I shrugged. “This afternoon. Maybe around two or so.”
Nathan ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “Explains a lot.”
“Oh?”
“Saw his number on my caller ID earlier,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I’d deleted his name from my phone list, but recognized the number.”
“Did he leave a message?”
“No. He never was one to-” He paused. “I guess you know how he is, don’t you?”
I nodded. Jake hated voicemail. Always had. He didn’t even like sending text messages, which could be annoying as hell when I was too busy to talk but we needed to plan something. I wondered, then, if that was part of his method of covering his tracks. Keeping Nathan or me from stumbling across an incriminating message.
I sipped my drink, then laughed. “I can only imagine what he’ll say if he gets a hold of you.”
Nathan chuckled. “Probably ask me the same thing he asked you. How dare I find something in common with you besides him?”
“Just tell him you and he have similar taste in men,” I said with a flippant shrug. “That’s what I told him.”
With a cough of startled laughter, Nathan sat up. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” I grinned. “Oh, you should have seen the look on his face. Especially when he asked where I get off seeing his ex-boyfriend, and I said I get off pretty much anywhere I see you.”
Nathan laughed again, shaking his head. “Wow, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.”
I leaned forward and rested my folded hands on the table between us, slightly closer to him than to myself. “If you’d been there,” I said, “I don’t think I’d have been able to come up with quite so many witty comebacks.”
“Is that so?” He put one hand over mine, running his thumb across the inside of my wrist.
“Yes,” I said. “Though I would have been thinking of a few ways we could royally piss him off, but…” I let my thumb trace the side of his hand. “That wouldn’t be why I was thinking those things.”
His shoulders rose slightly as he leaned a little closer to me and his fingertips brushed the back of my hand. “So I’d be distracting you, then?”
“You always distract me.” Especially when you touch me like that. Or look at me like that. Or breathe. I swallowed. “From everything.”
He grinned. “Well, if I’m distracting you from everything else…” A single finger ran down the side of my wrist. “Then I guess that means that when I get you home…” The tip of his tongue made a slow arc across the inside of his lower lip. “…I’ll have your undivided attention, won’t I?”
I shivered.
Chapter Nineteen
“Did you drive?” Nathan asked as we stepped out of the restaurant.
“Nope. Walked.”
He ran his fingers up my back. “Well, then, I guess you’re riding with me.”
I grinned. “That was the plan, wasn’t it?”
“God, I hope so,” he said, almost growling. “Come on, I’m about three blocks that way.” He nodded down the sidewalk, and we started off in that direction.
“I should have parked closer,” he said after we’d gone half a block or so.
“And paid fifteen bucks at one of these pay lots?” I gestured at the lots behind us. “Are you insane?”
He shrugged and grinned at me. “Would’ve been worth it to save some time.”
“We can handle a few minutes to walk three blocks, I think.” I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.
“Speak for yourself.” He laughed.
“We’ve been waiting almost a week.” One long, long week. “What’s a few more minutes?”
“What’s a few minutes?” He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close enough to whisper, without anyone else hearing, “With as turned on as I am right now? Fucking torture.”
I couldn’t think of a response. I couldn’t think of anything, really, besides the vibration of his low, growling voice against the side of my neck. If he was as desperate as he sounded-as desperate as I was-we’d be lucky to get through tonight without catching fire.
We continued on in silence, walking quickly. If I still gave a damn about appearing as desperate as I was, I’d have tried to slow our pace to a casual stroll. A cool, I’m in complete control speed.
Fortunately, I didn’t still give a damn, and just did everything I could to keep up with him.
From almost a block away, his car came into view. We were almost there. Just a little father, then another twenty minutes or so, and we were home free. Almost there.
Nathan’s fingertips ran down the back of my arm, and suddenly the car was much too far away.
A narrow alley between a pair of red brick apartment buildings, however, was not.
Without stopping to care if this was a good idea or not, I hauled him into the alley with me and leaned against the wall, pulling him into a kiss. I may have caught him by surprise, but he recovered quickly, returning my kiss without hesitation as his hands went to my face, my neck, my hair. His cock pressed against mine, and even through our jeans, it was nearly enough to drive me out of my mind.
“We should’ve just skipped dinner,” he said, panting against my lips. “Should’ve…” Paused to kiss me. “Met at my place and…” Another kiss. “Christ, Zach.” Holding my face in both hands, he looked into my eyes. “I can’t go this long without fucking you.” Then he kissed me again, and I was thankful for both the wall and his body, because they were all that kept me from collapsing.
His lips went to my neck, and I let my head fall back against the wall.
“My God,” he said, kissing his way up my neck. “I want you so fucking bad right now.” As soon as his hand left the side of my face, I knew what he was going to do, but I still gasped when he cupped my erection through my jeans.
I wasn’t sure what I’d had in mind when I dragged him into this alley. Maybe just a few minutes of fooling around to relieve some tension, maybe just a chance to wind each other up a bit more before we went to the car. Maybe I hadn’t thought this through at all because all I knew was how badly I needed to have him, regardless of where we were.
Either way, one thing was perfectly clear now. We weren’t going anywhere. Fooling around under the cover of darkness in a shadowy alley usually wasn’t my style, but no one could see us. And even if they could, I didn’t care, because Nathan’s fingers had found my zipper pull, and we weren’t. Going. Anywhere.
He stroked my cock slowly. His mouth was close enough to kiss, but all I could do was breathe. Even that was almost too complicated when I was this close to the release I so desperately needed. When I was this close to him.
“You know,” he said, stroking a little faster. “If we’d just gone to the car, we’d be halfway home by now.”
“But I wouldn’t be-” My voice caught and I sucked in a breath.
“You wouldn’t be what?” he teased, though the slightest hint of a tremor gave away his façade of being totally in control. “Come on, Zach, tell me.”
I tried to hold his gaze, but even the faint light from the nearby street was too intense. Closing my eyes, I whispered, “We’d be halfway home, but I wouldn’t be halfway there.”
“Oh, God…” He released a ragged breath, his hand faltering momentarily. The space in front of me suddenly became vacant-no, occupied, but differently-and just as I figured out that he’d moved, his mouth was around my cock.
My eyes flew open and I stared down at him in the darkness, watching in disbelief. What little light there was created a vague outline of him, a half-lit suggestion of shapes I knew well enough to fill in with my mind’s eye.
Resting my head against the wall, I closed my eyes again and dug my teeth into my second knuckle, trying to keep myself quiet. My other hand was in his hair, every nod of his head against my palm making this real, making the electric sensations of his mouth on my cock real. I wanted to beg him not to stop, but my one remaining shred of rational thought warned me against speaking at all because I wouldn’t stop.