He licked a circle around the head of my cock, then let it slap against my stomach. "Fuck, you're beautiful." He started mouthing at my balls. I'd never understood the appeal before, but he was so methodical—so intent on making every part of me feel—it almost hurt.
I wanted to reciprocate, to make him experience half of what he was giving me, but my body wouldn't cooperate. Jake wrapped a fist around my shaft and stroked in time with his bobbing head, and my hips bucked.
He glanced up, caught my eye, and winked. Then he went back down, taking me in deep and humming like he was trying to vibrate the pleasure deep into my bones.
I lost it. My vision went white at the edges, and I sputtered out an apology even as I came, hard, into his mouth.
He didn't flinch. He held on, swallowing until I was wrung out and trembling. Then, he let me go and kissed the inside of my thigh.
He flopped face-first onto the bed, arms outspread and hair wild. "That's two for the home team."
I pulled him up by the wrist, and he sprawled next to me on the bed, all four limbs flung out like a crime scene outline. His breath was still heavy, his face flushed, and he was half-laughing and half-panting.
My voice was hoarse. "I'm not keeping score."
"Uh, I am." He rolled onto his elbow. "Scoreboard says Jake: one, Evan: zero. Unless you count the cookies, in which case you're winning by a million." He nudged my thigh with his knee, and I realized I didn't want to move. Not for hours.
"Your turn—" I started to say, but Jake interrupted me.
"I was even better than my Yelp reviews suggest."
I froze. Blinked at him. "Did you actually make a Yelp joke? Right now?"
Jake's face went through several expressions at once—mortification, amusement, and something that might have been panic. "I, uh. Yeah. Apparently, I did. Fuck, I'm sorry, I don't know why I—"
A laugh bubbled up from deep inside my chest. It was full-bodied and unstoppable, making my entire frame shake.
"You're impossible," I managed between gasps. "Absolutely impossible."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Good," I lifted my head to look at him. "Definitely good."
What followed lacked any choreography. It was entirely honest. Jake's breath caught when I began to stroke him.
Afterward, we lay tangled in sheets that would definitely need washing, Jake's head rested on my chest, and my fingers combed through his hair.
Several minutes later, after Jake had fallen asleep with his arm slung across my waist, I carefully extracted myself from the bed and padded to the kitchen. I opened my laptop to view my cookie-baking spreadsheet.
I scrolled to the bottom and added a new entry:
Jake – chewy center. Caution: unexpectedly sincere.
I stared at the words momentarily, then closed the laptop and returned to bed, where Jake sprawled across three-quarters of the mattress like he owned it. When I slipped back under the covers, he turned toward me and his possessive arm landed across my waist.
I listened to Jake breathe beside me and decided that maybe, sometimes, the best things in life didn't come with labels after all.
Chapter fifteen
Jake
Iwas halfway through convincing myself that Evan's post-shower morning smile meant something when Pickle's words destroyed my day.
"—scout showing up tomorrow, right? From Rockford?"
I froze.
Near me, Hog complained about Murphy's snoring and someone's missing mouthguard. I'd been floating on the memory of Evan humming while he made tea, and how he'd bumped my hip when he suggested indulging in cookies for breakfast.
