“So I can’t promise good food when we get back. I can promise good coffee. But once you’re done here, before you have to go into town to pick up your car and head home, maybe we should get some dinner at one of those…totally fine eateries. If you really do think there could be something between us.”
CJ didn’t sit up, but he rolled his head to the side, eyes blazing blue up at him. Percy didn’t remark at the red rings around them. “You’re asking me out on a date? While I’m sitting here, protecting this piece of shit?”
“You’re not sitting here protecting a piece of shit. You’re laying here with your head in my lap, being honest with me. And I’m just sorry you didn’t have anyone other than some random barista to confide this stuff in.”
A ragged sigh shuddered out, vibrating CJ’s whole head, neck, shoulders, and chest for a few seconds. A few beats of silence before he finally spoke, soft and gravelly. “I’m kind of annoyed that I feel better.” He looked up at Percy, a tiny smile flickering over his lips. “A little better. I’m still pretty low. And I have to dive back into that bullshit tonight, iron out some details. So forgive me if I’m not quite as bright and cheery.”
Percy stroked his hair again. “Well, room service? If they’re putting you through hell for this job, they can at least pay for the booze it takes to get you through.”
And at last, a real smile passed over CJ’s lips. Not massive, not even showing his teeth. But it was still decidedly a smile, so some improvement. “I should hire you on as an advisor if you’re going to keep bringing me top tier ideas like that.”
“I don’t know if you can afford me.”
With a groan, CJ rose back to a sitting position. When Percy tried to roll over, lean for the phone, CJ gripped his wrist. Not harshly or forcefully, but Percy stopped anyway, looking back to him.
CJ held his gaze firm, face serious. “Thank you for listening. And I’ll take you up on that date offer. Assuming anything’s open when we get back. We’re cutting it awfully close to Christmas.”
A jolt through Percy’s spine. He didn’t often have much reason to think about Christmas too intensely. His family didn’t bother getting together for Christmas until May, most years. It was just easier to wait for the roads to clear, so everyone who had to travel could make it safe and sound. And it wasn’t like he had a boyfriend he needed to concern himself with.
Christmas, huh?As CJ pulled away, reaching for the landline on the nightstand, Percy’s mind chunked and churned forward.Have to check my bank account, see how things are looking. But we can do something.
Chapter 10
CJ wasn’t drunk. That would have been bad for actually getting his work done. And whether or not he liked this particular assignment—he didn’t—it was undeniably a hard one to deal with.
At least, as long as the folks at Sidewinder wanted to keep their damage to a minimum. If CJ had a little more freedom to hurt them now, he could come up with some great plans that would benefit them more in the long run.
But at the moment, riding the last vapors of the buzz from his Manhattan, CJ was actually able to thrust all that bullshit to the back of his mind. And without that to draw all his focus, his gaze magnetically lanced to Percy. There was a lot to look at there, too.
He’d gotten comfortable, taking a cue from CJ’s book. He’d lost his pants pretty early after their drinks and charcuterie board had been delivered, but CJ wasn’t sure when he’d shucked his way out of his shirt. All he knew, now, was Percy sitting cross-legged on the bed, tiny briefs barely covering anything, nipples pert and hard in the chill of the hotel air conditioning, engrossed in something on his phone.
CJ raised himself out of the plush office chair and padded over to the bed, lowering himself down so their thighs touched when he sat. Percy’s gaze drifted lazily over to him, and CJ swallowed before he could get any actual words out. “Are you drunk drunk or just buzzed like I am?”
“I honestly barely feel it. It was one glass of wine.” He put his phone down on the bedside table and CJ followed the stretch and flex of his torso, the way his ribs stood out on his lean frame, the peek of paler skin that edged out from the waistband of his underwear until he pulled himself back into position.
“Are you sober enough for some fun?”
Percy’s eyes flitted down, and it was like a literal weight pressing against CJ’s crotch, a brush that sent blood rushing, bricking him up. Although maybe that was a simple effect of being so close to a very nearly naked Percy.
Finally, Percy spoke. “How much fun?”
CJ would take anything he could get, so, “How much do you want?”
Percy’s smile broadened, and his lithe fingers plucked at the bottom of CJ’s T-shirt. Slowly, he dragged it up, the tiny movements glancing softly against CJ’s torso as the fabric raised up, over his head, off one arm, then the other, before falling to the floor. Percy raked his hands down CJ’s front, pressing against his nipples, his ribs, his abs, sliding up and awayrightbefore reaching between his legs.
CJ almost missed it when Percy answered, lost completely in the realm of touch. But some sentences could cut through even the roar of a jet engine.
“I want you to finger me while you blow me.”
Heard, sure. But the frankness still slapped into him, forced his mouth to move ahead of his thoughts. “Blow you and finger you?”
Percy nodded once. “And vice versa. If you’re into that.”
A low rumble passed through CJ’s chest, vibrating all the way through him as his cock ached to be released. “I’m very into that. All of that. Yes please.”
Without any more talk, CJ pressed his hands against Percy’s slender chest, using his weight and his strength to push him back on the bed. The animal lust raged and roared, slavering as he looked at the beautiful, limber body laid out before him.
CJ grabbed roughly onto the leg hole of Percy’s briefs and yanked them down, all the way past his knees in a single jerk. It was easy to get them the rest of the way off. He’d seen Percy before, but there was still a thrill at his hard cock, head protruding from his foreskin.
