Kyle was the most frustrating man Nic had ever met.

Nic was fuming. He glared as hard as he could after Kyle’s car, but his body was tingling way too pleasantly for him to be truly annoyed with his friend… potential lover… friend.

He had to get home before he exploded. Nic strode to his car, grinding his teeth as he tossed the bag into the other seat and swung down into the driver’s seat, started the car, buckled up, and flicked his turn signal on.

Nic made himself take a deep breath in and out, checking all his mirrors before he pulled out.

The moment of calm didn’t last long.

“You’re the one who didn’t want anything to do with me,” he said, as if Kyle were right there and willing to hear it. He thumped the wheel with his palm as his car glided to a stop at the sign.

So why the hell is he kissing me now?

“Mixed messages. And fucking rude.” Nic clicked his tongue, tapping his foot as he waited his turn for the car to his right in the four-way intersection to go. It didn’t and he scoffed, pulling into the intersection. “Fucking bad drivers around here, too. Yield to the right. Take your turn, or you’ll rear-end me.”

Oh, boy. Nope. That was unintended enough innuendo that it made Nic blush, but he tried to push it out of his mind. “I do not need anyone rear-ending me in any way.”

Speaking of which, what had all that flirting been about? Before he shot Nic down with that last comment? Nic muttered, “It was nothing,” and scoffed again, clenching his teeth at Kyle’s behavior. “It wasn’t nothing. I didn’t mean that.”

Wait. Maybe Kyle hadn’t, either.

But that smirk—he’d meant the comment to get under his skin. He knew the effect it would have. He’d wanted to ruffle Nic’s feathers.

It was a pride thing. Nic knew that damn well. He understood that on a personal level, but shit, he’d just tried to be nice. He hadn’t said anything about Kyle not being able to afford it or needing help.

“He is the most insufferable, pissily stupidly stubborn, frustrating…” Nic trailed off, sharply turning around a corner onto his own street, “goddamn hot, mixed-signal-sending…” he flicked the signal on for his condo building’s driveway, “flirtatious… way overly flirtatious… inappropriate… sexy…”

He trailed off when he had to roll down his window to scan the key card and get into his garage. Last thing he needed was the security camera catching some stupid rant, like he was having boyfriend problems.

Boyfriends. God, if he were so lucky, he could deal with Kyle’s behavior. But no, as just friends, it was weird.

He stalked through the parking garage, tension threading through his muscles and stiffening his body. Nic knew he felt—and looked—like a cat in heat, but he couldn’t fucking help himself.

Just like he hadn’t been able to resist unleashing that frustration in that damn kiss they’d shared—grabbing Kyle’s lower lip and sucking until Kyle moaned so softly even he probably hadn’t known he’d made that noise. In return, Kyle’s tongue smashing up against his own, teasing it, before Kyle caught his tongue between his lips and sucked, filthy and slow…

Every rub against each other’s sensitive lips, every panted breath into each other’s mouth, the heat multiplying between them as Kyle jammed Nic up against the brick wall, the chemistry that made Nic want to rip his clothes off and fuck Kyle…

It was all coming back to him. The elevator ride was tortuously slow, and mercifully solo.

Kyle just had that effect on him. And he was damn well aware, judging by the way he’d noticed Nic trying not to check him out, and immediately flirted.

“Damn him,” Nic muttered as he unlocked his door and shouldered his way through it, dropping his bag by the door and locking it again.

On the way to the bedroom, he fought his shirt off and threw it aside; by the time he reached the bed, he was kicking his jeans and underwear off.

The apartment wasn’t at all uncomfortable in his bare skin, which meant he was burning too hot to stop now.

“Fuck, yes,” he breathed out as he hit the bed. The sheets were cool and soothing against his back, and he squirmed up until his head indented the pillow.

He ran both hands down his chest, imagining Kyle’s broad palms and firm touch. He didn’t have to imagine the hot, solid body pressing into him—he remembered that well enough from not even twenty minutes ago.

His hands reached his hipbones and he fingered them lightly, then moved down to his thighs, spreading them and letting his fingertips brush along the dark triangle of hair until he nearly touched his cock—but not quite.

Nic was hard already, his eyes sliding closed as he brought Kyle’s face back into his mind.

Especially Kyle’s lips around his cock, his gaze flickering up to Nic’s to drink in every reaction and expression.

He wanted to tangle his hands in the dark green hair and push up into his mouth, fuck his lips until he was trembling on the edge of ecstasy.

Nic closed his fingers around his shaft at last, pulling from base to tip in quick, rough movements. It wasn’t hard to get lost in the vision of Kyle’s lips around his shaft, the tight suction of his mouth all the way to the base, his tongue flickering around the shaft…

Oh, God, he remembered that wet heat like it was yesterday. And the gentle touch of Kyle’s hand under his balls, cupping and squeezing them to add that extra zing of sensation…

Pricks of need shot through to the tip of his cock, and he rubbed his thumb across it before groaning. He was not going to hold out just for the sake of it. If he came immediately, so much the better. He’d been fighting this boner all the way home.

Kyle’s cock in him was fucking perfect, too, though. The heat and weight of him filled Nic’s hole perfectly. Fingers were a poor substitute, but with the power of his imagination…

Kyle could press him into the mattress and fuck him hard and fast until they were gasping into each other’s mouths. Kyle’s arm braced on the bed above Nic, his mouth on Nic’s, his cock buried to the root in him, his other hand jerking Nic off…

Wrapped around Kyle, legs locked around his waist, all Nic could do was groan his name, whimpering into the air and thrusting into his hand with every quick jerk.

No, there was one thing… his fingers could slip down to that perfect, round ass and inside, rubbing that spot deep inside Kyle until Kyle lost his fucking mind, trembled on the edge of pleasure, his cock leaking precum and pounding rhythm broken into a quivering, jerky one…

Nic clenched hard and came, a cry ripped from his throat as he rolled his head back against the pillows, his cock pulsing in his hand with each thrust into his fingers and coating his hand with hot passion while he rubbed at the spot deep within himself.

Kyle’s face, twisted and tight with pleasure, that cocky arrogance of earlier utterly undone…

It was then Nic realized he’d been gasping Kyle’s name.

Nic groaned again, this time hoarsely. Sleeping with Kyle hadn’t settled their fizzling chemistry. Instead, that unforgettably hot sex had honed it to an explosive reaction.

Fuck. Who the hell was Kyle, that he could take Nic apart so thoroughly with a couple words, the right look, the right kiss? Why did he have to say he didn’t want more, even when his body language, his behavior, and some of his words said otherwise?

The next time they saw each other—probably at the next progress update meeting—he had to find some way to take Kyle aside and talk about this.

As Nic idly rubbed his thumb along his softening shaft, he whispered into the stillness of the bedroom, “I want him.”

The meaning of his words settled in for real, and Nic closed his eyes to acknowledge the ache in his chest.

“I’m so fucked.”