A Beautiful Disaster

by Marguerite Labbe

  It was hard to remain irked at Dakota when he was both right and considerate of Brenden at the same time. He’d let it go. No sense in harping on it.

  “So… you see Felipe today?” Dakota asked in an odd tone of voice.

  Brenden studied him, trying to gauge Dakota’s angle. Felipe and Trask were unequivocally an item. Brenden didn’t have any worries Felipe would toss Trask aside and make another play for Dakota. But that didn’t mean Dakota had no regrets. “He was hard to miss. He was running around with his partner as Ruby Rohd and Leeloo. They’d made quite an impression.”

  Dakota sat up and turned to face Brenden, his expression serious. A lump settled in Brenden’s throat. Fuck, Dakota was having second thoughts about letting Felipe go, which meant his emotions ran deeper than he wanted to admit. That was a first, but it had to happen eventually. Dakota couldn’t dodge deeper connections for life.

  “I ran into him in the parking lot, and he said the craziest thing.”

  Brenden sat up as well, bracing his heart so he could be a sympathetic ear. Dakota sat a foot or so away from him, but Brenden couldn’t figure out what was on his mind. “Well go ahead. Don’t keep me guessing.”

  “He said….” Dakota paused and then shrugged one shoulder. “That you and I had a lot of unresolved sexual tension.”

  Brenden stared blankly at Dakota, trying to process that. “What?”

  “See, that’s what I thought at first….” Dakota went on in a buzz of words Brenden didn’t hear as he closed his eyes. Tomorrow morning, he was going to locate that troublemaking little shit and strangle him with his pantyhose. And then he was going to… “Brenden, dammit, are you listening to me?”

  Brenden’s eyes popped back open only to find Dakota inches away from him with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Testing a theory.”

  Brenden scrambled away, his heart pounding faster as he realized Dakota’s intention. Who had he pissed off in his previous life to deserve this? He’d been dodging Dakota’s kisses since they were teenagers, though lately, he seemed more intent on landing one. The playful fun and games had become a lot more serious. Tonight Dakota made his resolve crumble, and if he kept up this bullshit, Brenden might forget the promise he’d made.

  “Go test out your ludicrous theories on someone else.” Brenden flicked a dismissive hand in Dakota’s direction as he rose to face Brenden. He couldn’t look at him straight on. Nobody could read him like Dakota could. And he was still half naked and sexy, and dammit, Brenden would die if he popped a boner. He scrubbed his hands over his scalp, trying to look anywhere but at Dakota.

  “Kinda hard to do when the theory involves you,” Dakota said, his voice taking on that bit of a drawl he sometimes got when his Southern Maryland came through. It made Brenden’s hair stir, imagining that sound in his ear in the dark.

  Stop it, just stop it. He ordered his thoughts before he made himself mental. His usual irritated, annoyed reaction was not having its intended effect on Dakota, so Brenden fell back on icy anger. “You’ve got to stop pulling crap like this. I’m serious.”

  He made the mistake of meeting Dakota’s gaze, and Dakota’s eyes narrowed. “You’re nervous.”

  “I am not nervous. I’m pissed at your friend for putting dumb-assed ideas in your head.” Brenden paced as much as he could in a room that shrank too small for the both of them. He could smell Dakota’s damp hair, and it wreaked havoc with his senses.

  “Brenden, you are blowing this all out of proportion. It’s a friendly kiss, not a lifetime commitment on the Hallmark channel.” Even as the words stung, Dakota closed the distance between them. Brenden’s breath caught at the familiar look of loving exasperation in his eyes that always undid him. “We’re going to laugh about this later.”

  Brenden held his ground and glared at his tormentor. Dakota would back down. He’d backed down every other time except that first one. Brenden blamed that on the alcohol Dakota consumed until he’d been too shitfaced to know up from down. Any second he’d turn away. After all, Brenden was giving him his best glare. The one that had been known to freeze grown men in their steps, but Dakota had become immune to it.

  “Dakota,” Brenden said in a warning voice, and Dakota paused in front of him.

  “Brenden,” he replied with a warm affection that knocked on Brenden’s heart. The need to have this, not just the kisses but the way Dakota looked at him like he was now, the way he opened up to Brenden like he didn’t with most people, the way he was always touching him. It drove him crazy, but if he lost his relationship with Dakota… it would hurt him in ways he didn’t want to contemplate.

  His resolve wavered as his body shifted toward Dakota’s. “I mean it,” he said breathlessly and saw the flash of triumph in Dakota’s eyes. “Back off.”

  Chapter Eight

  “IN A moment.” Dakota took in all the signs flitting across Brenden’s face and saw him weakening. Had he misinterpreted Brenden’s cues all these years? Only one way to find out. “As the Arctic Monkeys sing, simmer down and pucker up.”

  Brenden stiffened and his eyes burned with a holy wrath. “What did you say?” The ice in his voice made Dakota grin. Getting Brenden all riled up never failed to get his juices going. It was his own fault. He made it so damn easy to poke at him. Some people thought Brenden had no emotions other than irritated or exasperated. They didn’t know how to read him. Brenden was one complicated ball of emotions.

  “You heard me.” Dakota closed the space between them, intrigued by the little flare of panic and yearning in Brenden’s dark eyes. He started to take a step back in retreat, and then pride made him stand his ground as Dakota knew it would.

  Brenden raised a hand and pressed his palm against Dakota’s chest as he shot him a quelling look. “I am not kissing you.”

  Words Dakota had heard in one form or another for too many years. Words that in the past had made him back down from his teasing, but Felipe’s observation burned in his mind, along with the questions haunting him for a couple of weeks. It made him question their age-old reactions and the motivations behind them. He’d been dying to kiss Brenden for what felt like forever. He craved to know what he’d taste like when he thawed, how Brenden would feel pressed up against him. Brenden had to be wondering the same thing. It couldn’t just be him.

  Dakota slipped his hand behind Brenden’s neck, and his blood heated at the telltale signs. The stirring of the fine hairs at his nape. The slight quickening of his breath. Dakota’s gaze dropped to Brenden’s prim mouth, set in a hard, uncompromising slant of denial. He forced his gaze up again so he’d read the truth in Brenden’s eyes. Brenden was a master dissembler, but not usually with him.

  “Are you not kissing me because you have no desire to do so or out of some misguided moral principal that you should object?” Dakota stroked the back of Brenden’s neck, sensed his barely there shiver. “Tell me the truth and I’ll drop it for good.”

  A quick flicker of regret and longing passed through Brenden’s eyes, and then he broke eye contact long enough to hide behind that veneer of ice again. “For the last time, I don’t want to kiss you. I’ve never wanted to kiss you. You’re my… brother.”

  How had Dakota missed it all these years? The way Brenden avoided saying the word, and when he did, it was always with an edge or a hesitation like now. Dakota gave him an easy smile and let his hand drop. The same smile he used every other time he’d backed off whenever Brenden had taken that prissy tone with him. Brenden took a step backward, tugging down the hem of his shirt as if he felt disheveled. Not yet, but when Dakota was done with him, he’d feel that way.

  Before Dakota could reach for him and test his theory, Brenden let out a strangled sound. “Oh hell.” He fisted his hands in Dakota’s track pants at his hips and tugged him so they stumbled against the wall.

  “Liar,” Dakota breathed, just before Brenden kissed him or he kissed Brenden. He wasn’t sure which. Dakota pressed hi
s advantage before Brenden could pull away or say anything that would knock some sense into him. He didn’t want to be fucking sensible. Was this vibe between them real or a product of his fevered imagination?

  Brenden groaned and arched his body toward Dakota. He released his grip on Dakota’s pants and tunneled his fingers through Dakota’s hair. His brain short-circuited as Brenden kissed him with years of pent-up need. He’d completely misjudged Brenden. He wasn’t ice that needed to be thawed. He was fire barely contained. How had Dakota gotten it so damn wrong?

  Dakota’s hands curled into fists against the wall, a rough groan on his lips as he pressed closer, savoring the length of Brenden’s body against his own. He was fully aroused, and the fact Brenden was in the same state had his thoughts spinning so fast he couldn’t make any sense of them other than a resounding yes. He hadn’t been mistaken, and nothing else felt quite so right.

  Brenden’s fingers loosened, and his hands slid down to cup Dakota’s face in a tender gesture that stripped Dakota bare, as if Brenden touched his soul. They were both trembling in reaction. There was a bed close by, a bed he had to get Brenden in. But he didn’t want to break the contact of lips and tangling tongues. He was already addicted to the taste of Brenden, the scent of him. Brenden’s mouth branded him, and the more Dakota demanded, the more Brenden gave him.

  Dakota pressed his hips tighter against Brenden’s, unable to draw a steady breath as Brenden’s cock jumped. Oh fuck… he had to have more. He pulled back and stared into Brenden’s eyes as he ground against him again. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath as he watched those walled-up emotions play on Brenden’s face.

  Unresolved sexual tension did not even begin to cover this. Brenden groaned again, a needy sound that had Dakota aching to answer. He wanted to touch him roughly. He wanted to caress him gently. He wanted to fuck him senseless in a haze of lust and fire. Then make love to him and draw out every secret Brenden had hidden from him all these years.

  Dakota brought his lips to Brenden’s throat. He’d always loved the curve of his neck. Even as a teenager he’d thought about leaving his mark right where Brenden’s neck met his shoulder. He pulled back and yanked off Brenden’s shirt, the need to get to bare skin a thirst that couldn’t be quenched.

  Brenden drew in a ragged breath. “Dakota, I think—”

  “You think too damn much,” Dakota rasped, meeting Brenden’s eyes, desperate to erase the hesitation there. “Try not thinking for a change.”

  Brenden stared at him, his eyes dark with some emotion Dakota couldn’t identify. He’d mull it over later. Right now he had to convince his friend that getting naked and acting out their fantasies was the best idea of the millennia. Dakota tapped his finger against Brenden’s lips and traced the outline of the mouth he wanted to kiss again. “Try feeling. Be in the moment with me, Bren.”

  “Oh hell,” Brenden muttered again. He caught Dakota’s face between his hands and kissed him, his mouth as hot and hungry as Dakota could wish for.

  Brenden’s capitulation was better than any high, any game-winning home run, any other triumph Dakota could remember. He took his hands off the wall and touched Brenden for the first time, his hands shaking as he moved them in a long, slow caress over Brenden’s body.

  He was leaner than Dakota had imagined, with a long torso and narrow hips. Dakota wanted to watch his expression as he stroked him, but he couldn’t pull back enough to do so. He was utterly lost in the surrender in Brenden’s kiss, the pliancy of his body, and the way he touched Dakota back, hesitant at first and then with growing eagerness.

  Dakota kissed the curve of Brenden’s jaw as Brenden’s fingers brushed down his spine. He nipped the hollow of his collarbone, and Brenden clutched at him with a barely there groan. Impatient, Dakota stepped back long enough to kick out of his track pants and to pull off Brenden’s pajama bottoms.

  He took the time to study him, hyperaware of Brenden doing the same. His throat tightened, and he had the craziest urge to pull Brenden to him and just hold on. Dakota stared at Brenden, his heart pounding unsteadily. Fuck he was gorgeous, staring back at him, his dark eyes heated as he looked at Dakota like he fully intended on following through with the fire between them instead of backing off.

  “You’re fucking beautiful, Bren.”

  Brenden gave him a crooked smile and shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

  “You’re beautiful to me.” Dakota caught his hand and tugged him toward the bed. He half expected Brenden to offer up some token protest in a nod toward the rules he’d outlined for his life. But he stuck to his silent promise to live in the moment and followed him, clinging to Dakota’s hand. Dakota lay back on the bed and urged Brenden down with him, afraid that at any moment, Brenden would change his mind for bullshit reasons.

  “You sure?” Brenden asked, half hovering over him. “Are you really sure?”

  “Stupid fucking question.” Dakota sat up and nipped Brenden’s lower lip. “You’re smarter than that.” He supposed if he were a better man, he’d ask Brenden the same. But he wasn’t confident of Brenden’s answer if he gave him a chance to consider all the consequences.

  Dakota kissed him, easing back on the bed and encouraging Brenden to join him with caresses and soft murmurs. Brenden trembled, his muscles tense, and then he laid over Dakota, his weight settling against him at last. He groaned and circled his hips, pressing against Dakota’s cock, and a hot thrill went through him as he felt how excited Brenden was too.

  It was such a crazy mix of wanting to devour and savor him at the same time. “You feel so good against me,” Dakota said with a husky laugh. He slid his hand down Brenden’s back and ran it over the wide splay of his ass. “Touch me. I want your hands all over me.”

  Dakota groaned as Brenden’s mouth moved in patient exploration along with his hands. Dakota’s heart thundered with each brush of his lips, each time he caressed Brenden in return. He explored the breadth of Brenden’s shoulders. He nipped at the little hollow he wanted to mark. They could’ve been doing this for months. Years. Holy hell.

  Brenden’s gaze remained on Dakota as if he didn’t want to miss one moment. Dakota understood. He felt like he could spend hours running his hands over Brenden’s body, mapping every spot with his lips like Brenden seemed intent on doing to him. The physical ache of wanting to bury himself into Brenden’s body had faded into the background, overwhelmed by the need to be in this moment with him, loving him, learning him.

  There had been many men who’d gotten him excited, others who’d intrigued him and held his interest for a while, but nobody like Brenden. It was nothing like this. He saw Brenden with whole new eyes and couldn’t get enough.

  “I want to look at you. I need to make sure I’m not imaging things.” Dakota pushed Brenden back so he could get a good, long look at him naked. Brenden naked and over him. He couldn’t process it. He wanted to lick and kiss every sweet prissy inch of him, only there wasn’t anything prissy about Brenden Wade right now. His dark eyes were gleaming hotly, and his mouth was demanding as he kissed Dakota again. What else had he gotten wrong about his friend?

  Then Dakota gave in to the urgings of his heart and held him close, brushing his face with kisses as Brenden did the same. He couldn’t believe they were lying there naked like this. All the urgency to take and claim had disappeared under the need to drag out every sweet moment.

  Brenden’s eyes were damp, and when Dakota pressed his lips there, he tasted the salt of unshed tears. “Don’t cry,” he whispered, holding Brenden tighter as his heart ached with him. “Don’t regret this.”

  “I don’t.” Brenden touched his forehead to Dakota’s. “I won’t. It’s just….”

  He trailed off and Dakota nodded. This was something Brenden had longed for, just as Dakota was beginning to realize he’d longed for it too, though maybe not in the way he’d thought. This was more than a quick release and scratching a sexual itch. They were Brenden and Dakota, and no matter what happened, they would
always be a team.

  “I know.” Dakota kissed him again, his heart beating painfully.

  Brenden’s eyes darkened and his throat worked. He struggled as if he wanted to say something more, and it slipped out, a bare whisper. “I love you.”

  Dakota brushed his fingers over Brenden’s scalp. “I love you too.” More than he’d ever love any man.

  Brenden’s eyes shut with an expression of bittersweet pain, but before Dakota could question him he pulled away, leaving Dakota with a naked and cold sensation. “Did you bring anything?” Brenden gave him a questioning glance over his shoulder. “Because I didn’t.”

  It took Dakota’s brain a second to process that Brenden was asking for condoms and lube, not suddenly changing his mind. “Yeah, in the front pocket of my suitcase.” He’d been seeking to score tonight at the after-party, not realizing he would hit the damned jackpot back in his hotel room.

  He admired Brenden as he walked naked across the room. What were the chances of getting him to be more nudist at home? It would be distracting, for sure. He’d want to bang Brenden all the time, but Brenden wearing clothes wouldn’t stop that urge one bit.

  Brenden bent over to fish around in Dakota’s bag, and Dakota hummed in appreciation. Damn, now that was a sight, all that naked glorious ass. He discarded the thought of taking this slow and sweet. They’d held each other. They’d emoted. And they’d probably do it again. But he had a fair idea that Brenden was thinking too much again, which meant Dakota wasn’t doing enough to drive him out of his mind.

  Dakota padded over to him on silent feet and caught Brenden around the waist as he straightened. Brenden jumped with a little laugh, and Dakota lightly bit the back of his neck. Brenden smelled so damn good, so familiar. “What are you doing?”

  “Answering your invitation.” Dakota gave him a light push onto the closest bed and took a moment to ogle Brenden naked and hard sprawled out, still clutching the packet of condoms and the bottle of lube.