When Ian levered himself up, his pale face was flushed and Hudson could practically see his heart beating in his chest. Wild-eyed, yeah, but more focused in a way Hudson couldn’t quite describe. Didn’t even try to get away. Good.
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah?” Ian responded with his red brows crunched together, as if he didn’t know why but it seemed to be true.
“Good. Anything hurt?”
“No.”
Hudson reached for one of Ian’s wrists anyhow, red from the friction of being trapped in his own grasp. Ian didn’t stop him, just let him do it, his bright green eyes focused on where Hudson ran his thumbs over the warm skin.
“You know it’s supposed to hurt a little,” he told Ian, studying his leprechaun of a roommate’s usually comically animated face.
It was funny to see Ian so subdued. But also somewhat concerning. Yeah, the idea was to calm and focus him, but Hudson would never want to stifle Ian’s self, like the core of his being. But despite being quiet, his roommate’s intensity that he loved was still there.
“Yeah.”
Hudson didn’t love the single word answers but if Ian was processing so hard that’s all he could manage then that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Do you want it to?” he prodded.
Ian swept his gaze up to meet his, and when he did, Hudson nearly lost his breath. Definitely a hitch in the way his heart beat.
“Yeah.”
“I can do that,” he told Ian, feeling like a rock in the middle of an ocean his roommate was clinging to.
There was a whole lot of desperation but also faith in that look, and neither his heart nor his head had ever felt fuller. He’d felt a fraction of this feeling when he’d played with women, but not like this. No, never like this. He didn’t think it was the fact that Ian was a guy either, just that he was…Ian.
“Please.”
“Yeah, I will. Promise.”
He ran a hand up from Ian’s waistband to between his shoulder blades, watched his friend’s pale lashes flutter as he sighed and closed his eyes, set a hand on Hudson’s shoulder for balance as his thighs lost some of their tension. And what the hell was that, this mash of feelings that was tumbling around inside Hudson’s head and all the way down to his dick?
A fuck ton of tenderness toward his overwhelmed friend, this urge to never be away from him ever again so he could make sure he was safe but also because he just really fucking liked the guy, pride that an off-the-wall dude like Ian would settle under him, and yeah, okay, not a small amount of horniness thinking about taking Ian’s jeans down and maybe jerking him off while he lay over Hudson’s lap. That was a whole lot. A whole lot he wasn’t sorry about, and a whole lot he wanted more of. A lot more.
“I’m going to take your pants down now.”
He waited for a flicker of protest or disgust to cross Ian’s face, but it didn’t come.
“Yeah.”
Despite having never felt so certain about anything in his life, Hudson’s hands trembled as he worked the soft leather of Ian’s worn belt. Let the ends fall as he undid the button and zipper of Ian’s fly, grazed the back of his hand over Ian’s half-chubbed cock through his boxers as he did. Fuck.
It was a risk to loosen the grip of his legs around Ian’s thighs to shove his jeans around his ankles, but one that he took, and was rewarded by Ian staying right where he was.
“That’s good,” Hudson told him with another pass of his hand over Ian’s back, and he thought he saw the color in Ian’s cheeks darken as his lashes fluttered again.
Holy hell did the sight of Ian between his thighs, jeans bunched around his ankles, plaid boxers and bony knees visible beneath the tails of his shirt make Hudson’s dick throb. It was a heady feeling as well as a turned on one.
And while he wanted Ian to feel safe, he also wanted to use the thrill of uncertainty to his advantage. Which was what made him clamp his thighs back around Ian’s before muscling his roommate to a vulnerable ninety degree angle with his ass ripe for spanking and his wrists pinned against the small of his back. There was a satisfying whoosh of air that left Ian’s lungs that turned into a low groan.
“Make whatever noise you want, no one’s going to hear you.”
Chapter Three
It was funny Ian hadn’t thought about the noise before. He’d heard enough shit walking through the dorms to keep in mind that you couldn’t see through the cinderblock walls but you sure as fuck could catch every damn sound through them and the particleboard doors. Luckily the guys who lived in the quad suite next door liked to party and the thumping four-on-the-floor beat didn’t leave a lot of room for anything other than the constant thrum of people enjoying themselves.