Not the time for that. I ran my hands over Micah’s firm back and down his ass, rolling my hips along his erection, giving closed-mouth kisses up his jaw and licking around the shell of his ear.
Micah ducked his head to kiss me, but I pulled back just before he could find my lips again. I ran my fingers over his crotch, which was enough fuel for him to push my shoulders and walk me back to the couch.
I lay down on my back, pulled Micah on top of me, and wrapped a leg around his hip. Micah braced himself on one elbow, lip caught between his teeth as I grabbed onto his ass and rolled my hips against his.
The sensation of Micah’s cock growing hard against my own left little warm shocks of heat over my arms, buzzing up toward the nape up my neck. He started making these small little noises like he was trying to hold back a groan, and that wasn’t gonna work.
Lifting my head up, my nose bumped against his, urging him to give me his mouth. He did it without a fight, his tongue winding around my own. The moans came freely now, and I tasted each one, loving how it felt going down my throat.
Hands bumped against each other, our nails catching on skin as we raced to get our pants off. Micah barely had his over his ass before I got my hand on his cock, grimacing at the lack of slickness. I let go and spit into my palm, working his cock into my fist.
“Fuck yeah,” Micah said, his voice wrecked. He adjusted a little to his side to get room enough to press our cocks together. Our hands twisted together, thumbs wiggling and knuckles bumping. It was the hottest thing I’d ever done.
Years of drug use made it hard for me to get off sometimes, but it never took long to come with Micah. I tried to hold back, but when I felt the jerk of his hips and a curse punched out of him, I had to let go.
Afterward, we sprawled next to each other on the couch, touching from shoulder to wrist, sweat cooling on our skin. I was completely wrecked. wondered if he was into topping because knowing how good he was with his hands and mouth, I needed to know what it was like having him inside of me. I’d have to discuss that later, though, because I’d be down for the count for a hot minute.
Micah rolled on his side and placed a hand on my stomach. “Hey, do you like music festivals?”
I had an impressive resume of festivals I’d been to, but those memories were a blurry, cobbled mess at best, shuffled in with several reckless sexual encounters. I’d cut off from the group I used to run with after I got out of rehab, and the thought of ever going to one again made me want to throw up.
Swallowing through the tightness in my throat, I forced myself to shrug. “Sure, but it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been to one.”
Micah played with the raised edge of a couch cushion, his foot tapping rapidly on the floor. It took me a sec to realize that he was anxious. Without thinking, I reached out and turned his hand over and placed mine on top of his.
Without missing a beat, Micah’s fingers twined with mine. I liked it far more than I wanted to admit.
“So, my friend Dakota and his friends are going to Astral Motion next weekend. They’re going to camp there the whole time, but they have a couple day passes that need to be used. I’m going on Saturday. Wanna go?”
That was the weekend Duncan and Chance were rolling out of town. Duncan had given me the weekend off too, and I figured out later when he refused to listen to my protests that he was doing it in apology. But if I went, it’d be stepping into a war zone of drugs, and there wasn’t any doubt I’d be able to spot them from a mile away.
“Here, check out who’s playing this year.” Micah squeezed my hand and grabbed his phone from where it fell on the floor. After a minute, he handed me his phone with a photo showing all the artists how were playing this weekend.
And of course it was on point.
“Hey, there’s a good chance the whole thing is an absolute shit show, and if that happens, we can just leave,” Micah said, taking my hesitant silence for something else. “But free tickets to one of the biggest music festivals with this lineup? It’ll be amazing.”
To my surprise, I wanted to go with him. If it’d been anyone else, I would’ve come up with an excuse, but I couldn’t think of one for Micah. How was this dude so good at making me leave my comfort zone?
I looked at Micah, spread out on the couch, shirtless, his pants and underwear still tucked under his ass. Despite looking like a walking version of sex, the hopeful look in his eyes was why I had a fuzzy warmth in my stomach.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” I said, handing Micah back his phone. “Just text me the details.”
The bright grin I got in return made me forget my worries. This wasn’t the smirk he used when he hit on me or the lazy smile that showed up after he came. This was new, and it felt like I was being warmed by the sun or some shit.
It’d been five years. What were the chances of seeing any of the people I used to hang with? Most of them were dead or off-the-grid. Everything would be okay.
At least I hoped it would be.
“I’m starving,” I said, standing up and putting my underwear back on. “I don’t have anything fancy to heat up, but I can make a pretty good grilled cheese. You cool with that?”
“Grilled cheese, and I don’t have to make it? Say less,” Micah said, getting up and putting his pants back on.
I didn’t know it’d fun to make something as easy as grilled cheese, but I’d long accepted Micah was an exception. When he kept giving me shit about how I buttered the bread on both sides, I caged him against the counter and kissed him just to get him to shut up.
The sandwiches ended up getting a little burned, but Micah said nothing about it, only taking a big bite and groaning happily before saying, “Best grilled cheese ever.”
My face heated, and I had to turn away so that he didn’t see the goofy smile on my face. My heart fluttered in a way I’d never felt before. It was nothing big, just a tiny wink of a possibility, and I pushed it down, too scared to acknowledge that I’d caught feelings.
’Cause catching feelings meant that I’d eventually have to tell him about my past, and I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready for that. So I turned on the TV, put on some mindless show, and ate my grilled cheese, ignoring the sinking feeling that one day, this could all go away.
MICAH
Isank down in the passenger seat of Mom’s car, watching the thick trunks of trees rolling by, their branches lacing together above us two people holding hands. This was Ada’s favorite road. Mom used to drive it all the time when Ada and I were kids, and Ada would always say it was like a tunnel that led to a magical kingdom.
There was no way this road didn’t remind Mom of Ada too. She did things like this, touching on memories of the Ada from before. I had to know Mom believed that deep down Ada wanted to get rid of the pain and torture she put herself through. And I could be there for her and help get her back.
I needed Mom to see that Ada wanted to get better and that she wanted to be a part of our family again.
But Ada had been silent since the roller derby night, ignoring my calls and texts. My phone had become glued to my palm as I kept constant vigil for a signal from her. I checked to see if I’d missed any texts while I’d gone to lunch with Mom but found nothing.
“When did Dakota say he’d be able to pick up his car?” Mom asked, mistaking my obsessive watching for Ada for something else. I’d lent my car to Dakota when it broke down on the ramp off the highway.
“Tomorrow at the latest,” I said, flipping my phone over my thigh. “That car is becoming a money pit, but he had to drain his savings to pay for all of Evelyn’s summer camps. I offered to help, but he wants to do it his way.”
“If that’s what he does, then that’s what he does.”
