“Do you, or do you not have a child?”
Damien screwed up his face like the answer was a particularly unsavory lemon. “Look, why don’t we just say—”
An air raid siren cut Damien off, swelling in intensity until it was all Matthew could hear. Wincing, he covered his ears and looked to Damien for reassurance, but found that the color had drained from Damien’s face and his pupils had dilated with fear. Without wasting another second, Damien grabbed Matthew in a crushing embrace and rolled them over until he could reach off the side of the bed. After some fumbling, Damien popped back up with his phone in hand. It was the source of the ungodly sound.
“What is that?” Matthew asked, wincing.
Damien sighed. “A call from work. I’m sorry. I have to take it. Know that as awkward as it is for you to have to lie there and listen while my knot’s in your ass, it’s about fifty times more awkward for me.” That said, Damien answered the call. “Good morning, sir. What’s going on?” Although he spoke with confidence, no color returned to his face. The dark pools of his pupils didn’t shrink. “Yes, you’re right. I’m on it. You don’t have to worry.”
The conversation didn’t end, but Damien deflated as if it had. Matthew was pinned beneath his weight. After a moment spent trapped beneath him, Damien gathered him in his arms and rolled them over so Damien was the one on his back and Matthew was on top. Concerned, Matthew ran an affectionate hand over Damien’s cheek, and while Damien smiled for him, it was clear that he didn’t mean it. A dead, glossy sheen struck the humor from his eyes, and his lips tightened at the corners. The fun-loving man Matthew knew was gone.
The caller, whoever he was, continued to speak. Matthew wasn’t able to pick out what he said, but he did hear the bass notes of his voice of his voice and his flat, no-nonsense tone. While he spoke, Damien covered his eyes and pushed his lips together tightly. It looked like he was doing everything he could to resist a long, loud sigh. “No, Bankes doesn’t need to be involved. I’ll be there.” There was a pause during which Damien frowned. “I understand. You have my word—I’m on it.”
The call concluded. Damien parted his fingers to peek at the screen, then heaved the sigh he’d been holding back. “God. Fucking. Dammit.”
It was Matthew’s turn to frown. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. I’ve got to go skin a legal team with a rusty nail and half a spoon. A typical,” Damien glanced at his phone, “Wednesday morning back in Americaland. It’s lawyer hunting season, after all. If we don’t keep their numbers in check, no coffee pot will be safe. It’d throw off the ecosystem as we know it.”
Behind Damien’s humor lurked a kernel of truth that Matthew could only partially see. Was it weird to want to talk to your hot hookup about life stuff? Probably. Still, the anguish hidden behind Damien’s facade bothered him. If they weren’t going to see each other again, then did it matter if he screwed up and said something stupid? “It looks like it’s really bothering you. Do you want to talk about it?”
“You’re sweet.” Damien smiled and kissed him, putting an end to Matthew’s questions. Unlike before, when lust had seized them both, Damien treated Matthew with astounding tenderness. The attention melted Matthew into a boneless heap. He tangled his fingers in Damien’s hair and gasped into his mouth. Soon enough, Damien rolled them over so Matthew was beneath him, and with their positions reversed, began to pump into him with short thrusts.
“You’re distracting me,” Matthew accused.
Damien promptly pushed into him, rubbing his knot over Matthew’s prostate. Unable to take the sudden pleasure, Matthew sucked in a sharp breath and pushed into the sensation, fucking himself on it as best he could from his disadvantaged angle. “Is it working?”
“Fuck!”
“I’m going to go ahead and take that as a yes.”
Time slipped away between increasingly heated kisses and another scorching round of sex until, at last, Damien’s knot deflated and Matthew rolled away from him. Glitter coated their bodies and wedged itself into places it had no right to be, but Matthew couldn’t bring himself to care. With Damien there beside him, little else mattered.
Damien yawned and stretched his arms over his head, then helped himself to the pillows. Affection lit his once-dull eyes. “Where’s your phone?”
“Why?”
“I wanna do something.”
Vague statements and Damien meant trouble. Suspicious, Matthew fished his phone off the bedside table and gave it to Damien, but kept an eye on what he was doing, just in case. Damien dropped his own phone on his chest, held Matthew’s up, and turned on the screen. “Fuck, it’s locked.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“How am I supposed to snap the world’s greatest dick pics like that?”
Matthew rolled his eyes and plucked his phone out of Damien’s hand. “No thanks.”
“If you’re being technical, they’re the galaxy’s greatest dick pics, too. Thegalaxy,Matthew.That’s a pretty huge distinction.And you know I’m being honest because I didn’t fly off the wall and call them the universe’s greatest, which, I wish they were, but they’re not. Don’t you want something that monumental on your phone?”
Matthew, who’d been about to unlock his screen, lowered his phone so he could fix Damien with a speculative squint. “So you’re saying there’s someone out there who has better dick pics than you? Why aren’t his the world’s best?”
Damien waggled his eyebrow. “Because he’s not from around here. I’m the undisputed champion of the Milky Way, but I’m not willing to bet that there isn’t an alien with a bigger dick and a stronger selfie game than mine. You know, if meaty blue schlongs are your bag.”
Matthew snorted, trying, and failing, to hide a grin. He finished unlocking his phone and handed it to Damien. “Meaty blue schlong? I wish I hadn’t asked.”
“Yet here I am with your unlocked phone, about to do all kinds of unscrupulous, potentially schlong-related things.” Damien waggled his eyebrow a second time, then turned his attention to the screen. While he went about his business, Matthew lay back and tried his best to calm his racing heart.
Damien was a hookup—a once-in-a-lifetime deal that was fun in the moment, but couldn’t last forever. As addictive as his personality was, and as mind-blowing as the sex had been, it was best that Matthew didn’t get attached. One day, when Matthew’s life was settled and Emily was a little older, a man would come along who’d look at him like Damien did, and who’d make him feel as wanted and as safe. Until then, Matthew would have memories of their time together in Fiji to give him hope.
