Page 16 of Totally Played (Love In Play #5)

Chapter fifteen

Calvin

I was going to leave and was on my way out the door when Tony grabbed my arm.

“He’s all yours, brother. If you want him, that is.”

“What do you mean?” I ask over the loud music. He leans in close to my ear, and the guy behind him pumps his eyebrows suggestively. Gross.

“We agreed to just be friends. I’m headed out to meet this woman for a nightcap. Don’t wait up.”

My heart is racing. He really ended it with him, not that they really started anything; it was one date.

One and a half, tops. But he can’t just hand him over either.

He’s not something to be passed around, he’s a person.

One I can’t stop thinking about. I push through the crowd, not sure what I plan to say when I see him, but my chest swelling at the possibilities.

I find Rach and Fort dancing together, but Ash isn’t there.

I spot him instantly, his tall frame like a beacon in the strobe lights calling to me.

He’s getting another drink up at the bar.

I guess I should just dance until he comes back.

But what if he doesn’t come back? I turn away from him, trying to steady my thoughts and my heart rate, counting the beats as I dance as a way to try to keep myself from turning around.

Then I step back and bump into a wall of warmth, large hands grip my waist, and I just know it’s him.

“Sorry,” I say, and try to keep myself dancing, but I feel awkward and stiff.

Hands shaking like the bones are trying to vibrate their way out of my skin, I hold him firm at my hips, and when he doesn’t pull away, I let myself just be there, with him, dancing to the music.

I’ve never danced like this. Normally, a girl is the one dancing in front of me, my arms around her as she grinds against me, but being like this is more of a turn-on than I could have imagined.

I edge backward, letting his chest press against my back, and when my ass brushes against him, I feel how hard I’ve made him.

A shudder rolls through me, and I let his hands go and turn.

Ash’s eyes go wide as he breathes my name. “Calvin?”

The room is hot, air thick, and when I nod, his smile grows wide.

“I… Are you? Do you?” He’s not dancing, just standing there looking down at me, and I don’t know exactly what he is trying to ask me, but I take a chance at the answer.

“Yes.”

I raise my hands, still shaking like a leaf, until they’re on his waist. It’s tiny, helped a little by the corset he’s wearing.

My cock pulses at the image of Ash, shirtless except for a tight black corset cinching in his tiny waist, broad muscled shoulders glistening.

“Is this okay?” I ask far too quietly for him to be able to hear, but he must have read my lips because he nods and then his hands slide up the sides of my waist again, only this time, his fingers slip just underneath the hem of my shirt.

He leans down close to my ear, his warm breath tickling the soft skin and sending a shudder through me.

“I wanted it to be you.”

I swallow the lump in my throat and take a deep breath, only I get a lungful of his sweet musky scent, and my head spins.

“You smell amazing,” I sigh, and my face immediately warms.

“Why do you think I’ve been wearing your jacket all night?”

“It’s not just mine,” I reply, and he gets closer, his lips brushing against my earlobe.

“I could only smell you in it, that’s why I wore it. I wanted to be wrapped in you.” Then he sucks my earlobe into his mouth and my knees go weak. “I got you,” he says, his hands sweeping around my waist, then his hands slide all the way under my shirt and rest in the dip of my back.

“What if people are watching?”

“So what if they are?” he asks, moving back to look down at me, that same wide smile he has always had for me. “I always say, dance like no one’s watching, even though someone probably is.”

I glance around, checking to see who could be watching me, only I find not a single set of eyes on me, except Ash’s. Rachel is too busy lip-locked with Fort to notice us. What would she say if she did know? Would she even care?

“We can go somewhere else if you want?” he asks, but I shake my head.

“I want to stay, if you do.”

“I will go anywhere you’ll have me.”

My stomach swirls, and I let myself fall into step with him. The rhythm of the beat washes over me, helping to ease my nerves as he moves closer. It’s like I can almost see the energy building, drawing us near with every beat of the music.

He guides me gently side to side, turning us in place, and when my thigh knocks against his leg, I step wider, so that his leg can move between mine.

I’m hard, breathing heavy, my cock straining against my jeans, begging for friction.

I take a slow breath in, letting his intoxicating scent envelop my senses, and then I close the final gap between us, his thigh pressing hard against my groin.

His eyes flutter closed for a moment, and I can feel his erection against my leg, and knowing I did that to him has my chest swelling and my hips grinding harder.

“Holy shit, you’re so beautiful,” he leans in to whisper as his arms hug me tighter against him. My hands slip under my jacket, moving softly over the top of the satin corset underneath.

I step back a little, bring my hands around to the front and slowly unzip the soft leather.

“I think it’s time this came off,” I say, and he smirks, shrugging out of it, and laying it over one arm. He’s wearing a black button-up shirt underneath a black satin corset that’s tied tight at the back and connected up the front by big, shiny gold clasps. “Wow.”

“Do you like it?”

“Hell, yes. I never even thought a man could wear one of those, but shit, it looks so hot on you. Do you have more?”

He bites his lower lip, taking me by the waist and pulling me close, his erection pushed hard against my thigh again.

“A whole closet full. Would you like to see them?”

I swallow the lump in my throat, and though I have zero clue what being with a man might be like, I know I want him.

I push up on my toes to whisper in his ear.

“Are you asking to take me back to your place?”

“Are you saying yes?” he breathes into my neck before kissing the crease where it meets my shoulder, soft and slow.

I grip the back of his neck and pull his mouth harder against my skin, his kisses growing firmer, his tongue sliding up my neck, tasting my sweat, bringing every nerve in my body alive with desire.

“I’m saying yes,” I breathe, then I turn and grab his hand and pull him through the crowd to the door.

My heart is pounding like never before. Am I really doing this?

What is it I am saying yes to exactly? Fuck, I have no clue.

I mean, I have a clue, but no idea how to do any of it.

He glances back at me, those piercing eyes sparkling and wide lustful grin, and my cock twitches and I know the only thing that matters. I want him.

I make a move for the cabs.

“I’m not that far, this way,” he says, guiding me to follow him along the street.

“How long have you lived here?” I ask.

“A couple of years now.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never seen you around, though.”

He shrugs.

“We both travel a lot.”

I keep wondering if I had met Ash earlier, would we have hit it off this strong? I’d like to think so. From the moment we met, there was this easy flow between us and a magnetic pull that seems to have awakened a side of myself I never knew existed.

“That’s true.”

While we were practically power walking when we set out toward his place, we’re strolling now, and it’s nice. He’s still holding my hand, his long fingers wrapping mine in their warmth.

“So, this is me,” he says, stopping in front of a five-story walk-up. It’s like most others in Savannah, old brick, but with a new vibe. The first door is covered by ornate metal bars, and behind it a second door, all glass, gives full view of the checkerboard tile running the length of the hall.

“This is nice,” I say as he leads me up the stairs. I glance up. “What floor are you on?” I ask, my breath coming a little heavier than expected. I’m a fit guy, but it’s been a long day.

“I’m only on two. Not far now,” he says with that same lustful smirk that sends a swirl through my gut.

He fumbles with his keys a little, and it somehow makes me feel better, knowing that maybe he’s a little nervous, too.

“Can I kiss you now?” he asks as soon as the door clicks behind him.

“Okay,” I say, my voice a whisper, and my heart pounding in my ears. He cups my face in both hands, letting his thumb brush over my bottom lip.

“I’ve wanted to kiss these since that first night in the bar,” he whispers, leaning in a little closer, and my nerves start to settle into an excited buzz that’s vibrating all over my body.

“I felt something that night, too,” I say. My hands find his waist again and slide up the soft satin of the corset. The smooth sheen under my fingertips sends ripples up my arms to my chest. “I didn’t understand it at first. But now I know what it was.”

“You do, huh?” he asks with a smirk.

“I think so.”

“I’d like to hear what this revelation of yours is,” he says, stepping back without kissing me, and it’s like a giant hole has formed where my stomach once was. “Would you like a drink?”

“Umm. I guess, water would be good,” I say, my throat impossibly dry all of a sudden.

The nerves rising again. It’s silly, or at least that is what I’m telling myself as I follow him through to the living room.

I’ve been with women before and never batted an eye at telling them what I wanted to do with them.

But this is different. And not just because Ash is a man, but because the way I feel with him is so different from anything I’ve ever felt with anyone.

“How about we pause for a minute and take a seat?” he says, and I follow him to the couch, hoping the nervous energy bubbling under the surface doesn’t send me running for the hills.

His apartment is nice. Super clean and modern with the couch on the right wall, set centered on an extremely large flat screen television on the opposite wall.

On its right, there is a window with two tall bookcases flanking it, filled with too many titles to count.

“You like to read,” I say, and he smiles and passes me the water as we sit.

“I do. I’ll read pretty much anything, but science fiction is my favorite. Do you read?” he asks, cracking the seal on a bottle of water and passing it to me.

“Yeah. I’m more of an epic fantasy guy, Wheel Of Time and stuff like that.”

“Good to know. I read The Lord Of The Rings when it first came out and saw the movies, too. The books were better. For the most part, anyway.”

“Totally agree. Like the movies were good, but nothing was ever going to live up to the fantasy world I built in my mind.”

“Are you worried this might not live up to your imagination, too?” he asks before biting his lower lip. He’s nervous. Funnily enough, that thought gives me a small jolt of confidence.

I take a sip and place the bottle down on the black glass coffee table.

“The moment we met, there was something that pulled me to you. I figured our connection was a friend thing, like when you meet a person and you just click with them, and you know you’re going to be friends for a long time.”

“I know what you mean, but how did you know it was something else?” he asks, resting his hand on my thigh.

Heat floods under his touch and the nerves resurface.

Not fear, excitement. An excitement I haven’t felt in the longest time.

If ever. I hesitate for the briefest of moments, contemplating telling him the truth or just shrugging in response to his question as if I had no clue what made me see this was something else.

Really, I know exactly why he had me questioning if I really even knew myself.

I’ve been honest with him from the moment we met, and I don’t want to start hiding things now.

“I started fantasizing about you. About us, together.”

His eyebrows pick up.

“Tell the truth, it was joking about me eating balls that put the idea in your head, wasn’t it?”