New Lease of Life (27 page)

Pizza did sound good, but with a movie date arranged for Friday, that would mean they’d seen each other almost every day that week. Did it matter? Things were moving faster than Pip could ever imagine, but he felt as though he had known Colby forever.

Pip thought it was only wise he put up a token of resistance. “I might get grease on my fancy togs.”

“Take them off.” Colby huffed in amusement, sounding much more comfortable with the conversation now that Pip hadn’t given him an outright no. “I’ve got a T-shirt you could wear, Pipsqueak. If you have to wear anything.”

Okay, maybe the pet name Colby had christened him with was appropriate, if the undignified noise he let out was any indication.

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Mrs. Robinson,” Colby added in a similar nasal twang to the one Pip had attempted. “
The Graduate
. Good to know your taste in movies is as vintage as your clothes. Suits you. Hey, am I Anne Bancroft in this scenario?”

“If the stockings fit….”

“Interesting thought, but I’m sure they’d look better on you than me.”

A significant pause in proceedings gave Pip the time to contemplate Colby’s muscular thighs encased in ten-denier and a lace garter belt. Bloody hellfire. “I think I should warn you I am remarkably clearheaded.”

A sharp gasp preceded Colby’s next statement. “Just get over here. I’m hungry.”

“Start without me,” Pip said, but he was already closing down his laptop. He headed up the stairs to retrieve his jacket from the wardrobe.

“Seriously,” Colby muttered.

Pip’s phone beeped indicating an incoming message. From Colby. Frowning, he opened it.

*rolls eyes*

“I can’t believe you sent me an action text in the middle of a conversation. I don’t want you to have cold pizza because of me.”

“It’ll be cold anyway, by the time I’ve finished with you,” Colby practically purred down the phone. “What are your views on pizza for breakfast?”

Breakfast. Colby wanted Pip to stay for breakfast. He should be panicking right about now, but his mind could only imagine more kisses and Colby’s bulk pressing him into the mattress. Or a wall in the hallway. A wall would be good. Solid.

“Pip?”

“Huh?” Pausing at the front door, Pip wondered how he’d made it down the stairs. He struggled to get his arm in the sleeve of his jacket while holding his stick in one hand and the phone to his ear. “I’m coming.”

Colby sniggered. “Nope. Not going there. Far too easy.”

Checking he had his wallet and keys, Pip stepped out of his flat and locked the door behind him. The weak afternoon sun bathed the stairs in a pale glow and marked his pathway to the pavement above. At the top he paused and turned his face to the warmth.

“Fine, you child. No pizza. I prefer croissants for breakfast,” Pip said with a smile. “I’m on my way. In fact, I see a black cab. I’ll be there shortly.”

Disconnecting the call, Pip stepped toward the edge of the pavement and hailed the driver.

“ARE YOU
sure this is the right place?” Pip asked the cabbie.

A pair of large metal gates stood open, creating a gap in the solid wall that ran in both directions for several hundred meters.

“It’s the address you gave me, mate. And it looks like you’re expected. The gates are open.” The cab driver twisted in his seat and glanced at the cane propped up against Pip’s knee. “On a lot of these larger plots, the houses are quite far back from the road. Do you want me to drive you in? It’s gravel, by the looks of it.”

Which would be a bugger to walk on.

“Please.” Pip tried not to bristle at the offer of help. It was far easier than he expected.

The black cab crunched up the gravel of the driveway, which was flanked by mature planting and the occasional sculpture hidden amongst the greenery, and headed toward a detached house. Nothing huge or ostentatious, not that Pip had expected anything of that nature—it wouldn’t have been Colby’s style—but large enough that Colby’s house probably had at least double the square footage of Pip’s own property. And a darn sight more garden than the postage stamp of outside space he shared with his upstairs neighbor. Late evening sunlight glinted off something out to the rear of the house. Either Colby had a major greenhouse fetish or the large glass building held a pool.

An amazing view, but none more so than the sight that greeted Pip as he stepped out of the cab. There were no sweeping marble steps leading to a huge front door, just a modest entrance, guarded on one side by a topiary… dragon—yeah, definitely a dragon—and on the other side by an old fashioned Royal Mail letter box. Framed in the doorway, Colby lounged against the doorjamb like the most enticing picture in a gallery.

He’d used the time it had taken for Pip to cover just over ten miles to change into a soft comfortable looking T-shirt and jogging bottoms that dipped low on his hips.

Making full use of his cane, Pip steadied his footing on the awkward gravel. Colby straightened as Pip moved forward and took a step toward Pip to stand at the edge of the gravel drive. That’s when Pip noticed Colby’s feet were bare.

“Pussy,” Pip greeted with a grin.

“Hurts my feet.” Colby nudged at one of the tiny stones with his big toe. “Been thinking about getting it paved for a while now.”

“D’ya need me to wait, mate?” the cabbie called through the passenger side window.

“You’ve paid him?” Colby asked in a low voice as Pip reached him.

“Yes.” A smudge of red tainted the darkening skin of Colby’s jaw. Pip licked his thumb and reached up to rub at the mark. Colby’s skin had the texture of fine sandpaper, but the stain came off easily, releasing the aroma of tomatoes. “You started without me.”

“Just a slice or two. I was starving.” Colby’s arms wound around Pip’s waist, drawing him in.

Vaguely Pip registered the taxi pulling away and heading back down the driveway—more an abstract sound of rubber on gravel that just about permeated his brain cells—as Colby leaned in for a gentle kiss, the tang of pizza sauce on his lips.

Despite neither of them deepening the kiss, it seemed to go on forever. When Colby finally pulled back, his arms still encircling Pip, he said, “Come on. Let’s go inside. I’ve got something to show you.”

“I’ll bet you have.”

“And my feet are cold.” Colby manhandled Pip through the front door, shutting it behind them, and down the hallway. Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, he asked, “You hungry?”

“Not for food.”

“Kitchen’s that way”—Colby waved a hand beyond the point where they were standing—“just in case you want something later. What I want to show you is upstairs.”

“Oh, yes?”. Without wasting any more time, he headed for the staircase. He took one step, up onto the first stair, and turned around. Level with Colby now, he wrapped his arms around Colby’s neck and leaned into his body. “I can see what I want right here in front of me.” Pip punctuated this declaration with a nip to Colby’s jaw. “We could do it right here. The walls look sturdy, and I know you’re strong enough.”

“You’d like that?” Colby pulled back, his expression one of confused apprehension, as though the idea had never crossed his mind, but now that it had….

“Face to face, your weight pressing me against the wall, my legs wrapped around you.”

“You’ve thought about it.”

“I’ve dreamt about it.”

Colby’s breath hitched. “Wouldn’t you be worried I’d drop you?”

“Even your muscles have muscles.” Pip reached out and gave Colby’s bicep a friendly squeeze. It jerked beneath his touch. “You’re strong and thoughtful and gentle. You’d never let me fall.”

“Never.”

The whisper of that single word took Pip’s breath away. It sounded an awful lot like a declaration. And Pip felt compelled to make one of his own. “I trust you.”

“Are you holding on?” Colby’s hands settled in a now familiar position at the small of Pip’s back, his arms clamped tightly around Pip’s body. “Lift your legs around my hips.”

A surge of excitement and adrenaline thrummed through Pip’s body, pooling in his groin. He did as requested, shifting until he was settled comfortably. Pip could feel the solid outline of Colby’s clothed dick rubbing against the seam of his trousers.

“The wall thing sounds hot, but I don’t want a quickie with all our clothes still on.” Colby took a step up the stairs, moving both their weights with apparent ease. “Not for our first time.”

About halfway up the staircase, Colby paused, his breaths coming in little labored pants. Despite the obvious oxygen starvation to his lungs, he dipped his head for a kiss, his tongue sweeping deep and dirty into Pip’s eager mouth.

“I’m going to lay you out on my bed, kiss each part of you as I peel those perfect clothes from your body, until I’ve exposed every inch of you.”

Every inch. Nobody wanted to see every inch of him. Not anymore. Except that the flush that spread across Colby’s cheeks and down the column of his throat told Pip that he really did. Colby’s dick, ramrod hard and attempting to drill through their clothing, seconded that motion. The desire to get his hands on Colby’s skin hit Pip with such force that he was tempted to take his arms from their safe perch and push them up under the hem of Colby’s T-shirt to spread his fingers out over Colby’s muscular back.

That move would undoubtedly have them tumbling down the stairs in a heap, although he was so determined to get his hands on Colby now that he would happily suck him off while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Hell, he’d even let Colby do him in the back of the emergency vehicle; he was that ready to explode.

“Then what?” Pip spread out his fingers to cover as much flesh as he could find, one hand carding through Colby’s thick hair while Pip forced the fingers of his other hand down the neck of Colby’s T-shirt, his thumb stroking over the knobby lump at the base of Colby’s neck. “What do you plan to do to me?”

They were near the landing now, and Pip waited for Colby’s response while he navigated them up the final two stairs, putting them once more on solid ground.

“I want to say that I’ll make love to each and every part of you, until we’re aching from it, but it’s been a while, and I’ve wanted you from the first moment I set my eyes on your grumpy, skinny arse. So chances are I’ll go off like a rocket before we get to that stage.”

“Me too. Not since before… you know.”

“Nobody?”

Pip ducked his head, burying his face against Colby’s shoulder. “What did you call him? Jerkface? He pretty much killed my confidence. Took one look at my leg and—”

“Not gonna happen. Look at me, Pipsqueak.”

Pip barely lifted his head, but he exposed enough of his face for Colby to force his lips into the gap, searching out Pip’s mouth in a tender kiss.

“Want you so badly. All of you.” Colby panted the words against his lips.

Obviously unbeknownst to Pip, these were the
right
words—the magic words Pip had needed to hear—because he surged up to reconnect with Colby. The kiss left his lips wet and his jaw aching from how eager he was to swallow down every swipe of Colby’s tongue and scrape of his teeth. To climb inside Colby and make a home there.

Pip risked taking one hand from Colby’s neck and trailed his fingers down over the fabric of his T-shirt. At the waistband of Colby’s jogging bottoms, Pip paused, then stuffed his fingers under the wide elastic. Meeting no resistance from any other fabric, Pip spread his fingers and squeezed.

His back hit a wall, forcing the breath from his lungs to share with Colby, and he clung on tightly, his fingers grasping at Colby’s hair and digging into the round globes of his arse.

“Sorry,” Colby muttered, pulling back sufficiently to let Pip refill his lungs. “You drive me crazy. Nearly there.”

Two more staggering steps, as if carrying Pip was taking all of Colby’s strength and concentration, and Colby lowered Pip down onto the bed. Nothing like the freefall of last night. Careful. Reverent.

“Clothes off.” Colby braced himself with his left hand, using his right to work the buttons of Pip’s shirt while Pip continued to hang from him like a sloth, nibbling and kissing at his jaw and lips. “Pipsqueak, you’re gonna have to let go. I can’t get you naked with you hanging from me like that, and I really need to get my hands all over you.”

“Thought you were going to use your lips?” Pip pressed his own lips in a fleeting kiss to Colby’s jaw to reiterate the point. Then he let go of Colby’s neck, and his shoulders hit the soft bedding.

Since Colby hadn’t released his legs, the change of angle thrust his hips harder against Colby’s groin.

“Pip.” Colby groaned and seemed to forget all about the buttons; instead his fingers grasped the front of Pip’s shirt. “Gonna be over before it starts if you keep that up.”

“Can’t have that.” With his sock-clad feet, Pip managed to tug at Colby’s trousers. While they moved quite freely at the back, the front got caught up on Colby’s dick. Pip pulled the elastic waistband out and down, his feet and gravity doing the rest of the work.

“I
thought
you were going commando,” Pip said with a grin as Colby’s dick sprung free from the material. “Was it just the pizza where you took me at my word and started without me?”

“Just the pizza.” Colby pulled back, concerned sincerity replacing the lust-blown expression he’d sported not a moment before. “It’s more than obvious I’m eager to see you, but I didn’t actually invite you ’round for a bit of slap and tickle.”

“A bit of slap and tickle sounds like…. What?” Pip asked indignantly as Colby smirked.

“Sounds funny in your accent.”

“Bloody cockneys! What about a bit of ’ows yer farfa?”

Colby snorted, his dick bouncing to slap against his stomach as his body shook with laughter. “Not a cockney. Not having sex with Dick Van Dyke either.”

“Bugger me senseless,” Pip insisted in his best Brideshead Revisited accent. “Top the toff. Nail the nobleman. Better?”

“Yeah,” Colby said with a breathy edge to his voice.

Their laughter had taken the urgency off his arousal, but whatever caused that breathless tone, the sound of it had Pip’s desire ramping up again. Colby had finally managed to get all Pip’s buttons undone despite the distractions, and the hem of Colby’s T-shirt brushed against the exposed portion of Pip’s chest, the teasing featherlight contact raising goose bumps just as surely as Colby’s touch would.