Page 46 of Finley
This Daniel was so far removed from the young man he’d once straddled that it was almost unreal to believe he was one and the same. The experience and self-confidence Daniel was exuding made this feel so new. He was commanding and controlled with every move he made, and each time he issued an order,God help him, Brantley wanted to do nothing more than obey.
Daniel’s cock wept all over his own, and the mess between the two of them was going to be nothing short of spectacular by the time this was all over—butholy hell.Brantley wasn’t about to bring it to a halt.
He remembered all too well the night he’d sat on Daniel’s lap and his gorgeous student had fucked his fist until he had come. And if that was what Daniel wanted from him now, he was more than willing to give it to him.
He placed a hand on one of Daniel’s broad shoulders and leaned back. Then he licked his palm and reached down to wrap it around Daniel’s cock.
“Yes,” Daniel said as Brantley lowered his eyes and watched him rock his hips, pumping his cock through his fist. “Do it.”
Brantley wasn’t sure what came over him then, but it was as if the order and Daniel’s greedy gaze had cast a spell on him, because he couldn’t move his hips fast enough.
As though he were inside a tight hole instead of his own fist, Brantley picked up the pace and started to masturbate for the man who was eagerly watching his hips piston back and forward toward completion.
But it wasn’t until Daniel brought his eyes back up to meet his and said, “You better be fucking sure before you come all over me, because Brantley? This time,Idon’t plan to letyouout of my sight until I’m done. Got it?” that he exploded in a mind-numbing orgasm all over both of them.
Their past and present collided spectacularly, and as they collapsed onto the rug in a tangle of arms and legs, Brantley wondered if they would ever be able to disentangle themselves long enough to find a new place to begin.
Chapter 14
SOMETIME IN THE middle of the night, Brantley had woken Daniel and suggested they move to the bed. Ever since then, Daniel hadn’t slept a wink. He’d slipped beneath the covers and shut his eyes, but the lethargy that had given him a couple of hours’ respite after their…moment had faded. Now, he was left staring at the bamboo ceiling fan and thinking about how much he loved watching Brantley come undone for him. And how he wanted to see it again. And again.And fucking again.
He rolled over and stared at the peaceful face on the pillow beside him, and his heart ached. God, he was a fool. A fool to have thought he could ever go back there and keep his heart out of the fucking equation.
Even now, he wanted to trace his fingers over Brantley’s stubbled cheek so he’d open his eyes and look at him, but he balled his fists and shoved them under the pillow to quell the urge.
He needed to get a fucking grip on himself. This was temporary.Thatwas the plan. It was two weeks and then he would be going home. Back to Chicago. Back to the job he’d worked so hard for. Back to the life Brantley had orchestrated for him.
Turning to his side, he looked at the window he used to crawl through back in the day and smiled at the memory. He remembered the first time he’d done it and scared the hell out of Brantley. After that night, though, his professor would wait for him to arrive. Sometimes, he’d even fall asleep before he got there. Usually, they were the nights he would spend studying at the library, but each time he crept inside and roused Brantley from his sleep, he would roll over and smile at him in a way that would make his whole fucking world spin.
As the covers rustled and the mattress dipped, he turned his head, but Brantley’s eyes remained closed. The thought was absurd, but Daniel hated the fact that sleep was stealing time away from him. Yet on the other hand, he was scared of what he would say if Brantley opened his eyes. With the way he was feeling, he wouldn’t put anything past his irrational brain.
The truth of the matter was he didn’t want to spend his time with Brantley angry. If this really was the last time they would be together like this, surely he could find a way to push aside all of their past baggage and enjoy him. He’d dreamed of moments like this. Of lying in this very bed with Brantley again, and never in any of those scenarios was he angry. So why couldn’t he just be fucking happy?
Sitting up, he swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and rubbed his hands over his face. This wasn’t supposed to be so complicated. He was the king of one-night stands, for fuck’s sake, and he had been ever since he’d left Florida. He’d constructed a wall so high that no one had even come close to getting over it—but then again, no one was Brantley.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder, but this time his eyes caught and held on to the ones that haunted his every waking, and sleeping, moment.
“Leaving so soon?”
Daniel shook his head as Brantley ran his palm over the empty sheet, and then he lay back down beside him. The room remained silent save for the soft thumping of the fan and his own beating heart as he waited—for what, he wasn’t sure.
“Can we call a truce?”
He looked over at Brantley and opened his mouth to speak. Before any words could come out, though, Brantley placed a finger over Daniel’s lips.
“I had no idea how much I hurt you back then. I thought I was helping.”
He gently clasped Brantley’s wrist and drew his hand away as he asked, “By deciding what was best for me?”
“I didn’t want you to resent me,” Brantley admitted. “But, in the end, I made you hate me…”
As the words lingered between them, the pain in Brantley’s expression tore at Daniel and he brought their hands to his chest.
“I don’t hateyou,” he said. “I could never hate you…”
“But?”
The only way he could ever be with Brantley was honest, so he held his stare as he told him the brutal truth. “I hate what you did to us. I hate that you chose how we should end. And I fucking hate that you decided that my life was better off without you in it.”