Chapter 4

CHAPTER

FOUR

JACK

“Goddamn it.” My curse echoed off the stone around me as I realized Cal, that fucking shit, had taken my towel when he’d left. Any remorse I’d temporarily felt over getting too close to him with my teeth evaporated into thin air.

He was going to pay for this. I didn’t know how or when, but I would get him back.

The walk back to my room wasn’t that long, and I knew from my last visit that Reuben had a suite on the other side of the house, and Amanda’s room was over there too. There was little chance I’d run into anyone, and even if I did, everyone in the house, at least as far as I knew, was a shifter too, so my nudity wasn’t something that was going to put anyone’s knickers in a knot.

I was halfway to my room when Reuben rounded a corner, holding a large tray. It started to slip from his hands as he startled at my sudden appearance, and I reached out to stop it, which meant flashing my junk at our host.

My revenge on Cal would be swift and brutal.

“Jack! So sorry it took me so long to put this together. I was hoping to catch you both by the pool.”

“It’s no problem. Cal was pretty tired, so he went back to his room. I’m happy to take that tray off your hands, though.”

Reuben’s eyes narrowed for a second like he was seeing something on my face he didn’t know how to interpret, but instead of flinching under his scrutiny, I let him look.

“I had hoped to talk with both of you, but I understand you’re probably exhausted after traveling all day. We’ll catch up tomorrow.” He passed the tray off to me and turned on his heel, heading back the way he’d come. Halfway down the hall, he paused and looked over his shoulder. “Let’s reconvene in my office at nine tomorrow.”

I nodded, and he smiled before continuing on his way, this time whistling a tune that echoed off the stone around him.

If I’d learned one thing about Reuben during my last visit, it was that he was a little… eccentric. I expected borderline odd behavior, but something about this particular encounter was the tiniest bit unsettling. Shrugging the strange sense of foreboding off, I balanced the tray and headed back toward my room.

The second I stepped over the threshold, I heard the water running. Cal was obviously in the shower, but the idiot had left the door on my side of the bathroom open.

“Cal?” I didn’t expect him to hear me over the shower, but I tried calling his name again anyway. “Cal?”

Approaching the door, my hand already extended to grab the knob and jerk the door closed, I caught sight of Cal’s reflection in the mirror. The glass enclosing the shower was barely fogged, and I could see his naked body in all its gorgeous glory. Yes, I’d just seen him naked less than an hour ago, right before he dove into the pool, but this was different.

Especially since he had his hand wrapped around his thick shaft, stroking fast, the fat purple head peeking past his fingers with every pass. His eyes were closed, and the hand that wasn’t working his cock was pressed against the tiled wall. The muscles in his arm and back bunched as he fucked into his fist, and my dick instantly reacted, going rock hard so fast it almost made me dizzy.

For a second, I forgot how to breathe. I knew the last thing I needed to do was stand there and watch, but I couldn’t look away.

So I didn’t.

I watched, transfixed, as he bent his elbow to the wall and rested his head on his forearm. I watched as his body tensed just like I knew it did right when he was on the very edge of orgasm. And I watched as his cum hit the tile wall, a name falling from his lips on a ragged gasp.

Not just any name.

My name.

My heart turned over in my chest, and I wasn’t sure if it was because all blood flow in my body had been diverted to my dick or if it was because I was afraid he’d caught me watching.

But his tone wasn’t one of surprise. Nope. My name had been dipped in pleasure and run over his tongue like he wished it was my hand getting him off instead of his own. I hated that he’d apparently shut the door on the sexual side of our relationship. If he hadn’t, we would have been fucking to pass the time on the airplane instead of watching hobbits journey to Mordor.

Personally, I would have preferred joining the mile-high club to high fantasy, and thoughts of what it would have been like to thrust into Cal on the plush leather seats of Reuben’s jet zipped through my brain. I could see Cal spread out for me, his hands secured above his head with the seat belt binding his wrists, his head thrown back while I pumped into him hard and fast, his body sliding over the leather with every slap of my body against his, his hard, leaking cock bouncing between us as he begged me to jerk him off. Since his hands were bound, he wouldn’t be able to do it, and I’d make him wait, driving into him relentlessly until he couldn’t take it anymore. Only then would I give him what he wanted, and his relief would be so sweet, so intense, that he’d come after barely more than a stroke, painting my fingers and our chests with his cum. I’d make him watch me lick it all off before I drove into him again, getting myself off and filling him with every drop of my release.

The scene in my head was so vivid I was close to coming. My cock was sticky with precum, and I squeezed the base to stave off my orgasm. With my other hand, I twisted the doorknob and silently pulled the door shut before turning my back to it and spitting into my palm. It wasn’t enough lube, but the friction felt perfect as I worked myself over the edge, coming into my fist after what felt like only a handful of strokes.

Too late, I realized I had a slight dilemma. I had no way to get rid of the cum now cooling in my hand. Cal was still monopolizing the bathroom, and the bastard had stolen my towel. The sheets were out, and I didn’t see a box of tissues anywhere. Pulling open the bedside table drawers confirmed there wasn’t a box hiding out of sight. Which left just one option. My duffel lay partially open on the bed, the clothes I’d worn on the plane tossed on one of the leather chairs in the sitting area. I hadn’t packed a ton when I’d left home since I knew this mission would have me circling the world, and I hated to sacrifice a T-shirt this way, but desperate times and all that shit. Picking up my shirt, I wiped my palm clean and tossed the shirt back on the chair. I’d either see if I could use Reuben’s washer before we took off, or I’d stash it in the bottom of my bag.

The water in the bathroom shut off right as I finished cleaning up. I waited until I heard the adjoining door shut before I snuck into the bathroom. Since I was smarter than Cal, I flipped the lock on his door and made quick work of showering.

When I was done and had a new fluffy towel wrapped around my waist, I glanced at the remaining towels stacked neatly on the shelf by the shower. Without stopping to consider my actions for more than a moment, I grabbed the whole pile and the used towel Cal had left hanging on the hook on the back of the door leading to his room and took all of it back to my room, stashing it in the closet. Let’s see how he felt having to do without a towel.

Was it immature to engage in this tit for tat with Cal? Absolutely. Did I care? Absolutely not. It felt like an odd sort of foreplay to mess with him, and I got a little thrill when he did the same to me.

I’d just slipped on a pair of basketball shorts and grabbed a bunch of grapes off the tray Reuben had given me when there was a knock on my door. I knew it was Cal, so I flung the door open.

His perusal started at my navel and traveled up over my naked chest, stopping at my lips before continuing to my eyes. “I’m starving.”

Somehow, I didn’t think he just meant for food, and because I loved to rile him up, I lifted the bunch of grapes to my mouth and plucked one off with my teeth.

Cal groaned. “Where’d you get those?” He looked past me into the room, spotting the tray. He shouldered me aside and made himself comfortable on one of the low leather chairs—the same chair that the shirt I’d used to clean up my cum was draped over—and grabbed a few cubes of cheese and his own bunch of grapes.

Grabbing the shirt, I tossed it onto the bed while Cal ate. I also grabbed a clean shirt from my bag and pulled it over my head as I took a seat in the other chair. “I don’t know if I’m inclined to share.”

“What? Why not?” His words were muffled around his mouthful of food.

“Because you stole my towel, you ass.”

Cal snorted and swallowed. “Sorry, not sorry.” He grabbed more food from the tray, this time using one of the little white plates and piling it high. He sat back like he was planning to stay for a while.

“You can take that to go, you know?”

“Yeah, but this”—he nodded down at his plate—“isn’t going to be enough, so why leave?”

Great. More time with Cal where I couldn’t put my hands on him. Or maybe that was exactly the kind of persuasion he needed. My mind started to wander to how I could get Cal to give in.

But was that even fair when we had a job to do and he clearly had his reasons—not that he’d shared them with me or would—for why he suddenly wasn’t interested in anything physical?

Maybe I needed to put the idea of us tangled together to bed.

For a while, we ate in silence, both of us on the edge of too hungry and too tired to snark at each other. When we’d demolished the food on the tray, Cal sat back and rubbed his stomach. “I needed that.”

“Yeah? Are you going to blame being hangry on why you were an ass earlier?”

“Pretty sure you’re the one who bit me.”

“I told you it was an accident, and I only bit you because you punted me across the pool.”

“I tried to warn you that you should be scared of swimming with me.”

And I was scared, but not for the reasons Cal thought. I was scared of what spending even more time with him was going to do to my head.

And my heart.

“Whatever, sweetheart.”

“Do you know what time Reuben wants to meet with us tomorrow? I know we just got here, but I’m already getting restless. I want to figure out who has the painting and what they are planning to do with it.”

“Nine in his office.”

Cal groaned. “He does realize we’re on Seattle time, right?”

“Oh, poor baby. Are you worried about missing out on your beauty sleep?”

He smirked. “I don’t need it, but you sure do.”

“Really? Pretty sure you were the one who couldn’t stop checking me out.” And coming with my name on your lips.

“I… I mean… I didn’t… No, I wasn’t.” His cheeks went red as he stammered out a denial, and then he stood and backed toward the door.

I wanted to tell him I liked the way he looked at me, but I didn’t, instead watching him fumble with the door handle until he eventually got it open. In a second, he was out in the hall, the door to my room swinging closed behind him.

When I heard his door shut, I yelled through the shared bathroom. “Good night, sweetheart. Dream of me.”

“You wish,” Cal replied, his voice muffled by the wood between us.

And I did. I really, really did.