Page 86 of Line Change

I send it.

Nolan answers a minute later.

I know.

I stare at the two words. They’re better than nothing, but not by much.

Five minutes pass before the phone buzzes again.

you busy tomorrow?

I have practice.

The answer comes fast.

no shit. after?

I read it twice, then settle back against the couch.

I could be free. If you make it worth my while.

The typing dots appear. A second later, Nolan sends me a middle finger.

I smile anyway.

25

NOLAN

Ben is right beside me at Marlowe’s.

Micah shoved several tables together along the back wall for Tessa’s birthday. Most of the chairs were still empty when we arrived, and Ben pulled one over next to mine anyway. Now people are squeezing around the tables with drinks, leaving his thigh pressed to mine and his shoulder warm against my arm.

I keep looking at him to make sure this is still happening.

He came to Tessa’s birthday party. He knew where it was, who would be here, and what kind of bar Marlowe’s is before he walked through the door. When two men kissed beside us while they waited for drinks, Ben moved his chair so one of them could get past and kept listening to Micah’s story.

It feels a little like he’s making up for the thing with Grayson last week.

Things have been good since we cleared that up. Better than good.

We’ve spent nearly every night in one of our beds, including both nights of the last road trip. I had to get out of Ben’s room early the second morning because Sindre was three doors down and kept appearing in the hall at terrible times.

I was dressed with my shoes in one hand when Ben opened the door for me. The hall looked empty. Then the lock on Sindre’s room clicked.

Ben caught me around the waist and pulled me back inside. The door shut without latching, and I ended up against it with his body covering mine while we listened to Sindre walk past. Neither of us breathed until the elevator chimed at the end of the hall.

I reached behind me for the handle. “I have to go.”

Ben looked down at the front of my pants. Getting dragged backward had pushed my jeans against my cock, which was already hard from waking up with his hand between my legs.

“Yeah,” he said.

Then he dropped to his knees.

I had one shoulder against the door and my shoes still in my hand while he opened my jeans and pulled my cock out. The first wet drag of his tongue nearly made me bang my head against the wood. Ben held my hip with one hand and took me down until my thighs tightened around his shoulders.

Somebody spoke in the hallway. His mouth didn’t slow. I bit the side of my hand and stared at the lock over my shoulder while Ben sucked me harder, his eyes fixed on my face. The chance of somebody trying that handle had him worked up enough that he moaned with my cock in his mouth.