Devil's Kiss (Sunset Cove #2) (27 page)

He twirled the bottle opener around his finger as he turned, ready to head for the living room, and that was when he spotted a huge bouquet of flowers in the center of the kitchen table.

Okay…
Did someone die he didn’t know about?

“Hey, Prescott?” he called out. He waited to see if his roommate was home, and when he spotted him walking down the hall with his headphones around his neck and a grin on his face, Derek popped the top off his beer and aimed it toward the flowers.

“What’s the deal, man? You trying to brighten the place up a bit?”

Dylan flipped him off and then walked into the kitchen to grab some chips out of one of the top cabinets.
 

“Negative. They were on the doorstep when my taxi dropped me off this afternoon. Came in a fancy vase and everything.” He chuckled.

Dylan had been out of town for the past week, which was nothing unusual, since he’d started booking some higher-paying gigs. He always had a steady stream of work and was jetting off somewhere to pose for something, and Derek always joked that one day some rich guy at one of those exotic locations would go crazy for his pretty face and up and marry him. Then he’d never see him again. To which he would get the standard Dylan reply: “I don’t want someone only interested in my face. He better also want to do something filthy with my body. Fuck you very much.”

’Cause let’s face it
, Derek thought, as Dylan rested back against the counter in only a pair of board shorts,
the guy has an incredible body.
He should know. He was his trainer.

“You’re not supposed to be eating those.” Derek pointed to the chips.

“Yeah? Well, you aren’t supposed to be drinking that.”

Derek looked at the bottle and shrugged. “Okay, fair enough. But I
need
this. I had a shit day. What’s your excuse? Too stressful sipping your whiskey sours up in business class?”

“Hey, flying can be stressful.”

“Yeah, when you fly coach like the rest of us lowly peons. Not all of us live the high life, you know.”

“I just do what I’m told.”

Derek grinned and took a swig of his beer. “Don’t advertise that too loudly; you may end up in a precarious position.”

“Not a problem, since I’m not opposed to
any
position.” Dylan winked and shoved his hand into the potato chip bag.

Derek narrowed his eyes. “You do know I’m going to use the fact you’re stuffing your face to my advantage tomorrow, right?”

“Oh, you mean you’re gonna kick my ass harder than usual? As if I didn’t already know that.”

“As if you don’t enjoy it.”

“Keep telling yourself that. Generally I only like taking orders when fully naked, but something about you bossing me around while I’m in a weight room full of ripped men makes me all tingly. So I keep coming back for more.”

Derek chuckled and looked back to the flowers on the counter. “So where the hell did those come from?”

“I have no clue. But they ain’t for me.”

Derek whipped his head around to see Dylan’s pearly grin flashing at him with blinding perfection. “How do you know?”

“Hmm…well, I was going to go with ‘I’m not really the roses type.’ But really, it was this.”

Dylan held out a small envelope and Derek looked at the printed name across the front:
He-Man.

Fucking Jordan. What is he up to now?

“I’m assuming that’s you,
He-Man
. Does it ring any bells?”

Oh, just one,
Derek thought as his balls tightened and he looked back to the roses again. Jordan had sent him flowers?
What the…?

“Yeah, it’s for me.”

“Secret admirer?” Dylan asked, chomping down on another chip.

Secret something, all right.
“Nah, just a friend thinking he’s funny, that’s all.”
 

Though he’d been headed toward the couch, Derek decided it would be best if he went to his room to open up the card. As he passed by Dylan, he snatched the bag of chips out of his hands, opened the trash can, and tossed it in. “No more of those if you want to make your weigh-in before the shoot next weekend.”

“Hardass.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, pretty boy.”

Dylan made his way to the couch, while Derek headed to his room. Once he was there, he sat on his bed and leaned up against the wall as he opened the envelope.

When he drew the card out he read the words once, twice, and then a third time to make sure he’d read them correctly.
 

Date One

Tomorrow night - Pearson’s Total Fitness - Empty it by eight.

You’re
going to work
me
out.

So get ready, I’m coming for you.
 

That bossy shit.
What kind of card was that to send with flowers?

Apparently the kind he appreciated,
because Derek’s palm had moved to the hard length of his shaft beneath his shorts as he read it over and over again.
 

Jordan had lost his mind. Making demands that he empty out his place of business so he could…could…
what, exactly?
As far as Derek knew, Jordan wasn’t exactly the kind to sit through a weight session. He was more the yoga type. And the bossy top type.

Picking up his cell phone, Derek opened the contacts and called Jordan. It connected in less than one ring, and he didn’t want to admit how satisfying that felt.

“Derek?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Umm, not last time I checked.”

Derek shut his eyes and told himself to keep his cool. There was no reason to get mad, because this game Jordan was playing was just that—a game. One that Derek was not going to participate in anymore.

“Well, you must be if you think I’m going to do what you wrote here.”

“Ohh, so you got my flowers? Are they beautiful?”

“I told you, I was done with this. With us,” Derek said, choosing to ignore Jordan’s question.

“No, you said you were done with what we had. And I accept that. ‘Fuck buddies’ is off the table.” Jordan paused and then added, as though checking off a list, “And off the bed, and off the floor, and hell, anywhere else I’ve had the pleasure of fucking you,
buddy
. Anyway, you get the picture. But this isn’t that.
This
is a date.”

Derek looked down at the card in his hand and shook his head. “This isn’t a date. This is a demand. Actually, it’s several fucking demands.”

“Well, of course it is. I’m not really the sweet,
tiptoeing around what I want
kind of guy, am I, Derek? If I want something, I go after it. My parents spoiled me as a child, so there’s really no helping my bossy nature. On the plus side, I didn’t pay two thousand dollars to get your attention.”

Derek growled in frustration, and when Jordan chuckled in his ear, his cock got impossibly harder. “You’re insane.”

“And you love it,” Jordan said, and then added with extra flourish, “you told me so.”

“Something you have no shame in using against me, obviously.”

“
Obviously
.” Jordan paused, and then his voice came back through the phone, the most serious he’d been since picking up the call. “Derek?”

“Yeah?”

“I meant what I wrote. I am coming for you, and I plan to get you back.”

Derek closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Why now? Because I walked away? Because
I
told you
no
?”

“Yes.”
 

The answer was so quick, it caught Derek off guard, but what followed next was what truly made him speechless.
 

“And because one day of knowing that you might not call me at the end of it was one day too many. I know I missed all the signs, and I know the moment of perfection came and went before I even knew I’d missed it. But this is
not
how we end, Derek Pearson.”

He swallowed, imagining Jordan’s face looking up at him as he said those words. “Because you didn’t decide it?”

“No. Because we haven’t even begun. Not in the sense where you get to break up with me and walk out. For that honor, you have to date me first.”

Derek laughed at Jordan’s audacity. The guy was a fucking head trip. But God help him, he wanted him anyway. “And this is your idea of a date? A night at my gym?”

“Not under normal circumstances, but when have we ever been normal? See you tomorrow, He-Man. And don’t wear too much. I want to look at you while I sweat.”

Derek swallowed and slipped his hand into his shorts.

“And stop touching yourself—”

“How did you—”

Jordan laughed then, and the pure joy of the sound had Derek grinning like a fool.
 

“Because I’m doing the same exact thing. Good night, Derek.”

“Night, Jordan.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

DEREK WAS EXHAUSTED. He’d been at work since six that morning and it was just now coming up on eight in the evening.
 

He still couldn’t believe he’d done what Jordan had asked, but he had. He’d shut down the gym half an hour ago and was halfway through closing out the books when there was a knock on his office door.
 

The sun had now set, and the only lights that could be seen outside his office windows were the lamps lining the path that ran along the beach. There were couples out for evening strolls, and joggers taking advantage of the sun’s absence to get in a few miles without the risk of heat stroke. The calmness the night brought was peaceful and relaxing, and it was a welcome feeling after the hectic day he’d put in.

He knew the knocker had to be Jordan. He’d told him to come around the back and he would see a light on. But before Derek got a chance to tell him to come in, the door opened and Jordan stepped inside, dressed for a night at the gym. Red gym shorts and a black tank suited Jordan’s toned body to perfection.
 

Long, lean, and limber, Jordan had proven many times over that just because he didn’t have the bulk and height that Derek possessed, he could still keep up with him for hours at a time in bed. His chestnut-colored hair was all the fuck over the place, and his eyes held a fire that sparked a kindred flame within Derek.
 

He looked ramped up, and Derek knew the feeling. He was on edge with his own unfulfilled desire. Not that he was about to let Jordan know that. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands over his stomach.
 

Play it cool,
he told himself.
Play. It. Cool.
 

“Evening, Devaney.”

Jordan ran his eyes over him, and when the corner of his lips tugged into an arrogant smirk, Derek felt his dick come to life.
Fucking traitor.

“Devaney tonight, am I? You haven’t used that for a while. If I remember correctly,” Jordan said as he placed his gym bag on the ground and walked toward the desk, “you used to call me that to keep me neatly tucked away in the professor box. Did you not?”

Derek got to his feet and rounded the desk until he was towering over Jordan, but as always, the guy didn’t back up or budge. Instead, he faced off with him in a way that never failed to get Derek hot and really fucking bothered.

“I did.”

Jordan ran his tongue along his top teeth, then flashed the most provocative grin Derek had seen in his life.
 

“How’s that working for you tonight?”

Yeah,
it wasn’t, and Jordan knew it. He was playing to every single weakness he knew Derek had.
 

Bossy. Daring. And seductive as hell. He was in full-on sex pistol mode, and Derek knew he would be doing whatever the guy wanted by the end of this conversation.

While he tried to locate his tongue, Derek decided it would be wise to put a little distance between them, and sat back down behind his desk. He rolled his chair under it, but if he thought for one second that would stop the man stalking him—he was sorely mistaken.
 

Jordan’s fingertips trailed the top of the wood as he walked around the edge of the desk and stopped beside it. He then hitched himself up onto it and leaned back to kick his leg in an impressive arc over Derek’s head, before sliding directly between his legs.

“Are you running away from me?” he asked.

“No.”

Jordan raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Derek grinned at that shameless man eyeing him like his favorite meal, and shook his head. “No.”

“Finally. An honest answer.” Jordan ran a finger down his jaw to his chin, and when Derek caught his wrist, halting any further touching, he pouted. “Is that any way to treat your date? By manhandling him?”

“You wish.” Derek chuckled, and by the way Jordan’s eyes darkened, he knew he was right on the money.
 

Before this went any further, though, before he willingly capitulated, there was something he needed to say, and it had to be now before he lost the ability to speak at all. “Don’t do this to me if you’re just here to fuck around.”

Jordan sucked his lower lip behind his teeth, and when it jutted back out, shiny and wet, Derek had a sudden urge to taste that mouth on his, consequences be damned.

“Oh, I mean it,” Jordan said. “You see, I had kind of an epiphany of sorts.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And what was that?”

“I want to wake up with you,” Jordan said, as he traced his thumb across Derek’s lower lip. Then he gave a lecherous grin and said, “After I’ve taken you to dinner, brought you back to my place, kissed and licked every bit of ink on your delicious body, and had my wicked way with you, of course.”

Jesus, how am I supposed to say no to that?
 

“That was my epiphany.”

With Jordan’s wrist still restrained, Derek got to his feet with enough force that the office chair rolled away from him. He yanked Jordan forward so his ass was right on the edge of the desk and his head was craned back to look at him.

“So you
really
want to date me?” he asked.
 

Jordan’s eyes dilated and he spread his legs apart. Derek took the invitation and moved in between them, cupping the erection now evident in Jordan’s gym shorts.