21. Kieran
KIERAN
Of course, the only time Jace has willingly talked to me since Halloween is because he thought I’d hooked up with someone else… and I went right back to swallowing his cum in the same interaction.
What is wrong with me?
I didn’t correct him, either. It isn’t a hickey. It’s a burn mark from a video Danny and I tried to record before I cut my hair. Danny had never used a curling iron before and he burned my neck on the first attempt. Needless to say, that video never happened.
Jace is confusing. Nothing about his behavior makes sense.
It’s kind of funny, in a fucked-up way, how he went from obsessively tormenting me to pretending I didn’t exist. He gave me the cold shoulder for months, refusing to acknowledge me, and then he gets…
jealous? He lost it at the thought of someone else touching me while simultaneously getting hard as steel.
It’s confusing. He’s confusing.
I’ve had a growing suspicion after what happened at the Halloween party that Jace’s previous attention might have been to cover up his attraction toward me.
Or maybe he didn’t even realize why he was doing it, and the makeup was an easy scapegoat.
Even though he didn’t touch me during either blowjob, I can’t shake Liv’s comment that Jace is obsessed with me.
For the first time, I’m starting to think she might be right.
“Earth to Kieran,” my coworker calls, and I realize I’ve been lost in thought about Jace. Again.
He’s been consuming every thought I’ve had, and no matter how much I tell myself to move on, I can’t stop my brain from defaulting back to thinking about him.
“Sorry, what’s up?” I ask Lilly, who I’m sure has been saying my name for a minute based on how annoyed she seems.
“You were just so spaced out. You good?”
“Yeah, my bad, just distracted.”
“Mm-hmm.” She nods, but I know I’m not fooling anyone. “You’ve only got, like, thirty minutes left in your shift, so can you go out on the floor and help customers?”
“Yep, of course.” I nod and close the half-unpacked box in front of me and push it off to the side, knowing I absolutely butchered the organization of whatever shipment I was supposed to be working on.
As I step out into the store, I slip into my customer service autopilot. Smile, nod, be helpful, and don’t think about Jace Ryan’s moans or his weird shift in behavior. Don’t think about the way he tasted or the ridiculous fact that I still want him, even though I know I shouldn’t.
Nope, I don’t have time for that.
Instead, I help a mom pick out a birthday gift for her daughter, then show a teenage girl where the makeup brush sets are stocked.
The last fifteen minutes crawl by, and I swear I check the clock at least seven times before I’m finally released.
I head to the back, grab my bag from my locker, and pull my hoodie on as I leave the store.
With how distracted I’ve been today, it’s a miracle I remembered my stuff at all.
I can’t wait to get home and shift my focus to this week’s video content and forget all about the asshole jock with a nice dick and even nicer butt, not that I’d ever be touching that.
I’m sure that’d send him into a complete meltdown.
I turn toward the parking garage, and any hopes of a chill evening vanish because Jace is sitting on a bench, eyes already locked on me.
Of course he’s somehow here. I can’t escape him. He makes that impossible.
I debate ignoring him entirely, showing him how it feels, but decide against it, walking right up to him instead. I want to know why he’s here. If it’s for me.
“What do you want?”
“I thought you’d be at work,” he says, standing up. “Didn’t know when your shift ended.”
“So you sat here, waiting for me.”
It’s not a question, but he answers anyway.
“Yeah.”
I let out a humorless laugh and glance around to make sure no one is nearby, especially no one we know. “You’ve got a weird way of showing interest, you know that?”
“Shut up. I’m not—” He cuts himself off, then huffs as he drags a hand through his curly brown hair. “I just wanted to talk.”
“Then talk, Jace. I want to go home.”
There’s a pause long enough to make me think maybe he’s changed his mind.
Then, like he didn’t just spend five months pretending I didn’t exist until I blew him the other day, he says, “Can you actually drive me home? I need a ride.”
I blink at him in complete disbelief. “You’re kidding.”
“Please? I need to talk to you.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine, let’s go,” I cave, motioning toward the mall exit and not stopping to see if he’s following.
We walk in silence, and he seems to hang back a few steps behind me. When we get to the car, I don’t say a word as I unlock it and slide into the driver’s seat, feeling more nervous than I’d like to admit about this “talk.”
When I pull out of the garage, he keeps glancing at me, and I ignore every single one. If he wants to talk, he can open his mouth and speak.
“So... that day in the bathroom,” he says finally, voice low like someone could overhear, even though it’s just us in the car.
“At school,” he clarifies, because there have now been two bathroom hookups.
So classy. “The next day, I had two home runs, got multiple people out who were trying to steal home, and even tagged someone out.”
“None of that means anything to me,” I remind him as I continue to focus on the road.
“It was one of the best games I’ve ever had.”
“Congratulations?” I say, like it’s a question. I have no idea where he’s going with any of this.
“Thanks,” he says automatically, and I almost laugh at how clueless he can be, but he keeps talking. “But then yesterday’s game was shit. I couldn’t focus, and I fucked up, like, three different plays. I barely made it on base.”
“Jace, I don’t know why you think I would care about any of that.”
“Because what we did in the bathroom obviously had a positive effect on my game. Sports superstitions are real. I need you to blow me again so I have a good game tomorrow,” he says, in a completely serious tone.
I glance at him again while I’m stopped at a red light. There’s a part of me that loves seeing him look so distraught, even if another part of me thinks his pinched eyebrows and big, brown, pleading puppy-dog eyes are kind of cute.
His request finally registers, and this time I do laugh.
I might have been thinking about what we did more than I’d care to admit, but I also need to have some self-respect.
“This is the first somewhat normal conversation we’ve ever had.
You’ve been a complete asshole to me for over a year.
What we did was fun, I’m not denying that, but it was also my decision.
You can’t just demand I get you off. I was the one doing all the work.
I’m not going to keep hooking up with someone who won’t even touch me. ”
Jace looks devastated. His expression shifts, eyes losing focus as he looks out the window like he’s so deep in thought that he’s unaware of his surroundings. I return my focus to the road as the light turns green, and he’s quiet for another minute.
“Okay,” he finally says.
“It’s for the best,” I agree, adding, “Superstitions aren’t real anyway.”
“Yes, they are,” he insists. “And I meant okay, I’ll touch you.” My mouth falls open in disbelief.
I’d been driving in the general direction of my house, waiting for Jace to correct me with where he lived, but I decide to pull over.
There’s an office building that looks like it’s closed for the day just ahead, so I park in the back of the lot next to a big tree, hoping we don’t look too suspicious. I need to focus on this conversation.
“You’ll touch me?” I repeat back. “I need you to be more specific than that.” I’m not about to suck his dick again if he thinks holding my hand is going to be enough.
“What do you want me to say?” he huffs out, crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest.
I take a moment to consider what I think he might agree to. I’m not opposed to sucking his cock again—it really was hot—I just hated feeling like it was so one-sided afterward. But do I actually think Jace is about to put my dick in his mouth? Probably not.
“A handjob,” I offer, proud of how confident I manage to sound.
“I’ll blow you, but only after you’ve made me come.
” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, gaze stuck on my crotch where my cock has started to thicken at the possibility that this might actually happen.
“You don’t have to,” I remind him. “I can drive you home, and we can pretend like none of this ever happened. But if you’re that worried about your game tomorrow, you know what to do, and your dick looks pretty eager already.
” I nod to his obvious erection, biting my tongue so I don’t add “as usual.” He seems to always be hard when it’s just the two of us, his loose grey sweats hiding nothing.
“Fine. Get in the backseat,” he demands, already moving to open his door.
“Wait, here?”
“Do you have a better idea? The trees are blocking the main street, and it doesn’t look like anyone else is around,” he points out.
I shrug and open my door, moving to the back before Jace can change his mind.
As much as I didn’t want to fold to his demand before, I feel like I’ve taken control with my offer.
I love the sense of power I feel, knowing he’s going to get me off first. I don’t bother to be shy and pull down my pants and underwear as soon as I’ve closed the door to the back seat.
I jump when my door opens again. “Scoot over,” Jace says harshly, following me into the car behind the driver’s seat. He reaches under the seat in front of us to move it all the way forward as I awkwardly scoot over to the other side.
“What was wrong with this side?” I demand.
“I’m right-handed,” he says simply. I arch a brow, unsure what that has to do with anything. “I’m not going to use my non-dominant hand for a handjob,” he explains, in a tone like it should have been obvious.