“You’re friends?” he asks skeptically. “With the king?”
“Yep. We play Scrabble together.”
“Scrabble?” He lets out a soft chuckle. “Is that some kind of euphemism.”
I glance up from my task of dividing out the dough so I can glare at him. ““No, asshole. We literally play Scrabble. He’s not very good.”
“By your standards, maybe. Not everyone’s a walking dictionary, man.”
We move on from the topic of Lukas, and Owen tells me more about the house he and his boyfriend have just moved into. It’s a brownstone in Greenwich Village, not far from the apartment Owen and I used to share, apparently. And from the way he’s talking about it and the pictures I’ve seen, it sounds absolutely amazing.
“I’ll have to come for a visit so I can see it for myself,” I tell him.
“There’s a guest room all set up for you when you do.”
“I didn’t realize you were such an accomplished chef,” Lukas says, biting into one of the freshly cooked papanasi, which, by popular demand, have become a bit of a regular thing since I first made them about a week ago.
“You’re not supposed to eat them like that,” I chide. “You should wait until I put the toppings on.”
It’s just the two of us in the kitchen right now. The prince and princess have gone to bed and Lukas and I have Scrabble plans. I made the smart decision to save back a few papanasi when I was making them earlier so the kids wouldn’t hog them all, and I’ve just finished cooking them.
“They’re delicious either way,” he says, holding one out to me.
I take it and pop it into my mouth, savoring the sweetness of the fried dough combined with the mild, fresh taste of the cheese. They certainly taste better with all the toppings, but Lukas is right—they’re still delicious like this.
“If you keep cooking like this, we’re all going to have cholesterol problems,” he says wryly.
“It’s your fault,” I blurt out.
His brows creep up to his hairline. “My fault?”
Ah, shit. I so did not mean to let that slip. I rake a hand through my hair as I try to figure a way out of this, but decide I may as well just plow on now I’ve said it. “Ah, yeah. I cook when I need to relax. And these past couple of weeks, with us spending so much time together, I’ve been very not relaxed. The sexual frustration is real.” I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. I know I promised I wouldn’t push you, and I swear that’s not what this is. It just kind of…came out.”
He doesn’t say anything for a while and I don’t dare look at him, knowing I’m going to see that freaked out expression that tells me he’s about to run. His fingers slide under my chin, prompting my gaze to meet his, and I’m surprised at what I find there. There’s no fear or apprehension. There’s warmth, and an undeniable flicker of desire.
We just stare at each other for a few moments, and then he surprises the hell out of me by running his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Cheese,” he explains with a quirk of his lips. Then he puts his thumb to his own mouth, licking away the cheese. God, does he even know how hot he is?”
“Lukas, I—”
But I don’t have a chance to finish, because he leans forward to close his mouth over mine, cutting off whatever I was about to say. I can’t even remember what that was now.
Before I can think better of it, I lift my hands to grip at his hair, pulling him even closer as my mouth opens for his seeking tongue.
12
LUKAS
I’ve tried to push away this attraction, to lock it up in a box in my mind and pretend it doesn’t exist. But I can’t do that anymore. And, more importantly, I don’t want to. He was right. The cocky bastard was one hundred per cent right when he predicted this. That one day my mind would open and I’d be okay with my feelings, that I’d want to want him.
It’s been happening, bit by bit, over the past two weeks, and now I just can’t deny it anymore.
“Lukas…” He breathes my name out as if it’s a prayer. “Tell me…”
I know exactly what he’s asking. He wants reassurance that I’m not going to run away again, that this is the real thing.
I press gentle kisses along his jaw, until I get to his ear. “I want you, kotya,” I murmur. “I’m not running away anymore.”
His mouth stretches into a sexy grin. “Kotya? …Kitten?”
“Mmhmm.” I press a kiss to his neck. “A feisty one.”
I silence his laugh with a kiss that quickly becomes heated and all-consuming.
“We should relocate,” I manage to gasp out once we break apart.
Jai nods. “Yeah. Definitely.”
But then he’s kissing me again. And I’m letting him. After several long minutes of hungry kissing and wandering hands and grinding cocks, I’m finally able to tear away again and this time make a more forceful suggestion that we relocate away from the common kitchen.
We hurry to Jai’s suite and have barely closed the door behind us when we’re on each other again, lips devouring, hands roaming. Christ, it feels amazing.
“Want you inside me,” I growl against his lips.
“Fuck yes. Want you riding me. Wanted that for so long, baby.”
We manage to scramble out of our clothes and stumble over to the small sofa. Jai falls onto it and I don’t hesitate to climb on top of him, reveling in the incredible friction of our bare cocks sliding against each other. I seal my mouth back against Jai’s, our tongues twining as we move against each other.
It’s been such a long time since I’ve been naked with another man, but somehow I don’t feel self-conscious the way I thought I might. I feel…free.
“Fuck…wait...” Jai breaks away, breathing hard. He closes his eyes for a moment and presses a kiss to my shoulder. “My jeans. Over there—there’s a condom and lube in the pocket.”
I reluctantly slide off his lap and fetch his jeans from where they lay a few meters away. Sure enough, there’s a condom and single-use package of lube in one of the pockets.
“I thought you didn’t carry this stuff around with you?” I say with an arched brow.
He smirks. “I didn’t then. Learned my lesson.”
I amble back over to him, handing him the condom while I take the lube. He reaches for the packet in my hand. “I want to do it.”
I shake my head adamantly. “No way. If you put your fingers in me, I’ll blow. And I’m not a twenty-four-year-old who’ll be ready to go again after a couple of minutes,” I say with a dry smirk.
“Fine.” He lets out a soft laugh. “But at least make it a good show.”
I’d planned to make quick work of the preparation so I could get to what I really want—that gorgeous cock inside me. But at his words, I decide to slow things down a little.
I take up position on the floor in front of him, my legs spread wide, feet firmly planted. I use the lube to slick up two of my fingers, pushing them inside me.
I hear Jai let out a soft groan and I flick my gaze upward to find his eyes burning with lust as watches me fuck myself. The reaction spurs me on; propping my weight on my hand behind me, I lift my arse so I can push in even deeper, adding a third finger and stretching myself out more.