Page 20 of Artifacts

At the woman’s voice, Darrell slammed his tray back onto the bench and stood. “Brianna? Do you work around here? I thought you worked with Leah?”

“Seeing a client.” She pointed at the Pearl building. “I’m in a different field to Leah. It was great to meet your family the other day.”

Darrell shot a glance at Aldric.

“I thought you might have called about the football game we were talking about? It sounds like fun. Go Lions!”

Aldric tried not to listen. Should he have walked away a little and given Darrell privacy? Introduced himself when the woman left a pause and looked at him?No.The meanie in him enjoyed seeing Darrell on the spot and trying to back away from it with committing himself. It seemed like he’d had a fair amount of practice at that.

“So,” he said, when the short exchange was over, and the woman walked away.

“She works with my brother’s girlfriend. No, fiancée now.” Darrell sat, swallowed the remains of his food and balled up his paper napkin. “And got invited along to a get-together.”

His family were fixing him up with girls? “You’re bi?”

Darrell shook his head. “Not one bit.”

“Ah.” Aldric thought his suspicions must be correct. “They don’t know.” Aboutwhat, he left blank.

“They’re…traditional.” Darrell sighed. “Military. Macho.”

Aldric scoffed, indicating that Darrell filled out his uniform well.

“And the SAPD isn’t exactly gay-friendly either.” Darrell stood, grabbing his trash. “Things are…complicated all round.Thisis complicated. And I try to keep things simple.”

“So why ask me to lunch?” Aldric stood too. He should head back. Head away from this, whatever it was, and not poke it like some idiot jamming a stick into a wasps’ nest.

“I don’t know.” Darrell relieved Aldric of his garbage. “Except I wanted to.”

“Want to walk me back to work?” Aldric wasn’t above being a bitch. He made sure to be a little ahead, putting a sway into his hips to showcase his ‘pert ass’. Thinking about returning to the store made him ask, “Is the vandalism of the Buckmans’ house and what happened here at Intrinsic Value connected?”

“Randa Buckman thinks so. She thinks it’s her husband’s ghost,” Darrell answered.

Aldric stumbled to a stop. “What? Like acurse?”

Darrell shrugged.

“Well, the store looks fine at the moment.” Aldric peered up at the façade. “Maybe you should check the safe?” He didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but he knew what he was hoping. Elliot was out, and Jonas a vague shape squatting to arrange something under the locked glass of the front counter. He didn’t look up, so probably didn’t even register Aldric hurrying in and to the back of the store with Darrell.I hope.

He keyed in the combination once he’d lifted the correct painting from the array on the wall next to the door to reveal the number pad, then shut the door behind the two of them in the narrow room that was little more than a cupboard.

“It all looks fine,” Darrell began. The smile starting to inch up his face became wide-eyed surprise when Aldric’s shove had him against the door.

“Youkissed me last time,” Aldric said, then brushed his mouth over Darrell’s. He doubted he was as proficient, but when he flicked his tongue over Darrell’s, Darrell opened for him, and the jalapeno heat, chipotle smoke and raw onion sting had Aldric’s head swimming.

The murmur of surprised pleasure Darrell gave as Aldric tasted him rumbled through Aldric, building need and want. Darrell took over the kiss, pressing into Aldric before parting his legs with a strong thigh, making Aldric moan. The kiss turned as hard and desperate as the rut of their lower bodies that had their cocks rubbing against each other, until Darrell pulled off with a gasp.

“Aldric, that last time…”

Aldric’s imagination took over with the rest of the sentence, aided by the friction of Darrell’s taut muscles against his balls, demanding his arousal, then Darrell’s hand between their bodies, palming his cock.

Darrell sliding down Aldric’s body to kneel in front of him helped flesh things out more. Aldric found he was leaning against the door, needing its support as Darrell unfastened his pants and tugged them and his briefs down.

“Was then.Thisis this time,” Darrell said—his only warning before he stroked Aldric’s cock from root to tip then sucked the head.

Aldric shoved his hand into his mouth to hold in his whimper. The other hand he speared through Darrell’s hair, for all that it was too short to grab. His hips bucked, pushing his dick deeper down Darrell’s throat, and Darrell wrapped a hand around the base, stopping Aldric from thrusting too hard. When Darrell cupped Aldric’s balls, Aldric had to use both hands to cover his mouth. This was intense. Darrell teasing and sucking, then suddenly taking him deep. More intense still was Darrell’s fingers tip-tapping behind Aldric’s balls to his ass, seeking, searching…

And finding.Darrell ran a fingertip around Aldric’s tight pucker and pressed inward, just slightly. The mixture of that and how deep he took Aldric’s cock dragged Aldric’s climax from him, kicking and screaming. Well, he would have been if Darrell hadn’t been holding his thighs, and if he wasn’t biting down on the back of his own hand hard enough to leave teeth marks in his flesh. The noise he made as he shot his hot cum down Darrell’s throat sounded as loud as thunder, filling each corner of the small room.

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