Not His Kiss to Take (30 page)

Jamie looked amazing. Evan’s dick took notice.

Which of course, Jamie noticed. Time did that strange stopping thing. Jamie’s eyes went soft and dreamy as they honed in on Evan’s mouth. He licked his very red lips. Evan could almost see lurid thoughts running through his head. Maybe it
was
possible after all? “For me?” he asked, needing to believe.

Jamie smiled. Kind of naughtily too. “Just for you.” His smile turned into a smirk. “Does that turn you on, Evan?”

“
Hell, yes.”

“
You’re such a pervert.” Jamie’s ice-cold fingers wound around Evan’s warm ones and squeezed. “Maybe you should take me home and show me just how much that turns you on.”

Show him? Oh my God.
But once again, Evan’s mind threatened to overthink things. To worry over issues not quite resolved. That was what he always did, wasn’t it? Held himself back. Not this time. This time he was going to fucking
jump
. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Jamie’s fingers loosened, and his hopeful smile crumpled.

That wouldn’t do. “There might be a lot of hair pulling involved.” Jamie’s big blue eyes shot wide open. His hand jerked inside of Evan’s. “Nice to see you actually left me some to pull—I can’t believe you cut it, you brat. And maybe, so you can’t disappear on me again, I might have to lock you in the penthouse…and tie you to my bed.”

Looking halfway gone already to Evan’s bed, Jamie said, “Unh.”

“
That’s a very, very pretty tie you have on.”

As if he just remembered he was wearing one, Jamie’s free hand shot to his neck. He gulped in a startled breath. Let it out slowly. Words formed and dissolved on his lips. Then he smiled, Evan’s favorite, about-to-get-into-a-heap-of-trouble smile. The taunt rolled off his sassy tongue with practiced ease: “Use your own damned tie, you pervy bastard.”

Ooh, that sounded suspiciously like…
permission.
Oh yeah. The room suddenly got very hot. Tense. A charge crackled in the overheated air and raised the hairs on Evan’s arms and the back of his neck. Now that he thought about it, with Jamie’s coloring and all that pale, pale skin, he’d look better bound by a pair of Evan’s red dress ties anyway. Crimson silk twined tightly around each wrist instead of Jamie’s softer blue tie—oh yes.

It was all Evan could do not to seize a handful of silky blond goodness, yank savagely, and take Jamie down to the floor with him. “You are
so
gonna get it,” he growled.

“
Thank God,” Jamie sighed, like he’d been waiting forever to hear him say that. “I’ve been really lonely without you.”

Dreams of ties and bindings could wait. First they needed to get somewhere alone and talk. And they really needed to get the hell out of this place before the bad memories caught up with Jamie—what the hell was he thinking, coming here?

“
Let’s get outta here, beautiful. Go someplace we can talk.”

“
Just like that?” Jamie cocked his head to one side. “I thought for sure you’d give me one of your stupid arguments.”

Stupid arguments? Ooh, he was going to pay for that. But later. “Oh, I think we still have a little arguing ahead of us. Some things we need to discuss. And I owe you a really big apology. But not here.”

“
But you wanna bother?” God, he looked so earnest. “You know…with me?”

“
Jesus, Jamie. You’re not a bother and you never were.” If he were in Jamie’s shoes, Evan wasn’t sure he would be so goddamned fearless. The strength it must have taken to lay it all on the line like that boggled Evan’s mind. To hell with Louis’s aversion to public displays of affection; wiping Jamie’s doubts away would be worth getting kicked out for.

Evan ran his thumb over the smoothness of Jamie’s cheek and into the stubble below. Deliciously scratchy
.
Unfortunately, Jamie’s lip had scarred after all. A faint white line slightly puckered his plump bottom lip. Directions, then, to mark the spot for kisses
.
Fear and longing radiated from Jamie as he waited for Evan’s answer.

“
Yes, Jamie, I want to bother. Absolutely, definitely, and without reservation. If you’ll let me. You may bother me lots—hell, you made me hot and bothered all the time, but
you
are not a bother. Not ever.” Evan gave Jamie all the reassurance he had to give. It was easy when it was the truth. “I missed you every minute you were gone.”

Jamie’s entire face turned pink. A blush of high emotion this time, not embarrassment. “Really?”

“
Yes, really. I’ve had a hard time sleeping without you there beside me.” Even though this was not the time and definitely not the place for such thoughts, Evan wanted to rip off all of Jamie’s clothes and see how far the pink flush went. Another thing for later? Right now, he settled for the unvarnished truth. “I bribed someone at that restaurant you used to work at to get me your address.”

Jamie’s mouth fell open a little. “Are you shitting me? You mean Dr. Oh-So-Proper-I-Iron-My-Jeans actually broke the law?”

Even though he didn’t voice it, Jamie’s face positively screamed
for me?
For that look alone, Evan would give him anything. Everything he had. “I guess I did. I had plans to take up stalking you until you talked to me, until I could tell you how sorry I was, but you disappeared. Where the hell did you go, anyway? Your idiot roommates didn’t have a clue, not that I think they ever have a clue. And Bremerton’s a pretty big place—I didn’t know where to start. But I wasn’t about to give up.” If Jamie could lay it all on the line, so could he. Jumping wasn’t so hard after all. “You think you might be willing to give me a second chance?”

“
You willing to give me one?”

Jamie, Jamie, Jamie
. “You sure about this? What you want?”

“
Are you?”

Such a little shit. “Can I take you home and beat you now?”

A small smile tugged at the corner of Jamie’s mouth while he thought about it. “Yeah, you can take me home and
beat
me.”

Good thing Evan knew what he was getting himself into if he was going to be romancing the brat—he’d been made from mischief. “Tempting to beat you either way. Both ways."

The smile slipped from Jamie’s face. “I’m not very good with the whole…second chance thing, Evan. Or with trusting people. Never seems to work out for me.”

“
Me neither,” Evan agreed. He was so close to screwing this up, he could almost taste it. Yet Jamie was here. He’d come looking for Evan, and that had to mean something, right? The kid was out-braving him. “But I’m willing to try if you are. I’ll jump if you jump.”

Jamie’s brows furrowed. Ah-ha. Thinking up that mischief again, no doubt. “Who are you, and what have you done with the real Evan Harrison?”

“
Jamie—”

The chill was gone from Jamie’s fingers when he pressed them across Evan’s mouth, cutting his words off. “Yes,” Jamie said.

“
Mmpf?”

“
I’ll jump if you will.”

Jamie pressed down harder with his fingers. “Just nod your head, Ev. I know you’re proud of that degree you got in arguing as a second language and all, but stick that sucker back in the drawer for a sec.”

Duct tape
and
a beating. Ooh, that’d be good. But later. Right now, before he overthought a single damn thing, he simply nodded.

At last, finally and thank God, all the tension drained from Jamie’s shoulders. Peace descended. Jamie’s hand fell away.

“
Can I take you home now?” Evan asked.
Please say yes…

A nod. Good enough. But then Jamie’s face went white, like the flick of a switch. “I just gotta do something first. Before we go.” A shadow crept into his summer blues as if he stood under a dark cloud, and Evan knew then what that
something
was. Damn. They’d lingered too long.

Or had they?

“
I don’t know if I can do it, but Ang says I gotta try and make peace with… You know. Shit that happened.”

Poor Jamie. But this goddess Angie had it right; Jamie had to deal with what had happened. Had to let the rage out to make room for peace. But no law said Jamie had to go it alone. They’d promised to leap together, and Evan couldn’t think of a better place to start. “Let me go in with you?”

Evan could practically see the
no
leap to the tip of Jamie’s tongue, but he didn’t say it. “Yeah,” he finally answered. “Okay. That’d be good. I always feel safe when you’re with me.”

Chapter
Seventeen

They’d been taking things slow. Almost a week too fucking slow in Jamie’s opinion, so he decided to help move things along the only way he knew how. Getting Evan into bed on Jamie’s terms was supposed to be easy. Yeah, right. The front door hadn’t even closed before Evan grabbed him. And who knew he was so fucking
strong
? Now Jamie couldn’t even move, let alone seduce. Pinned. Somewhere in the distance, a final bell rang, ending the match.

And here he thought his first attempts at homo-flirting hadn’t been working. Ha-ha.

With his face and chest squashed against the wall beside the front door and Evan’s elbow jammed between his shoulder blades, Jamie could hardly breathe. Excellent—Evan was feeling frisky, then. Fuck, it had taken him forever to get the goddamned hint. Jamie’d been working on him all evening. Showing off. Teasing relentlessly, all through dinner and the impromptu skateboard demonstration Jamie had put on outside by the stairs.

Hot, panting breaths steamed the back of his neck. Evan palmed his ass and dug his fingers into the crease between his thigh and cheek, and kind of roughly too.
Mmm…yes.
Jamie shivered and wriggled, trying to accommodate his swelling cock in a severely limited space.

Probably didn’t need to give Dr. Lick-My-Boots any more encouragement, but Jamie intended to make damned sure this night ended the way he wanted—hot and heavy in Evan’s bed. The digging fingers eased, but only enough to move into the crack of his ass. Evan pressed the thick middle seam of his jeans and stroked up and down with a finger, causing the fabric to rub against his hole.
Oh fuck yes
.

They’d had only one quick and desperate hands-only make-out session since that night in the bar, which was okay at first, since revisiting the scene of the crime had kinda knocked him for a loop. Embarrassed the hell out of him, falling apart in front of Evan like he had, but the doc had held him while he cried, raged, screamed, and got it all out of his system. Then he’d pretty much slept for two solid days.

But enough already.

No longer happy with just his elbow and forearm pinning him, Evan added his hip and massive erection to the mix. The thing felt like a frickin’ steel bar was jabbing Jamie in the hip. Jamie wanted to feel it up his ass. He’d given it due consideration. Yeah, he was a little scared at the idea, a little worried, but he wanted Evan to fuck him. Wanted that big, hairy body on top of him, over him, and between his legs, wanted it pushing, pressing, thrusting, and taking…

Thinking about Evan having his way with him forced a groan from Jamie’s lips. Damn—didn’t need Evan hearing him go all desperate like this. Would be used against him.

He’d fantasized about Evan doing him pretty much every spare minute he’d had since he’d returned, wondered about what it might feel like having that thick, veiny shaft sliding into him, stretching his virgin hole instead of the usual big fingers—as long as Evan went slow and used a gallon of lube, of course. Because Jamie still wanted to come. Even if it hurt to get fucked, he still wanted to get off with Evan inside him. Not that he really had any doubts Evan wouldn’t make sure of his satisfaction. He was kinda pushy that way.