Melting - Sean Ashcroft Page 0,22

on my shoulder stopped me, and I turned around to see Isaac—thank you, Hayden, for getting me that name—smiling broadly at me, blue eyes glittering in the low light.

“You want that drink?” he yelled in my ear, but it was only barely loud enough to hear.

I looked glanced back over my shoulder to look at Hayden, but he’d disappeared into the bustling crowd. Dammit.

I turned back to Isaac, all handsome smile, broad shoulders, and summer tan, and my heart sank.

He’d been fun, but he wasn’t what I wanted.

And what I wanted had just slipped through my fingers. I’d succeeded, Hayden’s big makeover had been a complete success, and he’d found someone to sneak off with. Mission accomplished, well done Wes.

“I—”

A hand landed on the small of my back, the warmth of another body sidling up close.

Relief flooded my belly. Hayden. I knew it was him by the way his hand felt on me.

Isaac’s eyes widened, and there was another moment of that same strange tension before he laughed and took a half-step back.

I’d been rescued for a second time.

“Wait,” I yelled, beckoning Isaac forward until he offered me his ear. “Andre’s into you,” I said. I would’ve liked to rattle off a list of his virtues, but it was too loud in here for a sales pitch.

Based on the look on Isaac’s face when he backed away, though, he didn’t need the sales pitch. He winked at me, grinning broadly, and turned to head back into the crowd—probably to the bar Andre was propping up.

That was my good deed for the day.

A shock of heat against the shell of my ear made tingles rush down the back of my neck and all the way to my cock as Hayden leaned in, lips almost brushing against my skin.

“I’m getting some air,” he said. “Coming?”

Yeah, in my pants if we’re not careful.

I nodded, letting him lead the way out the side door and into the cool night air. A shiver rolled through me as the sweat on my skin chilled, my lungs filling with my first fresh breath in over an hour.

I was getting too old for this. Which was outright embarrassing.

Hayden shrugged his jacket—which he was still somehow wearing—off, and held it out to me.

I blinked at him.

“You’re cold,” he said. “I’m not.”

Oh.

I swallowed, taking the jacket slowly, almost like I was in a dream. No one had ever done anything like this for me before.

No one had ever cared enough.

And here was Hayden, reputed ice king, giving me his jacket.

Which, by the way, was warm and smelled amazing. Leather—real leather—and whiskey, and the smoky, earthy cologne Seth had borrowed from Mark for him, with the promise that no one could resist it.

I’d been close enough to Mark to hug him before, and I’d resisted just fine. But on Hayden…

Popping a boner over shrugging a jacket on was probably a first for me, but I was dangerously on my way to it.

“What did you whisper to Isaac?” Hayden asked, strolling toward the back of the club. The creek ran along behind the main street, with wide walkways either side. This was such a tourist town it was almost unbelievable sometimes, but I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

“Uh. That Andre was into him,” I said.

“Yeah?” Hayden raised an eyebrow.

“He is. I saw the look he gave him. I know Andre, he’s one of my best friends, I know when he likes someone.”

“Oh,” Hayden said, pausing by the railing to look out at the black water of the creek, moonlight bouncing off it where it rippled or caught on a rock.

The sounds of the club in the distance were faint now, just loud enough to hear as a background hum, nothing more than a baseline.

Crickets chirped. A night bird somewhere called out, and was answered.

The creek trickled into the ocean.

I was watching Hayden’s hands on the rail, pale in the moonlight, his thumb rubbing at a rough spot idly.

“You rescued me from him twice,” I said, tugging blindly on a thread I knew had to unravel something.

“You seemed to need rescuing,” Hayden said, looking down at his hands on the railing. A dark strand had escaped from the slicked-back style Seth had wrestled Hayden’s hair into, flopping over his forehead.

“I did,” I said. Forgetting someone’s name was awkward.

“Ex-boyfriend?” Hayden asked.

“Hookup,” I admitted. I wasn’t about to start lying.

Hayden’s shoulders slumped from where they’d been climbing up toward his ears. “Oh.”

I sidled up closer to him, letting the heat of his body seep into