Page 90 of Devil's Kiss
“Oh, look at you finally making sex jokes about your younger man.”
Brantley laughed. “Speaking of younger men. How isyoursthis evening?”
“He is not mine…”
“Isn’t he? So you’re trying to tell me you won’t be turning up to our place tomorrow night with Derek Pearson. A.k.a. owner of Pearson’s Total Fitness, a.k.a. He-Man.”
Jordan couldn’t help the ridiculous grin on his face as he twirled the stem of his wine glass between his fingers. “I’m not telling you anything.”
He could practically hear Brantley’s frown through the phone as he said his name.
“What?” Jordan asked.
“At least have the decency to tell me if I need to hide the fine china if you are bringing someone other than Derek. I’d hate for World War Three to break out in my dining room. Oh, I’m sorry, World War Four. Three happened a few months back at Boyz.”
“You know, I think Daniel Finley is rubbing off on you. You’ve become quite petulant lately.”
There was a shuffling sound and then Daniel’s voice came through the phone. “Listen up, Posh, I know you’re bringing Derek, because he told me. So let me extend the same advice to you that you once gave me: If you hurt him, I will hunt you down and have your perfect, overpriced balls for breakfast, you got that?”
“Overpriced?” Jordan said. “I’ll have you know—” He was cut off by the buzzing of his intercom. Getting to his feet, he walked over to press the button to show him who was by the elevator. Derek looked up at him, and any other words that Daniel was saying were drowned out.
If a picture was worth a thousand words, the one he was staring at portrayed anguish and pain in a single image.
Derek’s eyes held his as Jordan punched the button to let him inside, and even as Derek vanished from the screen, Jordan told Daniel he had to go, and switched to the camera inside the elevator. Just as he had a week ago, Derek stared up at him the entire ascent.
He knew that look. He’d seen it on his man before. It was the look of someone who needed his demons exorcised, and knowing where Derek had been today, Jordan knew exactly which demon it was.
He let go of the VIEW button and stood there waiting for Derek’s arrival.
When the elevator finally got to his floor and the door opened, Jordan held his hand out and said, “Come with me.”
Chapter 25
DEREK SLIPPED HIS hand into Jordan’s and let him lead. After spending a nauseating amount of time with a human being he’d rather never see again, it was a relief to be back inthisman’s presence.
During the hour he’d spent sitting in his car waiting for his father’s “therapy” to be done, he’d told himself, over and over,never again.He’d had to listen to his father’s sick diatribe the entire way to and from the facility, not to mention his entire life, and never would he subject himself to it again. No matter what.
After Derek had dropped him back at the house, he’d driven around for a good two or maybe three hours, trying to calm himself down. But it was no use. Nothing was touching the energy that was coursing through his veins.
Jordan hadn’t said a word since he’d stepped off the elevator, but Derek knew by the way his fingers had interlaced through his that what he needed was evident. Instead of heading straight to Jordan’s bedroom, Jordan directed him through to the master en suite and flicked on the lights.
This bathroom had always been one of Derek’s favorite fantasies. But it was a place he’d never allowed himself to set foot in after the night he’d sat on a chair and Jordan had cleaned up his bruised and broken face. The same night he’d first decided he needed to put some distance between himself and his beloved professor, for Jordan’s safety.
Tonight was a different story altogether.
Derek let his eyes sweep around the lavish space and, as always, he got stuck on the massive claw-foot whirlpool tub that stood alone in front of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. It was debauched, decadent, almost to the point of obscene, to think you were stripping down and anyone could see, but really, no one was out there.
On the opposite wall was a shower that ran the entire length of it. There were jets at every possible angle a person could imagine, and at each end was a handheld showerhead. That shower was designed with one thing in mind, and getting clean wasnotit.
“Strip.”
The word was clipped, spoken in a voice that sent a bolt of desire directly to Derek’s balls, and he immediately went about doing what he was told.
He kicked off his flip-flops and then reached over his shoulder and gathered a handful of his shirt and pulled it off. When he tossed it on the ground, he heard an appreciative groan from the opposite side of the room, where the tub was, and saw Jordan leaned up against it with eyes glued to what he was doing.
“And the shorts,” Jordan said, and then dragged his teeth over his lower lip.
Derek unbuttoned his shorts and shoved them and his briefs from his hips, and once he was completely naked Jordan crooked a finger at him. Derek walked across the tiled floor, conscious of the window-lined wall, and when he arrived opposite Jordan he stopped and looked down at the man, still fully clothed, resting against the tub.