“I love Coldplay,” I confessed then let myself lean into him just a bit. “I feel so old saying that.”

  He laughed. “Me too. I mentioned Snow Patrol to a kid at the croquet game yesterday and he had no clue who they were.”

  “Gasp!”

  “Right? I felt ancient.” The hand on my hip slid to my lower back. He pulled a little and I let him until his chest and mine were in constant contact. He was hard. His erection brushed mine with each slow sway. “Dane, would you be terribly offended if I kissed you? I know we were supposed to be talking tonight, and we can, but if I don’t feel your mouth against mine soon I think I might go a little mad.”

  “I’d be more offended if you didn’t.

  He took my face in his hands then, ever-so-gently, tipped my head to the right. My brain skidded to a halt as my pulse kicked up.

  “We’re not going to talk about hateful people or your ex tonight. No more sadness or pain. Tonight is just for us, for this.” He pulled my mouth to his, and I responded instantly, licking at the seam of his lips, desperate to get his taste on my tongue. He nipped at my tongue, guiding me into a deeper kiss with skill that he’d not had ten years ago. His tongue rolled over mine, and I moaned in the back of my throat, my hands grabbing at his ribs and hips.

  “Oh hell,” I panted when the kiss ended, his hands still cradling my cheeks. He pulled me back for more, and I went willingly, madly, lost in the feel of his fingers on my cheekbones and the rush of his taste now filling my mouth. I shoved at him, roughly, needing to get him on his back and crawl over him like monkey bars. However, he didn’t fall back to the plush grass, no, he pressed more of himself against me. “Are we sure we want to do this now? Talking about where we fucked things up was supposed to be part of the healing process.”

  “We can talk about how we fucked things up later, Dane. It’s been too damn long since I’ve held you naked in my arms. Hearing you come as I move inside you will heal me more than any words.” I took him by the back of the neck, yanking soundly, taking control of this for a mere moment. I kissed him hard and without reserve. His hands moved to my ass, leading my pelvis to his. The moment hard cock ground hard cock I knew there was no reversing things. The pull between him and I had always been too strong to deny it for long. “For tonight let’s see if we can still shake the stars.”

  “Christ alive,” I told him breathlessly, my hand slipping down the back of his pants as he rocked his hips into me. After a bruising taste of my mouth, he took me by the wrist and led me inside, taking time to close and lock the sliding glass door. We moved through the living room and past the kitchen where his phone rested in an audio dock, filling the whole house with something mellow from 3 Doors Down.

  His bedroom was the first door on the left, right by the laundry room door. When we stepped into it, a cool rush of night breeze greeted us, erupting my skin in gooseflesh. The lamp beside the bed was on, the base serving as a nightlight that glowed softest ivory. I gave the room a fast once-over, pleased to see it was masculine and bright with white walls, blue and gray bedding and drapes, and a large oil painting of a desert at night, the dunes blue under a sapphire moon.

  He turned to me, his grip loosening. “If you want to change your mind…”

  I took his face in my hands and sealed my mouth over his. We worked at our clothing with trembling hands and short, nervous bursts of soft giggles. I worried that I’d feel different…softer or something, but he never made mention of that. His passion ran high as he laid me down on his bed, his hands roaming over me as mine were him, refamiliarizing ourselves to the planes and dips and smooth expanses of muscle. I cupped his balls, eager to have the weight of them in my hand. He shifted a bit, spreading his legs to give me access to his nuts as he nibbled on my throat, his fingers plucking a stiff nipple with just the right amount of pressure.

  “You taste better than I remembered,” he mouthed into my stomach, my hold on his sac slipping as he wiggled downward, his tongue leaving a damp trail over my belly.

  “It’s all the sugar I ingest leeching out of my pores,” I commented, smiling at the ceiling when he gruffly laughed. He lapped at the head of my cock, bringing an end to any quips or bon mots. “Ah God, don’t do that.”

  “Why? Do you not like it anymore?” He took me into his mouth, sliding his lips down over me until he gagged and pulled off.

  “I love it,” I gasped, tugging at the covers as my hips punched upward, my dick scrubbing over his rough cheek, pulling one side of his mouth up into a wickedly wry half smile. “I’ll come too fast. It’s been years…”

  “Years? I don’t believe that.” He went down on me again, slipping down further, then slowly coming off with a wet slurpy “Pop!” that went right to my balls. My spine arched up off the mattress. Khalid moaned at the sight of me writhing under him, begging him to stop yet thrusting up to hopefully get more of my cock down this throat. I wasn’t sure myself if I wanted him to stop or suck me harder.

  “Over a year. Fuck! No, don’t do that…oh yes, do that.” I let my legs fall wide apart so that he could rub a finger over my taint then dip into my ass just a little bit. He gobbled my cock loudly, making deep purring sounds as he bobbed up and down, his finger toying with my hole. I blew apart in seconds, heels pushing into the bed, driving my dick skyward. With a sharp push from him, my ass was back on the bed and my cum was filling his mouth. He pressed a hand to my pelvis, holding me down, his tongue gliding over the head of my cock, lapping up each spurt, his lips now glistening with semen, which set me off again.

  There were no words. Simply no words. And I was supposed to be a wordsmith. Khalid moved up over my quivering body, stopping to mouth my hyper-sensitive nipples until he was licking into my mouth, smearing my taste over my tongue as he wriggled between my floppy legs, his cock hard as a steel rod. I wiggled a hand between us, found his cock, stroking him as I knew he liked.

  “You keep that up…” he panted, caging me under him with arms locked and fists on either side of my head. His head dropped down, brow resting on brow, my hand pumping as I slid a leg up over his ass. Calf on his lower back, I flicked my hips, my reward a long, guttural growl that made me squirm. “Let me get a condom.”

  I wanted to tell him no, forget that shit, but we’d both been with other men. So, as we took a breather to find a condom and the lube, we had the talk.

  In a way, the break helped to slow things down, which was good. When he came back to the bed, his cock covered with latex and a pump bottle of lube in his hand, I was cooling down a bit from the sweet summer breeze lifting the sheer curtains outward. I let my eyes drift shut, then I smiled contentedly as he slipped back between my thighs, his lips dropping tiny kisses along my chest and throat until he was pressing into my mouth with an aggressive sweep that lured me out of the dreamy, contented state I’d slipped into.

  “You still entice me like no other man ever has,” he whispered as he pushed into me. My body tightened around him as I tensed for a moment. “Relax, this is us.”

  “It is us. It’s perfectly us.” I melted back into the bed, and he eased into me, stretching me as he went, the burn a little brighter than usual but soon my body adjusted, and he was moving, and the world and all its beauty was swirling around us, the friction and sweat and glory that was him and me lifting us from the mere act of sex into something more as it had always been with Khalid and Dane. “Faster now.”

  I pulled at him, fingers slipping off his slick shoulders, urging him to plunge deeper and steal my breath as he recaptured my soul, a love that had never ended glowing brighter like an ember in a dark hearth. Each touch, each thrust, each kiss or whispered word of affection fanning the barely alive coal into a flame that then engulfed us both. Or, perhaps, just me. Speaking for him was brazen and greedy, but as I worked my cock with a quick hand, I felt that perhaps the heavens were blessing us with something rarer than the occasional rock that fell from the skies. Perhaps the galaxy we floated in was gifting him and me with another chance.

  “Dane,” he snarled, low and deep, as his body pounded into mine with a stroke that buried him deeply into me. I grabbed at his neck, interlacing my fingers at the base of his skull, and keeping him right there above me so that I could marvel at his orgasm. He was glorious and male, his jaw tightening, his muscles contracting, his cock bucking inside me. There was so much Khalid in that moment, both surrounding me and in me, that I lost myself temporarily. He rolled his hips, murmured my name again then took me in hand, giving me several firm tugs that pushed me off the ledge yet again.

  He crumpled on top of me, his weight sorely missed. I was too spent to do much aside from roll my head to the right and kiss that sweet spot right by his ear where his short sideburn ended.

  With a soft grunt, he slid off me, moving to his back. I rolled to my side, breath shaky yet, and propped my head up with my hand to study him as I have Chagall’s frescos on the ceiling of the Opéra Garnier. He may be more beautiful. With his eyes closed and the thick lashes resting on his damp cheeks and his lips parted, hot short exhalations exploding out of him, his body still hot and hard and male.

  I pushed up higher, locking my arm, and bent over to push his hair back from his sweaty brow. At first, he sighed and then his brow furrowed, and he opened those dark eyes, his gaze finding mine.

  “Don’t do that.”

  I shushed him then bent over to kiss the lines on his forehead away. I put my lips to his hairline to show him I loved that part of him. His brow smoothed. I kissed his eyebrows and then down the bridge of his nose, that perfect Khalid nose that sat so well on his unique face. He smiled a wee bit as I dropped a soft peck to his cheekbones and then along his jaw, even going as far as to tip his head so I could pepper the whiskery area under his chin with kisses.

  “I’m so glad I came,” I murmured into his throat then kissed my way back to his mouth. He was eager for the kiss, opening before our lips connected. We tasted each other languorously, our bodies easing into relaxation, our mood unhurried.

  “I’m glad you did as well.” We touched each other softly, running our fingers over various bumps and scars, until his fingertips lighted on the peace sign around my neck. “Blew me away to see that you still wore this.” He ran a finger around the circlet. “That you still even had it.”

  “Yeah, about that.” I sat up then, leaving him spread out on the bed. The night air moved over my back, making me shiver as it dried the perspiration on my spine. “This isn’t actually the one that you gave me.” I watched his expression go from one of tenderness to one of confusion.

  “It looks just like it.” He laced his fingers together and slid them behind his head.

  “I know. I saw this in a little stall at the flea market. I’d taken off the one that you’d given me that summer, snapped the chain as some sort of purifying rite or something.”

  “The one I gave you was on leather.”

  I smiled at him, pleased that he recalled it so clearly. “Yeah, it had been. The leather got funky and I replaced it with some cheap chain I bought at a mall kiosk.” I wiggled around, one leg bent, the other straight, so I could look at him as we spoke. “It was four or five days after you broke up with me.” He looked pained, but I plowed on because we couldn’t just ignore the mistakes we’d made, we had to acknowledge them, even if they were partly attributed to being young and stupid. “I’d spent days in bed, weeping, hardly eating anything…”

  “I’m sorry I did that to you.”

  I laid a hand on his stomach. “We did it to each other. Let’s make sure we both carry the weight of that burden together. I was just as much to blame as you were. Don’t be so greedy about guilt.” I smiled to show him I was trying to be lighthearted. “There’s plenty to go around so we can share.”

  “Okay, right. We’ll share that.” He laid a warm hand on top of mine, pressing them both down into his belly. “So, the necklace, what happened to it? Did you throw it into the sea there along the Riviera?”

  “I never really got close enough to the ocean to throw anything into it.” He squeezed my fingers. “I offered it to Athena. Rather, I draped it around the hound at her feet.” His eyebrow climbed up his brow. “It was a statue on the patio of someone whose name I won’t mention.”

  “Ah. And he whose name makes me feel stabby tossed it into the bin?”

  “Not a clue what he ever did with it,” I confessed, reaching up to tap the pendant. “This one caught my eye when I was shopping, and I had to have it. Actually, this little necklace was what spurred me to reach out to you after all these years.”

  He pushed up to his elbows, leaned over, and kissed the round emblem and then gave me a fast peck on the lips.

  “I’m thankful that you found it then. Allah works in mysterious ways.” He shimmied off the bed, pulling the sheet off the mattress, and disappeared through the bedroom door. I felt kind of out of place sitting here naked now that the sexy stuff was over, so I left the bed, found my underwear, and tugged them on, feeling an intimate twinge of tenderness. Should I get dressed? Were we done? Dare I ask to stay the night? Would that be too pushy? Too clingy? Where were my shorts?

  “Are you leaving?”

  I spun to look at Khalid in the doorway. “I uh…I don’t know. I wasn’t sure what we were doing now that we’d…reconnected sexually.”

  He frowned a bit. “That’s rather clinical,” he said as he stepped into the room, bent down to find his briefs, and stepped into them.

  “I’m not sure what to do here.” I held out my hands in a supplicant manner. “If you want me to stay I will, I’d love that actually. But if you’re not ready for that, I’ll totally respect your feelings and will go back to the cabin.”

  His mouth twitched, just at the corners. “How can two blokes be so damn uneasy with each other after shagging like mad hounds?” That made me choke out a laugh. I opened my arms and he walked into my embrace, wrapping me tightly to him, I settled against him, eyelids drifting downward. “Stay the night, Dane.” His words were as sweet as warm honey as was his mouth which found mine. We tumbled into bed, tasting and touching, whispering silly things that had little relevance to anything, but I was happy when I fell asleep with him curled into my back.

  *****

  If falling asleep next to him made me happy, waking up to see him praying with the sun of a late summer day resting on his damp hair made me delirious. Facing the northeast window, the blind up, I blinked a bit at the sunlight falling over the bed. Still, I lay there, silently, trying to keep my breathing steady, my gaze roaming over his back, touching the knobs of his spine as he supplicated himself, his words pleasingly familiar. Arm under my pillow, I let my mind drift back to our youthful days, when I hid behind trees, mesmerized and scared, and watched him making his covenant with God. Now I gawked at him as my marrow hummed with contentment and arousal.

  “I feel your eyes on me,” he murmured after he sat back on his heels, the crown of his head high as he glanced over a bare shoulder. I gave him a sluggish sort of smile.

  “Coming awake to see you gilded in dawns light has always moved me beyond words.”

  His lips pulled up into a smile and he rose, taking time to roll up his rug and place it in the corner. He was wearing soft blue pants this morning, flouncy and loose, with a string tie around the waist. The silver crescent moon and star lay on his chest. He deftly tugged the small knot free, allowing his pants to slither down his legs to his ankles. Stepping out of the material, his gaze held mine, and I saw that he was growing hard. The sight made my mouth water. I threw back the sheet that lay over me, baring my hard-on to him.

  “Come to bed, let me make love to you,” I said, beckoning him with a smoky look and a firm stroke of my cock. Khalid slid over me then slipped to my left, his eyes glowing hotly when I climbed over him, easing one knee and then the other between his legs. I cupped his balls, weighing them in my palm while he found the lube and a condom among the debris scattered around the nightstand.

  “Make sure I feel you for hours,” he said, rolling the condom over me as I pumped lube into my palm. “Every time I sit down at my desk I want to be reminded of this moment.”

  I hooked one of his long legs over my shoulder and found his ass with my slippery fingers, pushing two into him with as much care as possible. His mouth parted, and his eyes closed, a soft whispery plea of “more” vying with a cardinal singing to us from the thicket of trees across the creek. Hooking my fingers just so I pulled a rumbling moan from him that I wanted—no needed—to hear again. So I began working that spot until the man was whimpering for release. I slipped my fingers out and guided my cock into him, mind going a bit off track at the sight of my dick pressing into his ass, inch by inch, until I had no more to give him.

  Khalid had always been vocal before when I’d top, and he’d not changed. Rocking into him, my hands wrapped around one ankle, his knee beside my ear, he growled and pleaded, hissing in mild pain when I’d slam deep yet demanding more depth and speed when I’d pull out or slow down.

  “Harder,” he panted, his fist a blur as he jacked himself to the precipice. “Now, hard. Now, now Dane. Now!”

  He got all of me there was to give him. I brought a leg up to give me more leverage to plunge further. His cry of pleasure went right to my nuts. I turned my head and placed my mouth to his ankle bone and suckled hard, his body milking me as he worked himself. With a muted gasp, I bit down lightly then came. He wiggled around a bit, huffing madly, arching his hips down and then back up. I lapped at the thick bone I’d nipped, licking my way to his beautiful high arch then even higher to his long toes.

  “I’ve always loved your feet,” I mumbled against his instep, kissing my way back to his ankle as the shudders began to wane. He giggled when I nibbled on his big toe. My cock slid out of him. My knees buckled, and I crumpled down to the bed on my side. He threw his legs over my hip and laid there, puffing away, his eyes on the ceiling as I stared at the nightstand, my fingers pinching the condom even though I was still hard as a railroad spike. That would change soon, and I wanted to ensure I didn’t leak all over his bedding. I kind of hated cold cum on the covers, and René had been manic about ‘no semen on the sheets please, pup!’ Hating to leave the bed but being a well-trained little pug—UGH—I hurried to the bathroom, attended to the condom, and then returned to the bed. Finding it still warm, I draped myself over it sideways as I had been before I left.