Raising the Bar (7 page)

Derrick gaped. “Mom and James? But they’ve known each other forever. Like, since before Dad died.”

Dylan winced. He didn’t like mention of their father’s passing. All of them, but their mother especially, had grieved for Andrew Warren. A beloved husband and father, he’d been all that Dylan could have ever wanted in a parent. And then, out of the blue, his heart had failed and he was gone.

“Does Gage know?” Derrick asked.

Dylan shrugged. “
I
didn’t want to know. I went to lunch on Friday and they told me. I guess I should be happy for them.”

Derrick didn’t seem to hear him. His shock turned him giddy, and he laughed. “Hell yeah. Mom and James. That’s perfect. Hey, remember how Mom looked at him when Sydney’s mom was at that dinner, hanging all over him? I remember thinking Mom looked jealous. She was!”

Dylan remembered that too. But he’d hoped his suspicions would prove false.

“I have to tell Gage.” Derrick giggled like a freakin’ girl.

Irritated with his brother, Dylan stood and walked to the door. “Yeah? Well tell him when you get home. I’m tired and have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.”

Derrick’s mirth faded. He stood and met Dylan at the door. “What’s up? Really?”

Dylan didn’t want to admit to being a mean-spirited snot of a son. “Nothing. I’m tired.”

“You don’t like Mom and James together. You can’t lie to me, Dylan,” Derrick said softly. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing,” he blurted. “Nothing’s wrong, okay? I just need time to sort this out. Don’t tell Mom. I don’t want to hurt her. I just…let me work through it in my own way.”

“Dude, Dad’s been dead for over ten years. Don’t you think it’s time Mom lived a little?”

“She’s had plenty of dates since then.”

“But no one special, no one she really liked.”

“She’s liked plenty of guys. Mom’s attractive. I know she’s a woman besides being a mother.”
So why can’t I be happy that’s she’s found someone she can really love?

Derrick goggled at him.

“What?” he snapped.

“I can’t believe Mr. Therapist is having issues with this. Dude, Mom and James. They’re perfect for each other. And I always said he had a thing for her.”

“Whatever.”

“I’m calling Gage.”

“Fine. Now get out.”

“You’re not being fair about this.”

“I said I’m handling it.” Dylan opened the door and shoved his brother into the hallway. “We’ll talk later.”

Derrick stared at him in shock. “What the fuck? Did you just throw me out?”

“Genius.” Dylan slammed the door in his face and locked it.

He heard his brother’s angry laugh, a few curses, and then nothing.

Feeling unworthy but knowing he had the right to deal with the issue as he saw fit, Dylan slunk to the couch and stretched out on it. “I need my own shrink,” he muttered, still hating the
S
-word.

Minutes later, a knock at the door interrupted his self-loathing.

“Go away,” he shouted to his brother.

The knocking continued.

“I said go the fuck away, Derrick,” he yelled again.

Another round of knocking.

Knowing his brother would keep pounding and no doubt involve the neighbors, he pushed himself to his feet and rushed to the door. He threw it open, intending to yank his brother back inside and give him the beating he deserved, when he saw Harper standing there with a questioning look on his face.

“Harper?”

“Hey, Doc. Problem?”

Harper took a step forward, and Dylan instinctively stepped back, out of his way. When Harper joined Dylan in the foyer and closed the door behind him, Dylan frowned. “How did you find me?”

“Public record of sale, my man. You bought this place six years ago. I know people who know people.” He paused, looking Dylan up and down. Then he grinned. “A tie? Did you know I was coming?”

Dylan snorted with laughter, immediately feeling better. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, one that’s hung like a horse, remember?”

“As if I could forget.” Dylan’s body immediately responded. “Hell, come on in. Oh wait, you’re already in.”

He took Harper’s coat and hung it in the closet, doing his best not to visibly strip the man naked. Damn, but Harper could do flannel and jeans proud. “Want a beer?”

Harper walked to the coffee table and took a sip of Dylan’s tea. “This’ll do.”

“So what brings you by?”

“Wanted to see how the other half lives.” Harper grinned. “Nice digs. Figured you’d live in the uppity section of town.”

“What?”

“I’m in the building two blocks down.”

In the newly remodeled cotton mill. “Uppity? Here? That place is
twice
what I paid for mine.”

“Not if you know the right people. Besides, I don’t think we have one shrink in the entire building. Just a lot of well-connected schlubs.”

Dylan laughed. “Too bad. You could use a doctor.”

“Probably.” Harper drained the glass, then stuck his hands in his pockets. Unfortunately, that drew Dylan’s attention to the outline of a long, prominent erection. “I’ve got a problem, Doc.”

“Yeah?” His voice sounded scratchy.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Dylan’s heart raced and gladness filled him, enough for him to admit, “I’m having the same problem.”

“Thinking about yourself all the time. Sad. But then, I could tell you’re a vain guy. All your clothes have designer labels.”

“Ass. I’m thinking about
you
.” Dylan confessed, “The sex was great. Incredible. Best I’ve ever had.”

“Same.”

“But, I mean, we really got along. I liked spending time with you.”

Harper’s grin faded. “Me too. And that’s kind of a problem.”

“Oh?”

“See, I’d like to take this further. Not a one-night, er, one-weekend stand. But something more. And that means experimenting more than you might be comfortable with. I thought I’d come over and lay it all on the line. You seem to be pretty okay in your own skin, so I figured, why beat around the bush? Why not flat-out ask him?”

“Ask me what?”

“First of all, were you going to call me?”

Dylan bit his lip, then decided
fuck it
. “Yeah. I’ve been dealing with family crap, and it’s stressing me out. I wanted to call you for sex, because with you I seem to forget everything else. Then I felt bad about the thought of using you, because I actually like you.”

Harper huffed. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

“I’m not.” He had to laugh at Harper’s pique. “Now who’s vain? My point is that I was trying to figure out why I like you so much. Because you help me forget my problems? Because you’re hung like a horse?”

“There is that.”

“Because I’d like to pursue a relationship?”

Harper sighed. “You just can’t go with a feeling, can you?”

“I wish I could. It’s the therapist in me needing to reason it all out. But you came by. So tell me. What do you think I might not be comfortable with?”

Harper sat on the couch and Dylan sat on a chair facing him. “It’s not that you can’t handle it, but will you want to try it?”

“Try what?”

“I want Freddy.”

“Freddy?” Dylan’s thoughts immediately went to the sexy blonde from the club last week.

“Yeah, the woman at the bar you couldn’t take your eyes off of,” Harper said dryly. “That Freddy. I think she’d be down for some fun, but you and I have to be on the same page before I ask her. I’ve been wanting her a long time. She’s really cool. You’d like her.”

“I liked what I saw of her. And more than her body. She seems confident, good at her job.”

“Does it matter that she bartends at a sex club?”

“No.” And it didn’t. “But what are you asking me? If I want a permanent third? A sexual fantasy made real? What?”

“I don’t know.” Harper shook his head. “Doc, you need to relax. Stop trying to get to the end of the story and enjoy the middle. You’re way too stressed.” He
tsk
ed. “Had any sex since Sunday?”

Dylan did feel tense. “No. You?” He held his breath, waiting for the answer. For days he’d wondered if he’d made more out of their weekend than was warranted. For all Dylan knew, Harper often had marathon sexcapades with strangers. Though disappointing, he couldn’t rule out the thought.

“Doc, I’ve been celibate for months before you. I don’t fuck around. One partner at a time for me. And I know we were a sudden thing, but I was hoping we could continue where we left off.” Harper rose to his feet and crossed to tower over Dylan.

He slowly unbuttoned his fly and let his jeans part to reveal a mouthwatering erection.
Jesus, no underwear?
“How about you take care of this for me while I do you?”

“Oh yeah.” Dylan stood, but before he could reach for Harper, Harper drew him into his arms and kissed him.

The embrace both gentled and aroused him, and Dylan responded without thinking. There was tenderness in the kiss, even as Harper stoked him to a fervent desire, rocking into him with that steely erection while seducing with his tongue.

He broke away and kissed across Dylan’s cheek to whisper in his ear, “I love kissing you. Makes me want to fuck you and hold you close at the same time. Romantic shit, and I’m not all that romantic, Doc.”

Dylan shivered, caught in lust and what felt oddly like a climb toward love. Impossible to feel such deep affection for a man he barely knew, so he rejected the idea out of hand.

He had to clear his throat to speak. “My bedroom is down the hall. And I really,
really
want to make you lose control just once.”

Harper growled and plunged his tongue in Dylan’s ear, and that probing erection dug into his belly. “Maybe we can use your necktie to restrain you while I fuck you until you can’t stand. How about that for control?”

“Bedroom. Now.” Dylan pushed past Harper and undressed on the way. Inside his bedroom, he turned to see Harper stripping down as well. Once naked, they moved to the bed and positioned themselves head to toe, reaching for each other at the same time.

Dylan’s mouth found Harper’s cock just as Harper fondled Dylan’s balls. With tongues and teeth, mouths and hands, they explored each other. Dylan tried to hold out, but with so much going on in his life and having Harper close when he needed him, he couldn’t last. He tried to warn Harper but could do nothing but suck harder as he pumped into his lover’s mouth.

Harper groaned and started swallowing at the same time he erupted over Dylan’s tongue. They stroked and caressed each other while coming down off their euphoric highs, and Dylan soon found himself in Harper’s arms, warm and comforted.

Harper sighed. “Hell. That’s better than booze and a good cigar after a long day of work.”

Dylan couldn’t help yawning. “You said it.”

“Tired?”

“Just enjoying my theta waves.”

“Huh?”

“Those are the brain waves that come out during intense pleasure.”

“Theta waves.” Harper chuckled. “I like brainy guys. Who knew?”

Dylan stroked Harper’s belly, smiling when the man’s muscles contracted. “What is your type, normally?”

“I don’t know. Kinky guys, I guess. Guys who don’t mind experimenting. I like it rough sometimes. And I enjoy fucking a tight ass. I’m typically the top.”

“Ever a bottom?”

“A few times,” Harper admitted. “But only because my partner really wanted to try it. Afterward, we both wanted me on top again.”

“And your girlfriends?”

“Not as many as my guy friends. I tend to attract women, at first. But I don’t play at being aggressive, Dylan. I
am
aggressive. Women seem to want soft and cuddly, and that’s not me.”

“And Freddy?” he asked softly.

“She’s different.” Dylan could hear it in Harper’s voice.

He felt a hint of jealousy, but mostly he experienced curiosity. Harper hadn’t gone to Freddy first. Instead he’d come to Dylan, wanting them together to take her on. What did that mean? That he put more importance on Dylan than Freddy?

Harper murmured, “She seems like a tough chick. She’s pierced, has a few tats and she doesn’t take shit from anyone at the club. Not bitchy, just sure. I like her confidence.”

“But she makes you unsure of yourself.”

“You shrinking me?”

“I told you I hate that word.” Dylan leaned up on his elbow and studied Harper, falling into his dark gaze again. “You’re a handsome man, by anyone’s standards. You’re built, successful and aren’t shy when it comes to women. So why go through me to get to Freddy?”

“Who said I’m going through you to get to her?” Harper frowned and tucked his hands behind his head, making the V of his torso that much more defined. Jesus, the guy was gorgeous. The light sprinkling of hair over his chest only increased his attractiveness. “Hey. Quit ogling me and listen.”

Dylan flushed. “Hell. Caught.”