Page 23 of Lance
TEN
That night, when they were supposed to leave San Francisco to drive up the coast to Portland, the bus broke down. Luckily, they were just a few miles outside of town, so it wasn’t far to go back into the city, and the suite of rooms that they’d just left hadn’t even been booked.
Until then, it had been a good day. Maybe the best day that Jamie had had in a long time. He had a whole closet full of new clothes, clothing that he had picked, with Lance’s help, and he and Lance had agreed to stop fighting what they felt for each other.
Even breaking down wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It meant they’d have to book it the next day to get to their next engagement, but that was fine. They still had time. And the beds in the hotel were considerably better than those in the bus, so no, he wasn’t going to complain.
“Hey,” Jamie murmured to Lance. They were both sitting on the couch once more, the same couch where Jamie had gone down on Lance. Good memories, for sure. “When everyone is asleep, what do you think about …”
Ken walked by then, giving them both dirty looks, and flopped down in an armchair nearby, his teal eyes fixated on both of them. Jamie wanted to curse as he saw that Ken was settling in, apparently in for the long haul.
Only it was worse than that. Because his eyes were narrowed appraisingly, and when Ken spoke, it was obvious that Jamie hadn’t been careful enough.
“What does he think about what?” Ken demanded, and Jamie fought back a wince. The only way this was going to work was if they kept it secret from everyone. Once one person found out, then more would, and then that was when the shit would hit the proverbial fan.
Funny how he’d been so eager to get into this band. Funny how he’d thought it would simplify his life. If anything, it was more complicated than ever, but he knew very well that he wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.
“Oh, he was probably asking if I want to play Chess,” Lance said, and his voice was admirably cool. Jamie probably would have stammered like an idiot, if Lance hadn’t been there to bail him out. But Lance sounded like it was the most natural thing in the world, like it was nothing.
Just sex, Jamie reminded himself, keeping his breathing slow and even. Just. Sex. That was all that had been offered and all that he even wanted.
“Chess? Boring,” Ken commented, and he flipped on the television. Jamie would have loved to tell himif it was so boring, he was welcome to leave, but when he glanced over at Lance, the other man shook his head and gave him a little pleading look.
That look made Jamie swallow down his temper. If they were going to hide this, Jamie was going to have to not act like Lance was more to him than a friend and co-worker. Casual, that was what it had to be, so Jamie ignored Ken.
Lance gave him a look of relief when Jamie turned away from Ken.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Lance commented, and it took Jamie a moment to realize that he was responding to the question that Ken thought Jamie had asked. This really was getting more complicated by the moment, and it was getting difficult to keep things straight, but Lance was more than worth it.
Lance got up and disappeared into his room while Jamie watched, bewildered. Had he just been ditched? But a few moments later, Lance came out, smirking as he set the chess board from the tour bus on the table.
“Lance!” Jamie laughed, shaking his head a little at the man’s audacity. “Did you steal the Chess board from the bus?”
Lance gave a guilty, gorgeous little grin and shrugged his strong shoulders.
“I mean, it’s not stealing if I bring it back tomorrow, right?” Lance asked, and Jamie shook his head as he started to set up the pieces. He was amused, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but be touched that Lance had done this, just on the off chance that they could play.
Jamie won the first game handily, but the second, he actually had to struggle a bit. It took some effort to get Lance into checkmate, and Jamie raised his gaze from the board to look at his … lover? Was that what Lance was?
“You’re getting better,” he acknowledged, and Lance, obviously pleased with himself, smirked and nodded.
“Shook the rust off. Now you’re in for it,” he commented, as they both set up their pieces again.
“Hey, at least you’re almost a challenge now,” Jamie teased, and they started to play again.
“Jamie,” Lance spoke softly, and Jamie looked up, surprised by the warmth of the look that he saw directed toward him. “What were you really going to say to me before?”
Jamie frowned and glanced over at the armchair, where Ken was waiting, watching, judging. Or so he thought. When he actually looked, he saw that Ken was gone, nowhere to be seen, actually.
“I think we bored him with the game. He’s been gone for at least half an hour.” Lance smiled a bit, leaning across the board, inclining his body toward Jamie. “It’s late. Everyone is asleep. So tell me what you wanted to say to me before we were interrupted.”
Jamie grinned. It was probably good to know that they could bore Ken with Chess. It made things potentially a lot easier, though somehow, he didn’t think that would work quite as well on Aaron. But Aaron kept to himself and was way less of a problem.
“I was thinking if it gets really late …” Jamie glanced at his phone, and the really amazing thing, he realized after the fact, is that it didn’t even occur to him to hide it. He didn’t tend to let people see his phone, which was a model so old that it barely even worked. “Like it is now, we could maybe go to bed.” He paused and then, just so that it was clear, added one more word. “Together.”
Maybe that was a little bit blatant, but then, Jamie had never been known for subtle. Besides, from the smirk that twitched up the corners of Lance’s full, luscious lips, he didn’t exactly mind.
“Your bed or mine?” he asked, but before Jamie could answer, Lance had his hand fisted into the material of Jamie’s shirt, and he was pulling him close and pressing a hard, needy kiss on him.
