Tipping the Balance (25 page)

“I’m not hiding behind the tickling,” Brad scoffed. “What’re you talking about?”

“Oh really?” Drew said. “You start out tickling me, and only then do you kiss me, like you’re surprised you’re doing it. ‘Hey, look at that! I was tickling you, and it just happened! Again!’ Uh-uh. You want to kiss me—and for the record, I like it when you kiss me—just kiss me. No hiding, no pretending, none of this tickling bullshit.”

“I had no idea you didn’t like that. I thought it was just fun,” Brad said softly.

“It may have been,” Drew said, looking Brad in the eyes for the first time since the tickling started, “for you. For me? Not so much. For the record, there are times when I like being held down by a much bigger man, but not like that.”

Brad looked at him, momentarily confused. Then he got it. “Oh. Oh! I… well. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” He hesitated. “Can I kiss you now?”

Drew couldn’t shove his camera in his pocket fast enough. “Please.”

Brad smiled and held out his arms, and Drew rushed into them. The sight of Drew made his heart beat faster, but the feeling of Drew in his arms? Holding him against his chest while they kissed? That was going to make his head explode, he was sure of it.

Drew’s lips, soft and slick with lip balm, slid against Brad’s in a way that made him tingle like he’d been shocked. Kissing a woman had never felt like this, and kissing a man was so new he could do nothing but explore the sensation for a few moments. When they were apart, whenever he freaked about what they were doing, remembering this feeling brought him back.

Brad sagged back against the wall, pulling Drew with him and supporting his weight against him. This just felt right, Drew against him, one leg between his legs, lips pressed to his, his tongue oh-so-politely asking entrance. Brad stroked his tongue back against Drew’s, and Drew opened for him.

Brad still took his cues from Drew. His experience was with women, and he wasn’t sure what transferred. So when Drew nipped at his lips in between kisses, he moaned. It was familiar, but new and different.

So Brad nipped back. He needed to be shown what a guy liked, and when a guy—his guy—showed him the way, he took it.

“Yeah,” Drew breathed.

“You like that?”

“Uh-huh.”

Brad liked to do what his guy liked. The kisses grew heated, plundering, and Brad knew he was hard even without Drew rocking against him, hip to hip, cock to cock. The desire, the rough wanting, the need to grind into Drew made him dizzy.

It made him think of what else they could be doing with those cocks, where else they could be besides trapped behind pants and underwear. He thought about Drew’s lips wrapped around his dick as Drew sucked him. As he fucked into that hot and willing hole.

Then Brad felt Drew’s stubble, already growing in from his morning shave, press into his lips as he expanded operations, kissing and nibbling around Drew’s lips and down his chin. Drew had a nice chin, a prominent chin, a bitable chin, one made for rough kisses.

Like the other times they’d made out, the stubble surprised Brad at first, another reminder he was kissing a man, but just then, it hit. Hard. Stubble. His guy. His
guy
. He was making out with a man. That meant he was….

Brad stopped, resting his forehead on Drew’s, really on Drew’s head as he was so much taller.

When Drew moved for his lips, Brad said, “I’m sorry.”

Drew pulled back a little. “For what? What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry,” Brad repeated, whispering. “It’s just… weird, sometimes.”

“Weird?” Drew said, and Brad could tell he was hurt.

“Not bad weird… just weird. Different, I guess. I never thought—” Brad caught himself before he could say he never thought he’d feel this way about another person, but he wasn’t ready to go there yet. He took a breath and tried again. “You weren’t wrong earlier. This is hard for me. Dude, you’re a
dude
. I’m a dude. We’re kissing.”

“Or we were,” Drew said, pulling back a little to look in Brad’s eyes.

“I mean, if I’d knocked up the last woman I did, she probably wouldn’t even be showing, okay?” Brad said.

Drew winced. “So not a visual I needed.”

“Sorry,” Brad chuckled weakly, “but it’s the truth.”

“What did it this time?” Drew said.

“Stubble,” Brad said.

“I can shave more often,” Drew said.

Brad shook his head. “No. I don’t want you to. It’s different from anyone I’ve ever been with. It’s one of the things I like.”

“But you stopped kissing me,” Drew pointed out.

“It was a little weird right then,” Brad said defensively. “I didn’t say I hated it. It reminds me you’re you, that you’re a guy. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean I’m not into it.” Brad kissed him again. “Or you. Sometimes, for a while anyway, it’s gonna be hard for me.”

Drew reached down, the first time he’d grabbed Brad’s cock so boldly. “Speaking of hard.”

Brad groaned. He slumped against the wall, his eyes closed. “You just… you do something to me.”

Drew captured his lips, and he surrendered them willingly. “Not nearly what I want to do,” Drew breathed.

“Yeah? What’d you want to do?” Brad said, panting as Drew sucked on his neck.

“Promise you won’t freak out?” Drew said as he palmed Brad through his pants. “My cock, your mouth; your cock, my ass.”

Brad’s mouth went dry. Fuck. That was what Drew wanted. He wanted to fuck. On the one hand, Brad really liked what Drew was doing to him through his pants and would bet good money the man had even better ideas when they were naked.

But that meant sex. With another man. Not making out with a guy, fucking him. That was the final nail in the hetero coffin, wasn’t it? He couldn’t pretend to be straight anymore, because if he were honest with himself, he’d have to admit that since Drew, he hadn’t looked at a woman that way.

“It’s okay, Brad,” Drew said, reading his silence. He kissed Brad gently on the cheek. “That’s just what I dream of. I’m fine with the way things are. I get that there’s a difference between making out and a cock in your mouth.”

Brad coughed. “Yeah.”

“I can wait,” Drew said.

Brad didn’t know what to say, so he kissed him again.

But when Drew said, “My cock, your mouth”? His throat might’ve gone dry, but his mouth started to water. He wanted it. He wanted Drew’s cock. He didn’t know quite what to do with it, but that was changing.

Drew
liked to work out, and he liked to stay fit. Sure, he knew he looked good, even hot in his better moments, but the habit of physical fitness he’d picked up as an undergraduate when he’d been on the cross-country team persisted. Since he’d graduated, he’d become a bit of a gym rat. His full-service gym allowed him to work out around his other commitments but still keep fitness a priority. But every once in a while, he just had to get outside. Sometimes he biked, sometimes he swam, and sometimes, when the weather wasn’t too terribly hot, like that September afternoon, he ran.

Running allowed him to think without needing to focus too hard on what he was doing. It was one foot in front of the other over and over again, and it freed his mind. He needed to think that afternoon.

He and Brad had settled into a steady routine after that afternoon at their latest reno. At times, he marveled that it was “their” latest anything. But sure enough, he and Brad had thus far made a go of it. He knew not to get too far ahead of himself.

And not just professionally. What he hadn’t told Nick when he’d badgered him so relentlessly for Brad’s contact information was that in his fantasy world, his business partner would be his life-partner too. Drew would sell houses, his partner would renovate them. They’d work in the same industry, but not right on top of each other. They’d save that for after-hours. It struck Drew as the best of both worlds.

And that was what brought Drew to the trails along the American River rather than the treadmills at the gym. He liked Brad. A lot. Available evidence suggested Brad liked him too. After all, Brad was coming out of the closet. They’d made out hot and heavy a number of times, and if it had been someone else, Drew knew they’d have fucked by now.

That they hadn’t was a testimony to Drew’s patience. He knew he could’ve had Brad naked and begging that first afternoon on his couch, but seduction under such circumstances would’ve bordered on abusive. That wasn’t who he wanted to be, and if he’d given in, he’d have lost the man who gave him those shy, sweet smiles after his races. He’d have lost the fun he’d already had with Brad, the pleasure in just being around him. No quick fuck was worth that.

Drew thought as he pounded the pavement that he and Brad could be more, and that was why he was so patient. He’d had plenty of sex. He’d never had the “more” with anyone. He wanted the more with Brad. He wanted to fuck him and love him both.

He’d started this venture with the plan of luring Brad out of the closet, but it had already turned into more than he’d originally planned. He knew if he took his time and, more importantly, allowed Brad to take his own time, that he stood a good chance of realizing his whole dream of a business partner who could also be his husband. If he was patient for a while, he’d get what he wanted—Brad’s car in his garage and his cock up his ass. If he pushed, he’d scare the younger man off.

Drew stumbled as he realized that in some ways, he already had the more. Not all of it, not even most of it, but more than he’d ever had before. He really cared for Brad, cared for him in a way that he’d only ever felt about one other person, and he and Nick just hadn’t been right for each other. They might’ve made it work after a fashion, but in hindsight and from watching Nick with Morgan, Drew understood that if they’d forced it, Nick would’ve missed out on the much better thing he had with Morgan, and he… well, his happily ever after was still up in the air.

But Drew didn’t mind. He could be patient or at least try. He knew that was what people did when they loved someone. He’d do his best to wait. Brad was worth it.

It was
Saturday night, just eight days after Brad had started working for Drew. While he knew the job, being in charge of it was unfamiliar territory, and he was still nervous every afternoon when he headed over to the job site after putting in a morning at that stupid subdivision.

But he’d deal. The cash flow was less than he was used to, but then he didn’t have that many expenses to begin with, since he drove an old beater, even if it was a Lexus, and he still lived at home.

More and more, Brad worked for the weekends, because that was when he saw Drew. Sure, Drew dropped by the flip whenever he could, but despite Drew’s weekend work schedule, they still had Saturday and Sunday nights. They hadn’t been going out very long, but already they had a pattern. Brad liked patterns. They made life simpler. They’d grab some dinner and then head back to Drew’s place for some sofa time. Brad liked sofa time.