This was getting way too close to home, literally. Now his hot birthday fuck was stationed in his own zip code. He didn’t know whether to agree with his happy cock about that or his worried brain.
Steven sighed happily. “You’re the best, man,” he said. “I’ll ask Holly to come over too with more art and stuff.”
“That would be great, actually,” Ace said. “It would help to have more to work with.”
“And Paul, you’ll help out again, right?” Steven said, his voice rising in pitch along with his hope.
Now it was Paul’s turn to hedge. “I don’t know, bro,” he said. “I sometimes have Saturday appointments.”
“Can you reschedule? I could really use more muscle on this,” Steven pleaded.
Paul clenched his jaw against the conflict roaring within him. The big brother knew that of course he should help Steven. But the man who was terrified of his own desires wanted to run away from the temptation that had been dropped back into his lap.
He glanced over to Ace, who was watching him with guarded eyes. The more he looked at Ace, the more he wanted him, and that was simply unacceptable.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he told Steven.
He told himself:Run. Don’t look back.
It was the looking back that would kill him.
Chapter 5
By Friday, Ace had talked himself in and out of canceling on Steven at least seven times.
Seriously, what was he thinking? He had no obligation to do anything more to Steven’s house. He knew a dozen handymen Steven could hire. He’d already provided plenty of guidance. Right?
But… Always a but. He’d be an idiot to turn down extra money – and a pleased client. And the front yarddidneed a lot more attention than just a helpful to-do list. And he could get even better after photos for the Web site. And…
Paul.
Ace thought he was going to swallow his own tongue when he’d turned around and fallen into those grey-blue eyes again. Bad enough that the man had echoed in his fevered dreams since that first explosive encounter. There in front of Steven’s burgundy wall, he had to keep himself from peeling off the man’s shirt and licking his nipples.
Then Paul introduced himself as if they’d never met, and Ace’s heart had sunk into his shoes.
He shouldn’t let it bother him. This is one of the emotional risks of fucking someone without knowing his last name or anything about him. Not everyone was out and unafraid of it.
But why is it that I seemed doomed to find men who don’t know how to be themselves?
The trouble was, now that he knew a little more about Paul and had spent that afternoon around him, he wanted more of him, not less. Even with that closet door between them.
He’d caved and googled Paul, now that he had a last name to work with, and found his chiropractic office’s Web site, featuring a photo of a confident, strong man gazing directly into the camera.
He returned to that photo every time he thought about canceling. He wasn’t sure if it served as a reason to cancel or a reason to show up on Saturday.
Currently, he was set firmly on maybe.
Ace didn’t have any client meetings scheduled on Friday afternoon, which worked out well because Head Web Monkey Tanner Caldwell was coming over this afternoon to help get the site launched, finally.
For months he’d been relying on word of mouth and referrals to make a living, and it was long past time he had a presence online.
Tanner had been fiddling with the site for a few weeks now, building forms and slideshows and getting everything ready for a proper launch. The last step was one more proofing session.
Until Tanner arrived, though, Ace was once again at loose ends, which gave him too much time to either waste or think about Paul.
One urge was definitely stronger than the other.
Ace was grateful that his job involved going out to meet clients and work with them in their homes. Because whenever he hit a slow patch and he was essentially stuck in his home with nothing pressing on him, it was a disconcerting experience. Instead of relying on a boss to crack the whip, he had to motivate himself to not give in to the temptations of being unsupervised. Like reading blogs for four hours. Or giving in to the temptation of porn.
The realtors he worked with were often the only people he ever dealt with more than once. His job was essentially a series of one-night stands. Swoop in to an ill-planned room, edit out the unnecessary bits, make it pretty and swoop out again. It was always invigorating working with his clients – and always nice when they heaped praise on his work – but he never got the chance to really develop any relationships.
For someone who worked with other people as part of his job, he was pretty lonely.
Before Tanner arrived, Ace made sure to tuck away that photo of Paul, as well as clear his browser history. Tanner might be gay, but there was no reason he needed to know about the dirty sites Ace liked to visit in his bored hours.
Plus, he didn’t want the kid to think he was encouraging something more.
Tanner defied nearly all the stereotypes of computer science majors. Instead of a skinny, pale geek, his body was perfectly built, in a way that could only come from dedicated weightlifting. His light brown hair was always styled in an artfully casual way, and to top it off, he had the face of a little boy who knew he could charm his way out of anything. He looked more like a party-happy frat guy than someone who could work in the IT department.
Ace would be kidding himself if said he wasn’t tempted.
A couple of months ago, Ace had found himself at Sparks once again at the end of a long week, but this time he had spotted a familiar face his new Web designer.
Erik had pointed Ace to Tanner in the first place when Ace needed a tech guy to help him create his new business’s site. Not a week after their initial client meeting, there was Tanner in the place Ace came to scratch his itch.
Tanner had wheedled a ride home out of him at the end of the fruitless night. And there, in his truck parked by Tanner’s apartment, Ace had let the hot jock give him a blowjob.
The stuff of legendary romance it was not.
Ever since then, Tanner had made it clear that he was ready for round two.
Ace had been less than clear.
When he arrived, Tanner greeted Ace with that grin and a full-body once-over glance.
“Hey, Acelin.” Tanner always mispronounced his name.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Really, just Ace. Nobody calls me by my full name.”And it’s pronounced Ahs-lin. As I’ve told you before.
“It’s a cool name, is all,” he said with a shrug. “Really unique. Kind of like mine. I don’t know any other Tanners, and I definitely don’t know any other Acelins.”
“True,” Ace acknowledged. He cleared his throat and turned to lead Tanner to the office. “What have you got for me?”