Better Than Family… A Matt & Aaron Short Story, Part 3

Here is part 3!  I’ll post part 4 tomorrow.  I was thinking we’d be at the NSFW part today, but it looks like that will be tomorrow instead. 😉  As stated in earlier posts, please pardon any typos or punctuation errors and enjoy…

Better Than Family… Part 3

A week after my grandfather’s service, life had returned to some semblance of normal. I was swamped at the office. One of the partners asked me to take the lead on a new government contract, which was both an honor and a pain in the ass. It made for ridiculously long hours. I was glad to keep busy on one hand, but I felt like I was in danger of becoming an absentee boyfriend at home. Aaron was perfectly understanding. His job at the magazine was stressful and required plenty of overtime too. He knew the bigger paycheck often meant a bigger headache.

But I’d learned a couple things over the past three years. As cool as he was being about our lives being a little upside down lately, I knew better than to push my luck when it came to his birthday. It was practically a holiday in our house. No joke. Last year he turned thirty and it was a month long celebration ending with a kick ass gigantic party. This year, he insisted he was fine with keeping things low key. He said it wouldn’t be appropriate to overdo it in light of my grandfather’s passing. I appreciated the sentiment and happily agreed. It was too hard this year to manage more than dinner and a gift.

His best friend, Jay, wasn’t impressed. “Honey, he eats out all the time and you know that boy… if he sees something he wants, he buys it. He has serious self-control issues at the mall. Let’s plan a teensy party. I’ll help!”

I kindly told him it wasn’t in the cards this year and was grateful when Peter stepped in to back me up. But it got me thinking. Jay was right… Aaron didn’t need things. If I wanted to do something special, I had to think of something money couldn’t buy.

Perhaps my emotions were a little closer to the surface than usual, but we’d been through a lot recently and I could honestly say I’d never felt more connected to him. I was shit at voicing my feelings in the best of times. Sure, I told him I loved him all the time but it seemed like there had to be a way to show him.

On the afternoon of his highness’s birthday, I walked through the door a good two hours earlier than usual. Getting home before the sun set certainly qualified as surprise number one. Aaron was on his cell phone speaking Spanish. I crept up behind him and kissed his neck, wrapping him in a tight hold from behind.

“Sí, sí…Mama, I have to go. Matty’s home. I’ll tell him. Okay. Bye.”

He turned and flung his arms around my neck, pulling my head down to lock our lips together in a fierce kiss.

“Wow! Someone’s having a happy birthday.” I gathered his smaller body close and cupped his ass.

“Mmm hmm.” He purred, cuddling into my chest. He sniffed my shirt before smiling up at me. “You smell yummy. Like a sexy man who’s been slaving away at the office all day while I’ve been out on the town, spending money and lunching with friends.”

He gave me a goofy look and batted his eyelashes comically.   I chuckled and kissed his nose.

“How is slaving away at the office sexy?”

“Well, it’s sexy when I don’t have to do it.”

“Makes sense. Sort of.” I pulled back to loosen my tie and led him toward the sofa. He sat in my lap and curled his body around me. “I take it you had a pretty good day?”

“It’s been heaven. I was awoken to lovely blowjob and was given a gorgeous watch that I’ve been coveting forever by my insanely handsome boyfriend. And after he left for work, I fell back to sleep only to be continually disturbed by friends and family calling to wish me a happy day. Then it was lunch with Jay, Katie and a few others at that new bistro by the White House, followed by a brief shopping trip. I actually just got home an hour ago.”

“Big day.” I commented as I nuzzled his neck.

“Yes, and that was my mom on the phone. She wants us to come for dinner next weekend to celebrate my birthday with the family.”

“How long is the official celebration this year? I’m just curious…one week, ten days? Because it certainly isn’t one day for you.” I tickled his sides and licked his neck.

“Cool it! It’s my birthday all day today officially, so you have to be nice to me.”

“I’m always nice to you.” I countered.

“Well, mostly yes. You are.”

“Mostly?” I tickled tortured him until he scrambled out of my hold and lay panting with his feet resting over my knee. I yanked at the hem of his designer jeans. “Did you buy new socks?”

Aaron sat up and rolled the denim back to expose a bright blue sock with swirly clouds on it. It was a scene from a famous Van Gogh painting.

“They were a birthday gift from Paul.”

“The same Paul you set up Curt with before he and Jack got together?”

“Yes! You know Paul, silly. He stopped by the office yesterday and— why are you looking at me like that? You know Paul and I are friends.”

“I know, but the guy has a major crush on you.”

“Maybe a little one. I was thinking there’s a guy in our accounting department he might want to meet and—”

“Oh brother. Stay out of his love life, babe.”

“There’s no harm in introducing people.”

“Hmph. Well, Paul’s a nice guy and as long as he knows he can’t have you, it’s all good.”

“I’m taken. He knows it.”

I wanted to say something crazy like “I want everyone to know it”, but I stopped myself at the last second. I pushed his long bangs off his forehead and kissed him instead. When I sat back, we stared at each other wearing matching silly grins.

“Hey… I have something else for you too.”

“Matty, that watch was a fortune! And to be honest, I had a huge lunch. Let’s just open a bottle of wine and eat appetizers. I’m feeling kind of easy tonight.”

“”Feeling easy’, eh? I could really take one and run with it. But first, tell the truth… the only reason you’re suggesting appetizers is because you don’t want me to cook.” I put a hand up to silence him when he tried to protest. “I don’t mind. We’ll do whatever you want. But I have an idea…”

“Oh? What is it?” His smile was childlike and infectious. I wanted to laugh, but a sudden bout of butterflies made it difficult to string a coherent sentence together.

“Uh, well…”

Aaron shifted on the sofa so he was sitting cross-legged facing me. His expression was curious. “Should I guess?”

“I don’t know if you can. I don’t think you— Okay, go ahead and guess.”

“Hmm. Is it big, small, home grown? Does it come in a bottle?”

“Um…”

He cocked his head to the side waiting for me to continue. I wished he just knew what I was thinking without me having to say the words aloud. I took a deep breath and looked over at my gorgeous boyfriend. He looked sexy as hell in those jeans and a green Oxford shirt that made his hazel eyes pop. His hair was mussed from playing around and— fuck, I wanted him.

“Aar, I …” I bit my lip and reached out to touch his hair. “You are the most beautiful— I…”

He smiled sweetly at the compliment, sensing I wanted to say more. “What is it, Matty?”

“I was thinking, if you want… I mean, you might not want it and that’s okay too. But if you do…I want you to have…me.”

I had to be bright red. I could feel the heat rush up my neck to cover my face. God, I was so hopelessly incompetent with words sometimes. It took me a full twenty seconds to muster the courage to glance at Aaron. I wasn’t sure what I expected but it wasn’t the shit-eating grin that split his face in two as his lovely eyes sparkled with humor.

“You are really cute, Matty.”

“Cute?” I still felt self-conscious but at least he knew what was on my mind now.

“Most of the time I think you’re hot as hell, but every once in a while, you have this sweet boyish something about you that absolutely melts me.” He shifted closer to me and hooked his legs over my thighs.

“Thanks. I think.”

“Hmm. Thank you. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything you don’t really want to. I just love that you offered.” His voice was completely sincere and his eyes were warm with the sentiment.

I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Look, I won’t lie… I am nervous, but I want—oh man, I suck at this stuff, Aar.”

I couldn’t explain. I didn’t have the words. It was so frustrating.

“Suck at what? I don’t understand.”

Okay, here goes. I had a feeling it would take me some time to get to the point, but he asked for it.

“Aar, it’s kind of like a last frontier for me in a way. I … I trust you, I love you and I want to give something of myself to you…to, I don’t know, be vulnerable for you.”

I could tell my last choice of words wasn’t my best effort from his expression. Thankfully I’d learned over the past couple years when it was best to just shut up.

“Matt.” I was right. Matt, instead of Matty, meant trouble. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt because I know you’re trying to say something nice, but I have a question for you.”

I nodded, grateful for the reprieve.

“Do you think of me as vulnerable because I actually enjoy…I’ll use plain language here…having you fuck me?”

“No, of course not.”

“So, you aren’t really suggesting that you’re the guy and I’m the girl in this relationship, correct? This isn’t a byproduct of being bi and—”

“Aaron, you know I don’t think that way.” I wanted to roll my eyes, but wisely refrained.

“I think so, but I want to make it crystal clear that I love everything about sex. And I particularly love being on the receiving end, so to speak. I love being underneath you, I love when you’re behind me or on top of me or when I’m riding you. I love it all. And since you’ve never experienced it, you are probably still grappling with pre-conceived notions of “who’s on top”. That isn’t how it works in real life though. Unless of course the two people in a given relationship want it that way. I prefer to bottom. If you think you’re doing me a favor… then don’t. I’m not interested in you doing something you think you should for me.”

“Understood.”

“I just said all that, and all you can say is “understood”?” He managed to look fierce with one eyebrow quirked as he crossed his arms.

“Yes, I understand. I’ve never thought of you as anything other than a strong, amazing, smart, sweet and fucking gorgeous man.” He uncrossed his arms and gave me a lopsided grin. “Actually that’s not completely true… I also think you’re high maintenance, headstrong and a little obsessive at times, but it’s your birthday so— ow!”

He smacked my arm and re-crossed his. “Very funny.”

“Aar, I love you. I want you and I need you. The reason I’m—” I made a swirling hand motion reminiscent of something he might do before continuing, “—Look, when you came to Pittsburgh to be with me, it felt right to have you at my side. I felt… complete. Whole. Something had been missing. Like a light went out. But then you showed up out of the blue and I knew it would be good again. Better than good. I love you, but those three words… they aren’t enough sometimes. You’re my other half. I want to know every piece of what it means to be with you. I don’t want to hold myself back from giving you everything. If you want it. Does that make sense?”

I moved his hair away from his eyes and brushed a tear from his cheek before pulling him into my arms. I held him close for a long moment until he pushed away. “That was beautiful. Te amo. I love you too, Matty.”

I kissed his nose then cupped his dick through his jeans before leaning in to bite his earlobe playfully. “What do you say? I’m offering you my ass. Are you interested?”