Then—"Ohhh, fuck," he groaned. "Fuck, I love you."
The only answer I could offer to that was sliding a finger into his ass and taking him all the way down my throat until my nose brushed his belly.
"Not like this, not like this," he chanted. "Inside me. I want to come with you inside me. Now."
I peered up at him from between his strong, slender legs. "It tastes like you want this."
He draped his forearm over his eyes as he groaned. "Of course, I want this. But I want your cock in my ass even more. I want to say I love you like that, Max."
That did it. That fucking did it. I thought I'd manage, that I'd get through this without tripping over my feelings. But he'd said it two and a half times now—the first one was iffy—and if he said it again, I wouldn't be able to hold myself together.
I hooked my arm under his backside and pillowed my cheek on the heated skin of his inner thighs. He smelled like sex and soap, and I loved him so much. Jory Hayzer was the best. The very best. And the only one I wanted. "I would've waited years. Years. You know that, right?"
Jory pushed up, his brows arched and his shaft bobbing in my face as he shifted. "Waited years for what, babe?" He rubbed his fingers down the back of my neck, my shoulders. "What are we talking about?"
I tipped my head to the side to get a better look at him. "I would've waited as long as you needed because I know you need a little more time. With the love stuff and all. And I thought it would be years. I'd prepared myself for that."
He hummed to himself as he slipped his fingers through my hair. "And I went blurting it out on you."
I dragged my lips over the silky skin between his legs. "You make that sound like an apology. No apologies. I just want to love you now. Want to keep you."
Jory reached for me, urging me up, onto the bed, on top of him. "I believe I was begging for that just a minute ago."
I pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "You mean it? You really love me? You're ready for the full force of Maximum lovin'?"
"You're so fucking cute when you fish for compliments." He hooked his ankles at the small of my back. "Yes, I really mean it. Have you known me to say things I don't mean?"
I braced myself on my forearms and rocked my shaft over Jory's. At first, he laughed, but then he went cross-eyed and moaned every naughty word he knew. I did it again. "How about the time you hated everything but didn't mention it until we were eating tacos at one in the morning?"
He dug his heels into my ass. "Will I ever live that down?"
"Eventually, yes." I reached between us, took our erections in hand. "Thank you. For loving me."
"Loving you is the easy part," he replied, his lips parted and his eyes still crossed as I stroked us. "Speaking the words is where it gets dicey."
"Are you freaking out?"
He shook his head. "Not about saying it, no. About you edging me for the past ten minutes? Oh, yeah, I'm freaking out over that. I might cry if you keep doing this."
I offered him another rough stroke before saying, "Not until you tell me why now. Why are you able to say the words now? What happened?"
Since I reveled keeping Jory in a bit of agony, I ran my free hand down his flank and brushed my fingertips over the tender spot behind his knee. A shiver started at his shoulders and snaked down his body.
"I wanted to tell you the night of Tom's holiday party," he started, "but I didn't know how to say it."
With one finger, I traced the seam of his knee again. My touch was light as hell, but Jory went wild for these teases. It turned him on like crazy. "Mmhmm," I murmured against his neck, still dragging my finger over his skin. The rhythm was slow yet deliberate. It promised I'd tease him elsewhere very soon.
His breath was hot on my shoulder when he said, "I realized somewhere in the last month that I craved you in my life. It wasn't even sexual—"
I gave his cock a rude jerk and shifted to stare down at him. "What was that?"
Jory looped his arm around my neck and dragged me down for a kiss. "Believe me, I crave you in very sexual ways. I spent the entire trip bitching about my mother to prevent myself from begging you to stroke me off while you drove."
Dropping my forehead to his sternum as all the blood in my body arrowed down to my crotch, I murmured, "Shouldn't have told me that."
"Oh, stop it. You love it when I'm slutty."
"Like you wouldn't believe," I said.
"What I meant is, I crave your presence in my life," he continued. "Your dick too, don't get me wrong, but it's more than that. I like being with you, and I like who I am when we're together. You never make me feel small or difficult. You work hard at allowing me to experience my emotions, even when they're fucking ridiculous. You make me laugh, and you give me space to be myself. And I love that you've given me all that while also being such an amazing guy on top of it."
I wanted to take all of those words and stow them away for a time when I needed them to fill me, make me whole. I wanted that because I couldn't hear them and keep them right now. Not the way they'd been intended. No, my brain was fixed on sex—nasty, sweaty sex that was over in an eye blink because it was that aggressive—and had no use for those kinds of words. They were too precious for the likes of me, too easy to crush and lose forever.
"To answer your question, I realized this when I was home," he continued. "I wanted you to be there with me more than anything else. I didn't want to be away from you, and I didn't want to be cautious about my feelings anymore."
And since this was so much, so much, I shifted away from Jory under the pretense of dragging my lips over his rib cage, licking and kissing as I passed each ridge. "You're so fucking gorgeous," I whispered to his skin.
"And you like that?" he asked. "That I'm gorgeous?"
I nodded, my beard scruff scraping over his flank. Goosebumps rippled over his perfect skin. "Love it," I murmured. "Love you."
For the first time since ducking away, I glanced back at him. His eyes were screwed shut and his mouth open on a silent sigh. His cock was jutting out from his body, thick and throbbing, the head shiny with a drop of arousal. I stroked him once, twice, not nearly as intense as he wanted. Then, I climbed off the bed.
"You cannot leave me like this," Jory wailed. "Have you seen what you've done to me?"
"Be good while I'm gone."
I strolled out of the room as if I wasn't a fleshy bag of pulsating need and my cock wasn't thwacking my belly with each step. It looked like I was taking my sweet time, but the truth was, I needed to catch my breath and get a handle on this situation. Had to remember I was the boss. And I had to stop myself from begging Jory to marry me immediately.
Once I had the protection, the supplies, and the mindset necessary, I returned to find Jory kneeling on the bed, his cock staring straight at me while he pulled back the blankets and sheets. His face was still twisted in snarling, sexy desire and it damn near dropped me.
I pointed to the bed. "Hands and knees, babe. Show me that gorgeous ass."
"That kind of flattery will get you everywhere," he replied as he settled into position on the center of the bed.