A Different Light Page 9

  He hollowed his cheeks and sucked harder as he twisted his wrist again and again at the base of Bennett’s length. Just as the thought that he wasn’t going to last much longer entered his mind, the first pulse of come hit his tongue. Bennett’s cock twitched and throbbed with each pulse. Mac groaned and swallowed the bitter fluid just as his balls let loose his own orgasm on the floor between Bennett’s legs and on his own hand.

  It was over too fast for Mac, but he wanted it too much to hold off any longer. He pulled off Bennett’s softening cock, leaning his forehead on his thigh and trying to catch his breath. With his eyes closed, he could hear Bennett’s labored breathing like he’d run a marathon and couldn’t hold back the happy grin. He’d done that to him. He’d given him that kind of pleasure.

  And he wanted to do it again.

  Mac should already be up and going this morning but after what happened last night he was kind of…lost in it. Lost in thinking about feeling Bennett on his tongue, in the moans that still echoed in his memory, but mostly lost in the conversation that followed.

  It hadn’t been what Mac expected. He half expected Bennett to bolt or at least express regret over it happening. But he hadn’t. Bennett wasn’t talkative, but he spoke a little more about that night and Mac’s part. It made him feel uncomfortable. He didn’t like being praised for something that he felt he was partially at fault for or could’ve helped prevent. But he didn’t say that to Bennett. He let him say his piece then Bennett kissed Mac and smiled before he left.

  His plan was to give Bennett some room that day. Not avoid him, but let him have time to think over what they did and not crowd him.

  Mac wanted more though. He needed to touch more than he’d done last night. Maybe even see what other underwear the man had hiding under his nerdy clothes.

  Someone like Bennett liked to think, analyze everything they did or would do. Bennett had acted out of emotion last night. That decision had to be weighing on his mind.

  Mac lived each day to its fullest, never second-guessing his choices. That wasn’t true in the case of what happened to Bennett. After that, he was more careful, more considerate of the impact of his decisions, but he still stood by each one. He tended toward the opposite way of thinking than Bennett. Neither were right or wrong, they just were. And since Mac wanted more, he had to bide his time.

  After a long, hot shower, where he used last night’s events as fodder for his jerk off session, he drank his coffee, ate his breakfast, and ignored his phone. He knew it was Danny since he hardly ever slept late. But it was only eight in the morning. It wasn’t all that late.

  After cleaning up breakfast, he grabbed his gear and phone and started walking toward the door when someone knocked. At this hour, it was definitely going to be one of the crew, but which one was anyone’s guess.

  He was secretly hoping it was Bennett.

  Opening the door, he found Danny looking relaxed and calm and not like a person who’d been texting and calling every ten minutes. “Hey, Danny. Whatcha doin?”

  “Whatcha doin? That’s all you’ve got to say? Why have you been ignoring my calls, boss?” Danny stepped inside pushing passed Mac. He sighed and closed the door, assuming from Danny’s actions that they weren’t leaving just yet.

  “Okay, out with it. What’s got your undies in a bunch?”

  “Nothing. Can’t a guy worry about his friend who ignored his calls? You never do that?”

  “Danny? Are you pouting?” Mac knew Danny wasn’t the pouting or worrying type, something else had to be going on. “Alright,” he sighed. “Out with it.”

  The look of pure innocence was what gave Danny away, and he was still trying to pull it off. Mac just raised his eyebrows and waited him out.

  “Fine. The guys made a bet that you had someone spend last night since you were late this morning. Like…a guy someone.” Danny was looking around, as though he’d find some guy hidden around the corner or in a closet.

  “Oh, and who were they thinking would be here?”

  “No one in particular.” Danny had that angel look. The one that told Mac he was lying. It was his tell. Looking like he was up to nothing meant he was trying to hide something. The man tried too hard and was too much of a good guy to ever be good at lying in any form.

  “Yeah? You sure about that?”

  A minute of silence and Danny broke. “Bennett. Most everyone thought it was Bennett.”

  Shock went through Mac so quickly that he almost stumbled backward. “What? Why on earth would they think it’s him? We do nothing but fight most times.” Mac was running through every interaction, and never once did he think his attraction showed, and Bennett’s definitely didn’t, at least not to him. What did they all see?

  “Are you serious right now? You can cut the tension with a knife around you two.”

  “That’s because he doesn’t like me, and I tolerate him.”

  “Oh no, I know—and the guys know—what sexual tension looks like, and you guys have it in spades.”

  Mac snorted. He couldn’t very well say there wasn’t sexual tension, last night disproved that. But before that? Bennett didn’t like him. Bennett had just been high on his emotions. It wasn’t like there’d be a repeat.

  Mac could feel himself frowning.

  Until that moment, Mac hadn’t dared to think that. He wanted the opposite, but he had to be honest with himself. Bennett was probably just working through some intense emotions and that was what last night was about. He couldn’t get his hopes up thinking that the boy next door would actually want him for more than a quick tumble.

  Shaking loose of that path of thinking, he looked straight at Danny and could see the hope there. Mac hated to disappoint him, but he had no choice. “Sorry, big guy. Nothing between me and Princess. Never will be either. You might want to spread that around.”

  Locking eyes with Danny, he could see the searching look his friend was giving him, but he wouldn’t find what he was looking for on Mac’s face. He nodded, grunted, and walked toward the front door. “Let’s go, boss. It’s time to work.”

  Mac couldn’t avoid the house all day as much as he’d tried. He ended up hanging around his crew, making sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing until one of the little tattletales called Danny. The big jerk came stomping his big ass feet around the house to the backyard and practically dragged Mac to the front where he scolded him for hovering.

  “I cannot believe they called you and told on me. What are they, eight?”

  “You were hovering. You never hover. Someone you tryin’ to avoid, boss?” Danny winked, then waited for his response.

  “I will not dignify that with an answer. I was working and making sure they stayed on task. Wouldn’t want to get behind, would we?”

  “Yeah, sure. Let’s go, Mac. I’ll show you where you need to be.” Danny walked up behind Mac and pushed him forward, his big paws on Mac’s shoulders. This time toward the front door.

  “Wait! I just remembered, I’m meeting Allie for lunch.” Mac tried to slow his forward progression, but Danny was too big and strong for him to stop. Damn giant!

  Danny just kept pushing him along when he replied. “That’s nice, but it’s only nine in the morning.”

  “Seriously? Why is this day torturing me?” Mac mumbled to himself. “Alright, quit pushing, ya brute. I’ll go into the house on my own.”

  Danny removed his hands and walked around him, up the porch stairs, and knocked on the front door before opening it and walking inside. “I already called Bennett to let him know we were going to be inside today.”

  Mac saw no way out, so he followed.

  Bennett was nowhere to be seen when they walked inside, but he could hear music playing in the family room, so Mac figured that’s where he was. Danny continued to walk opposite of where Bennett was which Mac was all too happy with.

  Again, not avoiding, just giving space.

  Sure. More like I’m afraid he’s going to regret what we did. />
  Thankfully, it was Friday. Mac needed the veg time on his couch with his remote this weekend. Or maybe he’d work on his bike or some painting in his workshop. But vegging sounded much better.

  They’d all worked hard for the last almost two weeks on the Cole house. As he walked through the house, following Danny up the stairs, he could see that Bennett was making good progress on the painting; two rooms done, only eleven more to go.

  His guys were still doing some of the outside work, but the roof and gutters were done. As soon as the old tree was removed and the landscaping completed, some of the crew would leave to other jobs. The rest—three guys plus Mac—would be doing what was needed inside for the next two and a half months. Shorter, if Mac had any say, which he did. It was something he tried to do with every job. Easier done when nothing major went wrong, and so far, the Cole house had given them no surprises.

  They walked down the hall toward the bedrooms as Danny was talking about all Mac had to do and finish by the end of the day. Like Mac wasn’t the one who had set the damn schedule in the first place.

  “You know I know all this, right?”

  “Just wanted to make sure, since you seemed to have forgotten this morning.”

  Snarky ass. “Yeah, whatever. You know, I’m still the boss. I don’t need my hand held.”

  “Then prove it, Mac, and I know the only hand you want to hold is the guy downstairs.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mac walked into the first room, it was one of the smaller ones. He avoided looking right at Danny. Allie constantly told him his eyes always told her if he was fibbing or not. “I don’t want to hold anyone’s hand.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Why is it good to know?” Mac turned, narrowing his eyes at Danny.

  “Because that means that you aren’t interested which means I can set him up with Steve. Steve likes the geeky types. I mean, I think he prefers them a little more ‘twink’ than Bennett, but he’s still cute, so I’m sure he’d go for him.”

  If Danny’s grin got any bigger, his face would’ve cracked, right along with Mac’s jaw that he found himself clenching. He knew his friend was teasing him, trying to get him to react. Mac wouldn’t give in to him.

  “You go right ahead. I see no problem with it.” Lie!

  He looked over at Danny, expecting some kind of rebuttal but none came. “If you say so. See you later, boss.” And Danny walked away. Mac released the breath that he’d been holding.

  Turning his mind to the job ahead, he scanned the room.

  He had to rip up the old carpet so that they could put brand new laminate hardwoods down. That would help increase the value of the house and it was something he always recommended to his clients. The tools had already been brought upstairs, probably early that morning by Jesse, the high school kid that was a runner for the crew.

  He usually came in early and brought equipment and tools to the places that needed it then went off to school. He was one of those smart kids that nearly had all his credits, but instead of going full time and finishing before his friends, he went part-time so he could graduate at the end of the month with everyone else. He was a nice kid but came from a poor family, so he helped out as much as he could and always had a smile on his face.

  Mac got to work using his box cutter to cut a slit in the corner of the carpet, making it easier to pull it up. As he worked, even with the air conditioning going, he got hot. It was the middle of June and it got hot and humid in upstate New York in the summer.

  After getting the first bedroom done, he took a quick water break and moved on to bedroom two. His goal was getting all four bedrooms’ carpet ripped up today.

  By the time he’d done the second bedroom and had the carpet rolled up, he decided it was too damn hot to keep his shirt on. It wasn’t like it was doing anything to help him stay cool, if anything, with how it was sticking to him, it just made him hotter and annoyed.

  Most times he tried to keep his shirt on in a client’s house, except if he was alone like he was at that moment.

  He’d gotten one of the guys to bring him a fan, hoping to make the last two bedrooms less of a sauna. It didn’t help much but enough that he didn’t feel like he was going to get overheated.

  He was on the last room—hallelujah—when he turned to pick up the crow bar to start removing the carpet tack strip and saw Bennett standing in the doorway, his eyes heated and filled with admiration. Mac wasn’t sure what to say. The look was encouraging. He wasn’t mad or looking regretful, so that was a plus. It made his hope surge back to life.

  He’d hung his shirt up to dry after taking it off a couple of hours ago. He turned to grab it and put it on as he greeted Bennett, feeling oddly exposed without it on. “Hey, B.”

  Bennett stood there with his hands in the back pockets of his jeans looking, not shy exactly, but uncertain. Maybe they both had felt unsure of the other after the hot night they shared. “Hi. I just wanted to see if you wanted to eat dinner with me.” Bennett had given him a small smile before quickly adding, “Not like a...a…date or anything. Just takeout downstairs.”

  Oh, Mac could have fun with teasing him right then. He wanted to. He loved making Bennett get all flustered and pink cheeked, but he was trying to be good, trying to get them to a place that maybe would lead to a repeat of last night.

  And, with the look on Bennett’s face, that was looking more and more likely.

  “Sure. Just let me finish up here and I’ll clean up and join you.” Mac smiled. He was happy, and he wondered how long they could do this without another fight. He was alright with bumpy roads. Bumps were a part of life. You just had to learn from them and not make the same mistakes again.

  “Okay, sounds good.” Bennett turned to leave but stopped and turned back. His bottom lip between his teeth. Mac waited, knowing that whatever Bennett wanted to say, he was making sure his wording was perfect. “I wanted to tell you that I don’t regret anything that happened last night. I may have been swept away by my emotions, but I knew what I was doing and what I wanted. I’m still processing what I learned yesterday. It still feels so surreal. I just…I hope this means we can be friends, at least.”

  Relief swept through him. “Good. I don’t regret anything either.” Bennett grinned and started to walk away but Mac had one important question, so he called after him.

  “Bennett? Does that mean I can kiss you again?”

  And all Mac heard was Bennett’s laugh as he continued to walk back downstairs.

  A loud sound jolted him awake. He was so exhausted and disoriented from the sudden awakening that he couldn’t figure out what had woken him up. Then he heard it again. The rev of a motorcycle. No, make that two motorcycles.

  God, it felt like high school all over again.

  Bennett stumbled out of bed, his brain still fuzzy with sleep. He peaked out the window pulling the curtain aside. Mac stood in his driveway in between two loud rumbling motorcycles. First revving one then the other. From what he could see from so far away, there were still tools littering the groud.

  Walking back over to the night stand, he picked up his phone, squinted at the screen, and saw that it was only six. Six in the goddamn morning.

  Why did that man insist on getting up so early and waking everyone up around him? Bennett couldn’t be the only one disturbed. And he was very disturbed. He’d been up late making huge headway painting the foyer, having nothing else to do, and he was admittedly a few days behind where he was supposed to be. Who knew painting was so damn hard?

  The motors were still being revved at regular intervals and Bennett was too damn tired and grumpy to put up with it. He grabbed a t-shirt and stomped his way down the stairs and out of the house, mumbling to himself the whole way.

  It had been about six days since the kiss that had led to one of the best blow jobs Bennett had ever had. He and Mac had gotten together at least two nights to eat dinner after working all day and even shared a lunch. But no more kisse
s. No more touches. Bennett didn’t know why. Mac had asked, and although Bennett laughed him off, it was only because he hadn’t known what to say. It was Mac for fucks sake. Six days of them basically getting along. No arguments and no fights and no bickering of any kind.

  And now this.

  It was fun while it lasted.

  Bennett knew there had to be a point where they would butt heads. There was no way it was going to be so easy.

  Bennett approached Mac while he was bent over the bike that sat on the right side of the driveway, his gorgeous ass on display. Mac hadn’t seen him and obviously hadn’t heard him approach, so he walked to the other side of the bike. If Mac looked up he’d see him, but he didn’t. He leaned over and tapped on Mac’s shoulder.

  When Mac’s silver eyes locked onto his and his sexy as fuck smile spread across his equally sexy as fuck lips, the anger that had built up, slowly started to drain away. Bennett wanted nothing more than to lick and kiss those lips. But he had to remember he was angry and had no right to just kiss the guy when Mac clearly hadn’t wanted anything more than what they had shared.

  The revving of the one motor stopped and Mac’s full focus was on him.

  “Mac, quiet down. Can't you see how early it is?"

  “What, did I interrupt your beauty sleep, Princess?"

  That line was all too familiar to Bennett. The nickname had been a point of contention between them years earlier. Now though? Bennett had to admit, if only to himself, that hearing it fall from Mac’s lips now wasn’t the same. It was teasing and playful, and at times, like now, so hot and full of heat.

  “You’re revving two motorcycles at the ass crack of dawn. Of course, you interrupted my sleep.” Bennett paused then mumbled, “And stop calling me princess.”

  Mac walked around the bike to stand in front of Bennett, not saying a word, just staring at him. “Were you being a good boy last night?”