Walk among us (9 page)

Calvin promptly dropped his art supplies and folded his arms around Matthew’s solid chest.

“I don’t know how you do it,” he said, burying his face in the other man’s neck.

Matthew’s answering embrace melted the ice that had frozen his veins. “I’ve had six years to get used to seeing them everywhere. You got surprised by it.”

“Surprise doesn’t even begin to cover what was going through my head out there.” He tried to calm his breathing, deliberately inhaling the scent of Matthew’s skin, exhaling just as slowly, and after several long, bone-rattling seconds, felt his heart begin to finally slow down.

Matthew never tried to push. His broad hands remained steady and warm along his back, and his pulse stayed methodical against Calvin’s cheek.

“I was touching you.” He’d made the connection downstairs, but voicing it now gave it life. “That’s why I could see what it really was.”

“I don’t know why that would be. Nobody else has ever claimed to see them too. And I know I touched Father Abraham before he died.”

WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory

“Maybe…maybe it’s because I’m the first one to believe you.”

His chest hitched slightly against Calvin’s. His arms tightened a small fraction. “Maybe.”

“And you see these everywhere you go.” He couldn’t keep the amazement out of his voice. “If I were you, I would’ve run away. You were already a priest. Couldn’t you have gone off to some monastery or something?”

Matthew chuckled. “There’s still the matter of being mad about this particular curse of mine. The others might take offense if I flipped off the cross every time I saw it.”

The unexpected joke made him bark with laughter, and he pressed a kiss below Matthew’s ear. “I guess, too, if you’d gone off on retreat or whatever I never would have met you.”

“No,” came the breathy response. “And that would’ve been the greatest crime of all.”

He didn’t want to leave the sanctuary of Matthew’s arms. Not because of whatever demons might be lurking outside his door, but because it was the first time since he’d left Watson Park that he felt a fraction of what he’d felt in Matthew’s bed. But there was so much he wanted to talk about, so much he wanted to do.

Stretching behind him, he flipped on the light. “You’re staying, right?” With the benefit of illumination, he searched Matthew’s face, and realized there was another question, just as pressing. “And why did you come at all? Did I forget something?”

“No, you didn’t forget anything.” He shrugged off his coat, draping it over the back of the chair at the desk. “And…I was worried. I wanted to make sure you got on your flight all right. After the demon showed up at the funeral…” His voice trailed off, a flush creeping up the back of his neck. He plucked at imaginary lint on his jacket before adding, “And I guess I hoped that maybe I’d be able to see you again.”

Calvin pressed to his back, coiling his arms around Matthew’s waist. “Me too. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I left this afternoon.”

Matthew bowed his head, stroking along Calvin’s hands. “When I saw you come out with that thing, I was ready to tear it apart. I’ve never felt that angry about one of them before.”

Calvin closed his eyes and rested his cheek on Matthew’s shoulder. It was good to hear the same need he’d felt mirrored in the other man’s confession, but the end result was still going to be the same. They were simply delaying the inevitable, though they were getting a few precious hours together in exchange for that. It had to be worth it. Hadn’t he spent all the time in the car, and all the time in the bar, wishing he didn’t have to be alone until tomorrow?

Now he got his wish. He needed to stop being greedy and wanting more.

“I’m guessing that taking off your coat is the answer to my question about you staying.” He let his fingers stray lower, toying with the outline of Matthew’s cock inside his jeans. “Do I get the whole night?”

A shudder ran through him. “You get whatever you want.” He caught Calvin’s wrist and stilled his hand, holding him while he turned around. “As soon as I get you.”

WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory

Cupping the back of Calvin’s head, Matthew traced his lower lip, nibbling at the corners before doing the same with the top. Calvin whimpered, his skin prickling with heat. He tried to touch him, but Matthew kept the grip on his wrist firm, bending it around behind his back.

“Let me,” he whispered.

His blood roared. “Let you what?”

Matthew skimmed the lightest of kisses over his mouth. “Have you.”

You already do.

But he answered with his body, not words. He relaxed his arm, acquiescing to Matthew’s control, and leaned into his broader strength. The line of his growing erection rubbed against Matthew’s, but he kept from increasing the friction. He would wait until that was what Matthew wanted. Tonight, he would do anything for the man.

Tomorrow, too, if he thought Matthew wanted it.

The kiss slowed, deepened. Matthew massaged his thumb over Calvin’s pulse point, tiny circles that did more to ignite his nerve endings than the solid wall of muscle he leaned against. Those did their share, but it was the bridge that formed between them, a reminder of the spark that seemed to jump from Matthew to Calvin and back again when they touched in such innocent ways, that made him ache.

Matthew edged away from his mouth, though his lips never left Calvin’s skin. Calvin tilted his head to the side as he set a path along his jaw, and when he felt the breath tickle at his ear, he held his breath, waiting for what came next.

“We never did get around to you being on top,” Matthew murmured.

Calvin swallowed his moan. “No, we didn’t.”

“Not too sore, are you?”

He shook his head. It amazed him that he craved Matthew as much as he did. He’d never met a man he would so willingly bend over for, or get on his knees, or do anything else Matthew might want. If Matthew ever asked for Calvin to fuck him, he’d do so—and gladly—but he thought he just might be perfectly content if that never happened, either.

Slowly, Matthew peeled away, releasing his hold as he backed toward the bed. Calvin watched him undress, mesmerized by the play of the light over his body as it gradually came into view. He never moved, even when Matthew tossed the condom he pulled out of his wallet onto the nightstand and stretched out along the bed.

“Your turn,” Matthew said.

As he stripped, Calvin marveled at how quickly everything had turned on him, yet again. He hadn’t even known this man forty-eight hours earlier. He’d completely written this man out of his life for less than six.

Everything would change again when he woke up in the morning to catch his plane. He didn’t think for a minute that Matthew would follow him this time. New York City was just a little too far to simply check WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory

up on someone to make sure they were safe.

He pushed those thoughts away with the shedding of his clothes. Nothing was going to spoil tonight. He wouldn’t allow it.

The gaze Matthew leveled was black with desire, and he held his hand out to Calvin as soon as he was naked. He didn’t have to ask again. Calvin went without hesitation, crawling on top of him so that their bodies lined up. Toe to toe. Cock to cock. Chest to lightly furred chest. He propped himself up on his knuckles in order to better play with the dark hair.

Matthew didn’t let that go on for long. He cupped the back of Calvin’s head and drew him back to his mouth. He feasted for long minutes, their hot tongues twisting together before he’d let Calvin take a breath. His free hand drew long lines up and down Calvin’s spine, always stopping before he reached the crack of his ass. Each additional stroke forced Calvin to suppress another wriggle, another squirm, but when the heat engulfing him grew to be too much, he broke away, panting as he gazed down at him.

Words failed.

But words were not his forte.

Calvin spoke best with hues and lines. In their absence, he could only rely upon his hands and mouth. He bent his head, but avoided Matthew’s lips. He chose instead to rain kisses like watercolors along his strong jaw, over the cleft in his chin. His fingers etched paths much like the one Matthew had forged, choosing to learn a muscled hip here, a flat nipple there.

Matthew gasped when he scratched his nail over the dark flesh. Calvin caught the breath with a quick kiss, then slid down to replace his finger with his mouth.

He didn’t bite. One thing he’d learned the previous night was how Matthew loved the slow burn. He liked the gentle build up, only to grow more fierce when it was too powerful to contain. This was too soon to bite at the succulent man beneath him.

So he licked. Kissed. Sucked at the hard muscle of his abdomen as he slid even lower. His cock ached, but Calvin refused to touch himself. He was going to come with Matthew inside of him. He was going to shoot all over that gorgeous chest, and then he was going to clean Matthew off with his tongue. At least, he’d try. If experience was anything to go by, he might be completely useless to do anything but melt once Matthew fucked him into oblivion.

Calvin ended between Matthew’s legs, forcing the other man to spread them further apart in order to accommodate him. He grasped the thick cock, angling it away from his body, and mouthed along its length, from the musky base all the way to the dripping tip.

Matthew brushed a knuckle over his cheek. “This is better.”

Calvin glanced up. “Than what?”

“You on your knees in the shower. I can feel more of you this way.”

He nodded in agreement. As Matthew molded a hand over the curve of his skull, Calvin dropped his jaw WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory

and sucked the velvety tip into his mouth. He promptly moaned. It was more than the salty taste of his skin or the weight against his tongue. It was the texture of the veins throbbing against his lips, the explosion of color that blinded his mind’s eye. Sparks jumped between them, reminders of whatever connection it was they seemed to share. He had to hold there for several seconds, simply breathing, as he fought not to devour Matthew whole.

It was a gentle push against his head that got him moving. Calvin slid down the steel shaft, keeping the suction as tight as he could. Heat poured from Matthew’s flesh. It felt like he was everywhere, anywhere, stealing into the nooks and crannies and crevices and pores of Calvin’s body until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. He caressed the flat plane of his stomach, glorying in the twitch of muscles at just that simple contact.

He maintained a languorous pace, not taking all the length in before starting the slide back up again.

Matthew squirmed, sounds both desperate and hungry echoing from above. Time tunneled. It could have been last night or this afternoon or two years from now. Calvin didn’t know. Didn’t care. Right here, right now, with this man writhing in need against him…this was what mattered.

His free hand drifted down to caress the tight sac. Matthew jerked at the first contact, hips rising away from the bed. It drove more of his cock into Calvin’s mouth, but he opened his throat in time for the head to slip inside. Just the very tip. Not even enough for Calvin to swallow around it. Because then Matthew was collapsing back to the mattress, pushing against his fingers as he tried to encourage more.

As much as he wanted to give it to him, Calvin held back. He could always suck Matthew to completion later, but this time, they both wanted something else.

The instant he lifted his head, Matthew hauled him up and crushed their mouths together.

Kissing Matthew was like falling into a Seurat masterpiece. Thousands of points of color to drown in.

Shape made meaningless because ultimately, it came down to the individual cells, the individual strokes, the minute bursts of light. The whole was overwhelming, but the brilliance rested within the details.

Kissing Matthew erased memories of everyone and everything else.

Powerful hands skimmed down his sides, finding the curve of buttock to clasp and cling to. Matthew rocked beneath him, heightening the glide of skin across skin, until Calvin shuddered with the need for even more.

He gathered in strength he didn’t possess to break away, sitting up just enough to twist over and grab the condom. With heavy-lidded eyes, Matthew watched him tear the foil, never stopping where he kneaded Calvin’s ass. His one concession was to allow the room to slide back, to expose Matthew’s cock again to his touch.

“Don’t you want lube?” Concern roughened Matthew’s voice. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Calvin shook his head. “I’ll be okay.”

The rubber snapped into place, but the sudden wariness on Matthew’s face stopped Calvin from lifting up WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory

and impaling himself on his thick length. Instead, he brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked them, making them good and wet before reaching behind and burying them in his ass.

The apprehension shifted into lust. Hunger flared in Matthew’s eyes for that brief pause before he prodded Calvin up. Calvin pulled his hand free, grasping Matthew at the base in order to angle toward his opening.

No more waiting. No more games. He bore down on the blunt tip, gasping at how much thicker it felt than he remembered. But he didn’t stop. He wouldn’t deny either of them the burn now unfurling inside his skin. He sank down, inch after inch, crying out when his balls finally slapped gently against the coarse hair on Matthew’s skin.

Matthew was panting. “Don’t move.” His fingers dug into Calvin’s hips. “Please.”

He couldn’t even if he wanted to. He felt stretched and exposed, naked in more ways than one to Matthew’s black gaze. His fingers curled and uncurled, unable to find purchase, unsure if he really wanted it. All he could do was quiver and wait, holding his breath since it already seemed determined to abandon him.

“Okay.” The fingers flexed against him, one hand loosening enough to come up to Calvin’s neck. Matthew pulled him down, trapping his cock between their bodies, and against his mouth said, “Ride me.”

Slowly, he lifted his hips, but like with his mouth, only withdrew a few inches before pressing down again. He kept waiting for Matthew’s kisses to resume but they didn’t, only his hot breath mingling with Calvin’s as Calvin carefully rocked along his cock.