At any other time, mentioning a rule would automatically send Leo running in the other direction. But in the bedroom? He liked it, even loved it. And Caleb had discovered that even though he hadn't enjoyed being so rough at first, so bossy, he enjoyed the way Leo melted when he did it. The soft, sweet, pliant version of Leo that was reserved for him, and for him only.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Leo cried as Caleb began to slowly grind him into the mattress. Experience told him that his cock was rubbing right along Leo's prostate. Leo shivered in response, his whole body arching into the feeling as he rose to his knees.
“I know you can do it,” Caleb said. “You're dying for it.”
He was barely hanging on to his own control, and when Leo gave one last magnificent gasp, tightening around Caleb's cock, come striping up his belly, he lost the last bits of it.
Pumping hard once, and then twice, he sank his fingertips into Leo's hips and felt his orgasm roar through him with a devastating force.
“Fuck,” Leo repeated after Caleb lost his grip and he collapsed onto the bed. Likely, Caleb thought sluggishly, getting come everywhere.
His own knees were pretty weak, but the mess wasn't going to clean up itself—the only downside of having sex as far as he could see—so Caleb leaned over and pressed a kiss between Leo's shoulder blades. “Be right back,” he said. “Don't move around and make it worse.”
“You mean, like this?” Leo asked, rolling over, and subsequently causing come to go everywhere, smearing across the comforter.
Caleb sighed. “Exactly like that,” he said with resignation. He went into the bathroom, wet two washcloths and was back in the bedroom a minute later, handing one to Leo so he could clean himself, and using the second one himself to try to wipe up the worst of the mess.
“You're a brat,” Caleb said as he dabbed at their comforter. “You'd better go get the spare one, unless you want to be the one to sleep in the wet spot.”
“What?” Leo pouted. “Why do I have to be the one to get the spare?”
“Because you can't help yourself when anyone tells you not to do something,” Caleb retorted.
“That's true,” Leo said seriously, finally sliding off the bed. “Except when you're balls deep and then apparently all bets are off.”
Caleb sighed, and yanked the comforter off, ready to take it to the washing machine. It was clearly a lost cause. But then, there was a reason they'd had to lie in a supply of spare comforters. It wasn't like this didn't happen on a regular basis. They often got caught up in the incredible sex and forgot about practicalities like having a clean place to sleep. Also, Leo never failed to do the exact opposite of what would be helpful once orgasms had actually been achieved.
He passed Leo in the hallway, still butt-ass naked, carrying the spare comforter. “At least we kept it off the sheets this time?” Leo asked with a tilted, adorable grin. Caleb leaned down and kissed him soundly on the lips.
“I fucking love you, no matter what,” he said seriously.
If his debilitating battle with alcoholism hadn't destroyed their relationship, then Caleb wasn't going to let a little issue with come streaking their bedding cause a problem.
But, he thought as he made the trek downstairs to the laundry room, he could still give Leo a hard time about it.
By the time he made it back upstairs, juggling two water bottles and a box of cheese crackers, Leo was semi-dressed, back in his indecently tight briefs, and he was on the phone, lying against the headboard, idly tapping his fingertips against his bare thigh.
“Tessa, I know it's hard,” Leo said after a lengthy silence. Caleb climbed into bed next to him and picked up his own phone, which was blissfully empty of anything that was actually important. He'd worried that with Leo getting a phone call, it might mean his own would ring. But it seemed like Tessa's partner, Celine, hadn't experienced a relapse—Tessa was just working through some of her own emotional baggage.
They'd been volunteering at a local addiction clinic for the last six months. Leo had actually been the first to go, telling Caleb afterward that he'd felt compelled to help the struggling addicts' partners with their troubles. Caleb had joined him, worried at first that being an addict himself, he wouldn't be able to truly help anyone. But he'd discovered that both he and Leo had a lot they could bring to the table when it came to getting relationships back on track after struggling through the ravages of addiction.
Leo mostly worked with the spouses and partners, helping them learn to trust again, and Caleb worked with the addicts themselves, lending his help in building that trust. It was a system that worked well, and they were often on call with couples, for when they hit rough patches.
Tessa and Celine had been struggling recently with Celine's addiction to prescription medication, and Caleb knew that Leo had had his hands full, convincing Tessa to give her wife another chance.
“Tessa,” Leo soothed again, repeating her name once and then again. “Listen, you can move out. There's nothing stopping you. Some space might even be a good thing for you two, but I don't want you to close this door, not forever.” Leo paused, glancing up at Caleb with helpless frustration in his eyes. “I've been there, and I've made that mistake, and it was a mistake.”
Caleb, worried about what Tessa's actions might cause Celine to do, checked his phone again, but even as he scrolled through various texts and emails, there was nothing from her. Still, Caleb always found it hard to relax when he listened to Leo on the phone, in full mentor mode.
It always made him wonder what might have happened if Leo hadn't been able to take that extraordinarily difficult step and not only forgive Caleb for the hurt he'd caused, but to let him and his love back into his life. There were so many ways it wouldn't have worked out, and every time they worked with a new couple and they reached that breaking point, he never failed to have one overriding thought: why. Why had Leo forgiven him? Why had he let him back in? Why were they trying to build a life together now?
The simple answer was love, but Caleb wasn't naïve enough to believe that kind of mercy was easy. It hadn't been for Leo, and Caleb had watched as every single couple they mentored struggled with the same question: when was love no longer enough?
Not every couple they'd helped had stayed together. The first time they'd had a partnership collapse on them, headed inevitably towards divorce, Caleb hadn't slept well for a week. He hadn't relapsed, but without Leo's unwavering support, he didn't know what he'd have done.
“Tessa,” Leo repeated again. “Just . . . listen. You still love Celine. You'd do anything for her.”
Caleb squeezed his eyes shut and considered going outside. These calls normally didn't affect him this strongly. Often, he even liked to be there, with Leo, so he could both support him and at least hear one side of his conversation. But something about tonight was making it more difficult. Maybe it was the half argument they'd had earlier, about the latest “perfect” house that Caleb had somehow found something wrong with. Yes, Caleb thought, insecurities swamping him, that's definitely it.
He needed to figure out how he and Leo were going to build more together, but something kept holding him back. It felt, every once in a while, like he wasn't quite worth it. That still, despite all his years of sobriety, he had something left to prove.