Of Cocoa and Men 01 (4 page)

“My pastries tasted like meatloaf!” That was definitely offense on Connor’s face.

“Only someone with as good a sense of taste and smell as me would notice. And it was still the best pastry I’ve ever tasted.”

Connor looked slightly mollified.

“How did you get it into the kitchen?”

“Pretended to be a delivery guy. I only come here during the early hours so none of the afternoon waitresses know me from a hole in the wall. And who walks into a kitchen and leaves a mixer if they don’t belong there?” No one had even batted an eyelid at him.

Connor nodded, face pensive. “So can I ask you a question...” Like Connor hadn’t asked a ton already.

“Dayton,” he supplied. “And yes. Ask me anything you want.” Especially if it was “Can I see you after work?”

“Dayton. I like that.” Conner gazed at him for a moment before shaking himself. “So my question -- why? Why all this stuff? Why me? You like my baking that much?”

“I’d never tasted it before the other day.” He shook his head. “No, it’s got nothing to do with your baking. This is my way of saying I like you. After our first meeting in the parking lot, I knew I had to do something special, something other than walking up and startling you again.”

“When you do something special, you go all out.” Connor looked rather stunned. “You really did all this just to meet me?”

“I did it to make a good impression on you. When I met you, I wanted you to be receptive. Are you?”

“I...” Connor looked a little startled that Dayton had simply come right out and laid it out on the table. He swallowed, nodded. “Yeah, I am.”

“Good. What time do you get off?”

“Get off?” Connor’s voice squeaked.

Biting his lip, Dayton managed not to laugh at Connor -- it wasn’t like he was upset Connor had immediately gone to the naughty place at the words ‘get off.’ “Yes. Get off. You know. Leave. Finish working. Go home.”

“Oh! Right.” Blushing, Connor laughed a little. “At uh, well, things have been selling better than usual lately, so I should probably keep baking ‘til four or five.”

Dayton tried not to let his disappointment show -- just because he’d wanted Connor to drop everything and leave with him now, didn’t mean it was going to happen. And just because it hadn’t happened, didn’t mean that Connor wasn’t interested in him, too. The man had a job to do, a living to make.

“I’ll be waiting for you outside at four.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

“Good.” Dayton picked up his mug and took his first sip of the best hot chocolate he’d ever had, made by the most intriguing, best smelling, best looking man he’d ever met.

He was in so much trouble, but it was the best kind of trouble he knew.

Get Your Motor Running

Connor spent the rest of the day torn between anticipation and worry. After Dayton had left, he’d spent ten minutes quizzing Betsy about the man. Wolf. Just what did one call a werewolf, anyway?

“Oh, he’s a bad one that Dayton. He comes in here after being out catting around all night and always orders a hot chocolate!”

She looked at him like he was supposed to know exactly how that made Dayton a bad guy and for the life of him, other than being amused by her describing a werewolf as ‘catting’, he couldn’t figure out what the significance of her words was.

“Don’t you know? Chocolate is bad for wolves! It can be deadly. But he comes in at least once a week and asks for one.”

“I thought that was dogs?”

“Dogs, wolves -- werewolves -- they’re all the same in the chocolate department.”

“Okay...” He still wasn’t sure why liking chocolate made Dayton bad news.

“He lives on the edge! All that chocolate. It’s going to up and kill him one of these days.”

“So living on the chocolate edge makes him a bad guy?” Connor had to admit that he liked Dayton and wanted to get to know the man better -- in the biblical manner of speaking as well as the literal -- but he didn’t think that was why he was failing to see the eating chocolate/bad boy connection.

“That and the catting around. With men. But then I guess you’d know all about
that
.”

Connor frowned at her, a little pissed at the implication that he was also out catting around and that because he, and Dayton, were into men, that somehow made it worse than when a straight guy went after women. “I didn’t think you were homophobic, Betsy.”

“Oh, I’m not. I didn’t mean it like that, Connor, honest.” She looked genuinely sorry for him having taken it the way he had. “I like you, you know? And I don’t want to see you get hurt by Mr. Love ‘em and Leave ‘em and Go Eat Chocolate When It’s Going to Kill Him.”

“Mr. Love ‘em and Leave ‘em and Go Eat Chocolate When It’s Going to Kill Him?”

“You heard me.”

Connor managed not to laugh. Somehow. Because Betsy was genuinely being nice and seemed to honestly be looking out for him.

“I did. And I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Good.” She patted his shoulder. “I know the pool for you is small here in town.”

Connor couldn’t hold back his snort this time. The pool, as Betsy so sweetly put it, consisted of a single member other than himself, and Jordan Hammond was eighty-five if he was a day. Not exactly dating material. Hell, he almost wasn’t breathing material.

Betsy continued as if he hadn’t made a sound. “But that doesn’t mean it’s safe to go after the first thing in pants that shows an interest in you, honey.”

“Betsy!”

She blushed and giggled and patted his shoulder. “You just take care of yourself. And you tell Mr. Wolf that I’ve got my eye on him.”

“Thanks, Betsy.” What else could he say? She clearly had his best interests at heart, even if she didn’t have a clue what they were.

So, not at all reassured, he’d gone back into the kitchen and gotten to work on his baked goods.

Now it was just past four and he was supposed to go. Dayton was going to meet him, would be waiting out there. All his stuff was cleaned and put away, the baked goods out front, waiting to be sold, or what was left of them anyway -- they’d done another day of great business, his wares selling like hot cakes. The little pun made him giggle.

Gordy looked up from his station. “Huh?”

Connor shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’m headed out now.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow.” Gordy went back to working as easy as that.

Betsy had clocked off at her usual time of noon and the two waitresses currently serving the customers had no clue what was going on, so with no one to help or to hinder him, he headed out, hoping he wasn’t setting himself up for a broken heart. He had a feeling he could fall hard for Dayton. Maybe he already had.

He headed out the door, pleased all over again that he could -- and that it was Dayton who’d done that for him. It certainly was a unique way of trying to get into his good graces. It had worked, too.

Smiling as he went out, Connor immediately zoned in on Dayton, who stood leaning against his motorcycle, the leather of his pants seeming to bulge at the seams. The man was all leather and muscles. It was pretty damn sexy.

Connor found himself caught in Dayton’s gaze. This man wanted him, had gone to great lengths to let him know that. Licking his lips, Connor moved toward Dayton instead of toward his own car. His emotions coalesced into excited and arousal.

Smiling, Dayton handed over a helmet that had a rainbow sticker on either side. It made him laugh and Connor put it on, letting Dayton close it for him, the man’s fingers lingering against his skin.

“Barely any five o’clock shadow.”

Connor shook his head. “I’m not that hairy.” His skin was far too fair.

“I am.”

Dayton’s words made him grin. “I just bet you are. I’ve never been with a werewolf before.” It was kind of exciting. Like the appeal of a bad boy.

“Most folks haven’t. Wolves tend to stick to their own kind.”

“You don’t.”

“No. I don’t. I’m not like the others.”

“You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met before.” It was true. Connor hadn’t actually met a whole lot of gay men, despite his orientation. Dayton looked pleased at his words.

Putting on his own helmet, Dayton straddled the bike, and then patted the seat behind him. “Saved a spot, just for you.”

Connor laughed, the sound the tiniest bit shaky. Was he really doing this? Was he going to get on the back of the town bad boy’s bike and drive off into the night? Dayton’s dark eyes met his, full of heat. He could see the desire there, the need, and it was all directed at him.

Fuck yes, he was doing this.

Connor straddled the bike and pressed himself up against Dayton’s back; he was in this for the full-on experience and refused to be timid. Reaching back, Dayton grabbed Connor’s arms and wrapped them around his waist. “Hold on tight.”

“I will.” He did, stroking the flat stomach through far too many clothes. He’d just have to be patient.

Dayton kicked the bike into life, the whole thing vibrating between Connor’s legs.

“Oh, God.” He was going to get so hard. He was already halfway there.

He could feel Dayton’s laughter against his chest and then they were off and he clung even harder to the strong body in front of him.

Take Me Home Tonight

Dayton’s place was a room above a garage that let him do work on his bike using their tools. It was a good deal for him, and private at night when the garage was closed. He didn’t take his one-night stands there -- that’s what back rooms and hotels were for and he made good use of them when needed.

He didn’t take Connor there either -- the man deserved better than his messy little room with its permanent stench of car grease. Hell, he didn’t stay there often himself -- it was just a place and while he’d gotten used to the smell, more or less, it wasn’t a home. He didn’t know what was, really.

No, he didn’t take Connor to his crappy little room over the garage. Instead, he took Connor back to Connor’s place. It was in a nice neighborhood with a front lawn and flowers in the beds under the windows and a mailbox and everything. It was quiet as they pulled up, though Dayton was pretty sure he saw curtains twitching all up and down the street. He’d bet the hidden faces behind those curtains didn’t miss a thing.

He let the engine idle and shouted back to Connor. “Your neighbors going to disapprove?”

Connor’s laugh was wild, full. “Yes! Of every single thing.”

Dayton liked that; what was more, he was pretty sure Connor did, too, so he revved the engine up high, letting it growl, letting it make noise until the curtains at Connor’s neighbors twitched again.

Laughing hard, he brought the engine down a few notches and drove to the garage, nodding at Connor’s shouted question of whether not Dayton wanted to put the Hog in the garage. He did.

His ride taken care of, Dayton followed Connor up the front stairs, watching the cute ass ahead of him. He wanted in that. And now that they were here, he wanted that badly.

He waited until Connor had opened the door and ushered him in before pouncing. They didn’t even get the door closed before his mouth covered Connor’s. Surprisingly strong arms wrapped around his neck, Connor holding onto him. A needy moan opened Connor’s mouth to him and he plunged in, tongue sweeping in to taste Connor.

Spice. Sweet. Chocolate. And man. Those were the tastes that made up Connor. The Connor flavor. Dayton was addicted at first taste.

Groaning, he wrapped his arms around Connor and lifted him up. Connor’s legs wrapped around his waist, the sweet body pushing and rubbing against his. He pushed Connor up against the wall, taking kiss after kiss, greedily gorging on his new lover. On his mate.

Mate. Yes. Oh, yes. That’s what Connor was. That was why he’d been so taken on first sight, why he’d had the urge to woo the man so extravagantly.

He threw his head back and howled, called out to let the world know he had his mate now, he was whole. Connor laughed, hands sliding on his face. Their mouths met again, the kiss making him dizzy.

“Bed?”

Connor nodded behind him. “Upstairs. Wait. Door first.”

He let Connor push the door closed and then took the stairs two at a time, carrying Connor like the man weighed nothing. He was buoyed by love and lust and need and a deep satisfaction.

Connor’s room was lit up by the sun coming in through the window, leaves from the tree out back tinting it green. The dark décor and warm brown covers on the bed were like the ground. It was their very own pack land. And he and Connor were their very own pack.

He laid Connor gently on the bed. “Mine.” He said it softly, gently -- he didn’t want to scare Connor off; he wouldn’t be whole without this man.

Connor didn’t balk, though, didn’t run. He just laughed and held out his arms. “Come get me then, Dayton. Come get what’s yours.”

So he did.

Lightning Crashes

Connor could feel the power of the moment as Dayton all but tore his clothes off. He’d felt the change when Dayton had howled downstairs, felt something shift, bring them together in a way he didn’t understand and couldn’t explain, but the he felt, knew, deep inside himself.

He worked Dayton’s clothes off with equal fervor, moaning as the hair-covered chest was revealed. Running his hands over Dayton’s chest, he reveled in the hard muscles that begged for his touch.

Dayton soon had him naked, his prick hard and reaching up against his belly, kissing it with wet need. Bending, Dayton licked at his pre-come, licked at the tip of his cock. Connor cried out, hands going to Dayton’s head. He held on as the licks covered his whole cock and then continued down to wash his balls. Dayton’s mouth was so hot and the licks felt so good, better than anything he’d ever experienced. Ever. Even in his imagination.

Just when he thought it couldn’t get better, Dayton spread his legs and that hot tongue lapped at his hole.

Connor screamed. When his shout was answered by another howl from Dayton, he convulsed, pleasure almost like an orgasm going through him.

“Dayton. Oh,
God
.” He didn’t know how else to put it.

Then Dayton’s tongue pushed into him, spread him and wriggled inside. Nerve endings that had never known such a touch exploded into life, and Connor shook with the power of the pleasure.