Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,79

Catherine’s tirade had interrupted their quiet lunch. “It’s not a big deal. She’s one of my student’s moms. At the school and privately,” he added before Adam could ask.

“Do you know why she was so pissed?”

Nik sighed. “I think because I was kissing a man. She wasn’t making a lot of sense, just shouting about inappropriate behavior in a school, and how I have to set an example, and parading these sorts of things around children is going to ruin their innocence or some shit.”

Adam breathed out a heavy sigh. “God, are you going to get fired?”

Nik didn’t want to tell him that his job was already on the chopping block—that he’d already told the AP he wasn’t sure he was staying even if they retained the post. He had already rocked Adam’s world enough, and without anything concrete, he didn’t want to put it out there as one more stress.

“I’m not worried about it,” he finally said. He reached past Adam to set the bowl down, then offered water before he wriggled lower against the pillows and took Adam with him. His hands brushed along Adam’s waist, then pushed his shirt up, searching for warm, bare skin. He found it, fingertips pressing into the soft flesh of his stomach, against the coarse hair thick around his belly button. “Is this okay?”

“More than,” Adam replied, his breathing hitched. He shifted onto his side, then scooted a bit closer. “I wasn’t sure you would want to—since your day was kind of…”

“Epic suck?” Nik offered, and Adam laughed.

“Something like that.” Adam curled his hands around Nik’s waist, then hauled him in for a kiss. It was sloppy, imperfect, too wet and desperate, and it was everything Nik wanted in that moment. Heat rose through him, creeping up his neck, into his cheeks, making his head spin.

“Adam,” he breathed out, and Adam stilled against him.

“Too fast?”

Nik shook his head. “No. But I want you, and I want to know if…”

“Yes,” Adam told him. “Yes. I want this, want you. All of it, Nik.” He grabbed Nik’s hand and pulled until his iron grip released, and he placed it under the front of his shirt. “Take my clothes off.”

Nik swallowed thickly. It had been so long since he’d had anyone in any bed—and it had been longer than that since he’d taken his time with a partner. The last decade had been nothing but perfunctory hookups, no kissing, one of them pressed to the wall, fucking his ass, fucking his thighs until they both came. And then it was over. Maybe a first name, definitely no phone number, and never more than once.

It was simple. It worked for him. Whatever they felt—whatever he felt—it didn’t matter.

But this was Adam. This was the man his heart had tripped over itself to love, and he wanted to get this right. His fingers brushed upward, bypassing metal in his navel, until they reached his nipples, and he tapped the piercing with the edge of his nail, making Adam hiss out a breath.

“Hurts?”

Adam laughed, a soft, non-mocking sound. “No. I’ve had them forever. I got them because it helped after my surgery.”

Nik’s brow furrowed until he remembered. “Right. I’m sorry, I…”

“Nik,” Adam said, pressing his mouth to the underside of Nik’s ear, and he sucked until Nik moaned. “Don’t over-think it, okay? Just…just make it good, make me come. That’s all I want. If there’s something I don’t like, I’ll tell you.”

Nik swallowed thickly, then put his hand on Adam’s face. “I want you.”

“I’m right here,” Adam promised. He drew him in to another kiss, this one sweeter, deeper, more careful. He kissed Nik until neither of them could breathe and finally pulled away with a gasp. “Do you have condoms? Lube?”

“Yes.”

That happened to be luck—or wishful thinking. Maybe he wanted to torture himself with what he wasn’t letting himself have, but he had picked up supplies weeks before on a grocery run. He reluctantly pulled back from Adam, his hands more clumsy than usual, but he found what he was looking for in a plastic bag shoved between his nightstand and the bedframe.

The bag crinkled as Adam took it out of his hands, and he made a soft, curious noise before it was set aside, and his hands were back on Nik. “We’re still wearing too many clothes.”

Nik laughed, but he agreed and reached for the hem of his shirt as he swung one leg over Adam’s hips and pinned him down. “I want to undress you,”