No Such Thing (The Belonging Series) Read online

  “No, I’m not busy.” He sounded like he was smiling. “Yeah, I’d like to hang out.”

  “When?”

  “Well, we’re eating dinner in about thirty minutes. Would you like to join us, and we can go out after?”

  Jaime’s heart fluttered. “Dinner?”

  “It’s my turn to cook. I’m not a chef or anything, but I make mean enchiladas, if you don’t mind a small cliché.”

  “No. I mean, I’d like to try your enchiladas.” He blushed that time and was glad no one was in the room to see it.

  “Good. You know Ackler Street?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “It’s 545 Ackler. See you in a bit.”

  “Cool.”

  As soon as the call ended, he turned around. Shannon stood behind the couch, grinning like a creepy Cheshire cat. “See?” she said. “Was that really so hard?”

  “Shut up. I’m borrowing your car.”

  * * *

  Alessandro stared at the phone for several long moments, equal parts elated and terrified. He’d seriously just invited Jaime over for dinner—to Eunice’s house, with Tony’s big mouth. This could easily be a disaster. He hoped for the best, though, as he set another place at the table, told Eunice about their guest and then hurried around finishing dinner. He’d made fiesta corn to go with the enchiladas, and he was putting the finishing touches on a side salad when an unfamiliar car rumbled into the driveway.

  He reached the door just as Jaime knocked on the screen’s frame. On Tuesday, Jaime’s wardrobe had looked ready to fall off him and into a burn bin. Tonight he’d changed into a short-sleeved blue shirt buttoned right to the collar and a pair of khakis. The change made Jaime look a little taller, a little older, not quite as frail and awkward. And it made his red lips look even more inviting.

  “Hey there,” Alessandro said as he gave the screen door a nudge.

  Jaime moved out of the way so the door could open, then stepped inside. “Thanks for inviting me.”

  They gazed at each other, neither one moving farther inside or speaking. The awkwardness of their last conversation had fled the room, and Alessandro tamped down the impulse to kiss Jaime just to see how he’d react. The opportunity to reconsider was interrupted, thankfully, by the thundering of small feet on the stairs.

  “Molly’s skittish around men,” he whispered. “Let her approach you.”

  “Got it,” Jaime replied.

  Tony and Molly appeared at the bottom of the stairs at the same time as though summoned by the spicy aroma of dinner. They paused when they saw Jaime. Tony studied him with open belligerence while Molly turned and went into the kitchen. “Who’s that?” Tony asked.

  “Manners, Tony,” Eunice shouted from the stairs.

  “Sorry.”

  “I’m Jaime,” he said. “My sister owns the bakery where Alessandro works.”

  “Oh. Are you here for dinner?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  Tony gave Alessandro a glare. “He better not eat all the enchiladas.”

  Alessandro barked laughter, amused by Tony’s posturing. “There’s plenty for everyone.”

  Eunice joined them downstairs. She came over and gave Jaime a big hug, which seemed to surprise him. “Welcome, Jaime, welcome. I see your sister at church on occasion. A lovely lady.”

  “Thank you,” Jaime said. “I like her okay.” His cheeky grin made Eunice laugh.

  “I suspect so. I hope you’re hungry. Alè there’s enchiladas were legendary when he was a boy, and I can’t imagine that’s changed any.”

  They settled around the table with Molly and Eunice opposite Tony and Jaime, which put Alessandro somewhat awkwardly at the head of the table. He’d avoided that seat since Sully’s death, and tonight he settled into it with a kick of trepidation. Eunice kept conversation going, asking everyone about their day, the kids about school. Molly didn’t talk much, which was unusual, and Alessandro felt awful for not asking her ahead of time about bringing a stranger into the house.

  Jaime and Eunice chatted quite a lot about people around town that Alessandro didn’t know, but he didn’t begrudge them the conversation. They’d both lived here for years and knew the same people. She needed that kind of interaction. Tony watched them hawkishly for the entire meal, as if waiting for Jaime to commit a crime, and several times Alessandro almost told him to knock it off.

  As dinner wound down and food disappeared, Alessandro’s nerves began to hum. He and Jaime would be alone soon, which could either be mutually pleasurable or an epic disaster. He hoped for the former, but expected the latter.

  Jaime took a drink from his glass of iced tea, and Tony seemed to hone in on his chance, because he boldly asked, “Jaime, are you queer?”

  Jaime sputtered into his glass, then started coughing so hard his face turned red.

  “Anthony Giancarlo Mancuso!” Eunice said, ripping out his full name with fury. “Apologize this instant.”

  “It was just a question,” Tony said.

  She stood up, her face a thundercloud. “You get upstairs to the bench and sit there until I come up.”

  He went without comment, stomping his feet on the stairs the entire way. The bench was an old church pew Sully had installed in the upstairs hallway thirty-odd years ago as a time-out spot for the kids. Sending them to their room didn’t work, because they had toys and books. The bench meant you were in serious trouble.

  Jaime got his breathing back under control. He wiped at his eyes with a paper napkin.

  “I am so sorry about that,” Alessandro said, utterly mortified.

  “It’s okay,” Jaime said, his voice a bit coarse from coughing.

  “It most certainly is not okay,” Eunice said. “It was incredibly rude, and he’s been warned already about idle gossip.”

  Jaime went very still, and Eunice seemed to realize what she’d said.

  “Tony’s a kid,” Alessandro said. “He just repeats crap he hears other people say, no matter if it’s true or not. It’s a bad habit we need to break him of. You don’t ask total strangers things like that.”

  “Maybe if we did, there would be fewer misunderstandings,” Jaime said quietly, to his dinner plate.

  Alessandro’s heart seized. Had he misread everything? Was that Jaime’s subtle way of saying he wasn’t interested in anything except friendship? “I suppose so,” he said through a tight throat.

  “Well,” Eunice said, “if you boys would like to head out, I’ll clean up. Tony can stew a while longer before I talk to him.”

  Jaime looked up. He didn’t smile, but he also didn’t look angry. “Yeah, that sounds good, if you’re sure you don’t mind, Mrs. Deforio?”

  “Please, call me Eunice. And I don’t mind. Go. Enjoy yourselves.”

  Alessandro made sure he had his keys and wallet, then followed Jaime outside to his car. “I am so sorry about Tony,” he said as they climbed inside.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jaime said with a tight smile.

  “I do worry about it. Are you mad?”

  “Not at Tony.” Jaime turned over the engine and let it idle. “I guess I’m more surprised that my sexual preference is discussed at all, especially where a ten-year-old can overhear it. But I’m used to being the subject of gossip. It’s just usually about my health, not my love life.”

  “I’m still sorry.”

  He nodded, his hands tightening on the steering wheel, eyes straight ahead. “Yes.”

  Alessandro frowned, not understanding. “Yes, what?”

  Jaime swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, then turned his head to meet Alessandro’s eyes. “Yes, I’m queer. Is that a problem for you?”

  His pulse jumped as Jaime’s words sank in, and he grinned. “Not a problem at all.” Now that this particular ice was broken, his entire world was lighter, brighter. “I suppose it’s only fair to tell you I am, too. I mean, I’ve been out for years, but not everyone knows.”

  Jaime’s eyes widened. Something worked itself out in hi
s mind, and then his entire body relaxed. His gaze dropped once to Alessandro’s mouth before he shifted the gear into reverse. “Cool. Let’s get going, then.”

  * * *

  Clearing the air about being gay didn’t calm the nerves that had plagued Jaime since his earlier phone call. Not even his casual dinnertime conversations with Eunice had taken his mind off his eventual alone time with Alessandro. And now that they’d both basically said “I’m gay” to each other, he was even more anxious. Anxious because everything in Alessandro’s body language—from his cocky smile to the way he lounged in the passenger seat—said he was interested.

  Interested in Jaime—a concept he still had trouble with, even when it was literally staring him in the face. And he was interested right back. He didn’t know Alessandro very well, but he did know his own sister, and if Shannon trusted the guy enough to hire him after only two hours, then Jaime trusted him. Maybe even trusted him enough to be honest about his total lack of experience with men.

  Most people, gay or straight, had sexual experiences in high school. He didn’t know statistics, but he’d bet a lot of them lost their virginity before they turned twenty-one. Jaime had spent those years chained to a hospital bed, close to death, and never managed to have the same teen years as his peers. And the idea of going into the city, hitting up a gay bar and then having to explain to his one-night stand why he was a virgin…no. He’d be laughed right back to Perch Creek, and rightly so.

  He was pretty sure Alessandro wouldn’t laugh. He was also pretty sure Alessandro would willingly relieve him of his virginity.

  Pretty sure.

  Jaime backed out of the driveway and turned the car toward the center of town. “So what’s your pleasure tonight?” he asked, purposely choosing those innuendo-laden words.

  Alessandro gave a start. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, if you wanted to reconnect with people from high school, I’d suggest the bowling alley. There’s a bar there that attracts folks our age.”

  “At a bowling alley?”

  “Small town, remember?”

  “Right.”

  “There’s also Jake’s down on Broad Street. They have pool tables in the back.”

  “Maybe we can just drive until something strikes?”

  “Okay.”

  Jaime drove around town like a tour guide, pointing out things that may have changed, and Alessandro followed the conversation as if truly interested. They chatted about idle things, and Alessandro told a few amusing stories about working in a corporate mail room, including walking in on his married male supervisor screwing a guy from accounting in an actual broom closet. The in-the-closet joke Alessandro delivered had Jaime cracking up so much he almost missed a stop sign.

  They killed nearly a full hour just driving and talking. He liked listening to Alessandro tell stories. His voice was soothing, not too deep, and he had a belly laugh that made Jaime want to laugh, too, just to share his mirth.

  “You never did tell me what degree you’re studying for,” Alessandro said after a brief pause in conversation.

  “History. Eventually I want to get my master’s, too, so I can teach at a university or college. Doctorate, too, one day.”

  “You always wanted to be a teacher?”

  “Pretty much always, yeah.”

  “Pretty much?”

  A brief pang of regret hit Jaime hard. “Well, when I was in middle school, I briefly entertained the notion of a career as a professional baseball player. I used to love playing Little League, and I was good.”

  “But you got sick?”

  “Yeah.” He glanced across the car. “Eunice told you?”

  “About the transplant? She gave me the basic outline.”

  “Nothing like a bad heart to kill a sports career.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I got over it a long time ago. I’m lucky to be alive. If the accident that provided my heart had happened even a week later, I’d have probably died.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t.” Alessandro reached across the console and squeezed his thigh. The touch sent a funny little thrill up Jaime’s spine. Warmth spread over his skin. “Really glad.”

  Driving was suddenly very inconvenient. He wanted to reach over and kiss Alessandro, to find out what that was like.

  “Are you taking destination requests?”

  “Depends on the request,” Jaime replied.

  “I want to see if something is still where I left it.”

  Intrigued, Jaime followed the directions he was given, which took them circling back near Eunice’s neighborhood. They came to an unpaved cul-de-sac with empty lots full of weeds and tilted for-sale signs. The road had been created ten years ago when a developer wanted to expand housing into this section of land, only no one wanted to build. The tract butted up against a section of a railroad freight line, and trains came through four times a day, four times a night. The project went bust and the land just sat there, undeveloped, shorn of trees. The whole area seemed barren.

  “This is what you wanted to see?” Jaime asked as he parked and turned off the car.

  “Not exactly. Come on.”

  Reluctantly, he followed Alessandro out of the car. Crickets sang in the underbrush somewhere. It was getting close to dusk, but they had enough light to see. Alessandro walked into the brush at the edge of the lot. Jaime followed him across the railroad tracks, through a wooded area just beyond.

  “Did you bury treasure back here or something?” Jaime asked.

  “No, we—there it is.”

  Jaime squinted into the semidark until he spotted it—some kind of platform constructed in a cluster of trees, connecting the trunks in a haphazard way. “Is that a tree house?”

  “As close to a tree house as we could construct with scraps. I built it with two of my foster brothers, Danny and Luis. We’d come out here and smoke or look at porn we stole from the drugstore.”

  They went closer. The boards were at shoulder-height, not impressive now but probably high up to a twelve-year-old. Alessandro tugged at one and the wood cracked.

  “Guess some things don’t last forever,” he said.

  “Some aren’t meant to,” Jaime replied. “If we kept everything forever, we’d never find anything new.”

  Alessandro turned to face him, his eyes burning in the dim light of the forest. Jaime’s heart jumped. Blood pulsed in his temples. He licked his lips almost unconsciously, sure if he moved first he’d screw it up somehow. Alessandro shifted forward like a shadow, his height engulfing them both. A hand ghosted near Jaime’s cheek, then fell away.

  “I don’t want to fuck this up,” Alessandro whispered.

  Jaime’s heart soared with relief. “You can’t.”

  The first press of warm lips on his sent Jaime’s mind spinning and his pulse surging out of control. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do, and he didn’t want to bring attention to his inexperience, so he concentrated on mimicking Alessandro. The way Alessandro parted his lips, moving and pressing, deepening the kiss into a playful chase. He didn’t startle when Alessandro’s tongue licked into his mouth. The first exploratory flick became a sensual thrusting that invited Jaime’s tongue to rise up and play.

  Jaime lost track of his hands, aware only that they were touching Alessandro, pulling him closer, pressing their chests and abdomens together. The world faded away, replaced by sensation and a warmth burning deep in his belly. He lived inside that long, intense kiss, wanting more, wanting everything Alessandro gave him. He grew bolder and tasted the inside of Alessandro’s mouth, eliciting a breathless grunt that sent blood right to Jaime’s dick.

  Alessandro tasted wonderful. Spicy and sweet. Hot. Male.

  He was vaguely aware of being moved, directed somehow, and then his back hit what must have been a tree, and he was trapped in a wonderful place. Alessandro’s erection pressed into his groin, and Jaime’s belly flipped in anticipation of all the things he wanted to try.

  Alessand
ro licked a trail down his throat, right to the collar of his shirt, and Jaime shivered. He had a good idea of how things were supposed to go, mostly from watching porn online, but he couldn’t seem to make a move. He was content allowing Alessandro to take the lead here.

  Alessandro’s lips traveled back up his throat to suck on the lobe of his ear, which made Jaime’s entire body shudder. One of Alessandro’s hands slipped down to his hip, where it lingered briefly before drifting forward to cup Jaime’s erection through his khakis. Heat zinged through him, raking down his spine and prickling across his shoulders. Jaime made a funny noise in his throat at that rush of contact, burning even through two layers of clothing. He pushed against Alessandro’s hand, wanting more of that amazing heat, which earned him a hard kiss to the mouth. He was being groped in the middle of the woods, and by God he loved it.

  Jaime kissed him like he needed Alessandro to breathe, desperate for that heady connection, and he whined when Alessandro pulled away. Actually whined. Then he nearly combusted when Alessandro dropped down to his knees in the dirt and fallen leaves. They were losing light, casting the forest in more shadows than sun, creating a kind of wall around them that emboldened Jaime. He threaded his hands in Alessandro’s soft hair, needing that physical connection to the man giving him these intense feelings. He worked at modulating his breathing while Alessandro deftly unzipped his pants.

  He tried to not think about the location or that he was about to have a mouth on his dick for the first time ever or that the mouth belonged to the handsomest man he’d ever seen in his life. He did try to study Alessandro’s face. The play of light and shadow on it. The way he glanced up through thick black lashes and gave him a wicked smile before mouthing Jaime’s hard dick right through his briefs.

  Bolts of pleasure shot outward from his groin, dancing up his spine, down to his toes and right through the top of his head. His entire body was humming. He was certain he was making some kind of noise in his throat, even before Alessandro pulled his briefs down to his ankles. Jaime barely had the presence of mind to lift his shirt up, out of the way, giving them both a better view of the proceedings.

  Alessandro took him in hand and closed his mouth around the head of Jaime’s cock, and nothing else mattered except the intense feeling of heat, wet, pressure. He clutched at Alessandro’s hair while Alessandro went down on him, licking long, damp paths up the length, swirling his tongue into the slit, mouthing at his balls. It was too much and not enough, and Jaime couldn’t have stopped his orgasm even if he’d wanted to. Everything coalesced into a haze of pure need, pure pleasure, and his orgasm barreled forward with the force of an atom bomb. It started at the base of his spine, spiraling out in a garbled shout and a burst of ecstasy unlike anything he’d felt in his life. His limbs were shaking with the force of it, and he was glad to have the tree for support.