For a few minutes the two simply kissed; saying so much without using any words at all. It made the sore spot on Brian’s lip start to throb but he didn’t care. He had been terrified that he would never be able to do this again. Now that he could, and knew that he would be able to for a long time, he wanted it more than anything. Not for his own pain would he stop. But he would for AJ’s.
AJ’s breathing hitched a little, and not in a way that it normally did while kissing. There was an edge to it that said it was from pain. Hearing that, Brian pulled back to look at his face. Luckily he hadn’t managed to hit AJ’s face in this last fight, so there were no bruises there. But the robe had moved enough that he could clearly see one on AJ’s shoulder and there were little ones that peppered his legs and arms. Those weren’t what Brian was worried about, though.
He took hold of AJ’s elbows and helped him get back up onto the bed. Once he was sitting there, Brian dropped onto his knees beside the bed and reached for the belt of AJ’s robe.
“Gee, little eager there, Littrell?” AJ taunted him. There was tightness to his voice that told Brian exactly how much he was hurting.
Instead of rising to the bait he chose to ignore AJ’s smart aleck remark and just continued to open the robe. When he pulled it aside he had to sit back for a second. “I knew you bruised easily.” Brian said slowly. “But, holy crap, Alex.”
“I’ve told you guys time and time again.”
The bottom right of his rib cage and down over his side were multi colored. Brian had to force himself to look at it practically and not to immediately pamper his lover. “Looks like it just caught your bottom rib. Most of the damage seems to be your side itself. That’s good. Bruised ribs are horrible to deal with.”
“I’m fine. It’s worse than it looks, love.” AJ insisted.
Something about that casual endearment coming from AJ’s lips had Brian staring up at him. He didn’t realize how much he was staring until AJ gave him a weird look and said “What? Why are you giving me that goofy look?”
Brian felt the blush fill his cheeks and he dropped his gaze to the side. Embarrassment had him babbling. “We should, uh, get you in the tub so that you can ease those aches. A warm bath is a great help for a bruised side and bruised ribs. I’ll just go run that water for you. Not too hot and not too cold. Yeah.” He would have darted to his feet but AJ suddenly had a hold of his face. Again, Brian flushed. But when AJ tipped his head up, Brian looked right into his eyes. There was concern in AJ’s gaze, and confusion, but also love. How had he not seen that before? The sight of it now left Brian almost breathless.
“Brian? What’s wrong?” AJ asked gently.
A smile curved Brian’s lips. Some of the embarrassment slid away. “I’m fine, AJ. Really I am.”
“What was all that about, then? The different look, the blushing, babbling at me like that. You never get that flustered with me unless I’m trying to discuss sex in too vulgar terms with you.”
Knowing AJ he most likely wouldn’t let this go. Resigned to it, Brian sighed and closed his eyes. Not realizing it, he tipped his face a little to nuzzle at AJ’s hand. “It was just…it was the way you called me love, that’s all.”
“Did you not like it?” AJ was quick to ask.
Brian opened his eyes wide as he started to shake his head. “No, no, that wasn’t what I meant. It, well, it made me feel good. Special. It was nice. Just kind of threw me for a minute, you know?” he said softly. Embarrassed again, he felt the flush build in his cheeks again. But he couldn’t look away from AJ’s eyes. They had gone deep and soft.
Ever so gently, AJ leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to Brian’s lips. When he pulled back he was smiling. “You and I, we’re new to this nice thing.” He said in a husky voice. “We’re so used to bickering and snipping and all of those things. But there’s a part of me that just goes soft around you, Brian Littrell. I held it in for quite a while now because I was stupid and afraid. Afraid of saying the three words I knew would give you total power over me. But I don’t want to hold it in anymore. I love you. I’ve loved you for a while now.”
“You have?”
“Yeah.” AJ’s smile became even sweeter, if that was possible. “I think I was falling for quite a while, but I didn’t really admit it to myself. Not until the day I finally told you about what had happened that first day.” His thumbs traced over Brian’s cheekbones in such a tender gesture that Brian’s heart swelled. “I had expected you to either be mad and think that it was something dumb, or laugh, or I didn’t know what else. But the pain that you had on your face, in your eyes, was so honest and sincere. I knew that you really cared about how I felt. You understood. I looked at your beautiful eyes and the pain that was in them and I tumbled head over heels.”
Brian felt the embarrassment fade and the love take its place. He brought his hands up to take hold of AJ’s, lacing their fingers together and resting their joined hands on AJ’s knees. “Looking back, I think mine was gradual. Every time we would lay in bed and talk while everyone else was asleep I fell a little more and a little more. I just wasn’t ready to admit it or see it. But when you left, all I could think about was how hurt you were. I was lost without you there. It felt like half of me had been ripped away. No one else has ever made that feeling in me. No one else ever mattered so much. I love you, AJ. And it feels wonderful.”
What else was there to do but share another of those sweet kisses? It was so different from how they usually kissed, yet no less potent. Powerful, yes, but in a totally different way. Instead of electrifying his body, it seemed to light up his heart.
When they pulled back, AJ flashed that sharp grin that showed his good humor. “I have a feeling we’ll still fight.” He said with an amused tone. “That’s ok though. Makes for great sex. I don’t mind the fighting with you, so long as we try to stop hitting one another. I think it’ll keep us always on our toes.”
“Our relationship will never be dull, that’s for sure.” Brian teased him. It felt so good to be here with AJ, joking and loving. It felt right. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said that he had been lost when AJ left. That had been the most painful moment of his life so far, even more so than Harold’s betrayal. Like being deprived of air, or of the sun. “But I wouldn’t want it any other way, Age. I like the spunky side of you, even when it makes me want to strangle you.”
“Well, good, cause I don’t see me changing too much over the years. I like the spunky side of you, too. No matter how mad I got at you, I do have to say that it makes me feel good that you stand up to me. That you know you can. I don’t ever want you to brush things off with me the way you do with others.”
Humor lit Brian’s eyes and had a chuckle sliding up his throat. “I think it’s safe to say that that part of me is changing. I’ve yelled at Kevin more this tour than I ever have in my entire life. And uh, well, when Harold came in and I saw him and I figured it out in my head, I blackened his other eye.” He couldn’t help being a little embarrassed over that.
AJ, on the other hand, threw his head back and laughed. “Oh God, Bri! You’re turning into one hell of a firecracker.” He joked.
“Shut up.” Bright red, Brian sought to change the subject. “Why don’t we get you in that bath? I doubt you’ve done anything for that bruise since you got here.”
“Nope. I will now, though, on one condition.”
“What?”
“Join me?”
As if he could resist that invitation. Brian smiled and rose to his feet, pulling AJ with him. In no time at all the two of them had the tub full of water and were sliding into its warmth. The both of them sighed as they let the heat ease their muscles and bodies. Brian leaned back against the side of the tub, facing the wall, and grinned. “Your tub is freaking huge, Age.” He told him with a laugh. It was true. The tub could have easily fit four people in it.
AJ just shrugged. He dunked himself underwater, coming back up and brushing his hair back out of his face. “I like space to stretch out.”
“I noticed. Your bed’s enormous too.”
A twinkle came into AJ’s eyes that was very familiar. It automatically sent a shiver down Brian’s spine. “Well, Bri, like I said. I like space to stretch out. Later, I’ll show you the perks of a bed that size. You’d be amazed at the difference it’ll make, not being in a cramped little hotel bed.”
Now his brain was full of images of what exactly they could be doing in that bed. A certain part of Brian’s body started to automatically wake up as those images filled his mind. His eyes slid closed for a second. They shot open again when he felt the water move. AJ’s face was suddenly close in front of his, and his lover was sliding up and over his body. Brian gasped and his body responded to the feel of AJ’s very aroused body pressing against him.
“Let me show you how nice this tub can be, too.” AJ whispered huskily before leaning in to nip at Brian’s jawline.
Shivering, Brian tried to think clearly. “Your side…it’ll hurt.”
AJ nuzzled his way along Brian’s jaw until he reached his ear. He bit none to gently at his earlobe, succeeding in making Brian moan out loud. “I like a little pain, Bri. You know that.” AJ breathed into his ear. How on earth was he supposed to resist this man?
Then AJ’s body slid even closer, knees coming to rest on the seat on either side of Brian’s hips, and he lost all ability to think, let alone resist. Of their own accord, his hands came up and took hold of AJ’s hips, holding him in place so that he could grind up against him. The sound of AJ’s moan against his ear was thrilling.
One of AJ’s hands dropped down to dip under the water and wrap around Brian’s obvious erection. The feeling of AJ’s warm hand holding him had Brian’s hips jumping and another moan echoing through the bathroom. He could feel AJ’s smile against his ear as that raspy voice started to whisper to him again. “We’re alone in my house. We don’t have to worry about anyone at all but one another. I’ve been dying to get you someplace that I could get you to let go. To make all those sexy noises that I love so much without you having to stifle them. I want to make your screams echo off the walls. I love that you’re a screamer.”
“Only with you.” Brian gasped. He felt AJ’s hand start to move and he swore that his eyes rolled back in his head. “Sweet God, AJ. Only you make me feel like this. It was never this way with anyone else.”
He heard AJ’s hiss. The hand that was wrapped around him squeezed a little and pumped faster. “Do you have any idea what that does to me? To know that you’re only like this for me? Do you know how powerful that makes me feel? How turned on? God, you’re so fucking sexy, Brian.”
Brian slid his hand from AJ’s hip to take hold of AJ’s arousal, giving it the long, slightly rough tug that he knew AJ loved. Sure enough, AJ’s body quivered and he moaned loud and long. “About as much as it turns me on to do this to you.” Brian whispered back. He turned his head so that he was the one nibbling on AJ’s ear. “As powerful as I feel when you practically melt under my hands. I love feeling you shiver like that and know that I caused it. Do you know how badly I want you?”
“Tell me.”
The simple request had Brian’s eyes sliding shut for a moment. In a normal moment he would never be able to say things like this. But here, as their slick bodies pressed together in the water, as they jerked one another so that they were both squirming and panting, it seemed right. He knew how much it turned AJ on to hear him say these things, especially when his accent thickened like it did with lust. “I always want you, AJ. I want to bury myself inside of you and take you hard and hot and fast so that hours later you’ll still feel what I did. I want to touch and taste every inch of you.”
Again, AJ shivered, his forehead dropping to Brian’s shoulder on a moan. But Brian wasn’t done. He continued to stroke him as he spoke. “I want to watch your face as I fill you. See the pain and the pleasure start. I want to hear your moans and those sexy little growls you give. I want to watch your face when you lose yourself in the pleasure and you just can’t take it anymore. Do you know how fucking sexy you are when you cum?”
Just as he’d known it would, the swearword had AJ moaning again. Suddenly the hand around his cock was moving, adjusting them in the water. AJ was positioning them, still straddling Brian’s hips. “Fuck me then, Littrell.” He rasped out as he raised his head. He lined everything up and let go, starting to sink down.
The feeling was incredible. It always was. Brian let go of AJ’s cock to grab his hips and hold him in place as he pushed up into him. He swore his eyes rolled up inside of his head. “Oh God. You’re so tight, AJ. So good.”
AJ straightened his spine and threw his head back. His hands went behind him, over his head, to grab hold of the towel bar that was installed into the wall. It was at just the right height for AJ to angle his body and to use it to start rising up and down.
No more words were used. The two men let out twin moans that echoed around them. While AJ rose up and down, Brian held his hips and thrust up to meet him each time. The bathroom echoed with the sounds of the water sloshing around them, over the lip of the tub, over their bodies. Feeling it on their skin was more erotic than Brian had ever known possible. They’d had sex in a shower before, but it was nothing like doing this inside of a tub. The water against his sensitized skin added to the sensations.
It was heaven being buried inside of AJ. He dug his nails into AJ’s hips and was rewarded with one of those growls that he loved so much.
The passion was the same as it had always been, and yet there seemed to be so much more. This wasn’t just their bodies this time, but their hearts as well. It was the same, yet more. Infinitely more.
Letting go of AJ’s hip with one hand, Brian brought it up to wrap around AJ’s cock again, giving it a firm tug. “Fuck!” AJ spat out. His hips moved faster and faster.
That familiar sensation was creeping up on Brian, starting at his toes and climbing through his body. He could barely hear his own gasps over the sound of his beating heart. But he forced his eyes to stay open, to watch AJ’s face as the pleasure built and built there. He couldn’t see anything else but that fire in AJ’s eyes.
He could see when AJ’s orgasm started to hit. Watched without shame as AJ’s features tightened, as his body arched and jumped and he let out a moan that was mixed with a growl. The sight of AJ’s orgasm, the feel of his muscles clenching, all of it was enough to finally send Brian up and over the edge. He shoved into him one last time, dimly aware of the scream that tore past his lips. Everything in his vision seemed to blank for a moment while the pleasure tore its way through him.
Then he was slowly coming back down, drifting back to earth. AJ’s warm body collapsed against him and he had just enough energy to wrap his arms around him and hold him there.
How long they laid there, he had no idea. But eventually their senses returned to normal and they had enough energy to look at one another and smile.
Brian brought a hand up, running it over AJ’s wet hair. “I love you AJ.” He whispered.
“I love you too, Bri.” AJ whispered back. Then his face turned a little devilish. “But you owe me.”
Confused, Brian shifted to look at him better. “Owe you?”
“Mm hm.” AJ nodded. He raised a still shaky hand to point at the wall. Brian followed the direction of AJ’s hand until he saw what his lover was talking about. Then he simply sat there and laughed. Somewhere in the midst of their passion, AJ had pulled part of the towel bar out of the wall. It hung, half hooked, dangling there.
Looking down into AJ’s face, he couldn’t keep the grin off his lips or out of his eyes. “Lucky for you I’m pretty handy around the house.” He teased.
AJ’s grin was wide and evil. “You can say that again.” he whispered as he shifted. Before Brian realized what he was about, he felt AJ start to bring their bodies back to life. By then, there was no more room for any thought. He lost himself in the touch and feel of his lover.