Shock & Awe (A Sidewinder Story) Read online

  “I’ve been awake for an hour, Nick. Couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

  Nick’s breath caught. Kelly’d been lying awake thinking about this. Thinking about him. Any reservations that had remained went out the window with that. Nick shoved away from him so he could tug his sleep bottoms down for him. He didn’t even try to get the pants all the way off, just pulled them to Kelly’s knees before bending his head to place a kiss at Kelly’s hip.

  Kelly’s entire body jerked and he gasped, reaching down to grab a handful of Nick’s hair. Nick glanced up and grinned as he met Kelly’s eyes. Kelly was watching him, biting his tongue. Nick ducked his head to lick at him, but Kelly’s hand in his hair stopped him. His nerves tumbled, and Nick looked up again, expecting to see indecision on Kelly’s face. Instead, Kelly was smiling.

  “Better make it good,” Kelly drawled. “No pressure.”

  Nick grunted at him. Yeah. He did need to make it good. In case this was the only chance Kelly gave him. And in case it wasn’t . . .

  “And no biting!”

  “You have more rules than the Marine Corps,” Nick mumbled. “Shut up.”

  To make his point, he dragged his teeth across Kelly’s hip bone and bit down. Kelly was still squirming and cussing at him when Nick took his cock into his mouth and all the way to the back of his throat in one swift motion.

  “Holy Jesus!” Kelly cried, and his other hand landed on Nick’s shoulder. The sound of the slap echoed off the loft’s sloped ceiling. Nick raised his head slowly, letting Kelly’s cock slide between his lips, curling his tongue around the head before he licked at the tip one last time and looked up at Kelly again.

  Kelly wasn’t smiling anymore. “You can bite,” he gasped as he began to kick out of his pajama bottoms. “You can do whatever the fuck you want to.”

  “Good to know,” Nick purred, smirking. “What I want to do isn’t really on the table yet.”

  Kelly’s chest heaved with the deep breaths he was taking. Nick slid a hand under his thigh and raised his leg, remembering to be careful as he hefted it onto his shoulder. He bent his head and licked at the crease of Kelly’s thigh. They shared a grin, and Kelly began to chuckle.

  “I remember sharing a wall with you, O’Flaherty. I know how dirty you are.”

  Nick nodded and licked at the head of his cock, sucking it into his mouth. He sucked until Kelly’s hand tightened in his hair again, then he forced Kelly’s cock to the back of his throat and swallowed around it. Kelly shouted, starting to cuss and call Nick names he usually only heard when they were playing paintball.

  He sucked Kelly up and down one last time and then pushed at his leg, rolling Kelly’s hips back. He licked at his balls and then moved his lips over them, massaging them, humming as he did it. Kelly’s leg began to tighten over his shoulder, and Nick took the cue and sucked one of his balls into his mouth.

  “Son of a bitch! Fuck! How are you doing that?”

  Nick hummed in response, and Kelly began to writhe. He twisted, his heel digging into Nick’s spine, his hand pulling Nick’s hair hard enough that Nick raised his head. He grabbed Kelly’s wrist and jerked it away from his hair, pinning it to the mattress beside Kelly’s hip.

  “Tell me to stop if you need to,” he growled. “But don’t pull my fucking hair out.”

  Kelly nodded fervently.

  Nick began to stroke his cock, using the hand he had wrapped around Kelly’s thigh. He sucked on his finger as Kelly watched him from under lowered lashes.

  “This gonna hurt?” Kelly asked.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Nick whispered. He pressed his wet finger against the muscles around Kelly’s asshole, not hard enough to enter him, just to let him feel something there.

  Kelly’s heel dug into his back. His fingers clutched at the sheet beside him. “God, that feels weird!”

  Nick shook his head and dragged his palm over Kelly’s thigh. “You are way too tense for that,” he muttered.

  He let Kelly’s leg slide down his arm, then he crawled up Kelly’s body, sliding his cock against Kelly’s leg, careful not to settle his weight on Kelly’s abdomen.

  “I’m not tense,” Kelly argued as soon as Nick was looking him in the eyes again. “I’m just trying not to fucking come all over you two seconds after you touched me. How the hell did you do the swallowing thing?”

  Nick laughed, lowering himself, careful to avoid Kelly’s wound as he stretched out against his body. Kelly was shorter than him by a few inches and more compact, but he was all hard muscle and dry wit.

  “You realize coming all over me is sort of what I’m going for, right?”

  Kelly breathed out hard. His hand came to rest against Nick’s ribs, then dragged lower, shoving between their bodies. Nick had to push up to let him reach between them, and then Kelly’s fingers were wrapping around his cock. Nick’s breath stuttered and his eyes fell shut. He lowered his head to press his forehead against Kelly’s. Their noses smashed together. Kelly lifted his chin for a kiss, then began to stroke Nick, his lips mimicking the lazy rhythm. Nick groaned.

  “You’re so fucking hot, you know that?” Kelly whispered.

  “I bet you tell that to all your oldest friends as you’re jacking them off.”

  Kelly snickered and arched his back, seeking contact. “No, just you.”

  Nick propped himself on one elbow and sought Kelly’s cock with his other hand. Their knuckles brushed as they gripped each other. Nick thrust his hips into Kelly’s.

  Kelly bit at Nick’s lip, smiling. “You remember that trip to San Diego when we shared a hotel room and you hooked up with that freaky blonde?”

  Nick grunted, nodding. “Odd time to bring it up.”

  “I watched you,” Kelly admitted, closing his eyes. “Whenever I need to get off, I think about that night. I always thought it was the girl, but now I’m thinking maybe . . .”

  “You’re thinking way too much,” Nick snarled. He didn’t want to hear that, no matter how much the implications made his stomach flutter or his heart race. He grabbed Kelly’s hands and slammed both into the mattress, holding him by his wrists. He thrust his hips, sliding his leaking cock along Kelly’s. “What you should be thinking about is wrapping your legs around me,” he said against Kelly’s lips before kissing him. He licked at Kelly’s teeth and then sucked on his tongue.

  Kelly groaned and absently tried to pull both knees up. He cursed in frustration when he couldn’t manage it, and Nick fumbled at his side to help him. Kelly nodded almost frantically, and Nick helped him to move and slide his feet over Nick’s thighs.

  Nick continued to rut against him, pressing down hard, cocks sliding, balls pressing together. It would be so easy in this position to just put the head of his cock against Kelly’s ass and shove himself in. That was good to know for next time.

  “Now you should be thinking about me fucking you,” he hissed. “Because I sure as hell am.”

  “Oh God,” Kelly breathed.

  “No, you don’t say his name when I fuck you. You say mine.”

  Kelly responded with an inarticulate gasp.

  Nick shoved his hips hard against Kelly’s, their cocks both leaking, gliding against sweaty muscles. He put his lips against Kelly’s ear. “Are you thinking about me inside you?”

  Kelly grunted and shuddered. “Fuck yes.”

  “That’s all you should be thinking, you understand?”

  Kelly nodded jerkily. Nick released one of his hands and dragged his palm up Kelly’s neck and chin, shoving one finger into his mouth. Kelly moaned and sucked it in, wrapping his tongue around it and covering Nick’s finger in saliva. He seemed to instinctively know what Nick intended to do, and he obliged.

  Nick reached between them and used his slick finger to push at those stubborn muscles again, this time forcing the blunt tip past them.

  “Nick!” Kelly gasped.

  “That’s right. What’s the only thing you’re thinking?” Nick growled.

  “You ins
ide me,” Kelly recited breathlessly. “Your big fucking dick in there.”

  Nick used the tip of his finger to press at those muscles but didn’t go deeper, fighting his orgasm. The idea of being inside Kelly when either of them came was almost too much.

  Kelly clutched at him, squirming under him, writhing against his cock, pushing at Nick’s finger and forcing the muscles to fight back. “Fuck, Nick!”

  “Come for me,” Nick whispered. “Scream my fucking name.”

  He bent and kissed him, a brutal clash of tongues and teeth as Kelly bucked under him, crying out against his lips. It wasn’t Nick’s name, but it was close enough. The first jolt of his orgasm hit and he pulled his finger away, holding Kelly down by both arms as he rutted against him, adding hot spurts of cum to the sweat already mingling between them.

  He pushed up to his knees to take his cock in hand and stroke himself through the rest of the orgasm. They both watched greedily as he came all over Kelly’s lower abs.

  Kelly’s cock was pulsing, cum dripping down its side. He reached to finish himself off, but Nick batted his hand away and scooted down until he could lick that cum off and suck the head into his mouth. Kelly’s hand landed in his hair again, and he shoved up into Nick’s mouth as he shot the rest of his load down Nick’s throat.

  When Kelly’s fingers finally loosened their grip, Nick collapsed beside him in the bed, gasping in time with Kelly’s gulps for air.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, O’Flaherty,” Kelly finally stuttered.

  “You hurt?”

  “My fucking . . . mind. My mind is blown.”

  Nick laughed weakly and sat up. “You want water?”

  Kelly grabbed his arm, stopping him and pulling him off balance so he toppled back to his side. He gazed up into Kelly’s eyes in the harsh lamplight. Nick had always loved Kelly’s oddly colored eyes, but he’d never imagined he’d be looking into them like this.

  “‘You don’t say his name, you say mine’?” Kelly repeated incredulously. “I almost came right then, where the fuck have you been hiding that?”

  Nick grinned and rested on his elbow. “Oh God, Kels, what have we done here?”

  “I don’t care. We’re exploring this further.” Kelly waved a finger in Nick’s face.

  “Okay,” Nick agreed. He reached across Kelly’s body, bending to kiss him as he grabbed the bottle of painkillers off the bedside table. They continued the kiss as Nick popped the lid off the bottle, and Kelly moaned plaintively when Nick pulled away.

  “Fucker,” Kelly muttered.

  Nick broke one of the pills in half and offered one half to Kelly with a cheeky grin. “In place of a cigarette?”

  Kelly took the pill, watching with narrowed eyes as Nick popped the other half in his mouth. They shared a bottle of water, laughing as they used one of the spare pillows to clean off.

  As they were settling down to sleep, Nick began to build the pillow barrier between them again. Kelly reached out and stopped him.

  “I think if I can handle what we just did, I can take it if you accidentally roll over in the middle of the night.”

  Nick raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

  Kelly nodded and grinned. “Are you too butch to cuddle?”

  Nick rolled his eyes and laid himself out, scooting closer to Kelly and resting his head in the crook of his arm. “We’ll discuss this tomorrow,” he muttered, closing his eyes and letting the exhaustion take over.

  Kelly laughed, running his fingers through Nick’s hair. “Oh yeah, we will.”

  Kelly woke when the warmth of the sun touched his face. He turned away from it, reaching out across the bed. His hand hit empty space, though, and he finally opened his eyes and raised his head.

  “Irish?” he said, voice hoarse from sleep.

  Nick was gone, though, and his side of the bed was cold under Kelly’s fingers. Kelly struggled to sit, using the covers and the mattress to pull himself up.

  “Loved me and left me. Typical O’Flaherty,” Kelly muttered. He probably should have been a nervous wreck waking up alone after last night, especially since Nick was a proven flight risk when it came to relationships. But then he glanced at the clock on the table out of habit and saw a note there instructing him to call for help if he needed it. He smiled at Nick’s blunt, no-frills handwriting. His pills were lined up for him, and a glass of water sat within arm’s reach.

  He managed to drag himself out of bed and make it to the bathroom without too much trouble. Wiping his stomach clean with a damp rag and brushing his teeth was all the effort he put into his appearance, though.

  He was wiping some other guy’s spunk off his stomach. Jesus. It wasn’t just some other guy, either. It was Nick. It was his best friend. It was his best friend he’d always thought was straight until a year ago. What did that even fucking mean for him? Could Kelly still call himself straight? Was he gay now? God, he hoped Nick had some answers for him because Nick was the only person he could think of to even ask these things.

  He turned to examine himself in the mirror. “Really?” he whispered to his reflection. He nodded and began to grin without meaning to. “Okay then. You stupid asshole.”

  He pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a ragged T-shirt, but he had to sit on the end of the bed and rest after he was dressed. He was hard-pressed not to laugh at himself. Too weak to dress himself without a breather, but not too fucking weak to beg his best friend to fuck him.

  He caught sight of the pajama bottoms he’d been wearing last night, crumpled at the foot of the bed where he’d kicked them. His stomach fluttered, and again he was surprised by the reaction. Nick had been good. Very good. Jizz-in-your-pants good. Everything about it had been good, and Kelly was shockingly okay with that. What made him kind of want to throw up was wondering how Nick was taking it.

  He winced as he stood, fighting past the pull as he shuffled toward the stairs. The painkillers hadn’t kicked in yet, and mornings were always the worst. He stood at the top of the steps, looking down. It seemed like a long way without someone there to catch him if he fell.

  Nick appeared at the bottom of the staircase, peering up at him. “You need help?”

  “I thought I didn’t,” Kelly said with a grin. “I might have been wrong.”

  Nick took the stairs two at a time, coming to the step below him and letting him lean on his shoulders. Nick’s arm slipped around his waist, and Kelly’s entire body shivered. Nick’s scent, the way he gripped Kelly’s shirt, the warmth of his body, all brought back memories of last night with a confusing rush of sensations.

  “You too stubborn to call for help now?” Nick muttered.

  “I guess.”

  Nick glanced up at him, frowning. Kelly was silent as they fumbled their way down the stairs. He couldn’t quite catch his breath, and he wasn’t used to the way his chest kept filling with butterflies.

  When he’d asked Nick to kiss him last night, he’d never anticipated this lingering result.

  He didn’t get a chance to study Nick’s face again until he was easing into his recliner. He looked up as Nick bent over him. Nick didn’t seem flustered. He didn’t seem nervous or scared or confused or any of the other myriad of emotions Kelly had felt in the last two minutes. But then, when had Nick ever looked nervous?

  “Doc?” Nick said pointedly.

  “Huh?”

  “I asked you if you wanted food,” Nick said with a smile. “Are you okay?”

  Kelly nodded, closing his eyes and grimacing as he tried to get comfortable. He jumped when Nick patted his cheek.

  “You hurting?” Nick asked.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  Nick nodded, his frown deepening. “Did I hurt you?” he asked, voice going softer.

  Kelly grinned slowly. That intimate tone of voice, talking about what they’d done last night, was something he found surprisingly sexy.

  “Kels?”

  Kelly ran a gentle finger over his bullet wound and shrugged. “It bled a little
. Maybe a stitch pulled loose or something.”

  Nick’s gaze dropped to Kelly’s wound, and his face paled. “Shit.”

  Kelly reached out and ran a hand over Nick’s palm, making sure Nick was looking into his eyes again before he spoke. “I wasn’t feeling anything last night but good.”

  Nick looked both relieved and amused.

  “What are you fixing?” Kelly asked to get Nick’s mind off how delicate Kelly still was. Nick was an exceptional cook. They’d discovered that when they’d been stationed at Lejeune and had all gone in to rent a house together. Nick’s job had always been to cook.

  “What do you want?”

  Kelly shrugged, shaking his head. He wasn’t really in the mood for food.

  Nick sighed and sat on the edge of the coffee table, his hands clasped between his knees. “This is last night catching up to you, isn’t it?” he asked, voice grim.

  Kelly’s breath caught. He made the mistake of meeting Nick’s eyes, and he was caught by them, transfixed by their color, by the earnest concern in them.

  Nick inhaled deeply. “There’s nothing I can say right now that won’t be awkward.”

  Kelly began to laugh. “I know it. We don’t have to talk about it.”

  “I kind of think we do,” Nick said. “Eventually we’ll have to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the feeling of having something hanging between us.”

  “Neither do I,” Kelly whispered.

  “And right now there’s a wicked big thing hanging there.”

  Kelly snorted.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “What for?” Kelly blurted.

  Nick shrugged, looking around the room with a little smile. “I feel like I took advantage of you being drugged.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “But I feel like I did,” Nick insisted.

  “Yeah but, if you hadn’t, you’d be feeling guilty for telling me no,” Kelly argued.

  “No I wouldn’t,” Nick said. A smile pulled at his lips. “I’d be regretting telling you no and probably very frustrated, but . . .”

  The admission warmed Kelly all the way to his toes. “So that’s how you do it,” he muttered.

  “What?”