Maybe it was the buzz filtering through his bloodstream, or the adrenaline of watching John literally threatening to break a pro baseball player's wrist for him, but Wyatt couldn’t stop the big silly grin that tugged at his lips. “That was hot.”
John’s chest rumbled with a chuckle, the corner of his eyes crinkling in those deep lines, and Wyatt reached for him, unable to resist.
“Can I kiss you now?” He asked, a mere breath away from the man of his dreams.
John’s amusement was replaced with an excited heat that thrummed through Wyatt’s entire body.
“Please.” The ache in his voice, the plea, had Wyatt nearly launching onto him, kissing him thoroughly, greedily.
John grabbed him by the front of his shirt, dragging him against him, returning the kiss with just as much force. Wyatt’s ears roared with the thundering sound of his heartbeat, and he melted into him, fingers clawing through his thick, sexy beard.
A beard, he decided, John could never shave off.
He pulled back, catching his breath and flushed with desire. Those were the kisses they shared in the privacy of the hotel rooms, not in public. When he had asked John for the kiss earlier on the phone, he hadn’t anticipated it to be a passionate one, but tame and appropriate for public viewing.
John seemed to be thinking the same thing as he said, “That wasn’t the kiss I was expecting.”
Wyatt grinned, “I’m marking my territory.”
John’s laugh lines crinkled once more, and fuck, it was dreamy. He needed to make his man laugh more often.
His man.
“I’m serious,” Wyatt said earnestly. “You’re a newly gay man at the gayest art show in LA right now. I’m not risking a single person here thinking you’re available.”
“I’m not, am I?” John asked quietly, eyes locked with his.
“No,” he whispered. “Just in case you were wondering, I like you, too.”
Emotion flickered across John’s face, and he released him, fixing Wyatt’s crumpled silk suit shirt and jacket. “Well, that can mean only one thing, Dr. Lawson.”
Wyatt watched the transformation to Dr. Donnelly, and his cock thickened between his legs.
“We agree upon treatment and should proceedaccordingly.”
“Which is?”
John licked his lips, intentionally keeping Wyatt close, as though unable to tolerate the slightest amount of distance. “We date. Go out. Fuck, as often as humanly possible. And we forget the rules. They don’t matter anymore.”
His heart skipped, lungs constricting with an elation he wasn’t anticipating. Did he really mean it? Did he want to date—openly? Without the stupid rules caging them? Hope pierced through his chest, getting far too close to his heart.
John swept an appreciative gaze over his body. “I haven’t told you how good you look yet. And fuck…” he drawled out that word, lighting the match to the gasoline in Wyatt’s veins. “You look good. Really good.”
Wyatt, like a moth to a flame, inched closer, his stomach swooping. “You like what you see, daddy?”
John sucked in a breath, eyes dilating at the title.
Wyatt liked seeing him squirm with desire. He wondered how hard his cock was, because Wyatt’s was, and he liked this teasing game a little too much. He glanced heatedly over his body. John wore a light blue suit in a muted shade that perfectly matched his dark brown hair and complexion, paired with an open white V-neck shirt beneath and tanned loafers. He looked like he just walked out of a magazine shoot.
“I like what I see, too,” he breathed, fingers itching to take what was his.
John suddenly stepped forward and kissed him hard. “You’re killing me, baby,” he rasped against his lips. “This is supposed to be our first date. But you make me wanna drag you into the nearest fucking closet and…fuck…”
John kissed him again before tearing his lips away, taking a giant step backward. Heart galloping like a stampede, Wyatt shot him a mischievous grin, which John returned, looking rakishly bashful.
He loved John’s duality—one moment being strong, confident, and effortlessly masculine, to the next being gentle, modest, and ridiculously cute.
John lifted curious fingers to his lips, his head tilting. “Is that vodka and cranberry juice I’m tasting?”
