Page 21 of Nicks and Cuts

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Shannon sighed and lowered the bat.

Dante tried to keep his gaze on Shannon’s face and failed several times. “I live here…and I decided to come home instead of wasting money on a hotel.” Which was a lie because he had checked in. He wanted to be here; he wanted to be on his knees licking the water from Shannon’s skin.

“I thought someone was breaking in.”

“Why would anyone come out here and break in?”

“Oh, I don’t know because everyone in town knows exactly what you’re doing? So they know the place is empty. Or assumed it was anyway.”

Dante stared at him, then laughed. “I’m sorry I disturbed your bath…” He drew in a breath and jumped off the edge. “But I am not sorry about dragging you out of the bath and catching you like that.”

“Is that right?” Shannon’s gaze flicked over him. “And I thought you took off to avoid me.”

He should’ve expected Shannon to call him out, but he hadn’t expected him to be so blunt about it. It was better to just own up and admit to being in the wrong and to drag it out. “Yeah, kind of. I panicked.”

“I figured.” He placed his free hand on his chest. “I didn’t realize I was so terrifying.”

“You’re not. But your confidence to do everything is. That’s not a bad thing. I just didn’t like the mirror being held up to me.”

It wasn’t only that Shannon was out. It was the way he confidently left everything he was familiar with to start over somewhere else. He walked away to rebuild while Dante dug in, hoping the storm would pass. Both tactics could be successful. It was only a problem because he only used one.

“No, you do not get to look at me and make me out to be some kind of role model or something.”

That hadn’t been what he meant either. “I’m not good at this, okay? I find you equal parts scary and sexy, and I want you…and I’m figuring out how to deal with this. You’re not an anonymous hook-up, but I don’t know how to do anything else.”

“Oh…well in that case…I can host.” He hooked his thumb toward his room. “Lights off faceless or…”

The whiplash stole his breath. “What?”

“I thought since that’s what you’re comfortable with, that would be a good place to start.”

“Yes…but it’s not what I want, and it’s not all I’ve had.” And he didn’t want to be talking about it. He wanted to be kissing him.

Shannon’s teeth raked over his lower lip in a way that was far too distracting. “You know, at some point, it helps to talk about things and establish likes and dislikes.”

“I dislike talking about it.”

“Should I text you instead?” He reached into his pocket and then realized his phone wasn’t on him.

“Please don’t text anything like that.”

“Fine.” Shannon took a step back. “But you don’t get what you want if you don’t ask for it.”

Dante nodded. “For tonight, can we agree that I came home because I wanted to be with you?”

“Sure. But that’s not actually what you want.” He hooked his thumb in the waistband of his track pants, drawing attention to the hard line of his dick, and for a heartbeat Dante thought he was going to drag them down. “Otherwise you’d be asking me what movie I was watching and making popcorn instead of looking at me like I am the snack.”

“You are the only snack I want.” Heat spread across his chest and rose up his throat. He forced out the words, “I want to suck you.”

Shannon dropped the baseball bat on the floor, and this time, he did pull his track pants down, freeing his dick.

CHAPTER

TWELVE

When Shannon had leaped out of the bath, grabbed his track pants off the floor and the baseball bat from the wardrobe, the last thing he’d been expecting was to find Dante in the kitchen because he’d come home desperate for him, instead of finding a random hook-up.

There was a little part of him that was far too smug about it and another part that was panicking about what that might mean. At the moment it meant nothing. Though standing there with his pants around his ankles while Dante stared at him was not what he’d been hoping for.