Chapter 3
ALEX
Chirp! Chirp!
Arming the alarm on a car never sounded so loud. It bounced off the buildings, echoing through the dark, deserted street. The shadows of the building I parked in front of camouflaged the nondescript sedan I rented to avoid leaving my car on the street.
The sound of my footsteps also seemed louder than usual, as if amplified.
This is stupid. So fucking stupid. Off the charts stupid. Like out of the stratosphere stupid.
My feet kept moving, the desire, the need, the sheer fucking want driving me forward toward—there it was. The thumpa-thumpa of dance music. Everything I knew I wanted to experience called to me like a siren song. It grew louder and more distinguishable the closer I got.
At the intersection across from the club, an address I burned into my brain, I paused, hiding in the shadows—watching and waiting, trying to decide if I should proceed, if I should risk everything because that’s what getting caught would take from me—everything.
“If you’re planning something nefarious…”
The heel of my boot scraped against the sidewalk as I spun. With a broad chest, I came eye-to-eye with the most beautiful man I ever laid eyes on—tall, slender, dark eyes and hair.
“Ah! I get the stalker routine now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The spicy, minty smell of his breath danced over my face and tickled my nose as he leaned in close. “You’re a military boy.”
His words hit me with the force of a grenade, turning my blood to ice and chilling me to the core.
One step. Then another and another. And still it didn’t feel like enough as the trepidation of being discovered continued filling me, racing through my nervous system like the surf rushes the sand when the tide comes in. “You…you’re…you’re wrong.”
His face—gorgeous and angular with a regal look to it—turned soft. “I’d stake my career that I’m not.”
“What career?”
His eyes widened for a moment before he leaned forward, whispering, “I could tell you, but…”
Realization dawned, and the fear escalated as my brain finally logged what my eyes were seeing.
Clean-cut, athletic build, the air of mystery I’d come to recognize from the SOCOM community—the cold, hard eyes that seemed to hold experiences, knowledge, and a pain the rest of the world couldn’t fathom.
A world I wanted a place in, and I had it, was on the verge of stepping into it for real in the next few weeks.
If I didn’t screw it up.
Which made standing here on a street corner outside a queer nightclub trying to work myself up to going in a stupid idea.
I’d argued with myself; there was no way I wanted to spend another six months living like a fucking monk.
And my hand was no longer cutting it. Nearly two years without was long e-fucking-nough.
I wanted—fuck that; I had to get laid. I wanted to be bent over, opened up, and split in half by a monster cock as I got pounded into whatever surface the dude wanted to take me on or against.
“It’s cool, kid. I may not be military, but I am queer, and I don’t agree with the shit we’ve gotta go through to serve our country. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thanks. And I agree, but all the same…” I broke off, glancing longingly at the club.
“Were you wanting to drink and dance the night away, or were you looking to get fucked?”
“What’s it matter?”
He stepped forward, advancing as I retreated until my back hit the brick wall of the building I’d posted up next to. Those eyes—the ones filled with secrets—caught fire. The heat of his gaze stole the oxygen from my lungs, and I gasped.
His eyes lowered to my mouth, my dick twitching in my pants. The heat of his gaze intensified, and his thumb swiped over my lower lip. His flavor exploded on my tongue, making me realize I’d licked him with no sort of forethought. It just happened.
“You’ve done this before, right?” he asked.
I nodded, his thumb finding its way inside my mouth when my lips fell apart. I sucked it, the same way I wanted to suck his cock. The hard length pressed into me. A groan filled the space between us. I didn’t know if it was his, mine, or ours.
“You haven’t answered the question,” he stated, pulling his thumb from my mouth.
“Yes, I’ve done this before. Not for a while, but I’m not a virgin. Not by a long shot.”
“Good. Though if I’m honest, it wouldn’t have kept me from trying.”
“Trying?”
“To get you to bend over for me.”
“I see.”
“Is that a good ‘I see’ or a bad ‘I see’? Because the more I look at your pretty face, the more I want to see if the rest matches.”
“You think I’m pretty?” I’d been called sexy, gorgeous, stunning, and any number of other things, but never pretty. At least not in a non-derogatory way.
His head pulled away, lifting his chiseled jawline until he looked down his nose at me. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those toxic macho assholes who think men can’t be pretty.”
No, but I worked with guys who were. He probably did as well. “Not at all, I’ve just…” I paused, clearing my throat to give myself a moment to shake the trauma of the past, “never been called pretty by anyone who didn’t mean it as an insult.”
He nodded, his eyes softening. “Then let me be the first. You’re a very pretty man. Fucking breathtaking, actually.”
Heat bloomed on my face under his gaze. Looking up at him through my lashes, I catalog his own pretty features.
“You’re even prettier when you blush. Do you turn pink when you’re fucked? I bet you do. I bet it’s more peach than pink with the tan you’re rocking. Goddamn, I wanna see that.”
Prior to those words, I wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint where he was from other than being American, but that last sentence gave him away. The Boston accent was unmistakable.
The continued eye-fucking got to me, and I growled, “You gonna keep talking or are you gonna make good on all the promises behind the pretty words dripping from your mouth like honey?”
He smirked, rolling his tongue over his lower lip, licking it first before dragging it between his teeth, biting it. “My place?”
“Yours? What about mine?”
If the mental facepalm I gave myself were real, I’d have a bruise blossoming over my face from the force of the smack.
What was it about this man that made me fucking stupid?
My place was out. I lived on base. Of course, he didn’t know that.
And I didn’t want him to know that. I didn’t need or want him to know anything about me.
It was too fucking risky. All I wanted from him was a good, hard fuck so I could deploy without feeling like I was going to crawl out of my fucking skin.
“Yet another thing I’d bet my career on.”
“What’s that?”
“That you live on base. Which makes taking a hookup home impossible, given…”
His accuracy blew my mind. I tried not to react. At any other moment in time, I had a poker face, but not with him. I’d just fucking met the man, and it felt as if he could see inside my damn head. As if he had secret knowledge of all my thoughts. Of my life. My…
“Quit worrying your pretty little head. I can’t read your mind. Now, do you want to drink and dance or do you want to fuck?”
“Can’t I have both?”
He laughed, throwing his head back and exposing the long lines of his slender neck. Pulsing veins stood out among the tendons, ligaments, and muscles. I wanted to bury my face in it.
“You’re going to be trouble,” he said, his voice almost a purr.
Lifting my chin and licking my lips, I whispered, “Only the best kind.”
A groan—his or mine—filled the space between us. What space remained.
“Of that I’ve no doubt,” he whispered, leaning into me, his breath dancing over my face, laced with spearmint gum and something fruity.
Filling my lungs, I closed the distance, tired of waiting for him to take the lead.
My lips crashed into his, looking to take control, but the man had it in a chokehold.
He pushed me against the brick wall; my back smacked against it.
His thigh wedged between mine, pressing against my cock as he tongue-fucked my mouth.
Two years. Two years since anything touched my dick other than my clothes or hand. If we didn’t get somewhere private soon, and I didn’t give a fuck if it was the rental, I was gonna come in my damn pants.
Wrenching my mouth from his, I asked, “Your place? Is it close?”
“Yeah.” The words rumbled against my cheek as his mouth traveled across my face to my jawline, where he nipped and sucked. “I rode with someone.”
“I have a car.”
“Let’s go. The dick throbbing in your pants feels promising.”
I slid from between him and the wall, my fingers lacing with his as I walked backwards to where I left the car. I’d wanted to party. I wanted to dance and drink and grind against hard body after hard body, but…this…this was better. Now I had all night to lose myself in a gorgeous man.
My only concern was the comment about my dick being promising. I didn’t mind topping. I had my moments when I wanted to pound my dick into some guy’s hole, but it wasn’t my favorite.
“You having second thoughts?” the guy asked.
Shaking my head first no, then yes, made him burst out laughing. The sound echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings. “Which is it?”
“If you’re looking for a top…”
“Ah, not your thing?”
“I have my moments,” I repeated the words out loud that had run through my mind a minute ago.
“I’m vers, but I prefer topping.”
A sigh heaved through me. He stopped, yanking my hand to pull me into his arms. “What’s your name?” he asked as his forehead dropped to mine.
Looking up at him, I wanted to tell him my actual name, but when I opened my mouth, “Xander” came out.
I didn’t use that name anymore. I left it behind when I joined the service. I wanted a brand-new identity when I walked out of my father’s home two years ago. I was Alex now, but I didn’t feel comfortable telling him that.
He smirked. “Short for Alexander, I’m betting.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. When I opened them, he said, “I’m Daniel. Short for nothing.”
He told me his real name. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him, especially given the information he’d disclosed about what he did for a living.
“Don’t think on it so hard, kid. It’s my real name. You wanna head back to my place, or are you gonna call it a night?”
There was no way I was walking away from a sure thing, and given the bulge in his pants that pressed against my hip, if I could get it out of my head, I was in for a treat. One I’d been jonesin’ about for nearly the last two years.
“Let’s go,” I said, pulling from his embrace, digging the car key from my pocket and handing it to him. “You drive; there are other things I wanna do on the way.”
“I like the way you think.”
He clicked the button on the remote; the car chirped loudly.
He grabbed my hand, pulling me behind him.
I thought for certain when we got to the car, he’d let go so he could go one way and I could go the other, but he didn’t.
He walked me around the car, kissed me as he opened the car door, then waited until I slid into the passenger seat before shutting the door.
No one, not even Kelly, had ever opened a car door for me unless it was a paid valet. I didn’t know how I felt about it. It seemed strange to me. Strange, but nice. And it messed with my head.
The driver’s door opening startled me, and I jumped in my seat, turning to look at him. The spaz routine needed to take a hike. Running for the hills was the last thing I wanted him to do because I was acting like a rookie playing in the bigs.
“Whatever plan you had for the trip, better not take long. I don’t live that far from here.”
“Then I’ll leave it up to you. Do you want to watch or do you wanna get sucked?”
He groaned, starting the car. “Get out your cock. I wanna watch you stroke it, but you better not fucking come.”
“I’m not sure that’s gonna be possible. It’s been a long fucking time since I got fucked.”
“Then talk to me. Tell me about yourself.”
“What do you wanna know?”
“You said it’s been a while. I’m guessing before recruit training?”
“How did you know?”
“Given how young you look, the air you have about you, the way you carry yourself, I’m going out on a limb and saying you’re a Marine.
Probably recon? Maybe Force Recon or a Raider, depending on how good you are, which means you’ve probably not screwed around with anyone other than your hand since before you enlisted. ”
I couldn’t really tell him he was wrong. If I did, I’d out myself as a SEAL or nearly a SEAL. I was still amazed that SQT graduation was so soon. After that, I would join a team, and I could spin up or deploy soon, depending on their rotation, which is why I was on the prowl.
He pulled to a stop. I’d barely registered we were moving, and now we sat outside a high-rise.
Looking up at it, I swallowed a chuckle.
I just bought an apartment in the building last weekend.
I could’ve lived off base during training, but everyone, everyone, said immersion was the best way to succeed in BUD/S was to fully let go of the outside world.
So I did. The morning after I opened the manila envelope from my father on my eighteenth birthday, I sold all my worldly possessions, called my recruiter to up my ship date, and walked the fuck away.
But with graduation coming up, I realized I needed a place to live, and I chose this building. It was close to base, but not too close. The unit sat on the upper floors, with a view of the bay and Coronado.
I got out of the car, as did Daniel. He tossed me the keys as we walked toward the building he lived in.
At the elevator, I hit the call button. He crowded me from behind. His cock rubbed against my ass, nestling between my cheeks when he pressed into me. The doors opened, and he guided me into the car, his hands on my hips.
“Fifteen.”
His voice sounded in my ear, the gruff tone settling over me, making my dick twitch in my pants. Reaching forward, I did as he asked, then pressed back into him. The doors shut, and his hand moved from my waist to my crotch.
“Are you bashful?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Cautious, yes. Bashful, never.”
“Good.”
He worked open my pants, his hand slid inside, covering my junk, his finger brushing over my leaking cock. “I wanna taste you.”
A whimper filled the car. “Yes. Please.”
“Are you needy?”
Fuck. I hated that word and all the shit it reminded me of. “No, I don’t do needy, but I am greedy. Very, very greedy.”
He chuckled. “I can work with that.”
His grip on my dick squeezed and released several times while his finger toyed with my slit. It drove me bonkers. I rubbed my dick against his hand and my ass against his cock. I wanted fucked, and I wanted it now. It verged on the emotion I hated—the one he’d just mentioned.
The elevator dinged, and he walked us out of the car. Down the hallway, he stopped us in front of an apartment door. We stood there for a moment, then he leaned down, his mouth against my ear, and whispered.