Page 26 of Out of the Shadows
COSMO
“Oh shit.”
I trip and almost go head over heels. Outside, a bright full moon’s shining from a cloudless sky, but in here it’s pitch black. I feel for the light switch but can’t find it, so I wait for a moment to let my eyes become accustomed to the darkness. It’s too dark, and too fucking quiet. It’s not natural. Give me cars and police sirens and the ever present glow of street lamps any day of the week.
Getting used to the darkness, I can make out where I am and what’s where.
The common room’s straight on, the bedrooms off to the left. It was just before 1:00am when I left the pub. A lock-in, with all the local farmers, they’d been knocking it back but I had no more than a couple of pints all night, spinning them out and making them last. There was no way I was going to risk getting pissed. I may have toughed it out when I’d turned up to work hungover and like something the cat had sicked up, but I’m under no illusion about Daniel following through on his threat. The others had left just after last orders, but not me.
The locals were a friendly crowd, and I’d joined a lively low stakes card game. They were used to all sorts from the Outdoors Centre, they’d laughed. I wondered if that had included gay boys, but I’d decided not to ask. No muscly farmer with big calloused hands offered to show me the back seat of his tractor — if tractors have back seats — but that was okay, as I didn’t really fancy a sweaty clinch and maybe more with a guy who was comfortable getting up close and personal with sheep. The barman, though, was cute and went a pretty shade of pink when I winked at him.
I feel my way along the corridor, counting the doors until I reach the room I’m sharing with Daniel. I wait outside, my hand on the door handle, and listen. I can’t hear a thing, not even a light snore. All I need to do is slip inside, slide under the duvet, and do my best to ignore Daniel’s in the next bed to mine. And possibly naked.
Whoa, step back right now…
You’re on notice…
I suck in a huge breath. I have to remember that, along with the second chance he’s given me. A chance I’m not so sure, when I can bear to admit it to myself, I really deserve.
I turn the handle, push the door open, and slip inside. And stand as still as a rock, and stare.
Daniel, illuminated in a pool of cold, bright moonlight.
He’s on his back, one arm slung up and over his head, the other resting on top of the duvet. The duvet’s pushed down to waist level, revealing a broad chest with a fine layer of dark hair and a flat, washboard stomach, the V of his muscles disappearing beneath the sheet… I swallow hard, because, Christ, he’s laid out like one of my long ago fantasies, where he’d been there for the taking, there for me to run my hands over, my tongue over, the tip of my dick over…
What the everlasting fuck?
That’s definitely the twenty-two-year-old Cosmo talking, before I learned what a bastard this guy could be.
Was he really a bastard? I mean, didn’t you kind of deserve to be sacked…?Freddie’s words, surfacing from that day five years ago when I turned up at home with a cardboard box, my pride and dignity in tatters.
I shake my head hard.
Just go to bed and stop looking at his very naked chest.But I’ve got to be honest, it’s damn hard to take my own advice.
Daniel stirs and mutters something in his sleep, shifting the arm that’s lying on top of the duvet underneath. I follow its progress, as transfixed as a rabbit in the headlights.
His hand moves down the lower half of the body I can only dream really is as naked as the upper half, and comes to a stop where I know his dick is. He sighs and mumbles something unintelligible and sighs again as the bump of his fist begins to move up and down. Daniel shifts again, but this time’s it’s almost a writhe as he releases a long, slow, deep groan that shoots a bolt of white hot heat to my own cock.
I shouldn’t be looking at this, I really shouldn’t be looking — but I can’t not. What’s he dreaming about? Who he’s dreaming about? My hand finds and covers my hardening dick and I squeeze as I fight back the moan aching to escape my lips.
In his sleep, Daniel’s breathing has become ragged, matching my own. I close my eyes and clamp my teeth to my lower lip, pushing down the needy whimpers threatening to burst from my throat. I need to strip off and throw aside my jeans which have become a prison for my swollen, aching cock, and crawl into bed where I can deal with business. I drag open my eyes and stumble into the space between the two beds — and trip over the rucked up rug, and fall face first on top of Daniel with the force and weight of a pile of bricks.
“What the—?”
He jerks awake, his eyes huge with shock. Even in the moonlight I can see they’re unfocused and fuzzy with sleep. His face is just a breath away from mine, and he’s panting whether due to the slow slide of his hand, or because of the full force of my weight pinning him down.
“Uggh…” It’s all I can say as I slip down his body, my chin scraping across his warm chest as I crumple to the floor.
A click of a switch and light floods the room. I wince and screw my eyes up against the sudden hard glare.
“What in God’s name do you think you’re playing at?”
I’m wedged between the two beds and, squinting, I struggle to try and push myself up. I’m as ungainly as a tortoise that’s stranded on its back, and I feel twice as stupid as I know I look.
I peer up at him. He’s glowering at me, his eyes no longer fuzzy and unfocused but sharp and icy, and just as cold.
“I’m really sorry. I was trying to be quiet and not wake you, but I caught my feet on the rug and—”
