Chapter 13 #2
He hated losing Emmett’s touch, but this was better than tempting a migraine. Emmett returned quickly and pressed the shades into Lincoln’s hand. He put them on, then blinked at a very impish-looking Emmett.
“I can’t believe I just ran naked through my aunt’s club,” Emmett said, before dissolving into laughter. “You are such a bad influence.”
Lincoln chuckled. “Guilty.”
“And you haven’t come yet.”
The sudden return of the lights had pretty much killed the mood and Lincoln’s wood. “It’s fine. You can return the favor later.”
Emmett’s eyes hooded. “Count on it. Come on, let’s get cleaned up. There’s an employee bathroom at the end of the hall.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it saves the cooks and bartenders waiting in line on busy nights.”
“Lead the way.”
As they cleaned up in the bathroom/janitor’s closet and righted their clothes, Emmett couldn’t stop marveling over the incredible gift Lincoln had given him.
Emmett had touched himself there a few times while jerking off, but penetrating himself had always felt too dirty.
Too gay. And even after he discovered that Eric enjoyed it during blow jobs, Emmett always refused to let Eric touch him there.
Just like Lincoln said, it was an invisible line into “too gay” that Emmett had created to justify what he and Eric did together while naked.
Emmett had no idea it felt like heaven to have a guy lick his rim, to penetrate him with his tongue and finger, and he could only imagine how incredible it would feel for Lincoln to press his dick inside. To fuck him for real.
He’d have bent himself over the janitor’s sink and let Lincoln take him if they’d had a single condom between them.
He wanted it so badly. Wanted to give that final gift to Lincoln.
Wanted Lincoln to show him this final thing, because while he’d really enjoyed fucking Eric, what he desperately needed now was to be fucked.
“Do you want to keep practicing in this heat?” Emmett asked. “Or call it a day?”
Lincoln’s eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses, but his frown was easy enough to see. “You want to call it a day?”
“I meant with the stage and lights. I didn’t mean we have to stop hanging out.”
“Oh. Good. You want to come over to my place? We’re a lot less likely to run into anyone there. Maybe my roommate, if she isn’t working, but it’s Friday, so she probably is.”
Emmett silently cheered. “I’d like to come over, yes. I don’t have to be back here for a few hours.”
He wasn’t entirely sure how to clarify that there would be more sex later, so Emmett went about the task of turning off the stage lights while Lincoln cleaned up the break room floor.
Alarm code set and door locked, they set off down the sidewalk at an easy pace.
The heavy tourist crowd didn’t bother Emmett as much as usual.
Sure, he hated how jammed the walks were, and the stink of exhaust overwhelmed the sea-salted air, but Lincoln was with him. Hands brushing his as they walked.
Finally they turned off the main highway to the quieter street leading to Lincoln’s house. As the house came into view, revealing a blue van with rental plates in the driveway, Lincoln sped up. Emmett kept pace, curious.
Lincoln burst through the front door, Emmett on his heels, and into a living room bustling with people and voices. And a lot of sudden whooping.
“Surprise, motherfucker!” a vaguely familiar voice shouted. A tall man with tan skin, styled black hair, and sharp cheekbones swooped in and lifted Lincoln right off his feet in a twirling bear hug.
Dominic Bounds. Emmett had seen enough online clips to recognize him.
Hanging close to the front door, Emmett studied the other faces in the room.
Trey Cooper, Dominic’s boyfriend and music partner.
Seeing them there didn’t surprise Emmett as much as the four members of Fading Daze crowding close to the celebrating pair.
Lincoln finally extricated himself from Dominic, and his expression was so blindingly happy that it almost hurt to see.
He moved from friend to friend, giving and receiving hugs, taking compliments on how good he looked.
Emmett haunted the wall farthest from the celebrating, a forgotten ghost at a party he wasn’t invited to.
All of Lincoln’s friends and old bandmates were there, and he didn’t need Emmett to fill that void anymore.
Except Lincoln broke from hugging a short, dark-haired girl whose name escaped him and cast about until his gaze landed on Emmett. And somehow, Lincoln’s smile got bigger, his joy leaping across the room from Lincoln to Emmett.
“You guys, shut up,” Lincoln said as he hustled over to Emmett. Everyone shut up and paid attention to him, and Emmett squirmed under the direct stares. “This is Emmett Westmore. My boyfriend.”
They’d never discussed the label, but Lincoln’s declaration burned warmly in Emmett’s chest. And then he was surrounded by more hugs than he knew how to respond to.
Hugs and back slaps, and all kinds of questions he didn’t know how to answer.
His nerves started humming in a bad way, his adrenaline spiking.
His fingers started to tremble, and his chest became unbearably tight.
“As Linc’s BFF,” Dominic said, slinging an arm across Emmett’s shoulders, “it is my duty to interrogate him first. You bitches have to wait in line.”
Emmett wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, so he let Dominic steer him down the short hall into one of the bedrooms. It had a lofted bed and a desk beneath. Dominic shut the door and leaned against it.
“You look like you need a moment to breathe,” he said.
“Thanks.” With the din on the other side of the door, Emmett took a minute to collect himself. “I get pretty bad anxiety sometimes.”
“I could tell. Fellow sufferer.”
He studied Dominic, surprised by the admission from someone who seemed so confident. The man was gorgeous from head to toe, and hints of a tattoo peeked out from the low collar of his white T-shirt. And he was alone in a bedroom with Emmett.
With his boyfriend in the living room. Get it together. He isn’t going to molest you.
Emmett grasped for his manners. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Lincoln talks about you a lot.”
“He talks about you, too. Sorry for dropping out of the sky like this, but it was the only time we could make work for an actual meet-up before Unbound.”
“It’s fine.” It wasn’t totally fine. He had very much lost Lincoln’s complete attention for the rest of the day. Maybe the rest of the weekend, depending on—“How long are you staying?”
“Sunday morning. Trey and I need to be in Boston that night, and I think Fading Daze has a gig in Philadelphia.” Dominic ducked his head in a manner that seemed . . . shy. “I think I need to thank you, man.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“Making Linc smile so big. You didn’t know him those first few months after the accident.
” Grief bracketed Dominic’s dark eyes, which sent shame pinballing through Emmett’s insides.
“He could barely walk across the room without falling over. Couldn’t take stairs on his own.
He was a ghost. And then he started getting better, getting his equilibrium back.
We all thought him spending the summer here was a good idea, but fuck me if I ever expected this. ”
Emmett bristled. “What do you mean?”
“Whoa, dude.” He raised his palms. “This is a compliment in the making, believe me. These last two weeks? I feel like Linc is finally starting to live again, not just exist. You know?”
“Yeah.” Emmett knew because he felt the exact same way. “He’s helped me a lot, too. I care about him.”
“I can tell. So I’m gonna sidestep the whole best-friend, ‘don’t hurt him or I’ll hurt you’ speech, because I’m pretty good with people. Something tells me you won’t hurt him.”
I don’t want to but I could.
“I want to make him happy,” Emmett said instead.
Dominic grinned. “Then keep doing what you’re doing. Because he is happy.” He paused. “You ready to rejoin the crazies?”
“Sure. Thank you, Dominic. Not just for the escape but for coming. Lincoln has missed you, even though he doesn’t say it.”
“I missed him too. He’s my brother. That’s never gonna change.”
They returned to the living room, where everyone was settling in with cups of soda and a pizza delivery that had appeared out of nowhere.
Emmett wasn’t hungry, but Lincoln tugged him down onto his lap on the couch and held him close while he munched on a slice of pepperoni.
Emmett relaxed into his embrace as best he could, unused to showing this kind of affection in public.
Or as public as a living room with six near-strangers in it could be.
Stories of performance mishaps and odd fan encounters began flying around the room, and for a while, Emmett was content to sit with his boyfriend and listen.
Sometimes the simplest things were the most priceless of all.