Page 58 of Thomas
“Why am I only just now finding out about this?” he asked. “It’s been a month.”
“I’m going to sound like a broken record,” Cameron said, pouring whiskey into the second glass.
“Go on.”
“I hadn’t thought about it—or rather, no one wants to come up here and sit with me. I like certain things, or I design a space in a specific way, but then it feels awkward to occupy it alone, so I don’t do it and I forget that I enjoy the thing.”
Cameron slid a tumbler over to him and Thomas accepted it. He lifted his drink toward Cameron and they touched their glasses in a tidyclink. Thomas brought the rim to his nose and sniffed. The undertones smelled of caramel, smoke and honey. He took a tasting sip and moaned without meaning to. “God,I haven’t tasted good whiskey in… I don’t know how long.”
“Do you want another cigar?” Cameron asked, reaching for the box he’d carried up. “We have a whole goddamned box of the 1964s.”
Thomas chuckled. “What do you have in your collection?”
“Ah, I have a case of the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Maduro. I like that the broadleaf wrappers are sweet to taste and the aroma is like dark chocolate.”
Intrigued, Thomas grinned. “Shall we have one of those? And do you mind sharing with me again? I don’t want to start a whole one in case I don’t enjoy it.” Quietly, he’d liked sharing a cigar with Cameron earlier in the evening. Thomas had never done that before, and something about it felt sensual. A kind of unspoken foreplay.
Cameron produced a cigar and expertly snipped the tip. When he pulled out a small box of matches, Thomas touched his wrist. “May I do the honors this time?” he asked.
“Sure.” Cameron relinquished the box. Thomas watched as he casually dipped and rolled the very edge of the cigar into his whiskey, then brought it to his mouth.
“Huh,” Thomas said when their eyes met.
One side of Cameron’s full lips quirked up around the cigar. He quickly pulled it from his mouth. “The whiskey comes through, and it makes the taste even sweeter.”
Thomas grinned. “I’ll trust your judgment on that, good sir.” A warm, almost purring sensation sat low in Thomas’s belly as he removed two matches from the box, but he stuffed the feeling down.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t as graceful as Cameron had been. It took Thomas three strikes to ignite the match instead of one smooth one (another subtle way the man had shown off, Thomas decided). When the flame finally breathed to life, Cameron bent and tilted the cigar toward it while Thomas cupped the heat of it with his free hand.
The glow from the fire was a seductive spotlight on Cameron’s beautiful lips wrapped around the cigar. Thomas watched it all, absorbed as the smoke began to curl and rise in front of his pretty hazel eyes.
“You said no one would come up here with you,” Thomas reiterated, entranced. “Not even Devon?”
The end of the cigar glowed red and Cameron stood straighter. He puffed a few times for good measure, then pulled long from the tip. He lifted his chin and blew the smoke above them. “I don’t like Devon enough to bring him up here.”
“Really?” Thomas said, a little bit surprised and very much pleased.
Cameron offered the cigar. “Would you like to try?” Thomas took it from him and set his lips to the end. It was damp from Cameron’s mouth and the dip in the whiskey. Something aboutthat, the confection of lovely aromas blended together with the ambiance, made Thomas’s pulse kick up.
“Devon was my friend—or so I thought,” Cameron went on. “But we only talked about the book business. Nothing more. He didn’t even enjoy reading, so I kept his visits… efficient. If I’d brought him up here, he would have wanted to linger.”
Thomas held the aroma of the cigar for a moment, tasting and allowing it to saturate his palate before he blew it out. He noted the dark chocolate as Cameron had mentioned, but also wood and spices. “This is nice,” he said approvingly. He lifted his gaze to meet Cameron’s. “And I’m pleased to know that you like me enough to bring me up here.”
“Of course I like you. Was there some ambiguity prior to this moment?”
“Well, maybe not,” Thomas said. “But it’s nice to know it for certain.” Cameron had said that he liked Thomas’s “sharp perspective” and “inquisitive mind.” Undoubtedly, those were vital aspects of who he was. But liking certain characteristics was a bit different than likinghim, wasn’t it? Pieces of the man versus the total sum.
Cameron took a sip from his tumbler and folded his lips, savoring the flavor before speaking. “You said yourself that my eyes alighting means that I’m pleased with you. Is that not irrefutable evidence of my affection? Is there something more you need from me to confirm it?”
Thomas paused with the cigar just in front of his mouth, watching Cameron. Was he baiting him? He hadn’t pegged Cameron as the type to play flirtatious games. Was his question truly innocent or was he probing?
Thomas brought the cigar the rest of the way to his mouth, keeping his eyes on Cameron as he puffed slowly. He raised his chin to blow it out. “Would you give more, Cameron? Doyouwant more?”
A soft pause. Thomas waited patiently, tasting the aromas of dark chocolate and caramel and spices on his tongue and in the air, the subtle radiant warmth of Cameron’s body pressing an uncanny hint of ginger and honey into the hypnotic mix.
The uncertainty twisting Cameron’s expression was obvious. “Do I want more of… what? What do you mean?”
Suppressing the coiling and perverted heat of his nature, Thomas shook his head. “Can we sit on the couch and talk? It looks very cozy.”
