"I’m sorry that happened to you. I can’t imagine how you felt."
"It gets better. I went home that weekend. Janie wouldn’t even talk to me and Jen kept making crude remarks until she finally came right out and told my parents about me and my boyfriend. My dad exploded. He and I had a huge fight that ended when he punched me out. I left and I’ve never gone back. Dad stopped helping pay for school after that. I got a job, several jobs in fact, and finished my senior year."
James sighed and rubbed at his forehead. "Julie came for graduation and she calls about once a month. She says mom and dad still love me, but . . . " James' voice hitched and he wiped at his eyes under the guise of pushing his hair off his face, "the last time I saw my mom, she looked like she was going to cry for the rest of her life."
Hooking an arm gently around James' hunched shoulders, Bram's voice was soft and understanding. "No wonder you have a little problem trusting people."
"Little?" James snorted and closed his eyes. "I’ve never felt so betrayed in my life. First my roommate, then Jen and my own parents. Mom never said a word when Dad was throwing me out." A tear broke loose and slid down his cheek, hastily brushed away with nervous fingers. "But I can’t change who I am." He looked up at Bram, eyes full of hope and fear. "I knew it then and I know it now."
"I’m glad about that." Bram briefly squeezed James.
"Don’t get me wrong. It’s still hard to think about being as open as you are, but I’m willing to work on it. If you’ll help me, be patient with me." James turned into the embrace and wrapped his arms around Bram's waist. "I really want this to work between us, Bram. I know it's not an excuse for not telling you the truth about the dinner or accusing you of seeing Williams, but it's an explanation."
James whispered so softly Bram had to strain to hear it. "You understand so much about me already, what I need, instinctively, I wanted you understand about this, too. I've never confessed this to anyone else, ever."
Pulling James closer, Bram rested his chin on James' curly head and took a deep breath.
"While we're making confessions here, I have one to tell you."
James stiffened a little in Bram's arms, prepared to hear the worst. It had been too much to expect the other man to accept the distrust and hesitancy. Bram had been nothing but
A Bit of Rough - 131
assured and giving from the start. James wasn't surprised Bram wasn't willing to settle for an uncertain lover. Bram deserved more from a potentially permanent relationship.
James was surprised how much the thought of losing Bram made him tremble and even more surprised when the tremors shook the outside of his body, as well as the inside.
"Hey, Jamie, what the hell is all the shaking about?" The arms around him tightened sharply and Bram ran a soothing hand up and down his back and arm. "My confession isn't all that bad. At least I hope you won't think so."
James couldn't find his voice, the crazy hope in his head that if he didn't ask, Bram wouldn't tell him it was over. James bit his lower lip so hard he drew blood. Unable to see James' face and the trickle of blood, Bram continued.
"It's about Williams." James went rigid again and Bram hurried with his explanation. "I didn't go see him, but I did try and make sure he didn't try anything." Bram sighed and plunged ahead, rubbing and squeezing the tense, lean shoulders under his massive hand.
"I know you didn't want me to get involved but I couldn't leave you alone there every night with that creep two doors down."
James wiggled free of the tight embrace and pulled back far enough to look at Bram's contrite face. Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he just looked at the other man until Bram continued.
"Okay, okay, don't look at me like that. It's no big thing." The exasperation at having to explain himself was clear in his voice, along with a little embarrassment. "I just asked Mitch and a couple of the guys to make sure you got home safe at night while I was out of town and unavailable."
The frown on James' face deepened. "How?"
Bram hesitated then sighed, gripping James' hands in both of his. "They waited at your building after work. Outside. Made sure you got in the door and that the lights came on in your apartment in a reasonable amount of time." The guilty look on Bram's face was tempered with determination. "I wasn't going to leave you on your own to deal with that asshole."
James raised his eyebrows at that, giving Bram a disbelieving glare.
Bram sputtered and colored slightly. "It was just two nights! And they never went in the building! Any time Williams harassed you it was out in the hall. I figured you were safe if you made it inside your place."
"That's all they did?" James asked suspiciously.
A Bit of Rough - 132
"Mostly." Bram admitted grudgingly. "Mitch insisted on staying until your lights went out both nights, but that was his decision."
"
Mitch
?" James was incredulous.
"Yeah, Mitch. He thinks you look like one of those tiny poodles. All curls and wide eyes." Bram smiled when a pissed off expression replaced the slightly frightened, uncertain one on James' face. "He says you're little, but you've got sharp tiny teeth and a kick-ass attitude." The frown dissolved a little. "He likes you." Bram ruffled the curls on James' head. "Thinks I should keep you." The playful tousle turned into a gentle, sensual caress. "I agree." Bram's voice dropped an octave and a gentle light came into his eyes.
James felt his mouth fall open in surprised and the trembling of his limbs increased until he was shivering. Licking at the split in his lip, he studied Bram's waiting expectant expression. His voice was low and shook as much as his body did.
"You still want me? After all this shit?"
"What's not to want? You're not perfect, Jamie, but neither am I. What do you say we work on our shortcomings together?" Bram pulled James up and around and had him straddle his lap on the stairs.
James settled comfortably onto Bram and folded into a warm, sheltering embrace in the big man's arms. "I should be mad at you about the babysitting thing, but I'm not." He dropped a quick kiss on the end of Bram's chin. "I think it was an outstanding, loving thing to do."
"Good." Bram ducked his head and quirked his eyebrows high for a second, looking sheepish. "I was afraid it was going to piss you off."
"It did." James tried to scowl at his lover, but it came off as lame when a twisted smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "Or would have," he sighed. "If I'd known about it at the time." He smacked Bram's chest hard with his open palm, but the big man seemed too preoccupied with gazing lovingly down at his feisty lover to notice. "But now it seems just . . . sweet. Kind of makes me feel protected and cared for." James' tone turned wistful. "Haven't felt that in a long time."
The endearingly sexy, lopsided grin spread across Bram's face, but James wasn't falling for it. "But that
doesn't
mean you should do it again, caveman."
Laughing, Bram hugged James closer and slid his hands under James' butt, caressing and massaging the twin globes of flesh as he talked. "Okay. I won't ask Mitch and the guys to sit outside your apartment again. But that doesn't mean I won't be watching out for you.
I won't promise to stop doing that, Jamie, so don't ask."
A Bit of Rough - 133
Shifting deeper onto Bram's lap, James pushed against the warm, kneading palms doing interesting things to his backside, encouraging Bram to shift his focus lower to James wide-spread and interested crotch.
"Fine. We make no promises we know we can't keep." James dipped his head and latched onto Bram's chin, licking and sucking at the cleft in the prickly skin. He felt an immediate surge in the flesh under his ass. He sucked harder and rasped his tongue over the rough surface, teasing the faint shadow of beard and the sensitive skin under it.
"Go with me to the dinner party tomorrow night? I want to introduce my boyfriend to my boss."
The response was instantaneous. Bram softly growled deep in his throat and began nuzzling James' throat with his nose inhaling deeply. "Anything you want, baby, anything." He added teeth and lips, working his way up to James' ear to nibble at the lobe.
Gasping, James began a humping rhythm on Bram's lap, rubbing both their growing erections together.
"Bram?"
The other man continued to nuzzle, lick and suck his way around, over and into every part of James' neck and face he could reach as his murmured, "What, baby?"
James began unfastening both of their pants, hands frantic in their haste.
"You said all I ever have to do is ask and you'll do it?"
Bram's hands joined his and they both grunted when cock met cock. James wrapped both hands around the two rods and savored the feeling of the heated flesh pulsing and growing at his touch.
"Yeah, baby, just ask."
Bram's voice was raw and gritty, pushed out between clamped teeth as he wrapped his hands around James' and added pressure to the liquid movement of James' strokes.
"Do me, caveman, in every room in the house." James had to stop to gain control of his breathing then panted, "Start right here by the front door, here on the stairs." He groaned as Bram bent down to spit on their cocks, swirling his callused thumbs through the thick saliva. "Make me come." His entire body jerked at the added stimulation. "Mark me in every spot you own."
A Bit of Rough - 134
The answering growl let James know he had been granted his request. Bram slowly nudged James' hands off their cocks and wrapped one of his own massive fists around them, adding more spit and more muscle to the grip.
James moved one hand to Bram's head to bring him in for a passionate kiss and worked his other under their cocks to play with the twin sacs nestled tightly together between his legs. A light tug on Bram's rewarded James with a gasp and an increase in the stroking.
Suddenly, Bram changed tactics, using both hands to work their cocks, slowly dragging one slicked hand down from crown to root, instantly followed by his other hand doing the same motion, again and again.
James felt like his cock was plowing deeper and deeper into a hot, tight hole of muscular flesh that never stopped. His breathing sped-up and he had to break away from the kiss to gasp in more air.
Bram refused to let James pull away. He latched onto James' neck and nibbled sharply at the skin between shoulder and neck, making sure there would be marks of his claim for several mornings to come.
The saliva disappeared and a heated chafing began to register with James. He found the slight burn heightened his need and he pumped his hips in rhythm with Bram's strokes.
Bram rubbed at the underside of his cock's head.
James was suddenly bathed in hot spurts of thick come. He looked down to watch Bram explode, the sight of their joined slippery knobs being coated in white cream sending him over the edge. He arched his back and grabbed onto Bram's shoulders, frozen in place on the man's lap while Bram continued to milk the last teaspoon of come from their bodies.
Bright lights sparked behind his clenched eyelids and it felt like electricity shot from his cock, leaving a tingling buzz of lingering excitement in his spine.
Collapsing against his heaving lover, James matched Bram's labored breaths, gasp for gasp. When his breathing was back to something close to normal, James leaned back so he could see Bram. They held each other's gaze for a moment then Bram gently threaded his hands through James' hair and pulled him forward for a blistering, no-holds-barred kiss.
James lost his ability to breathe again. He was reduced to an exhausted puddle of bone and tissue, clinging for support to Bram's solid, rippling body. Bram's mouth and tongue explored every inch of his own, stealing his breath and soothing his damaged heart at the same time.
The sudden thought he had almost come close to losing this man, this feeling, shot through him and tears welled in his eyes and a spear of ice lanced down his spine making him shiver.
A Bit of Rough - 135
Feeling the tremors rack his lover, Bram broke the kiss. Hands still firmly buried in James' hair, Bram anxiously searched James' face. "What's the matter, baby?" He gently brushed away a single tear trickling down James' cheek.
Smiling despite the tears, James shook his head. "Nothing. Not a thing -- as long as you're with me, I'm good." He dropped a quick kiss to Bram's furrowed brow and grinned. "I'm probably going to suffer brain damage from lack of oxygen though, if you keep on kissing me like that." He slowly leaned in and kissed Bram more thoroughly, lingering over it, savoring the taste of the man.
James whispered into Bram's mouth between kisses. "But I'm willing to risk it." He jerked his head toward the upstairs bedroom. "Why don't we go upstairs and see if we can kill off a few more?"
The lopsided grin of delight widened. Bram grabbed James around the waist and stood up, anchoring James' legs around his hips. He lightly kissed James then turned and started up the steps.
"All you ever have to do is ask, baby."
A Bit of Rough - 136
Chapter Thirteen
Burying his face in the bunched bedcover, James hissed into the fabric mound and fisted the sheets over the mattress tighter. Bent over the low bed, ass high in the air, he spread his bare feet wider on the carpet and pushed back against the cock slamming into him from behind. Each bucking hump rubbed his butt cheeks against Bram's stout, hairy legs and groin, and every brutal thrust slapped Bram's balls against his ass. The burn in his puckered hole dulled or flared, depending on the angle Bram chose.
James' lover varied his pace and angle, never giving James enough in one spot or at one time to bring him to climax, always teasing him to just before the peak, again and again, raising the physical and emotional stakes. Bram stroked over James' prostate until James howled then pulled back to torture him with slow, shallow thrusts that barely invaded his fluttering, clinging hole.
When his approaching climax threatened to make his balls explode for the third time, James squirmed and wiggled his baby-smooth cheeks, tightening his ass and milking the thick shaft spearing him harder. Unable to entice Bram to finish the job with his ass, James resorted to something he knew Bram loved -- hearing James talk dirty.