Love Me Tomorrow (35 page)

Jake smiled as Levi headed back over to the sofa and sat back down.

“I was actually planning to move in with Julia for a while,” Jake admitted.

“As pleased as I am to hear you hadn’t intended to continue living with Victor.” Levi hissed after swallowing a mouthful of the hot beverage. “That wasn’t really an answer, was it?”

Jake shrugged, reaching over and brushing his fingertips across Levi’s cheek.

“As you’ve pointed out on multiple occasions now, it’s not as if I won’t have room for your stuff.”

Jake smirked, nodding as he looked around the room. “As appealing as that sounds, in theory, likely not the smartest move on our part, right?”

Levi chewed on his bottom lip, holding the cup of coffee up to his lips but not taking a drink. “I think if we were to be brutally honest with one another, the right answer would typically be to wait. At the same time, can you actually imagine not being over here every night anyway?”

Jake grinned, taking the coffee cup from Levi and taking a sip before handing it back. “In this moment, no, I can’t imagine ever being away from you. But there’s so much we don’t know about one another. Moving in feels… potentially dangerous.”

Levi laughed, nodding. “I still want you to.”

“I still want to,” Jake admitted, folding a leg as he turned on the sofa to face Levi. “Honestly, any unknown quirks which end up driving each of us nutty about the other, they’re going to be there regardless of when we decide to live together.”

“Guess you’re moving in, then,” Levi said, taking another drink as he tried camouflaging his big cheesy grin.

“This is fucking crazy,” Jake said, “you know that?”

“We’ll be crazy together, I guess.”

They were both grinning like idiots as they sat on the sofa staring at one another.

“If you think about it,” Levi said. “It’s not as if we just met. We’ve been getting to know one another for a couple of months now.”

“That is true, Levi, though we both know living with someone is different.”

“I simply don’t care,” Levi admitted, a little shocked by that fact. “I only know that I love you, Jake. As a result, any and all other reasoning is pointless.”

Jake nodded. “Believe me when I say that what I feel for you, Levi, it’s beyond anything I’ve experienced before.”

“I feel the same for you.”

“It actually scares me a little,” Jake added, “like I wouldn’t be able to survive without you.”

Levi placed the coffee mug down onto the bench, understanding Jake all too well. The gravity of it was a bit oppressive at times. “Kiss me stupid.”

Jake laughed and Levi felt his heart begin to race as a result.

“Are you calling
me
stupid, or merely wanting me to kiss you until
you’re
stupid?” Jake asked.

“Does it fucking matter?” Levi grinned, lying backward on the sofa as Jake crawled on top of him.

“It does not,” Jake whispered, before their lips came together.

Levi became immediately lost in the pressure of Jake’s body pressing into his, the taste of his mouth and the electrical sensations created in the wake of Jake’s hands sliding under Levi’s T-shirt. It took seconds for Levi to disappear into the heat and hardness of Jake, not caring whether he might live or die if it meant they could remain in that moment of whispered declarations and pleas of desire.

Levi finally had everything he’d ever wanted, and the
why
of how they’d come together no longer mattered because what they shared was true. There were no doubts plaguing him as he believed with all his heart that he and Jake were meant to find one another.

Now that they had, Levi was never letting go.

Epilogue

Standing next to the stove wearing a black and grey striped apron meant to protect his khaki shorts and white cotton tank, Levi read over the recipe once more, double checking that he had all the ingredients lined up and ready to go. It was now mid-summer and Jake had begun attempting to teach him how to cook. The lessons hadn’t been going all that well thus far. They’d each been blaming that fact on Levi’s busy schedule, though there were other reasons.

“That apron looks
much
better on you when you’re naked,” Jake said, entering the kitchen and looking over Levi’s shoulder.

Therein laid the main reason Levi wasn’t picking up all things culinary very quickly. Jake only seemed interested in teaching Levi how to cook when he agreed to wear nothing but the apron. At the same time, Levi was quite incapable of walking around the loft bare-assed without Jake trying to get all up in him—not that Levi was complaining, but it was a bit of a conundrum.

In any other instance, showing your ass wasn’t considered good form, but on the fourth floor of 219 Waterfront Drive, doing so almost always resulted in hot, sweaty, ass-pounding.

“I’m pretty sure our guests on the terrace appreciate a certain level of modesty,” Levi said, giving Jake a peck on the lips before he went back to reading the cooking directions for sautéed mushrooms that Jake had picked out. “Especially considering I’m cooking the ’shrooms they’ll be eating.”

Jake ran the palm of his hand over Levi’s butt, giving a squeeze. “So long as I get the opportunity to eat out your ass after they’ve all gone home, I’m good with that.”

Levi grinned, shaking his head. “You are a bit of a mess, you do know that, right?”

“I can’t help it.” Jake shrugged unapologetically. “I’m so fucking horny I can’t see straight.”

Levi laughed, though Jake didn’t appear to be thrilled he found the situation amusing.

It had become a familiar pattern during the last six months whenever one of Jake’s twenty-four hour shifts ended while one of Levi’s major events was going on. Jake would come home after work and be asleep by the time Levi got in, further extending the length of time since they’d last had the opportunity to have sex. While he was fairly certain absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder—it most definitely increased Jake’s appetite for fucking.

Jake slipped his arms around Levi’s waist, hugging him from behind. “Tonight you’re all mine, baby, and I’m gonna make you beg for it.”

Levi felt his face flush as Jake lightly kissed his neck. “You do say the sweetest things.”

Jake chuckled, and Levi knew that in spite of the sarcastic delivery, Jake was well aware he’d meant that quite sincerely.

“I think they’re getting ready to do it,” Valerie whispered, hovering just inside the open door to the loft, standing next to Angelo.

Angelo was juggling multiple bottles of wine while Valerie clutched some sort of potato casserole she’d insisted on making.

“Awesome,” Angelo muttered, “so this will be like X-rated dinner theatre then?”

Jake started laughing.

Levi sighed, long ago having realized any fears that Jake might be jealous of Angelo were completely unfounded—a fact Levi had initially found endearing. It turned out Jake found Valerie and Angelo’s particular brand of sadistic sarcasm completely adorable—something Levi found less appealing with each passing day.

“Remind me again
why
we invited them?” Levi asked, tossing the recipe onto the countertop.

“Because we’re your fur-iee-nzzz-ah,” Valerie said loudly and slowly, as if she were speaking to a near deaf, Alzheimer’s sufferer. “I swear, the more sex that boy gets, the dumber he becomes.”

Levi opened his mouth to tell her where she could stick her friendship but Jake cut him off at the pass.

“Plus you know how much they amuse your incredibly sexy , new lover.” Jake gave his waist a squeeze, still hugging him from behind.

“Don’t you just loathe those couples who go around wearing one another like a shawl?” Valerie asked Angelo, while smirking at Jake and Levi, who had yet to let go of one another.

“I think those couples are awesome.” Jake gave Levi another kiss on the cheek. “It’s like having a live-action Snuggie.”

“What he said.” Levi thumbed back at his man.

Angelo frowned. “You lost me with the whole Snuggie bit.”

“Spoken like a man without a live-action Snuggie,” Jake muttered.

“How is it that the two people who live two floors down manage to be the ones who show up late?” Levi asked.

Valerie rolled her eyes. “I didn’t realize we were on the clock, jeez.”

“What a rude host for pointing that out,” Angelo added, looking particularly stung by the perceived social slight.

Valerie smacked Angelo on the arm. “Miss Manners would so not approve.”

“I should say not,” Angelo said, indignantly.

“I used to think it was a lack of sex that made him so mean.” Valerie exhaled a sigh of resignation. “Apparently, it’s not that he desperately
needed
dick all that time... he simply
is
a dick.”

“Can the bitter-bitches leave the casserole on the island and take the wine upstairs?” Levi asked.

Angelo and Valerie gasped in unison, pretending to be shocked and offended by the implication.

“What a rude way for one’s boss to address his employees,” Valerie said, setting the dish down on the island.

“Amazing how I manage to get downgraded from friend to employer in the blink of an eye these days,” Levi said, smiling when Valerie stuck her tongue out at him like she was twelve.

“It’s a girl’s prerogative to change her mind,” Angelo pointed out.

“Thank you, Bobby Brown.” Levi shot him the stink-eye, which Angelo seemed to enjoy receiving.

Valerie giggled at that, taking one of the bottles of wine from Angelo. “Thank you for defending my honor, Ang.”

“Anytime, sweet cheeks,” Angelo said as the pair of them turned to walk back toward the landing.

“Not here even five minutes and already I can tell this is lining up to be a dreadful evening,” Valerie said, loud enough to be overheard.

Levi tried counting to ten but only made it to about six before exploding.

“What asshole dropped the ball, allowing that sort of evil to be born unto this Earth?” he asked, turning around in Jake’s arms so they were facing one another. “Was Van Helsing taking a spa day?”

“You’re very sexy when you get all irritable,” Jake said, smiling seductively.

“That would probably mean more were you currently not so sex-starved.”

“That stings, baby, like I’d pass on screwing your brains out regardless of any mood swings.”

“I’m not sure I enjoy being cast as the irrational one in this relationship.”

Jake leaned in, kissing Levi softly, providing a tiny hint of what lay ahead later that evening, when it would once again be just the two of them.

“Get those ’shrooms going, baby.” Jake finally let go of Levi. “I’m headed back up to the roof to flip the meat, which should be ready in five minutes or so. It’ll need to sit for a bit before we cut it.”

“Take that casserole up with you, please?” Levi asked.

“If you wanted it upstairs why did you have Val leave it down here?” Jake asked.

Levi looked at Jake like he was insane. “Um… she’s a guest not a pack mule, darling.”

“Of course, what
was
I thinking?” Jake was grinning like an idiot as he slipped on the oven mitts and headed out onto the landing toward the stairwell that led up to the roof.

Levi turned his attention back to the task at hand, smiling at how far he and Jake had come in such a short amount of time.

“It’s a fucking miracle,” he muttered, heating the butter and chopped garlic in one of the fancy stainless steel pans Jake had acquired from his split with Victor.

“Ouch…shit!” Levi hissed as a tiny drop of hot butter splattered onto his wrist.

He’d decided long ago to throw in the towel on that whole no cursing resolution from the year before. While he was still attempting to not use coarse language during work hours, it was pointless when it came to private time. Sex with Jake had pretty much turned Levi into gutter-whore-mouth-Gary, who had an affinity for the f-bomb—among a plethora of other colorful commentary which seemed to
inspire
Jake, for a lack of a better term.

In spite of the stellar sexual chemistry the two of them shared, they’d suffered some growing pains, especially early on in the relationship. There’d been several awkward weeks in the beginning, which was expected considering Jake never
technically
left after spending that first weekend with Levi. They’d been tip-toeing around one another, careful not to offend by holding back any behaviors each feared might irritate the other.

It had been a none-too delicate ballet that came to a screeching halt when Levi came down with the flu.

Nothing like twenty-four hours of fevered delirium combined with fluids coming out of each end to break through that honeymoon haze.

In a sense, that experience almost seemed fitting because they’d experienced a kamikaze-style relationship from the get-go, logistically speaking.

On one level, Levi had known more about who Jake was as a person, long before they’d ever had sex. They’d had an old-fashioned type of courtship in that sense. There was an emotional connection and a genuine love and appreciation for one another already in place before they’d shared their first kiss. They’d spent so much time talking and getting to know one another because it was literally all they
could
do, considering Victor had still been in the picture at that point. The flip side was that other than the one night they’d shared a hotel room with one another at Glenellen, Levi and Jake had spent very little time alone together—in an intimate setting.