AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eric wasno stranger to desire.
He’d wanted people before. The first time he’d seen Lucas naked, it felt like a miracle that he was allowed to touch. Or Nadia—she’d been the popular girl in school so Eric had scarcely believed his luck when she gave him the time of day. This wasn’t like Lucas or Nadia, wasn’t like Chloe either because Eric had learned his lesson. He’d fallen first and alone one time too many, and Adrian wasn’t someone who did relationships. It was a one-time thing, Adrian had already made that clear.‘Maybe we just don’t tell anyone.’
Eric wanted him, yes—dregs of teenage fascination mixed in with genuine admiration of the adult he’d become. But that was all. No emotions on tonight’s lineup, thanks.
So what if Eric felt like he already knew Adrian better than he’d ever known Lucas? Or Chloe, for that matter, who’d walked into his life with the brightest smile he’d ever seen at one of those pub concerts he attended alone. She’d informed him that he’d buy her a drink because he was the hottest guy in the joint, and he had because how could he have denied her? She’d only ever meant to be in London for a week and ended up staying a month, long enough for him to fall in love and for her to get bored.
The quiet knock came just as Eric started to wonder whether Adrian had changed his mind. Even though Eric expected it, he felt a little out of breath as he opened the door—or maybe it was down to how he found Adrian grinning at him, hair still a little damp from the snow, curling at the ends. Yeah, Eric wanted him.
Don’t fall.
“Hey,” he said, soft, and impossibly, Adrian’s grin widened as he tucked his fingers down the front of Eric’s jeans. His nails scratchedlightly at Eric’s stomach, and Eric was glad he’d taken the time to trim yesterday. Just … in case.
“Give me a line.”
“A line?” Eric repeated—because seriously? “You expect me tothinkright now?”
“I believe in you.” The statement dripped sweetness, at odds with how Adrian moved in immediately after to claim Eric’s mouth for a bruising kiss. Eric fell into it, hands finding Adrian’s hips, gripping them for something solid to hold on to.
“A line,” Adrian repeated when he shifted back enough for their eyes to meet.
Eric moved forward to press himself up against him, angling his hips so Adrian would feel he was hard. “Gentle snares of longing.”
“That’s just a fragment,” Adrian protested even as he tugged Eric closer.
“Consider it a teaser.”
Adrian rolled his hips forward, mouth opening against Eric’s throat for a low murmur. “Usually, I’d say something clever, but I want you too much. So—upstairs?”
Eric inhaled, then smiled. “Lead the way.”
In the vast, quiet night, snow still whirling outside, their steps felt loud as they made their way along the hallway and up the stairs that led to Adrian’s private quarters, wooden planks creaking under their feet. Adrian unlocked the door and pulled Eric inside, flicking on a lamp as they went. Old wood beams framed what looked like a living room with a kitchen corner off to one side, modern chairs and a small table contrasting with a plush sofa that might be the same age as the building. An upright piano made Eric halt in his steps.
“You play?”
“No, it was my grandfather’s.” Adrian sent the piano a fond look, then tilted his head for a slow smile that seemed designed to make Eric’s mind dive straight into the gutter. “I’d ask you to play it while I go down on you. Too bad it would give us away to my parents.”
God,images.
Eric breathed through the flash of heat. “Jesus, do they teach that kind of talk in porn school?”
Adrian’s laugh dissolved his suave air. “Well, I do like to think our lines were slightly above average.”
He wasn’t wrong. There’d been a fair bit of tongue-in-cheek humour, like a pizza boy who delivered the vegetarian special because‘not everyone likes extra sausage, man’and a pool boy who did, in fact, spend several minutes explaining the details of pH levels and water chemistry while Adrian and Martin were getting hot and heavy next to him, completely ignoring their attempts to rope him in.
“Some were actually quite funny,” Eric told Adrian. “And you had great comedic timing.”
“Flattery.” Adrian twirled an imaginary fishing reel while extending his left arm out, as if casting a line into a sea of compliments. “Keep it coming, please. It may just get you laid.”
Eric liked this silly side of Adrian, liked seeing him forget about the responsibility of running a hotel for a while. Adrian worked really bloody hard, and he always laughed it off as a joke when Martin told him to diversify his interests beyond eat, work, sleep too little, work out, repeat. It wasn’t Eric’s job to worry about Adrian when they were only just becoming friends, but that hadn’t stopped him from noticing how tired Adrian looked some mornings.
“I believe,” Eric said, “I was promised a bed?”
“I did make a promise to that effect.” Adrian nodded as though it was a serious matter. “Right this way, please.”
There were exactly two doors in this room, and one of them they’d used to enter, so Eric was pretty confident he could have figured out the way to Adrian’s bedroom. He nodded back, equally serious, and turned to head in the indicated direction. He’d taken barely two steps when Adrian bumped into his back and wrapped both arms around Eric, hugging him from behind. Eric covered Adrian’s hands with his own and used his foot to nudge the door open.
A mid-sized room, barely illuminated by the light slanting in from behind them. That was as much as Eric noticed before Adrian spun them around. Brief dizziness tugged at Eric before Adriantumbled them both onto a large bed. Eric fell backwards with a small huff of surprise that became a moan when Adrian kneed his thighs open and settled between them, grinding down right as he covered Eric’s mouth with his own. Eric wrapped one leg around Adrian’s body to bring him even closer, and God, he might have pictured something a little like this when he’d been younger—Adrian’s weight on top of him, bruising kisses and warm hands that rucked up his jumper and T-shirt to get at bare skin.
