Effortless (Less Is More Book 3) Read online

  “What gym do you go to, by the way?” Sadie asks him. “We went to one yesterday that’s down the street, and it was eh. Oliver said you live kind of close.”

  “I don’t go the gym,” he says. It takes me by surprise because of how fit he is, and I just look at him with an open mouth. “What?”

  “Nothing,” I say. “It just surprises me.”

  He laughs and takes a bite of his fajita. “Why?”

  “You’re really fit.”

  He smiles and shrugs his shoulders. “I like to run, and I also do a lot of random stuff at home. I do a lot of pull-ups and pushups.”

  I imagine Sam in his bedroom doing a pull-up. The sweat drips off his back and hits the floor. His back muscles tighten every time he drops down and pulls back up. It’s a beautiful thought.

  I look over at Sadie, and she raises her eyebrows at me.

  “I’ve always used a treadmill,” I say. “Since high school, I’ve loved to run, but I’ve never went outside to do it.”

  “It’s way more fun,” he says. “I like to mix it up and take different routes. There’s always something new to see that way.”

  “You guys should go running together one morning,” Sadie says. “Oliver hates the gym, anyway.”

  “I do,” I say, nodding. “I’d buy my own treadmill, but I feel like I’d never do it if it was that easily accessible.”

  He smiles. “You can go running with me anytime you want.”

  ***

  I turn on the TV, and Sam puts his hands behind his head. Sadie left after dinner to go meet a friend in the city, so it’s just Sam and I. I know he’s waiting for me to say something about the text I sent him the other day, but I have no clue how to go about bringing it up.

  “So,” I say, turning to my side, “I told you the other night that there was something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

  He smiles, and he says, “You did, yes. I think I know what it’s about.”

  I raise my eyebrows at him, and he sets his hands in his lap. He looks over towards the TV and then, he looks back at me.

  “I don’t think you do,” I say.

  “It’s about the other night, isn’t it? When you were taking my helmet off? I got too close to you, and I saw you freeze. I’m sorry; if it made you uncomfortable, I mean.”

  Did he do it on purpose that night?

  “What?” I say. “No, that’s not it. I mean yeah, it has something to do with that, but it’s not what you think.”

  He crosses his arms and looks me in the eyes. I can tell that he is confused, but right now, I am, too.

  “I’ve loved getting to know you, and I, by no means whatsoever, want to ruin the friendship that we’ve created. I’ve just been having a lot of… thoughts lately.”

  He crosses one leg over the other and puts his hands behind his head again.

  “Thoughts about what?” he says.

  “You,” I say. “Us, really. I don’t know; it’s weird. I don’t know how to really say it, but I’ve been dreaming about you and wondering what it would be like if instead of brushing your lips along my cheek, you brushed them against my mouth.”

  His eyes widen, and he slowly nods.

  “I’m sorry,” I laugh. “I should’ve just kept it to myself.”

  “No,” he says. “I’ve, actually, been thinking about the same thing.”

  I suddenly get nervous, and I have no idea why. This is what I wanted, right? I wanted him to want this, and I wanted him to want me this way.

  “Oh.” I lean back in the couch and look at him.

  “I’m going to be perfectly honest with you,” he says. “I’ve never wanted more with a friend of mine. With you, however, all I want is more. I know this will sound terrible, but I don’t want a relationship with you or anything. I don’t want the drama of it, mostly. I can’t stop thinking about doing other things with you, though, too.”

  “Like what?” I ask him.

  He smiles and moves closer to me. He cups my chin with his right hand and leans his left along the back of the couch.

  “Like this.” He kisses me, and I close my eyes. A rush of pleasure and lust course through me, and I don’t know whether to sit here and let him continue, or pounce on him and see how far I can get with him.

  A smile forms on his lips, and he slowly pulls away from me.

  “What else?” I ask him. I get up off the couch and make my way towards my bedroom. I look over my shoulder and see him smirking. “Show me.”

  He gets up off of the couch and makes his way over to me. His face grows serious, and he puts his hands around my waist. I look into his eyes, and I smile. He pulls me closer into him, and I can feel how stiff his dick is on my upper-thigh.

  “Is that a log in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

  He laughs and sticks my bottom lip in his mouth. He slowly pulls back on it with his teeth, and I let out a soft moan.

  I walk back into a box and almost fall over. “Shit.” Sam smiles and closes his eyes as I sit on the edge of the bed. “Sorry. I’m not taking this seriously, and I don’t know why.”

  “It’s OK,” he says. He scoots the box out of the way and positions himself in between my legs.

  I look from his crotch up to his eyes. He leans his head back as I grab his bulge with my palm and rub back and forth. I undo his zipper and lick my lips when his dick springs to life in front of me. It’s just the right length, and it’s just thick enough, as I stick the tip of it in my mouth and massage it with my tongue. He sets one hand on my shoulder, and I smile as he digs his fingers into me and squeezes me tighter.

  The comfort I feel with Sam in this moment is surreal. Yes, I’ve had sex with a friend before without wanting to date them, but Sam is different. With those other guys, it was just sex. With Sam, it’s real.

  He leans out of me, and I lie back onto the bed. He takes off his shirt and throws it at me, smirking.

  He slowly gets on top of me and sticks his hand into my pants. I close my eyes as he starts massaging the tip of my dick.

  “You’re turn,” he says. I kick off my pants, and he throws them off the bed. He kisses his way from my neck and down to my stomach. “You have a beautiful stomach. I’ve wanted to lick your abs since that day at the pier.” He licks each ridge of my abdomen and positions himself between my thighs.

  He kisses the side of my hip, and I instantly lean my body into him.

  “I take it that’s a sensitive spot?”

  “A tad,” I nod.

  He smiles and kisses the other hip. I smile as he wraps his hands around and under me, kissing harder and harder into my hip. It’s almost too much, but he lets off, grabbing a hold of my dick with one hand and cupping my balls with the other. He looks me straight in the eyes as he licks the tip of my dick.

  I lean back onto my elbows, and dig them deeper and deeper into the bed, as he moves farther down my dick and practically swallows it. I thrust up and down, and I can already feel myself getting closer to cumming in his mouth. I lift his chin, and he laughs.

  “You’re good,” I say, bringing his face up to mine.

  He sticks his tongue in my mouth and kicks his pants off to the floor. He flips his body over mine and lies across me the opposite way. I move his dick into my mouth again, as does he mine, and I don’t let up. I can taste the pre-cum oozing out of him, and it just makes this whole thing that much hotter.

  Sam is amazing at sucking a dick; plain and simple. I’m already there again, but I don’t want to cum if he isn’t anywhere close.

  “I’m gonna cum,” I let out. He instantly starts sucking me harder, and the pleasure is unbelievable. I try to speed up on him, as well, but it’s too much. I unload into his mouth and let out a stifled moan - his dick still firmly between my lips.

  He lets off and gets onto his knees in front of me. I sit back and sit him over top of me, sticking his dick in my mouth again. I smile in satisfaction as I feel him unload into my mouth. He leans his head bac
k, and the look on his face almost gets me hard again. His “pleasure-face” is one of the hottest things I have ever seen.

  “You want to know something?” Sam says, smiling down at me. I raise my eyebrows and smile. “I’m beyond glad that you moved to Chicago, too.”

  ***

  I wake up and see Sam lying on my chest. His mouth is open, and his palm is directly over my right nipple. I look over at the clock beside my bed and see that it’s nine in the morning.

  Sam and I didn’t stop after our first interaction last night. To be honest, I don’t even know how many times either of us came last night.

  I smile and slowly lean away from him towards the edge of the bed. I find a pair of shorts and bring them up to my waist.

  Sam was exactly what I needed to get over the stress of the move, and the stress of Eddie ruining my idea of love. Sam is exactly what I need in my life, in general, right now. I’ve never had a really good friend that was also gay. It’s probably not the greatest idea that I’ve decided to have sex with the first one, but I don’t care. I feel good with Sam, and all I want to feel is good right now.

  I scratch my forehead as I make my way into the kitchen. The room is silent, and I never look up from the floor.

  “Nice sex-hair,” I hear Sadie say from the living room. It scares the shit out of me, and I drop the bowl that I had just grabbed from the cabinet.

  “Jesus, Sadie.”

  “Sorry.” She sets her cup down on the coffee table and gets off the couch. “I just got home about ten minutes ago. Audrey didn’t have coffee. I saw Sam’s car outside.”

  I pick the bowl up and set it on the counter. I hear her footsteps coming towards me as I turn around and lean against the stove. I cross my arms, look at her, and I say, “He might have stayed over.”

  “Does this mean—“

  “No.” I shake my head and turn back around, grabbing a box of cereal off the top of the fridge. “We’re just friends.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “With benefits, I guess. It was nice.”

  “I’m sure it was,” she says. I fill up my bowl and grab the milk out of the fridge. I turn towards her, and she is smiling. “He’s very attractive.”

  “How was your night?” I say with a mouthful of cereal.

  She nods and shrugs. “Good. Audrey got a new girlfriend, so I got to hear about that.”

  “I find it funny how all of your friends are gay.”

  She makes her way towards the stove and gets the pancake mix from the cabinet. “The gays are the best people.”

  I smile up at her, and I say, “Touché.”

  “Fucking or not,” she says, “I’m glad you have a new friend. I’m probably going to be doing a bunch of traveling here soon, so I’ll feel better knowing you have someone else to talk to in this place.”

  I tilt my head and roll my heads. “You make me sound sad.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. We just moved here, though, and things are picking up a lot quicker than I figured they would.”

  “I know,” I say. “I’m just fucking with you. I saw the promotional posters for it the other day. I’m happy for you.”

  “I just find it odd, I guess.” She pours some of the mixed batter into the skillet and turns around towards me. “It hasn’t even been released yet, and there are already people who can’t wait for it. They don’t even know me or know the characters. They know very little, but they’re excited. I’m going to go to these book signings and meet people who adore what I wrote. It’s just all very strange.”

  “You don’t like the attention of it.”

  “No,” she says. “I don’t know. Maybe that will change. I just hope it isn’t a one-hit-wonder kind of thing. Writers can disappear just as quick as they become something.”

  I hear the bedroom door creak open and Sadie smiles, turning back around to the pancakes.

  “Good morning,” Sam says, turning around the corner into the kitchen. He rubs his eye and sits down across from me.

  “Are you hungry?” I ask him.

  “Kind of.”

  “Well,” Sadie says, “you can have pancakes by yours truly, or you can have a nice, delicious bowl of cereal.”

  He laughs, and he says, “Pancakes sound great.”

  He looks over at me and winks. I smile and get up from the table. I grab a glass and fill it with milk, setting it down in front of him.

  “Thank you,” he says, touching my fingers as I pull away from the glass. “And you, too.” He looks over towards Sadie, and she fills a plate with pancakes.

  “Of course,” she says. “I love supplying Olli’s special friends with breakfast.”

  “She’s kidding,” I say. “Sadie, please.”

  “Sorry,” she says. “I have an inappropriate sense of humor, I know.”

  Sam shakes his head back and forth, looks at me, and he says, “It’s OK. I like being Olli’s special friend.”

  She laughs and sets the plate down in front of him.

  “You need to keep this one around, Oliver. I like him.”

  He looks over at me, and his smile fills me with joy.

  I like him too, I think to myself.

  Chapter Seven

  Sam

  A FEW WEEKS IN SINCE OLIVER and I have started being more than friends, and I haven’t felt so finely tuned in my life.

  It’s weird to say, but I didn’t know what sex was until I met Oliver. I didn’t know how strongly the feeling of lust could be; nor did I know that sex could improve my mood, outlook on life, and attitude towards every thing in general.

  What surprises me most about it all? I don’t want to date him.

  “Do you have everything?” I ask Kelsey.

  It’s Friday night, and she is going to stay with our parents for the weekend. I was invited, but I have better things to do… like enjoying my weekend.

  “Yes,” she says. “There isn’t much I need. Are you sure you don’t want to go?”

  I make my way into the kitchen, look at the clock, and I say, “I’m going to Elliot’s tonight, and then seeing Oliver tomorrow.”

  “When am I going to meet your boyfriend?”

  “He’s not my… have a good weekend, Kelsey.”

  “Not as much fun as you will be having, I imagine.” She smiles, and the front door clicks behind her.

  Ethan and I are having dinner at Elliot and Will’s tonight, and I have not told them about Oliver yet. I’m already dreading the surprise in each of their voices when they hear that Oliver and I aren’t dating.

  “You’re full of shit,” I can hear Ethan say. “Samuel Erickson would never have sex if he wasn’t dating the person.”

  “I have to agree, buddy,” Elliot will say. “It’s so… unlike you.”

  I stick my wallet in my back pocket and search for my keys. I grab them out of the basket by the front door and check the time on my phone before I head out the door.

  ***

  “All I’m saying is, you didn’t start dressing that way until you guys got married.” Ethan points his fork towards Elliot, and I laugh. “All prep and what not.”

  “I’ve always dressed decently, Ethan,” Elliot says.

  “You do dress nicer now,” Will says. “I mean yes, you’ve always dressed nice, but I rarely see you in basketball shorts or a plain t-shirt.”

  Elliot raises his eyebrows at Will, and he says, “You rarely see me in clothes in general.”

  “So,” Will says to me, changing the subject, “how is this Oliver guy that I’ve been hearing about?”

  Here we go, I think to myself.

  “He’s good.” I nod and take a drink of my beer. “He’s a nice guy.”

  “That’s it?” Ethan says.

  I shrug, and I say, “What?”

  Ethan squints. “That’s not very informative.”

  I laugh and look down at the table. “I don’t…”

  “Do you like him?” Elliot asks me.

  “We aren’t
dating.”

  “I didn’t ask if you were dating, Samuel.” Elliot sets his fork down and crosses his arms. “I don’t know why you’re being weird about it.”

  I put my hands behind my head and lean back. “You guys aren’t going to believe me when I tell you.”

  “Tell us what?” Ethan asks me.

  “We are… sort of having a friends-with-benefits kind of thing with each other.”

  “Sort of?” Will says.

  “We are friends-with-benefits.”

  “Whatever,” Ethan says. “You don’t just have sex with random people.”

  I laugh, and I say, “He isn’t just some stranger.”

  “You’ve never had sex outside of a relationship,” Elliot says. “It’s just surprising to hear you say.”

  “We talked, and we both had a lot of sexual tension, so we did something about it.”

  “Good for you,” Elliot says. “I could tell something was different about you. You looked happier than usual when you walked in tonight.”

  “Good dick will to that for you,” Ethan says. I stare at him and smile. “I’m assuming it was good. I always assume good looking people are good, though.”

  “He’s great, but that’s not the point. I just am glad to have him in my life right now, I guess.”

  “And you have no interest in dating him or anything?” Elliot asks me.

  “I’m just not planning on it right now. I don’t want to really think about that, I guess. We’re enjoying each other; without all of the drama that comes with a relationship.”

  Elliot looks over at Ethan, and then looks back towards me. “Yeah, but a lot of drama could come from what you’re doing now, too. Eventually, I mean.”

  I look over at Ethan, and I ask him, “Where’s Cody at?”

  “Working,” he says. “He’s been doing twelve hour shifts here lately.”

  “Really, Samuel?”

  I look over at Elliot and raise my eyebrows. “What?”

  “You’re really going to change the subject?”

  “If he doesn’t want to talk about it,” Will says, “then don’t push it.”