[Castle in the Sky - 16] DARE

Before Clifford even opened his eyes he knew he wasn't in his own bed. There was a difference in the feel of it and the air around it that left him wondering what the devil he'd done the night before. He opened his eyes to see Kenneth standing by the window, glorious sunlight floating over and around him.  His first thought shit! did we make love last night? was quickly silenced for his body didn't feel thoroughly used and blissfully sore. That was how he imagined he'd feel after a night of hardcore fucking with Kenneth. His cheeks warmed.

"Morning," he called sitting up.

Kenneth raked his fingers through his hair and turned to look at him. "Morning. How are you feeling?"

"Okay--I guess. What happened last night?"

"Do you want the honest answer or the one I'd give to make you okay with spending the night here?"

Clifford chuckled. "I had that coming." He stuck his feet out of the bed. "The honest answer?"

"You came here last night wanting us to make love."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Did we?"

Kenneth smiled and made his way to the chair by the bed. He sat and lifted his gaze to Clifford's face. "If we did--trust me--you'd remember."

"You didn't want me...."

"That wasn't it. I wanted you. I just didn't want you to wake up the next and regret it--I didn't want to be your oh shit moment."

Clifford bowed his head. He remembered now. He remembered wanting Kenneth so bad no amount of cold showers or thinking unsexy thoughts helped. Reaching across, he caressed Kenneth's cheek and smiled. "Where's your bathroom?"

Kenneth thumbed overh is shoulder and Clifford took off for it. When he flushed, washed his hands and rinsed his mouth, he made his way back to where Kenneth was once again at the window. "Sorry about that."

"Melvin called last night. I didn't mean to pick up your phone but it wouldn't stop ringing.  He wanted to see if you were alright. He says to call him today."

"Thanks..."

"He said you found out why your mother hated my father."

Clifford's head snapped up. "Did he tell you why?"

"He said I should ask you. Didn't think it was his place to say. So why did your mother hate my father?"

"She was in love with him. He loved your mother."

Kenneth spun around then. "Your mother loved my father? What?"

Clifford took a breath and explained what he was told. When he was finished he slumped to sit on the bed and pressed his fingers between his knees. "And that's the story so far."

"You haven't spoken to your mother about this?"

"I haven't had time. The last time I tried talking to her about you guys she flipped a frigging lid. This will take some time."

"So do you hate me?"

"The hell kind of question is that? I'm here, aren't I?"

Kenneth eased back. "Because you were angry. Would you be here if it was just a regular evening? Would you be here because you wanted to feel my touch, taste my kiss?"

"Yes. I'm a grown man, Kenneth. If I want your ass I'm going to come for it."

Kenneth smirk. "Alright. You want it? Come and get it!"

[Castle in the Sky - 15] Watchful Eyes

Kenneth sat on the chair beside the large bed watching Clifford sleep--or at least try to sleep. The man kept tossing about on the bed with pained expressions on his face. A few times Kenneth felt like waking him up but Clifford wasn't screaming or anything. Resting his elbows against his knees he rubbed the sides of his face with the tips of his fingers.  Perhaps the whole promise of seduction was too much for Clifford. Maybe he should just back off.  But he knew, from the kisses they shared, that he and Clifford could be happy together.

Clifford kept muttering something about his mother. Perhaps that was why Clifford was so torn between allowing Kenneth in and walking away. This little game of Cat and Mouse they were playing had become one big mousetrap and he wasn't entirely sure he was willing to have Clifford have a break down - though from the looks of it he could be a little late on that.

Reaching forward, he pulled the sheets up to Clifford's chest again for he kept kicking them off when he rolled around on the bed.  Kenneth meant to sit down again when Clifford gripped his hand.

"Don't leave..."

The pained sound in his voice and the look in his eyes broke Kenneth's heart. "I'm not going anywhere," he promised. "I'll be right here."

Clifford dragged his hand down Kenneth's until only one of his fingers hooked into one of Kenneth's.  When he was finally back to sleep, Kenneth sat once more, watching the man sleep. This time, he seemed content, a few times he even smiled in his sleep.  

At some point during the night Kenneth dosed off in the chair. A ringing cell phone woke up. Instinctively he searched for it and pressed it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Who is this?"

"You're calling, who are you?" Kenneth demanded.

"I'm looking for Clifford. It's his best friend. Do you know where he is?"

"Oh hey Melvin. It's Kenneth. He's here with me."

"Is he okay?"

"I think so. He came here--didn't seem like himself so I made him something to eat then put him into bed. Do you know what happened to make him like this tonight?"

Kenneth walked away from the bed so his voice wouldn't carry as much to Clifford.

"I don't know if I should say anything," Melvin replied softly. "But it has to do with why his mother raised him to hate your family. I told him what I heard from my mother. Needless to say, he didn't take it well."

"I'd say."

"Look, ask him to give me a call tomorrow."

"Wait...what did your mom say?"

"Ask Cliff. I'm glad he's okay. Good night, Kenneth."

Kenneth took a deep breath. "G'night." Looking down at the screen, he tapped the red button lightly to hang up and placed the phone on the bedside table.  He scratched the back of his neck and fell into the chair lightly once more.  This time, he couldn't fall asleep. There were so many thoughts swimming about inside his head--thoughts from what the devil was it about his father and Clifford's mother? to damn I wanna crawl into bed with him...

[Castle in the Sky -14] Giving In Halfway

Kenneth looked up from his popcorn and book as the doorbell peeled. He groaned. It was so frustrating trying to read a book he actually wanted to read and just couldn't seem to get past the first chapter with all the interruptions. Putting his popcorn away from him along with his book and reached for his shirt. Shrugging, he left it where it was and made his way down the stairs. When he finally reached the front door, he stood there with an arched brow.

"Do you know what time it is?" He asked.

But Clifton didn't answer. He said nothing. What he did left Kenneth pressed into the wall, breath taken away, tongue tangling with Clifton's and his body more aroused than he'd ever felt it.  He sucked against Clifton's tongue, wrapped his arms tightly around the dark-skinned Adonis and allowed his mouth to be thoroughly plundered.

Finally he managed to pull his lips away and braced his palms into Clifton's chest to stop his descending mouth. "What's going on?"

"This is what you wanted. You wanted me in your bed, right? Here I am."

"Yes but not like this. What's going on?"

Clifton jerked away and made for the door then but Kenneth caughth is arm and shoved the door closed. Bracing his back to it, he cradled Clifton's face. "I didn't stop kissing you so you can leave. I just wanted to make sure you're here because you want to and not because of anything else. Cliff...Look at me...please."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Clifton stepped away from him but Kenneth didn't move his body from between his wanna-be lover and the door. Instead he braced himself, trying desperately to catch Clifton's eyes.

"What are you ashamed of?"

"That I want you. I'm not supposed to want you. I've been raised to not want you."

"Cliff--that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Kenneth took a breath to steady himself as he gripped the man's shoulder. "If you want me, you know I'm ready, willing and so damn able to give you precisely what you want from me. But I can't do that unless you're in this. Right now its like you're swimming in the deep end but you're holding onto the wall because you're afraid of sinking."

It was with those words, Clifton lifted his head.  "Then why does me being here make me feel like this?"

The words hit Kenneth like a punch in the gut. He swallowed the lump in his throat and took a breath. "Come on. Let me get you something to drink and you can sleep it off. I have plenty of room."

"Kenneth I feel--I want..."

"It's alright," Kenneth pulled him into a hug. "We don't have to do anything tonight. We don't even have to talk if that's not what you want. Everything will look better with the sun."

[Castle In the Sky -13] Heard it Through the Grapevine

Clifton sat across from Melvin but he wasn't really paying attention. The way his best friend called him on the phone and asked to meet left Clifton feeling as if his world was about to end.

"Clif..."

"No. Gimme a second. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for what's coming so --just give me a second."

He rubbed his palms into his thighs while his mind went through different conspiracy theories, none of which made any sense. His heart raced faster with each thought until Melvin must have thought something was wrong for his friend reached over and grabbed his now shaking shoulder.

"Breathe man."

"It's bad isn't it?"

Melvin hesitated but nodded and released Clifton's shoulder. "But you have to remember, dude, this is what was in the rumor mill--and we both know these things are like playing broken telephone."

Clifton nodded. "Alright. Tell me."

Melvin took a sip from his drink as if readying himself, cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his lap. He leaned forward and locked eyes with Clifton. "Okay, so according to my mother, your mother used to be friends with Jack Roddick - the boys' father- and Emilie Brown who wound up being Jack's wife later. The three of them and one other, Seth Harperhagaen used to be attached at the hips. They went to high school together, pulled pranks together, got hauled down to the sheriff's office together. Once they all got arrested but with the Roddicks' connection they were all released and the case just disappeared." Melvin cleared his throat again while glancing over his shoulder. Finally he looked back and continued. "But your mother, started developing a crush on Jack Roddick."

"What?""

"Would you let me finish?"

Clifton swallowed. "Okay, sorry."

"Like I was saying. Your mother started catching feelings for Jack Roddick. At first she hid it and was quite successful at it.  But things got worse when Jack started showing interest in every other girl but her. She began withdrawn, started listening to depressing music but didn't say anything to Jack about it.  Then Jack started dating Emilie and shit really hit the fan. Apparently, your mother did some horrible things to Emilie--one night they all went camping for the weekend up by the Roddick's lakehouse. Your mom waited until Emilie was sleeping then cut her hair. Mom showed me a picture it was like...night and day man. Emilie started out with beautiful black hair, down to her ass.  When she woke up it was shorter than a bob."

Clifton stomach tightened and he suddenly felt ill.

"She even switched Emilie's shampoo with paint, lit her chair on fire while Emilie was still in it...it goes on and on. Finally everything came to a head after Emilie 'accidentally' ran out of gas on Dead Man's Peak. She had to walk down that hill, in the dark to Porter's. Jack was there with some guys from the rugby team and was not pleased. She was sobbing, Jack was holding her and your mom just lost it. She admitted her feelings for Jack and ask how he could love such an ugly thing... It got all over town, and Jack told your mother if she came anywhere near him or Emilie again he'd ruin her."

"I can't breathe..."

"Come on, Cliff. This is what was in the rumor mill."

"But the picture of Emilie's hair...I mean who would make that up? She's my mother and I adore her but Melvin--I'm a grown man. My mother taught me all these years to hate these people and now I find myself wanting one of them and I don't know why I shouldn't. She won't tell me anything. If they'd harmed her wouldn't she want me to know--wouldn't she want me to make them pay?"

"Maybe she knows you would go after them so she doesn't want to tell you."

"No. It's more than that. Shit. My mother is like the characters in a soap opera that makes me not watch those crap."

"That's a tad drastic..."

Clifton lifted a hand and shook his head. "No. She tried to ruin this woman and look what happened, huh? Then she raised me to hate these people and I like a moron listened to her. I mean what the fuck!"

"You should get a drink."

"No. I don't want to be clouded for this."

"So you want Kenneth, huh?"

Clifton hung his head. "He's trying...really hard to get my attention and after we kissed I just--for once in my life I don't want to do something because that's what my mother expects or because its what you expect or anyone else. I want to do something because it makes me happy."

"So if Kenneth makes you happy go for it."

"I wouldn't feel right but if what you're telling me is true then I have nothing to feel guilty about."

"But Kenneth is human. He can only wait so long."

"I bought some time with him."

"How?"

Clifton smirked. "He wants me in his bed, Mel...I told him if he wants me in his bed he will have to earn it..He will have to seduce me."

Melvin flailed. He actually flailed!

"Did you just flail?" Clifton questioned.

Melvin laughed. "Well, I'm pretty sure he would rock your world Cliff. You just have to let him."

Clifton smiled and he left their guy's night out feeling more convoluted than before. Still that night he lay in bed, wide awake, staring at the ceiling wondering what it would be like to have Kenneth snuggled up to him with a palm over his chest. He wondered what Kenneth's first smile of the day looked like and what his first kiss tasted of.

[Woo - 2] Rude Awakening

I stood before the full length mirror, wet and naked. For a while I merely stood there, staring into my reflection's eyes wondering why I was the way I was. I always looked a gift horse in the mouth and questioned everything. Look at the deal with Bryce--He said he wanted to get to know me again, become my man and see where things went. What did I do? Run away like a child and questioned it all.

My eyes roamed down my reflection's body.  I was good looking--I had carmel skin, darkened by the sun with big brown eyes with long lashes.  My nose was flat but it was still something I could be proud of and thick full lips. My body was built, not because I spent hours in the gym--sure I went to the gym three times a week but didn't spend more than an hour each time. The body came from all the time I spend in Indian with my family. I took great pride in that.

So why wouldn't Bryce want me? I think I could be considered something sexy-right?

Frowming, I tore my eyes away from my reflection's accusations of cowardice and reached for a towel. I passed it over my body, catching a few wayward drops of water then chucking it on the floor. I padded my naked body into the bedroom and hauled on a pair of boxers then pj bottoms. Even as I lay there in the wee hours of the morning, I just couldn't focus on anything but what happened at the club that night. I cursed myself. I cursed Bryce. I cursed my mind for bringing this man in and not letting me sleep. 

By the time morning came, I felt as if I was worked over by a really large man and left there, eyes burning, muscles aching, wanting and panting. Someone was knocking but I rolled to my side and curled into a ball, desperately trying to ignore it, hoping they would go away.

But to my horror they didn't. The knocking stopped, then suddenly something tapped into my window. With an arched brow, I laid still. Perhaps I'd only imagined it.

tap!

Shit.

tap!

Fuck!

tap!

"Alright already!" I screamed, struggling to get out of bed. The sheets had tangled around my feet in my hurry to get up. "Keep your pants on." My eyes caught the clock and my ire only rose higher. "Someone had better be dying or bleeding to death!"

tap!

"Hold-the-fuck-on!" I bellowed.

tap!

tap!

tap, tap!

Walking to the window, I shoved the curtains apart, fury charging through me and shoved the window up. I was just in time to catch a small pebble to the nose. "Son of a bitch! What? What in the hell do you want! What could be so damned important you had to interrupt my insomnia, huh?" I shoved half my body precariously out the window and shouted with a fist raised.

"Morning!"

Bryce! What the fuck man!

[Castle in the Sky - 12] The Dare

Kenneth opened his eyes and rolled over. For a moment he lay there, waiting-not particularly sure why. His alarm clock blared beside him and after slamming a fist into it, he pressed his eyes closed. Then he heard it--the familiar sound of tools operating in his house. Jerking upward, he jumped from the bed but failed. His feet tangled with the sheets and he hit the floor hard.

He grunted, rolled from side to side as pain charged up his spine. For a second, he couldn't concentrate on nothing but the hurt and once his body could tolerate it, he lifted his shoulder and glared at the sheet, still wrapped around one of his ankle. A power tool hummed again and reminded him of why he was in such a rush.

"Get off me!" he muttered, wrenching his foot from its trap. "Shit man."

Finally free, he stood and hauled on a pair of track pants. He shoved his fingers through his hair, quickly rinsed his mouth in his en-suite bathroom then made his way, barefooted down the hall. As he drew closer, the sound stopped, followed by hammering then silence. Scampering down the steps, he skidded to a halt by the door where Clifton was busy--headphones on, hard hat on, goggles on and was peering pensively at something on the floor.

Kenneth waited until Clifton removed his goggles and headphones before speaking. "Good morning."

Clifton shoved to his feet and whirled around. "Morning."

Kenneth walked slowly, cautiously into the room.

"You're supposed to be wearing a hard hat in here--construction zone."

"We're going there again?"

"Where?"

"The place where you pretend I didn't kiss you and you didn't enjoy it."

Clifton chuckled and placed his hat on the floor before shoving the goggles into them. The headphones he placed on the ground beside the hat and took a step toward Kenneth. He traced a finger between Kenneth's pecs sending lightening through the Roddick's body. The finger was rough, calloused-the finger of a man who'd done some hard work in his life. Kenneth wanted to feel the whole hand so he gripped Clifton's wrist and pushed. The contractor's palm hit Kenneth's chest but Kenneth didn't stop there. He dragged the rough hand over his body, across his chest to graze his nipple. He whimpered. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"You've got morning wood, Kenny?" Clifton whispered. His voice was close to Kenneth's ear. "And you think I can help you with that problem? Is that it?"

"There's more to it..." Kenneth continued moving the hand back and forth, teasing the bud and gasping from the wonderful fire that filled his veins. "Damn, that's so good."

"Here's the deal," Clifton bit Kenneth's earlobe. "You want me in your bed? You're going to have to seduce me. Make me want to take that ass - Can you do that, Kenneth?"

Kenneth's eyes snapped open. Why would Clifton think he would bottom for him? The man just assumed.

He released Clifton's hand but the infuriating, sexy as sin man, merely smirked, pinched Kenneth's nipple and left the room.

As Kenneth stood there, a hot, trembling mess, he knew what he had to do. He was going to show Clifton a seduction he'd never forget.

[Woo - 1] Here Comes Bryce...

My mother always told me to beware things that comes too easy. My whole life she kept beating that thought into my head. So when Bryce searched me out and confessed his undying love for me, I didn't know what to do-aside from tear assing across the parking lot as if someone just offered to set my trousers on fire.  For years I'd been searching for love. So many Valentine's Day I spent alone and confused. I know I financed someone's college fund over at Haagen Dazs.

Then out of the blue, this man looked as if he stepped out of fucking G.I Joe shows up at my business, eyes big and brown telling me he adored me.

Bullshit.

I mean, seriously who did that?

He called after me, begging me to stop but if I did I know for sure I would have made a bigger fool out of myself. I slid easily into the seat of my Benz and peeled from the parking lot, tires screeching on the asphalt, almost taking out the valet. He screamed, tossed some profanities my way then tied it up nicely by giving me the finger.  I could only guess he didn't realise I signed his pay checks every week.

I sped through the amber light and flipped a left at the first turn and only slowed when I looked back and couldn't see the lights from the restaurant.  I could scarcely breathe at the rate my heart was beating. My brain could barely decipher what was happening and seemed to slow down to figure it out. It was running on auxillary and I couldn't say I blame it.

Bryce Sheppard was the man from everyone's dreams. He was sexy, brown eyes to bend you to his will and every dirty and delicious thing you could possible think of to do to a man's body, I've thought of it. There was a point it got out of hand because I wanted to dip him in caramel and lick him until he exploded for me. 

My fingers shook on the wheel. Bryce Sheppard filled my dreams at nights from I was eighteen until the moment he showed up at my bar ordering a beer. But what was I supposed to do about that? Fifteen years before he took off the moment he thought I was beginning to catch feelings for him. He ran so far he joined the military and wound up fighting rebels in Chechnya. Was I supposed to forgive that?

He broke my heart the day he simply just took off without a goodbye but most importantly, he broke me.

So why did I still yearn for him?