Chapter Thirteen, Part I

Redwoods

Adrian wakes to the smell of coffee and the empty space beside him.

For a moment, he keeps his eyes closed. The sheets are tangled around his legs, Jack’s pillow still carrying the faint warmth and scent of him. Adrian remembers Jack’s arm around his waist, the weight of his chest against his back, and the kiss that had slowed until neither of them could tell exactly when it became sleep.

Dinner went well.

The thought makes him smile into the pillow.

From the kitchen comes the scrape of a cupboard door, followed by Jack swearing quietly at something. Adrian lies still for another few seconds, listening. The ocean beyond the cottage. The soft clink of ceramic. Jack moving around in the next room, making coffee as though he hadn’t spent half the night kissing Adrian until neither of them could remember what they’d been talking about.

Cambria. The cottage.

Jack in the next room.

Adrian pushes the sheet aside.

His clothes are scattered across most of the bedroom. He finds Jacks T-shirt near the door and pulls it on. Nothing else.

Jack is standing at the kitchen counter in yesterday’s jeans and no shirt, his back to the doorway. The jeans sit low on his hips, unbuttoned at the top, and there are four red marks across one shoulder that Adrian does not remember leaving.

He stops in the doorway.

Jack turns with a mug in each hand.

His eyes travel down Adrian’s body.

Slowly.

The T-shirt covers what it needs to, but only just. Adrian watches Jack take in his bare legs, the faint shadow of a mark on one thigh, and the fact that there is quite obviously nothing beneath the shirt.

Jack puts both mugs on the counter.

“Morning.”

His voice is rougher than usual.

Adrian leans one shoulder against the doorframe. “You’re wearing actual clothes today. I’m almost disappointed.”

Jack’s gaze drops again, and this time there is nothing casual about it.

“You’re not.”

“No?”

“No.” Jack turns fully towards him. “You’re standing there looking at me like you’re deciding whether I need them.”

Adrian lets his eyes move over Jack’s chest, the dark hair tapering towards the open waistband of his jeans.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Take your time.”

There is already a visible weight behind the denim now, the shape of him thickening as Adrian watches. Jack makes no attempt to hide it.

That, more than anything, sends heat straight through Adrian.

“Coffee?” Jack asks.

Adrian walks towards him.

Jack reaches for one of the mugs, but Adrian catches his wrist before he can pick it up.

“No.”

“No coffee?”

“Not yet.”

Jack’s mouth shifts into the beginning of a grin. “Something else you wanted?”

Adrian steps between his feet and puts his hand flat against Jack’s stomach. The muscles tighten beneath his palm. He lets his fingers travel lower, over warm skin and the coarse line of hair, until they reach the open waistband of the jeans.

Jack stops smiling.

“That depends,” Adrian says. “Were you planning to stand here looking like this and expect me to sit politely at the table?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t.”

Adrian hooks two fingers into the waistband and pulls him closer.

Jack catches the back of Adrian’s neck and kisses him.

There is nothing sleepy about it.

His mouth is hot and open, his other hand gripping Adrian’s hip beneath the T-shirt and dragging him hard against the unmistakable pressure in his jeans. Adrian makes a sound into Jack’s mouth before he can stop it, and Jack answers by turning them, pressing him back against the counter.

The edge catches Adrian just below the hips.

Jack’s hand slides beneath the T-shirt, up his back and down again, rough fingertips tracing the curve of him before closing firmly around his hip.

“You came out here like this on purpose,” Jack says against his mouth.

“I was asleep five minutes ago.”

“You knew what you were doing.”

Adrian catches Jack’s lower lip lightly between his teeth. “You seem pleased about it.”

Jack pushes his hips forward.

The denim is coarse against Adrian’s bare skin. The pressure of him is blunt and deliberate, and Adrian’s hand closes around Jack’s shoulder as another surge of heat moves through him.

“Does that answer the question?”

“Partly.”

Jack gives a low laugh, but it breaks when Adrian reaches between them.

Jack drops his forehead against Adrian’s and closes his eyes for half a second. His fingers tighten around Adrian’s hip.

“Jesus Christ.”

Adrian’s touch slows deliberately.

“You were very confident a moment ago.”

“I’m still confident.”

“You don’t sound it.”

Jack opens his eyes. “Keep doing that and I’m putting you on this counter.”

Adrian glances behind him at the coffee maker, the mugs and the small bowl of fruit.

“You’ll have to clear it first.”

Jack sweeps the bowl aside without looking. It slides across the counter and knocks into the toaster.

Adrian laughs, but Jack catches him around the waist and lifts him before the sound is finished.

The T-shirt rides up as Adrian lands on the counter. Jack steps between his knees immediately, both hands on his thighs, spreading them wider.

For one suspended second, they simply look at each other.

Jack’s eyes are dark.

Not playful now. Not teasing.

Hungry.

His thumb moves slowly along the inside of Adrian’s thigh, stopping just short of where Adrian wants it.

“Still disappointed I’m wearing clothes?”

Adrian reaches down and opens the next button of Jack’s jeans.

“Give me a minute.”

Jack kisses him again, harder this time, one hand sliding beneath the hem of the shirt while Adrian works impatiently at the remaining buttons. Jack’s mouth moves from his lips to his jaw, then lower, his teeth scraping the side of Adrian’s neck.

Adrian lets his head fall back.

The coffee maker gives a small, cheerful beep behind them.

Neither man moves.

After a moment, Jack’s mouth presses against the pulse in Adrian’s throat.

“Coffee’s ready.”

“I don’t care.”

“Good.”

Jack pulls the T-shirt over Adrian’s head and drops it on the floor.

For a second, he simply looks at him.

Adrian sits naked on the edge of the counter, his knees spread around Jack’s hips, his chest rising quickly beneath Jack’s gaze. There is something almost unbearable in the stillness, in being watched with that much open want and no attempt to disguise it.

Then Adrian puts both hands against Jack’s chest and pushes.

Jack takes one step back, surprised enough to let him.

Adrian slides down from the counter.

“What are you doing?” Jack asks.

“Correcting the balance.”

Before Jack can answer, Adrian turns them and drives him backwards against the opposite counter. Jack’s hands catch at Adrian’s shoulders, but Adrian is already between his legs, kissing him hard enough to wipe the grin from his face.

Jack makes a low sound against his mouth.

Adrian catches him beneath the thighs.

“Up.”

Jack looks at him. “You’re serious.”

“Very.”

Jack gives a breathless laugh, but he lets Adrian lift him. A second later he is sitting on the counter, his jeans open, his legs closing instinctively around Adrian’s hips.

The new position changes something between them.

Jack is still larger, still broader through the shoulders, but now Adrian is the one standing between his knees, the one deciding how close they are allowed to be.

Adrian kisses him again.

Slower this time.

He holds Jack’s face between his hands and feels the exact moment Jack stops trying to control the kiss. Jack’s heels press into the backs of Adrian’s thighs, drawing him closer, but Adrian refuses to be hurried.

He leaves Jack’s mouth and kisses the corner of his jaw.

Then the rough skin beneath his ear.

Jack tips his head back, giving him more room without being asked.

“That’s better,” Adrian murmurs.

“Don’t get smug.”

“Too late.”

Adrian kisses his way down, over the warm expanse of his chest and the dark line running down his stomach, each kiss placed with deliberate patience.

“You’re enjoying this far too much,” Jack says.

Adrian looks up at him. “Not yet.”

Something in Jack’s expression shifts.

Adrian lowers himself between his knees.

Jack’s head falls back against the cupboard with a dull knock.

“Christ.”

Adrian’s hands settle on Jack’s thighs, holding them open as his mouth moves lower, out of Jack’s line of sight.

The kitchen goes completely silent.

Then Jack makes a sound unlike anything Adrian has heard from him before.

It begins as a growl, deep and involuntary, and breaks into something rougher as his fingers close hard around the edge of the counter. The cupboard door behind him rattles with the force of it.

Adrian pauses just long enough to look up.

Jack’s eyes open.

“Don’t you dare stop.”

There is no teasing left in his voice now.

Adrian smiles.

The coffee maker gives another bright, cheerful beep behind them.

Jack’s answer is a deep, helpless sound that seems far too large for the small kitchen.

Neither of them remembers the coffee again for quite some time.