with a smirk to hide his true reaction. How fucking romantic is that!
“If we drive down to the park by the harbor, we can walk along the waterfront. Maybe I’ll even take a few pictures while we’re there. I always have a camera with me.”
They had been standing between their cars for a few minutes at this point, and Jordan turned his eyes up to the sky again as he fought another surge of desire for the man standing next to him. They didn’t know each other well enough for him to take the kind of kiss his body was demanding he take. It wouldn’t be a simple or easy kiss, and he didn’t want to do anything to spoil what had already been a really pleasant evening.
“Sounds good.” Jeez, could you be any lamer? Jordan rolled his eyes internally at himself.
“Okay, follow me,” Bennett was saying. “I know a good place to park, if it isn’t already taken.”
He opened his car door and Jordan stepped back. “Sure.”
Bennett’s smile sent a shiver up his spine as he walked around to get into his own vehicle. He shook out his hands, calming himself, and started the SUV, backing out of the spot and following behind Bennett. The drive down to the waterfront took fifteen minutes, and Bennett headed for the bandstand where live bands played on Saturday nights and during town festivals. Jordan knew which section of the lot he was headed for, and was glad there were still a few empty spots.
They parked next to each other again and Jordan watched as Bennett retrieved a camera from the trunk of his car. He slung it around his neck and turned with a smile.
“Which way would you like to go first?”
“You’re the boss. I’ll go wherever you like.”
They headed across the patch of grass that separated the riverbank walkway from the lot they were parked in and headed away from the bustling pier toward the quieter wooded area. Eventually, there were only the lights along the jogging path to illuminate their way. Bennett walked over to a gazebo where a few viewfinders and one large telescope had been set into a kind of viewing station. There was one other couple there, in the farthest corner of the station, arms around each other as they looked up at the night sky without using the equipment where they were standing.
Something twisted in Jordan’s gut at the sight. He and Bennett weren’t a couple, and it was really way too soon to be wishing they were. But damned if he still didn’t wish they were. He hadn’t given up on his dream of a family, but at age forty, he knew the chances of ever finding someone he could start one with were diminishing. He had grown used to being alone, and knew from all the years when he played the field that the good ones were almost all taken.
Bennett’s not taken…is he? Jordan shook himself. Somehow he didn’t think the guy would be out on a date with him, walking under the stars, if he were in a relationship with anyone else. Bennett didn’t strike him as that kind of guy. Still, there was nothing to say that they’d even be compatible in the long run. And why the fuck he was thinking about compatibility and the future with Bennett was anybody’s guess. He really needed to get laid, because the only reason he could think of for why he was suddenly so maudlin was that he was missing getting his dick wet.
Bennett had wandered away from his side and when Jordan turned to see where he’d gone, he found himself looking up into a brilliantly clear sky along with his date. The stars were twinkling away, so many of them twinkling in brilliant contrast to the black backdrop of night. Jordan did something he hadn’t done since he was a very small boy, when he was still living with hope for a happy life, before he lost faith in people and closed in on himself. He began to count the stars.
He became so lost in the endeavor that he didn’t know he was grinning like a fool until Bennett said, right in his ear,
“Enjoying the view?”
He felt the grin spreading his cheeks then, but he pretended he didn’t know what Bennett meant.
“Why do you ask?”
“You look like the cat that got the cream. Happy you came?”
Bennett’s tone was as seductive as Jordan’s had been earlier, and he wondered if he knew how