Drilled by K.M. Neuhold
Chapter 19
APOLLO
I’m awake long before I get around to opening my eyes, part of me hoping if I keep them closed, we won’t have to go home. Not that I don’t miss air conditioning, proper showers, and a bed I can actually spread out on, but…
Ridge’s warm lips brush against mine, our noses bumping.
“Let’s just live in the woods forever,” he whispers, the edge of sadness in his voice almost enough to break my resolve.
“They don’t have bubble baths in the woods,” I remind him, and he sighs in what I can only assume is reluctant agreement.
Neither of us seems to be in a rush to get moving, kissing and lingering in bed even while Logs starts to meow for her morning feeding and the sun, streaming in through the windows, warns us that the day really is in full swing. We can only put off leaving for so long.
When we finally pry ourselves out of bed, Ridge feeds the cat and then starts to prepare a box he set aside for the kittens to ride home in while I pack up both of our bags and get them loaded into my car.
In a matter of minutes, the car is packed, including Logs and her kittens in a box, carefully nestled on the floor of the backseat where they’ll be safe the whole drive. I lean against the car, my arms folded on the hood, and watch as Ridge looks back at the cabin with a wistful expression.
“You know, I thought this month was going to suck,” he says, and I smirk.
“I thought I was going to end up murdering you.”
He chuckles. “Oh please, you love me too much to murder me.” He seems to process his own words after they’ve left his mouth, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “I didn’t mean…”
“Get in the car, dumbass,” I say lightly, ignoring the twinge in my chest urging me to kiss him, or worse, tell him that he’s right, I think I might be in love with him…but it doesn’t change anything. I wish it did.
The drive to the campsite felt like it took an eternity, but the drive home seems to happen in the blink of an eye. It’s early-evening by the time I pull up in front of Ridge’s apartment. He reaches for the door handle but doesn’t get out right away, lingering with his fingers curled around it, his eyes fixed on his building a few feet away.
“Do you want to come up for a little while?”
I should say no. Tomorrow we can start our friendship fresh. Tonight, I need to get home and shower off the memories of the past month and try to convince myself that this really is for the best.
“Okay,” I answer, surprising myself.
What could one last night hurt?
RIDGE
I didn’t expect him to say yes. Hell, I didn’t even mean to ask. I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of the car, knowing that as soon as I did, everything would change.
He puts the car in park, and I grab the box of my little butterbean babies out of the backseat while Apollo picks up my bedding and duffle bag.
“Are you okay, little angels?” I coo at them, eyeing each of them quickly for any signs of distress.
Logs doesn’t seem overly thrilled about the car ride she just experienced, but physically, she looks okay. I’ve been texting picture updates to Porter, and I hate to admit it, but he’s a really nice guy. We have an appointment for him to check all of the babies next week.
But all of that is for later. Right now, I’m leading Apollo up to my apartment and feeling stupidly nervous about it. I just spent the past few weeks having sex with the man in a dozen different ways. Why is my stomach all knotted over bringing him up to my apartment?
“My keys are in the front pocket of the duffle bag,” I tell him when we reach the door.
He digs them out and unlocks it, and we both make our way inside. He sets my things down while I find a good spot for the kitten box and then fill a bowl with water for Logs, as well as some food and a litter box. While I do all of that, Apollo lingers in the entrance to my living room, looking around silently.
“It’s kind of small.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to explain my place, I’m sure his isn’t much different, but the stupid butterflies in my stomach have me anxious as fuck.
Apollo shrugs. “It’s fine.”
I nod. “Do you want something to drink? Or are you hungry? I could—” He closes the few steps between us and cuts me off with a kiss.
“You’re dying for a bath,” he says, and I bobble my head slowly, my forehead bumping his. “Is there room enough for two, you think?”
I smile. “We can make it work.”
I slide my hand around his, intertwining our fingers and backing out of the living room toward my bedroom with attached bathroom, dragging him along with me.
I can’t contain the moan that falls from my lips at the delightful feeling of steaming hot water pouring from the tap to fill the tub.
“Damn, what would it take for me to get you to make that sound?” Apollo flirts.
“Be hot water after a month of freezing showers,” I answer with a teasing smirk.
“I’ll work on that.” He strips out of his clothes, leaving them in a heap on the bathroom floor. I pour a generous amount of bath salts and bubble bath into the filling tub and then join him in undressing.
The tub is an extremely tight squeeze for the two of us, but no worse than the minuscule bed we’ve been sharing for weeks. We manage to get ourselves awkwardly arranged with my ass cheek on Apollo’s semi-spread legs, my back against his chest, my legs bent, knees peeking out of the hot water. It’s not the least bit comfortable, but it’s nice as hell anyway.
He runs his fingers absently up and down my arm while I close my eyes and soak in the warmth and the relaxing lavender scent filling the small room.
“Friends can take baths together, right? We could totally do this again.”
“Ridge,” he says my name with a sigh. He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore because he’s already made up his mind. A flair of defiance ricochets through me, begging me to push it, to force Apollo to talk about it, even if he doesn’t want to. But then his fingers still and tighten against my skin and he presses a soft kiss against the back of my shoulder. “Please.” The word is so soft I almost don’t hear it.
“Sorry, I’ll be good,” I promise, linking our fingers again and bringing his hand to my lips so I can brush a kiss against his damp skin.
When we eventually get out of the bath, the lavender-scented steam follows us out of the bathroom, billowing into my bedroom and making everything feel humid and damp. Apollo drops his damp towel carelessly onto the middle of the floor. I’d be annoyed, but I’m too busy drooling over the shape of his thick, furry ass.
After the warming lube situation, neither of us brought up him bottoming again. I’m not sure why. I think I might’ve been worried he’d just end up all ragey at Stone again and ruin the mood. But if this is the last night we get to spend together like this…
I move behind him, wrapping one arm around his waist and the other over his chest. My stiffening erection presses against his ass cheek.
“Do you have to go?” I ask, giving him one more out. I’d rather he change his mind now than for him to rethink our friendship too.
“What do you have in mind if I stay?” he asks, the slightest edge of teasing in his tone.
“I was thinking I could rim you until you lose your mind and then fuck you until you come on my cock.” I nip at his earlobe and grind my cock against his ass.
“You have a filthy fucking mouth.” It doesn’t sound like a complaint.
I chuckle, nudging him toward my neatly made bed. “Is that a yes?”
“Fuck,” he mutters. “Yes…for tonight.”
For tonight, right. This really is it. We’re home, and it’s over. I groan internally. Why couldn’t I have picked any other woman in the world to almost marry?
Luckily, that shit is tomorrow-Ridge’s problem. Tonight-Ridge only has one thing to focus on.
I shove Apollo onto the bed, and he lands with an oomph. He flips over and crawls the rest of the way to the top of the bed, propping a pillow under his head and getting comfortable, and then spreading his legs. He looks back at me with a challenging half-smirk like he’s daring me to back up my bold words about just how killer my rimming skills are. It’s a challenge I fully intend to accept.
I grab his ass cheeks, roughly kneading them for a peek at his hole. I bend forward and nip at the curve of his ass. The hint of sweat and sunshine I’ve gotten used to on him is gone, replaced by the flowery scent of the bath. I think I prefer the sweat, if I’m honest.
I sink down lower, getting into a comfortable position, Apollo’s thick thighs spread out on either side of me. I lap at his balls, feeling them constrict, a gasp bursting from his lips.
I drag my tongue up over his taint and through the crease of his ass until I find the wrinkled pucker of his hole. Apollo moans, his muscles softening under the first lick. He tilts his hips to silently beg for more. Oh, this isn’t even a fair challenge.
I lick him deeper, working my tongue into his hole, his muscles fluttering and his breath hitching. The way he pushes back, trying to fuck himself on my tongue, makes me laugh, the sound vibrating against his hole. I’m not going to finish him off this quickly.
I slow my licks down, teasing him with long, languid laps. I nibble and suck the rim of his hole, alternating between teasing him with just the tip and shoving it deep inside of him.
My spit trickles over his hole and down his taint. I slick two fingers through it, circling them around his soft, wet rim and then shoving them in alongside my tongue. I work them in and out, a little deeper each time until he’s panting into the pillow and shamelessly riding my hand. His inner muscles are silky smooth and scorching hot around my fingers, my knuckles catching on his rim with every thrust.
If I want my dick in him when he comes, I need to pull my fingers out and get inside him sooner rather than later, but I’m mesmerized by the sight of my fingers disappearing into his hole. I pull back and add a third, spitting to get them a little more slick before sliding them back in.
Apollo curses and groans, his channel fluttering and pulsing around my fingers. His balls are already tight, his muscles quaking with the effort to hold back from coming. I lean in, forcing my fingers deeper as I kiss the back of his shoulder and reach between his legs to palm his cock.
He roars with pleasure, fucking into my hand and letting loose pulse after pulse of hot, sticky cum. He coats my fingers and palm with it, his hole tightening around my fingers over and over as the waves of his orgasm wash over him.
My cock throbs, neglected between my legs. Apollo lets out a shuddering breath, his whole body relaxing as he sags forward, completely spent from his orgasm. I get my hand out just in time, looking around for where to wipe it off and doing my best to ignore the filthy fantasy now playing in my head of using his cum as lube and shoving my bare cock inside him.
“Do it,” he says, his voice partially muffled by the pillow.
“What?” No way did he just guess the impulse I barely managed to fight off.
“You know what.” He rolls partially over, grabbing my wrist and guiding my hand to my still-aching cock, precum shiny on the tip.
A shiver runs through me as I wrap my cum-soaked fingers around my erection. Apollo hums approvingly, still loosely gripping my wrist as I stroke myself.
“Are you sure?” I check, nudging his relaxed, slick hole with the head of my cock.
“Do it,” he says again, pushing back, inching the tip of my cock inside.
“Fuck,” I groan, surging forward and sinking in deep in a single thrust.
Apollo tenses for a second, his inner muscles so tight around me I see stars, my balls constricting instantly as I scramble to regain control. I cannot let the one thing he remembers about this be that his ass can make me come in a single thrust. Even though that is kind of hot.
I press my nose against his shoulder, taking a deep breath. He does the same, the vice grip around me relaxing enough that I’m able to catch my breath.
I pull out just a little, and he moans. Without a condom to dull the heat, the inside of his body feels like an inferno around my cock. His own cum squishes around the rim of his hole with every thrust. He reaches down and starts to stroke himself in long, slow jerks that match my thrusts.
His cum-coma seems to wear off, and he starts to push to his hands and knees, putting up just enough of a struggle to force me to press a hand against the middle of his back to hold him in place, his ass cheeks jiggling, the slap, slap, slap of each thrust filling the room.
The humidity from the bathroom makes the air in the entire bedroom feel heavy, sweat trickling down my back. Every deep thrust has my balls tightening and my eyelids fluttering closed.
Apollo’s hand moves faster over his cock. My thrusts become erratic as my muscles tense and my whole body heats. I fuck him harder, deeper, more desperately until he lets out a deep groan and his hole pulses around me. The tugging throb of his orgasm pulls mine out of me with a low gasp.
My cum hits deep inside him, like I’m somehow marking him from the inside out. We grind together, panting and grunting as we ride out wave after wave of our ongoing orgasms.
When I finally collapse next to him, I’m pretty sure the orgasm actually killed me because I can’t feel a single inch of my body.
“You can stay if you want,” I murmur and then yawn, rolling next to him and marveling at how enormous my bed feels.
“It’s probably better if I don’t.”
I nod, willing myself to be an adult about this. We still have our friendship, I remind myself over and over as he gets out of bed and strolls into the bathroom. Through the open door, I watch him clean himself up a bit and then pull his dirty clothes back on one item at a time, my heart in my throat the entire time.
That night, fifteen years ago, when he punched me and told me he never wanted to see me again, it felt like my chest was being squeezed so tightly in a vice that I couldn’t breathe. I was sure I was going to die from the pain of it and the regret over everything that had happened. This is just as bad, even though I know it’s not the same kind of goodbye.
He stops next to the bed once he’s fully dressed, and I sit up, stark naked and sticky with lube and cum. A plea for him not to go lodges itself in my throat.
Apollo bends down and presses a firm kiss to my lips, perfectly chaste by all accounts, but still managing to set everything inside of me on fire.
“Bye, Ridge,” he says softly as he pulls away.
I curl my hands in my lap to keep myself from reaching for him. “Bye, Apollo.”
