Page 127 of The Fire Line

“Right.”

“Seemed like a reasonable conclusion.”

“It was certainly a conclusion.”

Harris gave him a warning look.

Jay’s hand remained warm against his chest. Instead of asking another question, he moved closer and pressed his mouth to the side of Harris’s neck. His thumb moved slowly over Harris’s ribs.

The touch took some of the weight out of the silence. Harris could look past him toward the hotel window instead of directly at him. The curtain had not been fully closed, leaving one thin strip of parking-lot light against the wall.

Jay kissed his neck again.

“Do you actually want me to fuck you?”

Harris let out a breath. “I figured I could.”

Jay’s thumb kept moving. “That’s enthusiastic.”

There was humor in it, but no pressure. He didn’t pull away or make Harris hold his gaze. He stayed close, mouth brushing once against Harris’s shoulder, giving Harris somewhere else to focus while he tried to separate what he thought he should be willing to do from what he actually wanted tonight.

“Not sure I’m ready for that tonight,” Harris admitted.

“Okay.”

The answer came immediately.

Jay kissed the corner of his mouth and let his palm move once over Harris’s chest.

Harris looked at him. “That easy?”

“Of course.”

Something in Harris loosened.

“We absolutely could do that sometime,” Jay said. “If you decide you want it.”

Sometime.

Harris put the word somewhere he did not have to inspect tonight.

“And if you don’t,” Jay added, “that’s fine too.”

Harris nodded.

Jay shifted slightly above him. “Also, that wasn’t what I was imagining.”

“No?”

“No.”

Harris turned his head back toward him. “What were you imagining?”

“You fucking me.” Jay looked directly at him while he said it.

For a moment, Harris genuinely thought he had misunderstood. “You want me to do that?”

“Yes.”