My Romantic Tangle

by Shelley Munro

  “See the flax bush on the riverbank?”

  “I see it,” Hari said.

  “The water is shallow there. I’ll race you to the flax bush and back. And you should probably know I won lots of awards for swimming at university. I toyed with training for competitive swimming.”

  A chuckle escaped Hari. “Bring it on.” He took pleasure in the faint blush that darkened Jake’s cheeks. He took half a step toward the other man before acknowledged the impulse. He halted abruptly. “You say start.”

  Jake might have been a champion swimmer, but as a tiger, he loved the water.

  “Go!” Jake hollered, his shout disturbing two ducks floating on a tranquil stretch of water to their left. They quacked and took off in a flurry of feathers.

  Laughing, Hari dived smoothly beneath the water. When he surfaced, he stroked rapidly, his kicking feet propelling him through the water. For a while they were neck and neck. They turned upon reaching the flax bush, the burn of exertion pleasing his feline. Hari pulled ahead, reaching the finish line first.

  “Yes!” He leapt into the air, pumping his fist in the air. He went back under the water and came up grinning to find Jake staring at him with a strange expression on his face. Hari thought he caught a flicker of anger. Maybe he wasn’t a good loser?

  “Are you pissed at me?” Hari didn’t believe in tiptoeing around problems. He thought about his attraction to Jake and grimaced—most of the time anyway.

  “No,” Jake said hurriedly, looking away. “Good race. You’re fast.”

  Hari forced a smile when he wanted to obey the urge to move closer and run his fingers across the other man’s muscular chest, testing the light covering of hair for texture. “I’ve had enough.” His muscles tensed as he fought his instinct to close the distance between them. “I’m gonna get out and dry off.”

  He had to get away from Jake before he did something to shock the hell out of both of them, like touching Jake. A sharp bark of laughter escaped him. Actually touching was the least of his problems. Suddenly he understood why Ambar had been in such a panic this morning. Wading from the water, he tried not to think about Jake or wonder if the other man was watching his butt.

  Hari stalked to the blanket and spread it out with a flick of his wrists, briskly running his hands over his body to wipe off the worst of the water before dropping onto the ground. Shit. Bloody erection. At least his claws weren’t showing too much. He could make out a faint line of black beneath his nails, but they weren’t jutting above the tip.

  Gritting his teeth, Hari lay back on the blanket, closing his eyes while he listened to the sounds of the water and Jake swimming. It did nothing to relax either him or his cock. Then he heard splashing sounds to indicate Jake’s approach. A shot of heat rushed through him and he almost moaned aloud. Jake couldn’t miss his arousal. He turned on to his side in an attempt to hide. Although he knew he shouldn’t, Hari watched Jake approach through narrowed eyes. The man was bulkier than him, in his prime with broad shoulders tapering down to slim hips and long, muscular legs. His chest had a light covering of hair that arrowed downward to his groin. Hari swallowed, unused to the surge of lust that hit him when he caught sight of Jake’s cock.

  But even more interesting was the fact Jake had a hard-on the same as him. Judging by the expression on Jake’s face, he was having a problem with his body behaving in such an unruly manner.

  On impulse Hari sat up and grinned at Jake. Something told him openness was best.

  “What’s wrong with the water around here?” He gestured at his dick. “I thought that cold was meant to make things subside, not make them worse.”

  Jake let out a spluttered laugh and sat on the far side of the blanket with a body’s length between them. “It’s never happened before.”

  “You ever had sex with a man?”

  “Hell no,” Jake spluttered, and shot a quick glance in Hari’s direction before looking away. Jake’s gaze was like a stroke of fingers along his cock, and Hari felt the resulting rush of blood as he lengthened.

  “Me neither,” Hari said, shifting uneasily.

  “Maybe we should change the subject.”

  “Good idea,” Hari said, although he didn’t think that would help matters. There was something weird going on and it seemed Jake was the catalyst. Or maybe he was the catalyst. Whatever. The fact remained that he wanted both Ambar and Jake.

  “Tell me what you’re going to work on this afternoon,” Jake said.

  Good plan. Stick their heads in the sand and pretend nothing was happening.

  “I’m juggling two contracts right now. A romance author wants me to design a website for her, and I’m doing some work for a new business that sells kitchen equipment via the internet.”

  “How did you get started with romance authors?”

  Hari grinned. “A friend of a friend writes erotic romance for an e-publisher and needed a website. Word of mouth is a wonderful thing.”

  “My mother used to read them.”

  Hari’s grin widened as he recalled the books he’d read in the name of research before he designed his first author website. “Somehow I don’t think they’re the books your mother used to read. Maybe that’s where I got the idea,” he mused, thinking out loud about the shenanigans of the three lovers in the last one he’d read.

  “What idea?”

  Hari’s cock gave a jerk. “Never mind.” His gaze drifted to Jake without permission. “I think I’m dry enough.” A suit of armor might make a difference even if it was only of fabric. He leapt to his feet and rapidly dressed. Part of him was relieved when Jake started to dress as well.

  “What sort of design are you doing for the kitchen equipment place? Hari?”

  Hari realized he’d been staring at Jake’s backside and frowned, a flash of heat flooding his face. God, he was mooning like a teenage girl with a crush. “They said they wanted something fresh and vibrant. I was thinking of some sort of play on citrus fruits, using lemon, lime and orange as the primary colors on the site.”

  “Will it be graphic heavy?”

  “Not if I do it right,” Hari said. “I know some people still have slow access—”

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” Jake snarled, cutting in on Hari’s reply.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that all day I’ve been aware of you. Sexually aware.” Jake swallowed, refusing to meet his gaze.

  Hari was impressed. Most guys he knew would run a mile before they even thought about voicing the subject. “I feel the same, and it’s scaring the crap out of me. Maybe I should leave or at least move out.”

  “Hell no,” Jake snapped. “That’s stupid. We’re adults. We can deal with this.”

  “How?” Quite frankly, trying to ignore Jake wasn’t working too well for him.

  “Hell if I know.” Jake pulled on his boots and stomped to his vehicle. He whistled the dogs, and Hari finished dressing before following.

  He climbed into the cab and waited for Jake to join him, body tense and blood pounding through his veins. He curled his fingers into his thighs, unsurprised to feel the bite of claws. He’d never had a problem with control before, not even as a teenager undergoing change for the first time.

  Jake opened the door and slid behind the wheel. He glanced at Hari and their gazes caught. Before he knew how it happened, Hari leaned toward Jake, and the other man did the same. Their lips touched. They both froze. One of them groaned. Hari didn’t know if it was him or Jake. All he knew was that one little touch of lips wasn’t nearly enough. His hand snaked out to curl around Jake’s nape. He catalogued the brush of springy hair beneath his palm before the real sensation hit. Soft lips. The abrasive touch of stubble. The nip of teeth as they experimented to find the perfect angle.

  Hari opened his mouth and Jake’s tongue darted inside to taste. A moan rumbled from deep in Hari’s chest and his cock tightened to the point of pain. All he wanted to do was get closer.

  He wanted skin, a flat s
urface. Yeah, all of that.

  Jake groaned against his lips, and Hari pulled back. They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “Well.” Brilliant conversation, it wasn’t. Hari simply wasn’t capable of witty dialogue when his world had turned upside down twice in one week. First Ambar and now Jake.

  Jake stared at him for a fraction longer. He swallowed audibly before looking away to start the vehicle. “We’re not gonna do that again, right?”

  * * * * *

  “I don’t understand why you had to travel halfway around the world,” Aunt Gita said in a muffled voice.

  Hari could imagine her stirring one of her curries with her wooden spoon, the phone tucked between her right shoulder and ear. The thought brought a pang of homesickness, but it soon passed. While he might return to England for a holiday or business trip, this was his home now. With Jake and Ambar. A sense of rightness and warmth filled him, and he knew he’d made the right decision to move to New Zealand despite the newness of his situation.

  “I needed to move on, Aunt,” he said in a soothing voice. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her. “I’ll still fly back to visit, but there are too many memories there for me. I miss my parents.”

  “I know you do, Hari. You’re a good boy. A good influence on Sanjay. I wish the boy would settle down with a good Indian girl instead of parading around all those white girls.”

  “Some of those white girls are very nice,” Hari protested. “Does color matter if they make Sanjay happy?”

  “I’m too old to teach someone how to cook a traditional dinner,” Aunt Gita snapped back, although laughter colored her words. She paused and Hari heard the tap of a spoon against a metal pot. “I’m afraid Sanjay will get into trouble. You were such a good influence on him.”

  “I need to live my own life,” Hari said, not willing to voice the truth. His cousin Sanjay was a spoiled, self-centered twit who was full of arrogance. “I’ve always wanted to travel.”

  “Well, you can’t travel much farther than New Zealand,” his aunt retorted.

  “I rang to give you my phone number and email address.”

  “Let me get a pen.”

  Hari waited while his aunt searched. He smiled, hearing her muttering under her breath. In his mind’s eye he could see the pristine kitchen, smell the tang of spices and see the pot of fresh coriander his aunt liked to keep on the window ledge.

  “I’m ready.”

  Hari gave her the details and said goodbye, promising to send his aunt an email with some photos of where he was living. He hung up with a sigh. Time to get to work. At least Jake had left after dropping Hari off at the house. He might have a chance of concentrating now.

  Without conscious thought, his mind went back to their kiss. It had been unexpected yet spectacular. A case where reality surpassed anything he might have imagined.

  “Bloody weird.” He shook his head as he powered up his laptop.

  It had been an experiment. That’s all. No matter how great the kiss had felt, how right it had seemed, Jake wasn’t interested. He’d fled, making it clear he didn’t want to repeat the kiss or come anywhere near Hari.

  Hari couldn’t make up his mind how he felt about Jake’s reaction—whether he should be pissed or relieved.

  * * * * *

  He’d kissed Hari.

  Hari had kissed him back.

  Did that mean he was queer?

  Fuck.

  Jake mended the fence on automatic pilot, pounding staples into the fence posts with his hammer.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Mind in turmoil, he wondered if he should ask Hari to leave. His breath hissed past his lips at the idea. No! He didn’t want Hari to move out.

  So what the hell did he want? That was the question.

  Even though they hadn’t known each other long, Jake felt at ease with Hari. It was as if Hari had always been part of his life. With Hari around, his loneliness had eased. But he wasn’t bloody queer.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Sex with Ambar was the best ever. Nah, he definitely wasn’t gay. But he couldn’t stop thinking about what might be with Hari, what could happen if they went beyond a kiss. Not that he knew exactly what beyond would mean or feel like. Maybe similar to anal sex with Ambar. But receiving…

  A shiver ran the length of his body, rocking his sense of self. It went against everything he’d ever thought, and yet the kiss with Hari had felt good. It had felt right.

  With the fence repairs finished, Jake moved on to his next job, fixing a hole in the hayshed so the remaining hay didn’t get wet and rot. Next came the problem with the water trough.

  Five hours passed as Jake powered through lots of small jobs he’d put off due to lack of time. Now, with his stomach so empty it was practically gnawing his backbone, he admitted he was procrastinating and terrified to return home.

  “Idiot,” he said, disgusted with himself.

  Decision made, Jake collected his tools and slung them on the back of his vehicle.

  By the time he pulled up at his house, the sun had set and daylight was rapidly receding, blotting out the scenery with darkness. It was with trepidation that he opened his front door and stepped inside. He toed off his boots, peeled off his socks and walked to the kitchen in bare feet.

  The welcoming scent of dinner floated out to meet him, bringing a sense of home and warmth that hadn’t been present before. At least not since his parents had left. Hari’s face drifted into his mind. God, he needed a drink.

  He headed straight for the fridge and pulled out a beer. The tab made a satisfying hiss when he opened the can. The crisp tang of hops slid across his taste buds as he turned to survey the kitchen.

  Hari wasn’t there.

  Jake swallowed another mouthful of beer and went in search of Hari. He saw him the moment he entered the lounge. Hari had cleared off the table and set up his laptop there. He had papers spread across most of the surface and a pair of rimless glasses perched on his nose. Jake’s first impression was of a sexy professor until he took in the tight white T-shirt and the faded jeans that hugged Hari’s thighs and hips as he leaned over some of the pages he’d arranged on the tabletop.

  One look and he felt his body respond. Confusion rioted through him, and he crushed the can in his right hand, cursing when beer shot out the top.

  Hari didn’t even jump. He merely turned around and smiled, as if he’d known Jake was standing there all the time. “You ready for dinner?”

  “I need a shower.”

  “Ten minutes?”

  Jake nodded. Although he was pleased Hari was behaving normally, a part of him experienced pique because Jake couldn’t forget the kiss as easily as Hari apparently had. Jake returned his crushed beer can to the kitchen before heading for the shower. Perhaps a cold shower would do the trick.

  After his shower, Jake strode back to the kitchen. “Did Ambar ring?”

  “Yeah, while you were in the shower. She said she’s not coming over tonight. They have a lot of orders to fill and she wanted to catch up with the laundry.”

  Jake nodded. “I’ll give her a call later.” His stomach grumbled loudly. “You don’t have to cook for me.”

  “I like cooking. It helps me unwind. Besides, I do quite a bit of thinking while I cook.”

  “That could be dangerous.” Hell, it sounded like he was flirting. Change the subject. His stomach rumbled again, providing him with a great subject starter. “What’s for dinner?”

  “I found a beef roast in the freezer. I’ve done vegetables.” Hari expertly carved the meat as he spoke. “Take a seat. I’ll bring it over for you.”

  “You don’t have to wait on me.”

  “I’m not.” Hari set a plate of food in front of him and took the seat opposite. Their legs collided under the table and Jake jumped, unaccountably nervous.

  “I’m not gonna bite.” Hari’s expression said he’d thought about it though.

  Jake swallowed, averting his gaze to concentr
ate on his meal. It was better than anything his mother had ever served them. “This is great.” He started eating, a moan of pleasure escaping as the meat practically melted on his tongue.

  A grin lit up Hari’s face. “Better than sex, huh?”

  “Cut it out.”

  “Scared?”

  “Confused,” Jake countered. “Eat your dinner.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Jake glared at Hari, trying not to laugh when he noticed the suspicious quirk of Hari’s mouth. “Cut it out.” Unbidden Jake’s mouth curled up into a grin. “How did work go?”

  “Good. I’ve almost finished the author site. I’ll show you after we’ve finished eating. I could do with some input on the kitchen site design.”

  Once they started to talk about work, Jake relaxed enough to enjoy his meal and the conversation.

  “You want another beer?”

  Jake thought about it and decided something stronger might be in order. “I have some bourbon. I’ll grab it after we’ve finished dinner.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They cleaned the kitchen together, working as a team. As the evening progressed, Jake started to feel more and more on edge. A casual touch here. The rumble of Hari’s husky voice. His laugh. They added up to trouble.

  Every minute seemed to ratchet up the tension in Jake until he wanted to touch Hari so bad his hands shook. Yeah he needed that bourbon now. He strode to the pantry and located the bottle right at the back.

  Straightening from his crouch, he found a bottle of cola and two glasses from the cupboard. He poured a measure into each glass and added soda before carrying both glasses to the lounge.

  “Thanks. So, what do you think?”

  A loaded question if ever he’d heard one. He played rugby for god’s sake—the ultimate in masculine sports. But all he could think about was kissing Hari.

  “Jake? The website?”

  “Ah yeah.” He sucked in a deep breath and wished he hadn’t. There was too much of Hari in it. He focused on the laptop screen and the striking website design. It was exotic and oozed sex in a totally classy way with the silhouettes of an entwined couple sprawled across the opening page. His mind leaped ahead to the bedroom and the things a couple could do. Suddenly his cock was hard enough to do the business, trying to burst from his jeans. He gulped his drink, desperate to control the urge to run his fingers down Hari’s back and nuzzle his neck, to kiss the soft skin behind his ear, right where his scar started.