#Rev (GearShark #2)(16)

Drew’s face tightened, and I knew what I was saying was crude and hard to hear. Good. It would never get easier.

“And what about your racing career, the one you’re just starting? Do you think Gamble is gonna want a gay man as the face of his new sport? What if he drops you? What if you never get another opportunity like this again and you spend the rest of your life behind a computer, cut off from your father, brother, and maybe your mother? What happens when you go out and people whisper crude words, when they call you a fag and dick licker?”

He didn’t say anything, just sat there and looked at me.

“You’ll start to resent me,” I whispered. “You’ll blame me for all the shit you lost.”

“Even if I lost every single one of those things you just listed, it still wouldn’t add up to the single loss of you.”

I was dumbstruck. So completely astounded. He told me he loved me. I knew it was true. What I hadn’t realized was his love for me rivaled my love for him.

How did a man fight that?

I couldn’t.

I was going to cave.

It was like all the reasons I put us through this were suddenly null and void.

“You know what I think?” he asked softly.

I gestured for him to speak.

“I think it’s not just me you’re protecting, but yourself.”

Yes. But not from the bigots and the haters in the world. I was protecting myself from me. From all the things our relationship could do to Drew. As I said, it was he who was my weakness, and it was his hurt that had the power to destroy me.

“Protecting you is protecting me,” I whispered.

“I really think you’re the bravest man I’ve ever met,” he confessed, almost shy.

I took it as some kind of affront, a challenge. Like he thought I was being weak by trying to push him away. “Pushing you away was brave, Drew. It took everything I had.”

He nodded and reached for my hand. “I know. I don’t want you to be brave for me, Trent. I want you to be brave with me.”

“Look at me, Forrester.” My eyes bore into his. “Look at my bruises and cuts. Look at the way people I’ve been friends with for years turned on me without even asking first if the rumors were true.” I gave his hand a squeeze. “Are you up for this?”

He scooted forward on the bed, our legs bumping together. “I’m asking for it. I’m asking for you.”

My chest felt tight, and it wasn’t because of my ribs. I felt near to max capacity with emotion, as if everything we’d been through to get to this moment had been nothing but practice. My doubt and fear was waning, being replaced with a sensation of luck.

I was sitting in Drew’s bed, beaten and bruised. Some people out there wouldn’t accept us. Our life would never be as easy as it might have been if we just stayed friends.

It didn’t even matter.

Our fingers were entwined together; his body carried the weight of mine more than once tonight. He was holding out his heart, extending it between us, offering me everything I honestly never thought I’d have.

He was so much more than I ever imagined.

How did I get so lucky? How was Drew able to look past my walls, past the fa?ade I built for everyone to see? He saw me for who I was. For the man I was still discovering… I wasn’t even sure who I would fully become.

But he seemed to see.

And he loved me.

“I can’t say no to you,” I whispered, my voice cracking halfway through. “Denying you anything would be like ripping out my own heart and abandoning it to the wolves.”

Drew cupped his hand around the back of my head and made a sound I could only describe as intense relief. He wasn’t smug he convinced me. He wasn’t arrogant he’d gotten his way. When he pressed his forehead against mine and met my eyes, all I saw was gratitude.

Both our chests heaved a bit, and his fingers dug into my scalp where he held me.

“Thank f*ck,” he all but groaned.

I smiled. “If you think I’m protective now, it’s probably going to get worse.”

Now my defensive instincts weren’t only concentrated on keeping him safe… but on my radar was us. Two men who shared a single heart.

Vicious wasn’t even a strong enough sentiment to define how I was going to protect that.

“I don’t care,” he murmured, still holding my head against his. “As long as you’re my person.”

“And you’re mine.”

Drew’s eyes darkened. “No more talking tonight, frat boy.” Both hands grabbed my jaw and his lips covered mine.

He kissed me passionately, like we’d both jumped off a ledge into a bottomless well… His lips were the only ground I’d ever meet again. We tumbled together. Our tongues danced and caressed each other without hesitation. I rubbed my chin against his as we made out, the feel of his rough stubble causing tension to heighten inside me as my dick began to harden.

I didn’t feel any pain, not even when we slowly lowered as one onto the mattress. His body covered mine, but he wasn’t heavy. Drew supported all his weight on his hands and only allowed his chest and hips to brush me lightly. If my ribs weren’t busted, I would have pulled him over me completely and reveled in the strength of his body.

Our hips started grinding toward each other as our cocks rubbed together. I palmed his hips and pulled them closer so his dick was pinned beside mine and there was no room to do anything but rock slowly.