Tom reached the stair door first and held it open for Darwin. When they were both inside the windowless, empty stairwell, Tom realized how alone they were. A creeping touch of apprehension brushed along his spine as he followed the bigger man down the first flight of stairs.
“Okay?” Darwin asked, stopping a few steps down from Tom to look over his shoulder at him.
“Sure,” he replied, giving his head a shake to get rid of the automatic tickle of fear that had sprung up. This was Darwin.
Tom knew he couldn’t be any safer living in a bubble. “These stairs are just so depressing.”
Glancing around the gray cinderblock, Darwin shrugged. “Didn’t notice. Too busy checking you out.”
Tom laughed, starting down the stairs behind the other man. Feeling daring, he reached to pinch the flexing ass in front of him. “What? Am I just a piece of meat to you?”
Spinning around again, Darwin snaked an arm around Tom’s hips, tugging him forward until he stood just one step up from Darwin, close enough to feel his body heat.
Thanks to the boost of a step, they were eye to eye—and mouth to mouth. Tom swallowed, torn. The ever-present niggle of fear told him to move away but the rest of him was perfectly happy where he was.
“Yes,” Darwin growled. “But a sexy, top-quality, Grade-A piece of meat.”
Tom laughed, distracted from his nerves.
“Well, in that case—” The rest of his words were sucked right back into his lungs when Darwin leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“I love your dimples,” Darwin said, his voice edged with the sexy roughness that could turn Tom on all by itself.
“Oh…” His mind blanked. All Tom could think about was the way his skin lit up under the touch of Darwin’s lips. “Okay?”
Even in his flustered state, he knew he sounded like an idiot. His face warmed despite his efforts to will the blood out of his cheeks.
“And I love when you blush.” Darwin’s lips brushed his other cheek, lingering this time, as if he were feeling the heat of Tom’s embarrassment.
Tom made a sound like a strangled grunt, unable to form actual words at this point.
“And I especially love it when you can’t talk.” His mouth found Tom’s for a breathless second.
“Hey!” Tom objected when the other man’s words finally registered.
Darwin grinned and dipped his head to press his lips to the side of Tom’s neck. All his indignation was forgotten as Darwin’s teeth nipped a path to the corner of his jaw.
Tilting his head, Tom offered him better access. With an appreciative growl, Darwin closed his lips over his earlobe while pulling out the tail of Tom’s shirt so he could slip his hand beneath, flattening his palm against Tom’s bare skin.
Tom grabbed at the other man, needing to anchor himself before he lost his balance and toppled over. He caught handfuls of shirt on either side of Darwin’s waist, his grip pulling their hips in tight, grinding their fabric-guarded erections together.
Both men groaned and went still, only their hearts racing as they pressed against each other. Tom panted, the air thick in his lungs, his fingers twisted hard in Darwin’s shirt. At that moment, he didn’t think he was physically capable of releasing his grip.
“Can’t seem to let go of you,” he muttered.
Darwin gave a choked laugh. “Tell me about it.”
“Bowling? Really?”
“I actually wanted to play mini-golf but it’s too cold for that,” Darwin explained.
“ B u t
bowling
?” Tom eyed his gaudy rented shoes dubiously. “Have we reached that point in our relationship already?”
Darwin looked amused, as usual. “What point is that?”
“You know,” Tom said. “The out-of-options-so-it’s-either-bowling-or-staying-at-home-and-watching-a-Lifetime-movie stage.”
Dramatically clutching his head, Darwin heaved a huge sigh. “Guess next week we’ll be on the couch, watching a drama about a brave, abused wife who must save herself and her children before it’s too late.”
“While battling cancer,” Tom added.
“And caring for her adopted child with Down syndrome.”
“While connecting emotionally with her rebellious teenaged stepdaughter.”
Darwin snorted.
“Watched a few Lifetime movies, have you?”
“Never,” Tom lied. “I think Anne might have mentioned a few plot lines, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh.”
“How about you?” Tom shot back, starting to laugh. “You seem pretty conversant
in
Lifetime-movie
speak
yourself.”
Darwin shrugged, not looking at all embarrassed.
“Sometimes I’m flipping through the channels and just happen to land on one. They occasionally manage to suck me in.”
Tom eyed the other man. The easy, confident way Darwin admitted it just made him seem more masculine. Tougher. Hotter.
Tom’s breathing sped up.
“What?” Darwin asked as he picked up a bowling ball. “Did I just totally destroy your opinion of me?”
“Nope.” Tom shook himself, pulling his eyes off Darwin’s body and focusing on his face. “You already did that by dragging me to a bowling alley.”
With a snort of laughter, Darwin rolled the ball toward the pins. Tom wasn’t surprised when all ten pins fell and scattered. Of course Darwin would be good at bowling. He was a perfect, Godlike creature.
“Don’t tell me you practice,” Tom teased, selecting his own ball. “Am I going to hear stories about all your lonely nights at the lanes, perfecting your…” He thought for a moment. “I have nothing. I know absolutely zero bowling terms.”
Grinning at him, Darwin shook his head.
“Nope. Just a natural, I guess.” He moved out of the way so Tom could take his turn, managing to brush the side of his hand against Tom’s ass in an innocent, accidental way that Tom knew damn well was in no way innocent or accidental. Not that it was unappreciated, Tom admitted to himself, pressing back a smile as his skin burned beneath the denim.
A mediocre bowler at the best of times, Tom was even worse when he was distracted by the big, beautiful, apparently expert bowler leering at him over his beer.
After taking a wobbly path down the lane, the ball tipped into the gutter. Tom made a face.
“Guess there’s only one person with beginner’s luck here tonight,” he said, shrugging as he turned toward Darwin.
“Hmm?”
Tom grinned. The other man had obviously been staring at his ass, since his gaze was still lingering on a point below Tom’s waist. “Eyes are up here, buddy.”
Although he lifted his gaze to meet Tom’s, Darwin’s smile was unabashed.
“Yeah,” he said. “Those are nice too.”
It was Tom who dropped his gaze as he felt a blush creep along his cheeks, and he picked up his bowling ball with more focus than was really necessary. He stared down the lane at the pins, although all of his concentration was on the man behind him.
“Want some tips?”
Tom jumped when Darwin spoke from right
behind him. “Um…” He couldn’t put words together in his head when Darwin was so close.
“It’s just basic physics.” Obviously, Darwin had taken Tom’s wordless sound as an affirmative. “See the first pin, the one in front?”
All Tom was seeing were little red dots floating across his vision. He tried to slow down his breathing and quit hyperventilating enough to listen. Darwin seemed to be waiting for a response, so Tom gave an affirmative grunt.
“Okay, so aim the ball to hit between that pin and the one behind it to the right.”
Darwin pointed at the spot, which brought his arm up to brush against Tom’s sleeve.
Forcing his mind off everything except the spot between the pins where Darwin had
indicated,
Tom
lifted
his
ball,
supporting it with his left hand.
“Just send it down the alley with enough force to knock down four of the pins,”
Darwin continued. “They’ll do the rest.”
Tom shot a look at the other man. “How am I supposed to know how much force is necessary to knock down four pins? Do I look like a bowling scientist? A bowl-ologist?”
“Just bowl,” Darwin growled, although his words had their usual edge of laughter.
“Just aim for that spot and put a little effort into it.”
“Here goes,” Tom muttered, stepping forward and releasing the ball. He held his breath as the ball traveled down the alley, finally colliding with a pin-dropping clatter.
“Woo!” he cheered, arms in the air. Three pins, two on one side and one on the other, remained standing, but he was happy with the seven pins he’d managed to drop.
“Not bad.” Darwin was grinning as he picked up a ball. “Aim a little more to the right next time and you’ll get a strike.”
With a shrug, Tom stepped back to give Darwin room. “I’m just happy it didn’t flop into the gutter again.” Watching Darwin eye the newly erected pins, he had an idea.
Inching closer to the other man, Tom waited until Darwin was about to release the ball—and then reached over to give him a hard pinch on the ass.
“Hey!” Darwin protested as the ball shot off in the wrong direction, bouncing on to the neighboring lane before it headed for the gutter. Tom couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“Playing dirty, are you?” Darwin reached for him. Tom barely realized what was happening when Darwin grabbed him and kissed him, short and hard and sweet. Before Tom’s nerves could take over and ruin the moment, Darwin had already released him, grumbling good-naturedly about bush-league rules.
“Hah!” Darwin crowed. “I still get my two turns. That’ll teach you for trying to cheat.”
Tom just blinked at him, his brain swept clear by the kiss. Clearing his throat, he tried to act like he wasn’t a complete idiot.
“Well…I guess I need to take advantage of every opportunity to distract you. You
are the bowling savant here.”
Smiling over his shoulder, Darwin admitted, “Actually, I enjoyed your method of distraction. I’d pick you grabbing my ass over bowling any day.”
Tom’s laugh was more of a breathless choke. He glanced around the bowling alley, more as a desperate attempt at distraction than any real curiosity, and saw that they were the only ones using the lanes tonight.
The only other person was the bored clerk manning the cash register. The privacy both terrified and excited him.
“So,” he started, trying to sound casual.
Darwin’s head turned quickly enough toward him for Tom to realize he’d sounded anything but casual. Swallowing hard, which didn’t help the frozen lump stuck in his throat, he forced himself to continue.
“What’re we doing after bowling?”
“You’re already looking ahead to the next thing? Shouldn’t you be living in the bowling moment?” Darwin asked as he bowled another strike.
Sometimes,
Tom
realized,
absolute
perfection could get a little tiresome.
“I w-was just, uh, thinking…” He cursed the tremor that had taken over his words.
“About afterward.” Tom sighed and swore silently. Smooth, he was not.
Darwin had gone completely still, just looking at him without moving. His watchfulness reminded Tom of a tiger waiting for just the right moment to pounce on an antelope. The image didn’t help Tom’s nerves, but he’d already opened this can of hungry-for-antelope tigers. He had babbled just enough to make it impossible to back out now. Besides, Tom was pretty sure he didn’t want to back out. Phone sex was great but lately it had been leaving a lingering aftertaste of loneliness.
“Afterward?”
Darwin prompted, stepping closer.
Even though he didn’t want to back out, Tom found it was impossible to say the words.
The corners of Darwin’s mouth turned up. Even though his eyes were hot and hungry, his smile was kind. “Changed your mind?”
“No.” Tom managed to force the word out. After the first one, it got a little easier.
“Just lost my ability to talk for a minute there.”
Reaching out, Darwin traced the edge of Tom’s jaw and ran his thumb over Tom’s shaking lips. “Is it weird that I find it sexy when you get all tongue-tied?”
“A little, yeah.” Tom’s attempt at a joke ended in a moan as Darwin’s head tipped down and his mouth grew closer and closer.
Their lips were near enough for Tom to feel the warm, damp air of Darwin’s breaths brush against his mouth. His own lips felt dry and Tom tried to moisten them, but instead ended up touching his tongue against Darwin’s in a quick, shy flicker.
“Fuck,” Darwin groaned, his hand sliding around to the back of Tom’s head. He yanked Tom into a kiss—a grinding, ferocious kiss that wasn’t even pretending to be polite or careful or civilized.
Lust and panic hit Tom at the same time, pounding him from opposite sides, ordering his body to pull away and press closer all at once. He went with the third option and froze in place.
Darwin continued to kiss him, both hands holding his head, turning his face this way and that to give himself better access. It was controlling yet it wasn’t, since Tom’s body was completely free. He felt like he could pull away at any time, which made him
not
want to pull away. With a soundless sigh, he leaned into the kiss.
This created the opposite reaction of what Tom expected—Darwin pulled back.
Tom blinked at him, confused.
“You really want to do this?” Darwin demanded.
Tom hesitated. “Define ‘this’.” He immediately felt like the worst sort of tease.
He knew what Darwin meant but he was just buying some time to think.
“
This
,” Darwin growled, pulling Tom’s head forward until their cheeks met and Darwin’s mouth was a whisper away from Tom’s ear. “And more. What you were talking about before you freaked yourself out.
Afterward.
”
Swallowing hard, Tom had to focus on breathing before he passed out.
Afterward…
The way Darwin had said that word, a word that would’ve sounded perfectly normal in any other conversation, dissolved Tom’s knees and took away his words again.
“I don’t want to scare you,” Darwin said after a few seconds of pulsing silence. “But I really,
really
want to fuck you.”
Tom finally made a sound, a low groan that sounded needy, even to his own ears.