Waiting for Patrick

by Brynn Stein

  Daniel shook his head. “Naw. I kind of like that you have a nickname for me. It’s cool that you consider me one of your friends.”

  Elliot let that go. He was too tired to try to figure out what Daniel was to him. What he wanted him to be. He didn’t make friends easily. But Daniel was, as Elliot’s mother used to say, “quite a character.” Which made him exactly the kind of person Elliot tended to have as a friend.

  Elliot shut the door behind Daniel. “I thought you didn’t like my house because it was haunted?”

  “It is. But I wanted to see you.”

  Rolling his eyes, Elliot led Daniel into the kitchen. “You do realize we’re not dating or anything, right?”

  Daniel smiled. “Sure. But I can do friends with benefits. The sex is fantastic, and I’m horny but too tired to go to a club.”

  Elliot threw a soda to Daniel and pointed toward the living room. He followed Daniel across the hardwood floors, using the toe of his shoe to flip back a dislodged corner of a throw rug as he went, and slumped into the nearby recliner. “I never in my entire life thought I’d say this, but I’m too tired for sex tonight.” He opened his soda, took a long drink, and set the can on the end table. A set of thin cardboard coasters sat not six inches away, but he was too drained to care.

  “Wow.” Daniel threw himself into the adjacent armchair and dangled his legs over the side. “You really are an old man.” He sat his unopened can of soda on the floor beside the chair.

  “I’m still young enough to kick your ass if you don’t stop with the old shit.” But his actions belied his words as he slowly leaned over to untie his shoes.

  Daniel smiled, swinging his legs. “I love it when you tease with me.”

  “Who’s teasing? I can whip your ass with the best of them.” He toed off his shoes and sat back in the oversized chair.

  “Kinky.” Daniel leered, slipping off the chair onto his knees, scrabbling to rest in front of Elliot.

  Elliot let his head drop back on the top of the recliner. “You’re gonna kill me, kid.”

  Daniel’s found Elliot’s belt and he started to undo it. “Naw, Grampa. You can stay there in your old man’s chair, and I’ll do all the work.”

  Elliot started to push Daniel’s hands away, but when Daniel used one to palm Elliot and start rubbing, Elliot wasn’t sure why he was protesting so much. He leaned his head back again and closed his eyes.

  “Don’t expect much in return, kid,” he said sleepily. “I’m almost out already.”

  “Fine with me.”

  Daniel slipped Elliot’s belt through the loops and tossed it toward the chair he had been sitting in. Now that there was no resistance, Daniel easily unfastened the button and opened the zipper. Elliot hummed contentedly and turned his head, thinking he heard something fall behind him. But Daniel carefully freed Elliot’s already-hardening member and swallowed it down.

  “Oh my God.” Elliot practically jumped out of the chair and quickly forgot about any foreign sound he might have noticed. Daniel quickly put a hand on his hip and the other on his chest to try to keep him still, while he smiled up at Elliot from around his coveted mouthful.

  It didn’t take long for Elliot to relax into the activity again. He leaned back and closed his eyes, but this time he scooted down in the chair to give Daniel better access.

  “Damn, you’re good at that.” He didn’t open his eyes to see what Daniel’s response might have been.

  Elliot was too tired for it to last very long. He was surprised he was able to get it up at all. Daniel didn’t seem to mind, though. He licked Elliot clean and replaced his cock exactly where he had found it and did up the zipper and the button. “There, good as new.” Daniel smirked.

  Elliot had to grin too. “I’m not sure what you got out of that, kid. But, I’m really too tired to do anything.”

  “I know.” Daniel sat back on his haunches. “That’s fine. I like giving head. I’m golden.”

  Elliot still felt bad about not doing something. “You want to come up? Spend the night? Maybe I’ll feel like giving you a turn in the morning.”

  Daniel looked like he was considering it. “I don’t know, man. I don’t think your ghost likes me.”

  Elliot made a show of looking at the ceiling as he addressed the air. “Ghost, will you behave yourself if Darrell stays the night?” He waited for a beat and said, “See? He says he’s fine with it.”

  Daniel chuckled. “I don’t think I believe that, but I’d love to stay the night with you.”

  Elliot grinned. Daniel wasn’t a bad kid, and he could do worse. But Elliot wasn’t the relationship kind. He had never been. No matter how successful he was, he never quite felt whole to start with, and to try to give part of himself to someone else in a long-term relationship? It never worked. He didn’t mind short-term ones, though, and the thought of rousing morning sex seemed like a good idea.

  He had a harder time than he thought he would, though, simply getting out of the chair. Daniel let him struggle for a moment, then reached out a hand.

  “Here you go, old man.”

  Elliot slapped it away, but when Daniel brought it right back in front of him, the look on Daniel’s face changed from teasing to concerned. Elliot took his hand and allowed himself to be pulled to a stand. “Brat.” Elliot cuffed the back of Daniel’s head as he passed him, leading him to the stairs.

  Daniel chuckled as he turned to follow, but then gasped. “Did you see…?”

  When Elliot turned, he saw Daniel’s wide eyes directed toward a stack of coasters on the floor behind the chair. “How did those get there? I thought they were on the coffee table.”

  “The ghost—” Daniel started to explain.

  Elliot shrugged. Even if he was starting to consider that the dreams might be coming from some unseen entity, he didn’t believe ghosts could move things or would care one way or the other if Elliot had sex in the living room. “We must have knocked them off earlier.” He started back toward the stairs. “Come on if you’re staying. I’m exhausted.”

  ELLIOT JERKED upright in bed, gasping for breath, as if oxygen were a luxury he could no longer afford. He grabbed tightly onto the covers and tried not to panic. There’d been no dream this time, and even though night still wrapped around the bedroom, this wasn’t a reaction to any nightmare.

  Daniel rolled over, concern etching his face in the gleam of the moonlight. “You okay?” He covered Elliot’s nearest hand with his own.

  Elliot nodded while he got his breathing under control, and Daniel reached across him to turn on the lamp. When Elliot was finally able to speak, he answered Daniel’s question. “Yeah. That’s been happening off and on for a month or so now. Before I came to SC even. I always thought it was due to dreams I didn’t remember, but this time I don’t think it was. It’s okay, though. It always goes away, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

  Daniel sat up beside Elliot. “That doesn’t necessarily make it okay.” He placed his hand on Elliot’s chest. “I’m glad it goes away, but the fact that it’s been happening that long is concerning. You really should go get checked out.”

  Elliot shook his head and chuckled humorlessly, finally able to loosen his grip on the blankets. “Because of a couple nights waking up breathless? They’d laugh me out of the office.”

  “You said you’ve been unusually tired for that long too.”

  “I’m busy. Busy people get tired.” Elliot pushed back the covers and swung his legs off the side of the bed.

  “I know that.” Daniel seemed to want to lighten the mood. “And you’re old too, and old people get tired really easily.” Daniel moved his head around so that he looked Elliot in the eye. “But I still think you should get checked out.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Elliot dismissed the conversation as he started toward the bathroom. “I’ll be right back. Go back to sleep.”

  When Elliot returned from the bathroom, Daniel was still sitting on the bed, wide-eyed, staring at the lamp on the beds
ide table. “Hey, did you see that?” He waved toward the lamp.

  Elliot sat on the edge of bed and looked where Daniel pointed. “See what?”

  “The lamp moved.” Daniel’s voice didn’t really sound fearful, but it was definitely wary.

  Elliot tried to keep an open mind. He did think something or someone was giving him the dreams and guessed Daniel might be able to sense it too. But he was having a hard time believing that whatever it was could move lamps. “Are you sure you’re not just imagining things? It does only seem to happen when you’re half-asleep.”

  Daniel shook his head, still glaring at the lamp. “Believe me. I’m wide-awake.” He pointed and gasped, “There, it moved again.”

  Elliot examined the lamp. “It looks like it’s in the same place, and I didn’t hear anything.”

  “I don’t think it made any noise. It only wiggled a little.” Daniel spared a glance at Elliot but returned his gaze to the offending light fixture as soon as possible.

  “Well, if there is a ghost”—Elliot was trying to give Daniel the benefit of the doubt—“he doesn’t really seem to be trying to hurt us. I can live with a wiggly lamp.” He smiled at Daniel and tucked himself between the sheets again. “Come on. Lie back down.”

  “Elliot. Aren’t you going to do something?” Daniel was a little more concerned. “Tell it to behave or something.”

  Elliot looked at the ceiling. “Behave, Ghost.” Then he pulled Daniel toward him and nestled him in his arms. “Better?”

  Daniel shook his head but stayed where he was. Elliot stabbed the button on the base of the lamp, turning off the light so they could go back to sleep.

  THE NEXT morning, Daniel woke up first. He had been promised sex, and he was going to have it. He tried waking Elliot up, but all he got for his trouble was a couple of grunts. So he wriggled down under the blankets and pulled at pajama bottoms and underwear until he had the sought-after part of Elliot. Exposed and vulnerable to his attack.

  And attack he did. He swallowed him down in one gulp. It wasn’t difficult to do since Elliot was still soft. Daniel rolled Elliot’s flaccid penis around in his mouth until it started to grow, and he heard Elliot groan.

  “Dammit, Daniel, you scared me half to death.” Elliot was wide-awake now and responding nicely to Daniel’s ministrations.

  Daniel only hummed in response when he made Elliot groan again. Elliot flung the covers out of the way and grabbed a handful of Daniel’s hair. Daniel was torn between pushing into those strong hands at the back of his head and continuing to burrow into the wiry curls in front of him. Before Daniel could decide, Elliot took the choice away by pulling Daniel toward him until Elliot’s cock was buried deep in Daniel’s throat. He knew Elliot would release him if he gave any indication that this wasn’t what he wanted. But it was. He wanted it more than he could believe. He adjusted his angle so he could breathe through his nose, and he let Elliot’s long, thick length rock back and forth.

  It didn’t take long before Elliot exploded deep within Daniel’s throat. Daniel slowly relinquished his prize, letting it gently slide out of his mouth and onto Elliot’s bared groin. Daniel licked him clean and crawled up his body, peppering kisses along the way, to capture his mouth in a morning kiss.

  ELLIOT TOOK charge of the kiss, then took charge of Daniel. He grabbed Daniel by his wrists and rolled them over until Elliot was covering Daniel’s body, inch for inch, with Daniel’s wrists pinned above them near the headboard.

  Daniel looked blissed out already, and Elliot wondered if that was just from giving head, which he remembered Daniel said he loved to do, or because he liked the light bondage. Theorizing it was the bondage, Elliot moved Daniel’s hands around the slats in the headboard.

  “Keep them there,” Elliot ordered and knew he had guessed correctly when Daniel’s smile widened at the command. “Don’t move.”

  Elliot moved slowly down Daniel’s body, licking and nipping at his ears and neck, then at his chest and nipples, moving even farther to dip his tongue into Daniel’s navel.

  Daniel squirmed beneath him but followed the command and kept his hands on the railing.

  Elliot continued down Daniel’s legs, skipping the quickly hardening member between them. Daniel groaned and raised up to look at Elliot, so Elliot spared a hand to push at Daniel’s chest, making him lie back down. “I thought I told you not to move.” Elliot spared a glace upward. The totally destroyed look on Daniel’s face caused an eruption of warmth and movement in Elliot’s groin. He thought that if he were younger, he might be able to come again from that sight alone.

  Daniel groaned and wriggled his hips toward Elliot. “But you’re killing me. Can’t you—”

  “Do I need to gag you too?” Elliot growled and kicked the sheet and cover away from his feet so he could settle in even more snugly. If he’d thought he could come from the sight of Daniel coming unglued, the sound of it convinced him of it. “God, if you keep that up, you’re going to have more come all over yourself.”

  Daniel made the sound again. Elliot knew it was on purpose this time. The little brat.

  Elliot stopped playing around. He sucked the end of Daniel’s cock into his mouth but stopped there, twirling his tongue around the end, just to hear that sound again.

  He wasn’t disappointed.

  He licked and slurped and finally swallowed until Daniel was a writhing mess beneath him.

  “I’m gonna….” Daniel tried to warn, but Elliot sucked that much harder.

  Daniel didn’t last long after that. Elliot released Daniel’s penis and licked his own lips to catch the last of Daniel’s essence. He kissed his way up Daniel’s body. When he was stretched out beside him, Elliot murmured into Daniel’s ear, “You can let go of the bed slats now.”

  Daniel purred, and they fell back to sleep side by side.

  ELLIOT WOKE first a little later. The sun’s angle told him that not much time had gone by, but he desperately had to go to the bathroom. As he disentangled himself from Daniel, Daniel mumbled, “Five more minutes, Mom.”

  Elliot chuckled. “I don’t even want to know what your family dynamics were that you’re thinking of your mother right now.”

  Daniel laughed. “You know I wasn’t really thinking of my mother, old man.” Daniel curled to his side, trying to capture Elliot as he sat up on the side of the bed. “It was just something to say.”

  “Well, so is this.” Elliot reached back and slapped Daniel’s bare rump. “Get your pretty little ass out of bed.”

  “Why?” Daniel pulled Elliot’s abandoned pillow over his head. “I don’t have anywhere I have to be.”

  Elliot smacked Daniel again. “Well, I do. Get up.” Then he padded across the hardwood floor and into the hall.

  The toilet had just finished its flush and Elliot was about to turn on the water, when he heard a thumping noise from the next room. He opened his mouth to ask Daniel what he was doing and heard Daniel gasp.

  “Dammit, Elliot. There it goes again.”

  There was fear in Daniel’s voice. Elliot heard the thump again and rushed back into the bedroom.

  “What’s going on?” Elliot asked as he rounded the corner.

  “The lamp is dancing around on the dresser.”

  Elliot looked at the lamp, but if it had been dancing, it declined to let Elliot see it. “Dancing, huh?”

  “Okay, not dancing, just moving. But it’s still not natural.”

  Elliot looked pointedly again at the offensive lamp. Nothing. “Why don’t I ever see these things?”

  Daniel was still concerned, but he seemed less fearful now that Elliot was here. “Because the ghost wants me to look crazy?”

  “Well, he’s doing a good job,” Elliot quipped, but taking all the heat out of the statement. He’d heard something, and even though he didn’t know Daniel all that well, he was pretty sure Daniel wouldn’t purposely make noise with the lamp to back up his delusions.

  Daniel smacked Elliot’s arm. “I’m not mak
ing this shit up.”

  “Okay,” Elliot said blandly.

  “You don’t believe me.”

  Elliot sat beside Daniel on the bed and patted his knee. “I believe you believe it, and I did hear something that time.”

  Daniel screwed up his face in disgust and pointed toward the lamp. “It’s right there. Every time you turn your back, it moves.” He ran his hand across the meticulously clean bedside table. “If you were like normal people and there was a layer of dust on the furniture, you’d be able to tell by that.”

  “Now it’s my fault and I’m a neat freak?”

  Daniel turned back toward Elliot. “You are a neat freak. But no, it’s not your fault you have a ghost.”

  “I don’t have a….” Elliot shook his head. He couldn’t really rule out that possibility, though, and come to think of it, he didn’t have the dreams last night. But no, there was definitely something going on. As much fun as it was to tease Daniel about it, he didn’t want him to think Elliot thought he was crazy. “I do think there might be something here. Later I’ll tell you about some of the dreams I’ve been having. But I’m not sure I believe it could move furniture.” When Daniel started to protest, Elliot ran his hands up and down Daniel’s back. “But I do believe you’re seeing something. Ghost or settling house or some other phenomenon, I do believe you.” Elliot felt Daniel’s tension ease away as Daniel melted into Elliot’s embrace. “Let’s forget about it for now. Come take a shower with me and we’ll get ready.” He patted Daniel’s back, then straightened up, signaling that he wanted Daniel to stand up now. “You staying for breakfast? I’m meeting Cher later, so I’ve got to go by about ten.”

  “Yeah, if breakfast is offered, I’m staying.” Daniel glared pointedly at the lamp, but just the fact that Elliot said he believed him seemed to have taken most of his apprehension away. “Ghost or no ghost.”