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"Yeah, but I already know you're a pussy."
Geoff shot him the bird and Chris grinned. Geoff took another step closer. "My mother used to have a saying. It doesn't really mean shit when you apply it to the decisions she's made in her life, but wisdom out of the mouth of a fool is still wisdom. It's just harder to believe."
"What did she say?"
"It's hardly original. 'In the end, all that matters is kindness.'" Geoff's gaze darkened. "Yeah, I want to torment the two of you, make you beg for things, leave marks on your skin. And I want to kiss all those marks, take care of you and keep you safe from everything always. But even though that's only the tip of the iceberg, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. All I really want to know is that your hearts belong to me."
Chris swallowed, hard, and Geoff nodded at his expression. "You asked if you were in the group of people I'd trust to . . ." He lifted a shoulder, and the poignancy of it twisted in Chris's chest, Geoff's inability to say top me.
Geoff cleared his throat, the TV light flickering over his face. "You are. And since the membership of that group is exactly one person, if you weren't part of it, the group wouldn't exist."
Chris stared at him. "Come here."
Geoff shifted. "Giving me orders?"
"Just shut up and come closer."
Geoff sauntered across the room. Since he wore only the pajama bottoms, the sensual movement couldn't help but draw the eye to every fine inch of bare flesh. But that wasn't Chris's top priority. Chris reached up, curling his fingers around Geoff's neck, his thumb rubbing the line of collarbone. "Come here," he repeated in a murmur.
Geoff bent. When he brought his mouth over Chris's, this time Chris felt the rightness of it on both sides. He'd never really thought of himself as gay or straight. He was just who he was, with a heart that often felt too big for his chest, because it would hurt when he saw things that didn't strike him as right. Or things that were perfectly right. Like Sam out in the sunlight, laughing, her hair touched by the heat. Geoff, sitting back on the couch at the end of a long day, one foot propped on the coffee table, a Corona with lime in hand as he and Chris talked about everything and nothing.
Geoff kept the kiss light, yet there was a lingering feel to it that made Chris want to pull him down with him, keep him there. Maybe if he were on the mattress instead of in the hammock, he would have had half a chance of getting him to join him. But Geoff drew back, though he stayed close enough Chris could see the faint quirk on his serious mouth.
"Since you look a breath away from trying to drag me into this hammock for cuddling, I'm headed back to my room before we both embarrass ourselves."
"You're only retreating because you know you love a good cuddle," Chris teased him, but his grip tightened.
"You wore me out. You have a mouth like a damn siphon." Geoff ducked free, giving the hammock a push to send it rocking. He followed it up with a quick stroke of his fingertips along Chris's face, though. "Let's leave it here for tonight. Okay?"
"You all right?"
"Yeah. Just need to think."
"Yeah." Though Chris wished Geoff didn't have to think about it at all, that he could just let it happen. But Geoff was pretty good at seeing the potholes Chris or Sam might miss and planning a route around them. He had to trust in that. "Okay."
Giving him a steady look, Geoff moved back toward the door.
"I see what you mean about that rear view thing," Chris added. "Might have been better without the pajama bottoms, though."
Geoff snorted. "Stop staring at my ass."
"Yes sir." Chris offered a one-bird salute again, intending the words as a mocking tease, but when Geoff's gaze turned back to him, Chris got that odd feeling in his chest again. His smile died away under Geoff's intent regard.
"Good night, Chris."
As Geoff's door shut, Chris moved with the boat-on-the-ocean movement of his hammock, keeping it going. He lifted his hand over his head, tangled his fingers in the rope and sighed. A smile, albeit a tired and wistful one, crossed his features. He understood what Geoff was saying. Time to go to sleep and see what would happen tomorrow.
*
Geoff had been serious about working on that project for Sam. After a Hardee's breakfast that he picked up on his morning run, they set up in the garage, leaving the door up since the day was sunny with lots of blue sky. Chris reflected that it made the darker parts of what had happened last night feel better, and the over-the-top moments feel all the more intense in recollection.
When Geoff had bought the Build-It-Yourself Bondage book at Naughty Bits, the item that he and Chris decided they wanted to build was a modified spanking bench. Chris had picked up a long cushion from a weight bench at a secondhand store, and the lumber and hardware they'd ordered had arrived, stacked in Chris's garden shed so Sam wouldn't notice it. Since they were both proficient carpenters, they had all they needed to work on it while Sam was on her trip.
"The plans recommend the medium measurements if the piece is for a woman." Geoff examined the drawing that looked a lot like a picnic bench, though the seat portions were closer to the table part, and the whole thing was shorter, four feet. "If she's lying on her stomach on the bench portion, these parallel places where she places her bent knees will support her shins."
"Yeah, but it doesn't indicate any kind of finishing for the ends, like a rubber foot or cushion."
Geoff consulted an attachment. "It does mention it, but leaves it open in the plans. One person folded gel shoe inserts over the corners. Comfortable, but I doubt it's attractive. I'm thinking a smooth plastic fitting, a shoe."
