“I did.” Gray leered in his husband’s direction.
Xavier and Ben were called to the stage to accept their trophy, then Xavier did something that surprised everyone. He dropped to one knee and asked Ben to marry him. We collectively held our breaths, but Ben didn’t make us wait long before he accepted. I clapped and cheered with everyone else, but a part of me was the tiniest bit envious.
I congratulated the newly engaged couple then waited for Gray to search out his husband in the crowd before I snuck away. I checked my phone on my way to my car and saw that I had missed a few texts from Jag while I was in the bar.
Home from dinner.
I really want to see you tonight. Do you want me to come to the party?
An hour had passed between his two texts, and I felt terrible that I missed them. I sent Jag a quick reply that I was leaving, grabbing Indy, and heading over. I had a little surprise planned for Jag, but the closer I got to my house the more I doubted myself. In the end, I went through with the plan and put on my Halloween costume. Indy gave me a disbelieving look when he saw what I was wearing. The noise he made almost sounded like an indignant snort.
“You coming or not?” Indy gave a short bark and headed to the front door. I buckled him into his doggy car seat and headed over to Jag’s.
“Hi, Dr. Brexler,” the gate attendant said to me. She took in my costume and couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Indy barked from the back seat as if in complete agreement with her assessment. The smile broke into full-out laughter as she handed me a dog biscuit for my back-stabbing dog.
“Hello, Molly.” I was on a first-name basis with all the gate attendants.
“Enjoy your night,” she replied once she stopped laughing.
I almost turned my car around and went home, but the need to see Jag won out over my self-doubt. Indy led the way to the house like he always did, but instead of unlocking the door like usual, I rang the doorbell and waited.
“Trick or…” The words died on my tongue as I feasted my eyes on Jag.
“Treat,” Jag finished for me. He grabbed me by my billowy, black pirate shirt and pulled me into his home. His eyes raked over the leather boots and pants I wore and worked their way up my body until they looked into my eyes. “Oh, my dear Captain Hook, I have waited so long for you to plunder my depths.” He smiled broadly and gave me another once-over. “Nice guyliner.”
“Thanks.” Jag stood in his foyer looking better than any fantasy or wet dream I’d ever had as a teenager. He wore the Indiana Jones look better than anyone I knew. He’d completed his look with a fake whip on his hip and a sexy hat on his head. “Doctor Jones, I’ve got just the right tool for the job.” I gestured to the bulge beneath my leather pants.
We burst into insane laughter over our cheesiness, and I realized just how much I’d missed the easy banter between us. The sex had still been incredible, but we’d let jealousies and stupidity ruin the amazing comfort we’d found in one another. I didn’t want our relationship to regress to just the physical, which is what had happened over the last few weeks. We’d gone at it like two frenzied lovers who didn’t know when they’d get their next fix.
Jag pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly and slowly, which told me I wasn’t the only person who’d missed the way things used to be. Of course, my dick was ready to spring into action, but I ignored him. I needed so much more from Jag than an orgasm in that moment. I needed to feel connected to him. I rolled my eyes at how needy my internal thoughts sounded.
Jag pulled back from our kiss and looked into my eyes. “Did you eat dinner?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. He grabbed my hand and began walking to his kitchen. “I stopped and picked up some Mexican in hopes that you hadn’t eaten yet. I went ahead and ate when you didn’t respond to my text, but I saved you some. My blood sugar tanked from going so long without food, and I was starting to get a nasty headache.” He released my hand so he could pull leftovers out of the refrigerator.
“I thought you had dinner plans with Senator Thompson?” I purposely chose to use Baxter’s title rather than his name to keep their relationship professional in my mind. “What happened?”
Jag froze momentarily as he opened the cabinet where he kept his plates. He took a deep breath and pulled out a plate before he shut the cabinet and turned to face me. “Let’s just say the senator had ulterior motives for asking for my assistance on the campaign.”
“You mean he just wanted to fuck you?”
Jag nodded as he loaded up my plate and put it in the microwave to reheat. “Which he made abundantly clear tonight.”
Tension seized my body and I stood there frozen. “What happened?”
Jag turned to look at me, and I saw the dark emotion in his eyes. The hunger that had been gnawing at my guts turned to dread. In my heart, I knew Jag wasn’t unfaithful. Remorse or guilt wasn’t the look I saw in his eyes. Instead, I saw humiliation and hurt. No matter how much I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, I needed to let him talk it out with me. I reached for his hand and tugged him closer.
“Talk to me, Jag.”
“I showed up at the hotel where I thought we were having a meeting with a group of supporters. It turned out to be just the two of us in a private dining room. I should’ve left right then, but my ego wouldn’t let me. I wanted to work on the national campaign, so I pushed aside the warnings and stayed.” He cupped my face in his hands. “I didn’t do anything, Bones. I need you to believe me.”
“I do.” I turned my face and kissed his palm. I reminded myself that beneath Jag’s confident exterior was a man who constantly searched for acceptance—personally and professionally. He had thought he could only achieve it professionally. The urge to tell him how much I loved him was so strong, but I held back. I didn’t want my confession to look like some knee-jerk reaction from jealousy.
“We sat down for drinks, and I saw the look in his eyes. He was a man on a mission to get laid.” Jag swallowed hard before continuing. “I didn’t even take the first sip of wine. I looked him in the eyes and told him I was in a committed relationship and very happy.” His words were a balm to my franticly beating heart.
“To which he said?” I prompted.
“He said he didn’t care, and no one had to know. He had booked a room at the hotel under an assumed name, and we could spend hours getting reacquainted with one another again. He told me he’d never had anyone fuck him the way I had, and he wanted to experience it again.”
I would’ve truly been okay if he’d left the last part out, but I appreciated the fact that he wanted to tell me everything that had transpired. I didn’t have the right to be upset about his past. He never pretended he had been a saint, and I had been no different. We both went into our relationship with eyes wide open.
