Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness (34 page)

“Yeah, okay.” Chris seems to be thinking things over, and Dan appreciates the effort. Chris doesn’t take Dan seriously most of the time, but when he does, he really does, and he genuinely tries to be helpful. “Is it cool with Jeff? I mean, is it going to set off some reaction from him?”

“I don’t think so. I’ll talk to him about it, I guess, but… you know, he wants me and Evan to get along. I guess he….” Dan thinks about Jeff’s insecurities the night before, but somehow he doesn’t want to mention them to Chris. They seem too intimate. If Chris
does
move out to California, he’ll hopefully be spending time with Dan and Jeff, and it doesn’t seem right for Dan to start giving away Jeff’s secrets. He wonders what it means that he doesn’t seem to have the same reticence about sharing Evan’s weaknesses. “I think he’ll be okay with it.”

“Well, then, yeah, why not? I mean, if you guys can’t make it through a couple hours together, better to know now than later, right?” “Yeah, that’s the optimistic spirit I was looking for. Thanks, man.” “And you should have the date soon, so I can hear how it turns out before I decide whether to take the job out there.”

 

“Wow, you’re quite a romantic.”

 

“Dude, I don’t want to move across the country to work for some sullen asshole who’s pining over my best friend.”

 

“Pining? I don’t really think Evan’s the pining type.”

“No?” Chris’s voice gets a little serious. “From what I saw when I was out there, the way he acted around you, the way he looked at you… if he didn’t get to have you, he’d be doing some
serious
pining. Possibly even a little weeping.”

Dan thinks about that for a second. “Really? He seemed that… you know…?”

“Smitten?” The joking tone is back, but Dan is used to deciphering Chris’s teasing. “Yeah, princess, I’d say he was well on his way to being fully in smote.”

Dan needs some time to think. “I don’t think that’s a word. At least, not like that.”

“Meh, language evolves.” Chris speaks a little more softly. “But, seriously, Dan, whatever’s going on, whatever you end up with… I think they’re both pretty damn into you. I… I was watching pretty closely, and you know I’m better at this stuff than you. If it doesn’t work out, okay, whatever, but… don’t let it happen because you think they don’t care enough. You all care. All three of you.”

Dan lets that sink in. “Yeah, okay. So… the date could be a good idea, then, right? I mean… to show him that I care?”

 

“Without fucking.” Dan can’t tell whether Chris is laughing or not, but he thinks he probably is.

“Yeah, apparently. For the added challenge.”
“Can you, like… give sensual massages? With happy endings?”

Dan sighs. He thinks he’s probably got all the usefulness out of Chris. “Yeah, I’ll ask about that. So, seriously, though, you think the date is… non-disastrous, at least?”

“I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time, dear.”

 

“Yeah, okay. Thanks. Are things good there?” There’s a pause. “If you shrug over the phone, it doesn’t really come across.”

 

Chris barks out a little laugh. “Shit, I actually did shrug. You know me a little too well, Danny.”

 

“I sometimes think that’s true. But you’re still thinking of making the move?”

 

“Yeah, I am. It’s a bit… empty… here.”

Dan just nods and then remembers his own advice about the effectiveness of body language over the telephone. “Yeah, I guess it would be. So, yeah, I’ll keep you in the loop with the Evan thing, but, seriously, I don’t think he’d be an asshole to you if things didn’t work out with me, and, you know… we’re still trying to make it work out.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll… I’ll await further bulletins. Now, if you’re done, I should probably get going—I’d like to leave my job here voluntarily, not because I was fired for being late all the time.”

Dan says goodbye and clicks his phone shut. He still likes the date idea, but he wants to run it by Jeff first, and it’s really too early for any local calls, so he fills up his coffee cup instead and heads for the shower.

He thinks it’s another sign that he really doesn’t know Jeff as well as he should when he realizes that he doesn’t know what time the guy gets up. By the time Dan’s at the barn, it’s a little past seven, and he
wants
to call Jeff. He realizes that, yes, he wants to ask Jeff’s opinion, but he also just wants to hear his voice, and that’s a good indicator that he’s getting into this whole thing pretty deep. And with things as uncertain as they are with Evan, that’s more than a little scary.

He manages to distract himself with the horses, taking one of the young Thoroughbreds out for some hill work. Usually they save the hill riding for when there’s a group of people to do it together, trying to make it a little less dull, but today Dan wants a little peace and quiet. And it turns out to be a beautiful morning, not too hot yet, and Dan thinks he can smell the ocean on the breeze coming in from the west.

When he comes back to the barn, he sees Evan’s Cherokee in the parking lot. Dan had wanted to talk to Jeff first, but maybe this isn’t bad, maybe it makes more sense to talk to Evan about how Jeff would react rather than talking to Jeff about Evan… or maybe Dan’s just making the whole damn thing too complicated.

He leads his horse into the barn and sees Evan in his suit, leaning against the wall staring into space. He should look out of place, really, his clothes far too dressy for the situation, but somehow he doesn’t. He looks like he belongs, and that gives Dan a flash of hope. Maybe they can both belong, together.

Dan makes a noise, rattling the chain of the crosstie, and Evan startles, then turns and walks down the aisle toward Dan. He seems a bit hesitant, as if he’s not sure he’s going to be welcomed, and it takes Dan’s own shyness away. He glances around the barn to see if they have an audience, then nods his head toward an empty stall. Evan grins at him and ducks inside, and Dan checks the crossties on his horse before following him.

There’s another moment of awkwardness inside, but Dan pushes through it. He’s not sure how things have been left with Evan, isn’t sure if they’re still mad at each other or even if Evan has decided to take Dan up on his offer of an easy escape, but Dan tries to put that out of his mind. He’s conscious that he’s wearing horse-covered work clothes, so when he leans in for a kiss it’s just his face, and he’s braced for rejection even as he tries to seem confident.

Evan meets him halfway, his kiss open and hungry, and after only a moment he catches hold of the front of Dan’s shirt and pulls him in closer.

Dan breaks away a little. “No, man, I’m sweaty and dirty.” Evan just grins. “Fuck yeah, it’s hot as hell.”

Dan laughs, but still resists. “No, you’re all clean. You’ve got to go to work….”

Evan moves quickly, spinning them around so that Dan’s back is against the wall and then Evan presses in, lining his whole body up against Dan’s. “Priorities, Dan,” he murmurs, and then neither one of them is doing much talking. Evan’s moving his body like a wave, rolling along Dan, pressing in all the right spots, and Dan can’t remember the last time he got so turned on so fast. And with all his clothes still on.

He hears a noise in the barn, not right outside the stall but close enough to bring him at least a bit back to his senses. He manages to pull his mouth away a bit, leaning his forehead against Evan’s, both of them breathing hard into each other’s mouths. “Fuck, man, this is not the best location….”

Evan lets his body still, but he keeps it pressed up against Dan’s, and he doesn’t move his face away. “It’s all Jeff’s fault. If we’d gotten any action last night….”

Dan grins, and Evan takes advantage to go for one more sloppy kiss. It gets deep pretty fast, and by the time another sound from outside makes Evan pull his head away, they’re both gasping.

Dan takes a few deep breaths, and then pushes Evan off a little. Evan groans but goes willingly, rolling to the side so he’s against the wall beside Dan, both of them leaning on it like they need the support. After another few breaths, Dan turns his head toward Evan. “So, I have a bit of a plan.” Evan doesn’t say anything, so Dan continues. “I think we should talk to Jeff. I think we should tell him that he’s right that we need to spend more time talking, but that a total sex embargo is not going to work. It’ll just make us crazy.”

Evan nods emphatically. “Good, yeah. I agree completely. Not just with my dick, either—I was thinking about it last night, and I think the sex could be a good way to… you know….”

“Reinforce the pair bond?” Dan hates stealing Chris’s words, but sometimes they just come to him.

 

“Yeah! Exactly. Remind us that we get along just fine, in at least one way.”

Dan nods. “Okay. And, also….” He feels a bit foolish now, like he’s going at things totally backward. He’d just spent five glorious minutes with this guy, getting as close to sex as you could without removing clothing, and now he’s, what, going to ask him out for coffee? But he thinks they still need to do
something
, so he charges on. “Do you want to go out sometime? Like… you know, like a date? Just you and me?” Evan’s not saying anything, and Dan’s getting a bit nervous. He’s never been much for asking people out, but he thought that this at least was close to a sure thing. Maybe not a good idea but at least not an instant refusal. “I mean, we don’t have to. Or we could ask Jeff along… it’s just… when he’s there, he… you know…. We both get along okay with him, it’s you and me that’s… well, you know, sometimes it’s great, but….”

Evan spins off the wall again, lining up in front of Dan but not pressing in, just bracing his hands on either side of Dan’s head and hovering a couple inches away. “Yeah, man, I’d like that.” He moves in again, but his kiss this time is gentle and affectionate. “I think it’s a great idea.” Another kiss, and Dan’s starting to relax. He’s not sure about “great,” but he won’t argue. “Do you know what you want to do?”

Dan hadn’t really gotten that far. “I don’t know… whatever.”

Evan shakes his head. “No, man, not ‘whatever’. It should be something good.” Another kiss, a little longer this time, and Dan thinks Evan’s trying to make it clear that he’s adding to the idea, not criticizing it. Or else he just likes kissing; either option is just fine with Dan. “Can I plan something? You had the original idea, so you’ve already contributed….”

There’s some more kissing, and Dan really doesn’t have the willpower to disagree with anything Evan’s saying. “Sure, whatever, man, just… we should do it
after
we’ve got things sorted out with Jeff, ’cause I really think I know how I want the date to end.”

Evan grinds in with his hips, kissing his agreement, but then there are
definitely
voices in the barn aisle, and Dan’s pretty sure that one of them is Tat’s, and that’s finally enough to remind Evan where they are, and he flips around again, leaning back against the wall and groaning. Dan would like to laugh at him, but he’s dealing with his own frustration issues.

“We should talk to Jeff right
now
,” Evan growls, but Dan shakes his head reluctantly.

“We need to play it smart. If we call now, he’ll know we just got horny and weak. If we can put it off a bit, present it to him like it’s a logical next step, a good way to….”

“Reinforce the pair bond,” they say in unison, and then both laugh.

Evan nods his reluctant agreement. “Okay, but for the date… what are you doing tomorrow night? Or… tomorrow afternoon, maybe? Could you take the afternoon off? Then we could do something, and then have dinner, and then, you know… reinforce all night long, baby!”

Dan grins. “Maybe if you’d get the hell out of here now, I could get some work done
today
, and then I’d be able to take a bit of time off tomorrow.”

Evan nods. “All right, then.” He smiles happily and gives Dan a quick peck on the lips. “It’s a date!”

Evan looks like he’s about to head out, although Dan’s not quite sure how he plans to get past his sister with the obvious tent in his pants, but Dan catches his arm. “Wait, man. Have you… have you talked to Jeff? About… I mean, last night, he was going on about how old he is, and….” Dan stalls. He’s not really sure what the rules are for repeating things that Jeff said. Had Jeff said them just to Dan, in confidence, or was it okay to share it with Evan? Shit, the complications of a threesome.

Evan’s looking a bit blank, and Dan doesn’t know what that means. Has Jeff not said anything to him? “I just… I don’t know; I got the vibe that maybe you and I aren’t the only ones feeling a bit uncertain about where this is going. I mean… he’s all quiet, and stoic and whatever….”

Evan frowns. “He can be really hard to read. I mean, I think of him as being all great about communication, but, really, he just gets
me
to talk all the time, and then, you know, he makes his wise comments and it feels like we really talked.”

Dan nods. He thinks he can see where Evan’s coming from; most of the things he’s gotten out of Jeff have been more in the form of tiny snippets of information rather than full soul-baring. “Yeah… and then he cuts
us
off for not communicating better!” Evan flashes Dan a quick grin of agreement, and Dan wonders how he could ever have thought he’d be able to walk away from this man without pain.

Dan’s erection is going down, albeit slowly, and he pushes off of the wall and paces a little. “Okay, so we need a third part to the plan. Part One was get the okay for reward-sex; Part Two was a date; Part Three is get Jeff talking.” He looks to Evan for feedback, and Evan nods.

“Yeah, good. Damn, it’ll be good to have someone to gang up on him with. When it’s just me, I can get distracted, but with two of us… we can tag team the bastard if we have to.”

Dan nods vigorously. “Absolutely. Hell, if it comes down to it, we can have shifts.”

 

“Now, Dan, having shifts is just crazy talk….”

 

“Sorry, man, I don’t know what came over me. Only a totally insane person would want to set up supervision shifts.”

Evan smiles, and then shakes his head. “Damn, I was so scared when I came in here this morning. I thought you were gonna tell me it was over. I thought maybe I’d be getting a call from Jeff later on, saying that he and I needed to talk….” Evan is smiling now, but Dan can see the remains of the strain on his face.