by Octavia Zane
Riley was quietly amused that this was the first he was hearing of the assignment. One day Jesse would no doubt appreciate the bakery, but today was not that day. It brought him so much attention that he didn’t like.
“Wouldn’t you rather have your uncle or your mom talk to the class about what they do?” Theo asked. “They can bring cookies for everyone and talk about what it’s like to run a bakery.”
“No!” Jesse protested. “You can come in and talk about what it’s like to be a vet. And tell funny stories about the animals.”
“You have to let him think about it,” Riley said.
“Jesse! Look at this!” Already on the next porch, Gigi waved a full-sized candy bar around in excitement. Jesse took off to claim his own, shouting, “Trick-or-treat! Trick-or-treat!”
“You speak kid language. I’m impressed,” Riley said while they waited again.
“I had to learn,” Theo said. “I’ve got kids in and out of my examination room all day long.”
“Don’t feel like you have to say yes to Jesse.”
“I don’t mind. I’ve talked to classes before-”
The kids exploded upon them, overriding their conversation. Their little party went around the corner to a crowded block of revelers. There was no more chance to speak as they wended their way down the sidewalk from house to house, and the block after that was crazier still. Then the kids ran out of steam so they headed home.
Gathering on the stoop, they rang the doorbell and shouted trick-or-treat when Rivers opened the door. The kids dumped out the candy on the living room floor, pulling out whatever they thought was gross for the grown-ups to have. Then Jesse put on a Halloween cartoon and demanded Theo hang out with him. With the kids wedged in at his sides on the sofa, they watched the program together.
The doorbell rang over and over, Riley passing out candy to the tiny witches, wizards, ninjas, and bumblebees on the stoop. As the night deepened, the foot traffic changed from little kids to teenagers and then evaporated altogether. He blew out the candles in the pumpkins as Rivers sent the kids to their rooms to get ready for bed. They hugged everybody before running upstairs, the adults pretending not to see Jesse furtively slipping one more piece of candy into his pocket.
“It’s late. I should go,” Theo said.
“I’ll walk you out,” Riley offered. Remembering the princess hat, which he had had on his head this whole time, he whipped it off and stuck it on the side table.
They walked out to the parked cars in the driveway, where he said on impulse, “Unless you’d like to come over to my place instead?”
The world held its breath with him.
Theo’s answer was swift. “Yes, I’d like that.”
Chapter Eight
Theo
The tension was so thick and sweet between them that Theo shivered at the closing of the door. He kicked off his shoes since there was a pile of them in the corner.
“You can basically just stand right here and take in the whole place,” Riley said, flicking on the inside light after turning off the porch light. “Kitchen to the right, bedroom and bathroom off the living room, and there you have it: Casa Carder.”
It was a little place, the living room simply furnished in a sofa and a coffee table. A mixed collection of DVDs and books were crammed into a particle-board bookshelf below a wall-mounted TV. The kitchen was clean and the fridge covered in kids’ artwork and letter magnets. Although it was dark in the bedroom, the room was illuminated by a skylight. Pale white moonlight outlined a crisply made bed.
“Would you like a drink?” Riley asked.
“No. I’d . . .” Theo turned to him, unable to express what he was feeling. He didn’t want to either mute or intensify this tension with alcohol; it was perfect exactly the way it was.
He put his hand on Riley’s chest, and Riley took over at once.
Running his fingers through Theo’s hair, he looked down to him with a reflection of that same intensity in his rich brown eyes. They pressed closely together, Theo stroking Riley’s well-developed biceps. The heat of him was forceful, pushing out of his clothes and through Theo’s to warm his skin.
Then they kissed.
It was no soft, tentative kiss to test the waters. Riley’s lips were firm, his kiss intent with purpose, and Theo felt himself giving into it. It was more than giving in. It was a full body surrender that tucked him against Riley’s larger frame and parted his lips, allowing a questing tongue entry.
Hands stroked down Theo’s back and came up beneath his shirt. It was like twin trails of fire along his cool flesh, transferring the flames to him. Everywhere those hands went took light, and the blood began to race in his veins. All the while that tongue explored his mouth, tasting him, and they barely paused to breathe before coming together again.
Nobody had touched Theo this way in fourteen months. Nobody had really touched him at all, and he had been afraid to let another man touch him. Afraid of the memories it would conjure up in his mind. Had it only been a few weeks or even a few months, his relationship with Vaughn, Theo doubted it would have left any mark.
But eight years . . . eight years scored a person. Eight years of laughter and tears, their lives so entangled that there was no parsing them, had made Theo worry if he could ever be with a man and not be reminded in some way of Vaughn.
But he was here with Riley now, and Vaughn did not push forth. He stayed a muttering, malignant shadow in the edges of Theo’s mind, and then departed.
Theo pressed even closer to Riley until not even a shaft of light could have wedged itself between them. His own hands roamed over Riley’s shoulders and back. Hard work built those muscles and hard work maintained them. It was sexy as hell to Theo how those muscles flexed beneath his touch, coiled with strength.
Their kiss broke so that Riley could sweep off Theo’s shirt. Hungry to see him as well, Theo stripped off Riley’s shirt in return. His cock twitched at the sculpted frame before him, and a sudden rush of blood in his veins made him dizzy.
Their lips touching again, Theo moaned at the blast of heat along his bare chest. Riley took the moan into himself and thrust his tongue in a steady rhythm. They rocked together, their hips pushing and ceding and pushing as their hands traveled and clutched.
It was so quiet in the guesthouse, save the soft sounds of their kisses and breaths. The whole world had gone still.
He didn’t know what Riley liked, but he knew what he wanted to do. It was what he loved to do, to get down on his knees in worship with a handsome man standing over him. Theo popped the button of Riley’s jeans and dragged down the zipper.
“Can I . . .” he whispered.
“Yes,” Riley said urgently.
Theo dropped to the carpet and jerked down Riley’s jeans. A hard bulge tented the fabric of his underwear.
Fuck.
All the pent-up need exploded out of him. He kissed and licked that bulge frantically, his mouth watering so much that he had to swallow repeatedly. He stroked Riley’s thighs, ran up to his taut stomach, and around to his ass. The cotton fabric quickly grew damp under his tongue, his need for more becoming even wilder, and hearing the slight hitches of enjoyment in Riley’s breath sent him over the edge. He yanked the underwear down and caught Riley’s bouncing cock in his fist.
Riley was thick where it mattered. Staring up to him, Theo kissed his tip and made him shiver.
“Tell me,” Theo said, his voice hoarse, almost begging.
Riley saw the plea for what it was, the need to be ordered.
“Pleasure me,” he growled, and Theo bent eagerly to comply.
He dampened him first with long licks, reveling in the salty sweetness. His mouth watering even more fiercely, Theo transferred that wetness until Riley’s cock glistened in the light of the overhead. Returning to his tip, Theo tongued the slit and swirled around the crown while grasping the slick shaft.
Another growl came, low and feral and exciting.
There were no words
, nor were they required; everything that Theo needed to know was contained in that sensual, masculine rumble. A hand came to the back of his head and Theo’s partial erection swelled to maximum. He opened his mouth and held still as Riley pushed himself in.
They moaned.
Riley came forward, sinking deeper and deeper until Theo’s lips met his own fist in a kiss. Keeping his hand where it was on the back of Theo’s skull, Riley pulled out and penetrated him again, slowly and gently leading the blow-job, never pushing too hard or too fast but never releasing Theo either.
Theo ceded completely. He could not say why this pleased him as much as it did, but some deep need for it was being sated. He took it for as long as Riley wanted it, and then took over once he was released.
God. He pumped his fist and swirled his tongue in rapture. Pulling the cock from his mouth, he kissed and sucked at Riley’s scrotum. A warning growl took him back swiftly to Riley’s cock, where he bobbed on him and built up speed, agonized by his own ever-mounting arousal. In time he took his fist away to take Riley in fully, each bob bringing him down farther upon the hot, wet shaft, until his lips nestled in crisp pubic hair and Riley’s growls turned to moans.
Suddenly, Riley caught his head again. He pumped in and out quickly, his breaths hitching hard, and then his groan of relief filled the quiet guesthouse. Theo drank him down, loving to feel the pulse of the shaft against his lower lip, and then rested his face against a burning thigh. Fingers dandled lovingly through his hair as they panted.
“I’ve gone all weak in the knees,” Riley said, a complaint that was not really a complaint at all.
“Maybe you should sit down and rest,” Theo said with pretend sympathy.
“Maybe you should tell me what you need.”
Theo closed his eyes. He knew what he needed for himself; saying it was another matter. Turned on unbearably, he forced the words through his lips. “I want the same, and I don’t want you to listen if I try to put you off.”
“Not listen to you?” Riley asked. “Mmm. All right. I can do that.”
“We could get that drink now, I suppose.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Riley said, offering a hand. Theo took it and got up.
Riley bumped into him. It was a chest bump that moved Theo backwards to the end of the sofa, Riley tipping his head meaningfully to the bedroom. Theo found himself grinning, and tried to step around him to the kitchen.
A swift side step, and another chest bump. Riley stared at him with an implacable expression that made Theo the one who was weak in the knees. All of his efforts would be in vain, that expression said. Riley was interested in moving them into the bedroom, and he would herd Theo there if herding was what it took. Considering the state of the baker’s muscles, he could probably throw Theo over his shoulder and carry him there.
Theo submitted to the rush of surrender, and though he made one more tiny dodge, Riley easily waylaid him. A chest bump nudged him around the sofa, and after that it was only a few steps to the open bedroom door.
Once they were through it, Riley said, “Drop your pants.”
“But I’d really like that drink,” Theo stalled.
“If you don’t drop them, then I’ll drop them for you.”
Theo stood there. “But . . .”
Fingers closed around the waistband of Theo’s pants. The button was undone in a lightning-quick yank, and the sound of the zipper coming down made the last of the blood still circulating in Theo’s brain drop south so fast it left him light-headed. Riley pinched the fabric at Theo’s outer thighs and tugged hard. Then he gave Theo a hard chest bump that tumbled him backwards into the bed.
Theo was still bouncing upon the mattress when Riley ripped off his pants and tossed them away in the dimness. Pressing his luck, Theo scooted up to the pillow while turning, as if he intended to roll off the other side of the bed. A heavy hand closed over his hip and returned him forcefully to his back.
His underwear was stripped away. He tensed in anticipation of Riley taking him in, but instead a hot, hard body laid down atop him to demand a kiss. Drawing in his breath as a gasp, Theo wound his arms around Riley’s back. They moved together sinuously upon the top blanket, Riley pushing in and the bed springs pushing Theo back to him. Sweat broke out on Theo’s brow from the heat flooding through him.
Thrust. Thrust. Thrust. He dug his nails into Riley’s back, and then his arms were being pushed up over his head. “Hold that bar,” Riley barked.
Theo’s fists closed obediently around a cold metal bar. “We might be taking this kind of fast,” he suggested.
“Mmm-hmm. Tell me all about it.” Riley nuzzled into his neck to kiss him there.
“Well, it’s just that we got a little carried away out there in the living room . . .” It was hard to keep playing along with this game when it felt so good. “And maybe if we slowed down and talked this over . . .”
Riley moved down to his collarbone to trail kisses along it, speaking as he did. “Mmm-hmm. Wow. Keep going. I’m totally interested in your deep thoughts right now.”
Being summarily dismissed turned Theo to putty beneath him. This was going to go the way that Riley wanted, regardless of what Theo said. On the edge of giving in, Theo said, “Just a quick break then? We could sit on the sofa, share some cocktails-”
“Cocktails,” Riley said in utter disgust. He kissed Theo’s nipples and started a slow slide down his stomach. “Is that what you think I have in my kitchen? Cocktail fixings? You think I know how to make a . . . I don’t even know the names of cocktails. Brandy sours, gin and tonic, flaming volcano, that’s all I know. I’ve got beer in my fridge. That’s as high-falutin’ as we get in this guesthouse, sorry to say.”
His lips touched down above Theo’s navel, and then below it. Grunting in pleasure, Riley trailed his finger through the line of hair he found there. “Cocktails,” he mumbled again.
Theo’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. “Are you really sure we can’t just take a quick time-out?”
“Sure we can take a time-out, as long as you like, after I’m done here.”
A kiss touched down on Theo’s straining cock.
His back arched in reaction and his hands flew down to grasp Riley’s head. Riley pulled up with a roar. “Get your hands back on that bar or I’ll tie them there!”
Theo obeyed. He began to voice another protest, another stall, but it was lost in his moan.
The game was over. A wet tongue bathed him with rapid strokes, a fist smearing the saliva around with a few expert pumps. Then Riley slipped Theo’s aching cock into his mouth.
He gripped the bar for dear life. The interplay of mouth and tongue and hands was seamless, Theo throttling the bar in his grip. The sensations grew so intense that he squirmed involuntarily, Riley ignoring that just like he ignored the rest of it. Theo heard himself begging for more, begging for less, begging for it to just not stop.
It didn’t stop, and it was ecstasy.
He had never been loud in bed but tonight he couldn’t help himself. He hurtled to the peak too fast and Riley squeezed his scrotum to hold him off, prolonging the torment. Within some quick spurt of time he was back at the peak and crying out as Riley quit his cock to give wet kisses to his sensitive inner thighs.
He didn’t know what Riley would do next. When he pleaded for one thing, Riley did another; when he pleaded for that to go on, Riley did something else. All of it was good, all of it was bliss, and his hands came off the bar to grip Riley’s shoulders when he hurtled to that peak a third time.
Riley finally gave him relief, and brought Theo to a shattering climax. It came from so deep within Theo that it brought darkness on its tail, and he slept.
He woke up some time later under the blankets. The light was off in the living room, and moonlight filtered down from above. Riley was nestled into his back, arm tucked under his ribcage. Soothed by the comforting hold, by the tropical heat of Riley’s body, Theo slipped away again.
Gray light was coming down from the sky the next time he opened his eyes. Not yet dawn, but dawn was not far away. They had changed position in their sleep, Riley now on his back and Theo tucked against his hard shoulder, Theo’s hand in the warm pocket where hip joined thigh. Riley made a sound in his throat and shifted, hardness brushing against Theo’s fingers.
He was getting erect. Theo moved his hand to cover it, feeling every change and twitch. Soon Riley stirred, Theo getting up on one elbow to kiss him and whisper, “Don’t listen,” into his ear.
Then Theo rolled onto his stomach, and Riley didn’t listen.
He took instead and he took greedily, the bed battering against the wall and the springs squeaking, Theo moaning as he was ridden. A thrill went through him when Riley came, clamping Theo’s hips and thrusting in deep. But that was nothing compared to the intensity of the thrill to follow, Riley rolling onto his back and lifting his legs as he ordered Theo inside him.
His fingers digging hard into the sheets, Theo mounted him. He thrust into that welcoming tightness, changing his speed from slow to fast to slow at Riley’s command. He gave until he was drenched in sweat and his arms were shaking, Riley’s orders quieting to let Theo find the pace he needed for his release. Hard and fast and deep and then he was overcome, and fell asleep in his sexual obliteration with his head on Riley’s stomach.
No, you aren’t going anywhere. Dammit, I said no!
He was dimly aware that he was dreaming, and dream-Vaughn’s handsome face was screwed up and hideous in his anger. When Vaughn was happy the bluebirds sang in the nest; when Vaughn was angry, the world quaked and sought a place to hide.
He was having a fit because Theo had screwed up the flower arrangements for Vaughn and Matthias’s nuptials. Of course this was a dream, even Theo’s dream-self wondering why he would be in charge of the flowers when he was neither a florist nor had any reason to attend the wedding of his ex. There was a bouquet in Vaughn’s hand of mauve roses and purplish snapdragons and white orchids, but as Theo looked, the flowers changed. The roses bloomed beige, swelling as large as cantaloupes; the snapdragons turned into actual miniature dragons with blue and green scales, spitting fire to wilt the surrounding flowers. The orchids turned to succulents and then to green, leafy filler sprays with red berries.