Diamond Ring by KD Casey

Author:KD Casey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2023-01-23T13:08:53+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

April

Jake

Alex hasn’t said anything for the past ten seconds. Possibly some of the longest seconds of Jake’s life. He’s blinking at Jake with that particular blink of his, studying the tabletop, the damp paper place mats, their uneaten meals.

If he says no, Jake hopes for a barked rejection like he might issue out on the mound. For Alex to be curt, dismissive. Anything but kind—because if Jake’s learned anything in the past ten years, it’s that a gradual descent hurts infinitely worse than a sudden drop.

He’s about to leave, when Alex stands, adding to the stack of bills on the table. “I already closed out at the bar.” Right, logistics, even if Jake’s heart is thumping hard, his mind torn between two competing foci: This is a bad idea. And louder: I’m going to do it anyway.

“C’mon,” Jake says.

They hustle out, Jake ignoring the bartender’s confused look. When they get outside, Jake fumbles his phone from his pocket and summons a rideshare that pings as three minutes away. A hundred and eighty seconds of Alex next to him, warming the cool night air. Jake only threw a couple pitches that day, but his hands ache, an empty sort of ache the exact dimensions of Alex’s shoulders. It’d be easy to step into his space, to feel his breadth, to kiss him and let Alex lay him across the nearest flat surface and not think about why they shouldn’t.

The car arrives, a compact sedan they fold themselves into, both in the back, Jake’s knees against the passenger’s seat in front of him. The driver grunts to confirm Jake’s name, headphones in her ears like she’s avoiding small talk, and Jake’s grateful they don’t have anything to do but sit in the quiet dark.

Even with traffic, it’s not a long drive. He watches the red taillights of the cars ahead of them and not Alex, whose thigh presses against his own. Who drops his hand on the interior of Jake’s knee.

“You were shaking your leg,” Alex says, low. A squeeze like a possession, like Alex might leave his fingerprints all over him. Jake shivers, something Alex must feel, because he’s gifted the sweep of Alex’s thumb over his kneecap, the molten look in his eyes.

Jake spent the last decade wanting what he can’t have—his life as it was meant to go, the fame, the accolades, a chance to erase the distance between what could have been and what is. Now all he wants is Alex’s teeth on his lips. To have Alex look at him the way he is now and never stop.

The car halts, a distracting squeak of brakes, then dispenses them on the sidewalk. Jake digs out his keys. It takes three tries to get them in the front door, Alex behind him, breath hot on Jake’s shoulders, the slow impossible drag of his thumb against under the drape of Jake’s shirt.

“Don’t,” Jake says, because if they start now, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to stop. That

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