Try (Temptation Series) (13 page)

“Hot. It’s so hot in my palm—and throbbing. I don’t think I’ve ever been this fucking hard in my life.”

“Jesus, Tate,” Logan cursed. “What else? What do you look like?”

“You mean, my cock?”

“Yes. You cut, uncut? Veiny, long? Describe it to me.”

Well, that was something Tate had never done, but eager to keep Logan talking, and for him to continue feeling this way, Tate did as asked.

“Cut, and I’d say average size, lo—”

“Don’t be a pussy, Tate. Give me an approximate length.”

Tate laughed, barely, at Logan’s put-out tone.

“Okay. I’d guess approximately seven inches, maybe a little more.”

“Fuck, fuck—
fuck
.”

Liking the strain he’d heard behind each cursed word, Tate really started to work his length. Logan’s breathing became heavier in his ear, and suddenly, Tate couldn’t shut his damn mouth.

“It feels like I could fuck for hours, I’m so turned-on. I swear, every time you groan or curse in my ear, it makes me even harder, if that’s physically possible.”

Logan’s breath rushed out and into the phone, sliding through Tate’s ear, and he could have sworn it was like the man was lying in the bed beside him.

“It’s insane how slick my cock is,” Tate muttered absently as he spread pre-cum over the swollen head. “I’m so close to coming. I don’t think I can stop myself.”

Finally, Logan seemed to find his tongue. “Then, stop fucking teasing me and come. I’m about to, and I want to hear you when I do.”

As though Tate had been waiting for permission, he clamped his fist around his agitated shaft and listened to the huffed groan at the other end of the phone as though Logan had finally given himself permission, too.

Like two marathon runners sprinting toward the finish line, there was nothing but gasping breaths, grunts of mutual pleasure, and right when Tate thought he couldn’t feel any fucking better, he heard Logan shout out his name, and that was it. With a snap of his hips, Tate pushed up and moaned loudly as he came all over his taut stomach in a rush unlike any he’d felt for years.

Breathing harshly, Tate looked down at the sticky mess he’d made as everything came crashing in on him. He’d just had phone sex…with Logan…and he fucking loved it. His right hand was still holding the cell to his ear, and Tate could hear similar breathing to his own through the line.

“You alive?” Tate didn’t know what else to say. He had no idea what guys said to one another after this sort of shit.

“I think so. Holy shit, Tate.”

Tate didn’t know why, but the awe in those three words made him proud. “Yeah?”

“
Hell
yeah.” After some movement on his end, Logan asked, “You?”

“Yeah.” That was as much as Tate could admit, and then he laughed. “Definitely, yes.”

“And? Feel better?”

Tate could hear the smug tone, but he decided to finally give the guy a break. “I feel fucking fantastic.”

The satisfied sound coming through the phone made Tate happy that he’d told the truth.

“Tate?” Logan asked of him.

“Yes?”

“It’s going to be even better in person.”

As Tate swallowed, he was aware, for the first time, of his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.

“It can’t be at the bar.”

Logan laughed loudly, and Tate actually looked around his empty room as though he’d been caught jerking off.

“Well, I wasn’t thinking of doing
this
at the bar. Kind of unhygienic.”

Tate wasn’t so sure. He knew Logan liked taking opportunities whenever he could get them, and Tate needed to be crystal clear that this, whatever
this
was going to be, needed to remain separate from work.

“Okay. Well, you need to leave me alone at work if you want me to—”

“To?” Logan urged.

“To
try
this—in person.”

This time, instead of the silence coming from Tate’s end, Logan seemed to be waiting for him.

“That is what you want, right?” Tate started to slightly panic, thinking that maybe he’d misread everything.

“Are you messing with me, Tate?” Logan demanded, voice serious, tone flat.

“No,” he answered and quickly added, “I don’t think so. I need to know what this is, whatever it is, and the only way I am going to do that is to do what you said, and try it out.”

“Wow.”

Tate felt his chest shake as a laugh came free. “I’ve shocked you?”

“You’ve almost killed me—twice tonight.”

Tate licked his lips. “I want to talk to you about this first though, somewhere private. I have questions and things I need to know before—”

“Yeah, okay, whatever. You just say when.”

Tate thought about it for a moment and decided he wanted some time to think this all through before he went ahead with it.

“How about Sunday night? I can be there by nine?”

There was a pause before Logan’s voice came through from the other end. “Okay. And until then?”

“Until then, let me think about this some more.”

“What if you change your mind?”

This time, Tate felt a genuine smile hit his lips as he told Logan sincerely, “I won’t change my mind about meeting up with you.”

“But maybe about the other?”

Tate couldn’t make any promises, so he decided to be candid. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But Sunday works best for me.”

Logan let out a long sigh. “Okay. Sunday, it is.”

Just before Tate was about to say good night, he requested one last thing. “Oh, and Logan?”

“Yes?”

“Keep your zipper closed until then, huh?”

Logan groaned. “Okay, but I won’t be held responsible for what happens to it on Sunday.”

Tate decided to end with a tease—
why the hell not at this stage?
“No. I will be.”

Chapter Nine

Sunday morning, Tate was at church from nine until approximately ten thirty. By noon, he was seated at his mother’s kitchen table right alongside his sister, Jill, and her husband, Sam, for lunch until two thirty. It wasn’t as though he was consciously watching the clock, but he couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away from it.

It was around that time he excused himself and rode home to sit in his crappy apartment and further contemplate everything he’d been thinking about since he woke up this morning.

Now, here it was, Sunday night, and he was standing in front of Logan’s condo door after traveling up the elevator, at exactly nine fifteen.

Tate had
never
been so aware of a timeline in his life, but as he stood twenty-two stories high, he tightened his fingers around his motorcycle helmet and counted back from thirty.

For the last couple of days, Tate had thought about nothing except what would happen right here, this minute—and now that the time had come, he still had no idea what that was going to be.

Tate was about to lift his hand to knock on the door when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Shuffling the helmet to his other hand, he pushed his left into his jeans and pulled out the cell. A smirk crossed his mouth at the name currently flashing on his screen.
Logan
—whose personal number he now had, as of a day ago.

Bringing it to his ear, Tate answered, “Impatient much?”

“I buzzed you up over ten minutes ago. I’m just making sure the elevator didn’t get stuck.”

“It didn’t.”

There was a pause that didn’t help Tate with his indecision.

Then, Logan asked, “Where are you, Tate?”

Tate bumped the helmet against his thigh. “Standing at your door.”

He could hear shuffling through the phone and presumed Logan was moving closer to open it.

“And how does it look from out there? I always thought it was pretty boring—cream paint, doorknob, standard black peephole to look at strange men lurking in front of my place.”

Tate felt the corner of his mouth tilt up. “I’m not lurking.”

“But you’ve been standing there for the last—”

“Five minutes,” Tate supplied.

“Ah. And?”

Closing his eyes, Tate tried to think of a response.

“You sure you’re ready for me to open the door, Tate?”

Biting his lip, Tate nodded silently, hearing the underlying message in Logan’s words, and he was surprised when Logan murmured, “Good thing for the peephole.”

As the phone disconnected, Tate heard a chain rattle and a deadbolt turn. When the door finally opened, he knew he was standing face-to-face with a man who was about to change his entire life.

* * *

Logan didn’t know what was different about Tate, but as he stood a few feet away, he recognized a change. Maybe it was the direct way Tate was looking him in the eye instead of making an excuse to turn from him, or maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t scowling.

Moving back, so the door was wide-open, Logan gestured for Tate to come inside. As Tate went to move by him, Logan reached out and touched the arm of his leather jacket. Tate stopped and looked down at the hand on his arm before raising his gaze to meet Logan’s. And that, right there, was the difference
—
the heat
.

Tate’s focused on his lips, and Logan swore his mouth became dry in an instant from the scorching once-over Tate gave him.

Clearing his throat, Logan let go of his arm. “So, you found the place okay?” he asked as casually as he could.

Tate continued moving down the hall and into the living area where Logan had a large flat-screen mounted on the wall above a marble fireplace. He stopped, looked around the space, and then glanced back over his shoulder to where Logan had moved to lean up against the wall.

“Yeah, it wasn’t hard at all.”

Don’t make a joke,
Logan told himself. He really wanted this to go the right way. He wasn’t sure what to expect, and he had no clue what Tate had finally decided. So, until it was obvious one way or the other, Logan was going to play it cool and try
not
to be the pushy asshole he’d been accused of.

Well, that was the plan until Tate bent down to place his helmet on the floor, and his jeans stretched across his ass. Logan let his gaze wander down below the black leather of Tate’s jacket, and he imagined sliding his hands into the snug pockets and cupping his—

“You looking at my ass?” Tate stood and turned around.

Logan raised a brow and freely admitted, “Yep.”

“And?”

Pushing off the wall, Logan crossed his arms over his chest, figuring now was the time to get everything out in the open. “From the first time we met, I thought it was fucking impressive. Nothing has changed.”

* * *

Tate wasn’t sure if the comment should upset or disturb him, but as he looked at the man staring him down, he decided that it was neither. In fact, it’d had the opposite effect. It made his temperature spike.

Logan looked good as he stood across the room from him with his arms crossed.

He definitely has a different build than me.
Tate took a moment to really study the man without the fear of anyone catching him.

He was dressed as casually as Tate had ever seen him. Barefoot, Logan had on some loose, gray track pants and a black T-shirt that seemed molded to all his muscles, and the guy had some serious muscles under those suits.

He definitely works out to get those.

Tate acknowledged Logan’s shoulders and incredibly built biceps, and he had to admit, they were fucking awe-inspiring, not to mention sexy.

Wow, who knew that would flip my switch?

“Done looking?” Logan’s voice questioned in a way that told Tate he was enjoying being the object under scrutiny.

Tate didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he took his time finishing his one-stop visual feast before finally shrugging and pushing his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Yep.”

“That’s it? No details?”

Yeah, see how that feels.
Tate tilted his head to the couch. “Mind if I sit?”

He watched Logan’s eyes narrow as he shook his head. Moving around to the recliner, to the right of the loveseat, Tate sat and crossed his legs at the ankles as Logan walked toward the opposite end of the double.

“Would you like a drink?”

“Ah, the irony. You sure I shouldn’t be in the kitchen, mixing you one?”

Logan pointed to where he was seated. “No, you stay right there. I’ll serve you tonight.”

The remark was meant innocently—probably for the first time in Logan’s life. Tate, however, twisted it in his own mind as he began thinking of all the ways Logan might want to serve him. He felt the blood rushing down between his thighs, and his cock started to ache from the ideas now flashing through his head. Tate also discovered that the more he observed the muscles shifting across Logan’s back, the more turned-on he became.

Logan looked back and caught him looking, and the cautious but interested expression on his face told Tate that Logan knew he was being watched.

“You never said. Drink?”

Tate shook his head. “Just water, thanks.”

“Seriously?” Logan turned to fully face him from behind the kitchen counter.

Tate ran a hand up and through his hair, and Logan’s eyes shifted to the gesture.

“I want a clear head.” Tate appreciated the fact that Logan didn’t push the issue.

When Logan was back in the living room, he made his way between the couch and the wooden coffee table until he was directly in front of Tate, looking down with two drinks in his hands.

Slowly, Logan leaned down toward him, and Tate thought for a full overwhelming moment that he was going to hyperventilate, but at the last second, Logan’s mouth tipped up into a grin.

Tate focused in on that full bottom lip, fixating on it, as Logan placed his water on the table next to the couch. Thinking the man was about to move away, Tate reached out and snagged Logan’s free arm.

“Your eyes…”

“Yes?”

Tate tilted his head to the side. “They’re so fucking blue.”

* * *

 Logan convinced himself that the way Tate was looking at him was due to nerves and curiosity. It wasn’t because Tate was about to attack him.