The V- in 403C - Jess Bryant Page 0,7

want to get to know the weirdo sitting alone at the bar?

Jonah ignored the men coming and going around him in the bathroom and leaned against the sink, trying to get a grip on himself and his wildly vacillating thoughts. He was hiding in the bathroom like the loser that he was. He knew he’d have to leave the smaller, quieter space soon enough but he needed to try and rein in his tumultuous thoughts first.

He was definitely drunk. He shouldn’t have had that last drink, the Moscow Mule. That was what the man, Reed, had called it when he’d ordered them another round and put it on his tab. Jonah had liked the drink and he’d liked the man that had ordered it for him even more but Jonah had been so nervous having that probing gaze on him that he’d downed the thing in four gulps max and now he wasn’t sure of anything except that he needed to sober up, and fast.

Was it possible that Reed had seen him? Really seen him? In the middle of a crowd of people, had Reed really seen the quiet, awkward boy sitting all alone at the bar and wanted to talk to him? Was something like that even possible? Could Jonah honestly believe Reed had actually wanted to talk to him? That everything he’d said hadn’t been some kind of joke or prank or dare?

Jonah shook his head, trying to get his brain back in the right position. Everything felt fuzzy and off kilter. He was definitely drunk and he could count on one hand just how many times he’d let himself get that way in his twenty-two years. He was far too drunk to be giving any real thought to the handsome man that had approached him at the bar because odds were good that after Jonah’s weird, stuttering, nearly incomprehensible attempts at conversation and fleeing to the bathroom that Reed had gone back to his dance partner and forgotten all about him already.

He was still trying to convince himself that it was probably for the best and he should go outside and find an Uber to take him home, so when he walked out of the bathroom and saw the beautiful man leaning against the wall opposite him, he came to an abrupt stop.

Reed’s hair had fallen over his forehead again and he pushed it back, out of his eyes, as he rose to his full height and moved towards Jonah. Jonah didn’t budge. He wasn’t sure he even breathed. He was so surprised that the man had followed him, that he was still here, that he was still looking at him like he wanted to eat him alive, that he did nothing to pull away when Reed took him by the arm and pulled him close, turning them until he had Jonah pinned against the wall in the dim back hallway of the club.

“Reed?” Jonah’s voice came out hoarse, barely a whisper and he couldn’t be sure that the other man even heard him.

“Mmm…there you are.” Reed murmured, his hair falling back into his eyes as he leaned down until their faces were close together. “I was beginning to think you’d run away from me.”

“I…” Jonah attempted to awkwardly swallow past the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

He had no idea what to do in this situation. A ridiculously handsome man had him pinned to a wall in the back hall of a loud, dark club. Some serious, still sober part of his brain tried to tell him that he should be worried, that he was smaller than this man and should cry out for help or push him away. But another part of him, a bigger part of him, knew innately that he didn’t have anything to fear from this man.

No matter what doubts he might have about Reed’s intentions towards him, whether he believed the man had approached him as a joke or a dare, nothing about the man scared Jonah or told him that he needed to fear him.

“Jonah.” Reed’s voice was low and husky near his ear as he boxed Jonah in, “You weren’t planning to run away from me, were you?”

“Um…” Jonah swallowed hard and licked his suddenly dry lips.

Reed groaned and the sound seemed to vibrate through his chest and deep into Jonah’s bones as he pressed closer, licking his own lips, “You have no idea how sexy you are, do you?”

Jonah shook his head because he had no