by Rhys Ford
There was also the small matter of trying not to dissolve into a puddle of ugly tears the first time Chris called him uncle, and as hard as he tried to save the world from impending doom, Ivo and Lilith became very close friends.
Although with as much trouble as Rob was having with Mace’s shirt, he was seriously doubting his functioning-adult status and wondered if he shouldn’t have brought a scissors in with him from the kitchen.
“Quit squirming,” he scolded. “You’re making this hard to get off of you.”
The bed squeaked and moaned, its frame protesting their continuously moving weight, but Rob was past the point of caring. The thing could break underneath him and he would just keep going. Pushing Mace back onto the mattress, he tugged the shirt off of his lover’s arm and tossed it aside. Naked, Mace lay spread-eagle on the bed, his erection pressed into the crease between Rob’s cheeks.
Mace was simply beautiful. From his position straddling Mace’s hips, Rob drank in his fill, still slightly awed he’d ended up with the man beneath him. Mace’s form was a balance of grace and power, his muscles honed by backbreaking work and embellished with art that Rob nearly lost himself in. As beautiful as Mace was, Rob enjoyed the man even more. His disciplined exterior masked a playful boyishness tempered by a subtle compassion many would never see.
“What? You’re staring at me like I’ve got something on my face.” Mace wiped at his cheek and glanced at his hand. “Other side? What?”
“I’m going to tell you something, and I don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything in return. Okay?” Rob raked his fingers through Mace’s hair, grateful Mace finally grew it out enough for him to play with. The sun was lightening it, streaking the strands with caramel and gold, but the scruff on Mace’s jaw was as dark as his roots and more than a little bit scratchy when Rob rubbed his cheek against Mace. He’d complained about the beard burn he got until Mace finally shaved. “I guess I’ve been thinking about us these past couple of days, and I just wanted to tell you that I love you.”
The shadows hid the blues in Mace’s eyes, folding dark grays over the luminous hues, but Rob still saw the confusion in them dissipate, replaced by a softness Rob saw more and more. Mace ran his roughened hands up Rob’s naked thighs. Then he gripped his hips and squeezed lightly.
“You just had to go and have this conversation while we’re both naked and I’m on my back.” His hands were on the move again, stroking at the small of Rob’s back, and then he passed a thumb over Rob’s hip bone. “I’ve been trying to figure out the right time to tell you I loved you. Let me finish before you get started, because you’re kind of like a chainsaw if I don’t get a word in edgewise. Now it’s going to be difficult for me to cut in, and I need you to hear me.”
He pulled Rob down until they lay chest to chest, and Rob propped his chin up to see Mace’s face. Once the words were spoken, everything seemed to fall into place. The universe clicked down as though Rob had found the final puzzle piece he’d been missing his entire life.
“I think I fell in love with you at the diner when you spent the night talking, and I could have listened for hours longer if only they hadn’t needed the table. Or maybe it was even before that, because you would challenge me and growl at me when I came in. That made sure I couldn’t put you into a box and set you on the shelf like I did other people who worked there. I found myself looking for you when I came in. And it used to piss me off because I felt like I had no choice, like I couldn’t help myself. I would hear you laugh, and I would get angry because you never laughed with me. And then that day when we decided to say ‘fuck it’ and give in, I spent weeks afterward reliving every single moment.
“You’ve seen where I come from—hell, you were caught in it—and you didn’t turn away. You stuck with me, telling me I was worth being loved and worth healing past all of the shit I carried for so long.” Mace exhaled. With his fingers, he followed the rounded curve of Rob’s butt and then traced back up his spine. “This isn’t the when I thought I would do this, but I can’t imagine waking up tomorrow morning and not having you here with me. I love you, Rob, and I really want to wake up next to you for the rest of my life. So if you’ll have me, I’d like to marry you.”
ROB SAID yes.
Or at least Mace thought the deep, soul-touching kiss he got was a yes. He would’ve stopped and asked, but they quickly moved on to other, more interesting things, like Rob’s mouth around Mace’s cock and his fingers cupped around Mace’s balls.
“Babe, you’ve got to move your elbow,” Mace gasped when the offending joint dug deeper into his thigh. “Okay, not that direction. Up.”
“I kind of lost the lube somewhere,” Rob grumbled as his head disappeared beneath the sheets. “I was going to try to be all sexy and get you slicked up, but I can’t find the damned bottle.”
“That’s because I’ve got it here.” Mace plucked up the lubricant from its place next to the pillow. “See? Now, who wanted to do this?”
“Exactly the way I started,” Rob purred and climbed across Mace’s body with a slow slink. “Just lean back and let me do all the work. Okay, maybe you could moan a few times.”
“I don’t know. I kind of like a fifty-fifty deal most of the time.” He stretched his arm out and kept the bottle out of Rob’s reach. Rob knew all of his weak spots, starting with the ticklish area along his ribs and how turned on he got when Rob kissed his collarbone. This time, Rob went for the ultimate prize of raking his fingernails along Mace’s inner thigh, an erotic blend of sharp on sensitive skin that immediately hardened Mace’s cock until it nearly ached with his arousal. “Shit. That is not fair.”
He handed over the bottle.
The lube was warm and slippery, an odd sensation around his naked cock. They’d come home from dinner out, satiated and slightly buzzed from a round of new brews at their favorite pub. The cab driver, for the most part, kept his eyes on the road, but his attention definitely drifted toward the rearview mirror whenever Rob leaned over to nibble on Mace’s ear. They probably made too much noise coming in, and they shushed each other in that loud whisper most drunk people used. Coming upstairs, feeding the fish, watching a movie and having a bowl of ice cream had been the extent of their plans, but a single kiss turned into many more, and the next thing Mace knew, they were tangled up around each other in the bedroom.
“You make me feel safe, do you know that?” Mace murmured as he cupped Rob’s face. The press of Rob’s hard cheekbone into his palm was a comfort no amount of noise or candles could ever match. “I don’t think I even understand how much I love you and need you. But I want to spend the rest of my life figuring that out.”
“I’m totally on board with that.” Rob returned his whisper. “Hold on to me and let me take you for a ride.”
Rob straddled him and then eased Mace into his velvet warmth. The fit was tight, and Rob’s stomach clenched. He held in his breath until he seated himself down onto Mace’s hips and enveloped him fully. Mace thought he was about to lose his mind from the sensations overwhelming him, but then Rob began to move, and he fell into the rhythm of his lover’s body.
Their lovemaking changed constantly, with a fluid range of emotions and mood. It ran from playful to lazy and sometimes wild. They’d broken a shower curtain rod and once left a hole in the hallway wall that Mace had to patch up the next morning. There was a Sunday where they tested the dining room table’s sturdiness when Rob innocently sucked on a very large strawberry and Mace decided to put himself exactly where that fruit had been.
This time was different.
The first time they made love, Mace discovered Rob pulling him in deep was like running his fingertips through the stars. They moved slowly, felt every thrust, and built up the heated tension between them. Rob arched his back and thrust down onto Mace’s cock, and Mace angled his hips and pushed up into Rob’s tight hole.
“Turn over. I can’t… I want you to feel me in you, having you under me,” Mace pleaded. Rob nodded, and th
ey shifted. They nearly lost their joining, but a bit of laughter and careful movement drove Mace back into Rob’s clench. “God, yeah. Right there. Hold on to me, okay?”
With his legs spread open and his heels digging into the small of Mace’s back, Rob dug his fingers into Mace’s arms. Their bodies were already damp with sweat, and their soft grunting bled into the sounds of the bars in the alleyway—a punch of music and rapid-fire Chinese spiced with a bit of raucous laughter.
“Shit… okay,” Rob groaned as he tilted his head back into the pillows, his eyes hooded and glazed. “Fuck. Damn, Mace.”
Rob shivered and tightened around Mace’s cock on every downward stroke. Grunting, Mace thrust in deep, his back and hip muscles straining to slide his cock against the nerve center tucked into Rob’s body. His lover’s plump asscheeks were spread apart enough for Mace to glance down and see his cock sliding in and out of Rob’s hole, the lubricant running slick and releasing its sweet citrus scent from the growing heat of their feverish thrusts.
When Mace tilted his hips and ground out a steady rhythm, Rob’s moans nearly masked the sharp slap of their bodies coming together. He liked being able to make Rob lose his mind with a few long thrusts and a couple of filthy kisses. Working in deep, Mace broke their pace, quickening some of his strokes and agonizingly slowing others. He felt the tug of Rob’s muscles around his breadth and the hot sear of his body down his shaft when Mace began pounding into him again. He also really loved the way Rob whimpered when he slid nearly all the way out and then inched his way back in and filled Rob to the brim.
Their friction and pace thickened the air with the musky scent of their exertion. A faint sheen glimmered on Rob’s chest and belly. He bit his lower lip and worked at his already-kiss-swollen mouth, and a tiny bead of sweat gathered at his temple. It shook with every thrust Mace made and held on until Mace hooked his hands under Rob’s lower back and lifted him from the bed so he could go in even deeper. The clear drop plunged down Rob’s high cheekbones and coursed past his jaw, where Mace caught it in a kiss.
Rob twisted at Mace’s nipples with his clever fingers and tugged them into sharp peaks. Then when Mace arched his shoulders back, Rob took advantage of the space between them and bit at the turgid point, creating a shock wave through Mace’s body.
Overwhelmed, Mace fought to hold back, but the rise of his seed broke the trembling, fragile control he had left. Rob’s nip on his nipple drove him insane, and he twisted. He knew the pleasurable pain would make him lose control, and he wanted this moment between them to last as long as it could.
The curve of Rob’s ass on his hips and thighs centered Mace, but his thrusts became short and erratic. He hitched Rob up, bent forward, captured Rob’s mouth again, and tasted the salt of their sweat on his tongue. He’d trapped Rob’s cock between them, and its damp tip smeared a wetness on Mace’s belly. The first pearling of Rob’s release on his skin ignited a trail of sparks across Mace’s body. Its lightning strike grabbed at Mace’s balls and demanded he release himself into Rob’s heat.
Rob’s golden skin flushed, and the color worked its way up over his chest. He grabbed at Mace’s sides, and a stream of indecipherable words poured from his panting mouth. Gasping, Mace ached with the effort to keep himself from climaxing, but at the same time, he longed to see Rob go over the edge. He leaned forward and captured Rob’s mouth with his, their kisses broken from gasping pants and soft, murmuring encouragements.
“So fucking close,” Rob gasped. “Jesus, you drive me crazy.”
“Just let go, babe.” Mace took another quick sip from Rob’s mouth and coaxed him to the edge. “Let me see you go.”
His own climax struck him without warning. Focused on Rob, Mace let his tentative grip on himself slip away, and the universe came rushing up to engulf him. It felt like the stars were no longer out of his reach. He could see them burn brightly on Rob’s skin in an inked constellation along his ribs, and their brightness pushed away everything but the man he held in his arms. Another stroke of his hips and Mace gave in to the showering light.
Rob’s release struck as Mace’s first shuddering explosion of hot come reached deep inside of Rob. The shaking in his limbs grew, and Rob cried out. A splash of his climax coated Mace’s stomach. Half-blind from his pleasure, he reached up to touch Rob’s sweat-moistened face and worked the pad of his thumb across Rob’s teeth-dimpled lips.
“Love you,” Rob panted, and he arched again as another orgasmic wave hit him.
“I love you too,” Mace murmured, and resting his weight on his elbows and continuing to rock his hips, he took Rob the rest of the way.
They thrust again, slower as their bodies gave in to the lessening tide of their release. Exhausted, they lay against each other and struggled to take in every breath. With Mace quivering from the effort of merely drawing air into his lungs, Rob complained about being empty when Mace slid out of him. But he didn’t have enough energy to do anything but whimper his complaints, and they soon turned to soft contented sighs when Mace curled up against his side.
Lying in the aftermath of their lovemaking, Mace realized the tension he’d been holding in for years had slowly been chipped away, a lot of it by the love he had for Rob. He felt good about where he was and who he was, secure in the faith and love of his brothers and the awesome sensation of spending his life with the man who not only got under his skin but refused to leave him.
“So,” Mace finally whispered into the alleyway-chatter-filled shadows around them. “I’m going to guess that’s a yes, then.”
“I don’t know. That could have just been a maybe. Give me five minutes and I’ll be up for another round of convincing.” Rob heaved an exaggerated, dramatic sigh and rolled over, his sleepy expression at odds with the soft flirtatious look in his amber eyes. “Or better yet, how about if I ask you to marry me and I be the one to do the convincing?”
Epilogue
“I AM really glad we’re staying the night,” Rob said, resting his chin on Mace’s hunched shoulder as he hugged him from behind. “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk after eating all the food that’s laid out. This is insane, but not as insane as my dad and Chris’s grandpa talking about social justice in the family room. The old man’s done practically a one-eighty in there. Almost didn’t recognize who was talking.”
“I love you, but you’ve got to let me go because I need some onions.” Mace gestured toward the basket of onions on the counter. “We vastly underestimated how much salsa we would go through.”
“I think you vastly underestimated who would show up for this,” Rob teased as he walked by the onion bowl. He tossed one over to Mace, who caught it easily. “Okay. So far we know you can cook beef stew, mac and cheese, that weird taco lasagna thing you do—which I love, but it’s fucking weird—and now salsa.”
“You do not cook salsa.” Mace began to mince the onion. He wouldn’t win any awards for knife skills, but he figured they didn’t invite any Iron Chefs to the cookout, so he was safe from condemnation. “If you see Luke, ask him to get me some cilantro from the garden, unless you can sneak past everybody and clip it without him seeing. Apparently none of us know how to cut it right.”
“So you just don’t yank it up from the ground?” His boisterous laughter mocked Mace as Rob opened the back door. “I’ll find Luke.”
“He’s playing ball with Chris and Ivo. The herb scissors are hanging on the wall next to the grill.” Bear padded into the kitchen, his bare feet silent on the wood floors. He tucked empty beer bottles he brought with him into the recycle bin and glanced over at Mace. “Do you need help?”
“Nah, I just wanted to make sure I had enough cilantro, but looking at what I already cut, I think it’ll be good, but you never know.” Mace edged in closer to the counter to give Bear room to go behind him. “Gus and Rey have any luck with the kiddie pool? How hard is it to inflate that?”
“Pretty hard if you don’t attach the pump to it properly. Kind of funny watching them try
ing to figure out what’s wrong when the pump hose is dangling when they lift it up. I think Chris called them out on it.” Bear chuckled. His expression shifted and grew serious, but a smile still brightened his eyes. “It’s good to see you happy. I like you and Rob together. Complicates things a bit down at the shop, because you know now I can’t fire him, but you being happy is worth it.”
“You could always fire him. You just won’t because you’re a marshmallow. It’s why Ivo knew he had to fire that intern. If he’d left it for the morning when you came in, the guy would’ve given you a sob story and you’d have been stuck with him until the next time he pissed Ivo off.”
“Well, we’ve got a new one starting soon. He’s just wrapping up some work he’s doing and then he’ll be joining the crew in about six months. Older, but I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do. I like his art.” Bear nudged Mace’s side with his knuckles. “I’m proud of you, you know. Back on the trucks, going to get married, setting up house with Rob, and your book’s going to be published. You’ve come a long way since that angry kid I met years ago.”
“It wasn’t hard,” Mace scoffed and put down his knife. “And don’t get too excited about the book. Romantic urban fantasy is a hard sell, but I liked writing it. They want a sequel already. Took me almost two years to write the first one. I’m hoping to knock out the next one in six months. It’s easier now. Rob kind of settles me, so I’m not all over the place when I get home. What about you? When are you going to find your happily ever after?”
