by Max Hudson
He picked up the sketches remaining on the coffee table and followed Jake to the front door.
“Thanks for dinner.”
Jake turned to shake his hand, and something inside Dave snapped. He couldn’t make himself let go when Jake tried to step away, holding on to Jake’s broad, blunt-tipped fingers, loving the feel of his warm, hard palm. Dave could feel the rough calluses at the base of his fingers, and he realized suddenly that soldiers must use their hands a lot in their line of work.
“We did. Laying wire, shifting debris, hefting gear. We did a lot with our hands.”
“Sorry. Did I say that out loud?”
Jake chuckled, chucking Dave on the chin and forcing him to look him in the eye. “Yeah, you did. Is there anything else you need to say to me?”
Goosebumps flooded Dave’s skin at the growl in Jake’s voice. He was breathless and dragged in a ragged breath. “Why do you ask that?”
“You’ve been tense all evening. Every time I get close, you skip away, like a nervous cat. Now I’m leaving, you’re hanging on. Seems like you’ve got something on your mind. If you have a problem with me, spit it out.”
There it was…the elephant in the room. Only, Dave wasn’t sure Jake knew the size of the beast.
“It’s nothing. Just an unexpected reaction. I’ll deal with it.”
“Reaction to what?” Jake stepped closer now, but Dave didn’t step back. He stood his ground, loving the brush of Jake’s body against his with every breath they took.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s nothing. It’ll pass.”
Maybe if he kept calling it nothing, the surge of lust when Jake put his portfolio down and stepped into Dave’s personal space would subside. Maybe he’d be able to catch a breath when Jake demanded he look at him.
“Look me in the eye when you lie. I might believe you then.”
Look him in the eye? Dave had never heard a worse idea in his life. He couldn’t let Jake see what he was trying to hide, even though the part of his brain not consumed by need was pointing out that Jake was clearly interested, too, else why the hell was he reaching for Dave, cupping the back of his neck and pulling him in to…?
Jake’s mouth slamming over his without warning cut off his panicked thoughts, shutting off the oxygen to his brain, sending blood flooding into his groin, hardening him instantly. He knew then that his attempt at subterfuge had been useless. Unable to resist, Dave wrapped an arm around Jake to steady himself, as Jake pulled him all the way in so their bodies touched from chest to knees.
“Take it easy. Relax.” Jake trailed his lips across to Dave’s ear to whisper the suggestion, and then raised his chin to bring their lips together again.
Dave surrendered and opened his mouth to take a breath before taking what he wanted from the man holding him. But Jake beat him to the punch, dropping his mouth again and piercing Dave’s own with his tongue. There was nothing tentative about the kiss. It was raw, hungry, urgent, matching the emotions Dave had been battling all evening. Groans and grunts crowded the air around them as they battled for control of the kiss.
God, he was going to explode. His body was so hot, his skin was on fire. His hands shook, his legs trembled, his heart raced wildly against Jake’s chest. He let Jake take over, allowing himself to be swept up in the flames of desire that rose around them where they stood.
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t part of a typical business meeting agenda,” Jake teased when he lifted his head to catch a breath, “but I’m pretty damned sure I’d like it to be from here on out.” He licked the corner of Dave’s lips, and his voice sounded hoarse in Dave’s ear as he added, “At least for our business meetings.”
“Pretty sure that can be arranged.” Dave could flirt as well as the next guy, and he was getting what he wanted…more time with Jake.
And then he couldn’t talk any more. Jake devoured him, pressing him back against the door, lining up their bodies so their cocks rode each other as they kissed. The grunts and moans filling the air could probably be heard in the hallway outside, if anyone was passing by, but Dave couldn’t muster enough brain cells to care. He relaxed completely and widened his stance, groaning in satisfaction when Jake immediately pressed in against his heavy cock, kissing him again and again as their desire grew.
A blaring shaft of sound jerked them out of the sexual haze they were losing themselves in.
“What the fuck…?” Jake dragged his mouth away from Dave’s to ask the question.
“It’s the building’s fire alarm. Someone must have triggered it with their dinner. Or else it’s a real fire. Either way, we have to go.”
Dave was just as breathless as Jake when he pulled away from him, as reluctant as he could see Jake was to end what had been about to become a hot and heavy scene. He grabbed his keys and handed Jake his portfolio.
“Come on.”
Glad of the commotion and confusion, because he knew no one would have any time to notice the state of his or Jake’s body, or to question their disheveled condition, Dave led Jake out of the building, and turned to ask, “Where’d you park?”
“Over there.” He turned and pointed up the block. “I guess I’d better go. For real, this time.”
Dave nodded. What more was there to say? I wish you didn’t have to go. Come back up and let’s finish what we started. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never been with a guy before. I guess you’re gay. None of those things made any sense when what he was feeling seemed to go beyond words, beyond explanations.
“Thanks for the sketches. You’ll hear from us as soon as the decision is made.”
Something like disappointment flashed for a second in Jake’s eyes, and then he was walking away. Dave watched him leave, his chest tight with suppressed emotion. Whatever happened next, he knew he had crossed a bridge and he couldn’t retrace his steps. He’d kissed a man, and humped him, and wanted to see where it would go. He still did…and it scared the shit out of him.
Chapter Five
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Jake said, shaking Scott Brady’s hand.
“Keep producing quality work like this, and we’ll do business together indefinitely.”
That was music to Jake’s ears. He smiled as he entered the elevator, and once in the parking garage, he whistled a happy tune as he walked to his car. He hadn’t felt this stoked in far too long…except for those few brief moments when he had tasted the sweetness that was Dave Moussa six days ago. Even now, the memory shook him. What the hell had possessed him to call the man a liar, and to take what turned out to be the hottest kiss since his affair with Mike ended all those years ago? Suddenly, he was all thumbs, and starting the engine was impossible.
He plunked his head down on his hands over the steering wheel, exhaling an exasperated breath. Nightly wet dreams about the sexy writer had done nothing to diminish his interest or desire. But no word from him had squelched any hope Jake might have been harboring that the interest was returned. So, Dave had kissed him back. And yeah, his cock had been a pole against Jake’s. But apparently the interest had died with the blaring fire alarms.
Finally managing to get the SUV started, he backed out of the spot and headed out of the city. He had never been a city boy, and the noise and bustle were still an incredible turn-off. But this was where Doug worked, and where Dave’s publisher’s offices were…and where Dave lived. Gripping the steering wheel hard, he drove past the turnoff that would take him to the writer’s neighborhood. What would he do if he showed up and Dave was home? The only things that came to mind involved sweaty nakedness and animal noises. There would be none of that, if he could help it. Dave obviously wasn't ready to admit he had a thing for guys—or is it a thing for me?—and Jake wasn’t into guys who were in the closet.
Still, even after he had eaten and cleaned up his dinner mess and was working on a new painting that he had started two weeks ago, he couldn’t get his mind off the man whose lips had been a pillowy temptation that he had faile
d to resist. The thought of Dave’s tongue in his mouth had him swallowing convulsively. His cellphone distracted him from the tightness building in his slacks.
“Jake Pratt.”
“Jake, it’s Emma Stone. The sketches have been approved…both of them. I’d like you to come down today, if it’s possible, so we can formalize the contract we’d like you to sign with us. And you can have a look at what we’ve done with them, see if you agree with us.”
Jake never made a faster exit, and within twenty minutes he was back on Broadway looking for parking. Once inside, he was directed to the fifth floor where he found a set of very elegant offices and a pretty receptionist who escorted him to the last office.
“Mr. Pratt is here, Ms. Stone.”
“Ah, Jake, come in, come in!”
Emma Stone smiled widely at him, and Jake was already in before he noticed Dave sitting in one of two chairs in front of her desk, looking up at him with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Please, have a seat. Dave was in for some editing work so I thought it’d be nice to have you both here to review the covers.”
Jake nodded at Dave, whose lips twitched up in an attempt at a smile, but neither man spoke. Which was fine with Jake, whose throat was suddenly thick with phlegm anyway. He swallowed and sat where indicated, and the review began. Paying attention to the covers was almost more than he could manage, because Dave was wearing that cologne again, and Jake’s mind kept wandering back to their kiss.
“So, which do you like better, Jake?”
He snapped back to attention and hesitated, embarrassed at having been caught off guard. He glanced over at Dave, and saw a gleam of amusement in his eyes. It irritated him that Dave found his predicament funny, and he returned his attention to the business at hand, eventually choosing one of the covers.
“Good, it seems we all agree,” Emma said. “That’s the one Dave and I prefer as well.” She turned to Dave with a smile. “Well, congratulations. You’ve got your cover.”
He stood up. “Thanks, Emma. Jake. Good working with you.”
Well, that was a slap in the face! Thanks for the heads up. I won’t be bothering you anymore. Jake ignored him, keeping all expression off his face. No way would he let Dave know how that comment stung.
“You said you had some paperwork for me to sign?” He looked over at Emma, who was about to rise to her feet.
“Yes, I do, but I’d like to talk with you first, if I may?”
He subsided, itching to be gone, needing the comfort of his own space. Being dismissed like that was a wake-up call he would not ignore. He didn’t respond when Dave said goodbye and only half heard everything Emma said once the door closed behind him. She wanted a limited contract to start with, and a certain number of pieces, and if he was interested, she wanted him working exclusively on their sci-fi line to start. He agreed to it all, and gratefully stood up when she said she’d send the electronic contract for him to review before signing.
The drive home took longer than usual because it had been an hour since he turned back, and people were starting to leave for home. Manhattan was always a nightmare to drive in, as far as Jake was concerned, and he didn’t breathe easy until he had crossed over the Amvets Memorial Bridge that straddled the Croton Reservoir. The next forty minutes brought him home to his farmhouse and his anger…and Dave’s car in his driveway.
What the hell was he doing here? Jake slammed the door on his vehicle, striding over angrily to his unwanted visitor.
“The fuck do you want?” he demanded. “I heard you loud and clear back there. Thanks for your business. Now fuck off!”
He turned away, taking the steps up to his front door two at a time. He wasn’t inviting Dave in, and he wasn’t playing nice anymore. His breathing quickened with his anger and the curious ache that had been swelling inside him since the meeting in Emma’s office two hours before. But he wasn’t fast enough to shut Dave out, and before he knew it, Jake was slammed up against his own front door.
“You fuck off!” Dave growled, and kissed him.
The kiss was angry, frustrated, hungry, hopeful…everything Jake was feeling. His skin was afire, as though he was being consumed by fire ants, and his chest heaved with unspent emotion. He grabbed Dave’s face with shaking hands, holding him still so he could take over the kiss and devour him. He drew Dave up to his body, hands moving to the back of his neck, and pressed his lips harder against Dave’s until he let him in, and then Jake took his tongue and showed him what he wanted, what he needed. They breathed heavily into each other’s mouths, and when Dave wrapped his arms around him, Jake groaned at how close it brought their dueling bodies.
“Better be sure you know what you’re doing,” he said, voice low, hands once again shaking as he fought to restrain himself.
“Don’t know a damned thing.” Dave was breathless as he tore his mouth away to answer. “I just want this…kissing you that one time was nowhere near enough.”
Jake hauled him close again, slamming his mouth over Dave’s and thrusting his hips against Dave’s rod. He could feel it jerking against his own steely shaft, and it jacked up his arousal. Somewhere in the back of his lust-hazed mind, an alarm was blaring as harshly as the one that had broken up their first encounter. Jake tried to focus on it, pulling back and taking deep breaths, though he couldn’t quite release Dave, or pull his hips away.
“Why did you come here?” he grated out after a few moments, still breathless.
Dave’s eyes were blown wide with desire, and Jake tightened his hold on the back of his neck at the evidence of the other man’s need.
“Emma said you were coming in to sign the contract and I wanted to see you to tell you I had some more work for you. Then you walked in, and I forgot why I was there.”
Jake let him go and pushed past him, his earlier resentment resurfacing, slicing through his lust with the sharp precision of a scalpel. He dropped his portfolio on the kitchen table and pulled two beers from the fridge. He put one down on the table, opened his own, and walked to the French doors leading out to the patio.
“I got a different impression,” he said, and swallowed some beer with the emotion he didn’t want to acknowledge as hurt. Why the hell would anything this guy do hurt him? They were barely acquainted, for chrissake! They had met a grand total of three times. Sure, they had kissed each other breathless once—no twice, now—but that meant squat if Dave could so easily dismiss him. He was always the one to break a connection. He was always the one to let go first. How had it come to this, that he was letting some younger guy run the show with him?
“Look, I’m sorry about earlier, okay? Fuck, you confuse the shit outta me, and I don’t like it.”
Jake turned at Dave’s words, his eyes holding Dave’s own. “And yet you show up uninvited to my house, slam me up against my front door, and lay one on me. Now I’m confused.”
And he was. For so long, he had managed to keep all emotions at bay, except for the anger and guilt of his failure to die with his men. And in two weeks, he had lost even that prop that had kept the door closed on all the other emotions he couldn’t face. Like the one that made him want to take a swing at Dave and drag him in for another kiss at the same time. He couldn’t afford to be attracted to anyone, and not to someone who didn’t know what he wanted with a man. His shoulders and spine tightened with the tension spreading through his body and he forced himself to relax. He didn’t need any extra pain later.
Dave’s shoulders slumped. “So, we’re both confused. What are we gonna do about it?”
He stood there, defeated and obstinate, wanting something that Jake wasn’t sure he could give him.
“Have you ever even been with a guy?” Jake asked, exasperated.
The vibe he was getting from Dave was baffling as fuck. It was clear that Dave wanted him, but it wasn’t so clear whether he wanted to want him or not. Jake didn’t have time for this shit. He was going to have to figure out a way to get lust and longing back un
der wraps and push anger back in control when it came to Dave. He had to preserve his peace of mind. He ignored the little voice in his head that said he was shit out of luck.
“No.”
The simple response rocked Jake back on his heels, and he prowled back to stand in front of Dave, putting the beer down on the table. He didn’t need to clean up shattered glass, and he was shaking with every imaginable emotion.
“Then what the fuck do you want with me? Huh? I’m out and proud, in case you hadn’t figured that out! I’m not shy about what I want. I have no questions. I like cocks and asses. And I’m not interested in being your gay experiment! You got that?”
He inhaled sharply, letting his brutal anger take over. “Now, unless you have something work-related to say to me, get the fuck out of my house. And don’t come back unless I ask you to.”
Dave didn’t move, and Jake got in his face, standing nose to nose, their breaths mingling, his stance threatening. Go on, get the hell out!”
“No.”
Dave didn’t back up as he refused to follow Jake’s orders. Pigheaded, and brave as fuck! Jesus, I’m in so much goddamn trouble!
“Dave, you don’t want to test me right now.” Jake pushed a warning note into his voice. “Go home. Figure out your shit. Find someone else. I can’t help you.”
“I think you’re the only one who can.”
The conviction in Dave’s words blew Jake’s mind. “What the fuck do you know, huh?”
He couldn’t handle Dave’s certainty about him, knowing Dave wasn’t certain about himself. He didn’t want to be the one who showed Dave the way, just to lose him to some other guy. That was a road he never planned to walk again. Once was enough.
“I know you light me up like the Fourth of July,” Dave answered. “I know I can’t stop thinking about you. I know it scares the shit out of me, and pisses me off all at the same time. I know I hate feeling like this.”