Free Bent Arrow by Posy Roberts

the door behind him, then decided to head to the motel office to see if they had an empty room. As he handed the manager his credit card, he had a moment of doubt, but he took the gold plastic key fob and headed back to Erik’s room. He leaned against the cool brick right outside his door and waited, using the extra time to find his words.
    Erik slipped outside, barefoot but dressed, and smelling like he’d recently showered; his hair was still damp. Luther held up the key and said, “I got us a room so we could talk in private rather than out here where anyone can see.” He started walking down the covered walkway toward room twenty-three and said under his breath, “Not for any other reason.”
    “You sure about that?” Erik said with a smirk.
    “Positive.”
    The room was dark and hideously decorated, but it was clean and well stocked with bottles of water, snacks, and even condoms and lube, ready for the hourly customers. Luther sat on one of the beds, and Erik smiled at him in a pained way as he sat on the other.
    “What’s going on?” Erik asked.
    “I… I’m not good with words and expressing my feelings, because I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep myself from spilling the beans, saying too much, afraid I’d give myself away. So I never let you know in a decent enough way that I… that I… I love you.”
    Erik’s eyes widened. “What?”
    Luther nervously licked his lips. “I love you.” His voice sounded more confident this time, and Erik smiled.
    “So it’s more than you kinda liking me?”
    Luther nodded. “Fuck yeah. Has been for months. I’m better at showing and doing, but I finally figured out you need to be told too. I was too late for that. I was always afraid I’d chase you off by running my mouth and sharing all the crazy shit that was going on in my head. But I ended up chasing you off by controlling my tongue.”
    “I don’t want you to control your tongue. I want you to be able to say anything to me, share your craziest thoughts.”
    “Okay. Like this?” Luther got down on his knees in front of Erik and framed his hips with his palms, looking into Erik’s shocked face. Only then did he realize what this looked like. He laughed. “No, I’m not proposing to you.”
    “What then?”
    “God, this is so hard.” Luther pressed his forehead to Erik’s breastbone and shook his head. “This would be ten times easier if we were naked. My feelings were barely contained whenever I was touching you.”
    “You said you didn’t want to get me in bed.”
    Luther looked up to see Erik’s teasing smile, and he pushed a few messy curls away from those beautiful green eyes. “I always want you in bed with me. I dream of your arms around me and your warm breath on my skin almost every night. But that’s not why I came here.”
    “You came to tell me you love me and what else?”
    “To tell you I’m sorry. Everything came out wrong at my trailer that night. I was asking you to move in with me because I couldn’t stand the thought of being without you, but it sounded like I wanted a handyman to move in with me to create the perfect getaway so I could live a dream life alone. I wanted you there as my boyfriend.”
    “Boyfriend?”
    Luther nodded. “You’ve been more than a lover to me since you rocked my world with that magical soul-opening dick of yours.”
    Erik laughed. “Wow. I didn’t know the sex was that good.”
    “It was, but more than that. It was… it was—”
    “Would you just shut up and kiss me?”
    “Yes,” Luther said, relief flooding through him as he pushed Erik back on the bed and moaned as Erik opened to him. It was immediately familiar, comfortable and warm.
    Luther sat back so he could kiss up Erik’s belly, over the line of hair in the center of his stomach and up his chest. He wanted to kiss every part of him and felt frenzied.
    Erik raised his arms over his head, so Luther helped him tug his shirt off and then licked and bit at his nipples.