Catch My Breath (22 page)

“Looking for our own apartment….” Danny heard the smile in Elliot’s voice.

“Yeah. Together.”

“Okay. We can do that. When do you want me to come to your parents’ place?” Elliot asked.

Danny choked.
Yesterday? Two days ago? Two seconds after the last time I saw you?
“I’ll come pick you up now. Can you be ready by the time I get there?”

“Yep.” The smile in Elliot’s voice grew to a grin. “Hurry. I'll text you the address.”

Danny took a few minutes to fix his hair and change out of the track pants and old T-shirt he’d been wearing. He’d never met Elliot’s parents. Not as a friend or a band member, and not as, well, as the guy who was totally in love with their son either. He wanted to look nice.

Clothes changed and hair fixed, he hopped in his car and started the way too long trip to Palmdale. Now that Elliot was in his sights it was even longer, every second ticked by slowly, the traffic moved sluggishly and frustratingly. The commercials on the radio made him want to scream when all he wanted was music to distract him from the time going by. His frustration turned to nerves the closer he got to Elliot’s house. He’d never really done the whole meeting parents thing before. He’d known Katie so long he practically grew up in her house. Plus, he’d just asked Elliot to move in with him. That was… very different than being the high school boyfriend. Even if he wanted it more than anything.

Elliot’s neighborhood was cute. Normal. Danny wondered if his own family would’ve been better if they had a regular place on a regular block with a yard, neighbors they knew, and kids playing in the streets instead of behind big security fences on extensive property. Elliot’s house was nice, but average, well-kept and lived in. Danny decided he was envious.

Elliot came hopping out the door as soon as Danny pulled up. He didn’t even wait for Danny to get out, just slid into the car with him, leaned over, and plastered Danny’s lips with a desperate kiss.

Danny laughed against Elliot’s mouth, returning the kiss. “What’s this all about?”

“Sorry,” Elliot giggled too. “I just really needed to kiss you, and it would probably be tacky to make out in front of my mom.”

Danny pushed silky curls off of Elliot’s face. “Yeah. I can see that. Are we going in?”

Elliot smiled and nodded. He gave Danny one more kiss, this one softer and lingering. Then he got out and met Danny on his side of the car. “My mom’s really nice. Don’t worry. She’s wanted to meet you for a long time.”

“No pressure.” Danny squeezed Elliot’s hand and tried to smile.

“None at all.”

E
LLIOT
’
S
mom
was
nice, like really, really nice. Caring. His own mother was okay, he supposed, but she’d never hugged him with the intensity Elliot’s mom did. She’d never hugged him much at all.

“Elliot says such nice things about you, sweetie. I’m glad we finally get to meet.”

Danny’s face turned hot and red and embarrassed. He couldn’t help but to be charmed though.

“Mom,” Elliot complained with a smile. “Giving away all my secrets, huh?”

He bumped her with a hip, and they grinned at each other. It was obvious they were friends and not just related. Danny didn’t have that with anyone in his family. Must be nice.

“So, you’re going to take him away from me?”

“Just for a few weeks, Mrs. Price. Then we’re going on tour anyway. You can come to my house, if you want. Come to the beach.”

Elliot’s mom laughed. “It’s Anna, please. And I’d love to. Don’t want to intrude though.” She turned to Elliot. “I want to meet the other three boys too. When are you going to bring them over for a visit?”

Elliot looked like he was about to die from embarrassment. Danny thought it was amazing that she cared so much.

“Of course we’ll bring them,” he answered. “We have a bunch of meetings, but maybe next week?”

Anna bumped Elliot again with her hip. “See? That’s how you talk. It’s really not that hard.”

Elliot buried his face in his mom’s neck, and she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. “I’m going to miss you, pumpkin. You have a phone. Use it.”

Danny pretended he didn’t see Elliot’s eyes go glassy with unshed tears. “I’ll miss you too, Mom. Love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I think we’re going to go before traffic gets too bad, okay?” Elliot said. His voice sounded thick, but he was smiling still.

“Text me when you get there.” His mom reached out for one more ruffle of Elliot’s hair and surprisingly Danny’s as well. “Drive safe.”

“’Kay. We will,” Elliot said.

Elliot grabbed his duffel and Danny took the two suitcases perched by the door. “This everything?” he asked.

“For now.”

They were still in his mother’s house, but one little kiss wouldn’t be that bad. Danny leaned forward and brushed a small comforting peck across Elliot’s lips. “It’s going to be fine,” he muttered.

“I know.”

Chapter 12

“H
ERE
we are,” Danny said, dropping Elliot’s bags in his bedroom. “Home sweet home. For a little longer at least.”

“God, this place is huge.” Elliot sank onto Danny’s bed and sighed. “I’d almost forgotten. Even the
Band Camp
house seems small compared to it.”

Danny shrugged. “It’s just a house.” He didn’t know how to tell Elliot it wasn’t anything special, that the modest split-level he’d grown up in was ten, no a hundred times nicer, with parents who cared and a community to raise him.

So he didn’t say any of that. He simply sat down next to Elliot on his bed and reached for his hand. “I missed you,” he said quietly.

“Me too.” Elliot laughed incredulously. “It’s only been a few days. How could we not stand it just for a few days?”

“I don’t know. But I couldn’t.”

Danny realized right then that it was the first time he and Elliot had really been alone—at least since that first night all those weeks and weeks ago when they’d barely known each other. Even back then Danny had been enchanted by him.

“It’s just us now. Weird, huh?”

Elliot grinned. “Whatever are we going to do with ourselves?”

That’s all it took. One joke and Elliot’s sweet cheeky grin and Danny was done waiting. He shot his arm out and wrangled Elliot down onto his bed, kicking off his flip-flops and shuffling himself on top of Elliot. Elliot giggled into the kiss, looping his own arms around Danny’s neck.

It was better, in a way. The kisses didn’t have that exciting forbidden feeling, like they were breaking all the rules, but they were more intimate—relaxed and easy and just
wonderful
. Elliot crooked his knees and let Danny’s hips fall between his thighs. He nipped at Danny’s lip to tell him he wanted more.

“I’m so used to worrying we’ll get caught,” he whispered when they drew back to take a breath. “This is nice.”

Danny dragged his shirt over his head and went to pull Elliot’s off too. “I know.” He leaned back over, pressing their chests together and taking Elliot’s lips in a slow, deep kiss. They’d never gone much further, even if they talked about it constantly in breathy whispers and frustrated moans. There’d never been the privacy or time back at the house. But he wanted to… so much. It would be new territory for them both. Elliot lifted his hips into Danny’s, slow and grinding. His breath caught on a moan and he arched back, dragging his hands to Danny’s butt to pull hard.

“C’mon,” he groaned.

“What do you want?” Danny asked. He didn’t want to presume.

“What can I have?”

Danny squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Elliot’s neck. Visions hot and fast flashed through his mind—him and Elliot naked and locked together, sweaty, slick; Elliot’s tight body around his. He coughed.

“Danny?” Elliot asked. When Danny raised his head, he was met with eyes, big and brown and concerned. “Did I freak you out?”

“Not at all.” He pushed a loose springy wave off Elliot’s face. He’d never get sick of being able to do that. “It’s just I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, waiting, wanting, but neither of us have done this before. Not like this.”

“And I never have at all.” Elliot’s head flopped back onto the bed. His eyes shut.

“Hey.” Danny nudged him.

“What?”

“That doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out together, okay? Take it slow.”

Elliot raised an eyebrow. “How slow?”

Danny reached for the button on Elliot’s shorts. “Not that slow,” he said with a chuckle. He leaned over and kissed the smooth skin of Elliot’s belly. “Do you know what it used to do to me when you’d come out of the shower all half-wet with that tiny towel around your hips?”

Elliot grinned. “I know what I hoped it would do.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re a jerk.” Danny pulled Elliot’s zipper down and tried not to let his heart flutter right out of his throat when Elliot bit his lip and lifted his hips to help Danny push his jeans off. Danny slid his palms up slim legs until he was cupping Elliot through his briefs. “But you got what you wanted. It drove me insane.”

Elliot groaned. “Just like your swim trunks drove me insane. I swear sometimes it looked like they were barely holding on by your ass.”

“It’s big enough to hold them up,” Danny muttered with an eye roll.

“It’s
perfect
.” Elliot pushed at Danny’s shorts. “Off.”

They just stared for a while, long moments of quiet before Elliot reached out and touched his fingertips to Danny’s chest. “No one’s gonna come in here,” he whispered.

“I know,” Danny answered. He knew what Elliot was asking. The answer was yes. Of course, yes. He’d been wanting it for so long. “C’mere.” Danny crawled to the top of his bed and pulled back the light covers.

Elliot followed him under the covers, then gave Danny a nervous grin before he reached down to pull his briefs off. Danny did the same and with a long shudder they came together, skin and bodies and limbs brushing from head to toe, entwining, colliding—becoming one. As it should be.

“El,” Danny whispered. He cupped Elliot’s face and kissed him. He didn’t know what to say, how to tell Elliot how much it meant to him, how much
they
meant to him.
I love you so much….

Elliot returned the kiss, hands on Danny’s face, hands running down his back, “This…,” he whispered into Danny’s kiss. “
You
. You’re the most important thing in my life. How did it happen?”

Danny kissed Elliot’s palm. “I don’t think it could’ve not happened. Somehow, we would’ve met. We would’ve ended up together.”

“I—” Elliot swallowed hard. His eyes went wide but instead of talking, he took Danny’s lips in a desperate kiss. Danny had been waiting for the day when he’d have Elliot’s body all to himself, when long lengths of skin and soft curls and curves of muscle would be his to touch without interruption. He’d been waiting.

But none of that waiting and imagining could’ve prepared him for Elliot’s smile, tucked into the curve of his neck, for shy, breathless kisses on unexplored skin, for the taste of Elliot’s mouth when there was the luxury of time to notice it. They were a tangle of lips and fingers and long, slow shivers.

When Elliot touched him for the first time, curled fingers around straining flesh, Danny thought he’d explode. When Elliot’s lips and tongue followed his fingers, wet heat and groans and hesitant suction, he did explode, back arched in shock and biting down on his hand.

Elliot grinned yet again and crawled up from underneath the covers to kiss Danny, his mouth quirking on the side with a lazy, satisfied smirk.

“I didn’t think you’d do that,” Danny murmured to him.

“Why?” Elliot asked. “I’ve been wanting to.”

Danny got another kiss and a wriggly, squirmy Elliot, hard and rubbing up against him.

“You know what?” Danny asked with his own smile, less smirky, more indulgent.

“What?” Elliot asked.

“I’ve been wanting it too.”

“You have?” There was a hitch in Elliot’s breath, excitement and maybe a bit of fear.

Danny nodded. It was his turn—his turn to kiss and lick and taste. His turn to watch Elliot’s back bow, to groan in satisfaction when Elliot grabbed at the blankets, at his hair, desperate for purchase. To shiver when a quiet “
Oh God, Danny
,” broke the near silence. He didn’t stop, not until he got what he’d wanted, what he’d needed—watching Elliot unravel until he lost all grip on control. Until he could surface from under the blankets, satisfied, and flop into Elliot’s arms and look his fill at the boy who’d taken over his entire soul.

Sunlight splashed on pale skin and dark curls, Elliot’s beautiful smile, usually bright and cheery was soft, sleepy, something meant only for him. Languid touches trailed along Danny’s spine, kisses brushed across his nose, and those thick-lashed brown eyes, the ones he dreamed of in his sleep, were right there in front of him, heavy lidded and full of awe. This was what had come to mean everything to Danny, not his dream of being a singer, not his growing career. He and Elliot. They were what mattered most.