Page 13 of Needing Your Love
I turned toward my son who glanced my way before jerking his focus toward Chaz who approached us, drinks for him and my son in hand. They shared a few words, but I didn’t hear the exchange.
Awareness of Jimmy sauntering closer raised the hairs on my nape. Instincts dueled inside me—wrap the kid up in my arms or flee for my life.
Dex elbowed me with a knowing look.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, tipping back my beer to drain every last drop. “Shut up,” I told Dex before he could start in with ribbing over the boy I’d been stalking from afar.
“I’m not saying a word,” he said, chuckling and moving off to the bar for refills.
“Dad, what’s?—”
“Why, Chief Sutton.” Jimmy’s greeting cut off my son’s question, his baby blue-eyed gaze sliding down over me with lust and determination.
Jamie studied me—I could feel his inquisitive stare as strongly as Jimmy’s wish to bend over and grab his ankles. I imagined the offer in his eyes leaving his lips, and temptation warred with my better sense.
I didn’t move, didn’t allow an ounce of the feelings crashing through me to show on my face. “Jimmy,” I said, my tone unmoved unlike the swell taking place in my jeans.
“Miss me?” Jimmy asked with a saucy tilt to his pouty lips, his hip popping out the slightest bit, which drew focus to his trim stomach and the glint of silver in his belly button.
“Nope.” The lie sounded obvious to my own ears, and I fought to inhale.
Jimmy allowed me a moment’s reprieve by giving my son his attention.
“I hear congratulations are in order.”
The two boys shook hands while I attempted to regulate my breathing and talk down my swollen dick trapped inside my boxer briefs and denim.
“Chaz.” He next greeted Jamie’s soon-to-be fiancé, his brow furrowing a brief moment. “You’re a dead ringer for an old co-worker of mine. How did I not realize that before?”
“Yeah?” Chaz didn’t sound that interested.
“Any chance you’re related to a guy named Zack Briggs?” Jimmy asked.
Jamie stilled, and I wondered how much my son knew about what Jimmy had been up to in Boston. Suspicion pinged my in brain as I scanned all three boys’ faces.
“Don’t recognize the name,” Chaz said, latching his pinkie with Jamie’s, his facial expression bland.
Jimmy’s gaze narrowed while glancing over Chaz in a slow perusal that held zero hint of lust or flirting. Good thing too. Jamie would have laid the guy out flat. “Hmm. Could have fooled me,” Jimmy mused. “You two could be twins.”
Chaz bumped his shoulder into a red-faced Jamie. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just, uh…” Jamie scratched the back of his neck, eyes flitting everywhere but at Jimmy.
There would be questions…eventually, but right now, the one I’d been thinking about more often than not lately stood inches from me, tension vibrating between us even though he didn’t glance my way.
A few more words filled the air around me, but I stared at Jimmy, taking note of his artfully mussed hair, the heightenedcolor along his cheekbones, the button of a nose I wanted to kiss, and the sheen on his plump lips that appeared to be gloss.
I licked my lower lip without thought as the throb in my groin intensified.
He leaned into my forearm a second later, but Dex arrived at my other side, offering me a cold beer and much needed distraction from the heat zapping over my skin and causing goose bumps to pebble where Jimmy’s skin rested against mine.
“Thanks,” I said, my voice sounding wrecked as fuck. Sidestepping Jimmy didn’t rid me of his touch, and I fought off a shiver that would reveal how he affected me.
“So, Jimmy.” Dex threw his arm around my shoulders in a possessive hold and maneuvered me away from the boy. He was the sole person on the face of the earth who was aware of my obsession with the young man attempting to get all up in my space. “What brings you back to Pippen Creek?”
“Personal shit.” Jimmy studied how Dex squeezed me against his side, his lips turning down in a petulant pout that mirrored the look on his face when I’d refused the offer of his mouth and ass nine years ago. Dex also knew about that night, but again, was the only one privy to that tale.
I forced my focus off Jimmy’s glistening lips to supposedly scan the room like I always did when in a crowd, but I was too preoccupied with the gorgeous blond in my periphery to take note of anybody in attendance.
