that door. I thought it was a goddamn Christmas miracle.” Spencer scoffed as if he couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “I just wanted to flirt with the pushy sales manager I met at the mall who I thought for a second liked me.”
Cole lifted Spencer’s hands in his own and kissed his knuckles. When he looked up, he noticed the attendant was doing his best not to watch them. “Come on. Let’s step outside.”
Spencer allowed Cole to lead him past the valet stand to the dark parking lot on the side of the building. “Did you drive here?”
“No,” Cole answered, pulling them deeper into the shadows. “Do you have a car parked out here?”
“No. I walk to work. I live in the red building one block up.” Spencer laughed, the deep, soft sound making Cole increase his speed. “Are you taking me back here to chop up my body into a million little pieces?” Spencer laughed again.
“Of course I am. How else am I going to devour you? My mouth isn’t that big,” Cole said, stopping suddenly. He wrapped Spencer in his arms and walked them backward until his ass was pressed against the cool cement building. He liked they were almost the same height, Spencer maybe an inch shorter than him.
Spencer’s soft laugh died slowly, his expression turning serious as Cole leaned in and brushed their noses together, silently asking for permission to go further. Spencer licked his lips, his warm breath fanning over Cole’s stubble as he clenched his hands tightly around the back of his neck, and Cole took that as the green light.
He didn’t know who groaned the loudest, but Spencer’s kiss was worth the hours Cole had been patiently waiting for. His sweet mouth tasted better than any fruit he would’ve consumed on that crudité platter, and Cole eagerly searched out the savory flavors of the cigar and the rich spices from the rum that lingered on his soft lips.
“Mmmm.” Spencer moaned prettily, and Cole thought he’d forget his manners and try to do something to this man right here and now. “I shouldn’t be out here.”
“My flight home to New York is at six in the morning. Let me pick you up when you get off.” Cole panted, feeling dizzy after only a thirty-second kiss. It wasn’t enough. He palmed Spencer’s reddened cheeks and slanted his head until he was at the angle he wanted him, then crushed his mouth to his. The urgency was there in their frantic touches, but both were holding back. Cole could feel it. “No one should be alone tonight. Especially you.”
Spencer sighed into his mouth. “If only you were real.”
“I am, Spencer.” Cole rubbed the pad of his thumb along Spencer’s top lip. “I’m right here.”
“I know. But…” Spencer inhaled deeply. “Is it too much to want more than one night?”
“Is that why you were upset earlier?”
“No.” Spencer let his hand fall from where he’d been clutching his waist, and Cole wanted the weight of his palm back. He watched Spencer roll his eyes, that brilliant blue even visible in the dark of night, as he exhaustingly dug his knuckles into his sockets. “I was on my way back to the front of the lounge when I heard a couple employees bitching about me not allowing them to have a Christmas party or do the staff Pollyanna gift swap thing, and that maybe if I hadn’t been such a dick about the holidays, then I might’ve been invited to someone’s house for dinner.”
“Shit.” Cole sighed. “That’s messed up. What’d you say to them?”
“I kept walking instead of saying anything. They have a right to their opinions. And I have been a grouch.” Spencer slumped against the wall, and Cole leaned into him, trying to keep the bitter chill from seeping into Spencer’s already cold soul. “I wouldn’t let them do anything that had to do with the holidays. I told them that celebrating occasions should be done on personal time. So, I guess I asked for it, right?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Those stupid gift exchanges are always so impersonal. No one puts any thought into a gift anymore, so I figured why bother. My parents used to give me a handmade graphic novella that they wrote together each year, about me.” Spencer chuckled and gazed longingly at the cloudless night sky. “It was called Spencer’s World of Unimaginable Tales. Sometimes I had superpowers, sometimes I was a villain, hell, one time I was an alien from the planet Kenovia