Callahan slipped his arms around Jace’s waist and held him like that. Sweat dripped down Jace’s back, slicking and slipping over Callahan’s fingers.
“I do.”
“Callahan.”
“I love you,” he said again.
“You don’t even like yourself.” Jace exhaled a tired breath against him. “How can you love me?”
“How can I not?” He grabbed Jace by the face and forced his head up so they could see each other, and the expression on Jace’s face looked so miserable, Callahan ached with an altogether new feeling. But it surged him toward urgency. The need to explain, to make Jace understand felt more imperative than ever.
“Remember before.” He swallowed thickly. “When you teased about needing 365 days for me to fall in love with you?”
Jace nodded.
“Try sixteen.”
“No.” Jace shook his head, but Callahan forced him back steady.
“Yes,” he said. “And it’s fine if you don’t believe it, or if you don’t feel the same. You’ll see. You’ll believe me.”
Jace blinked rapidly, his jaw tight and locked. He didn’t say anything to that, so Callahan leaned close and kissed him. He held their mouths together until the muscles in Jace’s arms and neck softened, until his lips yielded and made way for Callahan’s tongue. Callahan kissed Jace until they were on their sides, tangled in the sheets, with their hands roaming and touching…learning…memorizing.
Callahan kissed Jace until their cocks were both hard again, and then he slid down the bed and took Jace into his mouth. The thickness of Jace’s cock made his jaw ache, but he sucked and licked until he’d drawn another orgasm out of his balls. Jace petted the top of his head, down the sides of his face and his neck, and when Callahan crawled back toward the pillows, Jace was the one to kiss him first.
Hours and orgasms later, Jace slept soundly in his arms, his soft breaths landing like feathers against Callahan’s chest, and Callahan watched the sunrise through the window, wondering for the first time in a long time, what good the new day would bring.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jace Breaks His Own Heart
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
Jace stared out the window, the sun creeping higher with every blink. Callahan’s body was hot, his arm flung possessively over Jace’s waist, his leg shoved between Jace’s own thighs. He was trapped, and he didn’t hate it…but he knew he needed to escape.
Callahan’s voice echoed in his mind, his declaration of love, the softness of his moans as he came… and came…and came. Jace clenched his jaw and plucked at Callahan’s arm, raising it up so he could slip out of the other man’s embrace. He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his slacks, carelessly discarded between the bed and the window, and switched the alarm off before it started to chime.
He was in desperate need of a shower, but the longer he stayed at Callahan’s, the more likely it would be that Callahan would wake up, and the more likely it would be they’d end up talking, and Jace wasn’t sure of what to say. If he stayed still too long, his mind went too far back, forging past the sweaty and delicious memories of the night before and sliding right into dinner with four forks meant to eat food he didn’t understand and thousand dollar bottles of wine he’d never be able to afford.
It was well and good that Callahan loved him, and he probably loved Callahan, too, but that didn’t change the fact they could not survive the differences between them. He should have taken pictures last night, but he’d raised the camera and slid into Callahan’s body, then promptly forgot everything that wasn’t the tight heat of Callahan McMillian.
He’d have to figure out something else for the showing. He could do some of himself, or maybe use some of the ones from the trip. Maybe he could photograph Remington as a trade for actually promising to pay rent, but there was no way he could do that again with Callahan. He couldn’t share those moments.
“You’re awake.” Callahan stretched out, kicking the sheets down the bed and putting his long, tanned body on display. Jace flicked his stare up, pants slung over his arm and worry heavy in his chest.
“I have to work,” he explained.
“Do you have time to show me the pictures first?” Callahan patted the bed, the vacancy that had somehow over the last two weeks become Jace’s side.
“I didn’t take any.”
“What?” Callahan’s eyes widened, and he scrambled into a sitting position. “Why not?”
Jace sighed and walked around the bed, picking his camera up from the dresser and sitting on the edge of the mattress. He cradled the camera in his lap and tried to not flinch when Callahan touched the small of his back.
