Chapter 22
Daniel was pulled from sleep by the bedroom door closing. The air was still and quiet in the room, but barking could be heard from the next neighborhood. He propped himself up with an elbow to see Jensen cringing with a grimace on his face.
“Sorry,” Jensen whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
A yawn ripped through Daniel as he collapsed back onto his pillow. “What time is it?”
“It was nine twelve when I left the room, so probably closer to nine twenty now,” Jensen answered as he set his glasses on the nightstand and got back into bed.
Daniel smiled at the precise answer and rolled over so he could see Jensen in the dim light taking over the room.
Most mornings he cursed himself for not forking over the money required to get blackout curtains to keep the sun from disturbing him.
Today he was happy he could see Jensen’s concerned eyes as they swept over Daniel’s face.
That was one problem that had sort of solved itself, he guessed.
Of course, Jensen being in Daniel’s room didn’t solve all his problems. His car was still broken down in the city.
He didn’t have enough money in his account to pay his roommates back or cover the cost of vehicle repairs.
And he needed to figure out how to keep his balls intact after skipping out on work last night without calling in.
He was fucked. But it was nice having Jensen wrap his long arms around him and kiss the top of his head.
“How are you doing this morning?”
Daniel snuggled closer and pressed a kiss to Jensen’s chest. “Bad but also okay, if that makes any sense.” He had no idea what he was going to do about his job or car or really anything at this point.
He wished he could pull the covers over his head and burrow into Jensen and have all his problems disappear, but that was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place.
He’d ignored the warning signs from his car, and now it was broken down in some lot.
He’d ignored his bank balance, and his roommates had to pay his portion of rent.
And he’d ignored how much he hated his job until it was a swirling mass of dread and misery he couldn’t escape from.
The mess hadn’t disappeared just because he’d turned a blind eye to it, and it was past time for him to start cleaning it up.
“I’ll just have to figure it out somehow. ”
“We’ll figure it out,” Jensen corrected.
Moving his head back on the pillow, Daniel looked up into Jensen’s eyes. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“I do. I’m moving here and will help you with whatever you need.
I can call around and get your car towed.
I could also rent a car or I can get my car shipped here.
I bet my parents would drive it over, but my mother might never leave.
She’ll be posted up in your kitchen cooking, and I don’t think your roommates would appreciate that.
I’ll need to get an apartment quick. Oh shit.
” He started fumbling around the sheets.
“I have to tell my bank I’m traveling so they don’t freeze my cards. ”
Daniel couldn’t contain himself a moment longer. He tackled Jensen to the bed and kissed him, his hands sifting through Jensen’s hair as he straddled him, and his breath coming faster.
After a moment of shock, Jensen pulled him closer, matching Daniel’s desperation in a clashing of lips and tongue and skin and emotion that could only be described as fierce.
Each breath was filled with Jensen’s natural smell mixed with Daniel’s from sleeping bundled up together, creating an intoxicating scent that coated his lungs and drove him wild.
Maybe even a bit feral, like he had already become addicted to it and his body demanded more.
One more kiss. One more taste. One more touch.
And another and another until the rest of the world gave way and there was only him and Jensen.
And it did feel like it was only him and Jensen—or at least it was them against the world.
How could it not be? Jensen had quit his job and traveled across the country just because Daniel said he needed him.
No one else had ever done that for him before.
He doubted his parents would even make the trek if he was on his deathbed—his college friends surely wouldn’t.
But Jensen had. Daniel hadn’t even needed to beg him for his attention. He just gave it freely and was offering more. Offering everything, and Daniel wasn’t above taking every single thing he wanted.
With greedy hands, he grabbed at Jensen’s sleep-warm skin.
His tense bicep. His panting chest. The fabric covering his hip.
He sucked in air and scrambled lower, rucking up the borrowed shirt, trailing his lips down Jensen’s bare chest and stomach, stopping to suck on a nipple and graze his teeth over his ribs, savoring the moans they caused.
Together, they removed the scraps of clothing they’d worn to bed so they were exposed to each other.
And God if Daniel didn’t feel exposed to Jensen.
All his insecurities and insufficiencies and infractions were out in the open.
The worst parts of Daniel were known by Jensen, and it didn’t scare Jensen.
It didn’t make him want to run and hide and find someone that had a better handle on their …
well, their everything. With Jensen’s fingers in his hair, urging him lower, Daniel only wanted to run to him.
To his arms that promised to hold Daniel whenever things got rough.
To his endless understanding. To his kind words and gentle calm.
With Jensen passing through his lips and into the back of his throat, Daniel felt settled. He was no longer drowning in the tumultuous ocean he’d created one bucketful of bad decisions at a time. He was treading water with the shore in sight and Jensen at his side to support him.
He knew his problems wouldn’t magically disappear, but they didn’t seem so insurmountable anymore.
Not when Jensen had so much faith in him.
With how reasonable and thorough Jensen was, there was no way he’d do all that for a failure.
If Daniel had to trust in Jensen’s confidence until he earned it himself, he would.
“Fuck, Daniel,” Jensen said, letting out a whine, his toes curling on the bed as Daniel took him deeper.
He let out a nasty moan in response, his mouth filled with Jensen’s hard length, loving the way it stretched his jaw and cut off his air supply when he tried pressing his nose to the patch of trimmed hair.
He loved how Jensen smelled, how heavy his cock felt on his tongue, how the length pulsed when he licked the prominent veins on the underside.
Using every last trick Daniel had learned in his years satisfying men, he tried his best to show Jensen just how much he appreciated him—appreciated every sacrifice and kind action he’d done for Daniel.
His mouth had never been great at voicing his feelings, but this, this was something he excelled at.
It also helped that every plea and groan and move from Jensen fueled his own passion and made his cock ache and an intense tingling grip his balls.
“Oh God, don’t stop,” Jensen said, his fingers shuttling through Daniel’s hair. “Don’t stop.”
Precum landed on his tongue, nearly making his eyes roll to the back of his head.
With a groan, he doubled his efforts, head bobbing up and down Jensen’s hard cock at a pace that would leave his jaw sore and the back of his mouth bruised.
He shifted his weight, getting a hand between his legs to grip his own cock.
He was already so close from having Jensen under him, head thrown back and bottom lip bitten red.
More than that, his feelings for Jensen were bleeding into the physical pleasure, shoving him closer and closer to his release with every pathetic beat of his frantic heart.
He’d never felt so complete, so at home, or so fucking fulfilled before, and it was messing with him in the best way possible.
For once, he didn’t have his mind on bills to be paid, errands to run, or issues to be solved. No, he was fully at peace as they both spilled, Jensen into his mouth and him onto the sheets that smelled of them.
Everything was going to be okay. For the first time in years, he truly felt like things would turn out in his favor.
Sure, he would have to rely on his roommates and Jensen’s help, which made him uncomfortable.
And he’d have to follow through with some changes that would upend his life.
But he could face all the things he’d been avoiding and actually work on himself. He could do it because he had help.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Daniel said into the pleasant silence of the room after their breathing had returned to normal and he’d moved up to lie on top of Jensen.
“Me too.” Jensen pressed one more kiss on Daniel’s forehead, then rolled off the bed. “We should get up though. I ran into your roommate in the hall, and he let me borrow some clothes.”
“Which roommate?” Daniel asked, confused.
Arlo was probably at work already and Casey’s clothes were way too small to fit.
That, of course, left Brody, but he didn’t wake up this early, since his camming channel often kept him up late.
And he mostly wore gym clothes, which were not at all Jensen’s style.
Sure enough, Jensen lifted up a short-sleeve shirt made with some sort of athletic antimicrobial material and joggers that had extra pockets on the legs.
“Brody. He was very nice, and I appreciate the generosity, but perhaps I should just send my clothes from yesterday through the wash. You do have laundry here, right?”
“Babe, I live with three other sex workers. If we didn’t have laundry machines here, we’d make the owner of the nearest laundromat a millionaire. Or we’d be banned due to all the shit we’d send through.”
Jensen looked at the clothes in his hands forlornly before taking a deep breath and putting them on. “We have things to do today, namely buying more clothes.”
Putting on a shirt and jeans, Daniel smiled. He couldn’t believe he had Jensen in his room and they were about to go run errands. It felt so domestic to be getting dressed next to him, and he couldn’t wait to do it every day for the rest of his life.
“How did the four of you meet and come to live together?” Jensen asked, tugging on the short sleeves that weren’t getting anywhere near his wrists no matter how he tried to finagle them.
“Lube,” Daniel started to explain.
Three fast knocks came from the closed bedroom door, interrupting them.
“Yeah?” Daniel asked loudly.
“Are your dicks out?” Casey barely had the question out of his mouth before he opened the door and stepped into the room. “I might have done something.”
“I think it’s impolite to enter a room without permission,” Jensen said, causing Daniel to laugh.
“Lock the door if you don’t want anyone to join in,” Casey said before taking an exaggerated deep breath and shaking out his arms. “But anyways, you’re welcome.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I got you a job interview today. Hence, you’re welcome.”
Daniel froze. “What are you talking about?”
“While you two were fucking, I got the number for Butler Events from my boss, called them, and got you an interview for one o’clock today. Damn—” He blew on his nails. “—I haven’t been this productive before noon since doing sunrise yoga on my trip to P-Town.”
“Is that a euphemism?” Jensen asked Daniel.
“Ignore him,” he said and patted Jensen’s shoulder. “Casey, you can’t just set interviews up for people while they’re sleeping.”
He shrugged. “Obviously I can. Now, Arlo’s agreed to look over your résumé because we know fuck all about that paperwork shit. I have a suit you can borrow, since we’re roughly the same size. And Brody has breakfast started if you haven’t gotten enough sausage already this morning.”
“Casey—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome!” He blew Daniel a kiss, then sauntered out of the room like it was a fucking runway and he hadn’t just set Daniel up for complete humiliation.
“What the fuck?” Daniel said and collapsed onto his bed.
Jensen sat down next to him, causing the bed to dip and Daniel to slide closer. Daniel kept the momentum going and turned onto his side, his face smashed up against Jensen’s thigh. Long fingers started brushing through Daniel’s hair.
“It was very nice of your roommate to arrange that for you.”
He lifted his head just enough to glare at Jensen. “Nice? He set up an interview I’m not qualified for. God only knows what lies he told to get them to agree to it.”
Jensen hummed and looked straight ahead for a moment. When he had collected his thoughts, he met Daniel’s eye again. “Okay, what’s the worst-case scenario? You get in there and they say you aren’t qualified and you don’t get the job?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“That’s not so bad.”
Daniel made a noise in the back of his throat. “Not that bad? That’s humiliating.”
“I humiliate myself all the time,” Jensen said casually. “I think it’s worth the risk though.”
Fuck, he was kind of right. They might laugh Daniel out of the building, but so what? It wasn’t like he’d ever have to see any of them again. At the very least, he’d have an excuse not to attend any other parties for Casey’s work again.
Was Daniel seriously going to walk into a legitimate business and ask them to hire his whore ass?