With a firm knock on the polished wood, he announced himself, only to receive no acknowledgment. He tried two more times, but still got no answer, so he tried the door, finding it unlocked.
“Howe?” he called out, stepping into the dimly lit room.
A single desk lamp was the only source of illumination, giving a warm yellow-orange tint to everything in Darren’s quarters, including the man himself, whose golden skin looked like it emitted a faint glow.
“Howe,” Aiden repeated, approaching the bed.
Darren lay on his stomach with the covers draped across his ass, his naked back exposed from the waist up. His arms were folded under his pillow and he was turned Aiden’s way. His sleeping face was peaceful and as if untouchable, in this very moment, by the tragedies that had shaped his life. They shaped Aiden’s too, but now was not the time to go there.
So he didn’t. He stopped himself spiraling down and simply watched Darren, finding something fundamentally lonely about his sleeping form in the middle of the giant bed. It pulled at the strings of Aiden’s heart, made his breath hitch and his fists clench and his thoughts circle back to the two Valrais siblings.
The real Sara was long dead, and Darren had been on the run from too young an age, a kid pretending to be someone else and always looking over his shoulder. Had he ever shared his bed with someone? Did he know the feeling of a warm body next to his? What it felt like to sleep and wake up in the arms of another person?
Somehow, Aiden doubted that because even if Darren knew the pleasures of sex, hookups didn’t equal intimacy.
Aiden’s galloping heart lurched in his throat and became a lump stuck there. He took a deep breath, inhaling the lemongrass scent he’d not noticed thus far. Shivers crawled across his skin, concentrating at the tips of his fingers as a need to touch and make sure the man in front of him was real and tangible overtook him. It hijacked each of his senses and then his mind, turning into something he couldn’t fight. He bent slightly from the waist, uncurling one hand, and reached out, tentatively feathering his fingers over the smooth skin at the base of Darren’s neck.
The touch was electric, spiking his already erratic pulse even higher and beading his forehead with sweat. Heat rushed down his spine to his cock and nerves fluttered in his stomach, his entire body experiencing the simple caress. Ceasing the physical contact was what he should’ve done, but he couldn’t stop himself from dragging his fingers down the hard peaks of Darren’s spine, from lingering at the small of his back which lifted slightly on every intake of air and dipped with every exhale. It was enthralling, the way Darren’s warm skin felt under Aiden’s fingers, soft like Claudia’s had been, though with the added firmness of firm muscles beneath it.
Aiden lost himself exploring Darren’s back, simply unable to retract his hand or look away or stop even if he knew he should, until Darren stirred and broke the spell he’d put on Aiden without even doing anything.
“Aiden?” Darren’s hoarse voice rasped, low and rumbly and dangerous as his midnight-indigo eyes slowly blinked open and zeroed in on Aiden.
Aiden, not Kesley, the use of his first name unleashing yet another wave of prohibited cravings he had to force down. Why was it that this man could affect him this way? Rile him up so effortlessly. Why could Darren break past his walls and touch something deep he’d thought no one but Claudia could claim?
Aiden extricated his hand, not missing the way Darren’s sleepy gaze followed it. “Howe. We leave for Mars soon. Bea’s getting the ship ready.”
Darren bobbed his head in what looked like the bed version of a nod, then slowly sat up, the covers sliding further down his hips. He was naked under them and Aiden’s eyes transfixed on the bare skin beneath Daren’s navel, dipping further down to take in the half-full cock and the neatly trimmed hair surrounding it.
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready,” Darren said, unabashed by his nakedness.
Aiden looked up at Darren’s face and cleared his dry throat. “I’ll wait for you in the lounge.” He stood up and headed out so he could get out of the other man’s way.
“Did Bea get the things I asked for?” Darren tossed, halting Aiden at the door. “You were asleep when I went to tell you and… I didn’t want to wake you up.”
Aiden turned around, nodding. “She’s prepared everything. It’s in the duffle bag on the coffee table. And… thanks. For not waking me up. I think I needed the sleep.”
The upturn of Darren’s lips was very subtle, but Aiden didn’t miss it.
“Yeah.” Darren raked his hair with one hand, his chest and arm muscles flexing. “I thought you might.”
“I’ll let you get dressed,” Aiden said and stalked out of the room before he’d lost the fight with the part of him that wanted nothing more than to give into the wants he kept locked deep inside.
