Worth Keeping by Susan Mac Nicol

swore under his breath as he got out of bed, pulling up his sweatpants like a security blanket. He barrelled through to the bathroom and opened the door. Billows of steam assaulted his face, making him cough as he breathed it in.
    “Um, Owen?” The bathroom was spacious, a simple but modern design with a bath, the wet room capable of fitting two big men, a toilet and a basin. It was decorated in shades of cream and blue. Nick saw the naked form of his lodger in the shower, all fair skin and long, slim, taut muscled legs with water cascading over his body. The smell of coconut shampoo swirled into Nick’s nostrils together with the tantalising tang of maleness.
    “Nick.” Owen’s amused voice sounded over the sound of the running water. “Are you in a rush to pee or have you decided to join me?” Nick was sure he wasn’t expecting an affirmative answer to his last question.
    Boy, is the man in for a surprise .
    He took a deep breath, sliding his sweatpants off his hips. He opened the shower door to see Owen’s flabbergasted face staring at him.
    “You did offer,” Nick murmured, reaching for Owen, pulling him closer, grinding his mouth against his like a drowning man drinking down the last few precious drops of water from a closing bud.
    Owen moaned, his lips parting and Nick slid his tongue inside, tasting the man like a lizard testing the air. Owen’s hot, wet tongue met his and Nick grew even harder against Owen’s stomach as he pushed Owen back against the shower wall, wrapping his hands in Owen’s hair, driving his mouth deeper into his.
    Nick just couldn’t get enough of him. Owen’s hands gripped his arse as he ground his hips against Nick’s. The long, hard length of the other man pressed into his groin and stomach and they both groaned at the sensation. And all the time water fell in rivulets down faces, into open mouths, down heated skin like rivers let loose in a dam bursting its confinement. It echoed Nick’s desire, a too-long-awaited need to be with someone like this, in a carnal desire so deep that if he let it, the simple touch of the other man was enough to make him burst.
    Owen pulled back with a gasp, his eyes darkened and his face rosy from the heat. Nick leaned over and licked a long line up Owen’s jaw line and then Nick’s tongue slid in and took possession of Owen’s ear.
    “Christ, Nick,” Owen moaned, his eyes closing in bliss. “Stop bloody teasing. I really want to feel those lips wrapped around my cock.” He opened his eyes, sultry pools of lust, his dark hair plastered wetly to his skull like shiny sealskin.
    Nick thought he’d never seen a sexier or more welcome sight. He nodded as he nibbled Owen’s lower lip. “I guess I could do that, seeing as how you asked so nicely.”
    Owen groaned. “For God’s sake, do it then. I’ll return the favour seeing as how we really don’t know each other well enough for anything else yet.”
    Nick felt a frisson of apprehension down his spine. “Just so you know before we start anything. I never bottom. I don’t even top. So if you like any of that stuff I’m not your man. Best get that clear before we carry on with anything.”
    Owen’s eyes widened. “Never?” he gasped.
    Nick shook his head. “Fingers are fine in you, but my cock—not. It’s just the way it is.” He wondered if he’d just sounded the death knell on whatever it was they’d just started and whether it would be over before it even begun. If that were the case he’d let Owen go and forget about him. Owen’s answer was instead to push Nick’s head down toward his groin.
    “So be it,” he gasped. “Just you and your mouth and hands are good enough for me.”
    Nick sank to his knees in relief. Of course, he thought wryly, Owen was so turned on Nick could have said he had webbed balls and Owen wouldn’t have cared. It would be what happened afterwards that would be the measure of the man.
    Nick gripped Owen’s hips, sliding his mouth over Owen’s