“Don’t try to turn me on again.” Mason’s voice was ragged, but his smile was wide. “I’m spent. If you try to get me to cum again, all you’re going to get is a closed for business sign popping out.”
David tuckedthatidea away in the back of his mind. He didn’t do that much surrealist art, but that could at least be an entertaining image to put together. “I can acquiesce. Tonight.” On shaking legs, David rose from the tub. Even when he was out of the water, he felt different slickness dripping down out of his hole and along his thighs. “Don’t usually have to shower after I take a bath.” He padded over to the shelves filled with bright, white towels. He dropped one on the floor and skidded it back over to the tub with his toe. Then he gestured for Mason to stand.
He was red from the heat of the water, and his dick still had a ribbon of white dripping from the tip. His hips curved out, and David wanted almost nothing more than to snuggle in bed and hold him close. A pang of nerves—something he wasn’t all that used to, if he was honest—lanced through his middle, and as he held out the towel for Mason to step into, he couldn’t help but give voice to his worries. “You’re not heading out, are you?” It wasn’t direct, but even if it was ridiculous, he needed to hear that Mason wasn’t going to leave. He was…so stable. So good.Too good for me.
Mason skipped the towel entirely, tossing it aside and grabbing David by the shoulders. “Hey. You’re in a post-nut panic right now. Happens to everyone.” Then he wrapped his arms around David. “I’m not going anywhere tonight, and once we’re all done with the wrap-up stuff for the show, I’m going to be back in Pine Point and we’ll work out a time to get together.” When he kissed David, it wasn’t filled with passion or ragged with need. It was simple, firm, unflinching.
David melted forward into him, letting his tongue slide out into Mason’s mouth. When he needed a real breath again, hetook the opportunity to speak. “Sorry. I just don’t want to lose a good guy.”
“If you were going to lose me, that would have happened one of the dozen times I freaked out over the past three weeks.” Mason’s fingers raked through his hair, massaging David’s scalp. “You stuck with me through that nonsense. I’m here for the long haul, babe.” Finally, he pulled away from the embrace and grabbed the towel. He scrubbed it over his hair, leaving a cloud of dark bronze on top of his head. “Get your shower. I’m going to…go check out that painting you wouldn’t let me look at.”
The air froze for a second, and then Mason jogged out the door and David chased behind him. “Not without me, you naked son of a bitch!” Mason had a head start, but David caught him and rerouted him onto the sofa, where they tumbled down in a tangle of limbs and kisses.
Chapter forty-three
Mason
Aftersomewrestlingandsome pleading, Mason finally agreed to wait. David wanted him to see the painting in its natural environment, so Mason sat on the edge of the bed, wearing some basketball shorts and simple black tee that he saved for tooling around his hotel room. Except this wasn’t the hotel room. This was…this was his boyfriend’s bedroom. His boyfriend, who wanted to bathe with him naked, who wanted to watch him masturbate, who didn’t care if he wore clothes that hid his body or not.
Footsteps announced David a second before he backed into the bedroom, staring over his shoulder, the canvas facing the opposite direction. “Okay. You ready?”
“I was ready fifteen minutes ago when you tackled me.” Not that Masonreallyminded getting into a naked tussle with David.
David brought the painting over to the easel he’d set up in the corner and, finally, he turned it around and set it down, then looked over the top edge at Mason. “Ta-dah.”
Mason smiled before he even properly examined it. His first impression, taking in the wild colors and lines all at once, was joy. Joy that gave way to contentment so intense he had to bite back tears.
There was no doubt in Mason’s mind that it was him, and there was simultaneously no doubt in his mind that it was erotic. Sexy. As Mason stood to step a little bit closer to the painting… “I’m sexy.”
“Well no shit.” David stepped out from behind the easel and stood next to him. “I’ve been telling you that.”
Mason swallowed hard. He’d never felt sexy before. Not like this. Not when he wasn’t directly in the throes of passion already, when hormones clouded reason. But they weren’t getting ready to hook up, and they were past the post-orgasm sea of endorphins.
Mason didn’t touch the painting—it was still wet, obviously—but he brought his hand up close, tracing the air in front of the lines. His butt stuck out in the painting, since it was a three-quarters perspective, but not in a bad way. In a way that invited someone to grab a handful. His belly bulged a little, but in David’s vision of him, it wasn’t flab. It was soft, like a fluffy pillow or plush carpet. One area Mason never had any issues with was his penis, but eventhatlooked better than he would have imagined. He even chuckled at the tiny fleck of gold on the tip.
His hair was done in gold. His eyes were more suggestions than properly painted, but there was a line of red in his open mouth. His tongue. Emerald flecks of paint scattered over his chest and his neck, where his muscles were taut.
Mason finally couldn’t hold back. Tears welled up as he turned to David. “That’s me.”
“Well nobody else jacked themselves off for me tonight.”
Mason wrapped his arms around David, and they stumbled back onto the bed. Mason kissed him, even through blurring vision. He pulled David in close against him. “Thank you.”
David wiped the tears from Mason’s face and looked him in the eye. “No. Thankyou.”
Epilogue
Mason
Three Months Later
Surroundedbybrightlycoloredcarnival glass—plates and cups and candy dishes in iridescent jewel tones—Mason helped Aras gather up drinks for the cooler. “You really do have a nice place.”
“Well, I know some halfway decent home renovators. And Evander.”
“I heard that!” Evander and Ozzy were both on the sofa, tangled up in each other.
“That was the point, asshole. Stop making out on my couch and do something useful.”
