Clang (10 page)

Jackson snorted with laughter at the little pun. He reached out to cup Chase's cheek again, then rose to his feet. “All right. Tomorrow? Is that too soon?”

Chase laughed again. “Tomorrow's great,” he murmured. The way his cheeks shone made Jackson suddenly realize what Thomas meant about him glowing.

Ohhh. The feeling's mutual.

Maybe Chase couldn't say it yet, but Jackson wasn't the only one wanting touch and affection just as much as sex – maybe more. Chase stood up to walk him to the door, and he took his hand. He rubbed his thumb down Jackson's, fidgeting with his fingers.

Chase didn't even seem to want to let go of his hand when they reached the door.

Jackson laughed gently. “You had a good time tonight?”

“Really good,” Chase told him with another of those wholehearted smiles, finally letting go of his hand so he could pull on his shoes. “You?”

“I did.” Jackson bent over to shove his shoes on again, then straightened up.

Chase looked adorable standing there all mussed up. His hair was a mess, his eyes hazy and cheeks still pink with pleasure, a smile on his lips...

He was so irresistible.

Jackson slid his hands around Chase's hips and pulled him in to kiss him once more. “Okay. I don't really wanna go, but I should...” he laughed.

Chase was still grinning. “Me neither.” He hesitated, then added, “Been a while since I had a date this good.”

“Me too.”

Jackson brushed a hand over his face and shook his head.
Okay, snap out of it. God. It's like you're sixteen again.
He cleared his throat and pulled back from Chase, raising a hand to wave. “Tomorrow, yeah?”

“Definitely tomorrow,” Chase confirmed, reaching out to hold the door for him.

Jackson waved once more before pulling open the staircase door to head back to his own house. For the first time in a while, he could see himself not just having sex after a date, but spending the evening afterwards with this guy. He could see himself just holding him, playing with his hair, teasing him...

He was lost in Chase.

The first hour after Jackson left was the best. Chase tidied up his apartment and grinned at thoughts of about their upcoming date tomorrow. He'd skip a fencing session for Jackson. After that point, as darkness fell over the city and the quiet of his apartment sank in, his mood started to sink.

It wasn't the same strange, stomach-grinding numbness as before. It was the growing feeling that something wasn't quite right. The more Chase tried to ignore it, the worse it got.

“Christ,” he finally muttered as he grabbed a beer bottle and turned on the TV to try to find a distraction.

It wasn't fair. Jackson always worked to pleasure him and make him feel utterly comfortable and secure. They hadn't even hooked up, for Christ's sake, and he was still left feeling like this.

What was up with that?

A beer later, he thought he had it untangled:
something
fucked him up about feeling desirable. He'd thought that was one of the things he most wanted. But he used his good looks in order to give pleasure to other guys. Letting them do whatever they wanted felt good – in the short term, at least.

Being pleased? That was harder. If he wasn't giving Jackson pleasure, what was he giving him? Was this pity? Was he being used somehow? Was he expected to romance him, to be his Noah now that he'd seen Cam happy settling down with Noah?
Could
he be that kind of guy for Jackson?

He didn't want to think about it the implications of this realization, but it stayed on his mind. TV just wasn't enough to get his mind off it.

Chase made himself wait one more beer before headed to the gay bar.

***

Chase wasn't ashamed of going home with Antonio when they ran into each other again. The guy had been good enough last time. Under the heat of the dance floor, Antonio whispered filthy things about getting
him
off this time, too.

The thought both scared and pleased Chase. He kind of liked being made to shut up and feel good for ten seconds before his anxieties kicked back in again. More importantly, he wanted to get fucked, and Antonio would give him that much.

Antonio's car was parked in a different lot this time, behind a commercial building. It was a bit of a shorter walk and more private anyway.

This time, Chase rolled over onto his front when he slid into the backseat.

The weight of Antonio blanketed him. He let out a breath, wishing Antonio were just a little heavier and stronger... more muscled, like Jackson--

Oh, fuck. Don't think about him every time you hook up from now on...

Chase tried to focus on the here and now: the man who was grinding against his ass. His hard cock throbbed between them as he mouthed at the back of Chase's neck.

Something didn't feel right, but he quashed his gut instinct. His gut instinct had led him far fucking astray before, after all. The only way he'd know whether his intuition was right or not was to test it, and he was going to do that. Antonio probably didn't care why he got to fuck Chase again.

Antonio reached under him, squeezing his cock and rubbing sensually. He ran his other hand up across Chase's stomach.

Chase moaned, pressing his forehead hard into the seat. Antonio's hands wandered south to unfasten his jeans and slide them down. Again, Chase fingered himself briefly. Then, Antonio unzipped his own pants and a condom packet crackled in the silence of the car.

Antonio's cock pressed against his opening. Chase breathed out, curling his fingers into the seat. At least his partner took it slowly and let the lubricant from the condom ease him inside instead of pushing it.

“You are all right?”

“I'm good,” Chase answered breathily, his thighs shaking. “Thanks.”

As Antonio slid into him, Chase pressed his forehead down and arched his hips more. He was going to have reddened grid lines from the seat across his forehead after this, but he didn't care.

“You are hot again,” Antonio observed. “I'm glad you came back.”

Chase moaned in response. Honestly, he couldn't say the same. He hadn't been looking for Antonio until they bumped into each other while dancing.

Antonio fucked him slower this time for the first couple of minutes. Then, the car started to bounce with the force of Antonio's thrusts. The Italian student grunted as he pounded into Chase. Chase's cock throbbed with need under him. Chase slid his hand under himself to jerk himself off fast and hard.

The air was hot in here. The night absolutely silent besides the rough slaps of skin on skin, the grunts and moans, and the roughness of their breathing.

“Let me please you.”

Chase let go of his cock and grabbed the seat instead, breathing out a quiet, “Hah! Ahh...” when that firm hand wrapped around him and started to jerk him off.

The rough, tight ring of fingers sliding down his shaft alternated with sharp thrusts into him and across the sensitive prostate...

Chase lost himself in the moment until his body started to tighten with involuntary pleasure. “Yes...!” He heaved himself up to slide his arm under himself again and try to keep his hand over the tip of his cock.

“Come,” Antonio breathed out huskily, emphasizing it with a sharper thrust of his hips.

The throb through his prostate made his cock stiffen further. His body was tense, his stomach pulled tight, his thighs quivered... And then, he spilled over the edge fast and hard. It was blindingly hard, but over quickly.

When the momentary blissful black faded, Chase's chest heaved. He'd squeezed Antonio hard, clenching and milking him. All the while, Antonio kept fucking however and whenever he could.

Antonio was coming, too, with unmistakable shuddery thrusts and grunts.

When Antonio's hips slowed and then he pulled his cock out, Chase lay still. He let him scoot back out of the car first again.

Chase yanked up his jeans and rolled onto his back, then sat up to scoot out of the car.

Antonio leaned against the door, giving him a hand up by gripping his bicep and pulling him upright. He let go as soon as Chase was on his feet. “You going home?”

Chase dusted himself off and stepped back. “Yeah.”

“I could drive you.”

Chase shook his head. “I like to walk.” When Antonio leaned in to kiss his cheeks again, he turned his face away and clapped Antonio's shoulder again.

As he strode out of the parking lot, he heard Antonio's car start up, then pull away in the opposite direction.

The sex hadn't been
bad
.

It had just been... nothing. Flat. Dull. Disappointing? Maybe a little.

His phone went off, and he pulled it out to idly glance at it, then swallowed hard.

Had a great time today. Off to bed but thinking of you. xx

For the first time in hours, his heart leapt into his throat with excitement. Even dancing hadn't thrilled him, but one lousy text felt like a double espresso in his veins. He reread it a few times, trying to come up with a reply that was sufficiently flirty, yet casual.

It had been months since Chase had felt that giddiness and his fingers tingled with excitement...

Me too. Sleep tight. Can't wait for tomorrow ;)

He stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk as his fingers hovered over the “send” button.

“Oh, fuck. I really like him.”

This meant the end of his hookups. It was pointless trying to fill the hole – in any sense of the word – with someone else when there was
one
guy he wanted. He wasn't stupid enough to keep trying anyway. One fuck with Antonio had been enough to tell him that much.

Chase pressed “send” and pocketed his phone for the walk home.

“So then, the guy decided he didn't really
want
a dragon tattoo anyway, and he told me he'd come back later. Floyd said he comes in about once a month to look at getting something but he never actually does.”

Jackson's eyes and focus were on the billet he was forging into the sword. From tang to tip, it took a tremendous amount of work to keep the blade straight yet flexible, strong yet beautiful. Knowing Chase wasn't going to use it for actual fighting, he could have just joined a few pieces of metal.

But Chase deserved something beautiful through and through, not just skin-deep.

“When he called in this morning, I told him he's got to put a deposit down before I sketch anything. Well, he didn't like that. When he threatened to go to another shop, I told him he could if he wanted. But I've got a lot more experience, and he'll get what he pays for.”

“Jesus. Damn straight,” Jackson agreed, letting out a breath as he carried the billet back to the fire. His t-shirt sleeves were pushed up to bare his shoulders. He'd left the door to the workshop open to try to vent a little of the hot air in here. Even though it was evening, they were getting a heatwave – perhaps the last one of the season – and it was at least thirty degrees inside.

It was going to take so long to finish the sword. It took a long time to forge the blade itself, and then there was the detail he wanted to put into the hilt and grip, the tempering process... but Chase was also planning an elaborate piece for him.

And having Chase's company in the workshop was wonderful. Chase wouldn't stop talking, which was fine by Jackson. He liked the background noise of his work, but human company was so much better.

“So I'll keep you updated if he calls back tomorrow,” Chase concluded with a laugh. He fidgeted with his sleeves as he sat on the work bench next to Jackson. He was much less afraid of the sparks and noise now, and he even handed over tools now and then. And he didn't seem to mind the heat at all.

“This sounds very dramatic,” Jackson teased.

“It's about as dramatic as it gets. Except when parents come in to get their kids tattooed and yell at us about how we should let them...”

Jackson's eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Wow.”

“I've dealt with a bunch of those before. Luckily Floyd has a no-under-18s policy across the whole shop. Another one I was freelancing from let individual artists decide, and that was a fuckin' mess.”

Jackson clamped his tongs around the blade and started to hammer out another few inches of blade. Molding the glowing, white-hot metal into something new would never, ever get old for him. Making weapons out of it was just
cool
.

Once he was done this series of blows, Jackson breathed out and went to dunk it in a barrel of water and cool it off.

“Did you decide what you're thinking for the grip yet?”

“I like the first design you showed me.”

Jackson grinned. He prided himself on getting a quick sense of each client's style and aesthetic preferences. He'd called Chase's perfectly. It was easy to see what he liked from his tattoo style anyway. “Great.”

“Sooo, you said you were cool with a tattoo design up to three inches, right?”

“Mmhmm?” Jackson suspected he knew where this was going.

“Well... have you thought about anything bigger?”

Jackson grinned. “Now and then. You wanna do a full sleeve or something?”

“Not if you don't want it,” Chase laughed. “But, you know, a little bigger would look just fine on you. You're tall and broad enough. All that canvas...”

Jackson snorted with laughter. He carried the blade to the table to set down before he crashed on the bench next to Chase. He leaned back, stretching out his arms. “That just sounds kinda creepy. All this bare skin being a canvas.”

“You know what I mean,” Chase laughed. “Now you're the one making morbid jokes.”

Jackson shrugged and leaned in to kiss Chase's cheek. “It's rubbing off on me. How you doing?”

Just as he'd thought, Chase hesitated to answer. “Oh... You know.”

“You seem pretty worked up. Not that I mind you talking a lot, but...” Jackson trailed off. He turned to face Chase properly. Chase was in light jeans and a t-shirt again. Brave man, not to be wearing shorts in this heat. “You're not gonna faint, are you?”

Chase broke up laughing. “No. No,” he repeated, reaching out to take Jackson's hand. He ran his hand up Jackson's bare arm to rub his back. Chase scooted a little closer on the bench. “I'm fine in here. Just a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Like what?”

“How much I wanna kiss you when you're swinging that hammer and sparks are flying and the forge is roaring...” Chase leaned in and up. By the last word, his lips pressed against Jackson's.

Jackson wrapped his arm around Chase's shoulders to pull him in for a good, sloppy kiss, their lips open. Chase's hand running up from his knee to his hip was
very
distracting as Jackson pressed into the kiss with a moan.

Jesus, Chase got to him fast. His cock was already hardening as Chase's hand caressed his hip and outer thigh. It wandered across to the top of his thigh as Chase sucked Jackson's lower lip between his own.

Jackson
wanted
Chase. It was so easy to want him. The way Chase moved, spoke, watched, flirted... and most of all, kissed...

He pulled back from the kiss, his chest heaving for breath. It was so fucking hot in here that
he
might just faint, especially if they were going to have sex.

“Wanna go inside?”

“Oh, God, yes,” Chase admitted.

Jackson laughed. “Let me just cool off the forge. It'll be a few minutes.”

Chase's voice was low and suggestive, sending a shiver straight down Jackson's spine. “I can think of
plenty
of ways to fill a few minutes.”

It was so hard to pull away from Chase's arm around his back and Chase's hand rubbing his knee. Jackson hauled himself to his feet. Chase stood up, too, lingering by the work bench while Jackson raked out the coals and watered them down.

He
could
head straight inside, but he made a policy of never, ever leaving without checking that the coals were cool. Embers could burn for hours, spark up again, and start a fire.

Christ, the fire under his skin was almost impossible to bear.

“I'm just
waiting
to be kissed over here,” Chase murmured.

When Jackson glanced back at him, Chase was sitting on the work table, his knees apart. He kicked his feet in the air and braced his hands behind himself.

“You're so fucking gorgeous,” Jackson shook his head. He set down his water pail and strode towards Chase.

Chase was already flushed from the heat and it was impossible to tell if he was blushing, but he smiled and winked. “So are you, Hottie McBlacksmith, handling your rods...”

He spent a moment trying to fight the urge to say it, then lost the battle. “That was actually a billet.”

Chase pouted, his long eyelashes fluttering closed for a second as he rolled his head back in a quiet lament. “Not the moment.”

Jackson sidled up between Chase's knees. He braced his hands on either side of Chase and leaned in to press his lips to Chase's now-exposed throat. Chase's Adam's apple bobbed as he murmured against bare skin, “Sorry... not sorry.”

Chase murmured, “You got anything else you wanna teach me?”

“I'm sure I'll think of something.” Jackson had so many ideas, and none of them were appropriate for his workspace.

Chase squeezed Jackson's hips between his knees and flung his arms around his neck. He leaned up for a few more slow, lazy kisses to fill the minutes while the coals burnt out.

Taking it slow didn't mean there wasn't chemistry crackling to life. It blazed through Jackson's chest and warmed his fingers. His toes curled into his work boots and his heart pounded with pure need...

Jackson pulled back and whispered, “It's been long enough.” Chase let go of him and he stepped away, then offered him a hand to help him slide off the table and onto his feet again.

They walked hand-in-hand out of the workshop as Jackson locked it up behind him. He led him through the grass towards the back door.

Once they were inside with their shoes off, Jackson stopped in the kitchen. They needed water after all that heat.

Chase leaned on the counter. That little frown line was back between Chase's eyebrows. His gaze kept flickering around the living room.

Jackson had to ask. “What's on your mind?”

Chase gulped down the rest of his glass of water, then slid it back and looked evenly at Jackson. “Are you saving it 'til marriage?”

The solemn question made Jackson burst out laughing. “Wait – no. What? No...”

Chase cracked a little smile of relief now. “I just... we've messed around but we haven't fucked, you know?”

“Blowjobs still count as sex,” Jackson idly pointed out, but he saw what Chase meant. He put their glasses in the sink and came around the counter to lean next to Chase. Their gazes were locked.

Chase reached out to press a hand against Jackson's chest. He ran his hand up to his shoulder and fidgeted with a bit of his hair. “So what's holding you back?”

“Nothing,” Jackson honestly admitted. “I feel like we're clicking really well--”

“You think?” Chase grinned.

“I just didn't want you to think I only wanted sex. You're worth more than that.”

Chase paused, and then he started to smile. “Yeah?”

He's precious.
Jackson leaned in to kiss him once, then murmured, “Yeah.”

“Thank you. Take me to bed?” Chase's voice was soft and hopeful. He was watching Jackson like he couldn't believe his luck.

Jackson felt exactly the same. He took Chase's hand to lead him through the kitchen and living room and up the stairs. Every few steps, they paused to kiss each other. They chuckled, then laughed against each other's lips. It was somehow funny even though there was nothing to really laugh at.

They reached Jackson's bedroom door. Chase grabbed Jackson's hand to hold him back for a moment. Jackson tilted his head curiously.

Chase murmured, “I've already said I like you... but I really do.”

Jackson swallowed hard as his heart soared. Chase was sweet, wickedly funny, clever, and right now, his heart was bared.

He turned towards Chase and reached out to tip his chin up with his thumb. He pressed a kiss against the man's lips.

“I really like you, too,” he assured Chase.

Chase grinned and grabbed Jackson's hand to pull him into the bedroom.

Jackson flicked on the bedside lamp with the wall switch, and Chase was already kissing him hard. His hands closed around Chase's slender waist to pull him in. He kissed him right back, running his hand up along Chase's spine to the back of his neck.

Chase slid his leg between Jackson's so he could grind against his hip. His arms were around Jackson's neck again.

Jackson gently steered Chase backwards towards the bed, kissing him for each step he took. By the time Chase flopped onto his back on the bed, Chase's eyes sparkled with laughter.

“What?” Jackson grinned.

“You're cheesy as fuck.”

Jackson smirked. “I get the impression you
like
cheesy as fuck.”

“Damn it.” Chase sighed dramatically, unbuttoning his shirt. “I can't help it.”

Jackson winked and leaned in to kiss Chase's neck, then the hollow of his throat. With each button Chase unfastened, he kissed a little further towards his soft belly. He mouthed at Chase's hipbone and flicked his tongue along the waistband. Then, he kissed back up over his stomach and chest.

“Oh, fuck, that's right. You're a tease.”

Jackson snickered. He started to suck on Chase's skin. He found a spot that made Chase almost convulse with pleasure just below his ribcage. “I don't remember you complaining...” He sucked just a little higher. “...when you came in my mouth...” He pressed an open-mouthed kiss across Chase's nipple. “...whimpering and thrusting all the while...”

Chase turned red and mumbled something, his neck and ears flushing with his blush. Holy crap, he was adorable.

Chase was already so fucking hard – the tent was easy to see pressing against his jeans. It was so tempting just to make him come undone yet again under his mouth. But Chase wanted more than a blowjob today, and so did Jackson.`

Jackson flicked his tongue a few more times across Chase's nipple, still kissing open-mouthed to warm his skin. In response, Chase's breath caught again. His body pressed up into Jackson's as he straddled Jackson's hip from below. His hips rotated in a slow, needy circle, his cock rubbing against Jackson's hip...

Jackson moved his kisses up to kiss around the tattoo. “It still has sensation there, right?”

“Yes,” Chase snorted in momentary laughter. “There's no difference.”