Page 13
Chapter thirteen
Declan
T he wait for Thursday had been agonizing, but the day had arrived.
Part of me had been unsure if our communication would die out the moment Noah left, but he’d texted me throughout the day, sending pics from his job site and dorky commentary. I’d replied when I came up for air from my work projects, and we’d continued on the same trend until our date. I would’ve thought his constant communication would annoy me, but it felt similar to the Brannon family text chain. He didn’t expect an immediate response, so I dipped in when I could, which eliminated the pressure.
The steadiness soothed something inside me I hadn’t even realized was unsettled. I hopped out of the shower and toweled down, then slipped on the button-down and jeans I’d brought. I ran some product through my hair and styled it, then patted my neck with cologne.
My whole body hummed at the idea of getting to be in Noah’s proximity again. The urge to crawl onto his lap and ride his cock the second he arrived was strong, but I’d been the one to suggest a date, so we needed to try to be normal humans or whatnot. I doubted he’d be comfortable in a relationship where my modes were either ignoring him to work on projects and then fucking him until we were both wrung out.
Though who knew? Noah was full of surprises.
A knock sounded on the door, and my heart soared.
I tweaked a few strands of my hair one more time and exited my bedroom, walking a little faster than normal. Noah had always made my pulse increase, and for years, I thought it had been from annoyance. However, the truth was clear—I was deeply attracted to Noah Langston, and there was a factor of difference that had never existed with the people I’d hooked up with.
My whole body reacted to him, not just my cock. The fluttering in my chest was deeper than attraction, and I knew it. I swallowed hard as I tugged open my front door.
Noah stood in front of me, and my mouth dried.
He’d cleaned up after work, his blond hair styled, and a goofy grin on his lips, brightening his sky-blue eyes. Noah wore a white tee that showcased his broad shoulders and defined muscles. His blue jeans had a similar fit. Saliva pooled in my mouth, and the insistent thump, thump, thump that had risen in fervor while we were apart settled.
I crashed into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me. Ngh. His sage and cedarwood scent surrounded around me, stoking flames that hadn’t died. When I looked up, he dipped his head and kissed me with a fervor I hadn’t imagined, like he tried to take me apart and piece me back together again in a single breath.
The comfort that washed over me, pressed against him was bone deep, and I craved it. I wanted to climb inside him and live there .
When he pulled back from the kiss, any worries I’d had that what had happened the other day was an anomaly vanished.
“Do you want to know what we’re going to do tonight?” he asked.
“I hope part of the plan is for you to stick your big cock in me again.” I squeezed his length, which tested the confines of his jeans.
“Declan, Jesus.”
“I’m certain I’m not interchangeable with Jesus.” I lifted a hand. “Missing the stigmata and all.”
A deep laugh barked out of him, and I rested my head against his chest to soak up the rumble.
“So, Reading Public Museum is doing a night at the stars over at their planetarium…” He licked his lips as if nervous. “I thought we’d do that and grab takeout, then head back to my place.”
I’d been to their planetarium before—it was excellent. Excitement burst through me that he’d take me there instead of forcing me into a typical date like a movie I didn’t care about or a bar that was too noisy. Maybe Noah did still know me.
“Does that work?” he asked. “If you don’t like the plan, I can come up with something else.”
I pushed up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. He relaxed against it, sliding his tongue into my mouth as we made out. After a few minutes, I separated for breath. “I love it. Let’s go.”
He broke into one of those broad Noah smiles that had once upon a time aggravated me. Mostly because I missed having them in my life, directed at me. God, I was already so gone on him.
I patted myself down for keys, wallet, and phone, then followed him out, pausing to lock up behind me.
Noah led us to his car and got the door for me.
“Really eager about getting me in your car,” I teased. “Is this a precursor to a kidnapping? Making sure I don’t have an escape vehicle? ”
“You’ve caught onto my dastardly plan. Now get into the van.”
“Truck. And if you wanted to bind me up, you could just ask.”
“Ngh.” Noah thumped his head against the side of the truck. “I’m not going to survive this date.”
I’d never done bondage with any of my partners because we didn’t fuck with enough regularity to establish a baseline level of trust, but also because few of them were interested in taking a dominant role with me. However, Noah seemed to revel in it, and my mind reeled with the possibilities. I slipped into the passenger’s side, and he popped into the driver’s.
Noah started the ignition and hit the gas. His truck smelled like metal and wood, which made sense since he used it plenty for work. Something about how he was grounded in the world around us appealed to me. Maybe because I’d spent my life with my mind on the stars.
“What would your ideal date be?” I asked. When we were younger, our interests had aligned in terms of sci-fi and space, but Noah always had a keen interest in sports too. Me, not as much.
“Either a baseball game or a picnic surrounded by dogs.” Noah held his gaze on the road as he zoomed along the highway.
“Two very opposite things. Though both involve sunshine, I guess.” Which, truthfully, fit him. The man was sunshine incarnate, and I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed having a central force in my life until it had returned.
“How do you feel about pets?” Noah clutched the wheel in a way that highlighted the muscles of his forearms, and I couldn’t stop looking. My skin prickled again in what I recognized was now a more violent attraction than I’d experienced toward anyone else.
“Animals are great. Far better than people.” Truthfully, they were. I didn’t have to wonder if I’d said something wrong, and they had no problem with my directness. Our currency of communication had an ease that was an instant relief. “I’d always planned on getting a dog or cat, but time slipped away from me.”
“Fuck, I want a dog so bad.” Noah furrowed his brows. “I’m always pulling overtime at work, though, or heading over to my folks’ place, and that wouldn’t be fair to my pet.”
“Do you need the overtime?” I asked. My mind whirred as what he was saying sounded like a similar refrain from him.
Noah heaved a sigh. “Rude. You’re going to point out that if I just said no to my bosses, I could have a dog.”
I shrugged. “I mean, you seem to already be aware. So why not make the change?”
“How about you?” he asked, a bit of emphasis in those words.
“Mmm, care to clarify the question?” I crossed my arms. Ever since the battery’s charger got ruined in the flood, I’d been mulling over my own path. I’d started dissembling it to see what was salvageable, but the process would take a long, long while.
Noah wrinkled his nose. Clearly, he wouldn’t be comfortable giving me a direct response.
“I’m okay to discuss this subject,” I said.
His shoulders relaxed. “My god, you’re fucking amazing.”
“From giving you basic communication?”
“By explaining. You’re so direct it doesn’t give my anxiety a chance to fester, and that’s…fucking everything, Dec.”
Heat rushed through me at the praise, at him appreciating me for…being me. Normally, everyone had to adjust to my bluntness and need for clarity. My family accepted me mask-free, but I had to don it on the daily with the rest of the world, and the process was exhausting. The fact that Noah accepted me as is too? The gravity of that settled deep in my bones .
Noah sucked in a deep breath. “So, how come you aren’t working in a field revolving around space engineering? It’s always been obvious that was where your interests were.”
“The company I’m at was where I’d interned at college, and I got comfortable.” The truth lay stark out there, and once the words hit the air, I picked them apart. Here I was commenting on his unwillingness to change, when I was mired in my own.
“It’s tough, right?” Noah reached over with one hand and squeezed my thigh.
My heart fluttered. “Yeah, it is. But that doesn’t mean I should stay stagnant like this.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Noah said, his voice growing soft. “The idea of starting over somewhere new makes my head hurt. Masons are in high demand, but what if I left and the next guy is just like Brandon?”
I shook my head. “I know plenty of guys in the industry are not like Brandon.” My brothers Cor and Ollie were a prime example, and they’d talked about Brandon and how shitty the way he ran his company was. “And if they are, then you try again. And again until you find the right spot.” I heaved a sigh. “Which is what I should be doing as well.”
A small smile teased Noah’s lips. “I didn’t say anything.”
The signs for Reading came into view far faster than I’d expected. Maybe the quickness had been from the company. An ease existed between Noah and me that I’d forgotten about when we’d gone divergent paths. After date after failed date, I’d begun to give up hope I’d find someone who could accept me as is, that I’d have to settle for being alone, but hope flared through me like a gamma-ray burst. I clutched on to the feeling. Noah had shown up today, and if we could continue to make steps forward together…maybe, maybe .
He turned into the lot for the Reading Public Museum. The circular gray building of the Neag Planetarium was accented by white and blue, lit up by spotlights in the early evening. The sky had slowly faded into darkness like it’d be skipping the glorious blaze of the sunset tonight. Cars filled the parking lot, and people entered the planetarium in droves. My stomach flipped at the whole contained space with a bunch of people aspect, but the focus would be on the planetarium’s showcase rather than interaction.
“How did you find out about this?” I asked.
“I sometimes still come up here, so I keep tabs on their events.” He pulled into a space and shut off the ignition.
“Bring any other dates here?” I asked, my heart thumping a little harder. A possessiveness curled through me that surprised me. After finally getting Noah’s attention, I didn’t want him to belong to anyone else. He already had so many distractions in his life, but the idea of being able to inhabit this one space with him—fuck, it was heady.
“What other dates,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “I don’t date, Dec. Whenever I tried when I was younger, my attempts ended in disaster. My partners would get mad at me, I wouldn’t understand why until it was too late, and we’d break up. So I don’t bother.” He licked his lips. The intensity in his gaze knocked the breath from my chest. “You’ve always been the exception.”
I leaned in, and he met me midway. Our lips clashed together with a sweet ferocity I was fast becoming addicted to. Noah wrapped his hand around my nape, keeping me in place, and I savored the taste of his mouth a moment more, then pulled back for breath.
“Okay,” he said. “We should get to the planetarium before we miss anything.” He let go of my neck, and I hated the loss of contact at once. Wild, because normally, I hated it when people touched me apart from my family. Maybe because Noah was touching me , not the projection of Declan the rest of the world saw. That made all the difference.
We both got out of the car and walked to the planetarium, the place buzzing with chatter and clacking of shoes. The darkness helped my nerves, unlike the sudden kind that had happened during the storm, mostly because I knew what to anticipate. It was dark with the purpose of showcasing the night sky and far reaches of space, and my body thrummed in readiness.
“What’s the focus for tonight?” I asked. I’d seen many shows here, and the subjects could vary.
“Planets visible in the night sky.” Noah led us over to the rows of seating. Some people were still milling around and talking, but the chairs had filled up. “Nothing new information-wise, but—”
“I don’t need new information to appreciate something. Planetariums are comfortable, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than comfortable with you.” The words leaped from me, but it wasn’t until I’d admitted them that the reality settled in my veins. Noah was a far more social creature than me, and guaranteed there’d be plenty of times he’d be off to parties or big gatherings, and I’d want nothing to do with that.
But as long as he understood as much, that he didn’t try to push me to be someone I wasn’t…maybe we could make this thing between us work. Hesitation still tugged from years of conditioning. We’d gone different paths for a long time. However, each moment I spent with him helped degrade those memories a bit more. My hope was that eventually the hesitation would disintegrate, and all that would remain was this.
The comfort, the thrill, and the deep emotion stirring in my chest.
He found a spot in the back row and plunked into the seat. I flashed him a grateful smile. I wasn’t sure if he’d done it on purpose because I hated being flanked by people, but I appreciated our location either way.
Noah rested his arm on the back of my seat. It was irritatingly close enough to feel his presence there but not touching me, and the sensation would drive me nuts the entire time.
I reached for his hand and tugged his arm around my shoulders. Relief settled through me at once.
“You sure you’re okay with this?” Noah said, his breath tickling my ear.
“What?” I nestled against his chest as he brought me closer.
“PDA, people knowing you’re…well, with me,” he said.
I wrinkled my brow. “We are on a date, right? I’m pretty sure they’re going to assume we’re together.”
Noah shook his head, a soft smile on his lips. “Never change, Declan.”
The lights dimmed, and the ceiling was about to shift to a beautiful display of the night sky. No matter how often I saw it, my heart careened every time. My gaze dropped to Noah, and the same swooping sensation overtook me.
Hunh.
I settled against him and let those feelings wash over me as wonder surrounded me—from above and from the steadiness of the man whose arms were wrapped around me.