Darius held him upright, and somebody said something. An entire conversation Kit couldn’t process, too overwhelmed by the terrifying freedom.
Smith had been Kit’s ticket out of Dad’s sphere of influence. No, not a ticket. A bridge. And now the bridge was burned. Kit was free, as long as he didn’t look too closely into the dark waters behind him.
Kit stumbled when Darius nudged him towards the front door. “Sorry. What’s happening?”
Darius’s arm was strong behind Kit’s back. “James and Bishop are handling the cleanup. I’m taking you back to James’s place.”
“Thanks.” Kit leaned against him. “Sorry.”
He wasn’t sure who he was apologizing to. He was just grateful Darius didn’t ask.
More than that, Kit was grateful Darius was the one taking him back. He couldn’t handle James’s intensity or Bishop’s questions right now. Darius was the one he needed.
In the car, Kit’s adrenaline crashed quickly. He didn’t realize he was falling asleep until he was already waking up. Night had fallen by the time Darius pulled into James’s driveway, and it was his quiet voice that pulled Kit back from sleep.
“We’re here.” Darius touched Kit’s thigh when he saw Kit was awake. “Looked like you needed that nap.”
The car light illuminated them both, a golden sanctuary in the darkness. The tenderness in Darius’s touch was so overwhelming, Kit couldn’t answer. He just twisted half out of his seat, reached for Darius’s neck, and pulled him in for a kiss.
Darius instantly took control, just like Kit wanted.
Heat unfurled through Kit’s veins. Scrambling to unfasten his seatbelt, he murmured into the kiss, “Push your seat back.”
“Really good nap, huh?” Darius asked, sounding amused. But he turned off the car, pushed his seat back, and unbuckled his seatbelt in time for Kit to climb over the console.
Kit’s knee knocked against the door, and his ankle briefly caught in a seatbelt. He didn’t care what a clumsy idiot he looked like, though. He was too desperate for more of this: Darius’s hands, hot and hard on his hips, tugging him close. When they rubbed together, they both exhaled.
“I’m not James,” Darius said, his voice rough. “You can’t distract me with sex.”
Kit rocked into Darius’s lap. “You sure about that?”
Darius’s grip tightened, holding Kit completely still. The casual physical control was exhilarating and grounding all at once. “I’m not Bishop either. I don’t need every last detail of your life to know who you are now. So, I’m going to ask you just one question.” His hands slid up under Kit’s t-shirt. “Is this incident going to bite us in the ass?”
Now who’s using sex as a distraction?Kit shivered with the heat. “No. It’s really over.”
Darius’s blunt nails scraped down Kit’s back. “I’m trusting you on that.”
“I have a question too. You don’t have to answer.” Kit wrapped his arms around Darius’s shoulders. “What do you want from me?”
“That depends on what you want to give me,” Darius said with a grin.
“What if I wanted to be boyfriends?” Kit tilted his head as Darius froze. “What if I wanted to go official on social media? What if I wanted to put a ring on your big, sexy finger?”
Their cramped, golden sanctuary fell quiet. Then Darius chuckled. “You got me there, Trouble. I’m in a bad place in my career to put down roots.”
Kit dove in for a barely-there kiss. “I don’t want roots either. I don’t know how serious this is. But I kind of like what we’ve been doing. I want us to keep doing this, whatever it is.”
Darius splayed his hands over Kit’s thighs. “Hooking up?”
“It’s more than that, right?” Kit cringed at how needy he sounded. Fuck, two months ago he would have strangled himself before saying something like this. “I mean, we’re not like, boyfriends. But I didn’t think we were just hooking up.”
“James asked if we were dating,” Darius said.
“You and me?” Kit asked. Figured James would rip off the communication bandage, even for Kit’s other relationships. “Or you and him?”
Darius chuckled. “He asked both, because he’s a dick. But he meant me and you.”
Kit traced idle patterns on the back of Darius’s neck. “James likes labels. I don’t really care as much. As long as you’re…”
