Worlds Apart (13 page)

Niall raised his eyebrows. “Evidence?”

“Padlocked and scratched freezer, and the dad’s golf clubs still in the garage.”

“Ah, the wife did kill him then.”

Taylor laughed. He glanced across the table at Niall who had his head down concentrating on his food and felt his heart skip. Taylor wished he’d said something this morning about what had happened last night—only what? And Niall could have said something too and hadn’t.

“I like Roo,” Taylor blurted.

Niall looked up. “I like her too.”

Now Taylor was the one who lowered his gaze. “I mean really like her.”

“Good,” Niall said. “I finally got the hot tub working. The part I was waiting for arrived today. I’m letting it run for a while to make sure it’s okay. The water’s hot.”

He lifted his head and stared straight into Taylor’s eyes.
Fuck.
The chip Taylor was trying to swallow got stuck. Was Niall suggesting they go for a dip in the hot tub?

Why not follow up on that?

Because I’m not gay.

You don’t have to be gay to use a hot tub.

Taylor gulped. The chip went down.

“Fancy taking a beer out there and getting wet?” Taylor asked.
Oh shit, did
I
say that?

Niall smiled, just for a moment. “Sounds like a plan.”

Yes, it did, but didn’t mean anything was going to happen. Taylor speared the last few morsels of fish with his fork, and when he looked up, caught sight of Niall staring at his mouth. Niall abruptly rose to his feet and slotted his plate in the dishwasher.

He turned to Taylor. “Want dessert?”

Taylor’s cock started to tent his pants. “Later.”

Niall took two beers from the fridge, passed one to Taylor and walked over to the French doors. He peered out into the darkness. “Still pouring.”

“Sure the water’s hot?”

“As hot as
you
can stand.”

Niall put his beer on the floor and, with his back to Taylor, began to strip. Taylor lurched to his feet and opened the dishwasher. He knew he was being pathetic, but he couldn’t look at him. There was no way he was walking out to the hot tub with a hard-on.

“Join you in a moment,” Taylor said and sighed when he heard the door open and close.

Niall’s clothes lay in a neat pile on the floor. Taylor threw his next to them in an untidy heap. His willful cock was hard as stone. He grabbed the icy beer, held it against his shaft and yelped but didn’t remove it. Ten seconds would do it.

It made no difference.

Taylor didn’t think there was any point waiting for the damn thing to subside. He rejected the idea of having a quick wank, and refused to think about why that was. Maybe he could slip into the tub without Niall noticing.

He stepped out into the rain and shivered. His erection wilted a little.
Thank God.
Now he just needed to think unsexy thoughts until he was in the water. Taylor padded down the lawn imagining his parents sitting in the tub. Naked. That should be enough to dampen his ardor but—
ah damn it—
his mind leapt to an image of Niall, a memory of the way his hand had felt on his cock, the way he’d spurted into Taylor’s fingers.
Shit, shit, shit.

He squelched across the grass and pushed open the door to the walled garden. The glow from the hot tub was like a beacon in the darkness. Passing UFOs would probably use it as a bloody landing light. Niall sat facing him in the steaming water. Taylor kept the bottle at his crotch as he walked toward the tub.
Get in fast.
Taylor rushed up the steps, slipped at the top and nose-dived into the water.

Not that fast. Oh God, it’s hot, hot, hot. And my bloody head.

Taylor reared up, spitting water out of his mouth, holding the beer bottle aloft, his bloody cock waving a flag.

Fuck it.

He slumped down in the tub, blinked the water from his eyes and pressed the bottle to where he’d banged his head.

“You didn’t spill a drop,” Niall said. “Impressive.”

Taylor settled opposite him on a ledge under the water. He took a swallow of beer and sighed. He wanted to relax but he was wound as tight as a violin string. Slow release of tension seemed unlikely. A snap more probable.

“Cold rain, warm water, icy beer,” Niall said. “Feels good, doesn’t it. Eases aches and pains. Though you probably just managed to give yourself a few more with that fall. You okay?”

“I’ll live.”

Taylor stole a glance at Niall who leaned back with his head tipped to the sky, eyes closed. His hair was plastered to his skull, water dripping down his cheeks. Niall’s nipples were tight, sharp—
Jesus.
Taylor closed his eyes and tipped his head back too. Maybe if he stopped looking, stopped thinking, stopped everything, his cock would subside. It was currently swaying under the water like an electric eel.

He shifted to sit in a spot where the bubbles were more intense and his foot touched Niall’s. Taylor told himself to move it away but he didn’t. Niall didn’t either. Taylor peered out of half-open eyes and saw Niall’s hand cradling his erect cock under the water.

Need roared through Taylor like an express train, gathering speed, racing out of control until thinking sent him crashing into the buffers.

“I’m not going to—” Taylor clamped his lips together.

Niall’s eyes opened. “Not going to what?”

Taylor’s mind struggled to come up with a lie, struggled to come up with anything other than what he
wasn’t
going to do.

“I ask nothing of you,” Niall said.

He’d said that before. What did he mean? That this was just sex, no more? Of course it was no more than sex. Taylor’s gaze fell back to Niall’s hand. The guy was playing with his cock in a lazy sort of way and Taylor became aware he was mimicking Niall, pulling at his own cock, squeezing and stroking. Warmth pooled in the pit of his belly and fire began to trickle through his veins. Taylor made himself look into Niall’s face and didn’t see the cool, detached guy he knew. Instead, he saw a man uncertain of himself.

“What do you want?” Niall asked.

He wanted Niall’s lips around his cock, to push his dick to the back of Niall’s throat, to come in his mouth and for Niall to swallow every last drop.

Taylor’s hand tightened on his cock. “Another beer?” he croaked.

Niall smiled. He lifted his hand from the water and Taylor lurched back and up so his butt landed on the step out of the water, but he couldn’t make himself get out.

Niall brushed dripping hair from his eyes. “Alternatively?”

“Two beers?”

“What are you afraid of?” Niall asked, a slight smile on his face.

Liking it. Not being able to live without it, without you.
Thoughts he’d never voice.

“Tell me what
you
want,” Taylor said.

Niall stared at Taylor’s cock. “Dessert.”

Taylor’s body tingled head to toe. He had to say only a couple of words and they’d both get what they wanted. The rain came down harder, sharp darts hitting his skin, striking his cock, as if a million tiny spears were urging him to make up his mind. Trouble was Taylor had already made up his mind. It was the trying to convince himself it was a bad idea that was his problem.

“Okay then.” Taylor exhaled his response.
Please don’t ask me if I’m sure.

Niall slid across the hot tub to kneel in front of him, and Taylor’s cock jutted toward Niall’s face as if it had a mind of its own. Niall kissed the crest and Taylor shuddered.
Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.
His balls tightened and he clenched his butt cheeks.
As if that’s gonna help.
He closed his eyes.
That’s not going to help either.

Hands slid up Taylor’s legs, caressing from ankles to calves, sweeping over knees onto thighs. Fingers danced across his tense abdominals and up to his pecs. A low moan escaped when Niall rubbed his nipples, a louder moan burst free when hot lips slipped over the tip of his cock and a tongue trailed around the head. Taylor stretched out his arms, dropped the beer on the grass and wrapped his fingers around the edge of the tub.

He wanted and yet didn’t want to watch. Wanted won. Taylor opened his eyes to see and feel Niall wrap a hand around his cock, and then he rubbed it against his cheek.
Jesus.
Taylor panted as Niall trailed his tongue down his length and then lapped at his scrotum, laving the delicate skin in long, smooth strokes. When he took first one and then the other ball into his mouth, Taylor’s toes curled on the lower step, his entire body tensing. He had to fight not to buck into Niall, fight not to show him how much he wanted this. Niall gently sucked and then released his nuts over and over, and as Taylor was on the point of sobbing, Niall switched his attention to his inner thighs and Taylor forgot how to breathe. He gasped and gulped as if all the oxygen had been hoovered into space.

“Oh Christ,” Taylor moaned.

Niall licked up his cock and swallowed him, sucking hard, and Taylor’s moan turned into a strangled grunt. His hands released their grip on the tub and his fingers threaded Niall’s hair, pulling and pushing his head up and down until Taylor registered what he was doing and went back to holding the tub. Niall sucked and fisted Taylor’s cock, squeezing and pumping, while his other hand massaged the sac beneath.

It was different with a guy. More physical, less mental. Niall had big, strong hands. Hands that knew what they were doing and an expert mouth that was driving Taylor steadily insane. A hot tongue that—
sweet Jesus.
Niall swirled his tongue around the crest at the end of each upstroke and flickered the tip down the sensitive underside on the way down. Taylor’s hips flexed. He couldn’t help it. He wanted his cock deeper. But then Niall dipped his tongue into the little slit at the crown and Taylor’s head fogged to everything but coming.

And he
was
coming. Orgasm gathered inside him, pulling threads together from all over his body until there was a tangled, writhing knot low in his belly. Niall took his cock so deep into his mouth Taylor felt it hit the back of his throat, the sensitive head releasing more precome in response. Niall gripped tight around Taylor’s balls, pressed down, and the need to come backed off.

Part of Taylor wanted to say something, wanted to tell Niall how good this felt, but his throat had seized up. one hand to Niall’s soft, wet hair while the fingernails of the other gouged holes in the tub. Niall grabbed his thighs and lifted him higher so he balanced on the edge of the tub. Taylor clung on to the sides. When Niall pressed his face behind Taylor’s balls, pushing with his tongue against the point where his cock grew from his body, Taylor let out a loud cry.
Coward.
Though he returned

“Fuuuuck.”

Niall licked and sucked at the patch of skin between Taylor’s balls and his anus and the pressure was—
oh God
—perfect. Not hard enough to hurt but firm enough to let Taylor float in uncomfortable pleasure.

But I need to stop him. Otherwise I’m going to fall over the edge of the tub.

Niall tilted him even farther back, licked at his anus and Taylor whimpered. Then coughed to try to disguise it.
As if that worked.

Stop him.

In a minute.

A combination of Niall’s rhythmic twisting pressure on his cock, and the silky slide of his tongue behind his balls was sending Taylor racing toward freefall. When Niall’s mouth returned to his cock and began to twist as he sucked, Taylor’s parachute failed to open.

I’m going to come.

In his mouth?

“Niall, I’m close,” he grunted.

Niall wrapped his lips back around his cock, gave one hard suck and Taylor’s knot unraveled in a blast of fire. He came so hard, white lights flashed behind his eyes. His shaft pulsed and jerked against Niall’s tongue and Niall looked up into his face and swallowed every jet.

Taylor shook like a kitten. He felt as weak as one. As the spasms in his body died away, he managed to suck in a breath. Niall pulled back and knelt in the water, and the look on his face was one of shy pleasure. Taylor reached out to touch Niall’s cheek and the guy turned into the caress and rubbed his face on Taylor’s palm.

No, no, no.
This was just sex, cold and impersonal. No touching like that, no looking at him like that. Taylor sprang out of the water and raced back to the house.

Chapter Nine

Niall sighed and sank beneath the water of the hot tub. He’d anticipated Taylor might run, but he was still disappointed. Then he reminded himself of how long he’d waited to even touch Taylor’s cock, let alone suck him off, and he smiled. Slow, small steps. Once Taylor accepted there was nothing wrong with what they were doing and allowed Niall to love him, surely he’d return that love?

Hands yanked him out of the water and Niall found himself hauled from the tub onto the grass.

“Fuck it, fuck it. Don’t be bloody dead,” Taylor shouted.

And bad boy that Niall was, he kept his eyes closed and his body limp. Taylor pushed him onto his side and Niall allowed a trickle of water to fall from his mouth.

“Oh Goddammit, fuck, shit.”