Chapter Six

 

When Matt finally opened his eyes, the first thing he smelled was coffee. “I’m definitely in love,” he shouted out.

“What did you say?” Thomas came into the bedroom. He looked fresh from the shower, his hair damp, wearing a pair of well-worn jeans.

“I said, ‘I’m definitely in love.’ You made coffee.”

“Of course. It’s your drug of choice. I made it for you in Hawaii, remember?”

“Yes, baby. I remember everything about you in Hawaii. If I had a limited amount of come, I wouldn’t be coming anymore.”

Thomas laughed. “You and me both, stud. So, me or coffee?”

Matt’s eyes widened in mock horror. “No, no, please, I beg you, don’t make me choose.”

Thomas grinned. “Okay, you can have both.”

“One, then the other?”

“The question is which do you need most?”

Matt threw off the sheet and stood up. He looked down at his early-morning erection. “Well, it’s a tossup, that’s for sure.” He opened his arms and Thomas stepped into them. They kissed deeply, Matt stroking his hair, hugging him tight. God, it felt so damn good in his arms. “I want that coffee, baby.” He kissed him on the forehead and released him.

“Damn answering machine is going nuts.”

“Oh no,” he groaned. “No messages. I want you.”

Thomas laughed. “Sorry.”

He followed his nose to the kitchen. “Did you eat?”

“No. The fridge is a war zone.”

“Want to go out and eat?”

“Sure.”

Matt poured some coffee into a mug and sipped. “God, that’s good. Give me ten minutes to shower and shave.”

“I’ll wash your back.”

“No, God no,” he said, putting down the half-drunk coffee, “we’ll never leave here if you do that.”

“That’s what I was counting on.”

Matt shook his head. “You’re incorrigible. You’re driving me insane in those jeans.”

“Oh my God,” Thomas laughed. “These are the most unsexy things in the world.”

“Not on you they’re not.”

“You are insatiable.”

“And incorrigible?” Matt was coming closer with that look in his eye.

“Matt.”

“Thomas, I want you.”

“Matt,” he protested, but it wasn’t convincing, not even to himself and he didn’t make it to the shower for another hour, which at that time, Matt had to join him.

They ate brunch at two in the afternoon, took a walk and sat in the park.

Thomas didn’t want to talk about the movie or his book, although Matt made the attempt a few times.

“Tell me about you, your job? You never talk about it.”

Thomas shrugged. “I write.”

“I know that, silly, I mean the other stuff.”

“It’s complicated and boring.”

“Nothing about you is boring. I really like your brother and his family.”

“Yeah,” Matt sighed. “I hope they stick it out.”

“They seem so much in love.”

“What about your parents?”

“I don’t…well, my mom is nuts, and my Dad pulled a disappearing act a long time ago. My mom adored him. He threw her away.”

“Whoa. There’s a lot of pain there.” Matt hugged his shoulders.

Thomas looked off into the distance for a moment, tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t realize how close the pain still was.

“Thomas,” Matt said gently, “is that why you said you didn’t believe in happy endings?”

Thomas swallowed the lump in his throat.

“Oh, Thomas, sweetie…Rose,” he whispered in his ear, “that was your parents, not us. That’s why you didn’t call me when you got back, isn’t it?”

Thomas nodded without looking at him. “I was thinking about you on the plane. I already told you, it was like a dream and I…”

Matt pulled him around to look at him. “But it wasn’t a dream, baby. It was real. We’re not going to end up like your parents.”

“What if…” He stopped, took a breath. “I never wanted to love anyone this much, Matt. It scares me.”

“But I love you, too, just as much as you do me, Thomas. Don’t you think I’m scared, too?”

Thomas wound his arms around his neck and hugged him tight for a second. Then he released him. “This is getting intense. Let’s take a walk.”

They walked for a while, went for a coffee, then Matt asked Thomas if he wanted to go back to the apartment. He sighed. “I suppose so.”

“Is it because you don’t want to get your messages?”

Thomas grinned at him. “Yeah.”

“Come on, where’s my brave boy?” he teased.

Thomas smirked. “Hiding.”

“I see.”

“It seems my life was simple before.”

“Before me?”

“No, not you…that’s another issue. Before all this movie shit. I’ve got reporters wanting to do stories, lawyers and agents and crap.”

“If you’ll let me, baby, I’ll help you.”

Thomas nodded. “Okay. I didn’t mean to shut you out. I…”

“You didn’t want to let me in, in case we went to shit?”

“Something like that.”

Matt chuckled as he followed him up the stairs. “Not going to happen. You’re stuck with me.”

Thomas and Matt listened to the messages a third time together. “Does that mean I have to go to Hollywood?”

“Looks like it,” Matt flopped on the sofa. “Not so bad. You can at least keep an eye on things. They want your input, at least that’s something. And they’re going to keep it gay.”

“That I’m happy about.” Thomas paced a little. After a few minutes, he stopped, looked at Matt, realizing that he hadn’t said a word in a long while. He looked deep in thought. “What?”

Matt looked up. “I’m thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how much I love you. About how all this can work out.”

“Eh?”

“Thomas.” Matt rose. “Look at me.”

Thomas smiled. “I’m looking. You’re drop-dead gorgeous.”

“Yeah, yeah, you, too, but never mind that. Do you love me?”

“Matt, goddamn it all, I—”

“Just answer the question,” Matt said, placing his hands on both of Thomas’ shoulders.

“How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Okay,” he took a breath, “then tomorrow, we get up and we find out how in the hell a couple of guys go about getting hitched in this city. I call my family. You call yours or whoever else you want to tell. We get you packed up and I go with you to Hollywood as your legal partner and meanwhile, we apply to immigration to get you citizenship.”

Thomas blinked. It all made sense, but damn it, did something that made that much sense have to be so bloody terrifying?

“You do love me.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Then stop thinking so much about what a disaster this could turn out to be and think about what it’s going to be like, the two of us, together, waking up together every morning, Thomas.” He shook him a little. “I’m scared, too. In fact, I think I’m euphoric…feeling a little like Scrooge did when he woke up Christmas morning.”

Thomas smiled.

“Say yes, say you will, Thomas, say you’ll marry me, be mine, for better or worse, richer or poorer, please.” He sunk to his knees, pressed his face against his legs.

Thomas nodded. He couldn’t speak. He nodded so hard, his entire body shook, causing Matt to glance up at him. Matt’s face transformed into a smile. He scrambled to his feet. “That’s a yes, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s a yes,” Thomas said, holding Matt’s body close to him. “God, yes, yes, yes. I’m yours, I’m yours, Matt.”

Matt stood back from him, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I know you love me, now take me to bed and show me, again and again, all night long.”

Thomas choked back his own tears, tried to lighten the mood. “Do I get time off for good behavior?”

Matt uttered a laugh, half mixed with a sob. He hugged him again, then led him down the hallway. “Ah, depends on how good you are, Thomas.”

“That sounds like a challenge to me.”

Matt issued him a flirtatious smile. “Take it as you will, Rose.”

Thomas pushed Matt on the bed, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “Oh, I’ll take it all right.”

Matt was laughing until Thomas crushed his mouth against his and began to unzip his jeans. Then his laughter gradually faded to be replaced by an enthusiastic sound of pleasure, which started deeper in his chest and expanded, filling the room. Those sounds coming from Matt turned Thomas on like nothing else. He ripped at his own pants, yanked off Matt’s and did his best to keep on coaxing those noises from his lover. When his mouth captured Matt’s cock, Matt’s fingernails dug into his scalp and he grunted in part from the pain but mostly from the satisfaction of knowing that at this moment, only he had the power to do this to him. He didn’t want to think about who had done it to him before. There would be no one after, he thought with determination, savoring the taste of Matt’s cock in his mouth. He pulled Matt’s hips up off the mattress, took his cock deeper into his throat, swallowed, his mouth filling with Matt’s release.

“Jesus, Jesus! Yes, oh yeah…yeah,” Matt groaned, his head moving back and forth on the pillow.

Thomas sat back, watching him, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “You were saying?” Thomas smirked, lifting an eyebrow at him when Matt finally calmed.

Matt winked at him and turned over onto his stomach. “You’re only getting started.”

Thomas let his gaze travel over the swell of his ass. “Aren’t we supposed to save this for the wedding night?”

Matt glanced back at him. “You’re not serious?”

Thomas pretended to consider it. “I’d prefer to marry a virgin.”

Matt laid his head down on the pillow. “Would it help if I told you I felt like a virgin the first time we did it?”

Thomas ran both hands over his ass, then separated his ass cheeks. “I guess that will have to do,” he said, lowering his head and slowly using his tongue in a way he knew would quickly get Matt’s hard-on up and running again.

“Oh, ah,” he hissed. “You’re driving me cra…raasss…zzzzy.”

Thomas chuckled softly, putting his arms around him and pulling him to his knees. He ran his hands over his chest, toyed with his nipples, nipped his neck, fondled his erection. “You’re hard again.”

“No kidding.”

He clutched Matt’s hips. “I’ll get some lube.”

“Don’t go away.”

“You can reach it if you stretch, on the nightstand.”

“I see it.”

“Your teeth are chattering.”

“You feel all smug and superior, don’t you, lover.” Matt let his head fall back against Thomas’ shoulder as he spread some lube on his finger.

“No, mostly I’m horny and I need to fuck you bad…and I love you,” he said softly. “Nothing smug about that.”

A few seconds later, he was inside of him, moving slowly, content to let Matt set the pace until he could control himself no longer and he let go, pushing Matt down into the mattress while he slammed into him.

“Yes, go, go,” Matt cried out. They both came to climax at almost the same time, their voices a crescendo of guttural satisfaction.

They fell asleep sometime later in each other’s arms and Thomas didn’t feel that fear clawing at his gut until the next morning when Matt looked deep into his eyes, and said, “Time to do it.”