He approached their table, and Riesling looked up with wide blue eyes. “What are you doing here?” she yelped with surprised pleasure, springing to her feet and launching into Caleb’s arms. He hugged her and smiled. Mason stared at him, shocked. He put down the glass of wine he was holding and rose to his feet slowly.
“I think it’s obvious,” Caleb murmured, releasing Riesling. She dropped a hand on the shoulder of the man who sat in the booth with her and introduced him, but Caleb only had eyes for Mason. “Pleasure to meet you, Tae. Mason, I hate to barge in like this, but I must talk to you. Can you spare a minute?”
Riesling grinned. “So, you’re here to officially snatch him away from me, are you?” she teased. “Tae, this is Mason’s friend who helped save us that night I told you about.”
“The fight at the party?” Tae asked.
“Yes. I was worried sick about Riesling. In the chaos, Ries and I got separated, but Caleb came to the rescue and found her. That was also, incidentally, the night he left me. So, what exactly are you doing here?” Mason smiled, and the sun shone. Caleb suddenly realized his life had changed course exactly that moment when Mason had smiled at him for the first time.
“Rectifying a mistake I made a month ago.” He grabbed Mason’s hand and slipped a slender silver ring on his finger. Mason glanced down at it and back at him in shock. “I asked you to stay, but I didn’t give you a good enough reason,” Caleb replied breathlessly. His heart was in his throat. He did not know how Mason would respond.
Riesling gasped when Mason lifted his hand. “Is that…?”
Tae clapped, and Mason stood without saying a word, a look of amazement and uncertainty on his handsome face. “Say something,” Caleb pleaded with a nervous laugh.
“What’s the reason?” Mason whispered.
Caleb stepped closer, not caring that they were in a restaurant full of strangers. He cupped Mason’s face and stared him in the eyes. “Because I want to get old with you. Because I’m tired of begging, stealing and borrowing time with you. I want you to be mine for more than a moment. Mason Sinclair, marry me.”
Mason blinked back tears and laughed. “Well, I see you’re determined to have me follow in my brother’s footsteps after all.”
“I took care of everything in San Francisco,” Caleb continued hopefully. “I’ll explain it to your parents. I can’t stand back and let everyone else dictate your life—not even me. I’m free to go wherever you want to go next. We don’t have to rush anything unless you want to. Big ceremony, small family gathering—I don’t care. Just tell me you’ll be with me.”
“I explained everything to my parents and they admitted that they were wrong about us. Turns out my father’s only objection was that he was worried that you would break my heart in favor of your art career.”
“My career is thriving, thanks to you. The interest in Twenty-One and Counting is massive, and if your parents don’t mind our relationship being in the news a little while longer, then I can tell Gregoire to go ahead and show the pieces in New York. I’m already in talks with him to sell the rights to some of my older pieces for walking around money. All you have to do is say yes.”
Mason wrapped his arms around him and squeezed him in a hug. “The answer is yes.”
Chapter 19
They decided to tie the knot in a quaint little New England church, that had been once been a lighthouse. Mason thought that was fitting. The silver moon swam in the blue-black water, and the choppy waves lapped at the shore as Mason stood outside, waiting for the familiar notes of the wedding march. The vibrant light from the lighthouse swept over the grounds and sea. Mason was nervous. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach, and he realized the magnitude of what he was about to do.
His family was inside along with friends and colleagues. Caleb’s friends were present, as well. “Are you sure you’re ready to do this?” Mr. Sinclair asked with a huge grin. Mason chuckled despite his nerves.
“I’m ready,” he said. The first chords of the march began to play, and his heart soared.
His father walked him down the aisle. Belinda and Riesling had managed to turn the inside of the church into a wonderland. Yards and yards of glittering tulle draped from the ceiling and cascaded down the walls. Fragrant bouquets of magnolias and oleander decorated the pews. Mason smiled and his vision blurred with sudden tears of joy as his gaze swung to Caleb.
“One step at a time,” Mr. Sinclair whispered with a firm, steady hand on Mason’s elbow. They marched down the aisle and Mr. Sinclair handed him off to Caleb.
“This is it,” Caleb murmured. Mason nodded in agreement. With a few words and a signature, he was binding himself to this man for life. He was no longer nervous
“Let’s do this.” He had worked on his vows for weeks, on the road and in the air. He knew exactly what he wanted to say to Caleb O’Hara when it was his turn to speak. “My dearest Caleb-hyungnim. I remember wandering into the green forests of your eyes and never walking out. I am lost within you and I would be lost without you. And now I want an eternity with you.”
The vows continued in soft-spoken words that made Caleb smile and dash a tear and squeeze his hands tighter. Mason chuckled and grinned and nodded, speaking that which was in his heart.
“I want to get old with you,” Caleb replied. “I want to fall asleep with you on my dying day and wake up in heaven beside you. May not even death do us part. You are the love of my life.”
An hour later as they danced in the reception hall, with their cheeks pressed close, Mason whispered, “Was it everything you wanted?”
“That and more,” Caleb admitted. “I never thought I’d be saying I do to someone.”
“So, what are you going to do with the rest of this life we have together?” Mason put his forehead to Caleb’s and grinned.
“I’m going to make sure you do more of that. More smiling. More humming to yourself as you write. More pictures taken and love notes.”
“Maybe adopt?” Mason suggested.
Caleb lifted his eyebrows in surprise but nodded. “We can consider that.”
Mason hugged him closer and nuzzled his neck. “Is it me, or are you ready to find out what married sex feels like, too?”
“Let’s slip away before anyone notices.”
“Oh, they’ll notice,” Mason laughed. Caleb tugged his hand anyway.
“Then, let’s not care,” he replied.
They crashed through the hotel room door in a tangle. Hands groped, lips kissed feverishly. Caleb slung Mason to the bed and climbed on top of him with a passionate growl. He rubbed the crotch of Mason’s pants. He could feel his husband’s massive erection begging to be touched, kissed and loved. With a moan, Caleb undressed him.
The elegant suit came away in layers—coat, vest, tie, shirt. He kissed Mason harder as he unfastened his slacks and shoved them down. When his husband was in nothing but his trousers socks, he gave up trying to get him completely naked and dropped to his knees by the side of the plush hotel bed.
Mason cried out as Caleb fluttered kisses along the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. Caleb flicked his tongue over Mason’s balls and groaned deep in his chest as he kissed his way to the tip of Mason’s cock. At the same time, he struggled out of his shirt. He sucked in swirling circles that made Mason jerk with pleasure. Then, he swallowed him to the hilt, and Mason rose off the bed.
He grabbed Caleb by the back of his head and wove in and out of his mouth with slow, precise moves of his hips. His almond-shaped eyes were clenched shut. Caleb stared up at him, falling deeper in love by the second. Mason’s tangy flavor spilled on his tongue, and he released his erection in increments until the whole glistening shaft reemerged.
Caleb unfastened his own pants, masturbating Mason against his lips with his free hand. Arousal hastened his heart rate and made him dizzy with need. Caleb’s cock sprang from his boxers as he kicked away the rest of his clothes.
“Ah! Don’t stop!” Mason gasped.
Groan
ing, Caleb sucked him back into his mouth, and Mason shoved to the back of his throat. He was so deep and so hard that Caleb moaned around him in excitement, picturing Mason’s thick, hard cock pressing into him. Maybe tonight. They had all night. They had all the rest of their lives.
He wrapped both hands around Mason’s cock and sucked harder and faster. Mason sobbed his name. He jerked a handful of Caleb’s hair and surged deeper into his mouth again. Caleb exhaled around his cock and pulled back, and a thin string of spit followed. Mason whimpered and leaned down to kiss him.
“I can’t resist you,” he whispered.
“Well, you’re in luck because you don’t have to anymore,” Caleb quipped.
Mason overpowered him and pushed him to his back. Chuckling, Caleb allowed it. He loved it when Mason turned the table. He sucked in a breath as Mason swirled his tongue around his nipple as his hand danced down to Caleb’s cock. He stroked him expertly. His mouth followed the path of his hand, and when his lips closed around Caleb, he trembled.
“Ooh! Is this what happens when you don’t resist?”
“You belong to me now.” Mason grinned and flicked his tongue over the head of Caleb’s erection again.
“Yes! I’m so yours!” Caleb groaned, chuckling softly. He was giddy with anticipation. Ahead of him, he saw thousands of evenings like this one. They would go back to traveling the world. Mason would become the famous writer; Caleb would continue making art. They belonged together.
Mason’s head bobbed faster at Caleb’s pelvis, and he ran his fingers through Mason’s hair, gently guiding him back and forth. His body tightened in readiness. His heels pressed into the mattress as his pelvis canted forward, and he rocked in and out of Mason’s perfect mouth.
“Oh, yes,” Caleb groaned.
Mason slipped a hand beneath him to fondle his ass. It excited him. Caleb’s mouth dropped open in bliss. His eyes widened, and he emitted a hoarse scream. Mason pressed in and out as he swept his mouth up and down Caleb’s cock.
Caleb gritted his teeth and pushed Mason away from him. With a hand to Mason’s throat, he kissed him and tasted himself on Mason’s tongue. Caleb hummed with pleasure. He shoved Mason to the bed on his stomach. He kissed and licked his way to the crease of Mason’s ass with no inhibitions.
His tongue darted inside of him. He eased in a finger to stretch and pleasure him while masturbating him. Caleb reached for the suitcase, and it fell over, items spilling across the carpeted floor. He blindly grabbed the lube and uncapped the bottle.
Mason squirmed, moaning, as Caleb soaked him. Rising on his knees expectantly, he positioned himself behind him and pushed inside. He remembered the heaven of Mason’s embrace. He remembered all the stolen moments and experiences they had amassed. This was familiar territory.
And yet it was not. Because this time when he molded his hard, muscular body to Mason’s, they were married. They belonged together eternally. Caleb was not prepared for the way his heart swelled with amazement as his thrusts increased in pace and intensity, spurred by something other than pure lust. He was in love with this man.
He swept Mason’s thick black hair from his neck and pressed his lips to the warm, satiny skin. He wrapped his arms around him, breathing heavily. His body thrilled, while his spirit soared. They climbed higher and higher up the mountain to ecstasy together, and nothing they had experienced before had prepared them for the ascent in matrimony.
Mason’s lush sounds of satisfaction filled the bedroom. Caleb answered him. If someone had asked months ago whether they would make it to this place, he would have told them no. It had not seemed possible to have and to hold.
Mason writhed beneath him as the mastery of Caleb’s sex took him over the edge, and his rigid cock spewed the evidence of his desire in a rain of utter completion. Tremors wracked his body as he poured out. Caleb shuddered and braced himself for the same fall.
Caleb gasped as he reached the zenith of his love. He emptied his soul and came apart, collapsing to Mason’s back.
“I love you,” Mason sighed. They rolled over together and ended in each other’s arms, drenched and sated. Their hearts beat in sync. Their breathing slowed. They prepared to love again.
Epilogue
Twenty-one and who’s counting?
Caleb woke up in the wrought iron bed in the old white clapboard farmhouse from his childhood. Home. He stared lovingly at the man still asleep beside him.
“Always the last to rise,” he chuckled.
Thumps and bumps from the family room threatened to wake Mason, but he snuggled deeper into his pillow, clinging to the last vestiges of sleep. The noise from their rambunctious grandchildren brought a smile to Caleb’s lips. He heard their daughter Kylie trying to shush them to no avail.
Pressing a hand on the side table, Caleb eased to his feet and put on his slippers, ignoring and creak and groan of tired old bones. He grabbed his cane and shuffled into the kitchen to start the day off with his usual bracing hot mug of coffee. On the back porch that overlooked a wide-open field where horses grazed in the distance, his easel waited patiently; another sunrise was calling his name.
Kylie peered into the kitchen. “Did the rascals wake you, Dad?”
“No, no! You know I’m always up at the crack of dawn. Come have coffee with me.” He set another mug next to his and waited for the coffee to percolate while Kylie grabbed the creamer from the fridge and sugar from the pantry. “Where’s the hubby?” he asked.
“He texted to tell me he’s in Toronto, but he’ll be home later this evening in time for the birthday party. I finished the slide show,” she said excitedly. Caleb rolled his eyes and chuckled. Was it Mason’s birthday already?
“Ah, yes. I forgot about the party. Did the pictures help with the presentation?” he asked affectionately.
“The pictures, the post cards, the letters—all of it comes together to tell an amazing love story. I’m so happy to be a part of this. I can’t wait for you to see it. Abeoji is going to love it! I even used music from that old flash drive that he gave you. You know the original isn’t compatible with my device, but since he was able to remember some of the titles, I was able to find the songs.”
“I’m proud of you,” Caleb murmured. “I didn’t expect you to get so invested.”
“How could I not? You guys are my whole world! I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it because I don’t have much experience with this kind of thing.”
Caleb nodded, pleased. “Decades ago when I married Mason, I had no idea where the journey would take us. Sure, we had an itinerary. We were going to Nairobi, France, Japan, and other places but I didn’t know where we’d end up.”
“I thought it was sweet that you gave up hopes of ever having this house, yet you got it in the long run.”
“Our fifth anniversary,” Caleb chuckled, remembering. “Mason surprised me with it. I guess he felt like he owed me. It was the second time he made me the happiest man in the world. The third was when we agreed to adopt you.”
“Oh! You’re gonna make me cry, Dad. I feel like I’m getting to know the two of you in a different way. I mean, you guys are my parents. I always thought of you guys as chatty old men who enjoyed laughing together while Abeoji wrote and you painted,” Kylie giggled. “But you opened up a whole new side for me.”
“Chatty old men? Hah!” Caleb laughed. “Well, if you need anything from this chatty old fellow, yell for me, meanwhile I’m heading out to paint.”
He took his mug and slipped through the screen door onto the back porch. He was eighty-three and the damp mornings made his hands ache. Caleb dug the salve from his pocket that Mason had picked up for him, and he rubbed it over his gnarled knuckles. He settled in the comfortable chair that his son-in-law had modified for him, and lifted his brush and began his work. Not long after, he heard the door open behind him and glanced over his shoulder.
Mason ambled closer and kissed his forehead. “Good morning, Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You
needed your beauty rest, old man. What is it? Eighty-three this year?”
“Twenty-one and who’s counting?”
Mason chuckled, slowly sitting in a rocking chair beside him. He emitted a groan and sighed. “So many years. Kylie has the kids making cupcakes. Party?”
“Just act surprised,” Caleb replied with a laugh.
When it came time for the birthday party, Mason did as Caleb requested. He went on a fake trip to the store with Caleb so the family could get set up. They got back to the house, and Mason walked through the door and acted surprised when their daughter, son-in-law and three grandkids sprang from behind the furniture, along with Belinda and Robert and their four adult children.
Mason rocked back on his heels. “What is all this?”
Caleb led him to a chair. “Happy birthday! We have a special program set up for you. Kylie worked really hard on it. Cue it up, honey.”
Kylie clapped gleefully and hit the play button on the remote control. Her husband, Brandon, turned off the lights, and everyone found their seats. Mason reached for the youngest grand-kid and pulled her into his lap. “Did you have something to do with this, Buggie?” he asked, tickling her. The three-year-old giggled loudly and pointed at the makeshift projector screen. Mason turned his attention to the movie playing out.
“Twenty-One and Counting: Sixty Plus Years Later,” Caleb read aloud. “Good Lord!”
“Ah! I remember that song in the background. I used to play it on the piano every time I thought about you,” Mason gasped. Broken memories came back to him.
“We’ve had some experiences,” said Kylie wistfully.
“My goodness, we look so young,” Mason marveled.
Caleb chuckled. “And you haven’t changed one bit.”
“Oh-ho! I beg to differ, but thank you.” Mason patted his hand affectionately and gestured for him to sit next to him. They watched the film holding hands as the images moved on to pictures of their travels around the world.
Room for Rent Page 20
