He had immediately texted Kit once Kit left the coffee shop. Now, after three unanswered texts in a row, Matthew was torn between giddy and terrified. He might have gone too far. His foot bounced beneath the table. Jeremy droned on and on about the quality of coffee beans in various brews offered by the shop. Matthew lost the battle against himself. He checked his phone again. Still no response.
“I’m sorry,” Matthew said, cutting into Jeremy’s explanation on how to make cold brew at home. “My mom just texted me that she fell in the shower. I need to go.” He slid from the booth, trying to look like the panicked son.
Jeremy’s face screwed up in concern. “Oh no. Would you like me to go with you? I could drive.”
Matthew dug some money from his wallet. “No. It’s fine. Please stay and have another cup on me.” He set the money on the table. “Again, I’m so sorry.” Matthew quickly bent and kissed Jeremy’s cheek, because he was an asshole like that. He raced from the coffeehouse before Jeremy could try stopping him again. It was possible he had ruined his shot with Kit. He had to find out if his plan had worked or fucked him. Matthew knew things could go either way. Kit was a firecracker. He might do anything once his temper was lit.
The second tricky thing about being in love with Kit was that Kit lived with Matthew’s boss, Frost. Frost’s husband Zep was like a father to Kit, and Kit helped out a lot with the couple’s kids. While the living situation gave Matthew another avenue to see Kit more often, it presented a potential problem that could end in Matthew getting fired. While Matthew didn’t need the money he made from teaching yoga at Fitness Titan, he needed the peace he received from teaching others how to become more aware of their inner selves.
At Frost and Zep’s place, Matthew parked down the street. He stuck to the shadows as he made his way through the yards of million-dollar homes until he could scale the fence surrounding Frost’s house. Frost had security cameras. Matthew had subtly changed their directions months ago, so he could chart a path to Kit’s bedroom balcony without being seen. He skirted the pool and scaled the tree before leaping onto Kit’s balcony. There was a soft light on inside the room—like only the bedside lamp was lit. Matthew knocked on the French doors.
A silhouette moved around inside.
Matthew’s stomach muscles clenched in anticipation. He knocked again.
The shadow moved closer. After a moment, the door flew open and Matthew found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. In one swift motion, Matthew disarmed Kit.
“Hi, beautiful. You haven’t been answering my texts,” Matthew said, handing the handgun back to Kit with the clip out.
Kit didn’t look the least bit ruffled. He turned away and set the gun and clip on a table near the door. “I didn’t want to disturb your date.”
Matthew followed Kit into the room while studying his tone for any hint of jealousy. “I wouldn’t have been texting you if you were disturbing me.” His voice nearly cracked as he studied Kit’s outfit. Kit had on a tiny silk robe and nothing else. It barely covered the assets Matthew had memorized from magazines. Matthew’s mouth watered. His palms itched. He had never wanted to touch someone so badly in his life.
“You’re supposed to pay attention to your date on a date.”
The way Kit kept saying date had Matthew looking at him closer. “Are you jealous?”
Kit turned and met Matthew’s gaze. He smirked and held his arms out. “Look at me. I don’t get jealous. Any man who doesn’t want me is dumb as hell. Why would I want a stupid man?”
That one confused the hell out of Matthew. Was Kit saying he thought Matthew didn’t want him? Or was he saying Matthew was stupid? Maybe Matthew was dumb as hell because his plan had definitely backfired somehow. He crossed his arms over his chest and tried working it out in his head. Matthew stared at Kit in silence, trying to decide how to respond.
He chose to change tactics and use the moment to his advantage. “You should let me take you to dinner tomorrow night. Not as friends. As a real date, since I’m not the least bit stupid.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Matthew’s gaze slid down Kit’s body. He jerked his stare back to Kit’s face. “Yes. No. I don’t know. Go on a date with me.”
Kit blew out a sigh. “Fine.” He headed for the bed.
Matthew fought the urge to jump up and down like an idiot. “You won’t regret it.”
“I doubt that,” Kit said, crawling beneath the covers. “I’ve been on a thousand actual dates with you over the past year, and you still went out with someone else tonight. So, thus far, I’m not impressed.”
Matthew’s jaw dropped. Literally. He had never been more shocked in his life. Kit thought they had been dating for the past year while Matthew thought he had been firmly in the friend zone. He had nothing. A warmth started in his chest and spread. Kit Youngblood thought they had been dating for the past year. A smile tugged at Matthew’s lips. He couldn’t believe it. For an entire year, he could have been touching Kit. His smile slipped away.
“Wait.” Matthew closed the French doors and stamped across the room. “We haven’t as much as kissed in the last year. That’s not dating. That’s friend zone bullshit.”
Kit picked up his book, as if barely listening. “How’s that my fault?”
Matthew’s jaw dropped again. For real, he hadn’t known jaws literally dropped when people were surprised before tonight. It had never happened to him before. He had always thought it was a figure of speech. Nope. Kit had managed twice tonight to pull that reaction from Matthew. He could have been kissing Kit fucking Youngblood for the past year. Kit was right. He was stupid. Well, Matthew might be stupid, but he wasn’t an idiot. He learned from his mistakes.
With pure determination and hunger in his heart, Matthew closed the final space between them, plucked Kit’s book out of his hand, and went in for a kiss.
Kit punched him in the nuts.
Matthew dropped.
With his forehead pressed to the edge of the bed and clutching himself, he sought answers for how he ended up here. “What the hell?”
Kit pried his book from Matthew’s hand. “Cheats don’t get kisses.”
Matthew gasped for air. “So.” He panted, trying to catch his breath. “Just to be clear.” Matthew wasn’t going to make it. Kit had one hell of a punch. “We’re dating exclusively, right?”
Kit turned the page in his book. “That’s right.”
Matthew sprawled out across the floor. “Totally worth it, then.”
If he wasn’t mistaken, Kit’s book hid a smile. Damn. Matthew was batting so far out of his league, he had no idea how he had ended up here. He wouldn’t give Kit a reason to call him a cheat again. In fact, Matthew planned to make Kit the happiest man on earth. Once he caught his breath, that is.
Two
In the year since they had been friends, Kit hadn’t been to Matthew’s house. With Kit living with Zep and then Zep and Frost, and their houses being five minutes from Matthew’s work, they somehow always managed to avoid the topic of where Matthew lived.
Now, with Matthew’s address typed into his phone and following Google’s directions, Kit had so many questions that he didn’t know where to start. Matthew had offered to cook tonight. Kit imagined that was slang for getting Kit into bed. Even though Kit had no intention of doing that, he had still dressed as extra as possible, because that was just who he was. Makeup and pretty clothes were his shields. He wondered now if Matthew’s tattoos were his, because Matthew lived two blocks from Kit and his house was twice the size of his boss’s. As Kit stood in the driveway of a house that had to cost three million, easy, he wondered how men with money always found him. Kit was never looking.