Kevin, the security guard, knocked the hell out as soon as he scarfed a meal of two-day-old bagels and beef jerky. He turned on his side, pillow over his head to hide from the sun streaming from the windows, and conked out. His soft snores reminded me so much of my old man that I turned my phone back on just to text my parents some emoji besos and reassure them I was safe.
“I’m gonna go downstairs and hang out at his post,” I said, stripping off my shirt that had been reduced to a sweat rag after my treks back and forth up the stairs. “I dunno what to do in case of emergency, but there’s a landline down there, I guess.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jace said.
“You really don’t have to. I’m pretty much just holding down the fort in case anyone has any questions or any weirdos try to get in.”
“Even so, I’ll come with you. Just in case.”
Behind him, Aiden snorted. “Baby, this isn’t Escape from L.A.”
Jace nailed his husband with a look so annoyed, I half expected Aiden to burst into flames. “Can you not fucking belittle me for at least an hour? You always do this shit when something happens.”
Aiden glared, which was when I realized they were turning into the hot, sweaty, and aggravated versions of themselves after being stuck in the building for going on a day and a half. Maybe we’d go full-on Lord of the Flies if this spanned a few more days.
“You can give me that look all you want, but even if you think I’m being irrational, you don’t need to be acting like I’m a fucking idiot.”
“Okay, whatever, sure.” Aiden ran a hand through his hair, glanced at me, then away. “How about we all go downstairs? I want to see if I can track down some more candles and batteries.”
I snorted. “Fat chance on that one. All the stores were closed.”
“That’s why you don’t try searching for stores,” Aiden said with a wink. “You find the people with the smart hustle, selling batteries and candles on the corner.”
Of course he’d be the one to think of that. Of course.
Grinning and shaking my head, I looped my arm through Jace’s because he was still staring at Aiden like he wanted to throat punch him, and walked with them to the door. I’d been all worried about silent treatment and awkwardness following our tense conversation, but we’d eased right back into our usual back-and-forth with no need for a stumbling transition.
The thought caused me to pull Jace tighter against me. I dropped a kiss on his forehead, and we headed down into the darkened staircase. If Jace was annoyed by my hot-and-cold shit, he didn’t let on. He pressed against my side as we synchronized our steps like a couple of dorks, and he appeared more amused than annoyed by the time we burst into the brightened lobby.
“All right, you two stay put.” Aiden pointed at us sternly. “I’m gonna try to charge my phone since it’s on its last leg.”
“Is it creepy if I say ‘Yes, Daddy’?” I wondered out loud, smirking.
He shuddered comically, looking ridiculous with his brawny shoulders straining a too-small shirt he’d probably snagged from Oli’s office. The sight of his biceps wanting to bust out of the material had my mouth watering.
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Creepy as fuck.”
Jace rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t take a long time, Mr. Judgmental.”
“I won’t.” Aiden paused in the doorway. “Use Kevin’s keys to lock these doors so no one can get in from the outside. Anyone who got stuck here last night should have an ID. No one else gets to come in.”
“What if they’re hungry or thirsty?” I asked.
Jace smiled, but Aiden seemed exasperated. “Case-by-case basis, hero.”
I flashed a thumbs-up and locked him out. After, I sat on Kevin’s chair behind his desk and slumped against it, instantly going into a level of Clerks bored as Jace hopped up on the desk beside me. He brought his legs up to fold in front of him and studied me.
“I thought you were going to take off,” he noted. “Maybe to Michael and Nunzio’s.”
“I would have told you first. Or at least called.”
“I know, but I was still waiting for that call.” Jace’s expression was a mix between serious and appreciative, his full lips twisted to the side even as he gazed at me and reached out to stroke my hand. “Thanks for not making fun of me about my irrational paranoia.”
“I don’t think Aiden is trying to make fun of you,” I said quickly. “He just doesn’t always think before he speaks. And you two have been together so long, he probably thinks you’ll know what he means and won’t get upset by it.” Jace was gazing at me with his eyes half-closed as he gazed at me from under his long lashes. Grinning nervously, I added, “At least, that’s what happens with me and my friends. We talk shit to each other so much, assuming it’s all jokes and everyone is in on it, until someone gets mad for real. But since we have so much love for each other, there’s usually no hard feelings after a few rants in Spanish.”
Jace’s mouth twitched. “Is that what happens with Stephanie and Angel? She’s mad at him a lot.”
“Ahh . . . yeah. He gets under her skin, like, on purpose. Kinda like teasing the girl you like but won’t actually tell her you like her.”
“I’d smack the shit out of him.”
I busted out laughing and slapped my hand against the desk. “Yeah, well, in his defense, he’s been in love with her since high school but she’s always been a solo flyer. Hashtag exploring her sexuality. A lot like you and Aiden, actually. Angel thinks he can’t change that about her, and he can’t do the causal thing she usually does, so he settles for teasing her and being emo.”
Jace turned to face me completely, sliding his legs down to dangle off the desk on either side of me. Leaning forward, he gave me an intense once-over. “And how does he know she won’t change for him?”
“Because . . . she’s Stephanie. She’s happy the way she is. Why should he ask her to change her life because he caught feelings all late in the game—” I caught myself as he leaned closer, his eyes narrowing further with each of my words. Oh fuck. “Uh,” I stammered. “I mean, he doesn’t think it’s his place to ask someone as independent as Stephanie to change her lifestyle just for him. It’d be kinda . . . arrogant.”
Jace’s lip curled. “Or kinda . . . cowardly to bow out before really asking her if she’d do it. And to leave her hanging thinking she’s being rejected because he can’t handle her ‘lifestyle.’”
Defensiveness reared up in me like a surge of fire, and I sat up in the chair. “‘Cowardly’? For real? Look—if Stephanie was into monogamy, or whatever, she could have come right out and told my dude the first time the conversation came up. But she didn’t. She let him hang in the wind—”
“He let her hang in the wind by opening and closing the topic before she had the time to think about it and say what she felt one way or the other,” Jace retorted, voice rising. “Almost as if he thought she was too complicated to bother putting the effort in to see if they could make it work. Which is, again, pretty fucking cowardly and shitty.”
We weren’t talking about Stephanie and Angel anymore. I knew it. He knew it. And my defensiveness was all about me, and the way my heart pounded and my anger nearly consumed me at the reality that he thought my fears were borne of cowardice instead of self-preservation.
“I told both of you how I felt.” I stood up, planting my hands on either side of him, and leaned in so close our faces were nearly brushing. “I made myself clear. I’m just scared.”
“I know you’re scared, but give us a chance—”
“To do what? I told you I’d be with you if you weren’t open, but I got the impression that wasn’t a possibility.”
Jace frowned. “I needed to think. Would you really feel good about an answer if we made it in two seconds?”
“Honestly?” I inhaled, gathering my courage, and forged on. “I did think that you should have been able to make a snap decision. That you should be able to see how good we are together. That we fit and we work, and it’s perfect. But then I thought that since you walked away, and Aiden hesitated, it meant I would never be enough. And then I asked myself whether I’d even want you to change your mind if it meant you’d potentially regret it and resent me later.”
“Regret it?” Jace grabbed my bare shoulders and jerked me forward, his hands strong and gripping tight enough to pinch my skin. “Look—” He took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly as if to gather himself. “Look—I told you we’ve been doing this since we were teenagers, but in all that time we never once met anyone who caused us to feel anything similar to what we feel for each other. We usually don’t even have repeat lovers.” Jace searched my face, maybe for a sign that I understood or believed him. “You’re different. You’ve been different from the start. And maybe we weren’t clear enough, maybe we didn’t say it fast enough, but that’s because we were also unsure of how you felt about us. And . . . it took a while for us to admit to each other that we’re both in love with you.” He started speaking faster as he picked up steam, his face flushed and eyes intense on me. “But now, we know what we want. And if you think we’d resent changing anything for you, you’re also dumb as fuck.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out besides a ragged breath. The hope consuming me made everything feel tight, the air around me shifting slowly and reminding me that it was too fucking hot. With Jace staring at me like he could see through me, see into my head, and analyze all the parts of me that were so scared to try to be the one to change their dynamic, I slowly became overwhelmed. With the possibilities, the realities, and all the ways this could go wrong.
“You’re killing me, Jace,” I said, my voice huskier than it had been a moment ago. “Every time you make me feel like I stand a chance, I tear myself apart bouncing between wanting to believe it . . . and wanting to run away.”
“Don’t run from me,” he whispered, pressing our foreheads together.
My heart did a flip. “Does all this mean you’ll try being with just me and Aiden? I know it’s a lot, I know I’m making assumptions about how it will be, but I swear to fucking God, I think it will be perfect.”
Jace released a stuttering little laugh that sounded half-scared and half-excited. “I do too. It’s just that we’ve always been this way. And I start thinking . . . what happens if there’s no adventures and distractions, and you guys realize I’m too . . . something to deal with on a regular basis?” He licked his lips and looked down, breath coming faster. “What if it falls apart? Or what if you and Aiden are better together without me? I told you we loved each other enough to know something was always missing, but maybe . . . maybe . . . I don’t know. I’m just terrified of things going wrong if I reach too far for what I want. Like I should be happy that I even made it this far and got this much after where I came from.”
Protectiveness reared up inside of me and battled with the shock that filled me. Never in a million years had I considered that he’d be afraid that he wouldn’t be enough for us.
“My first response is to tell you that your concern is bullshit.” I tilted his head up, forcing him to look at me. “But I know you really mean what you’re saying, just like I really meant what I said about being afraid you’ll regret it, so I won’t. We’ll just have to be really fucking brave together and take the risk. Because Jace, we belong together. The three of us. I’ve never been so certain of anything in my life.”
Jace clenched his hands right before he claimed my mouth in a savage kiss. Hard, teeth gnashing, and interrupted by shaky breaths and a darting tongue. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to reassure me or brand me, but I slid a hand through his hair and held him in place, anyway. One taste, and I couldn’t get enough of Jace with his tempting body that responded so beautifully to mine every single time.
For the second time in two days, I was fucking his mouth with my tongue as he ground against me on top of a desk. But this time, we were doing it in front of the glass doors of an office building. Neither of us cared.
Jace tilted his head back when I kissed down his throat to suck on his Adam’s apple. He moaned and jerked his hips forward, pressing his hard dick to mine. I’d had him twice in the past twenty-four hours, but my body responded like it was the first time all over again. As though I’d never had that hot questing tongue delving into my mouth while his restless hands slid down my shoulders to slide around and grip my back, fingernails digging into the skin. Like it was a total shock that we were so hungry for each other we paid no mind to the potential of an interruption as he used his toes to drag down my basketball shorts, then lifted his own hips so he could get his shorts down.
He wrapped both his hands around our stiff lengths. “Is it bad that I am obsessed with your penis?”
“Um.” I looked over his shoulder, but didn’t really see anything. Not when he was clumsily trying to stroke us both. “We should probably . . . stop.”
“Why?” Jace arched an eyebrow, gazing at me challengingly, and found a rhythm so he could jerk us off. “Your dick is already dripping. I think it disagrees.”
“It probably does,” I said, clearly delirious and giving my penis an entire personality. “But, like, someone’s gonna see.”
Jace rolled his eyes dramatically. “Okay. Let me down.”
“Huh?”
He slid off the edge of the desk, and then dropped to his knees on the floor. I was graced with a single promising look before Jace knelt between my thighs and took me into his mouth. It was way more low-key than him jacking us on the desk, but the feel of that wet warmth surrounding me sent my eyes skittering around the lobby.
Would anyone see us? Come downstairs? Was anyone looking in at us from the outside or were these windows reflective? Making out was one thing, but as soon as he deep-throated me, the way few people had before considering the size of my erection, I’d be a goner. I’d get loud and stupid.
“Jace—”
He slowly took me deeper, the agonizing slide enough for a tremor to start in my hands and my eyes to shut. Jace hummed appreciatively when he had me all the way in, so deep I was somewhat lodged in his throat. My mouth dropped open as he went to work, dragging his mouth up and down with his lips wrapped tightly around me. I wanted to fuck his mouth, but I held still even though my hips were restless and my balls tightening. When Jace cupped my balls, rolling them gently, I spread my thighs open wider.
“Oh yeah,” I groaned. “Just like that, papi.”
He hummed again, and I reached down to massage the back of his head as he took his time on me. It was driving me wild—the measured plunging of my dick in and out of his perfect mouth—but I could feel my orgasm starting to build. Or at least, it was until he pulled his mouth off with a wet popping sound to flick his tongue into my slit.
“Jace,” I said, unashamed of how close it was to a whine.
“All in good time, handsome,” he said, voice floating from beneath the desk.
“Fu—”
Footsteps rung out from the staircase, and I froze. Didn’t rush to pull up my shorts or drag Jace from out of the desk, just froze in place and stared at the stairway, waiting to see who would come out. Jace, on the other hand, went back to deep-throating me. There was no way he didn’t hear the voices now accompanying the footsteps, but since the desk was L-shaped and he was hidden from view, he probably didn’t care.
In fact, he cared so little that he took me down deep enough for his nose to press into my pubic hair. A moan ripped out of me, but I muffled it by pressing my fist to my mouth. It came out sounding like a sob.
Two women entered the lobby, looking hot and tired and still wearing business casual outfits they’d likely worn to work the day before. They glanced at me, and I tensed. Jace was sucking me more enthusiastically, and there was no fucking way these women didn’t hear the wet sloppy noises. Or notice how red-faced I likely was.
“Any word when we’ll have power back?” one of the ladies, with long dark hair, asked. “It’s been forever.”
Her friend, or coworker, pushed open the door and let the sounds of traffic and loud voices inside. Good thing, because Jace’s saliva was everywhere, and he seemed determined to make me come with an audience. My toes curled as he bobbed his head faster, and the wet squelching noise seemed deafening.
The lady did not appear to notice.
“Uh,” I said, not pulling my fist away from my mouth. “I don’t, uh, actually work . . . here.”
She tilted her head and looked around. “Where’s Kevin?”
“Sleeping. I’m—” A streak of pleasure went through me, rocking my world and my brain cells. My eyebrows crashed together as I stared at her, feeling guilty and overheated and so turned on I thought I would die. “—just covering for the dude,” I gritted out. “Sorry.”
“Oh, no problem.” She started to back away, eyeballing me. “You okay?”
“Yep.” My voice came out strangled. “Just hot.”
“Sure as fuck is.” She smiled at me, winked, and turned to the door. “I’ll let you know if I find anything out.”
Holy shit, I thought as the door closed behind her.
Jace chose that moment to slide a finger against my clenching asshole, and I went off like a rocket, releasing spurt after spurt into his mouth. I bit my fist, eyes squeezing shut, but was drawing in frantic gasps of air by the time I unloaded entirely and sagged in the chair.
“Holy shit.”
Jace stood up, his lean body dragging against my torso, and beamed. “That was so hot.”
I gaped at him, still panting. He laughed, eyes crinkling.
“You’re so cute. That blush is everything!”
I shook my head, trying to clear it, and pinched his side. He laughed harder.
“Babe, that lady totally knew someone was beneath the table.”
“I know,” Jace said, beaming. “And she was totally into it. I want to find her and be her friend.”
He twisted around to peer through the glass, and I swatted his side.
“You’re bad.”
“I know.” He turned to me again. “That’s why you love me, though. Right?”
I stared at him and his challenging smirk, and knew exactly what he was doing. Trying to make light of all the heaviness that had taken over what should have been a fun and easy campout in the office. Make a joke of his feelings and fears.
“I love you for plenty of reasons. Both of you.”
The happiness crossing Jace’s face was punctuated by a sudden flurry of sound—clicks and beeps and whirring—right before a rush of cold air blasted down into the lobby.
The power was back on.