Levi was surveying the bar to see if there was any place for the two of them to sit. “I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“That’s cool, talking is overrated. Fucking on the other hand—”
Levi reached up and slapped a hand over Angelo’s mouth, stifling anything else from spilling out from between those thick, pouty lips. The crowd parted as a large group of diners headed for the dining room because their table was ready. Levi froze, staring wide-eyed at Jake and Victor who were seated at a table right in front of them. They both stared up at Levi and Angelo. Jake was definitely surprised while Victor appeared to be amused.
Angelo mumbled something and Levi turned to see he was still standing there with his hand over Angelo’s mouth.
Once the initial shock had worn off, Jake looked less than excited to see them. “Hello.”
Levi slowly removed his hand from Angelo’s mouth, faux laughing as he smacked Angelo playfully on the cheek before shoving his hand into his pants’ pocket.
“Hello,” Angelo said, grinning at Jake and Victor.
“Honey, you remember Jake, right?” Levi said, feeling the sweat collect under his arms.
“I do,” Angelo said, taking a few steps over and shaking Jake’s hand, then Victor’s once Jake introduced them.
“Waiting for a table.” Levi shrugged, unsure what to say once the introductions were out of the way.
“I assumed as much,” Jake said, dryly.
“You should join us.” Victor motioned toward the two empty chairs at their table.
“Thanks, that would be great,” Angelo said, preventing Levi from declining the invite. He began removing his coat, stopping long enough to pull out a chair for Levi. “Take a load off, baby.”
Levi was smiling while shooting hate-daggers from his eyes at Angelo. Reluctantly he began removing his coat, which Angelo jumped in to help him out of.
“He’s so attentive,” Levi said, faux-laughing again as he sat down.
“I like taking care of my man.” Angelo winked at Jake and Victor.
Levi desperately grabbed for the cocktail waitress as she passed by the table and ordered a vodka tonic for himself. Angelo asked for Heineken, which is what Jake was drinking and Victor ordered them another round.
“Nice seeing you again, Victor,” Levi said, praying that sounded somewhat earnest.
“You as well.” Victor smiled, appearing mildly confused. “Apologies, but where did we meet again?”
“You met at Julia’s a few weeks ago,” Jake reminded him.
Why bother taking the time to remember the help?
Victor smacked his hand against the tabletop. “The party planner!”
“That’s me,” Levi said, scrunching up his face like he found Victor adorable.
“He’d just flown back into town that morning,” Jake said, as if having read Levi’s judgey little mind.
Victor took a sip from his wine glass. “I was a bit jet lagged.”
“He’s been traveling a lot lately.” Jake glared at his boyfriend.
“He’s mad because I won’t be around for Thanksgiving this year,” Victor whispered, trying to play it off like Jake was being the unreasonable party. “Business meeting in Japan, which I unfortunately can’t reschedule.”
Jake looked unamused and Levi got the sense they’d been quarreling. Levi also felt like Victor might be uncomfortable discussing the topic which is what drove the man to awkwardly blurt everything out there.
“Since someone won’t take time away from work to join me for an impromptu holiday in Japan,” Victor added, “we’re left at an impasse.”
Or not so uncomfortable.
“You’ll be in meetings all day, Victor. If I’m going to spend the holiday by myself, I’d prefer to be in my own home instead of sitting in a hotel room in a foreign country where I don’t even speak the language.”
“So, how’s the anniversary extravaganza planning going?” Victor asked, changing the subject.
“Great, everything’s humming right along.” Levi was startled slightly when Angelo placed his arm around his shoulder.
Jake’s eyebrows hitched seeming to take notice of his reaction, and thankfully the cocktail waitress showed up with their drinks.
“You can put all this on our tab,” Victor said.
“No, you don’t have to—”
“It’s our pleasure,” Jake said, cutting Levi off.
“You two should join us for dinner,” Victor announced, his tone coming off more like a demand.
Jake crossed his arms and sat back in his seat and Levi took that as a definite sign to decline.
“What do you think, baby?” Angelo leaned over and kissed Levi on the cheek before looking at Victor. “I was planning on getting him all liquored up so I could drag him back home and take advantage of him in his weakened state.”
Victor laughed.
Jake smiled. “Well, far be it for us to interrupt your romantic evening out, right honey?”
“Sure, of course,” Victor said. “We’ve certainly had our fair share of those over the years.”
“I’m actually not feeling too good, babe.” Jake pushed his untouched beer over to Angelo. “Let’s pay the tab and head home.”
“Okay.” Victor sighed, grabbing his wine glass and taking it with him as he headed to the bar.
Angelo shrugged, accepting the extra beer. “Thanks.”
“Please excuse us.” Jake looked a little sad as he got up from the table. “Hope we didn’t put a damper on your evening.”
He was staring at Levi, who wasn’t quite capable of looking away. He wanted to get up and give Jake a hug or something.
“No problem,” Angelo finally said, after too long of a pause in the conversation passed by. “You should see the way this one lays into me when he’s angry.”
Jake glanced back and forth between the two of them as he slipped on his coat. “Right, sure.”
Angelo ran his thick, long fingers through the back of Levi’s hair. “Of course the making up is so much fun.”
“Ready?” Victor asked, coming back to the table.
Jake nodded but said nothing else as they walked off and disappeared into the crowd hovering around the hostess station.
“That wasn’t the least bit awkward.”
Levi rolled his eyes as Angelo preened, visibly pleased with his performance. Of course, Levi was too preoccupied, worrying about Jake and feeling crummy over how sad the man appeared to be. Worse yet, he couldn’t seem to keep himself from feeling bad for Victor, as well. It was painfully obvious he wanted to please Jake and while there had been a certain dryness to his personality, Levi didn’t find him to be as uppity as David seemed to imply.
Underneath everything else were the feelings of guilt Levi was experiencing over how much he cared for Jake. He closed his eyes and made a silent plea for the universe to please make his feelings for Jake go away once and for all.
Pretty please?
* * * *
Levi grunted, yanking on the large metal barn-style door and flicked on the light as he entered his loft. He signaled for Angelo to please come inside, pulling the door closed behind them. The small, informal entry lead into the open kitchen, dining and living areas on one side and the hallway that led back to the bedrooms in the opposite direction.
“What time are you meeting your friends?” Levi asked, turning on the overhead lights in the kitchen.
“Around nine-thirty or ten,” Angelo muttered, walking into the living room. “Were you robbed or something?”
Levi opened the fridge to see what he might have to drink. “No, I know, it’s kinda sparse at the moment. Haven’t really had much time to spend personalizing the space. I’ve got vodka with pretty much nothing to mix it with and beer, though I don’t know how long that’s been there.” He cringed. “Does beer go bad?”
“How long have you lived here?” Angelo asked, removing his coat.
Levi sighed. “Too long to not have this place furnished already, I know. I’ve heard it plenty from Valerie.”
“Beer does go bad, but it’s usually okay for a year or two if it’s stored correctly,” Angelo said, tossing his coat onto one of the bar stools sitting along the large island. “I’m just surprised because you’re pretty organized downstairs with the office stuff. This doesn’t track with my impression of you.”
“Beer it is!” Levi passed Angelo a bottle deciding to make the decision for him since he was too busy marveling over Levi’s flawed personal life, which was admittedly, in shambles at the moment.
“Do you at least have a trash can?” he asked, twisting the cap off the bottle.
“Under the sink, smart ass,” Levi said, grabbing a beer for himself, considering it apparently wasn’t going to be viable for consumption for too many more months.
“Wow,” Angelo said, taking in the view of the water from the row of large windows across the front of the building. “I was about to say this place seemed large for one person, with so little personal possessions, but with this view I’m thinking none of that matters.”
Levi smiled, nodding as he rounded the island and stood next to Angelo who was staring out at the world beyond this room.
“I like it more during the day. Of course I’m rarely here to enjoy it.”
Angelo turned to face him, taking a step closer as Levi grinned, taking a step back.
“I didn’t ask you up for that,” Levi said, stumbling backward until Angelo had him backed up against the kitchen island, blocking any chance of escape by placing an arm on the countertop on either side of Levi.
“You are so sexy,” Angelo said, leaning in close enough for Levi to feel the man’s breath across his face.
Levi decided to close his eyes and let the kiss he knew was forthcoming happen, regardless of any previous objections. As their lips met, he opened his mouth, accepting Angelo’s tongue. The man was certainly an expert kisser, and Levi was taken aback by how slow and sensual Angelo was. Quite different from the down and dirty kiss they shared at Glennellen. Levi fell prey to the way Angelo made him feel, his entire body was on fire with the needy want of skin on skin—wet tongues licking, mouths sucking and the feel of another man’s hard body pressing against his.
Levi got all that from just one kiss. The one thing he’d been hoping to find was unfortunately missing. He allowed the kiss to deepen, feeling Angelo undoing the buttons of his shirt, allowing his hands to slip inside the fabric, fingertips pressing into his skin.
Angelo groaned when Levi placed a hand on his chest, mistaking it for a sign that he should keep going.
“Wait,” Levi said, trying to catch his breath and shake the lusty haze from his head.
“Let make you feel good, Levi,” Angelo said, lightly kissing and gently sucking on his ear lobe and neck.
“I can’t Angelo. Thank you for wanting to… but I can’t,” Levi said, his head telling him to push the man away while his body yearned for just the opposite.
The palm of Angelo’s hand pressing against his erection, had his eye lids fluttering as his vision went slightly hazy. “I can help you forget about him for a little while.”
That was exactly the problem, Levi thought, twisting out of the embrace and taking a few steps away for much needed distance from the heat. He heard Angelo curse under his breath.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned Jake.”
Levi laughed, seeing that he appeared to be genuinely upset with himself.
“I’m glad you find that humorous,” Angelo added, adjusting the rather large bulge in his jeans.
“I’m not laughing at you, just so incredibly flattered that you want to have sex with me that badly.”
“Flattered in the sense you feel bad enough to go ahead and take off all your clothes so we can fuck each other’s brains out?” he asked, with a hopeful expression on his face.
Levi frowned, hating that he was about to burst the bubble of one of the most beautiful men he’d ever laid eyes.
“Wow, really?” Angelo asked, looking particularly dumbfounded. “This has never happened to me before.”
He wasn’t proud of the fact that he’d just used the man again, but in all fairness, in this particular instance, Levi had been praying that one kiss from Angelo would be enough to blast away any and all feelings he had for Jake. Granted, it wasn’t the smartest plan, considering if that had happened Levi would then probably just fall for Angelo, who had made it relatively clear that he was only looking for fun.
Either way, it would’ve been out of the frying pan and into the fire for Levi. That didn’t mean he enjoyed seeing the man all turned on with no relief in sight.
“I could give you a hand job?” Levi offered, thinking that would be something at least.
Angelo paused, seeming to actually consider that for a moment, then sighed, a scowl taking over his face. “No, forget it, you’re not into it.”
Levi cringed, not really able to deny that. “But I feel bad for getting you all worked up.”
He exhaled, grabbing his beer off the countertop and taking a long swig. “I should go.”
“You don’t have to,” Levi said, feeling like a shit-heel.
“I really do.” Angelo took another big swig. “If I stay, I’ll try and use that guilt of yours to get you into bed. As much as I’d love to have sex with you, I don’t want to be something you regret later. That would likely make working together uncomfortable.”