“Does the long silence mean I’ve already blown it?” Daniel looked down at his wallet as he asked the question, studiously avoiding Asher’s gaze while he put his license away.
“Not yet you haven’t, but if you’re interested, that can be arranged.”
Oh, hell no. Asher cringed at his own words. Had he actually just made a lame-ass double entendre or pun or whatever? What the fuck was wrong with him? Maybe it was prolonged exposure to Oliver and titty bars.
“I don’t fool around with a guy unless we’re in a relationship,” Daniel said, his voice quiet but steady.
Asher didn’t know how to respond. It was the first time anyone had ever drawn that particular line with him. One of the advantages to meeting guys at leather clubs meant they were both usually there looking for the same thing. Of course he had friends who had dating rules—no making out on the first date, no full-on sex until the third, blah, blah, blah, so Asher was familiar with the concept. But then again, those friends hadn’t met the guys they were dating during long weekends in Vegas.
“So now I really did blow it, right?” Daniel asked resignedly.
“No.” Asher surprised himself with his own answer. “Nothing’s been blown.” He winked at Daniel. “Let’s just… see where this goes, okay?”
Asher wondered what the fuck his own words meant. He had literally just met this man. He was leaving on Sunday, and he had to spend most of the weekend on the straight-guy bachelor party caravan of torture. Where exactly could this thing with Daniel go other than a round between the hotel sheets?
But then Daniel flashed him a brilliant smile and Asher felt that weird sensation in his stomach again. Yeah, they’d see where this thing could go.
“Here we are.” Asher pointed toward the tall red bus. “Looks like we’re right on time.”
If right on time meant late enough to have almost missed the bus. That should have bothered Asher, given how much he valued punctuality. But, oddly, it didn’t.
He paused at the entrance to the bus and let Daniel step ahead of him, keeping his hand on the man the entire time. They gave their tickets to the driver and climbed to the top of the open air bus, finding two empty seats together. Daniel took the seat at the end and Asher settled into the aisle seat, letting his long legs stretch into the walkway.
They remained quiet while the tour guide went through her introductory remarks, but then Daniel twisted his body so he was facing Asher and folded one leg underneath his ass.
“Have you been a police officer for a long time?”
Okay, so that answered Asher’s earlier question. He didn’t usually tell his pickups what he did for a living. Then again, Daniel had taken sex off the table, so the man couldn’t exactly be classified as a pickup.
“I went to the academy right after high school. That was twenty-one years ago, so, yes, I’ve been doing it a long time. How did you know I’m a cop?”
“I don’t know.” Daniel shrugged. “I’m pretty good at reading people, I guess.”
“You sure are. Maybe you should look into a career as one of those fortune-tellers.”
Asher was kidding around, but Daniel nodded thoughtfully.
“I’m sort of between things right now.” That plump bottom lip got pulled between Daniel’s teeth once again. “I may go back to school, but I don’t know what to study right now so… yeah, I’m, uh, between jobs.” He furrowed his brow. “But I’m not psychic or anything, so a fortune-teller gig probably wouldn’t work out. It’d be fun, though, wouldn’t it? To be able to tell people’s futures and read their minds and all that?”
Asher actually thought that would suck. He knew firsthand from what he saw at work every day that the future often held devastating news for people. And as far as reading minds, the world was full of jackasses. No reason to want to get into those heads. Besides, if Daniel could read minds, he’d know that Asher wanted nothing more than to get Daniel naked and….
“So am I bent over something or on my knees?” Daniel asked, his eyes sparkling and a happy smile taking over that cute-as-hell face.
“What?” Asher asked, dumbfounded.
“In that fantasy sequence you’ve got playing in your head right now, am I bent over some piece of furniture or am I on my knees?”
Asher swallowed hard and shook his head. “Neither, actually.”
“Oh.” Daniel’s cheeks reddened and he gestured his chin toward Asher’s packed crotch and the obvious erection trailing down his left thigh. “I just thought since you were turned on that maybe….”
“You were on your back. I was lying on top of you. And we were, um, kissing.”
Big brown eyes met his.
“Kissing?”
Asher nodded.
It was true. He was actually fantasizing about kissing instead of fucking, which was especially weird because Asher didn’t kiss even when he was fucking. He had always been of the opinion that mouths felt better around his dick than on his lips. Plus, he saw no point in wasting time on first base when he knew a home run was guaranteed. Of course, Asher had left out the part of his imaginary scene involving Daniel’s hands and feet being bound to the bed, putting the man completely at his mercy.