Chapter 6 #2
But he didn’t feel himself needing to pretend with Jensen.
He could mess up, and Jensen probably wouldn’t even notice.
He definitely wouldn’t kick Daniel out of his room if he said something wrong or didn’t live up to some impossible fantasy.
Every interaction they’d had gave Daniel the sense he could be imperfect.
He could be just as awkward as Jensen, and it’d be okay.
And for someone that had failed so spectacularly time and time again, that opened him up more than poppers ever could.
Jensen nodded, almost solemnly. “I thought about what would have happened if you came to my room last night after you finished working.”
Now Daniel was interested. “Oh? And what did you decide would happen?” he asked, his pulse skipping.
What did this uptight, kind man fantasize about?
Daniel’s depleted spank bank was dying to know.
He was so hard-pressed for an actual connection, prolonged eye contact might set him off like a pressure hose.
“I didn’t come to any conclusions. It was right before my speech, and I couldn’t afford to think too hard about it. Because, well, you know,” he said and gestured to his lap.
Daniel sat up straight, his mind completely rerouted from sex.
It was a strange occurrence having a patron of the hotel talking him out of sex.
And Daniel was allowing it. But this was different.
He hadn’t shoved Jensen into his room to milk his cock and wallet until they ran dry.
This wasn’t just some mark Daniel would rinse from his body when the night was over, and he found he really, actually cared about how Jensen’s day had gone.
“Oh my God, your speech. How did it go?”
Jensen’s face twisted up, and he took his glasses off. “It was awful. Some of my worst fears about it all came to their sour fruition,” he said as he cleaned the lenses with the bottom of his sweater.
Heaviness settled in Daniel’s gut. He was sad on Jensen’s behalf, which was crazy.
Jensen was a grown man, probably a bit over thirty, and he was competent enough to address an entire conference full of professionals.
He did not need Daniel worrying over him and shielding him from the harsh world.
But, fuck, he was so endearing and cute.
The shitty world didn’t deserve him and his architectural tangents. “What happened?”
Their gazes connected as Jensen slid his glasses back on and looked up.
“I couldn’t walk three feet without someone trying to congratulate me.
You’d think they would let me go after saying the requisite thank-you, but no.
I nearly missed lunch because people refused to stop talking to me.
Then Erik Larsson of Larsson and Fowl tried to talk to me about his firm while I was attempting to eat the aforementioned lunch.
” Jensen threw his hands in the air before dropping them to his lap.
“Apparently social etiquette goes out the window after a man gives one measly speech.”
“Honey, it seems like the speech went fine if everyone was trying to keep your attention after,” Daniel said, failing to keep a smile off his face.
“Well, of course the speech itself was great. I wrote it.” He huffed out a breath.
“If I’d known that would subject me to dozens of conversations afterward, I would have tried emulating the other speakers.
Maybe if I took queues from Dirk Alexander, I could have also put people to sleep.
I bet he got to enjoy his lunch in peace. ”
Daniel crossed his legs and leaned back on his hands, getting comfortable. “All right, Mr. Speech Writer. Tell me all about this Dirk guy and your unmatched oral skills.”
With a slight cough, Jensen’s cheeks flamed red, but he otherwise ignored Daniel’s comment as he started giving his play-by-play of the day.
Daniel often listened to men wax poetic about their job in the hotel; it came with the territory of his profession.
Frankly, it was much easier to get in a man’s wallet when he felt like a big, important person.
It was so significantly easier to lounge on the bed and listen to Jensen talk.
Daniel didn’t pretend to know what he was saying, and he didn’t pretend to be interested in it either.
He didn’t need to, because he was interested.
For the first time, Daniel wanted the clock in the hotel’s rooms to move slower.
But the passage of time was an unrelenting bitch that pulled him from the warm room and the even warmer feeling radiating from the space under his ribs far before he was ready.
Jensen would be leaving the city too soon, and the last thing Daniel wanted to do was work.
Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to miss his shift.
Lucinda would cut off his balls, then find some back-alley doctor to stitch them back on if he did.
But the temptation to stay nestled in Jensen’s room while they simply talked was hard to ignore.
Daniel’s fingers lingered on the doorknob after he closed it behind him. The brass was cooler than the hallway’s stagnant air, the finish worn away from years of use. With one more deep breath, he let go with a silent promise he’d be back. He’d keep coming back to Jensen while he was able.