Don't Read in the Closet volume one (87 page)

Laurie was
halfway into relating a story his professor had told during a lecture the
previous semester about his time working as a profiler for the FBI when Jonah
leaned down and stopped the flow of words with his lips. To Laurie’s credit, he
didn’t miss a beat. Maybe he’d even been waiting for it. He opened for Jonah at
the first touch, letting Jonah’s tongue probe and explore and slide against
his. Laurie tasted like melon and peanut butter and Jonah thought that might be
his new favorite flavor combination. He felt Laurie’s calloused fingertips skim
across his nape and trail down the center of his back. Then, without being sure
exactly how it’d happened, he was lying on top of Laurie, cradled between lean
thighs, with those same fingers buried in his hair as the kiss went from
honey-slow to blazing hot and out of control.

Jonah
whimpered into Laurie’s mouth and ground down against him. He’d forgotten to
pack one essential item (lube), but, hell, they could improvise, and he had to
admit there was something incredibly romantic about the idea of losing his
virginity in a sunlit field of flowers and sweet-smelling grass. But Laurie
seemed to have plans
of his own
. His hands left
Jonah’s hair and moved to the hem of his shirt. He tugged until Jonah was
forced to break the kiss so that Laurie could pull it over his head and toss it
aside. Their mouths reconnected, heat and need in every nibble and brush of
lips, as one of Laurie’s arms slipped between their bodies and his fingers went
to work on Jonah’s jeans.

Jonah kissed him until
Laurie had bared both of their cocks, but the moment Laurie fisted them
together in one hand and started up a leisurely stroke, Jonah ripped his mouth
away and buried his face in the curve where Laurie’s neck met his shoulder. “Oh
, God.” His hips jerked forward and he shamelessly rubbed
himself against the velvety hardness of Laurie’s dick, a ragged, gut-punched
groan tearing from his throat.
Good. So
fucking
good
.
Jonah had never felt anything like
it.

When Laurie
picked up the pace and added a little twist to the downward stroke, Jonah sank
his teeth into Laurie’s shoulder to muffle his cries. Yes. Oh, hell fucking
yes
. He liked that right there, maybe
better than anything else they’d done so far. Except for the kisses. Those
kisses made him lose his mind. Speaking of which…

Jonah lifted
his head and crushed Laurie’s mouth under his. Laurie made a sound Jonah
couldn’t even attempt to describe—a moan, a plea, a prayer—and suddenly the
quick, jerking pulls got a whole lot smoother as the evidence of Laurie’s
orgasm eased the way. Jonah lost it then, at the feel of Laurie’s come on his
cock and the slickness of that firm grip as it moved steadily over his rigid
flesh. He came, kissing Laurie so hard he’d be surprised if their lips weren’t
bruised later, and it was like he hadn’t come in
months
. It went on and on, and the
kiss kept
going, too, until it was either pull apart or suffocate
, and even then
Jonah only paused long enough to draw in a few deep breaths before he kissed
Laurie again.

After a few
more minutes of deep, lazy kisses, they finally broke apart. They cleaned up
with the napkins Jonah had packed and settled on the blanket again. Jonah
curled against Laurie’s side, content to just lay there in silence. He wasn’t
aware of closing his eyes, but he must have dozed off because the next thing he
knew the play of Laurie’s fingertips along the length of his spine brought him
slowly back to wakefulness.

Jonah blinked
at Laurie, groggy and half-dazed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

Laurie smiled.
“No worries. You were only out for a few minutes.”

“Really?”
Jonah asked around a yawn. “It felt longer.” He stretched and sat up. “What
time is it?”

“Three.”

Jonah glanced
over at Laurie, who was still reclining on the blanket, loose and relaxed. “You
want to see a movie?”

“Sure.”

“Cool. But I
think we should play a game first.”

Laurie’s lips
quirked. “What kind of game?”

Jonah grinned
mischievously. “Hide-and-seek.”

Laurie
laughed. “What are we, ten?”

“Oh, no, this
isn’t your ordinary hide-and-seek. We play best two out of three.”

“Yeah?” Laurie
smirked. “And what are the stakes?”

“Winner claims
a boon from the loser.”

“Keep
talking.”

“A sexual
favor,” Jonah went on, his body stirring at the expression on Laurie’s face.
“The loser has to comply, no matter what it is.”

Laurie’s smile
took on a decidedly wicked cast. “You sure you’re brave enough for that?”

Jonah returned
that smile with an impish grin. “I’m brave enough for anything you can dish
out.”

“We’ll see,”
Laurie murmured as he sat up. “I hide first. Give me to the count of fifty.”

Before Jonah
could reply Laurie grabbed his shoulders and yanked him close for a quick and
dirty kiss that ended with a playful nip to Jonah’s lower lip. “For luck,” he
whispered, and then he took off.

For a moment
Jonah was too stunned to move, his mouth stinging, his cock once again on red
alert. The sound of Laurie’s laughter in the distance snapped him out of it. He
closed his eyes and started counting from ten, figuring he’d wasted at least
that long sitting there like an idiot.

When Jonah finished
counting, he searched for almost ten minutes before he finally admitted defeat.
He called out to Laurie and was surprised by a rustle from the trees a few feet
behind him. He turned and watched as Laurie dropped to the ground with bits of
leaves in his brown hair and a smug smile on his face.

“My point,”
Laurie said, his hazel eyes sparkling with humor. “Wanna try again?”

Jonah lifted
his chin. “Damn straight I do.”

Laurie’s smile
broadened. “See if you can actually find me this time.”

Jonah rolled
his eyes and turned away to start counting again. That time he did find Laurie,
and he was proud when it took him less than five minutes. Laurie still seemed
happy, despite his loss, and Jonah couldn’t resist sneaking in a good luck kiss
of his own.

He went off to
find a hiding place as Laurie began to call out numbers from his position near
their picnic blanket. Eventually he decided on the old barn. It might have been
an obvious choice—and that explained why Laurie had avoided it—but Jonah had
never said that he didn’t want to be found. In fact, he was more than a little
excited by the thought of what Laurie might ask of him when he lost. Smirking
to himself, he walked to the farthest stall from the door and settled down to
wait.
Come and find me.

****

It took Laurie
all of five seconds to figure out where Jonah had gone. He shook his head and
crouched to grab one of the water bottles from the picnic basket.
Let the kid sweat it out for a few minutes
,
he thought as he drained half the contents in one long gulp. Jonah was so
transparent. It was kind of cute, really, and Laurie was totally willing to
play along. Between work and school, he didn’t have very much time for fun.
Jonah was undeniably that. Not to mention sexy as hell. Laurie couldn’t remember
ever having reacted to anyone so strongly and they hadn’t even had full-on sex
yet. At the rate they were going, Laurie wondered if he’d survive it when they
did. Damn if it wouldn’t be worth the sacrifice one way or another.

Laurie tossed
the water bottle back into the basket, and made his way to the barn. He tried
to keep his steps light as he checked the stalls, but by the time he neared the
last one, he knew that if Jonah was there, he’d probably heard him coming. His
suspicions were confirmed when he paused a couple of feet away and Jonah
suddenly shot out of the stall and
ran past him. Laurie
burst out laughing and
spun around to give chase.

He caught
Jonah just outside the barn door. Jonah feinted left and then tried to bolt in
the opposite direction, but Laurie was ready for him. He blocked Jonah’s escape
and crowded him until he’d backed Jonah against one of the barn’s exterior
walls.

Jonah’s face
was flushed. He grinned as Laurie braced an arm on either side of his
shoulders. “Guess you found me,” he said, reaching out to set his hands on
Laurie’s hips. “So what are you going to do with me now?”

Laurie made a
valiant effort at resisting as Jonah tried to pull him closer, but the sight of
Jonah’s tongue slicking across his lower lip had him caving faster than a house
of cards in a monsoon. He traced the same path it had taken and then nibbled at
the corner of Jonah’s mouth. “You’re a little cheat. Running is against the
rules, didn’t you know?”

Jonah’s soft,
breathy laugh made Laurie’s cock twitch. “Maybe you should punish me then.”

Laurie slipped
one of his thighs between Jonah’s legs and had to bite back a groan when Jonah
immediately started to rub against him. “Yeah? Would you like that?”

Jonah
shuddered, his eyelids drooping shut. “Yeah. I think I would.”

“So maybe I
shouldn’t then,” Laurie said, even as he reached down to cup Jonah’s ass and
drag him even closer. “Wouldn’t be much of a punishment if you enjoyed it,
would it?”

Jonah’s grip
on his hips tightened, urging Laurie to move faster. “Do whatever you like.
Later.”

“Yeah.” Laurie
gave in to him, loving the way Jonah trembled and moaned as the speed of their
movements increased. “Later.”

CHAPTER 5

“So who all is
going to be at this thing?”

“It’s a rave,
Jo. You never know who’s gonna show up.”

Laurie glanced
over his shoulder at Jonah, who sat alone in the backseat
of Marc’s Intrepid as Marc navigated the
unnamed country roads that led deeper into the hilly forest at the edge of
town. Jonah gave him a tiny, suggestive smile as Marc kept talking. Laurie
shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling back. He and Jonah together at a
party in the woods where alcohol and Lord only knew what other mind-altering
substances would be available probably wasn’t the best idea, but when one of
the fly-fishing guides had told them about the rave, he never once considered
leaving Jonah behind. Outside of work, they hadn’t spent much time apart since
their picnic last week. Jonah was still in possession of his V-card, as he
liked to call it, but that was a mere technicality in Laurie’s opinion since
they’d done just about everything else.

As hot as all of the
fooling around was, Laurie knew this thing they’d started had already gone
beyond that. He wasn’t sure exactly when it’d happened, but there’d been a
moment the day before when Laurie looked at Jonah and realized he wasn’t just
some friend with benefits anymore, if he ever had been in the first place. They
were in a relationship. Without either one of them really acknowledging it,
they’d become a couple. Because people in sex-only arrangements didn’t spend
hours and hours just talking, didn’t hold hands and snuggle at the movies,
didn’t fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms after nothing more than a few
kisses. And they definitely didn’t look at each other the way that Jonah looked
at him.

Laurie was surprised their
co-workers or Jonah’s grandparents hadn’t caught on. For him, the affection in
Jonah’s face whenever their eyes met was blindingly obvious. If Marc hadn’t
known what was going on, though he was still pretending otherwise to spare
Jonah any embarrassment, Laurie knew he would’ve been able to guess. It was a
good thing that he’d come clean to Marc before it even started because Laurie
thought they were both probably doing a piss-poor job of hiding the fact that
they were involved. That was okay, though. Laurie and Jonah were both out to
their families, so it wasn’t as if that part would come as a shock to anyone.
And maybe their relationship wouldn’t either. But if Laurie had anything to say
about it, Marc was the only person who would ever know the particulars about
how they’d gotten together in the first place.