by R. J. Moray
Contents
About
Chance or Fate
Also by Robin Moray
About the Author
Chance or Fate
on New Year's Eve
By R.J. Moray
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2018 R.J. Moray
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the author's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
First Electronic Edition
About Chance or Fate
The last place Theo wants to be is his best friend's New Year's Eve party watching his crush hook up with the girl of his dreams. Lucky for him, fate has other plans, in the form of a hot mechanic with a mouth made for sin. Now Theo has to choose: play it safe, or jump?
Danny Moretti's got nowhere better to be on New Year's Eve than hauling some trust-fund douche-bag's Lexus to the shop, and the second he claps eyes on this glittered-up rich-kid he knows he's in trouble. Theo's out of his league, but Danny's dark desires insist he get this boy on his knees. One night, no strings. At least, that was the plan, right?
Chance or Fate contains adult themes including sex, kink, and strong language.
Chance or Fate
Theo
Maybe it was fate. Maybe fate didn’t want him to go to the party after all. That would be typical. Theo stared helplessly into the engine until he couldn’t put it off any longer, then he slammed the hood and called Dallas.
“Tell me you’re on your way,” Dallas said as soon as he picked up. “Tell me I don’t have to cuss you out.”
“I was on my way,” Theo told him crossly. “Something’s gone wrong with the car.”
“Crash?” Dallas asked at once, all the playfulness gone from his voice.
“No,” Theo reassured him. “It just…gave up.”
He could hear Dallas relax, his tone shifting into something teasing. “Did you forget to fill the tank?”
“No, it just gave up. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
“Well, call your guy. Get him to look at it.”
Theo rubbed his eyes, already tired of this conversation, “The dealership’s closed. It is, if you remember, New Year's Eve.”
Dallas scoffed. “Theodore James Brouwer, don’t be so naive. Anyone will work New Year's if you pay them enough. Don’t worry, I’ll call my guy. Just text me where you're at and I’ll take care of everything.”
He hung up. Theo swore, and kicked the front tire of the car, which hurt a lot more than he’d imagined. He swore again, louder this time. God, nothing was going right for him tonight.
He ran his fingers through his hair, wishing he could come up with an excuse. He didn’t want to go to the party. He didn’t want to see Dallas. No, that wasn’t true. He didn’t want to see Ned and Tilly, didn’t want to watch them falling in love while he…did nothing at all. There was, anyway, nothing he could do to stop it.
And nothing he could do now except send Dallas the location of his breakdown, and wait for some macho asshole in a tow-truck to save him.
Danny
“Hey, Danny! You drunk yet?”
Danny looked up from the pot of marinara. “Do I look drunk to you?”
“Eh, you know Moretti men can hold their liquor,” Enzo said, coming into the kitchen. He took the spoon from Danny’s hand and Danny allowed it, having twenty-seven years of practice at letting his brother have his way. Anyway, it was Enzo’s spoon, and Enzo’s kitchen. “Pop’s already knee deep in vino and he reckons he’s good to drive but I told him, nah, Danny can take care of it. Right Danny?”
“Take care of what?” Danny asked, immediately suspicious.
“Got a call out.” He said it as if Danny should already know.
“Jeez, it’s New Year's fricken Eve—”
Enzo didn’t let him finish. “One of Pop’s VIPs. You know how it is.”
Danny did know how it was. Rich assholes from uptown who paid extra for first class treatment, the kind of guy who never showed up in person to drop off a car, or pick it up, leaving all the details to a flunky.
And this time, the flunky was him. “Tell me we’re getting danger money for this.”
“Danger money,” Enzo scoffed. “We’re gettin’ paid. What more do you want?”
“To enjoy my evening, uninterrupted.”
“Like you're doing anything tonight. Look at you, you ain’t even dressed to go out. Louisa said you had a hot date,” Enzo added, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “What happened with that?”
He was trying his best, Danny knew that. His dad and his brother were always a little uncomfortable about Danny’s dates, knowing who they were with. It wasn’t that they disapproved, exactly, it was just (as his dad had put it one night after way too much vino) that they wanted him to be happy, and happiness for them took the shape of a comfortable marriage and lots of fat babies.
Danny had pointed out that he could still have both of those if he wanted, but the argument had fallen flat. Anyway, he wasn’t sure that was what he wanted. Lately, what he’d wanted was something else entirely.
Which was part of why he wasn’t going on a date tonight. “Fell through. Wasn’t feeling it.”
“The date or, uh, the guy?”
Poor Enzo, trying so hard to be a good big brother. “The guy. Not my type. Too bossy,” he lied. Bossy hadn't been the problem at all.
Enzo eyed him sidelong. “Bossy could be good for you,” he said. “Keep you in line.”
“I don’t need keeping in line,” Danny said, suddenly done with this conversation. “Hey, where’s this call out? It’s like fifty degrees. Don’t wanna keep Pop’s VIP freezin'.”
Enzo was still eyeing him like there was anything interesting to see. But he wasn’t the worst big brother in the world, so he let it go, much to Danny’s relief. “Out on Hyde Avenue. Silver Lexus. Just a break down, but you should take the truck.”
As if Danny wouldn’t have taken the truck. He pulled a face. “I know how to do my job, Enzo,” he said, and regretted it when Enzo punched him in the arm.
“I know, bro. Hey, don’t take too long. Louisa’s got her heart set on Pictionary, later.”
He rolled his eyes and Danny couldn’t help his laugh. It put a grin on his face as he changed into boots and overalls. A night in with his dad, his brother, his sister-in-law, and the girls. Pictionary.
My fucken life, he thought, not without affection.
It was a good life, a nice family-friendly life, which he was supposed to bring a nice family-friendly guy home to, some day.
But family-friendly wasn’t what he wanted. Not anymore.
These days Danny wanted something sharper, harder. Someone he could dominate, in the ways they liked to be dominated. And he’d found a place full of those kind of people, had played around in the scene, exploring the things that made him tick. Safe. Sane. Consensual.
It wasn’t that he wanted something that wasn’t saf
e, sane, and consensual, it was just…
Something spontaneous. Something unexpected. Something he couldn’t get from those jaded subs with their elaborate kink-lists. Something he certainly hadn’t been going to get from the guy he was no longer taking out tonight.
Something simple. Something new.
He’d have to leave that up to chance, as unlikely as it seemed. Tonight he was working, after all. And tomorrow? Well, he’d wait and see.
Theo
By the time the tow truck pulled up, Theo was down to ten percent phone battery, and ready to tear his hair out. He stuffed his phone in his pocket and got out of the car, cross and cold and sick of this already.
He was expecting Dallas’s ‘guy’ to be a thick-necked gnarl of a man, red-faced and blustery and completely disdainful of Theo in every way possible. But the guy who got out of the truck was trim, muscular in a fireman-calendar kind of way, his ashy blond hair clippered short around a broad-planed face that was, in fact, very handsome. He was dressed in once-blue overalls gone gray with age and use, an oil-stained undershirt doing a bad job of hiding his muscles. He slammed the door of the cab shut and strode over, exuding exactly the kind of masculinity that made Theo’s hackles stand up. And, if he was honest, his dick.
“You Dallas?” the guy asked, in a no-nonsense let’s-get-this-over-with tone of voice.
Theo stared at him for a moment, taking in the sight of him. God, he was actually pretty fucking hot. “Yeah. Uh, I mean, no.”
“No?” The guy’s fine straight eyebrows went up, and he glanced over his shoulder like he was looking for someone else.
Probably Dallas. Fuck, Theo needed to get his act together. “No. But Dallas called for me. Like, half an hour ago—what took you so long?”
He regretted it at once. There was no need to start a fight with this guy, and hell, the guy could easily abandon him here. But Theo wasn’t good at apologies. He didn’t know how to sound like he meant it. Fuck, he was fucked.
But instead of getting pissed at him, the guy smiled this slow half-smile. It made him look about fifty percent less terrifying, and about a hundred percent more attractive. Which was, given his resting attractiveness, a lot for a guy to take in.
“So what’s your name, kid?”
Kid? “Theo,” he snapped.
The guy nodded. “Okay, Theo. I’m Danny. Wanna pop the hood for me?”
“Sure,” Theo said icily. He did, and then backed up to let Danny have all the space he needed. Not because he was intimidated, no. He wasn’t. He really wasn’t, it was just…
Danny moved like something powerful, a panther prowling back and forth between his truck and Theo’s car. He was, as Theo had already noticed, attractively muscular, and now Theo couldn’t help but picture the muscle under his clothes, the way it would ripple and flex under Danny’s tan skin.
He was, quite simply, beautiful. Long and lean, hard with muscle, clean-cut but something rough about him that made Theo’s gut tingle. It was impossible not to watch him. Theo could only be grateful that Danny was too occupied to see Theo doing it, to see him helpless with sick admiration for the guy. Fuck, his ass was perfect, the heavy cotton of his overalls pulled tight across it as he bent over the engine.
As if reading his thoughts, at that moment Danny looked back over his shoulder. Theo froze, caught in the act. For an eternal heartbeat he thought this was it, this was the moment he got caught checking out a guy’s ass and had the living hell knocked out of him.
But instead of sneering in disgust, Danny swept his gaze over Theo’s body, slow and appreciative. It felt like tiny pinpricks dragged over Theo’s skin in the wake of those eyes, dark under the streetlights. When his gaze caught Theo’s, he winked, so fast Theo was sure he’d imagined it. Except. He hadn’t imagined that look, nor did he now imagine Danny stretching himself over the car, cocking his hips in a way that was designed to invite attention.
Fuck. He’d caught Theo checking him out and then he’d checked Theo out. He had. He’d made it obvious, and also…casual. Like it was no big deal. Like Theo didn’t have to stress out over it, though of course he did.
Straight guys did not just check you out like that. Theo knew from painful experience that straight guys went to incredible lengths to keep from looking like they were checking you out.
Which meant what, exactly? That Danny wasn’t straight? That Danny was…interested in him? Or simply that Danny had caught Theo looking, and now he was messing with him.
Danny turned around, and his broad mouth was curled up into the faintest hint of a smirk. “So,” he drawled, long and slow, “the bad news is: your alternator’s shot. The good news is: I can give you a tow to the garage.”
“Oh.” Theo blinked fast, wondering what he was supposed to say to that. “How long will it take to fix?”
“A couple of days. Since technically we’re shut down over the new year.”
“I guess that’s fine, then.” Two days without a car. He could crash at Dallas’s, but that meant going to the party, and he desperately wanted to avoid that if he could. He didn’t particularly want to go home, either. His parents were out, of course, but his mom would fuss if she saw him later, and he’d had about as much of his dad’s disapproval as he could stand.
Danny was looking at him, eyes narrowed in contemplation. “You know, most people ask how much it’s going to cost.”
“That’s not a problem,” Theo said, hearing how defensive he sounded and hating it. If anything, this only made Danny’s eyes narrow further.
“I’ll write you up a quote when we get to the garage,” Danny said.
“Cool.” Theo didn’t know what to say so he just stood there like an idiot, staring at the guy. There was something about him, something that made Theo feel weirdly on edge. Not like they were going to fight, but something else entirely. Something Theo wasn’t sure how to handle.
Danny smiled his slow half-smile. “So. Get in the truck, Theo,” he prompted.
Theo grit his teeth, and did as he said.
Danny
Theo looked like sex on a stick. He couldn’t be more than twenty-two, not with that smooth, luminous skin, kissed gold by the sun. His mouth was luscious, a perfectly plump pout Danny wanted to sink his teeth into the second he saw Theo lick nervously over his lip. His face was high-cheekboned and sharp, with dark eyes that flickered away every time Danny looked at him in the privacy of the truck.
And Danny couldn’t stop looking at him.
He was dressed like every other douche-bag that brought their Lexus (paid for with daddy’s money) into the garage, a disheveled peacock of a man. His jeans were too tight, too artfully ripped, acid-splashed and hateable. His tank was too big, the neck cut too deep, showing off too much of his smooth-waxed chest. He had too many necklaces strung around his neck, a sparkly collar high up at his throat that made Danny’s hands clench into fists because it was wrong. There were rings on Theo’s fingers, sparkles glimmering at his wrists below the rolled-back cuffs of a blazer that probably cost more than Danny’s entire wardrobe. His hair was bleached, just the top of it and his long bangs, white-gold tips fading into the short-cropped back of it where it sat dark against his skin.
He was ridiculous. And beautiful. And Danny had caught him checking out his ass, and that was interesting.
More interesting, though, was his attitude. He acted like every other trust-fund douche that walked into the garage expecting to be treated like royalty, but his hostility had this raw, naked edge to it. Like this was a defense mechanism against something else, something haunting. Danny wanted to put his hand in it, mess it up. It was tempting, and ultimately impossible.
They drove in silence back to the garage, towing the Lexus behind. Danny reminded himself that Theo was very much out of his league, in the sense that he could probably buy out the Moretti family garage with the allowance from his trust fund, but more importantly he was…well. Fragile might not be the right word for it. Breakable, maybe.
&n
bsp; He looked so breakable. Danny really wanted to find out how breakable he was at his core. Because there was something about Theo that made it hard to think of anything except pushing him to his knees and ordering him to open up his mouth and—
“Sorry for interrupting your plans,” Theo said roughly, breaking into Danny’s thoughts. It was, as apologies went, pretty insincere.
“I wasn’t doing much.” Just Pictionary with his nieces. But he didn’t really want to come off as a lonely loser, so he added, “My date for tonight was already canceled.”
“She ditched you?”
Pronouns. “No. I ditched him,” Danny said, knowing exactly what kind of bombshell that was to drop on someone in a car with you.
Theo froze. Then he turned, his eyes fixing on Danny with this laser-like intensity. He didn’t say anything for about ten seconds, and then— “What did he do wrong?”
“Nothing. I just wasn’t feeling it, you know?”
“No. I don’t know. I don’t date.”
“You don’t date at all?” It seemed weird for a pretty guy like him to be, what, celibate? Or maybe he just hooked up, no strings.
“No.” Theo was still staring at him. “What’s it like?”
“Messy,” Danny said, distracting them both from the attractive topic of what Theo did instead of dating. “You try to get to know someone, but you don’t want them to get to know you too well in case they don’t like what they see. And they’re doing the same thing, putting on this best version of themselves, so by the time you really see past each other’s bullshit it’s too late. You’re emotionally attached. And then you either pretend you’re happy or you split, and it sucks.”
“Really?”
“Not really,” Danny relented. “But that’s what it feels like, sometimes. It’s exhausting.”
Theo was quiet for a moment, and then— “I figured I could skip all that. Just meet someone and click, and get on with it.”
