That time would come, and it would be special then too.
He had priorities. More condoms, lube, and pain reliever. The morning promised to provide competing problems for Ducky.
.
CHAPTER 18
The tempting smell of sizzling fried bacon woke Ducky, his empty stomach rumbling in anticipation. With a deep breath, Ducky smiled on the exhale at another great trait he could add to the list of things that were fanfuckingtastic about Chad. The man could cook a good meal and seemed more than happy to do so.
He reached for his swollen lips. They were sensitive to the touch. A sweet reminder of the aftermath of their extraordinary night together.
If he’d slept more than a few hours total, he’d be shocked.
They went both ways last night. Making love, giving, and taking until the wee hours of the morning. When they slept, they stayed locked in each other’s arms.
A tune by Corey Wong played low in the background. Quiet enough that he could barely hear the sounds. It had to be Corey, though. Chad played that artist’s music every time he prepared food, knowing all the words and the exact moments the chords hit the sweet spot in the song.
Ducky strained to listen more closely. His smile grew wider as he made out Chad’s hum or a perfectly timed grunt, whichever applied to the rhythm of the music. His heart connected, his eyes closed, and he listened to all the sounds coming from the kitchen. He bet home felt like this. What a foreign concept in his life.
He stretched, staring at his toes until his arms reached out as far as they could go. He loved the feel of all the little aches running the length of his body. Chad hadn’t exaggerated. The sweet soreness in his ass spoke to the memory of Chad moving inside him over and over again.
Chad in his ass… With all the changes in his life, especially over the last few years, Chad fucking him had to be the new top insanity.
Maybe that wasn’t the item in the very first spot. Chad declaring his lifelong crush on Ducky broke the ceiling of absurdity. Perhaps he was remembering parts of last night wrong. He’d heard lots of theories about sliding in and out of alternate dimensions. Maybe he’d moved into some sort of opposite parallel universe where the highly unlikely became commonplace… Seemed as likely a possibility as Chad having lifelong feelings for him.
Ducky turned, reaching for his cell phone lying half on and half off the nightstand. He lifted it to find no charge. That was all right. More than all right. He didn’t want anything to mess with the peace he’d finally found inside his head. Especially not the doubt that always infiltrated from a world right outside his grasp.
He tossed the phone back on the bedside table, this time missing the mark completely. It clanked against the tiled floor. His bad. Hopefully he hadn’t cracked the screen but he couldn’t find the energy to find out. The intensity of the hunger growing in his belly was what drove him from the bed.
Why hadn’t he considered more sex as his cardio workouts? His stomach muscles ached as he searched the floor for his clothes, only finding a pair of Chad’s athletic shorts folded at the end of the bed.
Chad’s deep kisses and their frantic ways of disrobing played like an X-rated strip tease in his mind. While Ducky’s head had swam with rum and the unbelievable turn of events, Chad had become a man on a mission, tossing their clothes every which way.
He’d been so lost in his own lust he couldn’t quite remember the details of Chad undressing. What a loss. The guy was gorgeous both in and out of clothes. Watching him peel away each article of clothing would have been a treat all by itself. Maybe he could get a do over.
What if, for Chad, the magic hadn’t held together in the daylight hours?
For all the time they had known one another, he’d been given nothing to indicate Chad was anything more than into women. They’d even shared locker room talk here and there. He didn’t remember ever hearing a whisper of anything other than straight.
Doubt invaded the edges of his happy place.
Wait a minute. He hadn’t discussed his sexuality with Chad either.
Chad, though, had a functioning family—not like his. Watching Dallas’s daily beatings as a kid when his parents tried to wipe the gay away encouraged Ducky to always keep his lips zipped about most things. His sexual preferences first and foremost. His brother had had to sleep on the couch for years, not allowed to have his own room with the way his father watched over him for any signs of homosexuality.
Tension formed, tightening his shoulders.
Ducky blew out a forceful breath, tossing those thoughts in the recycle bin in his head where they belonged. Not a rabbit hole worth falling down.
He grabbed the shorts, quickly pushing each leg through. As he dressed, he lectured himself about the importance of going with this new flow. If they were only supposed to have last night, then he’d hold that place dear in his heart and enjoy the rest of the trip…
Just as Ducky started out of the bedroom, Chad met him in the doorway, carrying two full plates of food, silverware on the edges, and napkins tucked underneath the plates. Chad’s eyes sparkled as he walked straight into Ducky, as if he had the right to be in his personal space, giving him a quick yet somehow meaningful peck on the lips.
“I tried not to wake you up. I figured you’d need some fuel after last night.” Chad glanced over his shoulder toward the kitchen, a small frown furrowing his brow as he looked back at Ducky. “We should’ve gone to your room. It’s quieter in there.”
Chad side-stepped Ducky as if being together inside the bedroom was the most natural thing in the world and made his way to the bed. One plate was placed on top of the bedside table on the opposite side Ducky before Chad turned back to him.
His bright eyes were crystal clear with assuredness until he looked back at Ducky then paused. The dark brows furrowed again, assessing him more closely, giving a full body scan from head to toe, only stopping briefly in the region of his plumping cock. The shorts did little to hide his erection.
