Ben looked at his watch as he paced outside the hotel, balking at the fact he was late and trying not to curse down the phone. “You can’t do this, Karen. I bought the tickets already. We made plans.”

“I’m sorry,” she said although she didn’t sound sorry. Tired, maybe and exasperated but there wasn’t one ounce of regret in her voice. The fact she was using the same tone that she used on the kids when they were being unreasonable, was grating on him more than anything. “If you had told me then I would have rearranged. We are literally standing outside the theatre now. You wanna tell your daughter she has to wait until the weekend to see this movie? ‘Cause I don’t.”

It made it worse that she had a point. He had told her that he would take Madison to see the newest Disney nightmare she’d been going on and on about but he hadn’t said when or told Karen that he’d already got them tickets for when he had the girls at the weekend. In truth, he’d been looking forward to it. Not so much the two hours crammed into a tiny seat watching some stupid cartoon, but seeing Maddie’s face all lit up. Even Caitlyn seemed secretly excited about going with them, and the thought that he had something special planned with his girls for the weekend was the only thing getting him through his dreadful week. Well—that and the fact that Cal was waiting for him in a room a few feet away.

“No, god,” Ben sighed and ran his hand through his hair again, finally admitting defeat. “A heads up would have been nice though.”

“I could say the same,” Karen hissed down the phone. “Ralph just wanted to do something nice for the girls. It’s not his fault—”

“Ralph? He’s there with you? This was his idea?”

A random guy passing by made eye contact with Ben as he raised his voice, obviously trying to gauge whether he should be walking faster or crossing the street. “Actually, you know what? You go and have a great time with Ralph and my fucking kids and I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ben. Come on—”

“No, Karen. I’m hanging up before I say something we both regret.”

If he had been at home, he would have lobbed the phone against the wall just to have the satisfaction of hearing it shatter. Being that he was in the street, he figured it would be better to shove the thing as hard as he could into his pocket, bottling up his anger, and raced inside and up the stairs.

The room number Cal had texted to him wasn’t the same as the last time they’d been there but when Cal opened the door, the interior was pretty much identical. Not that Ben really noticed. He was still fuming from the call and barely even registered the bright smile Cal gave him or the way his shirt hung open as he stormed passed and ripped his coat from his shoulders.

Cal frowned, and slowly closed the door. “Everything okay?”

“Fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Cal recoiled from the harsh tone, blinking in surprise, clearly not expecting it or the way Ben was clenching and unclenching his fists. “You don’t look okay?”

Ben didn’t feel okay, hating every word that came out of his mouth, especially when he pushed past Cal to go to the bathroom and splash some water on his face, saying, “Well, maybe you should lower your expectations. You should be used to that spending all that time on your knees.”

It wasn’t until he was staring at the water dripping down his face in the bathroom mirror that he realized what an utter asshole he’d been. Quickly wiping his face with the scratchy towel, he went back out, only to find Cal dressed and pulling on his shoes. “You’re leaving?”

Cal wouldn’t even look at him. “If I want to get insulted, there are plenty of places I can go for that. I don’t need it from you. Besides,” he said with a sigh as he got to his feet. “You don’t really seem like you’re in the mood so—”

Grabbing his jacket, Cal started to walk to the door. The fear that gripped Ben was somewhat overwhelming and he practically threw himself in his path with his hands up in an effort to placate him. “Shit, no. Please, just—please don’t, I—” Cal gave him a withering look and tried to skirt around him, but Ben grabbed his biceps and held him tight. “Please don’t go. I’m—I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that or—shit, please stay. Please.” Cal didn’t say anything but he relaxed a little with every ‘please’ and stopped trying to pull out of Ben’s grip. Regardless, Ben didn’t seem to be able to let go and pulled him close, dipping his head to brush his cheek against Cal’s. “Don’t leave.”

“You’re an asshole if you think I’m just going to forget about it.” Cal sounded mad still but like his resolve was wavering.

“I know. I am. I just—I feel like everyone is leaving me. I don’t know what to do and—” Ben wasn’t sure what he was going to say or where he was going with it but either way it didn’t matter when Cal surprised him by cutting off his train of thought with a gentle kiss on the mouth.

When Cal pulled back, Ben wanted to laugh at the nervous expression on Cal’s face, being that Cal had been the one who kissed him, although he dropped it pretty quickly before asking, “You want to talk about it?”

Ben shook his head, capturing Cal’s lips again as he walked him backward until Cal’s legs hit the edge of the bed. “Let me make it up to you.”

“Yeah?” Cal lips quirked up into a lopsided smile. “And how are you gonna do that, grumpy?”

“A-anything.” Ben stumbled over the word, half-regretting saying something so stupid before he’d even finished it. “Anything you want.”

The regret intensified when Cal placed a hand on his chest and pushed back. It wasn’t so as much as a shove, but the firm pressure made Ben take step away. “Anything, huh? That sounds tempting.”

“Within reason,” Ben added, his voice weak and thready under Cal lascivious stare.

“Nu-uh,” Cal shook his head. “Too late. You offered.”

Ben swallowed hard as Cal slowly looked him up and down, clearly calculating exactly what he wanted. It should have been frightening—given that they really didn’t know each other that well—but Ben found himself strangely calmed. He’d always trusted Cal for some reason, even though he wasn’t sure why. And Cal hadn’t steered him wrong yet. The more he thought about giving himself over to whatever Cal suggested, the more excited he got. Or at least his dick started to thicken and strain against the seam of his pants.

“You hurt my feelings, Ben,” Cal started, holding up a hand when Ben opened his mouth to interrupt. “I think I’d like to see you on your knees.”

It shocked Ben just how quickly he started to fold to the floor, although he stopped when Cal made a noise of admonishment. “Clothes off first, I think.”

Ben had never gotten undressed so quickly in his life. He was pretty sure he heard the seam of his t-shirt rip as he wrestled it over his head and felt the sting of the polyester carpeting burning his knees as he fell to them in the middle of the room. Cal was still standing at the side of the bed, looking almost breathless, wide-eyed and flushed, taking in the earnest look on Ben’s face, like it was all he was living for in that moment.

“Well, aren’t you a picture.” When Cal smiled, it was still somehow kind, even though Ben didn’t feel like he deserved it. Slowly, Cal sat on the edge of the bed. Lifting one foot, he pulled off his shoe and dropped it to one side before he took off the other. “You can jerk off if you want but if you come before I say so, I’m leaving. Understand?”

A noise came out of Ben’s throat before he could stop it. They hadn’t played this kind of game before, hadn’t even really talked about it with intent, but being that he went from half-hard to his cock being rock solid in about a half a second, he was definitely kind of into it. He managed to squeak out a, “Yes,” without blurting out ‘please don’t go, I’m sorry, I’ll be good’ like a needy bitch but it was close.

It seemed like he might as well have spoken the words aloud though, when the smile Cal was giving him went from kind to knowing and utterly wicked in the blink of an eye. Ben thought Cal was planning on getting naked too, when he slipped off his socks, then unbuttoned his shirt, but he only pulled his jeans down enough to get his dick out before he began to jerk himself slow as his hungry gaze raked over Ben’s body.

“You’re too far away,” Cal growled eventually. Ben didn’t crawl, but he shuffled closer, walking on his knees like a penitent. Cal made a happy sigh so it was clearly the right thing to do, although he grumbled when Ben got too close. “No touching.”

Ben wanted to whine. He was stroking himself in time with what Cal was doing, feeling his orgasm start to coil tight when Cal began making the little ‘oh’ noises that were a dead give away. And when Cal’s rasping voice told him, “Open your mouth. Open,” Ben could only obey, leaning forward and sticking out his tongue as he closed his eyes.

Cal growled but didn’t come on his face or in his mouth and Ben was disappointed for a second that he didn’t feel a splash of warmth on his skin. That was until Cal pressed his salty, wet fingers onto Ben’s tongue, saying, “Come on, Angel. Let’s see it.” Then he was coming so hard he didn’t know how he felt other than fan-fucking-tastic.

He was so high from it, he dragged his spent, sweaty body up onto the bed, crawling over Cal as he laughed and fell back beneath him, the rough fabric of his jeans rasping against Ben’s naked thighs as he kissed his way up Cal’s chest to his throat and the line of his jaw. When Ben felt the L-word dancing on his tongue he swallowed it down and looked for something more appropriate to say.

“I’m really fucking sorry about before, but goddamn, Cal. That was… damn.”

“You like that, huh?” Cal was smirking and looking so pleased with himself.

“Apparently. Did you?”

Cal skipped his fingers along the line of Ben’s shoulder before running them up the back of his neck and into his hair. “Yeah,” he whispered as he drew Ben down into a kiss. “Not so much how we got there, but yeah.”