Tempting Him by Isabel Lucero
39
Jay callsme around noon on Saturday and gives me the address to where he’s staying, so I pick him up, and together we drive to a sandwich and salad shop, properly titled S & S. There, we pick up a couple to-go salads, club sandwiches, and fruit cups. We take our food along with a couple bottled drinks with us back to the car, and I drive out to Lake Renap upon his insistence.
“It’s the nicest park here,” he says. “They have picnic tables and a walking trail that circles the entire lake.”
We take our food to one of the empty tables and enjoy our park lunch date under the hot summer sun.
“How’s work?” I ask him.
He grins. “I’m enjoying it. It was a smooth transition from intern to employee. My new boss is not nearly as attractive as my last one.”
With a smile, I say, “Technically, I’m still your boss.”
“Should I call you sir?”
I arch a brow. “If you want to.”
He snickers, digging into his salad. “How’s the other branch?”
“It’s doing fine. I’m thinking of appointing someone to take my place.”
“What?” he exclaims.
“It’ll still be my company, but I can get someone to act as CEO in my absence.”
“Absence?”
I smirk at him. “Right. If I were to leave Chicago.”
“You’d leave…” He trails off while his thoughts spin in his brain. “You’re thinking of leaving Chicago and stepping down as CEO to be here? With me?”
“It’s an hour and a half flight. I can go between here and there pretty easily, and the company is still my main focus, but there are tons of qualified CEOs.”
“Does that mean you’d take your job back here?”
I shake my head. “No. Luther will remain where he is. Of course, I’ll be aware of everything, but I can work from home. I’ve spent a long time working myself to the bone, needing to be involved in every single aspect, but I can focus on the bigger things while the CEO works on everything else. I’m not losing money.”
He chuckles. “Right. I bet not. So, you’re moving here?”
I nod, watching him carefully. “We can’t have a proper chance if I don’t, and I wouldn’t ask you to move to Chicago when you’re just starting out.”
“Wow. Alek, that’s incredibly selfless.”
“It’s about time, right?”
He makes a face. “So, I guess that will solve one problem, but we still have another.”
I pin my lips together and nod. “How do you feel about that? Possibly ruining your relationship with your father?”
“If he can’t love me because of who I choose to be with, then that’s on him, right? He can’t think I’d pick my partner based on how he feels about it.” He takes a drink of his lemonade before capping the bottle and putting it down. “Plus, we’ve been fine. There've been many phone calls and FaceTime conversations with him and my mom, and everything seems to be normal. He isn’t acting pissed at me anymore. Maybe he’s calmed down.”
“We’ll need to talk to him.”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“Until then, let’s talk about other things,” he says with a smile. “I move into my own apartment in a couple weeks.”
“That’s good. Your first time living alone, right?”
“Yeah, I’m probably gonna hate it. I enjoyed the noise in the frat house. I like knowing someone is always around. There’s always someone to talk to. The silence bothers me, but I gotta grow up, right?” he says with a chuckle.
Once we finish our meal and throw our trash away, I grab his hand in mine and we walk along the trail, enjoying the shade from the large trees that surround us.
Jay looks at our joined hands and smiles, glancing up at me. “You out?”
I shrug. “I guess so. I don’t know many people here, so it’s not like I’ve had to tell anyone. Luther already knows.”
“He does?”
“Yeah. I didn’t get the chance to tell you, but he seemed to be onto us. He confronted me about it.”
Jay hisses. “Was he pissed?”
“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “He was quite supportive.”
“Wow, that’s crazy.”
“I never felt the need to have a coming out moment because I was never with anyone for a long time, or in public. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to be in an actual relationship with a man, so it wasn’t necessary. But I want you to know that I really like you and I’m not trying to keep what we do behind closed doors anymore.”
He smiles, blissfully happy, and leans over and kisses my neck like he used to. “Therapy for the win.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I’ll have to find a new one here, or maybe mine in Chicago will allow me to have sessions with her over Zoom. She already knows all my baggage and history.”
“I’m really proud of you, you know? A lot of people are afraid to go to therapy, but you seem to be getting a lot out of it.”
“I don’t think mental health should be a taboo topic. We all deal with our own issues, and though some might be more serious than others, I think it’s nice to be able to have a non-judgmental person listen to you and offer you advice and help.”
“I agree.”
“I don’t know when it happened, but I think it was within our last month together that I realized I was starting to form attachments to you. I wanted more, but I held back for several reasons, and I hate myself for that. However, the phrase, absence makes the heart grow fonder seems to be true. Our separation really helped me realize just how much I enjoyed our time together. Sometimes you don’t know until you don’t have it anymore.”
“God,” he says with glee, a huge smile in place, “I didn’t know you had this whole other side to you.” He stops walking, standing in front of me and placing his hands on my hips. “And as much as I’m enjoying it, I still hope my bossy, demanding Alek is still in there, because I think I really liked that side, too.” He bites his lip as he watches me.
I circle his wrist with my fingers and tug him off the trail and up against a nearby tree with a thick trunk that’ll hide us from prying eyes. I pin my hips against his as my thumb brushes against his soft lips before I push it between them.
“Suck it.”
He does, twirling his tongue around my digit. “Mm.”
“Just because I can admit my feelings for you doesn’t mean I don’t want to force you to your knees and shove my cock between your lips. You’ve always looked so good with my dick in your mouth,” I say with a smirk.
He moans, dragging his teeth against my thumb as he pulls off. “You still owe me a balcony fuck.”
“I owe you a lot,” I admit. With my hand moving to his growing erection, I lean in and kiss the spot below his earlobe before I whisper, “I can’t wait to find out what you taste like.”
“Oh fuck,” he groans.
* * *
After we leave the lake,I take Jay to a movie and then we eat dinner before I drop him back off at his friends’ house. I see the disappointment in his face when I don’t invite him to my hotel.
“I want you as much as you want me,” I tell him while we’re parked outside the house. “I just don’t want to do things the way we did last time. Let me woo you. Date you. I’ve never done it before and you deserve it more than anyone.”
He can’t help but smile. “Well, when you say it that way.”
I lean across the console and grab his face, kissing him. I let my lips linger and barely touch my tongue to the seam of his lips before giving him another peck. “FaceTime me later.”
“Is that a demand?”
“Yes. Be in your bed when you do.”
He bites his lip. “Okay.”
“Good. Now go.”
“Yes, sir,” he teases before stepping out of the car and strutting to the front door.
