“Hmm?” Ollie glanced up to find Shay staring at him through a curtain of hair that had fallen into his face. “What?”
“The gigs,” Shay repeated, biting his lip. “I thought you’d come.”
Ollie looked away. “I wanted to, but—”
“But what?”
Ollie stopped walking. It was abrupt, and Shay lost his footing again. It was as easy as breathing to steady him once more and hard as hell to let him go.
So Ollie didn’t let go. He kept his hands on Shay’s arms, rubbing them up and down to keep him warm through his thin denim jacket, all the while imagining the catastrophic inferno that would play out if Shay tried to touch him like that. “There’s something about you,” he whispered. “I can’t spend all day around you, then all evening staring at you from a distance. I don’t know why, I just… can’t.”
Shay swallowed. “You’ve never spent a whole day with me.”
“Not literally. But trust me, my days right now are all about you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will,” Ollie said. “When we reach the end.”
“That sounds like the end of the world. Again. Have we had this conversation before?”
“Maybe, but the middle might be different.”
“Are you always so cryptic?”
Ollie sighed, regretting the uncertainty he’d forced into Shay’s usually warm and welcoming smile. “Not on purpose. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“What?”
“When I grabbed you in the bar. You flinched.”
“Did I?”
Shay moved impossibly closer. “Yes.”
Ollie had no words. Just blood loaded with strong Belfast ale and a big hole in his brain from where he’d left his common sense on the bus. He kissed Shay, softly at first, but then like a starving man as Shay responded with a groan and a flick of his tongue.
He tasted of the lemon slice Ollie had seen in his drink at the bar. Of desire and friendship, and of everything Ollie couldn’t have. But he couldn’t stop. Kissing Shay was an illusion he could never shatter, and it went on and on until they ran out of air.
Ollie gasped in a breath, but Shay kissed him again before conscious thought returned. They staggered backwards. Ollie’s back hit a cold brick wall, but even that wasn’t enough to pull him to the surface, and for long, blissful minutes, he didn’t care. Kissing Shay was magic, and he didn’t have the willpower to break the spell.
He spun them around, reversing their positions, and gripped Shay’s face, deepening the kiss. A moan escaped him. Shay echoed the sound and slid his hands over Ollie’s hips, hooking him closer as one leg rose up Ollie’s body, pressing them together in ways Ollie couldn’t describe.
God, I want him.But the thought alone was enough to remind Ollie that he couldn’t have him for a million reasons beyond the path Shay’s hands were blazing up his torso.You’re at work, dickhead. And he wouldn’t want you anyway once you took your clothes off.
Ollie had spent two long, hard years fighting to ignore the devil on his shoulder, but with Shay’s flawless skin against his palms, he just… couldn’t. Not tonight.
He kissed Shay one more time, then pulled away with Herculean effort and a soft sigh. “We should stop.”
Shay blinked back at him. “Why?”
“Um… because this is a work thing for me, and I can’t afford to fuck it up?”
He hadn’t meant it as a question, but Shay’s only answer was a slow nod, as though his own mind was in a million pieces too. “I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“Neither would I, but that’s not really my point.”
