Coming Home- Rock Bay 1 (9 page)

D
INNER
had been hard. Literally. Tally couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to sit in a semi-public place and try to control his body’s response to a guy—probably high school. But Lex’s laugh, that brilliant smile, the way his tongue darted out to lick a drop of wine from the side of his glass….
God
, what Tally wished that tongue would do to him. He’d do it right back, run his own tongue down the center of Lex’s spine and lower, until it nudged into the warmth of Lex’s body.

A shot of heat whipped through Tally and centered in his groin at the thought of licking into Lex, making him painfully hard and even more turned on than before, if that was possible. It had been so long since he’d been touched at all, and before that it had never been anything other than the impersonal efficiency of a one-night hookup. He didn’t want that with Lex. What he imagined between them would be very, very personal—for the first time in years his fantasies involved kissing and touching, even talking and cuddling.
Jesus.

They’d been alone together for hours in the past few weeks, but Tally couldn’t remember being so aware of it. In the darkness of Lex’s car it was the only thing he could think of. Lex chuckled at something the radio DJ said, and that rich sound made the hairs up and down Tally’s back rise in the most pleasant shiver possible. He crossed his legs and tried to dig his short fingernails into the side of his thigh— hoping the pain would calm his rampaging lust. Tally couldn’t remember ever wanting anyone as bad as the lanky man sitting in the driver’s seat right next to him.

They were pulling into his grandmother’s driveway, turning slowly onto the crunching gravel. The night had been so nice, and Tally didn’t know if he could stand it if things went back to the way they were. All of a sudden he wanted to tell Lex everything, all the stuff he couldn’t say when it came up at dinner—his whole past, his messy present, hell, he even wanted to tell him every little thing he’d like to do to him in bed, including the cuddling and the talking, but he figured that part was going to have to wait. Tally took a long, slow breath.

His voice echoed in the car, easily carrying above the quiet chatter of the radio. He cringed at the loudness.
Lex looked at him sharply. “What?” He reached over and turned the radio off.
“You asked after dinner what happened to me. I’m telling you. My mom couldn’t take it anymore, all the people staring at her, pitying her for what my father had done. The day after the funeral she packed us up and moved us to Seattle, where hopefully no one knew who we were. Then the will came out and with it all the bank statements; turned out that high school girls weren’t my dad’s only closet pleasure. He’d cleaned out the savings accounts gambling—at the casinos, playing poker online. The lawyers’ fees took the last little bit of money in the checking account. We didn’t have a damn thing. God. He was such a cliché. Couldn’t even come up with a unique vice. Girls and gambling.” Tally made a disgusted noise.
He remembered the day when the news had broken, spreading over town like some infectious disease.
Jack Carrington was caught in his office with his seventeen-year-old intern. Other girls have come forward alleging affairs. We trusted him, we liked him! How could he be so disgusting?
The gossip had gone from truth to wildly speculative rumors about young boys and drugs and skimming money from the town’s budget for tequila-soaked vacations south of the border. And then the final blow. Jack Carrington had been found, shot by his own hand in the study of the Carringtons’ mansion up by the golf course. Even thinking about it made Tally want to curl up—he’d had nobody in those long couple of weeks. His friends had disappeared, either on their own or at the insistence of their parents; his mother had been okay, well, until that one afternoon….
“So you just finished school in Seattle and got a job?”
Tally shook his head. “Never graduated.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, like perhaps there was something even worse than what everyone already knew.
“How come? Didn’t you enroll in Seattle?”
“Yeah, and I was there for a month or so, but around that time my mother found a new rich boyfriend and decided she’d rather not be burdened by my presence in her apartment any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“She kicked me out. I got a job and lived in some, um, interesting places for a while before I got my feet under me. Well, sort of under me, anyway.”
“Interesting places?”
Tally shuddered. “You really don’t want to know. Anyway, I wasn’t going to come back here. Everything was such a big mess with my dad, and well… let’s just say after everything happened, I found out who my real friends were, and the answer to that was pretty much nobody. A few of them may have been willing to help, but their parents told them not to see me.”
“I can’t believe your mother would just kick you out with nowhere to go. Why?”
Tally felt his face explode in an agonized blush. He was glad for the car’s darkness. “She didn’t want me there anyway, but her excuse?” Tally chuckled mirthlessly. “She came home to the apartment on a day when she was supposed to be out. She found me with Jeremy, my boyfriend. He’d come up to Seattle to see if I was okay.”
Lex made a choking noise and turned off the car. “You’re going to have to repeat that one for me.”
Tally couldn’t help but chuckle. He’d been trying to find a way to tell him, anyway. “Um, in high school, I wasn’t out, but I was dating a guy who lived in Astoria. Sometimes it seemed like he was the only person who actually knew me. He came to Seattle after the whole thing with my dad. I broke down when I saw the first friendly face in what seemed like forever. He was hugging me and kissing me when my mom walked in. I was out on the street two hours later.”
Lex looked like he was reeling in shock. “Wait, so you’re… gay?”
Tally chuckled again. “Last time I checked. Always have been.”
“And you had a
boyfriend
in high school?”
“Yes,” he answered patiently.
“And your mom….”
“Didn’t want to deal with a gay eighteen-year-old that she’d never really liked anyway.”
“You’re really gay?”
Tally took Lex by the shoulders and turned him so they were facing each other.
“Lex. I’m really gay.”
Lex took a deep shuddering breath, then started to slowly smile.
“Well, that explains some things about high school,” he muttered.
Tally’d had enough. “I just spilled my guts all over this car. Don’t you think it’s time to tell me how the hell you know me?”
Lex didn’t say anything. He closed his eyes for a second, then silently reached for his wallet and pulled out his driver’s license. Reluctantly, he handed the card over to a confused Tally. Tally didn’t understand until he looked closer and saw the name on the card. James A. Barry. At that second, every memory he had of a small, pudgy, brown-haired freshman came crashing into his consciousness. Suddenly it was hard to breathe.
“Oh my God. I had no idea….” He stared at Lex, bewildered and in shock, trying to find some similarity between the man in the car and that big-eyed kid with too much to say.
“I know you didn’t, Tally.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything!”
“I didn’t know what to say. Still don’t, honestly.”
“How can you even look at me without wanting to kick my ass?”
Lex chuckled. “You’ve still got a few inches on me. Plus, you’re not that guy anymore. It didn’t take me very long to realize that.”
“I’ve never been that guy. At least I didn’t want to be. When I was with Jeremy, I was like this. He wouldn’t have even spoken to the person you knew at school.” Tally wanted Lex to know that even then there had been some redeeming qualities—even if he’d never been the recipient of them.
“Then why act like asshole of the century?”
Tally shrugged. “It’s the way my friends were, and I guess I was afraid that if I wasn’t the king then they’d see me for who I really was.”
“Which was gay?”
Tally nodded. “That, and the fact that I’m basically a big nerd.” Lex chuckled and poked Tally in the side. “No, seriously. Even back then I’d have rather spent the weekend at Jeremy’s house reading comic books and playing video games than going to parties and getting wasted. I hated all that shit.”
“So you hid your real personality from your friends at school and you hid your school personality from your boyfriend. Wasn’t it exhausting?”
“It was exhausting when I was here. Not when I was with Jeremy, though—that was such a relief.”
“Until your mother found you two.”
“Yep. That was the last time I saw him.”
“I’m sorry, Tally. That… isn’t what I expected.”
Tally chuckled tiredly. “Why are you apologizing to me? I’m just grateful that you gave me a chance. No one else would.”
Then Lex did something that shocked Tally. He reached up and cupped his face in a comforting gesture, rubbing his thumb across Tally’s cheekbone.
“I’m glad I did,” he murmured.
Before Tally could open his mouth to ask another question, his lips were covered with Lex’s: soft, wine-flavored, everything Tally had wanted so desperately for the past too many weeks. He reached up tentatively and curled his hand around Lex’s neck, testing the softness of his skin. Tally felt a small nibble, and he opened his lips, needing everything that little bite had offered. Lex’s tongue slipped into his mouth, wet and delicious, making Tally moan.
His senses were reeling; he couldn’t believe it was really happening. He’d have never guessed that his night would end up where it was—in the dark warmth of Lex’s car with Lex’s tongue twined around his and loving every second of it. He wanted to pull Lex over the stick shift and into his lap, wanted to strip every stitch of clothing off of him and taste all of his dark, secret places. He wanted to feel Lex come, hot and wet all over him, until they were both shivering piles of worn-out happiness. Tally’s fingers tightened reflexively in Lex’s hair, and he bit gently at the softness of that plump lower lip. He never wanted the kiss to end.
Apparently, he was the only one who felt that way. Lex pulled back and hung his head.
“God, I’m sorry.”
“What for? Didn’t you notice me kissing you back?” Tally went to pull him in for another kiss, but Lex resisted.
“But you work for me, and you just found out about me,
before
— and I didn’t ask, and this is such a bad idea.” He was stammering and tripping over his tongue.
“It was pretty amazing for being so bad.” Tally couldn’t help but smile, even though his hands were starting to shake.
“Bad ideas tend to be that way.” Lex gave him a nervous glance. “I really am sorry. Just ’cause you’re the one gay guy in town doesn’t mean I should hit on you, right? Listen, I’d better go. I’ll see you on Monday, okay?”
That last part stung. Tally
wanted
Lex to hit on him. So bad. He wanted Lex to want him period, but not because he was an available body. He’d spent years being just that. For perhaps the first time since Jeremy back in high school, he craved the connection. He wanted to be liked for him.
“I’ll see you Monday,” he mumbled and felt for the car handle, humiliated. What else was he supposed to say?
“Tally, I didn’t mean—I just think it’s a bad idea. We work together. It could get so awkward.”
“Like now?”
Lex smiled ironically. “Yeah, like now. Can we just go back to being like it was? I mean like earlier tonight, not like at the beginning.”
“Yeah… and Lex?”
“Yes?”
“No matter what, thank you for forgiving me. I’ve felt awful about what I did to you for years.”
Lex nodded, and Tally stepped out of the car. “See you Monday,” he said one more time before he closed the door.

T
ALLY
ducked out of the rain and into Gianelli’s Pizza. The shop hadn’t been there when he’d left town, but pizza on a cold and boring Saturday night had sounded great. His grandma was out at her monthly poker game, and Tally had nothing but time on his hands. He wished more than anything that he could be at work with Lex. He’d spent the entire day reliving that kiss from the night before. Didn’t matter how many times he told himself it was just a dumb kiss, nothing big at all. It
felt
big—and it was still replaying in his memory over and over, little flashes: the sensation of Lex’s tongue sliding against his, the slight tug of fingers in his hair. It was even better than he’d imagined in his many fantasies. Tally wanted that kiss again and again. He wanted those lips everywhere.
Damn. Doing it again.
He walked up to the counter, hoping that perhaps his favorite pizza might distract him from those random waves of punishing lust for at least a few minutes.

“Did I hear the name Carrington?” Tally turned at the sound of his name from the other side of the restaurant.
Oh, shit. Should’ve recognized that voice.
“Ho-lee fuck. Now that’s a face I never thought I’d see again.”

I was kind of hoping for the exact same thing.
“Hey, Brock.” Brock-the-Rock. Tally’s old second in command and the biggest asshole in the western hemisphere… after himself, of course. Tally had thought, hoped, that Brock would’ve been long gone from Rock Bay. Seemed he was wrong. The guy looked nearly the same, but puffed out, a bit like rising bread. His hair was still strawberry blond, and he clearly went tanning on a regular basis. Tally wanted to groan.
“I didn’t expect to see you around here.” He hoped his voice sounded casual. He sure as hell didn’t feel casual. Things were starting to go so
well
, random Lex lust aside. He didn’t need more ghosts from his past screwing things up.
“I heard you were back in town. Why didn’t you look me up?”
I thought you made it pretty clear what our friendship meant to you a long time ago.
“Just busy, I guess. I’ve been helping my grandma out a lot.”
Brock whipped a card out of his pocket. “Well, I can’t stay and talk, gotta get dinner back for the ol’ ball and chain.” He rolled his eyes. “But call me sometime. We’ll get a beer.”
Never in a million years.
“Sure. I’ll give you a call. We’ll hang out.”
“Right on! Hey, thanks, sweet cheeks,” Brock said to the girl who’d handed him his pizza. He chucked her gently on the chin, then winked at Tally and chuckled low in his throat. “Nice,” he whispered as he turned toward the door.
Tally thought he might gag. The girl might have been sixteen… if he was being generous. Tally knew she was part of his morning high school crowd. She was fresh-faced and sweet, totally not interested. Plus, Brock was
married
. Tally hoped that could at least mean fidelity in the short time it took to pick up a pizza.
Brock waved enthusiastically from the door, hot cardboard boxes balanced on one hip.
What an asshole.
Tally waved back, willing Brock to get the hell out.
“You’re friends with him, Tally?” He hadn’t expected the girl,
Lacey
, he remembered now, to talk. They’d smiled at each other but never had any real conversations.
He shook his head vehemently. “No. Sorry if he came on a little strong.”
She made a disgusted face. “That guy comes in for pizza every Saturday, and let’s just say tonight was nothing compared to what I usually get. He’s a total horndog.”
Tally had to laugh. She’d never been so vocal in the coffee shop. “Listen, I know I’m just the coffee guy, but if you want me to talk to your manager, I will.”
“Nah. He knows. He said if the jerk ever really touches me he’ll get rid of him, but until then he doesn’t want to make waves. That guy has a lot of clout with the country club crowd. I usually stay in the back if I know he’s in the restaurant.”
Tally cringed.
Fucking small towns.
“Sorry, hon.”
She gave him a shy smile. “It’s okay. I’ll see you Monday?”
“Actually, no. I’m not working early mornings anymore.”
“I’ll stop by after school to say hi.”
Tally was a bit worried. “Uh, listen, Lacey—”
She giggled softly. “Give me a break, Tally. I just never had a sibling. You’re cool, protective, kind of like having an older brother to laugh with—nothing like octopus fingers out there.” She gestured at the parking lot where Brock’s car had been.
He smiled, relieved. “Well, then, I’ll see you Monday after school.”
Lacey handed him his newly boxed pizza. “It’s a date!”