Just like I'd thought of doing to him earlier.
"You must work out." The tip of his finger traced the groove down the middle of my very modest, barely-there-but-slowly-emerging abs.
"Now and again. Not as often as I should." I didn't think I'd ever tasted anything as delicious as the side of his neck, and I loved the way he wriggled as I did so.
"See, now I'm thinking of you getting sweaty in the gym."
"Or Jim getting sweaty in me?"
He groaned, but his reluctant smile belied this pseudo-criticism.
"Honestly, Texas, your puns are getting nearly as bad as mine."
"That's something to be proud of." I ran the tip of my tongue along his collarbone. Imagined myself doing that to every ridge of his spine.
Every ridge on the underside of his cock. But that would be for later. For now, I had other priorities. "Where's the condoms?"
"Bedside table," he blurted out, then seemed to come to life. "I'll get them. It, I mean."
"Them, plural, sounds all right to me." It amazed me how easy it was to make his color rise --- among other things. Flattering, too.
James reached into the drawer of his nightstand and tossed a few foil packets onto it. "Just in case. You can never be too careful," he added with a wink. Covering over his holy shit, we're actually going to do this nerves, if I knew anything about him at all by now. Yes, we both wanted this, but it didn't stop the feeling of reality having tilted a few degrees now we were naked and lying on his bed, and he was trying to get one of those foil packets open.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, I feel like I'm wearing bloody oven gloves. My hands won't do as they're told," he muttered and put the edge of the packet between his teeth.
"Wait." It wasn't something for my list --- I'd put a condom on another man before of course, after practicing on myself --- but not for the first time I felt apart from my own body, watching it take over. The hand that took the packet from him before I leaned in for another kiss had a mind of its own. "Allow me."
"Steady." He tensed as soon as I started to roll the condom on him.
"You're not going to ask me to be gentle with you, are you?"
"No, just..." He shifted from side to side and I kept both hands on his cock, waiting for him to speak again. "Don't squeeze the little man like that."
"Far from little."
"You flatter me."
"You know what they say, everything's bigger in Texas."
"I won't even get that far if you --- Stop. Just stop." He slowly, slowly, let out a breath as I lifted my hands away from him. "What are you trying to do to --- No, don't answer that. You'd only come up with something filthy in reply."
"You must be rubbing off on me."
He tilted his head and glared, looking about as threatening as a bowl of Jell-O. "I nearly was ten seconds ago when you had your hand on my cock."
"James." I shook my head, knowing I couldn't criticize him for constantly making jokes. I was guilty of exactly the same thing. This reluctance to just fucking flat out tell him I wanted him inside me. "Get the lube."
James lifted an eyebrow and so quickly I almost didn't see it, licked his lips. "I thought you'd never ask." Leaning over to the nightstand again, he threw over his shoulder, "How are you comfortable? I don't --- "
When I rolled onto my front, the mattress shifted under me and he glanced over.
"Ah." He gulped, and I wondered if he'd moved on from nerves to sheer arousal. I sure had. "That answers that question."
I rested my head on folded arms and watched every move he made; unsnapping the lid of the bottle, stroking the lube onto his cock. I even caught the tension in his jaw, the way a nerve twitched when he tried to hold himself back.
"I really don't want to rush this." James moved behind me and I shifted my weight again, moving up onto my knees. Not for the first time our legs tangled as we tried to get comfortable. "But I really do want to as well. That probably makes no sense."
"Makes perfect sense to me," I muttered. "Don't...don't hold back on my account."
"Texas, you don't know what you're saying."
"Yes I..." But words might not get through to him. I wriggled a little instead, moving backwards whenever he touched me.
"Christ. Austin."
The way he said my name, not Texas, not even joking, with not a hint of a smirk to color his tone of voice, made me shudder. Nothing but want in those two syllables.
"Are you sure this is okay?"
"Of course it is." I spoke through gritted teeth, trying not to sound angry, but surrendering to my own desperation. "Just fucking do it, will you?"
His hands were on my hips, holding me steady, or perhaps holding himself steady. His fingertips tightened, making me gasp, and a spark ran up my spine.
When his hands lifted off my skin, I shivered, knowing what was about to happen. What I hoped was about to happen.
But no, not yet.
The lube bottle clicked open and closed behind me again and the shock of a fingertip against my ass made me gasp. Not in discomfort, just with its coldness. "You're deliberately delaying this," I forced out in what was almost a growl.
"Maybe." He eased another finger into me and slid both deeper.
"That wasn't a denial."
"You want me to stop?" He pulled his fingers back and laughed, quietly.
"No. Wait, yes."
"Make up your damn mind, Texas."
I had no idea how to tell him to skip all this nonsense and just get to the main event, so left it to him and those telepathic abilities he'd earlier mentioned.
"Don't want to hurt you, do I?"
"Oh, I don't mind if you..." I screwed my eyes shut, sensed his adrenaline in the split second before he
