Page 2 of A Cold Hard Truth

Fuck, as Jace so crassly put it.

Remington wasn’t a fool. He knew the first time he was intimate with someone, it wouldn’t be like making love, and much like his first kiss, it wouldn’t be anything like the books he’d read. Remington loved romance the most, the aspirational dreams of the characters and the guarantee of a happy ending. Remington soaked all of it up, all of it in.

He was desperate for his own romance.

But he would settle for sex and be glad about it.

“Hey.” Jace collapsed next to him on the couch, sliding down onto his back and thumping his head against Remington’s leg.

“Hey.”

“You look like you’re a thousand miles away. Did you go back to Chicago and forget to tell me?”

He chuckled. “No. I was just thinking about work.”

“That wasn’t your work face.”

“What does that mean?” Remington threaded his fingers through Jace’s hair and scratched his scalp.

The two of them had always had a physically affectionate relationship, and it had saved him from losing his mind more times than he could count. Jace was tactile and thoughtful with his touches, and Remington savored the human contact. Most of the times, save for the brush of a finger while he was getting coffee or a handshake with someone at work, Jace’s touches were the only ones he got.

“You have a work face, it’s like…” Jace adopted a tight scowl, his angular features somehow becoming even thinner. “You were making your sex face.”

“I don’t have a sex face,” he protested.

“You do.” He rolled onto his back and blinked up at Remington. “You’re making it still.”

Remington covered his face with one hand and covered Jace’s with the other.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Jace promised. “Did you have it yet?”

“Have what?”

“Sex.”

“You would be the first person to know,” he said.

“I’ll settle for third.” Jace laughed and sat up. “Have you taken any of my advice?”

Remington tugged at the roots of his hair, throwing the blond strands into a frenetic state of disarray. “I haven’t signed up on a dating app,” he said.

“That wasn’t my advice.”

“And what was your advice, guru?” Remington arched a brow and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

“I said a hook-up app. You don’t need Mr. Right for the cherry pop.”

“You are crass. Have I told you that lately?” Remington tried to stand up, but Jace forced his weight down, keeping him firmly planted on the couch.

“What are your plans for the night then, if not sex or trying to have sex?”

“I don’t have any. Are you going to Callahan’s?”

Jace scrunched his nose and shook his head. “He is spending some quality best friend time with Sebastian.”

“So no.”

“No,” Jace confirmed. “Why? I feel like you have an ask that you’re not making.”