“I don’t wanna go out. Do you have the stuff for spaghetti? Matilda said it’s your specialty.”
“Probably not. If we did, I’m sure Asher and his friends would have eaten it by now. Plus, it has to cook all day.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll make it for you another day. It’s fucking awesome. And no, you don’t get my secret recipe.”
“You suck.”
“Quite well.”
“I can’t argue with you there.”
I watched as Brax came closer, placed his hands on my waist, and pulled me against him. “Thank you. I know I said that last time too, but she enjoys your company, and she hasn’t had enough people who care about her in her life. My grandpa and me. My dad, Asher, my mom when she was around, but they’ve never appreciated her. You do, and that means a lot to me.”
Jesus, he was sweet. There wasn’t a part of me that thought he knew it, though. “You don’t have to thank me for that. I like being around her, and I kinda like being around you too. Wanna know a secret?”
He nodded, still holding me. His fingers slipped under my shirt, brushing against my skin. “Being with Matilda reminds me of spending time with my own grandparents when I was young. They’ve both passed away, but I used to entertain them, play games with them… It’s not like I think that’s all there is to being a geriatric nurse. That’s probably the smallest part of it, but I think that’s what I want to do—be a nurse for the elderly. I don’t think enough people go into that, and it’s important work.”
“I like that. I think you might be the best one I’ve ever met.” He didn’t let me respond before he kissed me, making my toes curl.
We ordered pizza, then shotgunned another bowl while we waited for it to arrive. I straddled Brax’s lap on his bed. He inhaled the smoke into his lungs, then leaned close to me, exhaling while I breathed it in. Fuck, there was something so hot about that. There was something hot about everything we did, but smoking this way was the most delicious kind of foreplay.
Just before the bowl was dusted, I let my lips ghost over his, brushing in the gentlest of touches, while pulling his air into my lungs. As soon as I exhaled, I pressed my mouth to his, sweeping my tongue inside. My chest was full, so full I thought the seams might rip open, my heart tumbling right out into his lap.
“What are you doing to me?” Brax asked, lowering himself to his back and taking me with him. His hands went to my ass, our tongues taking turns dipping into each other’s mouths. My cock swelled, fucking ached; it was so hard. I rutted against him, kissing a trail down his throat.
“Whatever it is, you’re doing it to me too.” I shoved my hand down his pants, wrapped it around his thick cock, and—Ding-dong!
“Fuuuuuuck,” Brax gritted out.
“I hate pizza.”
Brax laughed, then dumped me on the bed and stood. His hand did as mine had just done, lowering into his pants, but he was just adjusting his erection, trying to make it less obvious before going to the door. He came back a few minutes later with our food, set it on his desk, then plucked paper plates off his mini-fridge. It was shitty that he had to keep things like that locked in his bedroom so his older brother and his friends didn’t take them.
He sweetly made me a plate first and handed it over. I took it, heat flooding my chest.
“What?” Brax asked.
“Nothing.”
He grabbed a couple of slices for himself. “That look wasn’t nothing.”
“You’re all heart.”
“Fuck you.”
“Okay, maybe not all heart. You might be the only person in the world who would curse someone for a compliment like that.”
“I have a rep to keep.”
We ate and chatted, Brax talking to me more about nursing and about his grandma. We spent the next couple of hours studying, then watched a movie before he said, “I need to go to bed. If you think I’m a dick normally, you should see me when I haven’t gotten enough sleep. I don’t want to fuck up my test in the morning.”
He took school more seriously than anyone I knew. It made me feel like a bit of an asshole sometimes because I didn’t think my friends or I appreciated it the way Brax did.
We stripped down to our underwear, brushed our teeth, and got back into bed. It didn’t escape my attention how domestic this was. How Brax and I had slipped into a routine together that was pretty boyfriend-y. But despite neither of us correcting Matilda or Mom, we’d never used the word ourselves yet.
Brax passed right the fuck out, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t sleep. I started thinking about my mom, and the siblings I didn’t know, and my dad, whom I hated but kind of missed too.