Don’t You Dare

Any and all worries about Keene and I hooking up wrecking our friendship are completely gone after a week.

Sure, the first couple days after the first hook-up were still a little awkward, but not because of him sucking my dick until I came literal buckets. It wasn’t even because we were busy tip-toeing around each other, nervous to say something.

It was more one of those things where…do I kiss him goodbye before I leave? Or do I just go on about my day the way I always have and not worry about it?

Under any other circumstance—like with Bristol, for example—I’d just dip out for class or my run with a goodbye and have absolutely no concern about it. After all, it was just a hook-up, and we both knew the score.

But this is Keene. My best friend. And with this being a sexual exploration of sorts, the last thing I want him to think is that I’m just using him. Or vice versa. Even though…that’s kind of exactly what we’re doing.

He’s using me to learn about his attraction to guys, and I’m using him to…well, shit.

To get off, I guess? I hadn’t really thought about what I’d gain from this situation, besides the peace of mind that some jack knob from Toppr isn’t gonna mess this up for Kee. Honestly, that’s more than enough for me.

And yeah, I guess getting sex out of the deal is pretty great too.

Once we got over the whole idea that we needed to act any one certain way, the awkwardness in the air went away entirely. It also helped when we both agreed that keeping this thing between us on the down low would be the best option, only acting like we’re hooking up when we’re in the safety of our dorm room. It wasn’t a hard sell for either of us, especially with fuckheads like Avery already running his mouth and calling us boyfriends and shit.

The last thing Keene needs is someone else messing with his head when it’s already all sorts of confused. And I doubt I’d have it in me to keep from punching Avery if he did anything to make Keene feel bad about his attraction to me. Or any other guy that comes along after me.

And from the way Keene couldn’t get enough of my dick…I’m almost positive there will be one after me. Something I don’t know how to feel about quite yet, though I’m choosing to chalk it up to thinking no one on the planet is good enough for him.

For now, it’s just me. Even if we’ve been too busy to do much on the friendship or hook-up front.

Since the world’s most epic blowjob, we’ve only gotten horizontal one other time. Though I don’t really call Keene high-jacking my shower, only to wrap his fist around our cocks and take us to heaven with his hand, as horizontal anyway.

Tonight, though, we’re both in the same damn place, and we’re choosing to take advantage of it. Well, I am. Keene, on the other hand, has decided to be a good student and study, rather than game with me or watch a movie.

But beggars can’t be choosers.

“What do you wanna do for food?” I ask Keene from where I’m lying across my bed.

He’s sitting at my desk, working through his reading for one of his business classes this semester, meanwhile I’m screwing around with my new lens I got for Christmas. It was a joint gift from Mom and the Waters’—something that was completely unexpected, considering how much it cost. Especially when it’s only for a hobby.

How Keene managed to zip his damn mouth closed about this one is a shock, but he did. Though, at the time, I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him or punch him for keeping the secret from me.

Now, as I sit here snapping random candid photos of him while he tries to work, I’m firmly leaning toward the former. But kissing his lips ends up wanting to kiss him everywhere else, and I’m trying to not jump him at every spare moment we’re together.

If I did, he wouldn’t be getting jack shit done in the studying department.

He glances up at me briefly and picks up his phone. “I dunno. I’m kinda feeling pizza, if you are.”

Pizza’s always a good option. I mean, really, who doesn’t like pizza?

“Okay,” I say, grabbing my phone and pulling up the delivery app. “Your usual?”

When he doesn’t respond because he’s still typing on his phone, I pull a sock off my foot and toss it at his head. It hits the target perfectly, and I smirk, thinking I could be a baseball player too. Granted, I’m only a couple feet away, but still.

His head snaps back up from the screen, and he glares at me. “What?”

“You want your usual?” I ask again. “For pizza?”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s good.”

I finish up placing the order, but I’m hyper aware of him busy with his phone now instead of studying. He could be doing a number of things on there. Innocent things, like looking up his stats from last season or some shit. But my mind wonders if he’s still texting one of those guys on Toppr, even after we started hooking up.

The feeling doesn’t settle well with me, but I’m not gonna bring it up. It’s not like Keene and I are dating. I’m not his boyfriend, he’s not mine, and we don’t really owe each other anything at this point when it comes to romance.

We’re just…messing around.

One of my stipulations for us to do it was we’re exclusive sexually. As far as I can tell, talking to someone isn’t breaking that rule.

So why does the mere thought of him still talking to him make me see red? Or maybe it’s…green, because when he smiles at his phone, a ridiculous surge of jealousy washes through me.

I don’t act on it, even though it just about kills me.

Instead, I grab my camera again and aim it at him, snapping more pictures. This time, close-ups of his face. I study his features through the lens, the sharp line of his jaw, the bow of his lips. The subtle bump on the bridge of his nose where the freckles dotted there are getting darker. When I tell him this, it causes a blush to creep over his skin.

“Why’re you blushing?”

“I’m not.”

The way his cheeks get redder begs to differ. “Really?”

“Really, really.”

My brows furrow as I continue to watch him through the viewport, taking in the slight frown at the corner of his lips. “I don’t believe you.”

He lets out a long sigh before turning to face me. “Pen. You’re distracting me.”

Deflection. Nice.

I drop the camera down enough to meet his gaze. “You’re the one who decided to come in here to study. You only have yourself to blame.”

His teeth sink into his bottom lip, and my cock does that little twitching thing it’s been doing around him lately. Guess that’s what happens when I know what it feels like to have those teeth scraping against it.

“I just felt like I haven’t seen you a lot recently. Figured this would be the only way to change that since I’ve got an away game this weekend and we’re not gonna be back until late on Sunday.”

It’s true. We’ve both been really busy with class and him with practices on top of it. And now that the season is kicking into full swing, he’s gonna be spending a lot more time everywhere but here with me.

Him wanting to make time for me during his busy schedule actually makes me really happy. And more importantly, that it’s just friend time. Not hooking up or anything of the sort.

I already love the time we’ve spent together when we’re both naked, but the last thing I want is to lose our friendship in the sex.

“I was just giving you shit, Kee.” I look down and fiddle with the mode dial on the top of my camera. “I’m always happy to have you around.”

Way to be a fucking sap.

“Good,” he says, a small smirk on his face when I glance back up. “Now, stop taking pictures of me while I’m working.”

Rolling my eyes, I set the camera on the bed beside me. “You love it, you attention whore. Don’t act like you don’t.”

He lets out a bark of laughter and goes back to what he was doing. “It’s like you don’t know me at all, Pen. I just deal because you like taking pictures of me, and I like making you happy.”

My stomach swirls at his declaration. “Really?”

He nods, not looking at me when he responds. “I mean, it’s not like I really mind. But I dunno…every once in a while I wish I was the one taking yours for a change.”

I snort out a laugh, leaning back against the wall. “You lost me.”

“I’m serious.”

Rolling my head back and forth against the wall, I think about it.

I don’t hate having my picture taken. I’m not one of those people who covers the camera whenever it’s shoved in my face for family events or whatever occasion it might be. Hell, I even snap selfies with Keene often to send in the group chat we have with our moms and Keene’s sister, Alexis.

But at the same time…

“I belong behind the lens,” I tell him, which is the truth. “That’s where the artists go, you know? And pretty boys like you belong in front of it, Waters.”

This time, he’s the one to roll his eyes. “Okay, Picasso.”

I blink at him. “You know he was a painter, not a photographer.” When he doesn’t answer, I add, “…right?”

His gaze meets mine again. “Please don’t insult my intelligence. Of course I know that. I paid attention in third grade art class, thank you very much.”

“Okay, okay.”

I’m not about to correct him by saying we didn’t learn that shit until middle school. I’ve learned to pick my battles with this one.

Keene refocuses on his work for a while, and the asshole I am, I grab my camera again to keep snapping photos of him once in a while. I try to be discreet, of course, but it’s kinda hard to disguise the sound of the shutter clicking, so there’s no way he’s unaware of what I’m doing.

Especially when he flips me the bird in the middle of a series of shots.

Busted.

“You really don’t know how to listen, do you?” He says it with a smile though, so at least he’s not actually mad. His head cocks slightly, and he narrows his eyes on me. “One of these days, I’m getting payback.”

I snort, dropping the camera to the bed again. “Oh, yeah? And how would you have me pose?”

His lips curl up at the corner. “Naked, obviously.”

Set myself up for that one.

My eyes roll. “Not at all what I meant, but good to know you wanna perv out on me.”

“Is it really perving when we both know you’d like it?”

Nope. It’s not. And apparently, I’m as transparent as cellophane if that’s his first response.

Clearing my throat, I reroute the topic ever so slightly. “You know, models have to trust their photographer implicitly if they’re shooting nudes.”

He arches a brow. “Are you saying you don’t trust me, Kohl?”

I trust you enough to get naked with you when I’ve never messed around with another dude.

“Oh, fuck off. You know I trust you. Way more than anyone else.”

The arch in his brow increases. “Enough to take pictures of you naked?”

My fingers dance on the comforter before messing with the dial again. “As long as you never show them to anyone, I don’t see why we can’t…maybe discuss it…one day.”

He bursts out laughing. “That was the most roundabout no I’ve ever heard.”

I look up then. “If it’s that important to you, I’d do it.”

His expression sobers. “Same goes to you.” Then those sinful lips twitch into another smile. “Just make sure it’s after a workout if we’re doing nudes, ‘cause I wanna look good. Even if you’re the only one to see them.”

“That’s so cheating,” I say with a chuckle.

“Coming from the biggest catfish I know? Please.”

My brows shoot up. “Come again?” He gives me a filthy smirk, and I realize my poor choice of words before correcting. “I mean, how am I a catfish?”

“Look at what you look like,” he says, motioning to me.

I look down at myself, finding my regular black jeans and a black hoodie, completely missing his point. “Okay?”

“Your looks don’t match your personality at all.”

Has he lost his damn mind?

I frown. “Last time I checked, I wasn’t a ray of fucking sunshine, Kee. Black matches my personality perfectly.”

“Maybe, but you’ve got the whole bad-boy persona when you’re also a massive nerd.”

Now he’s really lost me. “I’m a nerd because I like photography?”

I grab my camera again, snapping more pictures of him to prove a point. And, no surprise here, he flips me off in every single one.

“And videogames. And anime. And you’re going to school to build buildings.” He smirks, yanking my other sock off my foot before tossing it at my face as I click the shutter. “Nerd.”

Lifting my eye from the viewport, I scowl. “You really wanna start calling out stereotypes, macho-jock face? Because two can play that game.”

His hands raise in mock surrender. “I’m just speaking the truth. You’re the biggest nerd I know, and if any of those girls got to know you one iota, they’d realize you’re just an e-boy genius disguised as a degenerate.”

My mouth opens to toss a rebuttal back at him, but my mind gets caught on what he said, and—

Hold the goddamn phone.

“What did you just say, Waters?”

He grins. “You heard me.”

“I don’t think I did over the shutter,” I say, clicking the button and holding it while I glare at him. “Maybe you should say it again.”

“Take your finger off the button.”

“Still can’t hear you,” I tell him, shaking my head, my face the picture of innocence.

I see the words challenge accepted written in his eyes as he vaults from the chair to the bed, tackling my ass backward as soon as he hits the mattress.

We’re both laughing as we roll around, wrestling for a hold of the camera. My finger is still pressing down on the shutter button as I try to keep it from his reach, so God only knows what my SD card will be full of after this. Definitely a good time to sort through.

I flip him over, and he flips me right back. Elbows and knees are flying everywhere, and it takes me right back to when we were kids and would wrestle for the TV remote or the last PopTart for breakfast.

Only, my cock never used to take notice of the way his body presses against me when we were younger, and he’s definitely never had this look on his face as he straddles me and pins my hands above my head with a vice-like grip on my wrists.

It’s a look that says he wants to devour me whole. Leave no inch of me untouched.

Right now, I sure as hell wouldn’t stop it from happening.

In fact, my dick keeps thickening against his thigh, wanting to get in on some of the action. Just like the ridge of his erection presses into my stomach as he leans over me and gently removes the camera from my trapped hands.

His eyes never leave mine as he slowly sets it on the bed beside us.

Adrenaline courses through my veins, along with enough lust to put a brothel out of business. And I don’t know what to do with it.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I whisper, licking my lips.

“Like what?”

“Like you want to eat me alive.”

His lips twitch slightly before he leans and brushes them over my throat. “Maybe I do.”

I turn my head away in indignation…which only gives him better access to my throat. And fuck if he doesn’t take advantage of it, nipping and licking at the skin there.

“You’re not getting lucky after calling me an e-boy.”

His fingers slide between mine, clasping tightly as his lips skim over my jaw. “Don’t get mad, Pen. You’re like my own, personal, sexy-as-sin e-boy.”

“Call me that again and I’ll—”

I don’t get to finish that thought because Keene decides to crush his mouth to mine, spearing my lips apart with his tongue to put my own to much better use than arguing.

And yeah, I guess I was wrong about sex stuff overshadowing our friendship.

Friendship is a lot more fun when kissing’s involved.