Coming Home- Rock Bay 1 (15 page)

A
LONG
two hours later, Lex was checked out of the hospital and back in his apartment on the couch while Tally pulled out stuff to make him some food. He’d called his mother to tell her what happened, and they all decided his sister would come by in the morning to say goodbye. He was pretty out of it on the pain medication they’d picked up from the drug store on the way home, so he was glad he didn’t have to deal with the collective family and their incessant questions.

“Here you go, sit up, and I can put this tray on your lap. We’ve got turkey and swiss on sourdough with cream of carrot soup and vanilla pudding. I know you said no dinner dates, but I’m starving. We can just call it a non-date, since I had to drug you first anyway.”

“I’d probably say yes to just about anything right now.” Lex smiled sleepily and took a lazy bite of his sandwich. “This’s good, ba—”
Shit.
Since when was it his instinct to call Tally “babe”? It needed to stop right away.

“Glad you like it. When you’re done, I’ll get you into bed. I’m going to sleep out here on the couch in case you need something.”
Lex chewed his turkey and swiss, finding it almost too much effort, even though his stomach was complaining. “You can sleep in the bed. S’okay, just for tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He pushed away the tray. “I’m done with my dinner.”
“You need to eat more than that. The pills will make you sick.”
Lex rolled his eyes slowly and took a long deliberate bite of his sandwich. “I ate more.”
“Note to self. Percocet turns Lex Barry into an annoying fiveyear-old,” Tally mumbled. “All right. Let’s get you to bed.” They walked, a bit crookedly, down the hall to Lex’s bedroom.
“You know, some parts of me aren’t five,” Lex mumbled before he took Tally’s hand and cupped it around his crotch.
“Knock it off. You’re in no condition to tease me. You need sleep.”
“’Kay.” He flopped bonelessly onto his bed and closed his eyes.
Lex was vaguely aware of Tally taking off his jeans and gingerly peeling the T-shirt he was wearing over his head. Then he was gently tucked under his comforter before the light was turned off, and he floated in a blissfully drugged state in the darkness.

Lex blinked and opened his eyes to the sound of his sister’s voice drifting in from his front door. He rolled over in bed but winced when his arm came into contact with the sheet.

“Hey, Em.”
“How are you?” she asked.
“Fine, just a little sore. I guess the cut was really deep.” He held

up his bandaged arm. “How’d you get up here?”
She smiled. “Tally let me in.”
Lex tried to hide his smile. Turned out to be impossible. “I knew you weren’t over him.” She nudged him gently with her

elbow.
“No, it’s not that. It’s different now.”
Emily nodded slowly. “He really has changed, hasn’t he?” “And you know that because he let you into the back hall?” She chuckled. “He let me in, told me to make sure you took your

pain medication, sent up a muffin and coffee for you to have for breakfast. Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d think there was something going on between you.” Emily raised her eyebrows at Lex. He turned pink and rolled over. How many people could find out about him and Tally before it wouldn’t be called “friends with benefits” anymore?
“There’s just something about him, Em. I—” He didn’t know

what to say.
“He’s totally sexy. I get it. And weirdly enough, he seems
genuine. Nice. Like he had a complete brain transplant at some point
after high school.”
“He says he hates the person he was back then.”
Emily ruffled his hair. “As long as you’re happy, little bro.” “I am.” And he was. Really, really happy. Lex chuckled softly.
“What, that’s it? No sage advice?”
“Don’t forget to use protection,” Emily said with a grin. She’d
always loved embarrassing him.
Lex groaned and mimicked looking at a watch. “Aren’t you
supposed to be in Seattle already?”
“Guess it’s time for me to hit the road, since I doled out my
sisterly advice already.”
“That’s all you got for me, huh? Use a condom?”
Emily sobered. “Be happy. That’s the most important thing. I
don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this content.”
“It’s the painkillers.”
“It’s not the painkillers, squirt. You’re falling for him. Quit
fighting it. Let your relationship just… be what it’s going to be.” “How did you know?”
Emily just smiled and kissed him on the forehead. “I
know
you.
That’s how. I’ll give you a call when I get back to the city. Love you,
Lexie.”
“Love you too, sis.”
Lex lay back in his bed, bemused, staring at the ceiling long after
his sister left.
Quit fighting it? How was he supposed to do that?

“
U
GH
, if I never see another red velvet cupcake again, it’ll be too soon.” Tally placed his newest perfectly made cupcake in one of the huge bakery boxes that lined Lex’s living room wall.

Lex chuckled. “This definitely ranks up there with one of my weirder Saturday nights. I still can’t believe their oven broke.”
It had been the mantra of the night, ever since the frantic call earlier from the bakery that Lex had contracted to make a shit ton of cupcakes—two hundred, to be exact. It had been annoying when Lex thought he could get another bakery to make the cupcakes, but when none had been available, and it became more and more clear that
he
would, in fact, be baking two hundred red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sugared orchid garnishes for the lovely ladies of the coastal gardening convention, the annoyance had turned to panic. If Tally hadn’t offered to help, Lex didn’t know what he would have done. On his own he probably wouldn’t have been able to do even close to half of them, especially with his still sore and newly stitch-free arm.
Armed with a large pepperoni pizza, two bottles of Moscato, and more industrial sized blocks of cream cheese than Lex had ever seen in his life, they’d set out on an epic cupcake-making journey. Six hours later, they were nearly done, but they had a messy red pile of screw-up cupcakes nearly as large as the collection of neatly boxed keepers.
“Wait, hold on.” Lex counted.
Seven boxes of twenty-five, ten, fifteen
…. “Oh my God, Tally. I think we’re done.” Words he’d never thought he’d utter.
“Hallelujah!” Tally crowed and collapsed onto Lex’s brown leather couch, floury ass and all. Lex was so tired and sore from being hunched over squeezing frosting out of borrowed pastry bags that he didn’t even worry about the couch he’d spent an arm and a leg on. He flopped on the adjacent couch cushion and brushed a soft kiss on Tally’s lips.
“Thank you so much for helping. This whole thing would have been a disaster without you.”
“Hey, what are hired sex slaves for if not baking five million red velvet cupcakes until”—he looked at his watch—“three fifteen in the morning. God, what time is the luncheon?”
“It’s at eleven. And at least Travis is perfectly capable of opening the shop.” Travis was the college kid Lex had hired a week before to open on weekends. He was luckily working out well.
Lex chuckled. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, making all those cupcakes. And since the bakery was willing to sell us all the ingredients at below cost, the profit on the whole luncheon will be better than I planned.”
Tally groaned. “It
was
that bad. My fingers are going to be cramped forever. Don’t get any ideas about doing it again. You already owe me many, many hours of mind-blowing sex for this.”
“Which I’ll happily start repaying if we can please get in the shower first.” Lex made a face. “Every centimeter of me is sticky.” He dragged his shirt off, chuckling when it got stuck on his head for a moment before it popped off and was tossed aside.
Tally stood and reached down to haul Lex up with him.
“I’ll lick the frosting off.”
Lex found himself giggling at the thought…
giggling
. Shit. “Did we drink all of that wine?”
Tally made a show of eyeballing down into the bottles. “Yep.”
Lex groaned. “And we forgot about dinner.” He eyed the mostly full pizza box on the table. “No wonder I’m feeling kind of loopy. I thought it was from all the sugar.”
Tally reached down and dug a finger full of frosting from the mess-up pile and slowly wiped it down Lex’s cheek before licking it off.
“Mmmm. Sweet.”
“Hey,” Lex mumbled, distracted by the spark in his belly. “I’m already all sticky.”
Tally waggled his eyebrows, then reached down for another big gooey glop of cream cheese frosting. With one challenging look he wiped it right into Lex’s hair.
“Really, Tal, knock it off. My living room is already such a mess.”
“Living room?” Tally murmured. “I didn’t say anything about getting frosting on your living room. Only on you.” Then with a grin he picked up a lopsided cupcake and dragged it down Lex’s chest, making a white creamy trail all the way to his jeans. Without warning, he shoved the whole thing into Lex’s waistband and ground it in as hard as he could, bursting into laughter.
“Oh, you suck!” Lex chuckled before taking another cupcake and squashing it into the side of Tally’s face. “Game on.”
Tally ripped his shirt up and over his head, then grabbed two handfuls of messy crumbling cake and squatted defensively behind the oak coffee table. Lex squatted down too, nearly falling, and snaked an arm out to grab his own squishy ammunition. Lex took aim first and fired, catching Tally square in the chest. The moist thud was very satisfying. So was watching red cake and gooey frosting drip down that perfect chest. He got distracted by looking and barely noticed the projectile coming toward his face. Just in time, he dove to the side—but groaned when the cupcake hit one of his newly painted walls instead of his face.
“Hey! I just repainted this room a few months ago,” he complained, lunging toward Tally with the hugest pile of frosting he could scrape together. The frosting ended up in a big swath down the front of Tally’s chest, getting rubbed into his skin by Lex, who’d managed to fall all the way on top of him. Tally chuckled and wrapped his arms around Lex’s back.
“I do believe I’ve won,” Tally murmured with a superior smirk.
“No way! You missed when you threw it at me, and I’m the one on top of you.” He leaned over and nibbled the bit of cake that was balancing on Tally’s nipple.
“Yeah, but now I can do this.”
Lex arched his back in shock as a long, thick trail of frosting and cake was smeared from his neck all the way down his spine into the back of his pants. “See? I totally won.”
Lex was squirming and trying to dislodge the hunk of cupcake that had gotten stuck between his cheeks.
“You know, it would be easier if you just took them off.” Tally’s chuckle made Lex’s slightly drunk stomach weak.
He rolled off of Tally and worked at the button of his jeans, which was caked with halfway-hardened sugar. Tally took the opportunity to lick at Lex’s chest, cleaning up frosting and nuzzling his nipples while he was at it.
“You’re not making this any easier for me, you know,” Lex muttered, finally yanking the stuck button free and tugging at his zipper.
“I was hoping to make it harder.”
Lex groaned at Tally’s dumb joke, then lifted his hips and shoved his jeans down and off. He wiggled then, and brushed as many of the remaining crumbs from his body as he could. Lex saw Tally gulp, and it made him grin. “C’mere.” He spread his legs invitingly and reached out for Tally. Tally scrambled to get his own jeans off, then he crawled between Lex’s bare legs.
Their bodies came together in a squelching sugary mess that neither of them could muster up much concern over.
“Mmmm, you feel good. Smell nice too.” Lex smiled and twined his legs around Tally’s hips.
“You always feel good,” Tally murmured. “Shower? I wouldn’t want to get this shit all over your pretty designer sheets.”
Lex poked him and bucked his hips. “I don’t hear you complaining about the sheets when you’re on them.”
Tally gave him a soft smile and kissed him. “Nope. No complaints at all when I’m in your bed.”
“Cheeseball,” Lex grumbled. “C’mon. This frosting is going to end up sticking my ass cheeks together.”
Tally rolled his eyes but stood up. “Such a romantic.”
Lex smirked at him and hopped up, swaying dizzily for a moment before scampering off to the shower.
The water was warm and soothing as it slowly rinsed the stickiness of frosting and the grime of a ridiculously long day off of Lex’s body. He was exhausted. Being awake from 4 a.m. to after three in the morning with only a short nap in the car while Tally drove them to pick up the baking supplies was enough to make his head swim. Lex was halfway asleep on his feet, head full of shampoo bubbles, when he felt the slick warmth of Tally’s skin behind him, enveloping him.
“Hey,” he murmured sleepily and laid his head back against Tally’s shoulder.
“Hey to you too.” Tally leaned over and sucked on Lex’s exposed neck, running his hands down Lex’s chest, sluicing the soapy water down and away. “So gorgeous,” Tally murmured in Lex’s ear. Lex arched his back and guided Tally’s hand lower until he was cupping Lex’s balls. Tally squeezed gently, and Lex moaned.
“Want you.”
“Want you too. But you’re falling asleep on your feet, babe.”
Babe
. It had gotten to be a habit between them. One that Lex hated to love… but he did.
Lex rubbed his slippery ass up against Tally and pushed Tally’s palm against his cock at the same time. “I don’t care. Need you tonight. It’s been such a long day.”
Tally started grinding his hips, pushing his erection further into the crack of Lex’s ass. He enjoyed the feeling for a few minutes, reveled in the slip and slide of their soapy skin, the gentleness of Tally’s big hands on him, the way he always felt when they were together. It wasn’t enough, though. Enough pressure, enough contact… enough anything.
Lex lifted his leg onto the side of his tub and pushed Tally’s fingers closer to his entrance, where he needed to feel them the most. Tally teased him mercilessly, little touches just barely breaching his rim. Lex groaned and covered Tally’s hand with his own, pushing on his fingers and rubbing against them. He arched his back and tried to get more. Tally slipped one of his fingers into Lex, finding all the best places to rub.
“That good, babe?” he breathed against Lex’s neck.
Lex moaned and leaned his head back to bite at Tally’s jaw. The finger felt good, but he was desperate for something thicker. He needed Tally.
“Come inside, Tal. Just for a second. I need to feel you.”
“With my—” Tally froze.
Lex rubbed against him, trying to get the pressure he needed, until he realized what he said. “Shit. I’m stupid. Just use your fingers, whatever…
God
, I don’t care. I need to be filled.”
Tally looked lost for a few moments, then he grabbed the tube of lube that had made it into the shower days before and slicked up his fingers. When Lex felt those fingers start to prod gently, he pushed back with everything he had. He needed Tally deep and hard.
“Fuck, more. I want. Tally…”
Tally had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life. Lex, all writhe-y and slick, riding his fingers and sobbing for more. He wanted badly to just to dive in and feel the heat of Lex’s body squeezing tight on his bare cock.
Damn
, he wanted it. But they couldn’t. He wasn’t out of his head enough to forget that just yet.
Lex grabbed his own cock and started to stroke. “I wanna come, Tal. It’s either gonna happen now, or you need to take me to bed.” That last part was released on a groan that shook Tally’s spine. He could barely decide between watching Lex ride out his need or waiting until he was inside so he could feel every single aftershock. The thought of that feeling made the decision easy. Tally squeezed his eyes shut, then gently pulled out of Lex, reached over, and turned the water off. He shook himself, then picked Lex up, dripping wet, and carried him the ten steps to Lex’s enormous bed.
Without even hesitating a second, Lex reached for his drawer and the lube and a condom, which he handed to Tally.
“Now,” he ground out. “No foreplay. Need you in me.” He slicked his own fingers with lube and reached between his legs to prepare himself.
Tally shuddered at the sight of Lex’s fingers sinking into his tight hole. “God, Lex. Want you now.”
“
Yes
. Fuck me.”
Lex lifted his legs and slung his ankles over Tally’s shoulders. Tally tried to be slow, but the heat and Lex’s impatience made him lose it. He thrust deep, holding onto Lex’s thighs.
“Oh, God, Tal. Yes!”
Lex arched his back and cried out, rolling his hips frantically. Tally wanted more, deeper, hotter. He couldn’t get enough. He pulled out and pushed at Lex’s side.
“Roll over, babe. On your knees. I can get deeper that way.”
Lex rolled over and rose to his knees, trembling. He reached out and grabbed onto the headboard. His back was damp and glowing, Tally couldn’t help running his fingers down the graceful line of his spine. His lips followed, wringing moans and breathy curses from Lex until he spread those beautifully rounded cheeks and delved with his tongue into the tight heat of Lex’s body.
Lex shouted hoarsely and reached behind himself to cup Tally’s head and tug on his hair. A loud string of curse words, moans, begging cries flowed from his mouth. “
Fuck, Tally, more, shit, need to have you, want you in me, feel your skin, God, please, now, fuck….
” Lex reached down and grabbed his cock, pulling hard, too out of his head to even care. He bucked his hips.
“Tally, gonna come. Want you in me now!”
Tally felt the beginnings of Lex’s orgasm shivering around his tongue. He slid up Lex’s back and, without even a second of hesitation, lined up and dove in. He grabbed for Lex’s cock and found it hard and slick and twined his fist around Lex’s. Tally started to thrust hard and fast, helping Lex finish himself off. Lex made a muffled groaning sound, then let go to bring his fist up to his mouth at the same time as he arched his back and shouted out Tally’s name. Tally felt the rippling pulses of Lex coming before the wet heat of his release splashed out onto Tally’s hand and the sheets below them. His own orgasm tingled at his spine.
“That’s it, babe, come for me,” he crooned breathlessly, coaxing the last few trembles from Lex with long strokes of his hand.
“T-tally,” Lex gulped and shuddered. Then he squeezed Tally one last time, hard, and that was enough to send Tally flying over the edge into oblivion. Lex unwrapped his hand from the top of the headboard, and they slid down until they were flat on the bed, Tally covering Lex’s body.
When he realized that he was going to fall asleep on top of Lex if he didn’t move, Tally rolled over and, after disposing of the uncomfortable condom, reached down for his jeans.
“Where you going?” Lex’s voice was hoarse from shouting and so sexy it made Tally’s belly tremble.
“Getting dressed. We’ve got a long day ahead of us. I’ve gotta be here at ten, right?” Tally felt Lex’s hand on his arm, tugging. He kept it up until Tally lay back down. Lex lifted the blankets and wriggled under them before he attempted to pull Tally underneath. Tally gave in and let Lex pull him into place, facing Lex with Lex’s arm slug across his hips, hand cupping his ass familiarly. He stayed quiet for a few seconds until it became apparent that Lex wasn’t going to say anything.
“What are we doing here?” he finally asked.
“Just go to sleep, Tal.”