"Well, that too. But I meant the kissing part," he said, sitting up to join me at the edge of the bed, snatching up a shirt from the floor to wipe his chest and stomach. "I could maybe accept a guy just being curious if he was down for fucking around. But kissing? That's a whole new level."
I watched him wipe himself, absorbing what he had just said, and thought about it. There was no denying that he had a point. I'd known that some line had been crossed, but I hadn't had the time to think. There was a certain intimacy that came from what,at face value, seemed like the smallest, most innocent of acts. It wasn't like I had ever balked at kissing a sexual partner before, but those had all been women. On some level, I must have been aware of the importance because I had never kissed him until today, and just as interesting, he had never tried to kiss me either.
"Mmm," he groaned, giving a stretch. "Don't think too hard or you'll stress yourself out."
"That's your advice? Just don't think about it?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes at the lack of responsibility.
"I said don't thinktoohard," he said with a shrug. "Obsessively thinking about shit doesn't do anything but stress people out and give them no answers. So why bother?"
"So what should I do instead?" I asked, realizing I was genuinely curious what he thought.
"I think you should enjoy the fact that you just wrecked the living shit out of me," he said with a laugh. "And that with the night free, you have no other obligations. If you want, we can chill here for a while and maybe find the energy to go another round later."
"Seriously?" I asked in surprise, glancing down at him. "Even after...that?"
"You mean after you fucked me stupid?"
"Is that a compliment?"
"Oh yeah. You're still a bastard, but you're a bastard with a damn fine body and dick, and you fuck like a champ."
"I've never had complaints."
"I bet, though I'm going to try not to think too hard about that."
"What, why?" I asked as he stared at me meaningfully, and then I thought about it and winced. Right, his sister. "Oh. Yeah, uh, forget I asked."
"Deal...so?"
"So?"
"Jesus, are you going to hang out here for a while with me or not?"
Something inside me said there was a lot more to that question than first appeared. Of course, to find out that meaning, I would have to peel back the surface and start rooting around. At the same time...what was the point? I had already tried to do that a few times when it came to what had been going on between us, and it had yielded next to nothing. Any answers had come from...well, doing what he had just said, not thinking too hard, and simply going with whatever happened.
"Sure," I said with a shrug as if the answer didn't feel like it bore the same weight, if not more, than the question itself.
MASON
I watched as Micah anxiously bounced from one side of us to the other. He hadn't started chattering yet, but I knew that the word vomit was bound to start at some point. I liked to joke that he was eight going on eighty, but there were still times when he was the little kid he was supposed to be. On my one side, Moira was watching him with a small smile, while on my other, Jace was watching him with his normal stony expression.
Well, that wasn't completely right. For whatever reason, I could see a twinkle in Jace’s eye that wasn't normally there. Not that I blamed him, the trip to the Museum of Natural History had been his idea for Micah's sake. We hadn't even made it inside yet, and the kid was already losing his mind from excitement. It was easy yet difficult to get Micah to stop acting like a dignified adult and be an actual kid who got excited because his biological father had discovered the museum was having a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit on reefs and their wildlife from around the world. Of course, the kid didn't know Jace was his dad, just a new friend of the family, but that didn't matter to him because his newest obsession was being fed.
Along with the group assigned to us, we stopped at a set of closed doors. A woman came strolling out, apparently ourguide, and began talking. A projector overhead came to life, showing footage of reefs, colorful and swaying in the underwater currents, while schools of brightly colored fish flitted in and out of cover. Crustaceans scuttled about in the safety of the coral. The footage switched between different reefs as the woman gave an overview of their ecosystem and what we could expect from the upcoming exhibit.
Micah was enraptured, and I glanced over to see that Jace was watching the kid more than the woman. He still had that same serious expression on his face, and I nudged him. “You're allowed to smile, you know."
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?"
I chuckled softly, keeping my voice down so I didn't interrupt the people around us. "You always look so serious. When I know damn well you're excited that he's excited. It's okay to show it."
"I'll leave grinning from ear to ear to kids...and idiots like you."
Christ, I was beginning to understand why he and Moira had been attracted to each other and also why they hadn't worked out. Both were so damned serious, and expressing happiness was not something that came easily to either of them. Sure, it made them naturally responsible people you could rely on to get shit done, but it also meant they had to have an outside force act on them to make sure that they had happiness and some whimsy in their lives. It would have made for a solid relationship, but it would have been a relationship with no real spark.
For Moira, that had been alleviated for the most part by her family, especially me. There were more serious people in our lives, like Arlo and Elijah to an extent, but she always had people like me and Milo who wouldn't let her get dragged down by her seriousness. Back in school, I didn't think Jace had anything of that sort, no lighthearted balance to his more serious nature.Now, though, I could see that his partner and best friend were the perfect balance for him.
As if summoned, Kayden appeared over my shoulder with a quiet, “Sorry I'm late. Traffic was a...well, it was rough."
