The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (6 page)

“You brought lube and condoms?” he asked, staring with amusement and surprise at his…. The only word that fit at the moment was lover. “We’re in a dangerous situation, and you brought lube and condoms.” His voice took on a wondering air despite his growing breathlessness.

Elliot, thankfully, didn’t take offense. “Please.” He smiled with a mock eye roll and poked Ash in the ribs, then gripped Ash’s ass to slow his movements. “Would I even be attracted to you if I didn’t like a little danger now and then?” To illustrate his point, he nosed aside the chain around Ash’s neck and licked up his chest, outlining with his tongue the tattoo on his pec. It was an atom, one of the ellipses forming an infinity symbol, set in a compass rose, and at the cardinal directions were inked pictorial symbols for earth, air, water, and fire.

Ash actually growled and shot to his feet, darting into Riley’s room with as much stealth as he could and returning with Elliot’s duffel bag. Elliot rolled toward it and dug the supplies from the side pocket, lying back down, stopping only to shuck his boxers and t-shirt. For once, his eagerness stoked Ash’s fire, and he followed suit with his underwear.

“You have to be completely quiet. I mean it. Charlotte will have my head if she knows we did this.”

Elliot only nodded and yanked Ash’s hand to pull him down for another heated kiss. Ash lay flat out, their bodies pressed together from knees to chest, the rutting automatic. Despite the heat between them, Ash didn’t escalate like usual, instead letting the fire build, each thrust a waft of oxygen to the coals, each kiss more fuel to be burned. Both of them stayed far quieter than was normal, letting their breathing drag out in long, slow bellows.

“Ash.” Elliot’s word was so soft it barely had any air behind it, just the hint of sound floating between them, like a fragile bubble where even the slightest of breezes would have burst it. Ash understood, though, and knelt up, hastily donning the condom and cracking open the lube, the flip-top cap sounding like a ricochet in the silence. Elliot hiked his knees toward his chest, his long shaft against his belly and his balls jumping in their wrinkled sack when Ash smeared lube on his hole, then dipped a finger inside to thoroughly coat him. Ash had no idea if Elliot was hooking up with anyone else; their arrangement included nothing about exclusivity. Still, if he was only sleeping with Ash, it had been more than a month since they’d done this, so as ready as Ash was to bury himself balls deep and go, he wasn’t that kind of lover. Had vowed never to be.

Elliot jammed his hand between his teeth and bit down, making Ash immediately withdraw for fear of having hurt him. But when he did so, Elliot raised his head from the pillow, neck corded with the strain of desire, and frantically shook his head.

“Go!” he mouthed, his head
thunk
ing back down. His lips disappeared in a taut line and his eyes squeezed shut as Ash pushed his forefinger in to the last knuckle and pumped in and out, less seductive than utilitarian. On another night, one when they had time, Ash wouldn’t mind seeing how much he could tease Elliot by fingering him, milking his prostate and watching the boy come undone. This, however, was not that night.

When Ash shot up to cover Elliot, their chests sliding with sweat and Elliot’s cock dragging pre-come across Ash’s abdomen, Elliot loosed a sigh and a whisper.

“Oh thank god, yes.”

The last word hissed out as Ash breached him, and they began to move in time with each other, taking it slow when Elliot’s grimace was clearly pained. Ash kept his thrusts more a rocking motion than ins and outs to avoid the slap of skin, and Elliot hooked his legs around Ash’s waist, arms locked around his neck as he held on.

The fire that had banked while they’d dealt with the logistics of sex roared to life again, and Ash found himself staring into Elliot’s eyes as they stayed nose to nose, joined in an intimacy Ash had never intended. Instead of being freaked out, Ash was soothed by it. If forced to tell the truth, he was scared by what had transpired in the city and all the blackness on their drive up. The connection with someone reassured him he wasn’t helpless. He wasn’t thinking about it in words like adaptation and survival. It was a feeling, one that had started out lost and unanchored, and
holy shit
, but in this moment was eclipsed by humanity and need and instinct. If Elliot felt better seeking comfort from him in a time like this, Ash wouldn’t judge himself for wanting it, too. No, not wanting. Needing.

“Close,” Elliot murmured, their lips brushing incidental to their writhing in each other’s arms.

Ash sped up his rocking, ignoring the protest of his knees on the hardwood through the inadequate sleeping bag. The slide of Elliot’s dick against his sweaty stomach made Ash want to stroke him, but when he backed off enough to get a hand between them, Elliot clamped his arms and legs tighter and shook his head, eyes widening with a plea to stay right where he was. If that friction was enough for Elliot, Ash was happy to concentrate on the rest of the sensations between them.

Changing his hip rocking to a more circular motion, they both gasped, which Ash turned into a sloppy, tongue-warring kiss. Elliot groaned into his mouth, and Ash held his head still while he swallowed the sound, hoping it wasn’t loud enough to wake anyone. The grip and catch of skin between them went slick as Elliot’s orgasm pumped over both their torsos, and Ash had to fight voicing his own moan. He couldn’t maintain the kiss anymore, opening his mouth in a wide
O
as his balls furled up and heaved their pleasure through every nerve in his body and out through his cock, turning him inside out. His hearing shorted into a muffled whine and all he could do was hold on and let the ticks and flinches of aftershock roll over him while he tried to control his breathing.

Elliot scrabbled at his back, digging his fingers into the taut muscles to keep Ash over him, on him, inside him as long as possible. Eventually, though, Elliot needed to breathe, and Ash’s aching knees and elbows demanded relief. He rolled to the side, keeping in contact with Elliot’s sweaty skin. His partner looked different without his glasses. Softer somehow, though that could be more his sweaty, mussed hair and the sated look on his face in the dim glow of the candle.

But as was inevitable, reality came clattering back with the lack of sound anywhere in the house: no fans blowing, no tick of appliances or glow of a digital clock on the DVD player in the TV stand under the window. Ash felt naked in the cool air, and more than physically. Trying to recapture that comfort, that connection, he rose to his elbow and leaned down to kiss Elliot once more, this time sweetly, a way to say he’d also needed to feel good, to forget the fear, if only for a little while.

“I’m going to get something to clean us up,” he murmured, rising to walk into the kitchen. He tore a paper towel from the roll and discarded the condom inside it, balling it up tight to throw it away so his sister wouldn’t notice, then grabbed another few sheets and ran the faucet long enough to dampen them. Swiping at his stomach, he walked to the living room, wiped Elliot’s pleasure from his skin, and threw that towel away as well.

Lying on the sleeping bag after they’d both put their underwear back on, he considered whether or not to urge Elliot onto the couch, but a part of him was reluctant. It wouldn’t make sense to his family if they walked in on him cuddled up with his lab partner, but the thought of going to sleep with distance between them, even a couple feet, made him uneasy.

Fucking Elliot has never been about getting attached,
he reminded himself but immediately shoved the thought away. He was unsettled, their lives had changed in ways they couldn’t yet comprehend, and if he couldn’t let himself need for a little while in this situation, then there was no situation on Earth where he could. With an internal growl of “fuck it,” he opened his arms to Elliot, who’d been watching him with increasingly droopy eyelids, and wiggled his fingers in a come here gesture. Elliot rolled instead of scooting, presenting his back to Ash to become the little spoon, which helped Ash keep the line between lover and fuck buddy from blurring any further.

Just as Ash was drifting to sleep, he heard another whisper. “I’m sorry about your parents.”

Nuzzling the back of Elliot’s sweat- and sex-scented neck, he fell asleep before he could think up a thank you that didn’t leave him any more raw than he already was.

“
U
ncle Ash
, why’re you on the floor?”

Ash peeled one tired eye open to peer at Riley, who stood at the end of the hallway rubbing his eyes, his light brown hair tufted in all directions. He wore one of Ash’s old t-shirts for pajamas, the stretched fabric hanging to his knees, and below that, his bare legs looked so skinny. His shins were covered in the bruises of a rambunctious childhood.

Ash was alone on the floor, he realized, and darted a glance to the couch to find Elliot curled up as much as the furniture allowed, faced away from the room. He must have moved some time in the night.

“Didn’t want to take your bed if your mom decided to move you after you kicked her in the back enough times.” Ash sat up and looked at the lumps that made up Elliot under the blankets. There was nothing but the steady rise and fall of breath, so he held his finger to his lips to keep Riley quiet.

Riley noticed, and his eyes twinkled. “Did you bring home a boyfriend?”

With a rueful smile, Ash flipped aside his covering and sat up, cursing the twinge in his spine from sleeping on the hardwood.
And not only sleeping.

“No, just a friend. He gave me a ride.”

“Nice friend,” Riley said. “That’s a long ride.”

Ash pulled on his jeans and folded up his bedding. He tossed his pillow into Riley’s yawning face, earning a startled squawk.

“C’mon, kid. Let’s see what kind of breakfast we can make without any power.” He hauled the boy into a sideways hug and shuffled into the kitchen, glad he’d never gotten himself hooked on coffee to wake up.

“Mom says we have to eat all the meat before it goes bad,” Riley said, pulling thawed but still cold bacon from the freezer. He hesitated, then dove in for a package of sausage patties, too. “We have a grill out back.”

Ash looked out the sliding glass door to the small square slab of concrete that served as the house’s little patio and eyed the decrepit barbecue grill Charlotte hadn’t had the money to replace.

“Yeah, we can use that. Propane is good?”

Riley nodded, holding up a stick lighter. “I’m not supposed to play with fire. You have to do it.”

Ash snorted. “Didn’t you promise not to burn down the house?”

Riley rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but that didn’t convince her. I’m ten, not two.” To prove he was a proficient Boy Scout and not a pyromaniac, he depressed the child safety button and the trigger, and let a small tongue of flame jut into the air for a few seconds. “See?”

“I do. You can help me, then.” Ash rummaged in the cabinet beneath the one small bit of counter space and brought out a square aluminum cake pan. “This should work for the meat.”

They trooped outside and Ash had Riley light the lighter and stick the flame in the grill before opening the propane tank valve. When the gas caught, he gave Riley a fist bump. Once they had the bacon and sausages spread in the pan, they left it to cook and returned to the kitchen, pawing through the darkened fridge for anything else still safe to eat. Milk went down the drain, and anything else dairy was carefully scrutinized. He thought about the eggs, but there were only a few, meaning Charlotte hadn’t just bought them, and he had no real way to cook them on the grill. He pitched them, along with all the diet food Charlotte had on hand.
That shit’s not worth saving.

“Damn, that’s a lot of wasted yogurt,” Charlotte grumbled from the doorway. She tied her long blonde hair into a knot on top of her head and secured it with a clip, the hem of her t-shirt riding up. She was too skinny to need rabbit food, Ash observed. She did, however, look tired, even though she smiled and walked over to hug Ash hard, pecking a kiss on his cheek. “I told you not to come, baby brother.”

“Yeah, well, I had to see for myself you’re okay.” No sense in starting the argument about leaving yet.

She gave him a droll look. “I’m staying here, Ash.” Apparently he was too easy to read, and she had no qualms starting it.

He grunted noncommittally and returned to her fridge, tossing cream cheese and holding up a sleeve of bagels with interest. Those, he set on the counter, beside the individually wrapped slices of cheese he figured weren’t real food anyway, so would be good enough for breakfast sandwiches.

“I think there’s some orange juice concentrate in the freezer. Probably thawed but still good. I’ll get some bottled water.” She disappeared into the basement and returned, heaving a shrink-wrapped bulk bundle of bottles.

“How many of those do you have?” he asked hopefully.

“Four.”

“Good. Conserve it. Tap water is fine to rinse dishes if you use anti-bacterial soap, but we’re not drinking it.”

Leaning on the counter in front of the cold stove, she crossed her arms over her small breasts. “Ash, it isn’t going to happen. I’m not going with you to Uncle Marvin’s. I have a job, and Riley has another two months of school. We’re fine here. They’ll get the power back on like normal, and I’ll hit my savings to replace the food. I’m out a few hundred bucks, but that’s the worst of it.”