Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Cole lifted Spencer’s hands and kissed his knuckles. When he looked up, he noticed the coat attendant was doing his best not to watch them.
“Come on. Let’s get outside and away from prying eyes.”
Spencer allowed Cole to lead him past the valet stand to the dark parking lot on the side of the building.
“Did you drive here?”
“No,” Cole answered, pulling them deeper into the shadows. “Do you have a car parked out here?”
“No. I walk to work. I live in the red building one block up.”
Cole stored that information away for later.
“Are you taking me behind here to chop up my body into little pieces?” Spencer laughed.
“Of course I am. How else am I going to devour all of you? My mouth isn’t that big.”
Cole couldn’t take another step—he stopped suddenly and pulled Spencer into his arms. He walked them backward until Spencer’s ass was pressed against the cold cement building. He liked that they were almost the same height, Spencer being maybe an inch or two shorter than him.
Spencer’s soft laugh trailed off, his expression turning serious. Cole leaned in and brushed their noses together, silently asking for permission to go further. Spencer linked his hands behind Cole’s neck and licked his lips. That was enough of a green light for him.
He didn’t know who groaned the loudest, but Spencer’s kiss was worth the hours Cole had waited.
His sweet mouth tasted better than any fruit on that crudité platter. Cole searched out the savory flavors of the cigar and the chocolate of the brandy lingering on Spencer’s tongue.
He’d never liked kissing before because it always felt a little off and not very stimulating. But not with Spencer. Cole couldn’t hold him close enough, couldn’t get his tongue deep enough.
“Mmm, Cole.”
Fuck.
Spencer moaned his name as if he were dying for more. Cole hoped he didn’t forget his manners and try to do something right here in the parking lot.
“I shouldn’t be out here like this.”
“My flight back to New York is in the morning. Let me pick you up when you get off tonight,” Cole panted, feeling dizzy after only a thirty-second kiss.
It wasn’t enough. He palmed Spencer’s reddened cheeks and slanted his head until he was at the angle he wanted him, then crushed his mouth to his. Urgency was in his desperate touches, and he struggled to hold back.
“You shouldn’t have to be alone tonight.” Cole held their foreheads together.
Spencer sighed into his mouth, “If only you were real.”
“I am, baby, I promise.” Cole rubbed the pad of his thumb along Spencer’s cheek. “I’m right here.”
“I know, but…” Spencer inhaled deeply. “Is it too much to want more than one night?”
“Is that why you were upset earlier? You think I want a fling?”
“No.”
Spencer dropped his hand from where he’d been clutching Cole’s waist, and he immediately missed the heat of his touch.
Spencer dug his knuckles into his eye sockets.
“I was on my way back to the front of the lounge when I heard some of the employees bitching about me not allowing them to have a Christmas party or do any kind of Pollyanna gift swap thing.” Spencer squeezed his eyes shut. “I recognized Erik’s voice. He said that maybe if I hadn’t been such a dick about the holidays, I might’ve been invited to someone’s house for dinner.”
“Shit.”
He hugged Spencer tight, unsure what to say to something so mean. Cole bit the inside of his cheek to keep from swearing. He wanted to go back to that bar and buy it just so he could fire everyone who’d hurt Spencer’s feelings.
“That’s messed up. What’d you say to them?”
“Nothing, I just kept walking. They have a right to their opinions. And I have been impossible to be around.”
Spencer slumped against the wall. Cole leaned into him, trying to keep the bitter chill from seeping into Spencer’s already cold soul.
“I wouldn’t let them do anything that had to do with the holidays. I told them that celebrating should be done on their personal time. So, I guess I asked for it, right?”
“No, you did not.”
“Those stupid gift exchanges are always so impersonal. No one puts any thought into a gift anymore, so I figured, why bother.”
Spencer gazed at the cloudless sky.
“My parents used to give me a handmade graphic comic they wrote together each year, about me.” Spencer’s smile was sad and wistful. “It was called Spencer’s World of Unimaginable Tales.”
Cole held on tighter while Spencer reminisced. He understood better than most the pain of losing your hero, your idols.
“Sometimes I had superpowers, sometimes I was a villain. Hell, one time, I was an alien from another planet that had possessed their real son.” Spencer sniffed. “They were such amazing writers; I never knew what they were going to come up with next. And it was always handmade and from the heart. It meant something.”