Evander grunted, then spun the top loose from the bottle and took a healthy swig of the pink. When he pulled away, he glanced over the label. A moment of quiet as he smiled softly. “Dragonfruit and pineapple.” He chuckled lightly, then put the cap back on and looked over at Ozzy. “You trying to get lucky?”
“Pretty sure that only works with real pineapple.” Ozzy’s first instinct was to push back, remind him that they’d gone down this road already and decided not to do the flirting, casual sex comment thing. It wouldn’t quite get off his tongue as his cock throbbed to life, swelling at the meresuggestionof a blow job.
Evander laughed loud. Louder than he probably should have, with a hangover. His face split into a big grin and he shook his head, walking past Ozzy. “I meant what I said before. I can help you out. But if I do,youshould probably be the one downing pineapple, not me.”
Before Ozzy could say anything back, Jake walked up, one brow raised, his eyes sparkling blue. “Eating pineapple? Do I want to know what’s going on with you two?”
“Not a damn thing.” Ozzy stiffened and clamped himself back into his normal state of control. “I got him a stupid sports drink and he insisted on being a dick about it. Big shock.”
Jake nodded, swiping a sheen of sweat from his forehead. “Well, try to keep us in the know. If you two get back together, we need to sound the alarms.”
“Fuck off, Jake. Not everyone sluts themselves around on these jobs.” He squeezed his eyes shut. He knew he should apologize—Jake’s relationship with Quinn was new, but that didn’t mean it was inherently temporary or casual—but he stepped away instead.
Jake was right, of course. Them in a relationship again was the kind of thing that needed a sign-off from…everyone who might get caught up in the crossfire if things turned sour.
When they did. Again.
With how much this new job and Melanie’s family were scratching at the memories of his family bullshit, they might needgovernmentsign-off if they got back together now. The kind of anger that put into play was thermonuclear in nature.
Chapter twenty
Evander
It took the restof the afternoon and into the evening, but Evander finally felt somewhat human again. He showered and kept scraping sawdust out of his ears, out from under his fingernails, even out of his nose. The snot rockets in the shower were definitely not cute.
I’m going to get back at Ozzy for that shit.
The product that Jake managed to put together was good, at least. A decent bonus. Not quite a salve to the throbbing pain in his skull, but it softened his annoyance. Also, a decent reminder how good Jake was. Intellectually, Evander knew they were all good at their jobs, but it had been a minute since he’d seen Jake work up close and personal. He didn’t even need to make any adjustments to the design, basically plucked out a perfect trellis pattern and a frame, then repeated it over and over until they had exact copies of framed out openings that could be slottedinto the fence.ThenJake laid out the plan for how to put them in. It was retrofitting instead of building a new fence from the ground up. They needed to consult with Ozzy on the finish for the trellis sections, see if they should match it or make some kind of contrast, but Jake and the contracting crew had knocked out the bulk of the work without breaking a sweat.
Well, with a sweat. Evander’s hungover senses had picked up on the sweat. There was only so much deodorant could do in the face of hours of outdoor carpentry work. Evander wasn’t spreading blame around. He knew he’dalsooverpowered his cologne and deodorant while barely doing anything out there.Just lucky I didn’t sweat pure vodka and gin.
He ordered in a Caesar salad and downed a ton of water…and some more of that stupid sports drink Ozzy had brought over for him. He usually wasn’t much for that kind of thing, but it wasdamngood and seemed to have made him feel better. It could have gone wrong. Evander’s tastes could have changed since the last time he and Ozzy broke up.
But they hadn’t. Dragonfruit tasted like basically nothing, but the pineapple…Evander’s favorite. Top five, at least. If he had to pick one fruit, it would probably be passion fruit, but Ozzy had clearly made the choice deliberately.
Because underneath all the bullshit between them and his brusque demeanor, Ozzy was a decent enough guy. At his core. Buried downdeep.
Evander closed his eyes in the dim room, listening to the air conditioner hum, and let his mind wander. Away from work, away from his hangover, away from everything else. He just breathed in and out in the faintly chilly room. The cool air played over his bare chest, perking up his nipples.
He ran his hands down his chest and his belly, down into his trunks. When his mind was left to wander, with the taste of pineapple still on his lips, it flickered to Ozzy. He stillremembered the roughness of Ozzy’s hands scraping across his body, the feel of his muscular arms wrapping around Evander’s back and lifting him up, the sharpness of his teeth as he nipped at Ev’s earlobe and his nipple and his belly button.
There was no one living in his head or reading his mind, so Evander didn’t care. Fantasy was fantasy, and even after a couple years, Ozzy was still the only serious relationship Evander had ever held down. Also by far the best fuck, which was what drove his hand lower, cupping his balls, rubbing his taint. Every time he touched the sensitive little bundle of nerves, fire licked up his body, combating the cool from the air conditioner and forcing shuddering breaths past his lips.
It was insanity and he knew it. Repeating the same actions and expecting a different result. Einstein said that and he was smart. Or Heisenberg. Or Feynman. Some famous physicist, but he was pretty sure it was Einstein.
Whoever they were, they were smarter than Evander. Smart enough to know that he definitely shouldn’t get back together with Ozzy, even just for a hookup.
But in a fantasy where no one had any emotions, he could just let imaginary Ozzy trace hands down his body. He hadn’t hooked up with anyone for a hot minute. He’d been in some self-imposed celibacy—too many random one-night stands were sucking his soul dry instead of just his balls—for a couple months before Mason emailed all of them. Then, with all the preparations for the show, he hadn’t exactly been burning up his bed sheets. Then they were on the job. He’d become very familiar with his hand again, that was for sure.
But even beingthathard up didn’t explain howvividthis fucking fantasy was. If he kept his eyes shut, he couldfeelOzzy laying on top of him, all muscle and warm skin, smelling of damp soil. Evander’s hand was his hand, teasing his cock higherand harder, milking precum out into a wet spot on the front of his underwear.
Evander bit down on a pillow to keep his moaning to a minimum. They were in a hotel, after all. Nobody needed to hear him getting pleasured by his own imagination. His hips bucked, thrusting his cock up into the warm, tight grip as imaginary Ozzy’s hot breath washed over him, briefly counteracting the air conditioning.
He could feel it coming…the cum. His body tensed and he laughed in his own mind.I’m about to shoot my load after five minutes of playing with myself. Jesus.
He tightened his grip as imaginary Ozzy flicked his right nipple over and over again.
Knock knock knock.
