Three Part Harmony

by Holley Trent

  “I did this one myself,” Theo said.

  “Did what?”

  “The room. They wouldn’t let me do the others, but I did this one. They didn’t care because no one could see it.”

  “Hell, I can’t see it.”

  Raleigh fell over what must have been a sofa arm because he landed on soft cushions with pillows tilted on his face.

  Suddenly, a lamp clicked on nearby. “Better? I got that lampshade in Marrakesh. Held it on my lap the whole flight home. They wanted me to stow it, but after all I went through to get...” Letting the story trail off, Theo perched on the coffee table in front of Raleigh and carelessly wriggled off his boots.

  Raleigh winced, worrying far more than Theo did, apparently, about the new scuffs being added to the material. They weren’t even his style, but he would rescue them and provide them with a better home if need be. He could be generous at times.

  As he tried to sit up—he suspected he was sinking even deeper into the plush cushions—he scanned the objects on the tables. There was a lot of loose paper scribbled with notes and symbols he couldn’t make out from where he was, various electronics cords, takeout food cartons, and what he thought were guitar picks.

  Theo tossed his coat aside and his sunglasses after it.

  “I hope those didn’t cost you as much as your boots,” Raleigh murmured.

  Theo looked toward the castoffs as though he hadn’t considered the possibility that objects might have values. Then he shrugged. “Soft landing. They’ll be all right. So, the lamp. You like it?”

  Theo’s smile might have been stunning, but compared to what he’d been hiding behind those dark glasses, it may as well have been dishwater.

  Shit, his eyes.

  Raleigh thought his travel-addled brain had been playing tricks on him back at the amphitheater during that brief moment Theo had lifted his sunglasses. He’d thought the setting sun had been angled in just the right way to make his irises appear to be that yellowish color. They were probably close enough to brown to count as that, but that word wasn’t right. He’d probably had a green-eyed parent and a parent with something darker.

  With that mane of hair about his face and the silkiness of his movements, he looked like some sort of dangerous cat. Panther, probably.

  Raleigh was pretty sure panthers were predators, but he couldn’t remember if that meant he was supposed to run or be very still.

  “Maids...get here at seven.” Theo’s gaze tracked to the ceiling. His eyes narrowed in contemplation. “If you’re here then, just ignore them. They always have opinions.”

  “About what?” Raleigh asked, still dazed.

  Theo pulled his arms out of his shirtsleeves and then lifted the garment over his head. That golden coloring of his face continued all the way down, apparently. There wasn’t a mar or blemish anywhere on him. He was perfectly smooth except for the trail of hair between navel and waistband.

  Raleigh wanted to touch him and see if he were as solid as he looked, but he was still trying to remember if one should run from panthers.

  “Everything,” Theo said, looking at him again. “I didn’t hire them. They come anyway.”

  “Who hired them?”

  Theo shrugged. “Mother. Father. I don’t know. Maybe someone else. I fire them and then others show up. Can’t get rid of them. I don’t know why they come if they hate me so much.”

  “Why do they hate you?”

  “Because I make it easy.”

  If Theo felt any particular angst about the subject, he didn’t show it. In fact, he was whistling a jaunty little tune as he unbuttoned his pants and wriggled the snug denim past his hips.

  “Efficient, aren’t you?”

  Theo’s smile somehow managed to be both shy and boastful at the same time. How anyone could walk away from him, much less look away, Raleigh couldn’t fathom. If Theo were a flame, Raleigh would most certainly be a moth. It’d been so long since he’d felt that kind of pull toward anyone that he almost didn’t recognize the nerves for what they were: exhilaration.

  “Nudity’s a natural state, aye? I’m comfortable in it.”

  Raleigh imagined he would be, too, if he were built like Theo. He’d walk around all the damned time with his shirt open and pants hanging low on his hips.

  “You can stay just like that if you want.”

  “Oh?” Raleigh intoned.

  “You mind?”

  “I don’t know yet. What are we doing?”

  Of course Theo wasn’t wearing anything under those pants. He tossed them toward his discarded coat and sunglasses and raked his hair out of his eyes.

  Raleigh couldn’t imagine anyone being able to manage eye contact in such circumstances. There was a beautiful man standing nude in front of him, watching him as though he were waiting for him to recite a particular line, but Raleigh didn’t have the script.

  He was also still trying to figure out the panther thing.

  Theo’s smile may have been borderline shy before, but there was nothing tentative about his posture or where he put his hands. He glided his palms up his belly, trailed his blunt fingertips up his chest, and scored around the edges of his nipples.

  Raleigh still didn’t know what to say or if there was even a point to saying anything. He was fully dressed—buttoned up as tight as he could be—and suffocating in all that fabric.

  And he ached. Needed to be let out, but if he did, he’d be giving himself away. He’d be showing how quickly that odd man had affected him and how desperately he needed to do something about it.

  “I’m open,” Theo said. “Whatever you want.”

  An incredulous scoff fell out of Raleigh’s mouth.

  Whatever he wanted would most certainly end with Theo tied to some substantial piece of furniture and Raleigh’s spend dripping down his thighs. Obviously, that wasn’t a getting-to-know-you sort of happy ending.

  “I think,” Raleigh said, swallowing thickly. Somehow, he managed to sit up straight in that cloud-soft sofa. “You should be a bit more specific. I can be very creative.”

  “I invite you to.”

  God.

  Raleigh dragged his hand down his face. He didn’t know any man who’d refuse a blank-check invitation when it was so freely given—especially not when they knew they’d probably never see that partner again. There’d be no morning-after shame. They wouldn’t be socializing in the same circles or running into each other at the nearby coffee shop. Raleigh lived on the other edge of the country.

  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t exercise an abundance of caution. They both deserved that.

  “Come here,” Raleigh murmured.

  Theo dropped his hands from his chest and made himself space between Raleigh’s feet. “I’m here.”

  “Closer.”

  Theo’s lips quirked at one corner. “How much closer?”

  “Lean in.”

  Putting a hand at either side of Raleigh’s head at the sofa back, Theo folded himself down and met Raleigh’s gaze. “Here?”

  “Closer.”

  “Which parts of me?”

  “Pick one.”

  “Is it up to me?”

  “Right now, it is.”

  Theo pulled his lower lip between his teeth and looked askance. Thinking, perhaps.

  Raleigh waited. He kept his hands to himself even though his palms were itching and cock was aching to the point of distraction.

  With him nude and so near, the musky undertones of Theo’s cologne seemed suddenly abloom, enticing and goading, and telling Raleigh that one should be still when a panther was close enough to bite.

  Or be bitten.

  “Anything I’d like, then?” Theo asked.

  “For now.”

  “Even this?” Theo set one knee on the sofa beside Raleigh and then the other. He inc
hed forward, glacially slow, wearing a smile that was full of sin.

  What kind of sins do you know, panther?

  Not desiring to conduct his movements in any way, Raleigh just waited to see where Theo would stop.

  He didn’t stop until the tip of his cock nudged the placket of Raleigh’s still-fastened shirt.

  “I like red,” Theo said.

  “Oh?”

  “When I had my own money for the first time, I bought a guitar that was red. Still have it somewhere.”

  “So, you play?”

  Theo didn’t respond. He eased onto Raleigh’s lap and tilted forward. Their bellies touched. Their lips almost did.

  Raleigh notched his fingertips into the corduroy of the sofa. It’d be so easy for him to put his hands on Theo and satisfy his urgent need to touch, but he wasn’t entirely certain that was what Theo needed. He seemed too eager to please Raleigh and that sort of generosity often came with attachments.

  It wasn’t that Raleigh was so averse to attachments. He just never managed to connect with people who wanted the same sorts of attachments as him, and for the same reasons.

  If he and Stacia hadn’t been so constitutionally similar, he might have pursued her. She was unquestionably trustworthy, but he’d known that the two of them coming together would likely end in some sort of destructive disruption to the space-time continuum. He tried to be a responsible world citizen as much as he could be, and he refused to be responsible for the demise of humankind.

  “Sometimes, I like red, too,” Raleigh murmured.

  “It’s my favorite.”

  “I don’t have favorites, but I agree that red has a certain allure at times.” Like right then. “Your lips are red.”

  Theo had been pressing them together. Licking them. “You like them?”

  “Yes.”

  “You want to touch them, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you do, will you touch other things, too?” Theo was already tilting his head for the perfect angle for kissing and Raleigh was trying desperately not to roll his hips.

  “I don’t know. Should I?”

  “I don’t know about should, but I want you to. I don’t care where. Just touch me.”

  “And then what?”

  “Fuck me if you want. You came here. I thought you wanted to.”

  “I never said I didn’t.”

  “Then why are you so slow?”

  “Why are you in such a hurry?”

  “I’m always in a hurry. Things change. People change. Minds change. Please touch me once before you change your mind.”

  Raleigh hadn’t intended to make him beg, but he’d be a liar if he said the sound didn’t incite him. It had his blood heating, his breath shuddering, his cock throbbing.

  His lips on Theo’s.

  And then his hands were kneading his lower back and inching toward his ass.

  Theo’s mouth was hot and tasted of mint, and briefly, Raleigh let his thoughts escalate to the fantasy of the wet heat of Theo’s mouth on his cock, swirling candy around him. Making him sticky. Licking off the sugar.

  The possibilities multiplied in his mind. Sitting. Standing. Laying down. With Theo on his knees. With Raleigh on his.

  Delving his tongue deeper into Theo’s mouth, he groaned. Theo may have been the one begging, but Raleigh was just as affected. He ached just as much. His body was already seeking release, hips thrusting upwards, hands tightening into Theo’s flesh.

  Too fast.

  He didn’t even know the man. He’d always had a rule that he’d at least know a person’s last name before they were intimate, but the rules somehow seemed suspended away from home.

  Or perhaps he just didn’t care anymore. Theo could admit that he was needy and starved for touch. Raleigh could, too.

  With a grunt of effort, Raleigh shifted Theo to his back atop the sofa and gave his head a clearing shake. He needed to make himself care. Human beings had evolved to possess higher forms of logic and the ability to rationalize, and those had been meant to ensure their safety.

  “Puts your hands behind you,” he croaked. “Under your hips.”

  “Here?” Theo complied with a smirk, sliding his hands beneath the small of his back, arching his body forward more than necessary.

  Yes, yes, I saw you.

  Raleigh put his head back and closed his eyes.

  That didn’t make the picture in his head go away. Those leanly muscled lines, the bent knee, the brazenly jutting cock.

  Can’t do this.

  Not in the way he wanted. Not with a stranger.

  He’d live. He’d take home the memories and perhaps do something about all that frustration later.

  Putting his eyes on the bold creature before him, he pulled his fingers into his mouth and sucked each one. Crude, but he’d make it work.

  Too much friction when he wrapped a fist around Theo’s cock, but the instant moan he let out said that didn’t matter. He didn’t care if the tugging was slick. The knowledge of the touch probably did more for him than the actual sensation.

  Raleigh wished he could compartmentalize that way. He thought too much.

  Skimming the fingers of one hand teasingly along Theo’s crease, he slid his other hand along the meat of Theo’s shaft until slickness oozed at the tip and his belly started to strain.

  “Look at me,” Theo whispered. “Don’t close your eyes.”

  Raleigh hadn’t realized he’d shut them, but of course he had. His thoughts were on his own dick and how he was ignoring it—on how easy it would be to find a condom and breach that resistant pucker he kept brushing the pad of his thumb against.

  Theo wouldn’t care so much if Raleigh was looking at him then. He wouldn’t be able to say anything.

  “Watch me come.”

  Raleigh gritted his teeth and tried to lock his focus on where his hand was and not how Theo had dug his heels into the cushion beneath to bolster his balance. He wasn’t just being tugged off. He was bucking into Raleigh’s hand, and the flesh was no longer dry. The friction was gone. Theo made his own lubrication.

  “Squeeze it tighter,” he rasped. “You won’t hurt me.”

  Raleigh didn’t, though. He knew his grip. He knew he would leave a bruise.

  “Please,” came Theo’s breathy appeal.

  “Next time.”

  That answer seemed to excite Theo enough—as much as hearing it come out of his own mouth excited Raleigh. He was shouting out, his wet heat spilling over Raleigh’s fingers, his panther eyes obediently attached to Raleigh’s face.

  He’d barely recovered before he sat up and reached for Raleigh’s belt buckle. Maybe he liked that feeling of crashing down rather than being still while he caught his breath. He was practically panting and Raleigh could see his pulse thrumming in his temples.

  “What are you doing?” Raleigh asked him.

  “Let me. Please.”

  “Let you what?”

  Theo’s fingers paused behind the button of Raleigh’s slacks. Confusion creased his forehead. “You want to come, don’t you? You’re not one of those...uptight types? You need to be in control that way?”

  Raleigh forced a labored swallow down his throat. “No.”

  He’d simply been in no position to ask.

  “I like it. Let me do it,” Theo said.

  Raleigh found himself nodding.

  He heard a little voice echoing in his head, “Let him do it.”

  Theo’s fingers were quick and nimble. He had Raleigh free of pants and briefs in seconds, had Raleigh’s tip on his tongue without much of a look.

  Christ.

  Raleigh couldn’t look at him, either. Not with the way his stare was so focused and pleading for feedback.

  The best Raleigh could do in response was lace his f
ingers behind his head, close his eyes, and try not to push his cock too far down Theo’s throat.

  Theo had done that on his own. He wasn’t a tentative dick kisser. He didn’t waste time coddling the end and plying the underside with gentle strokes. Some people might have liked and needed that, but Raleigh didn’t. His foreplay had come when Theo had peeled off those skintight pants and stalked toward Raleigh with that hungry gleam in his eyes. He’d sucked Raleigh in halfway and then more without hesitation, minding his teeth, closing his lips, slicking the curved sides with his tongue.

  He swallowed around him and worked his head back and forth. Theo may have been fearless, but that meant Raleigh had to be even more careful. Theo was putting his well-being in the hands of a stranger, which was foolish, but Raleigh wasn’t going to punish him for it.

  Theo needed a minder. Someone to back him away from risks.

  Raleigh was a bit sad to realize it couldn’t be him. He’d certainly never be bored, and by necessity, he’d become increasingly predictable in recent years.

  “Okay,” he whispered, pressing his thumb into the corner of Theo’s mouth to throttle his sucks. “Not like that.”

  Not in his mouth.

  Confusion played across Theo’s features as Raleigh slipped out of the man’s mouth and took himself in hand.

  A stroke was enough, and he was adding the product of his own eruption to the mess already on his hand.

  “God,” he intoned.

  As he sat back, Theo still had that look of eagerness on his face. His breathing was still a bit fast and pulse still visible in his temples and neck.

  Raleigh dragged his tongue across his dry lips and sat back.

  With his profession being what it was, Raleigh was almost never at a lack of words. He knew how to negotiate. He knew how to wheedle a bit more out of unyielding decision makers. He knew how to advance his interests.

  Most importantly, he knew how to end a conversation.

  He’d been learning that skill since he was eight and his father had decided to pursue political ambitions. People had always expected Raleigh to mind his father’s business. He’d had to learn to change subjects. He’d developed a precocious mastery of tact.

  With all those useful skills to boast, he couldn’t figure out which one of them would help transition his drama with Theo into...something else.