Chapter 22
T HE WALK HOME from the Finleys’ house was just as Brantley had suspected it might be: quiet, reflective, and full of unspoken words.
The waves were racing to shore as the moon glimmered high in the sky, and as they walked hand in hand, he thought it was telling that he hadn’t felt so complete as he did right then, with this man beside him.
Glancing at Daniel out of the corner of his eye, he saw the wind ruffle his hair and couldn’t help but bring him to a stop.
When he turned to face him, Brantley reached out and right there, in the perfection of the night, cradled Daniel’s face and poured into the kiss he was giving every ounce of love he felt.
He didn’t care if he was the one laying his soul open first. Didn’t care that he was handing his heart over to the man currently embracing him. All he cared about was getting as close to Daniel as he could, for as long as he could.
He parted his lips under the demanding ones seeking permission, and he groaned when Daniel slid his tongue inside to deepen the connection.
The moment was perfect. The man was perfect.
And as the waves continued to crash and thunder like his heart, Brantley thought he could die and have had the most perfect moment of his life.
When Daniel whispered against his mouth, “Take me home,” he saw the man he’d fallen in love with years ago reflected back at him.
“You sure?” he asked, needing the verbal confirmation that Daniel knew what this would mean to him. That he understood that this was no quick fling. Not anymore. Two weeks be damned.
If Daniel agreed to this, Brantley was going to do everything in his power to imprint himself on this man’s soul.
“I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“Never?”
The smile that crept across Daniel’s lips was both shy and sensual, and it was so similar to the young man he’d once been that it had Brantley leaning in to kiss him by his ear.
“Come inside with me,” he said. Then he started to walk backward, making sure to keep hold of Daniel’s hand and pull him along with him. The desire in those golden eyes mixed with a heady dose of awe as he followed close behind.
WHEN DANIEL WALKED into Brantley’s room and he unlocked and pushed the windows open, a thrill of anticipation spread gooseflesh over his body as the wind whipped up and through the curtains.
He couldn’t remember being this nervous about having sex with someone since… fuck, since he’d been with this man.
Usually the one in control, he’d chosen his men back in Chicago with care—always making sure he would be able to keep his heart out of the equation.
Only once had he been tempted to go in a different direction, and that had shocked even him, considering it involved more than one man.
But the more he thought about that particular incident, the more he was starting to realize what their draw had been.
It was that closeness they shared, and perhaps the fact that the preppy, suit-wearing lawyer had reminded him of?—
“Finn?”
“Hmm?” Daniel replied as Brantley walked over to him.
“You okay?”
Reaching for the button of his shirt, he nodded. “I am.”
When Brantley stopped in front of him, he took over undoing the buttons. “Did you mean what you said at your mother’s?”
He didn’t have to ask which part. Daniel knew what Brantley was referring to as he slid his hand inside his open shirt.
“ Is your heart involved?”
He brought his hand up to cover Brantley’s, which was over his thumping heart, and nodded. “Yes. It always was.”
As Brantley touched his lips against his jaw, Daniel closed his eyes and savored the tender gesture.
“I don’t know what we’re doing here, Finn. But I’m done pretending having you here isn’t the best thing that’s happened to me since you left.”
Opening his eyes, Daniel found Brantley’s on his. They were full of all the pent-up emotions he’d been warring with.
Acceptance, desire, joy, and?—
“I never stopped loving you,” Brantley said as he brought his hands up to cradle Daniel’s face. Then he leaned in and kissed his lips.
Daniel had longed for this moment and, at the same time, feared it. The soft caress sent a shock straight to his heart and jolted it back to life. Because right there, while standing in Brantley Hayes’s bedroom, he fell in love all over again.
He reached for Brantley’s waist and drew him closer before tangling his fingers through the thick strands of hair at the back of his head.
As he let the feelings he’d been denying wash over him, all he could think was, Everything is about to change.
And even as that thought entered his mind, Daniel surrendered to the man and the emotions he’d been fighting since he’d arrived.
“And I’ve always loved you.”
brANTLEY WANTED TO clutch his chest to make sure his heart hadn’t given out on him. He wasn’t sure he’d heard Daniel right, but with the way he was looking at him, he couldn’t have been mistaken.
Could I?
Choosing not to wait around and find out, he said into the quiet room, “Undress for me, Finn.”
Daniel’s eyes sought Brantley’s out as he shrugged out of his shirt. He dropped it over a corner of the bed and then went about removing his pants and his briefs. As he straightened to his full height in front of him, Brantley thought he was truly breathtaking.
Since he’d been lying out during the days, Daniel’s skin now had that lovely golden glow he’d always had when he used to live there, and it merely added to his appeal.
The stubble lining his jaw was a darker, dirtier blond than the highlights throughout his hair, which had lightened in the sun.
He was magnificent, and Brantley wanted to be as close to him as he could be.
Stripping out of his own clothes, he walked around to one side of the bed, and Daniel went to the other.
As they climbed onto the mattress, Brantley couldn’t help but feel that this was what Daniel had meant.
Right there and right now, as they slipped between the sheets, it did feel like he was home.
Even if Daniel was only for this moment.
When they were lying down, facing one another, Brantley ran his thumb along Daniel’s lower lip and said, “You’re going to break my heart, aren’t you?”
Daniel’s silence tore at him, even as Brantley acknowledged that the truth wouldn’t stop him from taking what he wanted.
Biting down on his lip to hold back the plea that Daniel stay with him, Brantley nodded and lowered his mouth to Daniel’s.
A tear rolled down the corner of his eye as he kissed those beautiful lips, and when he opened them again, Daniel’s were glistening back at him.
“It’s okay,” Brantley said, pressing his forehead to Daniel’s as he stroked his fingers down his cheek. “I want you any way I can have you. For however long.”
“Brantley—”
“Shh,” he whispered against Daniel’s mouth. “Let me have you.”
DANIEL ROLLED TO his back, and as Brantley followed to stretch out over the top of him, he tried to keep his emotions under control. Brantley was kissing his way along his jaw and down his neck, and all Daniel could think about was the look on his face seconds ago.
That expression had been tormented and pained, but then it had shifted and changed to complete adoration as he’d kissed him and vowed to be happy with whatever Daniel could give.
He didn’t want to hurt Brantley or break his heart, just as he didn’t want to break his own. But he didn’t see any other way this could go. Brantley was mere months away from securing tenure for a job he’d worked his entire life for, and Daniel had just been offered partnership.
Yet as Daniel looked at the man working his way down his body, he knew that if Brantley asked him, he would— No . What the hell was he thinking? Brantley wasn’t going to do that. And he wouldn’t want him to—he didn’t think.
But does it have to hurt this fucking much?
He’d known what this was going in, and he’d made damn sure Brantley had too. He hadn’t made any false promises. But that didn’t matter. He hated that he was going to hurt him. Hated that, once again, he would be walking away from this man.
Closing his eyes, he ordered himself to enjoy this to the very end. To be greedy and let it swallow him whole and take him under. That was the only way he would be able to go on once it spat him back out the other side.
The memory of such sweet perfection.