"Hey, Park, you want some protein shakes? Gonna hit the gym now that you have some time off again?"
I grinned at his joke about me likely being fired as 'time off', but eh, it was a good idea. Shrugging, I replied with a "Yeah" as I grabbed a loaf of bread and some mustard and ketchup. With my insane work schedule and Jayson's odd hours, we hadn't really had much time to shop. Also, after Callem came, we literally didn't pay attention to what we were eating, and soon enough, the fridge was getting close to empty. He sauntered over to the deli counter and got a few pounds of turkey cold cuts and cheese while I fetched a gallon of milk after dropping the condiments and bread into the cart.
"Mmmm."
"Yeah yeah, you better not eat it all this time. I call at least half."
"You do that."
Jay stared for a moment but then just rolled his eyes and began pushing the cart toward the next aisle, the snack one. He tried to pass it on his way to anywhere else, but I grabbed the front and jerked it into the best place on earth.
"Park, you can pick two."
I looked at him like he'd just kicked a puppy and the puppy had been me.
"T-Two?"
"Yes. Two. Remember the last time I said 'pick what you want'?"
I pursed my lips and nudged the tip of my shoe against the tiled floor.
"Parker, being silent isn't going to change the fact that you bought so many cookies and chips last time that you took up all the space in the cabinets."
Drat.
"Okaaaay."
I turned toward the aisle and stared at all the amazingness I wouldn't be able to take home.
Choosing just two. That is a sin.
My gaze roved over the shelves as I stalked up and down the aisle, pouting silently.
"You have twenty seconds."
"Huh?"
Jay crossed his muscular arms over his chest and raised a brow.
"You've been prowling this aisle for five minutes. Just pick two, or I'll pick them for you."
"But."
"That's it, I'm picking."
I grabbed his right arm as he walked toward a shelf, trying to stop him so I could figure out what to choose. When he grabbed a package of Oreos, I relaxed a little, especially since they were the double-stuffed. Once those were tossed into the cart, he easily dragged me down the aisle before stopping again and reaching up to take down a big bag of Doritos. Cool Ranch, mmmm. Tossing those in the cart, he removed my hand from his bicep, aww, and grabbed my wrist to pull me out of snack heaven.
I groaned but let him pull me, because honestly, it wasn't often that I got the chance to openly stare at his butt since he was too busy pushing the cart with his other hand to notice. An image of Callem flashed into my head, making me almost feel guilty... but that made no sense. We weren't even the same species, and we didn't understand each other, it would never work.
"Hey, Parker?"
"Hm?"
"You can stop staring at my butt now."
Blinking, I quickly realized we were in the check-out line and blushed, grabbing random stuff from the cart to throw onto the counter, trying to look busy. I could hear Jay chuckling as he walked past me to pay.
"By the way, that's not our stuff."
I blanched, glancing back at the guy next to me who was looking quite amused.
"Uh, sorry."
Ducking around Jayson, I watched as he pulled out his wallet.
Wait a second...
"It's my turn to pay."
He raised a brow and swiped his debit card in the machine.
"You're on leave from your job. I'll take this one. And, just in case you forgot, you don't have your wallet on you."
I grumbled beneath my breath but knew I didn't have a ton of money saved up... or my stupid wallet. Well, at least not for Oreos and Doritos. I should have enough for rent for the next month or two, but adding food costs and my sweet tooth into the equation? Not good. Since he paid, I at least pushed the cart out for him and helped load everything up, except for my Oreos and a vanilla protein shake. I know, I know, you should only drink them after a workout, but I was really thirsty and planned on lifting some weights when we got back since Jay had a few in his room that he let me borrow whenever I wanted. Once the cart was empty, I plopped down in the passenger's side seat and quickly tore open the Oreo package before grabbing a cookie. Taking the top off, I ran my tongue eagerly over the delicious cream inside.
"Mmmm."
"Enjoying that?"
I turned my attention toward him to reply, but as soon as my tongue reached out again and took up a good amount of cream, I forgot what I was going to say and just moaned a second time. Jayson glanced around awkwardly for a second, then turned the car on and backed out. Once I had finished four cookies, he made me seal the package, much to my dismay, but eh, at least I got to break the 'no eating in the car' rule he had. However, when he heard the click of me twisting the lid off of the protein shake, he gave me a disapproving look. I scowled at him cutely in return, sticking my tongue out.
"Oh come on, you know I won't spill it. I've never gotten a single crumb in Rachel, your precious SUV."
He grunted, obviously annoyed that I knew the name of his car. I mean seriously, who names their car? Jayson, that's who.
"Whatever."
Smirking from my win, I finished twisting the lid off the drink and chugged the delicious mixture.
"Hmm. So, how would you know if you were gay?"
"Pfft!"
"Fuck, Park! Seriously?"
I would have replied, but I was too busy coughing from the small portion of the protein shake I hadn't just spit all over his dashboard.
"God dammit! You are so cleaning that up when we get back."
Thanks for worrying about me as I cough my brains out.
I finally managed to catch my breath when we pulled into the driveway five minutes later.
"You stay right there. I'm getting the cleaner and a towel from the back."
Taking a deep breath, I twisted the lid back on the drink and leaned against the seat. The door opened seconds later and said cleaning items were shoved into my lap.
"Clean, now."
I glanced sideways at him.
"Don't you want me to help bring stuff in?"
"No, clean."
"Geez, okay okay."
The sun was beginning to come out, raising the temperature inside the car so I didn't bother procrastinating. He would probably lock me out of the house if I even tried. As Jay got the stuff inside, I tugged my shirt off and grabbed the cloth.
Damn, I spit it pretty darn well.
Grumbling, I began spraying the dashboard down and scrubbing, kneeling on the seat so I could get the stickiness of the drink up. After about ten minutes, I leaned back, panting quietly before wiping at my forehead.
"Man, it's getting hot."
Hmm?
Feeling someone watching, I jerked my head to the right, eyes widening in surprise to see Jayson just standing there shirtless.
"Um, I'm almost done."
He didn't respond, making me lick my lips and fidget a little.
"Jay?"
When he didn't reply again, I bristled and grabbed the cleaning spray, aimed, and fired.
"Ah! What the hell, Park?"
"I know you like your car, but come on, man, you look like you're staring at me."
He blinked, gave me a face, then lifted the hose I hadn't noticed was in his hand.
"I was just going to wash it."
"Okay, then stop drooling over it and do it. I'm almost done in here."
He glared and walked around to the front, turning the hose on to spray the car down. When I finally finished cleaning up, I slid out of the car with my drink and the cloth and slammed the door, eying Jay while he worked on scrubbing the hood. Damn, the guy got into cleaning when it came to his car. Not that I minded, those muscles were delicious to stare at, even better since his shirt was off.
Hmm?
Noticing the hose on the ground right behind him, I smirked and sneaked over. I set down my stuff before grabbing the handle and aiming with a cocky grin.
"Hey, smexy."
He turned, getting a full-on shower from the spray.
"Parker!"
Okay, I knew that was a cheap shot, but after all the stress with Callem and my job, I really just didn't care. He leapt from his car's hood, making me yelp as I tried to get to the big apple tree in our front yard before he could catch me. While he was the bulky sexy one, I was the nimble fast one. So, thankfully I was able to get myself up and into the branches before he could grab my foot and pull me back down.
"Get down here, you little monkey."
I knew better than to do that. He would just tickle me till I peed myself, again. Yes, he'd done it before, when we were in high school.
"Make me, butthead."
Normally he'd just wait until I came down since he wasn't the most nimble of climbers, but this time he just grinned and sauntered back toward his car. I thought he would just keep cleaning it and ignore me, but instead he grabbed the hose and began dragging it over.
"Oh, don't you dare."
He looked up at me when he got to the base of the tree, then turned the top of the sprayer until it clicked to a specific setting.
"Do what? This?"
Suddenly, I had a straight shot of water blasting me in the face.
"Ah."
My hands reached up to grab the branch I knew was there, but the darn water made it too slippery so when I tried to lift my weight up, my fingers quickly slipped from the wet bark.
"Shit."
There was no other branch directly below it to grab so I began freaking out in anticipation of the landing. There wasn't even a way to turn around and try to land on my feet, even though that would still cause an injury. I'd rather break a foot than a neck. Except, when I did land, albeit roughly, I definitely didn't feel anything break...
"You can stop panicking now. I've got you."
Eh?
Looking up, I realized that Jay had indeed caught me. The amount of relief that brought made my body sag in his arms, forcing him to hold me tighter or let me fall to the grass below. Thankfully he chose the former.
"Hey, you never answered my question before."
"Hm?"
"How do you know if you're gay?"
I nearly spat again, but thankfully I wasn't drinking anything. Seriously, who asks that so randomly? Twice! After the amount of girls Jayson had had over, I could honestly say I was about ninety-nine percent positive that he was all sorts of straight. However, since he seemed so determined to get a stupid answer to a question, I really didn't know how to reply to with words. I just reached up and grabbed two fistfuls of his short hair, then yanked him down until our lips smashed together.
Okay, the dreams were true, his lips feel fucking amazing and this time I'm not half out of it so I can actually enjoy.
Grinning against those luscious lips, I swiped my tongue along his bottom one, but instead of getting a moan like one would expect, he actually yelped, dropped me, and bolted back to his car.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted, slightly crouched behind his SUV. Pushing myself up on my arms, I raised my brow and snickered.
"That, good sir, was a kiss... and also the response you wanted. You do remember you did that in the bathtub, right? Also, you're obviously not gay."
He looked a bit confused at first, but then a big grin broke across his lips and he stood up.
"Sweet!"
I picked up the hose from where he'd dropped it and brought it back over, shaking my head.
"Well, now that we've got that all figured out, here. I'm going to go change clothes."
I handed him the hose and walked toward the door... except a certain jet of water suddenly sprayed me in the butt.
"Hey!"
Spinning around, I saw Jayson laughing like crazy and growled.
Oh? You wanna mess with me, eh?
Running over behind him, I grabbed the hose from his hand with my right one, then yanked the front of his pants open just long enough to lock the thing on 'spray' and shove it right down.
"Woah!"
Before he could grab me again or get the nozzle out of his pants, I was back inside, skidding across the floor to my room. If I hadn't slipped on the hardwood in the hallway, I might have been able to get my door shut and locked before he caught up to me. Instead, he yanked me up by the neck and slammed me against the wall, but when I looked up into his eyes, expecting anger. I didn't see any.
"Jay?"
His hands slowly moved to either side of my head, making my breath hitch. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest when he began to lean forward.
"I wanna check again," he whispered, lips just barely brushing against my own.
Knock knock knock.
Jay jumped back, gaze darting every which way as I quickly ran to answer the door.
Oh my god! He almost kissed me for real.
I was torn between running back to help him 'double-check' and seeing who was at the door. Said door won out, though. Swinging it open, I stood there, a bit confused and definitely surprised.
"Uh... Mr. Crowery?"
My boss looked at me with a slight grin, making me glance down, then back up with a blush tinting my cheeks.
"U-Uh, the hose... malfunctioned."
"Indeed. Well, I've come over to formally request your help on a new research project."
Eh? I'm not being fired?
"S-Sure. What did you need me to do?"
He smiled at my enthusiasm and handed over a clipboard with a good amount of papers on it. I glanced at the first one, then paled, holding the board back out to him.
"I won't do it."
My boss held his left hand up in a 'wait' gesture, then quickly explained.
"We aren't going to try to capture him again."
Huh?
"You... aren't?"
He nudged the clipboard back, and I hesitantly tucked it beneath my arm.
"I saw the video surveillance of you and Callem before he pulled you out the door."
Heat rushed to my cheeks immediately, making my blush ten times worse.
"Since he seems to have some sort of... interest in you, I think you'll be able to research him in his natural habitat."
"Um... With all due respect, sir, he's almost drowned me twice."
"But he is learning, is he not?"
Dammit, he has a point. Callem knows I can't breathe underwater now.
"I guess so."
"Good. So we have a deal. You research him where he belongs and write down your interactions, and we will not bother him at all."
My head snapped up, our eyes meeting again.
"No one from the research facility will bother him? No boats or watchers? Just Callem and I?"
He nodded, and I sighed, eyeing the hand he was now offering. I really just wanted to let Callem be, but if I did, they would easily find him again, being so close to shore. I grabbed his hand and shrugged.
"I guess I accept the project."
"Good, I'll expect a report about how he is doing tomorrow."
I nodded, then watched as he turned and walked back to his car. Moments later, he was gone.
"Man."
Leaning back against the doorjamb, I ran shaky fingers through my messy black hair and groaned. I wasn't fired, which was good, but now I had to bother Callem again or risk him being captured a second time.
"This sucks."
Arms gently wrapped around my waist right before Jay nuzzled his nose into the nape of my neck and took a deep breath. And damn it if I my legs didn't wobble when he softly blew it out against my sensitive skin.
"What did he want?"
You're not gay, Jayson.
Or at least that's what I wanted to say, but instead I just rested my cheek against his soft hair and let out a shaky breath.
"He said they wouldn't recapture Callem, if I agree to study him where he is."
I felt his arms tighten gently and relaxed back against his firm body.
"I've gotta go. He wants a report tomorrow."
He put his hands on my elbows, turning me so that I had to look at him.
"Aren't you going to change and get some lunch?"
"I-I've got a couple Oreos left in my truck..."
"Parker."
His look made me fidget and stomp past him, grabbing the bag of Doritos and a new protein shake before walking back out the door. I was just reaching for the passenger's side handle of my truck so I could set the food down when Jay grabbed my wrist, forcing me to swing around. The momentum made my back hit the door, but he seemed completely fine with that as he zeroed in like a predator who had just caught himself some prey.
"Jay, dammit. You aren't gay. You freaked when I kissed you a few minutes ago, remember?"
"You didn't give me a chance to double-check."
His voice was quiet but deep as he leaned in, and since I had nowhere to go, I forced myself to relax and let him do what he wanted. Believe me, once his lips were back on mine, I didn't have to force myself all that much. After a minute, I felt him pull away slightly to catch his breath and took my chance.
"So, wanna stick your dick up my butt yet, big boy?"
He coughed, jumping back and hitting his chest as he choked on air. Okay, that was pretty funny, but I knew he'd recover in a second and be mad so I quickly ran around to the driver's side and climbed in, tossing my food on the other seat before getting the doors locked just in time. A loud bang sounded on my window as he pounded his fist against it moments later.
"Parker!"
I stuck my tongue out at him and gave a slight wave before backing my truck out of the driveway and heading off toward the beach.