Page 67 of Whirlwind

He wondered if Ben had been thinking the same thing. But he wasn’t about to say that.

Dakota was perfect. From their dangly earrings and teasingly high skirt, to their suit jacket and neatly parted shoulder-length hair, they were flawless. Their hips held just a bit of a curve, but their chest seemed flat under the blazer.

He honestly couldn’t tell what their birth-assigned gender was, but they fucking owned that space in between. Their eyes, at first nervous and eager then sparkling with mischief… Parker wanted more of those eyes on him.

He was a bit surprised that Ben was attracted to them too, but there also weren’t that many non-binary folks at the club to make a study of it. Clearly, Ben knew Parker was trans and still devoured him with his gaze whenever they were in the same room so it plainly wasn’t an issue for him.

Ben had started the unvoiced competition with his signature control and planning, picking up their new toy without a moment of hesitation and parading them in front of Parker like they were a prize already won.

When Dakota challenged them to a game of darts, he knew they were going to be a great match. Parker wasn’t particularly good at darts, but he didn’t suck, either. He would just have to win through sheer will.

“Oh, you’re on.” He picked up the glasses and the pitcher of beer, then headed for the dart board. There was no question that Ben would follow.

The dart board was tucked around in the back corner of the L-shaped bar beyond two pool tables. It was probably set up that way to avoid errant darts hitting innocent bystanders, but this early in the evening, it also created a private nook for the three of them.

Ben, who seemed to know the most about the game, reviewed the rules. He suggested that they play 301, with a wink toward Dakota when he mentioned that it was a faster game than the usual 501.

The arrogant bastard was already expecting to win. Dakota countered that they should play to the best of three games. Parker couldn’t decide if they actually wanted to get to know Ben and him better or were just being bratty and difficult since Ben seemed to be in a hurry to progress to the next bit of the evening.

Either way, he liked that flirty spark. Not many people challenged Ben that way.

Parker pretended nonchalance during Ben’s instructions, but he was paying keen attention. He’d played darts with buddies in college, but they’d played a bunch of different games and he hadn’t thought about it in years.

Hopefully it would come back to him. Apparently, the strategy was to get doubles and triples of the high-scoring numbers, 18 to 20, early in the game. Then later in the game he’d need exact numbers to get his total down to zero. Yeah, he could totally do this.

Conversation flowed as the darts began to fly. Dakota mentioned that they were starting a medical residency next week, and they all groaned about long hours.

Now that Ben was a partner in his firm and Parker worked for a sliding scale legal clinic their hours weren’t too long, but they’d both paid their dues.

Dakota had a long, stressful road ahead of them. Though they turned it around with a quip about stress relief and a meaningful look at him and Ben.

Oh, hell yeah. Parker would sign up to be Dakota’s stress relief any day.

The crazy thing was, he was enjoying chatting with Dakota, too. They were snarky, funny, and uninhibited until you got them talking about something important—like rural medicine—and then you could see the intensity and passion come out.

Ben seemed to find this as fetching as Parker did. Could it be this easy?

Suddenly Ben went from watching and teasing to drawing Dakota into his arms. His eyes flashed down dangerously. “I think I get a little reward for the first game, right, darling?”

Fuck! Had Ben already won? And how the hell had Parker not been paying attention? He always paid attention when there was a bet on the line.

But then Dakota was looking up at Ben with hunger in their eyes, and Ben was leaning down and crushing Dakota’s mouth, and every other thought fled.

God, they were sexy together. Dakota fucking melted against Ben’s strong frame, their small hands seemingly helpless to do anything more than cling to Ben’s shirt while he devoured their mouth.

Parker knew that eager yielding would be doing to Ben the same things it was to him. Images of Dakota on their knees, hands tied behind their back while they sucked Ben’s cock flashed into his mind.

At last they parted, and Dakota was clinging to Ben, panting and flushed. Their lipstick was just a bit smudged and Parker wanted to just bite their swollen lips.

He had to win the next game.