Giving Up, Giving In.
"Now, who said anything about Rae?" Brendan said, his voice a low purr at the back of his throat. He pushed a twenty into Ste's hand and closed his fingers around it. "Put her in a cab."
"No." Ste said, shoving the note against Brendan's chest. It fell to the ground when he released his hand. "She's not going home to the kids rotten drunk."
"Kids are with Mike. You said so yourself."
"That's my girlfriend in there, she's drunk, so I'm taking her home. End of discussion." Ste felt resilient, determined, cocky even. He waved his hand in front of Brendan's face to signal he was wasting his time.
Brendan's calm exterior crumbled. "You need to get over yourself Stephen! You're gonna let a girl like that walk all over ya?"
"You don't even know her!" Ste crossed his arms in front of him.
Brendan tilted his face to the side. His eyes lingered on Ste's lips. "I know enough. I know when you're there tonight, lying next to her, it's not her you'll be thinking about,"
"You're wrong," Ste's hard stare trembled. He looked away.
"Yeah…" Brendan said, clearing his throat. He lowered his mouth to Ste's ear, "So you won't be wondering what I would have done to you if you'd said yes?"
Ste swallowed and his Adam's apple bobbed in his throat.
There was a clack of heels and a swish of blonde hair when Rae stumbled out of the pub. She took a hazy look towards Brendan and tumbled over to Ste. "Oh babe!" she cried.
He cast a look to Brendan and held her slightly apart from him with a forced grin. "Babe. We need to get you home. Me and Brendan and India, we're gonna go to a club."
Rae whined. "I wanna come! Let's go." She didn't even notice India was nowhere to be seen. She wouldn't even remember the story in the morning.
"I don't think it's a good idea," Ste said with a gentle laugh.
"I'll call you a cab," Brendan said, picking up the note from the ground.
Ste could barely look at him. "What you like eh?" he laughed, tapping Rae on the chin. "We'll go clubbing next time."
With Rae slumped and waving in the back of the cab and the driver told to keep the change, Brendan and Ste stood side by side in The Dog's car park. Ste felt weak and flustered, he shoved his icy hands in his pockets but the rest of his body glowed with heat. From the corner of his mouth, Brendan grew a devilish smile. He led the way, knowing Ste wasn't far behind.
Brendan took a call from Cheryl before they made it to the front door. His replies echoed what Cheryl was saying on the other end, letting Ste be privy to the fact she wasn't coming home at all that night and was going to celebrate Steph's life in style, with Nancy of all people.
He ended the call and forced the phone back into his pocket, taking a long look at Ste who was pretending not to have heard the conversation. Brendan smiled to himself and jangled the keys in his hand.
"Looks like it's just me and you tonight Stephen." He leant on the door and watched as Ste shifted, wetting his lips and looking at anything but Brendan.
Brendan pushed the door ajar, the dark living room letting in some of the street lamp light.
"Well…" Brendan began, signalling for Ste to enter, "When you're ready…"
Ste didn't look hesitant; he looked like he was giving up the fight. He gripped and ungripped his hands together and walked into the unlit house. Brendan slipped inside and closed the doors behind him, backing Ste against the wall. He was unbearably close now, his body shadowing Ste in complete darkness. Brendan smiled then, a victorious smile and he moved his palm to the centre of Ste's chest.
"Tell me Stephen," he said in a voice which vibrated through their skin, "What exactly did you have in mind?"
Ste didn't dare touch or tell him, he knew the tests and games now and he wasn't there to play, but to be played.
"I shouldn't be here," Ste said, punctuating each word with a losing determination. He looked away.
Brendan slammed his free palm against the wall next to Ste's head and moved his face until his lips were brushing the air close to Ste's jaw.
"But yet…here you are," Brendan said. He pulled his hand down from Ste's chest, over his stomach and cupped the trouser fabric at his groin. Pressing a little harder just there, he laughed to himself.
After a moment's heat, Brendan removed himself, taking a step away. "Okay. There's the door," he tested coldly.
There was a fraction of a second where Ste looked ready to protest, ready to walk out, he had a fireball of rebellion in waiting. But there it stayed. He watched the man in front of him stand casually with one hand on his belt loop and his other making twitchy impatient movements. It felt like a countdown before he'd make the final call and get tired of the pretence and probably throw him out of the house.
His hoodie zip made a long spiky sound as he pulled it all the way down. Brendan watched, poised and patient, chewing gum as his stare travelled the length of Ste's body. Before he could be uncertain with what to do with his clothes, Brendan took it off his hands, holding it with one finger like a coat-hanger and waiting for the next time with an expectant greed.
Entranced, Ste peeled off his polo shirt and felt the sudden rush of warmth to his skin when he saw the intense expression on Brendan's face.
"Come here," he said, extending his arm and knotting his fingers tightly into the back of Ste's hair when he stepped into Brendan's reach. He discarded the clothes on the floor and with the flat of his hand, explored the fine hairs over Ste's torso. He pressed his forehead against Ste's, taking deep sighs of air and nipping lightly at his shaking bottom lip.
Brendan took his head in both hands and kissed him hard on the mouth sending Ste stumbling backwards. Brendan's energy bolted through the kiss in a ferocious display of his desperation. He sucked and licked and bit Ste's mouth until he barely had enough breath for more. It was all Ste could do to stand. He broke for air several times but Brendan pushed on, not letting up. His hands clawed through Ste's hair, leaving him look like he'd been ravaged by electricity.
When he finally paused, he glared at an invisible space in the darkness and unbuckled himself.
"Bedroom," he ordered Ste gruffly, throwing the crumpled clothes at him and following behind, unable to undress quickly enough.
Clammy handed, Ste managed to throw off all his clothes before Brendan had even got rid of his jacket. He sat on the bed feeling that same stomach-twisting excitement of being back in Brendan's bedroom. He willed himself not to race too far ahead in his thoughts, not wanting to come before Brendan had even touched him.
Brendan appeared, shirtless in his peripheral vision and ran his hands up Ste's shoulders and cupped his cheek. A soft smile appeared for the first time that night, without malice or arrogance. He tucked Ste's hair behind his ear and knelt on the floor in front of him.
Ste gulped and his sweating hands clawed at the covers underneath him. Pulling him forward by his hips, Brendan eyed him critically. Ste could only imagine he was basking in the satisfaction of having gotten him here so easily. Brendan ran his palms up and down Ste's chest, purposefully delaying the inevitable and letting his tongue slide in and out over his bottom lip, sighing as he did so.
He wasn't sure what made him do it, but Ste grinned wide, ear-to-ear and irrepressible. He let his head fall back when he felt Brendan's tongue writhe below his throat. His fingertips trickled down Ste's torso, finally clamping around Ste's cock.
Ste's expression jolted and he found his hips moving roughly to force Brendan's hand. If he hadn't known Brendan's temperament all too well by now, he might asked, begged or said something impatient. But even the slightest word was enough to flip his mood completely and Ste couldn't risk it, not now, not like this, not when he was seconds away from having Brendan suck him off.
"Keep still," he said gruffly. Ste sucked air through his teeth, it was hard enough to listen to instructions, let alone follow them.
From the corner of his eye he saw Brendan's head disappear into darkness and only allowing himself a shaky sigh, he trembled, feeling a hot, wet pressure surround his cock. His spine arched and the throb from his groin sparked through him like an electric current, twisting and turning his head until it lolled helplessly to the side. He felt his chest rocket up and down and Brendan dig his fingers in his bony hips. Brendan teased him constantly about his body, it was one of those macho banter things not helped because he admitted was skinny, but Ste knew Brendan wouldn't have it any other way. He'd not said it exactly, but Ste had felt it, he'd felt it in Brendan's gaze and touch and those rare moments where Brendan had allowed himself to tell a fraction of the truth.
"I'd have you for breakfast Stephen," he'd said, in the midst of a two-fuck session, "Your little body wouldn't know what'd hit it." He'd been all teeth and tongue then on his jawline. Ste had giggled and didn't even have to ask to go again; Brendan had already torn open another condom.
Tonight Ste knew that sleep would get no look in, his body would be reeling from the aftershocks when he was behind the SU bar the next day trying not to think about Brendan naked. But fuck that, he wasn't complaining.
Brendan sucked so hard he thought he might break. He wasn't sure if that was even possible, but it was either that or his head exploding and neither was preferable. If it wasn't the feeling of being completely devoured by him or the brush of his ticklish moustache against the shaft that was giving a whole new meaning to being alive, then it was definitely the growling hums he could hear in Brendan's mouth. It vibrated right through him.
Ste's brow creased and his breaths became shallower. He knew he was coming and that he could barely stop himself from crying out, so he gave into it. Like a reflex, his hand burrowed in Brendan's hair and he choked and gulped and groaned all at once, feeling his head swim with an impossible heat. He cursed and mumbled and wanted to cry something about Brendan being the best head he'd ever had, but he could just about manage the first syllable of his name when Brendan swallowed.
Ste sat with his hand half on Brendan's head still and taking in raspy breaths. Brendan eyed him over, licking the corners of his mouth and wiping the rest with his hand.
"Noisy fella," he commented, his jaw sort of clicking to one side. He thumbed Ste's separated lips and stood up.
Not removing his eyes from Ste's, he unbuckled, unbuttoned, unzipped.