Finn
FINN
“Wait here,” I instructed as Jasper and I walked across the foyer of the hotel towards the reception desk.
“It’s fine,” he replied, looking exhausted.
I cocked my brow, my hand landing on my hip. “Can you let me do my job, please, Professor?”
His lips curled into a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
I walked to the desk, greeting the curled haired woman who checked us in and handed me the keycards to our suite.
“You’re on the 11th floor, Mr Wells, room 1011. It’s one of our best suits, so we hope you enjoy your stay with us, but if there is anything you need, please call down and ask for Liza. I’ll be happy to help.”
I offered her a smile. “Thank you.”
Jasper and I headed to the lifts and stepped inside, Jasper leaning back against the wall, closing his eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked, desperate to reach out and touch him, but far too confused about what, if anything, was happening between us and not in the mood to be rejected by someone I had to spend the next three weeks with in a foreign country.
“Exhausted. I thought those bed things were supposed to make sleeping easier. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling.”
“You could have watched a movie,” I chuckled.
“I did in the end. And now I feel like a zombie.”
I couldn’t resist, wrapping my hand around his bicep, deciding that it was a platonic enough move to be classed as an employee checking on their boss, rather than a needy ex-dancer trying desperately to get a read on what the hot, newly out, gay marine biologist wanted to happen between them.
“What do you need, Professor?” I heard the desire in my voice as the words tumbled out, and Jasper must have too, as his eyes popped open and his gaze locked onto mine, but before he could say anything, the lift doors opened.
I nudged him to stand. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
He walked along the short corridor, letting me take the lead so I could unlock the door. I pressed the card to the reader on the wall and pushed down the handle, the wooden door opening into a large living area.
“Nice,” he mumbled, sounding almost drunk with exhaustion. We walked further into the room, the lock snicking closed behind us, leaving us alone, staring out of the wall of windows that gave us a stunning view over the ocean.
“Why don’t you go have a shower, put some fresh clothes on, and I’ll order us some food.”
He dropped his messenger bag with his laptop onto the large sectional sofa. “Too tired to eat. I’m going to go take a nap.”
“Don’t. You’ll never get used to the time difference if you do, and we need your fishy brain working perfectly when you start work the day after tomorrow. Shower, eat, no arguing. I’ll feed you myself if I have to.”
He chewed his lip as he looked at me with heavy eyes. “That might be nice,” he whispered, the suggestion sending a shiver up my spine.
“Go shower. The cases will be here in a minute, so I’ll put yours in your room.”
Shoulders slumped, he started to move like every step was an effort, and then he turned, looking back over his shoulder at me. “Thank you. When I’m a bit more awake, we should talk.”
A lead weight landed with a thud in my gut, but I tried to act nonchalant. “About?”
“Us.”
My heart rate ramped up as my chest tightened. “Go shower first.”
And with that, he turned and left me to sit with my spiralling thoughts while I catastrophised every possible outcome of that conversation until I was a mess of emotion.
* * *
By the time Jasper stepped out of his bedroom, I had taken a quick shower, ordered food, unpacked my case, and got changed into some grey fitted sweats and a black oversized cropped t-shirt that hung off my shoulder. I’d debated whether it was a little too revealing as I put it on, but I was allowed to relax, despite this being a working trip, and I decided whatever happened in the sanctuary of the hotel suite, stayed in the hotel suite.
My cock stirred at the prospect of what that might be, but given that we had a suite with three rooms and Jasper wanted to ‘talk’, I presumed nothing would happen on this trip but work and I needed to hide my disappointment when he told me that.
I was pouring the boiling water into mugs over the herbal t-bags I’d found in a selection on the side, and looked up to find Jasper leaning against the doorframe of his room, his feet crossed at the ankle and his hands in the pockets of his shorts. I tried not to react when I noticed him wearing nothing on his feet or his top, and his eyes burning into me like he was about to leap across the room and sweep me off my feet.
Hope flared in my chest, but I knew how easily I read into things, so I turned my attention back to making tea. Suddenly, there was a warm body pressed against my back, and Jasper’s fresh-from-the-shower scent made it impossible to concentrate on anything but his presence.
“I like this,” he whispered, running his fingers over the hem of my shirt. The feel of him so close to my skin but not touching me made my breath hitch.
“Thank you,” I replied as I swallowed down my arousal.
“We should have probably talked about what happened before we got on that plane.”
I gripped the counter. “Why didn’t we?”
“Honestly, I thought you’d tell me you didn’t want to come or worse, that you regretted what happened.”
Shocked by his admission, I whipped around, letting out a soft groan when I realised how close Jasper was. His tongue skimmed over his top lip as his eyes bounced between mine.
“What? Why would you think that?” I asked.
Jasper rolled his eyes. “I’m thirty-six, I’ve just come out, I have no clue what I’m doing, and you, well, Finn Wells, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re rather hot and,” he scrunched his nose up, “I googled you.”
“You googled me?” Oh, Dear Lord, I may faint with excitement.
“You danced for the president?”
I held up a finger between us. “Only once.”
He chuckled while I couldn’t believe that he was suggesting he wasn’t good enough for me. Trailing my finger down his chest, I whispered, “I didn’t regret what we did and wouldn’t have told you that I didn’t want to come here with you.” My fingertip came to a stop at the waistband of his shorts as he sucked in a breath from the contact.
“No?”
I shook my head, my eyes taking in the intricate detail of his sea-themed tattoo sleeve that covered his arm before my gaze landed on his.
“I like you, Professor.”
He huffed. “I like you too.”
My lips curled into a smile. “Good to know, but I get that this is new and you want to take it slowly.”
His hands rested on my hips, making me groan as his thumbs skimmed my skin and he leant in closer, his lips ghosting mine.
“I don’t want to take it slowly, but we still need to talk.”
“Are you about to dump me?” I asked, thinking that he’d almost answered that with his behaviour in the last few minutes, but I needed to hear him say it.
“What? No.”
“Well then, we can talk after,” I replied, my voice heavy with need.
“After?”
“After you kiss me.”
He didn’t pause, slamming his lips against mine as if he’d been as desperate for me as I was for him. Our lips fused as his tongue slipped into my mouth. He kissed me with more confidence this time, taking what he wanted, and I was willing to give him everything.
As his hand slipped into my sweats, I cried out, my cock sensitive and desperate for some attention. Something clicked in the background, but I was too caught up in the moment to pay attention to anything other than Jasper’s hand encircling my shaft as he pressed his erection tighter to my hip.
His mouth found my neck as my hands grabbed his arse, pulling him closer. He murmured my name just as there was a loud crash behind us.
We both jumped, startled by the noise and turned to find the source.
There, standing across the other side of the room, was a tall, dark haired man who looked murderous.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked between us, and then he threw his arms in the air as if he was dismissing us.
“No, please, don’t stop on my account. I mean, I appear to have fallen into a parallel universe where the straight man I was in love with is apparently into men and fucking his PA.”
Jasper stepped back, making my skin chill, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the loss of his touch or the frosty atmosphere that had descended.
“Trav… it’s not what it looks like.” Jasper turned to me and then back to the man I now realised was Doctor Travis Jones.
He scoffed. “Really. So you’re not making out with your PA?”
Jasper gasped. “Did you say you were in love with me?”
Travis pushed his fingers through his hair. “Ha! Was. The important word in that sentence is was. Was before you fucked off and left me in Ecuador without a word. Was before you left me that cowardly note. Was before you fucked with my references and told everyone not to employ me, so I was forced to come out here. Was before I realised that I have never had a fucking clue who you were Jasper Fischer.”
And with that, he stormed from the suite, leaving us both in his wake.