Page 50 of From Beijing, With Love

To touch and be touched were completely different, because to be touched was to surrender control. Their eyes met again, and Yang nodded. He’d give that control to Daniel.

Daniel shifted underneath him for better leverage as his hand wrapped around Yang. Unlike him, Daniel had no interest in being a tease and moved with a skilled fervor.

“Daniel …” Yang moaned, closing his eyes. His cock throbbed in Daniel’s palm. He was hanging on the edge, wanting to let go but afraid to at the same time. Starbursts flushed in the back of his eyes. He was so close. Closer. Closer still. He just needed to let go.

“Come for me,” Daniel asked, with his lips, with his hands.

At that moment, Yang would give anything and everything he had to Daniel. He buried his face in the crook of Daniel’s neck as he let go, letting Daniel take him over the edge.

Later, after they had cleaned up and Daniel’s breaths had softened with sleep, Yang found himself wide awake. He was suddenly hyperaware of the passage of time, each second like a fallen grain of sand in the hourglass. He counted the time he had left with Daniel in hours. It was nearly two in the morning, so they had forty-eight more hours, give or take.

Forty-eight hours.

When he stole a glance at Daniel, that number felt precious and way too small.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEDaniel

If the bed hadn’t borne the telltale signs of another body, Daniel would have thought his stupid brain dreamed up the whole night. The urgency of Yang’s lips and touch. The heat of Yang’s body pressed up against his.

Had Yang left without saying goodbye?

The realization made Daniel feel shitty, though he wasn’t sure he had the right to. A part of him was always waiting for Yang to just walk away. They had an expiration date, after all. He just hadn’t thought Yang would leave without saying goodbye after last night.

Throwing open the curtain, Daniel was greeted by the same Beijing cityscape—bright but hazy. When his phone rang, he belly flopped onto the bed to pick it up. A bout of disappointment hit him as he saw Poppy’s face on the screen. A not-so-tiny part of him had hoped it was Yang.

“How are you still in your pj’s? Some of us have been up for hours, working.” Poppy pulled the phone farther away to show off her power-woman blazer and took a sip of her green juice. The sound of the metal straw clinking against the glass made Daniel wince.

“Some of us are on vacation.” Daniel yawned into a closed fist. “And possibly unemployed. So either way, I get a pass.”

“Something’s different with you.” Poppy narrowed her eyes.

“Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Daniel angled his phone away from the rumpled bed. He’d tell her about Yang later, in person.

“Danny …” Poppy let her voice trail off while deploying her best puppy-dog look with her dark-brown eyes and long lashes.

Daniel’s heart sank. That look combined with the nickname could only mean bad news. “What now?”

“I’m still coming back on Sunday as scheduled …” She paused. “But I have to fly to Tokyo the weekend after.”

“That still gives us a whole week, almost,” Daniel said in his glass-half-full voice. He wanted more time with Poppy, but he’d happily take what he could get.

“But!” Poppy jumped in, one finger raised. “I have a brilliant idea. Come with me to Tokyo. We’ll share a room, hang out when I’m not working, and we’ll go to all the best restaurants on my business card.”

“In a week?” He shot her an incredulous look. “You know my rule—six-month’s notice, minimum, before I travel to another country.”

“One, that rule doesn’t apply while are you already midtravel,” Poppy said with an air of authority, like she made the rules. “Two, I’m giving you a whole week, plus two days, to mentally prepare yourself. That’s all you need to do. I’ll take care of the rest.” Her voice softened. “Three, the Danny that made that rule wouldn’t even be in China right now. You’re stronger than you make yourself out to be.”

Daniel had no comeback. He wanted what Poppy said to be true.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes?” Poppy’s brown eyes were big and hopeful.

“Take it as a maybe.” Daniel’s brain was already churning overtime to conjure up all the ways things could go wrong.

A knock on the door shook him out of his thought spiral.

“One sec,” Daniel said to Poppy as he answered the door.

On the other side stood Yang, a hefty plastic bag in hand. Daniel stood there for a full three Mississippis, processing the fact that he was seeing the guy he thought he’d never see again.