Page 53 of Hard Check
“Full Pull again?”
“Full Pull’s fine.”
Leo called it in, pacing the small kitchen with the phone between his ear and his shoulder, gesturing at no one. His hair was still wrecked from the lake. He looked relaxed in a way Dawson hadn’t seen before, his guard all the way down, and Dawson couldn’t stop watching him.
Leo hung up. “Twenty minutes.” He set the phone on the counter and turned to Dawson, and the distance between them was three feet and closing.
“Twenty minutes,” Dawson said.
“Think we can behave ourselves for twenty minutes?”
“Probably not.”
Leo leaned against the opposite counter with his arms crossed, watching Dawson with an expression that was half dare, half invitation. The kitchen was small. The apartment was warm. And Dawson had spent the entire drive back thinking about what Leo’s skin felt like under his hands. He was done thinking about it.
He crossed the kitchen in two steps and kissed him. Leo’s hands came up to Dawson’s face, and he kissed him back just as hard, and the twenty minutes didn’t stand a chance.
Leo walked him backward out of the kitchen without breaking the kiss, one hand fisted in Dawson’s shirt, steering him toward the couch. The back of Dawson’s knees hit the cushion and Leo pushed him down and climbed into his lap, knees on either side of Dawson’s hips, and the weight of him settled there. Dawson’s hands gripped Leo’s waist tightly.
Leo broke the kiss long enough to pull his own shirt over his head. Then his hands were under Dawson’s shirt, pushing it up.
“Off.” Leo’s voice had dropped and gone rough, and when it sounded like that, Dawson would have done anything he asked. The shirt was over his head and gone before he’d finished thinking about it.
Leo’s eyes dropped to his chest, his stomach, and his breath came out slow. His hands followed his eyes, fingers tracing Dawson’s sternum, his ribs, the line of hair below his navel. Dawson’s muscles twitched under the touch, and Leo grinned, sharp and knowing.
“God, Dawson. You have no idea what you look like right now.”
Dawson didn’t have words for this. Leo always would, and Dawson was starting to understand that Leo’s voice in his earwould be the thing that wrecked him every single time. He answered the only way he knew how, by pulling Leo’s hips down against his and kissing his throat.
“Right there.” Leo tipped his head back. “Yeah, right—fuck.” His hand fisted in Dawson’s hair and he rolled his hips. Dawson could feel how hard he was, and his grip on Leo’s waist tightened until his knuckles ached.
“Tell me what you want.” It came out rough and low against Leo’s skin, and he didn’t know where it came from except that Leo’s body was asking and Dawson wanted to give him everything.
“Your hands. Everywhere. Don’t stop touching me.”
Leo’s hands went to Dawson’s belt, getting it open with a speed that made his head spin. Then Leo’s hand was on him. Dawson’s head dropped back against the couch and he stopped breathing.
“Look at me.” Dawson opened his eyes. Leo was watching his face, dark-eyed, one hand braced on the couch behind Dawson’s head, the other making it impossible to think. “There you go.”
Dawson reached for him, got Leo’s belt open, got his hand where Leo wanted it, and the sound Leo made against his throat was the best thing Dawson had ever heard. They pressed into each other, foreheads together, breathing hard, Leo still talking, telling him exactly how good it felt. Dawson gripped the back of Leo’s neck, held on, and made a sound he didn’t recognize as his own.
“Okay?” Leo’s voice was rough.
“Yeah.” It came out broken. “Yeah.”
They stayed like that, Leo in his lap, Dawson’s face pressed into Leo’s neck. He could feel Leo’s heart slamming against his own chest. After a while, Leo’s arms came around his shoulders and neither of them moved. The apartment was quiet.
“You’re shaking,” Leo said. Low. Careful.
Dawson didn’t trust his voice. He tightened his hold on Leo’s waist instead.
Leo’s hand settled on the back of his head. Held him there. Didn’t ask again.
The doorbell rang. Neither of them moved.
“That’s the pizza,” Leo said.
“I know.”
