Page 129 of The Fire Line

Harris paused.

Jesus.

Jay was built everywhere Harris looked. Strong thighs. The clean lines of muscle across his stomach and chest. And his ass—rounder than Harris had expected somehow, muscular and full beneath his hands, the kind of body that made it difficult to remember he was supposed to be nervous.

He had touched Jay there before. Grabbed him through denim, run his hands over him in the dark.

This was different.

Jay was naked and open beneath him, watching Harris look.

Not some anonymous man.

Jay.

“You planning to touch me, Shaw?”

“Getting the lay of the land.”

“Your dirty talk needs serious work.”

“Could leave you to do this on your own.”

Jay’s smile disappeared beneath something more intent. “Don’t you dare.”

That did nothing useful for Harris’s concentration.

He poured lube onto his fingers and warmed it briefly between them. Then he pressed one slick fingertip against Jay.

Jay inhaled sharply.

Harris stopped. “All right?”

“Yeah. Keep going.”

Harris did. Slowly, but not timidly. He watched Jay’s face as he pressed, trying to understand what he was feeling and how Jay’s body answered him. More resistance than he expected. Jay tightened around his finger at first, then gradually relaxed.

Harris had expected to be preoccupied with whether he was doing it correctly. Instead, he was almost painfully aware that his finger was inside Jay. The fact itself was erotic enough to make his cock ache.

Jay’s body accepting him. Jay’s thigh warm beneath Harris’s other hand. Jay watching him with dark eyes and trusting Harris to figure this thing out.

He worked his finger a bit deeper, and Jay’s eyes closed. His breathing changed, becoming slower and heavier.

Every response went through Harris. He curled his finger experimentally and Jay’s head tipped back. “Fuck.”

Harris’s pulse kicked. “There?”

“Yeah.” The answer came fast and clear.

Harris did it again. Jay reacted immediately. And god, Harris liked that.

Liked knowing he had caused it. Liked the way Jay’s body shifted toward his hand instead of away. Liked that the man beneath him—this man, who had been getting under Harris’s skin for weeks—was coming apart because Harris had figured out exactly where to touch him.

Jay caught the back of his neck and dragged him into a kiss.

Harris kept moving his hand while Jay kissed him messily, his hips beginning to follow the rhythm.

“More,” Jay said.