Page 30 of Bassist With Benefits
Alan’s foot tapped a nervous beat on the floor while he watched Jeremy rummage through the fridge. His head was filled with confusion and his stomach was a mass of butterflies, but he couldn’t take his eyes off his long-haired bass player.
“Want a seltzer or something? Ginger ale?” Jeremy pulled a can from the shelf. “Who the hell drinks this? Why is it even in here?”
“Cam,” Alan answered.
Jeremy shuffled through the contents of the refrigerator. “You wouldn’t believe the stuff that’s in here. Juice. Apples. Tomatoes.” He held up a sealed zippered bag containing some kind of vegetable. “What the fuck is this?”
Alan squinted at it. “No clue.”
At the sound of their voices, Brandy came barreling out from behind the curtain of one of the bottom bunks in the sleeping area. She sat down next to Jeremy and wagged her tail furiously.
Jeremy patted her head. “Excuse us. Did we wake you?”
She answered with a loud, “Woof!”
“Do you want a snack?” He waved the plastic bag with the mysterious-looking vegetable, and again she answered with a happy bark.
Jeremy pulled the lettuce-type vegetable from the bag and offered it to the dog. She clamped her jaws around it and took off toward the back of the bus. “I hope it tastes better than it looks,” Jeremy called after her.
With two bottles of water in his hand, Jeremy took a seat next to Alan and clicked on the music.Paranoiaby A Day To Remember came through the sound system, loud as fuck. Jeremy flinched and lowered it. “Sorry. I forgot you have a headache. You want me to find you some aspirin? The way Cam’s got this thing stocked, I’m sure there’s half a pharmacy in the bathroom.”
Alan smiled at his friend. Never had Jeremy been so attentive. Usually when one of them was drunk or hung over or passed out, it was open season to get picked on.
“Yes? No?”
“Huh?”
“On the aspirin.” Jeremy looked closer at Alan and presented a crooked smile. “What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing. I…” Alan trailed off. He suddenly wanted to tell Jeremy everything – that he couldn’t stop thinking about the night they were together – that the thought of Jeremy screwing around made him queasy – that his head was so twisted he couldn’t think straight – that sitting this close together made him rage inside with desire.
Jeremy’s smile faded, and his eyes took on an intense gaze. They bore into Alan, and it set his heart aflame. Alan’s eyes dropped to Jeremy’s mouth, and the blood rushed to his head. He was dizzy, not from the alcohol, but from the energy that passed between him and his best friend. Best friend. This was crazy. This was Jeremy. Alan shook his head to clear it. But his head wouldn’t clear, and his eyes couldn’t stray from Jeremy’s mouth. He inched closer, and so did Jeremy. They were so close he could feel the heat of Jeremy’s breath warming his lips. “Oh, fuck,” he whispered, a second before their mouths collided.
Neither wasted time with a closed-mouth kiss. They both knew what they wanted. It wasn’t a tentative let-me-see-if-I-like-this kiss. Their mouths slammed together like lovers who were finally reunited after months apart. The kiss screamed with want and passion. Their tongues devoured one another, pushing and twirling with insatiable desire. They were both already breathing heavily as if in the midst of foreplay instead of sharing a first kiss.
Alan tasted the lust. It was palpable. His heart was beating so fast and hard he could hear it pounding outside his ribcage over the music.I’m making out with Jeremy Kagan, his inner voice echoed in his head. Kissing his best friend had him delirious. It was sinfully delicious. It crossed the line of insanity straight into the best place in the world.Why hadn’t they been doing this all along?his ravenous mouth asked.
Jeremy’s lips, so soft and full, pressed hard against Alan’s mouth. His long hair fell against Alan’s cheek and curtained their kiss, hiding it from the rest of the world. A long moan, filled with deep passion, left Jeremy’s throat. The noise was such a fucking turn on that it made Alan’s cock as hard as steel, and he pushed back with his lips, sealing their kiss, until they both needed to breathe.
With a hand on the back of Alan’s neck, Jeremy searched Alan’s eyes. “You sure you’re OK with this?”
Alan cupped the bulge at his crotch. “I’m more than OK.”
Jeremy quietly stared at Alan for a beat, and then puppy-dog eyes turned Alan’s heart inside out. The amount of emotion in Jeremy’s face made Alan remember that, technically, this wasn’t their first kiss. His mind went back to the argument he and Jeremy had right after the first interview with Twin Media, when Jeremy inexplicably planted a hard kiss on his mouth. At the time, Alan had been so pissed off that he had socked Jeremy in the jaw. He thought Jeremy was just being a jerk that day, kissing him in order to diffuse the tension and elicit a laugh, like a stupid, juvenile prank. It was so fucking obvious now. Black and white. Clear as day. Jeremy had wanted that kiss all along. It had meant something to him.
The realization sent a strange but crazy surge of excitement through Alan’s chest, and he fell into Jeremy, capturing his mouth in a kiss. This time, he let his lips linger on Jeremy’s, slowly rotating his mouth so he could experience the rush of a newly shared kiss. Razor stubble scraped against razor stubble with an erotic buzz. He pushed his tongue inside Jeremy’s mouth and offered a soft sweeping kiss with lazy swipes of his tongue, which met with tender reciprocation.
Jeremy was eager and held Alan’s face between the palms of his hands. Did he think Alan was going to withdraw or change his mind? Not a fucking chance. Alan pushed his fingers through Jeremy’s hair and played with the long strands. He must have touched Jeremy’s hair dozens of times – yanked on it when they were busting each other’s chops or pushed it out of his face when he looked over Jeremy’s shoulder at sheet music. Had Jeremy’s hair been this silken? Had it always held an erotic aroma? Goosebumps rose on Alan’s arms and ran down his legs. “Fuck. I want you,” he whispered against Jeremy’s lips.
Jeremy stiffened and his warm brown eyes grew wary. “I don’t want you to do anything you might regret. Are you drunk?”
“Not anymore.” The kiss had burned all the alcohol from Alan’s bloodstream. Clarity had never been more prevalent. Never had he been surer of anything. “I know what I’m doing. I know what I want. I’ve been thinking about this more and more since that night. The night you gave me the accidental blowjob.”
A laugh burst from Jeremy’s throat. “The accidental blowjob? That’s a great name for a song.”
Alan chuckled. “You’re an asshole.” The short bout of laughter they shared abruptly trickled off. An intense gaze sizzled between them, and they both reached for one another at the same time. They tugged on each other’s necks, their kiss hot and all consuming. Impatient, Alan ran his hands up and down the hard muscles of Jeremy’s back. He pulled at the hem of Jeremy’s shirt, and Jeremy quickly discarded it. Alan’s eyes washed over his best friend. It was as if he was seeing Jeremy for the first time. Had his hair always been this long? Did he always have those tight fucking washboard abs? Was that little dimple always in the corner of Jeremy’s cheek?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
