Wanderlust (Filling Spaces #1) by Lexi Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

earlier days; he reveled in his ability to draw out those low,
quiet sounds of pleasure from Jamie, to discover his taste and the way he
arched his hips when pleasure overwhelmed him.
    It didn’t take long. 
Shea’s jaw had only just begun to ache when Jamie’s grip tightened on his
hair.  “Shea,” he managed in warning, “just—in a minute, I—” And even though
the sound of his own name spoken in such a way threatened to undo Shea’s
composure, he managed to keep his rhythm, tightening his hand on Jamie’s cock
and taking him as deeply as he could until the other man’s hips bucked once,
twice, and bitter warmth flooded his mouth.
    “Fuck,” Jamie muttered breathlessly
after a moment, and stroked a surprisingly gentle hand over Shea’s hair as he
swallowed.  “You didn’t have to do that.”
    Shea lifted his head,
surprised by how much younger Jamie seemed without the challenging glint
in his eyes and his sarcastic smile.  Right now the set of his mouth was soft
and serious, his gray eyes heavy-lidded with satiated passion.  “I wanted to do
it,” he responded simply, and unfolded himself from his kneeling position on
the floor.  A delicious exhaustion took him as he stretched out alongside Jamie
without bothering to dress. “Felt good.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Jamie
replied, but the words held fondness.  He didn’t stir from his position, but
simply pulled the sleeping bag on top of them both like a blanket and settled
in willingly behind Shea, content to remain as he was.  Shea relaxed into the
loose embrace and the heat of Jamie’s body against his back, allowed sleepiness
and the relaxation of release to loosen his muscles and cloud up the thoughts
in his brain.
    He closed his eyes. 
“Different like this,” he murmured.   “Everything about tonight—and you. 
Different.”
    Jamie draped his arm
loosely over Shea’s waist.  “Probably ‘cause you did what you felt for
once,” he replied drowsily. His lips pressed lightly against the back of Shea’s
neck—whether the barest of goodnight kisses or a simple accident of speaking,
Shea wasn’t sure. “What you wanted to do.”
    “Yeah,” Shea whispered
softly, after a long moment of silence.  What I wanted, instead of…everything
else that I do because I should.  Or because it seems right.
    “Should stay here with
me, you know,” Jamie continued, and his faint grin against Shea’s skin made
Shea smile instinctively in response.  “And come with me when I leave.  Give up
that boring picket-fence life of yours and risk something, for once.”
    The offer sounded
absurd on its face; Shea huffed a little laugh into the darkness.  “Very
funny,” he replied, but his heart twisted as soon as he said the words, as he
realized that the dawn would bring with it goodbye to this place, to Jamie, and
a return to all the routine and ordinary comforts of home.  He paused, his
fingers twisting the sleeping bag into knots.  “You’re joking, right?”
    Only silence greeted
him, and he realized Jamie’s arm around his waist was limp and slack.  Troubled,
Shea exhaled slowly, staring blindly into the darkness and listening to the
deep and even breathing of the man behind him.  “Goodnight, Jamie,” he said
quietly, and tried not to think of goodbyes and the life that waited for him at
home.
    Sleep, he knew, wouldn’t
come for some time yet. 

 
     
    IV.
    Jamie didn’t wake up until
the early afternoon.
    Groggy, he squinted at
the sunbeams that poured through the fractured windows.  Morning light had heated
the sleeping bag draped over him to an uncomfortable degree; he shoved away the
synthetic fabric and sat up all in one motion, wincing at the ache in his
back.  “Christ,” he muttered, and dampened his tone instinctively before he
looked to the side and realized what he should already have known:
    Shea was gone.
    For a moment the slim
young man simply sat where he was, his gaze fixed on the bare spot beside him