Single Player (12 page)

“No.” Matthew had never used drafting software before, although he'd been curious about it. He sat down next to Silas and scooted closer. “Do you?” He kept a straight face, pretending surprise.

Silas gave him a disbelieving stare, but when Matthew started to grin, the disbelief faded from Silas's face. “You're teasing me, aren't you?”

“It's just so much fun.” Matthew wasn't lying; teasing Silas was equally as fun out of the bedroom as in it. “I looked up a few options for cat wheelchairs last night if you want to see some models.”

“Sure, that would be helpful.” Silas clicked a few things on the laptop, loading a program. While everything booted up, he set up his wireless mouse. “Also, we're going to need to measure your cat.”

“That sounds like a two-person job.” Matthew got up to get his tablet and came back to the table, already navigating to the wheelchairs he'd bookmarked. “Here. I was looking at these.”

Silas took the tablet, enlarging the photos, nodding slowly. “Yes, this should be easy to design. I'll bet I can put these plans together today.” He set the tablet aside. “Now, I can't build something like this at work. Do you have supplies for this? A workshop or something?” He waved his hand around the apartment, as if a workshop might show up out of thin air.

Matthew stifled another laugh. “No, you've basically seen the place. But I've got a friend at work who does metalwork sculpting.” Matthew thought of Caleb, who he knew had some kind of setup for welding and construction. “I'll bet I could use his workshop.”

“We.” Silas turned back to the program. “I'm going to be invested in this project, so I'm going to see it through to completion. No going off without me.”

Matthew very much wanted to build this with Silas, actually, so he offered no protest. He watched as Silas opened a new file and started creating a diagram with a few clicks of the mouse. After a few minutes, Silas noticed him watching. “You want to learn how to use this?”

Suddenly, Matthew felt awkward, like he was back in high school struggling with calculus again. “I don't know. It looks complicated.”

“Yes, but you're smart. You can learn. Here, let me show you the parts of the workstation.”

For the next half hour, as he effortlessly designed a cat wheelchair, Silas explained the features of the CAD program he was using to Matthew, who absorbed all of it and even understood. Silas was a brusque, direct teacher, but he was also clear, and under his instruction, Matthew found himself picking up the rough overview of the program. They moved Zuul's crate into the living room so she could watch them, sprawled out on her blanket, eyeing them both. She submitted to being measured for the chair, letting Matthew hold her while Silas used a tape measure to check the length of her legs and torso. They took a break for sandwiches for lunch, after which Silas didn't take his seat in front of the laptop again, instead standing nearby.

“Here, you try it.” He pointed to the laptop. “Go ahead. I saved the file already, so you can't screw anything up.”

Matthew felt a moment of performance anxiety. “I don't know. I've barely figured it out.”

Silas rolled his eyes. “Come on, you're fine. Sit there.” Moving around to Matthew's other side, he shoved him out of the chair. Laughing, Matthew moved over and took the seat in front of Silas's laptop. From this perspective, the screen in front of him looked like it was in a foreign language. As a programmer, he hated sitting in front of a computer screen and not fully understanding everything. His job depended on his instant and intuitive knowledge of his task, and CAD was a different animal.

“Start by changing the dimensions of what we have here.” Silas took Matthew's seat and scooted in close. Much closer than Matthew had been, in fact, his torso brushing Matthew's arm as he leaned in. Matthew was suddenly aware that the last time he'd seen Silas, they'd ended up in bed, having some overwhelmingly wonderful sex. His body temperature rose as he thought about it.

Silas stretched one arm across the back of Matthew's chair to let him lean even closer. “Good. Try examining it from another direction.”

Under Silas's instructions, Matthew tried new tasks in CAD, gradually gaining confidence in the drafting program. He hadn't thought he would be good at something like this. Generally, he'd become comfortable sticking with the familiar when it came to technology, and consequently it had been a while since he'd tried something new. He kept becoming distracted by Silas's proximity, but other than that, he was doing quite well.

“So can I get this program for my computer?” Matthew looked over at Silas, who had been watching him with interest the entire time.

There was a pause where Silas watched Matthew without seeming to have heard him, and then he came back to himself. “Oh. Sure. There are some basic free CAD programs out there. If you want something more specialized, you'll have to buy it, but the free programs should be fine for now.”

Matthew eyed him warily, because the distraction wasn't normal for Silas. “You all right, there?”

Silas licked his lips, color rising high in his cheeks. “I was thinking about kissing you.”

---

Well, he hadn't exactly
planned to come right out and say it, but the words were out of Silas's mouth before he could think clearly about his options. Matthew's eyes widened for an instant before his expression settled into that mischievous face that Silas was coming to love and loathe in equal parts. He loved it for what it meant for his body, but he loathed it for the way he ended up desperate and needy for it.

He hadn't been able to get Matthew out of his mind all week, and it was causing him distractions at work. No one distracted him from his work, ever—until now. Unfortunately, he couldn't go back in time to
un
meet Matthew—and, more important, a small part of him knew he didn't want to.

One option was to ignore Matthew altogether. He had tried that during the week, not calling or texting, pretending the other man didn't exist. Since they hadn't made any concrete plans to see each other again after their tryst the week before, this hadn't been too difficult. Even so, the only result of that experiment was that he kept obsessing about
work,
and his sex dreams were keeping him up as much as his nightmares. The other option was to try to get Matthew out of his system. His body's urges were inconvenient, and he'd felt a pressing need to take care of them almost every day this past week. Maybe if they had sex again, or even regularly, he could focus: at work, he could be thinking about work, and at home, he would be able to put work aside when he needed to sleep. Maybe, he'd convinced himself, if he let himself lose control with Matthew, he wouldn't be at risk of losing control anywhere else.

This was the option he was trying out now. Matthew seemed amenable to the idea, at least, if Silas was correctly interpreting the expression on his face.

“You want to kiss me?” Matthew shifted in his chair so he was facing Silas, a teasing grin playing about his lips. “So why don't you kiss me?”

“I thought it was polite to ask.” Silas smiled back. He was starting to enjoy this teasing, but he wanted the kiss even more, so he leaned forward and pressed his mouth against Matthew's. Matthew was a responsive kisser. Within moments, Silas was having trouble remembering anything about his next steps, focused instead on the play of Matthew's tongue with his.

Matthew gently pulled away. “So is this just about kissing, or what?”

“No.” Silas moved one hand to Matthew's thigh, a deliberate action that felt risky and yet right. “I was thinking it would also be nice to have sex with you again.”

Matthew chuckled. “Nice? It would be
nice
to have sex with me again?”

Silas kept his neutral expression as best as he could. “Yes, I think so. I also think you've been taking the lead far too much, and I should reciprocate.” He got up and reached out for Matthew. So far, so good. “Are you coming?”

Matthew took his hand. “Not yet, but I hope we're headed that way.”

Silas rolled his eyes. “That's a terrible joke.”

“I know. You'll have to punish me for it.” Matthew let Silas lead him into the bedroom.

Somehow, even when taking charge, Silas felt somewhat outside himself, as though he was watching this scene play out from above. They were naked in no time, and Matthew was stretched out on the bed exactly as Silas wanted him, but each touch and kiss that he inflicted on Matthew's skin affected him almost as much as it affected Matthew. With previous partners, he'd planned out his moves, learning what they liked and taking note on how they liked it. With Matthew, this all felt like instinct. He was touching and kissing and moving without thinking it through, and sliding down to take Matthew's cock in his mouth felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“Jesus fuck,” Matthew swore, and Silas felt a little thrill knowing he was the cause. He'd never found it actively arousing to give a blow job. Yes, he liked arousing his partners, but the act itself was always pretty one-sided. Not like this, though. Matthew's noises—and he didn't hold back with them—each sent a jolt through Silas like a caress, and his own cock was rock hard even with no contact whatsoever. He loved the heavy weight of Matthew's dick against his tongue and the slight stretch in his jaw. God, he loved all of it. He felt a gentle brush of fingers against the side of his head, Matthew's hand resting there without pushing or forcing. For a moment, he wished Matthew
would
grab his hair, which he liked even though he wasn't sure he should. As if reading his mind, Matthew gave a gentle tug—up, not down, not pushing his mouth farther onto his cock. The action was sudden and tentative, just testing Silas's reaction. Silas moaned around Matthew's dick, feeling the pleasure-pain running all through his body.

“Fuck, look at you,” Matthew said breathily, groaning as Silas began to suck harder. He gripped Silas's hair more tightly. “Is this all right? Do you like this?” He tugged enough that his cock popped out of Silas's mouth, wet and slick.

“Yes,” Silas said automatically, because this wasn't just good; it was incredible. He dipped back down onto Matthew's cock, using his hand to stroke and squeeze the base where his mouth didn't reach, and Matthew began to tug his hair on each upstroke. He was loving this far too much to stop, and he couldn't think of anything aside from the addictive feeling of Matthew falling apart under him.

Before long, Matthew's hips were jerking upward, searching for release. He pulled upward on Silas's hair, tugging him away. “I'm gonna come,” he groaned.

Silas dipped back down anyway, Matthew's hand slipping through his hair, and took Matthew's cock in his mouth once more. He wanted to make him come, just like this. Even though he was ostensibly in control, he felt like he was just as far gone as Matthew, craving the other man's orgasm as much as his own. With a hoarse groan, Matthew came, emptying himself into Silas's waiting mouth. Silas swallowed him down and kept sucking, drawing out the last bits of pleasure from his partner, until Matthew's cock began to soften and gave a hard twitch. Only then did he pull off.

Matthew was lying on his back with his eyes closed, one arm thrown over his head, panting. “Holy shit,” he said, sounding just as breathless as before. “Christ, man, I thought you were going to suck my brains out.” He grinned down at Silas. “Where'd you learn to give a blow job like that?”

Silas shrugged, because he hadn't had any particular teacher. “I don't know. I just like doing it.”

“Don't let that get around, or you'll never get any peace and quiet.” Matthew beckoned Silas up to the top of the bed, laughing. “Come here, will you?”

Silas went, lying down next to Matthew, who cupped his jaw and kissed him. When he pulled away, his eyes were still filled with lust. “It's so damn hot to taste myself on that pretty mouth of yours.”

With no response, Silas felt himself blush and managed an awkward shrug. Matthew moved in again to kiss him, methodical and slow, then started working his way down Silas's body.

Once Silas realized where he was going, he tried to shake his head, but Matthew was taking little bites of his hip bones, and speech was difficult. “You don't . . . oh, you don't have to . . .”

“I know.” Matthew kissed the skin there. “But I want to.”

Matthew's mouth on Silas's cock was a deep, wet warmth, paralyzingly good, and Silas was back to being helpless to do anything other than grip the sheets and try not to thrust. With his previous arousal already high, this was going to be embarrassingly brief. Pleasure pooling in his gut, he tried to draw back, pulling away, but Matthew lifted off him with a long lick before he could do much other than whimper. He opened his eyes and saw his cock twitching against his belly, forlorn and close to the edge.

“You okay there?” Matthew smiled at him.

Silas nodded. “God, yes. That's amazing.”

He moaned again when Matthew's mouth closed back over his dick. Matthew was sucking perfectly, steadily bringing him up to the point of no return, and he couldn't form words at all. With his hips twitching, he threw his head back and tried to hold off, since this was going to be over in just a few minutes. Matthew was relentless, though. Before long, Silas was trying to form words to warn the other man. “I'm . . . I'm . . . oh, I'm . . .” He couldn't think of anything else until Matthew pressed his tongue into the sensitive underside of Silas's dick. “Oh
fuck
!” he swore, coming all the way down Matthew's throat. He came forever, moaning and twitching and arching, Matthew continuing to suck and suck until Silas started to soften, his dick painfully sensitive, and only then did Matthew finally release him.