Page 31 of Fire
Toby huffed out a laugh. “Who says I was lying?”
“Uh-huh.” Jake dipped his head to kiss him, and Toby met him with a hum in his throat. His arms circled Jake’s back, pulling him tight.
They made out, slow and easy, for a long moment before it occurred to Jake to put down the car keys. Tugging Toby with him, he backed up to the dinette table to drop them, where they promptly fell off the edge.
Toby pulled at his jacket sleeves, and a moment later it had fallen onto the chair. Then Toby’s fingers slid lightly along Jake’s neck before curving with more pressure onto his shoulder, and Jake groaned.
They had come so far. Toby hadreallygotten into making out, and Jake could’ve burst from pride and purereliefthat Toby could—most of the time—handle feeling aroused without triggering himself.
More than anything, he wanted Toby to be okay, even if it wasn’t with him. He’d faced that truth a few brutal nights when Toby had cried and couldn’t be touched.
He’d always tried to be careful, at least after he got his head out of his ass in those early days. But that had become even more critical after Toby had admitted what had happened in the camp. Sure, Jake had guessed, and supposed, and talked to Roger about it, but that was different from being trusted with Toby’s vulnerabilities. Jake would protect this one (and every damn one after) with his life.
Jake never, ever took physical contact with Toby for granted now. Every time Toby touched him, kissed him, wanted his body against Jake’s was the best moment of his life.
A moment later, the backs of Jake’s knees hit the bed, and they both tumbled backward onto the mattress. The kiss continued, unhurried, as they lay side by side. Then Toby flexed his grip around Jake’s hips and worked his knee in between Jake’s.
Fuck. Jake was about to have a growing problem on his hands, which he could live with, only it might not be where Toby wanted this to go tonight.
But before he could pull back, Toby slid in closer, notching his thigh in between Jake’s. He pressed higher, and Jake’s brain whited out just as Toby groaned.
“Boxers?” Toby asked, and Jake nodded as he fumbled with his jeans, kicking them off. Toby’s followed an instant later, and they pulled closer again, now skin to skin below their boxers and T-shirts. Jake hissed, sliding one hand down the back of Toby’s thigh.
Toby notched their hips together again, and he was just as hard as Jake, holy shit.
“This okay with you, tiger?” Jake asked anyway, breathing against Toby’s lips in between kisses.
“Yes.” Toby pressed in harder, moving against him, two beautiful aches separated by thin cloth. “Just you.”
Jake moaned at that. His fingers tentatively touched the top of Toby’s ass, and Toby rocked into him harder. “Yes,” he said again, and Jake felt the sweet curve of him, squeezing and gripping with just the right amount of pressure to make this damn sweet for them both.
Toby’s movements became jerkier, more urgent, and Jake kissed him harder, licking into his mouth, letting him ride through the shuddering orgasm. Jake followed him a moment later, and everything around him wasToby, the strength and surety of him under Jake’s hands.
“Happy birthday, tiger,” Jake murmured later, when their breaths had slowed. They ought to clean up, but neither of them had moved yet.
Toby sighed, the sound pleased and content, his hand stroking Jake’s lower back. “I should turn eighteen every day.”
“Why not? Every day’s your birthday, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll get started on the IDs tomorrow, have a nice stack of them handy going forward.”
Toby laughed against his cheek. “You’re ridiculous. I love you.”
“Sure, but not as much as I love you.” Jake kissed him again, squeezing his waist, and Toby murmured something happy and unintelligible back.
After a moment, Jake pulled back just enough to meet Toby’s hazel eyes. “Hey, do you want to go back and do the ride again tomorrow? You didn’t get to look around much today.”
Toby rolled his eyes. “I got to look plenty. And this is the only ride I’m interested in.” He ground his hips against Jake’s again, and Jake’s vision whited out.
“Holy shit, babe, are you trying to kill me?”
Toby just laughed again, and it was quite possibly their most perfect day yet.
7
Toby was tenacious, stubborn, and incredibly focused. Jake knew that. He admired those qualities in Toby, he seriously did. Sometimes the way Toby attacked a problem left Jake in awe—and sometimes left him scared shitless that this time, Toby was throwing himself at a beast that he couldn’t take down. So far, against monsters, his studies, and every other obstacle, Toby had always come out on top. If Jake had to rank the top three reasons why he was honest-to-God in love with Toby, one of them would be Toby’s capacity to latch onto a problem and fight it until it was salted, burned, and in its grave.
He just wished that this particular topic wasn’t something that Toby had targeted with that same laser focus and unremitting force.
“This Thursday we should do it,” Toby said, eyes locked on the newspaper spread out over the table in the motel’s breakfast room. They were pretty sure about what was causing the unnatural deaths of middle-aged men with fairly exotic porn subscriptions, but Toby still checked the local paper every morning to make sure that there were no new deaths, which would play merry hell with their pattern. “The job will be done, we’ll still have the hotel room, hospital’s nearby, and occupancy here is pretty low, so I don’t think we’ll have to worry about anyone getting concerned and interrupting. It’s perfect.” He circled a name in the obits with more force than necessary, and Jake barely stopped himself from growling.
