Chapter Six #2
“I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I was startled.”
“Uh-huh.” Riley grinned, and it lit his whole face. “You’re adorable when you’re startled.”
Jason’s cheeks heated again, but this was what people on dates did. They flirted. “Well, I’ll make sure to walk into more stuffed animals, then.”
Riley took a step closer. “You don’t have to do anything. You standing there, looking like that? It’s enough to knock silver miners right out of my head.”
This couldn’t be happening. Not to him. Riley was too good-looking, too confident, too everything Jason wasn’t. Everything felt so charged, and Jason didn’t know what to do. He should say something, should stop staring at Riley like a deer in headlights.
Instead, he found himself leaning in, just slightly. His heart hammered. Were they really going to—?
Riley made the decision for him. His lips were warm and soft and perfect. And then Riley’s tongue flicked gently against Jason’s lips, and it was the most natural thing in the world for Jason to open his mouth, and for Riley’s tongue to slide against his.
His body jolted, like he’d been plugged into an electrical current. Heat, desire, need like he’d never known licked through him, over and over again, until he was trembling with it. Like a tree in a storm, tossed every which way with no control, his grip on Riley the only thing anchoring him.
Riley’s hand was in Jason’s hair, holding him close as his tongue stroked against Jason’s. Jason groaned helplessly, and Riley pushed closer, backing him against the case, all heat and urgency.
Jason had been sure Riley would pull back—would laugh at him for the little sounds he couldn’t stop himself from making—but instead, Riley’s hand tightened in his hair.
Riley pulled back for a heartbeat, pupils blown wide, looking almost as lost as Jason felt.
For a split second, Jason thought he might pull away completely, because he seemed stunned, almost dazed.
But then he leaned back in, need surging between them.
Riley was warm, solid, his body molding against Jason in a way that had heat curling low in Jason’s belly. He was pushing his hips against Jason’s, and—oh, God. Jason realized he wasn’t the only one who was turned on.
“Well, I just have—ah, I see I forgot something. Back in a minute.”
It took Jason, dazed as he was, an instant to realize that, holy crap, that had been Mr. Garrity walking in on them.
He pulled away from Riley, though everything in him protested, and removed his hand from where it had somehow found its way under Riley’s t-shirt to cling to the warm, smooth skin of his back.
“I—uh—” he stumbled. His lips felt swollen.
“Yeah,” Riley agreed. “Damn, Jason.”
As Jason wondered what the proper etiquette was after a kiss that had been brought to an abrupt and early end, the Imperial March blasted from Riley’s pocket.
“Shit,” Riley said, retrieving his phone from his jeans. “I have to take this, it’s my boss. At the publisher,” he added, as if Jason wouldn’t know what he meant.
“Sure,” Jason said, and turned away to look at the pieces of gold and silver ore on display, willing his erection to go away before Mr. Garrity got back.
RILEY
Damn it to hell, Amy’s timing sucked. But then he remembered who was paying his wages and expenses, and he made sure to sound pleased to hear her.
“What’s up?” he asked, and grinned at the guilty jolt that went through Jason’s body at his wording.
“Can you talk?”
“Sorry,” he said. “Later.”
“I want your progress report by six. And if it’s another ‘nothing yet,’ you better tell me why I shouldn’t send someone else to cover this.”
Riley winced. “You’ll have it.” He checked the time and swore silently.
Shit. He had less than two hours to pull together something that sounded like a lead.
To find proof that there really was something dangerous brewing beneath the surface of this sleepy little town, so they could blow it wide open before Urban had a chance to put his plan into action.
And, of course, sell a shit-ton of papers.
“I have to go now, but I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”
She hung up without the courtesy of a response.
He was aware the only reason he’d been given this assignment was because it was likely nothing more than the wild ravings of a drunken shifter.
As if it were possible that Argents still existed.
No one had seen one for centuries, and most people thought they’d been legends in the first place.
The claim that a tiny, unimportant pack had one hidden away was so improbable that Riley was convinced the whole thing was nonsense.
And yet, Riley’s source had ended up dead. Probably a coincidence. It wasn’t surprising that a drunk had gotten into a bar fight, after all. But Amy didn’t believe in coincidences. And, deep down, Riley wasn’t sure he did either.
He blew out a breath, trying to drag his mind back to work. But his body hadn’t gotten the memo—he could still feel the ghost of Jason’s mouth against his, warm and open and so damn sweet it made his stomach clench.
It was just a kiss. No reason for it to feel like it had shifted something inside him.
“Jason,” Riley said, and Jason turned around in response. His cheeks were a dusky red and there was a shy smile in his eyes as he looked at Riley.
Damn it, Riley didn’t want to walk away from this, not even for a few hours.
When he thought just how eager Jason had been, even if he did seem a little uncertain, he really didn’t want to walk away.
But if he wanted to eat, and he wanted to—well, not to fail again, he had only a couple of hours to work on his report so it looked like something more than the few, sparse facts it was.
“That was my boss,” he said, just in case Jason had forgotten. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to go back to the motel and work on my draft before emailing it to her. She’s a hands-on sort of a boss.” Not literally, thank God.
“No problem,” Jason said, but to Riley’s dismay, the smile in his eyes disappeared with the suddenness of a light going out. As if he thought Riley was making an excuse and running out on him. That was the last thing Riley wanted to do right now.
“Same time tomorrow?” he asked, stepping forward into Jason’s space. “I really enjoyed this afternoon, Jason.”
“Really?” Jason stared at him, surprise on his face. “I kind of thought I’d bored you to death.”
Riley blinked. “You?”
Jason’s lips twisted. “I’m not exactly exciting.”
“I don’t know about that,” Riley said. “You made me forget about work for once.”
Jason’s eyes widened, and then he smiled at Riley, those dimples in his cheeks again. They were choirs of angels and long lazy summer days all rolled into one, and Riley had never felt anything like this.
“So, boys, I’ve found your… Ah, good,” Mr. Garrity said, his overly loud voice dropping to a normal level as he came into the room and found they were no longer locked together.
“There you go,” he said, giving Riley a pile of identical leaflets, and one to Jason.
“If there’s anything more you want to know, just give me or William a call. ”
At the hope in Mr. Garrity’s blue eyes, the excitement that finally he might have some more visitors to talk to about his family memories, Riley felt like an asshole.
“I’ll be sure to do that, Mr. Garrity,” he said, and swore to himself he would leave glowing reviews for this museum on as many websites out there as he could find. And maybe, when the press and the gawkers descended on the town after Riley’s story ran, the museum would get some more visitors.
He took Jason back to the diner. His mind was on what he had to do when he got back to the motel and how he absolutely mustn’t fuck this job up, but he found when he put the car in park that he couldn’t just let Jason go.
Not without another kiss. And that kiss was every bit as good as the first, with Jason opening up under Riley’s mouth like he was born to it.
Riley was breathing hard when he finally pulled away, his hand still on Jason’s cheek, feeling the warmth there, and his thumb running over Jason’s lips.
God, this was supposed to be casual. No more than a bit of fun to make this assignment tolerable.
But with the way Jason kissed? No, it wasn’t just the kiss.
It was the way Jason looked at him—like Riley was someone worth the time.
Like he was more than simply charm and spin. No one looked at him like that.
“Sorry to cut this short,” he said, and found his voice was husky.
Jason shook his head. “You have to work,” he said, opening his car door. “See you tomorrow?” He sounded uncertain yet hopeful, which caused something strange to happen in Riley’s chest.
“So long as you don’t get mauled by any more museum bears,” Riley said, and that smile. It was going to kill him, because how could someone be so sweet and hot at the same time?
Riley could have cried watching that ass walk away. Damn you, Amy. He sat in his car beside the empty passenger seat. The one where Jason should have been, ready to go back to Riley’s motel with him.
Then, because there was still something of the overdramatic actor in him, he let out a long, tortured groan and smacked his head against the steering wheel. With a disappointed sigh so deep it should have gotten him an Oscar nomination, he drove back to his lonely motel room.