“I’m sure you’ll find a way to burn off the calories,” she said, taking his very clean plate. “Which reminds me, my office window looks out directly over the parking lot. You two might want to remember that in future.”
Riley didn’t blush. Rileyneverblushed. But goddamn, a knowing smile from a sexy forty-year-old woman who had watched him climb all over Jason brought him close.
“I’ll tell Jason you’re waiting for him,” Sam said. She looked far too pleased with herself.
At least hehadn’tunzipped Jason and blown him, no matter how tempted he’d been.
Jason looked completely unruffled when he emerged from the kitchen a little while later. It figured. Everyone loved Jason—no one would try to embarrasshim.
And an hour later, as Jason earnestly showed him around the most boring ghost mining camp in the history of America, reciting facts he’d clearly looked up just for Riley and his travel guide, Riley understood all the more why everyone loved him.
Jason had made an effort for him. Not to impress him, not for sex or for any sort of gain but because he thought it would help Riley. Because Riley mattered to him. That shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did.
“The mine entrance—”
Jason stopped midsentence when Riley kissed him. As Jason’s mouth opened beneath his, sweet and surprised, Riley forgot about everything else—cover stories, shifter politics, all of it. There was only Jason, warm and real and his.
* * *
They were back in Elk Ridge less than an hour later. Riley had taken a few photos, mostly so he could pretend to care, but his mind hadn’t been on the scenery. It had been on Jason and the way he leaned into Riley like he didn’t even realize he was doing it. Like Riley was safe.
When he pulled up outside the diner, Riley scanned the windows. “Not kissing you here again,” he said. “Your boss might install a viewing platform.”
“Sam—oh,” Jason breathed, going adorably wide-eyed. “She saw?”
God, that look. “Out,” Riley warned, grinning. “Before I do something we both get yelled at for.”
Jason climbed out, and Riley peeled away from the curb like he was being chased. And maybe he was—by the feelings building up in his chest, wild and tangled. Yesterday, he’d taken his time. He’d wanted Jason to feel safe, wanted. And he didn’t regret a second of it. Jason deserved that.
But today, Riley felt like he was coming apart. It wasn’t just lust—it waslonging. Not just to touch Jason again, but tokeep touching him. He didn’t want to give up how it felt to be unguarded and seen. The way he’d been with no one else for as long as he could remember. Just with Jason.
He pulled into the motel lot too fast and sat behind the wheel for a moment, gripping it like a lifeline.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Jason’s kindness had gotten under his skin. He made Riley laugh, and he listened, and he remembered things Riley hadn’t realized he’d said. But Jason was also a shifter. Part of the very world Riley had been raised to distrust. The one he was here to expose.
And yet, Jason had already managed something no one else had.
He made Riley want to stay.
Chapter Fourteen
JASON
Riley hadn’t been as interested in the mining camp as Jason had expected. But that was okay, because Jason had also struggled with that. While he’d watched Riley poking about in one of the dilapidated wooden structures, at least half of Jason’s mind had been on how his jeans hugged his ass and how he wanted to strip Riley out of his clothes and do what they’d done yesterday all over again, and more.
When he pulled up outside Riley’s motel room, a part of his brain noticing how Riley’s car was slewed as if he’d been in too much of a hurry to park properly, the palms of his hands were damp and his mouth dry. He’d wanted Riley yesterday, but it had been a pale shadow to thisneedracing through him. Now that he knew what it felt like to be with Riley, he never wanted to be without him again.
Jason stepped inside and closed the door behind him with a quiet click. The room was dim, the air heavy with heat andsomething humming just beneath his skin. Riley was backlit by the glow of a bedside lamp, and Jason couldn’t look away.
“Hey,” Jason said, the word catching slightly in his throat.
Riley smiled, slow and sure, and Jason’s breathing hitched. He’d barely got it back under control when Riley crossed the room and touched his face with a feather-light brush of his fingers.
“Hey,” Riley echoed, and leaned in.
The kiss wasn’t rushed. It was soft, almost careful, like Riley was testing the shape of Jason’s mouth, wanting to savor every second. Jason melted into it, letting the heat coil inside him, slow and warm and steady. He fisted his hands in Riley’s shirt, not pulling him closer so much as anchoring himself.
Riley pulled back slightly, eyes searching Jason’s. “Still good?”
