Page 21 of Finley
“I needed to know if you remembered. Or if you’d moved on.”
When Daniel’s fingers tightened around Brantley’s wrist, and they squared off with one another, he could’ve sworn he heard both of their hearts pounding out a matching rhythm in the silence.
“Icouldn’tmove on,” Daniel said. “You made sure of that. No matter what I did or who I did it with,youwere always there. I always remembered. There wasn’t one single thing I ever forgot.”
Brantley’s heart cracked a little at that admission.
It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did to know that Daniel had been with others. But the reality of someone else touching the man who was currently touching him was like a stake through his heart. And, by the look in Daniel’s eyes, he wasn’t close to being done twisting the blade.
Chapter 6
MEMORIES ARE FUNNY things,Daniel thought as he shut his eyes to block Brantley’s perfect face out. He had so many of him that they often jumbled together, but that tender tone he’d heard a second ago had his irritation on a precarious edge.
There’d been a time when he’d wanted nothing more than for Brantley to say words like those to him. Yet, as he stood there now, all he could remember was the last time he’d been in this house. The night he’d begged him not to?—
“Finn—”
“Don’t,” he said, his voice clipped. He clenched his jaw when tentative fingers gripped his bicep, and he ordered himself not to give in. When those same fingers then trailed down his arm to touch his, his resolve slipped away.
“Would you look at me? Why don’t we sit down? Talk for a little?”
No,he wanted to say. If he did that, then any kind of defense he had in place would likely start to falter. He needed to get back to why he was there. It wasn’t for heartfelt moments or in-depth conversations. They could take a stroll down memory lane later if he decided to stick around beyond the weekend. Right now, he had one goal, and he’d laid that out nice and clear back at his mother’s house.
He wanted Brantley Hayes. He wanted him onhisterms. And it was time to let him know exactly how this was going to go.
He turned around and took hold of Brantley’s shirt. Twisting his fingers into the linen fabric so he could hold him in place, he lowered his head and said against Brantley’s lips, “I didn’t come here to talk, and you didn’t send for me for my witty conversation. So how about we drop the act and get to what we both want.”
When Brantley’s mouth parted under his, Daniel flirted his tongue along his top lip and then nipped at the corner of his mouth.
“Do you remember the first time you put your mouth on mine?”
Brantley’s hands came up to rest on his chest to steady himself. “Yes.”
“So do I,” Daniel said as he glided his lips up to Brantley’s ear. When his fingers dug into his chest, Daniel’s cock stiffened. He couldn’t be sure if it was from what he was doing or the memory he was making them relive, but he hadn’t experienced such an intense sexual response since he’d left this man all those years ago.
“God, you made me work for that kiss. Had me practically begging you. But fuck,” he said. “It was so worth it. It’s my go-to, you know. Nothing makes me come as fast or hard as the memory of our first kiss.” Then he flicked his tongue over Brantley’s lobe.
“Jesus,Finn.”
“Exactly, but that’s not going to happen for you tonight. Like you did with me,” he promised as he pressed his lips to the grey sprinkled throughout the hair at Brantley’s temple. “It’s my turn to make you beg.”
DANIEL DUSTEDTHE sand off the bottom step and sat to wait for Derek to show for their morning run. It’d been two days since he’d agreed to wake at the ass crack of dawn to exercise with his friend. And two days since he’d looked, without success, for Professor Brantley Hayes.
Shit, maybe this isn’t such a good idea, he thought as he stood and stretched his neck from side to side. It was barely turning five thirty and the sun hadn’t even started to rise yet, but the thick humidity already had a bead of sweat forming on his forehead.
When Derek finally showed, he made his way down to his friend. They had class at eight thirty. So the sooner they got this out of the way, the sooner Danielcould get showered and think about how to approach his professor—since running on the beach apparently wasn’t it.
“Wasn’t sure you’d show today,” Derek said as they met up on the hard-packed sand bordering the shoreline.
“Yeah, well, I figured best out of three, right? Maybe he takes the weekends off?”
“Or maybe he went away for the weekend… Or was too tired from fuck?—”
“Shut up.”
Derek grinned and ran his fingers through his short brown hair. “Hey, we don’t know what he does for fun.”
“Seriously, can we just run and get this over with? I don’t want to be late this morning.”