Chapter 13 #2
On instinct, Jensen’s hands flew to his hips.
Feeling all that warm skin under his fingertips had blood racing to his cock.
His eyes drank up Daniel’s body, from his lightly haired legs to the obscene bulge in his black briefs.
The curly trail of hair that inched its way up to his shallow belly button.
Tight abs that weren’t overly defined but showed muscle on every heaving breath.
Pink nipples that complemented the red flush blooming across the pale skin of his chest and neck.
Lips that were parted and soft and tempting, and Jensen was losing his mind.
Their eyes clashed, and not a breath later, their mouths connected with a passion so intense that Jensen wondered if he’d ever actually felt the emotion before.
He thought he’d felt pleasure before, thought maybe he knew what it was like to be zealous.
But having Daniel in his home, in his arms, as they grasped at each other and tried pressing impossibly closer, Jensen had to admit he’d never once experienced anything like this before.
It felt amazing. Euphoric. Settling.
It felt right.
The soft strands of Daniel’s hair belonged in between Jensen’s clenched fingers.
His lips were exactly where they were supposed to be: against Jensen’s.
Daniel’s weight grinding down on his lap felt natural.
The rhythm of their uneven breaths and desperate movements harmonized, and Jensen’s house had never felt more like home.
He had never felt complete, not like this.
“Need you,” Daniel panted into Jensen’s mouth.
He didn’t bother with responding more than tugging Daniel’s body closer to his own. His focus couldn’t be dragged from sucking and licking into Daniel’s lips—that was, until he shifted lower on Jensen’s lap.
Falling back into the chair, Jensen watched as Daniel took them both in one of his deft hands and started stroking them.
A groan left Jensen’s panting mouth, and his cock pulsed; he was already so close to reaching his peak.
The sight of their cocks together, swollen and hot, took the breath from his lungs.
Each pull of Daniel’s hand forced his hips to come up off the leather, desperate for more.
More of Daniel’s scent in his lungs. More pressure from Daniel’s grip.
More of the euphoria building at the base of his spine and the pit of his heart.
More everything. Jensen simply wanted more Daniel.
He wanted to consume him and be consumed by him.
Fused together would not be close enough.
And Jensen was close. A whimper escaped the back of his throat—something he could not be insecure about, because it caused Daniel to shudder and buck into his moving hand.
“Daniel, I’m going to—”
“Me too,” he said, glancing up to meet Jensen’s eyes before refocusing on getting them both off. “Come on my cock, baby.”
Jensen had always been good at following clear instructions and, as such, fucking exploded not a minute later.
His body tightened up and released with an intensity that made his vision swim.
His thoughts became airy, unreachable, and he distantly heard Daniel curse before curling into him.
With arms that felt weighted and maybe even detached from his body, he tugged Daniel closer.
They sat together, small puffs of air warming the side of Jensen’s neck, as their hearts calmed in the aftermath.
Having Daniel’s bare form curled up in his lap was just as good as the orgasm that had thundered through Jensen’s body.
He could get used to this. He wanted to get used to this.
Now that Daniel was in his space, weaving himself deeper into Jensen’s life, he was more certain than ever that they were meant to be together.
After several quiet minutes, Daniel sat back with a lazy smile on his flushed face. “I like the living room, by the way. I’d love to see your bedroom sometime.”
Jensen’s heart soared again.
“So, tell me about how you became a keynote speaker on modern design, when this”—Daniel gestured around the living room with the hand not loosely gripping his wineglass—“is obviously what you’re meant to be doing.”
Jensen’s cheeks and heart warmed at the casual compliment.
He knew where he belonged in the design world, but over the years, he’d started to worry no one else saw it.
Sure, his parents praised him. But his boss certainly hadn’t taken his passion seriously.
Having Daniel reinforce that he was good at his obsession, that he was made for it, was affirming.
“During college, I ran a blog,” he started.
Daniel’s face lit up in surprised wonderment. “You ran a blog?”
“Of course,” Jensen said, nodding solemnly. “No one would publish my articles, and I had a lot of opinions that needed to be shared.”
“I’m sure you did,” Daniel said with a smile.
“It wasn’t very popular, but a man with more money than he deserved found it while searching for an architect to design him and his wife a new house.
He contacted me a few days after I graduated, and I couldn’t reasonably turn down his offer.
It was a dream come true, and the money and notoriety would have set me up for a very fruitful career. ”
Daniel set his wine on the coffee table and put his feet under him. “What happened?”
“I started drawing up plans, putting everything I’d learned into the house. After the second revision, he called to tell me he was separating from his wife and wanted to go in a different direction. He suddenly wanted an ultramodern bachelor pad instead of a comfortable place to start a family.”
“Damn.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, remembering the switch that had sent him spiraling in the moment, then had his career trajectory spinning in a direction he detested.
“He asked me to revise the plans using his new specifications, and I couldn’t refuse.
There was too much money on the line, and I didn’t want to start my professional life stained by rejecting my first client.
So I did what he asked. I drew up plans he wound up using.
” He shook his head. “He ended up loving it and told the team designing an office campus for his company that they had to hire me or he would take his account to a company that would.”
“Holy shit. He got you a job?”
“For the same company I’m still working for.
Management promised they’d move me to projects I cared about more after I finished the campus project.
And over half my graduating class had yet to find employment that paid them for their work.
So of course I accepted.” At Daniel’s wide-eyed expression, Jensen grimaced slightly.
“The house I designed was fine. It wasn’t spectacular or anything.
I honestly think he just liked me, since I was there throughout his very messy divorce. ”
“But your boss hasn’t let you work on any projects you like?”
“No. I’ve been stuck doing office designs since I started. With all the practice, I’ve gotten good at them. They don’t excite me, but it’s what I’m known for, so my boss won’t move me elsewhere.”
“Why don’t you quit and find another job? Weren’t you doing some consulting work? Could that become more permanent? Surely some other company wants your fabulous keynote speaker ass.”
Jensen blushed at the compliment. He almost opened his mouth and told Daniel that Larsson and Fowl had hinted at a full-time position at their firm, but thought better of it.
Nothing was set in stone yet and one small project fee wasn’t stable enough for him to uproot his life and move across the country.
While Jensen had savings, he would blow through them fast if he didn’t have any income.
And he’d only just submitted his final notes to Larsson the day before; it was too soon to tell if there would be anything coming his way.
“There isn’t a high demand for art nouveau experts in modern architecture firms. I could try finding work with a restoration company, but even those are hard to come by. ”
“So you’re stuck.”
“Right now, I am unfortunately stuck. My boss promised to move me to different projects once I complete my current assignment, but it’s not the first time he’s said that.”
It wasn’t news to Jensen that he was backed into a corner in terms of his career path, but it did bother him more than usual.
Until the conference, he’d been content in his work.
Well, perhaps content wasn’t the right word.
He’d been tolerably unhappy. It hadn’t been something that itched at the back of his brain or had a small but constant fire burning in his gut that was ready to ignite at the smallest provocation from his boss.
Before meeting Daniel, he hadn’t cared that he was stuck doing things he didn’t like. But that wasn’t Daniel’s fault; he hadn’t intentionally woken Jensen up to the offensive drudgery his life had become. And it wasn’t fair of Jensen to bring him across the country just to complain about his job.
“What about you? How did you start working at the Lillian?”