Avery sighed, head hanging. “But I’m interested in you, and Wanda told him so.”
“You—” Linc’s heart pounded with hope.
“I’m still mad. It seemed fair to make you suffer.”
“Red, I’m so sorry. It’s complicated. My dad...I...when I kissed you, I wasn’t thinking, I—”
Avery put a finger to his lips and shushed him. “I don’t want to talk right now, although we are going to get to it. But do you think we could skip to the part where we’re kissing again? I’d like that a lot.”
They stared at each other. Linc’s mouth worked as he pieced together everything that had happened, while Avery smiled smugly and hope sparked in his eyes.
“Really?”
Avery nodded vigorously. “Now, please.”
He wasn’t too late.
Linc was on him in a second. One minute they were chest to chest, and the next Linc was lifting him, wrapping Avery’s legs around his hips while his mouth devoured every inch of anything he could get his lips on.
“Oh, wow, I—” Avery said breathlessly. “I didn’t—this worked really well.”
“You’re all I think about.” Linc had him up against the wall, mouth on his throat. “You know that?”
“No.” Avery’s voice was wobbly. “No one has ever told me that before.”
Linc would tell him so much more. Soft things. Dirty things. He was going to beg him for every second they could spend together tonight.
Avery’s knees clenched tight to hold them together, and he moaned as Linc’s lips covered his, tongue pushing into the warmth of his mouth. Linc squeezed his eyes tight, praying desperately for the strength to be the person Avery needed and deserved.
A knock sounded on the door. “Everything okay in there?”
They froze, panting.
“Don’t say anything,” Avery whispered. Linc squeezed Avery’s ass, making him sigh.
“Scott?” Vasquez said from the hall.
“Why does she call you that?” Avery’s breath on Linc’s neck was hot, then cool as it blew over the spot where his tongue had been.
“Firefighter thing.” And a clear reminder they were not somewhere private. Linc was seconds from tearing clothes off—his or Avery’s, it didn’t matter—but he would never live down getting naked in Vasquez’s house. “We’ll be right out!” Avery’s grip around his body tightened in a gratifying way, even as Vasquez laughed in the hall.
“Okay, then.”
Gently, even while everything inside him screamed not to, he set Avery down. He didn’t let him go anywhere, keeping them both close together against the wall. Linc nuzzled at Avery’s throat. “Can we go back to your place and figure this out?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Fair. He still had a lot of shit to work out on his own. Linc would need to jack off when he had a minute alone, but this second chance was more than he deserved.
Avery’s fingers hooked into his belt loops and pulled them together. “But you can come back to my apartment, and we can have all the sex you want.”
Linc groaned, running his hands through Avery’s hair and kissing his face. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Avery laughed and pressed his cheek against Linc’s collarbone. “I hope you still think so in an hour.”
Linc would need so much more than an hour for what he had planned.
