Double Header (Hardball 2)

“I’m not going to last all day,” Javier moaned. He reached up with his other hand and brought Zach down, strained up to kiss him and snake his tongue into Zach’s mouth.

Zach pumped his hips against Javier, his movements picking up pace. Javier dropped back to the bed, closing his eyes. Sight was the only sensation he could block out, on the verge of overload. The taste of Zach clung to his mouth. Zach’s body was everywhere on Javier, in him, and the feeling of his own fist-pumping up and down on his cock was inescapable. The sound of their rhythm rustling the sheets, their skin brushing together, the frantic puffs of their breath and the scent of perspiration and lube, every sense was overcome with sex. It had been far too long.

Pressing a hand on each of Javier’s knees, Zach pistoned inside of him, short strokes alternating with longer ones, until he abandoned any finesse and just pounded, hard and fast. Javier felt the beginning of his orgasm deep in his groin, raced toward it, urged it on as he rocked under Zach’s thrusts. Javier opened his mouth to say, “I’m going to come,” but it didn’t quite make it out. Instead, he just managed an unintelligible noise as his balls drew up and he shot jerking slashes of cum over his chest and stomach.

“Oh, fuck,” Zach cursed, his eyes wide as he watched Javier slowly squeeze the last few drops from the tip of his cock. Zach’s head dropped back and he tensed, hips slapping against Javier’s ass with quick, desperate thrusts. He drove deep and shuddered with a groan, every muscle in his body standing out as he went rigid, then collapsed over Javier in a sweaty, loudly breathing heap.

There wasn’t anything else to do but put his arms around him, and bury his face against Zach’s neck. How had he ever left this?

“How” didn’t matter, he realized. “How” wasn’t even a part of the equation. The fact was, he had. Now, he was going to have to do something major to make up for it.

Chapter Six

It was three in the morning when Zach’s phone chirped him awake.

He got out of bed quietly. Javier rolled over, but he didn’t wake. Zach grabbed his pants from the floor and hurriedly flicked the answer button on the screen, waiting to speak until he got into the hallway.

“Baby, I know it’s late,” Domenic began on the other end of the line, “but I just feel so terrible, and I had to talk to you.”

Zach struggled to keep his voice down when he really wanted to shout. “You had to talk to me? It’s been two weeks since your debutante debut, and you couldn’t even end things face to face.”

“End things?” Domenic sounded truly shocked. “I didn’t want to end anything. This is exactly what I was worried about.”

“You didn’t want to end anything?” Zach pinched the bridge of his nose, the start of a confusion induced headache setting up behind his eyes. “You’re living with another guy. You lied to me about being out of the country.”

“I know, I know,” Domenic interrupted. “But you of all people have to understand how difficult it is to live with a lie like that.”

“I lie to protect my career, not because I’m setting up franchise boyfriends. I never lied to you.” God, how had he ever liked Domenic? Not just in a boyfriend way. How had he ever liked him as a person? Had he been this obviously self-centered while they were dating?

“I didn’t lie to you, either!” Domenic protested. “I lied about being on location, that’s all. You knew this was an open relationship.”

“I guess I should have clarified that I was okay with you sleeping with another person, not sharing your life with him. Not going public with him as your partner, when I’ve been living with you for a fucking year!” He stopped himself short. He didn’t need to wake Javier up with a bunch of stupid, bullshit drama. In fact, it felt wrong to even be talking to Domenic. “I’ll fly out at the end of the season to divide up our stuff. In the meantime, I’m going to send your assistant a list of my things that I want shipped to me, so I can set up here.”

“In Michigan?” Domenic snorted derisively. “You are so not going to be able to stand it there. Why don’t you just come home?”

“Because I don’t have a home. I have a house full of your nice furniture.” And your lies. All your fucking lies.

Domenic’s silence was probably meant to be some kind of cue.. All Zach could hear in it was cold calculation. Finally, Domenic said, “I don’t want it to end this way, baby.”

“I didn’t want it to end at all, but this is on you. No matter how you justify it to yourself, you’re the one who did this.” It should have hurt more, to put the final nail in the coffin of the relationship. But it was almost like he was too pissed off to be hurt. Zach could have laughed at that if he’d had just a shred more self-pity.