KAGE (KAGE Trilogy #1) (23 page)

“Not quite.” He picked up his soda and took a sip. “I left off the chili and onions, and I ordered no tomatoes on yours.”

I raised a brow. “How did you know I don’t like tomatoes?”

Cage didn’t bat an eye. “It’s no mystery, Jamie. I’ve watched you choke them down for me, but I know you don’t like them. I never said anything before because they’re really good for you. I had hoped you would like them if you ate them enough times.”

“I’m afraid not. I tried, but there’s something about them I just can’t like.”

“Yeah, that’s how I feel about asparagus.” He took another sip of his soda, and indicated mine. “Have you tried your soda? It’s vanilla root beer.” I picked it up and sipped absently at it.

“But you eat asparagus all the time.”

“That’s because it’s good for me.”

I shook my head. “It never ceases to amaze me how much self-control you have. You push yourself to the limit in training day after day, pushing so hard for a goal that hasn’t even begun to materialize. But you keep the faith. And you eat things you don’t like because they’re good for you, and you resist the temptation for things that are bad for you, even though you love them. Case in point, that vanilla root beer. I swear your eyes roll back in your head every time you take a swallow.”

Kage chuckled. “We both know I have my vices. One of them in particular is becoming impossible to resist.” He braced his feet on the edge of my seat, his boots just brushing my thighs. “But then you’re well aware of that, aren’t you?”

I felt the room closing in on me. Why did he have to say things that sounded so much like innuendo? And he was so damn
good
at it, aiming that sexy half-smirk across the table at me. It was getting to the point that every time he looked at me with an ounce of intent, my dick started getting hard— like it was right there in the old-fashioned hamburger joint beneath the gray Formica table top.

I need to get to the bathroom. Get myself under control.

I made a move to get up, but Kage was a step ahead of me as usual. Before I could do much more than twitch, he’d secured my forearm to the table with his strong grip. “Eat your burger. It’s getting cold.”

He wasn’t so much forceful as he was resolute, and I couldn’t help thinking that he knew. That he was well aware of why I was trying to escape to the bathroom, and he didn’t care. He just wanted me to eat, so that’s what I would do.

My hard-on and I stayed in the booth, and I ate half of my burger like a good boy. The other half went into a Styrofoam doggy box that I carried under my arm as we strolled languidly back to our hotel. The idea of finding a club was forgotten for the moment, and we were just two guys walking along without a care, breathing in the air of a strange city. Funny how being in an unfamiliar place can make you brave— make you do things you wouldn’t normally do— things you just might regret when you get back to the real world.

That’s what my whole summer with Kage was like. One long string of things I
might
regret.

15

THAT night in the hotel was the first time I ever thought of Kage and me as…
us
. It was the first time I felt like something more than Kage’s satellite.

We were laughing at some stupid joke I’d made about the lady at the front desk, but as soon as the door to our room opened, we both got quiet, marching solemnly forward like we were walking to the electric chair. The door clicked loudly behind us, effectively shutting us off from the rest of the world.

I think maybe we both knew that this was it. That something was about to happen.

Kage crossed to the TV and clicked it on with the remote, but he didn’t sit down on the sofa. Instead, he turned toward me and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He looked almost nervous. “Wanna watch a movie or something?”

I was hovering around the kitchen area, remembering the spilled wine and the way he’d backed me against the counter. I wondered what might have happened if the bottle hadn’t fallen.

“A movie would be good,” I said. “Something with action maybe.” I rummaged in the fridge. “Want a beer? I think I’m gonna have a beer.”

“Yeah, bring me one.” He scrolled through the movie menu while I popped the tops and crossed the room to join him.

We finally agreed on one of the
Fast and the Furious
movies, though I couldn’t say which one. I was too preoccupied with trying not to look at Kage. Trying to seem casual.

I kicked my shoes and socks off and sat down on one end of the sofa, starting swilling beer like it was going out of style.

Kage was sitting on the other end of the sofa unlacing his boots. He took them off, stuffed his socks inside them, and pulled his feet up onto the seat. He took a long, slow pull off of his beer and cut his eyes over at me. The movie was just starting.

“Are you trying to get drunk?” he asked me.

“No, why?”

“Because you’re chugging the hell out of that beer. You want another one?”

I gave him a tight smile. “No, thanks.”

“Damn, Jamie. You’ve got to loosen up. Come here.”

“Huh?” I took another swallow of beer and stared unseeing at the TV screen.

“I said get your ass over here.”

I tipped my beer up and found it empty. “Oops, gotta get another beer.”

Kage arched a brow. “You said you didn’t need another one.”

I looked at the beer and back at him. “Well, I’ve got to go to the bathroom anyway, so might as well grab one.”

“Bathroom, huh?” He shook his head, but he smiled. “Okay. I’ll see you when you get back.”

I hurried to the bathroom and locked the door behind me.
Fuck
. What was I doing? What was going on here? My mind was a whirling dervish as I glanced frantically around the bathroom. This was definitely not one of those movie motel bathrooms with the little escape window. Didn’t matter. The bad guy was always waiting outside anyway.

But there was no bad guy here. What was I thinking? It was just me and Kage and the inevitable. My stomach was so tight it was folding in on itself. And quivering. God, was it ever quivering. I was fucked.

So incredibly fucked.

I undid my pants and took a gratuitous piss. Then I washed my hands, took a deep breath, and opened the bathroom door. Kage was still on the couch where I left him, and I skirted the living area by way of the kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge.

“Want a beer?” I asked, willing my voice not to squeak.

“Nope.”

When I got back to the sofa, I hesitated before sitting down, taking a swallow of beer.

“Got your bathroom break out of the way?” Kage asked.

I nodded.

“Then set that beer down on the coffee table and get your ass over here.”

I did as he asked— no, as he commanded— and set the beer on the table.

He was lying back on the arm of the sofa with his legs stretched down the length of the seat cushion. When I didn’t make a move toward him, he spread his legs and put one foot on the floor. Then he patted the seat between his legs.

Instead of stepping forward, I stepped backward. “God, Kage—” I took another step backward, shaking my head. “I want you so, so much.”

“Then where are you going?”

That’s when I took off like a spooked horse, stumbling backward. I only got about three steps away before he was on me, taking me down and pinning me on the carpet. In the shuffle, my nearly-full beer got knocked off the table, and all I could hear was the glug-glug-fizz of the stuff spurting out onto the floor.

“My beer,” I gasped.

“Fuck the beer, Jamie.” He brought his mouth down onto mine and took my lips in a hungry kiss. He wasn’t rough exactly, but he was needy, and he definitely did not kiss like a girl. He didn’t let me be the aggressor or let me lead. He pressed in and took what he wanted, leaving me breathless.

All I could do was kiss him back, let him explore and taste. I was just along for the ride, and what an amazing ride it was.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I said when he pulled back and looked into my eyes.

He gave me that amused look he always seemed to save just for me. “Yeah? What do you think we should be doing?”

His lips were full, sexy, and right in front of me. I couldn’t resist lifting my head and taking a kiss for myself. The feel of his beard stubble was something new and unexpected, and I liked it. Like the way it scrubbed my lips and face, made them more sensitive.

I noticed I had a death grip on his shoulders, and I loosened my arms and let my hands wander tentatively across the expanse of his shoulders. Even the feel of the t-shirt with the hard muscle beneath was delightful. It was as if I’d never felt a t-shirt before. In fact, it was as if I’d never felt
anything
before. Like my nerve endings had just been woken from a lifelong state of dormancy.

“We should be doing something work related.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Like what? You wanna work out?”

“No.” I rolled my eyes, feeling my face go all goofy and hot just imaging what kind of workout he might have in mind. “What about that photo shoot I asked you about? The more personal one.”

He seemed to consider it for a moment, then shrugged and said, “Okay.” He hopped up off of me just like that and pulled me up with one hand.

I straightened myself up. Smoothed my clothes. Tried to brush the lust off of me.

“I’ll get the camera ready,” I told him. “You just… get however you want to be, I guess.”

He retired to the bedroom area while I readied the camera, trying to remember all of the tricks the camera guy had told me about nighttime indoor shots.

I had hoped Kage would be fully dressed when he returned, since it would have theoretically made things less complicated for me and my increasingly confusing emotions, but no such luck. His boxers were the only barrier between me and the body I didn’t want to think about.

My brain illogically suggested that maybe if I worked out really hard and got a body like that of my own, I wouldn’t be so interested in his anymore.

Yeah, right. Because that makes total sense.

“How do you want me?” he asked, running a hand through his hair. We were standing so close I could smell the shampoo.

“Well, put some damn clothes on, first of all,” I said irritably.

He laughed. “Wow. Okay. I wasn’t sure how you wanted me, so I figured I’d start from scratch and let you dictate. Do I need to put on a full-body Eskimo suit, or will shorts and a t-shirt be fine?”

“Very fucking funny. Just dress like you normally do.”

He looked pointedly down at his boxers.

“Normally when you have company,” I added. “Your fans don’t want to see you sitting around in your underwear scratching your balls.”

“You sure about that?” He smiled. “I’ll bet there’s one or two out there who wouldn’t mind seeing that. Besides, who are these elusive fans you keep talking about? The few people I signed autographs for tonight? No one knows who I am, Jamie.”

That made me chuckle. “Who do you think I am, some kind of amateur? I’ve got this covered. Let me show you something.”

I set up my laptop on his coffee table and sat down on the sectional sofa while Kage went and got dressed again. Then he joined me on the sofa looking very patriotic in a pair of dark blue shorts with white piping, a faded red t-shirt, and no shoes.

I used my finger on the touchscreen to navigate to Kage’s website, but he wasn’t paying my computer any attention. “Where are your glasses?” he asked.

“In my laptop case. But I’m fine without them.”

“You’re squinting at the screen. Put them on.”

I let out a groaning sigh and reached over to retrieve them out of my case. Then I slipped them on and tried to avoid looking directly at Kage.

“Has someone teased you about your glasses, Jamie?”

“People always tease about glasses.”

“Well, I think they’re sexy.”

“You do?” I didn’t look at him.

“Very.”

I cleared my throat. “Well, let’s get back to work.” I directed his attention away from my face and to the computer screen where his website was displayed. Then I spent the next hour showing him the extensive social media presence I’d been building for him.