“I dunno. Terry did tell you to go to bed.”
“I fully intend to.” Jake entered his room with Shea trailing behind him. He kicked off his sneakers and headed straight for the bar set up on the side table in the small living area. He poured himself a whiskey and got a beer for Shea. When he handed him the bottle, Jake didn’t release it but tugged Shea close, in a place so intimate, their breaths mingled, and Jake swore he could feel the push of Shea’s heart in tempo with his. “With you.”
“Dammit,” Shea cursed before crushing his mouth over Jake’s. That now-familiar fire sprang up whenever Shea touched him and wound through Jake like a lit accelerant, leaving him instantly hard and aching. Shea’s kisses rendered him woozy and out of control, but he needed to gather his shattered wits to talk. Once they wound up in bed together, there’d be no talking at all.
“Wait.” He broke away from Shea, whose eyes glittered dangerously.
“There better be a damn good reason I’m still standing here chitchattin’ instead of strippin’ you naked.”
Jake took a step back, out of Shea’s reach. “There is. It’s…Stacey. I’m still a little in shock.”
The hard, dangerous light faded in Shea’s eyes, and he smiled. “I know, darlin’. I was there. She called you ‘Daddy.’ The most beautiful word in the world for you. I get it.” He moved closer. “Now get over here.” He reached for Jake, but Jake pushed past him.
“No. There’s more than that. When we went to the room to change after you found me, she said, ‘Papa said don’t tell.’ And then, ‘Scared.’ But she wouldn’t say anything else and hasn’t spoken since.”
Shea’s expression turned grim. “And you’ve no idea what your ex might’ve said?”
“No.” Jake had spent a good portion of the evening going over the last time he’d heard Stacey talk. “One day she was laughing and talking up a storm, the next she’d retreated into her own little world. When I asked Brian what had happened that day, he said it was like any other. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
Shea rubbed his jaw and walked over to the lamp, turned it on, and sat on the sofa. “Tell me about him.”
“Who?” Jake asked. “My ex?” The knot in his stomach tightened. “Not much to tell. We dated, got married, and I thought it was going to be forever. I loved him, but it wasn’t enough, obviously.”
“There’s more to it than that. There always is.” Shea held his gaze.
“No. Really,” Jake said at the skeptical tilt of Shea’s brow.
“Do you miss him?”
“No.” But because he was always honest, he had to tell Shea everything. “What I do miss is being part of a family. But he doesn’t. He’s been gone for two years now, and every month I’d send him an update on Stacey’s progress. I figured we may not be together, but he’d want to know.” He gazed down at his hands. “At least I know I would. Anyway, about a month ago, after sending him another update, he emailed me and said he’s getting married and moving to Hong Kong with his new husband. And that I should stop with the updates. That he’s not interested in her anymore, and she probably doesn’t remember him, so it wouldn’t matter to her.” A horrible-sounding laugh escaped him as he struggled not to fall apart. “And oh, yeah, by the way, he’d been cheating on me for years. But it’s my fault because I gave so much time to Stacey, there was nothing left for him.”
Shea’s arms came around him. “It’s okay. You don’t gotta be the tough guy ’round me.”
“I tried. All I ever wanted was a home and a family. Someone to always be there for me. I wanted to be a father. Be that man who’d walk into the house and have his kids run to him so he could scoop them up and tell them Daddy’s home and have it mean something. Stupid, huh? That’s television. A fantasy.”
“It doesn’t have to be. You’ve got that, only it’s not the exact way you pictured it. You don’t need your ex to make a family. That little girl worships you. You’re a family of two. Who says there’s anythin’ wrong with that?”
He laid his head on Shea’s broad chest. “What could he have said to her that would make her so scared?”
“You’re not gonna find out tonight.” Shea’s lips rested against his temple, and his hands moved in slow, gentle circles on his shoulders. Jake’s tightly wound insides unclenched, and the simmering fire always present between him and Shea ignited.
He reached up, seeking, and Shea met his mouth halfway in a greedy, desperate kiss.
“I need you, Shea. Tonight. Now.”
“I’m right here. Not goin’ anywhere unless I take you with me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Shea drew his T-shirt up and pulled off his boots. As he undressed, Jake did the same until they were both naked in the near darkness. They stood together, their shafts brushing, sending electric shocks along Shea’s spine. He caught Jake around the waist and pressed his mouth at the juncture of his neck and shoulder.
“Let me make you forget about everythin’ tonight. Everythin’ but you ’n me.”
He pushed Jake onto the bed, and he sat there waiting, those pale-green eyes alight even in the darkness, and Shea had to restrain himself from jumping him. With so little time left before Jake would leave, Shea planned to take it slow. Make each moment count. He joined Jake on the bed and pushed him down, then began to kiss around his ankles. Jake braced himself up on his elbows.
“What’re you doing there?” He grabbed his erection. “We’re up here. Waiting.”
Shea chuckled. “Darlin’, I have plans. Now hush up. Y’all are doin’ way too much talking for me.” He resumed kissing up the length of Jake’s legs, lifting his calves to suck the tender skin behind his knees. Jake sighed and shifted under him.
