182Author's Note:First off, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to the whole bunch of people who have put this story on their alerts. It means a lot...but reviews would be great. I love con crit. So if you've decided you like this story, do drop a little review every now and then with some feedback. That would be lovely.
And yes, the shower scene was skipped - I can't have every chapter all about them boinking like bunnies, right? But fret not, there's some juicy bits in here for those that were disappointed. ;)
We while away the long-ass drive to Albuquerque with a few hours of writing, and the time seems to fly by. A whole new side of Chase is brought out, a side that is smiling, laughing, delighted. Inspired. Beautiful. When Blaise joins us, we manage to whack out a great new tune and Chase is now hunched over a table, scribbling furiously in his notepad. His brow is furrowed with concentration, but there's an excited glimmer in his eyes that indicate his inspiration and flow of creativity.
"Hey, Flynn- can you give me the verse into a chorus again? I think I've got something."
I nod, plucking out the tune a little clumsily and seeing Chase reading off his notepad, his lips moving silently to the words that he's penned. He doesn't ask me to stop and so I keep going into another verse and his eyes light up and he starts to scribble again.
"I've got it," Chase beams delightedly, looking up at me with flourish and gesturing me over. I motion to ask if I should bring the guitar with me and he nods.
"Okay- play. And let me know what you think."
I start to play again, immediately distracted by the low, growling purr that slips from between Chase's lips as he starts to sing.
"To see you when I wake up is a gift I didn't think could be real… To know that you feel the same as I do is a three-fold Utopian dream. You do something to me that I can't exclaim… So would I be out of line if I said…I miss you…"
With every dark-honeyed word he sings, eyes fluttering closed in concentration, I can feel a tightening in my chest, in the pit of my stomach, a catching in the breath that I remind myself to expel. And there's that feeling again, one I didn't think would be resurfacing.
"I see your picture I smell your skin on the empty pillow next to mine. You have only been gone ten days but already I'm wasting away. I know I'll see you again, whether far or soon. But I need you to know that I care… And I miss you…"
Chase opens his eyes, glancing up at me with an almost soft expression and gives me the most adorable half-smile that I never imagined I'd see coming from him.
"Well? It's only a first draft- I guess I could try moving things around and it isn't quite there yet perhaps."
"It's…it's perfect, Chase."
I swallow down the clenching in my throat and set aside the guitar, and Chase moves towards me in a fluid movement, his head tilting to the side as he captures my mouth with his. His kiss is deep and smoky, distinctively Chase. The flutter that emanates from the pit of my stomach is dark and trembling, and my hands twine themselves in the charcoal strands of his hair. I breathe in his scent, letting it envelope my senses, and I know I'm lost, done for.
It wasn't meant to be this way.
Maybe it's the song, maybe it's that too-intimate notion of creating music together, but that niggling feeling that dances in my stomach is there, as much as I've tried to avoid it. And suddenly I'm short of breath as a twinge of panic clenches around my heart, a sharp pang of warning squeezing at my insides, and I have to pull away from him. My ears are ringing with the loud, clanging beating of my heart and I try to suppress the fluttering panic with a deep breath.
Chase gazes at me calmly, assuredly, and his lips curl with that more familiar wicked smirk of his.
"I never thought I'd say this, but we're pretty bloody good together. Don't you think so, Strings?"
"What?" I exclaim, the sharp, jumping patter of my heart speeding up like a racehorse making for the finish line.
"The writing- it was brilliant. It feels like too long since I've actually been able to just sit down and bang out a song like that…" Chase shakes his head, looking a little bemused. "Who'd have thought it, huh? You and me…making a team like that."
"Oh. That. Yeah… It's not what I woulda thought, I guess," I shrug.
He reaches his hand out to me again, twining his fingers through my hair idly before leaning over to give me a slow, languorous kiss. My heart is racing and racing, beating hard against my ribs and I feel like I'm losing my breath again, against the thudding of my heart in my chest. I try to sink deeper, to let the gentle strokes of Chase's tongue against mine tear my thoughts away from the constant racing of my panicked heart.
"I want you, Flynn. I want to have you."
I think already you do.
The words silently ghost through my mind, a whisper that's gone before it is even said.
Chase's eyes glint with wickedness and he brings his fingers down to lace through mine, standing up and pulling me up with him. He glances over his shoulder to confirm that everyone else is back in the bunk area, either napping or chatting, from the muted voices that I can hear beyond the heavy curtain. He leads me into one of the bathrooms, stepping inside and yanking me to him so that my body is flush against his before he pushes me roughly against the door and attacking my mouth with a hungry kiss.
"Fuck, Flynn… How the hell do you do this, hmm?" he mutters, covering my mouth again.
I don't know what he's talking about. I don't do anything. It's him- all him- that has led us down this rocky path and I know it's going to be him that sends me hurtling head-first down the cliff at the end of this road.
"I don't fucking know what you're talking about," I mumble between his assault on my mouth, and he suddenly pulls back and fixes me with a curious look.
"C'mon Strings… You… You know I like you. You're- you're a pretty good mate. I figure by now you'd know that you're…a friend."
What? 'A good mate'? A 'friend'? When the fuck did I become 'a friend'?
Jack is my friend. Ben is my friend. I didn't know Chase had friends. I didn't know I could be one of them.
But I'm not given any time to think when Chase's hands are running all over my body, pushing underneath my clothes and lightly scraping across my torso as he tries to push my t-shirt up over my head. He breaks our kiss for a moment so that he can pull the t-shirt off and drops it to the floor.
"If there's a Mile High Club…I guess this is like, what? The Mile Long Club?" he chuckles, and I quickly laugh back in response.
"Just…don't talk, Chase," I murmur, and for the first time today I lean into him, searching for his sweet-smoky lips, for his torturous tongue, for that familiar whiskey-tainted taste of him.
He complies, in a rare moment that is so unlike him and he lets me take control, my fingers desperately undoing the buttons of his shirt to reveal the tautness of his body, silken skin stretched over ripples of lean muscle. I push back the soft material enough to let my eyes roam across his exposed torso, raking down over every flat plane on muscle. I instinctively want to lick him, to bite him, to taste him, and so I lean forward, taking a nipple into my mouth to flicker my tongue over it and take the pink nub lightly between my teeth. I hear him hiss in a breath of pleasure, his hands finding my hair as he pulls me up to him. Our mouths clash together again with familiar yet exciting motions; the velvet dart of his tongue in my mouth, the warmth of bruising lips crushed against each other, of searching fingers and the chorus of heavy breathing in the air.
The bathroom cubicle is tiny. There's barely any room for us both, but in that snugness there's no other option than for our bodies to be crushed together in the way that they are now. My hands are at Chase's zipper, and I can feel the hardness of his arousal even beneath the heavy denim of his jeans. I let out a curse when I fumble with his zipper due to the close proximity of our bodies, but he pulls back as much as he can and helps me ease it down to free his erection. The glistening head of his cock looks too delicious, so I push him as far back as I can until Chase is flush against the wall and propped up against the built-in sink. I double my body down into a crouch so that I'm facing his cock, wet my lips and take the velvet hardness between my saliva-slicked lips. His hands are in my hair immediately. I love the tugging, that desperate toying of his fingers betraying every ebb of pleasure he feels.
"God, Flynn…"
I will never be able to get enough of Chase's voice, especially when he's like this. The honeyed tones that drip from his throat, with that low gravel tone from years of cigarettes and whisky. There's nothing else like it in the world.
I continue working my mouth over his cock steadily, feeling the strain at the crotch f my own jeans continuing to build as a painted flush rises over my cheeks. I can feel the sweet-salt of his pre-cum over my tongue, and I swallow the stray drops, wanting more than that. But with his head thrown back and resting heavily against the wall, Chase whispers hoarsely that he wants to be in me, and I'm more than happy to oblige. So I rise to my feet, and turn around without needing a prompt- I know what we're doing. I know what we both want.
Chase pulls a condom out from his back pocket and starts to carefully roll it down his shaft. I let my jeans fall to my ankles, pooling around my feet in an inelegant pile that I can't be bothered to step out of. I brace myself against the wall, glancing over my shoulder to see Chase's eyes dart around the small bathroom to find something that can be used as lube. He seems to decide that there isn't anything that'll do, instead spitting into the palm of his hand and slicking it over his cock. I know it's going to burn a little more than usual, but right now I know I just need him in me. The pit of my stomach is clenching with a whole other feeling, so different from the panic of earlier. My heart races, but with desire.
I arch my neck back and feel Chase's mouth on me immediately, biting at my neck. His left hand is on my hip, and I can feel the light brush of his other hand grazing against my now-bare ass-cheek as he grips his cock and gives it a long stroke. He quietly mutters a warning into my ear, the warm tingle of his breathe painting my cheeks with a deeper flush, before I feel his fingers ghosting around my entrance. When he starts preparing me, I let out a gasp from the sting of it, but as he crooks his fingers upwards and presses against my sweet-spot, the sting falls away and it replaced by rolls of pleasure. I want him, now.
The now-familiar sensation of Chase filling me lights my every nerve on fire, right down to my toes. I can feel him everywhere, and yet only where it matters. His movements are slow yet urgent, stroking in and out of me with a steady, deep rhythm that makes it difficult for me to stifle the groans that threaten to slip from my lips. I try to focus on the sounds of his breathing, of our two voices melding into the air in a very different music from what we had been working on earlier. This is carnal, this is sex, this is wanton. His movements become more impassioned and his low moans are becoming more gravelly as his pace quickens, stretching me out with his thick, hard cock. My mind is throbbing with the pounding of my heart in my chest and the tendrils of hot liquid pleasure that stem from every gorgeous movement of Chase's serpentine hips. I wish we were in a bed, so that I could at least bite down on a pillow as I fear that I won't be able to contain myself when I finally come.
"Love this arse," Chase groans thickly, before he attacks my neck again and my skin erupts with tingling nerves.
"Harder," is all that I can manage to moan out.
I know we're both climbing up higher and higher, and when Chase slams into me and against my prostate, I know it won't be long until I spill over. I'm barely aware of the heady mantra I'm moaning, whispering for more and more, and harder, and more, in a dazed chant as Chase complies to my every request, giving me as much as I can take. His breathing is becoming more ragged, and when he squeezes onto my hips so hard that I swear his nails break my skin, I feel the judder that indicates it is time. Arching back to take him as deep as I can, Chase slams into me once more, twice, thrice and then he pauses for a heartbeat before he lets out a long, low, guttural moan, his body shaking with the power of his release and I swear I can feel him within me. I grab my cock and started jacking myself off roughly as Chase's thrusts begin to slow while he rides out his orgasm. But the continued brushing against my prostate are all I need, and I cum into my hand in a hot spill, clenching my back passage as I do and taking pleasure in the hiss that it elicits from Chase.
It smells of fucking; of sweat, and lust. Chase bites down lightly on my exposed neck before slowly and carefully withdrawing from me, as I grab the nearest wad of tissue with which to wipe off my hand. I wipe myself off as best I can, managing to shimmy my jeans back up over my hips as Chase does the same. Then we're facing each other, and a little smirk flickers across his lips. His silver eyes are dark, pupils wide and dilated. He covers my mouth with a simple kiss before asking, "So- are you going out first or am I?"
When I step out into the living area, I'm immediately faced by Ben, Jack, Blaise and Fred, who seem to have all decided to re-emerge from the bunks where they'd previously been conveniently hiding out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what had gone down, and if the flush that I can feel is anything to go by, we probably look the part anyway.
Jack looks up and catches the expression on his face, and throws down the magazine he was reading.
"What, seriously you guys? Come on!" he exclaims incredulously. "How the fuck am I going to use that bathroom without thinking of you guys fucking in there?"
Chase glances at him as he passes by, depositing himself on the couch next to Jack.
"I dunno- you use this couch just fine, don't you?" he says, nonchalant as ever.
Jack's jaw drops to the floor, and Ben bursts out laughing while my cheeks flame beetroot red at the expression on Blaise and Fred's faces.
…
After a few necessary stops along the way, we finally arrive in Albuquerque at our hotel for the night. We'll be hanging around the city for a few days, getting a much needed day off and breather tomorrow before the gig at the Journal Pavilion the following night. I'm looking forward to the coming show, as I've heard awesome things about the venue and it'll be my first time working an outdoor gig (though I gather the band have had some experience as supporting acts at festivals in their early days). However, right now I'm exhausted and all I want to do is check in as quickly as possible, get into a shower, and sleep through until morning.
We squeeze into the hotel lift, duffel bags slung over our shoulders as we stand, zombie-eyed, and wait for the pinging of the lift to take us up to our respective floors. The lift stops at the 8th Floor, so Jack and Ben grunt their tired goodbyes to the guy- and so do I. As I'm about to step out of the lift, I hear a voice pipe up from behind me.
"Wait- you're not coming with me?"
I turn to see Chase, leaning against the back wall of the lift and giving me a slightly quizzical look. The stunned silence in the lift is palpable, and I'm not a hundred percent certain of what that look that is plastered across Blaise's face is. But I'm pretty sure we're all as shocked as each other.
Chase must have realised exactly how this must have come across, as he quickly mutters in the most throwaway and casual manner he can at that point, dropping his gaze and fumbling in the pockets of his jacket to search for a cigarette.
"I mean- I thought you might wanna fuck or something. Or whatever."
I honestly don't really know what to do, standing there with one foot out of the door and Fred gawpily holding the door open for me. But Ben reaches over and firmly but gently pushes me back into the lift, slipping me one of the extra key cards and giving me a knowing look. I guess there's the nudge I needed. When the doors close, Fred and Blaise are avoiding my gaze, and I'm keeping my eyes firmly fixed on my feet. My shoes have never been so interesting to me as they are right now.
I mutter an awkward 'See you tomorrow' to Fred and Blaise when the elevator doors finally open at the 15th Floor of the hotel, and we all step out. I follow Chase down the corridor until we stop at the room, and he swipes us in with the key card. I take a moment to register the modestly-sized suite with a mild twinge of jealousy before deciding to dump my duffel bag on the nearest sofa. Chase follows suit, also shucking off his worn leather jacket and tossing over the back of the couch before he peels off his t-shirt in one fluid movement.
"Shower," he says, glancing over his shoulder at me as he stalks into the bathroom, continuing to undress himself on the way.
I follow him unquestioningly, stripping myself of my clothes and chucking them on the floor of the bathroom. Chase is already in the shower, steam fogging up the glass walls of the large marble-lined cubicle and just allowing me a glimpse at his taut, stretching silhouette. He arches back, tossing his neck back and letting droplets of water slide down him in a scene right out of some scripted porno. I feel desire stir in the pit of my stomach, and I step into the shower to join him. Chase doesn't even turn to acknowledge me, just continuing to lather up the soap and run his hands over the smooth, muscular panes of his body. I reach out a hand to touch his shoulder, lightly, and he finally turns to look at me. His lips curl into the ghost of an almost-smile, just a flicker, and it disappears.
He hands me the soap. "Here," he murmurs, his eyes gazing at me with a pondering look before he leans forward to brush his lips against mine so lightly that I wonder if it even really happened.
He doesn't touch me, leaving me to soap myself rather than in our previous shared showers, where his hands ravaged my body, scraping light nails against my chest, roaming, touching, bringing me to him. He distinctly doesn't touch me at all. And every inch of my skin is burning from the lack of contact, desperately wanting his lips, his hands, him. But it seems that Chase is unusually un-amorous, if that's even a word. He seems a little distant and preoccupied, soaping away at himself until he steps back in under the water flow to let the soapy foam wash away from him.
Stepping out of the shower, he grabs a fluffy towel and starts patting at himself with it. I'm still rinsing out the last remnants of soap from myself when he says, "Mm, I'm going to bed now. See you in there. Night."
I'm left standing and gaping in the shower as he casually wanders off, soapy water running down my body. 'Night'? As in, 'goodnight'? If we're not gonna fuck, then what the heck am I doing here then?
AN2: So - what did you guys think? I had some fun with this chapter, I've gotta 's some things around the corner that I'm excited about writing, so swing some reviews this way to fuel me up to churn out the next few chapters! Woot.
And, as a disclaimer, the song is not an original/my own - it's "I Miss You" by Incubus (do check it out- I love that song).
The Color Clear: Heheh, no problem...I know what a crazy life is like. Work consumes most of mine, and by the time I finally manage to drag myself back home, I usually can't be arsed to read through yet more e-mails. But thanks for the review! I'm really glad you felt that the 'bonding over music' thing came across as being natural, as I was genuinely quite worried that it would seem a bit forced or contrived. I just really wanted to find a way of growing the connection between them in a way that made sense to the characters, which could leave to further developments in the relationship. So, phew! Thanks for assuaging my fears on that.
A Red Umbrella : I'm very sorry I skipped the shower scene. But I hope a tourbus bathroom stall will suffice for now? I too am a big ole insomniac...but I guess that would be the upside of having a sexy rock god in bed with you. You wouldn't need to sleep ;)
Eliza Fawkes : I'm glad you liked the chapter, and that you enjoyed them writing together. I don't want to give things away...but that's not necessarily the last time that you'll get to see them bonding over something like that. But anyway...
TheKarlyFries : Thanks for still reading this! I know, I can't believe I'm still writing this but I'm going to get it finished if it's the last thing I do!