Rough Attraction (11 page)

Darko kept silent. It worked the first wave, it would most likely work on the second wave as well.

“I don’t know why I’m here.” The wave of stunted emotions declared themselves in the dark room.

Well that was certainly not something Darko wanted to hear the man say and there wasn’t anything he could come up with that could shift it, so he kept silent and tried not to tense up with the rejection. He snuggled in again making sure his breath caressed over Maxum’s neck and shoulder. Keeping the rhythm deep and slow, a lulling warmth between them like their first night together.

“I don’t even know how to be with you.”

Darko kissed his neck once more. “Well, I like walks on the beach. Staying home and fucking, which apparently I am willing to flip-fuck for you. That alone says something about our compatibility. I like red meat and dark ale. I also like being outdoors, on the water. Particularly rowing. Concerts in the park and long drives to nowhere for no reason.”

“What is this? Gay harmony? I’m being serious here.” Maxum stared over his shoulder at him.

Darko shifted up on an elbow and looked at him right back. Hard place for a man to be when his body had led him to the very spot it wanted to be only to have the brain argue with it once there.
Only one way to silence it
. Darko caught Maxum by the chin and pulled him around and before he could contest it, he dropped over his mouth, slanting just enough to open the invitation. His lips swiping over Maxum’s lower lip and sucked it in for a tender nibble. The rebounding man gave to him instantly, his lips opening and his tongue darted out to take Darko in.

Darko could feel the intensive need in Maxum, a yearning that hadn’t been quenched in a very long time. Something neither of them had been able to find in a lover—
until now
. And he wanted their kiss to remind them full-force before Maxum’s brain could get in the way again. He rocked up against his body, his mouth surging up like waves crashing against Maxum’s lips under his, searching for more.

Darko’s arms tangled under Maxum, pressing him up as he gave the deeper kiss he wanted so desperately. Tasting more than just the fancy dinner that got washed down with a potent malt scotch. He tasted the man, the one he couldn’t get enough of. Breaking only enough to catch his breath, Darko ate his lips and sucked on his tongue, his mind swarming in the warm tranquility of their kiss until he was completely breathless. He followed it with a few last chaste kisses then dropped to his side, pulling Maxum to spoon against him once again and with a satisfied hum, was ready for blissful sleep.

Maxum hadn’t come here to fuck. He came to escape the empty demands of another, but he couldn’t deny he really did want to get inside Darko after being kissed like that. His cock stiffening with each throbbing thought against his thigh. Like an addict, he was already becoming hooked to the fire that burned inside this man.
As a consequence,
addictions were always bad
. But hell, he was already here. He twisted— or so he tried. Darko’s strong arms tightened around his waist and hips preventing him. It was all he could do to look over his shoulder to find the alluring dark profile of this rugged man falling asleep behind him. A faint dreamy smile on his face as if perfectly at ease with their pairing. Maxum pressed against him, the cheeks of his ass grinding against the erection that matched his own, but Darko didn’t reciprocate. “You’re serious? You’re gonna sleep after a kiss like that?”

“Mmmm-hmmm.” Darko hummed, doing his best to suppress a grin, “I told you I’m not that kind of guy.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Because, as I recall, we pretty much hit on everything on our first date.” Maxum chuffed, and none to happy about the firm hold Darko’s arms kept him in.

“Exactly, but I’m not the kind who messes around with a date that up and vanishes. For that there will be no fornication on our second date. It helps build frustration.” Darko kissed the back of Maxum’s neck, his arms tightening around him like a python keeping him in place and stifling any fight in him.

“And what of the third?”

It was Darko’s turn to draw quiet a moment. He hadn’t planned to go this route but then Maxum’s confession of a boyfriend somewhere out there made
him
the affair and that meant
this
was temporary. He didn’t like it, now a light had been shed only to find a dead end. So there was no sense investing further right? Just enjoy the sex and keep the heart uninvolved. Except he had a feeling he was already too late for that part and he needed to know, before he allowed himself any more room to fall for the man. “Maybe before we invest in our third, you’ll answer a question.” Darko’s arm loosened around Maxum as his eyes rolled open to look at him.

Maxum rolled to his back meeting his gaze. The tension that built in Maxum’s body was all too noticeable and Darko did what he could to make it less so. “No demands just asking a truth. It’s not hard to give it. If you want to show your respects for that person and perhaps the time you spend with them, then it’s not hard to give a truth.” He leaned down and kissed Maxum. First to his lips then delivered one to his temple where all those migraine-causing thoughts dwelled. The gears that clearly had a wrench tossed in them and he whispered to him. “Even if it’s only going to be for a short time.”

Maxum didn’t relax, he fell. His mind and emotions tumbling inside, into a wrecking ball of shit, because he did like Darko. No, it was more than a
liking
and he meant to
respect
him, as a man should be. As someone who he enjoyed being with should be, but he had not been truthful. He could change that now. “Ask.” He swallowed hard, because he knew it still wasn’t going to be easy.

“When you went back home to him, did you sleep with him as if nothing else had happened?”

Maxum let out a puff of air, unsure of how the question made him feel. His hand came up, landing on his head and raked through his hair until it was parked between head and pillow, where it stayed, as he stared up at the ceiling, looking for some teletype answer when there was none. Only he did feel some bizarre relief, because the answer wasn’t going to be as painful as he feared. Because at that very moment he knew, he didn’t want to hurt Darko. “I never slept with him at all.”

Darko reached for Maxum taking his jaw in his hand and pulled him around to look at him, their eyes meeting in the darkness. Lonely, pained eyes, “Not at all?”

Maxum shook his head slowly, the words came out drained almost lethargic and definitely defeated. “I tried to cuddle with him. I wanted to hold his hand. I wanted my relationship with my partner to feel like this.
Connected.
Only no matter how hard I try or look to have it there with him, I can’t find it. I want someone to be forever in my life. I’m an investor. I want my home and sex life to be the same as my money. I don’t want a stranger in my bed. I don’t want to start all over with a new face and new pet peeves every couple of weeks or months. I don’t do short term investments. I want the same man day in and day out to build and grow old with. And I failed.”

“Maybe it never existed? A shady investment. Or its life has perished? Company went belly-up. Or you found something that feeds your life better than anything else ever has before. A new up and coming company or idea that has the future in mind like green energy.” He paused in thought, pulling up more metaphors to fit, “Life changes around every bend. Investments have to have a flex fund, don’t they?” Darko dropped on the pillow, still looking at the man looking back. He would have laughed at himself for the analogy he’d just given. Frankly, he didn’t know squat about investments. On the other hand, he knew friends and family, so it was only matter of changing out a few words to turn it into
Maxum St. Laurents laymen terms
.

Maxum turned his eyes back up at the ceiling, his thoughts ironing out until the ticker tape in his head came out blank. While everything Darko said made sense. He still didn’t have a clue what to do with himself or the partnership that had given him no satisfaction in almost as many years as they had been together. Or with the man who laid at his side right now who had given him all he would have liked in those years in just a matter of two weeks. To top it all off, Darko made more sense in his prattling attempt to put things into perspective than any attempt Simeon might have ever made. Then again, he couldn’t think of a time when Simeon gave much concern for his thoughts. At least not lately. Okay, not in a long time.

Maxum tossed the disgruntled shit from his mind; repositioned and glanced at Darko and the face watching sideways from his pillow. “So what can I expect on our third date?”

A smile sprouted from the pillow, “Funny thing you should bring it up. Wanna take off with me this coming weekend?”

“It’s Thanksgiving weekend.” Maxum blinked at him at the unexpected holiday invite.

“Precisely, perfect time to get away from it all. Good food, lay around all day— I’ll let you take full advantage of me— or whatever we want.”

“We?”

“Yes,
we
. It’s an interesting concept, the word
we
.” The offer slowed as Darko’s eyes started to drift closed and actually began to drift back to sleep. “Sleep. No demands tonight.” He whispered lastly.

Maxum rolled to his side, inching back into arms that took a natural position around his waist and hugged him before turning heavy with sleep. He hadn’t expected this. It was what he needed, to just be with someone who understood. Who would lay with him and not demand anything. Yet he could not refute that Darko was like pure grain alcohol to an alcoholic. Outside of being unexpected, Maxum wasn’t sure how to decipher it. The man burning in his lust was stepping outside the bounds of his definition of a drug. As much as he fought the idea, it was hard not to feel anything but an apex of bliss, nestled against Darko. As if the man had been machined to precision perfection for just him. Getting away doing whatever
we
want to do, in some gay friendly bed-n-breakfast. It sounded like the best offer he’d been given. Then maybe he’d be able to just fuck the man out of his system once and for all, then get on with his life without him. He closed his eyes feeling his mind drift, maybe that would happen, but admittedly he still needed a little more of this man, have his fill of him before calling it to an end.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

CHAPTER SEVEN

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

THANKSGIVING DAY WITH THE LASZKOVI FAMILY

Maxum drove up to the address he was given. He glanced out the window to the dwelling, that even for Astoria, wasn’t the typical townhome, but
home
it mostly definitely was as in
private
residence. He glanced at his GPS as if perhaps it was trying to fool him or something. “Was this not supposed to be a bed and breakfast?” he asked it as if
Gladys,
as he’d named the GBS unit, would actually answer.

While
here
was far from anything Maxum was expecting, the place was certainly a gem to have. Standard in the way of being the common Astoria brick upright townhome yet that’s where the standards left off. For starters, four stories high and four windows wide meant two rooms across. A set of stairs led up to the front door on the second level as well as a utility entrance down on the ground floor. The real bonus though, was the gated driveway with parking spaces both in front and, since the driveway went down along the side of the townhouse, meant there was more around back, too. Along the sides of the building, he spotted two more sets of windows centered in the middle, but only on the upper two floors.
Two bedrooms across and three down.

Maxum growled, scrubbing his hand across his face as he began to seriously contemplate turning around and leaving. He distinctly remembered Darko saying he had ten brothers and sisters. A townhouse with twelve rooms—
yeah
— he didn’t need Gladys to explain any further for him. He was just about to pull off when his phone range. It was Simeon. He stared at it while it both rang and vibrated in its holder on the console. Simeon had called yesterday. Not last week, not over the weekend, not Monday—
yesterday
— to make sure he was going to be there for
his
Thanksgiving social at the condo. It would be just like last year. Him and about six or eight flaming queers, he didn’t know. His fingers swiped roughly over his lips and gripped at his chin recalling his discomfort. Sure, they were all gay and they all had a commonality, but he had to ponder if perhaps they were still very different. After all, you don’t compare a jaguar with a fluffy Persian cat do you?

The phone went silent and Maxum felt some relief as the stress of the ringing went with it.
Was it bad that he tensed up every time Simeon called?
Was it just his own failure as a man trying to be in a relationship or was it really over and done with between him and Simeon?
He glanced back out at the large home of brothers and it struck him how walking in
there
wasn’t nearly as agitating to his system as the thought of going over to Simeon’s to eat some strange mutated vegetarian concoction that he would call duck. Afterwards, he would sit quietly and listen to Sim brag about this or that in front of his friends. At some point Sim would even lean over his lap and pat his thigh, perhaps make one of those—
isn’t that right dear
— type remarks as if he were actually included in the conversation.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Darko was wrestling with his older brother Pyotr over a prized cluster of red grapes when Darko’s phone started ringing from his pocket. He pulled it out seeing Maxum’s id on the screen. He held a hand out to ward off his brother while he took the call, “Hey, are you on your way?”

“I’m already here and you better have a damn good explanation as to where here is.”