Page 59 of Blown

They both groaned and panted as their bodies joined. It was something Rafe had done a hundred times before with more men than he wanted to count, but it had never felt as good as it did with Jake. The two of them were partners in every sense of the word. It wasn’t just about the pleasure of skin slapping against skin as he sped up his thrusts. It was the two of them together, the two of them against the world. They might have been against each other now and then, but they were a team before all else.

They were a team in the way they moved together, Jake stroking his cock as Rafe pounded into him. It was hot and raw, and within minutes, Rafe was coming. The release felt incredible, even more so when Jake gasped into his own orgasm and shot his seed over his belly as Rafe watched. The sight was so gorgeous that he thrust a few more times to see if he could keep coming.

“God, that was good,” Jake panted as Rafe pulled out and collapsed to his side. Despite being overheated, the two of them circled their arms and legs around each other and kissed as the afterglow settled over them. “That was so good.”

Rafe could only manage a grunt as sleep pressed down on him. Jake seemed to think that was funny and laughed as he stroked Rafe’s face.

Whatever the next day held, Rafe wasn’t sure he cared. All he cared about was keeping Jake in his arms as long as possible.

NINETEEN

Morning camewith an annoying blast of sunlight through the curtains, which Jake had forgotten to close the night before, and the weird sound of a French police car in the distance. There were a dozen more reasons he could have been irritated and woken in a mood, Hélène Rénard being chief among them.

But Jake couldn’t ever remember being happier as he woke with Rafe’s scent all around him and their naked bodies pressed together under the crisp, white hotel sheets. Before he even opened his eyes, Jake smiled, stretching and reveling in how good his life was.

This was it. Waking up with Rafe in Paris was the pinnacle of all the things he didn’t deserve but had somehow found in his life. He was happy, regardless of who had posted what on social media the day before or how quickly he and Rafe had dashed off to a foreign country. Everything was as wonderful as the gentle sound of Rafe’s snoring next to him. No amount of fame or renown could possibly be better than this.

Well, maybe it could be better if he and Rafe had time to do something about the morning wood he sported. As Rafe sucked in a long breath and groaned awake, Jake definitely weighedthe pros and cons of forgetting about Hélène entirely and just spending a romantic weekend in Paris, preferably in bed. He was certain Rafe wouldn’t want that, though.

Hélène’s duplicity mattered to Rafe. Gaining recognition in the glass world mattered. Whether Rafe was fully aware of it or not, he was ambitious. There was nothing wrong with that. Jake wanted to succeed, too. But if the Hawthorne family had taught him one thing, it was that the scale and timetable of success wasn’t always the fast pace and meteoric rise that some people thought it was.

“Good morning,” he said, propping himself up on one arm and grinning down at Rafe as Rafe finally opened his eyes.

Rafe made the most delicious sound deep in his chest, then mumbled, “Morning,” in return.

“How’s the morning breath situation?” Jake asked, brushing his fingers through the hair on Rafe’s chest.

Rafe worked his mouth for a moment and licked his lips, then shook his head and said, “No. Definitely not.”

Jake laughed and flopped back onto the pillows as Rafe pushed himself out of bed and headed to the bathroom. It was all just so perfect, so relaxed and natural. It was everything he’d ever wanted.

Once Rafe was finished in the bathroom, Jake took a turn. As soon as he’d peed and brushed his teeth, he went back into the main part of the room, looking for his morning kiss. Rafe was already dressed and packing things away in his backpack, though.

“If we get to the hot shop before Hélène, she won’t be able to shut the door in our faces and lock us out,” he said without looking at Jake.

Jake sighed and moved to pack up his overnight bag. Every dream faded in the morning anyhow. At least with this one, he stood a chance of getting to repeat it later. Hopefully every day.

He caught Rafe as they headed for the door and pulled him into an embrace, stealing his kiss then.

“We can do this,” he told Rafe, looking him straight in the eyes before kissing him again. “It doesn’t matter what Hélène throws at us. It doesn’t matter if we’re able to convince her to mend her ways and retract the pictures she posted or if she calls the police on us.”

“Oh, God, the police,” Rafe said, his eyes going wide.

Jake smiled and rested his hand on the side of Rafe’s face. “It doesn’t matter because the two of us are together. That’sourwork.Wecame up with it together, and we can come up with another brilliant idea tomorrow if we have to.”

Rafe relaxed into a smile, then grabbed the sides of Jake’s head so he could plant a searing kiss on his lips. “We’re in this together,” he said.

It was exactly the kind of pep-talk the two of them needed. They checked out then left the hotel, retracing their steps from the night before as they headed up to Hélène’s studio. Paris was grey and dingey, which wasn’t what Jake had expected of the city of romance, but he still felt the love. Morning commuters mingled with street cleaners and rushed pedestrians crowded into boulangeries as they strode up the street, hand in hand.

They popped into one of the boulangeries for croissants and coffee right before reaching the Rue de Charenton, which made Jake even more paradoxically happy.

“Fuck me! Everything I’ve ever heard about croissants in Paris is dead accurate,” he said, his mouth full with his last bite, as they strolled with pretend casualness toward Hélène’s building. “That was amazing.”

“It’s the butter,” Rafe said, stuffing the paper his croissant had been wrapped in into his pocket and glancing around anxiously. “French butter is the best in the world.”

“I’ll say it is,” Jake said, keeping his voice deliberately relaxed.

They peeked through the chips in the blacked-out windows again, and when they were satisfied that Hélène wasn’t there yet, they turned and leaned against the wall, finishing their coffees and watching people hurry past on their way to work. There was a fair chance that Hélène wouldn’t show and that Janice had the wrong address, but if Rafe was willing to wait, then Jake would wait with him.

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