Page 26 of Another Chance
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Theo’s way of waking Eric up, Eric had decided, was pretty much the best thing in the world. Breathing, sweating from the full, intense force of his release, Eric gazed into Theo’s lovely, angular face and he couldn’t help but smile when he saw the pleasure which the younger man had taken in what they’d just done.
“A guy could get used to that,” he whispered because it was true. It just wasn’t the whole truth. It wasn’t what he really wanted to say. The words which rose first to his lips weren’t words he could risk even whispering to Theo, that he could let leave his mouth, or even his brain, at all.
So he choked them back and forced himself to be blasé, dismissive. Only even then, it didn’t come off quite how he had hoped, and Theo gave him a little bit of a smile and lay back down with him, an arm sliding around Eric’s shoulders and pulling him into a welcoming embrace.
Having his cock in the guy’s mouth, that had felt good, because when did that not? But being held, being, of all things, cuddled, that was a completely different story. That felt like being home, and that was dangerous, because this time, there was no question about whether Theo would leave or not.
Theo was leaving. Was already planning to leave, counting the days until he could. Eric closed his eyes and entertained some vivid, crystal clear fantasies. He could just let Theo fumble through this. Take his time fixing the house. Live with Eric and maybe, just maybe, Theo would start to fall in love with Eric back.
Only he couldn’t do that because he loved Theo too much. How could he just let someone he loved struggle so much with something that Eric was, after all, something of an expert in? When he knew all the right contractors?
When he, with his own hands, could help to fix the problems that the one he loved had?
“Get up. Feed your dumb cat,” Eric grumbled, displeased with himself but still not sure what else he could even do. What else his own ethics would let him get away with.
“He’s not dumb,” Theo said automatically, and then he sat up again with a groan which was far too sexy, pushing his fingers through his disheveled shaggy hair and generally just making it that much messier. “Where are we going?”
That was a good question. Where were they going? Anywhere? But Theo hadn’t meant it rhetorically, and Eric smirked grimly to himself as he slid his legs out of the warm, soft oasis of the bed. They really did have things to do, and besides, he could feel the ache of his balls, the soft pressure which could so easily turn to arousal if he let it.
A year-long dry spell, apparently, was too long. And Theo was so beautiful, tousled with sleep and from Eric’s hands and lips and tongue. It would be easy to get carried away, and despite how hard he’d just come, he had the feeling that he could get hard again without any problem at all.
Unless he wanted to spend the rest of the day in bed … and that sounded like a great idea to him, actually. But maybe it wasn’t a good idea to let his heart get any more firmly enmeshed, ensnared, by this beautiful man, who still had just as much of a hold over him as ever. Or maybe more.
“Back to your place,” Eric admitted, wincing as he looked at the expanse of his back, the tight round globes of his ass, his thick legs. They were still pretty torn up by the gravel, but already, they were starting to close around the edges. He’d live. Thanks to Theo. “We’ve got stuff to do.”
As they moved through the small house, Eric kept seeing things. Not things which were really there, either. Ghosts. Shadows of the past, two kids playing with Lego at the kitchen table. Sitting on the moldering couch and play fighting as they watched television. A laughing woman who had been buried for eight years.
A family, but a family that was now torn, broken apart. Like a glass of water knocked abruptly off of a counter, smashing on the floor, the vessel of this house couldn’t hold water or life.
Shaking his head, Eric tried to push the specters away, but it was hard. Part of him didn’t want to. Sure, it was living in the past, but back then he hadn’t known about any of this stuff. He had assumed that he and Theo would be friends forever.
“The furniture is ruined. The carpets.” Eric kept his voice crisp and businesslike, exactly how he would speak for any person that had a project which Eric was bidding on. “They’ll need to be gotten rid of. Same with the curtains.”
Theo was silent as Eric walked to the table, bracing himself as he touched it as he had done so many times. It was just a table. Just wood. Nothing to be afraid of, and he proved that to himself.
“This is fine. It’s not all the furniture,” he tried to assure Theo. Looking around, he had to admit that it was most of it.
“Should I just pull the whole place down?” Theo asked, and Eric shook his head as he rapped on the walls, which gave a solid, satisfyingthunkin response.
“No way. Yeah, it might be easier, but you don’t have to.” Eric tried his best to look at Theo evenly, like he didn’t care much either way, like it was all up to Theo. He was pretty sure he failed, but he tried. “The walls are solid. The structure is secure, man. Everything so far can be fixed.”
Theo didn’t comment, he just nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. The tip of his nose was starting to go red. Allergies, probably, because Eric had noticed that the day before, too, but it had gone away after a night in a different house.
They kept walking, and Eric went right past the room with the hole bashed in the wall. It was that room he was most worried about. His instincts told him that this house was structurally sound, that it didn’t need to be knocked down, but how could he be sure that he was right? Wasn’t it possible, even likely, that his own desire to have Theo stay might be influencing his instincts?
The master bedroom, Theo had already done a lot of work on. Eric walked around, noting what would need to be gotten rid of, what could be kept. Briskly, in a no-nonsense type voice, he passed the information on to Theo, and then their shoulders brushed together as they both turned to look at the door which led to the bedroom which had once been Theo’s.
How much time had they spent in that room together? All told, it had to be weeks and weeks, and Eric felt the hot silky slide of the back of Theo’s hand against his own. It proved to be too tempting for him, and, giving Theo time to pull away, if he wanted to, he slid his own hand around so that their palms caressed, the sensitive skin on the inside of their palms and fingers touching lightly.
He kept the contact light. Gentle. Brief. In a moment, he would pull his hand away, because whatever was going on between them, he had the sense that it wasn’t, strictly speaking, the sort of relationship where they held hands a lot. Only Theo proved him wrong, and before Eric could break the contact, Theo’s fingers were sliding into his, interlacing, holding each other in an intimate handclasp.
“It’s not that bad,” Theo encouraged him, and, hand in hand, the two of them went to push open the door.
Eric had only gotten a brief look, but he took a more thorough one. Theo was right. It wasn’t that bad. Which didn’t mean it was good, either. Eric kept his grasp on Theo’s hand even as he walked through the room, which was, by far, the worst one in the house.
He didn’t even realize how completely silent he’d become until he felt Theo’s fingers squeeze his.
