Page 43 of Your Pace or Mine
“Like, is holding hands okay? Kissing?”
Darius nodded again. “Kissing is good.” His mouth went dry at the thought of kissing Jamie. It felt like Darius was meant to do something, give him more of a response, but he just felt raw, exposed. He turned to Jamie, and a cloud opened in the gloomy sky above. Rain that they could both tell was about to become a downpour started to fall.
They darted under the awning of the clubhouse for shelter, pressing themselves up against the building. Darius fished in his jacket pocket for the keys, opening the door and ushering Jamie inside.
“I’m trying not to take that as an omen for our plan.”
Darius laughed. Something shifted between them as they stood dripping wet on the industrial blue carpet of the athletics club, and the rest of the world fell away.
Jamie strode purposefully towards him. Darius barely had enough time to register what was happening, his body movingon instinct and pure desire as he pulled Jamie into his arms, and then his senses were consumed by him.
Jamie’s lips were soft and cold from the wind outside, their movement against his insistent but not forceful. Darius felt his hand twist in Jamie’s jacket completely of its own accord, pulling him closer still. A soft noise escaped Jamie’s throat as his lips parted ever so slightly. Then he was surging up, pressing himself flush against Darius so he could feel Jamie’s body heat chasing away the chill from outside as he deepened the kiss.
Jamie kissed like he did everything, with abandon. It was all-consuming for Darius, and he found himself wondering if this was it. If this was the feeling he’d really been chasing with every win. He returned the kiss with enthusiasm, tongue clashing against Jamie’s with a fervour he’d never let loose before.
When they parted, Jamie looked wild-eyed and flushed, his lips slightly swollen and his breath heavy, loud in the silence of the deserted clubhouse. Darius was both desperate and terrified to take things any further, knowing that with Jamie, it would mean something in a way that it never had before. Knowing this was the wrong place and time. Knowing that despite the hammering in his heart, it wasn’t real.
He hesitated, but it was Jamie who stepped back first. “Thought we should practice.”
“Of course,” Darius replied weakly. “Good practice.”
“We should go, the others are waiting,” Jamie whispered.
Darius tried not to read into the tremble in Jamie’s voice, uncertain as to whether it was from desire or something else entirely. He nodded, though, and they peered outside. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, and by silent agreement, they huddled close under the miniature umbrella Darius always carried with him as they walked towards the coffee shop Claire and the others were waiting at. Taking each other’s hands, they pushed open the door. The warmth of the shop and of Jamie’s hand in histingled against Darius’s cold skin as he realised this counted as their first public outing as a couple.
Chapter 11
Jamie
8 weeks to the London Marathon
On Monday morning, Jamie ran with Reggie beneath a grey but mercifully dry sky. Jamie moved carefully, his pace deliberate as he tested the limits of his recovering injury. It was slow going, but he’d been cleared to keep training, so that was something. The marathon date loomed like a flashing beacon in his mind, constantly reminding him he wasn’t ready.
Jamie welcomed the distraction of the run. His thoughts had been tangled for days—well, since Saturday, if he was being honest—and the steady thump of trainers against pavement was the only thing keeping them from knotting completely.
Darius.
Fucking hell, that man was something else.
He couldn’t stop thinking about him. They’d continued texting since Saturday, but somehow, almost by mutual agreement, they had skipped their late-night phone calls since their kiss. Jamie swore it wasn’t that he was avoiding talking to Darius because he didn’t know how to behave after that damn kiss.
Well, it wasn’tjustthat.
He’d picked up some last-minute shifts working events for a PR firm. It had made for a long couple of days, but his bank account was a tiny bit happier. Still, no amount of hustle could change the way that kiss had rearranged something inside of him.
He hadn’t expected it to mean anything. Shouldn’t have let it. But it had caught him completely off guard.
He was itching to see Darius again, but slightly terrified as well. That kiss had changed everything for him. It had been so much more than he’d been prepared for.
He knew it wasn’t likely to go anywhere. Hell, Darius had only even humoured Jamie’s insane proposal to fake a relationship because he was desperate. Jamie didn’t do relationships anyway, but if he did, this probably wasn’t how it was meant to go. He wasn’t going to let himself get too invested; that never led anywhere good.
Jamie jogged along with Reggie, waving and nodding at passing runners and wondering if they were prepping for the marathon too. There was a quiet camaraderie in those nods and waves that he enjoyed.
“You know, you’re basically waving to strangers like a politician now,” Reggie teased.
“What can I say? People love me,” Jamie replied, puffing out his chest dramatically.
“Love you? Or pity you?” Reggie countered, dodging Jamie’s playful shove. “There’s a difference.”
