‘No,’ Derek signed, but there was a playful smile tugging at his lips. ‘We’re perfect, I think.’
Basil let out a breath, then smacked him on his shoulder. ‘Asshole.’
‘I know.’ Derek tugged him in for another kiss. ‘I’m going to get food. Meet you there?’
Basil nodded, and Derek reached over, curling his hand into the front of Basil’s shirt and pulling him in for a third lingering kiss.
‘See you soon,’ he signed, then he went right back out the wayhe’d come in. Basil followed to lock up, and maybe his numbers weren’t super precise as he hurried through the last of his closing duties, but Amaranth could yell at him for it tomorrow.
He made the drive back to his place in less than five minutes, and was just getting out of the shower when the lights flickered, letting him know that Derek had come in. Amaranth had gone into Denver with friends and had already told Basil not to expect her back, which meant they had the place to themselves. It was good, unless Derek had been lying about why he wanted to talk, and things were not perfect. Yet, he reminded himself, Derek wore his heart on his sleeve and Basil could see it plain on his face—Derek was in it. This was solid. It was good.
In Derek’s words, they were perfect.
He threw on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, then walked into the living room to find Derek setting a pizza on the table. He looked over his shoulder when Basil entered the room, and his cheeks immediately went pink as he straightened and walked over like he couldn’t help but take Basil into his arms and kiss him. When they broke apart, Derek didn’t let him get far, his eyes roaming over Basil’s face like he just couldn’t get enough.
Finally, he dragged them to the sofa, but where Derek might have immediately put his feet in Basil’s lap and dug into the food like they’d been doing that together a hundred years, instead he turned to face him.
‘I’ve been practicing this,’ he said in perfect ASL. ‘I want to get it right, and I want it to be said in a way you understand without having to try. My teacher helped.’
Basil blinked at him, his throat a little hot and a little tight. ‘Okay.’
Derek nodded, and his chest puffed and deflated with his breath. ‘The night we met, I was a mess. My father had spent an hour telling me how worthless I was, and I didn’t feel like my life was going anywhere. I will always be a mess. Part of me will always be the terrifiedteenager locked away in a garden shed not sure if he was going to die in there.’
Basil felt white-hot rage course through him and wished he could drag the old man out of hell just to put him back there himself. But he didn’t say any of that, because he knew what this was costing Derek, and he knew how hard Derek had worked on this.
‘The night I was trapped in the bank, I went right back to that dark place. But then you touched my arm and you pulled me out. You bought Kevin and you let me give you a piece of me on your arm that you’ll carry forever. And then, when I was falling apart, you held me together.’ Derek swallowed thickly, his eyes darting away only for a second, and when he looked back, there was fire and purpose in them. ‘I love you,’ he said, signing the full sentence instead of using the three fingered sign for it. ‘I’m falling in love with you, and I’m terrified but I don’t care anymore. If you think it’s too much, I understand, but I need you to know that this is everything.’
Basil waited several beats after Derek’s hands dropped, just to be sure he was finished. He had wanted to interrupt more than once, wanted to just take his hands and kiss his palms, then slowly undress him and meld their bodies together until he wasn’t sure where one began and the other ended. But he also knew how hard Derek had worked to perfect everything he wanted to say, and he wasn’t about to take a single second of that way from him.
‘I love you too,’ he signed. A simple gesture, the I love you sign, and same, signed in the short space between them. Derek’s eyes were fixed hard on his hands, and then looked up into Basil’s eyes and his face erupted into a grin.
‘Yeah?’ he mouthed.
Basil chuckled. ‘Yeah,’ he mouthed right back.
Then Derek’s hands were on him, pulling at him, searching for skin under his shirt and below the waistband of his bottoms. He had Basil pinned to the sofa in seconds, a knee between his legs gently pushing up against his balls with just enough pressure to feel good. Derek’s mouth barely left his, tongue sliding across his own in wet,hot, gorgeous strokes and Basil’s eyes rolled back in his head with want and desperation.
Somehow, moving in tandem, they managed to stand and stumble down the hall without losing their grip on each other. Derek had Basil’s shirt off and flung into the corner of the room the moment they got inside, and Basil could feel the vibrations in his feet as Derek kicked the door shut.
‘I want you,’ Derek signed.
Basil nodded frantically, let Derek drag him back toward the bed. They were barely dressed by then, the last of their covered skin separated by loose, thin boxers, Derek still in his socks. His hands were warm and a little rough as they brushed down the center of his chest, his fingers pinching at his nipples, drawing little gasps and moans from Basil’s throat.
He felt Derek hesitate, and when he opened his eyes and looked down, he saw Derek’s hand hovering just over the place where his dick was growing rock hard and throbbing. His gaze was fixed on Basil’s face, eyes questioning, asking for permission.
Basil reached between them, gently pulling his hand down until it made contact with his hard cock, and he thrust into it. Derek let out a puff of air, then he shoved his hand into the waistband of Basil’s boxers and took Basil’s cock into the palm of his hand. It was rough, and a little too dry, and also perfect enough Basil wanted to cry—or maybe scream and then come.
But he wanted more than this, he wanted everything. He wanted to feel Derek on top of him, and inside him, and he wanted to be inside, and he wanted Derek’s mouth on him. He felt his lips forming a word, his throat vibrating with it. “Please.”
Derek’s entire body jolted at the sound, and then he used both hands to tug Basil’s boxers to his knees, over his ankles, flinging them across the room with purpose. He nosed up his thigh, his moan vibrating against Basil’s skin, and then wet heat enveloped him as Derek swallowed him down in one go.
“Uhgf,” Basil groaned, his head tipped back. It took everything inhim to keep from thrusting as Derek used his tongue to draw a line up the underside of his cock. He pulled back, suckling the head for a minute, eventually drawing away as he licked precome off his bottom lip.
‘I want,’ Derek signed, then dragged his hand down the back of Basil’s crooked thigh and palmed the side of his ass.
Basil nodded frantically, turning on his side to dig out his lube and condoms. They were new, and he saw the slight amusement in Derek’s eyes as his nails tore at the packaging, sending the plastic wrap to the floor. Basil’s breath stuttered in his chest as Derek’s fingers went shiny with the silicone slick, and then his eyes slammed shut at the first press of a finger.
He expected Derek to take a long time, to torture him, to ignore the desperation of the moment and be sweet—which would have been fine, though it wasn’t what he wanted. He appreciated being wrong in this case when, after only a moment, a second finger joined Derek’s first. Then a third after only a couple of strokes. Basil felt stretched out and sore and on the verge of begging if Derek didn’t get on with it.
