Page 2 of The Year of Us: April

CHAPTER 2

Cory

Jet lag was making me its bitch this week. I’d flown in that morning and had spent pretty much every waking moment since trying to keep Reese off my mind long enough to get my job done.

God, I loved watching him at work. The way he moved, always confident. Always assured. He was friendly with the patrons, personable, but there was an extra depth to the way he smiled at me that wasn’t present when he smiled at them.

I nursed the drink he made me and managed to steal snippets of his attention between customers. He kept circling back to one woman in particular, the one he was touching when I walked in. I tamped down the urge to claim him right there in front of her. It made me feel like a possessive little monster. I watched them interact while I drank. More than anyone else in there, he seemed familiar with her. Friendly. I made a note to ask about her later. In a totally not possessive little monster way.

When my drink was nearly done, Reese found time to return to my side of the bar.

“Sorry about that.”

“You’re working. It’s expected. I don’t mind.” I let him see me check him out. I loved how he dressed for work. The tight shirt with the sleeves pushed up. The jeans that clung to his ass in a nearly obscene way.

Reese looked at me, concern making his brow furrow. “You look tired.”

“I’m wiped.”

He grimaced when he glanced at the time. “I still have hours left.”

“I know, but I had to see you. I’m going to head to the hotel and get some sleep.” I stood and pulled my wallet out. “I had the front desk give me an extra keycard. Come wake me up when you get off.”

Our fingers brushed against each other as he took the card. Every time we touched, it reminded me how much I liked it. It left me aching for more. If he wasn’t at work, I’d have grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him in for a kiss. I’d have bent him over the bar and—it was definitely time for me to get out of there.

Peeling a bill that would more than cover the drink out of my wallet, I handed it to Reese.

“That’s too much.”

“The tip isn’t negotiable, Reese.”

He glared, but took the money.

“See you at three-ish.” I started to sway forward as if to kiss him goodbye, but held myself in check. Only barely. Seeing him and not being able to touch him, kiss him, torment him… it was a torture in itself.

“See you at three,” Reese promised.

Dragging myself out of the bar was the hard part, but falling asleep was as easy as stretching out in the hotel bed. One day, maybe I’d have a life that allowed me to sleep in a bed that was more familiar than not. Maybe one day I wouldn’t feel out of place in my own apartment, like I was a passerby and not an occupant.

I took those thoughts with me as I crashed into a dreamless sleep.

It felt like I’d only just closed my eyes when I stirred, a heavy weight pinning me to the bed. Reese. He smelled of work. Of cheap liquor and a hint of sweat, but mostly of that rich earthy tone I’d come to know as his own scent.

“Hey,” he whispered as my eyes fluttered open.

I grabbed him and pulled him down to me. He had stripped out of his clothes and climbed into my bed stark naked.

I could have had him right then. Could have flipped him over and licked him open and fucked him until he forgot his name.

But we kissed instead. Long, lazy licks, caressing each other. Greeting each other after a month apart. Four weeks that had started to feel like forty at the end. I’d missed him, I realized with startling clarity. Sure, we kept in touch while I was away. Talking. Texting. Sexting too. A lot of sexting, to be honest. But the more time we spent being open about that, about our desires, our needs, our wishes and wants, the more other parts of us crept into the conversations.

I’d taken him on a virtual tour of my apartment and felt the shame bloom in my chest when I realized how little I cared about it. How little it felt like a home, especially compared to Reese’s lived-in studio. Where his was packed with life and things that mattered to him, mine was like a shell. A husk. No pets. No plants. Nothing to take care of because I was never there and when I was, I sat in my chair in front of my window and worked, or I sat up in bed and worked.

Being in LA with Reese, even for the small amounts of time I was able to snatch away from my job, felt like being on vacation. It felt like living.

After a few minutes, he rolled off of me and curled up at my side. With him naked and near, the list of things I could do to him were endless. But at the top of that list was more kissing. His mouth was an addiction. A paradise that only I got to experience.

If he’d made a move, I would have folded like a lawn chair, but Reese seemed content to lie in the tight circle of my arms and kiss me until my face started to ache, and my eyes again felt heavy as exhaustion crept back in.

“Sleep, Cory,” Reese whispered against my lips at some point.

I let him have that one and I went down without a fight, smiling against his chest when he repositioned us so that I was cradled in his arms instead of the other way around.