A Worthy Man

by Jaime Reese

  Drayton smiled as the jingle of Vann’s belt hit the floor and the thump of his boots hit against a wall. “I’ve got a supply of lube in the nightstand drawer and in every fricken corner around the house.” He sat back onto the mattress, pulling Vann with him. A large hand slid up his bare torso quickly followed by a rain of wet kisses.

  “You always were a planner,” Vann said in a raspy voice, touching and kissing every inch of Drayton’s body.

  Drayton arched off the bed, seeking Vann’s teasing fingertips as they traced each dip and rise of his torso. He shifted from side to side, longing for Vann’s touch, to his left then his right, on his thigh then his abs. Vann was everywhere, all at once, and yet, it wasn’t enough.

  “Maybe I want to go slow tonight,” Vann whispered before a gentle kiss pressed against his chest.

  He moaned when Vann licked his skin and trailed his tongue up Drayton’s body to the base of his neck. His toes curled, and he threw his head back, craving each caress. He’d missed this—the warmth of wet lips pressing against him and the scrape of stubble rubbing his skin. He wrapped his arms around Vann’s shoulders when soft lips pressed against his.

  “I missed you, Dray,” Vann whispered, brushing their lips together. “So much.”

  Drayton held Vann close, thanking the heavens he finally had Vann with him again. “I love you so much,” he responded, barely able to utter the words through the knot in his throat as he stroked his fingers in Vann’s hair and peppered kisses along his neck. He held on to Vann as they rolled to their sides on the bed, pressing slow kisses to Vann’s face as a rip tore through the silence. His lips parted on an inhale when slick fingers entered him and began to explore. The feeling, almost foreign after so many years, yet familiar because of the accompanying warmth of the man in his arms. He groaned when a hard, silky heat teasingly pressed against his thigh, mirroring the heat flushing every inch of his body with each stretch of the digit inside him.

  Hard, firm lips captured his in a searing kiss.

  Vann drew Drayton’s tongue into his mouth, sucking and pulling as he continued to push and explore with his fingers, stretching and preparing him. Drayton was losing his mind, giving his all into the kiss while arching his backside, anxious for the homecoming he’d been denied for over a decade. He dug his fingers into Vann’s biceps to ground himself as he broke away, trying to catch his breath as the need for more rippled through his limbs. “Stop. Fucking. Teasing. Me.”

  He hissed a breath when Vann bit along his jaw. “I like all the sounds you make. Every sharp breath, every moan, every grunt and yell. I missed it all.” He stopped for a moment, their heavy breathing the only sound between them. “Dray?”

  The hesitation in Vann’s voice gripped his heart. “Yeah?”

  “Is this real?”

  Drayton pressed a kiss to Vann’s cheek and stroked his hair, silently cursing himself for having thrown the entire room into darkness and denying himself the chance to see Vann’s face. “It’s real. And we have all weekend.”

  “Good.”

  Vann rolled their bodies on the bed, laying Drayton on his back and pushing his legs up against his chest.

  Drayton inhaled a hissed breath when Vann breached his body. He screwed his eyes shut and willed himself to adjust to the fullness as soft, tender kisses pressed against his shoulder. One, then another, then another.

  “I missed you,” Vann whispered between peppered kisses.

  A strangled whimper escaped him, hearing the always silent I love you in that tender shift in Vann’s voice.

  “I missed that sound,” Vann said with a possessive groan.

  Strong, confident fingers gripped the side of his head, firm yet unmistakably loving, holding him in place as soft, full lips covered his mouth. Vann slid in and out of his body, setting a slow, deep rhythm with each measured grind of his hips.

  Drayton ripped his lips from the kiss, unable to breathe with the welcome invasion and palpable need and desire humming between them. He gasped a breath when a large hand traveled up his thigh in the darkness and strong fingers gripped him, pulling him closer with each strong thrust.

  A primal desire to mark Vann bubbled in his soul. He fisted his hand in Vann’s hair and yanked his head back, running his teeth along the corded muscles of Vann’s neck, smiling when a growl vibrated against his lips. He wanted to cement their bond and prove it was still as strong now as it had been back then.

  Or stronger.

  Vann wrapped his forearms around Drayton’s legs and effortlessly pulled him closer, deepening their connection with each plunge into his body.

  Drayton chanted Vann’s name with a gasp, yearning, pushing, pulling for release yet never wanting their union to end. He reached behind himself, feeling for the edge of the headboard or wall for resistance, seeking purchase to stop the slide on the silky sheets with each pounding thrust. The scent of their lovemaking filled his nose and the sounds of their grunts and groans battled with the quickening slap of flesh.

  His body was on fire, ignited by the one man who had claimed his soul ages ago and now attempted to brand him all over again with each strong, forceful push into his body, proving the desperate need and desire was mutual, and the closeness and love had been equally craved and denied for a decade.

  He greeted each plunge into his body with an equal push, begging for friction and forcing the slightest space to disappear between them. “Fuck!” he yelled, as a surge of desire bolted through his core, rippling throughout his limbs. Sparks ignited behind his eyelids as the current sizzled at the base of his spine.

  A possessive growl echoed in the room as Vann’s hips jackhammered with untamed force into his body.

  Each breath came in rapid gasps, in time with each thrust. With one final deep push into his body and his nickname whispered with reverence, Drayton’s body bowed off the bed as they simultaneously lost the fight for control and spilled their releases with a stereo roar.

  Drayton swallowed deep gulps of precious oxygen, trying to level his breathing. The always-present passion between them seemed to have magnified over the years.

  “You okay?” Vann asked in a shaky whisper, pushing his nose into Drayton’s sweat-slicked hair. He tentatively brushed his lips against the corner of Drayton’s mouth as his body remained flush against him, still bound by their physical connection.

  Drayton wrapped his arms around Vann and held him close. “More than okay.” He took a few more deep breaths as a peacefulness slowly settled within, as if his heart had waited all these years to finally beat fully and whole again with each thump. “I love you. You’re mine and I’m not letting you go. Are you okay with that?”

  A soft whisper of a chuckle breezed across his cheek. “Definitely,” Vann said with a smile in his voice.

  He held Vann close, not caring about the mess they’d find in the morning or the stickiness that slowly bound their bodies together. Nothing mattered but the joyous song his soul sang because of the man in his arms. Vann was finally home, with him, and he was never letting anyone or anything rip them apart again.

  Vann blinked, his eyes unable to adjust to the pitch-black room. He hated the darkness. Was it morning or still the middle of the night? A slow panic started to gather in his stomach when he couldn’t get his bearings.

  “Dray?” he said in the darkness, trying to control the slight unsteadiness in his voice. The weight of Drayton’s body on him was the only thing keeping him from losing it in the silent blackness. He ran his shaky fingers through Drayton’s hair and closed his eyes—a pointless action but somehow it seemed to control his rising agitation.

  “Hmm,” Drayton finally said, rubbing his body against Vann’s, pushing his nose against the side of his neck and biting into the hint of morning stubble starting to surface on Vann’s jaw.

  “I need lights.” He focused on the warm puffs of breath brushing his skin and the soft, wet lips pressing against the side of his mouth. He didn’t want to think about the darkness closing i
n on him. He tried to ignore the memory of the endless nights in his windowless cell as the solitude slowly suffocated him. “Please.”

  Drayton stopped the torturous kisses but the breath skating across Vann’s cheek let him know he still lingered close, probably overanalyzing and processing every tiny nuance of his words, the shake in his voice, and his stiff body.

  “Lights,” Drayton said in a commanding voice.

  The bedroom lights awakened from the blackness, slowly illuminating the space.

  Vann squinted until his eyes adjusted. He looked around at the perfect white furniture and chrome light fixtures and door handles. The room looked as if a spill of snow had filled the room and suffocated every ounce of color in sight. The only color in the room lay scattered on the floor in the form of a pair of suit slacks, his jeans, and his boots thrown against the wall, leaving a black scuff of rubber against the pure white wall. Everything was perfect. Everything was impeccable.

  And everything screamed luxury.

  “Shit, Dray. I can’t compete with this.”

  “With what?”

  Vann sat up in bed and scrubbed his hand on his face. He swung his arm out in a sweeping motion. “With all this. Are you fucking kidding me? This place is fancier than your parents’ old house!” It was bad enough he wasn’t a match for Drayton’s intellect, he sure as hell didn’t need a reminder that he lacked in other areas.

  Drayton grabbed him by the jaw and turned his face, drawing his attention. “Why do you think you need to compete with this? You’re part of this, not against it.”

  Vann sighed and rolled his eyes, trying to fight the corkscrew of emotions twisting his stomach. He had managed to fool himself into thinking there was a chance they could be together and that they’d find a way to make this work. He’d even gone as far as letting the fantasy fill his days while in prison, even though there hadn’t been a chance in hell he was ever going to get out from behind the barbed wire fence. He had dreamed about it. He had fantasized so many different scenarios where he had earned the right to be by Drayton’s side.

  But after seeing this room, he didn’t want to imagine what else lay outside that bedroom door. There was no fucking way sorting mail and running office errands would ever balance, regardless of what type of special math Drayton attempted to calculate. What was he going to do? Contribute one hundred dollars a week to Drayton’s thousand per minute?

  Drayton stroked his face, pulling him from his thoughts. “Stop it.”

  Vann shook his head, yanking himself out of Drayton’s hold. He rolled out of bed, reached for his boxer briefs on the floor, and headed for—what he hoped was—the bathroom, closing the door behind him to avoid Drayton’s approach. He leaned back against the door, trying to control the wild thumping of his heart. He glanced around at the polished white marble bathroom floor and painted white walls.

  Everything. Was. Fucking. White.

  A marble counter with dual sinks extended the length of one wall atop a cabinet with endless drawers in various sizes. Adjacent to the insanely long vanity and equally enormous mirror above it, sat a large, white tub against the far wall.

  He cocked his head, curious about the white stone standalone wall at the far end of the bathroom with the tub in front and two floor-to-ceiling openings at each side—like an entry on one side and an exit on the other. He pushed off his perch at the door and walked over to the wall, peeking behind the opening.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” he whispered to himself, seeing the chrome water fixtures behind the single wall and large showerhead above. It’s like a human car wash. The frameless shower, with no physical door—big enough to have five people standing side by side at once—looked as if a person could walk in on one side and walk out the other just as impeccably clean as the entire place.

  He shook his head in disbelief and headed toward a narrow door, finally finding the toilet and focusing on taking a leak. He exited the toilet room—whatever the hell the stall area was called—and tried to ignore the large, frameless mirror that multiplied the already large space. He walked out of the bathroom, passing a partially dressed Drayton sitting on the corner of the—of course—big white bed.

  He stopped when the firm grip on his forearm halted his progress. He turned to face Drayton, trying to speak through the tightness in his throat. Dammit. He wanted this, but the math just didn’t work out in his head. “Nothing you say is going to have this make sense in my mind. So don’t bother trying.”

  “These are just things.”

  Vann scoffed. “Expensive things.”

  “Things that can be easily replaced.”

  He shook his head. “Dray—”

  Drayton stood and firmly held his face, silencing the rest of his words. “I’d have none of this had it not been for you, so don’t you dare stand there and punish me for finally having it. You always believed I could do this. You had faith in me when no one else did. You stood by my side when everyone else was too busy ignoring me. You pushed me to never give up when everyone else thought I was a fool. I wouldn’t have any of this had it not been for your faith in me.” He quieted, his eyes pleading. His chest heaved with each breath as he searched Vann’s features. “I wouldn’t be here, standing in front of you right now had it not been for you being there for me. You saved me, Vann, in more ways than you will ever know.”

  Vann looked away and closed his eyes, struggling to control the heavy weight in his chest and his thickening throat. The realization of last night came crashing into his mind. “This is why you shut off the lights last night. Isn’t it?”

  “Yes. I wanted last night to be about us, not about any of this. Money has always meant more to you than it has to me. I knew you’d be upset.”

  His focus snapped up to Drayton. “Can you blame me? Put yourself in my position.”

  “When are you going to get it through your head that none of this matters to me without you? That I’d trade everything just to be with you?”

  Vann sighed and closed his eyes. “Apparently, you already did that once,” he whispered. The pressure in his chest compounded, imagining the time Drayton was on his own, without his family, without a penny to his name, without any support simply because he had chosen Vann over his family.

  “And I’d do it again if it meant having you forever by my side.” Drayton pressed a tender kiss to his lips. “C’mon.” He clasped Vann’s hand and pulled him to follow out of the room and into the hallway. He issued several voice commands as he walked, triggering overhead lights to illuminate the space and the solid blinds of the windows to slowly roll upward, revealing a breathtaking, panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean that froze Vann’s trek.

  The bright blue sky and the rich deep blues of the water wrapped around the entire perimeter of the penthouse. Not only was this place filled with insanely rich items and brands he couldn’t even pronounce, he was surrounded by a picturesque, breathtaking view of natural beauty he imagined most people would give their left nut to have.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, Dray. Really? Really!”

  Drayton tugged him through the penthouse, not saying another word. What the hell could Drayton say? Nothing, nothing would make this math work out for Vann in his head…and he didn’t need to be a fucking genius to figure that shit out.

  “Sit,” Drayton commanded, pointing to the couch in the living room. The pristine, white leather couch that looked like something no one should ever plant their ass on. He reached out and brushed his thumb along Vann’s cheek in a gentle caress. “Please.”

  Vann tightened his lips, holding back a protest. He carefully sat and crossed his arms tightly, not wanting to touch anything and risk smudging the perfection surrounding him. He glanced up as Drayton walked down the hallway and heard him enter another room, emerging a few seconds later with a translucent envelope in his hand. He sat next to him on the couch and poked Vann’s chest with the envelope.

  “Open that.”

  Vann looked down at the thick, clea
r envelope with the string tied around two buttons. Even the damn folder was too damn refined to touch.

  Drayton sighed. With a few quick movements, he unwound the string and withdrew the folders and documents inside. “I wanted to wait until you were a bit more settled in to talk about this to avoid you getting overloaded with adjusting to things, but with everything that’s happened, I want you to see this now.” He held out a document.

  Vann kept his arms crossed and stared at the crème-colored papers with the elegantly embossed letterhead logo of a financial group.

  “Just take it and read it. Please.”

  He hesitated but finally uncrossed his arms and paused for a moment before reaching for the document. He grazed his thumb along the textured paper, feeling every fiber and groove of the stamped certification circle in the lower left corner. The document was riddled with legalese he couldn’t decipher but recognized as typical lawyer stuff. He’d seen enough paperwork when he went inside to know legal forms didn’t usually play in his favor. He faked it for a few seconds, scanning the heretos, hereofs, hereinafters until he read his name in the first paragraph alongside D&V Infinity, Corporation. His focus shot up to Drayton.

  “What is this?”

  Drayton shifted on the couch to fully face him. “I designed the battery, the motor, and the necessary technology, but it’s your car design that grabbed everyone’s attention. The first model is your drawing, down to the tiniest of details. I changed nothing on it. Each new release since the launch is just a variation of that same design. Different fender shape, rear lights, etc. Pure aesthetic modifications on your design. When I started, I opened an account and deposited the same money I would have paid you had you been a designer on my team at the time. Then, when I started making a profit, I split the earnings and deposited your share into that same account. The company is as much yours as it is mine.”