Mabry's Minor Mistake: M/M Holiday Romance, page 11
“Jimmy, tell me what you think you fucked up?” I asked. I worried that he was more confused than I’d assumed. I needed to straighten things out with him.
He rested his elbows on the marble counter, placing his forehead against his clasped hands, not looking at me. “God, the list of things I’ve fucked up when it comes to you is long, May. I need to tell you something that I’m pretty sure you’re not going to want to hear, but after I get it out, I’ll get you a room at Chamberlain down the hall from your mom. I lied to you that there were no rooms available because… You don’t have to stay here with me or work on the game, and nothing changes with regard to your father’s care, I promise.”
Seeing him so upset had my stomach flipping. I confirmed for myself that Jimmy Lewis was a kind, loving, individual who just needed to know someone gave a damn about him. His mother seemed like a nasty piece of work who had a judgmental attitude when it came to Jimmy.
I didn’t get the impression Dr. Jordan was forgiving of the mistakes her only son had made when he was just a kid who was maybe a little misguided and craved attention. It was apparent the doctor had other goals that had taken precedent over Jimmy, and those memories would last him a lifetime. I hated that for him.
I’d never met his father, but I could see the handsome guy in front of me needed to know someone cared about him and wanted to spend time with him—and not because of some stupid sense of obligation.
While I’d been staying at Jimmy’s home, I’d found myself missing him when he was busy doing other things. I couldn’t say I’d ever have anticipated how important Jimmy Lewis would become to me in such a short time, but it wasn’t a short time in my mind. I’d been thinking about him for years.
I wanted to show him how significant he was to me. I damn well needed to be sure I was reading the situation right, because if I wasn’t, it was my heart on the line. How in the hell I’d come to care about Jimmy in such a short time—well, it had been ten years in the making, hadn’t it?
“Honestly, I’m not planning to go anywhere unless you’re not comfortable with me staying with you. I gave you my word that I’d do the MVP Challenge with you, and I’m going to do it,” I affirmed for him.
My brain wanted me to press him for whether there was a chance for anything beyond the game, but I didn’t have the guts to do it. If he said no, I knew I’d be heartbroken, and I didn’t believe I had the bandwidth to deal with it at the moment.
Looking at Jimmy Lewis with new eyes wasn’t easy for me. For so damn long, I’d despised his ass, given the college experience I was sure I’d never forgive, even having contemplated how to find him and kill him if given the chance, but…
Confronted with JJ Lewis, the suave, confident businessman had been a bit of an eye-opening experience. There was still some innocence about him that I couldn’t pinpoint, but being around the man again had been a complete surprise and made me wonder if we’d only made a few different choices back then, could things have worked in a different way for us?
If I hadn’t left him that night and had stayed to talk about the kiss, maybe we could have avoided a whole lot of heartache—the both of us. That was a question without an answer that had bothered me for years.
“You’ll stay? You’ll stay here? With me?” Jimmy asked, seeming a bit dazed by my announcement.
“Yes, I’ll stay here with you,” I assured. “Now, tell me why you think I need to hook up with a woman,” I asked. No time like the present…
Jimmy’s face flushed again, making my heart clench a bit. After a moment, he glanced up, pushing his glasses into place. “What… I mean you must…” That bewildered look he sported was pretty damn cute.
I stepped closer to him. “I don’t mean that you think I need to hook up. I had a really shitty relationship that ended badly a couple of years ago, so I’ve sort of been sitting on the bench regarding my dating life. How about you? Anyone special?”
I was in his space, and I was surprised when he took a significant inhale and closed his eyes. “Th-th-that goes back to having s-s-something to tell you that you might not l-l-like hearing. It’s really nothing…” he sputtered.
I reached up and removed his glasses, folding the arms in and sliding them into my shirt pocket. “Can you see at all without them?” I asked him, off-topic, in hopes of relaxing him a bit.
“I, uh, I can see big things, but they’re a little blurry. I’ve had eight appointments to get Lasik, but I chicken out every time,” he explained, which completely fit his personality. I was coming to find that Jimmy was unsure of himself in ways he shouldn’t be, but I believed that went back to his parents’ lack of attention when he was younger. He’d made some mistakes I was sure could have been avoided with a little parental guidance and a lot of love.
“Good. I think your glasses are sexy,” I responded.
“Y-y-you… Wait… You what?” More sputtering.
I stepped closer to the point where we would have been breathing in the other’s air—if Jimmy was breathing. I placed my hand on his shoulder and studied his bottomless baby blue eyes, smiling at the stunned look on his face.
I leaned closer to his ear. “Again, why do you think I’d want to hook-up with a woman,” I whispered, feeling him trembling against my fingertips as I moved them up to his neck. I gently brushed my lips along the shell of his ear and over his stubbled cheek.
A shiver skittered up my spine at the closeness of him. I knew it was something I could become addicted to with no effort on my part.
“I think I’m dreaming,” Jimmy whispered before he turned his head and his lips met mine.
My mind went back in time like a bullet train to a warm summer night in College Station, Texas, when an adorable freshman had given me a soft kiss—puke breath and all. That was such a funny memory back then, but Jimmy’s lips on mine at this moment was no laughing matter.
I swept my tongue over his soft bottom lip, and he didn’t hesitate to invite me into his warm mouth. He was tentative for a moment, so I wrapped him in my arms and hauled him up to kiss the living daylights out of him. He hung from me like a ragdoll for a moment, and then, he morphed into a koala climbing a tree—which was me.
Jimmy wrapped his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist, and he kissed me with everything I hoped was inside him. Suddenly, he pulled back and gazed into my eyes. “Is this real?”
Twelve
Jimmy/JJ
In what world did I find myself in my kitchen in the arms of NBA MVP Mabry Caldor, having just kissed the man? Not in a world I’d believed could exist. Three words popped into my head… “Is this real?”
My heart was in my throat at that point, about to choke me to death. May turned to his left and dropped my ass on the countertop. “Define real? I find it very odd that you believed that girl from earlier could be someone I’d enjoy spending time with,” he stated, cocking his eyebrow at me.
My insides melted.
It was then I noticed I hadn’t let go of him, and for the life of me, I couldn’t get my arms or legs to release him from my clutches. I couldn’t imagine letting him go. “Honestly, I thought if she was a friend of Kassie’s that she might be a good fit. I didn’t realize my assistant had such terrible taste in friends,” I answered.
May started laughing—hard. His head tilted back as he almost blew the roof off my kitchen, and I couldn’t help but laugh with him. It was as though he hadn’t a care in the world, and I loved seeing that side of him.
When we calmed down, he leaned closer and kissed the tip of my nose. “Jimmy, I’m gay.”
I wasn’t hallucinating back in college!! “Are you out?” I’d never seen one word about Mabry Caldor being gay, and if he was out, then it would have for sure made the news.
“I’m not in. I think you overestimate the amount of attention a has-been basketball player gets once he blows out his knee and can’t play professionally any longer,” Mabry joked.
“Were you out in college?” I asked, trying to let the information seep into my thick skull.
May chuckled. “Sweetheart, I didn’t really have time to do anything except study and play basketball. I didn’t make friends with my teammates except for Grayson March. He and I still chat every once in a while. He knows about the bullshit with Clayton,” he responded.
That made sense. “Did your team know you were gay?” I asked him.
May sighed. “Probably not because I didn’t advertise my hook-ups. I mean, I didn’t date back then, so how could they? I guess I just didn’t feel like I needed to be the poster boy for out athletes. I’m a private person, Jimmy. I don’t like people knowing personal things about…”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, removing my arms from his neck and unclasping my feet from around his waist. It was my fault he’d become so guarded. Hell, who wouldn’t after someone obliterated their life?
May grabbed my arms and put them back around his shoulders. “No. That’s the past. We’re here in the present, and that doesn’t matter anymore. Besides, Clayton was the one who made me so closed off. He took money from me without my knowing, and he actually took my championship ring and tried to pawn it when I stopped seeing him. I fooled myself into thinking that he might be the right guy for me, but when I found out about him cloning my debit card and withdrawing money from my account without my permission, I knew I was just being an idiot. If he’d cared about me at all, he wouldn’t have stolen from me.”
Oh, I had a way to pay Clayton back— “What’s his last name?” I asked as I began playing with the back of May’s beautiful dark blond hair.
May laughed and kissed the end of my nose again. “Oh, no, my little villain. No hacking him. He’s back east wreaking havoc in someone else’s life, now, I believe. I want you out of the hacker business.”
I leaned forward and connected our lips again, feeling my heart almost beat out of my chest. I couldn’t believe I was kissing the man of my dreams. How had something so wonderful happened to me?
Tongues swirled. Teeth clacked as we tried to devour each other. I was doing my best to crawl inside him, and he only held me tighter, his hands resting on my lower back just above my...
I broke the kiss to ask an important question. “Are you a top or bottom?” I blurted out. I had no idea my preference because I’d never been with—oh, that might be something I need to bring up.
May’s face showed I’d confused him before he smirked and started to chuckle, a low rumbly sound deep in his chest. “Wow! You don’t beat around the bush, do you? I’ve only topped. How about you?”
“I, uh… Technically, I’ve never… Well, that’s not to say I don’t know how…” I was all over the place, but I wasn’t sure how to explain that the only experience I’d ever had was of the silicone variety.
May lifted his left hand and placed a finger over my lips, which I kissed. He smiled at me. “Jimmy, have you ever been with a guy?”
The heat was rising from my chest, up my neck, and right to my face. “A, uh, a man? Not technically.” Seemed like the best way to answer without imploding in flames of embarrassment.
“Technically? What’s that mean, exactly?” May insisted, but he wasn’t harsh about it.
I sighed. “I have some toys that mimic things I would do with a man if I could have had sex with who I wanted.”
Mabry looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “So, you’re telling me you’re a virgin? Not even a girl in your past?”
“Technically. Look, I figured out early on that I was gay. The only woman who interested me was Maia, our housekeeper and cook when I was growing up, but that was because she was like a surrogate mother. Like everything in my life that I want to pursue, I did all of the research about what went where and how many different positions could bring a partner pleasure,” I explained to him, wondering if smoke was coming out of my ears yet because the heat of my face had to be near scorching.
“Okay,” Mabry responded, twirling his finger in a keep-going manner.
“After I left A&M, my parents finally quit torturing each other and moved to separate houses. We used to have a big house in the Hills, so they sold it—fired Maia, but Mom hired her back to work for her on special occasions—and each of them got their own place. However, they never got divorced. They’re both successful doctors, and splitting up the money would have ended Lewis Health Industries and Mom’s rehab center, so they’re still married. Mom found out dad was cheating, which made me think maybe sex just messed up everything, so I sort of just put it in the back of my mind—until I thought of you,” I rambled, steeling myself to tell him my secret.
“I’ve been in love with you since the night you took me around to the parties. I was devastated after you said you’d never want to be with me, and that was why I did what I did by deleting your student account, but I just couldn’t let the idea of you go. That was why I had to keep asking you to do the MVP Challenge video game. I still love you, and I have no hope of you ever feeling the same way, so don’t say anything, okay?” God, I’d melt into the countertop if he felt like he had to say he loved me in return, or thank you. That would be like a punch to the face.
May’s face went a little pale. “Was I the guy you wanted to be…?” I nodded and pushed him back so I could get off of the counter and escape to my bedroom. I’d humiliated myself enough for one night.
My head was pounding as if my brain was trying to break out of my skull. I glanced at my phone on the charger next to my bed to see it was almost six in the morning. I’d tossed and turned in my bed until two and then passed out from exhaustion.
I sat up and moved my legs over the side of the bed, just in time to hear the security system shut off and the front door close before it was reengaged. I hopped up and walked over to the window in time to see Mabry running down the driveway and to the left.
I hurried to change and get down to my office in the garage before he returned. May had said he was going to the Center to spend the day with his father, so maybe I could avoid him until the evening when we were heading to the Christmas festival. With all of the activity, I hoped perhaps he’d forget about our discussion the previous night. Famous last words…
After a quick shower and a touch-up shave, I dressed in jeans and an old Stanford sweatshirt before sliding my feet into a pair of Vans I’d had since college. I went through to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, glancing at the coffee cake on the counter that my personal chef had dropped off, along with a few meals for the week. My stomach flipped at the thought of putting food into it, so I decided that maybe I should save the cake for later.
My chef was a very nice lady named Sheila, and she made the food at her house and dropped it off at mine, letting herself in with a code and putting the food in the fridge or freezer. It worked well for me—no mess to contend with or awkward conversations with a relative stranger, which was perfect for me.
It then dawned on me that I wasn’t alone in the house at the moment, I had a guest, so I decided to put the cinnamon-apple coffeecake on the island for May. I grabbed a plate and fork for him in case he wanted something to eat when he returned from his run, and then I hurried downstairs to get to work.
I was hoping to get May to do another couple of hours in the mo-cap suit later in the week, and maybe I could get him to do more reaction audio before he had to go back to Chicago. The man ran a business—a very successful one at that—and he couldn’t stay away forever.
I planned to begin with the footage from a few days earlier and splice it into sequences to send to my coders so they could add in the other players and begin putting the action together. They’d been recruiting young people from local high schools to do the same work May was doing with me, and I’d been told things were coming along very well.
I turned on music, having found I worked better with background noise, and I turned it up a little before I settled into my tasks. First I checked email, finding one from my assistant.
From: leonardkassie@AdvanTech.com
To: LewisJJ@AdvanTech.com
Date: 10 Dec 04:29 AM PST
Re: Sorry…
JJ—I’m so sorry about Anya. She told me she wasn’t just attracted to a man’s bank account, and I believed her. Clearly, she heard me say professional basketball player and saw dollar signs. Please apologize to Mabry for me.
I just got home from having to corral her crazy ass into a cab. I’ll talk to you on Monday. I have no plans this weekend, so if you need me to do something, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Kass
I laughed at her need to apologize for that awful woman, but I was truly grateful Anya was so terrible. I pecked out a quick reply.
From: LewisJJ@AdvanTech.com
To: leonardkassie@AdvanTech.com
Date: 10 Dec 07:16 AM PST
Re: Re: Sorry…
No worries. Things worked out okay—I finally got my kiss. I’ll tell you about it Monday. Take the weekend off!
JJ
I then opened the animation editing program and pulled up the reel with the mo-cap work, shutting my mind off from my problems and concentrating on the work.
I was lost in smoothing Mabry’s motion as he drove to the hoop when my shoulder was touched, scaring the absolute bejeezus out of me. Some of the old houses in the area were purported to be haunted, and if that was the case with mine, my ass would be nothing but a flesh-colored streak as I ran like hell to get away.
Thankfully, when I turned, I saw Mabry’s fuzzy legs next to my chair. I glanced up to see he was holding a cup of coffee in his hand as he stood, feet bare, next to me.
“Whatcha doin’?” he inquired, staring at the dots attached to the mo-cap suit he’d worn as they moved across the screen like fireflies, unattached to each other as the dots forming May’s long arm and large hand came down for a dunk.
“That’s you when you were doing the motion work. This is how it shows up on the screen, and then I put the plays together and overlap your avatar when my graphics guy finishes it. We’ll uh, we won’t use everything we get for this sample game. We’ll hold back some footage for the full game that’ll come out next Halloween. The sample that gamers can download during the playoffs will only have one game and three players per team. The full game will have all five players on each side,” I detailed for him, more comfortable talking about work than anything else.
