Steph elbowed him hard in the side. “You know who. You guys remind me of high schoolers, can’t keep your hands off each other.”
John swallowed, unable to speak.
“Though I think he’s hung up on someone back home. Doesn’t talk about it, but I think it’s love. Only love can make someone that crazy,” Steph said, her phone dinging in her hand. “Driver’s around the corner.”
John frowned, wondering if she was talking about Lawson—or Samuels. Both men had homes outside of California and had good relationships with Steph, though Samuels was closer with her…
“Samuels?” he finally asked, tilting his head down to look at her.
Her pretty brown eyes snapped to him, confused, “Yeah.”
He couldn’t help but laugh, “Not in a million years.”
“What? Really? How come?! He’s so fucking—difficult.”
They both laughed now, holding each other as they did. Tears sprang to the corner of his eyes, and he couldn’t remember the last time he laughed this hard.
“Shit,” Steph sighed. Phone dinging once more as headlights turned from the road into the parking lot. “I need to get my Cupid arrow tuned, or something, ‘cause I swear I thought you and…” the bar door swung open, and Lawson stepped out, alone.
John’s heart hammered, and he made sure to keep his face neutral as Steph released him and kissed the side of his cheek. “Watch out for that one,” she murmured firmly.
He eyed her questioningly.
“The cowboy’s got a crush the size of Mount Rushmore on you,” Steph hiccupped, and quickly covered her mouth. “Shit, I didn’t say that. Nor did you hear it. I told him last month he needed to rein it in. He’s a good kid, John. Let him down nicely, okay?”
He nodded, pulse ticking so loudly at her words that he barely noticed as she slipped into her Uber and waved from the back passenger window, the car returning to the road and disappearing out of sight.
Was that true? Did Lawson have a crush on him, or was it just their subtle change in relationship in the last few weeks she saw? No, Steph said she talked to Lawson last month about him. He sucked in a breath, realizing then that Lawson had been the one who pursued him, not the other way around.
Lawson’s pale blue eyes were on him now, searching, waiting.
John swallowed and nodded, tilting his head to the side alley behind the bar and heading there first.
He barely made it a few feet into the alley when he felt Lawson’s hands on his body, pushing him against the brick building of the bar and kissing him hungrily. Devouringly.
Jesus fuck.
John’s body reacted instantly, grabbing the collar of his shirt and dragging him closer, their bodies pressed together as he kissed back.
Lawson let out a harsh breath against his lips, pulling back to kiss a hot, urgent trail down his jawline and to his neck.
“Fuck, I’ve wanted to do this all evening,” Lawson murmured, his mouth opening over John’s raging pulse and feeling him roughly suck on his neck. John’s gasp turned into a moan as Lawson’s teeth grazed the spot he was sucking beneath his ear before soothing the pain with his tongue. His cock undulated impatiently against John, grinding him into the wall.
Lawson was marking him—branding him—claiming him.
Yes!
John’s cock leaked with such raging need that he reached between them and grabbed the hard denim of Lawson’s jeans, panting.
“I want you here,” Lawson whispered.
John trembled, and before he could react, Lawson dropped to his knees in the dirty, rain-soaked alleyway and opened his jeans, unfastening his belt with quick, sure hands.
Before he could stop him, Lawson reached inside, pulled out his cock and straight into the hot sheath of his mouth.
“Fuck, Lawson…” he gasped.
He pumped forward into his wet mouth, feeling the stretch of his lips around his grith and the touch of his tip at the back of his throat. “You’re such a good…”
