And Call Me in the Morning (16 page)

“I remember.”
There
. There was the note Eli had been waiting for. Arousal and excitement and the low hum of sensual enjoyment. “I'd wanted to do that for I don't know how long. To look at you, feel you. Taste you.”

“Christ. Okay. Look. Touch. Tell me what you feel. What you're thinking about.”

“Thinking about you,” Zane said immediately. “Rubbing against my hand, imagining it's yours.”

Eli's turn to be struck breathless. He tugged his scrubs waist open and slid inside. Into his boxers too, closing his fist around his cock. He held it there, just a solid fist, and imagined it was Zane. He could smell Zane's skin and feel the warmth of his body pressed close.

“If I were there,” Eli said, “what would you do with me?”

Zane groaned. “God, I don't know. Strip you. Get those clothes off and look. Take my time. You don't believe it, but you are so fucking gorgeous, Eli. Strong. Built tough. Old scars. I want to put my mouth to those and see how the texture's different under my tongue. Taste the salt of your skin.”

Eli had to grit his teeth and ride out a rush of too-much need. His body had gotten used to Zane's, and he wanted the real thing, not this pale imitation, but for all that, this got him more worked up than he'd anticipated. “Then what?”

“Uh-uh. Your turn. You. What would you, to me—”

Eli loved this part. Listening to Zane fall apart the only way Zane should. And out here, in the fantasy, he could be bold in a way he hadn't yet managed, and it worked. “I think I'd unwrap you, piece by piece. Pull the shirt off over your head and smooth your hair down. I'd spend minutes, maybe hours, kissing you. Wouldn't stop until our lips were sore.”

“Then?” Zane begged.

“Then I'd lay you down. On your bed, your couch. No. Bed. Somewhere I could see you, every inch. Could spread you out.” He wondered… “Maybe tie your hands to the bedpost so you couldn't get impatient and make a grab for me.”

Zane's laugh was startled and breathless, but his moan told the whole truth. “Kinky.”

“I could be.” Not this time, though. “I'd take off those pants. Slide them down your legs. Off. Throw them aside. Smooth my hands down your legs. Push them open so I could see.”

Zane made a noise that didn't have a name, but Eli could hear the desperation. “I can't do this.”

No, no, no, that wasn't the plan. “Yes. You can.” With an effort, Eli stilled his hand. “Keep going. For me.”

“You
idiot
,” Zane said with fondness. “I meant I can't see the point in doing this fifty feet from each other when I want you
here
, now. I want to do this in real time. Come in, Eli. Come in and stay. Hurry.”

He didn't have to ask Eli twice. Thank God.

* * * * *

Eli opened the door to Zane's apartment, gladder than ever that he had his own key. Inside, the lights were off. He frowned, momentarily thrown and even a little disappointed. He'd hoped to see Zane spread out on the couch in abandon, the phone maybe still by his ear, his eyes shut tight and his breathing tight.

“Zane?”

“Shower first. Then meet me in the bedroom,” he heard. A soft
click
, and low light rolled out into the hallway. “Get a move on. I want you in here.”

It was possible Eli had never showered faster in his life.

Naked and still mostly wet, he padded to Zane's bedroom on bare feet, his footfalls silenced by the thick carpet, and pushed open the door that Zane had left open a few inches.

Opened the door and stopped in his tracks, riveted. Christ. Zane lay in bed with one arm thrown over his eyes and the other beneath the thin sheet he'd draped over himself, the motion of his hand on his cock so gorgeously obscene that Eli's gut tightened and he grunted in surprise as much as arousal.

The corner of Zane's mouth lifted, more grimace than grin, but hell. Worked for Eli. Zane slowed the pace of his strokes. “Figured I'd save us some time.”

“Figured you'd drive me crazy, you mean. Sadist.”

Zane didn't deny it. His lips parted fully, a breath rattling out between them.

Eli suddenly couldn't wait a second longer and crossed the distance as fast as possible. Found himself with his knees on the bed, braced at the end and drawing the sheet down, off Zane's body in a smooth ripple of dove-gray Egyptian cotton. Silky and thin in his hands, it still smelled of sex and man. He pressed the sheets to his nose and breathed in.

“Oh,
fuck
,” Zane groaned. He held his cock still, drawing Eli's eye to it. “See what you did?”

“God, yes.” Eli had gotten used to the sight by now. More than that. He anticipated. From this angle, it looked different. Length and girth, flushed dark, with a thick vein standing out ropelike, the fat head peeking through the circle of Zane's thumb and forefinger.

He had to get closer. Action followed thought, and he crawled up Zane's bed, relieved as hell that he'd saved time by getting naked. Zane's skin was too hot against his, even fresh from a steaming shower.

The press of skin to skin made them both hiss and flinch, then melt into each other. Eli warmed fast, faster still when he found Zane's mouth with his and took the kiss he'd wanted. Zane's arms slid beneath his, finding purchase on his back and digging in, kneading, when Eli slid his tongue between Zane's lips to tease him, to drive him crazy.

Zane hooked his ankle around Eli's and bent his knee, jostling them closer. Eli could feel the hard press of Zane's cock aligned by his. Christ. So good. He deepened the kiss as if he were trying to climb inside, and maybe he was. He could drink Zane down and never stop.

Never, that was, until Zane let go of his back with one hand and slipped it between them, fumbling to get a grasp on both their engorged dicks. He couldn't manage to coordinate a grip around the girth of both, but the attempt made Eli's muscles contract and drove him down, the instinct to fuck too powerful to ignore even if he'd wanted to, and by hell, he didn't.

So easy to find a rhythm here. His cock skated through the crease of Zane's hip, along the V-cut of muscle. Yet—somehow, not enough—what could he—

Zane licked Eli's lip, then bit it and sucked the bit of flesh into his mouth. He let go with a pop. “What do you want?” he whispered. “Anything. All you have to do is ask.”

A thousand possibilities filled Eli's head. He wanted them all. How was he supposed to choose?

Zane's dazed smile broadened. “Or I could give you a hint.”

Eli kissed that mischief into submission, and down Zane's neck, across his chest. Kissed Zane quiet, and moaning, and rising up to meet his thrusts down. The skin of their bellies was slick now with sweat and precum. Eli's balls drew tight. He let go to breathe, and to try and gain some control, not that he thought that was going to happen.

Only then did he ask, “What's the hint?”

“Huh?” Zane looked stoned or turned on beyond reason. The jerk of his hips was a pretty good clue which was the case. “Oh.” No repressing Zane for long. “Raise up. On your hands and knees. Trust me.”

“That's always risky.” Eli bent to suck one of Zane's nipples, curious. Not like a woman, not at all, but goddamn if Zane didn't react more strongly than any of the women he'd ever been in this position with.

He threw his head back and shouted, pushed at Eli's head, and wrestled him free. “
Don't
. I'll come.”

“That'd be a bad thing?” Eli tried to get back down there. Too addictive, and too fascinating to find Zane's hot spots.

“
Yes
. Because it's my turn, and I'm showing you what I want.” Zane pushed at Eli. “Do it. Up.”

Eli groaned but did as he'd been ordered. Up and braced on his knees. He got one long look at Zane beneath him, the dark red sex flush spread down his chest, the slick mess of precum on his stomach, and the stiffness of his cock lying flush and full against his hip.

Not a long enough look—he could spend forever staring—but then, Zane grinned wickedly and wriggled over. On his hip, on his stomach, his ass turned up and his face hidden in the cross of his arms. “Want this,” he said, barely louder than a rasp like stone on stone. “Do you?”

“
Oh
,” Eli breathed. Okay, this far ahead, he hadn't thought. Damn, but he wished he had. He spread his hands over the cheeks of Zane's ass and squeezed. “I don't—I didn't bring anything—”

“I've got lotion. Lube. Everything we need.” Zane sounded desperate, as if speaking through gritted teeth, and Eli felt his pain.

“I won't hurt you.” He let himself trace the cleft, just a tease, a promise of more to come. “Too worked up to make it good.”

“I need—”

“So do I. Next time.” Eli's head whirled, searching for answers to the question. “Lube. Give it here. Can't fuck you, not yet, but I can do this.”

Zane reached, an awkward stretch, to the bedside table and fumbled it open. He almost dropped the lube, a new pump bottle. Eli rescued it, then stretched over Zane to snag a condom out of the drawer as well. He held his breath as he made fast work of sliding the latex on.

“What are you doing?” Zane shivered, the ripple riding down his back.

“Like this,” Eli said, rough and dry.

“Like how?”

“Shh. You'll see. Or you'll feel.” Eli squirted a good dollop of lube in his hand—knew enough to rub his palms together to warm it up—and before he could stop and think, or hesitate, he slid his slippery fingers between the cleft of Zane's ass cheeks to slick him up. Had to stop and grind his teeth and count to ten backward when Zane made a noise like a desperate animal and canted back in search of more.

“I've got you,” Eli soothed. He rubbed lube over the condom, getting himself good and slick. Pushed one arm under Zane to lift him up and to wrap his hand around Zane's cock. Zane moaned and pushed into his grip. Eli held himself steady with the greatest of effort and slid his cock into the cleft. No farther, but inside where it was warm and slick and tight, down through the valley and not stopping until his cockhead nudged Zane's balls.

“
Fuck
,” Zane groaned. He struggled to get higher, swore when Eli pushed him into the right position, and began to pant when Eli thrust again.