Chance to Be King (13 page)

Nodding, Bob said, "Good to see you again. Make sure you come back before you leave town." "Count on it."

Toby sensed Eric was ready to go and started pulling away, Millie following him as ever. Eric crossed the road and into the fields. The change of scenery was refreshing and he set out to explore, the dogs forging eagerly ahead.

As he walked he mulled over his conversation with Bob. He couldn't help feeling that he'd missed something significant in the conversation, something that hadn't been verbalized. Eric was pretty sure Diane would have passed on the fact they'd been found in a compromising situation, and that obviously wasn't the first time for Thomas. Part of him was damned sure he ought to be more worried. As he'd said to Thomas, one phone call to the media could do his career some serious damage. Was Bob warning him about the small town mentality or telling him it wouldn't go beyond Thomas' friends? It was niggling at him as he walked, wondering if he should contact Drew and Sarah to prepare a damage limitation exercise. Sarah would have his balls if she found out about the lake— after she'd made him tell her every minute detail.

* * * *

He returned to the big house as the sun was dipping below the horizon. The dogs waited patiently by the kitchen door for Eric to open it and sort out their dinner. Eric made a mental note to pay Thomas for their food. They'd been dining on the same food he had for the last few days and Eric figured it must be racking up the food bill. He would have to get them used to kibble again, sharpish.

As he switched the light on in the kitchen he found Thomas was slumped over the kitchen table, his head resting in his arms. There was a large glass of water, a pot of coffee and a bottle of Advil in front of him. Thomas raised his head, blinking blearily against the sudden light.

Putting the leashes on the worktop, Eric toed his sneakers off to avoid tracking in any dirt. "How are you feeling?"

"Goddamned hammer in my head, but apart from that, okay." Thomas' voice was raw and raspy. "Thought you'd gone."

"I just took the dogs for a walk. Bob says hi."

Eric reached over for a mug and poured himself a coffee. He was getting used to the taste of black coffee as he hadn't bought creamer since he'd been staying at Thomas'. The implication of Thomas' words struck him. He raised an eyebrow at Thomas who was watching him, his expression giving nothing away. "You thought I'd leave you without saying goodbye?"

"The car was gone, so were the dogs."

 

"So you thought after standing watching you puke I'd leave without saying a word?"

 

Thomas had the grace to look a little

 

embarrassed. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Pretty insulting actually. I don't what type of men you've met in the past, Thomas, but my mom brought me up with better manners than that." Eric's tone was sharp, hurt by Thomas' assumption.

"'M sorry," Thomas mumbled as he slumped further into his seat, not meeting Eric's eyes.

The anger drained out of Eric as quickly as it rose. Thomas was distressed and hungover; it was an easy mistake to make.

"'S okay, dude. Have you eaten?"

 

"Yeah, some crackers. Think that's 'bout all I can manage at the moment."

"Would you like a bath with me and some of that girly bubble shit you've got hidden in your bathroom?"

Thomas raised his head and looked at Eric properly, seeing the twinkle in his eye. "The same girly bubble shit I caught you using a couple of days ago?"

Eric grinned at him. "Yup. Well, girly bubbles or not?"

 

"Please." Thomas winced as he nodded, obviously regretting the movement.

Eric fed the dogs and went upstairs to start the bath. The room quickly filled with the steamy scent of hell knew what combination of flowers and herbs they'd shoved in this one.

When the bath was half full, they were both getting in it after all, he went downstairs to collect Thomas. He stopped in the doorway and giggled at the sight and sound of his host asleep, head resting on his arms and snoring gently.

It was a shame to disturb him but he'd feel better after a soak. Shaking his shoulder gently, Eric woke Thomas enough to get him moving. The stairs were tricky to negotiate, Thomas' legs not being entirely with the program, but they managed to get as far as the top landing without an incident.

In the bathroom, Eric rested Thomas against the wall as he undressed him, ignoring the, "'M big boy now, Mom."

Eric batted his hands away and got him naked, finally undressing himself. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were both in the bath, Thomas' head resting against his chest. They relaxed in silence for a while, Eric's hand lazily swishing water over them so they didn't get cold.

It was a surprise when Thomas broke the silence. "I was scared you wouldn't be here when I woke up."

Eric's arms tightened around Thomas in mute apology. "I'm sorry, I just needed to clear my head for a bit."

Thomas tilted his head to look up at Eric. His eyes looked red and itchy. He obviously hadn't managed to get his lenses out. "I'm sorry too. You shouldn't have had to put up with all this shit."

"Nothing to apologize for. God, I… you… He was stuck for the right words to convey what he wanted to say but Thomas seemed to understand as he placed a kiss on Eric's forearm.

Eric kissed the top of his wet hair. "The people round here, they're quite protective of you."

He felt the sigh under his arms. "I've lived here all my life, except for the time in England. I've not really gone anywhere since I came back. It's been hard to really focus on anything except the writing." "No relationships?"

"None recently. I was never all that bothered about it. The occasional hook-ups suited me and not many people want to be buried here. There's not much work around here unless you're on the farms."

"You said there was trouble when you were younger, before you left?"

A small snort. Eric wasn't sure whether Thomas was laughing or not. "I was caught balls deep in another boy behind the chapel."

It didn't take a genius to work that one out. "Mark?"

 

"Yeah. He makes it pretty obvious, doesn't he?"

"Just a bit." Eric worked hard to damp down the jealousy rising inside him. It was helped by the feel of a naked, wet Thomas against him.

"He doesn't actually want me but he's not sure he wants anyone else to have me, either."

Eric wasn't convinced about the first bit. To his —admittedly interested— viewpoint Mark James was still showing signs of interest in Thomas. "Were you together for long?"

Thomas snuggled back against Eric. "We were never together, at least in the conventional sense. He was my best friend; we grew up together, played together, and got into trouble a lot. It drove Ted mad. He was always blaming me for leading Mark astray."

Eric smiled against his hair. "And did you?"

"Course I did. I made it my mission to lead him as far off the reservation as I could. Only I went a bit too far."

"You made him gay?"

 

Thomas gave a bark of laughter. "I was his friend, 'Ric, not God."

 

"Huh, very funny!" Eric was tempted to tickle him in retaliation but decided to spare the man.

"I thought so. Anyway, I've known I was gay since Mindy Freeman flashed her newly grown tits at the football team."

"You were in the football team?" Eric just couldn't picture it somehow. Thomas was lean muscle. He'd pictured Thomas doing track.

"Oh, come on, think about it," Tom said wistfully. "All those sweaty boys? Of course I played football in school."

"So naked tits at the football team and you weren't interested?"

 

"Only in the boners popping out all around me." "Ah. Kind of a giveaway." Oh yeah, Eric had been there as well.

Thomas agreed. "Yeah. But the biggest surprise? Mark was watching me, not her. Turns out he'd been watching me for months, trying to work out if I was interested or not."

That was hardly a surprise,
Eric thought. He trailed a washcloth of soapy water over Thomas' chest in lieu of what he actually wanted to say. At this stage
'Mine'
might not be welcome. "So your best friend turned out to be gay as well and Daddy didn't take it very well?"

Thomas gave a low, drawn-out laugh. "Ted was livid when he found out. He couldn't even say his son was just finding a willing hole to stick his dick because I was porking him. Kinda ruined my chances of staying with them to finish school."

"What happened between you and Mark?"

"Nothing much," Thomas slid a leg over the side of the bath and Eric watched the water run down his leg, droplets getting caught in the fine hair. He had to work hard to suppress the twitch of his cock. "Mark decided it wasn't worth losing his dad over a fuck and turned into a good straight boy. I decided that was the last thing I wanted to be and fucked anything that moved until we left for England, including half the football team and Mindy Freeman."

"You batted on the other side of the fence? Devil child."

"I was," Thomas agreed, "Got the stuffing knocked out of me after the accident though. Didn't really bother with relationships much after that."

"Why not? I mean, didn't you want someone to talk to?" Eric was listening but his attention was caught by the curve of Thomas' jaw in the low light of the bathroom.

"Not really," Thomas' voice was low as he confided, "I was almost a recluse until my mom forced me to finish school. Every time I closed my eyes, all I kept seeing was Laura dying in my arms. I still do sometimes. I couldn't talk to the shrink she found for me, let alone a friend or lover.

"Before you, I don't think I'd spoken to anyone about it in nearly a decade."

Eric kissed his neck, sucking up a hickey and feeling Thomas hiss against the sting. He was feeling insecure for some reason. All the talk about the past was making him feel like an outsider. It was irrational and stupid and he wanted so badly to mark Thomas as his.

He held him tighter against his chest, one hand splayed against his heart feeling its reassuring beat, the other sliding around to cup his groin.

Thomas sighed again. "I've spent so long controlling everything; what I said, what I did, who touched me, just because I've been so scared of waking up and finding the world gone to hell again. Then you come into my life and I find myself wanting to hand over a little of that control to you. That scares me rigid."

"Do you trust me?" Eric stroked his cock, halfhard in his hand.

 

"What?"

 

"I said, do you trust me?" Another stroke and it firmed under his palm.

"You've got my dick in your hand. I'd tell you the sky was purple if it encouraged you to keep doing that." Eric gave a firm tug. "Yeah, shit, I trust you. Do that again."

Eric obliged, feeling Thomas' hips snap forward and a moan escape from between his lips. "You trusted me with something that's shaped your entire life and I've trusted you and, hell, all your friends with my career. Now I don't know about you, but I think we can move on from this trust shit."

He set up a firm, smooth rhythm; holding Thomas back so he couldn't move too much and feeling the frustration build in the man as he couldn't get the release he so badly needed.

"What do you want, Thomas?" he asked, as he changed his strokes from long to short.

"Want to come," Thomas' head lolled back, his mouth slack and eyes closed as his whole attention was focused on the rigid flesh between his legs.

"What if I don't let you come? What if I keep you hanging on, wanting but never quite reaching your climax?" His voice, low and husky, breathed across Thomas' ear and his fingers tightened around the base of his dick.

"I'd… tell… you… fuck… oh, fuck, do that again," Thomas ordered as Eric rubbed the pad of his thumb over the head of Thomas' cock. "Please."

"Do what? Oh, this?" He did again and Thomas groaned.

"Please, 'Ric, let me come." Thomas was begging now, all restraint gone. "Need to come so badly."

Eric nudged at Thomas' head so he could suck at the soft skin under his ear. "I could keep you like this for hours. Teasing, playing but it wouldn't be much fun for you, would it? Keeping you from shooting that spunk all over your belly."

"Bastard!" Thomas hissed.

 

"Just Eric."

Eric let go, pulling firmly on Thomas' cock, watching him do exactly that, streams of it straying all over his belly and chest. He felt Thomas shake and shudder under his hands until his orgasm had run its course, leaving him pliant and boneless against Eric's chest.

They were quiet as Thomas recovered, the silence only broken when Thomas asked, "What about you?"

He hadn't come, hadn't even really got that excited. He'd just wanted to bring Thomas to orgasm under his control.

"Don't worry about me. You can owe me one." "Mmmm," Thomas agreed sleepily.

The water was cooling so Eric quickly washed the spunk off Thomas' skin and pushed him forward slightly so he could stand up. He managed to get them both dried and into the bedroom. It was still early but after the day they'd both had, sleep wouldn't be long coming. Tucking Thomas into bed he said, "I'll turn the lights off and be back before you know it."

Thomas was staring up at him sleepily. "You haven't eaten."

Eric had forgotten that. He was hungry but not ravenous. He would make do with a handful of crackers until morning time.

The handful of crackers turned into a large snack including chips, fruit, and cheese. It was almost half an hour before he returned to bed to find Thomas asleep, wrapped around a pillow. He smiled at the sight, slipping in behind him so that he could pull Thomas as close as possible to him.

It didn't take long for sleep to claim him as well, his tired eyes closing as Thomas snored gently in his arms.

Chapter 6

The next morning saw both men trying to catch up with their lives. Eric borrowed a laptop and the kitchen table to deal with his emails and phone calls while Thomas disappeared into the office to do some research for his new book. They promised each other a midmorning coffee and 'extras' in the sunroom at eleven.

Eric was in the middle of outlining with Sarah the conversation he'd had with Thomas the previous day when Mark walked in through the kitchen door. He was closely followed by his father, their hands hovering over the weapons at their hip. He wasn't sure who was more shocked; himself for the surprise or Mark for seeing him sitting at the table.