It took a while to encourage Brad to be firm enough with Biscuit to make her listen, but once he got it, Brad handled everything else on his own.
When Chance finished, he looked around for Darren. He wasn’t in Rusty’s stall with Cassie anymore. Cassie was finished and waiting for her ride at the barn entrance, chatting with Lena and Ella.
As Chance walked their way, he saw the van from the girls’ group home pull up. “Good lesson, girls,” he called. “I’ll see you next week.”
“Thank you, Mr. Chance,” Cassie said. Lena just beamed at him.
“Do you know where Darren went?” Chance asked Ella once they’d left.
Ella gave him a look he couldn’t read, then pointed out the door. Chance moved past her, and his mouth dropped open. There was Darren in his dress shoes and God-only-knew-how-pricey jeans, cleaning out feed buckets.
“He insisted that if he was going to be here, he wanted to help,” Ella said from behind him.
“I… Wow.”
“Yeah, wow is right.”
Chance laughed. It probably wasn’t fair to Darren, but he couldn’t have envisioned the man doing barn chores without actually seeing it for himself.
A few second later, Darren noticed them watching him, so Chance joined him, grabbing one of the buckets waiting to be sprayed clean. “Do you have any idea how hot you look doing this?”
Darren raised his brows. “You’re kidding, right?”
Chance let his gaze roam up and down, glad his back was to Ella. “I’m utterly serious.”
“Good thing you’ll be able to do something about it later.”
“After the surprise?”
Darren nodded.
“And you’re still not going to even give me a hint?”
“No.”
Chance scowled. “Bastard.”
“What? No more threats of revenge?”
“You want me to get revenge?”
Darren shrugged, making a show of acting like he didn’t care.
Chance had only ever given Darren a few slaps on the ass, but he’d never protested, and while he hadn’t explicitly asked for more, he’d seemed up for it. Would he enjoy a much more thorough spanking? Chance intended to find out later that night.
The sound of a chain saw starting up startled Chance. He tensed and looked at Darren. “Do you need to get out of here?”
Darren frowned. “Why?”
“Um…there’s a…” Maybe he shouldn’t mention it if Darren really hadn’t noticed.
“Oh. I’m all right.”
“Did you find a cure for your phobia?”
Darren stacked the buckets he’d finished and picked up another dirty one. “It helps that it sounds fairly far away, but…” He looked up at Chance. “You’re here. You always make me feel…settled somehow.”
“Oh. That’s…great.”
Darren smiled. “Yeah, it is.”
And Chance didn’t know quite what to do with that. He was trying not to fall all the way in love with this man, but Darren was making that damn near impossible.
***
Darren stretched, trying to work out the kinks in his back. “Now I really understand how you got a body like that from working on a ranch. I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.”
Chance grinned. “I’ve got plans for tonight that will only make that worse.”
Darren’s cock was suddenly very interested in these plans. The traitor. “Is that so?”
“Oh yes. Revenge for not revealing your secrets, remember?”
Darren glanced at the clock. “Speaking of that, we should get going.”
After working at the equine center, they’d returned to Darren’s house to shower, change, and eat lunch.
“Going?”
“In the car. To the surprise.”
“So the surprise isn’t taking place in your bedroom?”
Darren seemed to reconsider, then shook his head. “No. Come on. I don’t want to be late.”
“So it’s something we could be late for?”
Darren loved Chance’s persistence even if he pretended not to. “It is.”
“Are these clothes okay?”
Chance was wearing absurdly tight faded jeans and a red sweater that showed off his shoulder and arm muscles beautifully. “They are very, very okay.”
Chance raised his brows. “I mean for where we’re going.”
“Yes, anything presentable is fine.” They stepped outside, and Darren locked the door behind them, leaving Roger looking terribly sad with his head on his paws.
“Hmm. It’s not a restaurant, because we just ate.”
Darren gestured toward his car. “Get in.”
“Oooh, bossy.”
Darren gave him the look that usually made his employees jump to do his bidding. Chance just smirked at him.
You love how cheeky he is.
Darren did. He didn’t understand it, but he did.
Chance turned on a country station, which Darren could only assume was further punishment for refusing to tell the surprise, but he wasn’t going to give Chance the satisfaction of hearing him complain.
Darren’s chest tightened when Chance reached for his hand and interlaced their fingers. How could such a simple display of affection mean so much?
Maybe because you’ve been without them for so long?
Maybe because with Chance you know they’re sincere?
Did he?
Yes, he did. Chance was many things—most of them amazing, some of them puzzling—but his openness and honesty were a constant.
When he turned onto the bridge to Coronado, he assumed Chance would guess where they were going, but if he did, he didn’t say anything.
“I can’t believe I haven’t been over here yet,” Chance said as Darren drove down Orange Avenue. “Wow, these houses are really cute.”
“We’ll drive around more later if you’d like, and we can walk around the park by the waterfront, but first…” As he turned onto the property of the hotel, Chance sucked in a breath.
“This is the hotel you told me about.”
“It is.”
“The one where they have ice-skating.”
“That’s right. I’ve arranged for a private tour,” Darren said as he pulled up to the valet station; a young man circled around to open his door, while another opened Chance’s.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Walsh,” the man said. “Lorna is expecting you. She’s in the lobby.”
“Thank you,” Darren said. Chance was grinning when he walked around the car and joined him.
“How is it I always forget you’re one of the rich and powerful?” Chance asked, keeping his voice low.
“Because with you I can be myself.”
Chance took his hand and squeezed. “You should always be yourself. Yourself is awesome.”
Darren pulled Chance to him and kissed him, right there by the hotel entrance, not caring who might see. Apparently he wasn’t very good at this keeping-secrets thing, though somehow no matter where he was, if he and Chance were together, it felt like they were somewhere magical rather than in the real world.
Chance melted into him, kissing him right back until Darren pulled away. “We better not be late since Lorna is doing me a favor.”
“I want to see more of this amazing hotel, but I also want to drag you back to the car and have my way with you.”
“I’ve done a lot of daring things since I met you, but we’re not having sex in a car in broad daylight in the Hotel Del parking lot.”
Chance stuck his lip out in an exaggerated pout. “That is so unfair.”
“Come on.” He tugged on Chance’s hand.
“Wow. This is gorgeous,” Chance said as they entered the ornate lobby.
“Just wait until you see the whole place. It’s magical.”
After introductions and a brief history lesson on how the hotel came to be placed there, Lorna took them up in the antique elevator, showed them the second floor, then led them back down a
nd into the interior courtyard. They also explored the gorgeous Crown and Coronet rooms, which were both used for dining in the earlier days of the hotel, and the ballroom, before concluding their interior tour by seeing the original bar which had traveled by boat all the way from Europe as a single piece.
Darren had been through the hotel numerous times and knew most of its history, so he spent the afternoon watching Chance’s reactions as he took in the sights, like the amazing wood-plank ceiling in the Crown room. Chance was as enthralled by the place as Darren had hoped.
“What else would you like to see?” Lorna asked.
“Darren told me you have ice-skating at Christmas. Where does that take place?”
“It’s just past the pool. Follow me, and I’ll show you.”
Chance’s face lit up as she described how the lawn was transformed in the winter. “You’ll have to come skate this year.”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
Maybe, just maybe, Darren would get to come with him.
Once she’d said goodbye, Chance turned to Darren, his eyes wide. “Thank you. This was so cool.”
Heat rushed to Darren’s face. Sometimes it still overwhelmed him that he could please Chance, even if that pleasure was completely innocent. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked it.”
“Have you ever stayed here?”
Darren took his arm and steered him toward the valet station. “Several times.”
“Wow, that would be awesome.”
“Then we’ll have to stay here together sometime soon.”
Chance stopped and turned to face him. “I didn’t mean you had to get us a room. I’m sure it’s—”
“I want to.”
“Darren.”
He shook his head. “I like doing things for you.”
Chance seemed to relax then. “I like doing things for you too.”
The desire in his eyes told Darren they weren’t talking about the same kinds of things, and now his cock was very interested in everything they could do together.
I love this man. Darren wasn’t ready to say the words, but he could no longer keep himself from thinking them. He loved Chance, and he didn’t want to walk away from this relationship. It was time to admit that’s what it was and stop trying to compartmentalize it.
They continued walking then, and Darren requested that his car be brought around. When the valet pulled up and they were both seated, Chance said, “Are we heading back now?”
“Shall we explore the island some more?”
“I’d like that,” Chance said. “But then, as long as I’m with you, Dare, I think I’d like anything.”
Any part of Darren’s heart that hadn’t already been touched by Chance melted utterly.
***
When Darren pulled into his driveway, Chance shifted in the seat to face him. “I have a fantastic idea.”
Darren’s pulse sped up. Most of Chance’s fantastic ideas led to incredibly hot encounters, even if they made him nervous as hell first.
“And that is?”
“Let’s go watch the sunset from the beach.”
“And?”
Chance frowned. “There’s no ‘and.’ You live right here, and we’ve never walked along the cliffs together or down to the beach. I’ve never even watched the sun set from your amazing bedroom windows.”
“I’m waiting for the part where you know some perfect hidden places in the rocks where you’re going to spread me out and feast on my ass or something.”
Chance sputtered. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t ever say ‘feast on my ass’ again. You might kill me.”
Darren snorted. “So you’re telling me you really have no such plans?”
“No. It’s sandy, and it will be cold once the sun goes down, and there will be people around and—”
“Having people around hasn’t stopped you before.” Of course, it hadn’t stopped Darren either.
Chance waved off that comment. “There were no other people at the observatory parking lot.”
“What about at the auction?”
“We were very discreet,” Chance insisted.
“No, we weren’t.” He remembered the look on Mr. Abbot’s face when they’d emerged from the closet. They were lucky not to have given him a heart attack.
“Fine, but sand.”
Darren chuckled. “Okay, we’ll walk and watch the sunset.”
“And then we’ll come back here, and I’ll feast on your ass.”
Darren had to swallow before he could speak. “Good plan.”
Chance opened the car door. “Let’s get changed.”
***
Much to the Roger’s chagrin, after a quick stroll around the block, they brought him back home, promising him a longer walk later. He got overly excited in the crowds that gathered at sunset, and Darren wanted this evening to be about him and Chance. The day had been as close to perfect as he could imagine, and cheesy as it might be, seeing the sun set over the ocean while holding Chance’s hand would be the perfect prelude to another night together.
He looked over at Chance as they crossed the street to the public park, and his heart skipped a beat. He was so gorgeous, so full of life, and Darren longed for him, not sexually—not in that moment—but he just wanted him there, in his life, by his side.
Darren had envisioned them walking along the path at the top of the cliffs where he frequently took Roger. But that was not what Chance had in mind. He led Darren down a steep, slippery path to the beach. “I want to be right at the water’s edge, where the rays of the sun are coming right to us on the waves.”
“You’re in a very romantic mood tonight.”
“You do that to me,” Chance said as he slipped off his shoes. “Let’s see how cold the water is.”
“Damn cold,” Darren said. They’d had record lows for the last few weeks. He glanced back at the steep path and hoped he wouldn’t embarrass himself trying to scramble back up behind Chance’s much younger self, but he forgot all about that when Chance yelped and jumped back from the water. “Oh my God, I think my feet are frozen.”
“I told you.”
He stuck out his tongue and then grabbed Darren’s hand. “Come on, I have a favorite spot to watch from.”
“You come out here a lot?”
He nodded. “When I first moved, I came here almost every night. It’s my favorite place. When I found out you lived here, it…”
“What?”
He frowned. “I think it’s one of those things that sounds better in my head.”
“Chance.”
“I thought it must be fate.”
Darren had never believed in fate, only in making your destiny. But when he thought about what had brought them together—the plane, reconnecting at his favorite event of the year, and him living in Chance’s favorite place—maybe fate was the answer after all.
They walked along the beach hand in hand, watching the sun slowly descend over the ocean, and the experience was everything all the romantic movies promised. Maybe more.
Chance stopped, and Darren nearly ran into him. “This is it. My spot. I love how we’re tucked back against the cliffs with barely any beach. It’s like the sun could swallow us as it goes down.”
Darren turned Chance so they were facing each other, sides to the ocean. “I’ve seen so many sunsets living here, but this… God, Chance, you make everything so much more.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Tears sparkled in Chance’s eyes. “Dare, I… That’s just…”
“Kiss me.”
He did. When they turned back to the water, the sun made its dramatic drop below the horizon as if it had waited for them.
I love you.
The words were right there. Was this the time to say them? Maybe.
“Come on.” Chance tugged on his arm. “We should climb back up before it gets any darker.”
Or maybe not. Darren followed him w
ithout saying a thing.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Chance smiled as he stretched, arching his back, wiggling his toes, and pressing his hands into the headboard. He loved waking up in Darren’s bed, not just because it was enormous and Darren had a great view, but because it smelled like him, and Chance slept so deeply when they were wrapped around each other.
The previous day had been amazing: the equine center, the Hotel Del, the sunset. As they’d stood on the beach with the sun’s last rays reflected on the ocean, he’d come so close to confessing his love to Darren, but he’d chickened out and rushed them back home.
He’d decided to save testing Darren’s spanking limits for another night. The mood between them was soft and romantic. When he’d pushed into Darren’s body, the intensity of what he’d felt had nearly broken him, and when he’d come, he’d wiped away tears, hoping Darren didn’t notice.
He rolled out of bed, pulled on his boxers, and headed downstairs in search of Darren. Chance found him in the kitchen, stirring up batter for pancakes. He poured himself a cup of coffee and settled on a stool at the kitchen bar. When Darren finished stirring, he looked up, his expression pensive. Something had unsettled him.
“What is it?” Chance asked, his pulse speeding up.
“Hear me out, okay?”
Chance did not like the sound of that at all. It seemed like the lead-in to a we-should-take-a-break conversation. He’d thought Darren had enjoyed the previous day as much as he had. He’d thought maybe Darren had fallen for him, at least a little. He hadn’t expected forever, but… Please, God, let us have more time than this.
“I’m hosting a dinner next Friday in honor of the foundation’s largest donors. I want you to be my date. I know that screws with our plan to pretend the real world doesn’t exist, but I want more between us. I want us to be real, no matter how hard that is.”
Chance’s mind whirled. This wasn’t a breakup talk. Actually, it was the opposite. Darren wanted more. He wanted Chance to be his date at a foundation function. That was great, right? So why was he panicking inside?
“Chance?”
He ignored his fears. He wanted this. It was scary, but that didn’t matter. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
A Chance at Love Page 13
