26. Chapter Twenty-Six #2
I nod as I carefully pull my cardigan around my shoulders, suddenly realizing that I must look like absolute shit in my sweats with my bulky sweater hanging off me like an old lady, hair that hasn’t been brushed and I have yet to take a shower.
I nonchalantly sniff myself, thankful I don’t reek of desperation and guilt.
Just the faint remnants of my deodorant and cologne clinging to me.
I come to sit on the couch, leaving a modicum of space between us.
“So you wanted to talk,” I venture carefully. “You could have called.”
Aaron sets his hands on his thighs and purses his lips. “I know, but I didn’t want to give you a chance to say no.”
“I could have said no when I opened the door,” I say.
“But you didn’t,” he says softly. “You looked at me, and you let me in and—”
He swallows, looking at the space between us.
“You know I laid awake all night thinking about what to say. To you.”
My blood chills as the memory of last night pushes forth. Of myself, lying in bed, tossing and turning as I thought of him…
“What I should have said to you. At the party.”
“Aaron—” I sigh, holding my head in my hands. “It was bound to happen, I knew something would, we…”
I sigh. “We couldn’t keep pretending we were something we weren’t.”
I look at him, at his warm eyes and his soft expression.
“Right. Because what we were was an act.” He says solidly. “An illusion of grandeur.”
I nod, my heart in my throat. “Yes,” I choke out.
He nods.
“So… that should make this relatively easy, then,” he says as he slips his hand in his back pocket and procures a long black book. A checkbook.
My gaze fixates on it. It’s amazing how one small item can hold so much.
Can mean so many different things.
My heavy breath is not missed as the tension between us thickens.
Of course, this is why he came. To make nice. To pay me because that was all this ever was. A job.
He slips his pen off the leather top, flipping it open and writing it rather quickly. My eyes stay focused on his fingers, on the swish of his pen.
It feels like forever, but not long at all.
He rips it out and holds it in his fingers. Tightly.
“Aaron, you don’t—”
“I have an offer for you,” he says pointedly. He scoots closer to me and I don’t move, though I know I should.
He smells so fucking good, and the way he’s looking at me right now…
“I don’t know if I can take another offer,” I say, my voice cracking. “Aaron, I don’t—”
“Hear me out. Please, Jake.” It’s the way he says my name that makes my shoulders loosen, my heart skip a beat.
“This is a check for fifty grand,” he says. My eyes fixate on the thin paper.
“I hired you to be my boyfriend, and you did your job.” He looks at me, his gaze firm. “Very well, I might add,” he says with a smirk, his gaze turning serious. “You can take this check, and I’ll walk out that door, and that will be that. You’ll never see me again.”
My heart aches at his words, and I notice the sheen in his eyes. I hear the way his voice cracks. It makes my own soul ache, my own eyes water.
The heaviness of those words weigh on me like a world all on its own.
“Or…” I breathe, watching his lip quiver, my voice betraying me with hope I know I don’t deserve.
“Or… I can rip this fucking check up right now, because you are worth so much more than this.” I watch as one stray tear slides down his cheek.
“Garrett was right about one thing,” he says. “You, Jake, are priceless.”
“Aaron—” I shift my position, falling closer to him and a moment later I feel his hand on my throat, his fingers brushing over my skin with a reverence that is both relieving and a bit terrifying.
Because the way he touches me.. It’s like he thinks I’m delicate.
And maybe I am, when it comes to him. Because I feel weightless in his grasp, under the heat of his gaze as he shifts closer.
Close enough our knees brush one another.
“Tell me it wasn’t real,” he whispers. “Tell me that it was all a lie, and I’ll leave you with what I promised you and one hell of a fucking Yelp review.”
I laugh as the tears come like rain.
“Just… tell me the truth. Please. Tell me I’m not fucking crazy.”
I look up at him with my watery eyes, noting the tears in his own.
“It wasn’t a lie,” I whisper. I reach my hand out and settle it on his neck, pulling him closer. Every ounce of my preservation tells me to fight this. That this is no different than before.
But as I look up at him, at his tearful gaze, I know it’s real. That this —whatever exists between us… it’s real.
Despite the fact we couldn’t be more different, despite the fact that it doesn’t make sense.
When I’m with Aaron, everything makes perfect sense.
“God, I hoped you’d say that,” he whispers, ghosting his lips over mine. I pull him into my space, unable to fight his words, his scent, his sweaty palm on my skin. I kiss him because I can’t stand not to.
I need to feel his truth in every way possible. Aaron leans into me, kissing me adamant fervor, his tongue caressing mine as I melt like ice over a fire. I must bump the remote, because the movie starts playing again, but it’s white noise.
“I love you, Jacob Riley,” he says, gazing down at me with warm amber eyes full of so my truth it’s hard to refute.
He holds the check out to me. “I should have chosen you last night, but I was too caught up in losing you. Losing what we had.” He sucks in a breath.
“And I didn’t realize until I lost everything I thought I wanted, that what I really wanted more than anything… was you. ” He slides his hands in the back of his left pocket, procuring a small bag of candy.
Gummy sharks. I cry like an idiot as he holds them out to me.
I grab them, staring at them like they are literal diamonds. Because to me, they are.
To me, this bag of candy means more than any check he could have written. Because it’s not about the money. It’s never been about the money with Aaron. Maybe it was at first before I knew him. Really knew him.
Before he found his way into my heart.
But once I got to know the soul of Aaron Everett, I soon realized he was so much more than what he pretended to be, for himself just as much s other people. I saw him, and he saw me. And it didn’t matter where he came from. All that mattered was that somehow we’d found each other.
“Once upon a time, I asked you to be my Prince Charming, and you said yes,” he says, his voice shaky.
“Now I’m just asking you…” he says, and I can see the vulnerability in his gaze.
“To let me be your leading man. Let me be your Prince Charming.” He swallows harshly.
“So… what do you say, Jake? Do you want a contemporary gay romance with me?” He smirks.
I don’t hesitate as I grab the check out of his hand and throw it over the couch. I have no clue where it lands, nor do I care. I grab his neck, my fingers brushing the edge of his jaw as I bring him to my lips, my words spilling out of my mouth as I kiss him with shaking lips.
“Fuck yes,” I breathe.
His lips move hurriedly against mine as I settle back into the couch, pulling him on top of me. I sink into the cushions, something crumpling beneath me, but I don’t give a shit right now about anything but him.
I choose you.
Tears stream down my face as I keep uttering one word, over and over, if only so I can make sure he hears it.
Yes. Yes, a thousand times yes.
“You are my favorite contemporary gay romance,” I whisper as one hand slides down his neck, over his chest while the other holds onto his throat. Aaron presses his body against mine and I revel in the warmth, the solidness of him against me.
I want to hold on to this moment forever.
He breaks away, gazing down at me with kiss swollen lips and shimmering eyes. He leans his head against mine and I watch through my teary eyes, the grin that splits his face.
His hands travel down my sides, his warm palm on my skin making every nerve light up like fireworks.
My cock strains against my sweats as he grinds himself into me.
“Does this mean I get to call you my boyfriend for real now?” His voice is tinged with humor and hope.
“Yes,” I say, crushing my mouth to his once more.
My hands travel down his sides, moving over his ass as I rest them there.
I don’t push or pull him. I don’t want to rush.
I just want to feel him, his smooth, supple ass against my palm, his cock hard against mine through his tight, perfect jeans.
His mouth on my neck, licking, sucking, and biting.
“Boyfriend,” he murmurs, his grin against my neck warm and sweet.
I bite my lip as my own grin falls over my face, and I thrust my cock against him just the slightest.
“Daddy,” I whisper as I bring my mouth to his ear. His groan is as telling as the wet spot forming against my sweatpants.
“Say that again,” he grunts, slipping my cardigan down to my elbows. The sleeves pool around my fingers as I hold onto him, my grin splitting me open with so much warmth and excitement, so much truth.
Because hearing Aaron Everett call me his … for real… there’s no better sound.
“Daddy,” I groan again, not wanting to fight this anymore.
“Tell Daddy what you want, little prince,” he says, palming my cock through my sweatpants. I moan without hesitation, thrusting up into his hand.
“Everything,” I breathe, my eyes falling shut as he continues to kiss my neck, my jaw, my shoulder and—
I nearly jump when I feel his lips wrap around my exposed nipple and my cock weeps with its own praise.
My hands move around to his belt and I press my palm against the metal, feeling it heat like my insides.
“I want everything,” I say, unlatching his belt. I thrust against his palm, seeking his friction.
“Then I’ll give you everything, ” Aaron says, his lips finding mine once more as he tugs down my sweatpants. I lift my hips to let him pull them down, shifting out of my cardigan and flinging it across the coffee table. It knocks some books over, but I don’t care.