“Is that so bad?”
“Getting it out? No. Getting him to accept it being put up, yes.” But even as he said it, Darren reached into a basket that sat on a high shelf and pulled out a tennis ball.
“Should we take him outside?” Chance asked.
“It’s okay to throw it in here.”
“So you’re not one of those rich people who can’t take a little exuberance in his house.”
“Would I have this monster if I were?”
“Good point.” Chance tossed the ball. Roger retrieved it quickly. When he dropped it back into Chance’s hand, it was saturated with drool.
Darren winced. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. Really.” Chance had spent his whole life working around animals. A little dog spit was hardly going to deter him.
He threw the ball again. Roger ran at top speed, slid past it, then turned back and grabbed it. This time, instead of returning to Chance, he went to the front door and barked.
“Not now, Roger,” Darren said.
“Aw, the poor guy was all alone during the auction.”
“He’d like you to think he’s suffered greatly while sleeping with his doll in his favorite blankets.”
“You spoil him rotten, don’t you?”
Darren sighed. “I do.”
“I like that.” Darren’s love for his dog made something in Chance’s chest flutter.
“I can’t help it, but then I regret it when he treats guests like this.”
“Don’t. It makes me feel welcome.”
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
Roger barked again and head-butted the door.
“You want to walk him on the beach?” Chance asked.
Darren looked Chance up and down. “You’re not exactly dressed for the beach.”
“I assume you have something I could borrow. Or do you only wear suits?”
Darren was giving Chance his I’m-not-in-Kansas-anymore look. He’d gotten it a lot on the plane.
“I have regular clothes, but your shoulders might burst the seams.”
Chance flexed dramatically. “Lifting hay bales will do that for you.”
Darren raised his brows. “How many hay bales do you run into in the lab?”
“Not enough. I actually have to go to the gym now. But I also volunteer at an equine therapy center.”
“You miss ranch life a lot?”
“Yeah.” Chance sighed. “I wanted to live somewhere new, and I love it here, but I wish I could visit more often. The center is great, though. I get to be around horses, and I can see how it really helps the kids who come there. The responsibility of caring for an animal is great for them. They have to learn how to work with the horse, to guide it without being too harsh or expecting too much. I wish they could get more funding. They need to do something like the auction tonight.”
“Give me the details, and I’ll look into it.”
“Seriously?”
Darren nodded. “I can at least give them some advice.”
“Wow. That would be great.”
Roger barked again and scratched at the door.
“Be patient,” Darren scolded, but Chance took his hand and tugged him toward the stairs. “Come on. Let’s change and give him what he wants.”
“But what about…”
Chance wasn’t going to let Darren out of saying exactly what he meant. “I have a feeling you’re usually more direct than this.”
“Yes, at the office I am, but with you I’m more cautious. I don’t want you to think I’m making assumptions.”
“I sucked you off in a closet at a fancy auction and agreed to come home with you. I don’t think it’s making assumptions at this point.”
Darren groaned. “Now you’re making me more impatient.”
“The denial will just make it hotter.”
“I’ve already been denied for months.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Mine. Completely mine.” Darren looked so regretful, Chance almost wanted to give in, but he also wanted to walk on the beach with him, and they had already gotten off, though it had barely taken the edge of his desire for Darren.
“If I can wait, then so can you.”
Roger barked as if to add his agreement.
“All right. I’ll find you some sweats and a T-shirt.”
Chance followed him up the dark-wood staircase. It would have felt heavy for the open plan, except for the intricate spindles that must have cost a fortune.
Darren led him into a room dominated by an enormous bed. They were going to have so much fun with all that space to play around in. As they turned into the bedroom, he saw the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the ocean. It was too dark then to see very clearly, but he could imagine how breathtaking the view would be in the morning. At sunset it would likely render him speechless.
He walked toward the windows, unable to resist. “Do you know how lucky you are?”
Darren came up behind him, encircled his waist, and pulled him back against his warm body. He nuzzled the side of Chance’s neck. “Yes, I think I do.”
***
A few moments later, with Chance in some slightly too-short sweats, a T-shirt that strained across the shoulders, and a pair of flip-flops, they started down the street with Roger straining at the leash.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, until Darren said, “It sounds like you’re close to your family, or is that too personal a question?”
“Darren, if I have my way, I’m going to put my tongue in your ass later. Nothing is too personal between us.”
Darren choked as he turned to wave to a neighbor. Chance waved too.
“Dear God, don’t do that again.”
“I like when you get all shaken up. And yeah, my family and I are close.”
“Do they know?”
“That I’m gay, or that I try to pick up older men on planes?”
“Either?”
“I came out when I started college. They didn’t really get it at first. I think my dad hoped it was a phase, some millennial nonsense I had to get out of my system, but they never treated me any differently. They’ve been as happy for me to bring boyfriends home as they are for my sisters to bring theirs.”
“That’s pretty amazing.”
Chance nodded. “I’m lucky. What about you?”
Darren sniffed. “My mom ignores it, and my brother is actively hostile, but I mostly ignore them, so it’s fine. I don’t know what Mom would do if I ever had a serious boyfriend and wanted to bring him to meet her.”
“You mean you haven’t had a boyfriend?”
“Only one that I would’ve introduced to my family, but he was so deep in the closet, he was covered in Narnian snow.”
Chance could hear the pain in Darren’s voice. “That sucks.”
“He’s married now.”
“So he eventually came out?”
Darren tugged Roger’s leash, pulling him away from a flower bed. “To a woman; a woman he started dating while he was with me.”
“What a bastard.”
“I’ve never told anyone else that. I don’t know why I’m telling you now.”
Chance laid a hand on his arm. “You can tell me anything. I’m just glad you feel comfortable with me.”
“You’re a good listener. You’d probably make a great counselor if you didn’t already have a career path.”
“I like talking to the kids at the equine center. They’re letting me teach some classes now, so I’m starting to really get to know several of them. It’s not been easy to make time for it, though, with my school workload.”
“This is completely hypocritical coming from a workaholic, but you should have something that’s important to you other than your job.”
Chance grinned at him even though he wouldn’t likely see it in the dark. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I think we should head back now.”
“Yeah? Why’s
that?”
“Because I can’t wait any longer to have you naked in my bed.”
“Oh. Right.” Chance wondered why he suddenly felt nervous. If they’d been able to keep going earlier, he would have been fine, but now going from chatting to fucking seemed too calculated somehow.
They turned a corner and headed downhill toward Darren’s house. Neither of them said a word for a few blocks.
“I think this is the longest you’ve stopped talking since I’ve known you.”
Did Darren know him? It felt like he did despite the small amount of time they’d spent together. How had that happened?
When Chance didn’t respond, Darren laid his free hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean anything critical by that. I like how excited you always are.”
“I know.” There’d been no censure in Darren’s words. They were simply an observation. “I was just thinking.”
“You want to tell me?”
Chance sighed. He didn’t and yet he did. “I’m nervous.”
“About tonight?”
“I know that sounds stupid after blowing you at the auction.”
Darren coughed. “Were you trying to make me hard? Because it worked.”
Chance laughed. “Sorry.”
Darren took Chance’s hand and held it. “We can go as slow as you need, or we can just talk.”
Chance stopped walking. Was Darren serious? “But you said you—”
“I want you. That doesn’t mean I can’t wait if you need me to.”
Roger pulled on the leash, not understanding why they weren’t moving forward. “Sorry, boy,” Chance said and started moving again.
“You’re surprised I’m more than a hard-ass who expects to get his way?” Darren asked a few moments later.
“No, that’s not it. I’ve never seen you that way.”
“Then what is it?”
Chance took a deep breath and then let the words come, knowing he might be ruining everything. “I like you. A lot.”
Darren glanced over at him, a surprised smile on his face. “I like you a lot too.”
“Oh…you do?”
“I do.”
Chance started walking faster. Roger broke into a run and practically pulled Darren down.
“Are you still nervous?” Darren asked when he’d righted himself.
“No. If I weren’t afraid I’d lose control and fall down the hill, I’d run the rest of the way.”
***
When they got back, Darren sent Roger to his bed on the couch with a treat to gnaw on; then they raced upstairs.
Darren pulled Chance to him at the side of the bed and cupped his face. “Tell me what you want.”
“Kiss me.”
Darren brushed his lips over Chance’s, teasing, barely tasting. Chance quivered, waiting for more, wanting a deep, hungry kiss, yet needing Darren to give it to him when he chose. Darren licked the seam of his lips, but didn’t push inside.
“More,” he gasped when Darren pulled back slightly.
“Open your mouth.”
Chance did, holding Darren’s gaze. His cock was so hard, it was pushing at the waistband of the borrowed sweats.
Darren held the sides of his face and slid his tongue along Chance’s. Chance held perfectly still, knowing that’s what Darren wanted. He was trying to draw this out until he killed Chance, apparently.
Finally, Darren kissed him, really kissed him, until he felt raw, naked, afraid. Darren could tell how intense Chance’s feelings for him were.
He grabbed Darren’s hips and pulled him closer as the kiss grew rougher, more teeth, more force, and yet still with that soul-shattering fervor that was making Chance light-headed.
A few moments later, Darren pulled back, but he held Chance’s gaze. “I need you naked.”
“Same.”
They both stripped as fast as they could, not bothering with any pretense of a show.
Chance was kicking out of his sweats when Darren glanced over at him and froze, his mouth hanging open. “Wow.”
Heat filled Chance’s face. “Don’t exaggerate.”
Darren shook his head. “I’m not. I had no idea lifting hay bales could do…that. No wonder so many people have a cowboy fetish.”
Chance laughed as Darren moved again, shoving his sweatpants and underwear down, eyes still wide. “I want to touch you.”
“Then come here.”
Darren stepped closer. He skimmed a hand over Chance’s shoulder, then down over his pecs, letting his finger catch on the ridges of Chance’s abs before brushing his knuckles over the widening trail of hair leading to Chance’s cock.
Chance swallowed hard. “Touch me.”
“I am.”
He took Darren’s hand and guided it to his shaft. “Stroke me.”
He thought Darren was going to refuse and continue to tease him, but he didn’t. Instead he kept the strokes so slow, they counted as torture.
Chance wanted to push him down on the bed and bury himself inside Darren, but he also wanted to draw this out, make it last.
“I want to fuck you.”
Darren looked up. “You do?”
He nodded. “I do, but if that’s not cool with you, I’m flexible.”
Darren’s teeth sank into his lower lip. “Hearing you say that, knowing you want it, makes me so fucking hard. But it’s been a long time—a very long time—since I bottomed, and I’m not sure…”
“Then we won’t.”
“But the thought of you doing what you said earlier, holding me down and…fuck.”
“I don’t have to be inside you to hold you down,” Chance said. “You know that, right?”
Darren seemed to consider that for a moment. “I suppose you don’t.”
“I don’t care what we do as long as we’re both comfortable.”
“Are you sure?”
Chance nodded.
“I love how different you are.”
“If your other partners didn’t want you comfortable, you’ve been fucking the wrong people.”
“I’ve been fucking men who wanted me to put my dick in their ass, get them off, and send them home. I thought they were exactly the right men for what I needed. Maybe I was wrong.”
“Maybe you were.” Chance pushed Darren’s hand away and wrapped his hand around both their cocks. When he slid his hand along their lengths, Darren sucked in his breath. “God, that feels good.”
Chance leaned in and nuzzled his neck, keeping up his lazy strokes. “I love how you smell like the beach, like nighttime and lust.”
***
Darren would’ve found those words too cheesy from anyone else, but Chance could get away with shit like that because he was so warm and close and naked, and Darren wanted him desperately.
“Go lay on your back on the bed, and tell me where the lube and condoms are.”
“Bossy.” Darren swatted his ass.
“Assertive,” Chance corrected.
“Unexpected, but I think I like it.”
Chance looked deliberately at Darren’s cock, which was jutting out, the tip damp with precome. “I know you do. Do you trust me to take care of you?”
Darren nodded. “I do. I don’t know why it’s so easy for me. It’s not usually. We’ve only shared a flight, a few dances, and—”
“And a blowjob in a closet.”
“The best blowjob ever.”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. Now go.” He spanked Darren’s ass. And whoa, that was surprisingly hot. Darren enjoyed feeling the light sting as he climbed onto the mattress. When he rolled over onto his back, Chance was standing at the end of the bed, watching him, his expression hungry. Darren took his cock in his hand and stroked, loving that Chance’s eyes widened.
Chance licked his lower lip. “I could watch you all night.”
“Is one night all you want?” Fuck. Darren should not have asked that. He’d been the one who didn’t want to think past getting
Chance home just a few hours ago.
Chance shook his head. “No. After months of us both longing for the other, I don’t think we’re going to fuck once and then walk away.”
“No, we’re not,” Darren agreed. He didn’t know how this could possibly work, but he knew he wanted as much of Chance as he could get.
Chance ran a hand over one of Darren’s calves, then lifted his foot, leaned down, and licked his arch. Darren jerked his foot back in surprise, but his cock was all for the warm, wet slide of Chance’s tongue. Was there anything he wouldn’t like Chance doing to him?
Chance grinned at him as if he knew exactly how Darren felt. “Condoms?”
Darren rolled over, reaching toward his nightstand. “I’ll get them.”
“No, you stay exactly where you are.”
A jolt of heat shot through Darren. He didn’t think another man had ever talked to him in that tone. He would certainly have protested if they did, but Chance made him want to obey.
Chance retrieved the lube and condoms and laid them on the bed. Then Darren spread his legs so Chance could settle between them.
He smiled down at Darren as he drew patterns on Darren’s chest with a finger, the touch so light, it tickled and made him long for so much more.
“I’m going to open myself up, and then I’m going to ride you until you come so hard, all you can do is scream my name. Is that okay with you?”
Darren’s mouth went dry. He had to swallow before he could speak. “Holy fuck. Yes!”
Chance rose up on his knees and reached for the lube.
“I’ve never met anyone like you,” Darren said.
“I can be an acquired taste.”
Darren propped himself on his elbows. “I meant that in a good way. You’re… Everything I think of sounds so trite, but I’ve not been this interested in anyone for a long time.”
Chance pushed at his chest, and Darren relaxed back down. “So interested you look like you want to lick me all over?”
“I wouldn’t say no to that.”
“Later.” Chance said the word low and rough, and Darren suppressed a shiver. “Put your hands over your head.”
Darren’s cock jumped at Chance’s command.
“Oh, you do like being told what to do.”
Darren exhaled slowly, willing his voice not to shake, still wondering what the hell was happening to him. “I never have with anyone else.”
A Chance at Love Page 5
