Cal startled at the sound of his friend’s voice. Rhys had snuck up on him, wearing his own tux to fit in with the crowd. “How—”
“Doctor, remember?” he said, and when he leaned away, Cal noticed the woman on his arm. She had a willowy figure and slighter stature, especially while standing next to a man as burly as Rhys. Her formfitting gown in shades of blue and silver looked like a winter night sky.
“You’re Cal,” she said, extending a hand.
“And you’re Frost.” He took it gladly.
She laughed. “He’s not allowed to call me that anymore.”
“How ’bout Snowflake, doll?” Rhys pressed a kiss to the side of her head, and the way she leaned into it told Cal all he needed to know. “Your boy is somethin’ else, huh?”
Cal turned back to the platform where the announcement filled the room, with Owen currently at the center. But it was ending, and soon he’d return to Cal. “That he is. But if you’ll excuse me.” He turned back to take the woman’s hand once more and kissed it in goodbye. “We’ll have to properly get to know each other another time.”
“Double date?” Rhys winked at him.
Lorelei and Tommy, as well as Frank and Paul, weren’t far away across the ballroom. “Maybe even a dinner party,” Cal said. “But right now, I need to spirit my companion away.” The room erupted in applause as Cal headed to the platform to intercept Owen’s departure.
“Have fun, buddy!” Rhys called after him.
Cal didn’t know about that. He hoped they would, that certain things he’d been fantasizing about might come to fruition, but he’d never expect anything from Owen.
Now that Owen’s responsibilities were over, when Cal suggested they slip away, he welcomed it, and they caught a cab outside to leave the gala in the rearview mirror. Cal shouldn’t have been so nervous the closer they got to Owen’s apartment. There were unspoken promises in every glance they stole of each other, but they couldn’t have the several intimate conversations they were due in the back of a cab.
Once they were inside the building, however, heading up the elevator, Cal had to ask, “Is that interview going to go differently on Monday?”
“It is. But I’ll discuss it with Adam and Keri first. Orion Labs deserves a heads-up too, or they might pull out of the deal themselves. They’ll have to do damage control once it’s made public that their CTO dated an employee for four years and broke his arm when he tried to leave him.” Owen said it all with conviction, but the damaged man he’d been for so long hadn’t healed all his fissures yet.
“It’s the right thing, Owen.”
“I know. I’m almost glad all this happened tonight. For the first time”—a bright smile proved he was finally basking in the pride of everything he’d accomplished as the elevator opened—“I don’t feel afraid of anything.”
A flash of paranoia stirred in Cal, and he wondered if they’d find Harrison waiting outside Owen’s door, but fate was back in their favor. Freedom was a good look on Owen.
“Maybe pull back on the heroics when guns are involved next time,” Cal said.
“Don’t worry.” Owen chuckled. “If I hadn’t been 100 percent certain I could do it without anyone getting hurt, I wouldn’t have.”
“Glad those training sessions paid off. Maybe I could use some. Future date with a pair of sisters?”
A more boisterous laugh replied. “Deal.”
The quiet, dark apartment enveloped them like a warm embrace when they stepped inside. Owen turned on the main light but kept the rest off, leaving the mood soft and dim. As they removed their coats and hovered near the door, the anticipation of what to do next was worse than any time before it.
“Cal?” Owen whispered.
“Yes?”
“Since I’m not afraid anymore, I don’t want to spend another moment not kissing you.”
Owen brought his hands up to grasp either side of Cal’s face, and as he leaned forward and their lips touched, Cal brought his hands up to cover Owen’s, rekindling what they’d started the other night.
Owen’s warmth made Cal quiver—the slow slide of their tongues, that feeling of completion that had been interrupted the first time. Cal dropped his hands to Owen’s wrists but held on as they kissed, and kissed, and eventually had to gasp for air, allowing their foreheads to fall together.
“Would you like to get out of these tuxes, Owen?”
“Y-yes.”
The exchange was so reminiscent of their first night, Cal didn’t want to presume that any more than cuddling was on the table, but he needed to know what was allowed. He stroked Owen’s cheek and pressed another firm and then deeper and deeper kiss to that lovely mouth, before he spoke again.
“If you’re not sure, not ready, we don’t have to do anything more than this tonight. If this and our usual routine is all you want, that’s enough for me.”
“And if it’s not all I want?”
Cal’s chest fluttered from the certainty in Owen’s gaze. “Then more sounds wonderful.”
Replying with an impish grin, Owen backed toward the bedroom, leading Cal by the hand.
The fluttering turned into a full-on flip of Cal’s stomach. He was nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been nervous. Once again, Owen thrilled him simply by being Owen, the culmination of everything Cal had been missing in life but hadn’t understood or been able to accept until he found it.
“I want you to know everything I plan to do to you before I do it,” Owen said, “so you can tell me if it’s what you want too.”
Usually, Cal was the one saying those words. “And what do you want?”
Hands up by his bow tie to undo it, that impish smile returned before Owen tugged the bow loose. “I want to undress you. Everything this time. And then….”—ah, there was Cal’s Scarlet—“…th-then… I want my mouth on you. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
With his smile ever widening, Owen began undoing the buttons to his shirt. Cal would have followed suit, but he could hardly refuse the request for Owen to do the undressing for him, which meant Cal had the luxury of watching Owen disrobe first. Once his companion recognized the inherent role reversal, he grasped Cal’s hands to lead him to the bed and sat him on the edge.
Cal had always delighted in Owen’s lean lines and smoothly defined muscle tone, but it was different now, better, knowing he’d get to touch everything his eyes took in as Owen finished opening his shirt and dropped that and his jacket from his shoulders.
Flush with color and all for Cal, he lost the tuxedo pants next, so beautiful in only his underwear. The first thing Owen reached for when he stepped between Cal’s parted legs was the glasses perched on his nose.
“I want mine on a bit longer, but is this okay?” Owen asked, pulling them from Cal’s face. “I love you in them, I just don’t want to wreck them.”
“I can see well enough without them.”
“Good. I wish the first time I saw you bare hadn’t been on that video,” he added with a grimace.
“Doesn’t matter now. Here, our enemies can’t touch us. But you can touch whatever you like.”
A giggle replaced Owen’s distress like a slate wiped clean. “I want to kiss you again. Can I?”
“Always.”
Taking hold of Cal’s face like before, Owen crawled into his lap and teased his tongue along his lips before sliding inside. Cal wasn’t used to this dynamic, having someone make it all about him.
“Oh shit.” Owen pulled back with a start.
“What is it?”
“I don’t have any condoms.”
Well that answered the question of how Owen wanted the evening to proceed. “I do. In my wallet. Not an expectation, just habit. Which I’ll try to stop saying so much.” He grimaced himself this time.
“It’s okay. It is all okay.”
Finding the end of Cal’s bow tie, Owen carefully untied it, deft fingers never once fumbling as they moved on to undo his shirt buttons.
Cal shouldn’t have assumed Owen would be timid in the bedroom. He liked that the confidence Owen usually lacked, he found here, or maybe part of that was because his partner was Cal.
The eager fan of Owen’s hands over Cal’s chest and down his stomach promised of everything to come, his tux and all its pieces soon dropping to the floor, save the item liberated from Cal’s wallet. Then Owen was falling to his knees between Cal’s thighs and tugging down his shorts. He barely got them down Cal’s calves before his eyes fluttered upward and he leaned forward to taste Cal like he wanted.
Cal’s hands went straight for Owen’s hair, the well-gelled locks mussing with the barest carding of his fingers and light tugs. Owen hummed at the attention, and the vibrations from the act went straight to the base of Cal’s spine. Clients almost never did this for him, but he knew now that he never wanted another mouth on him ever again or different hands gripping his thighs for leverage.
Continuing to pet and praise Owen, Cal let himself relax into the freedom of not needing to perform, because with Owen, he could simply be himself.
As one of Owen’s hands slid up Cal’s stomach, the other assisting the attentions of his mouth, Cal dropped back on the bed. Owen pushed forward at the invitation to spread Cal’s legs wider, getting even closer, and Cal could hardly stand how near to the edge he was already.
“Owen… which of us… is wearing this?” he plucked the condom from the bed.
“You.”
“Then you better hold off… or I won’t last much longer. Tell me.” He looked at Owen with every ounce of adoration he felt for him. “How do you want this to go?”
Owen licked his lips and slid his clothed hips against Cal’s naked skin as he crawled up his body. “Like our first night, but the way you would have done things if I hadn’t stopped you. Show me”—he bucked forward as he lay atop Cal—“what you wanted to do to me then.”
“On the bed,” Cal gasped, certain he had no ability to move unless Owen released him. Then Owen did, dropping onto his feet to stand while he gripped the edge of his underwear.
“No, those stay on to start. We have this.” Cal held up the condom. “What about other supplies?”
“Bottom drawer.” Owen nodded at the nightstand.
Cal went for it, while Owen clambered onto the bed to throw the sheets aside. Once they were ready, Cal placed the items they’d need later within easy reach and settled behind Owen like they’d been so many weeks, months now, in the past.
CAL was hard. Of course he was; Owen was too. But tonight he could feel skin against the back of his thighs.
Pushing against the body behind him, he felt Cal’s hand coil around his waist, tease at his waistband, and dip beneath the elastic. The first brush of fingers made him whimper. Owen had always been noisy, and for Cal he loved that because he wanted him to know how good this felt.
“This is what I would have done,” Cal whispered, “but only if you’d asked first. Tell me what you want, Owen. Tell me how to touch you.”
It had been so long, and Harrison was never like this, always cared for his own pleasure more, while Cal fell into sync with everything Owen asked for.
“Slower,” he said, gripping Cal’s hand to guide him. In the past, he’d always given in to the whims of his partner. This, finally, was the exchange he’d longed for, where every stroke of Cal’s hand mirrored the waves of Owen’s body rocking against him. “Cal….” He whined before long, and Cal knew without elaboration what he wanted.
Only then did Owen’s underwear get torn away, and the slick slide of a new connection brought out louder noises from his throat. Minutes of careful attention passed to make sure he was prepared, before Cal shifted to take the connection deeper.
“Ready?” He asked permission first.
“Yes,” Owen said with a sharp intake of breath. “Please….”
With the linking of their bodies, Owen gripped Cal’s wrist to connect them further while Cal reached once more between his thighs. They sought an end together, and when they found it, overlapping and breathless, all Owen wanted was to keep Cal close, even arching his neck around to steal a kiss. Disentangling was even better, because it meant he could kiss Cal properly, with the same passion as if they could start all over again.
“Insatiable, are you?” Cal said, low and sultry against his lips.
“For you? Always.”
It might have been the rush of endorphins, the high of a first time, but Owen didn’t care. He wanted to revel in this feeling for the rest of the night.
Once they were cleaned up enough to lie comfortably with the covers pulled around them, snuggling the way they used to felt miles different. Owen couldn’t stop smiling. His cheeks hurt from the strain, because Cal’s fingers were laced with his, legs tangled, nothing between them but skin. There was too much to smile about, especially when Cal kept pressing kisses to his temple, cheek, and lips.
“There are several serious things we should talk about,” Cal said when it seemed like they might lounge and kiss and exist that way forever.
“Like what?”
“Like… what if, after tonight, I really was your publicist?”
“For real?” Owen exclaimed. “Would you like that? Could we do that?”
“The way I see it, we simply need to work out a reasonable salary, a fair job description of tasks for me to complete, and we’re already halfway there. If you like the idea. Imagine there’s an event you don’t want to deal with,” Cal said with a teasing grin. “You can make an appearance as needed, but then your publicist might have to whisk you away for another engagement—which may or may not lead to inappropriate behavior in a limousine.”
Owen giggled, but he could tell Cal was edgy offering this. “So I’d still be paying you to stick around?”
“No. You’d be paying me to do something I enjoy. I’d stick around after hours because I want to. Unless that’s too weird for you—”
“No. I like it. But are you sure? I still can’t believe you quit for me.”
“It’s what I want,” Cal said. “If you hadn’t noticed, I rather enjoy being your publicist, and I am fantastic at it.”
“You are,” Owen said with another snicker.
“Plus, there is a bonus to the arrangement.”
“You mean this?” He tightened his hold on Cal’s hand.
“This was amazing. But I mean something else.” Cal kissed Owen’s fingertips, and the blue of his eyes glittered as he said, “I love you, Owen.”
“You… really?” Owen’s heart nearly stuttered to a stop, because he’d said it earlier, but he hadn’t expected to hear it back.
Cal nodded, but any words he might have spoken were stolen by Owen’s kiss.
“Do you know the great thing about data models?” Owen said, quiet and intimate between them. “They make it look like you knew what you were doing all along, even if you just figured things out a few minutes ago. They put everything into perspective, so that even a jumbled past can paint a clear picture of the future. Sometimes that’s all we need.”
Cal kissed Owen softly in response. “I couldn’t have said it better.”
“So, umm….” Owen stared at the face scant millimeters from his own. “Want to take a shower, make popcorn, and watch some cheesy sci-fi movie before bed?”
A delighted laugh responded. “I love you,” Cal said again.
That laugh, those words—Owen would never tire of hearing any of it. “I love you too.”
Chapter Ten
CAL and Owen had experienced lazy days before, bleeding from one night into another, but Sunday was different than any day before it. Cal didn’t have a change of clothes with him, so after they’d showered the night before, he’d stolen one of Owen’s T-shirts and sleep pants for their movie. He would have gladly stayed in those clothes indefinitely given the way Owen looked at him while his fingers traced the screen print of the DeLorean from Back to the Future.
They couldn’t hide from the world forever, thoug
h, and eventually, the next day, Cal had to put his clothes back on, sans suit coat and bow tie, and head home. Owen accompanied him.
“Are you sure I’m not imposing?”
A few months ago, he might have been. Cal didn’t let people into his home. He didn’t let people into his life. Owen changed everything. “You’re not imposing. Besides, my apartment is closer to Nye Industries for Monday, and I’m hoping you won’t want to leave until then.”
Owen’s smile could have lit up a dark room.
Without argument they retired to Cal’s apartment with an overnight bag for Owen. The evening was filled with new ways to explore each other, but soon it was the next morning again and time for life to continue.
“You can come with me,” Owen said, scowling at the alarm clock they’d already hit Snooze on twice. “I have to make my session with Lorelei this morning. I want to tell her about Harry. Then I have to tell Frank. Calling Alyssa, Casey, and Mario can’t wait forever either, and I should touch base with Keri and Adam before the interview. It’s all so… much.
“I mean, I don’t need you hanging at my side all day.” He glanced away in embarrassment. “But you could come to my training session, then walk me in to work, see the building a little. I know I’ll be okay after that. It’s weird, though, thinking about telling some stranger what happened to me.”
Cal held Owen’s hand close to his chest, still awed by being able to lie with Owen like this after so long having to hold back. “I was a stranger in the beginning. So was Lorelei. And Frank. I know this is different, but you don’t have to sensationalize what happened. Say what needs to be said, what you’re comfortable saying, and leave things there. It’ll be enough.”
“I feel… guilty,” Owen said, keeping his eyes on their clasped hands. “I don’t think Harrison means to be a bad person.”
“Owen….”
“I know. I’m doing it again, but… I cared for him once. I’m not being petty, right?” Hazel eyes flicked upward to meet Cal’s gaze.
“No. You’re being honest. You’re protecting yourself. It’s been less than a year. You could still file charges for assault if you wanted.”
A Model Escort Page 18
