“Never done this after sex before.” He smoothed the edges with his thumb, taking more passes than necessary.
Tierney’s laugh was further assurance he wasn’t seriously pissed off, thank God. Dalton gave him a little pat on the cheek, and Tierney stepped away, heading toward the door. He looked so cute with a bandage on his ass.
“Cat scratches are notorious for getting infected.” He winced inside when Tierney stopped and turned to blink at him. He didn’t think things would go sideways now, but the man had always been unpredictable.
“What?” His eyes went wide and questioning, rather than narrowing to mean slits. “That’s why you put that stuff on it, right?”
“Well, yeah, but he really scratched you. They’re deep.” Dalton finally stood, coming closer. Letting it finally sink in that the old Tierney wasn’t going to appear and freak out.
“Feels like it,” Tierney muttered, shaking his head. “Are you saying I’m going to have to go to my doctor, show him the claw marks on my ass and ask him if they’re infected?”
“Or you could wait a couple of days to see if it gets inflamed.” Close enough now to touch, he slid his arms around Tierney’s waist and kissed the ball of his shoulder. “Sorry,” he whispered again.
Tierney returned the hug immediately. “Seriously, stop apologizing. And thank you for playing doctor.”
Back in the bedroom a minute later, the next awkward moment attacked—did they get dressed and go about their individual lives now, or go to the movie, or get back in bed, or . . .? Dalton stood in front of his closet, trying to look nonchalant while naked, waiting to see what Tierney would do. Knowing full well that if this were truly a simple friends-with-benefits relationship, he’d be getting dressed without a thought. He’d never had a moment like this with the guys he had arrangements with in college.
Tierney found his briefs and stepped into them. “I guess your cat doesn’t want me here.”
“Probably a safe bet.” Hopefully he’d managed to put humor into his tone, but it was difficult with a sinking heart.
Glancing at his watch, Tierney bent to pick up his jeans. “We missed the movie. If you come back to my place we could just dial it up on pay-per-view.”
Dalton shrugged, as if thinking it over, but duh. “Sure, sounds good.”
Tierney smiled. “Cool. Bring clothes for tomorrow and we can have a sleepover.”
“Okay.”
Dalton couldn’t claim to be well rested when he stayed at Tierney’s, but he totally owned well sated.
“It’s not like this is your only shot at getting some,” Dalton teased Tierney in the middle of the night, lying next to him in the very center of the huge bed.
“What if this is my only chance with you?” Tierney loomed over him, holding himself up on his elbows.
“It’s not.” Dalton smoothed away the wrinkle on Tierney’s brow with his thumb. “If you want more time with me, you can have it.”
“What if I want a lot more time?” Tierney was so still, as if holding his breath until Dalton answered.
You can have as much of me you want. “I’m here for the foreseeable future.” Lifting his head, he pressed a kiss on Tierney’s lips. “I like being with you. I like sex with you.”
“You don’t feel like, um . . .”
“What?”
Tierney played with Dalton’s hair for a second. He must have a fascination with it, because he moaned whenever Dalton’s bangs brushed his naked skin. Especially when Dalton was blowing him.
“You said those guys you used to be with all needed something from you—”
“This is totally different.” He covered Tierney’s lips with his hand. “You aren’t offering to pay my bills or telling me I can’t have a job so I can be at your beck and call 24-7.”
Tierney bobbed his head side to side, as if thinking about asking just that. When Dalton dropped his hand, he went on seriously though. “I just don’t want to be the only guy getting something out of this.”
“I’m getting laid.” Dalton grinned.
Tierney smiled, but only briefly.
Time to own up. “I like knowing that if I call you when someone leaves a threatening pair of opera tickets on my car, you’ll come check on me.” He swallowed, because this was the thing he never admitted, but Tierney needed to know. Still, all the blood in Dalton’s body rushed toward his center, calling in the troops, as he said, “I like that I can tell you about those guys I was with before without you being disgusted by it or making me feel like I was a . . . prostitute.” Oh God, somehow this had gone from joking to uncharted territory. Here be monsters. He might be seasick.
Tierney’s whole forehead wrinkled up. “I was in the closet for most of my life because my grandfather threatened to take my trust fund away, and you think I’m going to care that you let some of your past boyfriends support you? Next to me you’re a fucking saint.”
Dalton stared at him. “You did it so you wouldn’t lose your family.”
“My family?” He half smiled, then kissed Dalton’s nose. “I was just scared of being alone. You were already alone when you hooked up with those dudes.”
“I always pretend it doesn’t matter,” Dalton whispered. “Like, I pretend it was a different person, or I’m above the question of whether I was, um, selling my ass, but . . .” He shook his head, muscles trembly, as if he’d just run a few miles. “But I was. Those guys all needed a discreet, reliable booty call, and I needed to feel like someone cared about me. But none of them really did.” Tierney didn’t say anything, just combed Dalton’s bangs back and kissed his forehead. Maybe if he’d responded verbally, Dalton wouldn’t have continued confessing. “You know the worst part?” He swallowed. “I was into it. The sex. Not being with an older man so much, but being with a man who had power and influence. I liked—” His throat seized up for a second, but he struggled to get the rest out because right now that secret was poison. “I liked being someone’s boy toy.”
“Oh, baby,” Tierney said softly, almost crooning it while stroking his fingertips down Dalton’s cheek, then across his lips. He leaned close to kiss Dalton’s temple, then murmured in his ear, “That’s a pretty lame deepest secret.”
Dalton laughed so hard he stopped caring that he’d just revealed his most humiliating hidden desire.