AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shudder as my own orgasm courses through me, just as intense as the one before. We collapse on the bed, our ragged breathing in time with each other. I stare at the ceiling as the sweat slowly dries on my body, amazed at how right it feels to be with Bradford again after so long.
Finally I sit up and lean against the pillows at the head of the bed. “That was fucking incredible,” I say.
Bradford drags himself to a sitting position next to me. “No kidding. Damn, Ragnar, how have you only gotten hotter?”
I grin at him. “You’re not too bad yourself, supermodel.”
Bradford snorts. “Hardly. But thank you.” He looks a little embarrassed and admits, “I know this might sound vain, but there was a moment there that I thought you’d be disappointed in me. You know, I’m not a teenager anymore.”
I laugh. “I had the same thought! But fuck, man, age has been kind to you.”
“You, too.” He puts an arm over my shoulders and I slide closer to him. Then I kiss him, slowly and deliberately, not wanting to stop.
When we do finally break away, I feel sated in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time. In too long.
“So what now?” Bradford asks.
“Well, I think you said something about breakfast.” I mean it as a joke, but as the silence grows between us, I get a little nervous. “Or I could just leave,” I say, unsure if I’ve read too much into the … whatever … this is between us.
“No,” Bradford says softly. “I want you to stay. I want to wake up with you.”
“I want that, too.”
“But I’m a little nervous here,” Bradford says, looking at me with those intense brown eyes. “You hurt me before, Ragnar. You broke my heart.”
“I know,” I say, emotion making it hard to get the words out. “I am so sorry, Bradford. I don’t think I can ever apologize enough.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t want your apology, although I do appreciate it.”
“What do you want, then?” I ask with genuine curiosity.
“I don’t want you to hurt me again.”
“I told you at dinner that I wasn’t going to hide you. Or that part of me. Not anymore.”
Bradford nods. “I know, and I know that you mean it. But it’s going to take some time for me to trust you. I’m sorry,” he adds. “But I want to be honest about that.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” I tell him. “And speaking of honesty, if you were all blithe and didn’t care about our past, I’d be more hesitant now.”
“What do you mean?”
I shake my head, trying to order my thoughts. “I know that I did a shitty thing back then. And I’m glad that you’re owning your feelings about it, because that’s what you deserve. If you were trying to hand-wave what I’d done, I’d worry that you were lying to me or yourself, and that all that shit would come out in some other way.”
“Wow, that’s deep,” Bradford says in a mock-serious tone. “Are you the only orc in the history of the world to go to therapy?”
I roll my eyes. “Dude, orcs don’t do therapy. We throw axes and bust shit up. But you do enough of that and you figure out some of your own bullshit.”
“Hey, whatever it took, I’m glad you figured all of that out,” Bradford says. “Because I want to make this work with us, Ragnar. I want a real relationship with you.”
“And I want one with you, too.”
Bradford yawns and glances at the clock. “Wow, I didn’t realize how late it was.”
“Time flies when you’re having serious conversations,” I joke. But Bradford just shakes his head slightly and kisses me. Then he scoots down in the bed so he’s prone, and I lie down next to him.
“I don’t think that’s it,” Bradford says, his words muffled by another yawn.
“Oh yeah?” I ask, pulling him close to me so his head’s on my chest. “What do you think it is?”
