M/M- Ripped (Boys Of Summer) by Mia Downing Read Free Book Online

his approval around his throbbing shaft. “Erik,” he choked out, overcome by the dueling emotions.
     
    Gavin moaned Erik’s name, over and over, and this time, the hands that caressed him were real. Erik’s tongue lashed him, his lips milking every inch of pleasure, drawing out the evil. God, Erik .
     
    When Erik released him, Gavin closed his eyes and sank to the floor, under the spray, his arms around his knees. Weak, fucking shit. But the pain was gone. He felt the peace and, in that spot, he could feel Angela again.
     
    Gavin waited for Erik to leave. He pressed his cheek to the clammy tile on the wall, lukewarm water streaming down his face, his body, his legs, swirling down the drain.
     
    But Erik slid over on the floor of the shower and wrapped his arms around Gavin’s shoulders, pulling him to his chest. “I’m so sorry, Gav. So, so sorry,” he whispered.
     
    He shuddered, relieved. “I’m a weak fucking shit.”
     
    “You should have told me. Jesus, Gavin.” Erik kissed his forehead, his temple, the shower raining down, washing what few tears Gavin had left in him away. You got hit for crying.
     
    Erik held him closer, his grip fierce, as if Gavin were going to wash down the drain with the memories.
     
    “Weak.”
     
    “You’re alive. You’re clean. You’re sober. You are strong, Gavin. Superhero strong.” Erik tilted his chin and kissed him, a soft, gentle kiss that tasted of Gavin’s essence, salty, musky but so right to be on Erik’s lips. It tasted safe. “Let’s finish and go to bed.”
     
    “You can leave.”
     
    “I’m not leaving you.”
     
    “That’s what Angela said.” Gavin curled deeper into a ball, wishing the drain would take him away, too. “And then she died.”
     
    ****
     
    Somehow, Erik got Gavin to stand and finish his shower. Somehow, he got Gavin toweled off and tucked into the master bedroom, ignoring Gavin’s quiet commands for him to leave. There’d be a better chance of corn growing in Arctic ice than Erik leaving.
     
    Erik slipped in behind Gavin in his big, king-size bed and held him close, pressing his stomach to Gavin’s hard back, wrapping his arms around Gavin’s waist. “Go to sleep, Gav. I’m not leaving.”
     
    “Okay,” he mumbled, gave a huge, shuddering sigh, and then his breathing quieted. As if Erik’s promise that he wouldn’t leave was all it took to send him off to slumberland.
     
    Erik never knew Gavin was that fucked up. Yeah, he knew some, but Gavin had never shared that much, as if the secret hell he’d lived in was keeping him bound by the tethers of truth. Erik had never liked Gavin’s parents and in return they’d never liked him. Angela had been shy but nice.
     
    They’d spent most of their time at Erik’s house as kids, where it had been boring, creepy normal in a 50’s sitcom way. He always wondered how Gavin could like the boring and normal, right down to relishing the chores Erik had to do. Gavin had chores, too, but he never wanted to do them. He never wanted to go home.
     
    Angela had been fucked up, too. A big surprise there. She had looked like a miniature, female Gavin, a straight-A student, scholarship opportunities out the ying-yang. Her parents had doted on her. Now he knew the truth. Whatever evil lurked at home steered them both into the only way they’d learned to cope. Drinking. Drugs. Sex.
     
    Gavin’s dad drank too much. Erik learned this at a young age because Gavin had been afraid to go home and Gavin’s dad had come for him, staggering, smelling of beer. Gavin had trembled, casting Erik a wistful look as if wishing he could stay forever. Gavin had never talked about his dad’s drinking problem. Never. But he also never went home unless he had to, which maybe explained why boring was so sweet to Gavin. Boring didn’t drink.
     
    Then Angela died and Gavin moved out, got clean, and never went back. That didn’t mean they didn’t try to lord over him. They tried, big time. And