Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Their speed increases.
The edge draws closer with every ticking second.
It’s an edge neither Liam nor Teague are in a hurry to reach, yet every cell in their bodies shoves them closer and closer toward it with inevitable urgency. Liam clings to Teague tighter, his long fingers digging into him. Teague’s groans grow louder as the two resist for as long as they possibly can.
The pressure is insurmountable.
So is the desire to finally let free.
And when they finally do, nothing in their whole lives seems to compare to the explosion of pleasure they experience together in the thick air of Teague’s room. Wave after wave of pent-up joy spills from them like the ocean itself with a power that has both of them turning vocal, moaning their satisfaction into the night air and filling the whole room—or the whole town of Fairview, for all they know.
When they’re spent at last, the two lie there on the sweaty bed under the amber glow of the desk lamp, which paints their sweat-glossed bodies in its warm light.
Calmness replaces the frenzy as the two bask in the afterglow.
Liam swears he could lie here forever with Teague in his arms. Neither want to move. Neither want this to end. The night could stretch on for a thousand hours and the boys wouldn’t care; they would fill every one of those hours with their satisfied breaths, gentle squeezes of their arms around each other’s bodies, and the pure joy in their hearts of knowing they belong in this moment together with nothing and no one in the way.
“I understand if you still need to head on home,” says Teague softly, “and I will be happy to take you as I promised … but you’d better decide in the next five or so seconds, because otherwise I’m gonna fall asleep right here, right now, still messed up and sticky.”
Cuddled against his side, Liam offers a sleepy smile. “Yeah, I know all about you and being able to fall asleep in a matter of seconds, no matter if you’re on a pile of mud or on a haystack.”
“Either one of those sound kind of nice, actually.”
“Of course you’d say that.”
“Hey, gotta get my hours in whenever I can get them … and sometimes that’s balanced on a row of milk crates.”
“You’re so weird,” laughs Liam.
“I’m just lucky I’m on a bed right now!”
Liam rubs Teague’s arm, then sits up. “Okay, give me a sec. I just need to shoot my parents a quick text. Just in case they didn’t already assume I’m staying at Gracie’s.”
Teague wasn’t kidding. By the time Liam slides off the bed, pulls on his underwear, and succeeds in fishing his phone out of the pile of clothes on the floor, he’s already fast asleep on the bed, snoring softly. Liam watches him for a moment, smiling and, with a strange out-of-body feeling, finds himself adoring the sight of the sleepy-boy-wonder, enjoying a rest in an actual bed for once.
He really is so adorable.
What a bizarre, incredible, beautiful night this has become.
Liam stands at the bedroom window as he sends his parents a text. The window faces the backyard, so he can see the hanging bench where this whole mess started as well as Teague’s dog, still sleeping on his bed.
What was the dog’s name? Rus? Teague started to say earlier what Rus was short for. Cer … Didn’t Teague start to say “Cer” …? It reminds Liam of the question that drew him into that dating app at all. That would be quite the freaky coincidence, Liam chuckles to himself, if Teague named his dog Cerberus. You know, despite having only the one head.
The thought makes him smile to himself as he glances down at his phone. He finds himself staring at the dating app now—and the unanswered messages to Hate2LoveU—with a strange and peaceful feeling of resolve. Maybe the dating app was in the way all along, proving itself more fruitless fantasy than reality.
If he hadn’t spent so much time on it, he might’ve seen what was right in front of him.
He might’ve seen Teague Jenson for who he really is.
But he has more courtesy than Hate2LoveU apparently does, so he decides to do the respectable thing and type out one final message.
TongueTiedInKnots
I appreciate the time we’ve spent chatting about everything under Apollo’s sun, but I’ve found someone in the real world I’d like to pursue. I hope you understand why I need to end things, though I’m not sure if anything started. I don’t know your name. You don’t know mine. That’s OK. I think we gave each other something more valuable on this dating app than a fleeting hookup. Thank you. I hope you find the right person for you and don’t have to take a trip to Hades to meet him. Farewell, Electric Butt Cheeks.