Chapter 19

Nineteen

Jacob

Jacob woke up early the next morning, thirsty and hot. He checked the time, seeing that it was only 4:30 am.

Will was sleeping soundly next to him, draped in his arm. Jacob slowly picked his arm up off of Will, being careful not to wake him. He got up, used the bathroom, and opened a bottle of water to swig.

His eyes fell to the floor of the bathroom, and he stared down at the pile of Will's and his own clothes on the floor, and the towels they had dried off with earlier. He remembered the feel of Will's mouth, warm and wet, on his cock in the shower.

Jacob felt at peace, and deeply satisfied, like he had finally scratched an itch he had been having since meeting Will. He had wanted to touch him, to taste him, more than anything, and had done all that and more earlier in the night. Will had a power over him that he couldn't resist. He hadn't been thinking much at all earlier in the night, just acting purely on instinct, he had felt as though he'd needed Will closer to him.

He finished his water, went back to bed, and slept until morning, lying next to Will.

The alarm went off hours later, and Jacob sprang out of bed, ready to get the day started. Will slowly stirred in bed, waking less easily than Jacob.

" Mmmmm , five more minutes? Come back to bed," Will murmured, reaching an arm out toward Jacob.

But Jacob was already pulling his jeans on, ready to go. He looked back at Will. His smile was so inviting, his hair totally a mess. But Jacob just shook his head.

"Come on. We gotta get going if we want to make it to Denver before sunset," Jacob said, rooting around for a clean shirt. "You can sleep some more in the car if you want."

Will finally sat up in bed. "Fine. You're the boss," he said, sleepy and playful. Jacob stole a glance at Will as he threw off the covers of the bed, exposing his beautiful naked body once again. Jacob tried to look away, sure that they'd be here for another two hours if he let himself get lost in Will again.

They got ready, packed up their things, and were out the door and back into Jacob's car.

Will was awake at first, but did fall asleep again for another hour in the car. Jacob listened to music, his mind blank as he stared out at the open road ahead of him. The rain from yesterday had given way to a cool, clear morning. With Will asleep, Jacob's mind began to wander to the previous night.

He was torn. How he had felt, and still felt, about Will was undeniable. He felt so right with him on this trip and in his arms, but he didn't know how far to go with his feelings. He had never considered developing feelings for another man, had never felt how he felt about Will for anyone else in his life. But how far could he take it? Could he really picture being in a relationship with another guy? The thought made him nervous. How could he approach the topic with his mother, his sister, his friends? He didn't even want to think of the repercussions, the weight of what it could mean if he really fell for Will.

He took a deep breath and decided not to worry about those things. For all he knew, Will wouldn't be interested anyway. Sure, he had sucked Jacob's cock, and allowed him to jerk him off, but Will was going to end up in Arizona anyway, and probably had zero interest in anything long-term with Jacob. He was a free spirit, and Jacob was a boring nerdy jock going into a dull career in business. Will probably had had nights like that many times, so why would Jacob be any different?

Jacob tried to settle his mind. He drank the coffee that he had picked up from the hotel on the way out. He pictured the inside of a lock in his head, trying to soothe himself by mentally picking it open. Anything to get the potent, confusing feelings out of his head.

He jumped when he heard a loud electronic jingle begin to play, coming from the passenger seat. It was Will's phone ringing, from inside the center console. Will woke up with a start, grabbing for his phone and checking the caller ID.

"Huh? It's one of those guys I met in Cleveland, at the art festival," Will said, clearing his throat to sound less sleepy as he answered.

"Hello?" he said, his voice slightly deeper than usual.

Jacob heard inaudible sounds from the earpiece, unable to make out what the person on the other end was saying.

"Oh, holy shit," Will said, a smile creeping over his face. "He did? … dude, that is fantastic! Yeah, thank you so much! I owe you, big time. Thank you so much for calling, I really appreciate it… yep, I'll email him right away. Okay, have a good one. Bye."

Will hung up and turned to Jacob, excited.

"So… that was Gareth, one of that guy Mark's friends that I hung out with at the bar in Cleveland. Remember how I said those guys had tons of friends in the art world? I gave them the link to my portfolio and asked if they could pass it around to anyone who might be interested. Apparently, some multi-millionaire he met in Toronto is looking for young artists to come work for a magazine and website he's starting up. He needs illustrators, he wants the whole thing to have hand drawn images, no photos. Anyway, long story short, he wants to have a phone interview with me. Gareth's emailing me his contact info now!"

Will was effusive, his eyes wide and smile stretched across his whole face.

"Wow, that's awesome dude!" Jacob said, smiling back. "Toronto, huh? Guess you'd be going back out east," Jacob added, shooting a quick glance at Will.

"Yeah… I wouldn't enjoy staying in those fucking crazy winters, but if I had a job this cool I'd totally do it," Will said, scrolling through his phone to find Gareth's email. "Oh my god, Maya is gonna flip when I tell her this. Should I wait til we see her tonight?"

Jacob let out a short laugh. "I don't know. You talked to her about staying at her house tonight in Boulder?"

"Yeah. Apparently one of her roommates is out of town this weekend, so we can take that bedroom for the night. Ahhhh , I'm so excited to see her! You're gonna love her, Jacob," Will said, leaning back in his seat.

"I'm excited to meet her too," Jacob said. Truthfully, he was slightly nervous to meet Maya. Will clearly had a strong bond with her, and cared about her deeply. If Jacob didn't impress her, would she and Will write him off completely? They both seemed so artsy, so articulate and cultured, and Jacob hoped he didn't come off as an athletic oaf in their company.

"So… you said a while ago that you tell Maya everything. Does that mean everything everything?" Jacob said, hesitantly.

Will looked up at him, curiously. "You mean… recent events?"

"Yeah," Jacob said, swallowing.

"I haven't yet, no. I did mention the other night, though…" Will trailed off.

"The massage?" Jacob asked.

"…Yeah. I had to tell someone, the day after. Is that okay? I'm sorry," Will said, apologetic.

Jacob sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, thinking. So someone else knew that he had done that with Will. He wasn't mad – he didn't even know Maya. But now it's all he was going to be able to think about when he met her.

He took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Okay then," he said.

"Jesus, you're actually upset. Jacob, I'm really sorry. It was before we had really even gotten to know each other, and I thought I'd never see you again after a couple days. For what it's worth, Maya of all people certainly isn't going to judge you," Will said. He held out his hand, hesitantly at first, and then placed it firmly on Jacob's arm, giving it a rub. "I'm sorry. I haven't told her anything else that we've done, and I won't if you don't want me to. I can tell her you're straight as an arrow and I just took advantage of massaging you that night."

Jacob thought about what Will had said. Straight as an arrow . Jacob hadn't really thought about it, but I guess he couldn't really be described that way, not now, not anymore.

Jacob glanced quickly over at Will. "It's okay. I'm not mad, I'd just prefer if our business could be kept to ourselves. I sure as hell haven't told anybody, and I don't plan to," he said, squinting his eyes at the road in front of him.

Will took his hand off Jacob's arm. "Okay," came his response, "nobody will know."

Will went silent, staying that way until they stopped for food and gas, in a tiny town somewhere in the middle of Nebraska.

As they were eating lunch, Jacob tried to get Will to talk.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" he asked.

"Well, we will head to Maya's. Maybe hang out for a bit, catch up with her. Then she was saying she wants to go to this club with some of her friends. I said we could come along," Will said, looking up at Jacob.

"Okay, sure. I don't think I'm gonna be good for much drinking and dancing, but I'll come," Jacob said. He didn't really feel like drinking again after last night – he hadn't had too much the night before, but he tried not to make drinking a daily habit.

"Alright. Are you excited to meet Maya?" Will asked.

"Yeah, I am. I hope she doesn't think I'm an uncultured idiot, though, what with knowing nothing about art," Jacob said, smiling.

"Oh, it'll be fine. She'll love you," Will said, and then finished his sandwich.

Looking at Will, Jacob felt the same deep affection and attraction he had felt last night. But he was so uncertain; he didn't know how Will felt about what they had done, what Will wanted going forward. What do I even want going forward? Is there any "forward" after this road trip ? Jacob thought. The only thing he was sure of anymore is that he loved being around Will. For the last few days of the trip, at least he could have that.