Double Full (Nice Guys 1)

“I’m here to talk to you, Jace.”

“What could you possibly have to say to me?”

Colt stayed quiet. The speech he came up with on the plane escaped him. Jace seemed so angry, and he just didn’t know where to start. After a moment, he decided the end would be the best place to begin. “I’m sorry, Jace. I’m sorry… I…”

Jace didn’t listen to him. Instead, he stormed back the few feet between them, reaching for Colt’s head and aggressively pulled him in for a hard, demanding kiss. Jace thrust his tongue forward giving Colt no choice but to open to him. Yes!

Jace wrapped one brawny arm tightly around Colt’s lower back, pulling him head to toe against Jace’s body. Every bit of longing Colt felt deep in his heart smoldered inside this kiss they shared. Just as abruptly, Jace ended the kiss and the contact, pushing him away.

“That’s all I’m interested in from you, and I know that’s not why you’re here.” Turning, Jace took a step away before jogging up to the house.

A smile burst across Colt’s lips. Relief flooded his heart. If Jace were with someone, he wouldn’t have just kissed him on the beach. After several long moments of watching Jace run to the house, he whispered, before he followed. “That’s exactly why I’m here, cheer boy.”

Chapter 20

Water ran freely from the bathroom sink faucet. Jace brushed his teeth and splashed water once again over his face, trying to sober up. What the hell was Colt doing here? For a minute on the beach he thought his drunken mind played tricks on him. It was the reason he’d forced himself on Colt. Surely to God his mind couldn’t have created the spicy, sweet musk of Colt’s delicious scent or those spine tingling feelings when their bodies touched. Right?

Apparently, Jace’s raging hard-on sure thought this was all very real. And he splashed his face again with cold water before reaching for a towel.

Looking himself over in the mirror, Jace picked up the brush and pushed it through the tangles of his hair and away from his face. The long ends fell forward again, until he shoved them behind his ears. Jace stared at himself in the mirror. “Sober up. Sober up now. You need your wits about you. What the fuck is he doing here and not with his wife? Sober up, now! He’s married. Colton is married to a woman! Sober up, Jace Montgomery!”

Jace racked his brain, but still couldn’t come up with anything to help make sense of this. This couldn’t be possible. And hiding in the bathroom wasn’t going to make Colt go away. Unless he dreamed this and Colt hadn’t really come here. Could Jace have finally snapped? Maybe Colt and the all too real kiss only happened inside the confines of his alcohol-clouded mind?

Opening the door to the bathroom, Jace looked out and saw nothing. Poking his head around the door, he listened and heard nothing. A small amount of relief filled him, but the yearning for Colt gripped his heart, and the ache of that loss followed quickly behind. Could he be so past the point of normal behavior that he could have imagined touching Colt? Walking slowly down the hall, he caught a shadow and his heart did a small leap. Taking the corner into the living room, Jace stopped mid-step. Colt was there, hands tucked into the pockets of his shorts, his feet spread apart, and his gaze focused directly at him. They both simply remained frozen in place, staring at one another. Neither said a word. Jace’s heart began to race in his chest. He could feel the tears threatening to fall. Colt was everything he remembered and so much more.

Ten years ago, Colt stood in that very same position, waiting for him to go swim in the ocean. Jace desperately wanted to relive that moment. Not moving, afraid his legs would fail him, he finally spoke. His voice cracked at the emotion pouring through him, but he forced the entire sentence out.

“Why are you here?”

“I couldn’t keep living this lie for a minute more. I’ve been sober for two hundred and eighty-three days. My sobriety requires me to apologize to you, but my heart can’t take another day without you knowing how much I still love you, and how deeply sorry I am for the pain I’ve caused you.” Colt didn’t move as he spoke, his deep blue eyes pinned and held Jace where he stood. Hope and longing rushed through his body stealing Jace’s breath and voice.

Jace managed to lift a hand to steady himself against the doorframe. He thought about what Colt said, and after replaying the words in his mind, things didn’t add up. “You’re a married man, Colton. I’m not sure what you want from me. You can’t come here and say things like this. It isn’t fair.”

“Jace.” Colt took a step forward, but Jace stopped him with a lift of his hand.

“No, it’s wrong of you to show up here like this. If you need to apologize, then consider it done, but don’t say those other things to me. It’s too hard to hear.”

“Baby, I’m not married. I couldn’t do it, I never loved her, hell, I never even liked her.” Colt finally moved from the spot where he stood and walked slowly toward Jace. He kept his hands in his pockets as he came to a stop directly in front of Jace.

“Maryia blackmailed me into marrying her. She needed to stay in the country. Jace, I’m so very sorry. My life’s shit and it’s been that way since the morning I left you in that hotel room. When I showed up to my agent’s office, I was gonna tell him about us. Tell him how badly I wanted a future with you. Let him know you would be going with me. God, you were all I ever wanted, Jace, I swear. But my dad was there. They somehow found out about our trip. He beat the crap out of me, and told me there was no way the NFL would take me being gay. Even then I wasn’t gonna let you go. I told them I loved you. But then he threatened you. My dad planned the same beating for you, and even worse. I couldn’t let him… It scared me…” Colt finally took a breath, his voice broke, and he shook his head, clearing his throat.