Page 46 of Follows with Intent

“Yes.” And then, his voice slightly different, “Is it a date?”

“I’d like it to be.”

Jadon’s heartbeats sounded loud in the silence that followed.

“I’d like that too.”

“Then,” Jadon said as he leaned in for another kiss, “it’s a date.”

13

Jadon

That night, Jadon didn’t sleep.

At first, it had been the excitement of it all—the two of them alone, that whole floor of the dorm to themselves. They’d padded naked to the bathroom. They’d showered together, and showering had turned into fooling around, and Jadon lasted a slightly more respectable time, but only barely. The whole thing had felt like a crossover between a slumber party and a hookup, with a weird college porn background, and it had been hot and fun and…easy. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. But everything had felt right with Nico. There had been no awkwardness. No uncertainty. It helped that Nico had initiated everything, but it also helped that he was so responsive, that he was so eager. It helped that he was Nico, because that was what made it so different from a hookup. It was one thing to find someone cute to fool around with. It was another for it to be someone you—well, Jadon shied away from the feeling, unwilling to look at it too closely, not yet ready to name it.

You make me feel safe.

They’d made a mess of one bed, so they agreed to share the other, even though it was a twin and the logistics meant being a tangle of limbs. As soon as Jadon had turned off the lights and climbed into bed, Nico had turned into an octopus: arms and legs wrapping around Jadon, tangling them together, and then his breath evening out almost immediately into sleep. Jadon had lain still at first. And then, when sleep didn’t come, he’d carefully adjusted the single pillow (since Nico was sleeping happily on his chest). And then, when he realized nothing short of a bullhorn would wake Nico, he’d moved around until he was propped up and comfortable. Nico clung on to him and slept through all of it.

Then Jadon had opened his email and started reviewing the footage that campus security had sent to him. He’d wanted every possible approach to Harlow Hall, everything from the last week. Someone was following Nico, someone who had assaulted other young men on campus. It was the same suspect; Jadon was sure of it. And last night, someone had been in the building, waiting. That meant that the suspect had approached Harlow, had entered it, might have even left something behind—a fingerprint, a footprint, something. Jadon knew he wouldn’t be able to get anyone out to process the scene; technically, nothing had happened. Worse, the lieutenant didn’t believe this was a pattern of assaults. And even if, by some miracle, he got techs out to the dorm, there was no way of knowing what the suspect might have touched, where he might have left a print. Which meant his next best option was reviewing footage from the security cameras around Harlow.

It was difficult on his phone. Part of that was the interface—he would have preferred his laptop and a mouse to make it easier scrub forward in the recordings. And part of it was the size of the screen, which was too small for him to make out fine details. But he didn’t have his laptop with him, and even if he had, he didn’t think Nico would appreciate having a computer balanced on top of his head. That was another sign, if he were being honest with himself, that things were different. Maybe dangerously so. A hookup had never kept Jadon from doing his job the best he could; he’d turned more than one guy out of his house because he needed to get some sleep or, more frequently, he needed to work. Tonight, though, he was performing as a human pillow for a sleepy octopus, doing half-assed work on his phone.

Because someone has to be here, he told himself. Because someone has to stay the night.

Never mind that he could have let Nico sleep alone. That he could have sat on the floor and worked. Could have asked Cerise to drop off his laptop.

The videos themselves proved frustratingly worthless. Of the ones from that night, only a single video showed the suspect approaching Harlow Hall. He walked up to the main entrance, and the light near the door went out, and after that, it was impossible to tell what had happened. The suspect had gone inside, Jadon knew, but there wasn’t anything on the video to prove it. He fast-forwarded through hours of footage from that camera, hoping to catch another glimpse of the suspect. Maybe he had passed the dorm earlier to investigate the light and figure out how to disable it. Maybe he’d gone into the building another time during the day to learn the floor plan. But when the room began to lighten, and Jadon realized with groggy dismay that it was morning, he hadn’t found anything to help him.

When Nico’s alarm went off, he flopped around with one hand until he found his phone and silenced it. Eyes still closed, he groaned, “How can it be morning?”

Jadon chuckled. He brushed Nico’s hair away from his forehead. And, before he could reconsider, he kissed the smooth skin there.

Nico made a discontented noise and pursed his lips.

Jadon kissed him there too.

Nico parted his lips.

“No,” Jadon said with a laugh. “Time to wake up.”

Eyes opening to slits, Nico stared up at him. “We should shower.”

“Unh-uh. I fell for that once already. You shower.”

“What if I slip and fall? What if I drop the soap? What if my big, bad stalker is waiting for me in there?”

The words were light, but a hint of a quaver in his voice, the look in his eyes suggested it wasn’t entirely a joke.

“Nico,” Jadon said.

Nico’s lip trembled.

“Oh my God,” Jadon said. “We’ve got to be quick.”

Being quick wasn’t actually the problem; as soon as they were under the hot water, Nico’s mouth roving across Jadon’s chest, licking and kissing, like he wanted to devour every inch of him, Jadon was ready. Beyond ready. They ended up pressed against the shower wall, Jadon’s weight pinning Nico to the tile as Nico thrust his hips abortively, the tip of his dick barely moving against Jadon’s thigh as Jadon bit and suckled at his shoulder again, marking him with more of the dark purple bruises. He got his hands under Nico’s thighs and lifted so that Nico was supported in the air, pinned to the wall. Jadon thrust between his legs, his dick sliding along the cleft of his ass. Sliding over Nico’s hole. Nico came first that time. Jadon came a moment later, spattering the wall, arms trembling from holding Nico like that.

---