by Jodi Payne
When the set ended, he and Chad waited patiently for the trio to pack up. Finally, Owen made his way over, with Carla at his heels. Reese’s heart sank a little when he saw the backpack Chad had put together hanging on Owen’s shoulders.
“Is that ride you offered still good?” Owen asked Chad.
Reese shot Chad a look. “Oh, uh. Wow, what a mess. I’m just going to clean this up.” Chad started gathering up their coffee cups and garbage.
Owen snorted.
Reese jumped on it. “Ride where? I have a car.”
“I’m staying with Carla.”
“Wait. What? But I—”
“We’ll fix this, okay? I just need a little more… space,” Owen told him. He didn’t sound like he was going to accept an argument, but Reese had to try anyway. Needing space was some kind of relationship-ending code, wasn’t it?
“I want you to come home, Owen.”
“I just said—”
“I’ll camp outside Carla’s door.”
Owen shook his head. “Good luck with that. She has a doorman.”
“I’ll call you all night long.”
“I’ll turn my phone off again.” Owen crossed his arms.
Reese grinned at him. “I’ll throw rocks at her window.”
“Come on, Reese.”
“I will! I’ll throw rocks at her window, and I’ll stand on the sidewalk and play Peter Gabriel at an insane volume holding a boom box over my head until I get arrested, and then… then I’ll use my one phone call to call her landline and… I’ll cry.”
Owen rolled his eyes.
“I’ll sleep on the couch. I’ll sleep on the couch for as long as you want.” He knew he was begging; he’d hit his knees if he had to. “Come home. Please, Owen.”
Carla had been standing right behind Owen for most of Reese’s outburst. She finally broke her silence. “I don’t know about you, but I really can’t stand to listen to a grown man cry.”
“Oh, you shut up, Carla James. You’re no help!” Owen gave her a light shove. He looked back at Reese, and then right past him. “You put him up to this?”
Reese turned just enough to see Chad shrug.
“Dammit, Reese. You scared the crap out of me. I didn’t know what to do. The look in your eyes and then that awful crash… I didn’t know the man in that office. I absolutely refuse to feel that way again. We have to talk about this.”
Reese nodded. “Yes. Of course. We’ll talk. Any time.”
“And you’re still an asshole.”
“I accept that, and I’m sorry.” He’d say it a thousand times if he had to.
Owen sighed. “Fine.”
“Fine, you’ll come home?”
Owen groaned. “Yes, fine, I’ll come home.”
“Can I kiss you?”
Owen looked like he was thinking about it, but Carla seemed to have found a comfy niche in their argument now. “Don’t push it,” she said with a snort. Behind him, Chad snickered.
Owen shrugged and grinned at Reese, and he couldn’t help himself and smiled back. “So, you have a car you said?” Owen asked. “Because I’m not hauling my ass on the subway again when I have you around to spoil me.”
He pulled out his phone and dialed up a car. Carla gave Owen a very sweet smile and then looked Reese up and down and gave him the stink eye. “If I hear from my boy tonight, you and I are going to have a talk. And you are not going to like it.” She turned back to Owen, smiled, and winked before heading for the door.
Reese whistled. “Wow, I’m really in the doghouse, now, huh?”
Owen laughed. “Not the doghouse, just the couch.”
Reese saw Carla give Chad a high-five on her way by, and watched as Chad smiled at her and followed her out of the café. Reese squinted at their backs, wondering if he and Owen had just been very skillfully played. He decided it didn’t matter. If they had, it couldn’t have been by better people.
EVERYTHING ABOUT the car ride home had been silent. The trip up the elevator was also silent. Reese put the key in the lock and the door opened easily. He pushed it wide to let Owen get his cello through and then locked it behind them. Owen went straight to his corner of the living room and set his cello down, then looked at Reese and headed for the office.
“Oh, uh, I…. You don’t need to—” Reese tried to stop him, but it was no use. Owen went right in.
“Oh, Reese.” Owen sighed. “Your mom’s cabinet.”
“Please, I know. I’m already plenty ashamed of myself. There’s no need to make it worse. I have someone coming to pick it up on Saturday.”
Owen looked around. “You cleaned up.”
“I had to do something while I was panicking about whether I would ever see you again.”
“Reese.”
“I mean, everybody leaves, you know? So.”
“Oh, babe.” Owen turned and kissed Reese on the forehead.
“No one’s ever come back, you know that? You’re the first.”
“You have to trust, Reese.”
“Mm. Lots of therapy and I’m still remarkably lacking in that department.” Reese hooked his fingers around Owen’s arm and gently led him from the room. “Then again, if I’d just trusted, you might be at Carla’s again tonight.” Owen let Reese sit him down on the couch. “Drink?” Reese was going to get himself one.
“That’s becoming a habit.” Owen’s tone was meant to sting.
Reese went still and straightened up. Okay, he got it. He’d been an ass and Owen needed to get a dig in here and there. Fine. But this one he couldn’t let go. “Owen, I want you to know—I did not have too much to drink the other night.” He turned to look at his lover. “I had one drink. That was all. For whatever it’s worth, the asshole who treated you like crap that afternoon was stone-cold sober.”
Owen took in a breath and exhaled slowly. “Okay. I’m not sure that’s better, but I hear you. I’m sorry, babe.”
Reese nodded. “And just so you know, I didn’t choose drinking over coming to bed, okay? I honestly didn’t see you on the couch. I just… I was writing the end of the book and it wasn’t… turning out at all as I had expected.”
“You finished the book?”
Reese nodded. “Yeah. I mean it’s a rough first draft, but I did type The End.”
“Wow. So, why wasn’t it what you expected?”
“There’s going to be a book five.”
“Oh.” Owen leaned back in the couch. “I’ll have a beer.”
“Yep. Know that feeling.” Reese shook his head. Owen sounded about as ready for a book five as he was. He went to the kitchen and brought back two beers. After he’d sat down facing Owen on the couch, he said, “I know you were shocked. I know I worried you. To be honest, it concerns me too, that I get that way, disappearing for a day or more. You know it’s not very often that I get like that, but I don’t know when it’s going to happen, and I don’t know if there is a lot I can do about it.”
“Reese—”
“But that temper. What I can’t do anymore is lose it like that—on you, on Chad…. I know I scared you, and that can’t happen again. I know that.”
“No, you’re right about that.” Owen sipped his beer.
They sat there for a long time, sipping their beers and just being in each other’s company. Finally, Owen stood up.
“So, I’m going to bed. I have a lot to say, I think we even have good things to say, but I can’t make sense of it all right now. I’m worn out.”
Reese nodded. “I understand.”
Owen rested a hand on his shoulder. “I love you. We’ll figure this out.”
He caught hold of Owen’s hand and stood. “Thank you. I don’t deserve it, but thank you.”
“Oh, babe.” Owen favored Reese with those beautiful brown eyes. “You do deserve it. I deserve it too. Get some rest.” Owen gently tugged his hand free and disappeared into the bedroom.
AS SOON as Owen said to get some rest, everything in him suddenly felt heavy. His fe
et were full of lead, and it was real work to keep his eyelids from closing. He grabbed a blanket out of his office, closed the living room curtains, stripped down to his boxers, and turned on the TV with the volume down low. He didn’t actually watch the TV at all. His body sank into the soft couch and he was out like a light in moments.
When he woke up, there was bright morning light streaming in through a crack in one of the living room curtains. He sat up and rolled his neck from one side to the other, working out the stiffness of sleeping on a couch. He stood up and made his way to the kitchen to see if there was coffee, something Owen usually did every morning. The coffeemaker was empty and cold, so he set it up himself.
While it was brewing, he headed to the bathroom. The bed was so disheveled it was hard to tell if Owen was in it or not, but he tiptoed by just in case, only to be met by the sound of the shower as he approached the bathroom. He knocked on the door and then went in.
“Sorry, babe. I don’t mean to interrupt, but I really have to pee.”
The bathroom was L-shaped with the toilet at one end and the shower at the other, so it really was possible for someone to use the commode and still have privacy in the glassed-in shower. Reese scooted past quickly.
“Hey, did I just see you?” Owen called.
“Yeah, didn’t you hear me? I just have to pee, and then I’ll be out of your hair,” he shouted.
The water shut off. “I’m all done.”
“Okay, let me just—”
“Reese. It’s fine. You do live here, and we only have the one bathroom.” Owen appeared around the corner with a towel wrapped around his hips.
“I know, I was trying to—” He moved to the sink to wash up.
“I know. Thank you.” Owen smiled at him.
“I’m so glad you’re home. This isn’t my apartment anymore. It’s ours. There isn’t a corner anywhere that doesn’t remind me of you. It felt so empty without you in it. Lonely.”
“I’m sorry I walked out, Reese. I just didn’t know what else to do. You scared me.”
He nodded and washed his hands. “I know. I get it. But then imagine how I felt when you wouldn’t at least call back.”
“We both could have handled this better.”
He leaned against the bathroom counter. “So what now?”
“Well, we have to work some things out. And maybe we need—”
“Counseling.” Reese nodded.
“Actually, I was thinking make-up sex. It’s cheaper.”
Reese shrugged and smiled, closing the distance between them in one long stride. “We could try that first.” He pushed his boxers down and stepped right out of them.
“Eager.”
“Love you.”
“Oh, Reese—” Owen’s words disappeared into Reese’s kiss. He threaded his fingers into Owen’s wet hair, and Owen leaned in close. Their kiss was intense, and the longer it went on, the more possessive he felt, the more he wanted Owen to know they belonged to each other.
Reese slid his hands over Owen’s warm, damp skin. Owen was the most precious thing in his life, and he planned to prove it. He let his lips follow his fingers, down the line of Owen’s neck and over the curve of his shoulder. Owen arched his neck appreciatively and hummed softly.
He rested a hand on Owen’s chest and stroked his thumb over a dark nipple. Owen gasped and shuddered for him, leaning into the touch and taking hold of one of his arms for balance. Owen caught the back of Reese’s neck with his other hand and pulled him into another kiss.
Their lips met, and their tongues sparred hotly with each other. When Owen finally relented, Reese swept his tongue through Owen’s mouth and sealed their lips together, his kiss growing deep and hungry. Owen melted against him, and rolled his hips slowly so their cocks slid against one another, sending fire into Reese’s very soul.
Owen broke the kiss and inhaled sharply. “Reese. I—”
“Whatever you need, babe, I’m yours,” Reese assured him, his voice low. Owen nodded and reached a hand down between them, circling his fingers around both of their erections and squeezing them together. Reese’s body responded instantly. Chills spread like wildfire over his skin, and his cock stretched and filled so quickly it forced him to groan.
Owen pulled Reese over to the bed. He climbed up on it and stretched out on his back, his own erection full and wanting. Reese took Owen’s silent request to heart and pulled a condom and lube from the nightstand while Owen slipped a hand around his erection and stroked himself slowly.
“You’re so beautiful,” Reese encouraged Owen softly. “Just stay like that, wait for me.” Reese rolled on the condom and popped open the lube. As he joined Owen in bed, he worked Owen’s knees apart. Owen gasped as Reese slid a slippery finger inside him. “That’s right.”
He watched Owen intently, studied his face. He’d learned by now what every little twitch of Owen’s hips meant, what every moan was telling him. He understood every bit of Owen’s breathing, knew the way his fingers clenched and unclenched. It was all in Owen’s body, on his face like a confession. Reese worked a second finger inside and waited for that moment, the moment when Owen’s body relaxed and he was ready. It didn’t take long.
Owen took in a shuddering breath, and when he exhaled, his knees fell open wider and his hips started to move, wanting, asking for more. Reese slicked himself with his other hand and then leaned over Owen and kissed him hard. Owen moaned into his mouth, and Reese let his fingers fall away as he pushed slowly inside.
Owen moaned into Reese’s mouth, and Reese relented, letting him get air.
“Reese.”
Reese started to move, rocking steadily, rhythmically into Owen with long strokes. “I love you.”
Owen nodded. His brow was furrowed, but his eyes met Reese’s. “I know.”
Reese kissed him again and picked up his pace. Owen moved with him, arching and grinding against Reese. Owen’s tight heat felt like nothing else; Reese couldn’t get enough. “Owen,” Reese said with a growl. “I love you.”
“I know.” Owen was panting now, and his voice was strained. “Oh God. Reese. I know.”
Good. Reese needed Owen to know. Those words said everything Reese wanted to say. I’m sorry. Forgive me. I’d never hurt you. I’m not that man; I’m this one. “I love you, I—”
“Oh!” Owen gasped, the orgasm taking Reese by surprise. He’d been so caught up in Owen’s heat, in making sure Owen felt everything he couldn’t say, that he’d missed the signs.
Owen had disappeared for a moment, somewhere hot and beautiful, and Reese memorized every detail of his lover’s expression. He would hold on to that little bit of Owen’s secret dreams until the day he died. That look of anguish and pleasure, that feeling of getting everything you want and letting it all go at the same time. Reese couldn’t get enough.
And that look was everything Reese needed. He started to piston heavily into Owen, chasing his lover right over the edge.
“Owen!” Reese shouted as he came, his cock throbbing powerfully and his hips trembling. He rode it out, wave after wave until he was completely spent. He dropped his head and rested it on Owen’s chest with a soft moan.
“I love you too.” Owen choked out the words and gulped in air.
“Oh, babe.” Reese was still breathless and his voice was hoarse, but he could feel Owen’s body shaking beneath him with soft sobs. “That’s it. That’s all right, babe.” He cradled Owen’s jaw in one hand and covered his face in light kisses, soothing away salty tears until whatever had a hold of Owen let him go.
“Reese.”
“I’m right here, Owen.”
“Thank you. Oh God. Thank you.”
Reese knew that gratitude. He felt it himself. “I know. I want what you want, love.”
Owen lifted his head and looked at Reese, eyes red. “Please, Reese. Please don’t shout at me like that again.”
So much of what Owen could have said, what Reese knew he needed to say, was invested in those few wo
rds, and Reese answered them with words of equal weight. “No, Owen. Never again. You have to help me, though. Will you? I need you.”
Owen nodded. “I will.”
Reese felt as if he and Owen had just dropped an anchor that would never give way.
Chapter XXI
DINNER AT William’s was so much more fun now that Reese wasn’t the only single man in the room.
The hottest man on earth had his arm around Owen’s shoulders as they sat together on the couch. Reese was having difficulty keeping his eyes off them.
“Well. It really doesn’t get any sexier than that,” Joe said in his ear.
Reese shrugged. “They could be naked.”
“Let’s try that sometime,” Joe suggested. Reese looked over at him, sure he was kidding, but Joe had a completely straight face. “Or not?”
“Damn, Joe.” Reese laughed. “I do believe that Owen has ruined me for other men.” Reese grinned and accepted a glass of wine from Joe.
Joe just shook his head. “So I heard you finished your book?”
“I did.”
“Excellent. And what’s it called?”
“Too Close for Comfort.”
Joe nodded approvingly. “You actually found a title!”
Reese shrugged and sipped his wine. “I always do. Eventually.” That one had actually come out of nowhere while he was washing dishes with Owen a couple of nights ago.
“And how long now since Owen moved in?”
“About a month,” Reese replied, knowing what Joe would ask next.
“Things are still going well?”
Such nosy, nosy friends he had. Reese nodded. “It’s perfect. I mean, it’s perfectly imperfect, but it works for us.”