by L. A. Witt
Reggie grimaced but didn’t speak.
Wes sighed again, running a hand through his hair. “I think my best bet is to stay the course but dig my heels in. Not be the spineless yes-man who they sent out here to try to screw you over.”
“Obviously that isn’t what you are. You didn’t screw me over.”
“Not after a few beers, no.”
Reggie laughed softly and leaned forward, resting his folded arms on the table. “Look, even if you were drunk at the start, you still came clean later when you were sober. And you put me in a position where I know what I’m up against. I can fight back. Save my shop. Not have to compromise myself to go on one of those stupid dating shows.” He paused and managed a slight smile. “So, thank you for that.”
Wes held his gaze, and finally he too smiled. “I’m just sorry it took as—”
“It’s okay. I’ve been working with these assholes long enough… I get it. I don’t envy you.” He hesitated and then grinned. “And the last couple of days haven’t been all bad.” He winked.
Wes laughed like he meant it, and his cheeks colored. “Can’t argue with you there.” He sipped his beer. “I’d almost say it was worth it, but I don’t think that’s really my decision to make. You’re the one who’s got the most to lose.”
“We’ll see how it plays out. With the show and with….” Reggie moistened his lips. “With whatever this is.”
Shifting in his seat, Wes said, “What… what is it, anyway?”
“I don’t know yet.” Reggie took a drink and pushed the empty bottle away. “I barely know you. We’re good together, but the rest….” He shrugged. “Guess it just depends on how much we want to put into finding out.”
“Like, keeping in touch long-distance? Seeing each other now and then?”
Reggie nodded, his stomach fluttering at the thought. “To tell you the truth, I’d like to see where it goes. It isn’t very often you meet a guy who’ll put his career on the line for you.”
Wes blushed. “Well, flights out this way aren’t all that expensive.”
“And I’ve always wanted to see California.”
A genuine smile curved Wes’s beautiful lips. “I’ve got a place you can stay.”
Reggie shivered.
Wes sobered a bit and folded his hands. “What if things go south with the show? Do you still want to—”
“This has nothing to do with the show,” Reggie said. “We’ve got some good chemistry. You’re obviously a much better guy than I thought you were. Whatever happens with the show… well, we’ll just have to wait and see. But this….” He swept his tongue across his lips. “I already like the direction it’s heading.”
“Me too.”
They locked eyes for a moment, probably longer than they should have in a bar full of guys who might or might not have been okay with gay men. Then Wes cleared his throat and held up his beer bottle. “I could use another. How about you?”
“I could, yeah.”
“This one’s on me. Be right back.”
Before Reggie could protest, Wes was on his feet. As he brushed past Reggie, he let his fingers drag across Reggie’s sleeve.
Reggie released a long breath. He was still nervous as hell about the situation with the show. Even with a bulletproof rebuttal, even after meeting with his attorney, there were still ways this could fail. The network could have cards they weren’t yet showing.
But at least for tonight, Reggie felt pretty damn good.
He glanced over his shoulder at Wes and grinned to himself.
In fact, he felt better than he had in a long time.
Chapter 6
REGGIE’S HOUSE was gorgeous. Not as monstrous and extravagant as some of the overnight reality stars’ homes he’d seen, but it was beautiful. It was hidden away in a quiet neighborhood outside of town, with a tree-lined driveway that wound up into the hills to the house and its four-car garage. Wes imagined every closed door hid some sort of powerful muscle car. Maybe even a sports car, but Reggie seemed to adore his muscle cars.
The four-story white house gleamed against a backdrop of trees. Wes parked his rental car in front of it and headed inside, stomach twisting into knots. He would’ve loved to see every inch of the house—bedroom, perhaps?—and admire the work he’d heard Reggie had done on the place, but there was business to take care of first. Business he was not looking forward to dealing with.
Reggie let him in. His smile was taut, but he didn’t seem as nervous as Wes had expected him to be.
As he followed Reggie into the huge kitchen, he asked, “So we’re doing what we discussed last night?”
Reggie nodded.
Wes swallowed. In between fucking like mad, they’d talked over Reggie’s plan, hammering out every point and strategy they were bringing to the table. He was still dubious—it smelled very much like something that could blow up in their faces in catastrophic fashion.
“Relax.” Reggie turned around and took his hand. “Trust me on this. I know what I’m doing.”
“And I know the execs.”
“It’ll be fine.” Reggie cupped Wes’s cheek and kissed him lightly. “And if it doesn’t work, then it’s on me, not you.”
“But you’ll—”
Reggie cut him off with a longer kiss. “Just relax. Don’t sweat about the outcome until we know what it is.”
Wes tried to relax. That philosophy had served Reggie well enough—half the thrill of his shop’s builds was his willingness to be daring and experimental. If a build failed, oh well. They’d scrap it, start over, and come up with something even ballsier.
“Okay,” he said. “We’ll do this and see what happens.”
Reggie smiled and kissed him once more. Then they continued into the kitchen. Reggie’s laptop was on the granite counter, the proposal and contracts stacked neatly beside it.
“Shall we ping them?” Reggie asked, running his finger across the touchpad to wake up the computer.
“Might as well.” Let’s get this over with.
Reggie pulled up the program and sent the request.
“Are you sure about this?” Wes asked under his breath as the connection took its sweet time initializing.
Reggie put a hand on Wes’s lower back. “Trust me.”
Wes chewed the inside of his cheek. For the first time in his life, he wanted to shove Reggie’s hand off him and back the hell away. Yeah, things had been hot between them last night, but now? Reggie was actually willing to sign up for the goddamned bachelor show. Which meant he was either willing to lie to a woman in the name of keeping his current show, or he really thought he’d hook up with someone for life. Either way, Wes was quickly reconsidering how involved he wanted to be with a man like this.
On the screen, the connection initialized.
Reggie casually drew his hand back. They still had to stand close together so the webcam would pick up both of them, but aside from their elbows brushing, they didn’t touch.
The screen divided into four smaller screens, each showing one of the four executives handling this situation. There were the usual greetings and superficial “I hope you’re doing well” wishes to and from both sides of the connection.
Finally, they got down to business. Joe Condit, the VP in charge of all this bullshit, folded his hands and smiled. “I trust Mr. Morton has had a chance to brief you on the proposal.”
“He has.” Reggie glanced at Wes. “I’ve looked over the proposal and contract for the spin-off.”
“And your decision?”
Reggie stood a little straighter and folded his arms. “I’m agreeing to the show on one condition.”
The men on the screen exchanged uncomfortable glances.
Joe faced the camera again. “All right. What is your condition?” Wes knew that tone. The “I’m humoring you, but you can suck my dick” tone.
He held his breath as Reggie looked straight at the camera and said, “All of the contestants must be men.”
Every jaw
on the other end dropped.
Wes had to clench his teeth painfully tight to keep from smirking. As much as he was sure this was about to blow up in their faces, the expressions on those assholes were priceless.
“We’ll….” Greg coughed. “This is something we’d have to discuss with marketing, but I—”
“No rush,” Reggie said with the most flippant shrug Wes had ever seen. “You discuss it with your marketing department and then get back to me.”
“We’ll do that.” Joe cleared his throat. “We’ll be in touch.”
They ended the meeting shortly after that, and once the connection was severed, Reggie closed the laptop and released his breath. “Well. That was painless.”
“Yeah, but they haven’t given you an actual answer yet.”
“It wasn’t a no.”
“Not yet.”
Chuckling, Reggie faced Wes and slid an arm around his waist. “You’re such a pessimist.”
“You would be too if you spent much time working at that joint.”
Reggie’s expression turned serious, and he pulled Wes closer. “I do work for them.”
“True.”
“Listen, this might be a Hail Mary, but it’s done.” He kissed Wes gently. “Let’s not worry about it until we get an answer back.”
“Easier said than done.”
Reggie shrugged, and that grin slowly came back to life. “Maybe we just need a distraction.”
YESTERDAY, THEY’D been frantic to the point of tearing clothes and leaving marks. This time, Reggie had a gentler touch. Wes explored him all over with his hands and lips, kissing and touching like they had all the time in the world.
Every shred of clothing was on Reggie’s bedroom floor, lying wherever it fell, and the two of them lazily, tenderly kissed and held on to each other. Naked, tangled up, they made out and slowly stroked each other, just touching and teasing, not pushing either of them toward a climax just yet.
Reggie rolled Wes onto his back. He kissed him deeply and pressed against him, rubbing their cocks together.
“I want you so bad,” Reggie whispered. “God, Wes….”
“You have condoms?” Wes asked.
“Of course.” Reggie kissed his way down Wes’s neck. “And I plan to use more than one before I let you out of this bed.”
Wes sucked in a breath. After they’d fucked three times yesterday, he knew damn well Reggie wasn’t kidding. Could he handle that two days in a row? Oh hell. He didn’t care. He wanted it whether he could handle it or not.
“I want you on your back this time,” Reggie said against Wes’s throat, using his weight to press Wes against the mattress. “Just like this. I want to see your face when you come.”
Wes bit his lip. “Fuck….”
“That’s the idea,” Reggie teased.
Wes chuckled. “Maybe you should get a condom, then.”
Reggie kissed him again, then pushed himself up. Wes put a pillow under his hips as Reggie put on the condom.
When Reggie put the lube on his fingers, Wes groaned. “Just fuck me.”
“I will.” Reggie nudged his legs apart. “But you enjoy this. I know you do.”
“I—” Wes stopped as Reggie slipped two fingers inside him. Even after being fucked like crazy yesterday, he was still tight enough to feel a stretch as Reggie’s fingers slid deeper.
Reggie grinned down at him. “See?”
“I want… I want….” Wes squirmed, vision blurring as Reggie bent his fingers. “Fuck. I don’t even care what you do, just don’t stop.”
“Oh, I’m not stopping. No way.” Still fucking Wes with his fingers, Reggie leaned down to kiss him. Just before their lips met, he added, “Not stopping until we can’t move.”
Jesus Christ. Wes wanted to be fucked good and hard, but he couldn’t give up this kiss. Reggie’s lips and tongue knew exactly how to tease his, how to make him dizzy from nothing more than a gentle, lazy kiss, and the only thing that kept Wes aware of life beyond making out with Reggie was the two fingers moving slowly in and out of him.
“I could do this all day long,” Reggie murmured before pausing for another lingering kiss. “Except I want to fuck you so bad I—”
“Please.”
Reggie slowly withdrew his fingers. Then he sat up and put some more lube on his cock before guiding himself to Wes’s very, very ready entrance. In this position, Wes couldn’t move much, couldn’t push his hips back and force Reggie in deeper. All he could do was lie there and let him take his sweet time, and watch him looking so fucking amazing. That body, muscles quivering and tattoos gleaming with the first sheen of sweat, and the way his hips slowly moved as he gave Wes an inch at a time.
It had been less than twenty-four hours since the first time they’d had sex, and it still felt like the first time he’d been touched in ages. As Reggie pushed deeper inside him, sliding a little farther in with every slow, easy stroke, Wes could think of nothing except how good he felt, how amazing it was that this was really happening, that Reggie was really inside him.
Reggie hooked his elbow under Wes’s knee, and they locked eyes as Reggie took long, smooth strokes inside him. His strokes were still slow and smooth, but that lazy gentleness from earlier was starting to vanish from both of them, replaced by a need that was growing more feverish by the second.
Reggie’s eyes started to roll back and then closed, and he groaned softly as he picked up speed. He let go of Wes’s leg and held himself up on both arms, cords standing out from his neck as he fucked him faster. The prominent veins on his upper arms were even more pronounced now, and his face and throat flushed with exertion. Fuck, just watching him would have brought Wes within a breath of an orgasm, but being able to feel him too? Knowing it was his body turning Reggie on and driving him to this? Beyond words.
“Oh my God….” Wes’s back lifted off the bed, and the angle of his hips changed, and now Reggie was hitting that sweet spot perfectly, and Wes fell apart. Stroke by stroke, he soundlessly unraveled, his lips apart but the air refusing to move as he came and Reggie fucked him and the whole world seemed to fall to pieces around him.
“Oh my God,” he heard Reggie whisper, and then Reggie shuddered hard, thrusting erratically and gasping for breath before he moaned softly and collapsed on top of Wes.
Wes wrapped his arms around him, and for the longest time, they just held each other and breathed. Even after Reggie pulled out, they didn’t move quite yet. Wes wasn’t sure he could move, and he sure as hell didn’t want to.
Eventually, though, they had to get up. Reggie took care of the condom, and they cleaned themselves up before collapsing back onto the disheveled bed. Lying on their sides, they faced each other.
“Look, I….” Reggie took a breath. “However this pans out with the network and the show, I, uh….” With what seemed like a ton of effort, he met Wes’s eyes. “I want to see you again.”
Wes’s heart skipped. “You do?”
Reggie nodded, combing his fingers through Wes’s hair. “Would it be weird if I admitted I’ve had a thing for you ever since I met you?”
“Not at all.” Wes trailed his fingers down the middle of Reggie’s chest. “I’ve had one for you too. Since the beginning.”
A smile slowly spread across Reggie’s lips. “I never had a clue, honestly.”
“Neither did I.”
“Well,” Reggie said, leaning in for another kiss, “at least some good came out of all this bullshit, then.”
“Yeah, true.” Wes lifted his head and met him for that kiss, drawing it out for a moment before settling back onto the pillow. “I just hope you don’t wind up fucked over by the network.”
“Same for you.”
“Eh, if I do, it’s my own damned fault for opening my mouth.”
“Maybe.” Reggie ran the pad of his thumb along Wes’s cheekbone. “But you saved my ass when you did.”
Wes smiled. “Then it was worth it.”
Reggie smiled too, but it wa
s halfhearted. “Are you going to be okay? If the execs take it out on you?”
“I’ll find a way. I always do.”
“If you need anything, just ask. I feel partly responsible for anything that—”
“You’re not.” Wes clasped Reggie’s hand in his. “It’s just part of working for a television network. There’s a reason everyone in this business tends to keep his résumé up to date.”
Reggie frowned. “Still….”
“I’ll be okay. I promise.” Wes kissed Reggie’s fingers. “And like you said, some good came out of this.”
The frown lingered for a second, but then Reggie’s expression softened. “Yeah, it did.”
Wes drew him down, and they sank into another long, gentle kiss.
This was so weird, how they’d gone from secretly lusting after each other to something almost adversarial to frantically fucking to… this. It was like they were on the same wavelength now that they’d broken through the tension that had kept them an arm’s length or more apart. It wasn’t love, by any means. Not even infatuation. Little more than glorified lust, if anything.
But there was something here. Something between them that needed more room to play out than a single trip allowed.
And Wes definitely wanted to see where this thing could go.
Chapter 7
WES TOOK the steps up to Reggie’s front door two at a time. He had his hand up, ready to knock, when the door flew open.
“What’d they say?” Reggie asked, eyes wide.
Wes gestured at the foyer. “May I?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Of course.” Reggie let him in and closed the door behind them. “Well? What’d they say?”
Wes grinned. “You’re a genius. A fucking genius.”
Reggie exhaled a little and smiled. “Am I?”
Laughing, Wes nodded. “Yeah. The brass said they thought the controversy would get attention, but no one would actually tune in to watch men courting each other.” His eyes narrowed and the grin broadened. “Biggest thing? They’re afraid they’ll lose a chunk of their core female audience once it’s confirmed that America’s latest crush is gay.”
