand. I quirked an eyebrow. “You really want me to pull my fingers out from you to get that on?”

He whimpered. He goddamn
whimpered
.

My cock swelled and I had to fight against the heat that rolled through my body, heat that threatened to take me over much too early.

Alex bent forward to kiss me. I could have drowned in the rightness of it all. His tongue flicked against mine and with that, ignited a blinding fire within me. His hands shook as he rolled the condom over my cock and I moaned into his mouth. Nothing had ever felt so good before.

Alex shoved hard against my chest and I toppled on my back with an undignified yelp. There was no time to protest because Alex swung his leg over my waist, gripped my cock, and lowered himself onto my length with one swift move. I forgot to breathe and gulped in air when he pinched my nipples.

“Oh fuck!”

“That’s the idea.”

“Smartass.”

“New pet name? How endearing. Want me to find one for you, too?”

“Shut up.”

Alex laughed, then rocked back and forth in tantalizing, small circles. The tightness and the heat around my cock, the wanton look on Alex’s face—I memorized it all in detail. I bent my legs, gripped his hips, and thrust upwards. Alex yelled and threw back his head, exposing his throat and showing off his wildly pulsating carotid. Finding a steady rhythm, we filled the room with our grunts, moans, and sometimes hoarsely uttered pleas.

I spiraled to completion too fast. I fought hard against the built-up heat but had to concede defeat when Alex stuttered, “I’m g-going to, ah, t-to come.”

“Do it.”

I thrust upward forcefully and that was all I had to do. Alex keened and shot his load on my belly. His ass muscles squeezed my cock as he pushed down hard. Blistering heat rushed through my veins, and suddenly I came in long spurts while yelling out my release.

We kept grinding against each other until my cock softened too much. I pulled out and quickly tied up the condom and threw it on the floor. Alex winced and sighed.

“Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

“Never been better. Wished you could have stayed inside me for a bit longer.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. Did he even expect me to respond? Probably not. He slid on his side, hoisted his leg up over my waist, and rested his chin atop my shoulder. In a drowsy voice he informed me, “You’re a mess.”

“And you seriously suck at afterglow conversation.”

“Unlike some unnamed people, I know I can’t be good at everything.”

“Shut up.”

“Woof.”

I pulled him on top of me and held tight as he struggled to get away. “Now you’re a mess too.”

He opened his mouth, but the shrill sound of a cell phone interrupted him. Alex’s head snapped up and concern showed clearly on his face. “I have to get that.”

I let him go and watched him dive for his cell phone. I listened to his side of the conversation. “Hello? He what? How bad? Oh, hi, Sean. Yes, I’ll be home in twenty minutes. I love you too.”

He closed his cell phone, then glanced at me. Did he wince? I probably looked as furious as I felt, which would explain his wince. Uneasiness radiated from him. “I have to go. A… some kind of family emergency.”

Family emergency
. Right. I got out of bed and briskly made my way over to the bathroom. I wiped the worst of his spunk off me while I listened to Alex dressing. He came into the bathroom, still without his shirt on. Hesitantly, he pointed at the towel in my hand. “May I use that too?”

I flung it at him. He gave a satisfying yelp. I pushed past him and threw on my clothes.

“Jeff, I’m sorry, but I think you’re getting the wrong impression here.”

Wrong impression? I shook my head. Acidly, I said, “No need to be sorry. No strings attached, right? Get home and take care of your ‘family emergency’.”

“See, that’s what I mean. Give me a second to explain it. Sean—”

“Hold it; I’m not interested in explanations.”

Alex swallowed. He finished dressing and nervously tried to smooth his hair. His voice sounded subdued when he asked, “Are we still going to repeat this? Next Friday, maybe?”

I laughed. A hard, unpleasant laugh. “No, I don’t think so. It was a mistake, right from the beginning.”

“What? No! It wasn’t! It—”

I didn’t stay to hear the rest of his explanation. I was tired to the bones and my feelings were in complete uproar. I hurt. I fucking hurt and I had no idea how to deal with the intensity of my pain.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I
WOKE
up in a bad mood. In a terrible, I-feel-like-hell mood. I had showered last night and spent the rest of it tossing around in bed. Sometimes my body succumbed to sleep, but never for very long. Memories of Alex’s smooth skin, his muscles rippling beneath my fingers, and the sounds that escaped him as he keened in ecstasy left me hot and bothered. At one point during the night it was too much for me and I brought myself off. It didn’t lift my mood. Instead, it left me feeling hollow.

Around six in the morning, I gave up my fight with sleep. I got up and stumbled into the bathroom to take another shower. Hoping to shake off my hellish mood, I turned the tap on hot. The water only scalded my skin. Thoroughly fed up with myself, I toweled off and threw some clothes on.

Begrudgingly, I had to admit that my hell of a mood remained. On top of it, I was severely sleep deprived. Never a good combination.

I managed to make breakfast, which included two large mugs of coffee, and deliberately occupied myself with the newspaper. It worked for maybe two minutes before my thoughts wandered off into realms I didn’t want to explore. What the hell had I been thinking yesterday?

Clearly, I hadn’t thought at all. Why should it matter that Alex was cheating on his lover with me? “No strings attached” had been our agreement. I’d never had a problem going through with this type of arrangement before. Now I started to loathe our word choice.