When they got off the bike outside Kyle’s cottage, Dev seemed restless. Hyped up by the ride, perhaps. He parked the bike up by the wall and hung the helmets on the handlebars, then couldn’t seem to stand still. Did that mean he wanted to be gone?
Should Kyle invite him in, or just let him go? He couldn’t think of much worse than an awkward cup of tea with a man impatient to be out of his sight.
Oh God. Maybe Dev had noticed something during the ride. Had Kyle been gripping him too tightly? He opened his mouth to thank Dev for the ride and say a swift good-bye.
It was Dev who spoke first, however. “Hey, I’ve shown you mine—gonna show me yours?”
Kyle blinked. “What?”
“Your ride, mate.” Dev grinned, although he still had a slight wariness about his eyes. “What did you think I meant? So where do you keep it?”
“Just down the road—that row of garages?” None of the cottages had been built with motor vehicles in mind, so the garages had been constructed at some point in the past thirty or so years. Kyle seriously doubted they’d get planning permission these days, although with their white-painted exterior and grey roofing, they blended in surprisingly well with the cottages they served.
“Come on, then,” Dev urged.
Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? Are you missing your job?”
“Nah. Well, maybe a little bit. I got this thing—I like matching rides to people, yeah?”
“You think the kind of car a man drives tells you something about him? In that case I’m definitely not showing you my Fiesta.”
“Go on. I’m here for three weeks, you know. Bound to catch you in it sooner or later. You might as well get it over with.”
“Fine. But don’t say I haven’t warned you.”
They strolled down to the garages, Kyle relishing the way the short walk loosened up muscles in his legs that had stiffened during the bike ride. His garage was the closest, presumably because his cottage was the farthest from the little block. Kyle took out his key and opened up the door, letting out a waft of musty air. Dust motes sparkled in the afternoon sun.
Dev waved a hand in front of his face. “Been a while since you drove anywhere, has it?”
Kyle shrugged. “It’s easier to get groceries online. And I prefer to walk when I’m only going into town. With all the tourist traffic around, it’s often quicker.” And a badly timed sleep attack wouldn’t risk bringing the one-way system to a standstill.
“Fair enough. Right, then. Let’s take a look at you.” Standing there with his arms folded, Dev examined the Fiesta.
Kyle tried to see it through his eyes: almost as old as Dev himself, with a dented wing, scratched paintwork, and a flourishing crop of rust . . . He winced and gave up. “You may want to keep your thoughts on what this says about me to yourself. Just saying.”
Dev shook his head slowly. He even pursed his lips, although mischief danced in his eyes. “Mate. Mate. This is seriously fucking tragic, and I’ve seen some well tragic motors in my time. Is that thing even legal?”
“She passed her MOT. Last September,” Kyle added apologetically.
“I can believe it, mate. Well, not that she passed, but that it was nearly a year ago. This is seriously not the sort of car I’d have seen you with.”
Kyle gave him a bitter smile. “When I got diagnosed . . . they told me I was still okay to drive, you know? That I’d have enough warning of attacks to pull over. I didn’t believe them.”
“So you got yourself an old banger so if you pranged it, at least you wouldn’t give a shit?”
“Actually, I decided to get a top-of-the-range Lexus.” So he could go out in style. “I was there in the showroom, halfway to signing the papers, and then I thought it’d be a crime to waste something so beautiful. So I told the salesman no thanks, and on my way home I stopped at the first used-car place and swapped my BMW for the cheapest thing on the forecourt.”
Dev’s expression was so comical Kyle had to stifle a laugh. “The trader couldn’t believe his luck. He was probably crossing his fingers the Fiesta’s engine wouldn’t fall out before I got it on the road. That was six months ago.”
“Fuck me, she’s kept on going that long? Looking at her now I wouldn’t trust her to make it six miles.”
“It’s the car that won’t die. I’m actually getting quite attached to her.” There was that lightness again. Happiness.
“So if I told you it’d be a kindness to take her down to the scrapheap? If she makes it that far?”
“Not going to happen.”
“Thought not. At least let me take a look at her, yeah?” Kyle’s doubt must have shown on his face, as Dev grinned. “Trust me, I’m a professional. Got me Level 4 Certificate and everything.”
“If you like.” Kyle tossed his keys over. “But careful if you get in the back for any reason. There’s a hole rusted right through the floor there, and it’d probably be best if it didn’t get any larger.”
Snatching the keys easily out of the air, Dev unlocked the driver’s door and climbed in so he could pop the bonnet. “No worries, mate. I’m well up-to-date with my tetanus jabs and all.”
“Is that something to do with being a mechanic?”
“Nah, it’s something to do with living with Mal.” Dev propped up the bonnet and leaned over the engine. He pursed his lips again.
“I’m not quite sure what to make of that statement,” Kyle said cautiously. He wondered what Dev could see. Everything looked a uniform shade of oily grime to him.
Dev glanced round at him and laughed. “Sorry. He keeps rats. Always has done, since he was like five or something. Sometimes the little fuckers bite.”
“God. It sounds like the stuff of nightmares.”
“Nah, they’re well cute, really. I mean, they ain’t like wild ones. They’re a lot cleaner than most people think, but, yeah, it don’t hurt to keep your jabs up.” Dev seemed to think about that. “Actually, yeah, it does hurt, but they last like ten years or something.”
“With you both away, did he have to get a rat-sitter?”
“Nah, he took ’em round his mum’s. She’s used to it all. So, did you have pets when you were younger? I always wanted a dog, but, you know.” He shrugged.
Kyle had a heart-breaking vision of a younger Dev, forever disappointed in his childhood hopes. “I had a Labrador. Tilly.” She’d sickened while he was at university, and his parents had been forced to have her put down. He’d been equal parts devastated and guilt-stricken, although the vet had said it was cancer, not pining for her owner, that’d done for her.
“Yeah? Ever think about getting another?”
“Not recently.” Kyle frowned. Why hadn’t he? Jeffrey hadn’t liked dogs—but Jeffrey was history now. “I suppose I thought it wasn’t fair to get one, with my condition.”
“Bollocks.”
Startled, Kyle had to fight a momentary weakness in his knees. “What?”
“Why wouldn’t it be fair? And they can help, right? I was reading about this girl in America. She’s got a service dog, and it warns her when she’s about to have an attack. And it’s gotta be good, right, if you’re out on your own and you go down. Like a guard dog. Stop anyone, I dunno, nicking your wallet or drawing a dick on your face while you can’t stop ’em.” The Fiesta, its grimy inner workings still shamefully on display, seemed to have been forgotten.
“Do you do this much research on everyone you meet?” Kyle asked, only half-joking.
Dev flashed him a cheeky grin. “Nah. Only the ones I fancy.”
Kyle put a hand out to steady himself against the garage’s dusty, cobwebbed, but nonetheless comfortingly solid side. He hadn’t thought—hadn’t expected Dev to just come out with it like that.
“Uh . . . that all right? Me saying that?” Dev looked uncertain for a moment, then seemed to rally himself. “Mate, I know you said you weren’t interested. And if you want me to back off, just say the word. But I, well, I seen you looking at me, and I reckon maybe you got a bit of a thing for greasy mechanics. Or, well, a greasy mechanic.”
Kyle was about to tell him no—but to hell with it. It was just sex, wasn’t it? It didn’t have to mean anything. And he was so bloody tired of not living. What could it hurt, to give in, to take a bit of physical pleasure when it was offered? What had Dev said? Nothing here was real. In a couple of weeks, Dev would be back in London, laughing with his mates over the weird bloke he’d slept with on holiday. And that was for the best.
The thought of it was like a knife in his chest—but then Dev stepped forward, took Kyle’s face in his hands, and kissed him, and Kyle buried the pain under an avalanche of desire. Dev’s lips were salty, as if he’d been drinking in the sea air. Once he’d tasted them, Kyle couldn’t get enough of them.
But not here. Anyone could wander past and get an eyeful. That’d hardly endear him to his already unfriendly neighbours. Kyle broke the kiss, breathing hard. “Let’s get back to the house.”
Dev’s face was flushed, and his chest was heaving. “Yeah. Good plan.” His hands weren’t quite steady as they closed the Fiesta’s bonnet.
Kyle almost forgot to lock the garage. They half ran up the road back to the cottage, Dev grinning and Kyle fighting the urge to laugh. He dropped his keys on the doormat, picked them up, fumbled them into the lock, and then finally, finally managed to push open the door. They stumbled inside, Kyle barely able to wait until the door had swung shut behind them before he grabbed Dev once more and pulled him close. Their teeth clashed in a powerful kiss, and it was so, so good. How had he lived without this?
Kyle let out an oof as Dev backed him up against the living room wall, their bodies pressed together as they explored each other’s mouth. God, it’d been so long. Even before they’d officially broken up, Jeffrey and he hadn’t—
Kyle was damned if he was going to think about Jeffrey right now. He focussed on the hard body in his arms, the belt buckle digging into his hip. Something else starting to dig into his thigh, just below. God, he needed this. The kiss turned frantic, and Dev’s hands tugged at his shirt, pulling it out of his trousers. Good idea. Kyle grabbed at Dev’s T-shirt, awkwardly pushing it up until he could get his hands underneath.
The first touch of Dev’s skin seared him with heat. He wanted more. No, he needed it. One hand on Dev’s chest, Kyle shoved the other down the back of his jeans and pulled their bodies even tighter together.
“Fuck me,” Dev gasped, breaking off the kiss and laughing softly. “Okay, are we gonna take this somewhere horizontal? ’Cos that floor don’t look too comfy and no offence, mate, but if you fall down, I’m not sure I’ll get my act together in time to catch you.”
Kyle’s mouth was dry, and he struggled to find words. “Yes. Come on.” Then he contradicted himself by pulling Dev close again and sinking back into that addictive kiss.
Oh God.
“Bed?” Dev panted into his mouth. “Or sofa?”
Kyle had just enough presence of mind left to reflect that while the bedroom seemed a million miles away, the sofa was narrow and falling off would be painful as well as embarrassing. “Bed,” he said hoarsely and pulled Dev along with him. How they made it through to the dining room and up the stairs without taking a tumble, entwined as they were, was a mystery. Kyle kicked the bedroom door open, and they stumbled through to land in a heap on the bed. He still had a hand on Dev’s arse, and Dev was scrabbling at his flies.
“Jesus, fuck, what bastard invented clothes,” Dev was muttering, and Kyle had to tamp down on his instinct to laugh or this would all be over before it’d even begun.
The thought sobered him. Kyle forced himself to stop. To push himself up on his hands for a moment, look down into Dev’s warm brown eyes and speak plainly. “Need to warn you—sex can be a trigger.” His chest felt tight. Was this where Dev decided he wasn’t worth the bother?
Dev just grinned. “Don’t worry, mate. Gonna make it so fucking good you won’t be able to fall asleep.”
Which entirely missed the point, but damn it, Kyle was only human. Kneeling astride Dev, he tore his shirt off and threw it on the floor, then tugged at Dev’s T-shirt until Dev took the hint and stripped it off. God, his chest was gorgeous. Darkly furred, all man, with small brown nipples that were already peaked. Kyle bent to take one in his mouth, and his cock surged with the salty taste and the feeling of it hard against his tongue.
“Fuck me,” Dev gasped, and managed to get Kyle’s trousers undone. Then his hand was on Kyle’s cock, and his voice switched to a porn-star growl. “Oh yeah, baby. Fuck me.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Kyle begged, torn between delirium and terror. If he had an attack now . . . He’d almost prefer it if he never woke up again.
“Gonna do better than that. Gonna make you come.” Dev jerked Kyle’s cock a couple of times, his grip deliciously firm, then he wriggled his way down the bed until his face was level with Kyle’s crotch.
Then he plunged his mouth over Kyle’s cock.
“God.” It was too much. Kyle wasn’t sure he could keep his body from giving up on him under the sensory overload. But damn it, it was good. He stood it for another moment, then drew away from Dev’s mouth, swinging his leg over to lie down by Dev’s side. “Come here,” he said, tugging at Dev’s shoulder as if to pull him bodily back up the bed. “And get those bloody jeans off.”
Dev let out a soft laugh, undid his jeans, and pushed them off, briefs and all. Then he scrambled back up the bed and rolled over on top of Kyle. He was heavier than he looked. A solid, grounding weight. Kyle gazed down between them, impatient. He could feel Dev’s hard cock pressed against his own erection, but he wanted to see it.
It was gorgeous. Flushed dark. Uncircumcised. Bending slightly to the left—and that was all Kyle had time to see before Dev claimed his mouth in another kiss. Both of them were hungry. Demanding. Pressed together yet still not quite close enough.
“Fuck, yeah,” Dev gasped between kisses. “Knew you’d be fucking gorgeous.”
Kyle reached up to bite Dev’s lip and encourage him down for another kiss. He’d have used his hands, but they were wrapped around Dev’s arse and he couldn’t seem to make them let go. Dev was amazing—all taut, compact muscle. His chest hair felt fantastic rubbing against Kyle’s more sparsely furred skin. And his shoulders—God, his shoulders. They should be illegal. They probably were illegal. He smelled like motorbikes and wild nights.
Needing to taste, Kyle lifted his head and bit Dev gently on the neck.
Dev groaned. “Oh, fuck me, this ain’t gonna last.”
“Don’t care,” Kyle gasped out in reply.
Holding his weight on one arm, muscles taut, Dev reached between them to wrap a hand around both their cocks. “Oh yeah. Gonna make you come so fucking hard.”
The heat of his cock against Kyle’s was incredible, and his firm grip set up a punishing pace. Sensation ratcheted up with every stroke. Damn it, how could he have lived so long without this? It was nothing like being on his own. Kyle felt alive. Connected.
“Shit, I’m gonna come.” Dev’s voice was a rasp, his movements becoming jerky.
“Don’t stop,” Kyle begged, and he crested the wave, ecstasy flooding his body with electricity. It was glorious.
It was . . . too much.