Taking Lead

by Dallas Redford

  I chastise myself.

  Friends only.

  I want him.

  It doesn’t matter. In a few hours, he would be on a plane, flying back to Fairview. The problem was solving itself. I’d dealt with it before, I could do it again.

  Going slow with my bum ankle was the only thing that prevented me from falling over when I saw him.

  Were my beer goggles playing tricks on me?

  “Hey babe,” Davis says, his deep timbre rolling over me in a way that it shouldn’t. He’s leaning against the pillar, in a dark windowpane checked suit with a white shirt. His shirt was open at the neck showing just enough of his chest hair and a thin gold chain. The soft yellow street lamp light gilded the edges of his hair with traces of precious metal. His smile was bright even in the darkness. Just two words from the mouth of your friend’s dad wasn’t supposed to reach out and stiffen your cock like this.

  But they did.

  My heart shouldn’t have been pounding. But it was.

  “Hey,” I said. I started my way up my stairs, but I landed wrong on my fucking ankle on the second to last stair. “Fuck!”

  He was right there behind me. I was up in his arms in before I knew it, his beautiful dark eyes were staring down into mine in the pale light. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” I mutter, feeling helpless as the pain shoots up my leg. The proximity causes my cock to stir. Jesus, just smelling his cologne mixed in whatever that is that pours out of his own damn pores sends me. His neck looks so strong in the moonlight. I want to lick his neck. I don’t know why, but I do. Feeling the strength of his arms around me. Would playing the helpless card get me laid by this fucking god of a man? My “friend.” I’m tempted to play it.

  “It’s my ankle,” I tell him.

  I can see the genuine concern in his eyes. “We need to get you to a doctor tomorrow, first thing.”

  I take out my keys and somehow, he manages to unlock my door while still holding me.

  “No. I pulled it. Playing ball. It’ll be fine.” As we enter the darkness, I know I probably need to be walking to keep my Man Card, but there is something about the way he’s holding me—because fuck it, he isn’t holding me, he is cradling me. Like I’m something precious. And my head can’t help but fall against his shoulder as he takes control.

  I remember that he doesn’t know my house, so I tell him which way to go even though it’s not so large that he wouldn’t have figured it out. He’s passed the sofa. He’s looking for my bedroom.

  My cock throbs at that. Davis and me in my bedroom.

  Me licking his neck.

  I laugh at my stupid private joke.

  Is it possible for someone to turn your whole body on? With every inch of their body? I suspect he has sexy ribs and sexy mid-calves and sexy body parts that other mere mortals just don’t fucking have. I have the image from that first day in my mind. I start to regret that I never got to explore him like I wanted before he levied his “friendship” terms. Just hasty attempts, us fumbling together.

  But he was just on my doorstep.

  He’s probably come to say goodbye, I tell myself before my brain even starts trying to make this something it isn’t. I can’t ask him why he’s here because I don’t care why he is, I’m just pleased he is. At least I think I’m pleased.

  I wish he was here to hold me in his arms and press his lips against mine. I’m tenting in my pants just from his touch. I sigh as he places me down on my bed. My face heats with embarrassment because I am acting like the star of a Victorian drama about to be ravished by the lord of the manor.

  God, I’m a mess.

  He leaves me.

  Next, the light from the kitchen pools beyond my bedroom doorway. Davis is banging around in there. “Did you just move in?” he calls.

  “No. My girlfriend just moved out.”

  He’s at the doorway in seconds. “Girlfriend. Right. Right. Knew you had a girl. Didn’t know you guys had already moved in, though.”

  There is something in his voice, but I can’t make it out. I certainly can’t make out his face, shrouded in darkness, because the light is behind him. We never got around to discussing Rebecca. Just Cindy and barely that.

  “It wasn’t that serious,” I say. “She was insane.”

  He breathes deeply. I can feel that he wants to say something but then the moment falls away and the air feels lighter, so I ignore what might have been said. The feeling that if he’d said what he wanted to say it wouldn’t have been good.

  “Did you take something for your ankle?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “I want to sleep. I was tipsy. Now I’m sobering up. I’m beat. It’s been a long day.” Tiredness descends upon me. Or maybe it’s the stress of all that’s happened in the last few days. If he’s going to say goodbye, I want him to do it and go.

  “Okay,” he says, and I can’t stop myself for hunting for a trace of a clue in his shadowed face of what he wants. What his true feelings are.

  He exits. The light winks out in the kitchen.

  My heart clenches.

  I listen to his footsteps and soon he’s stepped back into my room where a shaft of moonlight catches him at the threshold, lighting his hair with the coolness of silver.

  I scoot my body over to one side of the bed, hoping he’ll get the message that he’s more than welcome. Sure, my ankle pulses with pain, but I also have an ache in my balls that’s so freaking deep, I feel like I might ignite. I want him to stay. At the very least we can get some relief together. As friends.

  He places a knee on the side my side of the bed. Instead of saying goodbye, he says, “Can you sit up?”

  I do.

  I feel his finger start at my neck and he gently begins to undo the buttons of my shirt. My dick, goes crazy, throbs and throbs as it comes back alive. He’s undressing me. I don’t even know if it’s sexual but my body flames.

  His actions are slow. Tender. Irritation tries to move in. We can’t be together. Okay, fine. But, if we’re only gonna fuck, I don’t want this. Him babying me. Being so careful. I can’t take the risk that I might start to care. If anything, I’d prefer him rough and impersonal. Frenzied. Just two dudes doing what dudes do. But, like this, I can feel emotion tethering us in every brush of his fingertips.

  Removing the shirt, he chances against my nipple and I shiver.

  “Sorry,” he says.

  “It’s okay.” I can’t get my voice above a whisper.

  How could something so simple, like the removal of my shirt send my emotions flying? Start my fucking heart soaring? My cock presses insistently against my pants.

  It’s not about sex. He thinks I’m helpless.

  He’s more careful when it comes to undoing my fly. He navigates around my erection like the nuclear zone it is. I ache for him to touch me. Even by accident. Anything would do. He extricates my aching ankle from one pant leg with precision and then he gets the pants totally off me. I’m exposed and needy, lying there with my hard dick trapped in my boxer briefs. He reaches below me and gathers my blanket which he pulls over me.

  “I’m going to get you a glass of water,” he says.

  Maybe he is staying. Maybe he feels the same as me.

  He comes back into the room with the glass of water. He’s also located the Advil. He places the glass and a couple of pills on my bedside table. “Take these in the morning with the water and eat something. You’re going to be hungry and dehydrated.”

  Fuck. My heart shatters.

  I’m not going to respond. There’s nothing to say.

  Why did he even fucking come here tonight? I listen to him as he goes to leave. I can’t help myself. “You’re going?” I ask. I hate myself for the fucking tone in my voice, hurt and disappointment. Need.

  “I probably should,” he says, softly, pausing in the doorway.

  “Davis, just—Davis, please stay. Come on, man.”

  I see the fight within him.

  My heart surges when he moves back into
the room, the hardwood creaking under his feet. For a moment, he just stands there in the dark. Then, he begins to undress. I watch him remove his shirt. There’s none of the tenderness there that he had when he removed my clothes, unwrapping me like a fucking present. A present he doesn’t want.

  His muscular chest and tapered abs come into view in the pale light. My cock salutes them.

  Is it possible he’s grown more fucking perfect since yesterday? He shucks his pants off and I take in the view of his glorious strong legs. His tight white briefs distended from his heavy package, draping down over his thighs,

  My mouth waters.

  I don’t fucking care about his rules. I want to break them all. I want him like the air that I breathe. Like water for a fire. I need him.

  Fuck friendship.

  He climbs on the bed. With him next to me, I’m acutely aware of my pulse to the degree that I could use it as a metronome. It’s speeding, and I feel my mouth go dry—I’m that turned on. All I want is for him to touch me. I just need his hands on my body once again. I consider striking this bargain with the universe: If I can feel him inside of me tonight, I’ll relinquish him forever. Where that inside me comes from I don’t know. But I don’t fight it. I’m too horny to care. All I know is that I ache to be connected to him.

  He lays a little apart from me. The edges of darkness seem to shift in. I move closer to him after a time. When, he opens his arms and allows me to lay my head on his chest, it feels so good I want to fucking cry. The smell of his body is intoxicating. I must be delirious because I’m tempted to drive my nose into his armpits to take in more of that delicious fragrance.

  He runs his rough hand gently across my back and my cock twitches. Those hands have worked with wood and stone and concrete. Now, they feel so light against my skin. I lean up and place soft kisses on his lips.

  It occurs to me that I’ve never shared a bed with him. Well, not like this. Not as adults who knew they were into one another and it’s blowing my mind.

  I must have him.

  I lean up and I kiss him again. And again. His resistance tumbles down and I’m grateful. He’s got his hands on me. Rubbing my upper back and my shoulders and my arms. I can taste the sweetness of the bubbly from his gallery showing on his tongue as it eases into my mouth. I suck his bottom lip and he clings to my top. I crush my mouth to his, tongues, lips, teeth and it’s like an all-consuming fire.

  Desire whooshes in my head from side to side and I’m crazed by lust. The kissing picks up pace and I feel his hands in my hair and my hands are on his chest—Davis’ chest! It’s enough to make my brain burst. I take in the smooth flat muscular planes which flex with each heavenly movement. His body is so full and masculine. I want him so bad that I’m grinding my hips and my hard dick into his side, into his hip. I stretch my fingers across his waist and take hold of his massive erection. It pulses in my palm. I begin to gently stroke it through the material of his underpants.

  When he pulls away from me, I’m panting. I’m so horny that I have a wet spot on my underwear. My heart is thudding.

  “What?” I rasp out.

  “Chris…. not like this.”

  24

  Chapter 24

  I try to sit up. To face him. Anger, hot as lava rolls through me. “What do you mean not like this? I’m about to freaking explode, Davis. I swear—”

  He shuts me up with a kiss, fizzling my frustration “Baby,” he says, “You’re tired. And your ankle is hurting. You’ve been drinking. I’m tired and tipsy, too. We can continue this in the morning.”

  Well, as long as we have the morning.

  I crush myself into him and let him wrap me in his perfect, strong arms. I embrace him, my fingers tracing the light hairs that feather his back right above the band of his underwear. He kisses me again and I nearly ignite. He moves a knee between my legs and I cling to him as he carves deeper into our space us, holding me tighter. With my head locked into his chest, his heartbeat sounds out in my ear, the rhythm steady and strong. I’m asleep in mere seconds.

  ***

  At some point, I wake up and he’s cradling me. I’m the little spoon. I don’t even fucking care. I love it. I snuggle back into him when I hear a faint meow. Theo climbs over me and down onto the bed where she gives herself a long stretch and then she comes brushing against me until she settles down and curls herself tight. I snuggle back into Davis. He doesn’t even stop snoring, he just grips me tighter in his arms and I feel like my heart is about to explode.

  ***

  When I wake up, I’m cold and all alone.

  I sit up. I don’t even see his clothes on the floor. Mine aren’t either. Then, I spot that he’s taken my shirt and pants, folded them up, and sat them on a chair.

  Fuck!

  I can’t call out for him. Who wants to be that fool, calling out for a fucking man in an empty house? A man who makes it clear every time you’re together that you can’t be together. I swing my legs to the side of the bed and stand up. I’m apprehensive because of my ankle, but the pain has all but receded and there’s no swelling or anything. I go to my pants and dig out my phone.

  No messages.

  Fuck!

  Not even a text?

  It’s kind of heartbreaking. And I’m not even a crier but there is something about this loneliness that feels all the more profound now that Davis has been here. I realize that I was always lonely in this house. Even with Rebecca. It never felt quite right.

  I need to get out of here. I can’t play ball or run. Maybe a walk will do it. I won’t go far. Just down to the waterfront and back.

  I head to my room and grab some shorts and a t-shirt. “Sorry, Theo, you have to stay here,” I tell her inquiring face. She pretends she doesn’t care. I’m about to leave when I remember that she’ll probably be hungry since she hasn’t been fed since yesterday. Normally she mews like crazy when she’s hungry but she’s silent.

  “You sick Theo? You’re not hungry? I need you in top form. It’s just you and I for the near future. Unless you’re thinking about leaving me, too.”

  I go to the cabinet and grab down a can of food. That’s when I realize that the food has been there all the while. Maybe Rebecca hadn’t taken Theo, maybe she’d just left. I open the can of food and tip it out onto a plate. Theo walks up to it, looks on inquisitively.

  “What? You ate a rat or something?” I say, as I stroke her. “You should be going crazy for this.”

  She looks at the food again. She gives it a cursory lick, then she starts to devour it.

  The door cracks open. Davis. He looks fucking good enough to eat. And he’s carrying… groceries?

  “Did that bandit talk you into feeding her again?”

  “You fed her?”

  “Or course I did. She would let me out of the house any other way.”

  I sag back against the counter, washed over by relief. “I thought you were gone.”