Chapter 4

4

CALEB

“Crazy good?” he asks, and the light from my phone catches on his hazel eyes as they darken with unmistakable need.

Graham shivers as I graze my thumb along the line of his hip. I should let go of him, create some distance. This isn’t what I do. I’m not the guy who hooks up in a broken-down elevator with a man I just met. Fuck, who am I kidding, I’m not a guy who hooks up ever, but his skin feels too good under my palms, feels right. I revel in the flash of goosebumps pebbling beneath my touch, in the way I’m affecting him. It has to be over a hundred degrees in here, the heat bathing my bare skin proof enough, but somehow, my skin prickles on the back of my neck too. This awareness, like I’m about to jump headfirst off a cliff into unknown depths, like I’m about to do something stupid, and amazing, and maybe I won’t hate myself in the light of day if I just let myself have this one moment, is too much to ignore.

“Good,” I say, finally able to break through the cloud of lust building inside my brain long enough to find the words I shouldn’t say. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

“But?” He leans up on his toes, his hands burning my chest, stealing every last thread of my restraint.

“I can’t think of a reason not to.” I raise my hand, the tips of my fingers tingling as I dust them along the line of his jaw. The rough scratch of his five o’clock shadow foreign and perfect sends all the blood in my body rushing to my groin. “I can’t… think at all.”

Graham presses against me, the brush of hard against hard has my lips parting in a quiet gasp, and I can’t stop, the progression is too much, too real, and I lean down, his breath mingling with mine. “Can I…” He nods and it’s all I need to close the distance, before his hot mouth is on mine and my hand is curling around the back of his neck pulling him closer, chest to chest.

Graham tips his head back for me, opening himself up, taking me in as my tongue sweeps against his. His moan is enough to make me forget myself, forget all the reasons I shouldn’t be kissing a stranger, and it spurs me on. He tastes sweet and, maybe I’m imagining it, a bit like powdered sugar. Graham bites my bottom lip, and a sound so unbidden and new rumbles in my chest.

“Caleb…” he whispers my name, his palms skating over my heated skin, until his arms are around my neck.

There’s no space between us as I tower over him and back him against the wall of the elevator. My cock is heavy and throbbing, and it’s like he can read my mind as he presses his shoulders into the wall to find leverage. My hands find his ass, lifting him until his thighs are wrapped around my hips. We both groan, mouths open and wet and sticky with salt and that hint of sweetness I can’t stop chasing. Our hips grind together, the tension of it, of him, the friction, Jesus fucking Christ, I might actually come in my pants. The thought is sobering, and before I embarrass myself, I break away, breathless.

“Holy shit.”

He chuckles and rests his forehead against mine, his fingers light as feathers, tickling the back of my neck. “Holy shit is an understatement.” I huff out a laugh and he kisses me again. His lips are unhurried, measured. He’s mapping the curve of my jaw, taking his time, time I’m not sure we have, and I’m lost in him.

“Graham… I think…” I stutter and he lowers his legs, his body dragging across the bulge in my jeans and fuck… “God, I wish…” My hands find his face, and as he leans into the touch, everything I’ve hidden from, all the things I’ve denied, the parts of myself I’ve kept locked away inside, beg to be unleashed. It’s been too long. “I wish I could… I want… hell, I don’t even know… but I?—”

“Hello?” a deep masculine voice calls through the cracked doors of the elevator and my entire body freezes. “Anyone in there?”

Panic floods my veins and I can’t move. My hands shake where they rest against Graham’s skin, but his hazel eyes never leave mine.

“Here,” Graham calls back, and every instinct I have is screaming for me to push away, to back off. You’re going to get caught. Move. Move. Move. But my heart is thundering like I’m in the crease, poised just outside the net, in the middle of a shoot-out, and I couldn’t move a muscle if I tried. I’m stuck between wanting and reality, and somewhere in the back of my head I can hear the voice that’s telling me to breathe, telling me that the man can’t see us, telling me it shouldn’t matter if he could see us or not.

“The whole building is out,” the man explains. “The storm took out half the Strip’s power.”

“It’s okay,” Graham’s words are quiet as his hands cover mine. “It’s okay,” he says again, and I swallow when I realize he’s talking to me, some of the fear fading as he smiles. “How long do you think before the power’s back on?” Graham shouts, and again those eyes hold me captive.

“Unfortunately, the casino’s generators failed. We’re working as fast as we can with what we have, but we’re hoping to get everything up and running within the hour.”

“An hour?” Graham exhales with what almost sounds like relief. “I guess that works.”

“Maybe sooner… Hang in there, alright,” the guy says, and after a minute everything goes silent again.

“Are you okay?” Graham hasn’t moved his hands, the unwavering warmth of his skin on mine makes everything less overwhelming. “He couldn’t see us.”

“I know, it’s just…” I shrug, and when he drops his hands to my shoulders, I keep mine in place, my thumb tracing that addictive line along his jaw. “I haven’t given in, haven’t allowed myself to have this in such a long time, and then all of a sudden it’s you, and it’s hot as fuck in here, and I didn’t… think.”

“Maybe you think too much,” he teases, but he bites the corner of his lip, and I stare at the pink dusting on the tops of his cheeks. “I get it… I mean, I don’t get it . Not in the same way at least. Even if I wasn’t always out either, I’m not you, and I don’t have the same pressures, but I have to wonder… especially after a kiss like that…” He sucks in a breath, his eyes, all wide pupils and hooded, fall to my mouth. “How the hell have you ever held yourself back in the first place?”

I shouldn’t, but I smile at the way his compliment lights me up from the inside. I’m the same way on the ice, seeking praise anyway I can get it.

My thumb moves to the curve of his bottom lip, too aware we are both still shirtless with sweat dampening our skin as we find ourselves leaning in yet again. The pull is unreal, and the tang of my panic lingers, but not enough to ruin the memory of the taste of his mouth. There’s an inch between us—and the possibility of an hour. One hour to not think, to have more kisses like that , to give in. One hour to allow myself to just be me.

The light on my phone flickers before it blinks out. The darkness covers us, offering privacy, offering an abandon I desperately need as my mouth crashes into his, into that delicious, sweet surrender.