Chad lifted his head, his lips wet and swollen. “Bet I can beat you there.”
Owen narrowed his eyes. “If you don’t obey the speed limit and all traffic laws, you won’t be blowing anything.”
Chad wrinkled his nose. “You’re no fun.”
Owen held Chad’s head in both hands. “I care, Chad. I care a lot. Now drive safely, okay?”
Chad’s smirk fell from his lips. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Okay, O. I’ll drive safe.”
Owen glanced in his rearview mirror at the motorcycle behind him. Chad was following Owen to his apartment, and the guy hadn’t once done anything daring or speedy or illegal.
He was driving safely. Like Owen had asked. And he wanted another shot. Owen gripped the steering wheel and tried not to grin as he thought about getting Chad under him again. Beside him. He wanted the whole deal—reading on the couch while Chad worked on his laptop, fights over what was for dinner, who stole the covers.
He hoped that was what Chad wanted, too.
Owen parked and waited for Chad to park beside him. They walked silently to Owen’s front door, which he opened, and he gestured for Chad to walk in ahead of him. Chad did, with his helmet dangling from his fingers, neck craning, eyes wide as he took in Owen’s apartment.
He made a slow circle and scratched his head. “Your place is pretty boss, O.”
Owen stood awkwardly in front of his door. “Thanks.”
Chad set his helmet down on a table in the foyer then took his leather jacket off, along with the harness. He dropped it all on the table and stood there, shirtless, his hands in his pockets. Owen had taken off his harness in the car and pulled on a T-shirt.
He felt overdressed.
He wanted to pull Chad into his arms, rub his hands all over that skin, but there was still this barrier between them, a barrier that could only be brought down by the truth.
“Tell me about the job at the Peach Pit,” he said.
Chad stared at the floor. “I wanted to go back to school. But it costs money, you know?” He lifted his head. Owen nodded. “So I asked my boss at Blue Moon if I could pick up extra shifts or something, and he said I could work a night at the Peach Pit. I told him I’d consider it and that was before”—he waved a hand between the two of them—“you know.”
“Okay…”
“And then we talked about me going back to school, and you seemed so stoked about it, and I wanted to… Fuck, it’s so dumb, but I didn’t want to let you down. And then I felt all this pressure, and the money thing freaked me out. So I thought I’d work one night at the Pit. I didn’t want it to be this big discussion between us, because we were still so new. I figured if it became steady, I’d come clean. And I know it seems so stupid now, but…” Chad shrugged. “I wanted to do this on my own. I didn’t want you to resent that you had this boyfriend who needed your help to get a degree. I wanted to be goddamn mature about it. And instead I was immature and stubborn.”
“Chad, I wouldn’t have resented you,” Owen said.
“Yeah, well, I can’t change what I did now. And while I was there, I was freaking out the whole time, wondering what you’d think. Which made me pissed off that I cared, and that was when it kinda hit me while I was holding a tray of drinks made by a girl named Candy that I was into you. Crazy into you.”
Owen’s breath hitched at the raw honesty of the other man’s words. “Chad—”
“And so then when I saw you there with that guy, I overreacted. I was mad at you for making me care so much about you.”
Owen was still stuck on the previous sentence. “You’re really into me?”
Chad shoved his shoulder. “Shut up, you know I am. No one ever gets a rise out of me like you do.”
“I’m into you, too. You know?”
Chad looked at him from under his lashes. “Of course you are. I’m awesome.”
It was Owen’s turn to shove Chad. “I want you to know I wasn’t judging you for the job. I was angry you didn’t tell me. I know we’d only just been a thing for a couple of days, but I felt like you should have told me.”
Chad nodded. “I should have. I knew it was wrong, in my gut. Anyway, I’m not going to do it anymore. It wasn’t my favorite thing.” He looked away then eyed Owen with a small smile on his lips. “I don’t want anyone looking at me but you.”
Owen swallowed, his throat suddenly dry at the lust in Chad’s eyes. “I don’t want anyone looking at you but me. Call me a possessive bastard.”
“Possessive bastard.”