Derek’s heart practically leapt acrossthe table and his stomach felt all fluttery. “I want us to be more than just friends.”
The corners of Travis’ mouth curled into a smile, and he nodded as he turned his hand over and squeezed Derek’s palm. “I want that, too.”
They stared at each other for a second, desire ricocheting between them. “I’ll be right back,” Derek said.
“Bailing on me already?”Travis teased.
“No. I just gotta do something.” He pushed his chair away from the table, took his phone, and retreated to the bedroom. The first thing he did was listen to Travis’ message from last night.
“Hi. It’s Travis.” The man’s voice was low and faltered. “I thought . . . maybe . . . if you were still up, you’d want to hang out. Maybe watch a movie.” There was along pause, filled with a heavy sigh. “Or talk.” Another pause. “Call me. If you want.” Then the line went dead.
A knot formed in Derek’s stomach. The sad, lonely voice on the other end of the phone made him want to run into the next room and wrap his arms around Travis. He had let Travis down last night without knowing it, and he wanted to kick himself. Before he could think aboutmaking it up to the guy, he needed to do what he came into the bedroom to do in private. He punched the number one on his speed dial and brought the phone to his ear. He let out a breath and closed his eyes as soon as he heard the sweet soothing voice. “Hi, Mom . . . Yeah, everything’s fine. I just wanted to hear your voice . . . I miss you too. And I just wanted to tell you that I love you.”
After the short conversation with his mom, Derek returned to the dining room. His heart warmed as he watched Travis eagerly mop up the last of the syrup in his plate with a piece of toast, the melancholy washed away by the joy of a hearty meal. “You can always just pour the syrup directly into your mouth.”
Travis popped the triangle of toast into his mouth, wrapped hisarms around his waist and smiled, while he chewed and made yummy noises. He took a last sip of coffee, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and walked up to Derek with an alluring smile on his lips. “Thanks for breakfast. I gotta run. I just wanted to come by and spend some time with you since I’ll be gone most of the day.”
“Us too. Maybe I’ll see you later?”
Travistugged playfully on the length of Derek’s hair. “You got my number.”
They stared at each other for a beat before Derek took Travis’ face between his palms. He was tired of waiting, tired of the internal debate. He wanted to kiss this man and nothing was going to stop him, consequences be damned. Their mouths collided as they both leaned in for a kiss at the same time, meeting harderthan expected. They lapped at each other’s tongues with hungry impatience. It was so different than the first kisses they had shared under the stars, and it lit up Derek’s nerve endings like a flash fire. The heat from the kiss, together with the lingering sweetness on Travis’ lips and the remnants of the smoky bacon, flavored the kiss with lust and deliciousness. He didn’t want it to end, andwhen Travis tried to pull away, Derek didn’t let him go.
Travis smiled under Derek’s lips and let out a small laugh, before he finally broke the kiss. “You’re hard to leave. But I gotta go.” He poked Derek in the chest. “You better call me later.”
Flustered, Derek barely responded. He nodded, while his labored breath blew in and out of his lungs. Never had a few simplekisses left him so breathless.
Travis tugged on the end of Derek’s hair again and headed toward the door, casting a small wave to Jeremy and Alan on his way out.
A few minutes after Travis left the suite, Brandon and Cam entered, accompanied by the dog, and it reminded Derek about his conversation with Felix earlier. “Jogging, Bran? Really? What the fuck?”
“I know! Right?” Cam exclaimed, pride lighting up his face. He turned to Brandon. “Remember how I used to have to practically knock you on the head to get you out of bed before noon?”
“You mean, send the dog in to do your dirty work. A face full of hot dog breath could probably jolt a person out of a coma.”
Cam laughed and patted the dog on the back. “Good girl, Brandy.”
The dog bounced around Cam’s legs, ecstatic about being praised, but without any idea why.
Brandon ran his hands over his pecs and took in a deep breath, puffing out his broad chest. “I feel great. You should try it, Derek.”
“Jogging? You’ve officially lost your mind.” He faced Alan and Jeremy, who were watching TV with their feet up on the coffee table. “Doyou hear this guy? He thinks I should start jogging.”
The two of them cackled as if they were high on laughing gas. “Derek? Jogging?” Jeremy slapped his thigh. “I’d like to see that.”
“Just run ahead of him with an open bottle of Jack Daniels,” Alan said, bellowing with laughter.
Derek chuckled at the image. “Good one. Speaking of Jack Daniels,” he rubbedhis hands together with anticipation, “let’s talk about our next party. We need to step it up. Maybe create a theme. Dudes with assless chaps? No shirts? No pants? Let’s hear some ideas.”
Jeremy and Alan exchanged eye contact before they both turned toward Derek. Quietly waiting for the other to speak first, Derek wondered why the hesitation. “What?” Derek finally asked.
“We want to talk to you about the afterparties,” Alan replied.
“Good, because we’ve set a precedent, and now we need to raise the bar, do something really over the top.”
“We have no problem with that,” Alan said cautiously, “but . . . we decided that we don’t want to have them in our suite anymore.”
Derek scrunched up his face with confusion. “What areyou talking about? Those are the best parties. That’s where we can let loose. Nothing is off limits.”
