Unhinged by Onley James
Noah didn’t sleep well in strange beds. Years of foster care, hopping from house to house without ever having a home, had left him with an ever present sense of anxiety about sleeping in any bed but his own. Even when those beds felt like clouds and had pillows with just the right support and sheets with a thread count higher than his credit score. It was why he’d scraped every penny to buy his ugly ass trailer outright, so nobody could take his bed away ever again.
But sleeping in anybody’s bed but his own had really never been an issue. Noah didn’t date, didn’t have boyfriends or friends with benefits. That would’ve required having friends, and Noah didn’t have those either. It was easier that way. If you didn’t get close to someone, they couldn’t leave. That was what he told himself.
Or, at least, he had before Adam.
Noah hadn’t anticipated the sleepover, even when they’d pulled into Adam’s garage. Maybe it had been implied, but Noah hadn’t been in the best headspace after their deep dive at Gary’s house. It was his own fault. He let his guard down after Adam had specifically told him not to, but they’d been so close to getting out of there. He’d thought it was safe.
But then there was the picture. That stupid fucking picture of Gary and his dad, smiling and laughing. He knew why they were so fucking happy, knew that he’d been inside that cabin. Knew what would happen to him once they returned.
His stomach churned, bile rising in his throat, as his memories tried to fight their way to the surface. He shoved them back down with a frustrated growl, flopping on his stomach and burying his face in Adam’s pillow. His stomach swooped as the scent of spicy soap and expensive cologne filled his nose, triggering heat low in his belly.
What was he going to do about Adam? Adam, who had claimed Noah as his after just forty-eight hours, like some prehistoric caveman. Adam, who swore he’d never let anybody hurt Noah, like he was taking a blood oath. Adam, who had given him the most intense orgasm of his entire life before tucking him into bed and kissing his forehead.
Fuck. Noah wanted to believe Adam’s instincts. He wanted to think that the part of Adam that could feel had somehow recognized the parts of Noah that couldn’t and tried to close the gap. But the realist in him screamed that he was just ignoring a million red flags and, at best, he’d get his heart broken and, at worst, he’d end up in a ditch. He honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.
But as uncertain as he was of Adam’s intentions, he was very certain he wasn’t leaving. He wasn’t going to run. Noah had spent so much of his life feeling sad and lonely or feeling nothing at all. Adam made him feel good, made him feel excited. When he woke up that morning, Adam’s arms around him had made him feel…safe. And nothing had ever really made Noah feel safe.
Noah had been certain when Adam left that he’d pass the time in the darkened room staring at the shadows on the ceiling. But as soon as he’d buried his face in Adam’s scent, still drunk from his recent orgasm, his consciousness just faded to black.
* * *
Noah stirred as the soft comforter slid down and away, leaving him exposed to the frigid air conditioning pumping through the loft. He made a noise of disappointment at the disruption of his cocoon. He rubbed his face in the pillow, still in that space between awake and asleep.
The bed dipped near his feet, and then Adam’s naked body blanketed his back, his knees forcing Noah’s legs wide as he made himself at home between his legs, his hard cock pressing against the crevice of Noah’s ass.
“Adam?” He hated how breathless and nervous he sounded.
Adam’s response was a low throaty purr, his fingers threading through Noah’s hair, his breath hot against his ear. “I told you I wasn’t done with you yet.”
Noah’s breath hitched as Adam’s erection slid between his cheeks, not trying to enter him, just working against him, like Noah was his own personal sex toy. The glide was easy, his cock slick. Had Adam stripped off his clothes and coated his cock with lube before climbing on top of Noah to rut against him?
Noah hardened instantly.
Fuck.
He was so damaged.
He wanted Adam to use him, was already so gone over the panting grunts against his ear, the way his legs were splayed wide, like Adam wanted him as open as possible for him, the way his arms caged Noah in, trapping him beneath him.
Adam bit at his earlobe hard. “You fucking love this, don’t you? I can practically smell it on you.”
Noah whimpered, managing a wavering, “Yes.”
The hair in his hand tightened, craning his head back to slant their lips together. “Yeah, you do. My dirty boy. I can’t wait ‘til I’m inside you,” he growled into Noah’s open mouth.
Noah groaned at the thought. He wanted Adam inside him, filling him up, holding him down, taking what he wanted. “You can. Fuck me. It’s okay. I want it. I want you.”
He canted his hips upward as much as he could, grinding back against Adam’s hard length just in case he wasn’t getting just how willing Noah was.
Adam chuckled. “You want it so bad. I bet I could make you beg for it.” Noah shivered. “Yeah. You’d definitely beg for it. But not tonight, baby. When I fuck you, it’s going to be an all night affair and tonight, we both need sleep. Still, when I saw you there, sleeping on my pillow, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without my cum on your body.”
Noah moaned, hips spasming at Adam’s words, working his cock against the sheet, not even caring how desperate he looked. Adam bit at his throat and shoulder hard enough to make Noah cry out.
“Yeah, be loud for me. Fuck, I love it. I’m going to make a mess of you.”
Noah’s eyes rolled as a shudder tore through him. Adam forced two fingers into his mouth, working them in and out in time with his thrusts. “Suck,” he rasped. Noah did as Adam demanded. “Good boy. That’s it. Suck my fingers like you suck my cock. So fucking good for me. You’re gonna make me come.”
Noah whined around his fingers as Adam started to move faster, worked his thighs wider, so he could get better traction to drive against him. Just thinking about Adam fucking into him with those same long, sure strokes made him crazy, his trapped cock throbbing, his toes curling, his hands fisting the sheets.
Adam came with a harsh shout, spilling between them, sinking his teeth into Noah’s shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. He then collapsed onto Noah, breathing hard. He slipped his fingers free of Noah’s mouth, using the hand in his hair to crane his head back for another greedy kiss. “Sorry. I can’t keep my hands off of you.”
Noah flushed, grateful the room was dark. Adam’s weight disappeared, and then Noah was being flipped over. He cried out as his aching cock was enveloped in the wet heat of Adam’s mouth. “Oh, fuck,” he managed, breathing ragged as pleasure shot sparks along his nerve endings. “This is gonna last, like, thirty seconds,” he warned.
Adam pulled off him with a pop, grinning up at him. “Then I’m doing something right.”
Noah’s eyes rolled as the wet suction resumed. “Hnf. Oh.”
Noah’s heels hit the mattress, unable to keep still. Adam blew him with the same confidence he had in every other aspect of his life, and it was so goddamn sexy.
When he knew Noah’s eyes were on him, he’d look up, teasing the tip of his cock as one hand held his weight and the other teased his balls. Noah couldn’t stop his hips from bucking upwards, working himself in and out of Adam’s mouth. He braced both hands on the bed, letting Noah fuck into him, that perfect suction never wavering.
Noah’s hands contracted in Adam’s hair. “Oh, fuck. I’m so close. Hnf. Yes. Oh, my God, just like that. Yes. Yes. Oh. Fuck. Oh… Fuck.” Heat shot along Noah’s spine. “I’m gonna come,” he warned, trying to pull free.
Adam pinned his hips, taking Noah deeper, swallowing around his cock, the muscles of his throat convulsing around him. Noah gasped as he came, flooding Adam’s mouth. Adam still didn’t stop, just kept sucking, like he was trying to pull every last drop from Noah, until he hissed and pushed at his shoulder.
Adam finally collapsed beside him, chest heaving, a ridiculous grin on his face. “Sorry.”
Noah stretched his limbs until they popped, giving Adam a rueful smile. “You don’t look sorry.”
When Adam gathered Noah into his arms, he didn’t protest. “I’m not sorry at all. What was I supposed to do with you all naked and warm in my bed?”
“I can see your dilemma,” Noah deadpanned. “In the future, I have no problem being woken up like that.”
“In the future, huh?”
Noah flushed. “Well…if there’s another—”
“Oh, there’s going to be another…and another…and another. I told you, you’re mine now. Deal with it.”
“What did your brothers want?” Noah asked.
“They saw our pictures online.”
Noah frowned, craning his head to look upwards at Adam’s face. “We have pictures online?”
“Oh, yeah. Apparently, I’m a lot more interesting now that I have you as my boyfriend.”
“I think you have that backwards,” Noah said, trying to understand why anybody would think them having breakfast was picture worthy. Though, maybe it was just those girls.
Adam scoffed. “Nope. It’s you. You’re just too cute for me to let you outside. Those big brown eyes. Those fucking freckles. It's too dangerous out there for you.”
“One, I can take care of myself. Two, I’m dating a murderer. How much more dangerous could it get? I could be one of those fucking weirdos who dangles off towers and bridges for YouTube likes, but I’m not. For me, I think I’ve hit maximum danger levels.” Noah placed his hand over the butterfly on Adam’s chest.
“I just don’t like the idea of you being free out in the world where anything could happen to you,” Adam said sleepily. “You could get hit by a bus, or a plane engine could drop on your head, or you could be kidnapped by a vicious biker gang.”
Noah snickered. “Were you drinking at your dad’s house?”
“Definitely not.”
“Your brothers were mad because there are pictures of us online?”
Adam sighed, his arms tightening around him. “No, they’re mad that I’m dating the son of somebody I killed. They said it makes things messy.”
Noah’s heartbeat spiked, a shock of fear ricocheting through him. It was a gross overreaction given how little time they’d spent in each other’s presence but Noah couldn’t stop the strange sense of panic welling inside him. “What did you say?”
“I told them to fuck off and that you weren’t going anywhere and they could deal with it.”
“You told a group of psychopaths to ‘deal with it’?”
“I told my dumbass brothers to deal with it. Then I talked to my dad who said he’d talk to them,” Adam clarified.
“But your dad is okay with this? Us?”
“My dad trusts my judgment. My brothers don’t. He knows I wouldn’t do anything to hurt the family and I promised him you wouldn’t either.”
Noah had no interest in harming anybody in the Mulvaney family, but there seemed to be an underlying threat in Adam’s casual statement. Maybe Noah was just being paranoid.
“What do we do with the stuff we found tonight? The hard drives?” Noah asked, needing a change in subject.
“I gave them to Calliope to try to decrypt. It’s going to take some time, though, especially since we didn’t get the whole hard drive from the laptop. But if anybody is going to find something, it's her. I also have her working on figuring out who our mystery guy was at Gary’s house tonight. In the meantime, I think maybe we should try to rundown the weird key. It could be nothing, but it could be everything.”
“I have to work tomorrow,” Noah said, heart squeezing at the thought of dealing with another night of Gary’s physical and verbal abuse.
“Why not just quit?” Adam asked.
Noah frowned. “Because I have bills to pay.”
“You could work literally anywhere else and make more money.”
Adam wasn’t wrong. He had worked other places, better places. He’d given it all up to get close to Gary again. And he was so certain that Noah remembered nothing of his abuse that he’d accepted him back in without a second thought. No. He wasn’t leaving until he made Gary pay for what he’d done. He couldn’t. “I need to keep close to him. As long as I’m watching, he can’t surprise me or anybody else.”
Adam carded his fingers through his hair. “If he hurts you, I’ll put him through a meat grinder. Alive. Slowly.”
“If he hurts me, I’ll help you,” Noah promised before a yawn overtook him, jaw cracking loudly in the quiet. “Can we go to sleep now?”
Adam kissed the top of his head. “Yeah. But I’m the little spoon tonight.”
“We’ll look ridiculous,” Noah mused.
“To who?” Adam asked.
With that, he flipped over, shoving his ass back against Noah, who snorted, shaking his head. He leaned forward and rubbed his nose against the spot between Adam’s shoulder blades, dropping a kiss there and letting his eyes fall shut, surprised when, once more, he started to fall asleep.