Antonio's car was parked in a different lot this time, behind a commercial building. It was a bit of a shorter walk and more private anyway.
This time, Chase rolled over onto his front when he slid into the backseat.
The weight of Antonio blanketed him. He let out a breath, wishing Antonio were just a little heavier and stronger... more muscled, like Jackson--
Oh, fuck. Don't think about him every time you hook up from now on...
Chase tried to focus on the here and now: the man who was grinding against his ass. His hard cock throbbed between them as he mouthed at the back of Chase's neck.
Something didn't feel right, but he quashed his gut instinct. His gut instinct had led him far fucking astray before, after all. The only way he'd know whether his intuition was right or not was to test it, and he was going to do that. Antonio probably didn't care why he got to fuck Chase again.
Antonio reached under him, squeezing his cock and rubbing sensually. He ran his other hand up across Chase's stomach.
Chase moaned, pressing his forehead hard into the seat. Antonio's hands wandered south to unfasten his jeans and slide them down. Again, Chase fingered himself briefly. Then, Antonio unzipped his own pants and a condom packet crackled in the silence of the car.
Antonio's cock pressed against his opening. Chase breathed out, curling his fingers into the seat. At least his partner took it slowly and let the lubricant from the condom ease him inside instead of pushing it.
"You are all right?"
"I'm good," Chase answered breathily, his thighs shaking. "Thanks."
As Antonio slid into him, Chase pressed his forehead down and arched his hips more. He was going to have reddened grid lines from the seat across his forehead after this, but he didn't care.
"You are hot again," Antonio observed. "I'm glad you came back."
Chase moaned in response. Honestly, he couldn't say the same. He hadn't been looking for Antonio until they bumped into each other while dancing.
Antonio fucked him slower this time for the first couple of minutes. Then, the car started to bounce with the force of Antonio's thrusts. The Italian student grunted as he pounded into Chase. Chase's cock throbbed with need under him. Chase slid his hand under himself to jerk himself off fast and hard.
The air was hot in here. The night absolutely silent besides the rough slaps of skin on skin, the grunts and moans, and the roughness of their breathing.
"Let me please you."
Chase let go of his cock and grabbed the seat instead, breathing out a quiet, "Hah! Ahh..." when that firm hand wrapped around him and started to jerk him off.
The rough, tight ring of fingers sliding down his shaft alternated with sharp thrusts into him and across the sensitive prostate...
Chase lost himself in the moment until his body started to tighten with involuntary pleasure. "Yes...!" He heaved himself up to slide his arm under himself again and try to keep his hand over the tip of his cock.
"Come," Antonio breathed out huskily, emphasizing it with a sharper thrust of his hips.
The throb through his prostate made his cock stiffen further. His body was tense, his stomach pulled tight, his thighs quivered... And then, he spilled over the edge fast and hard. It was blindingly hard, but over quickly.
When the momentary blissful black faded, Chase's chest heaved. He'd squeezed Antonio hard, clenching and milking him. All the while, Antonio kept fucking however and whenever he could.
Antonio was coming, too, with unmistakable shuddery thrusts and grunts.
When Antonio's hips slowed and then he pulled his cock out, Chase lay still. He let him scoot back out of the car first again.
Chase yanked up his jeans and rolled onto his back, then sat up to scoot out of the car.
Antonio leaned against the door, giving him a hand up by gripping his bicep and pulling him upright. He let go as soon as Chase was on his feet. "You going home?"
Chase dusted himself off and stepped back. "Yeah."
"I could drive you."
Chase shook his head. "I like to walk." When Antonio leaned in to kiss his cheeks again, he turned his face away and clapped Antonio's shoulder again.
As he strode out of the parking lot, he heard Antonio's car start up, then pull away in the opposite direction.
The sex hadn't been bad.
It had just been... nothing. Flat. Dull. Disappointing? Maybe a little.
His phone went off, and he pulled it out to idly glance at it, then swallowed hard.
Had a great time today. Off to bed but thinking of you. xx
For the first time in hours, his heart leapt into his throat with excitement. Even dancing hadn't thrilled him, but one lousy text felt like a double espresso in his veins. He reread it a few times, trying to come up with a reply that was sufficiently flirty, yet casual.
It had been months since Chase had felt that giddiness and his fingers tingled with excitement...
Me too. Sleep tight. Can't wait for tomorrow ;)
He stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk as his fingers hovered over the "send" button.
"Oh, fuck. I really like him."
This meant the end of his hookups. It was pointless trying to fill the hole – in any sense of the word – with someone else when there was one guy he wanted. He wasn't stupid enough to keep trying anyway. One fuck with Antonio had been enough to tell him that much.
Chase pressed "send" and pocketed his phone for the walk home.
Chapter 19
Jackson
"So then, the guy decided he didn't really want a dragon tattoo anyway, and he told me he'd come back later. Floyd said he comes in about once a month to look at getting something but he never actually does."
Jackson's eyes and focus were on the billet he was forging into the sword. From tang to tip, it took a tremendous amount of work to keep the blade straight yet flexible, strong yet beautiful. Knowing Chase wasn't going to use it for actual fighting, he could have just joined a few pieces of metal.
But Chase deserved something beautiful through and through, not just skin-deep.
"When he called in this morning, I told him he's got to put a deposit down before I sketch anything. Well, he didn't like that. When he threatened to go to another shop, I told him he could if he wanted. But I've got a lot more experience, and he'll get what he pays for."
"Jesus. Damn straight," Jackson agreed, letting out a breath as he carried the billet back to the fire. His t-shirt sleeves were pushed up to bare his shoulders. He'd left the door to the workshop open to try to vent a little of the hot air in here. Even though it was evening, they were getting a heatwave – perhaps the last one of the season – and it was at least thirty degrees inside.
It was going to take so long to finish the sword. It took a long time to forge the blade itself, and then there was the detail he wanted to put into the hilt and grip, the tempering process... but Chase was also planning an elaborate piece for him.
And having Chase's company in the workshop was wonderful. Chase wouldn't stop talking, which was fine by Jackson. He liked the background noise of his work, but human company was so much better.
"So I'll keep you updated if he calls back tomorrow," Chase concluded with a laugh. He fidgeted with his sleeves as he sat on the work bench next to Jackson. He was much less afraid of the sparks and noise now, and he even handed over tools now and then. And he didn't seem to mind the heat at all.
"This sounds very dramatic," Jackson teased.
"It's about as dramatic as it gets. Except when parents come in to get their kids tattooed and yell at us about how we should let them..."
Jackson's eyebrows shot up. "Oh. Wow."
"I've dealt with a bunch of those before. Luckily Floyd has a no-under-18s policy across the whole shop. Another one I was freelancing from let individual artists decide, and that was a fuckin' mess."
Jackson clamped his tongs around the blade and started to hammer out another few inches of blade. Molding the glowing, white-hot metal into something new would never, ever get old for him. Making weapons out of it was just cool.
Once he was done this series of blows, Jackson breathed out and went to dunk it in a barrel of water and cool it off.
"Did you decide what you're thinking for the grip yet?"
"I like the first design you showed me."
Jackson grinned. He prided himself on getting a quick sense of each client's style and aesthetic preferences. He'd called Chase's perfectly. It was easy to see what he liked from his tattoo style anyway. "Great."
"Sooo, you said you were cool with a tattoo design up to three inches, right?"
"Mmhmm?" Jackson suspected he knew where this was going.
"Well... have you thought about anything bigger?"
Jackson grinned. "Now and then. You wanna do a full sleeve or something?"
"Not if you don't want it," Chase laughed. "But, you know, a little bigger would look just fine on you. You're tall and broad enough. All that canvas..."