Page 42 of Lance
“I think what we want is for you to butt the fuck out of our personal lives.” It was Aaron who was speaking, oddly. Or maybe it wasn’t that odd since he was probably the most private of any of them. After all, wasn’t it possible that, if they let Lester get away with controlling their romantic lives any longer, he would start poking around at other things?
It stopped here, and Jamie shook his head in disbelief as he realized that these people, who had been strangers only a few months ago, were standing by him. He had friends. Not just acquaintances, not people that he only knew through his lovers, but friends, real friends, who would have his back. Who would take risks for him.
“Agreed,” Jamie managed, his voice coming out a bit too quiet, but he was close enough to Lester that he was sure that the other man heard him.
“Yep,” Lance said, and Ken just nodded. How much had it hurt Ken to step forward? To choose loyalty to Lance, and to the band, over his very obvious dislike of Jamie?
Then Ken met his eyes and gave him the slightest trace of a smile before the dark-haired man looked away again. It was possible even Ken wasn’t a totally lost cause. It would take some time since Jamie wasn’t sure he could so easily forgive the crap that Ken had put him through for the past few months.
But it wasn’t a lost cause. At the very least, that brief gaze acknowledged, they could work together. Maybe even try to get along, for Lance’s sake, if nothing else.
Lester let out a huff of air, and then he turned abruptly on his heel without saying even one more word. Just like that, he was gone. Just like that, the specter of looming disaster which had been hanging over Jamie for what felt like forever was gone, too, departed with their controlling manager.
Well, he was done with people trying to control his life. Never again. He’d kicked Dom to the curb, and now Lester knew how it was going to be, too. The four of them united had power. More than any of them had apart, definitely, and possibly even more than Lester did.
“Jamie,” Lance whispered, and Jamie turned to face him, meeting those brilliant, shimmering green eyes, so warm, so welcoming. Like coming home again, that’s what it felt like. Like he could wrap himself up in those beautiful green eyes.
“I’m sorry, Lance,” Jamie told him, and he didn’t think the words out at all before he said them, they just spilled out of him, a bubbling fountain that he couldn’t seem to control once it started. “I said goodbye to Dom—”
“I’m not going to see Amy again—” Lance was speaking at the same time, and they stopped to just grin at each other, almost bashful as they locked eyes with each other.
They’d come all the way back to the beginning, Jamie realized. Full circle. That might mean that they could start over again, or was that too wonderful to be possible? He could still remember, as clearly as it had been yesterday, how it had felt to blunder into his audition, only to be caught up in those strong arms and that beautiful gaze.
“I love you,” Jamie admitted, and he didn’t even care that Aaron and Ken were watching. They could deal with it, or not. Not his problem. All he really knew was that he couldn’t go even one more second without Lance knowing that. Whatever happened between them, he wanted it all to happen with perfect honesty.
“I love you, too,” Lance admitted. And then, Jamie wasn’t sure how, but they were kissing, arms locked around each other in a desperate embrace, lips parting as they both deepened it, melting and flowing into each other, no more barriers between them.
How long they would have stayed like that, wrapped around each other, kissing and touching and holding and being held, Jamie didn’t even know. Forever, maybe, or until something interrupted them.
In this case, that something was Ken, who was making overly dramatic, deliberately loud barfing noises.
“Get a room, guys,” he said, but Jamie was pretty damn happy to see the slight smile on his lips. He didn’t mind nearly as much as he was pretending to, that much was obvious.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Lance purred, and he kept his warm, strong arm around Jamie’s waist as he swept Jamie right up off of his feet and into the nearest bedroom.
