Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Girl trouble.” Luis finally got the chance to share his theory as they rounded the corner onto Tucker’s street.
“Yeah. Could be. She’s generally nice, though. Quieter than Walker even and sweet. She asked him to a dance on a dare, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. But I’ll try to find a new way through to him, get him to talk. Ice cream and video games have stopped working.”
“I’m not a parent, but my mom always got me to talk by doing chores together. Somehow her kitchen always needed a deep clean right when I was in a funk. Papi was the opposite—he’d take me out of the house. Long drive on some pretext like a piece of baseball memorabilia, and somehow somewhere in backed-up traffic on the two-ten I’d start talking.”
“Those are both good ideas. Thanks.” Tucker was more somber as they reached his driveway, but his head tilted as Luis headed for his car. “You’re not coming in?”
“You’re inviting me? It’s okay if you want to focus on your kid issues—”
“He’s busy with his brother on that video game, which honestly may be the better distraction for him right now. And as for me, well, I believe I promised you a distraction.”
“You did.” Luis let himself grin as he stepped back closer to Tucker. “But what about you? What do you want?”
“You.” Tucker’s answer was so ready, so firm, and so decisive that it made a shiver race down Luis’s spine, all the way to his toes.
“Good answer.” Only the fact that it was still light out with a few neighbors still out and about stopped him from kissing Tucker right there. Congratulating himself on his restraint, he bounded up to the porch. “Distract away.”
* * *
Tucker’s hand shook as he unlocked his front door. Luis was right behind him, close enough to feel his warmth and smell his intriguing aftershave, and he wanted him more than he’d ever wanted anything. He waited until the door shut quietly behind them to pounce on Luis, but it was a near thing.
“I was this close to kissing you on my front lawn,” he confessed as he backed Luis against the wall.
“Me too.” Luis’s grin was feral as he tugged Tucker forward with hands on his waist. “But you had a neighbor out watering.”
“True.” Flipping on the lights, he brushed a kiss against Luis’s temple, heart hammering, every muscle ready to dive headfirst into losing himself in this man.
“Don’t want to end up the talk of the neighborhood social media group.” Grinning, Luis seemed to sense both his urgency and his contrasting need to go slowly, savor this.
“Can’t have that. But the whole dinner I kept thinking about this.” Forcing himself to not rush, he claimed Luis’s mouth with a gentleness that surprised even himself. Luis tasted sweet, like the half glass of wine he’d sipped at dinner, and Tucker mimicked that lazy pace, little tastes and sips. But even with the caution, he still was rapidly getting drunk on Luis’s taste, on his nearness and warmth.
“Mmm. Those are some nice thoughts.” Luis stretched against him as he pulled back to let his heart rate decrease. “I never thought of family dinner as foreplay before, but it kind of was for you, wasn’t it? You seem more...relaxed somehow.”
“Yeah.” The back of Tucker’s neck heated. “It’s hard to describe, but I like feeling connected to you, almost as much as I like kissing you. And having you with me at dinner, yeah, I liked that.”
“Tucker.” Luis’s voice had a warning note to it, a pained edge.
“I know, I know. You’re leaving.” He didn’t need the reminder. Time was slipping away, even now. That feeling at dinner, like they were something solid and real, was fleeting at best. But he also wasn’t going to lie about how it made him feel. “And I’m not going to stop you. All I mean is that I like the connection part while I have it. It enhances everything else, and I’m not going to apologize for enjoying that.”
“I don’t want you to.” Blessing him with a soft kiss, Luis stroked his jaw. “I like it too. Probably too much.”
“Same. But I don’t want to stop, not when it feels so good.”
“Then don’t.” This time it was Luis claiming the kiss, harsh and desperate. It was lusty, sure, the same urges ricocheting through Tucker, yet there was something else too. A message of sorts that Tucker wasn’t alone in being over his head here, that this was more than physical for Luis too, even if he didn’t want there to be. And it said something that the more time they spent together, lunches and dinners and working together, the more Tucker wanted him. He welcomed every bit of Luis’s ferocity, met him kiss for kiss, clutch for clutch, moan for moan.