Chapter Ten
Kai looked around the empty studio to make sure he was alone before making a beeline for the fridge, extracting the strawberries and cream Wyatt had put away earlier. No sense in wasting them, and the strawberries had tasted even better than Kai expected.
Possibly because Wyatt had fed him one. He knew Wyatt was just pretending to flirt with him, but he was good at it. The swooping feeling in his gut when Wyatt had pressed that strawberry to his lips had been exactly like it would have been if Wyatt had been serious.
His body couldn’t tell the difference between pretending be seduced and actually being seduced. It’d been a long time since Kai had been paid attention like that, longer still since it had come from someone…
Well, someone like Wyatt.
Setting the strawberries and the remainder of the whipped cream down on the counter, Kai hauled himself up to sit on it, his legs hanging over the edge. The first mouthful of cold strawberry and lightly-sweetened cream made him hum happily, the tartness of the berries bursting over his tongue, sharp enough to sting, and the cream soothing and rich, with just enough sugar to enhance its natural sweetness.
Kai liked to think he could taste the sunshine in all of it, the warmth of a summer afternoon, a picnic under a shaded tree with someone he could actually take home with him after. He could imagine licking the taste out of his mouth, and if the mouth he was imagining happened to be Wyatt’s…
He should really have seen that coming.
Wyatt was gorgeous, and Kai was still tingling all over at the memory of being hand-fed.
Kai jumped as the studio door swung open, heart pounding in his chest. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, exactly, but he didn’t want to be caught doing it, either.
“Only me,” Wyatt said before Kai could bring himself to look.
That was a relief.
“See you beat me to it,” Wyatt said, heading over and stealing a strawberry, dipping it in the cream without a moment’s hesitation.
Kai watched him eat it out of the corner of his eye, pretending to be deeply interested in picking out another one.
“I thought it’d be a shame to let them go to waste,” Kai said. “And this saves me being tempted to eat crap on the way home.”
“Yeah, I figured about the same,” Wyatt said, setting the core of his strawberry aside and taking another one.
Kai was going to have to eat faster or defend them if he wanted his share. Not that he minded sharing with Wyatt, not really.
Having dinner with him had been nice. Surprisingly so. Kai wouldn’t have minded doing it again, though he wasn’t entirely sure how to invite him.
They weren’t friends, not yet, regardless of their promise to try. They were just successful co-workers, and even that was a recent development.
“So, you’re gonna have to roll your sleeves up more often,” Wyatt said between bites of his strawberry. “Because did you hear the way they reacted?”
Heat prickled at the tips of Kai’s ears, but he ignored it and took another strawberry. “I remember you volunteering to undress me on national television. Hell, international television.”
“Just the shirt,” Wyatt mumbled, finishing his strawberry and setting the core aside again. They were building quite a collection of those, but Kai promised himself he’d clean up after them even if Wyatt didn’t.
“Well, it was a nice touch,” Kai said. “I knew you could give as well as you got.”
Wyatt chuckled. “I thought hand-feeding you a strawberry was my crowning moment, actually,” he said, going for one of the last three.
A curl of heat made Kai’s stomach tense up. “Yeah,” he agreed, throat suddenly dry as he watched Wyatt suck whipped cream off the end of his strawberry, making soft, happy sounds. “Yeah, that was good. Inspired, even.”
“You asked for it,” Wyatt shrugged as Kai took another strawberry, subtly moving the pack over to his other side. Wyatt could have the last one if he was willing to reach over for it, but Kai was enjoying them too much to just hand it over.
He had literally asked for it, so he couldn’t argue with that. Not that he was inclined to. Like he’d said at the time, he could have gotten used to Wyatt hand-feeding him.
No one had ever done that for him, which, looking back, was a surprise. He should have thought of it before.
One of his boyfriends should have thought of it before. It was hard to think of anything particularly nice they’d done for him. It was hard to think of anything particularly sexy they’d done for him, other than rolling him over and fucking him.
Not that Kai didn’t like that, but he could have gone for a man who was willing to put in a little effort.
“I did, yeah,” Kai said. “Turns out you’re better at pretending to seduce me than any of my previous boyfriends have been at actually seducing me.”
“You gotta raise your standards,” Wyatt said, stepping around Kai’s knee to reach for the last strawberry.
“Maybe,” Kai murmured, moving to reach for the strawberry at the same time. His hand brushed against Wyatt’s, and even that light brush against him sent a spark skittering over his skin.
He looked up, meeting Wyatt’s eyes and staring at him for a handful of seconds.
Wyatt wet his lips subtly. Just the barest hint of pink tongue poking out, and then disappearing back into his mouth again.
Kai’s stomach swooped as he leaned in, his other hand coming up to curl around the back of Wyatt’s neck, dragging him closer.
Wyatt grunted softly as their lips crashed together, but he didn’t pull back, didn’t hesitate to part them, letting Kai’s mouth slide over his own, a hot spike of lust hitting Kai square in the gut, making him moan in response.
Wyatt tasted of strawberries and salt and cream and the faintest hints of a thousand other things, and it was all Kai could do to stop himself from licking his way into Wyatt’s mouth to catalogue all of them, memorize every note of his taste.
This felt so damned good, even as Kai’s heart raced in his chest, even as he started to realize that this was Wyatt and he wasn’t supposed to be kissing him, he was supposed to be barely tolerating him, except he already liked him more than he liked most people and that was…
Terrifying, but dammit, he wanted this, no matter how stupid it was.
A bang somewhere in the depths of the studio made Wyatt jump back, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and his eyes glazed, and his lips just a little kiss-swollen and painted red with strawberry juice.
Kai stared at him, his heart still pounding, the hot weight of arousal settling in his belly.
Oh no. Oh no.
He couldn’t afford to lust after Wyatt. Not now. Not when things were working out for them professionally.
After a handful of heartbeats, Wyatt chuckled, his hand going to the back of his neck.
“Guess that was bound to happen eventually,” he said. “You know, with all the…”
Kai nodded, not really wanting Wyatt to finish that sentence. Or talk at all, if possible.
His head was spinning with everything that had just happened, and while he was grateful that Wyatt wasn’t going to… hold it against him, or get mad that it had happened, he could feel the beginnings of deep, uncomfortable disappointment sinking in.
There was no point in even thinking about that, though. Sure, it hurt the same way it’d hurt when Wyatt hadn’t automatically flirted back with him during the second episode, but… he could take a hint.
Once should have been enough, but this was the second one. Wyatt had been too kind to push him away, and now he was being kind enough to brush it off as no big deal.
Because he could do better, and he wasn’t interested. Obviously. He could have had anyone, he didn’t need to settle for someone like Kai.
“Yeah,” Kai agreed, forcing himself to laugh. “Yeah, guess that was always coming.”
He held out the last strawberry to Wyatt, a peace offering. He didn’t want them going back to being at each other’s throats, no matter how much rejection stung.
Their careers depended on it, and he liked Wyatt. At least, he enjoyed his company, and appreciated that Wyatt was kind to him. Even now, when he’d just screwed up.
“You eat it,” Wyatt said, waving the strawberry away. Kai didn’t really want to, his stomach in knots over misreading the situation so badly, but he was determined not to show it.
“Your loss,” he said, shoving the berry into his mouth and taking comfort in the bright sweetness of it, forcing the chest-binding hurt of being unwanted—as usual—away.
“I know,” Wyatt said softly, looking away. “So, uh… see you next week?”
“Next week,” Kai said, hopping off the counter and tidying up the strawberry cores, as he’d promised himself he would. No point leaving a bigger mess than he had to. “See you then.”
Wyatt waved back at him as he walked away, which didn’t help Kai at all.
Wyatt was kind to everyone, not just him. He was stupid to think for even a second that it might mean more than that.
Besides, it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t as though he was in love with the guy—he’d just had a moment of lust, and he’d acted on it, and been let down gently. Worse things had happened to him in his life.
This one didn’t have to hurt any more than any of them.