Page 77 of Follows with Intent

Nico met those darkly sandy eyes, the smooth firmness of Jadon’s expression. The orgasm seemed to start by inches, rising in him. And then Nico made a low, helpless noise as he came. It felt like something bearing him up. It felt like something pulling him apart by the arms and legs. Somehow, he kept Jadon’s dick in his mouth as his world imploded. When his brain kicked on again, he was vaguely aware of the head of Jadon’s dick between his lips, Jadon’s fist twisting beneath him, and then Jadon’s grunt as he sprayed his load.

Nico ended up draped across Jadon. One of Jadon’s hands tickled his back, running lightly back and forth. Nico already felt himself sinking under the weight of exhaustion and trauma and excellent sex.

He mumbled, “Well, that was embarrassing.”

“That wasn’t embarrassing.” Jadon laughed. His hand slid slowly back and forth. “That was hot.”

Nico put a hand over his eyes.

Another laugh. A surprisingly long one. Jadon shifted them around until they were under the covers, and Nico realized he was about to fall asleep.

He did, however, manage to murmur, “Twice, Jay?”

The last sound he heard before he crashed was more of that gentle laughter.

21

Nico

They started the day slowly. Nico lingered in bed while Jadon made coffee, and then both of them moved out into the kitchen so Jadon could make breakfast—some kind of omelet, if you could call it that when it was made out of egg whites and tofu and an ungodly amount of kale. Nico entertained himself by snooping through the junk mail on Jadon’s table: a lot of boutique clothing mailers, which wasn’t exactly a surprise considering the clothes Jadon wore; the weekly circulars; an invitation to the Metropolitan PD’s annual holiday party.

“I’m going to clean that up today,” Jadon said. The embarrassment was audible in his voice. “I’m going to clean the house, actually. I’m sorry, again; I’ve kind of let things get away from me.”

“Literally not a problem at all. It makes my snooping much easier.” Nico’s phone buzzed, and he checked it and was surprised to see a message from Maya. And then another. And then another. He started laughing as he read them. “Oh my God.”

The beaten eggs sizzled as Jadon poured them into the frying pan. “What?”

“Apparently Chapman ripped strips off Gio’s ass last night at dinner. Clark said something about Gio and Meza hooking up, and Chapman lost his mind.”

“I don’t suppose anybody took strips off Clark’s ass.”

Nico grinned. “Do I hear a tone?”

“You do, as a matter of fact.”

“Clark gets away with everything, that’s—oh shit.” He stared at the next message that had come through.

“What? What happened?”

“Dr. Young asked Maya why I wasn’t at dinner. She wanted to talk to me about applying to the doctoral program at Wash U.”

Jadon brought the omelets to the table and touched Nico’s cheek. “That sounds like good news.”

“It is. I don’t know. I mean, I guess it is.”

“It’s good news.”

Nico opened his mouth to reply but his phone vibrated again. This time, he groaned.

“This is a roller coaster of emotions,” Jadon said with a laugh.

“We have to go on a date before I leave,” Nico said and took a bite of the omelet—and he had to admit, it was surprisingly good. “Maya’s orders. A real one, not eating dinner together and pretending we’re friends. Otherwise, she will actually kill me. That’s literally what the text says.”

Jadon dropped into the chair opposite Nico. He wore joggers and a hoodie that said DRINK TEA–RUN–BE HAPPY, and he had bedhead because he hadn’t fixed his hair yet, and he tucked one foot under his other leg to keep it warm. It was so adorable that the universe was probably on cuteness overload. And then Nico heard his own thoughts with a kind of distant horror and wondered if he was legally obligated to turn in his bitch card now.

Without appearing to notice any of Nico’s internal dilemma, Jadon checked his phone. “Emery’s supposed to be here in about three hours.”

“Which means he’ll be here in two and a half.”

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