9. Luis
Chapter nine
Luis
Luis floated up from sleep on a wave of joy that quickly morphed into arousal as he became aware of Darius’ mouth on his cock.
“Good morning to you, too,” he said and lifted the sheet to see Darius grinning from between his legs, mouth still full of dick.
Darius’ tongue teased at Luis’ slit one more time before Darius let go and crawled his way up Luis’ body.
“Did you sleep well?” Darius asked.
“I did. And you?”
“Very.”
Darius rolled onto his side, then snaked his hand under the covers. As his fingers closed around Luis’ cock, Luis shivered.
“Okay?” Darius asked.
Luis nodded. It felt amazing, actually, but he felt a sense of uneasiness creeping around the edges of his awareness. Maybe it was simply the aftermath of the anxiety and excitement and giddiness Luis had been experiencing since he’d blurted “I love you” to Darius and heard his best friend say those words back to them, the sheer headiness of discovering how deeply they felt for one another, and then the abrupt one-eighty in their relationship. Luis didn’t regret anything that had happened between them the previous night—or ever, if he was being honest with himself—but he couldn’t shake the discomfort he felt in the pit of his stomach even as Darius’ touches made him achingly hard and filled the rest of his body with need.
Darius trailed kisses along Luis’ jaw and down the side of his neck. He nipped at the jut of Luis’ collarbone, then worked his way back up to tease at Luis’ ears. The slight abrasion of Darius’ stubble on his sensitive skin made Luis tremble.
Despite feeling as safe as he always did in Darius’ arms, Luis also felt vulnerable and exposed. No matter how close they were, no matter how much they shared or did together, there had still always been a barrier between them, a line neither of them had crossed until the previous night. That they had crossed it both scared and thrilled Luis. Scared him because prior to last night, he had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would never lose Darius, never put their friendship at risk with the kind of petty squabbles that seemed to doom most romantic relationships. Their friendship was solid, indomitable, and Darius was his rock. Luis would rather forgo the earth-shattering orgasm Darius had drawn from him for the rest of his life than lose the man currently working him up to another climax that would register on the Richter scale. Which was what also thrilled him. Even the thought of last night’s orgasm ramped up Luis’ arousal and made him thrust his cock harder into Darius’ fist.
Then Darius’ lips were on his, and they were kissing again. He loved Darius’ mouth, the fullness of his lips, the velvet feel of his tongue, and the way he kissed with his whole body, pressing Luis into the bed, hips thrusting in time with the kiss. It lit Luis up from the inside out, and he wrapped his arms around Darius’ neck, pulled him down, and pressed his mouth harder against Darius’, wanting more of his best friend. And Darius obliged. His hand worked Luis faster, and his mouth devoured Luis until he was whimpering, warmth spreading through his body. He felt the orgasm building, his balls tightening, drawing up against his body.
Luis closed his eyes as it hit, mouth open, gasping, then felt Darius’ release hot against his thigh. His body relaxed against the mattress as Darius lay on top of his chest. Automatically, Luis placed his hand on Darius’ back and traced slow circles on his skin with one hand while he drew Darius’ other hand up to his mouth and sucked his fingers clean.
“We taste good together,” Luis said as the acrid flavor of their combined cum filled his mouth.
“Yeah? Let me try.” Darius brought his hand to his own lips and licked at his fingers. “You didn’t leave much for me.”
Luis smirked and shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a cum slut.” He lowered his hand to his thigh and dredged his fingers through what was left of Darius’ climax, then painted Darius’ mouth with it. Laughing when Darius immediately licked his lips, Luis leaned closer for a kiss.
“You know me so well,” Darius said.
“I do,” Luis agreed, but the tinge of uneasiness was back.
“That’s a good thing, right, chico?”
“Yeah, definitely.” He smiled and hoped it didn’t betray that his stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots.
Darius kissed him, a slow sweep of tongue along the seam of Luis’ lips, and Luis opened for him, wanting to lose himself in the magic of Darius’ mouth. Instead, he was reminded of the way Darius’ mouth had felt the first time they kissed. In the space of a heartbeat, Luis was thrown back to the night of Marissa’s quincea?era. It had happened, briefly, when they’d kissed at the airport, and then again the night before, a flash of memory quickly overwhelmed by the joy of having Darius in his arms as a lover.
This time, the flash faded slowly and left behind a rising tide of panic as thoughts of Andrés began to rise. Luis fought against the way he was being pulled under by those memories, by the realization that he was going to have to tell Darius the truth about that night. He’d promised Paul that he would and knew it was an important thing for him to do for himself, but that had been when he only thought he was confessing to his best friend. Knowing Darius loved him and wanted him should have made it easier, but it didn’t. Now, Luis had more to lose if Darius turned away from him.
Luis was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t realize their cell phones were buzzing until Darius rolled over to grab his off the nightstand. Set free from Darius’ arms, Luis reached for his own, and when the screen came to life, he had several text alerts from multiple friends, including Greg, Ricky, Micah, and Paul, as well as from his mother and both his sisters.
“This is Darius Williams. You asked me to return your—”
Darius’ serious tone brought Luis’ head up. His thumb was poised over his phone screen, about to start reading his messages, and he was surprised that Darius’ phone had been buzzing with an incoming call that had gone to voicemail. He watched as Darius’ face turned stoic, then closed in on itself. Whatever the person on the other end of the call was saying, it wasn’t making Darius happy. Luis’ thoughts immediately turned to Darius’ family, to his mother and father, who now lived in San Diego, to his brother, who had a family in Riverside, and he hoped they were all well.
“I understand,” Darius said. “I can be there in about two hours…okay…thank you.”
“What’s going on?” Luis asked as soon as Darius tossed his phone back onto the nightstand. “Is everyone all right? Dar? What is it?”
“That woman…” Darius’ voice broke, and he paused to clear his throat, looking anywhere but at Luis. “The one on the plane that had the breakdown?”
“Yeah. What? Does she want to apologize to you?”
Darius snorted and finally looked at Luis, but what Luis saw in his expression scared him more than anything else. Darius’ beautiful eyes were shadowed with fear, and his color had turned ashy.
“Hardly.” Darius reached for Luis’ hand, clasped it between both of his, and brought it to his mouth. “She’s saying…” Darius pressed Luis’ hand to his lips, seeking comfort in the contact, and Luis reached over and ran his hand over Darius’ closely cropped hair. “She’s saying I touched her during the altercation.”
“Of course you touched her. I’ve seen the videos. You didn’t have a choice.”
“Chico…she’s saying I sexually assaulted her.”
Luis swore his entire world came to a standstill as the breath left his body. “That’s…that’s ridiculous, right?” There was no hiding the tremor in his voice, no hiding the way his hands had become blocks of ice. “You would never…never…” Luis couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Of course I wouldn’t.” Darius finally made eye contact with Luis, his gaze moving over Luis’ face as if fearful of what he would find in Luis’ expression. “It’s just…the videos.” Leaning forward, Darius put his mouth on top of their joined hands. “Chico, I’m scared. I have to go meet with the lawyers. They need to ask me questions, go over my report. They need me to go over the videos. And those videos are…everywhere. I’m…fuck…I’ve been suspended pending an investigation.”
“Shit.” Though he was trying his hardest to follow everything Darius was saying and to understand the implications for his best friend, Luis’ mind remained firmly fixed on one thing: Darius was being accused of a crime. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I…uh…I’ve got to get going.” Darius let go of Luis’ hands and got up from the bed. “I need to shower and get out of here.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Darius paused as he headed for the door and looked over his shoulder. “Chico, I would love to have you go with me, but I don’t know what’s going to happen or how long it’s going to take.”
“Okay.” Luis tried to keep the hurt from his voice as Darius left the bedroom.
“He shouldn’t have gone alone.”
The growly voice on the other end of the line belonged to their friend Micah’s husband, Jake, who was a lawyer.
“Was a union rep going to be present?” Greg chimed in.
Luis had tried to deal with Darius’ departure and being alone in the apartment as best he could for as long as he could stand it. On the plus side, the kitchen and bathroom were spotless. On the minus side, Luis had still been a frazzled mess of anxiety.
Reaching out to Greg for support had turned into a full-on legal consultation and strategy session when Micah and Jake asked to have the call put on speaker.
“I don’t know,” Luis said, frustration riding him as he paced from the kitchen to the living room and back. “I wish I’d seen your guys’ texts before he called the lawyers back. It would have at least been a heads-up about what was coming.”
After Darius left, Luis had gone through all the text messages his friends had sent trying to let him know that the woman had gotten out on bail, retained a lawyer, and was talking to the media about what had happened to her on the flight. There were news stories from all the LA stations about the press conference the woman’s lawyer had called the night before, clips from the plane video, even clips from the swoony greeting between Luis and Darius at LAX the day before—Micah had congratulated them on finally getting their heads out of their asses in one of his texts—and the commentary only seemed to be picking up steam as the airline was slow issuing a statement.
“I’ve got to give points to her lawyer,” Jake said. “Press conference at four in the afternoon on a Friday. Brilliant move. By the time the media could contact corporate, they’d gone for the day, and the story gets played all weekend without rebuttal. I’d have done the same thing.”
“That’s very comforting,” Micah commented dryly, and despite himself, Luis grinned at the glare Micah gave his husband. Micah turned back to the screen. “We’ve contacted a couple of our friends. One’s a human rights lawyer, the other used to be in employment law, to see if they’d be able to represent Darius or know someone who could.”
“Aren’t there enough lawyers involved in this?” Greg asked.
“Darius should have someone who’s completely on his side,” Jake said. “Corporate is going to CYA. If they have to fire Darius to show they take accusations like this seriously, they’ll do it. The union rep will most likely fight for Darius and use it to leverage more protections for the flight attendants, but they can be a bit of a wild card, depending on how it affects their next contract negotiations. Darius needs a champion of his own in the room.”
Luis mostly tuned out Jake and Micah as they continued talking about their friends who they might recommend, but the names were meaningless to Luis. He hadn’t heard from Darius since a text telling him he’d arrived at the office where the meeting was taking place, and that was over an hour and a half ago.
“How are you doing?” Greg asked. He’d picked up his phone and moved it closer to his face so he and Luis could have a bit more privacy.
“I don’t know. This whole thing…this whole week …it’s…I can’t even wrap my head around it.”
“I’m sure.” Greg paused. “You talk to your folks yet?”
Rolling his eyes, Luis shook his head. “I should call them. If I don’t, it’s just going to blow up in my face. Especially if my mom sees the videos of us at the airport yesterday.”
“You look good happy, Luis. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Yeah. But if she doesn’t hear it from me first, there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Hm. Probably. I was planning on leaving from SFO for my next flight, but I can come back down to LA if you need me for moral support.”
“That’s not necessary, but thanks. I was just spinning out today and needed someone to talk to, but Darius should be home soon.”
“Okay. When’s Ricky due back?”
They chatted about their fourth roommate for a bit, and Micah popped back over Greg’s shoulder. “He getting any better?” Micah asked. It had been Micah’s recommendation that brought them the prickly redhead after Micah moved up to San Francisco to be with Jake.
Luis shrugged. “I kind of like him, actually.”
“That’s progress,” Greg said.
“Yeah, and how come you’re not going back to LA?” Micah bumped Greg’s shoulder, and Luis laughed at the blush creeping into Greg’s cheeks.
“I’m meeting Holden in Denver.” Greg bit his lip. “We’re going to look for a house.”
“Oh, my God!” Luis clapped his hands while Micah hugged Greg. “Honey, that’s the best news I’ve heard since…yesterday. Because, let’s face it, me and Dar getting together tops everything.”
“Everything tops you, sweetheart.” Greg grinned at him over the phone screen.
“Are you calling me a slut?” Luis asked, hand on his chest, eyes widened in devious innocence.
“If the Jimmy Choo fits…”
“Well, it does, and perfectly.” Luis blew his friends a kiss. “But, seriously, that’s awesome, Greg. I guess that means we’re going to have to find a new roommate again.”
They continued chatting for a bit, but then an incoming call from Darius had Luis wrapping up with Micah and Greg with hurried promises from them to keep him posted on the search for a lawyer.
“Hey.” Luis switched over to Darius, breathless with the worry and anxiety that had shot through him when Darius’ name appeared on his screen.
“Hey.” Darius sounded tired, already defeated by whatever had happened in the past two hours.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know, chico. I’ll tell you more when I get home, but I wanted to hear your voice and to tell you I love you.”
“I love you, too. Drive safe.”
Almost as soon as they hung up, Luis’ phone buzzed with an incoming message. Smiling in anticipation of something sappy from Darius, the sight of Andrés’ name was like water thrown on the feeble spark that had reignited in Luis’ chest. He deleted the message without reading it, but that didn’t keep him from feeling small and vulnerable. The burn of anxiety he’d been feeling earlier settled into his body, and Luis shivered, his limbs suddenly cold and heavy.
What would he do if something happened to Darius?
“Fuck,” Luis cursed under his breath.
He hated feeling this way. At twenty-eight, he should be able to handle his shit and not get thrown into a tizzy every time something happened or Andrés showed up.
“You’re an adult. Act like one,” Luis told himself as he headed into the kitchen. It was almost lunchtime, so he made himself something to eat. When that didn’t help settle his nerves, he made a pitcher of extra-strong margaritas and poured himself a large glass, then went to sit on the balcony that overlooked the complex’s pool.
It was a beautiful early summer day, and there wasn’t a lounge chair that didn’t have some guy relaxing in a skimpy bathing suit, six-packs gleaming with sunscreen, legs spread to let the sun—and interested eyes—find what was in between. Usually, Luis loved sitting on the balcony, two stories above the meat market down below, and he had been all for letting the pool area be clothing optional—something that had been voted down by the HOA—but today, he only felt exposed and returned to the living room, where he put on a movie.
Forty-five minutes later, he was well into his second margarita and ogling a young Matt Bomer in an episode of White Collar when Darius returned home. All the worries and anxiety Luis had been able to put aside came flooding back at the sight of Darius’ grim face, and he leapt from the couch with a cry. He wanted to run into Darius’ arms and be told everything was going to be all right, but he could tell Darius was anything but okay, so he stayed rooted where he was and tried to summon up the ability to be the rock Darius needed. It wasn’t easy, and he may have swayed a bit.
Darius threw his keys into the bowl on the entranceway table and took a deep breath while Luis cataloged everything about his expression and body language. He’d never seen Darius so…unbalanced. His lips were pursed so tight dark lines had appeared around his mouth, and the skin under his eyes was almost purple, not to mention the storm raging in those eyes. For a long moment, Darius stood still, gaze fixed on some point beyond the doors to the balcony. No, not completely still. Luis saw his fists clench and release.
“Dar?” Luis’ voice was small, quiet, and he hated that he sounded so insecure. “I love you.” It was the only thing Luis could think of to say, but it seemed to break through to Darius a tiny bit because the corners of his mouth lifted up.
“I love you, too, chico.” Darius dew in a deep breath. “I need to go for a run.”
“Okay.” It wasn’t an answer that gave Luis any comfort, but if that was what Darius needed, he could be fine with it. “Can you—?”
“I need some time to process, okay? I promise, I’ll tell you as much as I can.”
“As you can?”
Darius closed his eyes. “I’m not sure what I can tell you because they’ll probably…they need to talk to you. As a witness.”
“But I wasn’t—”
“Chico, please. Not right now.”
Luis began to tremble, the liquid in his glass sloshing from side to side, so he put it on the coffee table and wrapped his arms around himself. “Micah and Jake are looking for a lawyer for you. They said you should have someone who has your back.”
“Okay.”
The monosyllabic answer did nothing to lessen Luis’ anxiety, and as Darius moved past him to head for the bedroom, Luis reached out and grabbed his hand. Luis’ concern ratcheted up another notch when Darius didn’t immediately wrap his larger hand around Luis’ or turn to look at him. His entire body was strung tight, and Luis could feel the tension flowing through his fingers.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Darius closed his eyes again. “No, chico, I’m not. I’m angry. And frustrated. And I’m scared. I’m a Black man who grew up in the barrio in south central Los Angeles. It doesn’t matter that I went to college. It doesn’t matter that I’ve got a spotless record at work. It doesn’t even matter that I’m fucking gold-star gay. None of that matters because a white woman has accused me of sexual assault, and corporate is panicking.” When he opened his eyes again, Darius focused on Luis’ face. He tried to smile, then leaned in and kissed Luis on the cheek. “It’ll be okay, chico. We’ll be okay.”
Luis squeezed Darius’ hand and tried to take comfort from those words, but as Darius disappeared into their bedroom, he downed the rest of his drink and went to the kitchen to refill his glass. Returning to his spot on the couch, Luis pressed Play on the remote, but even Matt Bomer’s dreamy blue eyes and killer smile couldn’t keep his mind off what Darius had said. He picked up his phone and texted Micah: Find him a good lawyer, please
Before Darius emerged from the bedroom, Micah texted back a thumbs-up and a guy in a suit emoji, along with the words: on it, try to stay calm
Greg texted him right after: you’ve got this, sweetheart
Wishing he felt that confident in his abilities to keep it together, Luis turned back to the TV and feigned interest when Darius reappeared wearing running shorts and a tank top. Luis’ first instinct was to pretend he was watching the TV rather than checking out Darius’ body, but then he realized he didn’t have to do that anymore. He could look his fill, let it show that he found Darius sexy beyond belief with his toned body and long, muscular legs. When he bent over to pick up his running shoes, Luis sucked in an audible breath.
“You checking out my ass, chico?” Darius asked.
“If you’re gonna wave that thing in my face, of course. I had no choice but to check it out.”
Darius laughed and leaned over the couch arm to kiss the top of his head. “I’m going to hit the treadmill in the gym and then do a little lifting.”
“Okay.” Luis lifted his chin and let his head rest on the back of the couch. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Got plans for me later?” Darius asked and leaned down to kiss Luis on the lips.
“You know it.” Did that sound as fake to Darius as it did to his own ears? Luis forced a smile to his face.
After Darius left, Luis tried to get back into watching the TV show, but he couldn’t concentrate. It probably didn’t help that he was now three margaritas into his day on very little food. He should probably figure out what they were going to eat for dinner, but that thought was competing with so many others that Luis remained sitting on the couch, his scattered thoughts keeping him immobile as he attempted to make sense of what Darius had told him.
Try as he might, Luis couldn’t see a way that Darius could have done—or even come close to doing—what that woman said he had. Luis couldn’t even bring himself to think the words in his own head, let alone say them out loud. Unbidden, thoughts of Andrés entered the muddled mix in his head, and Luis lurched to his feet, heading for the kitchen and the last of the margaritas.
Back on the couch, blanket wrapped around him and margarita in hand, Luis ignored the TV and picked up his phone. He made the circuit of his social media accounts, then checked the flight attendants’ groups on Facebook and Discord. There were lots of threads on both about Darius and “the incident.” Most of the conversation was favorable—Darius and Jason were talked about with admiration—but there were some rumblings of corporate having a different take on what had happened, and a few rumors surfaced in a couple of comments.
Luis hovered over a post with video from the plane. He’d seen it already. Of course he had. He’d watched the video while he was in Brussels, watched it a couple of times with Paul and some of the other members of the flight crew. Watching Darius take control of the situation and wrestle the woman into a seat where she could be restrained so the plan could land? It had been amazing, and he’d never been prouder of his best friend or the flight attendants with whom they worked.
Now, he was afraid to watch the video again, worried that his impression would be tainted by the accusations against Darius. Or, worse, that he’d see the accusations had merit. He didn’t know how he’d feel about things if it turned out the woman’s claims were accurate.
Taking another sip from his glass, Luis shook his head. Darius couldn’t have done what she said he did. Why would he? It would be completely contrary to everything Luis knew about Darius. But everyone in his family thought Andrés was wonderful. That’s different , Luis argued back to his own mind. How? a small voice asked. Luis didn’t want to think about that. It was different. He knew it was different. If only because what Andrés had done was real, and Darius couldn’t have done anything like that.
The argument waged back and forth in Luis’ mind until his stomach was in knots and his head was spinning—although that could have been the margaritas; he had made them extra-strong—and the only thing he could think to do was watch the damn video again.
This one was shot from behind Jason, so all Luis saw of either the other flight attendant or the woman was their backs while Darius was facing the camera. Luis smiled at the intense look on Darius’ gorgeous face. It was an expression he knew well, especially when paired with the defensive stance Darius had taken with his feet and legs braced against the roll of the plane and the risk of the woman lunging for him, as she’d already done a couple of times. His arms were extended, protecting his core, but his palms were open, facing outward in a placating gesture, and his entire focus was on the woman. Even when there was movement behind him, Darius’ eyes only flicked to the side for a second before they were back to the woman.
The back-and-forth, with Darius and Jason trying to get the woman to move to the back of the plane, went on for several minutes, and then the video ended abruptly.
“No!” Luis cried out and started searching for more videos.
He found another one in the group, taken from further away but still facing Darius. This one picked up just before Darius and Jason closed in on the woman. They had her at the back of the plane by an empty row. Darius moved in, and Jason did the same, both of them wrapping their arms around the woman. Whoever had taken the video had attempted to zoom in at that moment, which made the image blur. By the time autofocus corrected itself, Jason was standing in the aisle while Darius was still doing something in the seat. The woman was screaming and crying. Then Darius stood up, and the passengers applauded. Both Darius and Jason looked bemused, but they raised their hands to acknowledge the praise.
That video hadn’t provided any answers to Luis’ questions, so he searched out more videos on Insta and TikTok and then the news stories. Nothing gave him a good enough view of the incident to see exactly where Darius’ hands went, not that he knew exactly what Darius had been accused of because Darius hadn’t told him anything.
He threw his phone onto the coffee table in frustration, then retrieved it and scrolled through his messages. Focused on Darius’ issue and his own anxiety, Luis hadn’t responded to either of his sisters or his mother, even though they’d texted him several times since the morning. If he didn’t answer them, there’d be hell to pay. He might be the oldest and the only boy, but that didn’t stop his sisters trying to mother him every bit as much as Rosa did.
Sure enough, the messages were filled with mijo this and mijo that as they asked what had happened with Darius and why there was a video of him and Darius kissing at the airport. Luis answered them as well as he was able. He and Darius hadn’t had a conversation yet about what they were now. Boyfriends? Partners? Neither term carried the same sense of connection as the term they’d been using all along: almas gemelas. Soul twins.
As for what their relationship looked like now, Luis didn’t have a clue. Did they continue as they’d been before with the addition of fucking? A best-friends-with-benefits thing? Or were they on a path to something else? And what was that “something else”? What did that even mean?
Luis’ head was too fuzzy from the margaritas to think deeply about the questions, but he felt the anxiety of not knowing well up in his chest until he felt he might explode.