Tyler felt his face become warm. “Is that a trick question?” he said warily.
Nick’s lips twisted a little. “Go to sleep, Tyler,” he said, closing his eyes again.
“But—”
“I’m not in the mood for this,” Nick said flatly, turning onto his stomach and burying his face in the pillow.
Tyler closed his mouth.
He lay wide-awake for a long time, long after Nick’s breathing became even.
Tyler felt too freaked out to fall asleep. He wasn’t even freaking out because of all the gay stuff they’d done tonight. He was freaking out because he didn’t know how to handle this hard-eyed, unfriendly Nick.
It bloody scared him.
Had he finally managed to ruin their friendship?
Chapter 12
The following month was the strangest in Tyler’s life.
His and Nick’s friendship seemed to be totally broken. At least Tyler didn’t think what they now had was friendship. There was nothing friendly about the way Nick treated him. Nick wasn’t mean, exactly; he just wasn’t his good-natured and laid-back self.
Nick was…different.
Sometimes Tyler caught Nick staring at him really intensely, as if Tyler was the most interesting thing in the world. Other times Nick would barely look at him, and even when he did, his gaze would be hard and unkind. It was all so very confusing. Tyler didn’t know how to handle this Nick. He wasn’t sure he even liked this Nick. This Nick was a bit of an asshole, to be honest, but his stupid body seemed weirdly into that asshole and into all the gay things Nick had forced on him lately.
Nick was no longer careful and considerate of Tyler’s straight guy sensibilities. He seemed to take perverse pleasure in trying to freak Tyler out by doing totally gay things like kissing Tyler during sex. Tyler put up with it, because…because he was positive Nick actually wanted him to freak out and stop what they were doing. So obviously, Tyler’s contrary nature just wouldn’t quit. He was determined not to lose the weird version of gay chicken they had been playing lately. (Was it gay chicken if one of them was gay? Tyler wasn’t sure, but he was resolved not to lose anyway.)
Nick’s kisses were bloody terrible, though. Tyler could barely stand them; they were too intense, weird, and overwhelming. Nick, the asshole, knew how much Tyler was freaked out by them and kept kissing him, but Tyler refused to admit defeat.
Sometimes Nick kissed him for what felt like hours until Tyler felt so raw and desperate and oversensitive that he felt like his head was in a fog and his balls were going to explode. Other times, Nick refused to give him his cock until after he groped and kissed Tyler everywhere, which was almost as annoying and frustrating as the long kisses.
Nick also touched Tyler’s cock. A lot.
“Come on, this is so gay,” Tyler tried to say the first few times it had happened, but Nick was undeterred.
“This isn’t gayer than having my prick in your ass,” Nick would say flatly, stroking Tyler’s cock until Tyler forgot his protests, his mind becoming foggy and useless again. It really wasn’t bloody fair that his body turned into a complete traitor lately. Seeing his erection in his best mate’s large, male hand felt incredibly wrong, but apparently he was into all the wrong things now.
And then there was the Other Thing—the thing Tyler was determined not to think about. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t happen. Until it did. And even when it did, it didn’t really count. Because Tyler wasn’t some kind of freak. He was a totally normal guy who wasn’t into that sort of thing. Not that he had anything against people who were into that sort of thing; he just wasn’t one of those people.
Except when he was.
“Yeah, oh, oh, fuck yeah, pound that pussy, love your cock, give it to me, yeah, yeah, like that!”
Afterward, Tyler kind of wanted the ground to open and swallow him up, but during the sex he seemed to absolutely lose control of his mouth. Like, don’t get him wrong—he had nothing against some dirty talk—but he was a man, for fuck’s sake. He was supposed to be hearing those kinds of words from some hot babe under him, not saying them himself while his best friend pounded into his asshole. It was absolutely mortifying.
All in all, these days, Tyler felt like his head was going to explode from confusion.
He understood neither Nick, nor himself.
* * *
Tyler liked to think he was a decent guy.
For all his man-whoring, he’d never picked up taken women. He didn’t want to be that guy.
So he kind of wanted to know whether Nick was still dating Brad or not, but he was too afraid to ask after Nick’s reaction the last time they’d talked about it.
What’s it to you?
The fact that he was afraid of talking to his best mate about his dating life showed how weird things had become between them.