33 Degrees of Separation (Legacy)

by Rain Carrington

  “No! No, no, Bethany, of course not. I’m the one sorry for not realizing you probably know more about me in the, what? Eight or nine years you’ve worked here than my mother does, and she’s known me my whole life.”

  “That’s not mutually exclusive to the wealthy, Ian. My mother never tried to know me, only place on me expectations she wanted. Anyway…back to this?”

  Ian was glad she was facing him again. “Okay, but you’ll excuse me if I’m so embarrassed that I may have to vomit.”

  She smiled and blushed too. “Don’t be embarrassed. Ian, your boyfriend, or whatever he is, is very lucky. That you even worry about this is a sign of how much you care. But, as I was saying, can you think of any way to incorporate the, well, things you’re into, to this, romance? Have your preference but soften it?”

  Finally following what she was saying, Ian immediately drew a blank on what he could do. “I understand what you’re saying, only I have no idea how to soften…that.”

  “Men,” she huffed, exasperated. “No offense, but I thought that a gay man would be more inventive than guys like my husband.” After shaking her head a little, grinning at him, she proposed, “Let me help. I’ll put together a few things, and please, dig deep for inspiration on how to use them.”

  His smile and laugh then were purely shy. “I would greatly appreciate it.”

  He paced for half an hour after blowing out the candles once she left. She warned him if he took very long, they’d be melted, and he wanted everything perfect. When she returned, she had a small box of things, and she took the box to the living room table. Ian sat on the sofa and started to pull things out, blushing harder as he went. “There are some silk scarves in here that were your father’s. He threw them all out one day when you mother bought him new ones. I don’t know why I saved them, I guess I just hate waste like that.”

  “Silk scarves.” The possibilities were endless there. “Wow, okay,” he said, chuckling nervously.

  “I’ve delivered this, so my job is over. Like I said, get the imagination going, and leave some of that to him. Shoot, set some of this out and let him go wild.”

  She suddenly seemed to hear herself and her blush was dark across her nose and cheeks. He let her off the hook. “I got it. Thank you so much, Bethany. And thank you for not saying anything about, you know.”

  “I know. Good luck, I guess?”

  In the box were a beautiful bowl of strawberries, a can of whipped cream that he held for a moment, unsure of it. “Whipped cream…in a can?” He’d never seen the like. He found the scarves, all while and crisp, rolled so there would be no creases.

  Also in the box was a bath bomb, smelling of gardenia. He frowned a little, thinking that was possibly worse than the flowers as far as being over feminine, but then he thought about it, how relaxing it would be for Pat, and he tossed it in the air and caught it, rearranging his plans a little and moving a few of the candles into the bathroom, along with a few of the roses.

  He wasn’t his mother, and planning events wasn’t his thing, but by the time he was finished setting things up, arms crossed over his chest as he gazed at his handiwork, he was quite pleased. It looked almost like a romantic spa, red rose petals in a basket, ready to be sprinkled over the water, once he got the heads up that Pat was on his way.

  The candles were set toward the wall, four, so there would be room around the rest of the tub in case they started the lovemaking in the tub. The strawberries and cream were in the crystal bowl Bethany had found for the strawberries, and beside them was an ice bucket where the champagne was chilling.

  Ian set out two soft white towels and a loofa, though getting clean wouldn’t be the focus of the bath.

  In the bedroom, Ian set lotion on the nightstand, placing one of the scarves over the beige shade of the lamp. The rest of the candles on the mantel were lit again, placing Ian in the mood that was far past a sweaty coupling, a hurried fuck to take the stress, that had been all they’d had the time or energy for. Ian knew as much as he needed the closeness of a night of romance, Pat had to need it more. He was trying to take it all on his shoulders, be the Dom and protect and cherish his sub. That was fine, and Ian was trying to understand, but what he also understood was that it was his job to help him deflate sometimes and relax so he would have the strength to do what he thought he had to.

  All he needed for the night to be perfect after all that, was Pat.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “What the hell are you pacing for now?”

  Javi was annoyed with him, but he understood why. Besides the plans that he insisted they go over again, and again, and again, he couldn’t get Ian off his mind. “I can’t say, Javi. It’s…personal.”

  “Papi, you’ve eaten my ass, there doesn’t get much more personal than that.”

  Pat laughed and flipped him off, but explained, “That’s why it’s a little awkward to talk to you about this stuff, Javi. Our former relationship, and all, well, it’s weird asking for advice from you.”

  They were in a parking lot of an abandoned warehouse, so it wasn’t as if they’d be overheard. Still, he hated talking to Javi about his relationship with Ian. There were feelings still lingering there, just at the edge, that could make things painful for the both of them.

  “Papi, I’ve told you, I wish things could have been different with us, but any regrets or jealousies fly right out the window when I see the way that guy looks at you. The way he gets…, well, that’s what you deserve, Papi. You deserve someone loving you like that. So, get it off your chest.”

  Somewhat relieved, Pat leaned back on the hood of the car and tried to figure it out himself, which wasn’t easy. “I…I wish I knew. We both need the night off all this. Really bad. And I can’t just go in there and fuck him again. He’s going to start feeling like a damn booty call.”

  “You’re so good at that, though,” Javi purred at him, then cleared his throat and mumbled, “Sorry, I can’t help it.”

  “Yeah, I figured that out already.”

  With his mischievous grin, Javi went on with the conversation. “Okay, well, you are really great at pounding a guy like you’re trying to hammer a nail through concrete, but how are you at the other stuff? I don’t think we every did anything else.”

  “I don’t think we did,” Pat said, scratching his chin and chuckling. “I don’t really know, you know? I mean, romance stuff? Flowers and candy and shit? I’ve thought about it in theory, you know, how it would be with a guy I’d be in a real, long-term thing with, but I don’t think I’ve ever thought of how to do it.”

  “Champagne, roses, I don’t know, dancing? I know some great romantic soul songs.”

  “You and your soul songs. You really should have been born so you could have hit the discos in the seventies.”

  “Yeah, but it’s true. Those old tunes? Like Florence Robbins. She was folk soul, but she has a couple tunes, man, they make even me want to fall in love and walk down the aisle. Billie Holiday, Nina Simone too.”

  “Okay, okay, this is good. Can you make me a playlist?”

  “Fuck yeah, Papi. I’ll do that in the car while you’re shopping. Let’s go.”

  “What am I shopping for?”

  Javi stopped, his eyes wide as he stared at Pat. “Fuck if I know.”

  “Never mind. I’ll figure it out myself.”

  Pat rushed through the gift shop where they stopped, looking for anything that could add to a romantic evening. He was at a loss. There were flowers and candy, but again, he wasn’t sure about that.

  When he came upon the one thing he thought would say what he wanted to say, he held it in his hand and the saleswoman stopped to ask if he needed help.

  “Um, yeah. I’m shopping for a romantic evening, and I’m not sure of what to get. Besides this gift, anyway, and I’d feel weird just showing up with a gift.”

  Tall, the woman didn’t have to lean in to see what Pat held. “That’s a good start, though. If you don’t mind me giving advice
on, well, after you give the gift. I think I may have some things to suggest.”

  “Anything. I’ll take any advice you can give me.”

  “Why don’t you meet me at the cash register, and I’ll pick a few things for you to choose from.”

  He felt the blush creeping over his cheeks. “That would be amazing. Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  He brought the bags to the car and stuffed them in the back seat. When he got into the driver’s side, he laughed at Javi bent over the phone.

  “Are you done?”

  “Not yet,” Javi whispered. “Two more. Maybe three. Drive, Papi, and by the time I drop you at your car, I’ll have it.”

  When Pat got to where he’d parked his car, he grabbed his phone from Javi, who was grinning. “You gotta tell me how it went.”

  “I’m not giving you details.”

  Whining, he pled, “Please? I wanna know how Agent Pat Castaldo does it without trying to break a guys hip bones.”

  “I do not try to break hip bones!”

  “You don’t?”

  Pat laughed and said, “Stop already, would ya? I’m nervous enough.”

  “Aw, how sweet, the big bad special agent is nervous. Well, SA Castaldo, what do they say? A G-man always get their man? Go get him.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  The bag held the gift, plus a few scented candles, some lotion with essential oil that was supposed to help relax the person it was rubbed on. Pat thought a nice bath, with the bubble bath she’d added, then a massage on the bed, and hopefully that would turn into a long, sweet night of lovemaking.

  The only thing Pat wasn’t sure of was when to give Ian the gift. He thought maybe he’d figure that out as he went.

  ****

  Bethany called less than half an hour later, so Ian ran to the bathroom to fill the tub, scattering the petals over the water as it rose high in the tub. He checked over the scarves that were laid out over the duvet on the bed. Then, he went to the door, opening when he heard Pat grab the knob.

  There, in the doorway was the guy he loved. His chest warmed as he saw Pat there, a large shopping bag in his hand, smiling but confused. “Hey! What’s up?”

  Wordlessly, Ian took his hand and led him quickly through the bedroom and into the en suite. He’d turned off the lights, so the only glow was from the candles flickering over the water.

  “What did you do?”

  Ian turned right into his arms, cocking his head as he purred, “I am going to take care of you tonight, and spend the night in your arms, and making love with you. I may need you, but I think you need to get your mind off things too, Pat, and if I can do that, I think that’s part of my role in this relationship. I may defer to you, but in that, I also have to push you to relax and take a night off sometimes.”

  Pat grinned at him and handed him the shopping bag, after taking a small package out of it. “I think we both had the same idea, baby.”

  Ian saw the candles, the lavender lotion, bubble bath and he started laughing. “I guess we did. What did you take out?”

  Pat was holding it behind his back. “Not yet. Let me get undressed and get into that tub.”

  “Let me do that for you,” he whispered, starting on the buttons on his shirt.

  Pat grabbed his hands, kissing over the knuckles. “You open that champagne and get in the tub. I’ll be right there.”

  He nodded, leaning his head over and moving up to kiss him tenderly. “Hurry back.”

  He watched Pat leave the room and he grinned, pushing his underwear over his hips and letting them fall to the floor. The water was hot, but not scalding as he stepped down into it, the petals moving on the ripples he created.

  Ian grabbed the bottle and unwrapped the top, getting the cork to pop easily with one of the towels to catch it. Just as he was about to pour the bubbling liquid into the glasses, Pat came back into the room and warned, “Don’t you dare pour it yet.”

  “Sorry, I thought…”

  Pat was naked, and Ian looked him over as he moved to the tub, saliva gathering in his mouth at the sight. He was buff, perfect, so fucking hot that Ian couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

  “Stop staring.”

  “That’s one command I’ll never obey, so might as well figure out how to continuously punish me for the next fifty or sixty years.”

  Pat laughed and grabbed him to pull him over as soon as he was seated in the tub. Ian straddled his lap, moving close so their erections were butted against one another, and in the hot water, the heat of their cocks touching, and the smoldering way Pat was looking at him, Ian felt dizzy. “It’s pretty amazing we were both thinking of the same thing.”

  “Yeah, baby, it is. Proves to me that we belong together. Not that I needed more proof.”

  Ian kissed him and felt Pat moving. Once the kiss ended, he saw Pat holding the bottle of champagne. “No glasses? Are we going to slug it down straight from the lip?”

  “Hell no. I’m going to have much more fun than that.”

  Intrigued, Ian watched Pat moving the bottle between them, then Pat grabbed the back of his neck and told him, “Lean back for me.”

  He did, perfectly balanced by Pat’s hand holding him, and the next second, he felt cold bubbles being poured over his neck and chest, and felt Pat’s mouth on him, heard the slurping he made as he drank the champagne from Ian’s body.

  While he was letting out a moan, the sound was cut off as Pat did it again, and then again, and once more before he pulled Ian up and kissed him, sharing the mouthful of champagne he’d poured into his mouth right before. It spilled down both of their chins and Pat devoured Ian’s mouth, moving his hand around to the back of him, holding him closely as they continued to share the passionate kiss.

  Ian felt like crying, and he didn’t understand why for a moment. Once it hit him, he grinned instead, realizing the intensity of the feelings he was having couldn’t be contained. Pat’s heavy breathing as the kiss ended, placing their foreheads together, all as Ian held back tears that could surely be misconstrued by his boyfriend.

  “Ian, tonight is…I don’t know, a break from things, sure. It’s more though.”

  Ian finished for him. “We don’t know what’s coming, so we’re being together as much as we can, while we can?”

  Pat seemed to want to say more, but he shook his head and whispered, “All of it. I know I love you, Ian. I can’t tell you how much.”

  Ian moved his lips over Pat’s jaw, cooing and kissing, “I fucking love you so much, Pat. It is all of me, the love I have.”

  Pat moved him so Ian was against the wall of the tub and Pat was in front of him. Again, the champagne was poured, and Pat slurped it off Ian’s neck and chest, confessing, “I’m getting drunk off you.”

  “Good, but I’m getting hungry.” Ian reached for the strawberries, dipping one in the whipped cream, then setting it in his lips and waiting.

  Pat moved to him, taking the strawberry from his mouth, chewing, kissing, the red juice dripping from the corner of his lips, so Ian kissed there, sharing that sweet flavor.

  Taking Pat’s cue, he took the bottle of champagne into his hand and laughed as he held it over Pat’s head, teasing, “Like this?”

  “Do it and I’ll drown you in it.”

  Ian kept his grin but moved the lip of the bottle to Pat’s neck, pouring a little stream of it. Instead of licking it right up, he watched its progress, running over his massive pec and to his small, dark nipple, dripping from it.

  It was mesmerizing, the way it went right there, dripping, so he poured another stream in the same place, but instead of running over his pec, it ran between them, through the thick hair, right over his stomach muscles.

  “You’re wasting it.”

  “No,” he breathed. “I’m not. This is quenching a hell of a thirst.”

  The third pour, however, he poured it in the center of Pat’s neck and he started to drink, licking the champagne from his flesh, and it mixe
d so well with the taste of Pat. His salty, male flesh was the perfect compliment for the tart, sweet liquid.

  Like Pat, it took only a couple of drinks to feel light-headed, but he knew it had nothing to do with the alcohol. Pat’s hands were gripping the cheeks of his ass, he was moving his hips into Ian’s, and he was groaning, that deep groan that set Ian on fire.

  “Stop that, it makes me crazy.”

  “What?”

  “Your deep voice and growls and groans and all of it. Damn, it’s so hot.”

  Pat kissed him, and Ian melted in his arms. “I love that I make you so hot, baby. It’s very mutual. Your sweet ass, your beautiful body, a face that is better than a damn male model or movie star. None of it compares to your heart and mind, though. I hope you know that, Ian. I’m as attracted to you for those as for your looks, in fact more.”

  Ian could live on those words, things he never thought he’d hear. “I’ve always expected guys to want me for my money, and yeah, for my looks. Never thought anyone would want me for anything else.”

  Pat cupped his cheek and looked deep in his eyes, like he was reading his mind or trying to see every thought in his head. “Baby, I can’t see why someone so good and special like you never knew it. Wait for me. I’ll be right back.”

  Ian watched him emerged from the water, a couple of petals sticking to his wet skin and sighed. That was all he could do was sigh. He felt the same way, and knew he’d tell Pat that, that his gorgeous body didn’t compare to how much Ian loved his confidence and intelligence, his compassion and sweetness.

  When Pat returned, apologizing, Ian laughed at him. “Ian, I left a mess, water footprints all the way to your room.”

  “I’ll clean it later. Water dries.”

  After he climbed back into the tub, he moved close to Ian and handed him the small jewelry box. “Now, I don’t want a miscommunication here, so before you open it, let me explain.