The Color of Summer Page 15

  When Max broke their kiss, Tyler was a little breathless, his hips grinding their cocks slowly together.

  “We haven’t talked about how kinky you are yet.”

  “Oh God,” Tyler said with a laugh. Max could tell he was blushing. “I had a feeling this was coming.”

  “Because you totally are.”

  Max scratched his fingers through Tyler’s hair again, because he definitely liked that.

  “I used to be fairly adventurous. I’ll admit that much.”

  “Because my dick wasn’t the first thing that ever stimulated your prostate,” Max said.

  “No.” Tyler rolled onto his side, between Max and the back of the sofa. Though Max immediately missed the weight of him, it was probably easier to talk like this.

  “Are you going to elaborate?”

  “I have a vibrator,” Tyler said. “Which is kept in the same safe as my gun, which probably says something about how I feel about my sexuality.”

  “You literally keep it locked in a safe.” Max snorted and shook his head. “That’s like, a step above a closet case.”

  “It’s a nice vibrator,” Tyler said. “I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse. It’s one designed for men. With the angle so it reaches your prostate easier.”

  “Where did you get that?”

  “Amazon. In my defense, I was drunk. It was at Josh’s bachelor party. All his gay friends were there, and they were talking about prostate stimulation like it was some holy grail or something. So I decided—after a lot of tequila, I want that on the record—that I was going to try it too.”

  “I remember Shaun telling me about that bachelor party. He actually got so drunk he lost about two days of his memory. Now I know why.”

  “We thought we were going to have to take him to the emergency room to get his stomach pumped. It wasn’t pretty.”

  Max laughed and scratched at his chest, tugging down his tank to see if Tyler kept staring. He did. Experiment successful.

  “Poor guy. What else are you into?”

  Tyler shrugged. “I guess it’s easier for me to recognize it when I see it. I have a healthy appreciation for erotica.”

  “The written kind?”

  “Sure. Or photographs, or film, or art, or whatever. Do you ever get it where you see a kiss in a movie and it’s like… wow. You just feel it? There’s something about two people—or sometimes more than two people—who are just so into each other.”

  “Right, so you’re kinky, but you’re kinky for romantic shit.” Max shook his head. “Typical. Couldn’t you just be into bondage like everyone else?”

  Tyler burst out laughing. “Bondage can be very erotic.”

  “You’re a very confusing guy, Tyler Reed.”

  “Not really.”

  “What do you want?”

  Max was aware that was a loaded statement. Knowing Tyler, he could take it any of a number of ways.

  “Come to bed,” Tyler said, his voice low and sexy.

  “Okay.”

  “When we get there, can I fuck you?”

  Max nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

  He climbed off of Max’s lap and offered him a hand, then silently led him upstairs. When they got to the hallway, Max realized he hadn’t actually seen into Tyler’s room before. The door had been closed the last time he was upstairs. He didn’t know what to expect.

  “Aw,” Max said, acting disappointed when Tyler pushed open the door. “I thought you might have a red room of pain up here. You being kinky and all.”

  Tyler huffed a laugh. “Red room of pain?”

  “You know what, I’m actually pleased you didn’t get that reference.”

  Tyler’s bedroom was a nice, sensible grown-up bedroom, with cream walls and nice patterned curtains and a big, sleigh-style bed. He had a tall dresser, a small free-standing wardrobe instead of a closet, and a chair that had clothes thrown on it. That was reassuring. Tyler was a normal person too.

  Deciding there was nothing wrong with getting straight to the point, Max took all of his clothes off while Tyler was closing the curtains and turning on the reading lamp on his nightstand.

  “Well,” Tyler said when he turned around.

  Max struck a pose.

  “Get up here.” Tyler laughed.

  Max decided to strut, rather than walk, over to the bed, and flopped down on it dramatically.

  “Kiss me,” he said, equally theatrically, pleased when Tyler did as he was told.

  They made out hot and dirty, neither of them bothering to make it nice anymore. Max was still a little drunk from the party, just enough to make him feel loose and sexy and to lose his inhibitions. He didn’t bother to hide his groans as Tyler stroked up and down his sides, his fingers skimming over Max’s sensitive ribs, tweaking a nipple, then rubbing through Max’s fine chest hair. All the while, his lips slowly worked Max into a melting mess of want.

  The fact that Tyler still had all his clothes on and Max was naked only helped. While Tyler groped his naked body, Max wrote a Pretty Woman fantasy in his head and licked at Tyler’s mouth like it was ice cream on a hot day.

  “Okay, I need to take some clothes off,” Tyler said with a laugh when they finally broke apart.

  “You do that. I need to get rid of these things.” Max rolled over and carefully pulled out his hearing aids, turned them off, and set them on the nightstand.

  Tyler watched him with a fond expression. “Why did you take them out?”

  “Because heavy breathing close to my ear sounds really weird with them in,” Max explained.

  Tyler gave him a look, pausing from pulling his shorts and boxers off. “Really?”

  “Really. And I figured we’d probably be doing more of that, so….” He shrugged. “It’s easier to do it now than to stop you and take them out later.”

  Tyler pulled him back in for another kiss. With his fingers buried in Tyler’s thick dark hair, Max humped Tyler’s leg in a way he hoped was more sexy and less horny teenager. He figured he landed somewhere in the middle.

  Max hummed as Tyler started kissing down his body, licking and nibbling on his nipples until Max was twitching with pleasure. Then he lapped at the head of Max’s cock and Max nearly launched himself off the bed.

  “Jesus! Warn a guy.”

  “Sorry,” Tyler mumbled. He licked a wet stripe up Max’s cock. “Want me to stop?”

  “No.”

  Max could tell Tyler was nervous about the blowjob, and made it his mission to be as vocally appreciative as he possibly could without sounding like a porn star. Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with sounding like a porn star, though, especially when Tyler seemed very happy with the results.

  “Hey,” Max said after a while, his voice feeling raspy. “Want to fuck me now?”

  “Yeah.” Tyler reached for his nightstand and pushed a load of crap out of the way before digging out a strip of condoms and a half-empty bottle of lube. Max took the lube from Tyler and nudged a condom his way. Most of the time Max preferred to prep himself when he bottomed.

  “Have you done this before?” Max asked as he eased two fingers into himself. Tyler was watching him with dark, intense eyes.

  “You mean anal sex?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not with a man.”

  Max grinned as he watched Tyler roll on the condom. “You’re always surprising me.”

  Tyler kissed him. “I hope so.”

  Max settled himself on his back in the middle of Tyler’s bed and spread his legs. He’d always found being a little slutty very sexy, and with the way Tyler looked at him when he started touching himself, he wasn’t the only one.

  “Come on, Tyler.”

  Tyler settled himself between Max’s thighs and leaned in to kiss him. Max hooked his leg around Tyler’s waist and pulled him in. Tyler seemed to get the hint, lining his cock up and pushing in gently.

  “Like this?” Tyler asked.

  “That’s good.”

  Max tipped his
head back and took a deep breath. He loved this, the intense feeling of another man inside him, taking control of his body and orchestrating pleasure out of it for them both.

  “Max,” Tyler murmured.

  He wanted kisses, and Max didn’t mind giving them to him. Tyler didn’t hold himself up and away from Max’s body; he braced his weight on his forearms and pressed their chests together, trapping Max’s cock between their bellies.

  Tyler kissed over Max’s neck, licked across his collarbones, leaving kisses on Max’s tattoos. Max just held on.

  “More,” he murmured.

  “Not hurting you?”

  “No, this is good.” Max stretched his neck to the side, welcoming more of Tyler’s kisses where he was most sensitive. Tyler did as he’d been silently asked, teasing Max with his lips as he picked up a deep, grinding rhythm of his cock inside Max’s body.

  Max stretched his arms up over his head, liking the way his whole body felt pulled tight, and smiled lazily when Tyler licked over his bicep.

  He let Tyler set the pace of their kisses, reciprocating but not leading, letting Tyler explore and experiment. Tyler kept rocking his hips in a familiar, almost easy rhythm, while his mouth and hands pinched and teased and took from Max’s body. Max tested the fullness of Tyler’s bottom lip with his teeth, tugging until Tyler grunted, then licked wet and sweet into his mouth.

  “God,” Tyler groaned.

  Max felt alive and greedy and desperate, wanting to learn things with Tyler he didn’t already know. He needed to know what made Tyler shiver and what made him moan. What Tyler sounded like when he orgasmed.

  “You taste amazing,” Max murmured.

  “It’s the Popsicles.”

  That made Max laugh.

  He coached Tyler to hook his elbows into the crook of Max’s knees, bending him almost in half as he fucked into him harder and deeper.

  “This okay?” Tyler asked.

  Max nodded. “Not going to last much longer.”

  He hadn’t realized it until he said it, and then it was uncomfortably true.

  “Want me to jerk you off?”

  “If you keep going like that, you won’t need to,” Max said, a little breathless. Like this, Tyler was hitting all of his sweet spots.

  “Wanna see that.”

  Tyler’s brow was dotted with sweat and Max pushed into his hair, loving how Tyler responded to any kind of hair-pulling action. It was hot. He also had an almost military focus when it came to getting Max off, and Max wrapped his hands around Tyler’s impressive biceps, determined to come hands-free.

  He was showing off. And didn’t care.

  Max needed to close his eyes, to focus inward and not get distracted by the ache in his balls and the instinct to grab his own cock and tug his orgasm free.

  “Tyler.”

  Tyler wanted to watch. Max wanted him to watch too. Max’s fingers twitched and squeezed Tyler’s arms as he finally came, spurting come over his own belly as Tyler’s cock nailed his prostate.

  “Fuck. Fuck!”

  Max felt Tyler’s lips on his, then the familiar shuddering stop that meant Tyler was coming too. Only he did it a lot quieter than Max.

  For a minute they lay together, not moving, the only sound their shared, ragged breathing.

  Then Max got a cramp in his buttcheek.

  “Ow, fuck, ow, that hurts,” he muttered, scrabbling free of Tyler’s embrace as he tried to find a position where he could stretch it.

  “Sorry,” Tyler said, but he was laughing.

  “Don’t laugh, you bastard.”

  The cramp subsided, and Max rolled back over, pouting at him. Tyler dropped a kiss on his lips.

  “That was hot,” he said in a low voice.

  “What, me getting a cramp in my ass?”

  “No, you coming hands-free.”

  “I have talents,” Max said, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Sorry, I got come all over your sheets.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We can change them.”

  “Can I take a shower?”

  “Can I join you?”

  Max rolled off the bed. “Hell yes.”

  “Will you stay tonight?” Tyler asked, following Max, then stepping around him to turn the shower on.

  “Since I have no way of getting home, and we’re both too buzzed to drive, I’m gonna say yes.”

  “If you don’t want to, we can find a way to get you home,” Tyler said, his voice mild. He held open the shower door so Max could step inside.

  “I’m messing with you,” Max said, tipping his face up to the spray. “Stop staring at my ass and get in here with me.”

  “I can do both,” Tyler countered. Then did as he was told.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WHEN TYLER woke up alone, he panicked. Which was totally hypocritical of him because the last time they’d spent the night together, Tyler had left Max alone in bed.

  He took a deep breath, steadying himself both physically and mentally, then rolled over to get up.

  That’s when he saw Max’s shorts from the day before, tossed carelessly in the corner. And his boxers.

  Hope bloomed in Tyler’s chest.

  The thought that Max was possibly wandering around his house naked was both amusing and very, very arousing. In solidarity, Tyler didn’t put any clothes on either while he went to go find him.

  The scent of coffee drifted through the house, so Tyler went to the kitchen first. There he found Max, butt naked, with a mug of coffee cradled to his chest. He was standing in a patch of sunlight, staring out across Tyler’s unkempt backyard somewhat dreamily.

  Tyler thought he could very possibly be in love.

  It didn’t feel like a sucker punch; he’d guessed this was coming for some time. Tyler didn’t fall in love easily, but when he did, he fell hard. Max was everything he never knew he was looking for in another person… wrapped up in different skin, maybe. That was okay, though. It had turned out that the way Max was put together was exactly what Tyler had been looking for.

  “Morning,” Tyler said softly. He didn’t want to startle Max and make him spill hot coffee all over his nakedness.

  “Good morning. I made coffee. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all.” Tyler helped himself to a mug for himself, then leaned his hip against the counter so he could watch Max.

  “Do you have plans for today?”

  Tyler shook his head slowly. “The day after any kind of family get-together is strictly reserved for managing hangovers.”

  Max grinned. “That sounds very sensible.”

  “Do you have any clients?”

  “Not until later this afternoon. A few people wanted to book in for Sunday evening.” He rolled his eyes. “Idiots.”

  “What are you tattooing?”

  “Not sure yet. The girl is from a tattoo magazine that’s based in DC. She’s driving all the way over just so she can interview me. I can’t really refuse anything she asks for at this point.”

  “How many tattoos are you doing?”

  “Two,” Max said. “I think. Unless the interviewer decides she wants something too, which is entirely possible. We probably won’t finish until late.”

  There was an apology in his voice.

  “That’s okay. I need to get June to bed at a decent time tonight anyway.”

  “How long does she have left at school?”

  “The school year ends next Friday.” He shook his head. “Man, time goes fast. It doesn’t feel like a whole year has passed since she started first grade.”

  Max went to the pot and fixed himself another mug of coffee. “What do you do over the summer?”

  “My mom is retired, but she works for the church a few days a week,” Tyler said. “We work out a routine where June and the other kids spend two or three days a week with her, then I pay for daycare for the rest of it.”

  “That sounds expensive.”

  “I try not to think about it too much,” Tyler joked. He d
idn’t particularly want to get into his financial situation with Max. He could make ends meet, just about, but daycare throughout the summer always drained his carefully squirreled-away savings pot.

  “She can hang out with me if you want.”

  Tyler looked over at him sharply. “Huh?”

  “Remember, I close the studio on Monday and Tuesday,” Max said with a shrug. “So I can watch her. If you want. We can go hang out with John at the activity center, or I can keep her here.”

  “Max. You don’t have to do that.”

  “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to,” he said. “You don’t have to decide right away. But think about it.”

  “I will.” Tyler crossed the room and kissed him soundly. “You’re a very wonderful person.”

  “I’ve had coffee,” Max said sincerely. “That explains it.”

  As Tyler laughed, Max wrapped his free hand around Tyler’s bare hip and tugged him closer, turning Tyler’s kiss into something slow and sure.

  “You know, Juniper absolutely adores you.”

  The implications of that had been bugging Tyler. June’s relationship with Max was special, anyone could see that, and Tyler was worried about causing his daughter’s first heartbreak if his relationship with Max went south.

  “The feeling’s mutual,” Max said easily.

  “I don’t want….”

  “Her to get hurt,” Max finished for him. “I know. I won’t hurt her, Tyler. I promise.”

  “Okay.”

  Tyler had to believe him, had to put that trust in Max. He sealed Max’s promise with a kiss.

  LATER, WHEN they were clean, after getting dirty with soap suds, and dressed in Tyler’s clothes—both of them, since all of Max’s clothes were at his apartment—Tyler checked his phone to find two texts from his mother asking when Tyler was going to pick June up. Not because she wasn’t happy to watch her granddaughter, of course, but there was still a lot of cleaning up to do from yesterday, Tyler.

  “Do you want a ride home?” Tyler asked. “I need to go pick my daughter up from her beleaguered grandmother.”

  “Ooh, long word. That would be good, actually. I have work to do.”

  Tyler was not going to admit how good Max looked in his clothes. He’d picked Tyler’s denim button-down and rolled it up to the elbows, even though it was way too loose on him, and stolen Tyler’s boxer-briefs that he was wearing under his shorts from yesterday. On Tyler, the outfit made him look like a middle-aged dad. Max turned it into something from an aspirational men’s magazine… the kind Tyler was always finding at Josh’s house.