Piper’s hand found the lock before he consciously decided.
Click.What the fuck is going on? What am I doing?Piper finally let thoughts in but they came out like he was drunk on lust.
“Shit. Is this really happening?” Piper said out loud as his inner thought escaped him.
Noah didn’t answer, he just looked at Piper like he was the only boy in the world. A look foreign to Piper.
Then Noah approached and had him against the cold tile before the question landed. One hand on the side of Piper’s face, the other flat against the wall beside his head, caging him in. Piper’s back hit the wall with a dull thud, his hands coming up like he was going to push Noah off.
He didn’t.
His fingers gripped the front of Noah’s robe and pulled him closer.
Noah’s mouth found his. The kiss landed open and hungry, all heat and teeth, tongues at war with each other. Piper made a sound he hated immediately, low in his throat, half surrender. Noah swallowed it and pressed in harder.
Piper had been kissed in a thousand controlled ways. This was not one of them.
Stubble scraped Piper’s chin. The hand at Piper’s jaw slid back into his hair and tightened, and Piper’s whole body went tight with it. He kissed back like he was angry. He probably was. Noah bit his bottom lip and dragged it slowly between his teeth, and Piper felt his knees do something they had never done before in his life. His body almost went limp as he released part of himself at that moment.
He should have shoved Noah off. He should have walked out and pretended none of this was happening.
Instead, he dragged Noah closer. He kept going and did not want this to stop.
Noah broke the kiss first.
“Tell me to stop.”
“I will destroy you if you stop, asshole,” Piper replied.
Noah kissed him again. Slower this time. Worse, somehow. The kind of kiss that meant something. Piper’s hand came up and gripped the back of Noah’s neck as his hips pressed forward, and Piper felt every inch of Noah’s hard cock against him.
The ventilation fan hummed. The fluorescent light buzzed. Somewhere outside the door, the photographer was screaming. “Where the fuck did those two go?!”
Noah pulled back. “Fuck, let’s tell them we had to call our agents in the meeting room past the men’s bathroom.”
His thumb dragged across Piper’s bottom lip, swollen and wet, and his eyes were dark.
“Clean up, Ashton. We’ve still got photos to shoot.”
Piper stood there for a moment, legs shaky, the cold tile against his back the only thing holding him up.
Joan we are fucked.
Chapter Eight: Los Angeles
Piper drove the long way home.
He drove the long way because an hour on the freeway was the only place in his life he could clear his head, and the phone in his pocket felt like a live grenade he was on the verge of throwing out the window.
Traffic crawled as brake lights stretched across the freeway. The city moved past in fragments of neon and glass, and Piper kept both hands on the wheel, knuckles loose, posture controlled. Everyone hated L.A. traffic except Piper Ashton.
He could still feel Noah’s hands on him. Still feel the pressure of his body against his. The feel of cold tile against his back.
Piper exhaled slowly and reached for CarPlay, then stopped himself. The phone vibrated. He looked. Jayson. He opened the message.I saw the shots. You two look very convincing.He read it once, then again. Convincing, like a warning dressed as a compliment.
Piper read it a third time before setting the phone face down in the center console. The freeway opened briefly, then congested again like it always did in L.A. He shifted lanes, eyes still on the road.
Jayson had seen the shots already. Of course he had.
