Chapter 15
It was physically painful for Will to drag himself out of the house the next morning, and not just because he tripped over the bottom step of the porch and almost bailed onto the walkway.
So he’d maybe been looking back at the house, fuckin’ sue him.
He’d left Cole lying naked in bed, and it was infinitely harder to leave him in bed now compared to yesterday.
Yesterday, he’d had to back off from touching as soon as he woke up for fear of getting the sharp side of Cole’s tongue. Today…
Mm, let’s just say that now he was an enthusiastic fan of all sides of Cole’s tongue.
Will shook his head as he went out to the shed to grab the bike the rental listing had mentioned was “available to guests to use.” It had a cracked vinyl seat and soft tires, but it would last to get him to the nearest gas station and back.
He needed a new phone, something for breakfast, and oh yeah, lube if he wanted to get lucky again. Condoms too; better safe than sorry.
Acting on his attraction to Cole was probably the dumbest thing he’d ever let himself do, and Will had done a hell of a lot of dumb things over the years.
Cole Dalton was just the sort of thief who Will didn’t want anything to do with.
He was a solitary soul, a power unto himself, answerable to no one.
Will was a team player, in part because he had to be.
He’d started with nothing and built a reputation of being reliable in a tight spot.
Trustworthy, maybe not, but a guy who’d come through in a pinch.
Whereas Cole was an archetype of rich, beautiful and cold.
Not so cold any more. Downright warm once Will leaned him back against the overstuffed pillows at just the right angle to see his face he swallowed his dick to the root.
Pesky gag reflexes were for other people, not for Will; certainly not when he was going for what he wanted, which last night had been to drive Cole half as crazy as he made Will.
It seemed like he had, the way Cole’s voice broke right before he came, eyes squeezing shut like he could barely stand how good it felt to come down Will’s throat. It had been gorgeous. Addictive.
Trusting. Not just that he trusted Will to make him feel good, but that he trusted him to see him exposed. Vulnerable. It was a heady level of power that Will wasn’t used to.
Watch yourself, boy. You can put boots in the oven, but that don’t make ‘em biscuits.
Just because they were working well together right now didn’t change Cole’s true nature, the parts of him that came out when he was pushed to the brink. The only time Will had ever seen Cole on the edge, he’d had to escape him by diving off a damn balcony.
If Cole stopped to think, if he stopped to consider all his options he’d surely come up with a way to get himself back into Alders’ good graces on his own.
They ran with the same crowd; hell, Alders had invited Cole’s mother to his fancy “look at my shit” party.
Say what you would about Lucille Dalton, and you could say a lot about her, but she wasn’t a pushover and neither was her son.
Will shoved the potential for fallout to the back of his mind.
Cole was going to do what he did. Will was going to enjoy him while he had him.
He wasn’t the type of man who worked to get his hooks into someone for the sake of it; he wasn’t like Marcus.
Will was at least confident now that if Cole figured out a way out of this conundrum on his own, he wouldn’t sell Will out to do it.
That was really all one could ask for in their social circles.
So what if the thought hurt a little? Pain was inevitable in life, and regret was for suckers who let themselves hope for things they couldn’t guarantee.
Will got to have Cole last night; he might get to have him today.
If all he could look ahead was twenty-four hours, he’d take it and not think about the possibility of more.
The last person he’d wanted more with was Marcus, and look how fucking well that had worked out.
The gas station was a ten-minute ride from the house, long enough to warm Will’s muscles up and work the kinks out of his back that sleeping on that awful mattress had given him.
Not as good as the bed at The Sugar Shack, not even close.
Shit, how good would the beds in Cole’s vacation house have been?
Probably would have felt like sleeping on clouds.
Will parked the bike outside and entered the gas station to the chime of a bell above the door.
“Morning,” a girl in full Goth makeup droned from the checkout.
“Good morning to you too,” Will replied, smile back in perfect position. “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think?”
“Sure.” She stared at him with no expression. “If you like that kind of thing.”
Hard to argue with that. “Do you have phones, Miss…” He glanced at her name tag and carefully refrained from bursting into laughter. “Candy?”
“Counter by the bathrooms.” She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t try to steal one. I’ve got a can of bear mace back here, and I’ll use it.” She sounded eager to do so, in fact.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Will went and picked out the best of the shitty pre-paid phones on offer, a few packages of delicious processed breakfast foods that Cole would probably turn his pretty nose up at, and a small can of Folgers that he could brew back at the house.
He surveyed the somewhat pathetic offering of condoms and lube on offer and made sure to check the expiration dates before carrying it all up to the front desk and grabbing cash out of his back pocket.
Candy began to ring his purchases up. “No wonder you’re so perky,” she muttered.
“If you could see him, you wouldn’t blame me,” Will said.
That got a smile out of her. “I get it. I have a girlfriend who’s pretty great. But she doesn’t get up before noon.”
“Livin’ the life.” Will accepted the bag from her, then headed outside and put the phone together.
There was taking safety precautions, and then there was leaving Baby Boy hanging, and he wasn’t going to do that any longer than he had to.
Luckily it was pretty early there, and Davey screened his calls, so he’d probably go straight to voicemail.
“’Lo?”
Will almost dropped the phone. “Ellie?”
“Uncle Will?”
His palms began to sweat. “What are you doin’ with your daddy’s phone, honey?” How did she even answer his phone; didn’t his brother use the most rudimentary security features?
“He left it on the table. He an’ Mommy are sleeping, but I’m hungry.”
“Oh yeah?” Will began to relax a bit. “What’re you going to have for a snack, buttercup?”
“Um. Cereal?”
“No, baby, that’s on the top shelf of the cupboard, you know Mommy doesn’t like it when you climb in there. What about your yogurt snacks?”
“They’re in a bag,” she whined. “I can’t open it!”
“What about…” What kind of fruit did they keep this time of year? “What about grapes, buttercup?” There was a sucking sound over the speaker. “Mnn, thumb out of your mouth, honey.”
“Okay, grapes,” Ellie said with a sigh. He heard her shuffle around for a moment, and then he heard the crisp, juicy crunch of a little mouth chewing. She mumbled something with her mouth full, and for a second Will imagined his niece sporting makeup like Candy’s and rolling her eyes at him.
No. She’ll be my sweet baby forever.
“Go enjoy your shows, baby,” Will encouraged her. “There’s new Bluey, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Awesome, I love Bluey. Maybe we can watch it together when I come home next, huh?”
“Okay, Uncle Will.”
“Tell your daddy I said hi, okay.”
“Okay.” She paused to swallow, then said, “Daddy said you made a friend.”
Oh, did he? How much had Davey read into their last, five-minute conversation? Was Will that transparent, or did his brother just know him that well? “Sure, you could call him that.”
“He can watch with us?”
The thought of Cole sitting down for a Bluey marathon was enough to make Will crack a smile.
“I’ll ask him,” he said with absolutely no intention of doing that.
There was taking things a bit too far, and then there was holding on so tight you broke what you were trying to enjoy.
“You have a good morning, okay buttercup?”
“Okay, Uncle Will.”
“Bye now, Ellie.”
“Bye.” She ended the call and Will stared at the phone for a second. Should have just texted. Now he should call Reed, but…surely that could wait until he got back to the house. It was only polite to let Cole in on that call, seeing as whatever Reed had found out would interest him too.
He used the air machine to give the tires enough life to make the return trip, then biked back—mostly uphill, so by the time he got back he was a sweaty mess. He needed a shower and to run these clothes through the wash…
Mm, no, stick a fork in that, what he really needed was more of the sight of Cole rolling over in bed as he came through the door, beautifully naked and sporting a case of morning wood that made Will’s mouth water.
“It takes that long to get coffee?” he said wryly.
“You were supposed to be asleep,” Will said, dropping the bag to the floor.
“It’s hard to stay asleep through you swearing when you fall down the stairs.”
Smug son of a bitch. “Keep that up, and I’m not gonna fuck you through the mattress,” Will warned as he toed off his shoes.
“You’re not going to fuck me through the mattress until you’ve cleaned up,” Cole said, but Will knew that look; he saw the way Cole’s cock jerked as he took in the sweat on his neck and collarbones.
“I think you want me this way,” Will said slyly as he pulled his shirt over his head. “Plays into your blue-collar fantasies, maybe. You can pretend I’m your pool boy.”
Cole laughed. “You’re too old to be a pool boy.”
“You’re never too old to be a pool boy,” Will replied as he popped the top button of his jeans. “C’mon baby, don’t you want me to clear out your filters?”