Single Player (3 page)

Silas knew that he
was more drunk than he appeared to the people around him, and feared that he was coming off as standoffish in his attempt to seem controlled, but he definitely was not so drunk that he didn't understand Matthew's come-on.

He couldn't say the offer wasn't tempting. First off, the guy was very good-looking. As flirtations went, he was forward, forward enough that Silas could keep track of what was happening, even with his own predisposition to missing flirting whenever it happened. One-night stands, though, were not in his wheelhouse. All his sexual experience had come from relationships, although they were all rather brief and none too recent. He'd never been particularly drawn to any of his partners, but social norms dictated he date, and so he had. Sex was enjoyable, certainly, a pleasant release, but he preferred sex on his own terms. Like a particularly sensitive lab experiment, sex was best under controlled circumstances and with few variables. As he'd gotten older, relationships had become more of a nuisance than they were worth. When he had sexual needs, as happened with frustrating frequency, he dealt with them in the healthy way and moved on to more important business. He didn't have time to waste hooking up with strangers when he could exorcise his own urges in a few minutes.

But it had been a very long time since he'd exorcised those urges with someone else, and he'd had quite a bit of alcohol, certainly more than he was used to, and enough that his guard was down. He couldn't help remembering how nice it felt to end up in bed with someone, limbs tangled and bodies pressed close, all lean angles and warm, insistent mouths. Matthew wouldn't be the type of guy to ask for a relationship, Silas could tell. They'd talk, move into bed, have sex, and then separate. People did this all the time. Why couldn't Silas be one of those people, just for tonight?

But it was late, and he had work to do tomorrow. He was planning to go into the lab on Saturday as he usually did and test out a few new modifications he'd been considering for his latest project. Then again, he could always go in later in the day. Go home with Matthew, have sex, say good night, take a cab home. No commitments.

The logical reasoning away of Silas's last objection decided it for him. He wanted Matthew, and it had been too long since he'd allowed himself something he wanted.

When he actually made the decision to go through with it, he felt a current of electricity go through his body. His next steps felt reckless and dangerous, uncontrolled, and that alone was almost enough to make him bail out on his plan. A core of stubbornness refused to let him change his mind, though. He'd decided to do this and he wanted to see it through.

By the time one o'clock rolled around, Dee's party had moved out onto the dance floor, leaving him alone in the private room except for the server, who was cleaning up and ignoring him entirely. Fitting, since he had been ignoring her as well. He got up and wandered out into the main room to look for Dee. He'd hoped to say goodbye to her and wish her a happy birthday one last time before finding Matthew. He couldn't find her at first. Finally, he spotted her gold dress in a sparkle of light. She was pressed against some handsomely dressed black man in the corner, making out like they weren't at a public club at all. Silas rolled his eyes. That was classic Dee. He'd text her instead.

Silas turned around and strode toward the bar, where Matthew was wiping down the counter when he approached. When he looked up and saw who it was, his eyes widened, then he smiled, a wicked smile that made something twist in Silas's gut. Matthew leaned forward on the bar and slowly drew his tongue across his lower lip as he looked Silas up and down. After a moment, he turned his head to the other bartender who was busy mixing a drink for a young Latina woman in an elegant black dress. “I'm clocking out, Mia.”

Mia didn't even look up. “Have a good one.”

Before Silas could say anything, Matthew came around from behind the bar and took him by the wrist. Not the hand, the wrist, and Silas felt a shiver run down his back at the control in Matthew's grip. Without asking questions, he tugged Silas to the rear of the club, through the Employees Only door into a dark hallway that snaked out and back, winding labyrinthine through the dimness. Silas felt disoriented and already overwhelmed. He'd thought Matthew would bring him out to his car. “Where are we going?” His voice sounded loud in his ears; after hours of pounding music in the club, the sudden quiet of the back rooms was its own form of deafening.

Matthew pulled him through a doorway into a small, dark room and closed the door behind them, dropping Silas's wrist. “In here.” The vagueness wasn't a real answer, but the golden wash of a streetlight filtered in through a window that looked out onto the parking lot, and Silas could see that he was in some kind of employee coatroom. At least, that's what he saw before Matthew moved forward and put one hand on the wall next to Silas's head, boxing him in, and dropped his gaze to Silas's lips. He saw nothing but Matthew then, his outline in the dim light, and his heart was racing in his chest. This wasn't at all turning out to be the decorous affair he'd envisioned. It was all happening so much faster than he'd pictured. He felt dizzy and anxious, but also excited, his skin tingling and his breath coming in short gasps. Without waiting any longer, Matthew stepped forward, pressing Silas into the wall, and kissed him.

The moment their lips touched, Silas knew he was completely out of his league. Matthew kissed like a man with all the experience in the world. Silas felt his own inadequacies for a moment, as he always felt when kissing someone new, a tendency to overthink the specifics and expectations involved. But then Matthew slanted his mouth to the side for a better angle, and Silas's hesitation melted away in the face of a new emotion: lust. It raced hot through his veins like he'd never felt before, and he found himself clutching the back of Matthew's jacket and kissing back like he was starving for it.

Matthew let him go before Silas was ready to end the kiss, but it was only to take Silas by the hair and tip his head back, exposing his neck. Silas made a soft noise, a whimper, as Matthew pressed his open mouth to the space below his jaw and began kissing down his neck. The sharp scrape of Matthew's teeth against Silas's sensitive skin made his hips jerk as he moaned, and Matthew gave a low, filthy chuckle. He released Silas's hair to cup the back of his head. He was almost exactly the same height as Silas and was able to look him right in the eyes. “You like that?” His voice sounded like pure sex, raspy and rich.

Silas's scalp stung from where Matthew had pulled his hair, and he could feel where Matthew's teeth had scraped his skin, but the discomfort added up to nothing but
good.
“Yes.” His own voice sounded hoarse in his ears. “Won't someone find us in here?”

“Not if you're quiet.” Matthew stole a light, nipping kiss, catching Silas's lower lip between his teeth. “That might be hard for you.”

Silas opened his mouth to protest, but Matthew took that opportunity to kiss him again, hotter and dirtier than before, and his objections vanished as he tried only to keep his breath. He felt Matthew pushing at his jacket and let him shove it off onto the floor. A dim clatter let him know his phone had been in that jacket, but he could barely bring himself to care as Matthew tossed his own jacket aside as well and began tugging at Silas's tie. He broke the kiss to hook a finger behind the knot and pull, loosening the tie and also drawing Silas forward. With the tie loosened, he moved back in to Silas's neck once more, unbuttoning his top shirt button to expose a hint of collarbone and nip at the skin there. With Silas gasping for air and trying not to make a noise, Matthew pressed a hand to his cock through his pants and squeezed
. Hard
.

Oh my god. Silas's knees were not going to support him through this. His body felt completely foreign to him, with its overwhelming reactions to Matthew's touch. He couldn't think straight. He could feel his hips moving, his dick desperate for more attention. After a moment, he felt Matthew's hand on his belt, then the yank of his zipper being pulled down, freeing his erection, a glorious sensation that paled as soon as he felt the warm, firm grip of the other man's hand. He managed not to make a noise except a strangled gasp, leaning back heavily on the wall as that firm grip turned into a stroke.

“Fuck, you're so hot.” Matthew's voice was up by his ear, his teeth taking more nips of the soft skin, now that he'd learned how much Silas liked it. “Look at you. You can't even keep it together. I want to take you completely apart. Is that what you want?”

Silas couldn't answer, his body already trembling. He felt completely out of his element and out of control, a totally new experience for him. His hands fumbled at his pants to drop them, giving Matthew more room to work, before he desperately reached out for Matthew's slacks as well.

Matthew released Silas's cock to help. “Oh, so
that's
what you want, huh?” He unfastened his belt and trousers, pushing them down past his hips. Matthew found Silas's hand and guided it to his erection, letting Silas feel the hard, smooth length of him, thick and full in his grip. Matthew stepped forward, pressing their bodies together, helping Silas grasp both cocks and then wrapping his hand around them as well, stroking in unison. Silas felt like his brain was melting. He couldn't talk, couldn't even think, his body completely beyond his control, and most surprising of all, he didn't even care.

---

The soft moans Silas
was making were far too quiet to be heard by anyone else, but they were going to drive Matthew absolutely crazy. This wasn't how he'd thought this night would go, not really. The back room had been an impulse born of a wave of lust when he'd seen Silas approaching the bar unexpectedly, that shy little smile playing around his mouth, and now they were pressed against the wall of the employee coatroom, stroking their cocks together, and he could not handle this. Silas was even hotter than he'd imagined, going from conservative engineer to desperate sexpot in about as long as it took for Matthew to bite his neck. He loved it when his partners liked it rough. How long had it been since he'd fucked someone as responsive as Silas, whose hips were already stuttering, his cock leaking wetly all over both their hands?

He had been bracing himself on the wall with his free arm, but now he took a handful of Silas's hair again and pulled, feeling Silas twitch hard in his arms and thrust harder in his grip. Fuck, that was so good, and he was racing toward orgasm faster than he'd intended. A part of him wanted to stop, get on his knees, and swallow Silas down, make him shatter and beg, but he knew the other man would never stay quiet enough to keep them from getting caught. All it would take was another employee on break, even though no one was scheduled off until close in another hour. Damn, he wanted to do this again, and take his time. He wanted to lay Silas out and drive him crazy with bites and licks, shatter his veneer of respectability and make him cry out for more.

Just the thought was so hot that Matthew felt another stab of pleasure run through him, making him tighten his grip on Silas's hair again and making Silas buck into him once more.

“Oh god,” Silas breathed, the first coherent words he'd said since asking if they were going to get caught. “Oh . . . I'm going to . . . I'm . . . I'm . . .”

His face contorted in a mask of ecstasy as he came, pleasure that looked like pain from its intensity, his cock spurting hot all over both their hands. His trembling frame and desperate, whimpering breaths were so erotic that before Matthew expected it, his orgasm slammed into him like a punch. He released Silas's hair to brace himself heavily on the wall, coming and coming and coming, shocks of pleasure running down his spine and through his legs, until he was completely spent.

He staggered back from Silas, out of breath like he'd just run up a dozen flights of stairs. Shit, they were a mess. He looked around for something to clean them up with before spotting a box of tissues on the table in the corner.

“Holy fuck, Silas.” He shook his head, handing the other man the tissues. “You okay?” He began restoring his own clothes.

Silas was leaning against the wall like he couldn't possibly support himself, the complete picture of debauchery. His pants were still down around his knees, his shirt untucked and rumpled, a few buttons unfastened, his tie half undone, his hair a total mess. His eyes were wide and shell-shocked, but at Matthew's question, he nodded. “Yeah.” His voice sounded hoarse. He looked down at the tissue box in his hand as if surprised to see it, then shook himself out of that reverie and cleaned up. He pulled his trousers back up with visibly shaking hands. When he tried to fix the buttons on his shirt, though, he was trembling too badly, and Matthew stepped in to help. He fixed the buttons, then adjusted Silas's tie, sliding it back into place. He wasn't sure why he felt so tender toward this guy, this complete stranger he'd just fucked in the back room of work. Silas gently brushed his hands away. “I'm all right.” He finished fixing the tie himself, then bent to pick up his jacket. “That was . . . unexpected.”