SafetyInNumbers-Final (21 page)

“I guess we could drive by and see a few from the outside, but people live in them. It’s not like we can knock on the door to request a tour. That would be rude and unprofessional.” That was all logic, something he knew Owen used as a crutch, but he wasn’t going to be put off that easily.

“Okay, I agree that we’d look like creepy stalkers if we did that. Is there one being built right now?” Chris grinned when Owen stiffened. “There is! I bet you work out a deal with the builder to do a walk through when the job’s finished, don’t you? Don’t try to convince me that you’d be content looking at it from the outside. You’d want to see it from every angle and know that your design was treated right.”

“I haven’t done a lot of worthwhile things in my life, but knowing that my creation is someone’s forever home…there’s a lot of hope and promise in that. It’s like when I did the bedroom for Ava and Luc. I could tell they were all trying to adjust to this new family they’d become, and they were doing a kick ass job of it, but it wasn’t going to be easy. When Chase showed me the room and begged me to make it wonderful, all I could think was that if I made them a place of real belonging then the kids would know they were in their forever home and that would help them all adjust. I mean, I know it’s just a room and it doesn’t compare to what Chase and Ty did for them, but it’s all I have to give.”
 

“I know for a fact that you succeeded.” Chris didn’t like hearing Owen downplay his abilities. If he could just pause that knee jerk expectation of rejection for a minute, he might actually hear the words of gratitude and praise his clients had to be showering him with. It was something they would have to work on, but not this weekend. “Are you going to sell this one?”

“Maybe, I don’t know.” Owen took the tablet back and started pointing out features. “This one would be considered a two family or a duplex. See the doors and garages on either side? It’s not done, but I’m thinking three bedrooms and two full baths on the top floor of each, half baths on the first, and open concept living spaces. Family rooms that flow into kitchens that flow into a sunroom or a kid’s play area or something. It’s really ideal for two families that are related, that are close, and who would be comfortable sharing a common area but still have their privacy. Young cousins could grow up together, brothers could watch over each other’s families or…you know, something idealistic like that.” Owen leaned over to put the tablet on the nightstand and mumbled, “It’ll probably wind up being someone’s rental property.”

That was quite enough of that. Chris rolled and tucked Owen beneath him. “Like hell it will. You created our forever home and you’re going to build it.”

“What? No…it’s just an idea…it’s not…” Owen trailed off and blinked up at him. Chris wondered how long Owen had been awake working on that drawing without realizing what he was envisioning. Some part of his brain must have known because it was all there in his explanation. As smart as he was, he seemed to have real trouble connecting his own dots. “I would love for it to be our home, but we’d have to find the right RU-2 lot that’s already zoned for a two family structure, that isn’t already built on, that’s in an area with good schools and is safe for kids, and…”

Chris covered Owen’s mouth with his and took the words inside. He figured once Owen started throwing out the technical terms, his dots were connected and he was all in. The rest of it? Just that logical brain working up a to-do list and it was sexy as hell. Too sexy to hold back another second. It was an executive decision that Owen made unanimous when he flung his arms and legs around Chris, and kissed him as if his life depended on it.

“In case you need the words, that was a yes,” Owen whispered when Chris eased back.

“I love hearing that, so feel free to tell me anyway.” Chris would always need the words from Owen, but right now he needed something more. “Since you planned this trip as a surprise, please tell me you thought of everything.”

Owen ears burned adorably as he stammered, “In the outer pocket of my bag.”

Chris kissed him quickly before rolling away. Their bags were still where they dropped them the night before, though Owen’s had been rummaged through. He found the promised supplies, noted the name on the box, and chuckled. “Aiming big, huh?”

“Well, you’re a big boy, so I was going for proportionate.” Owen rose up on his elbows and matched his teasing grin. “Plus, that bathing suit of yours leaves little to the imagination.”

He tossed the supplies on the bed and reached for the hem of his shirt. “Have you imagined my dick often?”

“They say a guy thinks about sex every seven seconds and there’s like eighty-four thousand seconds in a day. If we take out the hours that you make me sleep and divide the remaining seconds by seven, I figure I have about eight thousand opportunities a day to think about your dick.” Owen crawled across the bed and grabbed the shirt when Chris just gaped at him. “But I don’t like to limit my imagination, so maybe it’s only a third of that and the other two-thirds fluctuate between your ass, your chest, and these crazy cut abs.” Owen tossed the shirt aside and splayed his hands over Chris’s torso, mapping the defined muscles. “I spend a lot of time thinking about your body.”

Chris never would have imagined insecure, blushing Owen could say anything like that, but he liked it. No, he loved it and he wanted more. “I’m pretty sure I never did the math, but I spend a lot of time thinking about your body too. If I had to divide it up off the top of my head, it’d be an even split between tasting every inch of you and being buried deep inside that tight ass.”

Owen tossed his own shirt on the growing pile of clothes and suggested, “I vote that we make a decision to do more and imagine less…starting now.”

“Deal.” Chris pushed him backwards onto the bed and slid over him, their naked chests touching for the first time, causing them both to shiver. He’d never taken his time with a lover before, never really been in a position to or with someone he really cared for, but that would never be enough with Owen. He needed to know every secret spot that got a reaction, needed to blow his mind so that he never forgot that this embrace was their forever home.

He tipped Owen’s chin back and licked a path to his ear. “I’m going to learn every little secret your body’s been begging to tell me and I need to hear your responses. Don’t hold back, don’t get shy on me, just let me hear it.”

When Owen started to nod, Chris bit his ear in warning. “Ow…okay!”

Chris suckled the abused flesh in apology before making his way down. Owen trembled and arched, his body conveying his desires, but it took a few more love bites before the moaning started. Chris knew that a lot of men who’d been to prison had a hard time being vocal in bed, him included. They weren’t in that place anymore and Chris needed Owen to know that where they were now—in each other’s arms—was the safest place of all.

He shifted around as he reached the waistband of Owen’s sleep pants and tugged them slowly down to expose his groin, nuzzling and suckling the sensitive flesh as he went. Owen wriggled and whimpered, his hands grasping blindly, but it wasn’t enough for Chris. He fisted the sides of the sleep pants in both hands, holding them tight just below Owen’s heavily swollen sac and repeated, “I need to hear you.”

Owen cried out when Chris took both balls in his mouth, then again when he swiped his tongue around them, and then he screamed when Chris suckled just enough to make him come. Chris let go and felt Owen convulse when he lapped up the still pulsing come from the tip of his cock. “Holy fuck…Chris! Oh fuck…you gotta…just for a sec…fuck…”

“See how easy that was?” Chris teased. Owen huffed and sank into the mattress, but Chris wasn’t done by a long shot. He pushed the sleep pants off completely, licking and nipping along both legs as he reveled in the sounds that were now falling quite freely from Owen’s lips. “Roll over.”

Owen groaned at his command. “You’re killing me.”

“Are you asking me to stop?” Chris hesitated and Owen rushed to flip over. “That’s what I thought.”

When he started working his way up from the arch of Owen’s feet to the back of his neck, his lover stopped holding back completely. His whole body vibrated as he begged and cried out for more, and it was better than Chris could have ever imagined. When he was sure he attended to every spot, he knelt beside Owen and ran a hand down his back as he pushed his own sweats down with the other. “I want to see your face when I’m inside you.”

Owen rolled to his knees and pushed Chris’s hand away, taking over the task of getting rid of their last barrier. When Owen gripped his cock, Chris thought he was going to lose it. While he wasn’t the imposing Connor his brother was, Owen was no delicate flower, and the strength of that grip promised he would give as good as he got. “Will you open the condom for me?”

When Chris handed over the unwrapped condom, Owen winked at him. Flat out winked at him. Before he could process that uncharacteristic move, Owen ducked down and Chris felt him press the condom over his glans. Then two hands were gripping his thighs and Owen was using his mouth to push the latex down Chris’s length, making the unsexiest part of sex one of the most mindboggling. That talented mouth slid up and down, either to make sure the condom was secure or just to drive him crazy, until Chris didn’t think he could take another second.

He gripped Owen’s hair to drag him away and was graced with a devilish grin. “Are you trying to drive me insane?”

“Uh huh.” Owen licked his lips and leaned in for a quick kiss. “I need you, Chris.”

The feeling was mutual. Chris followed Owen down to the mattress and settled between his widespread legs. Owen still held the lube and he slicked Chris’s fingers up, then pulled him down for a bone-melting kiss as Chris prepared him. One kiss led to another and another as Chris worked Owen open. There was little resistance, but Chris waited until Owen was thrashing and begging beneath him before he replaced his fingers with his cock.

“Please.” Owen’s plaintive cry washed over him as he nudged his way inside. “Please, Chris, please…”

“Look at me,” Chris ordered when Owen’s eyes drifted closed. He didn’t know how to express how important it was that Owen see him, but those green eyes snapped open so fast that he didn’t have to. He repaid that willing compliance by joining them completely and he was rewarded by the look of absolute adoration in Owen’s eyes. It was a perfect moment and despite his body’s urgent need to move, he forced himself to remain still. “Don’t move.”

Owen chuckled a little, the vibration shooting from his groin straight up his spine and sending him precariously close to the edge. “One of us has to.”

Oh no, he was not going down that easily. He shifted to look between their bodies, loving the obscene way his cock stretched Owen. There was no place to hide anymore, not after this. Every inch of Owen belonged to him, inside and out, and he wouldn’t go back to the way it was before.

“Chris?” The shaky whisper drew his gaze up and he found those green eyes bright with emotion. “I wanted you from the first moment I saw you and I feel like I’ve loved you just as long. You make me believe that I can be the man I thought I was, the one you think you see, and I couldn’t be that before now. You are what I was missing—my home, my heart, my strength, my whole world—and I want to be all those things for you.”

“You are all those things for me,” Chris promised as he pulled back before joining them completely again. “I love you.”

Owen cupped Chris’s face to pull him down, and whispered, “Make me feel it.”

Chris wrapped his arms around Owen’s body, holding them together as he let his control go. Owen cried out beneath him and Chris kissed him, taking the sound deep inside his heart. He wasn’t going to last and he didn’t care because he knew there would be another round later, and tonight, and tomorrow and every day for the rest of their lives.

Bull told him to expect something for himself and he was going to trust that Owen would always give him what he needed. Just as he would always give Owen everything he needed. “Do you feel me?”

Owen’s body was moving frantically in time with his, so there was no doubt that they were on the edge together. “Yes, I feel you everywhere.”

“That’s right, I’m in you and around you, and even when I’m not physically there, you’ll still feel me.” Chris knew Owen needed security above all else and was going to take every opportunity to prove to him that this was his safe place. “You’ll still know that you’re safe and loved, and that you don’t have to hold on to your fear anymore.”

“Chris.” Owen’s body rippled around him, causing Chris to cry out. They were close. He just needed Owen to say the word. “I trust you.”

Chris tightened his arms, holding Owen still as his rhythm became desperate. Owen dug his heels in, arched his neck and screamed loud enough to be heard all the way in Miami. It was all Chris needed to hear to let go and follow his lover over the edge.

“I think I need to amend my calculation.” Owen’s stunned voice reached through the post-orgasmic fog. “I’m going to spend all eight thousand seconds thinking about that orgasm.”

“I’d hate for you to get bored.” Chris couldn’t resist teasing as he tied off the condom and looked around for a place to drop it. He spied a plastic cup on the nightstand that still had some water in it and hoped Owen wouldn’t ask for a refill. “Give me a little time to get some feeling back in my body and I’ll give you another one.”

Owen held on tight as Chris rolled to his side, then glared over at the condom floating in his water. “We’re gonna need coffee and food now that you’ve destroyed my only means of sustenance.”