Page 34 of Another Chance
Eric was a live coal burning in his arms, and when Theo rested his cheek on the top of Eric’s head and kissed him softly there, his lips tingled from the heat. He didn’t let go of him, though, not for a second.
“My friends want to meet you,” Eric murmured, and his voice had an odd, disconnected quality to it that Theo wasn’t sure that he cared for. “They want us to come out to the bar tonight.”
Theo looked down at Eric, searching the top of his head, the shape of his nose, as if for an answer. He didn’t find any there, though, and he had to just go off of the tone of Eric’s voice. Admittedly, Eric was not in the best place right now, so maybe he was just imagining that tone of dismay he had heard.
“You’re not going anywhere tonight.” Theo shifted down to brush a kiss on Eric’s burning forehead. “Except for straight to bed.”
Eric gazed at him and grinned, arching his eyebrows eloquently at him.
“I like the sound of that,” Eric purred, and Theo, even through his worry about Eric, couldn’t help but laugh. This man was such a horndog, but maybe Theo shouldn’t talk because he could keep up with Eric just fine.
“Yeah right,” Theo said, and for the moment, he just let himself hold the man he loved, the man who seemed to be almost glowingwith radiant heat. Eric smelled of himself, but also of sweat. “I’m not going to molest you when you have a fever.”
“So I’ll molest you,” Eric murmured, and his hot hand rested high up on Theo’s thigh, searing him even through his jeans, his thumb very close to Theo’s balls. Just another inch up and Eric would be outright touching him.
And then half an inch, as slowly, Eric eased his fingers up toward him. What would it be like to be touched by someone so warm? This was yet another first for Theo, being groped by someone with a fever.
“All right, come on, you,” Theo teased because as tempted as he was, and he was definitely tempted, to see just how far this would go, his worry for Eric outweighed that. So he stood, and as he did, he pulled Eric into his arms. He would carry him to bed if he had to.
“Are we going to the bar? Carlos wants to meet you,” Eric said, his voice slurred and indistinct, his cheek against Theo’s chest, singeing him even through the fabric of his shirt. “But you’d better be careful of those girls …”
What, exactly, Eric was talking about, Theo didn’t know, and he wasn’t actually all that convinced that Eric did, either. Probably better not to worry too much about the feverish ravings of a sick man. So, carrying Eric, who was heavier than he looked because of that dense muscle, Theo started to walk toward the bedroom.
“Not tonight. We can go tomorrow night,” Theo told him. If Eric remembered him saying that, well, that was fine. He had no objection to meeting his lover’s friends. Though what that meant, he wasn’t at all sure.
Was he supposed to act like they were together? Would Eric? This was a small town, and back in New York, it had been easier. Liam had the same friends as him back then, and they were pretty much all gay men who weren’t exactly shocked about two men being together.
Well, now wasn’t the time to ask. So Theo carefully deposited Eric onto the bed, then pulled off Eric’s boots and socks. He tried to keep his hands businesslike as he stripped the other man, and he left him in his boxers but damned if he wasn’t tempted to let his hands roam over that smooth, feverish skin, to feel the heat from his muscles.
“Mmm, keep going, baby,” Eric murmured, his head propped up on the pillow, his eyes glazed and his lips dry. “Better yet, take off your clothes, too. Let’s have some fun.”
Shaking his head, bemused and, yes, more than a little tempted, Theo did remove his own socks, but that was it. He lay down in bed, on his side, and pulled Eric into his arms again, resting his chin on the older man’s shoulder.
“You need rest, not for me to do wildly inappropriate things to you,” Theo whispered in his ear. But whatever his intentions were, Eric had different ideas, and he gripped Theo’s hand and drew it down from where it rested on Eric’s chest, down over the smooth, flat planes of his chest and stomach, down toward his hips and the incredibly intriguing bulge he could see in Eric’s boxers.
“I can’t sleep,” Eric pouted, and he turned, his fine grain sandpaper lips brushing over Theo’s, his tongue darting out to press against the seam of Theo’s lips, asking for entrance.
Theo shuddered. He had never been kissed by anyone this hot, pun definitely intended, and it surprised him how quickly his cock started to inflate. Even ill, Eric was a damn good kisser, and for a moment, Theo parted his lips and let that tongue into his mouth, stroking it with his own.
It felt very much like what he imagined kissing a bonfire would feel like. Only there was no pain, no real burning. His body warmed up, getting closer to where Eric’s was, like Eric was passing the heat of his body into Theo through his kiss.
“Fuck,” Theo whispered, holding his hips a few inches back, trying not to think about what it might be like to press his cock against the inferno of Eric’s body.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Eric purred, and his brilliant, glittering eyes gazed deeply into Theo’s, making him feel like he was being hypnotized. Theo groaned softly, his whole body urging him, every muscle in him straining, to get closer to Eric.
“Eric …” Theo’s hand was still being tugged down, and he let it be, until his pinkie finger was just above the place where Eric’s underwear was tight around that bulge. There was a spot of fluid which had leaked through the cotton, too. Eric’s precum.
It seemed like being sick didn’t stop Eric from getting turned on. In some ways, that didn’t surprise Theo. Too bad about the questionable ethics of the situation, because with the way Eric was coming on to him, there was no way that Theo would normally be able to resist.
“Just to help me sleep,” Eric almost begged, and there could be no doubt at all that it would be hard for any man to sleep with a dick as stiff as Eric’s was. Theo was in a position to know, since he was just as hard, trapped in a denim prison. “I can’t sleep, Teddy, not until I get help with this.”
Theo tried to buy time, to think, and he leaned in and pressed his lips against Eric’s. But it was a questionable technique, since as their lips met, Eric kissed him with ravenous hunger and more passion burned through Theo’s body, already so aroused.
Would it really be so bad? Eric was demanding it, literally, and he clearly needed it. And maybe he’d sleep better for the orgasm. It was too much temptation for one man to take, and Theo couldn’t resist what they both wanted.
“You could fuck me,” Eric whispered, and that was the final straw. The point after which Theo couldn’t make himself resist anymore. Hearing those words, which he had been waiting for for a week, they broke a dam of self-control inside of himself, and he was utterly washed away by the deluge.
“I’m not going to fuck you like this,” Theo whispered back, and yes, he was tempted. But it wouldn’t be right. Slowly, though, he started to inch his own hand down, until he was palming the thickness of Eric’s cock, feeling the slipperiness of the precum as he rubbed the cotton over Eric’s dick. “But I will help you.”
