A Different Light Page 8

  “Oh, that’s wonderful. How’s he doing?”

  “The same as always. Conquering the world one nano at a time, as he says.”

  “That’s good, dear.” An awkward silence fell between them. Bennett didn’t know what else to say to her, especially if he wanted to steer away from the object of his frustration. She knew Mac better than he did, so maybe he could ask her. But that felt…weird.

  “The, uh, rooms I’ve painted look really good. I think I picked up a new skill.”

  “Does that mean you’re switching careers?” She said in amusement.

  “No one would want me doing this full time. As tedious as my job is, this is just as bad, without the fun.”

  “I can imagine. That saying, ‘It’s like watching paint dry’ doesn’t come from all the fun it is.” They both chuckled.

  “Well, anyway, I’m working hard trying to get done early.”

  “Why would you want to get it done early? You can’t go to your new apartment until the end of August.”

  “Oh, so I can come visit you and Dad.”

  “Bennett.”

  “Mom.”

  “Tell me.”

  Bennett sighed. He should’ve known she wouldn’t let it go. She was always like this. As much as Bennett was one to ask a ton of questions, he did it to gain knowledge, to figure things out. His mom did it mostly because she was nosy. And maybe because she cared about him.

  “It’s nothing, really.” The silence loomed and he knew she was doing it on purpose. Trying to get him to break, but he wouldn’t fall for that trick again.

  But as the minute passed to two then three, “Fine. Have it your way. It’s Mac.”

  He explained to her all about their conversation last night and then the one today. Bennett didn’t know what his mom heard, but it clearly wasn’t what he said to her, because her response was not what he’d been expecting.

  “You should be nicer to Mac.”

  “I am being nice to him. He’s the one snarling at me over something I’m sure I didn’t do.”

  “Bennett, son, sometimes we have to try to put ourselves in another’s shoes to understand their motives.” His mom replied, sympathy in her voice.

  “But what about him putting himself in my shoes? I’ve been nice and even thought we were making progress.”

  “I understand, Bennett. And I’m not saying that how he’s been treating you is right, just that we can’t control what others do. We can only control our own reactions and words.”

  “I should just, what? Let him be a jerk to me just to be the better guy? That doesn’t make sense, Mom.” Bennett was getting frustrated.

  “You’re missing the whole point. Mac is a good guy. He can be rough around the edges, and I know he hasn’t been overly kind to you, but you are blind to anything but what you think you know of him.”

  “I am not.” Bennett grumbled.

  “You are. And if wasn’t for him you’d—” Bennett waited for her to finish. But all he could hear was her muffled voice. Whatever she was saying, she was saying it to someone else. Probably his dad.

  “Mom? What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. Just forget I said anything.”

  “No. Mom. Now you have to tell me.”

  “I can’t, sweetie. I’m sorry.” Her regretful tone was quiet.

  “Is it bad? You can’t just not tell me. Not after saying that. I’d what?” His voice nothing but a broken whisper when he added, “Please.”

  There were more muffled voices.

  Bennett couldn’t think. What could she be talking about? If it wasn’t for him, what? He felt like his mind was reeling trying to grab for something solid to hold it still.

  “Baby, just listen, okay?” Bennett nodded, not caring that she couldn’t see him, because there was no way he could speak. “Mac, was the one that knew where you were that night. He came over wondering what was going on that the sheriff was at our house so late. He wanted to make sure we were all alright. When we told Mac you hadn’t come home and weren’t answering your cell, he immediately volunteered to show Dad and Sheriff Gordon where you were supposed to be.” She paused and Bennett found himself sitting on the floor, not knowing when he’d sat down.

  That can’t be right. Mac hated him.

  “He led them to that place in the woods and helped search for you. It was dark and cold, but they wanted to make sure you weren’t there—” He could hear her sniffle on the other end of the line. He wanted to tell her he was alright, it was a long time ago, but it was like he was living that memory all over again. Lying on the ground, cold and broken, hoping that someone would find him. And now…

  “The three of them walked around, calling your name, hoping to find you just passed out drunk or something. But…” She choked up again, and he tried not to join her. “Mac was the one that stumbled on you lying there, broken and bleeding.” Another pause and he was there hearing the voices thinking that he was dreaming them, feeling the pain.

  “He held your hand the whole time, Bennett. He held your hand, and he cried. He sat in those woods holding onto you, and when they tried to get his hand out of yours to put you in the ambulance, you wouldn’t let go.”

  Bennett sat in shock for a minute. Trying to process everything. Trying to fit the new knowledge in with the old, creating a bigger picture, the real picture. Finding his voice, he had to ask, “Why didn’t you ever tell me this?”

  “He asked us not to.”

  “But why? I don’t understand.”

  “I think you need to ask him that question, but know he never wanted to be seen as a hero because he never felt like one.”

  After promising to call them back tomorrow, Bennett hung up the phone. Trying, and failing, to understand. What could make a person want to hide saving someone? The only way for him to find out was to ask. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to know.

  The more he needed to know.

  It was getting late, not quite dark but close to it. Bennett walked out onto the front porch, to the right corner that overlooked Mac’s property. He wasn’t sure if he was home, since at this hour, the house lights still weren’t needed. He had to take the chance. He needed to ask Mac why.

  As he walked the distance between the two houses, he took deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart, to get back the equilibrium he needed to do this. Before knocking on Mac’s front door, he took one last deep breath, held it and then let it out. It hadn’t help clear the muddle in his head, but it lessened the weight he felt on his chest.

  As Mac’s footsteps moved closer, he wondered how information had so much power. Power to change how he thought of that night. How he thought of the warmth of that hand that felt like life. He wondered what Mac would say, how just putting the words out there would shift things between them. He was already seeing Mac in a different light.

  And he wasn’t sure he was prepared for it.

  The door opened, and there was Mac, looking both concerned and confused. “Bennett?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Mac heard the knock just as he’d finished loading the dishwasher. He wasn’t expecting anyone and couldn’t imagine who would want to be around him after the mood he was in today. Undoubtedly, someone had probably told Allie and she was there to hand him his ass…again.

  He deserved it. He really had to stop resenting Bennett for being so perfect when Mac knew that was just people’s—most especially his mother’s—perception of the guy.

  Everyone was flawed, even the great Bennett Cole.

  When he opened his door to see Bennett looking like someone ran over his dog, Mac instantly felt guilty. Like he was the cause of whatever was hurting him. He probably was after the way he treated him the last two times they’d seen each other.

  He hadn’t spoken. Just stood there staring at him. “Bennett?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you what? What's wrong?” Mac stepped back opening the door to a
llow Bennett to pass through. Bennett had only stepped in far enough to be out the way of the door when Mac closed it. He stood so still for what seemed like forever. Then it was as if the fight had left him. His shoulders slumped and he leaned back against the door.

  “You…saved me that night. You showed them where I was, you…you held my hand.” With each word that poured out of Bennett, shock filled Mac. How had he found out?

  “I remember that. I can sometimes still feel that warmth wrapped around my hand. It's what kept me grounded that night. I felt like if I let go, I would’ve died.” Bennett croaked out the last part in a small voice like he’d been speaking to himself, “You were my anchor that night, and every night after when I thought I was lost.”

  He had no words. He didn’t know how to even respond to that. Bennett was looking at him with eyes full of hope and heat and awe.

  It hurt.

  Mac wasn’t the great person Bennett suddenly thought he was. That Bennett’s parents thought he was. He was just a boy. A boy who’d had an unrequited crush on the perfection he could never be. A boy who’d thought the cute, snobby, quirky, smart, but naïve boy that lived next door was someone he wanted to touch and be touched by. A boy who hadn’t done enough to prevent Bennett from being hurt and nearly killed.

  How had Bennett remembered holding his hand? It was a small thing in all the things that saved him that night. It’d been all he could do to help, to try to make up for his part in the pain that Bennett had gone through. Plus, seeing Bennett, his body broken on the ground that night, had nearly broken him.

  At that moment, the past, that night, even earlier today was forgotten. It was like the lust shining from Bennett was drowning out all the doubt that those memories brought up.

  He’d always wanted Bennett to look at him like that, and now that he was, Mac didn’t know what to do with it. He wanted to bask in it, he wanted to touch and grab and taste, but he held back. Was that what Bennett wanted?

  Bennett pulled away from the door, taking a step toward Mac. Before he could think about what Bennett’s next action would be, his lips were on Mac’s, his hands were grasping his face, holding it in place. Mac was shocked still for a moment, a moment of wow and doubt and want, and then he was doing his own grabbing and tasting.

  How could something feel so good? It was like all the years of wanting had rushed back and made everything sharper, better, more powerful. At the same time Bennett angled his face for a better kiss—one where Mac could finally taste his tongue—Mac had stepped forward, forcing Bennett back until he was once again against the door. Bennett had held on, never for a second stopping the torture his kiss was handing out.

  Although Mac was the one in front of Bennett, his hand against the door by Bennett’s side, he wasn’t the one caged. Mac was. Bennett pushed, pulled, and moved Mac where he wanted him, and Mac was all too happy to oblige.

  He never wanted it to end.

  His free hand slid from Bennett’s neck, gliding over every inch he could reach. The heated kiss built and just hands weren’t enough any longer. Mac wanted to taste Bennett’s skin under his tongue, to lick, and bite. He wanted to suck Bennett’s cock and swallow his come.

  He started to push his hard cock against the hardness he felt under his. Bennett grabbed his ass pulling him in even tighter. The groan that left Mac was low and out of his control. The grinding of their dicks never slowed. Everything felt frantic and desperate. The chant of now, now, now was running through his mind.

  He pulled his head back just enough to break the kiss, taking his first real breath in minutes. Bennett tried to follow his lips, to recapture them again, but Mac pulled back just enough to keep his lips out of reach. Bennett finally opened his eyes, the cloudy haze of lust was all that Mac could see. He needed to be sure that Bennett wouldn’t regret this, regret touching Mac that way.

  “B?” Was all he managed to force out his breath still uneven and ragged. At the sound of the nickname, Bennett groaned but a small smile formed on his beautiful lips. It made Mac want to taste them again, but he needed that answer first.

  “Don’t stop. You taste so good.”

  Mac leaned closer his lips brushing Bennett’s as he spoke, “Are you sure, B?” Mac licked at Bennett’s lips, feeling the slight shiver that went through him as he did, “You want my tongue back in your mouth?”

  He traced his tongue over his jaw to his ear, whispering again, “Or, better yet, you want my tongue on your cock?” Licking and biting up his neck, he whispered in his ear, “Tracing the vein. Licking the leaking crown. Swallowing you down as far as I can.” Bennett’s moan and the grinding of his hard dick against Mac’s just fueled their fire.

  Mac managed to wiggle his hand between them, Bennett was so turned on that he didn’t notice. Just as Mac whispered again, his own voice raspy with lust, he squeezed Bennett’s dick through his jeans, eliciting a moan. “You want your dick in my mouth, in my throat, B?”

  He’d never seen someone so blissful and full of abandon when they were turned on. Even for him, it was rare to ever get this lost and consumed in the heat surrounding them. Who knew science geeks could be so hot?

  “Mac, quit teasing and do it.” Bennett growled.

  It was the only thing Mac needed to hear. Dropping to his knees, he almost felt dizzy with how much he wanted this. The desire to do this wasn’t new. He loved giving head. The taste, the smell, the feel of the hardness filling his mouth. Wanting to do it to Bennett wasn’t new exactly, but it was those feelings, the ones he held so close as a teenager, flooding him. Filling every part of his thoughts and needs at that moment.

  He rubbed his face against Bennett’s cock through his jeans, just feeling it this close to his mouth had him salivating. Man, he was gone for this guy. Not in a he’s my forever way but in a I need him in my mouth now way.

  Unfastening Bennett’s belt and unbuttoning his jeans was quick, even if his hands trembled. Mac reached up to the band of Bennett’s boxer briefs when he noticed what was on them. They were black, tight in all the right places, and across the front in bold red letters it said, “Nerd is the New Sexy.”

  Mac wasn’t sure if he should laugh, or say something. It wasn’t at all what he thought Bennett would wear, but obviously, Mac was learning there were things he didn’t know.

  Mac looked up at him, his eyes were closed, head leaning back against the door, and teased, “Hey, B, sexy underwear.”

  Bennett snorted. Opening his eyes and looking down at him with a smirk before replying, “You have my dick centimeters from your mouth and you want to talk about my underwear?”

  “Good point. Later, though.”

  Bennett placed his hand on Mac’s head, lightly grabbing onto his hair as Mac worked on pulling Bennett’s cute boxer briefs and pants down his legs, his hard length springing free. As much as he wanted to just swallow and taste Bennett, he wanted to savor and tease more.

  Mac leaned in, burying his nose where Bennett’s thigh met his groin and taking a deep breath. It was one of his favorite things about being with a guy, the smell. It was intoxicating.

  He turned sniffing into licking as he turned his head toward Bennett’s tight balls. Sucking one into his mouth, running his tongue around the orb, then letting it fall and gently nibbling at the skin. With each bite of his teeth and glide of his tongue, Bennett’s legs trembled. Turning him on that much was ratcheting Mac’s arousal higher and higher. His cock throbbed in his jeans.

  With his free hand, he pressed against his own hardness, groaning at the shiver of relief and pleasure that went through him. Mac needed. As he continued to torture Bennett’s balls, he used his hands and unbuttoned his own pants, pulling his throbbing dick out, sighing from the feeling of being released from the confines of his tight pants.

  He grabbed onto his cock with one hand and Bennett’s with the other, jacking both slowly as he continued to suck on Bennett’s balls. Every time he ran his thumb over the slit of Bennett’s leaking cock, every twist of
his wrist as he squeezed over Bennett’s crown, every up and down on the shaft, he repeated on himself.

  It was getting to be too much and not enough at the same time. Through every mirrored touch, he’d been teasing himself too. He tilted his head back to look up at Bennett, wanting to see the effect of what he was doing to him on his face. As he swirled his tongue around Bennett’s balls, his eyes were caught by Bennett’s. The intense look that Bennett was giving him sent more shivers through his body, the heat that was pouring out of them ignited Mac even more.

  His need for that heavy cock in his mouth had saliva pooling and a tingle running down his spine. No longer able to stop himself, he licked up the side of Bennett’s shaft, licking the pre-come from the slit, savoring it before engulfing as much of him as he could. Keeping his hand wrapped tightly around the base, he jacked Bennett off as he sucked, licked, and moaned around his cock. His cock was covered in a sheen of Mac’s saliva.

  Mac loved the noises Bennett was making. He held nothing back, letting every growl and moan out like holding it in was painful.

  Bennett grabbed the back of Mac’s neck with one hand and began to fuck his mouth like he couldn’t stop himself. His hips thrusting rhythmically in and out, slow then fast. Mac felt high off it. He was soaring from the fact that he was giving that much pleasure to him, being used by the quiet, nerdy guy he’d always wanted. He loved Bennett using him that way, it turned him on.

  Mac could feel his balls tighten further, pulling tight to his body. He knew he wouldn’t last much longer, and from the tremble going through Bennett, he was close too.

  “Please,” Bennett panted. “Oh god, I’m…close.”

  Mac wanted Bennett to finish in him. He wanted Bennett to come down his throat, wanted to taste all of him. He wasn’t going to let go until he got what he wanted, and he was sure Bennett was thinking the same thing because he kept pushing his cock in and out, faster and faster. Bennett kept repeating over and over, “Oh, yes.”

  Inch by inch, the tingles of his building orgasm were getting stronger and stronger. The cock in his mouth grew harder, he could feel it pulse and throb under his tongue. The idea of getting Bennett off was getting Mac closer to what was going to be an explosive orgasm. He jacked himself harder and faster, wanting to finish at the same time as Bennett.