Chapter 13
Airports were the worst.
They were simultaneously rigorously organized and horrendously disorganized, and everyone seemed to lose any sense of situational awareness the moment they entered the doors.
Point proven, Jensen thought with distaste as yet another person shoulder checked him. They weren’t even looking at him as they walked past, so he couldn’t scowl at them properly.
In the twenty minutes he’d been camped out at the security exit near the baggage claim, he’d nearly been ran over by a teenager’s suitcase, narrowly missed being coughed on, and had three people actually run into him.
He was very, very close to losing his cool.
But it was all worth it because, ten minutes ago, Daniel’s plane had landed.
Any moment now, he’d have Daniel in his arms, and he would suffer through just about anything to get that.
As he took a deep breath to calm the crawling feeling spreading across his skin, another group of people made their way down the long glass hallway that spit out into the airport’s foyer. A blond head of hair instantly caught his attention, and his heart went into overdrive.
Jensen’s world stopped completely. Daniel was here.
Daniel was here, only a few yards away, and it was as if everyone else blinked out of existence. Like everything suddenly disappeared.
Daniel was here, and planes could have been dropping out of the sky, deadly germs could have been pumped directly into the airport lobby, and people could be rioting loudly around them, and none of that would have mattered to Jensen.
Daniel was here. And, unbelievably, he was here for Jensen.
Blood rushed through his body even as his lungs constricted.
The room around him blurred as water rushed to his eyes with an emotion he couldn’t name because his brain was too busy computing the fact Daniel was in California, in San Francisco, in this airport.
And he was looking at Jensen like there wasn’t anywhere else he’d rather be.
Jensen’s feet were moving without conscious thought as he met Daniel’s wide smile. A few stuttered breaths later, and arms wrapped around his back, his body feeling warm for the first time since he’d woken up alone at the Lillian.
“I missed you,” he said directly into Daniel’s hair, taking in greedy deep breaths to coat his insides with Daniel’s distinct smell.
“I missed you too.” Daniel squeezed Jensen tighter for another moment before stepping back. The most incredible smile lit up Daniel’s perfect face, and it was impossible to not match it. “I can’t believe I’m here. Fuck, it’s good to see you.”
“Should we get your bag?” Jensen asked. He wanted to whisk Daniel away and out of the petri dish of world travelers as quickly as possible. If Jensen could have parked directly on the tarmac, he would have.
“Not yet.” Daniel shook his head. “Need to do this first,” he said, then lifted onto his toes to press their lips together.
Jensen didn’t care about the general public swarming around them or the loud announcements cycling through on the intercoms. He didn’t care that a not insignificant percentage of people were probably sick and contagious and breathing in their vicinity.
The only thing he cared about, the only thing that could hold any amount of his attention, was consuming Daniel.
His mouth was softer than Jensen remembered, his tongue delicious and wet where he dragged it along Jensen’s lower lip.
They fit together so comfortably, so perfectly.
For much too long, he stood there, getting lost in the feeling of Daniel pressed up against him and pouring every bit of yearning he’d felt into their kiss.
It was Daniel that finally pulled away, which was probably for the best. Jensen would have kept kissing him until he passed out from lack of oxygen, and falling onto the grubby floors would have forced his soul from his body. And he very much wanted to continue living.
With an exuberant laugh, Daniel stepped back. “Now we can go get my bag.”
“If they haven’t lost it,” Jensen muttered as he took Daniel’s outstretched hand and let himself be dragged to the baggage claim area.
“What, you don’t want me to be naked all week?” Daniel asked with a wink.
Jensen gasped. He hadn’t thought of that.
Of course, he didn’t actually want the airline to lose Daniel’s luggage.
That would be a very big inconvenience for him; Jensen was sure.
But to have him naked all weekend? He would be forced to wear Jensen’s clothes if they went out, and that was a tantalizing thought.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, that didn’t happen. They picked up Daniel’s suitcase without incident and walked hand in hand to the parking garage. After a not short enough drive where Jensen tried his hardest to focus on traffic and not the beautiful man next to him, he pulled into his driveway.
“It’s not what I imagined,” Daniel remarked, looking up at the beige craftsman facade while Jensen pulled the suitcase from his trunk.
“I have a particular disdain for landscaping.”
The only thing Jensen had done to the outside since buying the house was hire a group of men to lay down rock and plant bushes and flowers that took care of themselves.
He gave his mother a run for her title of worst horticulturist in the city and had even less patience for tending to his garden than she did.
Looking at it now, though, he wished he had spent an afternoon trying to tame the overgrown plants so it looked more intentional before bringing Daniel over. Jensen had been too busy cleaning the inside of his house and taming a very different type of bush in preparation for the visit.
“Noted.” Daniel stood to the side so Jensen could slide past him with the suitcase. He dutifully followed Jensen up the driveway and the few concrete steps that led to the porch and front door.
Jensen took a deep breath, trying to ignore the nerves stabbing through his stomach at showing Daniel the inside of his home.
It was his safe place. A place he’d crafted to be exactly what he wanted.
And if Daniel didn’t like it, well, there was no way Jensen couldn’t take that personally.
Daniel was already so incredibly important in Jensen’s life, and he needed him to like the world he built. He needed his approval and acceptance.
Letting out the breath, he removed his key from the door and opened it.
“Oh shit,” Daniel said as he dipped around Jensen and walked into the front room.
Jensen was left to stand awkwardly by the door as Daniel took in each feature that had been lovingly and meticulously placed throughout the living room: The dark suede couch and the warm leather armchairs.
The large patterned rug that covered restored hardwood floors.
The wainscoted and wallpapered walls that were ladened with framed paintings and shelves that held an equal number of knickknacks and leafy green plants.
The gauzy curtains that let the afternoon sun stream into the room, highlighting all the dark and cozy corners with a perpetually orange glow.
“Didn’t you just say you hated landscaping?” Daniel reached up, his fingertips narrowly missing a vine hanging down from the ceiling.
Jensen scoffed. “Pothos would survive in a dark closet in the Sahara. At this point, I’m certain they’re living on spite alone.”
Daniel threw a smile over his shoulder as he sauntered deeper into the room. “Does this work? I’ve always wanted to get fucked in front of a fireplace,” he commented as he ran his palm against the cedar mantel Jensen had pilfered from an estate sale years ago.
“Oh, uh, no.” Jensen’s body instantly heated at the thought of taking Daniel on the floor in his living room, like they were both too desperate to make it to the bedroom. “I have it closed off so serial killers can’t come through.”
Daniel turned back around with a smile on his face and a hand toying with the bottom of his shirt. “It’s too hot for that anyway.”
“The heat index is about ninety-three today,” Jensen agreed.
“Mm-hmm. Very hot.”
And, oh … they weren’t talking about the weather anymore.
Daniel’s shirt landed on the coffee table, which was actually a fruitwood game table Jensen had restored as a thirtieth birthday present to himself.
But that was neither here nor there because, much more importantly, Daniel’s belt hung limply between the loops on his jeans, which were being unzipped.
“What’re you doing all the way over there?” Daniel had his pants on the floor, only wearing a pair of tiny briefs and the socks he was stepping out of.
Jensen was too tongue-tied at seeing Daniel nearly naked in his living room to attempt a coherent answer. And Daniel had a point; why was Jensen standing at his front door when the hottest man he’d ever seen was only a few steps away?
Stumbling out of his shoes, Jensen crossed the rug, desperate to get his hands on all the soft skin on display. He reached for Daniel but got pushed down into one of his leather chairs with a huff.
“Like this,” Daniel said as he started to attack Jensen’s belt. He ripped the leather apart and pulled at the button and zipper on Jensen’s jeans like it was the only barrier between a starving man and a buffet.
Jensen could only watch and lift his hips when Daniel started to tug at his pants and underwear. When they were pulled down past his knees, Daniel climbed on top of him, his legs straddling Jensen’s thighs.