"My mouth wouldn't be soft and tender like hers, would it?" Geoff observed. "When I kiss you, you'll feel the heat, but it won't be sweet or female. I'd lick that blood off your lip, then bite you again. When my tongue's in your mouth, your ass will clench, because you'll think about my tongue there, as well as curling around your cock. Sam's all sweet, all female. Can't kiss her mouth without thinking about her pussy, because it's the same slick heat. You like fucking Sam, don't you, Chris? You love being inside her. You can't wait to do it again."
Chris snarled as Geoff shifted, sending a shot of pain through his balls with that knee. "You remember what I told you that day when you and I were standing in her bedroom?"
Sam had dashed off to the bathroom. Geoff had looked at him, then spoken in a low voice, full of lust and promise. "The first time I take her ass, I want you inside her cunt."
Geoff's eyes bored into Chris's. "Next time you sink your cock into her, I'm going to be balls deep in your ass."
"Get off me," Chris said, repeating Geoff's own words.
"In a minute." His knee shifted, trailing over Chris's length. "You're hard. No surprise there. When you're thinking about sex with me, you pick a fight."
Chris shook his head, shutting his eyes. Though it only made Geoff's point, he threw Geoff off. He paid for it, gritting his teeth through the agony of Geoff's kneecap rolling over his dick as he flipped him. They both had fast reflexes, so they were on their feet facing each other in an instant. The problem was that surge of adrenaline coupled with the carotid thing made Chris react like a drunk. Hell. He couldn't stand up.
He managed to drop to his knees rather than crashing like a cut tree, but only because Geoff caught and took him to that position.
"Easy, man. Fuck, we're a pair of idiots, aren't we?" Geoff ran a hand over Chris's hair, because he had his head lowered as he tried to even out. He used Geoff's touch and voice to steady himself. "Time-out, I promise. Forgot one of the most important things about that technique. Making sure whoever you're doing it to doesn't freak out. You okay? Just nod."
Chris nodded, realizing he was gripping Geoff's forearm across his chest.
"Okay. Okay." Geoff's forehead touched the back of his head, his breath a sigh across Chris's neck. "Crap. Sorry about that. How about a truce, big guy? Ice for your lip and we eat some meat loaf."
Since staying out in the backyard and trying to kill each other for reasons Chris couldn't articulate wasn't as appealing an option, Chris offered an agreeable grunt. As he steadied, he didn't want Geoff to help him up, so he pushed him away. The brief flash of hurt on Geoff's face was like a screwdriver twisting in his gut. He got that tight look, the set to his jaw that said Geoff was thinking he should have coldcocked Chris and left him sprawled in the yard. That might have been preferable. But Sam's meat loaf was good. If Chris was unconscious, Geoff would eat it all just to spite him.
*
Chris ate his in front of the TV, Geoff at the table. Geoff should have opened his laptop and handled that work he needed to do, but he didn't feel like it. Chris had the TV on Mike & Molly reruns, which they all enjoyed, but when some of their favorite punch lines happened, Chris didn't register them. Geoff couldn't say he was hanging on every word of it, either.
Instead, he kept replaying every step of what had happened in the backyard. Once he'd been sure Chris truly was steady on his feet, Geoff had gone into the laundry room and left his shirt there. When he came back through in a T-shirt and jeans, he'd seen Chris squirting some of the OxiClean on it that Sam said worked for almost all stains, but Geoff knew it was pointless. The shirt had a jagged tear in the back, because a branch hidden in the mulch had punched through the fabric.
"I'll pay you for your shirt," Chris said suddenly.
Geoff pushed aside his plate and turned his chair around to face him. Putting his ankle on his knee, he took a sip of his beer. "Damn straight you will."
His casual tone relaxed Chris a little. Maybe Geoff should leave it alone tonight, but his gut suggested otherwise. "We've avoided talking about it long enough. Spit it out. What's on your mind?"
Chris's gaze flicked to him, then away. He didn't say anything for several long minutes, such that anyone else other than Geoff or Sam might think Chris wasn't going to say anything. Geoff just waited until his friend gathered his thoughts and finally spoke.
"The first time, how did you know I'd take her in her room instead of mine?"
"Besides the fact you have no proper bed? It's like taking a team down on their home turf."
"You're the competitive one."
"It's not about competition. It's about territory." Geoff drew on his beer, studying Chris. "You're not competitive, Chris. But it doesn't change the fact you feel like she belongs to you, and you have some definite topping qualities. Along with a few nontopping qualities."
He didn't call it bottoming, because Geoff already knew it wasn't that straightforward with Chris. He had an intriguing area that would give way, like a mighty oak for the wind, yet that didn't stop him from being an oak. He just respected the laws of the wind.
Geoff wanted to be the wind.
He'd gone back and forth on it a hundred times this week. He still wasn't fully decided on how his Dom nature would fit with Chris, about how far he could take it between them, but the wrestling match in the backyard had given him a big clue that Chris had been thinking about it just as hard. Quite a bit, whether he acknowledged it consciously or not. And while Chris might be feeling messed up some about it right now, Chris's reaction to everything Geoff was doing when he was on top of him had left Geoff feeling as honed as a lethal knife.
They'd both shied away from it until now, far more than either one of them had in their imaginings about Sam. There were more walls here, more tricky areas. But Sam's desires had reached the point where she'd made the leap. Maybe it was because feelings and hormones had taken her to a Fuck it, it's worth a shot point, but Geoff knew she was no more willing to risk their friendship on a whim than Chris or he was. Yet perhaps her initiative had been the key to helping them feel their way toward one another.
"She belongs to us," Chris corrected him.
Geoff smiled. Chris's declaration had circled his own thoughts. He lifted the bottle in a salute. "She belongs to us."
They'd both accepted it, though Geoff expected they'd always enjoy some friendly rivalry