Sidebars Book 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 3Theo gave me the directions, and within twenty minutes we were in front of what looked like an antebellum mansion. If I’d passed it in the normal course of the day, I’d have taken it for a museum.

“This is where you live?” I blinked at what I could make out of it. The street lights didn’t reveal much, beyond the fact that it was big.

“Yeah. Oh, not the whole house. We’re up on three.”

Spike made a noise that sounded like a snort, and Theo reached over the seat and swatted him, then smiled at me.

He made no effort to get out.

Did I invite myself in? Did I wait for him to invite me in?

The stalemate was finally broken by Spike. “I’m going to bed,” he mumbled. “You two can do what you want.” He slammed the car door behind him and climbed the steps to the outer door.

“Do you want to come up?” Theo finally asked me.

My mouth went dry. Okay, crunch time. “I’d like that. But…” I had that autopsy in the morning, and never did I regret more having something work-related come between what I wanted to do and what I had to do. “I can’t. I can’t stay.”

“I can set the alarm. I’ll even make you breakfast.” Was it wishful thinking on my part, or did he really seem to be clutching at straws to get me to spend the night?

I turned off the engine and climbed out of the car. Theo was already waiting on the sidewalk. I didn’t have much cash on me, and I wondered how much this was going to cost me. Did he take Visa or MasterCard? Or would an IOU suffice?

I wasn’t going to let anything stop me, though; I’d get a second job, wash dishes if I had to.

He laced his fingers through mine and tugged me along after him, and I followed him like Mary’s lamb.

The apartment was gorgeous—not that I had the chance to study it. We went straight through to his bedroom.

He began stripping, and believe me, I studied that. His pecs, his n*****s erect and each sporting a tiny barbell, the smooth expanse of his upper torso, his nicely defined abs.

I swallowed to keep from drooling.

“You’re…you’re wearing shorts. Your jeans were so tight…I wondered…” I was babbling, but I couldn’t seem to stop. I licked my lips and reached for my tie. I didn’t want him to be the only naked—well, near-naked—person in the room.

“I don’t usually go commando unless I’m working.” He slid his thumbs in the waistband of his shorts and eased them down over his hips, then sauntered over to me, so close I could breathe in the warm scent of him.

In spite of my arousal, I was careful removing my weapon. I wrapped it in its holster and set it aside.

Theo didn’t ask about it, to my everlasting relief. I still wasn’t sure how I could explain it.

I began unbuttoning my shirt, fumbling as I tried to get buttons through buttonholes.

When had I become so butter-fingered?

A slow smile curled Theo’s lips. It wasn’t cruel or triumphant, the way Michael’s could sometimes be. It was like he was pleased.

“Let me,” he whispered, and brushed my hands away. The buttons came free like magic, my shirt and undershirt were gone, and his nimble fingers began working on my fly.

Somehow, before I knew it, we were both naked.

The shyness gene I hadn’t known I had kicked in, and I started to cover myself. He looked so good, and I…I was just me.

“No” He stopped me. “Let me see.” His eyes were fastened on the area below my waist, and I held my breath.

I made my hands stay at my side, but when he reached for my c**k, “No.” I forgot everything but the fact I had to stop him.

“Problem, tough guy?” He scowled at me.

“If you…” I felt like an i***t, and I clenched my fingers into fists to keep from reaching for him. “…if you touch me, I don’t think I’ll be able to hold on.”

“No?” For some reason he looked as if I’d given him the world’s best present. Well, I guessed it would make any guy feel good to know a single touch would cause his partner to blow his wad.

“All right.” He tugged gently at my earlobe. “We can go exploring later.”

Later? I was a realist; Theo was a professional who could have anyone he wanted. I wouldn’t let myself think of all the partners he’d brought pleasure to with his educated fingers, but—there was going to be a later? I kept myself from doing a fist pump, but just barely.

Jesus, how old was I? I gave him my best rakish grin instead. Right now he wanted me, and I was going to take that and run with it.

He grinned back at me and found a condom. “Hold still and I’ll just roll this on you.”

My c**k twitched. This was a chance for me to have something it was unlikely I’d ever have the chance to ask for again.

“Will you…Will you f**k me?”

My request seemed to surprise him. “You don’t want to f**k me?”

“Well, yes, I’d like to try that too.” And hopefully I wouldn’t screw that up too badly. I’d made love to a few girls, and it was okay, but something had always seemed to be missing with penetration. Oral s*x, on the other hand, had been better. Maybe it would be better if I went down on him instead. I just didn’t want to blow it with him. “But right now, I want this.”

“You trust me not to hurt you?” The expression on his face—hadn’t anyone ever asked for that from him before?

“Of the two of us, I think you’re the one who knows the most about the mechanics of this thing.”

“I know the most…?” He looked as if I’d pointed my Glock at him and told him I was going to blow his nuts off. “f*****g hell, you’re a virgin?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Have you ever been f****d up the ass?”

Jesus, could he be any more blunt? “No.” I’d never been touched there, other than by my doctor for a prostate exam, which I’d first had a few years before, and I didn’t think that counted. Come to think of it, I was due soon.

And why was I thinking of something so stupid?

“Then you’re a virgin, Wills!”

“Look, if this is a problem…if you’d rather not…” Michael had always said that having a virgin was not only a lot of work—you had to teach them what you liked—but it was like making some kind of commitment, that the chick would then assume he actually cared about her and saw a future with her.

Was Theo worried that I would react that way? I was mortified.

“s**t, this was not a good idea. Where’re my clothes?”

“Oh, no, tough guy! I’ve been fantasizing about having s*x with you since you walked into the emergency room behind Vince…” He had? Really? I’d always been the one who’d taken the lead, who said the pretty words, and I shivered and grew harder. To not have to do anything…“and you in my ass is only slightly better than me in your ass. Get on the bed, baby. We’re gonna rock and roll!”

Yes! I’d done some reading, and I knew being on my hands and knees would be the most comfortable position this first time. I didn’t care so much about me…No, of course I did, but what I really wanted was to make sure Theo liked it so much he’d want to do me again.

It was only as I settled on Theo’s bed that I remembered the scars that covered my body. The one on my ass wasn’t too bad, and I didn’t think he’d notice the one on my calf—his eyes should be further up my body—but the one on my back…

Theo tucked a pillow under me. Maybe he hadn’t noticed?

I didn’t want him to see my back. My family didn’t care about the long scar that curved from my shoulder blade to above my kidney—all that mattered to them was I’d survived—but it had skeeved more than one potential s*x partner.

It would have been nice if Michael had fingered the one on my butt the way Theo was—I’d discovered by accident that it almost seemed to be hotwired to my c**k—but he never had, not even when he’d had a few too many and decided it would be a good time to fool around.

I held myself tensely, waiting for Theo to gasp, to gag, to draw back with a sound of disgust.

For what seemed like the longest time, he didn’t do anything.

“Theo?”

“I’m here, baby.”

Baby. No guy had ever called me that. I…liked it.

But his “being here” and his actually doing something were two different things. When was he going to—

I jumped when his fingertips traced the line of the long scar. Then his lips followed it. But he didn’t ask about it, and I almost sagged in relief.

“You don’t have to—” Unlike the scar on my butt, the nerve-endings here seemed to have been destroyed. I could feel the light pressure, but beyond that…

“Shhh.” He nipped the curve of my ass, and my c**k became even harder. I braced my weight on one hand and shoved the heel of my other hand into my mouth to stifle a groan. And then he stroked his lubed finger across my hole, and the groan escaped, a sound like nothing I’d ever uttered before.

Shit! Michael always hated when I made any kind of sound—he’d snap at me to be quiet often enough, afraid our frat brothers would hear—and in spite of myself I tensed even more, waiting for Theo’s annoyed reaction.

Theo seemed too busy with my body to berate me for the noise I’d made. He didn’t push his finger in, but he didn’t take it away either. “You okay?” he asked in a husky whisper as he kept rubbing around and over the muscle, gradually loosening it.

“Ye-yeah.” I couldn’t believe he was overlooking what I’d done.

“It’s okay.” Theo stretched up and ran his lips repeatedly along the side of my neck, petting my torso with his free hand the whole while. “Relax.”

He slid his finger into me, and I began shaking so hard I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay on my hands and knees. He drew his finger out, then pushed it back in and curled it, and this time he hit my prostate. I liked how that felt, and I began thrusting back against him.

“That’s it.” Somehow he’d gotten a second finger in me, and then a third, and I breathed through the burn.

But it felt so good, being stretched, filled. What would it feel like when he replaced his fingers with his c**k?

As if hearing my thoughts, he licked a shoulder blade and said, “Okay, baby, here we go.”

I knew Michael used to call his latest girlfriend that whenever he couldn’t be bothered remembering the girl’s name. And Theo probably had had so many men, men who were more experienced than me…It made sense he’d use a generic pet name.

But I didn’t have to like it, and I didn’t have to accept it.

“Say my name.” I tried to keep my voice firm. I didn’t want him to know how close I was to begging him to let me know I was more to him than a random f**k, a…a one-night stand.

“What?”

“I’m letting you f**k me. I know you’ll be good—this is what you do for a living. But I need to know you know whose ass you’re in.”

For a minute he didn’t say anything, but before I could kick myself for ruining this—what guy wanted reality dragged into it when he was having s*x? At least that was what Michael had always told me when he tried to explain why he was breaking up with another girl.

“How could I not know?” Theo whispered. “Wills.”

He brushed the hair away from the back of my neck and dropped a kiss there, distracting me for a second.

“Wills,” he said again. He licked the side of my neck, and I this time I gave a full body shudder.

I could feel the blunt head of his c**k at my hole, and I shivered. Okay, this was it. I concentrated on staying relaxed.

“Wills.” He kept one hand on my hip while the other explored my torso. A fingertip dipped into my navel, and then he curled a hand around my c**k. His thumb brushed back and forth over the crown, smearing it with precome. His fingers danced down the length of my shaft, brushed through the hair that covered my balls, and rubbed the spot where his c**k was about to enter me.

I thought I’d go up in flames, and I couldn’t wait. I backed onto him, and he slid in.

His being inside me felt weird. No, not weird, just—I didn’t know how to describe it. The sensation of fullness was a little uncomfortable, a little disconcerting.

And then he nailed my prostate and lit up my world. I saw stars and fireworks, and as corny as it might sound, I swear to God I heard the Halleluiah Chorus.

* * * *

By the time Theo was done with me, I was completely wrung out. I could feel the slight stings from where he’d left love bites all over my back, shoulders, and neck and my ass felt well and truly taken.

I was enjoying the afterglow when I remembered all the sounds I’d made. “Was I too…” God, Michael hated it when I did that! “…too noisy?”

“Never, Wills!”

I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d have better control the next time.

He dropped a kiss on the back of my neck and started to get up.

I rolled over and reached for him. “Don’t go!”

“I’ll be right back.”

I must have nodded off for a second, because the next thing I knew he was wiping me down with a damp washcloth. “Feels nice,” I murmured. “Set the alarm for six, will you? And come to bed. I’ve got to get some sleep.” I froze. I’d never invited myself to stay overnight with anyone. Why had I done that now? How was Theo going to react to such a blatant assumption on my part that I was welcome?

“Goodnight, Wills.” He spooned up behind me, the warmth of his body along every inch of my back. “Pleasant dreams.”