Stranger Things Have Happened: New York Read online

  Chapter One

  It's noisy. It's chaos. It's a noisy sort of chaos, and Daniel's loving every second of it. It would be nice if he could find an excuse to take Rack upstairs for a minute of peace and quiet -- well, probably not peace and quiet, more like wild monkey sex, but still.

  Still, this group of rowdy artists and punchers are his friends. All they want to do is give them a really good farewell before they take off into the wild blue yonder.

  "Where is the yonder?" Daniel asks Rufus, who's on his way to his cubicle with more ink. "And why is it blue?"

  "Got me, man. Hey, just let me finish up with the shading on this guy and I'll be back out to wish you good luck, okay?"

  "It's a deal." Daniel high-fives Rufus with the man's free hand, and watches with a grin as he disappears back into his booth. The guy he's working on has to be six-three and weigh over three hundred pounds, but he has an intricate Celtic tattoo on his right arm that Rufus has been working on for months now.

  Daniel supposes it's better than woad.

  Mei Li is grabbing a cup of coffee and waiting for her next client to come walking in the door. It'll be Luz, Daniel's cousin, and he's starting to think there's a whole lot more going on there than a series of kanji down the length of Luz's spine. He's always kind of suspected about Luz, and been sure about Mei Li, but the two of them together? The thought makes him smile so broadly that Mei Li gives him a shove on the shoulder.

  "What are you grinning about?"

  "Me, grinning?"

  "Yeah. What my daddy used to call a shit-eating grin."

  Daniel considers this. "If I were actually eating--"

  "Ugh." Mei Li raises her hands. "Don't go there." This, from the toughest lady Daniel has ever had the pleasure of knowing. "I don't know. It's just an expression." The bell over the shop door jingles as Luz steps inside, and the look on Mei Li's face is, well, shit-eating.

  "Babe," she says, putting down her coffee. "Thought you weren't going to make it."

  Luz pretends not to understand. She's undoing the light scarf worn around her neck, an airy wisp of a thing, some female fashion that Daniel has no grasp of. "Miss my appointment? Why would I do a thing like that?"

  "Right." Mei Li leans back against the coffee counter, crossing her arms and still grinning that kind of grin. "Not like I think you're scared or anything. Just 'cause we're reaching the sensitive part of your back."

  "You don't think I'm tough enough? Oh, hey, Daniel." He finds himself with an armful of Luz hugging him with all the surprising might in her slender body, and he embraces her back with the solid knowledge that here is someone who's always been there for him.

  "You're looking good," he tells her, and it's true. Most people come in for a tattoo while wearing their street clothes, or their grubbies, not wanting to get ink or blood on their quality outfits. Luz always dresses in something light and casual, but definitely on the high-fashion end of the scale. Her makeup is light and natural. Rack's been teaching him a thing or two about properly applied eyeliner, and he has a new appreciation for Luz's efforts now.

  "She always looks good," Mei Li says, sidling close for a one-armed hug, and hey, Daniel knows both that move and the tone of voice. He learned it from Rack. It looks and sounds innocent, but you might as well paint S-E-X on their foreheads in neon letters.

  Daniel ponders contemplating lesbian assignations for a moment, then decides that a) she's his cousin and b) Mei Li would kick his ass. Besides which, Toby and Joey are out of their respective booths now, arguing over which gauge to use on a client who wants new hoops through some scar tissue on their nipples. Toby's losing, but Daniel thinks he's right -- unless you have tits like watermelons, six gauge is too much.

  It gets to the point where Toby is blocking Joey's way to the supply counter when, thank God, Rack steps in, ushering a customer out. "Six gauge, are you off your nut?" he tosses in his two cents, effectively silencing Joey. "Toby's not even a puncher, and he knows that's wrong. Head out of your arse, Joey. Double-quick. Use the eight-gauge if ten won't do."

  "But this client--"

  "But, but, but," Rack mimics. "My shop, my rules, abide by them or get the hell out." Daniel knows Rack doesn't really mean it, that even though Joey is an asshole he's still pretty much family, but Joey takes him seriously and grabs the ten-gauge.

  "Like I don't know my own job," he grumbles as he heads back to the piercing booth, but Daniel can tell his heart isn't in it. Rack knows best about punching and inking, and in here his word is law.

  "Good lad, Toby," Rack says absently. "Rufus, Mei Li -- Luz, love, what a treat to see you -- and there's my man. Come here, you. I've been working hard and I want a kiss."

  He sidles his way into Daniel's open arms. Daniel's been waiting for this since he arrived at the shop tonight, and it's a taste of heaven to have the man curling up against him, hard chest to hard chest, and oh, God, tugging on his nipple rings, which should be illegal and is at least unwise if Rack doesn't want Daniel to sport a boner in front of the clients, friends, and family.

  Wait, what is he thinking? This is Rack. Of course he wants Daniel to have a boner, friends and family be damned. Daniel gives up, goes down with the ship, and kisses Rack back with all the fervor he has within him. Their tongues clash together, studs clacking against one another. Rack gives a wicked little shimmy of his hips, letting Daniel know that even though Rack's smaller and slighter, he definitely has the bigger balls. So to speak.

  The customers and artists are starting to snicker and let out wolf whistles by the time that Rack's done with Daniel -- for the time being -- and lets go of his lips, but not before Daniel can tell that Rack's started to get hard, too.

  "See you've got a problem there," Rack says, holding Daniel by the waist. He sways them together in a really nicely dirty bump-and-grind. "Want me to give you a hand?"

  God, there really is no one like Rack with an innuendo. Not that he's incredibly creative with them, but his delivery is perfect. So is his timing. Daniel's car is packed with suitcases and toolboxes, and if they don't get moving soon they'll miss their flight, but who cares about that when there's possible sex to be had? Not Rack.

  "Race you upstairs," Daniel says softly, for Rack's ears alone.

  "Right," Rack replies, not batting an eyelid. "You lot, no one come up and bother us! Gonna give my boy a proper seeing-to. Got it?"

  Damn, but it's a good thing Daniel lost all of his ability to blush somewhere down the line. The desk clerk Shelly clicks on a nicely raunchy CD, and Mei Li swings Luz around into their own version of dirty dancing.

  Ah, there's that ability to blush. Cousin! She's my cousin, and oh, God…

  "Upstairs," Daniel informs Rack. "Now."

  "On our way." Rack turns around and gives Daniel a push to the small of his back. "Well, what's the delay?"

  Daniel gives him a shit-eating grin. "Absolutely nothing," he says, then pelts to the staircase and pounds his way up, hearing Rack's delighted laughter and whoop of glee following hard on his heels.

  Once they're up in the old bedroom Rack tackles Daniel in earnest, kissing him even harder than before. His hands are worming beneath Daniel's loose T-shirt, trying to work it off, his hips are grinding, and this is definitely a man who wants some sex and wants it now.

  Daniel manages to disentangle long enough to ask, "You don't have any clients waiting?"

  "None as I know of." Rack is heavy-lidded and slightly open-mouthed, his lips a little puffy from the force of their kissing. "We got time before the flight?"

  "Not for the full nine." Daniel's actually pretty sorry about that. "We could do a quickie."

  Rack, bless him, doesn't l
ook chagrined for long. "Right. A quickie, then. Can do." Agile as a cheetah, he drops to his knees in front of Daniel and begins the quick process of unzipping. Daniel doesn't wear underwear these days, as Rack cured him of that a long time ago, so when the zip is down his cock falls out in its tattooed and pierced glory, right into Rack's waiting palm.

  Rack holds it for a moment, his eyes glittering brightly as the jeweled studs highlighting the vines twining around Daniel's dick. "Never will forget how you did this for me," he says reverently, before taking said dick into his mouth and running his tongue piercing up Daniel's frenum ladder with a sound like a xylophone and the sort of sensation that should be illegal, and probably is.

  Daniel gives a loud groan and looks for something to hang onto. There is nothing but Rack's shoulders, but Rack doesn't seem to mind, his head bobbing up and down. He's… God, with the teeth and the tongue working each stud and… oh, now he starts with the dirty talk. "Love this cock of yours, Dan. Look there, would you, so fat and heavy, just for me. If we had time, I'd throw you up against the wall and fuck you blind. My prick in your ass. Pound you into fucking oblivion."

  Daniel's just about able to gasp in response. Rack's tongue is flickering around between words, and the aural plus the oral has stripped him of his own ability to speak. He grips Rack's shoulders tighter, egging him on.

  "Bet you can feel me there already, can't you?' Rack gives Daniel a good hard suck, and then pulls back to play with the fat head of Daniel's erection. "Deep inside you, like a pile driver, a jackhammer, all this metal driving you fucking wild. Bet I could make you scream."

  Daniel would have liked to point out that the last time they had sex -- earlier that morning -- Rack was the one doing the screaming, but hey, who wants to talk when they're being blown to kingdom come?

  He looks down to see Rack supporting him with one hand and using the other to stroke himself through his jeans. "Oh, yeah," Rack breathes, the air hot and moist against Daniel's cock. "That's the good stuff right there. Fuck, Dan, want you so much. Need to feel you from the inside. Soon as we get to the hotel on our first stop, I'm bloody well gonna fuck you blind and stupid."

  Daniel manages a groan in response. He thinks he's doing good to get that much out, because now Rack has decided that the time for talk has passed. He's working Daniel's cock with hand and mouth, rubbing his own cock harder and harder, and Daniel barely has time to warn Rack to unzip before he makes a mess out of his clothes before he's coming so hard he sees fireworks. He hears someone letting out a low, hoarse yell, and realizes that it's him. Oh. Damn. He bet they heard that downstairs.

  Rack swallows every drop and manages to pull back so he doesn't bite when his own orgasm hits, leaving him shaking and shuddering against Daniel's legs. He trembles like a leaf in the wind as the wet patch on his jeans spreads until even Daniel's impressed.

  When he's done, he sags limply against Daniel's legs and gives the happy sigh of a well-fed cat. "God," he says sleepily, "I needed that, I did. You're sweet as ever, you know that?"

  Daniel rolls his eyes and pulls Rack up for a salty-flavored kiss, tasting himself on Rack's tongue. The kiss is brief, abandoned for rolling their foreheads together. Sometimes he still marvels at the fact that he didn't end up with another nice boy-next-door like himself, but this mouthy, punked-out chain smoker, but when they have sex like that he's damned glad he didn't buy American. God save the queen.

  Rack sighs again, and it seems like he'd be happy to stay there forever, but Daniel's watch ticks over the hour and he has to remind his lover, "Time to get moving if we're gonna make the flight."

  "Oh, bugger. I've messed up my jeans." Rack peels himself away and heads for the old chest of drawers, mostly emptied out when he moved into Daniel's place. He gets lucky and comes up with a spare pair kept there for the occasional need of a change, and waves them around like a flag.

  There's a slight come stain that won't wash out on those, too, but Daniel figures no one will notice if they're not specifically looking for it. And he'd personally rather be looking at Rack's really fine ass wiggling out of one pair of pants and into another. These are tight, though -- Rack has to suck in his breath to zip them up. They look like they've been painted on. Daniel can't help copping a feel of that tight ass.

  Rack jumps around, laughing. "Here, you. I thought you said we had to get to the airport. Big tattoo tour and all, remember?"

  Daniel groans. "Yeah. Airport. Damn."

  "No 'damn'. We've been lookin' forward to this for ages, now, you and me." Rack gives Daniel's own ass a spank. "Besides, it's our proper honeymoon, isn't it? Can't you just see it? Sex in a dozen different cities. Mmm, I can feel you in me now."

  "Thought you wanted it the other way around," Daniel teases.

  Rack's eyes droop to half-mast again. "Love, I want you any way I can get you," he says in that low, throaty voice that makes Daniel think he might as well be screaming the word "sex" at the top of his lungs.

  Thank God.

  Rack gives Daniel another long, lingering kiss, his hand warm on the back of Daniel's neck, and then he's bounding away. "Come on, then, time's wasting," is all he says as he heads back down the staircase. Daniel is left to roll his eyes and follow, but hey, where Rack leadeth he doth go behind.

  Downstairs, Daniel has one moment to take in the sight of Mei Li and Luz jumping apart, their own lips swollen up bright red, and then the whole gang descends upon them with hugs and two cupcakes. Each one of them gets a piece of frosted pastry shoved into their hand. Daniel studies his. There's a "B" drizzled on the top in what looks like chocolate syrup. Rack's bears a "V".

  Shelly is bouncing up and down with excitement. "Do you like them? They were my idea. Amber wanted to give you a cake, but I figured you guys would end up having sex and there wouldn't be time."

  Once again, Daniel is glad he lost all ability to blush. He crosses to the young woman, gives her a hug -- careful not to crush his icing -- and adds a hearty kiss to the cheek. "Eww!' she squeals, jumping back. "I know where that mouth's probably recently been!"

  "Other way around," he tells her kindly. She perks back up, and kisses him in return.

  "Hey now, hands off," Rack warns, before he gives Shelly a kiss of his own. "B and V, Bon Voyage, eh? Nice touch, brat, very nice."

  "Here." Mei Li is lugging a heavy suitcase over to Rack. Luz's following behind, helping Rufus haul a trunk roughly the size of New Mexico. Daniel blinks. "Is that all you're taking with you."

  "Course not. Toby, you got my portfolio?"

  "Right here." Toby is eager to please, as always, and hauls out a huge -- and Daniel does mean huge, as in the size of a major city's phone book -- binder full of photographs, plus a long cylinder packed with oversize snapshots and posters.

  Rack gives a little bounce up and down and beams at Daniel. "That's the lot, then."

  "Jeez, Rack, you don't pack light, do you?"

  "Here, then." Rack looks offended. "Got to have my kit and my supplies, don't I?"

  "We're gonna have a field day getting all this past airport security," Daniel warns, but he can't help smiling. Seeing Rack this excited is worth any amount of later hassle.

  "Fantastic. Last trip didn't work out so well, but there's absolutely nothing can go wrong with this one." Rack raises up to give Daniel's cheek a hearty peck, and then pops him on the ass. "Let's get a move on, then."

  Moving in a noisy, chattering bunch, the whole gang help haul the mess out to Daniel's truck. Bag and baggage, employees and family alike, they're calling out goodbyes as they ready to cram Daniel's flatbed with everything they'll need for the six-week tour.

  It's a mess. It's chaos. It's a messy sort of chaos.

  But Daniel, right in the middle of everything, Rack bouncing up and down by his side, knows he wouldn't trade a minute of this for any kind of fortune.

  They're off to see the world.

  Chapter Two

  "Eh up," Rack says, poking Daniel in the ribs as he's trying to lo
ad a portfolio and an overstuffed bag in the carry-on compartment. Daniel makes a pained noise -- that hurt -- and tries not to double over. Rack, of course, doesn't notice a thing. "Mates of mine, met 'em years ago -- hey, there, come and say hello!"

  Three men filling their own compartments look up at the sound of Rack's voice, and there's a general hue and cry of "Hey, buddy, how ya been?" Daniel's aware of Rack leaving his side, and as he finishes his jamming and cramming turns around to see his partner dealing out manly backslaps and rough hugs to three of the scariest-looking dudes Daniel has ever seen.

  Rack throws Daniel a bright smile and beckons him down the row, much to the consternation of other boarding passengers. Daniel gives them an apologetic look and tries to pack himself into as small a space as possible -- in their assigned row of seating.

  He waves, hoping he doesn't look like an idiot. Fat chance. With the long-sleeved shirt he's wearing you can't see most of the ink and none of the piercings. Add in his messed-up hair and thin-rimmed glasses, and he's King of the Dorks. All he needs is a plastic pocket protector.