6. CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

There was no way he could deny how his heart sped up when Mercury opened the door. Dorsey wasn't even certain he could stop from dropping down to his knees and sucking him off.

Yet…he managed…sort of. Mostly. Kind of…to refrain.

It was more about not acting on his emotions than actually holding off. At least the evening they'd spent at the casino, he'd known it was too soon. Now that it had been a week, he was grateful he hadn't given into the need for Mercury to… well, be inside him. If he had, Dorsey was certain he would be begging the blond haired, blue-eyed beauty to…

Nope. Just not going there.

Which left him where?

He wasn't even certain that was a thought. Okay, so technically it was, but was it viable?

"Hi," he said way too weakly. Damn it.

The smirk on Mercury's mouth didn't suggest he was going to go easy on Dorsey. Actually, he feared it meant he was the prey.

"Sweetness, you look delicious." Even though the words were something he'd heard over the years, Dorsey couldn't deny how much he loved hearing them from him.

Hearing the nickname Mercury had given him made him smile. Pressing his arms on the glass above the display, he grinned at Mercury. "Morning," he said. "How are you today?"

Stupid question? Probably, but it was all he could come up with.

"I'm good," Mercury told him. "Actually, better than usual after spending an evening with you."

Did he seem smug? Yep.

"Yet I suspect it would be better if I could taste your tasty balls." Fuck him.

Dorsey practically choked when he heard those words.

"Come to my place tonight," Mercury said. "I'll cook."

As weird as the whole encounter was, he also couldn't deny his entire body vibrated with the need to be as close to Mercury as possible. Still, was that safe? Fuck, even wise?

Dorsey's hand hovered over the box he needed to fill with his treats. He dropped in a dozen fudge balls. It killed him, but he said, "As much as I would love to accept, I can't." He thrust the filled box into Mercury's hands.

Have a good day was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn't utter it and end their encounter.

Before he even understood what was happening, Mercury was behind the counter and had his arms around Dorsey, pulling him close. "I've got you." Oddly, it was…soothing.

"Do you?" Dorsey asked, still not certain he could trust it.

"More than," Mercury whispered into his ear.

As much as he didn't actually trust it, Dorsey leaned into Mercury's body. "Please," he whispered in the hopes of it being true.

"Promise." For some reason, he trusted what Mercury said. No. Not just trusted it but yearned for it to be true.

"You are mine," Mercury said each word as if it mattered, and damn if Dorsey's dick didn't throb.

"Please, make that true." He shouldn't have said that, yet there was no way Dorsey could have stopped from voicing it. He craved Mercury. Too soon? Definitely. But he also couldn't deny it.

"Always." The heat of Mercury's voice was right there against his ear. "You will always be mine."

A shiver ran down Dorsey's spine hearing that. Fucking god, he hoped that was true. Yet, his past didn't elicit a lot of confidence.

Lips traced along his ear, then his lips. "Promise."

Goosebumps erupted throughout Dorsey's body. He'd never had a feeling like it. What he wasn't certain was what it meant.

"Shhh," Mercury said. "I'm not letting go of you."

They'd hardly seen each other. The night at the casino and one other date, as well as Mercury came to visit him at least once a day at Tasty Balls. Each time, Mercury had kissed him, several times, in fact. But Dorsey had stuck to his guns not to go further than that. It hadn't been easy. Just like right there, in his shop, Dorsey was more than tempted to get on his knees for the man.

"Nothing will happen that you don't want, sweetness," Mercury vowed. "It's just dinner and hopefully some cuddling while we get to know each other better."

Hands soothingly stroked his back, helping to calm his nerves somewhat. The thing was, he was still afraid of being alone with him when Mercury had such a way of making Dorsey weak in the knees. There was no way he'd be able to hold out when those magical hands and lips were on him.

Sighing at his weakness, he ducked his head onto Mercury's shoulder. "I don't trust myself not to give in." He needed to be honest. To trust that Mercury would take care of him.

A soft kiss was placed on his temple before a finger tucked under his chin, forcing his head up until he looked into the pretty blue eyes he could get lost in. "Then we'll take sex completely off the table until you're ready, and I won't let you change your mind in the heat of the moment. But I would really like to spend time getting to know each other." The resolve in Mercury's gaze had him agreeing to dinner.

Dorsey just hoped he didn't end up regretting it. He really liked Mercury, and something inside of him desperately wanted a happily ever after with him. He wasn't averse to sex, but his experience had taught him the sooner two people had sex in their relationship, the less chance it had to survive.

On the other hand, making Mercury wait too long might cause him to lose interest. It wasn't something he wanted to have happen, either. He seriously needed to talk to someone about what he should do.

"I'll pick you up at six-thirty, which hopefully will give you enough time to close up and be ready." Mercury gave him another brief yet achingly sweet kiss before taking his box of fudge and striding out the door.

Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, Dorsey sent a panicked text to the people he trusted most to be honest with him. Then, he filled a bowl with an assortment of fudge and waited. Thankfully, his friends, for the most part, all worked downtown and were streaming in fifteen minutes later.

Thankfully, no customers came in while he explained his predicament to Macon, Danton, Ethan, Zane, Flynn, Jesse, Ryder, Nathan, and Kit. Several other friends had texted him back to say they would be there as soon as they could get free from a client they were with. That's how great their group was and why he depended on their friendship.

"You need to jump all over him," Jesse blurted out first, and Ethan nodded vigorously in agreement.

"No, he's right to wait." He was relieved that Zane had said what Dorsey had been thinking.

"Dorsey and Zane are right," Macon said, speaking up, with Danton and Kit nodding in agreement. "I used to jump into sex too fast too, and it ended up being meaningless. I mean, yeah, technically, I was having a breakdown when I first met Tyge, so sex was out of the question, but I'm glad we didn't fall into our attraction to each other right away."

When Kit spoke up, everyone there was somewhat surprised that the shier member of their group did so. "I'm not saying wait forever, but a week isn't long. Dorsey is absolutely right not to jump into it so fast."

"Yeah, but as Dorsey pointed out, what if Mercury gets bored?" Ethan pointed out.

"Then he wasn't going to stick around anyway." Flynn touched his inked collar around his neck. "Jax accepts me for who I am, no questions asked. Don't get me wrong, we love the kink, but he would never push me into something I wasn't okay with. If Dorsey isn't ready, Mercury needs to be good with it."

In the end, only Jesse and Ethan thought he was crazy for holding off. Feeling much better, Dorsey decided that he wasn't ready. Oh, his body was, but not emotionally or mentally. More importantly, he was okay with that.

He also knew he would need to explain things better to Mercury. He'd attempted to earlier but didn't feel he'd clarified his reasoning. Yes, no was no, and he'd been thrilled Mercury had accepted that. But if they were going to attempt a relationship, he deserved to hear Dorsey's reasoning behind it so they were on the same page.

That way, when Dorsey did finally want to take their relationship to that level, Mercury would know he meant it. It would also help him to figure out where his blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty was on the topic. He didn't want him to feel as if Dorsey were pushing him away because he wasn't.

What he wanted was something real. Something lasting.

He closed up the shop a half-hour early that night. After quickly scrubbing everything down and ensuring all foods were in airtight containers, he headed up the stairs to get dressed. He wanted to wear something special to show Mercury how much Dorsey had looked forward to spending time with him.

When he'd looked in the mirror at his reflection, he thought the deep purple button-down shirt with gray slacks looked nice on him. He'd accented his eyes with purple and gold eyeshadow, as well as gold mascara. The final touch was gold lip gloss in hopes that Mercury would want to kiss it off him again.

Hopefully, Mercury would see his effort and be willing to wait for him. A boy can dream.