Page 14 of Lance
No, not just toward the couch. Toward Lance. Toward his lap, where Jamie landed heavily, staring with astonishment at the other man. He wanted to say something, something no doubt trite and pathetic. You saved me, or something equally stupid.
Instead, he just smirked, fighting off the really ridiculous urge to press a kiss to the tip of Lance’s gorgeous, straight nose. Instead, he patted his shoulder and scrambled up out of his lap because it was that or get far too comfortable perched there. It would be so easy to just stay there, completely content, wrapping his arms around Lance and the rest of the world could go to hell.
But Ken was right there, and yes, he seemed pretty fixated on his video games, but that wasn’t going to last forever. Besides, no matter how much of a jerk Ken was being to him, he didn’t actually want to hurt the guy.
So, once the bus had steadied, Jamie pushed himself to his feet again. He patted Lance a little bit awkwardly on the shoulder and then made his way, more carefully this time, over to the table.
When he glanced back to see if Lance was following him, though, he met Aaron’s eyes, instead. Those odd eyes so deep and dark a blue that they almost had a purple tint to them, and those eyes were slightly narrowed as they looked deep into Jamie’s soul, or so it seemed. Like Aaron could see everything.
Well, that just meant that Jamie had to be careful around him. Not that Aaron seemed to be the talking type. But at that moment, Jamie worried that Aaron knew. That somehow, just by that short interaction, Aaron had deduced more than either Jamie or Lance wanted him to.
What was that they said about still waters and running deep? That was Aaron, Jamie was pretty sure about that, and he shifted in his seat and did his best to avoid Aaron’s eyes. Seconds later, Lance joined him at the table, and it was a relief to turn away from those soul penetrating eyes. Aaron was intense—there was no doubt about it.
The guy barely talked, but he seemed to see everything. And Jamie had too many things that he didn’t want to be seen. He should probably stay away from Aaron, which was a shame because not only was the guy beautiful, but at that moment, he seemed like someone who was alone. Maybe it was by his own choice, and that was something that Jamie could understand, but it was still a bit sad.
“What do you want to play?” Lance asked, which Jamie thought was a reasonable question, though it was odd, now that he thought about it, that Lance hadn’t suggested a specific game.
Probably just his imagination. Or Lance had wanted to get him away from Aaron.
Jamie’s eyes skimmed over the board games, most of them a little bit childish for the mood he was in. They fixed on a chess board, and he gave a soft sigh as his lingered there.
“You know how to play chess?” There was a rather unflattering tone of surprise to Lance’s voice, and Jamie gave him a bit of a look.
“Why shouldn’t I?” he snapped, stung by that comment, but more by the shock in Lance’s eyes. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew how to play the game, and the assumption that he didn’t sort of annoyed him.
“Oh,” Lance gave him a bit of a smile, one which made Jamie’s stomach do strange things. What was it about this man, that could have him so upset one moment, and so ready to forgive him the next? “Uh, well, it’s been awhile since I played. I might be a bit rusty. But let’s do it.”
Jamie returned the smile, and the prickles that he had felt forming on his skin, the ones that he so easily pulled close to him when he felt threatened or judged, they just fell away. Just from a smile. It was incredible, if not a little terrifying.
He pulled out the chess board and focused on setting up the pieces, rather than thinking about the strange things going on in his heart. The draw he had to this man. The fact that he was playing chess again, even though he had been so sure, once he left Dom, that he would never play it again.
There were a lot of things that he had been so sure he would never do again, and even though he’d really just met Lance, he already knew that the guy was going to challenge that like no one else ever had.
It had been so much easier to keep himself on guard when he didn’t have to worry about Lance giving him that sweet, seductive, sultry smile.
