Page 30 of Your Pace or Mine (Running for the Romance #1)

It was a short walk from the restaurant to Darius’s townhouse.

Darius led Jamie up the steps, quickly unlocking and pushing open the heavy door.

He toed off his shoes and turned to face Jamie.

The air between them felt heavy with unspoken need.

Jamie launched himself at him. Darius barely had time to react before Jamie’s lips were on his, his body pushing him up against the wall in the corridor as he kissed him aggressively, hands tugging at his clothes.

Darius let out a low groan as Jamie made quick work of the buttons on his trousers.

Jamie kissed down his neck, one hand slowly stroking Darius’s length as he held him in place. After what could have been either three seconds or three hours of slow teasing strokes and kisses, Jamie lowered himself to the floor.

Trousers around his ankles, Darius lost any remaining coherence he had as Jamie nuzzled his cock then licked a strip from root to tip. Pleasure overtook his senses, and Darius moaned as his head hit the wall behind him.

Fuck.

Jamie licked and swirled his tongue around the head of Darius’s cock, tonguing the slit before slowly sucking him into his mouth.

Darius tangled his hands in Jamie’s curls.

He desperately tried to hold himself steady against the wall as Jamie’s head bobbed up and down, sucking him deep down his throat each time.

Darius could have sworn he was seeing stars.

Then Jamie looked up at him with those shining blue eyes glassy with tears, and Darius lost control, bucking his hips roughly as he fucked Jamie’s throat. Jamie didn’t let him take over for long, swallowing around him as he gripped Darius’s arse tightly, holding him in place.

Jamie pulled back, sucking hard on just the tip of his cock, and Darius’s vision whited out. He couldn’t hold back. Without even a moment of warning, he was spilling into Jamie’s waiting mouth.

Darius made an aborted sound in the back of his throat as he went to apologise, but Jamie popped off with a self-satisfied grin on his face.

Licking his lips, he pulled Darius down to the floor in a filthy kiss.

They kissed, tangled together on the floor, until Darius reached for Jamie, intent on returning the favour, but Jamie swatted his hand away.

“Want to come with you inside me,” he whispered as he kissed down the shell of Darius’s ear. Darius’s spent cock stirred at the promise. He wanted that too.

“You’ll have to let me take my time with you then.”

Darius pulled back, pushing himself to standing, then pulling Jamie up after him. He led him through the house in a sort of lust-fuelled daze to the master bedroom on the first floor.

Darius’s room was a pale cream colour. A king-size bed took up the centre of the room with a white linen duvet covering it.

His cleaning lady had convinced him ages ago to add a pile of decorative pillows to the bed, which he thought was ridiculous, but she had said it added character.

He wasn’t sure why his bed needed character, but seeing Jamie eyeing it now, he thought maybe she’d made a good call.

Jamie crawled onto the bed, tugging off his jeans and tossing them to the side before burying himself between the pillows. Darius picked the jeans up, folding them neatly and placing them on the dresser, earning a low laugh from Jamie.

Darius removed his own clothes slowly and slid onto the bed next to Jamie.

He pulled him towards him, kissing him once on the lips, then down the side of his jaw and over his neck.

He traced the floral tattoo he adored so much with his tongue, following its winding pathway from Jamie’s shoulder, down his chest and abdomen.

He paused where the tattoo stopped, just below the dip in Jamie’s hip bone, and Jamie let out a low groan.

A bead of precum glistened on the tip of Jamie’s hard cock, and Darius shuffled down to lick it off. He teased him with his tongue for a moment before looking up. He needed him. “Turn over,” he whispered.

Jamie’s eyes were dazed and desperate as he scrambled to flip himself, legs tangling in the down duvet. He huffed as he untangled himself, spreading himself out to Darius like a particularly delicious gift.

Darius placed a gentle kiss in the small of his back before tracing a finger down his crack softly, reverently. He was rewarded with a shiver of anticipation from Jamie.

“So perfect, Jamie.”

His own cock was stirring again, but Darius ignored it as he gently nipped at a pert cheek, spreading them with his hands to reveal Jamie’s quivering hole.

“Darius, please,” Jamie moaned.

He dove in with no hesitation. Jamie’s moans bounced off the walls as Darius feasted, licking and nipping at the puckered flesh.

Jamie’s hips wiggled, and it was all the encouragement he needed.

Darius hummed, going for gold and pushing his tongue in.

Jamie mewled as Darius continued to lap at him, thrusting his tongue in and out desperately.

Jamie let out a strangled sob as Darius pulled back. He was so hard now it ached. Jamie tossed the small bottle of lube that had been sitting on the nightstand at him, nearly beaming him in the head.

“Please, just this,” he stuttered out.

Darius hesitated for a moment. “Jamie, are you sure that’s a choice you want to make in the moment?”

“Darius, I want to feel you, please. I trust you,” he gasped, pressing his hips wantonly into the mattress and grinding against it.

Still, Darius hesitated. It felt intimate. Maybe too intimate.

“Is that ok?” Jamie asked, suddenly quieter, vulnerable. And fuck, Darius wanted this.

“Yeah, fuck yes, Jamie,” Darius replied as he slicked his cock liberally. “Turn around again, though. I want to see you,” he whispered.

The tone in the room had shifted. Darius was acutely aware of every sound for a moment as Jamie shuffled up the bed.

The crinkling of the sheets, the beating of his own heart.

He crawled over him, and his focus narrowed to the heat between them as he slid slowly inside, overwhelmed by the feeling of Jamie, just Jamie.

That first press felt like heaven. The heat, the pressure, overwhelmed his senses as he pushed inside.

Darius pulled Jamie into a sloppy kiss as he bottomed out and stilled for a moment.

They kissed languidly, Darius buried deep in the heat of Jamie, dragging himself in and out slowly and smoothly.

The control it took was almost driving him mad.

Then he shifted the angle ever so slightly, and Jamie gasped wantonly.

It sparked a desperate need between them, and then they were off, chasing the finish line, with no finesse or control as they clung to each other.

When they toppled over the edge in quick succession, Darius pulled Jamie tighter against him, holding still in the afterglow as he slid slowly out. For a moment, he was struck by an undeniable truth: he was never going to be able to let this man go.

Just as the thought struck him, Jamie shifted on the bed, slowly climbing out and making his way to the en-suite to clean up. Darius followed him. Then, as Jamie looked like he might be gathering himself to leave, he grabbed his hand. “Jamie,” Darius spoke softly into his ear. “Stay?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Jamie nodded, sagging into Darius’s arms. They returned to the bed, tossing the messy duvet aside to curl together in Darius’s Egyptian cotton sheets.

Darius pulled Jamie close, clinging to him like he could keep them in this moment forever.

This already felt like so much more than he’d ever had with anyone else.

But it wasn’t more, it wasn’t real. Jamie had been clear they’d never work.

Even thinking it stung.

Darius felt incredibly rested the next morning, despite the second round of sleepy sex they’d enjoyed in the middle of the night.

It was far too early to wake Jamie up, but Darius allowed himself the quiet luxury of pretending the weight of Jamie next to him in bed was his normal, just for a moment.

He needed to get a run in, though. Keeping a training volume of over a hundred miles a week didn’t leave a lot of opportunities for lie-ins.

Darius quietly snuck out of the room, laced up his trainers and sent a quick text to Jamie so he’d know he hadn’t just left him.

This part of London was beautiful in the early morning light, and maybe he was still riding a high from being with Jamie, but he found himself really appreciating every bit of the city as he ran past.

By the time he got back to the townhouse, Jamie was up and freshly showered, a towel slung low on his hips as he examined his clothing from the night before with a frown.

Darius set the coffees he’d picked up on a nightstand and wrapped his arms around Jamie from behind, laying soft kisses on his neck.

“Want to borrow something?” he asked.

At Jamie’s hesitant nod, Darius reluctantly pulled away, passing him a pair of joggers and a T-shirt from his drawer.

Jamie took them from his hands with a quiet ‘thank you,’ and pulled him closer.

Darius kissed him on the neck, breathing him in.

A barely audible gasp from Jamie had him tangling his hands in his hair and pulling him in for a heated kiss.

They separated, foreheads touching. Jamie whispered in Darius’s ear, “You reek. Please go get a shower.”

“Yes, dear.” Darius laughed. Jamie wasn’t wrong.

After the quickest shower he’d probably ever managed, during which he obsessively worried Jamie would be gone when he came out, Darius walked back into his room to find Jamie sitting on the edge of the bed, sipping his coffee.

Darius thought he looked impossibly soft in the borrowed clothes, and it ignited something inside of him, like satisfaction purring deep within him.

Jamie had his phone in his hand, scrolling through what looked like some sort of job site as he absentmindedly drank from the paper cup.

He glanced up at Darius with a smile, leaning back against the pillows to watch as Darius puttered around the room, quickly dressing before settling beside him and pressing a kiss to his temple.

“What are you looking for?” Darius asked.

Jamie turned his mobile to show Darius. “Just scrolling casting sites,” he sighed. “I haven’t heard from my agent in weeks, and if I don’t find something soon, my chances of making rent next month are looking slim, never mind that bloody fundraiser I’ll probably have to top up.”

Darius hummed. “I could help,” he offered tentatively.

Jamie shut him down with a glare. “I don’t want your money, Darius.”

“Are you sure, because… if I were really your boyfriend, I’d probably have covered it by now.”

Another glare.

“Is your knee feeling good enough to manage an audition?” Darius pivoted.

A grin took over his face. “Yes, I’m definitely ready. Maybe not full-on acrobatics, but I can handle a standard dance call.”

As they enjoyed their breakfast, Jamie showed Darius some of the ridiculous casting calls he’d found online.

They ranged from absurd (send a self-tape, chewing bubble gum, and dropping your phone on your face) to horrifying (provide a six-minute video jumping up and down in the nude for further consideration to the director’s private email address).

“Is that legal?” Darius questioned.

Jamie grimaced. “Probably not, but that’s the business.” He tucked his phone into the pocket of his borrowed shorts. “There isn’t much to protect people from that sort of thing, you’ve just got to be smart about it.”

There was a strange shift in Jamie’s body language that Darius couldn’t quite place. He took their dishes, placing them in the sink to deal with later and pulled him into his arms, taking whatever he could get for now.