Dreaming in Color

by Cameron Dane

  “I didn't,” Colin said. Clearly feeling well in control, he toed off his sneakers and then his socks as he talked. “I had someone else with a bigger boat, like yours, bring me and drop me off.”

  A slice of fear rippled up Marek's back and tightened his throat. “And what do you think is going to happen here…” His voice sounded breathy and a little choked to his own ears. “…to bring you all the way out here at night, in this weather?”

  Colin shrugged. “Don't know for sure.” He lifted his T-shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor, leaving him only in a pair of damp jeans. He undid the snap, bringing Marek's attention to the line of his scar. Colin worked the zipper down about halfway, revealing a triangle of white underwear, and Marek swallowed convulsively. Fuck. He could see the bulge already growing behind the fabric.

  “I can tell you one thing though,” Colin added. Rubbing his hand over his prick and then his stomach and chest, Colin guided Marek up to his eyes. Smoldering heat enriched the green. He licked the corner of his lip, a nervous tell, but it only made Marek's dick swell in response.

  Marek rubbed his fingers over his throat and wrapped his palm around the back of his neck. “Uh-huh.” He lost his voice and tried again. “And what is that?”

  Leaving his jeans spread in the front, Colin reached around and pushed his hand into the back, moaning when it disappeared all the way to his wrist. He looked at Marek, and the raw heat of sex darkened his eyes to the colors landscaping Marek's mountain. “I have a butt plug in my ass right now,” Colin said. “Keeping me right on the edge.” His confession knocked Marek's legs out and took him down to the stairs. Colin moved in closer, and put his crotch right in front of Marek's face. He stared down, holding Marek's gaze. “But I want it to be you.”

  Marek looked, listened, absorbed, but he could not move, and his voice abandoned him. He could not tear his stare away from this man standing before him for the world, though, and his loneliness combined with a terrible hunger, terrifying him with his need to mate. With Colin.

  Colin darted his tongue against the corner of his mouth again, and he slipped his hand out of his jeans. His focus, less sure now, didn't hold as steady as a moment ago. “I understand why you got scared and ran,” he said. His voice wasn't quite as strong, but his chin jutted with character Marek admired. “I don't blame you for getting freaked out. It was an odd coincidence, and I can't even begin to imagine how it must have thrown you for one hell of a loop. I want you, Marek, and I think you want me just as much. But if you—we—wait until you never have another thought about Payton, then this will never happen.”

  Marek closed his eyes against the wash of old pain, reliving it, although he did it now in the muted shades of a watercolor rather than a slash of red or black done in thick oils.

  A hand cupped his cheek, and Marek opened his eyes to find Colin kneeling before him. “I know you don't want to talk about Payton, and I'm probably crossing a line just saying his name. That only tells me you must have loved him deeply, and I suspect you haven't been with anyone since him. Because of that, I believe you will think of him sometimes in intimate situations, at least for a while. I don't know for sure, because I haven't ever been in love with anyone like that, but I'm trying to accept that you have. You have to give me a chance though, or we can't ever see if we have something special. If it will make you feel better, I'll tell you I haven't had sex in a really long time either. I'm nervous, not only because of just doing it again, but because it's with you. I've never wanted it so much, and it's also never felt so important to me before. What if I'm not—”

  Marek whipped his hand out and covered Colin's mouth. “Stop.” He couldn't stand to hear another word without crumbling. “Christ, Colin.” Marek's fingers shook as he let go and wiped his upper lip. “You're here to kill me. Aren't you?” Damn it. Marek had never dealt with anyone quite like Colin before. The combination of sweetness, uncertainty, and sheer balls the man possessed took Marek over more powerfully than the strongest alcohol. He was sexier than any one man had a right to be too. “Let me see it.”

  Colin's brow furrowed. “See what?”

  How quickly he forgot. “Take off the rest of your clothes.” Marek tensed, steeling himself not to come on the spot. Colin was right, though. He wanted this. And in this moment, Marek did not possess the strength to walk away. “Let me see the plug in your ass.”

  “Oh.” A blush stole over Colin's entire face. He could feel the burn. “Right.”

  As Colin stood before Marek, his insides flooded with fear-based adrenaline, buzzing him with another layer of nervous energy as he second- and third-guessed this aggressive move. He remembered standing in front of the bathroom mirror at the bungalow, watching himself, thinking this was such a good idea as he pushed the red toy all the way into his lubed passage, not stopping until only the circular base marked a bull's-eye on his ass. Now, standing in front of Marek, Colin knew he was no lothario. He had no idea how he'd even gotten his shoes and shirt off without visibly shaking all over and giving himself away.

  Why did I do this? He's going to laugh.

  Chewing on his cheek, Colin finished lowering his zipper and wiggled his jeans to the floor, leaving him in a pair of small, white briefs. His dick pushed half-hard against the fabric, as it had done since he had eased the butt plug into his rectum. Colin stiffened to full arousal as he imagined Marek removing the toy and replacing it with his cock. He chanced a glance at Marek but could not read the granite-hard lines mapping the man's shadowed face.

  If he laughs, at least he won't be sad.

  Turning away, Colin squeezed his eyes shut and shoved his underwear down his legs in one move, his channel clenching as tightly as needed to hold the plug in, purely on fear.

  Marek made a strangled noise behind him then uttered, “Holy shit. You weren't lying.”

  “No.” Colin chuckled, but it came out more like a trill. “Be hard for me to fake it when I undressed.”

  A rough, big palm caressed across his ass cheeks, and Colin trembled. Pressure settled against the base of the plug and nudged it against his filled hole, reviving the nerve endings in his chute. Colin locked his legs and breathed through the small movement.

  Heat snaked along the lines of Colin's backside, and a moment later, Marek's lips brushed a kiss over his bare hip. Colin opened his eyes, looked down, and saw Marek's knees spread on either side of his feet.

  God, he's so close. I'm afraid to move. All Colin could do was will himself to stand as still as possible and feel.

  Marek's mouth stayed right on Colin's skin, spreading warmth to every molecule in his body. “You like having something inside you?” he asked. He licked Colin's flesh and, at the same time, slowly withdrew the toy, screamed lines of pleasure over Colin's anal walls, and stretched his entrance with renewed thickness. “In your ass?” Marek left just the tip of the plug resting inside Colin's anus, tormenting him with the tease of more. “In your mouth?”

  The toy eased back in, and Colin whimpered. “Yes.” Unable to hold to his wish, Colin shook all over, and his rigid, blood-filled cock leaked drops of precum onto the floor. He lifted his hand from his side and ran his fingers through Marek's hair, needing a place to hold. Marek worked the silicone in Colin's ass with full, measured strokes, giving Colin what he wanted, but not what he needed.

  Colin clenched his fingers in Marek's hair. His head fell back, and his channel quivered with another full penetration of the plug. “I couldn't wait to go to sleep.” Colin exhaled, trying to regain control, but his mouth and heart raced at speeds he could not catch. “You stuffed my ass and mouth full with you every night in my dreams.”

  “Jesus.” Marek dragged his teeth over Colin's leg, marking his skin with angry lines of red as he spun Colin around. He looked up and flicked his tongue across the slit on Colin's cock. “Maybe it's time I said thank you for the gift.” He pushed Colin's prick up flat against his stomach and licked a line all the way up the underside, from root to tip, th
en took the head past his lips and sucked.

  Colin immediately went up in flames. “Ohhh shittt…” He stumbled backward and grabbed the banister, sinking his trimmed fingernails into the unforgiving wood with all of his might. Oh fuck. His cock had forgotten what a blowjob felt like. Every ounce of blood shot right to his penis, making Colin fucking hard and thick and barely able to think. He looked down at Marek, and he was so goddamned aroused his eyes hazed the image of Marek's lips wrapped around his dick.

  “Suck me,” Colin begged. Marek picked up the pace, twisting his lips and mouth all around Colin's erection and taking more of his length with every deep drag. “Oh yeah…” Colin bit his lip and pumped his hips into Marek's face. “Just like that.”

  Marek still held a hand over the plug in Colin's ass, and he circled it again, working the walls of Colin's channel into a frenzy. Between the mouth on his cock and the toy in his butt, Colin didn't know whether he was coming or going. He gyrated his entire body as if a thousand fingers danced over his bare skin, and he fought the sensation that his insides were going to implode. Too quickly, Colin tipped dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. As if he knew, Marek yanked the plug out of Colin's passage and shoved his fingers inside, going deep once and then right for his kill spot. He wrapped his other hand around the base of Colin's cock in a vise-tight hold, rolled the head around in the wet cavern of his mouth with his tongue, and swiped the tips of two fingers over Colin's prostate, slamming Colin right into orgasm.

  Colin threw back his head, his spine bowed under the heightened torment, and he roared to the rafters while shooting line after line of cum deep into Marek's mouth. His chute contracted all around Marek's fingers in rippling waves, and every muscle in his body tensed with acute, nearly perfect pleasure.

  Before the final ebb receded, Colin knocked Marek's fingers out of his asshole, pulled his cock from between the man's lips, and dropped to his knees. His eyes found the spark of blue in Marek's, and the other man's labored breathing matched Colin's inability to return to a place of normal. Staring, almost doing combat without touching, they grabbed each other's faces in rough, painful holds, coming at each other like a couple of starved animals. Colin slashed his mouth over Marek's and kissed him with violence. He tasted blood, but he didn't know to which one of them it belonged. Marek licked and bit back, and Colin could taste the need and desperation in the other man's kiss, recognizing it as strongly as his own.

  Colin held Marek's head in the crushing clutch of his hands and pressed his open mouth all over the man's face, ending back at his mouth. “Fuck me,” Colin pleaded, his voice barely a scrape of sound. He tied himself to Marek in their mutual stare and lowered himself down to the floor, pulling Marek on top of him. His legs fell open naturally, and Marek immediately filled the empty space.

  “Fuck me now.” His chest paining him, Colin rubbed his palms over the planes of Marek's harsh face and petted his mess of hair. “Please.”

  His eyes burning bright, Marek nodded with a small, jerky move. He pushed his underwear down to his hips, freed his cock, and lined the thick head up with Colin's hole. Colin inhaled at first contact, and Marek pushed his penis inside.

  Marek dropped his gaze and looked down, watching himself withdraw and sink his cock deep into Colin's ass. “Ohh…Jesus, Jesus.” He shook his head and pumped his hips, filling Colin's channel again. “Hot…feels so goddamned tight.” Marek clenched his jaw and planted his hands on either side of Colin's torso, the move rolling the muscles in his arms and shoulders in a stunning display. Still staring between them, Marek started to thrust with faster, sure strokes, sliding wonderful friction all along Colin's flaming passage.

  Colin moaned at the shivery sensation marking his chute. Marek pulled out completely and speared Colin's open pucker again, pushing until he could go no farther. Shoving his hips up, Colin tried to take every centimeter of Marek's thick, hot length, groaning with a clawing need for more. Colin's hold slipped to Marek's shoulders and down his arms, but then he switched to under his own legs and drew them up to his chest, straining his thigh muscles with delight and opening his ass in a different way.

  Swearing, Marek shifted his body higher over Colin and bore down on his hole at a new angle. He brought his entire weight down on Colin with a wonderful crush and speared his prick deep in Colin's ass.

  “Oh, God, yes.” Frantic and nearly out of control, Colin hooked his arms under his knees and forced his legs to either side of his chest, somehow spreading himself even wider. His cock jammed hard into Marek's belly, firm with arousal once again. “Take me. Fucking make me feel it all over.”

  Marek put a bruising hold on Colin's jaw, locking him in a dark, wild stare as he pummeled Colin's chute with piston-fast strokes. Colin grunted with every shove of his back into the hard floor, but he reveled in the fierce fucking and did not dare blink or look away. His entire body shrieked with discomfort at the contortions he put himself in, his passage burned with this aggressive, renewed use, and Colin had never wanted anything more.

  Gritting his teeth, Colin turned his head and pressed a kiss to the inside of Marek's wrist, overwhelmed by tender emotions in the mix of this primal coupling. A strangled noise escaped Marek; he crushed his mouth down on Colin's, breathing with deep heaves. His entire body trembled, and in a split second, he came, spilling a gush of wet heat into Colin's ass.

  Oh fuck. Colin's cock jerked, and his balls tucked up tight as realization hit him. Marek did me bare. He shook, never having felt someone come inside him before. Knowing he should be terrified, instead, Colin pulsed all over in reaction and came himself, shooting his seed on Marek's stomach.

  Just as fast as they both reached orgasm, Marek pushed off Colin in a shot, making him wince at the quick pullout of cock from his ass. Marek turned, looking all around, as if he didn't recognize his own home.

  The first trickle of fear ran down Colin's spine. “Marek?”

  “Umm…” His eyes wide, the man looked lost, and Colin's heart seized with pain, worse than those first nights in his dreams. “I can't… I need to think…” Marek backed up to the stairs and held onto the railing like a lifeline on a sinking ship. “You know where everything is. Excuse me. I have to go.” He raced up the stairs, disappearing in the direction of his bedroom.

  Running again.

  Rain poured, and the wind whipped up outside, gusting into the house with a wave of cold Colin hadn't felt two minutes ago.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Stamping down the pain of rejection lancing through him, Colin pushed himself upright, even as every muscle in his body protested the move. He walked into the TV room then the computer room to shut the windows, careful of the areas of the floor slick with the spatter of rain. He quickly cleaned himself up in the downstairs bathroom and put on a pair of sweats from his duffel bag. After that, he grabbed the towels from under the sink and went about drying the wet floors in the front rooms. Marek might not care about this house, but Colin would not let it fall apart any more than it already had.

  He wasn't going anywhere.

  At least not tonight.

  Chapter Eleven

  Wind from the storm beat tree limbs against the side of the house, mimicking the distress of the man on the couch who tossed and turned, turmoil clearly ruling his sleep. Colin lay tangled in a blanket, perspiring, and as Marek stood in the doorway, staring, guilt slowly devoured him inside.

  I've hurt him so much already, in ways he doesn't even know, and now I've given him new reasons to fight demons in his sleep. Maybe it's best I leave him alone. For good.

  Still, rather than retreat to his bedroom entirely, Marek moved to the stairs and sat down about halfway up the steps, listening to the agitation in the slumbering man one room away. He would stay close to Colin for the simple, messy, dangerous fact that he could no longer keep away.

  * * * * *

  Colin glanced at the clock and silently cursed the time, but continued to push his mop across the kitchen floor. He crank
ed up the radio and kept a beat with the country song playing as he worked. His mother was going to kill him for staying later than usual to help with the cleaning, but his boss had a guy call in sick and needed help closing up the restaurant. Colin figured if he helped now, then maybe the next time Sal needed to hire another waiter, he'd promote Colin from bussing tables and give him a shot at the job. His mom might have to stay up past midnight to give him a ride home, but it was Friday, and she didn't have to work tomorrow. When Colin explained his position to her, she would understand. He probably should have just called, but the time he was released from work on the weekends was somewhat flexible anyway, and at the time Sal asked, Colin hadn't figured it would be long enough overtime that she would notice.

  “Hey, kid”—Sal pushed through the swinging door and walked into the kitchen, trash bags in hand—“take the trash out for me, and then you can go ahead and call your ride. Okay?”

  “You sure?” Colin asked. “I'm done mopping in here.” He ended by the side exit. After leaning the mop against the wall, he wiped his hands on his short-sleeve, white shirt. “I could do the front for you, if you want.”

  “Nope. Marta, Sierra, and I will take care of the rest.” Sal mentioned his wife and one of the servers. “I appreciate you staying and helping out. Take home what you want of that bread”—he pointed in the direction of a shelf with a half dozen wrapped loaves sitting on it—“and throw the rest away.”

  “Thanks. Got it.”

  Sal disappeared into the body of the restaurant again, and Colin gathered up the rest of the trash in the kitchen, then loaded it onto a small pallet he could use to drag everything in one trip to the Dumpster tucked away around back. He grabbed the keys off a hook by the door, slipped them in the pocket of his waist apron, and pushed the door open with his back. Hauling the pallet outside, Colin let the door swing closed. He used the light at the back of the building and the lamplights from the street to guide him over the grimy, uneven concrete of the alleyway.