If I Must Lane by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online Page B

nothing real,” Ian said, rolling his eyes at himself, but Joel wouldn’t listen to that.
    “No, no, Ee. You’re amazing. You’re smart, and you’re funny. You’ve got a heart as big as the sky, you know that? You don’t need a roommate. You just took me in ’cause I liked the apartment—”
    “I took you in because I wanted to get in your pants,” Ian supplied crossly, and Joel’s grin made Ian blink.
    “Yeah? You never made a move!”
    Ian shrugged. “You don’t swing that way. And besides…” Ian looked at his bedroom, with its king-sized bed and it’s jumbo cluttered computer desk, and then he looked back, meeting Joel’s eyes with a resigned expression. “Everybody I slept with ran away in the morning. I- I’d do almost anything to keep you from running away.”
    Oh God. Joel leaned close and rubbed his thumb on Ian’s lean bottom lip. “Brother, I’ve got news for you,” he said quietly, hoping he could treasure the awestruck, worshipful expression on Ian’s face forever.
    “Yeah?” Ian leaned closer, and Joel could smell him underneath shampoo and deodorant and… was that cologne? It didn’t matter. He still smelled earthy and human and real.
    “I do swing that way. And I just invited my sister to stay with us for Christmas so she could meet you and make sure you were worth her plane ticket. I have no intention of running away from you, Ee.”
    “Why would she want to meet me?” Ian asked, and he was close enough to bump noses with, so Joel did, rubbing the smooth part of his cheek along Ian’s stubbled one, feeling the silk of Ian’s breath on his face.
    “Because I love you, and she wants to welcome you to the family.” It was bold. It was probably insane. But it was the truth, and if Ian kicked him out for it now, Joel would know it was never meant to be.
    Ian kissed him.
    Their lips met, met again, and Joel opened his mouth, letting Ian inside. He tasted like Dr Pepper and… and just like Ian. All of that joy, all of the kindness, all of the earthy humanity, all there on Joel’s tongue for the tasting.
    Joel groaned and pulled Ian closer, tangling his fingers in that halo of blond hair just like he’d imagined doing, pulling Ian on top of him, loving his friend’s weight, pinning him to the couch.
    Ian moved his kisses to Joel’s neck, and Joel’s head fell back as he made an “ahh ahh” sound, and then that mouth, eager, questing, fascinated by the texture of Joel’s skin, continued on. With some shifting Joel found he was bare-chested, and Ian’s big hands were spanning his chest, rubbing his nipples, stroking the tender flesh of his abdomen.
    Ian paused for a minute then and peered into Joel’s face owlishly. “Mate, uhm, just how long have you swung this way?”
    Joel’s smile was a little embarrassed. “Probably forever,” he muttered, thinking about his sister’s astute assessment of his love life. “But I’ve only really known since I jerked off in my old bed, dreaming of you,” he finished. Ian grinned and then looked thoughtful. “Why?”
    “Because now I know what you’ve done and what you haven’t, and what I’m going to do next.”
    “Ian, you don’t even know how you’re going to get to work.”
    Ian shook his head. “This is different, mate. I’ve been dreaming of this for months. I’ll be damned if I bollix it up now.”
    And then, as though he couldn’t help himself, he lowered his head to Joel’s chest and opened his mouth over a tanned nipple and suckled, and Joel arched against him, hard and needy.
    “Oh God, Ian, Ian?” Because Ian kept kissing down to Joel’s tender stomach. He kept kissing while Joel arched his hips to give better access to pull down the gray sweats, and then he kissed down the trail of black fur from Joel’s navel to his— “Oh God… Ian !”
    Ian was a lot of things, but subtle wasn’t one of them. With an open mouth, he engulfed Joel’s cock and pushed his lips all the way down until they touched