Finn bit his lip. “I’m torn between making a statement and running away. I don’t want to make things awkward for Talon.”
“Talon would do whatever you wanted,” Sam scolded him. “Whether that’s a register office or a cathedral.”
Oh. They were talking about getting married.
“I think if he’s going with the jeans, we should stick with understated sexy,” Finn said and moved the sparkly sequin thingy out of the way. Eli breathed an obvious sigh of relief.
“This,” Sam decreed and picked up a shirt. On the surface it didn’t look too bad. It was a simple button-down, but he couldn’t tell what color it was when the light hit it. He’d thought black, but maybe more silver. Eli scowled as he looked at the shirt, and Daniel decided to beat a retreat and go walk the dog or something.
“He’s ready,” Finn said, and Eli turned just as Daniel strode back into his bedroom twenty minutes later.
Daniel forgot how to form words. He barely remembered how to inflate his lungs, and he wasn’t sure if someone asked him a question he would be able to hear past the roaring in his ears. He blinked, realizing Finn was talking to him. Caught “we’d better go in separate cars” but missed what else Finn said.
Daniel couldn’t seem to rip his gaze from Eli. From the biker boots up the slim skinny-jean-clad legs, past the almost metallic gray shirt that clung to every defined muscle, the delicate throat, defiant chin, and the smoky-brown eyes. He was stunning. Daniel looked at Sam in complete confusion, and it was only the laughter stark in his teasing look that made him realize what he was doing.
“I need to get a shower.”
As statements went it wasn’t groundbreaking, but he’d take being able to speak at all as a victory.
Finn chuckled and pushed Sam out of the room. “I’m going to get Talon. The rest of us will get a table upstairs so you can make an entrance. We’ll expect you after nine.” Connie was babysitting Derrick so both Gael and Jake could go.
Daniel nodded, but he still wasn’t looking at Finn. He stepped farther into the bedroom, and Eli moved to the side to let Daniel pass. It was awkward. Everyone in the room had clocked Daniel’s reaction.
Daniel took a hurried inhale after that thought flooded his body and headed for the bathroom, not wanting the others to see how affected he was.
I think that ship already sailed.
Daniel turned on his shower. He could have used the other one, but his clothes were also in here. Daniel practically tore off his suit pants and shirt, and for once didn’t care they ended up on the floor. If he didn’t get under the water right that second… He pumped the thick shower gel he liked into his palm, then leaned his other arm on the cubicle wall and rested his head on it.
Daniel smothered the groan into the crook of his elbow, and in another second, Daniel’s hand was wrapped around his throbbing cock.
Images of Eli rushed through him at rocket speed. The tilt of his chin. The way he had—even accidently—almost bared his throat in invitation for Daniel to suck. The long lashes that framed sultry brown eyes, and the way he’d squared his frame and looked Daniel in the eyes.
Daniel had thought it was the clothes that had turned him on. The hint of shadow he knew Sam had applied to Eli’s eyes or the gloss that stained his lips that hardened Daniel’s body so fast he was reeling from it, but as he gripped his shaft and let picture after picture run through his head like a movie, he knew he was wrong.
Confidence. The one and only time he had seen it on Eli had lit him up so much, Daniel would swear Eli could be seen from space. And yes, he was angry. He’d registered the defiance. The temper that simmered just below the surface of a man, and looked like it was about to explode. All that fury. All that heat. It was incredible.
Daniel pumped his cock furiously. He barely had to close his eyes, and suddenly it was Eli’s hand on his, his hot breath on the back of his neck, and the scrape of the stubble on his shoulder as Eli leaned forward to whisper hot, dirty words in Daniel’s ear. “Come.”
Daniel exploded. Cum shot out of his cock so thick and so fast he painted the shower walls with it. On and on his orgasm roared, fire chasing bliss through every cell, every artery, every nerve ending until his knees were barely holding him upright. He panted every breath, face still buried in his elbow, mind officially blown.
He felt the barest touch of lips on the back of his neck and jerked at the sensation, straightening up and reaching there with his hand. Obviously, there was nothing, no one behind him. He shook his head, took another breath, and quickly finished his shower.
Daniel glanced at the bedroom door when he left the bathroom. Eli was leaning back against the wall but didn’t look up when Daniel walked out still with a towel wrapped around him. He didn’t say anything, just walked into the small dressing room where he had privacy. He wasn’t ready to get naked in front of Eli after what he had imagined in the shower. Then he wondered what he should wear and stepped back out. “If I wear a suit, will it make me look like…” But Daniel didn’t finish the sentence when Eli looked up. His eyes.
Then Eli turned away and Daniel took a breath, took a step, then stopped, and a shiver ran right through him. They’d changed color again. For one crazy ridiculous second he wondered if somehow Eli had been there in his mind when he’d been in the shower.
“Like a pimp? I don’t see why not,” Eli finished for him. “It fits with whatever getup they’ve got me in.” And he left the doorway and walked into the kitchen.
“No, it doesn’t.” The denial was on Daniel’s lips. The thought that the stunning way Eli was dressed in any way cheapened him made him want to throw something. Possibly his fist at a suitable hard object, and Daniel walked out of his dressing room and followed Eli. Eli turned as he heard Daniel’s footsteps.
“What are you—” But Daniel didn’t give Eli a second to finish the word, never mind the thought. He wrapped his arm around Eli’s waist and brought him flush to his chest before Eli could even think of an objection, and then slowly—very slowly—so Eli could see the heat in his eyes that Daniel knew Eli had put there, he supported the back of Eli’s head and leaned him back just before he brought his lips down.
Daniel had no idea if it was possible, but he sent every image Eli had shown him back the same way. The taut muscles, the defined neck, the gorgeous fucking eyes when they changed color and how perfect they were still in deep brown. How sexy, how goddamn fucking fantastic Eli was, and how he took Daniel’s breath away. He licked and sucked at Eli’s lips and tongue, only stopping when he felt Eli relax into his arms and give over his weight to Daniel.
To hold. To keep safe.
“I’m here for you. Whatever you need, whenever you need it.” It wasn’t possible they’d only been partnered a month, because Daniel felt like he’d known Eli forever. He hadn’t ever considered himself a religious man, but in another life Daniel felt they were soul mates, and he would do whatever it took to keep Eli safe in this one.
Daniel brought Eli back up right and kissed him gently. “We have to go, but you stick with me.”
Eli flushed and Daniel didn’t know how he managed to stop himself from just picking Eli up and taking him to bed. But he had to heal. They needed to finish this job so Eli could take a step forward with his life. Eli cupped his face, and for a second they stared into each other’s eyes.