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11

Jared

This was not the gentle press of lips that one would expect from a first kiss. This was all nipping teeth and gripping hands. And it was the hottest, most explosive kiss I’d ever experienced in my life.

This wasn’t what I’d had in mind when I snuck in here to swap out the sugar for the salt, but I wasn’t complaining. This felt inevitable , like with every prank, every barb we’d exchanged, we were always marching straight toward tearing each other’s clothes off. Which seemed exactly Liam’s intention when he wrenched my shirt out from my pants, his fingers searching for warm flesh.

Licking through his mouth, I lost all sense of time and space. It took me a few minutes to register that we were desperately mauling each other in plain view of the sidewalk, if anyone cared to look through the large windows.

Gripping him under the ass, I hoisted him off his feet, and his legs seemed to wrap instinctively around my waist. It brought our erections in direct contact, and he whimpered, bucking in my grip to grind against me.

I was suddenly very grateful for all the time I spent working out as I carried him behind the counter and into the back where we could have some privacy. We were lucky I didn’t drop him, because the entire time, he didn’t stop kissing me. His hands were in my hair, pulling hard enough for my scalp to sting.

My shoulder slammed into the doorframe, but I couldn’t care less. We pinballed off the fridge, then banged into a shelving unit with a clatter of metal bowls across the floor, but it was all in the distant background. My brain was pretty one-track minded right now. My senses were full of Liam—his taste, his smell, the feel of him in my arms. How had I lasted so long without him? I felt like I’d been drowning all this time, and this right here was the first gasp of oxygen I’d had in years.

I thought we were on the same wavelength, but when I went to drop him on the nearest flat surface, he clung even tighter to me. He pulled back just long enough to scold, “No! Not on the counter! I make food here. Over there, the storage room.” He pointed vaguely, then moved to lick and bite his way down my neck, trusting me to get us where we needed to go.

Yeah, that was really hard to do when my eyes rolled to the back of my skull. Gods, his tongue. It should be illegal the way he was using it to lave at my pulse point, making me forget my own name. There was a very good chance he was leaving all kinds of bruises, and the caveman part of my brain loved that he was marking me up.

When I reached the door he’d indicated, I pressed him up against it and rolled my hips, dry-humping through our pants. He let out a grunt then bit down on my earlobe, making me see stars. That was probably why I didn’t notice him reaching for the doorknob. The door swung inward before I was prepared for it, and we lurched forward. I barely managed to catch myself on a shelf before kicking the door shut behind us. It was too dark to see, and I very desperately needed to see him, so I felt around for a light switch. He must’ve had the same idea because he beat me to it.

“Clothes… off,” I panted, setting him quickly on his feet.

There was no time to be graceful. Shirts and shoes went one way, pants and underwear another. Until we both stood there under the unflattering yellow light in nothing but our socks. For a single second, I was scared that was it. We’d gotten this far only to come to our senses. I never should’ve let go of him. But then his gaze dipped down to my cock, painfully hard and dripping precum, and he licked his full lips like he was hungry for a feast.

“Just one time, and then we never speak of this again,” he said, forcing his eyes back up to mine. “Okay?”

I was already nodding. It wouldn’t have mattered what he suggested in this moment, I was going to agree. He could’ve asked me to marry him, and I’d have found myself running down the aisle. “Uh-huh. Sure.” Then I snagged him around the waist and pulled him to me, our lips clashing once more.

There wasn’t much in the way of tables or chairs in here, but we made do with an empty shelf. I set his ass down on the edge, shoved his knees wide, and wedged myself between his legs. Liam reached between us to take hold of my cock in a tight grip, angling it just right. He stroked the head back and forth through his slick then notched it at his entrance.

“Hurry,” he whined. “I need—”

That was as far as he got before I surged forward. I knew exactly what he needed, because it was what I needed too. We should’ve taken time to prepare his hole, using fingers or my tongue, but neither of us could’ve been bothered to pause long enough for foreplay. That wasn’t what this was. He gasped as I stretched him, taking a few hard snaps of my hips to get as deep as I could, until my balls were right up against his cheeks.

I tried to pause there, to give him time to adjust to my girth, but he was clambering at my shoulders. “Move, please, move ,” he begged breathlessly. But when I obliged, it was almost too much for me. The sensations felt like an electric current zinging straight to my core.

Being slow was never an option for us. Once the brakes were off, all the pent-up frustration had us going full steam ahead. Gripping his hips, I thrust hard enough to set the shelf banging against the wall. Our kisses turned sloppy, all coordination lost to pleasure. He bit my lip hard enough that I tasted blood, but it still wasn’t enough.

It didn’t take long for the small space to fill with the smell of sex, and I reveled in it, knowing it would linger. Every time he needed a bag of flour or sugar, he would think of me.

“Yes! There!” he cried, leaning back as far as he could so I hit the right angle.

“Gods, you’re so fucking hot,” I praised, looking down at him. “You take my cock so well.”

“It was made for me,” he said on a wanton moan, head thrown back. “Fuck, I’m so close.”

His smooth chest glittered with a sheen of sweat, and I bent over him for a taste. I hesitated at his nipple, sucking gently, but then I bit down and his back bowed. He came with a cry, his dick pulsing, cum arcing between us and painting our chests. His tight ring of muscle clenched around me in time with the spurts, and I was lost. With a final hard thrust, I came inside him.

When my knot thickened from the base of my cock and forced itself into his channel, he shuddered, and as it pressed against his prostate, a last dribble of cum leaked from the tip of his crown .

I wrapped my arms around him gently and cradled him against my chest in a surprisingly tender gesture after something so carnal. “Who knew childish pranks were a form of foreplay,” I teased with a chuckle.

He laughed lightly, his gaze at half-mast as he looked at me. “This doesn’t mean I like you, you know,” he clarified, though I could’ve sworn his sex-addled brain liked me just fine.

My grin widened as I pointed out, “It doesn’t mean you don’t like me either.”

We took a moment to catch our breaths, since we were locked together. Neither of us was going anywhere. Liam sagged against me, sighing as I traced lazy patterns over his back.

Our peace was interrupted by the front door chime. Liam’s head shot up from where it was resting on my shoulder. His eyes were wide and confused. “I thought I locked that… Oh shit, Aubrey! Her shift is about to start.”

“Hello? Mr. Turner?” I heard her call distantly from the front of the café.

Liam slapped my shoulder. “You have to pull out!” he hissed, frantic. “Quick! She can’t see me like this.”

My knot hadn’t deflated enough to make this easy, but we had no other choice. It had to come out. So, wiggling my hips side to side, I eased myself back, catching on the rim of his ass. We both groaned at the sensation, and as soon as I popped free, my cum leaked from his hole. Daaaaamn. I wished so much that I could take the time to admire the view, but there was no time to be had.

I was glad we left the lights on, and not just because that made it easier to find our clothes. My gaze was lingering on his flexing limbs and the glistening cleft of his ass when my shirt hit me in the face. “Keep your eyes where they belong,” he scolded, but there was no real heat in it, and I could’ve sworn his lips twitched with the threat of a smile.

We managed to make ourselves decent, at least, cleaning up the worst of the mess with a roll of paper towel, but even fully dressed, there wasn’t much we could do about how absolutely wrecked we both looked. Liam’s cheeks were flushed, his curls tangled, and I couldn’t imagine I was much better.

“Is it obvious what we were doing?” he whispered at me as he paused, hand on the doorknob.

I shrugged. “I mean…” What was I supposed to say? I didn’t want to lie to him.

But then his gaze dipped down to my neck, and he winced. Yep, I’d say it was safe to say he left a mark. Without another word, he took a deep breath and opened the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

We emerged from the storeroom just as Liam’s staff member stepped out of a doorway that I assumed led to their breakroom. “Hey, there you are.” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why was the front door locked? It’s the middle of the day.”

“Oh, um, because…” Liam’s shoulders climbed up to his ears, the tips of his ears turning bright red. He was floundering.

“He ran out of chocolate sauce,” I said quickly, bringing the girl’s attention to me as I eased past her toward the door. “Couldn’t very well stay open without it.”

“Chocolate sauce,” she echoed with more than a little skepticism, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, so I offered to drop some off for him. Now he can safely reopen without worrying about any chocolate emergencies.”

I could see Liam over her shoulder as he slapped a hand over his face at my idiocy, but it was my experience that as long as you said it with confidence, you could get away with saying the most ridiculous shit and people would buy it—or at the very least, not call you on it. This was one of those instances.

“Hey, Jared, wait up.” Liam followed me through the café. I paused by the door, but he seemed to be struggling to find something to say. I didn’t want to hear him apologize or tell me it was a mistake. My heart couldn’t handle it. He’d already said it was a one-time thing.

I decided to put us both out of our misery.

I grinned. “We’re still not even,” I said, turning to unlock the door.

He smiled back, seemingly relieved that we could go back to our trusted norm. “I couldn’t agree more.”