Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
JAKE
“There you are!” Val popped up in the corner of the kitchen where Jake had retreated for a moment of solitude under the guise of refilling the chip bowls. “Someone else you should meet got here.”
Jake did not want to meet anyone else, despite Val’s golden retriever energy insisting otherwise. Jake was already peopled out an hour into this party, in fact, but he allowed Val to snag his hand and tug him back onto the patio. After all, Val was being kind enough to allow Jake to crash in his basement while he searched for a place to live for the next year. The least he could do was participate in the ‘Welcome to Maryland’ barbeque Val organized on his behalf.
He’d already forgotten many of the names of those Val introduced so far, and now he exchanged polite nods with them as Val hauled him past. At least when he ran into their fellow Space Force folks on base, their uniform nametapes would serve as a handy reminder. Currently, he only recognized Val’s husband Sage and their roommate Weston on sight, and he’d already given up remembering their Air National Guard buddies. “I will meet everyone at work this week, you know,” Jake tried to remind Val.
“Not this one,” Val said. “He’s not military.” They reached the far corner of the patio where they’d set the drink coolers.
Weston spoke with animated arms to another man there, breaking off when he spotted them. “Sage owes me five bucks. I didn’t think Dima would show.”
Val clapped his hand on the newcomer’s broad shoulder. “My brother loves our parties.”
“Your brother loves you.” The man smacked a kiss to Val’s cheek and turned more fully toward them. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his face smoothed into bland politeness. “You must be the friend I heard so much about when Val lived in California. A pleasure to finally meet you, Jake.”
Jake prayed he maintained half as much control over his own reaction, especially when shaking Dr. Moroz’s hand resulted in the same sparks across his skin as when they touched in his office earlier that week.
As when he’d gotten to his knees for the stunning older man who’d allowed Jake to lose himself in giving pleasure the weekend before. The man who also happened to be his ex-boyfriend’s older brother. Fuck his life.
Doctor-patient confidentiality probably also explained why Dr. Moroz acted as if this was their first encounter, and Jake blessed him for it. “You too, ah—” Jake cut himself off, not wanting to assume the privilege of the nickname Val used for his brother and definitely not wanting to reveal he’d met Val’s brother in a professional capacity…or any other capacity. Val’s half-brother, he finally remembered, given the different last names and their opposite coloring. Side-by-side, Jake picked out the minute family resemblances in the shape of their shoulders, the arc of their strong noses.
Sage darted through the crowd and zeroed in on his spouse. “Val, we should get another round of burgers on the grill.”
Weston lit up at the request. “I’ll help.”
“Absolutely not,” Val said. He nudged Jake forward. “Help Dima find a drink, will you?”
Panic surged in Jake’s chest, but before he had a chance to suggest he help at the grill instead, Val and Weston vanished after Sage. Leaving him alone with Val’s brother, the heat of the man’s touch lingering on his palm.
Not ready to face him, Jake dropped into a crouch and popped the cooler open. “Uh, what are you in the mood for? There’s beer, soda, some hard seltzer…” As he trailed off, he risked a glance over his shoulder. A drastic error. Under bright afternoon sun, wearing cargo shorts and a casual T-shirt, Dr. Moroz exuded the same pure sexual appeal here as in a dark club with a harness crossing his deliciously furred chest. Though his shorts might be looser, Jake was already intimately familiar with the beast behind the fabric at his groin.
Dr. Moroz cleared his throat, and Jake jerked his attention to the man’s face. “A Coke, please.”
“Sure, got it.” Jake wanted to bury his face in the ice to relieve the flames surely reddening his cheeks. Instead, he retrieved the requested can, along with a seltzer for himself, and handed it to Dr. Moroz before backing away. Not far enough to be impolite, but more than enough to keep him from succumbing to the urge to drop to his knees and rub his face against the tempting bulge. Because that would be ridiculous.
This was Val’s brother . Forget either of their previous exchanges. That fact should be reason enough alone for Jake to erase the sexy older man from of his mind once and for all.
While he sipped his drink and tried to look anywhere but Val’s brother, Dr. Moroz’s dark gaze remained firmly locked on him. As if finally coming to some sort of decision, he released Jake from his inscrutable stare, peering across the patio and shaking his head. “I’m going to rescue my brother and Sage from Weston trying to help with the grill. There’s a reason I don’t practice emergency medicine.”
His wink invited Jake to share the joke, and he laughed. Less than two weeks sharing a house with the man was more than long enough to know Weston’s whirlwind energy shouldn’t mix with fire. “Good call.”
Instead of moving away as the other man passed, Jake indulged in a last whiff of Dr. Moroz’s spicy cologne, a last brush of his body heat. He got more than he bargained for when the man paused in Jake’s personal space, gripping his elbow and ducking to whisper in Jake’s ear. “Relax, Jake. Your secrets are safe with me. And please, call me Dima.”
Jake shivered in the warm summer air at the brush of the soft words. He resisted the urge to lean closer. “Thank you…Dima.”
Dima smiled, maybe the first true one Jake had seen from him by the way the skin crinkled at the corner of his eyes. Then, he released Jake and moved away through the crowd.
They’d now crossed each other’s paths three times in barely a week. What were the odds Jake could make it through a year stationed in Maryland without running into his ex’s brother again?
Jake stuck to his fellow military personnel after, his new coworkers at Joint Base Andrews. Easy enough to avoid another conversation with Dima, but not to ignore the heat of his stare. Dima had no reason to stare at him. Jake was just the military buddy crashing with Dima’s little brother. Their worlds shared nothing in common. They had no reason to chat.
Nothing to see here, move along.
The strategy worked like a charm the rest of the afternoon and evening. Until the last of the guests cleared out, leaving Jake and Dima at the patio table with the remnants of the fudge brownies Val baked for dessert. Jake had avoided sitting beside Dima, who lounged lazily at the opposite side of the table. Now he couldn’t look at the others without also catching Val’s brother’s eye.
Weston pointed the neck of his beer toward Jake, “I learned a previously undisclosed fact this afternoon. That you and Val dated out in California.”
Jake might have grown nervous if not for Weston’s lips teasing a grin and the outright laughter from Sage. He might have expected this line of inquiry from Val’s actual husband, but he’d gleaned from Val’s stories over the years that few boundaries existed between the three long-time friends. “We may have gone on a few dates.” The easiest way to explain their handful of less than satisfying physical encounters, neither man able to give the other what he wanted or needed, until they decided they’d be much better suited as friends than lovers.
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Weston asked.
Val smacked his shoulder. “I told you about Jake!”
Weston turned to Sage. “Did you know about Jake?” Sage rolled his eyes and snagged the last brownie from the tray between them.
“I knew about Jake.” Dima tipped his water bottle to Jake in a silent salute, and Jake flushed. How did the man stay so unruffled? Wasn’t this as awkward to Dima as to Jake, knowing he’d been intimate with the same man as his younger brother?
“A few dates, huh? Val wasn’t good enough for you?” Weston asked.
Jake could give as well as he got. “I’d call Val the one that got away, except I never actually had him. He was always too busy pining after someone back home.”
“Aww, I love you too, boo.” Sage leaned into Val’s space for a kiss.
Val indulged him a quick peck before turning to Dima. “Speaking of Jake…I wanted to run something by you.”
Jake froze. Oh no. Val had mentioned the day before that he had an idea about Jake’s living situation, but he’d forgotten in all the stress of the party. He couldn’t rely on Val’s hospitality forever, especially with the daily commute he’d start on Monday. But this area provided slim pickings for a single sergeant.
“Jake should rent your spare room,” Val continued, oblivious to Jake’s mental attempts to cut him off.
No way would Dima go for it. The list of reasons not to agree to Val’s proposal ran a mile long, beginning with Dima’s role in the injectable medication trial and ending with Jake’s knees on a club floor. He was sure to have some smooth excuse about why Jake couldn’t stay with him. Monday, Jake would look into his last-case plan of moving into a room on base. Turned out to be second-last.
“Sure. Happy to help any friend of Val’s.”
Blood rushed in Jake’s ears like a record scratch. Dima couldn’t be serious. The man was so even-keeled that maybe Jake missed a layer of sarcasm. But when he chanced a quick peek at Dima, Val’s brother gifted Jake with a tiny smile and slow blink, as if reassuring him all was well.
All was not well.
“Uh, thanks,” Jake said, mouth dry and wishing he hadn’t finished his last drink. “That would be—yeah. That could work.”
Val beamed at the success of his brilliant plan before peppering Dima with questions about the state of his condo and other logistics. Jake should have participated in the conversation, as the renter in question. Instead, he grabbed the empty brownie tray and a few leftover bottles from his side of the table and escaped to the kitchen.
The running sink as he scrubbed the baking dish covered Dima’s entrance. Jake jerked, splashing water onto his shirt, when the bigger man leaned his hip on the counter nearby. Why Dima ever accepted a hookup with him was a mystery, because clearly Jake was a mess. No wonder he’d rebuffed Jake’s attempted flirting in his office. Jake finished rinsing the dish and shut off the water, plunging the kitchen into silence.
They had mere moments of privacy before one of the others came inside. “Why?” he asked, voice almost a whisper. “You turned me down last time.”
Dima stared at the tile floor, then glanced up at Jake with a soft huff of laughter. “I’m still turning you down,” he said. “But I’ll never turn Val down. You need a place to stay. That’s all this is.”
The last of the alcohol Jake drank should have worn off by now. But only lingering tipsiness explained the flash of longing he caught on Dima’s face. Or maybe Jake was projecting. He needed to suck it up and find a shitty place on base.
Instead, he pulled his phone from of his pocket. “I guess I should get your address.”