Darwin's Natural Selection (7 page)

“Yeah?” The sleep-roughened growl brought Tom out of his daydream with a start. He tried to swallow and speak at the same time, which only made him choke.

Christ, you’re smooth
, he mocked himself, still trying to clear his airway enough to form words.

“Tom Cooper.”

Darwin’s voice had smoothed out to his usual tone and Tom felt a flash of unreasonable irritation at the other man’s equanimity. The spark of annoyance calmed his nerves a little, enough at least to allow him to get his throat under control.

“Er…hi.” Although he was able to talk now, his reason for calling had flown right out of his skull.

“You okay?” Darwin asked after a second, his voice sharpening. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Tom hurried to reassure him. “At least nothing major. I mean, nothing new.

Just the same things that’ve always been wrong with me.” He was glad the other man couldn’t see him, since his face felt as hot as fire and Tom was pretty sure it was an unattractive bright red at the moment.

Darwin’s chuckle was low and easy, and Tom found himself relaxing against the headboard at the sound. Propping a pillow behind his back, he shifted into a more comfortable position.

“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Darwin said with such confidence that Tom almost believed him. “You’re perfect.”

Okay, that’s stretching it.
Tom snorted.

“Not quite. Speaking of the whole not-perfect thing… I’m really sorry about what happened.”

“I’m not,” Darwin said. “I mean, I’m sorry you were scared at the end there, but I had fun tonight.”

“Me too.” As he said the words, Tom realized they were true, for the most part at least. “I’m sorry I ruined everything.”

Darwin’s laugh was more reassuring than any words could’ve been. “You kidding?

You didn’t ruin anything. I’m just sorry I got grabby and freaked you out. Although that was
kind of your fault.”

“What?” Tom’s stomach clenched. “I mean, I know. I’m sor—”

“Tom?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m kidding,” Darwin said. “I was going to say it was your fault for being so irresistible.”

“Oh.” Tom blinked. “I…um…”

Darwin laughed. “So, if nothing’s wrong, were you just calling to wish me happy dreams?”

With a shrug he belatedly realized the other man couldn’t see, Tom said, “I couldn’t sleep. You were…uh, on my mind. I was feeling bad about how it ended, so I thought I’d call you. Sorry if I woke you up.”

“Rather talk to you than sleep.” Darwin’s voice was warm enough to make Tom squirm.

“Yeah, me too.” Tom knew his skin was flushed with color again but this time it wasn’t caused by embarrassment—not completely, at least. Desire was spreading slow and thick through his veins.

There was a rustling sound and Tom imagined the other man getting comfortable in bed. He swallowed hard.

“So why couldn’t you sleep?” Darwin asked, and Tom ripped his mind away from the image of a naked Darwin, sprawled in a rumpled bed.

Flustered, he answered honestly, “Bad dreams.” Tom immediately winced, wishing the words back. That sounded so pathetic, so juvenile, to be complaining of nightmares.

“That’s rough,” Darwin said and Tom relaxed slightly. He didn’t sound judgmental or even condescending at all. “You get those a lot?”

Yes.
Tom just made a noncommittal sound. It was bad enough to let it slip but giving details would just make him sound like a whiny baby. “Anne really liked you,”

he said, trying to turn the conversation away from his childish fears. “That’s huge. She never likes my boyfriends.”

Fuck! I just called him my boyfriend! After one date!
He held his breath, waiting for the fallout, but Darwin didn’t even comment on the slip.

“I liked her too,” Darwin replied. “Her fiancé too. What was his name? Quill? Quit?

Quaff?”

“Quinn,” Tom corrected, smiling. “And you’re one to make fun of other people’s names,
Darwin
.”

The other man laughed. “I know. You’re right.”

That laugh alone was enough to make Tom hard. He shifted and adjusted the fabric of his boxer briefs over his growing erection.

“How…” His voice came out rusty, so Tom cleared his throat and tried again. “How’d your parents come up with your name?

Were they scientists or just fans of evolution?”

“Neither,” Darwin said, although the humor had faded from his voice. “They owned a dry-cleaning business. Now they’re retired and live in Florida.”

Tom frowned. The other man’s voice had gone strangely flat. “You don’t get along with them?”

“They’re fine.” His short tone contradicted his words. “What about your parents? Couldn’t they come to the engagement dinner?”

The change of conversation was obvious and abrupt but Tom went with it. He completely understood not wanting to talk about certain subjects. “They live in Texas.”

“Why?”

With a smile at Darwin’s baffled question, Tom said, “I have no idea. For some reason, they like it there. Since they’re retired now, they can live wherever they want. It’s too far to travel for the engagement dinner but they’ll come for the wedding, of course.”

“When’s that?” The last of the stiffness had dissolved from Darwin’s voice, leaving the warm purr that vibrated against his ear and ran straight down to Tom’s cock.

“Ah…next spring.” The exact date of the wedding was escaping him at the moment, since all the blood had left his brain and headed south. “Want to come with me?”

The second the words left his mouth, Tom desperately wanted them back. Not only was he asking someone with whom he’d had one disastrous date to a
wedding
, for Christ’s sake, but his wording had a wicked and unintentional double meaning.

“Yes.”

Tom swallowed. The heat locked into that one word made it obvious which question Darwin was answering. Instead of panic, though, a responding rush of desire warmed his skin from the inside out. The phone made it safe. With Darwin miles away, there could be no grabbing or shoving or forcing. His cock hardened even more and Tom realized he was smiling. “Okay,”

he agreed, oddly pleased by the hoarse gasp Darwin made when he heard.

“Won’t take much with you,” Darwin admitted. “You could read your fucking tax return and I could get off just listening to you.”

Just like that, Tom was more excited than he’d been in months, even years. His laugh was rough and breathless and, even to his own ears, obviously aroused. “Anne was going to set me up with her accountant,” he said, a little amazed that he was comfortable enough to tease. “Yancy.”

“Fuck

Yancy,”

Darwin

growled,

sounding so instantly pissed off that Tom grinned at the same time he squirmed. His free hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs so he could close his fingers around his erection.

“What’s wrong?” Tom asked with mock-innocence. “If I’m going to read tax returns, shouldn’t it be with Yancy the accountant?”

“I don’t want you reading tax returns with anyone else but me,” Darwin ordered.

“Got it?”

The possessive edge to his voice made Tom suck in a breath as his fingers tightened around his cock. After just a few words with an invisible Darwin, he was as hard as a rock. “So what’ll you do if you catch me,”

Tom managed to ask, feeling daring, “reading tax returns with another man?”

Darwin made a feral sound that was oddly comforting and thrilling at the same time. “I’ll strip you naked and smack that sweet ass of yours until you beg me to forgive you for even
looking
at that asshole of an accountant.”

“Yeah?” Tom gasped. The image should have scared him and turned him off, but a rush of excitement dropped from his stomach to his cock at Darwin’s rough words. His hand moved up and down his erection, smearing the pre-cum at the tip along the length of his engorged shaft. “And what if I don’t beg? What’ll you do to me then?”

“Then I would look at that pretty ass, all red from my hand, and I wouldn’t be able to help myself.” Darwin’s voice was so raspy and rough with need that it sounded almost painful.

Tom’s hand moved faster. “What would you do to me?” He meant the words to sound challenging but they came out almost as a plea. His breath heaved in and out of his lungs, his heart thumping so loudly Tom figured Darwin could hear it beating.

“Fuck,” Darwin groaned, and Tom closed his eyes, wishing desperately he could indeed fuck Darwin. “Everything. I’d do everything to you.”

Tom tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. “Tell me,” he croaked.

“First I’d rim you.” His breaths loud in Tom’s ear, Darwin sounded as if he’d just sprinted a mile. “Fuck you with my tongue until you’re squirming and begging. I just know you taste fucking amazing.”

He was so close. All Tom could do was suck in wild breaths and pump his cock in his fist as he waited for Darwin’s next words.

“Then, when you were all slippery and desperate, I’d push my finger in your ass.

You’d be so tight, so fucking tight, that I’d almost lose it right there. I’d hold on, though, because I want to come inside you and fill your ass with my cum.”

That almost set him off but Tom held on, wanting to prolong the anticipation, to build the pleasure even higher as that sexy, rumbling voice continued.

“I know I can’t wait any longer, so I line up the head of my cock with your hole and start pushing inside. It’s so tight, so hot and tight…I can hardly stand it.” Darwin was getting close too. Tom could tell. “You’re making these same sounds as I finally manage to shove the whole length of my cock inside you.”

Sounds?
Tom realized he was indeed making noises that were shamefully close to whimpers. As shivers of pleasure built, he dismissed

his

embarrassment

as

unimportant. The only things that mattered were his hand on his cock and that rasping voice coming through his cell phone.

There was a short silence broken only by gasping breaths. “Are you fucking me now?” Tom managed to force the words out, desperate to hear Darwin’s voice again. For once, he didn’t want to be alone as he jerked off. He wanted to be with someone—with Darwin.

“Yeah,” Darwin grunted. “Fucking… you…hard.”

The words were barely

intelligible but Tom needed more.

“Hard and rough?”

“Fuck yeah,” Darwin answered, his voice almost unrecognizable. “Pounding into your ass. You’re taking it…loving it…”

It was enough. Tom cried out when he came, his back arching as he shot. They seemed to last forever, the surges of pleasure that gradually faded to final ripples. Darwin had gone silent and Tom realized he’d dropped the cell phone. He scrambled to pick it up, his movements clumsy in the aftermath of such a mind-blowing orgasm.

His fingers finally closed around the phone. “Darwin?”

“There you are.” The rough edges had smoothed out of Darwin’s voice, turning it to a sleepy, satisfied drawl. “Where’d you disappear to?”

Tom smiled and relaxed against the headboard, feeling content and actually fear-free for the first time in too long. “A happy place.”

With a sleepy snort of laughter, Darwin asked, “Think you can sleep now?”

“Oh yeah.” As if to accentuate the statement, a yawn caught Tom off guard.

“Good. Good night then.”

“Night.” Tom kept the phone by his ear as he lay down, not wanting to miss it if Darwin said anything else.

“Hey Cooper?”

“Yeah?”

“I like you.”

Tom’s face burned with heat even as he smiled. “Like you too.”

“Cooper?”

“Yeah?” Tom couldn’t stop grinning.

“You’re even better than chocolate.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.” There was no doubt in Darwin’s words.

Tom fell asleep with the phone still pressed against his ear, a sappy grin on his face.

He couldn’t concentrate.

Tom knew he’d been worse than useless all day but he just couldn’t seem to snap out of it.

“This is stupid,” he muttered. “You told him not to call you, so why are you pissed he didn’t call you?”

As if on cue, his cell rang. Tom jumped, fumbling for his phone. Before answering, he forced himself to take a deep breath.

“Hello?” he managed to say fairly calmly.

He was quite proud of himself.

“I want details,” Anne demanded, and Tom made a face as his excitement dissolved. It was his own fault for not checking the caller ID.

“Details?” he repeated absently, still distracted by the disappointment of his sister not being Darwin.

“Don’t play dumb,” she said impatiently.

“You’ve been dating Darwin for weeks and haven’t said a word about him. You ignored all my calls yesterday. It’s past time for you to spill.”

“The way you grilled him on Saturday night, I’m surprised you have any questions left,” Tom said. “For Christ’s sake, Anne, you asked him if he was a hooker. A
hooker
!”

Instead of displaying a proper amount of remorse, his sister just laughed. “Well, can you blame me? Not a single date for months and then you show up with that wet dream of a man.”

“So what are you saying?” Tom asked, mostly joking, although a thread of irritation worked its way into his words. “That the only way I could get someone like Darwin to go out with me is to pay him? Nice sister
you are.”

“Of course not.” He could almost hear her eyes rolling. “Don’t be such a sensitive flower. I’m just saying I’m surprised you didn’t even mention him. If he were my boyfriend—you know, ignoring Quinn and Darwin’s gayness and the fact that you’re dating him—I’d have his picture

everywhere. I’d be showing him off to strangers on the street. Darwin really is an insane amount of hotness.”

“Yeah.” For some reason, Anne’s words depressed him. “You’re right.”

There was a short pause before she demanded, “Why do you sound sad? Your boyfriend’s hotness should make you happy!”

“It’s just…” He sighed, knowing he’d regret sharing this with his bulldog of a sister, but really needing to talk to someone about Darwin. “He hasn’t called me since Saturday night…or early Sunday morning, I guess it was.”

“Really?” Anne didn’t sound properly sympathetic. In fact, the word dripped with sarcasm. “Your incredibly hot boyfriend didn’t call you and almost thirty-six whole hours have gone by? Poor baby.” Her falsely syrupy tone fell away and her words regained their snap. “When did you turn into such a needy, annoying emo pussy?”