I reached down and gripped his wrist, stopping his fingers from pushing me beyond the point of no return. Then I nipped at his lower lip and raised my head.
“You go down there, you aren’t leaving this apartment anytime soon.”
Ryan licked his lips, and there was nothing I wanted more than to feel them around my dick.
“No.” I shook my head. “You’re not missing another day of work this week for me.”
Ryan stroked the sensitive skin of my abdomen. “Technically, it would be for both of us this time.”
I groaned. “I’m hanging on by a thread here, GQ. Give me a break.”
He looked down to where I still had a hold of his hand. “Let me touch you. Just once. I want to see how good my imagination was.”
“No way. You touch me, you’re gonna end up on this floor and your suit will be ruined.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do. I like your suits.” I let go of him and took a step back. “I’ll make you a deal: you got to work, and when you get home, you can touch me wherever—”
“Deal,” he said. Then he reluctantly slipped out from between me and the counter.
I turned to watch him go and took a nice, long look at his ass. That suit really did fit him to perfection. I reached down to rearrange my hard-on as he grabbed his jacket from the back of the couch. He headed for the door, but I spotted his traveler mug.
“GQ? Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Ryan stopped as I headed across the living room. “Oh yeah, thanks. Have a good day, Jameson.”
“I plan to.” I opened the door, and as he stepped through, I winked at him. “I’m gonna go read up on my instruction manual.”
Chapter 22
Ryan
“DID YOU HEAR back from Dr. Crawford yet? She said she’d call this afternoon to confirm she’d be here for the segment on early onset Alzheimer’s tonight, but you didn’t say anything.”
Jameson kissed me… Honest to God, shoved me up against the kitchen counter and kissed me until my brain melted out my ears. It’d been hours ago now, but I could still feel the press of his lips and scratch of his beard against my skin, and damn, I wanted to feel it again.
“Ryan?”
“Huh? What?” I blinked and glanced at Alexander’s desk to see my boss eyeing me suspiciously. “Sorry, I missed that last part.”
“Uh huh.” Alexander leaned back in his seat, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair. “You’ve missed more things today than you have in your entire time working for me. Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
I was this close to saying, My roommate kissed me, and all I can think about is getting home so he can do it again. But that seemed like more information than Alexander would want to know.
“Oh nothing, I’m just—”
“A million miles away?”
I grimaced and felt a pang of guilt at letting my personal life affect my professional one. “I’m sorry, I’m just a little distracted today. You now have my undivided attention.”
“You leave work in ten minutes.”
Oh, right. I bit down on my bottom lip—the same one Jameson had sucked—and immediately thought about how good his body had felt when he rubbed it up against mine.
What is he doing right now? Is he at home—our home—thinking about me?
“There you go again.” Alexander sat forward and tossed his pen on his desk. “What is going on with you? It’s like you’re off in la la land.”
More like fantasyland.
“Ryan?”
“Fine. But remember, you asked.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
“Probably.” But now that I had permission to tell him where my head was at, I wasn’t about to keep it to myself. I’d already texted Gabe and Jude with my monumental news, but it wasn’t the same as saying it out loud. “My roommate kissed me this morning.”
“Oh God, I’m already regretting this.”
“I told you. But too late, you asked, and yes…it was amazing.”
Alexander rolled his eyes. “I gathered that, since you’ve been off in the clouds, so to speak. This the same roommate you looked after at the beginning of the week?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
I thought about the kiss again for the millionth time. “It was so hot.”
Alexander scoffed. “I can tell by the rosy cheeks.”
I cupped my face and grinned like a fool, because he was right—my cheeks were scorching hot. “Makes sense, right? Since he’s a fireman.”
“A fireman?”
“Mhmm. Remember the day you sent me down to get photos for your piece on Chicago’s first responders?”
“You hit on one of the fireman at station seventy-three? And he lives with you?”
Alexander knew a lot of the crew because his brother-in-law had been the lieutenant there. Shit.
“It’s Olsen, isn’t it?”
I screwed up my nose. “The lieutenant? No.” Though he was hot. “It’s Jameson. He’s new down there. It was the weirdest thing. I’d run into him a couple nights before at a pub, then I showed up at the station—”
“And now you live together and are…kissing?”
“No. I mean, yes. I, uh, don’t really know?”
“You might want to narrow that down.”
“I’m trying to, but that’s why I’ve been all over the place today. I sent him a drunk text last night—”
“You sexted him.”
“Maybe?” I winced. “And this morning he kissed me, like really kissed me, and implied he wanted to do it again.”
“I see.” Alexander got up and made his way around to me. “Can I give you one piece of advice?”
I sat up straight, nodding, ready and willing to listen to anything he had to say. After all, he’d gotten Sean—his straight detective—to fall for him.
“Be careful messing around with the ones you live with.”
“Because it could end bad?”
Alexander smirked. “No, because they might not ever leave. Look at Sean.” He chuckled and headed for the door. “Try Dr. Crawford one more time, but then you’re good to go. Have a good night, Ryan.”
I TOOK IN a deep breath as I pushed the button of my elevator, then moved to the back and watched the numbers above the door light up.
One, two, three, four… And with every floor I passed, my heart beat a little faster.
It’d taken everything I had not to text Jameson today just in case he’d changed his mind, or worse, I found out I’d imagined the whole thing. Instead, I’d chosen to live inside that perfect moment this morning, where everything went right and I floated around work all day. The time had come, however, where reality was about to reassert itself, and all I could hope was that it was half as good as the place I’d spent the day in.
When the elevator reached the tenth floor, my phone vibrated with a text from Gabe in the group thread I shared with him and Jude.