It was a rainy, gray kind of evening, and even from inside the Gilded Fox I could make out the faint, rhythmic patter of a light drizzle. I glanced over through the windows at the back of the main hall, seeing the raindrops bouncing off the ground in the courtyard. The jasmine and ferns waved gently in the soft breeze, everything barely illuminated by the diffused light of the moon. I was grateful to be indoors on a night like this, and the background white noise of the rain only gave the club an even more relaxed, mellowed-out aura. It was cozy in here, despite the flurry of rather frantic activity that was going on within the club tonight. We were all in crunch mode, the staff members of the Fox all working feverishly and tirelessly to start setting things up for the art show Ben was putting on tomorrow night. This was our sort of rehearsal dinner, the frantic night before when we were all trying to remain calm and get things done in an orderly fashion, but the energy among our group was a little more nervous than that. I was doing my best to keep calm and work at an even pace, not letting myself dwell on the opulence and the importance of the art show. It needed to go perfectly. It needed to look fabulous and feel totally high-class if we were going to pull off our plan to impress the council. Ben’s reputation and his future standing in the club’s hierarchy were on the line, and I was determined to give him the best I could offer, even if that meant a couple of sleepless nights.

Of course, we had been giving ourselves some sleepless nights already, totally unrelated to the art show. I had always been the kind of guy who very jealously guarded my nightly sleep rituals—I was dead set on getting my full eight hours of beauty rest every night. After growing up in a household with so many loud, obnoxious, arguing siblings around all the time with varying internal clocks and schedules, I had been overjoyed to lock myself into my own healthy sleep schedule once I was old enough to move out and live on my own. During my childhood, I had been woken up hours and hours too early because maybe my brother had an early soccer practice. Or perhaps my oldest sister stayed out late at a high school graduation party and came home during the wee hours of the morning, tipsy and loudly stumbling down the hall where her bedroom shared a wall with mine. I had always shared a room, too, with two of my brothers, Eli and Jake. They were younger than me and always doing annoying things like playing with their Legos late into the night. They were twins, and they had always been very close, which left me out a lot of the time. For the most part, that had never bothered me much, as I was a pretty private child who liked spending time alone. But it also meant many nights of lying awake and annoyed, listening to my little brothers play until they got sleepy, usually hours and hours beyond what I considered an appropriate curfew.

So, needless to say, once I had moved out and was finally in charge of my own comings and goings, I had put a lot of effort into taking care of myself and keeping a neat, tidy, reliable schedule. But ever since I became hopelessly entangled with Ben Cabot, I had forgone my sleep schedule in favor of spending more time with him. If there was one thing I enjoyed more than a good night’s sleep, it was a good night sleeping with Ben. He was entrancing. He was addicting. He was everything I never knew I wanted or needed, and I could no sooner turn down a night in his arms than stop time itself. I was more than happy to wander through my days like a sleep-deprived zombie if it meant I got to spend the nocturnal hours lost in overwhelming waves of bliss with him.

This evening was no different. Over the past few weeks, I had spent all my free time with Ben, never tiring of seeing him. I had assumed—even dreaded—that at some point I would get over my enormous infatuation with him and just get bored. It was one major reason why my past relationships tended to fizzle out. It was just hard to find someone who could hold my interest for very long. But Ben was entirely different. It was like the more time I spent with him, the more deeply I got to know him, the more I wanted. The more I longed to be with him. I started counting down the minutes and seconds until we could be together in one room again. All I wanted was to spend my days touching him, talking to him, building him up as he built me up so completely, too. So tonight was important. I wanted everything to be perfect.

“Hey, Noah, where did you want this piece to go?” called out a familiar voice.

I broke free of my reverie about Ben and shook myself back to reality, turning toward the voice. I saw my coworker, Harry, struggling to carry an enormous art installation by himself. I noticed with a wince that his arms were shaking with the weight of the art piece covered up in protective white canvas, and I rushed over to give him a hand. I lifted it from the other side, giving him a grateful smile.

“You shouldn’t be lifting these things by yourself, Harry,” I chided gently.

“Ah, I can handle it. I’m not that old and frail yet, kid,” Harry chuckled.

“No offense, but it’s not you I’m worried about,” I laughed. “It’s the priceless art you’re lugging around like a suitcase.”

“Fair point. This stuff must be worth a fortune, eh?” he suggested.

I nodded as the two of us carefully lifted it into a corner of the main hall. “Yeah, all this is worth more than my apartment. Or yours, for that matter,” I answered. “All right let’s set it down here out of the way. Easy does it.”

My stomach churned with nerves as we put the gigantic metal sculpture down together, careful not to drop it or chip any of the sharp points of it. I heaved a sigh of relief and brushed my hand across my brow once the job was done, and I put my hands on my hips. Harry shook his head, looking a little confused by the art piece itself.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, Noah,” he began, frowning, “I don’t really get it.”

“Get what?” I asked, smirking.

“The art, man. This modern contemporary stuff just makes no sense to me,” Harry admitted with a shrug. “Is it all stuff like this or are there any, you know, paintings?”

“Don’t worry, my catalog is pretty diverse, actually,” answered a voice behind us. We both swiveled around to see Nicholas, the young artist from Paris I had met at the expo weeks ago with Ben. I smiled and held out a hand for him to shake, pulling him in for a brief hug.

Then I turned to introduce him to Harry, who was blushing furiously with embarrassment at having criticized the art in front of the artist. “Harry, this is Nicholas Delacroix. He’s the one responsible for this gorgeous and very heavy work of art we just carried,” I said, giving Harry a wink. He smiled sheepishly and shook Nicholas’s hand.

“Sorry about all that,” he murmured. “I have to admit, I’m not really well versed in the art world these days. My apologies. I meant no offense.”

“None taken,” Nicholas replied cheerfully. “I’m used to it. Modern art can be a little weird to get into if you’re not used to it. Hell, when I first started my art degree, even I was turned off by contemporary art conventions.”

“It’s just the abstract stuff I don’t understand,” Harry confessed.

“I don’t blame you. It can be a little difficult to break into the genre, even coming from an artist’s perspective,” Nicholas told him good-naturedly. Then he looked at me with a broad smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “Thanks again for asking me to be a part of the show, by the way. I’m really excited about the event tomorrow night. A little nervous, too.”

“Truth be told, I’m a little nervous, myself,” I answered softly. “There’s a lot riding on this, especially for Ben.”

“He’s a good guy, that Ben Cabot,” Nicholas remarked.

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah. He really is. I just hope all this hard work pays off for him. He’s put his heart and soul into it.” I sighed.

“Sounds like you have, too,” Nicholas pointed out, quirking an eyebrow.

I felt my cheeks flush pink. “Yeah. I guess that’s true. I just… I want everything to go smoothly. For my sake, of course, but mostly for Ben. He deserves it,” I said.

Nicholas clapped me on the shoulder reassuringly. “It’ll be great. I promise. Anyway, I’m going to go help the mover guys before they drop one of my sculptures and it shatters into a billion tiny pieces. It was good to see you again,” he said as he walked away, waving goodbye.

“You’re just as invested in this as Cabot is, huh?” Harry asked, sidling up to me as we both watched Nicholas rush away to help relocate a sculpture of an elephant.

I nodded. “Yes,” I admitted, but then I remembered he was not supposed to know why exactly I was so invested—it was still taboo for Ben and me to be together.

I hastily threw together the excuse that I just wanted the club’s reputation to be upheld, and he seemed to buy it. Harry headed back into the fray to help decorate and set up for the night. Meanwhile, I decided it was high time to track down Ben himself and see how he was holding up. I managed to find him in a side room, where he was tucked away looking absolutely exhausted and overwrought. My heart ached for him as I walked up and slipped an arm around his shoulders. He looked at me in surprise, as though he had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t seen me approaching.

“Hey,” I greeted him, leaning in to covertly kiss him on the cheek. “How’re you holding up? You look stressed out.”

Ben sighed but forced a momentary smile for my benefit. “I’m okay. Just a little overwhelmed, I suppose. There’s a lot going on out there. Just needed to take a breather.”

“That’s understandable. This is a big deal, Ben. I know how much this art show means to you. To your family,” I said gently.

“I just don’t want to let anyone down, you know?” he admitted, shaking his head.

“Come on, everyone’s on your side here,” I said encouragingly. But it didn’t seem to help at all. Ben continued to stare off into space, a worried expression on his handsome features. I nudged his shoulder.

“Hey, what’s going on? You can tell me, you know. There’s something bothering you, Ben. I can tell,” I murmured.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “There is something bothering me, actually,” Ben admitted slowly. “The council… they’re really counting on this art show to prove my worth to them.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“They’re using this art show as a test,” he said. “A test to show whether or not they feel comfortable passing on my uncle’s council seat to me. So, no pressure!” he added.

My heart skipped a beat. “Oh wow. I-I didn’t know,” I stuttered with a gasp. “No wonder you’re so stressed out. Geez.”

Ben managed a genuine smile this time. “Yeah. It’s a lot. I didn’t want to mention it and stress you out, too, but it’s been weighing on me the closer and closer we get to tomorrow night.”

“It is a lot,” I agreed. “But you can handle it. I know you can. You’ve poured so much of your heart and soul into this project, and it’s going to work out. I promise. And besides, you’ll have me by your side to help out in whatever way I can.”

He looked at me sidelong, his brown eyes flickering like embers in the low light. A smile crept across his face, and I knew instantly what he wanted. What he needed. My body immediately began to tingle and turn in toward him. I could not resist him. And right now, I could think of no better way to distract him from his worries.

I wordlessly walked over to the door and locked it before striding confidently back to stand in front of Ben. He was waiting for me, lips slightly parted, his eyes locked on me. He knew. I knew. We had no need for words between us. It was a silent understanding. And besides, I had been aching to touch him all day long.

“Let me distract you,” I murmured softly. “Just for a little while.”

“We’ll have to be quick. And quiet,” he added, glancing toward the door.

Just on the other side of that door were so many of our coworkers and friends, people who had no idea we were about to breach the boundaries set for us. The fact that they were so close and that we could so easily get caught only aroused me more. Right now, I was solely focused on his pleasure, his happiness. I wanted to give him a gift—the best gift I had to offer in this moment of panic.

I dropped to my knees, looking up at him with my eyes wide. I licked my lips as he held his breath, watching me slowly and methodically unzip his tailored pants. I leaned forward, nuzzled my nose against the growing bulge at the front of his boxers, letting out a soft moan of anticipation. He stiffened up, his hands trailing down to comb through my cropped hair as my fingers peeled down his boxers and his cock sprang free, bouncing slightly in the free air. I began to stroke up and down his hard length, reveling in the velvet smoothness of his skin, the warmth emanating from his body. He needed this. Badly. And I was eager to give it to him.

I pulled his cock into my mouth as I worked his member with one hand, sliding up and down in a slight swirling movement. My other hand cupped his balls gently, fondling them and massaging the tight base of his cock while my tongue lathed around the swollen head in lazy, teasing circles. I felt an involuntary shudder roll upward through his body. My own cock twitched between my legs, but I took a strange pleasure in not touching it. I was only here to please Ben. My own release could come later, in private, once the activity for tonight had ended.

Ben closed his eyes and stroked the back of my head with his hands, gently pushing me down so that I took more of his length into my mouth. I swallowed him down hungrily, letting his thickness ache my cheeks until I could taste a bead of sticky precome tickling at the back of my throat. I moaned around his cock, sending vibrations through to his core. Ben groaned and began to gently rock his hips, exercising as much restraint as he could manage as he softly fucked my throat. I bobbed up and down, now letting both of my hands swirl around his cock, matching rhythm with my mouth and tongue. I flicked the stiff tip of my tongue over his sensitive head, then took him down to the hilt again and again, swallowing down drops of precome as I edged him closer and closer to the brink.

“Oh, just like that,” he mumbled, rolling his hips to meet me.

I groaned, my whole body so completely aroused by his pleasure I could feel his glorious cock twitching and tensing in my mouth, readying for a climax. I moved faster, sucking him off harder and with increased enthusiasm. I pumped his shaft with both hands, nearly gagging myself as I took his full member down my throat. Ben’s fingers tangled in my hair as he fucked my mouth, groaning and gasping with pleasure. Finally, his whole body seized up, and he held my head in place while he murmured my name, slurring, “Noah,” as his thick cock spurted sticky spunk down my throat. I pumped every last drop from him, swallowing it down eagerly while he stroked my hair and shivered through the aftershocks.

Finally, I stood up and wiped my mouth on my sleeve before leaning in to kiss Ben softly. He zipped his pants up and then pulled me into a tight hug, resting his head on my shoulder. I loved this moment, feeling so close to him, like I was seeing the true vulnerable side of him that no one ever got to witness. I kissed him on the cheek.

“Don’t worry,” I mumbled. “I’ll make sure to keep my distance tomorrow night so nobody will know about… about this stuff.”

Ben chuckled and gave me an affectionate squeeze. “I’m not worried at all, actually,” he said softly. “I’ve got an idea.”