8

Slowly Darren pushed Daniel back until he was laying on the bed and from there on in time stood still.

Forgotten was the pizza, the chips, the movie.

For Darren there was nothing except Daniel and the reaffirmation of their friendship.

Lazily they kissed, Darren restraining his passion in order to make the moment last. He knew that this was a one off and wanted to remember everything about it. Every touch, every sigh, every moan.

Daniel’s hands came to rest in Darren’s hair, caressing him, twisting the curls around his fingers, drawing him deeper into the kiss.

Darren’s head swooned with the taste of Daniel, the dance of their tongues, the delicate way Daniel caught his bottom lip and sucked on it, sweet, sweet, intoxicating kisses.

Drawing back Daniel looked at him, a smile on his face, his right index finger coming to trace along Darren’s now swollen lips, across his cheeks, his jawbone, Darren’s five o’clock shadow rasping ever so lightly under his touch.

‘You know I’d forgotten how good this was.’ Daniel whispered.

‘You’d forgotten me?’ Darren asked, his voice wavering slightly.

‘No dummy,’ Daniel shook his head fractionally, ‘I’d forgotten just how good it was with another man. How raw it is, how intense, how male. There’s a difference you know.’

‘I know.’ Darren replied cradling Daniel’s face, their lips still only millimetres apart. ‘So there hasn’t been…’

‘Anyone else?’ Daniel let his thumb slide into Darren’s mouth, ‘No, you were the only guy, are still the only guy I have ever had the desire to be with.’

‘Me too.’ Darren admitted. ‘You know the fans are still asking. If only they knew the truth eh? That I really am not into guys in the slightest, that it was always only you, that there was something special about you. Something…’

‘Different?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I know Doze, I know.’

Their lips met again, hands began to wander, each eager to renew their acquaintance with what was once very familiar territory.

Darren slid his hands up under Daniel’s tee shirt, let them glide over his smooth chest feeling the muscles of Daniel’s torso ripple under his fingers, felt the racing of his heart, recognised the sensation because it matched his own.

‘Off.’ Daniel growled, breaking their kiss and pulling Darren’s shirt up to his armpits.

Darren sat back on his heels and did as he was bid, feeling Daniel’s eyes burn into his chest as he let them hungrily roam and drink in the full effects of Darren’s hours in the gym.

‘Nice,’ He commented, one hand coming out to trace a path from Darren’s collarbone down, ‘very nice, suits you.’

Darren blushed and then giggled.

‘So come on then let’s see what shape you’re in nowadays.’ Though Darren’s exploration with his fingers had told him that Daniel was in as good a shape as ever. They both knew that it was merely an excuse to get Dan’s shirt off and of course he was only too happy to oblige.

‘Still sensitive?’ Daniel asked with a quirk of an eyebrow, his eyes flicking down once more to Darren’s chest.

‘Maybe.’ Darren replied with a smirk. Oh yes, yes please, his body sang, his trousers had long since got to the painful point but he ignored it. He knew the release would be worth the wait.

This time it was Darren who ended up on his back, Daniel tongue instantly seeking out an answer to his question and receiving a deep moan for his efforts.

Daniel chuckled against Darren’s bare skin and moved to repeat his experiment on Darren’s other nipple with a similar response.

Darren gave himself wholly over to Daniel. It had been a long time since anyone had made him feel this good. Since the end of the tour he had had one only one brief relationship, three weeks to be exact and it wasn’t that he didn’t care deeply for the girl it was just, if he was brutally honest, that he didn’t want to be with anyone like that at the moment. Yes he needed to be loved and to have people around him who loved him but he was also enjoying just being by himself for a while. It had come hard but he wanted to take time to find the real Darren Hayes again, find out who he really was, not some puppet of the record company, not some sex symbol for people to fantasize over, find out who he was deep down and he knew that that quest was not complete yet.

Daniel’s tongue began to travel further, to lick across his abdomen, to dip into his navel, to pause at the waistband of his jeans.

Darren raised his head and met Daniel’s eyes, deep, dark eyes, the green all but consumed by the darkness. Eyes full of trust, of love and of longing.

Daniel rubbed his chin over Darren’s clothed arousal as he continued to gaze intently into his eyes.

‘Mmmm Darren, I want you so badly.’ He murmured, his voice thick with his need.

‘And I you.’ Darren replied, his hands reaching for Daniel and stroking over his shoulders. ‘Awwwl shit!’ he let his head fall back onto the soft bed, staring up at the ceiling in frustration as reality dawned. ‘I haven’t any…have you?’

‘No,’ Daniel said sadly, ‘to be honest this was never in my game plan. I thought I would be lucky to get as far as talking to you without you slamming the door in my face.’

‘We’re fucked.’ Darren groaned as Daniel crawled up to lay beside him.

‘Or rather we’re not.’ Daniel said grimly.

Darren groaned once more. ‘Why me?’ he asked no-one in particular.

‘Leonie?’

‘Highly unlikely, besides I don’t have a key to her room.’

‘Ring room service.’

‘Not bloody likely, not unless you want this to be all over the tabloids tomorrow morning.’

‘Not really.’

Darren lay there, desperately trying to ignore the clamouring inner voice that told him just to risk it, Daniel’s fingers beating out an unconscious rhythm on the bedclothes beside him.

‘This is stupid,’ he said, ‘we are stuck in Sydney in the middle of Mardi Gras and we must be the only two people about to not have sex.’

Daniel rolled over and reached for his cigarettes, lighting one up and inhaling deeply.

‘Come on, come on think.’ Darren demanded both of himself and a furiously smoking Daniel.

‘Does the hotel have a bar?’ Daniel said slowly.

‘Great so as usual when the going gets tough all you can think about is having a drink.’

Daniel just fixed him with a long, hard stare. ‘Darren,’ he explained as if to a young child, ‘bars have toilets and toilets have…’

‘Condom machines!’ Darren proclaimed joyfully. Yes! Why didn’t he think of that?

Scrambling off the bed he grabbed a handful of loose change from the nightstand, ‘I’ll be right back…yowie, shit…’ he hobbled across the floor, ‘just as soon as I’ve changed into some less restrictive trousers.’

‘You might want to add a shirt to that equation as well.’ Daniel laughed in amusement.

‘Right yeah, ok I’ll be right back,’ Darren opened the door whilst still pulling his tee shirt back on,’ don’t move, don’t go anyway…actually,’ he forced his head through the top of his shirt, ‘go back out on the balcony, you’re stinking the entire fucking room out.’

He exited the room then paused and opening the door again threw back in, ‘but apart from that don’t go anyway.’

Then he sprinted as fast as he could down the corridor towards the lifts, frantically trying to pull down his top to cover his still very obvious erection.