Wholehearted (19 page)

“Okay, so I’m borderline starving.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I was comfy. I didn’t want to move. I like being here like this.”

“Me too, but we should feed you. We can come right back and resume the couch potato stance when you’re fed.”

Lucas laughed, the sound musical and carefree. Declan loved it. “All right, to the kitchen!” Lucas declared and launched himself up from the couch.

Declan followed him to the fridge and opened it to find a dismally empty box.

“Uh, do you ever have food?”

“Not usually. Oliver stops by most days and drops stuff off, or I order from town. I’m a terrible cook.”

“Is he going to stop by tonight?”

“Probably not. He knows you’re staying here and likely won’t stop by without an invitation.”

Lucas looked disconcerted. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your routine.”

“You’re not interrupting anything. I want you to be here. If it would make you feel better, we could order something from Maggie’s and have him come by.”

Lucas stared at his feet for a minute, but didn’t say anything.

“… or,” Declan offered, “we could make some grilled cheese sandwiches and stay in alone tonight….”

Lucas grinned. “Only if you’re good with that.”

“All night alone with you, topped off with fried bread and melty cheese? I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening.”

“Good,” Lucas said, and launched himself into Declan’s arms, kissing him insistently on the mouth.

“I take it you don’t mind a quiet night in either?”

Lucas shook his head, rubbing noses with Declan. “Not one bit.”

I
T
TOOK
a while, but eventually the sandwiches were made and only one side of one was burnt black. They crossed the house and sat themselves on the couch, Lucas hooking his leg over Declan’s knee and snuggling in close.

“Perfect night,” Declan breathed.

“Mmm hmm.”

L
IFE
CONTINUED
in much the same manner for Lucas and Declan over the next several days. They formed a routine. Declan would set his alarm for forty minutes earlier than he needed to be at work. They would wake up rubbing up against each other, bodies awake and alert before their sleepy minds. They’d shower together, hands caressing every inch under the warm spray.

Lucas would pad into the kitchen in nothing but a low-slung towel to start the coffee while Declan put on his uniform. They’d have breakfast together before Lucas would walk Declan to the door and kiss him good-bye.

When Declan got home from work, they would order food or make something simple together before collapsing onto the couch and wrapping themselves in each other to watch TV and snuggle. They would usually start out with Lucas leaning into Declan, his back along Declan’s side, with Declan’s arm thrown across Lucas’s chest, holding him close. Inevitably, one of them would start touching, becoming more and more affectionate until they were both squirming masses of want.

They’d kiss and grope and rub up against each other until they couldn’t take it anymore, and they’d stumble down the hallway to Declan’s room where they would fall together onto the mattress and fill the next few hours with kissing and sucking and stroking and thrusting until they were too well-fucked and blissed-out to move.

Then they’d fall asleep tangled up in each other and start the whole thing over the next morning.

Declan had never been happier.

He wished it could be that way forever. He knew that things were going to change no matter what, and he was putting off talking to Lucas about it. He was afraid of bringing up the topic and scaring Lucas off prematurely. If these few weeks were the only time Declan was going to have him, he wanted every single second. He wasn’t going to risk losing a minute.

He glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner of his computer screen. Six minutes left of his shift and he could go home. He had taken to driving his car to work. Bad for the environment, yes, but it saved him fourteen minutes round trip getting to and from work. He could be spending those fourteen minutes with Lucas, so he drove.

Finally,
finally
, after the day had stretched out nearly infinitely, he was finished and could go home. What a day it had been, all he wanted was to be home and in the arms of the man he loved.

Declan had become more and more comfortable saying that over the previous few days—in his head at least. He had realized it was true, and even though it was quick, there was no other explanation for the way he felt. He loved Lucas, and he hoped that one day Lucas would feel the same way about him.

He pulled into his driveway and threw the car into park. Bounding up the steps, he smelled something odd.

“Lucas?” he called as he walked into the house.

“Shit,” he heard Lucas say from the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” Declan asked, walking into the kitchen, the boots he hadn’t bothered to take off falling heavy on the hardwood.

“I fucked it all up,” Lucas said.

Declan looked him over. He was wearing an apron. Declan didn’t know he even owned an apron. It was covered in flour and a variety of other unidentifiable stains. Looking past Lucas, who stood slouched, the oven mitts he was wearing fit snugly around his cast, he saw what he assumed was their dinner.

“It looks good,” he lied. It actually looked like charred ass, but the fact that Lucas had tried to cook him dinner made Declan’s chest warm with a surge of emotion.

Lucas tilted his head to the side and scrunched up his face in disgust. “You’re a fucking liar,” he said, before bursting into laughter. “I should have known better than to try something like this. We were doing so well with the takeout. I just really wanted to do something nice for you, and I figured since you have tomorrow off, we could do something kinda nice tonight.”

Declan stepped forward, pulling a very messy Lucas against his chest.

“You did do something nice for me, really nice. No one has ever cooked me dinner before.”

“Oliver has,” he pointed out.

“Not the same thing. Oliver is a chef and he cooks for a living. Besides, Oliver and I, we’re just friends. It’s never been like that between us.”

“I know.”

Declan took Lucas’s hand and led him from the kitchen into the living room. The smell was beginning to get to him.

“Please don’t tell Oliver about this,” Lucas begged.

“I wouldn’t,” Declan promised. “Wait… he knew you were cooking today?”

“Yeah. I called him.”

Declan was surprised. Lucas had been there for almost two weeks, but this was the first time he had reached out to somewhere beyond the house alone.

“I’m a complete fuck-up in the kitchen, if you couldn’t tell. I wanted some advice and, well, a recipe. This was my first time cooking something that didn’t come out of a can or a box. Looks like I should stick to SpaghettiOs and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.”

“Don’t say that. It looks like you got most of the prep right, just maybe left it in the oven a little too long.”

Lucas’s face fell.

“What?” Declan asked. “What did I say?”

“Oliver did most of that. All I had to do was put everything in a dish and put it in the oven. I fucked it up.”

“Oliver was here?”

“Yeah. I called him this morning, and then he met me at his shop and took me to the market to get the ingredients, then he came back here and helped me get everything ready to go in the oven.” Lucas’s eyes widened then, and his mouth dropped open. “Shit!” he exclaimed and ran to the kitchen.

Declan ran after him. “What’s wrong?”

“The cake. The fucking cake was supposed to come out ten fucking minutes ago. I forgot. Now everything is going to be burnt,” he said as he pulled the round cake pan from the oven. It looked okay. Not burnt. Lucas let out a sigh of relief.

“At least I didn’t fuck everything up,” he said. “You good with chocolate cake for dinner?”

“Fuck yeah,” Declan replied, a smile curling up the corners of his mouth. He would have eaten the charred ass too, if it made Lucas happy. Pulling him close, he dropped a kiss on the tip of his nose. “You’ve done enough work, though. Go sit down, and I’ll bring a slice out to you.”

Lucas’s eyes were a little glazed over, the stress melting quickly to contentment in Declan’s arms. Declan glanced down at the cake, pausing to take a closer look.

“Uh, Lucas?”

Lucas turned, following Declan’s line of sight to the cake sitting on the stove.

“Yeah?”

“What temperature did you put the cake in at?”

“As high as it would go.”

“Oh.”

“Is that bad?”

“Well, I’m not a professional or anything, but the edges look a little crispy, and….” Declan didn’t say anything else, just dipped his finger into what was a very soupy cake.

“How can it be burnt
and
raw?” Lucas asked incredulously.

“Dunno,” Declan replied, sticking his finger into his mouth and sucking the batter off, “but despite the consistency issues, it’s actually pretty tasty.”

“Yeah?” Lucas dipped his finger into the center to taste. His eyes lit up mischievously. “You’re right, it is pretty good,” he said as he dipped a finger back in and proceeded to paint the chocolaty batter along Declan’s lower lip. “Looks like you’ve got a little something there,” Lucas remarked before pulling Declan down to swipe the chocolate from his mouth. Declan pressed his lips to Lucas’s, tasting chocolate, coffee, and the flavor that was all Lucas.

“Mmm,” he breathed. “So fucking good.”

Declan was hard again, his cock pressed against the zipper of his uniform. He reached down, palming the ridge of Lucas’s erection too, rubbing as Lucas moaned into his mouth. Lucas drew back and started unbuttoning Declan’s uniform. He dipped his fingers back into the cake and drew the shape of a heart across Declan’s chest.

Declan reached for Lucas’s shirt, pulling it up and over his head in one swift movement. Lucas pressed their bodies together, smearing sticky chocolate between them. “You’re making a mess,” Declan teased.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Lucas said and bent to lap at the chocolate he’d painted across Declan’s skin.

D
ECLAN
WOKE
up the next morning with Lucas’s arms wrapped around him. The man clung to him like a spider monkey when they slept. Not that Declan was complaining. He wouldn’t have it any other way. He carefully loosened Lucas’s grip and untangled himself from the web of limbs. He wasn’t going anywhere, but he needed to be able to move.

Slowly, he pulled back the covers, hoping the movement and the sudden chill wouldn’t wake Lucas up before Declan was ready to wake him. He took a moment to look at him, now sprawled on his back, one knee bent, lovely and spread open. His cock hung flaccid against his sac, propped up just a little, as if it were on display just for him. Declan looked his fill and then shuffled down until that perfect prick was right at eye level. Gently, he reached out and lifted it, bringing it to his lips before pulling it into his mouth and suckling softly. He loved how it felt to have Lucas in his mouth like this; soft and yielding. Licking and sucking, he reveled in the feeling of Lucas’s cock filling with blood, lengthening and hardening because of what he was doing to him.

The moan started up, low and quiet at first. As Lucas became more awake, the moans got louder, filling Declan’s ears and spurring him on to take Lucas deeper. He hummed around the length, making Lucas’s hips cant off the bed in short little thrusts. His head bobbed up and down, and he flicked at the sensitive spots with the tip of his tongue. Lucas’s moans became more and more insistent, more reckless. Declan knew he was getting close. He could feel the little quivers and quakes becoming stronger.

He reached down and wrapped his hand around his own erection, unable to keep from touching himself any longer. At the first taste of Lucas’s bitter come, he lost it himself, shooting onto the sheets. He kept up the gentle sucking, bringing Lucas down from his orgasm until he gently pushed Declan away.

“Too much,” he said, the words sounded difficult to pronounce, as if Lucas was having a hard time forming the letters. Declan loved that.

He climbed back up the bed and laid his head on Lucas’s pillow.

“Fuck, that’s the best way to wake up. If I could wake up every day like that, I would die a happy man.”

“I could make that happen,” Declan said before he realized what had come out of his mouth.

“Hmm,” Lucas hummed happily. “That sounds good.”

He rolled over, shimmying until his ass fit perfectly into the corner created by Declan’s body, and pulled Declan’s arm around him, intertwining their fingers together against his chest. Declan kissed the back of his neck, heart ready to burst at the happy sounds coming from the man he loved. Lucas was right. If he could do this every morning forever, it wouldn’t be long enough.

“Are you nervous about today?” Declan asked, mouthing the words against Lucas’s soft skin.

Lucas shuffled, twisting in Declan arms until they were lying face-to-face. “Not really. I know I’m not getting the cast off, and it’s annoying as fuck, but if it has to stay on, it has to stay on. I don’t know exactly what they’re going to tell me, but it won’t do any good to worry about it. I’ll know in a few hours.”