Page 44 of Devil's Kiss
Gathering what was about to happen, Derek nodded. “Yeah.”
“Good. Because I don’t see you raising your arms anytime soon,” Jordan said, and then reached for the hem of Derek’s shirt and cut a straight line up the center to his neck. As the material parted, Jordan tossed the scissors on the counter and gently pushed the fabric aside.
When it was falling off Derek’s shoulders and arms, Jordan sucked in a breath, and Derek glanced down his body to see what he was looking at. Sure enough, there was a huge red welt that covered half of his ribs and would most certainly leave a bruise tomorrow. It was already starting to turn a bluish purple.
Jordan brought a hand up to cover the gasp that escaped his mouth, and then he raised his eyes to meet Derek’s. “Why did he do this?”
I have no fucking idea. “Wish I could tell you why he ever did it. If I had to guess, he was drunk, somehow found out where I was working, and came to pay his boy a visit. Last thing I remember was the first hit. He knocked me out cold. The rest must’ve happened after.”
“Oh, Derek,” Jordan whispered, his breath leaving him on a shuddering exhale.
“Hey, this is nothing new.”
“It is to me. And whether it’s new or not doesn’t matter. You need to report him.”
Derek’s hand whipped out to grip Jordan’s wrist. “No fucking way. If I do that, I have to file where I’m living, and somehow he’ll find out. I will not bring him to your doorstep. Do you hear me? Even calling you, coming back here, was stupid. He might’ve followed.”
Jordan knelt down until he was between Derek’s spread legs and looked up at him, and in that moment something between them shifted. The landlord and tenant. The professor and student. They vanished. And all that remained was one man who needed the other to survive.
“Listen to me, Derek Pearson. I don’t care. I wasn’t about to leave you there. You called me. You needed me. I answered.”
Derek released his hold on Jordan’s wrist and brought a trembling hand up to touch his fingers to his chin. He needed to know in that moment that Jordan was real. That he wasn’t hallucinating and lying out in the middle of the parking lot bleeding to death. But when Jordan got up on his knees to bring them closer, Derek’s breath caught and he worried his lower lip with his tongue.
“Careful,” Jordan whispered, and gently touched his fingers to the swollen flesh before leaning forward to press the softest kiss Derek could’ve imagined to the corner of his mouth. “You don’t want this to start bleeding again.”
When Jordan was about to pull away, Derek tugged him back in close, and miracle of all miracles, Jordan came. Their breaths mingled as the connection between them blazed, and then Jordan’s fingers were trailing down the uninjured side of his jaw.
“Derek…” he said, and then angled his head to the side and gently kissed Derek’s lower lip.
Derek sat frozen in place at that first intimate connection, as the sweet glide of Jordan’s mouth brushed over the top of his. He couldn’t believe that Jordan Devaney was finally kissing him. There’d been so many times he’d fantasized about this, but never had he imagined it would happen like this.
“Are you okay?” Jordan whispered against his mouth.
Derek didn’t want to move, but managed a slight nod before he leaned forward again, as if in a dream, to steal another kiss. Jordan slid his fingers to the back of his head to stroke through his hair, and this time when their lips parted, Jordan placed several kisses down his neck and nuzzled in there, where Derek heard him whisper, “What am I going to do with you?”
And all Derek could think was,Good fucking question.
EARLY THE NEXT morning,Derek stared across Jordan’s bedroom at the man who’d taken such care with him the night before. He needed to get out of there and away from Jordan before his father tracked him back to his place.
He had no idea how his father had found out where he worked, but all he had to do was ask the right person for an address and he could show up there, and… Derek shuddered at the thought of what that no-good piece of shit would, or could, do to Jordan.
Jordan had class this morning. He’d told Derek he only had one today and then he would be back, and Derek knew that would give him the perfect opportunity to do what needed to be done.
Jordan had gone above and beyond in giving him a room to stay in for as long as he had. He’d been beyond generous, and it was time to return that kindness with his safety.
It was time for him to move on.
Chapter 12
One Week Later
JORDAN SAT ON his couch staring at reruns of some city’s “real” housewives as he sipped on a glass of Cab Sav. He wasn’t really paying any attention, though, as one of the main women slapped another across the face, and considering what a spectacular blow it was, that was saying something. Usually he would be on the edge of his seat cheering a bitch on. But that wasn’t happening right now.
No.
He was too busy replaying for the millionth time the voice message he’d received from Derek the other day while he’d been in class.“Hey, Devaney, by the time you get this I’ll be out of your hair and house for good. I think it’s the best for everyone. It’s nothing personal, you know. I just don’t think it’s smart to stay with you anymore after…well, after what happened with my father.”Derek paused, and Jordan still wondered what he’d really been thinking when he ended the call, because his lame“It’s been cool”wasn’t it. Of that, Jordan was positive.
That message had been followed by one that was short and to the point:“Oh, and Devaney, don’t try and change my mind either, okay? I know you’ll want to. But it’s time for me to move on. I’ll see you around.”