Second Period
NEW YORK City had been just as terrible an idea as Rowan predicted. He’d done all the things he said he wouldn’t do and none of the things Taylor suggested. Rowan had not gotten over his infatuation, and to make matters worse, he’d spent an evening all but cuddled up with Jordy and a pair of newlyweds. As if Rowan needed a reminder of what he wanted and, for so many reasons, couldn’t have.
Not that Rowan wasn’t happy for Nico and Ryan. They were adorable together and surprisingly good company for a couple of sports bros—when they weren’t drunkenly staring into each other’s eyes. It was hard not to like Ryan, who’d shown up in a rainbow T-shirt with the caption “Rainbros” and then immediately gushed over Rowan’s, with its library cart and “They see me rollin’” slogan.
Still, as a means of getting over Jordy, New York City was a total failure from start to finish.
Fortunately Rowan had no time to dwell on that when they got back home. Between looking after Kaira full-time now that Jordy’s training schedule was filling up, and applying, waiting, and stressing out about his application to U of T, Rowan didn’t have the energy to worry about romance.
Jordy’s Monday started with morning practice and Rowan and Kaira planning their week. It was the last full week of summer vacation before Kaira started first grade, and Rowan suggested they make a list of everything Kaira wanted to do. Only a six-year-old could make a to-do list that rated eat ice cream and one more trip to the Science Centre of equal importance.
Rowan had been banned from including, or even telling, Kaira about the most exciting item on the to-do, which was a visit from her aunt. Emma was due to arrive on Friday and wanted to spend a night with Kaira in a hotel to kick off her visit, but given the patience of six-year-olds, Jordy wanted to keep it a secret until the day before Emma’s arrival.
So on Tuesday, Kaira and Rowan were at a playground to swing on the swings—item number five—when Rowan’s phone rang and University of Toronto popped up on caller ID.
“I got an interview!” he blurted out the instant Jordy got home. Jordy froze in the entryway, the door half open and his hands stretched toward the hook to hang his keys. “Sorry,” Rowan babbled, “I didn’t mean to ambush you, but I was here and I have an interview tomorrow morning at the university.”
Jordy stepped into the house, closed the door, hung up his keys, dropped his bag, then finally turned to Rowan. He wore a bright smile, and he sounded sincere when he said, “Congratulations.”
“It’s just an interview.” Rowan didn’t want to get his hopes up. “They’re probably interviewing loads of people who are more qualified than me.”
Jordy stepped closer and forced Rowan to meet his eyes— Has Jordy been avoiding eye contact for the past few days? Rowan wondered distractedly, which was a dumb thought to have right at this moment—and said, “They’d be crazy not to hire you. Getting an interview is an achievement. Don’t sell yourself short.”
Rowan felt almost light-headed. “Right. It does mean that I’m suddenly busy tomorrow morning at ten.” Because Rowan shouldn’t lose sight of the important details.
Jordy shrugged. “No problem. I’ll text Adrianna. She should be able to watch her for the morning, and I can carpool with Sully.”
Then he moved toward the living room, away from Rowan. Which was a silly thought to have. He wasn’t moving away from Rowan, he was moving toward his daughter. Something he was definitely allowed to do and totally not out of character. And he wasn’t avoiding eye contact with Rowan either. Why would he be?
Rowan agonized over his clothes for a full hour before he got himself out the door to arrive at the university library at half nine. The front desk sent him up to the second floor for his interview, and Rowan took his time getting there. The less time he spent waiting in one place, the better.
The university had obviously spent money keeping the library up to date. There were so many places to sit and work—comfortable chairs and couches in the open for reading, desks and workspaces tucked in corners or behind doors for quieter study or research. Rowan could imagine booking one of the rooms to review with friends or complete a group project.
He wanted this so bad he ached with it.
At ten he met the chief librarian, Andreu Iulian, and his deputy chief, Marina Chifundo.
Marina, as the faculty liaison coordinator, would be his supervisor if Rowan got the job, and Rowan had no bloody clue if she liked him. He suspected she was nearing retirement age, not that you could tell based on her attitude toward the job, and had a no-nonsense air that suggested she’d seen and heard it all. Considering she was a Black woman in a position of authority at a university, Rowan suspected all of that was well earned.
Andreu might have been the one in charge, but it was clear he trusted Marina’s judgment and let her run the interview.
Half an hour later, Rowan stumbled out of the chief librarian’s office and found his way back into the sunshine. Marina had grilled him not only about his experience and expertise, but his hobbies and favorite films, all presumably to get a better sense of Rowan as a person, but the breadth and unpredictability of the topics left him feeling like he’d just left a police interrogation rather than a job interview.
Unbalanced, he decided to get some lunch before he picked up Kaira. Maybe the calories would settle his emotions before he had to worry about anyone else’s.
Fortunately, Kaira kept him busy for the rest of the day and all of Wednesday working through her list. Then on Thursday, after his morning workout, Jordy came home for lunch and told Kaira the news.
“Auntie Emma is coming?” she shrieked.
“Yup. Her flight gets in tomorrow morning. She’s going to come here for lunch, and then she wants to take you on an adventure.”
“An adventure?” Kaira squirmed in her seat and cocked her head.
“Yup. Auntie Emma has booked a room at a hotel for the two of you to stay in on Friday night. She says you’ll do lots of fun girly things.”
“We will?”
“Uh-huh. She wouldn’t tell me what.” Jordy mock pouted. Rowan wanted to nibble his bottom lip. “Because I’m not a girl.” Kaira giggled. “But she did tell me that the hotel has a pool with a very cool waterslide.”
By eight that evening, Kaira had asked Jordy a million and one questions when he was available and turned them on Rowan when he wasn’t. Unfortunately, Rowan knew even less than Jordy, a fact Kaira needed frequent reminders of.
By the time she passed out forty-five minutes after her usual bedtime, Rowan was all but ready for his own bed. He groaned and flopped onto the couch, primed for mindless entertainment.
Jordy chuckled as he settled into an armchair. “Told you it was better to wait.”
Rowan lifted his head off the couch and stared at Jordy, so far away. Guilt churned in his stomach for having taken up so much space that he chased Jordy out of his usual spot. “Sorry,” he grumbled as he sat up to give Jordy more room. But Jordy didn’t move over.
“I forgive you for doubting my wisdom,” he said magnanimously and turned on the TV.
Rowan was definitely not going to think or obsess about Jordy’s seating choice tonight. Definitely not.
JORDY HAD mixed feelings about Emma’s arrival.
On the one hand, Kaira loved her aunt. Some people had complicated relationships when it came to intrafamily adoption. That had never been an issue with Emma. If she felt the least bit maternal, or jealous of Jordy’s relationship with his kid, or regretted giving her up, she had never given the slightest indication. She played the part of fun aunt perfectly, from the colorful outfit and outrageous heart-shaped sunglasses she wore on her arrival to the way she pretended not to recognize Kaira: “Now, where’s my niece? Have you seen her? She’s about this tall”—she held her hand out at knee height—“with brown hair and brown eyes…. She looks a little bit like you, actually, but you’re way too tall—”
Kaira shrieked with laughter. “Aunt Emma, it’s me .”
Emma clutched her chest in mock surprise. “Oh my goodness! My little Kaira!” She knelt down for a hug. “What is your dad feeding you to make you get so big, huh?”
Jordy raised his hands on cue. “I promise I haven’t given her HGH.” Even if he did know where to get it.
With one last smacking kiss to Kaira’s cheek, Emma stood and planted one on Jordy too. “Hey, big brother.” She patted his stomach. “Off-season’s going well, I see.”
Kaira giggled again, although she almost certainly didn’t understand Jordy was being teased for putting on the necessary muscle, and the layer of fat that came with it. “Good to see you too, Em. Congratulations on the new job.”
She beamed. “Thanks.”
The teasing didn’t bother him either. That was just standard sibling stuff, the same banter Jordy exchanged with his teammates every day. And it would’ve been a pretty sad situation if a little jab about his belly bothered him when he’d developed it on purpose.
No, the problem came Friday afternoon, when Emma packed Kaira into her rental car and waved goodbye to Jordy and Rowan, leaving Jordy without a convenient waist-high buffer between himself and the object of his affections.
Why couldn’t Emma have gotten time off for her visit before the New York trip? Back when Jordy was cheerfully living in ignorant bliss of the fact that he’d somehow asked a handsome, kind, funny guy to move in with him and then fallen unwittingly in love?
Jordy had never felt more like the dumb jock stereotype.
He should have seen this coming. Hadn’t he even thought, months ago, when Rowan rescued him from that awful dinner, that there might be something between them? A fact he’d conveniently forgotten because he needed Rowan for something else.
He didn’t regret that. Kaira and Rowan’s mutual adoration society was something out of a wholesome children’s book. He just wished he’d opened his eyes a little sooner so that he could have protected himself.
Of course, he probably wouldn’t have done anything differently. He just would’ve been prepared for his own complicated feelings.
Sully was going to laugh his ass off. Baller’s I-told-you-so would probably come in a singing card full of explosive glitter.
Meanwhile, Jordy had to contend with Rowan pacing the house, glancing at his phone every twelve seconds to see if he’d missed a call from U of T. At one point he started chewing a fingernail, which objectively should have been gross, but apparently putting fatherhood first meant Jordy had repressed his sexual desires so far that now he couldn’t stop staring at the damp corner of Rowan’s mouth.
“Maybe we should do something,” Jordy said when he couldn’t take it anymore.
It was a dumb thing to say. He should’ve made his excuses and gone to the gym. Rowan would never know it wasn’t a scheduled day. He didn’t even have to go to the gym; he could’ve just said that and walked into a Tim Hortons and crushed a ten-pack of Timbits about it. But sooner or later Rowan would get a new job—if not this one, then another—and his landlord would fix the mold in his apartment, and he’d move out, and then Jordy would never see him again. So he might as well get his fill now.
But the pacing had to stop. “You’re going to wear a hole in the floor.”
Rowan looked down at the floor, or perhaps more pointedly at his bare feet on Jordy’s obscenely expensive hardwood.
It had really been too long since Jordy had a proper date if he was looking at another man’s ankles like this.
But after a second, Rowan conceded with a sigh and flopped onto the couch. “I’m sorry. I know I’m being—a lot. It’s just kind of a dream job.”
As if Jordy needed the reminder. He wasn’t about to forget Rowan’s words from Ryan and Nico’s wedding reception. I couldn’t do it. He couldn’t live with the specter of a possible cross-continental move hanging over his head when he’d worked so hard to put down roots.
Which was just one more reason, if Jordy needed one, that he should keep his distance. It would be foolish and cruel to pursue something with Rowan knowing he could be traded at any time. Jordy felt bad enough that part of him hoped Rowan didn’t get this job so he’d stick around longer.
If he found one more thing to feel guilty about, he’d have to convert to Catholicism.
He was just about to suggest they do something to distract themselves—get out of the house, find somewhere to have dinner, fuck each other stupid on the couch in the den—when an earsplitting noise made them both jump.
Rowan dropped his cell phone, swore profusely, and then scrambled to pick it up.
Jordy held his breath.
“Hello?”
He could tell from the tense way Rowan held his body that this was the call he’d been waiting for.
“This is he.”
From his vantage point, Jordy couldn’t see Rowan’s face, and while the volume on his ringer might have been cranked up to wake the dead , the same could not be said for his phone speaker. Jordy hunched forward on tenterhooks.
“Absolutely. Yes, I understand. No, I think I have everything I need ready…. Monday morning? Of course. I’m looking forward to it.”
Fuck. Wait. Yay? He wasn’t upset . He was happy for Rowan. Just—
Rowan hung up the phone and turned around, and Jordy scrambled to school his features. “Well?”
“I got it,” Rowan said softly, almost disbelievingly. Then a wide, brilliant smile stretched across his face. God, he was gorgeous. “I got it! I got the job!” He looked ready to start hopping in place. Jordy wanted to kiss him. In the face of Rowan’s enthusiasm, he couldn’t be sad, really, even if he could feel his heart start to crack.
“I knew you would.” Jordy honestly couldn’t imagine anyone not loving Rowan.
“Liar,” Rowan said with a giddy laugh.
Jordy would need to hire a new nanny. Rowan got his dream job, and he would be leaving them soon.
Suddenly any barrier Jordy had erected to protect his heart seemed stupid and wasteful. He closed the distance between them and wrapped Rowan in a tight hug. He was warm and solid under Jordy’s hands and the scent of him made Jordy dizzy. His lips brushed Rowan’s ear as he murmured, “Never. I always had faith.” Rowan shivered and didn’t disentangle himself from Jordy’s arms.
The hug went on too long, but Jordy found it difficult to let go once Rowan was in his arms. He wanted to breathe him in—his scent, the warmth of his body. But he couldn’t hold on forever. Reluctantly, he loosened his grip and pulled back.
When there was enough space between them that Jordy could see Rowan’s face, he couldn’t help but look down at Rowan’s mouth. It was so close and tempting—
Rowan surged forward and pressed his mouth to Jordy’s in a brief, ecstatic kiss. Jordy’s head swam. Rowan’s lips were soft and warm, and Jordy wanted to stay there forever.
Abruptly, Rowan lurched back, his eyes wide and horrified. “Oh God,” he gasped. Jordy’s heart started to sink. “That was way too forward. I never should have—I’m so sorry!”
Wait, Rowan was apologizing for not asking? Not for the kiss?
It was Jordy’s turn to push forward. He closed the gap and placed a short, soft kiss on Rowan’s half-open mouth to stop the flow of words. Then he pulled back just enough to catch his eye—just to make sure it was okay—
Rowan leaned into Jordy’s weight and parted his lips in invitation. Jordy didn’t need to be asked twice.
The third kiss was longer. Jordy raised a hand from Rowan’s waist to cup his face and tilted him just so to deepen the kiss. He pressed in closer, swiped in with his tongue. He wanted to devour Rowan. If this was Jordy’s only chance to have even a little piece of Rowan while he could, he was going to take it. He was going to imprint every square inch of Rowan onto his memory and claim him in turn—cover him in love bites to leave an impression behind, to claim rights to Rowan, if even for a moment.
Would it make the heartbreak worse when Rowan inevitably left? Maybe. But for once, Jordy was going to take something just for himself, even if it led to heartbreak and misery later. At least his heart could go down in a blaze of glory.
NO MATTER how many fantasies he’d had about Jordy, Rowan hadn’t planned on acting on any of them. Jordy had made his position clear at the charity gala. But then Rowan got the job, and Jordy hugged him, and his gaze lingered on Rowan’s mouth, and Rowan lost his head.
Not that Jordy was complaining. He was much too busy mapping out Rowan’s mouth, nibbling on his bottom lip. Jordy slipped his hand into the small of Rowan’s back and pulled him forward, pressing his thigh between Rowan’s legs and Rowan’s hardening dick into his hip.
A moan bubbled out of Rowan, and he twined his arms around Jordy’s neck to pull him closer. Jordy growled and the kiss got hungrier. Rowan must have been a very good boy if he deserved this. He smoothed his hands over Jordy’s shoulders, back, chest, touching everywhere he could, feeling up all that very nice muscle under its round layer of fat. Jordy needed to put that body to use right now.
They broke the kiss, gasping for air.
“Do you—”
“We should—”
They snickered awkwardly. Then Jordy asked, “This okay?”
“Yes.” Rowan maybe said that embarrassingly fast. Whatever. He wasn’t about to hold back now. “Very okay. Like ‘how about we go to my room because it’s closer and more comfortable’ okay.”
“Good,” Jordy said gruffly, and then he turned them in that direction, his grip still firm on Rowan’s back, and practically waltzed them across the room and down the hall.
I need to get this man back on the dance floor. Giddy bubbles filled Rowan’s chest, and he pulled Jordy into another kiss.
Somehow Jordy maneuvered them to Rowan’s bedroom without running them into anything until Rowan’s legs hit his mattress. Then Jordy lifted him with a little growl and all but threw him onto the bed.
“Oh my God.” Rowan stared at the ceiling, then at Jordy climbing after him. “Rail me.”
Jordy groaned and dove in for another kiss.
“Does that mean—” Rowan moaned as Jordy dragged his hot mouth from Rowan’s lips down to his neck. “—it’s a yes to the railing? Uhh!” He gasped under the press of teeth. Apparently Jordy was into biting, and so was Rowan. His hips bucked. “Please say it’s a yes.”
“Later I’m going to touch every inch of you, get my tongue on you,” Jordy promised. He scraped his teeth down Rowan’s neck. “I’m going to suck your cock and eat your ass. And I’m going to open you up on my fingers until you’re begging me before I fuck you through the goddamn mattress.”
“Yes.” Rowan writhed under the filthy promises and grabbed at whichever parts of Jordy he could reach. Part of him was dimly aware that he could be doing more, bringing Jordy pleasure, touching him in all the right ways, but most of his brain was caught on a loop of God, finally and fuck me .
“But it’ll have to wait,” Jordy groaned, one hand fisted in Rowan’s hair, the other clutching at Rowan’s hip, “because I want to take my time. Do it right.”
“Yes, do me right,” Rowan agreed. “Fuck, do me. Rail me.”
Jordy pulled away . He knelt up and pulled off his shirt in one move. Then he turned his focus back on Rowan. “Get naked.”
“Yes, sir,” Rowan quipped, only his chest was heaving and his breath coming in short, and it sounded more sincere than sarcastic. Jordy’s eyes darkened, and Jesus, Rowan must have been very good, not just in this lifetime, but past ones too.
Like, godly levels of good, he added hysterically after he untangled himself from his polo and got his first look at Jordy naked.
He was layers of muscle under fat basically everywhere. If this was what playing shape looked like, then clearly the gods were doing Rowan a solid.
Jordy slipped out of briefs last, and Rowan’s mouth watered.
“I need that perfect cock inside me yesterday,” he said, out loud apparently.
Jordy prowled up the bed. “Maybe later, if you’re good. But first, you have to get. Naked.”
Rowan had never taken off his clothes so fast, and he once had an allergic reaction to cheap washing soda. The way Jordy looked at him, dark eyes hot with lust as he ran his gaze down Rowan’s body, made him feel like a three-course meal about to be devoured. Cannibalism had never held so much appeal. If Jordy wanted to eat him alive, Rowan would get him a spoon.
He was opening his mouth to beg some more—his dignity had vacated the premises about the time he threw himself at Jordy—when Jordy straddled him and pinned his wrists to the mattress, effectively removing words from the equation.
A vowelless sound escaped Rowan’s lungs.
Tragically, Jordy made no move to fuck him. Rowan didn’t complain about it because Jordy slotted his thigh between Rowan’s, and honestly? Rowan’s ass could get in line; his dick was getting the attention now.
Jordy’s thighs lived up to every filthy thought Rowan had about them, broad and thick and powerful, perfect for rubbing off against. Except Jordy wasn’t letting Rowan move—he pinned Rowan’s wrists to the mattress above his head with one big hand, and Rowan had neither the leverage nor the lower body strength to do anything but lie there and take whatever Jordy gave him.
Right now that meant dirty, slow grinds of his hips, every movement rubbing Rowan’s hard cock between Jordy’s leg and his own belly. He’d leaked enough to make a puddle, and every time Jordy thrust against him, the puddle grew and Rowan’s dick slid a little more and a more embarrassing noise wisped out of his throat.
Jordy was dripping too, his erection a hot, heavy weight against Rowan’s hip. Rowan wanted to touch it, wrap his hand or mouth around it, but he had to settle for feeling it move against him and wanting .
And that was going to be enough.
Jordy had been watching him with those dark, assessing eyes, but when Rowan finally managed to reboot his nervous system and arch up against him, Jordy let out a groan and pressed his face into Rowan’s neck. Rowan’s brain disintegrated under the onslaught of hot breath, lips, teeth, the burn of Jordy’s stubble. God, he was going to come like this—with Jordy’s thigh pressed just, just behind his balls, a promise or a tease or both.
“Jordy,” he finally managed to gasp, and something must’ve gotten through.
Jordy didn’t let him up. He sucked a bruising kiss into the side of Rowan’s neck and slipped his free hand between them to wrap tight around Rowan’s cock, stroking roughly.
Then he pushed his leg up harder, higher, until his knee slid between Rowan’s asscheeks like he might try to fuck him like that, and Rowan’s orgasm punched out of him along with all the breath in his lungs. It went on forever, filling the bedroom with slick sounds and the scent of come and sweat, until finally Rowan couldn’t take it anymore and flinched away.
All at once, Jordy released him. He sat back on his haunches, giving Rowan a perfect view of him in all his glory. The muscles in his forearm bunched as he took himself in hand. Rowan watched the head of his dick disappear and reappear in his fist, then dragged his eyes up from between those tree-trunk thighs to the solid slab of Jordy’s stomach and the wall of his chest. A drop of sweat ran down between his pecs.
Rowan licked his lips. “Jordy,” he said again. He raised his hands as far as Jordy’s thighs, squeezed the meat of them under his fingers. The power coiled there…. God, Jordy would destroy him if he ever fucked Rowan properly .
“Yeah,” Jordy agreed, and he looked down at Rowan’s perfectly normal-size hands on his own godlike thighs, pressed his free hand to Rowan’s chest, and came all over him.
Rowan’s brain went to static.
Above him, Jordy heaved, his whole huge body moving with every breath. He looked like Rowan felt, fucked-out and brainless.
Suddenly Rowan understood the appeal of all kinds of sports.