Love in La Terraza (9 page)

“I did apologize for that, Ruth,” Cain frowned. “I thought you’d forgiven me.”

“Oh I did, dear,” Ruth smiled. “Happily forgiven…just not forgotten.”

Cain sighed, not happy with that answer, while knowing she’d stop torturing him at some point. “I’m giving Henry a tour of the property, so we’ll be heading down to the cellar later. I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“Thank you so much, Cain.” Ruth glanced over at Henry. “Nice to see you back so soon, Mr…?”

“Sorry, this is Henry Abrams, Ruth.”

“Lovely to meet you, ma’am,” Henry said.

Ruth glanced back and forth between the two of them as she and Henry shook hands. “Charmed.”

With a knowing smirk, she turned and headed out the door, leaving them in peace.

Henry whistled. “That one’s certainly holding a grudge.”

“You think?” Cain buried his face in his hands, groaning in misery and praying she was just old and smelling shit that wasn’t really there.

Henry kneaded the muscles in Cain’s shoulders, eliciting a groan of pleasure from him.

“Didn’t mean for my little tour to create extra work for you, baby.”

“If there’s something wrong, it’s usually better—and cheaper—if you catch it early. Need to run upstairs to Snead’s apartment to see if I can find the leak currently fucking up the ceiling here. It’s weird, but the longer a space sits empty the more things seem to go wrong with it.”

“Spaces are meant to be lived in,” Henry crossed the room, taking one last look at the kitchen cabinets.

“I really need to get someone in here.” The truth was he hadn’t had the money to spend on the newspaper ad.

He glanced over at Henry, thinking he could do a hell of a lot worse for a tenant. Then he recalled Eddie’s U-Haul crack and thought better of it, knowing he’d never live it down.

Henry ran his fingertips along the wood grain. “So well built, beautifully crafted, yet simple and unassuming.”

“You talking about me or the cabinets?” Cain asked.

“Both.” Henry winked, following him out the door.

As they headed upstairs and made their way to Snead’s door, Henry took Cain’s hand, the pad of his thumb massaging Cain’s palm.

Something else that was so simple and unassuming, yet still beautiful, Cain thought, knocking on the door.

After waiting and having no one answer, Cain unlocked the door, praying they wouldn’t find tortured and dissected animals inside. He hadn’t wanted to rent to Ned Snead, but he was too desperate for the income to be picky. The guy gave him the creeps, though.

“I don’t normally let myself in like this, but he’s usually gone the entire weekend and I need to check for the leak,” Cain admitted, opening the door and heading inside.

He was stunned by what he saw, turning in a circle as he surveyed the interiors. From the look on Henry’s face, it wasn’t only him.

“How long has he lived here?” Henry asked.

“Almost six months.” Cain went farther inside, calling out to make sure no one was home.

The apartment was nearly empty aside from the simple cot in the living room and the TV sitting atop the side table that had been left there by the previous tenant.

“Gives a whole new meaning to living without the excess,” Henry said.

“This is weird, right?” Cain felt odd being in here all of a sudden. “Not just me being weird.”

“Not just you.” Henry thumbed back toward the doorway. “Should I wait in the hall?”

Cain’s eyes widened. “Fuck, no! You aren’t leaving me in here by myself.”

Henry laughed, seeming to understand how creepy that might be.

Making a beeline for the bathroom, Cain was down on all fours in seconds. He popped out the access panel in the wall to check the pipes then clicked on the flashlight he’d pulled out of his back pocket and scowled at the water dripping from one of the fittings. He reached down and twisted the shut-off valve to prevent further leakage.

“Have to come back up and see if I can tighten it myself,” Cain said, turning when Henry made no comment. “Where’d you go?”

Cain sighed in relief, hearing Henry in the other room. “You gotta see this.”

Cain rounded the corner into the bedroom. “Some watchdog you’d make.”

Henry stood in front of the closet which had a few pairs of jeans and T-shirts hanging inside along with a pair of shoes and random undergarments sitting atop the shelf. A large tool box was on the closet floor next to a crow bar.

“I’m outta here.” Cain spun around and headed for the front door with Henry laughing at his heels on the way out.

“You act like you don’t wanna look inside?” Henry asked, his voice laced with ornery.

Cain stood in the hall just outside the door, shaking off the chills. “Let’s go before your nosiness gets us impaled by Satan’s miscreant.”

“You’re the one renting to him,” Henry reminded him as Cain locked the door.

“Come on, smarty pants.” Cain grabbed the man by the arm, dragging him away from the door. “Let’s finish up this tour so I can find something more useful you can do with that mouth of yours.”

Henry’s laugh radiated through his body, instantly making him feel more at ease as they headed for the door at the end of the hall.

They went through the attic so Henry could take a look at the construction, getting an idea of how the place had been put together before heading to the cellar. Much to Cain’s dismay, they discovered Ruth’s pipes were indeed leaking, in several places no less. Henry seemed to note the look of despair on Cain’s face because he offered to help him fix it.

“I’m not an expert mind you, but I put in some time working construction in my day. If it’s nothing major, we might be able to do it ourselves.”

Henry’s offer elicited a bear hug from Cain that nearly knocked the man over.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Cain said, kissing him before he could get another word out. “You help me with my pipes and I’ll totally tend to yours later.”

That had Henry grinning, but Cain didn’t give him much time to ponder the possibilities before he dragged the man back out of the cellar so they could go purchase supplies.

* * * *

It was nearly nine at night before they’d finished replacing the bad pipe, the multiple T-fittings and brackets, but it was done, and all for less than thirty bucks, which had Cain euphoric.

Henry on the other hand seemed a little worse for the wear. The wife beater he wore was soaked through with sweat under the arms and around the center of his chest and back. Cain wasn’t complaining, though Henry was slightly grumbly.

They’d stopped by his hotel room and picked up a few changes of clothes on their way to the home improvement center since Cain had invited him to stay the rest of the weekend if he liked.

Apparently, Henry liked.

Cain did as well. He very much liked the way the big, beefy man looked in the beat-up pair of jeans. Henry’s hair was damp around his face, and he ran his fingers back through it, getting it off his forehead. He removed the leather tool belt Cain had lent him, laying it on the kitchen counter before getting himself a large glass of water.

As Cain watched the man guzzling it down, he couldn’t help but think Henry looked primed and ready to walk onto a plumber-themed porn set and lay some thick beefy pipe of his own.

Henry was visibly startled when he turned to find Cain standing right behind him.

“Jeez, scared the shit…” Henry watched Cain drop to his knees, “…outta me.”

Cain smiled, doing his very best to seem innocent, despite the fact he was currently unfastening Henry’s belt and jeans, which fell around Henry’s ankles. Cain moaned seductively as he shoved his nose into Henry’s brief-covered crotch and inhaled deeply. He all but ripped the man’s underwear down, wasting no time before licking and sucking each sweaty ball into his mouth one at a time and getting off on the salty-sweet tang combined with the musky scent of man sweat.

Henry’s dick was only about half hard when Cain sucked him all the way into the back of his throat.

He wasn’t half hard for long.

As far as payment for services rendered went, Cain was practically floating on an erotic high, thinking for once he hadn’t gotten screwed in a business transaction.

“God damn it, Cain.” Henry white-knuckled the kitchen counter as he instinctively thrust his cock down Cain’s throat. “Please tell me I get to fuck your tight little ass tonight.”

Cain groaned, letting the man know things were looking favorable on that front.

Henry grabbed him by the hair, taking control of Cain’s cock sucking, apparently deciding he preferred Cain doing things his way.

Spoke too soon. Looks like I’ll be getting screwed after all.

Chapter Five

The offices of Hamilton-Bach were housed inside a two-story building constructed of bronze, steel and glass which lent the structure a contemporary, sculptural feel, resembling a piece of modern art more than it did office space. The long, vertical battens and large panes of glass allowed light and shadow to play off the reflective surfaces, making the interiors feel warm and open as opposed to hard and cavernous.

Humming some tune he’d been unable to get out of his head all morning, Henry walked through the front door of Hamilton-Bach, rested and recharged, ready to attack another day at work. He felt as if he were on fire, able to do no wrong, and in the zone that had him destined for success.

Much of that was due to Cain; Henry could no longer deny that.

Though it had only been a few weeks since they’d met, as each new day came and went, Henry became more and more certain he’d finally found
the guy
. Not
the one
as he’d never believed there was only one person out there for everyone, but certainly one of the many who might be right for him.

It went beyond the typical
he makes me feel good
crap. Though Cain did make him feel great—more than great actually.

Henry had never been with anyone who was quite as…responsive in the sack as Cain was. So much so that he’d feared it was all part of an act in the beginning. Not that he was knocking his own skills, Henry knew he was proficient, but when it came to Henry’s dick, Cain was a bit like an addict who’d found a new drug.

It honestly wasn’t until he’d overheard Nic mentioning she’d never seen Cain so happy that Henry had decided to let go of any doubts or suspicions and stop looking for things that had never been there to begin with.

I’ll just have to resign myself to being the rock-star, sex-stud my new boyfriend believes me to be.

He laughed to himself, realizing he sounded like an idiot, while trying to prevent any added swagger seeping into his strut due to his rapidly over-inflating ego.

The icing on the exceedingly hot sex-cake was how god damn sweet the man was. He practically oozed earnestness, to the extent Henry wanted to wrap him up and protect the little guy from all the evils in the world. Strangely enough, Henry was aware that he didn’t need to do that. Life could certainly get Cain down, but it would never keep him down. He was amazingly strong and resilient, a quality that made Henry respect Cain, every bit as much as it made him want to fuck him.

Henry breezed past his assistant, Anna Washington, who watched intently as Henry went into his office.

Turning on his computer, he smiled up at her and did a little jig, which had her normally sour puss smiling, before he flopped down into his chair.

As usual, she was impeccably dressed, having that slightly glossy sheen he’d come to expect due to the makeup and her penchant for silk blouses. Her real name was Anjanetta and she was one of the few people of color that worked at the firm, a deficiency Henry wasn’t used to coming from Georgia.

He felt much more at home around her than he did most of his other colleagues.

“Good morning, Miss Anna,” Henry said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Hope you had as
awesome
a weekend as I did.”

He looked her up and down, knowing full well she dressed to be noticed, though never over-the-top or what anyone might consider overtly sexual. She definitely had a fondness for jewelry, as well as extravagant taste in handbags and footwear. She was the type of woman who never left the house without her war paint on.

“Somehow, I’m thinking that’s a big fat no,” Anna said, her sarcasm rearing its ugly head. “I get the feeling an entire commune full of flower children couldn’t have had as awesome a weekend as you.”

“You would be right, there, Anna.” Henry sighed, placing a hand over his chest. “I think I’m in love, and as there is quite possibly only one guy, like my guy, out there in this big, beautiful world, it’s not possible for anyone else to be as happy as me…‘cause I ain’t sharing.”

“Oh, is that all?” Anna scoffed. “Thought you won the lottery or something.”

“You choose money over love?” Henry was disgusted. “Anna, you wound me.”

“In my experience, the money will last longer.” She sniffed, leaning against the doorjamb. “And that ain’t saying much, honey, ‘cause this girl loves to shop.”