Jax licked slightly swollen red lips and said, “You know what? We can skip the pleasantries this once,” and let Ari drag him further inside.
Everything was that muchrighterwith Jax pressed against the bedroom door, panting as Ari dismantled him with his mouth. “Fuck,” Jax said as he squirmed against Ari’s hands and reflexively tried to push his cock deeper. “I guess you missed me too.”
That was such an obvious fact it didn’t bear commenting, especially when Ari’s tongue was busy. He flicked his gaze up to Jax’s face—flushed, pupils blown, sweat trickling down his temple because he still had his coat on—and pointedly rolled his eyes.
Then he relaxed his throat and enveloped him to the base.
“Fuck.” Jax slammed his head back against the door. Ari reveled in it, in the taste and feel of him, but mostly in how easily he came apart under Ari’s touch. “Ari, I’m—”
Ari pressed his fingers behind his balls, and that was it. Jax made a sharp, high noise without any vowels and came in his mouth, his thighs shaking.
He thought he’d have at least thirty seconds while Jax recovered, but apparently he’d underestimated Jax, because he’d barely wiped his mouth when Jax sank to his knees beside him and pushed him onto his back on the floor. He was about to protest that the bed was three feet away, but Jax already had his jeans open and really, this wasn’t going to take long.
Ari really had missed him.
An embarrassingly small number of minutes later, Jax rolled his head off Ari’s lap and lay next to him on the floor. “Hi, Jax. Nice to see you, Jax. How was your week? Couldn’t stop thinking about you, Jax.”
Ari huffed, duly chastised. “Hello, Jax. I missed you.” He turned his head to look at him, but Jax was staring up at the ceiling. He had a streak of come on the corner of his mouth. “How was your week?”
Jax took a few breaths—enough that Ari started to tense, worried something was wrong. Although what could be wrong? Surely if something were bothering him, he wouldn’t have responded so eagerly when Ari jumped him.
But maybe thatwasthe problem? Jax had said he often had difficulty keeping his partners on the same page with him, relationship-wise. Had Ari made him feel used?
Before he could spiral too far into a panic, Jax took a deep breath and shook his head slightly. “Long,” he said finally as he turned to look at Ari. The muscle at the corner of his jaw was bunched. “My week was long. Kind of lonely.”
Ari turned onto his side so he could reach for Jax’s hand and lace their fingers together. “I’m sorry.” He wished Jax could have come along.
Jax looked at their tangled hands and swallowed. Then he looked up. Whatever he was holding back, it was still bothering him, and it had something to do with Ari.
Why didn’t he say something?
On the other hand, why couldn’t Ari just ask? He cleared his throat. “Is something the matter?”
Jax bit his lip, then shook his head. This time the tension in his body seemed to melt away for real. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking.”
Thinking hard enough for a small crease to form between his eyebrows, which Ari reached up to smooth away. “About?”
Jax captured his hand again, but he didn’t interlace their fingers, just held it loosely between their bodies. “Well, you met Alice. And Sam’s been asking about you. I thought maybe we could do lunch sometime? Just the three of us, I mean. Well, we could ask George and Alice too, but that’s logistically more challenging.”
Was Jax worried Ari wouldn’t want to meet his sister? “I would love to,” he said honestly. “We could make something here, or would it be better to go out?” Would Sam like him? Did they need to be on neutral ground, just in case?
Something flashed across Jax’s face, but it was gone before Ari could catalog it, never mind decipher it. “She’ll probably want to cook for us, but we should talk her out of it. She doesn’t get out for a lot of socializing. Perils of being a working mom.”
“I understand.” Ari pulled Jax’s hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles. “You’ll ask her and let me know when she’s free? I don’t have anything scheduled this week, so my time is yours.”
Especially since he was up against the wall again with writer’s block. Having Jax around more often could only be good for his creative process.
He hoped.
“Are you sure?” Jax asked. “You were gone for a week. You don’t need to go see your parents or anything?”
“Well, we do have standing dinner plans on Saturdays.” A truly absurd time to have a commitment with one’s parents when one was dating conventionally, but it didn’t matter to Ari since Jax wasn’t available anyway. “But no, I don’t need to make a special effort to see them during the week. It’s… actually, it may be better if I stay away until the weekend.”
Now Jax was frowning again. “What? Why?”
Ari pursed his lips and debated how to phrase it delicately. “My parents… are supportive of me to a point. They’re proud of me. But I think they think that I should give up touring and stay in London to take care of them until—”Until they die. But that was too morbid to say out loud.
“And you don’t want to do that,” Jax filled in. That shadow in his eyes was back, the tension in his face.