Andthathad never felt like this.
“So then why pick here?” Cal asked. “You were on edgesince we came through the door.”
He almost got an answer. Then Joe tilted his mouth in that sparse, arrogant smile that had hooked Cal on the first night. He brushed a kiss over Cal’s mouth and ran his hands down his stomach to tug his shirt out of his trousers.
“Maybe I changed my mind and decided that I shouldn’t waste you and this suit on anyone else.” Joe shut up for a second as he creasedthe thin, silk fabric between his fingers. “I don’t want to think about anything except you tonight.”
Even Cal—fucking feral ex-con Cal—knew that probably wasn’t a good idea. But he couldn’t resist it.
He shoved Joe back against the wall and claimed the kiss that Joe had teased him with. It was hungry and eager, but not desperate. Both of them knew they’d get what they needed tonight. Cal losta handful of the expensive buttons on his shirt as Joe impatiently pulled it apart. He spread his hands over Cal’s stomach, across the ridges of his abdomen and up to pinch the flat buds of his nipples. A moan scraped up out of Cal’s throat and slid between Joe’s lips.
The heavy, almost physical pulse of the music tangled with the heady pulse of hunger and heartbeats.
Cal dragged his mouth reluctantlyaway from Joe’s. Undeterred, Joe bit and licked along Cal’s jaw to his ear. While he sucked on Cal’s earlobe—his mouth wet, his tongue busy, and the memory of wet skin and Joe’s mouth around his cock vivid in Joe’s mind—Cal reached out and unhooked the velvet rope. It dropped and the heavy metal hook clanked against the wall.
“Come on.” Cal pulled Joe toward the stairs. “If youdon’twant upin the gossip rags, we should go somewhere a bit more private.”
Joe saw the unhooked rope and laughed. “Look at that. Even in a nice suit, you’re still a bad influence.”
“Yeah, that’s the one GCSE I got,” Cal cracked dryly as they hit the stairs.
Joe stopped on the first step and tried to tug Cal back down. “Don’t do that,” he said. “You’re not stupid.”
He sounded like—Cal made a deliberatedetour around a comparison with his brother and got stuck with what that really meant—someone who cared. That didn’t mean he did. People got sentimental when they wanted to get laid. It still pulled Cal up for a second. He swallowed the jag of it.
“And you don’t like crowds,” he said. “You really want to get into this now?”
Joe looked frustrated for a moment but eventually shook his head. “No,”he said. “Later.”
Cal pulled him up a step, tangled a hand in Joe’s styled curls, and grinned at him. “If you remember.”
They scrambled up the narrow stone steps, clumsy with lust and unwilling to let go of each other. Cal guided himself up the stairs with one hand on the narrow metal banister and his other arm wrapped around Joe’s waist. Joe kissed bruises down Cal’s throat and ran his handsover Cal’s back and down to his ass.
They finally tripped over the last step and into the long crescent curve of the VIP lounge. The walls were bare except for pink-and-blue scenes of anime porn, from fully colored sex scene panels to storyboard sketched outlines with scribbled arms and motion lines. Low pink-and-blue velvet sofas were discreetly angled around the room, and the anime girl oversawa chrome bar. It was empty, booze relocated downstairs until they needed to restock, except for two jars that were full of theme-matched condoms and dental dams, respectively.
Joe smirked against Cal’s jaw. “I guess they really do want us to kiss.” His hand was between Cal’s legs, his palm pressed against the hard jut of an erection that strained against the freshly tailored zip. Heat stirredlike honey in Cal’s stomach, hot enough to stick and sting as his nerves twitched and fired under his skin. “I’d hate to let them down.”
“Oh,” Cal said raggedly. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
He dragged them both down onto the nearest couch, tangled together on the plush, fuchsia-pink velvet. Kisses bumped off lips and along shoulders as they fumbled at each other’s clothes.Cal’s jacket got tugged off and discarded, the navy silk of his shirt creased and plastered to his dance-sweaty skin. He hitched his hips up off the cushions to unbutton his trousers and laughed raggedly as Joe impatiently pushed his hands out of the way to do it himself.
Cal stroked his hands down Joe’s back, traced the sharp jut of his shoulder blades and then down to his lean waist and thetaut curve of his ass. He squeezed the firm rise of muscle and flesh and tugged Joe down against him. His cock pressed against the hard muscle of Joe’s thigh and made his balls throb with hot tight pleasure.
“I bet I could make you stop thinking.” He licked a kiss over the scarred skin at Joe’s temple and smirked. “At least, stop thinking about anything but me.”
Joe pushed Cal down into thecushions and leaned back, his hands braced against Cal’s shoulders.
“If my father taught me anything, it’s never bet on a sure thing,” Joe said. He lowered himself down until his lips almost touched Cal’s. His breath tickled Cal’s skin as he spoke. “That first night, at the pool, your mouth on its own nearly made me forget how to swim.”
Cal aimed a mock-bite at Joe’s mouth. His teeth skimmedthe elegant curve of it. “It’s a good thing you didn’t,” he said. “I don’t think you would have made quite the same impact on me.”
“Liar.”
The flickered memory of wet skin and scant black trunks flashed through Cal’s brain. And yeah, Cal was.
Joe closed the feather-width of distance between them and kissed him, slowly and deeply. It left Cal breathless and aching. He groaned when Joe triedto move away, and he pulled him back down. The pulse of music from the club thumped up through the floor, vibrated through the couch and up into their skin.
A man’s voice, pure as a bell and raw with experience, growled about the Devil and deals over the wicked skirl of guitars.
