But even more powerfully than that, I could feel how much he liked the attention. He was showing himself to me, I realized, and that was fucking hot.
And hot for very different reasons than the bold, exhibitionist flare I obsessed over online. Definitely. They had to be different people, I decided again.
“T-shirts and shorts encouraged,” I answered as I poured him a cup of coffee. “You sure you’re not too burned out? No hard feelings if you need a break from the crowd.”
Half his mouth quirked up in a smile. “It sounds nice. And I want to catch your moms one more time before we take off.”
“Great.” I slid the coffee across the kitchen island. “And hey, I wanted to say thanks again for last night. I had a great time, at the reception and after.”
Pausing at his suitcase, Izzy shot me a full smile over his shoulder. “Me too, Kai.”
“Does that mean I’ll get to take you out again, back in Pittsburgh?”
He wiggled his cute butt, which was hugged by the white fabric of the towel, and I practically moaned into my coffee. “You want to take me out again?” Izzy asked.
“Definitely.”
Izzy turned, some clothes dangling in his hand. He stared at me while he pulled a short pair of white boxer briefs on under his towel, then added a T-shirt. For a second, I thought he was considering whether or not to take me up on my offer, which kind of surprised me.
I figured we had a good thing going.
When he tossed the towel aside, though, I saw that he had pulled his lip between his teeth and tilted his eyes down to shoot me a flirty look. “Yeah, Kai, I’d love to.”
I nodded softly. “Cool, cool.”
For a minute, I just floated in the good feeling while Izzy got dressed. Maybe it would just take me a little time to shake my other obsessions because everything with Izzy felt right. Spending time with him was easy.
Maybe that was a weird way to think of a potential boyfriend.Easywasn’t exactly a romantic way to describe a person. But he wasn’t easy because he was available or because he didn’t challenge me.
It was just that there was no pretension or trying too hard to impress each other, like was the case with most of the people I tried to date and pretty much everyone in my work life.
Being with him was like starting a puzzle and having all the pieces fit together on the first try.
Izzy turned back to me. He was wearing a blue pair of hiking shorts that fell to his mid-thigh and a long-sleeved T-shirt with boulder illustrations all over it that advertised the Hickory Run State Park. After admiring how nice his legs looked for a second, something dawned on me.
Leo and River were going to read everything on my face the second Izzy and I arrived at breakfast.
“What?” Izzy asked with a laugh as he joined me at the counter.
“Did I have a look on my face?”
“Like you’d just dropped something on your toe,” he teased.
I chuckled. “Sounds right. I was just thinking about the guys giving me a hard time at breakfast.”
“Why would they give you a hard time?”
I leaned forward, then pushed my lips close to his ear. “Because we hooked up last night,” I whispered, blowing the words across his sensitive skin.
When I pulled back, Izzy held my gaze for a moment, then dived forward for a quick kiss. “Yeah we did,” he grinned.
Fuck, it was fun to play around with him. I wasn’t even thinking about whether the caterers had arrived for breakfast or whether the checkouts up front were going smoothly.
“Hey, while we’re talking about this…” I took another sip of my coffee. “What are you looking for right now? If you’re looking for anything, that is.”
It was another serious question, and maybe it was too early to ask something like that?
Too early in the morning, and too early with Izzy.
