Chapter Thirty-Two
Franco loved watching Rico’s expressions over the food, the view, and life itself. There had been a period after Michelle’s death where he’d been so deep in grief he’d been unable to show enthusiasm for anything.
But tonight was about exploring their interests as they entered into a new phase in their relationship. While Rico’s uncertainty about wanting to live in Denver bothered Franco, he’d done what he could to sell Rico on the place he loved. It was up to Rico now, although the thought of a long-distance relationship didn’t thrill Franco. He’d found himself at Rico’s a couple times a week now. If they lived two hours apart, that would change. They could have weekends, but the thought of fighting the throngs of Denverites crowding I-70 on Fridays and Sundays to escape from and then return to the city in order to see Rico and Gina on occasional weekends held no appeal.
Their server brought them the vegetarian and sea bass tapas next. The way Rico had fed him earlier had taken Franco by surprise, but he’d enjoyed every minute of the exchange. Watching him now devour most of the vegetarian tapa made Franco glad he’d ordered several more. Rico took another bite, closed his eyes, and savored the flavors. Zeroing in on the movement of his full lips, the urge to close the gap between them and kiss him overpowered Franco. After swallowing, Rico moaned. Literally moaned. Franco grew hard watching him enjoying the meal.
“These are incredible!” Rico said as he sunk his fork into another bite. “I wonder if the patrons at my pub would like me to add tapas to the menu.”
“They would be a sure winner. I’m glad you like them. There are so many to choose from on this menu, we could stay here and eat all night if we tried them all.” Franco took the last bite and right on cue, the server brought the next two tapas.
“What are some of your favorite foods?” Franco asked, already thinking about their next date. Despite knowing each other off and on over the course of eighteen years, they’d never really spent a lot of time together until the last few months.
“Anything edible. I love everything about cuisine—prepping, cooking, eating. Not so much cleaning up, though.”
“I guess you’re in the right business then. When did you know you wanted to start a pub?”
“Definitely not until after high school. While the culinary-arts class I took with Angie showed me I had passion for food and the service industry, it was a marketing elective I took in college that gave me the idea of how to merge business and food. Then I decided to focus on a business degree so I could make a living at cooking—and serving drinks.” Rico put the last forkful of sea bass into his mouth.
“Since your pub is doing so well without your day-to-day supervision, have you thought about starting up a new location? Maybe even one in Denver?” He couldn’t help but continue to try and sell Rico on the idea of staying here.
Rico’s chewing slowed as he seemed to give the question some thought, then he swallowed. Before answering, he reached for his glass of wine and took another sip. When he set it down, he narrowed his gaze. “The thought crossed my mind fleetingly, but I haven’t done any market research yet.”
Franco shrugged. “If you decide to live in Denver, at the very least you’ll need something to do while Gina’s in school. And you’ve proven you’re good at hiring excellent people to run things when you can’t be present.”
Again, Rico picked up the wine glass, but before he took a drink, he set it back down. “It might be worth looking into, but does Denver need another pub?”
“Depends on which area you choose to locate your establishment. Some neighborhoods don’t have as many as LoHi. And don’t forget the surrounding cities, like Golden and Aurora.”
Rico cocked his head. “That’s an idea. Probably a better chance of us finding a single-family house outside downtown Denver too.”
Franco’s smile grew wider. “Happy to get the wheels turning. I know how much you love daVinci’s.” He picked up his goblet of water and took a sip.
Rico seemed to continue thinking about the prospects of life in the Denver area. “It would be risky, but starting up a new pub does sound exciting. Things have been running smoothly in Aspen Corners for so long. I started up the catering side of things just to add more excitement, but reaching out to a whole new clientele would be a thrill I haven’t felt in a long time.”
Ready to drop that subject for now, Franco was pleased when Rico turned their dinner chat to another topic.
“Enough about me. My turn to ask you a get-to-know-you question. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?”
Franco had the benefit of very wise people in his life—his parents, Nonna, Rafe. Papa’s words came through the loudest. “‘Never forget the sacrifices others made on your behalf.’ That was one of Papa’s great lessons that I took to heart.”
“Great advice. Probably part of why all of you chose a career of service to your communities.”
Franco nodded. “True. That was a major factor for sure. What about you? Best advice?”
“My life is my responsibility. I can’t control what others say, think, or do, only my own words, thoughts, and actions. That was one of Aunt Sophia’s many words of wisdom. I spent my youth trying to get people to like and accept me, but once I accepted that I am only in control of myself—and the most important person who needs to love me is me—it opened up a whole new world.”
Wow. How many years did Franco go through wanting to be someone he wasn’t and not accepting himself for who he was? It wasn’t until recently he’d begun to do something about it. “How did that advice change you?”
“I started to live in the moment, make decisions based on the me I was or wanted to be. By doing that, I was better able to show up for my family and friends. Anyone who couldn’t accept me as I was no longer had any power over me.”
“What a great thing to learn at an early age. Hell, at any age.” Franco had let others influence how he saw himself far too many times. Perhaps he needed to take a lesson from Rico and change that. “I might ask you for some pointers in redirecting my own life.”
Rico smiled. “I’d love to boss you around a little, Sir.”
“Let’s not forget our roles, boi.” Franco gave him his best Dom stare but grinned on the inside watching Rico melt into a submissive puddle right before his eyes. The intimate connection was broken when the server came to clear the finished plates and bring new ones.
After he left, Rico took a bite of the tortilla Espa?ola as Franco continued. “I’m still curious about the steps you took to incorporate this mindset into your life. Perhaps we can talk more about this later.”
Rico speared another bite but seemed to be slowing down. Franco had eaten more of these later tapas than the earlier ones, choosing to hold back to be sure Rico had his fill. But they continued to talk. Franco wanted to know everything he could learn about Rico and posed another question.
“Tell me about your worst date.” Franco wasn’t sure why he liked to hear about another gay guy’s bad dates, other than knowing what went wrong might help him avoid ending up on Rico’s list of bad dates in the future.
Not that I want to think about him moving on to someone else when we’ve just found our connection.
“You go first,” Rico prompted him.
Hmm. “The easy answer is all my dates before coming out.”
“You came out before a few weeks ago?”
“Okay, let me clarify. All my dates before admitting to myself that I’m gay.”
“Were there a lot of them?”
“Mostly in high school. By college, I started to figure out I didn’t want to date women. I should have seen the writing on the wall long before, though.”
“Ya think?”
Franco quirked the side of his mouth. “Would you like me to continue?”
“Please. I’m all ears.” Rico rested his chin in his palm and waited to hear more.
“I took Penny Wallace out at the beginning of my senior year. Remember her?”
“Varsity cheerleader?”
Franco gave a lopsided grin. “Go me, huh?”
“She was pretty popular. If you weren’t attracted to her with those legs and boobs, it should have given you a clue.”
“So why didn’t it?”
“You were clinging to an ideal you could never attain?”
Franco took a sip of water as he thought about that. With a shrug, he set down the glass. “She and I went to a movie and the next day it was all over school that I didn’t ‘make a move’ with her and that I was the lamest date ever.” He shrugged. “In my defense, I was more interested in watching Harrison Ford kick ass in Air Force One than in doing anything with Penny.”
“Too bad you couldn’t figure out why you didn’t make a move at the time. Might have saved us both years of frustration, because I already had my eye on you then.”
“Really?” Years later, Angelina had alluded to Rico’s attraction to him, but Franco had been deep in denial at the time. “Even if we weren’t three years apart in school, I don’t think I could have sped things up much. I was trying too hard to please my parents and follow in Rafe’s illustrious dating footsteps. He was known as the Italian Stallion when he went to Aspen Corners High, and definitely set the bar high for his younger brothers.”
“Too bad he hasn’t done a lot of dating since then. He’d be quite a catch—for some lucky lady, anyway.”
“That’s definitely how he swings, but he spends most of his time either at work or studying for the next promotion. The man’s driven, I’ll say that.” Enough about Rafe, though. “Anyway, I had no clue what the hell was wrong with me. Just chalked it up to not being ready to date yet.”
“Late bloomer, huh?”
“It’s not a term I’d use for myself, but I guess you could say that. More like late at discovering who I was.”
Rico reached across the table to stroke his hand, sending sparks flying up his arm. “I didn’t mind waiting, Stud Muffin. Took you a little longer to see you needed someone like me in your life.”
Franco grinned at Rico’s self-confident response, but in all honesty, he wasn’t far off the mark. He leaned closer to him and whispered. “I’ve never been more excited about a date than I am tonight. This won’t be going on my worst-date list, for sure.”
He couldn’t wait to get out of here so that he could touch Rico more intimately. Not that he was afraid to show affection toward him in public, but the kind he wanted to show at the moment would get them both arrested.
“Now it’s your turn, Sweet Cheeks. Surely you haven’t been blessed by the dating gods your whole life. Tell me about your worst one.”
Rico pulled his hand back and reached for his glass of wine to drain it before speaking. He sighed, then began. “I found him on Grindr. He lived in Breck year-round, so I figured he was into more than skiing. We met in a bar over drinks, followed by a walk up and down Main Street halfway looking in the windows, but mostly exchanging sexy glances and suggestive banter, oddly enough, sprinkled with a lot of talk about his hunting prowess.”
“As in hunting for other men?”
“No, as in the animal variety. In retrospect, it was a big red warning flag I missed, because of his good looks probably. I was too damned horny to pay attention to everything he said. Then suddenly, he announced we were in front of his house, and I quickly agreed to go inside to continue the conversation—or whatever.”
Rico waggled his eyebrows and paused before continuing, looking longingly at the empty glass in front of him. Franco waved for the server to return and ordered their second glasses of wine, then waited.
“I should have clued in that this guy was really into hunting by this point, but what I didn’t expect to find right inside the front door were all the trophies he’d collected. I’d venture a guess he’d taken everything he’d ever killed to be stuffed and mounted. Sometimes just their heads, sometimes their full furry bodies. He displayed them on the walls, tabletops, every fucking surface in that living room.” Rico shuddered, and Franco nearly did the same picturing the macabre scene. “Turns out, not only did he hunt everything on four legs, but he also was a taxidermy enthusiast. It was like some necro-zoo in there.”
Franco couldn’t help but laugh at Rico’s description. “Did the dead-creature menagerie continue into the bedroom?”
“How the hell would I know? It was bad enough having their beady little eyes staring at me with my clothes on. After politely accepting a glass of wine—I was more of a people pleaser in my twenties, I guess—I downed it in record time and made my excuses. Couldn’t get out fast enough.”
Franco laughed and shook his head at the picture Rico had painted. “Well, you certainly don’t have to worry about finding anything stuffed in my apartment. Except your butt hole when the time comes.”
“Promises, promises. I’m ready whenever you are, Stud Muffin.”
At this sexy turn in the conversation, Franco wanted to skip dessert and go back to his apartment immediately. Instead, he turned his attention to the remaining food in front of him. Picking up a fork, he speared the last of his tapa and reached across the table to feed it to Rico. Without a second’s pause, Rico opened his mouth to accept the offering.
While he chewed, Franco made a decision. “I also want to stuff your mouth with something much bigger than that back at my place. Finish eating. We’ll be each other’s dessert.”
Franco wouldn’t be able to taste any more food even if he tried. Rico, on the other hand, continued to savor the food, taking longer than Franco would have liked. With the tip of his tongue, he licked his lips after each bite, turning Franco on even more. Clearly, his boi was delaying their leaving on purpose. Probably wanted to torture him after he’d made him wait so long to get them to this point.
Or was this payback for the vibrators the other day?
Brat.
Eventually, the food was gone, the check came, and Franco paid. They stood and walked out hand in hand, Rico’s finger tickling his palm. One thing for certain, the delay only heightened his anticipation for what was to come.
On the drive to Franco’s, Rico checked on Gina by phone to make sure everything was okay before they got too far into their evening. So far, so good, according to Carole. They arrived at Franco’s high-rise apartment building in record time, despite the insufferable traffic.
Rico’s gaze was drawn up the side of the glass-and-steel edifice. This place must cost Franco a pretty penny. Rico wondered which floor he lived on and what his view might be like. Inside the elevator, Franco pressed the button for the fourth floor with one hand while holding onto Rico’s hand with the other. Heart pounding in anticipation—not about the view he’d see from the windows, either—he resisted the urge to take Franco in his arms inside this contraption.
After walking the short distance down the hall and unlocking the door to apartment 423, Franco waved him inside. Call him a liar, but Rico’s gaze was drawn immediately to the windows across the room, and his feet felt compelled to follow.
“Wow!” Rico said. He could see the lights of several tall downtown buildings from this location, better than he’d expected. “This is a view I could get used to! Are the mountains to the west visible during the daytime?”
“They are. I pay a little too much for this place, but it’s mainly to see the mountains.”
Did they remind Franco of home? “Worth every penny, I’m sure.”
Franco came up behind him, wrapped warm, strong arms around his waist and pulled Rico back against his body. Hard. Ready. “Right now, I’m only interested in one view—that of you naked.”
Rico smiled, his hand reaching back to lightly touch Franco’s thigh. He relished the sense of security he felt in Franco’s arms but was just as driven to get into the bedroom—or wherever his man wanted to take him.
Chuckling, Rico turned around, now completely done with viewing the cityscape. “I’m curious why you’ve been hiding your place from me all this time. And how did you score it?” He didn’t want to say on your salary, but he was well aware that members of the fire service were notoriously underpaid.
“My coworker Victor hooked me up with the landlady, the widow of a firefighter.” Franco leaned closer to nibble Rico’s earlobe and whispered in his best Don Corleone accent from The Godfather, “She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Rico groaned as he turned around. Franco’s impersonation wasn’t as good as he might like to think. “I still prefer a house and a nice big yard to an apartment. But that view certainly is compelling.”
“We’ll enjoy it later. But I brought you here for other purposes.” Without another word, Franco caged Rico’s head between his large hands and closed in for a kiss. At first contact, Rico’s lips tingled as electricity shot through his body. God, he’d waited forever for tonight. His five o’clock shadow chafing against Rico’s chin, Franco nibbled at Rico’s lower lip, further heightening his raw senses.
Rico opened his mouth to him, and Franco grabbed his hips to hold him in place as he ground his hard cock against him and deepened the kiss. Hoping to simulate what he wanted done to a different opening tonight, Rico in turn plunged his tongue into Franco’s mouth. Taking Franco’s coat by the lapels, he yanked it down his arms and let the garment slide into a puddle on the floor. Rico’s came off next with his partner’s help, then the two unbuttoned each other’s shirts in a frenzy and tossed those aside as well.
They landed several more kisses during these disrobing calisthenics, despite their lips being moving targets. But that contact was broken when Rico began hopping around removing his shoes, socks, and pants. He couldn’t strip fast enough and soon was down to his thong.
Suddenly, Franco pulled away. “You’ve fried my brain, boi. I have no clue who might be watching through this window right now.”
It had only just occurred to him that there were no drapes, but Rico didn’t care. He’d always had a bit of an exhibitionist streak in him. Stud Muffin grinned, as if reading his mind. “I don’t want anyone else’s eyes on your naked body. Only mine. I do not share.”
Even so, Franco unbuckled his own belt, pulling it slowly through the loops as if in no hurry to vacate this spot. While holding one end of the leather in each hand, he flung it over Rico’s head and let it settle around Rico’s waist before walking backward and pulling Rico to what he hoped would be the bedroom.
On the way, Rico couldn’t help but notice a gigantic aquarium on the opposite wall with a dozen huge tropical fish swimming around. But he’d come back to check them out later.
It was indeed the bedroom. Thank God. A massive king-sized bed dominated the room, and Rico didn’t take time to notice any other details. That’s all they needed.
“Here, let me.” Rico kneeled before Franco to unbutton his trousers and unzip the fly. He’d gone commando? Wasting no time, Rico pulled out Franco’s cock, his mouth watering at the sight. So much bigger than he’d estimated by touch. He leaned forward to kiss the head then flicked his tongue against the more sensitive areas where he himself liked to be touched. Judging by Franco’s moan, he liked it too.
He trailed a line of kisses down its length to the base of his cock. Franco had manscaped to prepare for tonight, or perhaps he did that routinely. Rico opened his mouth and took one of his balls inside his mouth and sucked gently at first.
“Mm. Feels incredible. Your mouth—”
His words cut off midsentence when Rico gave his sac a not-so-gentle tug. Franco’s hands went to the back of Rico’s head to hold him in place so Rico wouldn’t pull hard enough to injure something.
Trust me, Sir. I’ve been doing this a while now.
Rico scraped his fingernails over Franco’s ass cheeks, feeling the skin become peppered with gooseflesh as he trailed kisses back up his hard rod and took just the head into his mouth. Using one hand to hold down his cock, he teased the line of the Franco’s circumcision scar with his tongue, another of his own favorite places to be touched.
“Damn. You’re good at this, aren’t you?”
Couldn’t very well talk with his mouth so full, so Rico simply nodded and kept working on his man. Franco’s cock throbbed against his lips. Clearly, it had been a while for him too.
But way too soon, Franco pushed him away and pulled him into a standing position once more. “That felt amazing, boi,” he said, “but not nearly as good as having my tongue on your cock and ass.”
Sir, yes, Sir!
Rico’s heartrate kicked up a notch. He’d been waiting for one or both of those actions to happen for a long time.
Wearing nothing but his thong and the purple butt plug, Rico turned around, and strutted a few steps toward the bed to show off what would be the prime target for said actions momentarily. As he clenched his glutes alternately to make them dance without moving a muscle anywhere else—something he’d perfected over the years as his very own parlor trick—Franco wasted no time wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling Rico closer to grind his hard cock against Rico’s eager ass.
The movement pushed the plug against his sensitive hole, driving Rico to distraction. Franco didn’t stop there, though. Taking one hand, he pulled his hips back and used one hand to tap on the butt plug, bumping it against Rico’s P-Spot.
Rico clenched every muscle in his body, but most especially the ones in his ass. “Keep doing that.”
Franco stopped immediately. “Giving your Dom orders now?”
“I thought we were on a D/s break tonight.”
Franco chuckled. “We are. It’s hard for me to turn it off. Guess I can’t curb my dominant personality altogether.”
Control issues much?
Rico smiled, happy to chuck all the power-exchange rules. He just wanted be a bottom tonight and focus on nothing but having sex however many times they wanted before exhaustion set in.
“Well, you just do whatever you feel like, Sir. What you’ve been doing is anything but a turn-off.”
Once again, Franco resumed playing with the plug, tugging on it as if he was going to remove it, then pushing it back against Rico’s prostate.
Fucking hot!
Rico’s cock grew hard with all the stimulation. When would Franco take him in his mouth? He wasn’t going to give him any more suggestions that might slow down their progress.
Hopefully, they had all night, but given their track record for interruptions, he didn’t intend to tempt fate.
When Franco released him abruptly, he commanded, “Remove the plug and clean up. I want to bury myself in your tight ass.”
“Yes, Sir!”
Secretly, Rico enjoyed his taking charge like this and had no complaints. Later on, he might become more assertive—or bratty, as Franco called it—but for now, he wanted Franco buried balls deep inside him. Anything he could do to facilitate that, he would.
Franco pointed out the master bathroom door to the left. Rico turned to face him and squeezed Franco’s cock before leaving his side. Inside the bathroom, he couldn’t help but picture Franco naked inside the glass-enclosed shower stall leaving nothing to the imagination.
Cleaned up and ready for the night ahead, he opened the door to the bedroom only to find Franco leaning against the bedpost facing him.
“Come closer, boi.”
Rico’s hole thrummed in anticipation. Halfway across the space, Franco came forward to take his hand, turned him around, and pressed Rico’s backside against the bedpost before rubbing his cock against his. He trailed kisses down Rico’s neck and pecs until he reached a taut nipple, biting forcefully but not hard enough to break skin. Rico hissed, thrusting his pelvis forward against Franco’s hard cock.
So ready for me, as I am for him.
Franco’s tongue circled his nipple before switching to the other one, giving it the same treatment. Rico wrapped his hand around Franco’s cock, which only made him stop sucking immediately and pull away.
“Hands at your sides. I’ll tell you when I want you to touch me.”
Shit! We’re doing protocols again?
As if reading his mind, Franco added, “I like to take charge in the bedroom. Now get in the middle of the bed on all fours.”
Don’t have to order me to do that twice.
“Yes, Sir.” More than anything, he wanted Franco playing with his hole again, filling it, making him come with the most amazing prostate orgasm he’d ever experienced. He’d waited so long for this.
Rico scrambled into position, while Franco grabbed some pillows from the head of the bed. “Rest your head and arms on these. I want that ass high in the air.”
Rico’s eagerness must have been obvious as he followed instructions without hesitation. Kneeling behind him, pressing his cock teasingly against his opening then pulling away to slap it against his butt cheeks, Franco raked his fingernails down his back. Rico’s sphincter tightened again in anticipation. Unsure what Franco intended to do first made this even more exciting, but he hoped the time for foreplay was over. He counted the vibrators and progressive butt plug insertion as his foreplay.
Leaning his furry chest against Rico’s back, Franco slid one hand roughly down his side until it slipped under the G-string. His fingertip grazed Rico’s sensitive hole making him gasp. So responsive.
Franco took Rico’s ear lobe between his teeth and pulled making Rico shudder. “Nice ass. Now it’s time to make it mine.”
Fuck yeah!