Darwin's Natural Selection (20 page)

Flattening himself against the rough brick wall framing the back door, Tom tried to slow his breathing, to use the method Darwin had showed him, but he couldn’t do anything but pant. Quick, shallow breaths rasped out of his mouth, burning his throat.

He looked around as well as he could without peeling his body off the wall. He couldn’t see anyone else from his vantage point but that didn’t reassure him. Bad people, those wanting to do bad things, never stood out in the open. They crept around the shadowed edges of things, waiting for an opportunity, for a potential victim, someone like him.

“Tom.”

Even though the word was said quietly, Tom still jumped, skinning his palms on the brick and tripping over his own feet. He almost fell, catching his balance just as a hand seized his elbow. Tom jerked away and the hand released its grip. He was finally able to turn and focus on the person who’d grabbed his arm—it was Darwin.

Relief made Tom sag against the wall even as a rush of disappointment flooded through him. He’d had sex with Darwin.

He’d managed to go home with the man and had even spent the night, but it was as if nothing had even changed. Tom was still as unreasonably terrified as always.

“You okay?” Darwin asked, his hand still outstretched but not touching Tom, just hovering there, as if he were waiting in case it was needed later.

“Y-yeah,” Tom muttered, annoyed at himself for a second time when he heard his own stutter. “Just locked myself out by accident.”

“Sure you did.” A corner of Darwin’s mouth twitched up.

Distracted, Tom blinked at the other man. “Why else would I be out here in the freezing cold?”

“Hmm…why would you come out here in the freezing cold?” Darwin asked, tapping his chin in a hammily dramatic way. “Why would you lock yourself outside the coffee shop, in an empty, secluded parking lot, knowing that I would follow you out and do my best to distract you from the cold?” He took a step toward Tom. Then another.

Tom’s heartbeat kicked up but it was different from the blind terror of earlier.

This had the raw tang of fear but it was mixed with excitement, even desire. Tom stifled a panicked snort of laughter. Darwin had admitted that Tom’s mixture of fear and want excited him. Tom wondered if one emotion would ever exist without the other now.

With a final step that jammed Darwin’s hard thigh between Tom’s legs, shoving his feet apart and forcing Tom to rise onto his toes, Darwin cupped both sides of Tom’s face and kissed his mouth. The warm body pressing his back into the bricks frightened him for a few seconds until he focused on what the even warmer mouth was doing on his.

Despite his fear that the previous night of lovemaking had changed nothing, Tom realized that there
was
something. The legs pinning his, the lips demanding entrance into his mouth, weren’t the body parts of an angry, hurtful stranger. They were Darwin’s —sweet, funny, chocolate-loving Darwin.

Even though Tom’s rapid heartbeat wasn’t all from desire, there was enough there to keep him from pushing the man off him.

Tom also knew, deep down, that if he tried to push Darwin off, Darwin would go, and that made their positions so much less scary.

When Tom didn’t protest, Darwin’s kiss intensified. He slipped his hands down Tom’s neck, over his shoulders and down his arms to lace their fingers. As Darwin turned his head, seeking a new and better angle at which their mouths could connect, he raised their hands, holding them against the wall above Tom’s head.

Darwin nipped at Tom’s mouth, making him gasp. When Tom’s lips parted, Darwin took advantage, his tongue invading in that merciless way that was both terrifying and thrilling and, oddly, familiar enough to be comforting. With a hungry groan, Tom gave in, melting against the body and mouth that had taken over his.

He could tell Darwin felt his surrender because the other man went still for a fraction of a second before diving back in, even hungrier than before. He dropped Tom’s hands but kept kissing him as he worked his own between them, opening the buttons at Tom’s crotch.

Tom followed the other man’s lead, fumbling to open Darwin’s fly as hot fingers closed around Tom’s swollen cock.

Tom cried out against the mouth pressed to his, hips jerking his cock into Darwin’s grip. As Darwin gave a breath-stealing squeeze, Tom renewed his efforts to reach the other man’s erection. Shoving his hand under

the

waistband

of

Darwin’s

underwear, he finally succeeded in grasping his rigid length.

Darwin’s head jerked back at the touch and Tom took advantage of the break in kissing to pant for air.

“I love your cock,” Tom gasped, his chest still heaving.

“You’re fucking amazing,” Darwin rasped, his fingers tightening around the erection his hand. “I’m dying to bend you over and fuck you right here against this wall.”

Tom groaned. Darwin talking dirty got him every time. “So do it.”

Holding his breath, Tom watched Darwin’s face as his eyes went narrow and dark, his expression freezing into a look so still and intent that it was almost frightening. “Can’t,” he finally said. “No condoms, no lube…plus, you know, parking lot.”

Despite Darwin’s words, there was still a wildness to him that made Tom realize a tiny nudge would send the man over the edge and Tom would find himself getting fucked raw in public. There was a crazy allure to that image, making Tom hesitate for a second before chickening out.

“We’ll just have to improvise then,” he said, dropping to his knees. In one motion, Tom swallowed the other man’s cock to the back of his throat.

“Sweet fucking Jesus,” Darwin gritted out, and his near-incoherent cursing had its usual effect on Tom, making him squirm and wriggle and redouble his efforts to relax his throat and take Darwin’s entire cock into his mouth and throat.

Darwin made a completely unintelligible sound and grabbed Tom’s head with both hands. Holding him still, he began to thrust his cock in and out of Tom’s mouth. It started slowly but Darwin soon lost control, driving his erection deep into Tom’s throat with every thrust of his hips.

Tom felt the creeping rise of worry as he realized he’d lost all control of the blowjob.

With the other man’s hands holding his head in place and the cock being jammed into his mouth, all he could do was relax his throat and accept everything Darwin gave him.

It’s Darwin
, he chanted in his head.
I’m safe. It’s Darwin. All I’d have to do is pull back and he’d let me go, because he’s Darwin.
The words worked and the fear retreated enough for Tom to notice Darwin’s quickening pace and taste the salty tang of pre-cum. With a final thrust, Darwin shoved his cock deep into Tom’s mouth and came with a muffled groan and full-body shudder.

Tom swallowed everything Darwin gave him, continuing to work his mouth around the softening cock until Darwin tugged him to his feet.

“This is the hottest coffee date I’ve ever been on,” Darwin said with a rusty laugh.

Tom just smiled and pressed his cheek against the flannel shirt covering Darwin’s chest, feeling suddenly shy for some reason.

“My turn,” Darwin said, reaching toward Tom’s crotch.

“Later,” Tom replied, twisting his hips away from the other man’s exploring fingers, tucking his cock back into his pants and buttoning his fly.

“My darling Bambi,” Darwin asked, his voice full of amusement, “did you just literally cock-block me?”

“No.” Tom stood firm for a fraction of a second against the other man’s disbelieving eyebrows. “I didn’t. I cock-
delayed
you. Huge difference.”

“You’ll have to explain that huge difference to your blue balls.” Despite his words, Darwin still sounded entertained by the whole conversation.

“I love that about you,” Tom blurted before considering the words.

“What?” Darwin was actually laughing now. “
My
blue balls?”

“No. I mean, your balls are great but…”

Tom trailed off, flustered, and shook his head. “You’re never
mad
. I’ve put you off a bunch of times but you never seem to get pissed about it. It’s nice not to have to worry about that.”

“Sex with you, Bambi, is completely worth the wait.”

“Thanks.” With a happy smile, Tom relaxed against Darwin, letting his weight sink heavily against the other man’s sturdy form and wrapping his arms around his chest. Darwin was so warm, Tom didn’t feel the need to hurry back inside the coffee shop anymore.

“Sure you don’t want me to suck you off?”

“Yeah.” Tom’s arms tightened. “Tonight.

When we’re not in a parking lot during daylight.”

“Fun-sucker,” Darwin teased, and then paused. “That actually sounds really dirty.

‘Fun-sucker’, I mean.”

Tom laughed. “Well, tonight, get ready to do some fun-sucking. You’re going to fun-suck until I can’t take any more fun-sucking.”

With a laugh, Darwin turned Tom around toward the front of the coffee shop.

“Come along, my little doe-eyed fun-sucker.

Let’s get you back inside.” Tossing an arm over Tom’s shoulders, he dropped a kiss on top of his head.

*

Andrew swore. There was an SUV

parked on the street in front of his house. All the neighbors knew he hated when people parked there, blocking the plows and the street sweepers.

“Must be a new asshole in the neighborhood,” he grumbled.

As he swung his car into his driveway, however, he saw two men standing on his front porch. They wore suits but looked too old and too hard to be Jehovah’s Witnesses wanting to convert him. The men watched as he parked and walked up to them.

Unease settled on his stomach. “Can I help you?”

As if rehearsed, both men simultaneously pulled out matching badges, holding them up for Andy to see.

“Andrew Mickelson?”

“Yes.”

“National Security Agency,” one said, doubling Andrew’s nerves. Sheffield had said he could lose his job for running those prints but Andrew hadn’t realized
he
could get into trouble for it.
Shit.

“Okay,” he said, trying to keep a poker face even though sweat was prickling along his hairline. “What can I do for you?”

“Dr. Sheffield Hart.”

Andy tried not to squirm during the heavy silence that followed. He finally couldn’t take it anymore, “Yeah?”

“He entered a latent print into the FBI’s NCIC database.”

“The what?”

“The National Crime Information Center.”

Blinking several times, Andrew had to swallow hard before he could speak. “Okay.

What does this have to do with me?”

“Dr. Sheffield stated that you requested the print be analyzed.” It was the taller of the two agents who spoke this time.

Andrew’s gaze bounced from one impassive face to the other. “No, I… I mean, I just wanted to check the guy out. He seemed really sketchy and I didn’t want him around my friend if he, you know, had a record or something.”

Realization struck. “I was right, wasn’t I?

I f
you’re
here, he must be a really bad guy.

What was he, a rapist? Murderer? Child molester? Wait—you’re NSA? He must be a terrorist. I knew it! I knew there was something off about him. No one is actually named
Darwin
.”

“Why don’t we go inside, Mr. Mickelson.” The taller agent gestured at the front door. “It’s critical to national security that you tell us everything you know about this man. Darwin.”

He couldn’t breathe. Hands tightened around his neck and he knew he was dying.

He tried to fight, to break the choking grip, but his arms, heavy and useless, refused to work. His screams were trapped in his chest, unable to escape as a gray film darkened his vision.

Tom shot up into a sitting position, gasping for air, hands flying to his throat to pry away phantom fingers cutting off his oxygen supply.

“Tom.” Darwin was sitting up with him, awake andaware before Tom was completely free of his nightmare.

“I’m okay,” Tom gasped, realizing too late how stupid that sounded. Of course he was okay. It had just been a nightmare. This wasn’t a Freddie Krueger movie.

Darwin wrapped his arms around him, pulling Tom into the hard warmth that always made everything good again—or at least less bad.

“You’re better than okay,” Darwin was telling him. “You’re fine. Mighty fine, in fact.”

Tom’s laugh was rusty but it was there.

He leaned back until his head hit the pillows, pulling a willing Darwin down with him.

Darwin immediately wrapped himself around Tom, pulling the other man’s back to his front and throwing a leg over his thighs.

Tom couldn’t decide whether the heavy weight of Darwin’s arm and leg was comforting or suffocating. “You could never date someone who’s claustrophobic,” he complained, although he didn’t wiggle his way out from the limbs confining him.

“Too much?” Darwin asked.

“No,” Tom told him, catching the other man’s hand before he could lift his arm. “It’s nice. You keep the nightmares away.”

Darwin’s snort reverberated against Tom’s back. “I don’t know about that. The last couple nights, I haven’t done too great a job keeping them away.”

Pressed against Darwin’s bulk, Tom was tempted to fall asleep again but the pressure of a hardening cock against the small of his back was a temptation all its own.

“It’s the trial,” he said, unable to resist shifting his hips, stroking his ass over the erection behind him. The hissing sound as Darwin sucked in a breath made Tom bite back a smug smile.

“Want to talk about it?” Darwin asked, although the husky rasp to the words made him sound more lustful than compassionate.

“No,” Tom said, being perfectly honest as he pressed back against the erection again.

“Okay,” Darwin agreed, dropping a kiss onto Tom’s shoulder that quickly turned into a gentle bite. “Wanna fuck?”

“Always.”

The single word made Darwin’s teeth dig into Tom’s skin, hard enough to make him flinch.

Darwin immediately let up. “Fuck. I’m sorry.” He kissed the pinched spot then touched it with his tongue. “Sometimes my brain stops working when I’m with you.”