Finding You: The Complete Box Set (a contemporary MM romance series)

by Ana Ashley

  “Anyway, you left me a message asking to come here.”

  “Yes, thanks for coming. Are you busy today? I was hoping to recruit your help,” I said, hoping he’d say yes.

  “My help? Yes, of course. What can I do?” Joel sounded excited, and that made me feel much better about asking for his help. Truth be told, I was also looking forward to spending the day with him.

  I didn’t have any outstanding cake orders and no events, so my work for the day consisted of making five hundred custard tarts to freeze. I always preferred to bake them fresh each day, but there wasn’t much difference in the resulting product. This way, I could be away from the café without it having an impact on our primary product offering. With Joel’s help, I was hoping to be able to finish it all in time for us to go away tomorrow.

  As soon as my aunt came back from her errands, I took Joel into the kitchen and explained what I needed help with. He wouldn’t be required to do anything very complex, but measuring ingredients and cleaning stuff as we went along was vital to the speed of the process.

  We moved around with ease as we did our respective tasks, occasionally touching a hand or an arm while reaching out for something and smiling at each other. I felt relaxed and happy despite the heavy workload.

  My aunt came into the kitchen to grab something just as a new song played on the radio, so in one stealthy move, I caught her and made her dance with me.

  “David! Put me down,” she said with a shriek. “What’s come down with you?” She put her hand on my forehead as soon as I stopped twirling her around. Joel was leaning against the worktop, laughing at us.

  “Nothing, aunt, just happy to go on holiday tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve been away, and I’m in a good mood, I guess,” I said, giving her a big kiss on her cheek.

  “I’d give you a holiday every day to see you this happy.” She put her hands on my chest and looked up at me as though seeing me for the first time in a long time. “You boys have fun on your holiday, and don’t you worry about the café, okay? I’ve got it covered here.” She gave me one last hug before returning to the front of the café.

  We went back to work in silence for a while with only the noise of the radio in the background. The result of our work was all over the kitchen. There were bags of flour, sugar, cartons of eggs, and a variety of other ingredients on one end of the kitchen. On the other end, the trays with custard tarts ready to go in the freezer were piling up high.

  Around two o’clock, we took a break. My arms needed as much rest as the pastry dough I put in the fridge. While I was there, I also took out what I needed to make us some sandwiches and asked Joel to get us a couple of sodas from the chillers out front.

  We were eating our lunch and discussing the route we would take tomorrow when my uncle walked into the kitchen. He looked at us, and I felt my back go rigid at the look on his face.

  “Good afternoon,” he said, greeting us, but I could hear the strain in his voice. He was trying not to show his disapproval at Joel’s presence in the kitchen. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Joel stood up to greet my uncle by offering his hand to shake. “Olá, Mário. I came to help David while he’s making the custard tarts. I’m not a baker, but I have mastered the scales and the art of cleaning.” I could see Joel was trying to deflect the situation by injecting some humor, but I knew it wouldn’t wash with my uncle. He just nodded, and without shaking Joel's hand, he went out front to start his shift.

  “I’m sorry.” Suddenly I lost my appetite, so I got up to carry on with the work. The earlier I finished it, the earlier I could go home and away from my uncle.

  “Hey,” Joel said, getting up to follow me, “I get it. It’s fine. Look, he’s a jerk, but he can’t deny we’re here doing hard work, so let's ignore him.” He grabbed the scales to start measuring the ingredients for my next batch of custard. “Just think, this time tomorrow we’ll be exploring Évora.”

  Joel was right. Living on the coast was great, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Let’s face it. I got to run on the beach anytime I wanted. However, I had only been to the town of Évora once on a school trip, and there was one place I still remembered well, the Chapel of Bones. As creepy as it was, I wanted to take Joel there.

  Being further inland, Évora, the capital of the south-central Alentejo, also had a different climate. The temperatures were always much higher than in the rest of the country. I could imagine Joel and me chilling out in a taverna, cold beer in hand and not a custard tart in sight. That thought was like a fire lighting up inside me, and I got a renewed rush of energy.

  By around five in the afternoon, I was setting the last few trays of custard tarts in the freezer, and Joel was tidying up. I could almost taste freedom when my aunt came into the kitchen looking worried.

  “What’s up, Tia?” I asked, the concern showing in my tone.

  “We have a customer that is asking for a big favor. I said we couldn’t do it, but he is desperate. I told him I couldn’t make any promises but that I would ask you.”

  “They want a cake for today,” I said, already predicting that would be the urgent request.

  “It’s his niece’s birthday party tomorrow. He was meant to get a cake, but he forgot. He looks so apologetic I’m almost tempted to bake the cake myself—”

  “No!” I interrupted, and my aunt laughed. “I have five hundred custard tarts in the freezer. I’m not risking a fire in this kitchen. Tell him we’ll do it, but it’s one tier only, and the decoration is up to me. He only gets to choose the flavor and theme color. He can pick it up tomorrow morning.”

  And with that, I started preparing the baking tins, but not before I looked at Joel, who witnessed the exchange and was staring at me like I’d grown an extra head.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Wow, you look hot when you’re bossy,” he said, and immediately his cheeks went red as though he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

  “Oh, yeah?” I walked over to him and got as close as I could get without touching him. I looked up at him with my lips so close to his I could feel his erratic breath. “Boss says you’re staying. I want this baking tin greased and floured. You’re not leaving this kitchen until we’re done.” Then I turned toward the pantry to get the ingredients. I only heard Joel whisper “Yes, Sir.”

  It was closer to midnight when I finished the cake. Joel and I looked like the walking dead. I couldn’t even be bothered to do a deep clean of the kitchen like most days. It wasn’t dirty; it would have to do. Even my uncle, displeased as he was about Joel being in the kitchen with me, thanked me for all the work and told me not to worry about the cleaning. He’d do it in the morning. So I took the olive branch and left the café with Joel, my legs aching as we walked home through the quiet streets.

  We were nearly there when I asked Joel if he could stay with me tonight.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yes, I sleep better with you here. I need sleep. Please, Joel.” I was so tired my speech was slurring; I didn’t care if I had to beg.

  “Okay. I’ll just grab a few things from home and will be up in a few minutes. Leave the door open for me,” he said and crossed the road toward his apartment.

  I went up to my apartment, making sure to leave the door unlocked. I had a quick shower, brushed my teeth, put on a pair of boxer shorts, and got into bed. Joel still hadn’t come up by the time exhaustion overtook me, and I fell asleep.

  14

  Joel

  I loved dreaming. Dreaming was awesome, and I never wanted to wake up from this particular dream, ever. I was lying on David’s hard chest, feeling his soft chest hair against my cheek. My arm was wrapped all around his chest with my hand trapped under his torso as though it didn’t want to let him go. Our legs were entwined, with my right leg spread over both of his. I could feel my morning wood pressing against his thigh, and all I wanted was to rub against him, particularly when I felt his hard cock twitching under my inner thigh.
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br />   Like I said, best dream ever. And because I was the boss of my dream, I did what I wanted and pressed closer to David, needing the friction and damning the boxer shorts we were both wearing because I wanted to feel the heat of his skin.

  I heard a moan, and my dream David moved. What?! Fuck. I stilled and slowly opened my eyes, ready for the mortification of being caught dry-humping my friend in my sleep. Maybe I could remove myself from him slowly? Maybe he wasn’t awake yet?

  I started to move carefully, hoping he wouldn’t wake up when I felt his arm tightening around me. I tilted my head up to finally meet his gaze.

  “Morning,” he said, a slow smile on his lips.

  “Er...Hi.” I smiled back with a feeling of déjà vu.

  “I could get used to this, you know,” he said, raising his free hand to push my hair from my face. “Waking up with you wrapped around me.”

  My groan was silenced when David’s mouth came down on mine. This time there were no soft, tentative kisses. David claimed my mouth as though he was a starved man.

  “I've wanted to do this ever since I woke up yesterday with you trying to climb me like a tree in your sleep,” David said, his voice raspy with lust.

  Right, so that explains my “déjà vu.” I could feel David's cock straining against his boxer shorts, still pressing against my body, which was lying half across his.

  “I fell asleep last night before you came back.” His hand caressed my arm, sending little shocks of electricity down my spine.

  “You were out when I got in. I wasn’t sure I should stay, but you asked, so...”

  “Joel, fuck... I need you. I need more. Can we?” And that was all the permission I needed to move. I kneeled down between his legs and pulled his boxers off, his hard cock springing back against the tight abdominal muscles.

  “Fuck, David. You are so beautiful.” His cock wasn’t as long as mine, but it was much thicker with dark veins that I was sure would feel like heaven inside me, gliding against all the right places. I went straight for it, finesse be damned, and stroked his shaft with one hand while my mouth zoned in on his perfect full balls, and I inhaled his unique scent.

  I licked him from his perineum up, sucking his balls into my mouth, one at a time. I could have stayed there forever, but David’s breathy moans were sure to make me come before I wanted to. I licked his shaft, only taking a moment to suck the purple head before taking it all in, all the way down until his crown reached my throat.

  David’s hips bucked up as he lost control over his movements. I was desperately trying to get some friction against the bedsheets, but the boxer shorts I was still wearing were making it impossible to get any relief.

  “Joel!” he shouted, his voice strained. “Please, stop...ugh...I don’t want to come so soon.”

  Happy that I was driving him insane with the need to come, I stopped, and after removing my boxer shorts, I lay on top of him, kissing him, my tongue exploring his.

  One moment I was lost in his mouth not even caring that at some point I’d need oxygen, and the next I was under him, his firm, heavier body pressing down on mine, our hard cocks stuck between us, the friction firing all sorts of sensations up my body.

  “You are very good at that,” David whispered in my ear, biting it, sucking and kissing his way down my neck.

  He continued his assault on my skin, every touch lighting my skin on fire and making me writhe with need. “Huh... David, please.” I wasn’t sure what I was begging for. I just needed more of it. Whatever he could give me.

  David’s kisses were slowly getting closer and closer to my aching cock. I needed his mouth on me, desperately. When I thought I would surely die from anticipation and need, David suddenly stopped. His face showed a mix of lust and uncertainty, and his body was tense. His hesitance made me wonder how much experience he had. With his uncle breathing down his neck, I could understand his reluctance to have a sexually active life, but his face was telling me it was more than that.

  “David,” I whispered, “come up here, baby.” I put my hand on his cheek to coax him up to lie beside me. I aligned my body with his, showing him that his hesitation had done nothing to temper my arousal.

  “I want to touch you so much, but—” he tried to explain, but I interrupted with a kiss.

  “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t need to say it. I get it.” I felt his body relax, so I continued caressing his back while I peppered his face with little kisses.

  “It’s not that I don’t know what to do. I just haven’t done it to anyone, and I want it to be good for you,” he confessed.

  “David, there is nothing you can do that won’t feel right. You know why?” I said, and he shook his head. “Because this is you and me. Let me show you.” It was a statement more than a question, but he nodded his consent.

  I climbed on top of David, our still hard cocks perfectly aligned as I kissed his perfect lips, now plump from my ministrations. As we rubbed against each other, the earlier need to climax returned, and very soon we were both breathless and holding on by a thread.

  I put my hand between us and held both our cocks together, stroking them simultaneously with the movement of my hips. “Let go, baby. I’ve got you,” I said as I increased the speed of my movements.

  David came loud and fast, his cock releasing into my hand as he called out my name.

  His cry and the additional lubrication from his release was all it took for me to go over as I felt my balls draw up tight and pressure build in my lower back until I could no longer hold back.

  I collapsed on top of him, my arms giving up on me. We were both a breathless, tangled mess of limbs, but that didn’t stop David from keeping his arms around me and seeking my mouth for more kissing.

  God, I loved kissing this man. One thing was certain. We needed to talk, and this time I wouldn’t be walking out with no answers because I wasn’t sure I could spend the rest of this holiday not touching him.

  “David, I don’t want to stop this.” Was all I said.

  He let out a sigh—of relief or dread, I couldn’t say because I was too worried about my reaction to his answer to be able to read him accurately.

  “I don’t want to stop it, either. I know you’re going back to America in a few weeks, but can we just see where this leads?”

  His brown eyes looked at me with some raw emotion, and for a moment, I feared the only possible outcome from this was heartbreak. It wouldn’t matter, anyway, because I knew I was already in too deep. David wasn’t just someone I was attracted to. He was the other half of my soul. Without him, I would be forever lonely, regardless of how many people I had around me.

  I still had weeks to consider the ramifications of our actions and my feelings, so I decided that there was only one thing I could do right now.

  “Guess what,” I said with over-the-top enthusiasm.

  “What,” he asked, one eyebrow arched.

  “You’re on vacation! You know what that means, right?” I said, using my elbows to prop myself up.

  “Um...what does it mean?” I could hear a hint of apprehension.

  “You get American pancakes for breakfast,” I said, jumping out of bed and holding out my hand to help him up.

  “This is already the best holiday ever,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “But first, we need a shower because you stink of sex.”

  I pretended to be offended as I turned around to give him a view of my ass as I sashayed toward the bathroom.

  David’s shower was small, barely big enough for one person, but that didn’t stop us from going in together. It was tricky to move around, and we had to take turns to go under the water spray, which meant we also had to touch... a lot. No complaints from me there.

  When we finished showering, I got dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and went to the kitchen to make breakfast while David started loading the car for our trip. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and other than traveling to Évora, we were planning on taking it easy. After all, it was the first day of o
ur vacation together, and while I’d been off work for a couple of weeks, David deserved a chilled start to his time off.

  I got the coffee maker going and started making my grandma’s pancakes. I used strawberries and honey instead of blueberries and maple syrup. I wondered if one day I would have a chance to make the original version for David, but for now, I had to use what was available in David’s kitchen.

  My thoughts of David, blueberries, and maple syrup were distracting me from the actual task at hand, and I’d been close to burning a couple of the pancakes already. Of course, it didn’t help when David came into the kitchen, put his hands around me from behind, and kissed the back of my neck.

  “I hope you like your breakfast tasting like charcoal.” Because that was a sure thing if he didn’t stop rubbing his groin against my ass.

  “Why is that?” He chuckled but didn’t stop kissing my neck, slowly coming around to steal my lips.

  “Because if you don’t stop doing that, I’m going to forget what I’m doing and burn the pancakes.”

  “Or maybe I’ll just have you instead.” He moved his hands under my T-shirt and rubbed circles on my abs, and went up toward my nipples.

  “David.” I swallowed hard, getting myself under control and grabbing his hands to stop him,

  “Food, we need food. Can you set the table? The coffee is ready.”

  With a groan, David grabbed two mugs from the kitchen cabinet and filled them with coffee. I could still feel his hungry eyes on me as he grabbed cutlery and plates.

  “I got an email from the hotel we’re staying at tonight,” David said as he laid the plates on the table.

  “Oh, yeah? Everything okay with our reservation?” We were lucky to find a room for each night we were away. We were still taking the sleeping bags just in case. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to use them.

  “Our room is confirmed, but they had to move us to a sister hotel. Some problems with the plumbing in the bathroom or something. The other location is just outside town. They texted the address.”