by Peter Styles
Jeremiah knew where this was headed.
“The old man hated gays. He was pretty religious, I guess.” Chris abruptly stopped and turned his head to the side, clearing his throat.
“Satan got your tongue?” Jeremiah blurted out.
Chris flashed a tired smile before continuing. “I never really outwardly told him that I was gay… but I never talked about girls either, so he knew. At least, he suspected. My mom was my cheerleader. She died of a sudden heart attack. Some untreated defect from childhood. I remember she went to the doctor a lot when I was young, but they never did anything about it because they said her weird heartbeat was just anxiety.”
“It finally caught up to her and she dropped at the dinner table. I was 17; just graduated.” Chris’s voice caught on itself, stumbling before becoming righted again. “Dead in an instant before the ambulance ever arrived. Dad sued all the doctors she had spoken with in the past ten years. He won every single case. Medical malpractice payouts are pretty big, so suddenly we had more money than we knew what to do with.”
“Except, Dad knew what to do. He gave me a chunk of the money and told me I was to leave his house. So, I did.”
“How soon after your mother died?” Jeremiah demanded. “That’s heartless!”
“Stop.”
He stopped.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is I made something from it, dammit. Instead of kicking other people out of their own homes, I help them find a new one.”
It all makes sense now.
Chris let out a sudden bark of laughter. “Imagine my surprise when the old man suddenly entered back into my life and apologized for everything he’d ever said to me. I couldn’t believe it. I told him hell no when he offered to build me a new office but he went behind my back and did it anyway. I felt obligated to deal with him, then. But… I guess we really did reconnect again. Probably not a moment too soon.”
Jeremiah’s heart lurched. The call at the movie theater, Chris being in a hospital waiting room…
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Chris turned his head to the side and tried to shrug it away. “It’s been coming for a long time. Cancer’s rough. It’s a slow killer, but it’s just about caught up. The doctors aren’t giving him much longer.”
“Chris, I…” Jeremiah’s eyes glazed over with tears. He tried to reach out to the other but found himself only grasping air as Chris leaned back.
“I’m not done yet. That secret of mine, Jeremiah? I’ve been consulting my dad for his opinions. He tells me what he thinks, based on what he knows, and I take his advice very seriously. When he dies, I’m down the most important member of my team.” A pause. “I bet Markus will be real happy about that.”
No.
Chris jerked his head up, teeth clenched together. Trails of hair hung in his face, falling across his narrowed eyes. “Wouldn’t you like to do that?” he growled, half-rising from his seat. “Wouldn’t you like to return to that bastard and tell him everything about me? My personal life? The feel of my mouth when I…”
That was enough. Jeremiah couldn’t take any more of this. He rose with Chris and wrapped his arms around the other man’s shoulders. Chris resisted, tugging away with a snarl, but Jeremiah let himself be pulled along; his grip tightened, hands locking together behind that smooth back. His head fit neatly against the graceful curve between shoulder and neck, resting there as he whispered. “Thank you for telling me all this.”
Chris was a statue.
“I won’t tell anyone. Your secret’s safe with me.”
If anyone else were to find out, it would be from Chris’s own mouth. Jeremiah wasn’t about to even whisper a single word, and especially not to Markus.
He stayed where he was, holding onto Chris in silence. He offered no platitudes, and he didn’t stroke or caress the other man. All he did was wait.
Slowly, almost painfully slow, Chris’s head came to rest against his. Burning tears dripped, and that sculpted chest heaved slightly. Then, Chris wrapped his arms around Jeremiah and held on as hard as he could.
And still they didn’t say anything until the moment when Chris stood abruptly, nearly sending Jeremiah flying across the room. “I’d say it’s time for bed,” he said.
It was 5 p.m. in the afternoon, but Jeremiah didn’t dare be stupid enough to say so out loud. He nodded. “I guess I’ll get going.” If he’d been expecting an instant reply, he was to be sorely disappointed. Chris didn’t say anything until his reluctant feet had already carried him halfway to the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“An alleyway,” Jeremiah replied as he turned around. His voice was deliberately light. “I need to go dumpster diving for my dinner.”
Chris stood there, holding out one arm. His hand was palm-up and steady, fingers gently crooked. Staring at that hand, Jeremiah needed only a moment to think—and he wasn’t even thinking of himself. He just wondered if Chris was ready for this. If either of them were.
The moment passed and he reached out, grabbing onto the offered hand. Warm fingers closed around his, and he let out a soft sigh as pure contentment raced through his veins. Here, right here, was where he should have been the whole time.
Chris held his hand and studied him for a moment. “You know,” he said, voice still husky, “we should be thankful for Markus. He’s the whole reason we were able to meet.”
“Maybe.” Jeremiah was grave. “But that era is over now. We have to move on.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Chris replied, gently tugging Jeremiah down the hallway and into the bedroom. Just as they had last time they were here, they stripped down naked and climbed into bed together. However, this time, there was nothing carnal about their actions.
Warmth pressed up behind Jeremiah as Chris spooned him, tangling their legs together. His heart pattered and then stilled with the knowledge that this was where he belonged. He’d gone about it in quite a roundabout way but at last he’d ended up where he needed to be.
“Good night, Chris.”
“Good night, my little unicorn.”
Jeremiah stiffened. Flashes of silver glimmered in front of his eyes. “Unicorn?”
Chris laughed breathily against the back of his neck, cuddling even closer. “That’s all I thought of you that first night when you were in that majestic suit.”
“Please let me forget about that.”
“Nope.” Chris’s chest began to move slower, his breathing evening out. His voice already trailed away as sleep descended hard upon him. “It’ll be the first story I tell at our wedding.”
After all this, Jeremiah had no idea whether or not he still wanted marriage. However, that was something else to figure out at a different time.
Chapter 18
Eyes on him, burning into his soul.
Even before he was fully awake, Jeremiah knew someone was watching him. It couldn’t be Markus; that man hadn’t ever really stopped to look at something his entire life. If the devil was in the details, then that made him a saint.
Come to think of it, these sheets didn’t feel like the thin, silky ones that always covered Markus’s bed at all times. These were thick and warm, like a modest cloud never to be admired for its appearance but noticed all the same. The mattress was also softer. So he’d slept in someone else’s bed.
Jeremiah opened his eyes. At some point in the middle of the night he must have rolled over. Chris’s face was right in front of his, all the tension of the past days torn away by deep sleep. His lips were slightly parted, and one hand curled childlike against his cheek.
Heart aching in his chest, Jeremiah wondered why he had thought he was being watched. Maybe paranoia, or his subconscious had registered Chris’s face turned in his direction and substituted the rest. Either way, he was awake now and there wasn’t much else to do except watch the sleeping man.
Unless… Unless he could return the favor Chris attempted to give him, of being woken up by being sucked on. T
hat might be presumptuous, however. Just because they spent the night in the same bed it didn’t mean that was an automatic all-clear for sex. Plus, he reminded himself, Chris hadn’t exactly said what he thought about their relationship or the course it would take from this point.
“I can’t decide if this is sexy or creepy.”
“Oh!”
The other man was awake, blinking sleepily. Jeremiah reached out and slid his fingers through messy, unkempt blond clumps. Chris relaxed under his hand, letting himself be caressed for a minute before slowly pulling away and sitting up. “Were you sleeping with your eyes open?” he teased.
“No, I just…” Jeremiah blushed and pushed himself up onto his elbows. The blankets over their bodies were thick enough to hide the bulge between his legs, but not so thick that he felt completely hidden. “I was just admiring you. You’re really cute when you sleep.”
“So are you,” Chris said. He smiled, hazel eyes glowing faintly with his amusement. “That’s before you stab me in the eye with your dick.”
“The pirate look really suits you, I’m telling you.”
“My board disagrees. Speaking of them,” Chris looked over at the clock on the wall. Jeremiah followed his gaze and automatically winced. It was only 1 a.m. He’d mistaken the glow of the alarm clock for the faint light of morning. “They aren’t terribly happy with me for skipping out on so many things.”
“I’m sorry.”
Surprise flickered across the other’s handsome face. “It’s not your fault.”
Jeremiah shrugged. “I can still be sorry. If I take the blame, then there’s someone concrete to be angry at. Being angry at the world sucks.”
“Be that as it may, I refuse to let you do that,” Chris snorted, reaching across the few inches of space between them to take Jeremiah’s face in his hands. “You’re used to having to take the fall, but from now on, you’re only allowed to apologize for something you’ve done.”
“But that’s not the only usage for the term.”
Chris glared playfully. “Don’t argue semantics with me. You don’t have your literary whatever degree yet.”
School.
Jeremiah put his head in his hands. All his textbooks, his note supplies, his tuition… all of it belonged to Markus. “At this rate, I never will be.”
“Nonsense,” Chris said, briskly. “We’ll figure that out. We’re going to get everything figured out.”
“How?”
“Through the power of not asking so many damn questions so early in the morning,” Chris growled, playfully. He looked over at the clock again. “I really doubt I’m going to be able to go back to bed right away.”
“So then, what do we do?”
“I guess we talk.” Chris’s shoulders were a discouraged slope, not proud and squared as they had once been. “I know you’re wondering what I think about us.”
His heart in his throat, Jeremiah couldn’t speak to answer. He would be an uncaring moron to not wonder!
Suddenly, Jeremiah was on his back. “Oof!” A grunt exploded from between his lips, and his jaw clenched hard before relaxing. Every part of him relaxed all at once because of what he was seeing. Chris Finley, the dreaded rival, the secret-keeper, the rude and cold businessman, straddled him with his legs spread wide apart. His dick lay straight between parted thighs, and his back was as straight and proud as a cowboy’s. And his eyes were open and wide, earnest and deep. Jeremiah stared into them, knowing that he could get lost in that rainbow of color. He felt warm, almost overheated under that gaze.
Then Chris moved on top of him. His firm ass cheeks rubbed on Jeremiah’s stomach, making his blood start to pump faster. Rising up from underneath, Jeremiah’s cock pressed against Chris’s rear; likewise, Chris’s organ also began to swell and stand to attention.
“I thought we were going to talk?”
“You have two choices,” Chris purred softly. He kept rocking his hips, teasing Jeremiah. “We can sit here and talk about our feelings until we’re blue in the face, or we can show each other how we feel with our bodies.”
Jeremiah swallowed hard. His hands moved of their own accord, sliding up the other man’s legs and around to hold onto his ass. Biting his lip, he shuddered to feel perfect skin and tight, round muscle against his palms. “You sound like a hippie.”
Chris laughed. His eyes sparked with his amusement, although the circles beneath them belied the merriment. “They got some things right. And besides… I really don’t want to think right now. Help me not think, Jeremiah.”
His body said yes, but his heart still hesitated. Was this really what either of them needed right now? As he thought it over, Chris rocked slower and came to a standstill. He was waiting. Never before had anyone ever waited. Chris was perfect. Everything about him was perfect, including his flaws. What other man could have gone through so much and come out perfect instead of ruined?
Only Chris.
Still, this wasn’t the right time.
Jeremiah opened his mouth to say that but what came out instead was a soft plea instead. “Kiss me.”
Well, a little physical comfort wouldn’t hurt. It would tire them out and let them get back to sleep, at least.
Chris leaned forward, placing his hands on the shoulders of the man beneath him. “My unicorn,” he murmured.
Jeremiah’s eyes flew open wide but his protests were swallowed by lips settling down against his, pressing back fiercely so that he sank into the mattress up to his ears. Protesting louder, playfully, Jeremiah squeezed Chris’s ass and watched as the stronger man arched his back and moved his body in a tight circle, pressing back against his hands. Their kiss parted and Chris flicked out his tongue to trace Jeremiah’s lips, breath hot and heavy.
“I want you,” Chris said. His voice was light but there was a growl deep in his chest. “Damn, I want you.”
“Then take me,” Jeremiah whispered. He closed his eyes and waited, body slack and obedient as he was always expected to be. A light touch on his lips made him look again, focusing on the fingertip pressed to his mouth. His gaze slid all the way up the length of that tanned arm, to Chris’s knowing gaze.
“We’re going to do this right. Communication. Okay, love?”
Not lover, but love.
“I want you to take me, please,” Jeremiah said, as politely as he could.
Chris withdrew his finger and replaced it with his lips again before drawing away once more. He rocked his hips, showing off his huge cock, and then slid backward off Jeremiah’s body so that he was between his legs. Jeremiah watched, curious and trembling with anticipation. He felt like one of those stupid little dogs that get carted around in purses, always shaking and staring with huge eyes.
Luckily, Chris seemed not able to read his mind right then. He was sliding back even a little further, and then working his hands beneath Jeremiah’s ass. Bracing himself on the bed, Jeremiah helped lift his ass up…
And found himself flipped over, facedown with a mouth full of mattress. Dizziness circled behind his eyes for only a moment before being banished by an all-too-familiar sensation. Hands on his ass, sliding down between his cheeks to pull them apart. Suddenly tense, he started to shift around and managed to turn his head to the side to speak.
“Lube?”
Markus sometimes “forgot.”
“Of course.” Chris’s voice was low and soothing. “But we’re not starting with that right away.”
What else was there? Jeremiah wondered. Very quickly, he was given his answer in the form of a quick swipe of pure heat and wetness. His whole body jumped with shock. Pushing his hands beneath himself, he started to rise up. “What was that?” Twisting around awkwardly, he stared at Chris.
Chris stared back, a smile on his face. “Did you like it?”
“Hell, yes, I liked it! What did you do?” Jeremiah looked around at what he could see of the mattress. He was no stranger to toys and lube, but he hadn’t ever felt anything like that before. Maybe it was tha
t weird sort of lube that heated up when rubbed?
“I licked you.”
“Licked me?” He didn’t know whether to be astounded or delighted at this new discovery. He glanced shyly over at Chris’s face and saw him smiling, although a glow of sadness darkened his gaze. There were no answers to be found there. “I liked it. Do it again.”
“Then get back down!” Chris demanded.
Jeremiah obeyed quickly, but this time he kept his hands up beneath his body and raised up his ass. When Chris was slow to come to him, he wiggled it and made a low growl. A soft chuckle answered him, along with plenty of hot breath puffing deep between his ass cheeks. Fingers slid up from his cock, a quick caress over that soft place between his balls and opening, and then his ass was being held open again. Closing his eyes, he waited and trembled as another breath hit him. Then there came the flick of hot wetness again, a tongue teasing his opening.
Already moaning, Jeremiah balanced his body on one arm and slid the other between his own legs to caress up and down his length. His member throbbed in his hand, begging for more, but he held back. It would be a shame to cum too soon, to miss out on the rest of this.
Chris’s tongue lavished attention upon his opening, circling the tight pucker and teasing at the center. Jeremiah moved against his mouth, following the motion. The harder he shook and the tenser his muscles became, the looser he was back there. Surprise fluttered in his heart like a butterfly, because he wasn’t used to opening up like this. He felt like a flower, like something allowed to come into being naturally instead of being forced to.
“Ah… Chris… Ah!”
Without warning, the tongue suddenly pressed hard against his opening and slipped inside before coming back out again immediately. Chris groaned, shaking now as well. “You’re so loose… I can’t…”
