“You said you’re in finance, right?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“I hate to flag you down like this, but I have a question for you. My mother owns an indie bookstore, and she’s been looking for an accountant for weeks. Gosh, I don’t know how any of this works. Do you do accounting? Can you contract out?”
“As a matter of fact, I do plenty of freelance accounting work. Here, let me give you my card,” Mason reached into his inner pocket. He handed the real estate agent his business card and nodded graciously. “Please have her to get in touch with me, and I’ll let her know if I can help.”
“That would be wonderful! I always want to help her out however I can. She’s held onto that business for so many years. It’s getting harder and harder for her to keep up with the bookwork side of things. I’m sure anything you can do would take a load off. Thank you!”
Mason nodded respectfully and waved goodbye as the woman strolled to her own vehicle across the street. “That was sweet of you. I hope you can help her,” said Riesling.
Mason sighed and started the car with a bemused smile. “I seem intent on sticking around, don’t I?”
“It won’t be as bad as you think.”
“He’s leaving in a month.”
“Oh,” she whispered. She laid a hand over his.
Mason turned the steering wheel and eased into traffic, heading back to the house on the bluff, the place where he and the artist in the attic had shared a blissful experience. As he sank into lush memories of lovemaking that made him clench his teeth and ball a fist, Riesling went quiet. Mason had one month to get Caleb out of his system. After that, he would do the noble thing. He would give Riesling the relationship she desired.
He led her up to his bedroom, and she sprawled on his bed, grabbing a book from his nightstand. “Well, after he leaves, I’ll still be here to keep you company,” she said at length.
“Which I very much appreciate, but…” Mason trailed off. His attention went to a velum wrapped package that had not been on his desk when he left. He gingerly folded back the wrapping and stared at the heavy weight, high quality specialty paper. “Have you considered what you want to do with your life?” He smiled to himself as he put the sheaf of paper in his desk drawer and turned to her.
She smiled wistfully. “We’ve been over this. The house with the white picket fence isn’t in my cards.” Riesling set aside the book and passed him a hand-painted bookmark that fell from the pages, something else new. It was of the ocean at dawn and took him back to the grassy knoll where Caleb had first touched him.
Mason sighed and gazed at the ceiling. The little gifts touched him.
“When I picture your future,” he murmured, “I see you as a famous newscaster who will meet a stunning actor who sweeps you off your feet.
“Or a writer,” she joked.
Mason grew serious. “We’ve been fools for long enough, Riesling. I’m going to get serious about my career and move forward with my life, and I want you to do the same.”
She nodded bravely as she looked down at her clenched hands. She licked her lips and nodded again. They met eyes. “When do you suggest we stage the break up?”
“January,” he sighed.
“Big blow up or quiet ghosting?” She forced a laugh.
He reached over and squeezed her hands. “A very amicable parting.”
She smiled sadly. “Then, I’m out of your life, and there will be no one to keep you company.”
“I’ve spent the vast majority of my existence on this earth depending on others to tell me what to do, who to be, where to go. I can’t do that anymore, and neither should you. You wouldn’t be here if your father hadn’t forced you to meet me.”
“The one time I want to thank him for meddling in my life,” she murmured. “But you know what? I think you should go big or stay home. I say, nix the new apartment idea. Travel the world! Take control of your destiny. What’s holding you back now? Nothing.”
Mason swiped a teardrop from the corner of her eye, but they were interrupted by his father at the door. “Good news! Robert and Belinda want you two to be the best man and maid of honor in the wedding in six months. Get ready to be stuck together for rehearsals, not that you two would complain about that, right?” Mr. Sinclair laughed and sauntered off.
Mason and Riesling shared a look. “So…six more months?” she smiled.
Mason fondled the bookmark. What was holding him back from traveling the world? His obligations to his family.
Caleb smiled at the sight of the laundry basket that had mysteriously materialized outside his apartment door. He brought it into the studio and found the piece of vellum Mason had used to write him a thank you note. “I’m glad you liked it,” he whispered to himself, setting his laundry aside. Wrapped in one of his shirts was a flash drive.
Caleb had the plane tickets to San Francisco. He no longer had to work on the collection, which was why he had idled away the day finding ways to make Mason happy. Caleb had watched him and Riesling’s return from apartment hunting, wondering if the he would pay him a visit tonight. He hungered for him.
He plugged the drive into his computer and discovered it was loaded with music. Caleb let the Korean pop play in the background, smiling to himself at how young and millennial his lover was. The music had a catchy rhythm and was sprinkled with English. He found himself bobbing his head to it as he settled in bed and stared at images of Vido Charles’ work on his tablet.
Caleb quashed the feeling of bitterness that loomed. If not for the competition, he would not have found the courage to ask Mason to be his muse. Now he had him for one month. It seemed a small amount of time.
Caleb heard footsteps in the hall and quietly slipped to the door. As soon as he opened it, Mason flowed into his arms. “I’ve made a decision about my future,” he whispered.
Caleb chuckled at his exuberance as he hugged him tighter. “So have I. I’m giving up New York for a temporary teaching gig…I spoke with my agent today, and he all but told me to throw in the towel. My painting career is over from here on out.”
Mason studied him from beneath hooded eyes. “I’m going to stick around here for a few more months to keep my family happy, but eventually I will take that gap year abroad,” he finally continued.
“Well, I’m glad one of us gets to do what we really want to do,” Caleb smiled with regret.
“There’s something else. I want you to stay with me until I go,” Mason said, caressing his face. “Six months, Caleb. Give me six more months of this.”
“First one night, then one month, now six?” Caleb tugged him to the bed and pushed him to the plush mattress. He lowered himself to Mason’s warm, hard body and kissed him tenderly to silence. “We’re living on borrowed time as it is. Hasn’t anyone ever taught you that what you borrow must be paid back? Usually with interest.”
Caleb brought Mason’s arms around his neck and dropped kisses. Mason’s soft sigh of pleasure whispered over his lips and sent waves of arousal coursing through him. “I thought these were stolen moments,” Mason countered.
Caleb flicked his tongue over Mason’s lips. “Make me want to stay,” he challenged.
Mason reached down and cupped Caleb’s erection. His fingers tightened and released in a tantalizing massage that made Caleb bite his bottom lip and groan, brow furrowed. Mason brought Caleb’s member from his pants and slid down the bed to bring him to his mouth, and Caleb rose on his knees, guiding his erection past Mason’s wet lips. With a grimace, Caleb braced a hand on the wall behind the headboard. He was glad that the music playing in the background that drowned out the sound of their lovemaking.
He rode Mason’s face with abandonment, and Mason answered with the same lack of inhibition. Caleb closed his eyes and felt lightning zing through him as Mason made his mouth a soaking wet heaven for him to dive into. Mason’s lips tightened at the right moments. His tongue elicited the right thrills.
“I said m
ake me stay, not make me come,” Caleb sighed with rapture, a smile on his lips. Mason chuckled but kept doing what he was doing. “Mmph!” Caleb dropped his hand from the wall to the headboard in a vise grip that matched the tension in his body.
Mason squeezed the base of his cock to prolong the pleasure, and the bliss of his tongue skating from tip to hilt was tempered by the pressure keeping Caleb from coming. He breathed a sigh of relief as he surged deeper. Then, Mason used his other hand to stroke and fondle his balls, and Caleb caught his breath. Mason’s open mouth glossed over his most sensitive anatomy. Flinching as his lover wetly kissed and sucked his balls, Caleb’s chest heaved, and he let his head loll back.
The temperature in the room rose. He yanked off his shirt. His hips shifted forward, and he pushed his cock into Mason’s mouth again. Mason cupped his ass. When Caleb felt his finger fumbling for entrance, he jerked in surprise. “Mason!” he whispered fiercely. Mason groaned and sucked faster. He penetrated him, and Caleb’s body seized with shock and sudden ecstasy.
Caleb’s jaw dropped at the unexpected sensation. He was flooded with heat and excitement. He held still, afraid to move. Mason worked his magic, devouring his cock and pumping into his ass at the same time. The tremors started in Caleb’s thighs and spread throughout every part of him. He exhaled in a guttural growl.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Pleading my case,” Mason whispered.
Mason pushed him to the bed and flipped him on his stomach, all the while easing off his lover’s pants. Grunting, Caleb lunged to his knees, but Mason pressed him to the mattress and dragged his head back by the hair to kiss him fiercely from behind. Mason roughly released him, and Caleb sucked in a breath as the writer trailed silky kisses down his spine. When Mason got to the crease of his ass, he did not hesitate. His tongue speared into the crevice.
Caleb gasped. Fistfuls of covers filled both his hands. He throbbed with need from the teasing flick and penetration of Mason’s tongue and fingers. He danced beneath the writer to an unfamiliar rhythm of surrender and passion. Caleb’s hips rocked back and forth, begging Mason to go deeper and take him higher. All the while his cock jerked and sputtered threateningly.
“I’m close!” he sobbed. “Ah, God! What are you doing to me?”
“You can take it. Shh…”
“Mason!”
Mason reached beneath him and squeezed until the shockwaves subsided. Caleb’s saturated passage dripped and puckered insistently. His thoughts scattered when Mason positioned on his knees behind him. At the first probe, Caleb shuddered, tightened. Mason sucked his earlobe and whispered in Korean as he masturbated himself against the breach.
“Turn over,” Mason groaned. He pulled away to undress.
Caleb let the covers go and laid on his back relaxing little by little, aching, craving. Mason stretched atop him and kissed him. Their erections warred as they locked together. Moaning, Mason reached down again and stroked in and out of his own hand, pressing inch by inch into Caleb’s body with each pump. A low tenor wail started in Caleb’s throat, but he swallowed it down and let what was happening happen.
Mason whimpered into his mouth and deepened the kiss. “This is what you do to me.”
“Ah!” Caleb arched his back with a sob of shock and awe. This was what he did to him. The pain splintered into euphoria. Endorphins fired in his brain, and his body was on fire. He hugged Mason to his chest as he moved instinctively to meet him. It felt wrong but so right, and Caleb thought he would blast off at any second.
Mason’s tongue swirled behind his lips, licking the sighs and moans from his mouth. His hand moved to Caleb’s neck to hold him steady as he kissed him harder. The touch became a light choking that turned them both on. Caleb’s clutched Mason’s ass and urged him to keep going. The thrusts jostled them both. The sex was violent and ungraceful.
Satisfaction rose like a river ready to flood its banks, scaring Caleb with the rush. His cock spilled pre-cum onto his flat abs. Mason hammered faster, and Caleb cried out. Mason clapped a hand over his mouth.
Eyes rolling with excitement, Caleb’s tongue swept over his palm, and Mason grimaced with bliss. He took the wet hand and wrapped it around Caleb’s erection, groaning as he caressed him. But every time it seemed Mason would take him over the edge, he stopped. Caleb swore savagely at the torture that was being inflicted on him.
“Let me!” Caleb gasped.
“Are you convinced?” Mason’s lips glistened in the darkness as Caleb stared up at him. His almond-shaped eyes were dark with lust, and his cheeks were shadowed with desire. He shook his hair out of his face.
“Mason, I can’t stay,” Caleb sighed.
Mason dropped his head to Caleb’s shoulder, breathing heavily. He exhaled slowly and rubbed his open palm over Caleb’s quivering cock. “I guess we make nights like this one last then.” He gradually went back to making love to him. His thrusts were powerful and deep, and the pressure built all over again. Caleb closed his eyes and moaned. The combined ecstasy of Mason’s touch and his penetration was something intensely special, bordering on the spiritual.
His lower body rose from the mattress to chase the thrill as Mason’s hand blurred around his cock, stroking him faster and faster. Harder and harder, he dove into Caleb’s tightness. Caleb grunted, “Yes! Don’t stop!”
Mason sobbed his name and shivered deliciously. “Is this what you want?”
“Yes!”
“Oh Caleb, I want so much more.”
They kissed, quaking together. Mason locked eyes with Caleb as he poured himself into him, coming inside of him with a muted scream. Caleb felt the slick wetness dribbling from his body as his lover continued pounding until his own eruption followed shortly after. “I love you,” Caleb sobbed. He clasped Mason’s face and whispered the words over and over into his mouth.
“No,” Mason moaned, tearing away from the kiss.
Caleb clasped his chin and brought his mouth back for more. “I love you!” he growled. The stop-and-start madness of the sex made the climax that much more potent. The pent-up frustration crested in a pulsating crescendo Caleb could not deny. “I love you so much, Mason! I don’t want to leave you.”
“Then, don’t!” Mason kissed down his chest and lapped up the nectar that was still gushing. “You don’t have to love me from a distance,” he gasped, swallowing Caleb’s trembling cock. Caleb jackknifed to a sitting position and pulled him to his lips to halt the onslaught before it could restart.
Caleb forced Mason to meet his gaze. “There’s nothing I can give you,” he groaned, battered by aftershocks. He cupped Mason by the back of his neck and pressed their cheeks together to whisper in his ear. “Don’t you know I want to give you everything? I’ll never be what I could have been, but you can!”
“I’d trade everything for you,” Mason replied fiercely.
Mason sighed and climbed from the bed. Caleb fell forward, reaching for him. He slammed his fists on the mattress as Mason grabbed his clothes and started dressing. “That’s the problem, Mason. You’re too inexperienced to realize what you’d be giving up.” Mason flashed a brief bittersweet smile and turned away. Caleb rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
“Yes, of course,” Mason murmured. “I’m too young for you. I don’t know what I’m getting into. I don’t know what I’m giving up. You know what’s best for me, right?”
Caleb grabbed his wrist and pulled him down next to him. They lay like yin and yang with Caleb at the foot of the bed and Mason at the head. Caleb did not want the job in San Francisco. He only wanted to keep Mason from making a big mistake and putting his life on hold for him. “I’ll stay as long as I can,” he whispered. “But only if you promise me that—no matter what—you’ll go when it’s time for you to leave. ”
Caleb led him into his small bathroom and turned on the shower. His mouth whispered over Mason’s as they stood beneath the hot, steamy spray. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” he w
hispered as his hands descended to Mason’s ass to squeeze and smack seductively.
Mason grunted and smiled. In many ways, he was doing the opposite of what he had considered with Riesling. He was continuing a different kind of charade that might lead to a different kind of unhappiness. But, Mason was willing to take the risks.
“You won’t regret it.”
“I know, but you will.” Caleb turned him to face the wall and doused his own erection in silky bath oil, working it around and around his shaft. He pushed into Mason with a quiet gasp.
“Mm…” Mason shuddered and bit his bottom lip. Caleb held him by the hips and pushed. Mason was sensitive and achy from the sex they had already had, but Caleb’s touch still elicited tremors. Mason clung to the wall, breathing faster as Caleb rammed impatiently into him. He wrapped his soapy hands around Mason’s dick, and Mason thrust into his tight grip.
He then grabbed one of Mason’s shoulders and leaned him forward for leverage, angling into him with passionate deep, long strokes. Mason’s mouth dropped open at the fiery mix of tension and release it brought. The backbreaking sex echoed in the tiny bathroom. Their slick and slippery bodies pounded together at a louder, more frenetic pace.
It was very different to the sensual exploration in the bedroom. Mason sensed things falling in place that had not been where they needed to be before. He and Caleb were two men moving in opposite directions—to the past and to the future. Here, they collided in real time, and the explosion of pleasure caught up with them. Caleb wrapped an arm over Mason’s chest and sighed against his ear as he jerked out and ejaculated on his ass.
Mason breathlessly faced him and masturbated to completion. Caleb cupped around both of them and let their erupting cocks kiss as the shower washed away the silky gush of jizz. Chest heaving, he finally looked Mason in the eyes. “I was wondering, Should I expect you to ask for another six months after these six months are up, then?”
Mason shook his head bashfully and looked down. “If I do, would you blame me for trying?”
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