Chapter 13

The front door barely had time to close before Todd had Loren pinned against the living room wall, tugging one of Loren's legs up on his hips as he pushed his tongue into Loren's mouth. He moaned into the kiss and slid his hand under the leather vest, fingers caressing over hot skin.

He set the pie on the stand near the door before he dropped it. While one hand dropped to Loren's ass, giving one cheek a firm slap, Todd moved the other to Loren's right nipple. Hips pressing hard, he gave Loren's nipple a tweak.

The slight sting of both rippled through Loren, and he tried to push Todd towards the bedroom. "Need you right now, babe. Can't wait."

Todd chuckled but didn't budge. "What's wrong, Loren?" He swatted Loren's ass again, followed by another twist of his nipple.

Loren groaned out the words as Todd intentionally increased the sensations of flickering pain. "I need to feel you in my ass, Todd."

His hands ran over Todd's chest, raking his nails against the fabric. "Please. Fuck."

Giving him one more kiss, Todd stepped back and pushed Loren toward the bedroom. "I want you naked and on the bed."

As Loren moved quickly towards the hall, his vest was easy enough to deal with, but his pants were a different matter. Fumbling with the damn buttons, Loren was close to ripping the flap open before he finally got all of them unfastened. After peeling the pants off, he crawled onto the bed. Leaning over slightly, he opened the night stand drawer getting out a rubber and the lube.

Todd moved slower, stopping just inside the bedroom as he shrugged his jacket off. Unbuttoning his shirt, he said, "Get yourself ready for me."

Loren deliberately spread his legs as he uncapped the lube and looked over his shoulder at Todd. After squeezing some onto his fingers, he reached down to smear it in his ass, then rocked on his hands and knees, fingering himself. As he rubbed inside him, catching a particular sweet spot, he moaned, "Want it to be you, babe."

As soon as Todd's pants and underwear hit the floor, he was on his knees on the bed, unrolling the rubber onto his cock. Moving Loren's fingers out of the way, Todd slicked himself and then pushed into exquisitely tight heat. Groaning, he gripped Loren's hips, pulling Loren back onto his prick.

"God, you're amazing," he breathed, sitting back on his heels as he pulled Loren up and back.

"Sweet fuck." Leaning heavily back against Todd, the stretching of his ass sent sharper pulses through Loren. He had what his body craved, and the rest of him badly wanted the close intimate contact between them. Loren's hands rested on Todd's thighs, fingers caressing the skin beneath. "Do you know what you do to me, babe?"

"If it's anything close to what you do to me," Todd whispered on Loren's neck, "then I do." With one arm sliding around Loren's waist and the other gripping his hip, Todd rocked them gently, pushing over and over again into Loren's body.

The slow movement of Todd's cock inside him drew tremors from Loren. Turning his head, he brushed a soft kiss to Todd's hair as he arched with the gentle motion filling him. Loren rode the leisurely spiral of sensation feeling it build.

Todd shivered, his movements stuttering slightly. "So hot." He started rolling his hips, circling them with every stroke. The motion slid his cock in at varying angles, each one deep.

Low sounds rose in Loren's throat with every move Todd made. Closing his eyes tightly, Loren melted into the inexorable need of his own body. His words were no more than gasping breaths. "Yes, Todd, harder. Harder, please."

His nails clawed over Todd's thighs with the urgency overtaking him. Lost in the flow and demand, Loren's muscles clenched around Todd with his orgasm. The sound of Todd's name a chant from his lips until he lost his breath.

"Oh, God. Loren!" Todd shuddered and thrust up hard with his hips, cock pulsing deep inside Loren's body. Every rush took his breath away, seeming to last forever.

Each pulse rolled through Loren, leaving him reeling in its wake until they began to fade. His body leaned heavily back against Todd as Loren buried his face in his lover's hair. "Hold me, babe. Just hold me."

"Always, baby. Always."

***

July 8, Saturday afternoon

Loren was near to dozing off beside Todd. He'd had a hard day at work. Working overtime on Saturdays wasn't his idea of fun at all. Lazily, his fingers brushed over Todd's thigh as his lover read his book. Loren had yet to work up the energy to do anything more than play with Todd's leg.

Todd set his book down and had just shifted to lie down when the phone rang. Grumbling, he reached up and grabbed the phone. "Hello?"

Teasingly, Loren's hand drifted higher to run the tips of his fingers over Todd's cock as he answered the phone.

Patting Loren's hand, Todd smiled and slid out of bed. "I can't," he said into the phone, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Ell-" He sighed and leaned forward, resting his forehead against the wall. "Can I please talk now?"

A frown marred Loren's features when Todd got of the bed. Wide awake now, Loren rolled to his side with a black scowl, listening to Todd. This wasn't the first time Elliot had interrupted them, and it probably wouldn't be the fucking last.

"No. You can't come over," Todd said quietly. "Because I have company, that's why." A few seconds later, he shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. Why? Because it's a conflict of interest, Elliot. I would know!"

Loren didn't even bother to hide his own reaction anymore. At first, he hadn't wanted to add any additional pressure on Todd. But Elliot's calls were frequent and always demanding. Being relegated to the term company didn't help Loren's temper either.

"Fine. Come by Monday morning. I have a slot open at ten." Todd hung up and banged his head against the wall, letting the handset drop to the carpet.

"So what did he talk you into this time?"

"He wants me to take over as his accountant."

"Business is business, but it's too personal with him for you to do that. You know that." Loren understood the pitfalls just as well as Todd did. Moving to the side of the bed, he sat on the edge, staring steadily at his lover. "Tell him to fuck off."

"I've already told him I'd do it, Loren." Todd pushed away from the wall and set the handset on the dresser. "I need a drink. Want something while I'm in the kitchen?" He started out of the bedroom without a glance in Loren's direction.

"Why, Todd?" Though his tone was soft it nonetheless demanded an answer. Loren wasn't about to let Todd avoid the conversation with him. "If he bitches, you can fucking hang up on him. Eventually he'll get the message."

Todd stopped halfway down the hall and sighed. "You don't understand, Loren." He turned around then and kept on walking.

And that was the wrong fucking answer. As he stood from the bed, Loren grabbed his pants and put them on. "So now he'll be around in your little office more often and making even more of his demands."

Loren picked up his shirt from the floor and pulled it on. After sliding his shoes on, he headed out to the living room.

Todd stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a tumbler in one hand. "Just let it go, Loren." After taking a drink, he added, "Where are you going?"

"Not this time, babe. What I want you to do is what you want to do. Tell him to go to hell. You haven't started doing that yet, and until you do, his demands are going to get worse." He moved toward the front door, saying, "I don't think you're ready to let go yet, Todd. I'm going home. I'll call you when I can."

Opening the door, he stepped outside and closed it quietly behind him. After he got into his car, Loren stared silently at Todd's house a moment before he started it. He'd known the risk he took with Todd; though not surprised by his lover's inability to deal with his ex, Loren felt hurt by it. Realizing things weren't in the proper perspective in his mind, he pulled out of the driveway and onto the street.

He could always go by the bar and have a few, but since he was driving, Loren nixed the idea. Besides his mood wasn't up to the light social atmosphere. On automatic, he made the necessary turns to his house. Before he got home, he decided to hit the liquor store. After getting himself a fifth of Seagram's, he headed home.

As he walked into the house, Lorelei took one look at the scowl on his face and the bottle of booze in his hand and muttered questioningly, "You and Todd have a fight?"

Not bothering to answer her, Loren tossed the keys on the stand and moved to the couch. Flopping back onto it, he opened the bottle and took a deep swig. With a grimace at the taste, he grabbed for the remote, turning on the TV.

"Oh, Lord, you're in one of those moods. I'll wait until you calm and then you can tell me what's going on."

Snagging her purse, she headed for the front door. "I'm heading to The Back Door. Don't wait up for me."

Morosely staring at the TV, Loren watched a woman dance around her kitchen with a mop as she sang. How fucking hard was it to say 'Fuck off'? Not that goddamn hard. Loren said it quite often. Wincing slightly, he began to wonder if he wasn't expecting too much from Todd. But damn, every time they dealt with Elliot, Loren's anger simmered just beneath the surface. He'd bit his tongue through most of it. But Todd taking on Elliot as a client had been the last straw. His mind fixated on the problem, mulling it over until he became angry again.

Loren drank from the bottle, his eyes remained glued to the TV. As he made serious inroads into the alcohol, the screen started to blur. When he tipped his head back, he couldn't really put two thoughts together anymore and a blissful blackness descended over him.