Fit for the Job (15 page)

“I held my own for a long time. I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of driving me away. But eventually it became unbearable. So I went to the sergeant and told him what was happening. Know what he said to me?”

Jay shook his head.

“He said I’d just have to deal with the consequences of my actions.
My
actions.”

“Holy shit,” Jay said. “I can’t believe that!”

“Believe it,” Bodie said, draining his beer. “That’s when I left. I’m sure the guys patted themselves on the back when I did. Told themselves they’d won, taught me a lesson. But for me it was more about losing faith in the whole system.”

“I can see why,” Jay said. “But you said you liked it before this. No way of just going and joining another unit or something?”

Bodie shrugged. “I could have transferred of course, gone somewhere else and stayed in the military. But I didn’t want any part of it anymore. I’ve worked with great people in the army over the years, so I know most soldiers aren’t like that. But I was just...I don’t know. So
done
. Once I made the decision that was it. Done.”

“I understand. When you know, you know.” Jay ordered two more beers. They sat silently until the bartender delivered them. Finally he shifted in his stool and leaned closer to Bodie. “Did you ever talk to that guy Clive again, the one who’d been your boyfriend?”

“He wasn’t my boyfriend,” Bodie snapped. “It was just sex. And no, I had no contact after that.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Jay said. “My employment issues seem mild by comparison now.”

Bodie shrugged. “Betrayal is betrayal.”

Jay huffed, taking a sip of his beer. “Maybe. But no one ever shit in my gym bag.”

Halfway through their second beer, Bodie said he was tired, and wanted to leave. Jay tried not to be disappointed as he drove them back to the house. He felt like he’d kind of blown it. He’d taken Bodie out to try to cheer him up. Instead, he’d pried into his past, and seemed to have made him more miserable still. And Bodie’s story made him realize what a chasm there was between their lives. Bodie’s past was so much more hardcore, his problems more visceral. Jay had been moping around about the fitness center lobbing softballs at him, corporate wars fought behind closed office doors while coffee and donuts were served. Bodie had been dealing with bombs, both literal and figurative.

He’d been fooling himself. Why the hell would Bodie ever want him? He probably thought Jay was a joke. But he didn’t want to believe that. Because Bodie had been seriously flirting with him today. If Bodie thought Jay was a joke, then that was all just a way of toying with him. And after what he heard tonight, he didn’t think Bodie was that kind of guy.

When they parked up and got out of the car, Jay was surprised when Bodie strolled over to the guest house and sat down on the front porch, feet resting on the top step.

“You all right?” Jay asked.

Bodie nodded as he pulled out his hair tie and combed fingers through his shaggy locks. “Just hoping everyone in the house is asleep already. Not quite ready to go back over there yet.”

Jay climbed the stairs and sat down beside him. “Can’t say I blame you.”

“How are you doing, anyway?” Bodie asked, turning to look at him.

“Me?” Jay shrugged. “I’m good. Why?”

“You going to quit the job?”

Jay looked back at him, his body betraying him as his pulse began to speed at how close Bodie’s face was. “I don’t know.”

“I hope you don’t,” Bodie said softly, eyes glimmering in the darkness. “I really hope you don’t leave.”

Unable to help himself, Jay leaned in, pressing his lips against Bodie’s.

Bodie inhaled sharply, his body stiffening. His palm rested on Jay’s chest, gently pushing him back, away from him.

“Sorry,” Jay said, rejection and humiliation replacing his arousal.

Bodie stared back at him, his expression unreadable, palm still on Jay’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said again. “Please just forget I did that. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Bodie’s fingers suddenly tightened on Jay’s chest, gripping a handful of his shirt. “Yes, it does,” he said, and pulled Jay in, capturing his mouth.

Bodie’s kiss was gentle, but it caused a stampede of sensations in Jay’s body, horses let out of the gate and racing through his blood.

Releasing his grip on the shirt, Bodie’s hand drifted up and cupped the side of Jay’s face, tongue sliding between his lips.

Instantly hard, the beat of Jay’s heart kept time with the throb of his cock. Accepting the tongue in his mouth, Jay licked it, breath huffing out through his nose as he reached around Bodie’s back, pulling him closer.

Bodie groaned softly, his other hand coming up and threading through Jay’s hair. The taste of Bodie, the smell of him, the heat coming through his tee shirt...Jay couldn’t recall being as hungry for anything in his life.

While Jay held his passion back a bit, keeping his kiss gentle, he fought the urge to latch on, to bite into Bodie savagely in case the other man changed his mind and retreated. But he kept the pressure of his mouth soft, languid strokes tangling his tongue with Bodie’s, giving him the chance to pull back if he chose, but making perfectly clear he didn’t want this to end.

Bodie didn’t retreat. He kept kissing Jay, tongue probing almost cautiously deeper into his mouth, fingers stroking his cheek. In the prior fantasies he’d allowed himself, Jay had expected Bodie to be rough. But the gentleness of his kiss, the surprising tenderness of his touch, was somehow hotter than if Bodie’d just slammed him down and ravaged him.

The hand cupping Jay’s face dropped, then Bodie slid it under his arm and around his back, pulling Jay against his chest. The fingers of his other hand were still in Jay’s hair, and Bodie tugged it slightly as he tilted his head.

Then suddenly the kiss wasn’t so gentle anymore. Jay moaned in pleasure and encouragement when Bodie’s open mouth moved hard against his, beard stubble stinging his chin.

‘Time stood still’ wasn’t a term Jay ever understood until then, because the kissing seemed to go on and on. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d simply sat on a porch and made out with someone for ages, satisfied with the simple eroticism of another mouth, the intimacy of it as a soft, warm breeze caressed them. It continued for an eternity, tongues tasting and exploring, lips gliding. Confident now that Bodie’s enthusiasm matched his own, Jay relaxed into it, letting himself go, kissing the other man as passionately as he desired.

He wasn’t sure how long they made out there on the porch before they were both sweating, inhaling each other’s labored breath as their arousal reached a new level.

Only then did their hands begin to wander. Bodie’s touch was tentative, almost shy as his palm drifted slowly over Jay’s shoulder, then curved over his chest, feeling him through his shirt.

Jay kneaded the muscles in Bodie’s back while Bodie’s hand slid lower, reaching under Jay’s shirt. Jay’s stomach quivered as that slow, tentative touch drifted up over his bare ribs, palm gliding higher. Jay loved the aching slowness of it all, even as he grew sticky inside his underpants. This was bliss, and he felt no need to go galloping forward to cock grabbing, not caring if he came right there in his pants while Bodie’s fingers roamed around under his shirt, hardening his nipples to peaks with each brush across his chest.

Jay ate ravenously at Bodie’s mouth as his own hands glided under the man’s tee shirt, finally feeling those back muscles he’d been drooling over all week. Bodie’s skin was softer than velvet and fever hot, and Jay let his hands roam with abandon, gliding around to feel his bare chest.

Bodie broke the kiss so suddenly that Jay was left leaning forward, eyes closed, and he let out a low whimper at the loss of contact.

Sliding his hands out of Jay’s tee shirt, Bodie shifted and stood, and Jay looked up at him, stunned.
Is he leaving? No fucking way. Not
now
.

But Bodie knelt down on the step below, positioning himself between Jay’s legs. He didn’t meet Jay’s eyes, but watched his own hands as they glided over Jay’s bare knees, up his thighs, slipping under the hem of his shorts. Jay shivered.

Bodie let go of Jay’s legs and shuffled closer. He reached under Jay’s right leg, and lifting it up to his hip, eased him back onto the wooden porch, pressing down on top of him, between his open thighs.

Jay’s cock pulsed as the weight of Bodie pressed against his core. Bodie hiked Jay’s knee higher against his hip, then pushed his rock hard erection right against Jay’s balls. Jay gasped, and Bodie covered his open mouth with a kiss as his chest came down, pinning him.

God, this is amazing
. Jay swooned at the return of the delicious, now familiar flavor of Bodie’s mouth. Bodie’s soft hair feathered over his face. Jay reached up and threaded his hands through it, catching his finger on a dreadlock. He pulled Bodie’s face tighter against his, gnawing at his open mouth.

Bodie lathed his tongue rhythmically in and out of Jay’s mouth. They kissed like that for a time, Jay’s back pressed against the hard wood of the porch. Then Jay was inhaling Bodie’s breath as it came in harder pants. The palpable increase in the other man’s arousal heightened Jay’s own excitement, and he felt a deep satisfaction that he was responsible for the change in Bodie, that he could get him this worked up.

Bodie groaned and began pressing his crotch into Jay’s, body gliding between his legs, dry humping him. All the while he gripped the underside of Jay’s thigh, keeping his legs spread wide.

“Fuck.” The word left Jay in a breath of air into Bodie’s mouth. “We should go inside.”

Bodie slowed his movements. “I know,” he whispered. “But I’m torn.”

Jay’s brows pulled into a tight frown, his cock weeping with the weight of the solid man between his legs. “Fuck, Bodie,” he said. “Why...why are you torn?” He hissed when Bodie reached down and gripped his other leg, then tugged both of Jay’s knees up, giving him a tighter fit between his thighs.

“I’m torn,” Bodie said against Jay’s lips, “between wanting to go in the house and take your clothes off...” He thrust against Jay, and Jay had to bite his lip to avoid crying out, the hard denim of Bodie’s jeans a delicious friction through the soft canvas of his shorts. “And not wanting to let go of you long enough to do it.”

Jay shivered. “That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever heard. But I’m gonna come in my pants soon.”

Bodie chuckled. “Then I guess I better let you up.” He eased back off of Jay and stood. “Unlock the door.” Bodie adjusted his jeans, pulling on the fabric of his inner thigh, where his erection was clearly making him uncomfortable. “
Quickly,
” he said.

Jay didn’t need to be told twice. He unlocked the door, fumbling with the keys a few times before achieving success.

Once they were inside, he didn’t even get a chance to turn the lights on before Bodie was on him, pressing him against the wall, biting the tender flesh on the side of his neck. “Oh God,” Jay said, his head thumping back against the wall, spinning with the sensation. He hissed as Bodie’s open mouth glided teeth down his throat. “God,” he gasped again. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”

Bodie’s teeth retreated, soft lips and tongue trailing a line up the side of his neck, stopping at his ear. “I know what I’m doing to you,” Bodie whispered against his ear. “Biting your neck, like I wanted to do at the barbecue today.” He bit down hard on the tender flesh beneath Jay’s ear, making him squirm.

A new thrill ran through Jay, and it wasn’t just the delicious sensation of Bodie’s teeth on his neck.

...like I wanted to do at the barbecue today.

Jay wasn’t just a Band-Aid then, a last minute tonic for Bodie’s pain. Bodie had thought about this earlier...Bodie truly wanted him. The truth of that gave Jay a new confidence, and he grasped Bodie’s arms and flipped them around, pressing him to the wall, leaning against his muscular body. “If we’re making confessions,” Jay said, grinding his cock against Bodie’s, “I’ve been fantasizing about you stripping me down since day one.”

Bodie groaned and grabbed Jay’s ass, tugging him closer. “Take me to the bedroom. And I promise you’ll get your wish.”

Bodie followed Jay down the hallway and into the bedroom. When Jay took his wrist and began leading him toward the mattress, Bodie stopped. “Turn the light on,” he said. “I want to see you.”

Jay was overcome with sudden shyness, which was weird since he’d done that angry-striptease in the kitchen earlier. But it wasn’t his body he was shy about. It was more about having to meet Bodie’s eyes now that they’d crossed over into sexy land. He couldn’t remember a man ever making him nervous like this. But of course Bodie had kind of made him nervous from the start.

But he didn’t have time to resist, because Bodie had moved to the bedside table, and flicked on the small lamp there. He straightened up and grinned at Jay. “Better.”

As Bodie walked toward him, Jay let out a small laugh, almost a giggle.

“What,” Bodie grasped Jay’s shoulders and pulled him closer, “is so funny? Is my hair a mess?”

“Yes,” Jay said. “But I think the laugh is nerves.”

Bodie grinned, his gaze flicking from Jay’s eyes to his lips and back again. “You had the balls to kiss me on the porch, and
you’re
nervous?”

“I’m always a little nervous around you,” he said softly. His heart thudded as he stared back at Bodie, noting his lips were a bit swollen from all the kissing.

Bodie’s hands drifted down Jay’s arms. “Is it because...” He lifted Jay’s arms out to his sides. “I have to search you so often?” His touch drifted from Jay’s wrists back to his underarms, then down the sides of his body.

Jay’s breath shuddered. “Could be.”

“Or is it because...” Bodie’s hands drifted lower. Stopping on Jay’s hips, his thumbs made little circles at the edge of his crotch. “Or is it because you like it too much when I search you?”

Jay’s eyes closed and he let out a soft chuckle, the sensations of Bodie’s thumbs making his cock spring back to full boner. “Could be that, too.”

Hooking his fingers at the waist of Jay’s shorts, Bodie tugged him closer and kissed him. Jay let out a sigh as he melted into it, his nerves instantly dissipating. Kissing Bodie felt right, natural, like something he’d gone without for far too long.