Stay A Little Longer

by Jess Bryant

  “Grab the headboard.”

  “Wh…” Lance started but Trent’s growl cut his question off.

  “Grab the headboard, Lance. Now. And don’t let go. You want to order me around in bed? You just lost the privilege of touching me. Keep at it and I’ll stop touching you.”

  “Bullshit.” Lance all but hissed at his dare but his hands went to the headboard nonetheless.

  Stretched out beneath him naked, those dark eyes full of desire and heat, Trent called himself a liar just like Lance had. Because he was right. There was no way in hell he’d be able to stop touching Lance now. Maybe not ever. The way he responded, reacted, moaned and groaned for every move that Trent made. It was addictive as hell and Trent had already admitted he was an addict. He was an addict and Lance was his drug of choice.

  “You’re right.” He groaned, “I can’t stop touching you. I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you.”

  Lance’s hips twisted as Trent’s fingers found his gland and stroked but his eyes never left Trent’s face as his lips quivered again, “Anything?”

  Trent felt the truth of it like a weight in his chest. It was true. Not words spoken in the heat of the moment. Not sex-fueled adrenaline. He wanted Lance more than anything. More than the lights and the fame and the fortune. More than his career or even his own integrity. Because he’d sworn to himself just days ago that now that he was out, he was out and he wouldn’t go back in the closet but for Lance? For Lance he’d give up anything, even his own freedom. Just to be able to have him like this, any time he wanted. To share meals with him. To talk and laugh and tease each other. To wake up next to him every morning.

  For the first time in his life, Trent wished he was a nobody. That he could hide here in this trailer with Lance forever and that nobody would come looking for him. That nobody would care that he was gay or that he loved another man and liked to boss him around in bed.

  He wanted everything and he wanted it with Lance.

  “Anything.” Trent admitted with their eyes still locked, “More than anything.”

  Lance’s eyes squeezed shut and he bit his lip but he didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything. And that hurt. It cut. Just a slice of pain straight through his chest, directly into his heart. Because he was laying himself bare here in every way and Lance couldn’t even be bothered to…

  “Please.” Lance opened his eyes and they were glassy with heat and need and unshed tears, his voice hoarse with emotion, “Please Trent. I… I…”

  It was all Lance could get out but it was enough. More than enough. Because Trent knew he wasn’t alone with just that look, just those few words. It was too much, too fast. Lance was scared, even more afraid of this thing than Trent was because he was still hiding, still lying about who he was and what he wanted. But he wanted Trent. Needed him. And all Trent wanted was to give him what he needed now.

  “Shh, I got you baby. I got you.”

  Trent pulled his fingers out and Lance whimpered. The sounds he made drove Trent absolutely crazy. He quickly positioned himself and then pressed in slowly. Lance moaned and Trent grit his teeth to keep from surging forward and burying himself deep in one thrust. He closed his eyes because the look of pleasure on Lance’s handsome face was too much combined with the hot, tight fit of him as his body accepted Trent into it.

  So good. So damn good. Trent slid in on a long, slow glide. Locking down his darker urges to take. To claim. To fucking lay siege until Lance would never be able to sit down without thinking of him again. He kept it slow even as his heart pounded in his chest telling him it was this good for a reason. Not just because he’d never been inside anyone bare before. Not just because Lance was so hot and slick and welcoming. But simply because it was Lance.

  Lance with his ten-pound bag of issues. Lance with his smartass mouth and sneering smile. Lance with his smug grins and shy blushes. Lance with his bossy attitude and Lance with his submissive qualities. Lance who was protective, and got angry on Trent’s behalf for something that had happened over a decade ago. Lance who said he trusted him.

  He was falling in love with him. Only, he didn’t know if it could still be called falling. Not when the words were on the tip of his tongue after a couple of days and more emotion than he’d felt in years. More happiness and acceptance. So much more.

  “More.” Lance groaned as if he could read Trent’s mind.

  He opened his eyes and Lance took his breath away again. His hands were still up over his head. Holding onto the headboard just like Trent had told him to. His fists were white-knuckled and his muscles were straining. Sweat trailed down his temple and Trent leaned up, licking him and groaning at the taste he didn’t think he’d ever get enough of.

  “More.” Lance demanded again. “Harder.”

  Trent gave him what he wanted. He pulled back and slammed inside. Lance gasped when he did it again, positioning his hips so that he found the right spot every time he went deep.

  And that was it. The end of soft or sweet or even coherent thought. Trent fucked him, hard, harder than he’d ever fucked anyone. Reveled in the way Lance cried out his name and begged him for even more, harder and faster. Their bodies rocking and grinding, meeting with the slap of skin. The only sounds in the room their mixed groans and grunts and the sound of sex, good, hot, hard sex.

  Lance’s body jerked beneath him and he knew the end was coming. No. Not the end, some voice deep inside him argued. This was still just the beginning. But he shifted slightly, just enough to put his weight on one arm, and fisted Lance’s straining cock with his other. Almost as soon as he stroked him, Lance came with a shout.

  He shot hard. Spasming beneath Trent and all around him as his body pulsed with his climax. His legs came up, his knees pressing into Trent’s sides, holding him tighter, forcing him deeper, and Trent lost his mind. His rhythm shot to hell, his body straining for release, he pressed in as deep as he could get and let his head fall back as a roar worked its way up his throat and he came so hard he lost complete control of his body and collapsed.

  Panting and sweaty, they lay together, neither of them even attempting to move. Sated and satisfied and happy. Trent had never felt so damn happy and so damn worried all at the same time. Because as good as this was, he didn’t know how he would ever live without it and his brain had clicked back on just in time to remind his heart that Lance was closeted and this, this would have to be a secret. Possibly forever.

  He pulled back slightly, propping himself up to look down at the man that had completely undone him, “Baby?”

  “Hmm?” Lance didn’t open his eyes.

  “You okay?” Trent worried his bottom lip, suddenly very aware of the fact that he’d taken Lance without a condom and he’d been rough, wild and out of control. He’d come inside him. They hadn’t exactly talked about that. But he liked the idea of Lance keeping a part of him inside him even when Trent was forced to pull out and pull away. “Lance?”

  Lance’s dark lashes fluttered and then those dark, mysterious brown eyes met his and the emotion there nearly took his breath away, “More than okay. I… Jesus. It’s never been like that before for me.”

  Trent’s lips twitched slightly, “Me either.”

  The grin that Lance gave him at that, made his heart tell his brain to shut the hell up and leave him alone, let him enjoy this for as long as he could. That smug, self-confident, cocky smile of a man that had just gotten what he wanted, stole Trent’s heart completely. And he let it go, didn’t even try to fight it, because he wasn’t sure it had belonged to him for the last forty-eight hours anyway.

  He was Lance’s for as long as the man would let him stay.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I have to go to work.”

  “You didn’t have to work for the last two days.”

  “Because I was off duty. I go back on duty today.” Lance smiled at the man still lounging in his bed through the mirror as he buttoned up his shirt.

  They’d had this discussion twi
ce already.

  The first time when he’d tried to get out of bed and Trent had acted as if it was a personal affront. He’d explained that the only reason they’d been able to spend the previous day together was that he’d been off duty but he had to go back to work today. Trent had asked him to take a vacation day and he’d been responsible, held his ground and gotten out of bed.

  The second time was when Trent followed him into the shower and stopped trying to talk him into coming back to bed. Instead he’d seduced him with touches that weakened Lance’s willpower and sucked his brain out through his dick. Which had led to stumbling backwards into bed and letting Trent fuck him boneless.

  Now he was running late, rushing to get his uniform on without Trent pulling it back off, and resisting the urge to simply crawl back into his bed with the sexiest man in the world.

  He was responsible. He was mature. He was an adult. He would not call in a fake sick day just to spend another whole day in bed. He wouldn’t. Not even if yesterday had been the best day of his life.

  Waking up to Trent kissing his body, stroking and petting him had been nice. Hearing how badly Trent wanted him had been amazing. Actually, letting go, letting himself give in to what we wanted, what he needed, admitting that he was Trent’s and he wanted Trent to be his had been… freeing.

  And he knew it was wrong, knew it would mess with his head to think it, let alone say it but what they’d done hadn’t been fucking.

  Trent had made love to him yesterday. Repeatedly. So many times Lance was a little sore actually but in all the best ways. He’d made love to another man, a first for him, and he’d opened himself up too. They’d spent yesterday talking in between their bouts of adventurous sex against nearly every surface of the trailer.

  Trent had told him what had happened to send him running to Fate. Told him all about Heath, who Lance had despised instantly. Not just because he’d outted Trent but because hearing Trent say another man’s name, hearing him say he’d stupidly mistaken infatuation with love, had made Lance jealous. Insanely jealous, actually. Which probably should have worried him, but only convinced him even more that this thing between them was more than the infatuation Trent had mistaken it for the first time around.

  Lance had opened up to Trent too. He’d gone into more detail about his womanizing past. He’d explained who Maddie was and what she’d meant to him. The way he’d hurt her rather than drag her further into his mess even though some part of him had been tempted to ask her to marry him, because he did love her but mostly because it would keep his cover forever.

  He’d been certain Trent would judge him. Lord knew he’d been judging himself for it for years. But instead Trent had pulled him into his arms, told him that he understood, and reminded him that he’d let Maddie go even if he’d handled it badly.

  They’d shared stories about their families.

  Trent telling him about his childhood with his twin brother, Trevor, and how close they’d been. Inseparable. About how his mom had driven him to all of his guitar lessons and how his dad had attended every performance he’d managed to book, even letting him play in bars by being his chaperone when he was underage. And then he’d told him about that dinner, about how his entire life had all fallen apart with just a few little words, about how his dad had gotten the shotgun out and put it to his chest to force him out of the house.

  Lance still couldn’t believe a father could do that to their own son. He hated Trent’s father and he didn’t care if the old bastard was dead. If he wasn’t, Lance would have killed him himself for being a homophobic idiot that had scarred his son for life and left him without any real family to support or encourage him.

  When Trent had asked if that was why Lance never told his own family, he’d been embarrassed to say that no, he didn’t think his own family would react so badly. They wouldn’t disown him but they would be disappointed. He knew that.

  But really, at that point, he’d also had to acknowledge that he already had disappointed them. By being the town man whore, a known liar and cheater. He’d let them down by lying about who he was and he’d admitted to Trent what he’d never admitted to anyone, that if he told them the truth, that he was gay, that they’d be more disappointed by how he’d handled it than by the news itself.

  They’d talked, really talked, in ways that Lance had never talked to anyone. About their pasts. About the present. But he hadn’t missed the fact that neither of them had tread into talk of the future.

  He knew why he hadn’t. Because he was scared. Scared of the way his heart reacted to this man. Scared of how Trent would react if Lance said the things he was thinking. Scared of what he would have to do to keep him in his life.

  Yesterday, Trent had made him promise they were on the same page. That they belonged to each other. That they’d talk and work this out and give it a chance. But Lance didn’t know how anything that was built on a lie could have a chance and as long as he was in the closet, that’s what it was. A lie. A secret. And no relationship could survive that.

  More than that though, he was scared that the reason Trent had made no mention of the future was because he didn’t want one. Not with Lance anyways. He was scared that to Trent this was all just a way to forget what was happening in his real life. A vacation even. A few stolen days in the middle of nowhere with a stranger that he would forget all about when he went back to Nashville.

  “Babe?”

  Lance glanced up and realized he’d been so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed Trent come up behind him. Trent was watching him in the mirror, his brows furrowed slightly and a worried look on his face. Lance met his gaze in the mirror without turning around and Trent slid his arms around his chest, resting his chin on Lance’s shoulder.

  “You didn’t answer my question.” He nuzzled at Lance’s ear.

  “Sorry. I was…”

  “Worrying.” Trent smiled softly and raised a hand, pressing a finger to Lance’s forehead, “You get this cute little line right here when you’re worrying about something.”

  “No, I don’t.” He nudged Trent’s hand away with a scoff because his heart leapt at the idea of the other man noticing something so miniscule about him.

  “Yes. You do. I know, because it’s pretty much always there unless I’m touching you.”

  Lance dropped his gaze at the knowing look. At the words that meant so much to him. Trent paid attention. Trent knew him. Even in such a short amount of time, Trent knew he was a worrier. Knew that the only time Lance’s brain shut off and he let himself go was when he was in Trent’s arms.

  “Stop overthinking it.” Trent nudged his chin back up until their eyes met in the mirror again, “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be here when you get home from work and we’ll figure it all out as we go okay?”

  “Okay.” Lance said reflexively.

  Trent turned him around with a quick tug on his shoulders so they were eye-to-eye, “You promised me, Lance. Remember? You promised you’d give this a chance. Just because we’re not spending the whole day in bed together naked, don’t you forget that you agreed to be mine.”

  Lance melted into him as Trent pulled him into his arms and kissed him deeply. Passionately. But also so sweetly. As if he was trying to convey everything he’d said in this one kiss. Trent pulled him closer by the hips, backing him against the dresser, and only when he felt his utility belt shift did Lance pull back with a gasp.

  “Trent. No. My sidearm…”

  Trent paused and glanced down at where the weapon was holstered. His brows furrowed slightly and then he glanced back up and Lance was shocked to see a twinkle in his blue eyes. Then he grinned. He grinned that beautiful, wide, white dazzling grin and Lance’s poor bruised and swollen heart thumped too hard again.

  “It’s okay.”

  “It’s okay?” Lance felt his eyebrows go into his hairline.

  “It’s okay.” Trent cautiously slipped his arms back around Lance’s hips and stepped closer, avoiding the utility
belt but not backpedaling in the other direction the way Lance had thought he would. He surprised Lance again when he pressed a soft kiss to his lips and smiled, “The only part of me in danger when you’re around is my heart. I trust you too.”

  Lance’s own heart gave a dangerous kick in his chest and he stared at the beautiful man holding him in his arms. Holding him despite the fact he was carrying a firearm, and firearms scared the hell out of him. Trent had said he trusted Lance but not just about the gun. He’d said he trusted him with his heart too.

  Did that mean…

  “You’re doing it again.” Trent pressed their foreheads together, “Worrying. Stop it.”

  “Trent…”

  “No.” Trent shook his head, their noses rubbing they were so close, “No worrying about this or us right now. Because when you look at me like that, it makes me want to strip you naked and show you just how much I want you all over again and…”

  “I have to go to work.” Lance’s voice sounded unsure even to his own ears and Trent chuckled.

  “And you have to go to work.” He agreed with another twinkling smile, “So stop worrying before I fuck you into contentedness again and then we’ll both be out of a job.”

  Lance snorted, “You’re not out of a job. You’re the highest selling male artist in Nashville. If your label drops you because of your sexuality you can sue them or…”

  “There you go again. Worrying about me.” Trent kissed him to shut him up, “Nashville is the least of my concerns right now. Right now, the only thing I’m worried about is my super sexy man in his super sexy uniform convincing himself that I won’t be here when he gets back from work today. So you’re going to promise that you believe me before you leave. Say you believe me, Lance. I’ll be here.”

  Everything inside of him melted and he nodded shyly. He wasn’t the only one worried. Trent was worried too. About him. About him convincing himself that this wasn’t real, that it had all been some kind of dream or something, while he was gone to work today. Eight hours alone in his patrol car was guaranteed to have him overthinking it too which Trent obviously knew. Because he knew him. Better than some people Lance had known his whole life.