Page 37 of Devil’s Kiss (Sunset Cove #2)

Dylan had been out of town for the past week, which was nothing unusual, since he’d started booking some higher-paying gigs.

He always had a steady stream of work and was jetting off somewhere to pose for something, and Derek always joked that one day some rich guy at one of those exotic locations would go crazy for his pretty face and up and marry him.

Then he’d never see him again. To which he would get the standard Dylan reply: “I don’t want someone only interested in my face.

He better also want to do something filthy with my body. Fuck you very much.”

’Cause let’s face it , Derek thought, as Dylan rested back against the counter in only a pair of board shorts, the guy has an incredible body. He should know. He was his trainer.

“You’re not supposed to be eating those.” Derek pointed to the chips.

“Yeah? Well, you aren’t supposed to be drinking that.”

Derek looked at the bottle and shrugged. “Okay, fair enough. But I need this. I had a shit day. What’s your excuse? Too stressful sipping your whiskey sours up in business class?”

“Hey, flying can be stressful.”

“Yeah, when you fly coach like the rest of us lowly peons. Not all of us live the high life, you know.”

“I just do what I’m told.”

Derek grinned and took a swig of his beer. “Don’t advertise that too loudly; you may end up in a precarious position.”

“Not a problem, since I’m not opposed to any position.” Dylan winked and shoved his hand into the potato chip bag.

Derek narrowed his eyes. “You do know I’m going to use the fact you’re stuffing your face to my advantage tomorrow, right?”

“Oh, you mean you’re gonna kick my ass harder than usual? As if I didn’t already know that.”

“As if you don’t enjoy it.”

“Keep telling yourself that. Generally I only like taking orders when fully naked, but something about you bossing me around while I’m in a weight room full of ripped men makes me all tingly. So I keep coming back for more.”

Derek chuckled and looked back to the flowers on the counter. “So where the hell did those come from?”

“I have no clue. But they ain’t for me.”

Derek whipped his head around to see Dylan’s pearly grin flashing at him with blinding perfection. “How do you know?”

“Hmm…well, I was going to go with ‘I’m not really the roses type.’ But really, it was this.”

Dylan held out a small envelope and Derek looked at the printed name across the front: He-Man.

Fucking Jordan. What is he up to now?

“I’m assuming that’s you, He-Man . Does it ring any bells?”

Oh, just one, Derek thought as his balls tightened and he looked back to the roses again. Jordan had sent him flowers? What the…?

“Yeah, it’s for me.”

“Secret admirer?” Dylan asked, chomping down on another chip.

Secret something, all right. “Nah, just a friend thinking he’s funny, that’s all.”

Though he’d been headed toward the couch, Derek decided it would be best if he went to his room to open up the card.

As he passed by Dylan, he snatched the bag of chips out of his hands, opened the trash can, and tossed it in.

“No more of those if you want to make your weigh-in before the shoot next weekend.”

“Hardass.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, pretty boy.”

Dylan made his way to the couch, while Derek headed to his room. Once he was there, he sat on his bed and leaned up against the wall as he opened the envelope.

When he drew the card out he read the words once, twice, and then a third time to make sure he’d read them correctly.

Date One

Tomorrow night - Pearson’s Total Fitness - Empty it by eight.

You’re going to work me out.

So get ready, I’m coming for you.

That bossy shit. What kind of card was that to send with flowers?

Apparently the kind he appreciated, because Derek’s palm had moved to the hard length of his shaft beneath his shorts as he read it over and over again.

Jordan had lost his mind. Making demands that he empty out his place of business so he could…could… what, exactly? As far as Derek knew, Jordan wasn’t exactly the kind to sit through a weight session. He was more the yoga type. And the bossy top type.

Picking up his cell phone, Derek opened the contacts and called Jordan. It connected in less than one ring, and he didn’t want to admit how satisfying that felt.

“Derek?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Umm, not last time I checked.”

Derek shut his eyes and told himself to keep his cool. There was no reason to get mad, because this game Jordan was playing was just that—a game. One that Derek was not going to participate in anymore.

“Well, you must be if you think I’m going to do what you wrote here.”

“Ohh, so you got my flowers? Are they beautiful?”

“I told you, I was done with this. With us,” Derek said, choosing to ignore Jordan’s question.

“No, you said you were done with what we had. And I accept that. ‘Fuck buddies’ is off the table.” Jordan paused and then added, as though checking off a list, “And off the bed, and off the floor, and hell, anywhere else I’ve had the pleasure of fucking you, buddy .

Anyway, you get the picture. But this isn’t that. This is a date.”

Derek looked down at the card in his hand and shook his head. “This isn’t a date. This is a demand. Actually, it’s several fucking demands.”

“Well, of course it is. I’m not really the sweet, tiptoeing around what I want kind of guy, am I, Derek? If I want something, I go after it. My parents spoiled me as a child, so there’s really no helping my bossy nature. On the plus side, I didn’t pay two thousand dollars to get your attention.”

Derek growled in frustration, and when Jordan chuckled in his ear, his cock got impossibly harder. “You’re insane.”

“And you love it,” Jordan said, and then added with extra flourish, “you told me so.”

“Something you have no shame in using against me, obviously.”

“ Obviously .” Jordan paused, and then his voice came back through the phone, the most serious he’d been since picking up the call. “Derek?”

“Yeah?”

“I meant what I wrote. I am coming for you, and I plan to get you back.”

Derek closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Why now? Because I walked away? Because I told you no ?”

“Yes.”

The answer was so quick, it caught Derek off guard, but what followed next was what truly made him speechless.

“And because one day of knowing that you might not call me at the end of it was one day too many. I know I missed all the signs, and I know the moment of perfection came and went before I even knew I’d missed it. But this is not how we end, Derek Pearson.”

He swallowed, imagining Jordan’s face looking up at him as he said those words. “Because you didn’t decide it?”

“No. Because we haven’t even begun. Not in the sense where you get to break up with me and walk out. For that honor, you have to date me first.”

Derek laughed at Jordan’s audacity. The guy was a fucking head trip. But God help him, he wanted him anyway. “And this is your idea of a date? A night at my gym?”

“Not under normal circumstances, but when have we ever been normal? See you tomorrow, He-Man. And don’t wear too much. I want to look at you while I sweat.”

Derek swallowed and slipped his hand into his shorts.

“And stop touching yourself?—”

“How did you?—”

Jordan laughed then, and the pure joy of the sound had Derek grinning like a fool.

“Because I’m doing the same exact thing. Good night, Derek.”

“Night, Jordan.”