Lieutenant Buckley – Chapters 4 to 10 – ScarsLikeVelvet

Chapter 4

As he progressed through the fire academy, Evan realized that a lot of people came by and observed their classes. A lot of them focused on him, and he knew it was about his background and the fact that he had taken to help his fellow recruits without ever making them feel bad, unless they tried to pull some serious bullshit.

He even took the time out of his frankly busy life to meet most of his classmates at a nearby gym to set them up with a proper regimen to gain and keep the muscle they would need to do their job.

“You really know a lot about all of this,” Hermione told him.

“I needed to learn all of this to stay alive,” Evan reminded her gently. “And if you wish to do this job and live to tell your tale when you are old and grey, or even before that, you should do the same. Luck will only carry you so far.”

Hermione tilted her head to the side like a curious owl, clearly attempting to figure out if he was serious or not.

“I mean it,” Evan told her for good measure. “Your life literally will depend on you knowing your own body and your equipment inside and out. You need to know exactly how much you can take at any given moment in time or else, one day you won’t come back home.”

“Tell me you aren’t serious about this?” someone piped up.

Evan didn’t turn around to look at them, knowing it was one of the guys doing weights on one of the benches behind them.

“I am dead serious,” Evan replied. He didn’t say anything further because he knew he wasn’t their drill instructor and they would either learn or not. It wasn’t his fault if they died because they didn’t listen. He gave them the information he felt they needed. What they did with it was out of his hands, quite literally.

After all, one could lead a horse to water, but one couldn’t make it drink. It was something his own drill instructor had drilled into his mind and his commanding officer had hammered it home when he had despaired after the first time he had lost someone he had been sent out to rescue because they didn’t give them the all clear to run down a hallway and an IED tore them apart.

It had been a hard lesson to learn that one couldn’t save everyone, no matter how hard one tried. It had taken Evan a lot of therapy and conversations with those more experienced than him to get that it wasn’t his fault, though he still felt guilty about losing those people.

Survivor’s guilt was an absolute bitch, and he had to work hard every day to remind himself that he was allowed to live his life and enjoy it, even if those he survived did not. That was another hard lesson to swallow, but it was one they all needed to learn in their own time.

There was also no way to prepare them for that crippling guilt that would hit them eventually, because describing it was all well and good, but until they experienced it for themselves, there was no way for them to actually get what their instructors were saying.

And if they didn’t experience it, Evan was quite sure they would be labeled as something unflattering, and their psych evaluations would likely get them phased out of public service eventually, but again, that wasn’t something for Evan to decide. At least not yet.

He sure as hell had set his career path up to the point where one day he would get to make those hard choices eventually. If his entire team hadn’t died on him — not that he was blaming them — he would have done it for the SEALs, but the survivor’s guilt had made it impossible to stay there. Evan knew himself well enough that he knew the higher-ups had made the right choice in giving him this out and sticking his ass into therapy.

It was something he knew the Fire Academy wasn’t focusing on, and he wasn’t sure why they didn’t express that having a psychologist you trusted to have your back and ready to call you on your bullshit waiting in the wings was the best thing one could have in a job as physically and psychologically demanding as theirs.

He figured it had something to do with most of the instructors being rather old-school and from a generation that didn’t believe in the effectiveness of talking and head shrinkers, but Evan figured he could eventually become someone who hammered the fact home for people that talking to a therapist about the things that bothered them wasn’t a fact of weakness.

For him, his therapist was as much a sounding board as a confidante who wasn’t allowed to spread rumours about him. While he didn’t enjoy every session with them, he knew that at the end of the day he would be better for having had all those hard conversations before they caused him problems.

He knew a lot of people who hadn’t taken their situation seriously and instead of talking; they had drowned their problems—both physical and emotional—in alcohol or drugs of some kind, and now they had to fight addiction on top of survivor’s guilt and whatever other issues they had amassed over their years of service.

Evan wasn’t that much of an asshole to go ahead and tell them I told you so to their faces when they hit rock bottom, but he sure as hell thought it and sometimes, some days, he even felt guilty about it. He was grateful to have been bullied into therapy because while it had been hard, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching when he had started out, these days it was more about maintenance of the status quo and not about anything else.

He was steadily working on himself and his mental and physical health with the help of people who were equipped with the knowledge to steer him onto the right path. It was his decision if he wished to stay on that path or not.

Chapter 5

Evan ignored the captains wafting in and out of their lessons as they came to watch how they handled the things thrown at them. He knew he wasn’t going to be the last one to be picked. There were a lot of people who were clearly interested in him, but Evan had already nixed a lot of them as possible captains because he knew their personalities would clash on a fundamental level and they wouldn’t provide him with the strict environment he currently needed to find his footing in a new job.

His self-assuredness and need to police his boundaries as firmly as he did were also a problem for a lot of people and Evan understood that it wouldn’t make things as easy to handle as they preferred things to be, but Evan craved discipline, competence, and people at his back who knew what they were doing and who he could trust to make the hard choices.

It was what he had grown to rely on with the SEALs, and he expected to find someone who hit all those points on his internal clipboard, else he knew he would move on. He had already made sure that he wouldn’t land at Firehouse 118 even though he understood that Captain Nash, a man who had only recently moved to Los Angeles himself, could use Evan’s talents, Evan wasn’t about to allow himself to be stuck with a house in desperate need of a good old kick in the ass and a return to boot camp.

He had put his ear on the ground and figured out quickly that that particular firehouse was a mess after years under a captain that ticked all the icks and isms boxes people hated these days and it was a house rife with bullying, slut-shaming, and Evan wasn’t here for it at all. He knew things would get physical quickly because while he looked like a wet dream on paper for people who preferred their firefighters tall, muscular, blond and blue-eyed, he didn’t tick the last box of ‘dumb as a box of rocks’ and he never would.

Evan wasn’t someone who would fold like a wet paper towel when faced with unlawful orders or some such rot and even though he would be sitting at the lowest rung of the career ladder when joining a firehouse, he sure as hell wasn’t someone who would allow people to walk all over him and his boundaries.

He knew from experience that people like Captain Nash weren’t equipped to deal with him as a subordinate. He would try to make him toe the line with everyone else to keep the status quo when the status quo was what needed to be obliterated.

Evan’s sources told him that the 118 in particular was currently <i>the</i> problem house in the Los Angeles Fire Department and while Evan was willing to eventually go there to kick some people’s asses into shape, he wasn’t about to head there when he had no authority about his circumstances.

If he went there, he wanted to have the ability to bring the firehouse where it needed to be, which was in adherence to all the professional standards and with a pleasant enough atmosphere to work in instead of having to go to work with a stomachache.

Captain Nash hadn’t been happy about being told no, and had protested Evan’s firm choice with the head of the Human Resources department, but Evan had put his foot down and told them the man didn’t need a probationary firefighter on his hands. He needed someone equipped to play the heavy hitter when it came to disciplining the people under him, when coddling them the way Nash quite obviously did, didn’t take care of the issues he was having with all of them.

“I do not like your attitude,” Nash had told him. “You are a probationary firefighter and I want you in my house. You are exactly what I need.”

Evan snorted when the man told him that.

“What I am, Captain Nash, is your worst nightmare,” Evan replied calmly. “You aren’t equipped to handle me. I looked at your firehouse. You have no one on your team who could partner with me. While I am slated for a career track that will eventually lead me to captaincy myself, I am a heavy rescue asset and your people don’t have even half the certifications between them all that I’ll be bringing with me. It would be a waste of everyone’s time for me to join you at this point in time. There is literally nothing your people could teach me because my education outstrips theirs.”

When Nash opened his mouth to protest, Evan held up his hand to stop him.

“I know this sounds arrogant, but that is literally just what it is. Since I’ll be leaving the academy with a full complement of certifications and I am currently studying for a degree in Fire Science, that none of your people have either, it would be an exercise in patience for all of us. I promise you, I would clash with your people just for the simple reason that I can’t stand intellectually lazy people no matter how good they might be at their jobs. I heard your people do a fantastic job within the limits of what they allowed themselves to learn, and I guess that’s alright, but I can’t be part of this. At least not, when I am still establishing myself within this organisation still,” Evan added calmly.

Nash stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights and tried to figure out how someone could make himself sound like they weren’t a fit for the job he wanted them for when they were in fact the perfect fit for the job.

Eventually, Evan’s instructor did step in.

“Didn’t you hear the man, Nash? He doesn’t want to work with you and for you currently, which is his right. He feels like you don’t fit his needs just as he doesn’t fit yours currently. Give him the time and space he asks for and maybe, in the future, you will have an excellent asset backing you up instead of making your life hell at work and probably tank your career on the way because you do not want to listen,” he told Nash firmly.

Evan shot the man a grateful look when his words did what Evan’s seemingly couldn’t.

Robert Nash left him alone, and that was all Evan wanted.

Chapter 6

Evan met newly minted Captain Sal DeLuca, head of A-Shift at firehouse 122, not at the Academy during one of the mixers where the captains could meet the new probationary firefighters, or while the captains stalked their lessons. No, he met the man while he was out on a morning run and was a witness to a car accident.

Evan pulled out his phone without hesitation and called 9-1-1 while approaching the scene with the carefulness of a man who knew how to defuse bombs. He gave the dispatcher, a woman who introduced herself as Linda, a succinct report of the number of vehicles involved as well as an assessment of injuries, while also doing his very best to keep everyone calm.

He did not hang up on Linda, but he put his phone back into the pocket strapped to his arm, so he had both hands free to use a first aid kit from one of the cars to tend to a variety of minor injuries, and keeping one of the drivers from pummeling the other.

They were already playing the blame game when a fire engine rolled to a stop behind the scene of the accident, followed by two ambulances and two police cruisers.

Evan calmly thanked Linda for her assistance before focusing on the approaching group of people. He nodded in greeting and gave the paramedics, who were intent on getting to their patients, a quick report regarding his initial assessment of the situation and what he had done to tend to their injuries.

They thanked him for his help and assured him they would take good care of them from here on out.

Evan just smiled and nodded calmly, turning his attention to the firefighters and police officers looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

“Yes?” he asked when not one of them opened their mouths because they were all too busy staring at him in his running shorts and tank top.

“Can you tell us what happened?” one of the officers asked him after finding two brain cells to rub together.

“Sure,” Evan said and described how the bright yellow truck had run the red light, clipped the cyclist, and t-boned the blue truck. He also added what he had done to take care of the accident victims, what he had heard them say and gave them such a succinct report, everyone was blinking slowly.

“You military?” he was asked.

Evan snorted. He was sure his tattoos gave that fact away quite nicely, but he nodded anyway.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’m also currently attending the academy to become a firefighter, which is why I knew how to handle the situation. Well, as best as I could with literally nothing but my phone and person at hand.”

The fire captain, whose uniform tag read DeLuca, snorted and shook his head in amusement.

“You did a kickass job, kid,” he said. “Haven’t seen such an organized scene in a while. Unless you think about the ones where Sergeant Grant arrived before we did.”

Evan inclined his head.

“Thank you, sir,” he replied, even though he was bristling at being called a kid. He was well on his way to his thirties, after all. “Is there anything I can do to assist? Outside of writing up a report, of course?”

“You may observe if you wish. You aren’t in the right kind of clothing to actually assist, Recruit Buckley,” Captain DeLuca told him.

Evan rolled his eyes. He was wearing more than enough clothing to help with what was going on but he understood that right now, he would be a liability, so he simply nodded and asked to be provided a clipboard and the forms they wanted him to fill out, so they could take everything with them when they were ready to leave.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” DeLuca asked him.

“Paperwork makes the world go round,” Evan replied with an amused expression and took the clipboard and paperwork he was handed. He also accepted the pen he was offered and sat on the bumper of the firetruck to fill out the forms in his neat handwriting.

One of the police officers stayed around and asked Evan for his name, address, and number, in case they had additional questions. Evan gave them calmly, easily, all while still writing up his report. When he was done, he took some quick pictures of what he had written with his phone. He also did send them off immediately into his cloud storage and to his own and his lawyer’s email so nothing could come back to bite him in the ass in the future.

“What are you doing?” the officer watching him asked. She wasn’t happy with him taking pictures of official paperwork.

“Documentation, Ma’am,” he told her. “Wouldn’t want anyone to temper with my report.”

He could see her bristle at what she clearly perceived as an accusation, so he explained.

“Ma’am, I am not accusing you or your colleagues of anything here. Experience in the field just told me that things happen and that it’s always best to CYA,” he told her calmly.

Captain DeLuca stepped in at that point and told her that she shouldn’t bully his recruit. He was doing what the academy taught them, which was to keep their own records of situations, and since he didn’t have a scanner or copy/printer combo with him, the only thing he reasonable could do to keep notes, was to snap a couple of pictures of his own report.

The cop looked dubious for a moment, but eventually let it go.

“Thank you, Sir,” Evan said calmly.

“You’d do well to not tell them things like that. Just let them know you keep documentation for your own sake and that’s it,” DeLuca advised him with an expression Evan couldn’t read just yet.

“Did you mean it?” he asked instead of focusing on what the man had told him.

“Mean what?” DeLuca asked.

“That I am your recruit,” Evan replied.

“If that is what you want,” DeLuca replied. “People are vying for your attention. They are just waiting for you to make a choice and take your pick.”

Evan didn’t think twice. He nodded.

“It would be an honor to serve with you, Sir,” he said.

DeLuca shook his hand.

“Welcome to the 122, Buckley. Give me your details and I’ll call you later to make sure we both get what we want,” he replied with a smile.

Evan did so before he finally continued his run. He knew he’d be a bit late to the academy, but they could verify where he had been with Captain DeLuca if need be.

Chapter 7

Evan graduated at the top of his class from the Academy, just as he had planned and, to his surprise, his class congratulated him. Even the ones who had been quite pissed at his competence in the beginning were happy for him.

As it turned out, his willingness to help everyone and share his expertise instead of hoarding his knowledge helped them all to graduate with honours, something academy classes rarely achieved in this quantity.

His instructors were quite happy with the results of this class, though they weren’t sure they would ever get results like this again. Evan Buckley had inspired a lot of people, including but not limited to his instructors, to do better than they had planned to do before.

Evan’s discipline paired with his demeanor was a serious boon to the academy, and they seriously needed to do more things like this, as it had changed a lot of things when it came to teaching the new firefighters what they needed on the job, not just when it came to technique.

Evan Buckley had changed the outlook of a lot of people when it came to the things needed to properly support their firefighters in the field. He had been right when he told them that they were like fighters on the front lines and that they didn’t just need physical support.

They also needed the option to talk to someone before things were too late and they fell into the trap of addiction to painkillers or alcohol in the wake of injuries. Proper structures to support them would help keep them on the job, healthy, and strong for longer. It was a wonder that they didn’t have more deaths on the job, if Buckley was to be believed.

The instructors and their superiors were already having conversations about how to change the evaluations of their recruits, and how to better support them when shit hit the fan either during their training or in the future, because Buckley had been right.

Firefighters were no different from soldiers working on the front lines. They saw people and helped them during the worst or sometimes best experiences of their lives, and no matter the outcome, sometimes they needed someone to talk to, to figure out how they felt about what they had seen and lived through.

The instructors congratulated Evan with handshakes and hugs before announcing that he would be joining Firehouse 122 under Captain Sal DeLuca, which caused a major uproar because a lot of captains had been vying for Evan’s attention, yet one of the youngest and newest captains working for the Los Angeles Fire Department had won the race.

“Why did you pick DeLuca?” Captain Jeshan Mehta questioned Evan as they mingled later in the day.

Evan flicked a look toward his captain, who was standing a couple of feet away, talking to Captain Nash.

“He didn’t push for my attention,” Evan answered with a light shrug. “He told me what he could offer me, and I saw how his house works together. They were a relatively new team, but they were gelling in ways I hadn’t seen in other teams, so I decided that I wanted to finish at least my probationary year with them.”

Captain Mehta looked surprised.

“I didn’t expect it was about that,” he admitted.

“Look, Captain Mehta. I know what I look like, both in life and on paperwork. What I also know is what I bring to the table and that I am a shiny, new toy for most of the captains in the Fire Department. I get that. What you guys do not seem to get that I need a certain type of support. I am used to the rigid structure of the military and that isn’t something I can easily shake. I am a Navy SEAL and there are things that the Navy hammered into my bone marrow when I was seventeen years old that I will never lose. The captain who takes me on can’t fold like a wet paper towel the moment I tell them about themselves. Before I entered the academy, I reviewed their rule book. I can probably recite that damn thing front to back and while I am not the most rigid stickler for rules, these rules are there for a reason. They govern our interactions with each other, the equipment, and the people we are sent out to save. In fact, most of them are there to make sure that we make it home at the end of the day … and frankly … a lot of you guys tend to have a rather lax understanding of how to apply the rules. I’d make your hair stand up inside a week just from the reports I would write about the violations I encounter. DeLuca knows what he gets and he’s okay with it. He told me, we would work it out and find a way to support each other. That’s what I want and need at this point in time. I’m just a little over sixteen months out of a combat assignment … and DeLuca seems to be the only one who fully seems to get what that means,” Evan said, rambling more than he meant to, but since Captain Mehta didn’t interrupt him, it seemed that he wanted to understand where Evan was coming from.

“What you are saying is that you need someone to fully have your back, give you and everyone else the consequences they need if they disobey, and generally support not only you but the rest of the team to the best of their ability without playing favorites,” Mehta summed up what Evan had said.

Evan mulled it over and decided it was a good enough summary.

“Something like that, yeah,” he agreed.

“Then I’m glad you found what you needed in Captain DeLuca. I know from working with him before he became a captain that he is a good man. Not a man who doesn’t make mistakes, but someone who learns from the mistakes he made. He does better these days. Ever since Nash tossed him out on his ass from the 118, in fact,” Captain Mehta told him.

Evan looked surprised, but nodded. He would ask DeLuca about it when they had some uninterrupted time to talk, because he hadn’t known the man was former 118.

Chapter 8

Before his first day of work with Firehouse 122’s A-Shift, Evan went out to celebrate on his own. He had made it through the Fire Academy without any major incidents, had graduated top of his class, and was well on his expected timeline for his studies, so he figured he deserved a treat.

So he showered, primped until he felt ready to face the world, and went out to a bar/restaurant he knew to be LGBTQIA+ friendly and a meeting space for cops and firefighters. He entered the bar/restaurant and looked around. He couldn’t help but smile. It looked cozy in an unexpected way, perfect for relaxing after a long shift.

He approached the bar and got himself a mocktail. Evan smiled at the bartender before taking his glass, turning around and taking in the crowd milling around the room. It didn’t take him long to clock who was a cop, a firefighter, a civilian. It wasn’t all that hard, but Evan put that down to his hypervigilance.

He took a sip from the bright yellow-orange-red concoction and hummed at the explosion of fruity goodness over his tongue. He kicked his lips and hummed in pleasure while lowering the glass and allowing the straw to slip from his mouth.

Without a second thought, Evan settled into people watching. It was a favourite past time of his and he knew that he could occupy himself that way for hours, but figured it might also be a good conversation starter.

He was quite right about that, since a tall, muscular man with short brown hair and intense eyes –clearly a cop–approached the bar, leaned in and asked if he could buy him a drink.

Evan’s brow rose in reflex, but he took in the man flirting with him and decided to just go for it. A sweet smile bloomed on his face as he replies, “Sure. Anything from the mocktail menu. Take your pick.”

The mention of mocktails drew the man’s attention. He lifted his brow in silence, asking for a reason why a mocktail without saying it out loud while perusing the menu to find something he thought might fit Evan.

“I’ve got an early shift tomorrow,” Evan answered the silent question easily, though he didn’t give the man more.

The man hummed in response and nodded on understanding. When the bartender approached, he ordered two mocktails without a hint of which one he would offer to Evan. Both of them were appealing, so Evan didn’t mind not knowing what his generous companion picked for him.

“I’m Lou, by the way,” the man offered, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes, letting Evan know he was a bit older than him.

“Evan,” he replied easily. He had stopped everyone at the Academy from calling him Buck, and they hadn’t liked the name the SEALs had given him, so Evan it had been.

They looked at each other in companionable silence, both studying the other, attempting to figure out what was going on.

The bartender arrived with their finished mocktails and Lou gestured for Evan to take his pick.

“I couldn’t quite decide which one fit you better,” Lou admitted.

Evan smiled in response.

“Frankly, I already decided that I would try all of them to make my decision on which I liked best after having a proper basis to make that kind of decision,” he said and picked what looked like a Swimming Pool to him.

Lou picked the other mocktail, a Virgin Tequila Sunrise from the looks of it, and they toasted softly before taking the first sip.

Evan hummed softly when the juicy flavor exploded on his tongue and watched as Lou licked his lips. A shiver ran down his spine, and he knew that if Lou asked to go somewhere private, he would not say no, because this fine specimen of a man tripped all his triggers in ways he had never expected.

Lou seemed to feel the same way, because he was watching Evan’s mouth and throat as he swallowed and eventually allowed his gaze to trail down Evan’s body in a way that told Evan exactly what he was after.

“I don’t do one night stands,” Evan blurted out, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment when he realized that he had just blurted out his thoughts.

“How fortunate that I’m not after one of those either,” Lou replied, not mocking Evan in the slightest. He reached out and cupped Evan’s cheek, ran his thumb along Evan’s cheekbone.

Evan leaned into the touch without hesitation or artifice.

“I have scars,” Evan murmured, wanting Lou to know what he was getting into, but the man just smiled, leaned in and brushed a sweet, chaste kiss against his lips.

“Don’t we all,” he murmured into Evan’s ear, his breath fanning against the sensitive skin, causing Evan to shiver with want.

Lou leaned back with an impish smile. He took a long, slow drag of his mocktail and asked softly if Evan would allow him to take him home.

Evan took a slow sip of his own drink, and after a moment of silent deliberation, he nodded slowly.

“Yes,” he said.

They finished their mocktails in silence, paid their tabs, and when they rose from their seats at the bar, Lou reached out and took Evan’s hand in his. He gently guided him out of the bar and looked at him.

“Did you drive?” Lou asked.

Evan shook his head.

“I took an Uber because I wasn’t sure if I would drink or not,” he admitted.

“You okay with me driving?” Lou asked.

Evan hesitated.

Lou smiled in response.

“Do you have someone you trust? I can show you my ID and you can take a picture and send it to them to make sure they know where you are going,” he said.

Evan contemplated the offer and nodded.

“I do,” he said. His relationship with his new captain had turned into a friendship before he even started to work for him.

Lou pulled his wallet from his pocket and offered Evan his ID, showing him that he was a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Something in Evan relaxed. He had figured out that Lou was a cop while he approached. The way he held himself gave him that kind of knowledge.

Evan pulled his phone from his pocket, snapped a picture of the front and back of Lou’s ID as well as the wallet with his detective’s shield, and sent it along with a message that this was for security to Sal, who just acknowledged the message with a thumbs-up.

Evan put his phone away and looked at Lou. Without a second thought, he pushed Lou against the door of his truck and kissed him.

Lou went languid in his hold and allowed Evan to take the lead for a moment, before he grabbed him by his hips and turned them around. He took control of the kiss, and a soft hum escaped him.

It was Evan’s turn now to relax into the kiss. He could feel that he was half-hard in his jeans, and that Lou was very much the same.

“Come on,” he murmured, and guided Evan away from the driver’s side and to the passenger side. He opened the door and lifted Evan into the seat, keeping their lips sealed together for a long moment before retreating and closing the door.

He slipped into the driver’s seat, released a long, slow breath, and started the engine. The drive to his house didn’t take too long at this time of day. He pulled up in front of his garage and cut the engine. Before he slipped out of the car, he reached over to Evan, cupped the back of his neck, and pulled him into a kiss.

Evan hummed into the kiss, and when Lou’s tongue traced the seam of his lips, he opened them easily, allowing him to explore before mirroring Lou’s movements of exploration.

When oxygen became an issue, they both leaned back panting, and smiling.

“Hot damn,” Lou murmured, causing Evan to burst out laughing.

Lou chuckled and asked softly, “Want to head inside?”

Evan nodded.

“Sounds like a good idea. Wouldn’t want to get arrested for indecent exposure on the front steps of a cop’s house,” he purred, causing Lou to laugh some more.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be the best idea,” Lou acknowledged as they both slipped out of the car. He locked it, walked around the car and took Evan’s hand again to lead him inside his house.

He unlocked the front door, and a moment later, it fell shut behind them with a resounding click.

Chapter 9

Lou pressed Evan with his back against the door and kissed him hungrily. He was ready to devour the younger man, and his hands were already exploring his chest, carefully smoothing over the soft material of his button-down.

Evan moaned into the kiss. His hands clung to Lou’s shoulders, and he opened his lips, asking for Lou to deepen it, because the way their tongues had slid against each other before had felt so erotic, he couldn’t help but love it.

Lou complied, giving in to the silent plea of his lover, while he started to unbutton Evan’s shirt with shaking fingers. He very carefully pushed the shirt off Evan’s shoulders after pulling it from his jeans, and then his hands met skin. Gloriously pale, yet tanned skin. All warm and smooth with not a hair in sight. He didn’t feel any stubble, so he figured Evan’s chest was naturally hairless, and it felt so good to touch him.

“Lou,” Evan groaned, his hands searching for the edge of Lou’s jeans. He pulled Lou’s t-shirt from it and wrestled it over his partner’s head, mussing up Lou’s hair in the process.

“I’m clean,” Lou told him, out of the blue. Putting the information out there. “Recent paperwork is in my office.”

Evan just nodded.

“Me too … I can show you the digital copy,” he offered, sounding as breathless as Lou felt.

The T-shirt and button-down fluttered to the floor around the same time as they pushed their shoes off their feet. Socks got tucked off, and Lou’s fingers tangled with Evan’s hair, mussing it up as he pulled Evan into another hungry kiss while he somehow managed to guide them out of the hallway and toward his bedroom.

“I trust you,” Lou admitted, though it was more about trusting Evan’s profession and knowing for a fact that he had just gone through a rigorous physical conducted by the LAFD. They wouldn’t have allowed him to start working as a firefighter if he carried any infectuous diseases.

They hit the wall a couple of times, kissing–no, devouring–each other hungrily until they stood at the foot of Lou’s Alaskan King bed.

Lou gently pushed Evan to his knees and smiled when the younger man looked up at him. He opened the button of his jeans, pulled down his zipper and his cock out, showing off that he was going commando. Lou held his dick out like an offering.

“Suck,” he instructed Evan, his eyes focused on the younger male, kneeling in front of him with an expression of hunger shining in his eyes that he hoped he hadn’t misinterpreted.

Evan’s jaw went lax, and he opened his mouth, tilting his head back a bit, to offer Lou a comfortable angle to push his cock into his mouth.

Lou cupped Evan’s cheek for a moment as he guided his dick inside his mouth before sliding it through Evan’s hair to cup the back of his head. With slow, languid movements of his hips, he started to gently fuck into his mouth, making sure not to cause Evan to gag as he did so.

Evan moaned at the slightly bitter taste of Lou’s precome spreading over his tongue and submitted to the experience of getting his mouth fucked. It had been ages since he had submitted, and he was surprised to realize how much he had craved for someone to take control from him for a while.

He allowed his eyes to slip shut a bit and let Lou do what he wanted. His hands lay against Lou’s thighs, and he just allowed himself to feel. His hands slowly slipped down Lou’s legs and eventually settled on his own thighs while he settled properly on his knees and sat on his heels.

Lou’s free hand gently touched the side of Evan’s throat and felt his long cock work it for a moment before the tips of his fingers began to trace the scarring on Evan’s shoulder.

Evan shivered under the exploring touch but didn’t protest. He applied gentle suction and traced the veins on Lou’s smooth cock with the tip of his tongue, causing the older man to moan and lock his knees so he wouldn’t topple over.

Eventually, Lou pulled back. He was panting and his balls were drawn tight to his body.

Evan looked up at him, his mouth still open, his tongue stuck out.

“Please,” he begged, offering his mouth for the deposit he wanted Lou to make.

“You sure?” Lou asked, but Evan just inclined his head for a moment, and then he closed his eyes.

Lou worked his hand up, and down his cock for a few seconds, and then he was coming. He pushed the head of his dick back into Evan’s waiting mouth and watched as his lover took what he gave him and swallowed without complaint.

Evan panted, his dick straining against the zipper of his jeans, his bulge clearly visible.

Lou barely allowed himself to catch his breath from orgasm when he pulled Evan to his feet, ripped open his jeans and forced them down his legs. He grabbed the younger man by the hips and shoved him onto the bed, watched him bounce on the mattress with spread legs for a moment and started to chuckle.

“God, you are beautiful,” Lou purred, his voice rough with want. And even though he had just come, he was already half-hard again, like a teenager.

Evan flushed and reached for Lou.

“Please,” he rasped.

“Please what?” Lou questioned.

“Please fuck me,” Evan replied.

Lou crawled between his spread legs and reached for his bedside drawer. He pulled a tube of lube and a string of condoms from it and dropped the latter beside Evan’s hips on the bed, while slicking up his fingers with the other.

With sure, practiced movements, he opened Evan’s hole up for what they both wanted to do so desperately. He was careful to make sure the sweet hole was soft and slick before he rolled a condom on his dick and gave Evan what he was begging for so sweetly.

He pushed into him in one sure, slow movement of his hips while Evan’s long legs wrapped around him and it didn’t take them long to find their rhythm.

Their lips met in a series of desperate, hungry kisses full of want and need, while Evan’s nails bit into the skin of Lou’s shoulders and back, scratching him up as their gentle lovemaking turned into something wilder, more animalistic.

Neither man cared. All they wanted right now was to feel the other and try to become one being instead of remaining two separate entities. This, right here, right now, felt more right than any sex with anyone else ever before.

There were no words for this other than that this felt right, perfect, really, and they said as much when they were catching their breath after reaching their climax in perfect unison.

Chapter 10

For a while, they had remained wrapped up in each other on the bed. They exchanged kisses and sweet nothings the way couples tended to do. Evan held onto Lou and didn’t allow him to slip out of him until neither of them was hard anymore.

“Shower?” Lou asked softly.

Evan nodded slowly and yawned before his stomach started to rumble in a rather unexpected way. He flushed while Lou laughed.

“Want me to order something in?” he asked as he carefully moved off Evan and helped him to his feet.

Evan nodded shyly, feeling wrong-footed in a way he hadn’t expected to after having sex with a man for the first time in forever.

Lou took care of the condom. Carefully pulling it off and wrapping it in a tissue, while walking toward the en-suite bathroom.

“Come on, Darling,” Lou said, holding the bathroom door open for Evan. He flicked the light on, tossed the tissue-wrapped condom into the wastebasket, and started the shower. “How hot do you like your shower?”

“Hot as hell,” Evan replied. “Like my men.”

Lou threw his head back and laughed. He set the temperature to his own preferred heat and hoped it would be enough for Evan. He watched him step into the water stream and relaxed when Evan sighed softly.

“Any preference for food? Allergies?” Lou asked. He had his phone in his hand and already was pulling up his preferred food delivery app.

“No food allergies. If you are game, I’d prefer some Pad Thai … if there’s a restaurant around that has it and delivers here,” Evan replied, already pouting because Lou wasn’t in the shower with him.

“So you have allergies,” Lou said while ordering quickly before joining Evan. “Care to share?”

As he asked, he brushed a kiss against Evan’s plush lips. He couldn’t stop himself from the casual intimacy of kissing him. It felt so good, so right, and Evan didn’t seem to be opposed, so he didn’t worry about it.

“Naproxen,” Evan replied easily before melting into the kiss. He held onto Lou’s hips when the other man reached for his shampoo and offered to wash his hair without ever uttering the question.

Evan closed his eyes and submitted to Lou’s big hands taking care of him yet again. He enjoyed the way Lou massaged his scalp as he washed his hair, and while the conditioner soaked in, he took care of every nook and cranny of his body.

When the conditioner was rinsed out and the suds of soap off, Evan did the same for Lou. They had barely managed to finish their shower and were in the middle of drying off when the doorbell rang and letting them know their food had arrived.

Lou pulled on a pair of black sweatpants and headed for the door with his towel slung over his shoulders, leaving Evan to finish drying off and take his pick of the sweatpants and shirts on offer in his tall boy.

Evan had gone commando too, so he picked the same style of sweatpants as Lou had done, but because he was feeling cold, he picked a matching sweatshirt. The fact that both were too big on him felt great. Usually he was the bigger one in the room, and he had never expected how good it would feel for things to be different.

He padded out of the bedroom, still in the middle of drying his hair even though he was already wearing clothing, and smiled when he found Lou had set up their meal on the big, comfortable-looking sofa in the living room with a movie queued up on the TV.

Evan didn’t hesitate to join Lou and laughed when the man pulled him between his long legs and wrapped himself around Evan for a bit, before offering him one box of Pad Thai and a pair of chopsticks.

Evan opened the box and hummed softly at the fragrant smell escaping. He leaned back and stole a kiss from Lou.

“Thank you,” he murmured before digging in.

Lou watched him eat in bemused silence for a moment before digging into his own food. He had worked up a serious appetite and was glad that Evan was hungry too else he would have felt weird.

The movie played in the background as they ate and eventually curled up against each other on the sofa. Lou’s long fingers massaged Evan’s scalp, making the younger man feel sleepy.

“How early do you have to be at work?” Lou asked.

“Shift starts at eight. I want to be there a bit early,” Evan mumbled.

“I’ll set my alarm for five thirty then. We can have breakfast and I’ll take you home before heading in to work,” he said, gently prodding Evan off the sofa and into the bedroom.

While Evan took care of his business in the bathroom without complaint—he was too sleepy to even worry about what he was doing—Lou stripped the sheets of the bed and put on a fresh set while tossing the soiled ones into the washer to take care of in the morning.

Evan crawled into the bed with freshly brushed teeth and pouted when Lou left to wash his face and brush his teeth before finally joining his companion. Lou curled around Evan, who blinked, trying to comprehend how it happened that he was the little spoon, but not protesting because it felt surprisingly good.

Lou pressed a gentle kiss against the top of Evan’s spine and smiled when the younger man shivered, and pressed back into his arms, seeking warmth.

“Sleep well, my Sweet,” he murmured and watched Evan fall asleep before allowing himself to succumb to the sweet call of Morpheus’ arms.