“I heard about your crush on Alka when he started. And then on Declan when he was hired.” He tenses. “You know, just because they’re not interested in you romantically doesn’t mean that they don’t want to be your friend.”
“I don’t need friends,” he says quietly, and I know he’s just as afraid of rejection there as he is in any other part of his life.
Rolling him onto his back, I find his cheeks are flushed. His eyebrows knitted together. “I’m going to make this as clear as I can.” His lips part as he holds his breath. “I’m right here, whereI want to be. I want to keep seeing you and doing this. No more dick mode, Lemon. If you become upset or insecure or have doubts, tell me. Even if it’s in text. Just tell me so I can assure you I’m right here. Okay?”
Lemon looks like he’s two seconds from crying. Leaning over him, I press my lips to his. “I’mnotrejecting you. Not at all. But that doesn’t mean I’m in a position where I can be open about this either. You understand the difference, right?”
“Yes,” he says. His arms come around my neck.
“Tell me what I just said.”
I can feel him roll his eyes and I grin, nipping his jaw. “That you want to sneak around and steal kisses and orgasms without telling anyone.”
Sighing, I pick my head up to look at him. I can tell that he’s slightly teasing. “I don’t want to keep you a secret for any other reason than… you know what? Alka described his relationship with Roux as a well-known secret. They don’t hide it, but they don’t announce it either. They don’t deny it, but they don’t flaunt it. So yeah, some people—probably quite a lot of people—don’t know about it. But many people do. That’s what I need right now. Discretion. Maybe a little more than they have because I don’t want Jess to feel worse than she does. I really don’t want it to reach her for a while. Not forever, Lemon, just for a while.”
“So… you want to be with me?”
There’s a whole sea of vulnerability in his voice and while I really meant tonotbe that committed, as I look into his eyes, I realize that yeah, I want this man. I want him as my own. I want to keep him.
“Yeah, Lemon. I do.”
His eyes immediately get watery as he tries to blink through his emotions. His fingers dig into my arms.
Then we’re both jumping when a loud ringing fills the room. Lemon laughs as he sits up and wipes his eyes. I lean back tolet him off the bed and he retrieves his phone from the chicken. “Hello?”
I watch his body covered in dried sweat. His stomach covered in dried cum. The way his muscles flex. His half-chubbed dick. His curls are a riot and his makeup is a sexy smudged mess on his face.
“I haven’t left the building. I’m here.” Pause. “Yes, I’ll meet you in forty-five minutes.” Pause. “Stop. I’ll be there in forty-five minutes!”
He hangs up and looks at me with a heavy sigh. Dropping his phone back into the chicken, he climbs on the bed to kneel in front of me.
“You okay?”
Lemon nods. “My sister. She thinks I ran off because I’m not in my room.” He rolls his eyes. “Can I use your shower?”
“Of course.”
He leans forward and presses a kiss to my lips. Then freezes. I cup the sides of his face and hold him there, kissing him harder. “I’m right here,” I remind him. “Right where I want to be.”
Lemon sighs and I’m rewarded with a shy smile. Then he slips from the bed and heads for the bathroom. “I’d ask you to join me, but I’d be late and probably miss my plane.”
I grin when he smirks at me over his shoulder. When he disappears around the corner, I see the light flip on and he gasps. “Oh my gawd, why didn’t you tell me I look like this? I can’t believe you saw me like this.”
“Your makeup a mess because we fucked so hard? Honey, that’s sexy as hell,” I tell him.
He huffs and the door closes.
While he’s in the shower, I clean up the used condoms off the floor and then the clothes we’ve strewn everywhere. I’ve pulleda pair of sweats on by the time he joins me in the room with a towel around his waist.
“Mmm,” I say, reaching for his hips and bringing him to me. “This looks awfully familiar.”
Lemon grins. The hand not holding his towel reaches behind my head and brings my face to his. I grip his ass, pulling his feet off the ground.
However, he pulls back. “I really do have to go.”
Reluctantly, I release him and watch as he somehow effortlessly climbs back into the sexy getup he had on last night. When he sees me watching him, he gives me a smirk. “You like this, do you?”
“I’m going to request you wear it again in my presence.”
