WIP Wednesday: Fresh out of the shower with Connor and Jake

It's been quite awhile since my last #WIPWednesday post! I've had some health issues that forced me to take a step back from my writing for awhile, but I'm back with a vengeance now. I'm a month and a half into my two-month treatment, and I'm finally starting to feel more like myself. And that means I'm back to writing. There were even a few hairy weeks there where I wasn't drinking coffee...what a relief to be past that dark time! *g*

I'll be at #RT16 next week (YAY!) so right now I'm in the midst of packing and gathering up all the awesome swag I'll be taking. Keep an eye out next week for a chance to win one of the messenger bags I'm giving away there. (And if you're attending #RT16 in Vegas next week, come find me! I'll have messenger bags, travel mugs and a bunch of other fun stuff.)

Last week I submitted my novella Better than Okay to my publisher. I spent the week at Universal with Thing 1 and Thing 2 (and no Hubs, so frazzled isn't a strong enough word to explain how stressed I was...) and only barely made my deadline. I always overestimate the amount of time I'll be able to write while on vacation, which when you're talking about running herd on a 9 year old and a 6 year old at a theme park, is pretty much zero. But I did manage to finish up Connor and Jake's story, and I'm sharing some of that here with you today for #WIPWednesday.

This picks up just after Connor and Jake have come home from a night out at a karaoke club and indulged in some fun times in the shower (one of my favorite places for sex scenes...).

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Credit

Better than Okay,  release date October 2016

The shower spray had gone a bit tepid, but Jake didn’t care, too consumed with nipping and biting at Connor’s lips. It had been awhile since they'd indulged in playful kissing. When he’d finally had his fill of Connor’s mouth, he moved on, mapping the contours of Connor’s face with tiny, closed-mouth kisses that made Connor laugh. 

“We’ve wasted enough water for the night, don't you think?” 

Jake chuckled at Connor's admonishment, pushing up off the shower floor and holding a hand out to help Connor up as well. He reached behind himself, turning the spray off with a flick of his wrist. Connor was already out of the tub, and Jake grinned as a hand shoved a towel inside the curtain. 

“Back there, at the club, were you OK? It seemed like—” Jake began, as he stepped out of the shower, but Connor stopped him by flicking his own wet towel out, catching Jake across the torso. Jake took the motion as the challenge it was, rubbing the faint sting away as he tore off after a completely naked Connor into their bedroom. 

There wasn’t anywhere to go in the small confines of the room, and Jake caught him easily, tackling him and pinning him to the bed. The springs made a loud protest, and they stilled their motions, waiting to see if Gavin would notice and yell at them to be quiet. When no loud bangs on the wall or shouts resulted, they resumed their tussle, struggling for dominance as they rolled around on the generously sized bed. The match was over as quickly as it started when Connor managed to wedge a sharp elbow against Jake’s groin, exerting just enough pressure to prove he had the upper hand. 

Jake surrendered, flopping onto his back, his head propped up by the mound of pillows. Connor collapsed next to him, arms folded behind his head as he studied the ceiling. 

“At the club?” he prompted, and Jake was tempted to tell Connor to forget it, that he’d rather spend his time screwing than talking. Then again, that was what they normally did, and Jake couldn’t help but worry that attitude was to blame for the uncomfortable moment they’d had at the club. 

“The song,” Jake said, wondering how the hell he was going to explain it without sounding like a sap. “I'm being serious, Con. It just seemed like the stupid song we had to sing upset you.” 

Connor captured the hand Jake had thrown the pillow with, pressing a soft kiss to the palm. “And I’m seriously telling you not to be serious,” Connor said. 

Jake was silent for a moment, studying Connor’s eyes, their blue depths darkened with arousal and crinkling around the edges like they did when he was amused. 

“But—” 

“For Christ’s sake, Jake,” Connor huffed, dropping his hand and rolling to his back, resuming his survey of the ceiling. “I know what you meant. I just don’t feel the need to make this a thing. Everything's okay. We're okay.” 

Jake’s silence filled the room, and Connor gritted his teeth, turning over again to face him. 

“Let's not ruin a good night, alright? I'm tired, you're tired—let's just go to sleep.” 

Jake was quiet for another few seconds, wondering if he should pursue things or just let it go. He'd been doing a lot of that lately. It was infinitely easier to shut up and pretend everything was fine than to argue with Connor, especially since he saw so little of him lately. The remnants of his buzz and the languid contentment of satisfying sex evaporated. 

“Okay,” Jake muttered, swallowing his irritation as best he could. It helped when Connor curled around him, skin still slightly damp from the shower. Jake relaxed into the loose embrace, falling asleep before he could second-guess things anymore.

WIP Wednesday: A little rainy hump day angst

Photo credit: Jon Sullivan

It's gray and rainy here, but the rain is bringing a very welcome respite from 90+ degree temps, so I'll take it. I won't go so far as to say I'll be happy driving to work in it in a few hours, but I'll take it nonetheless.

Angsty, broody men and rain go together well, so I'm sharing a snippet from my untitled manuscript (I've really got to get on naming this thing) about Jake and Connor, whose relationship seems to be falling apart.

Jake just found out that Connor lied about where he was going to be, which sets off all kinds of warning  bells for Jake. Here's a peek at his internal monologue:

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Jake stalked down the hallway to their room, scowling at the neatly made bed. He’d forgotten that Gavin's sister Elaine was staying there for the night. He and Connor were supposed to be sleeping over at Chris' for the weekend.

He stomped back to the living room and threw himself on the couch, reaching for the remote and flicking on the television. A few minutes of channel surfing didn’t turn up anything that caught his attention, and even if he had, he didn’t think he could focus on something like a movie or television show while Connor was out gallivanting around town. So he sat and stewed until he could barely stand it, limbs practically twitching with nervous energy. As a contractor, he worked a lot with his hands and was up and around all day—he'd never been good at just sitting back and relaxing.

Not that it would be possible to relax at the moment. Jake ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He was overdue for a cut, but he'd been waiting for Connor to say something. Jake almost never kept track of things like that; Connor was the one who hounded him to go in for a cut when it started to get shaggy. If left to his own devices, Jake would only get it cut when it started to get so unruly that it made his baseball caps fit too tightly.

But Connor hadn't said anything. There had been no hastily scribbled Post-it note on the bathroom mirror or coupons tucked into Jake's wallet for his favorite salon chain. Hell, Jake hadn't been able to wear the Mariners hat he almost never took off for over a week now because it had gotten uncomfortable, and Connor hadn't noticed that, either.

Jake added that to his mental tally of everything that had been going wrong with Connor lately, resisting the urge to tug at his floppy locks in frustration. He needed to be doing something, but it wasn't like he could confront Connor when he didn't even know where he was. Jake knew he could text him—even at his most distracted and unavailable, Connor always responded to texts. But could he trust anything Connor said? Wouldn't he just claim to be with Chris and make Jake even angrier?

WIP Wednesday: At the beach!

Thing 2 and I found a double rainbow
on a rainy beach walk!

I'm at the beach for the next two weeks, so I thought it was only fitting I brought some of my characters with me.

I'm off to take the kidlets down to the sand to build castles and boogie board, but we won't be having near as much fun as Connor and Jake did in this sexy about making s'mores on the beach. *g*

Enjoy!!

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There was a blanket spread in the middle of the expanse of sand, but that wasn't where Connor led him. Jake went down without a fight when Connor nudged him to his knees, obediently nestling into the sand next to it. He luxuriated in the feel of the sand beneath him, shifting and scratching just as it would if they were really at the shore, while Connor pulled the bag with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate bars over and assembled a s'more.

“I borrowed my dad's fire pit, but I don't think it's warm enough to go out on the balcony with it. Luckily, I always have a plan B.” Connor mumbled around the s'more he held in his teeth. He dug through a bag again, rustling around in it before triumphantly holding up a lighter.

Jake was transfixed by the sight of Connor’s lips closed around the treat, his heart thudding slowly at the thought of those full lips parted around something else.

“Bit small, eh?” Jake teased, quirking an eyebrow at the small Bic.

Connor made a tsking sound, shaking his head. The lighter cast just enough brightness that Jake could see the way Connor’s blue eyes sparkled with amusement.

“If I was going to melt the whole thing, yes. But I have other plans, oh ye of little faith.” Connor held the lighter up to the chocolate, eyes narrowing as he concentrated on melting the chocolate without burning his fingers. When the first tiny bead dripped to the sand, he made a triumphant noise and flicked the lighter, plunging them back into the semi-darkness. Jake blinked, a corona of colors from the flame still burned into his retinas as he tried to adjust.

Before he could ask Connor what the plan actually was, Jake felt lips pressed against his. He responded without thinking, parting his own lips enough for Connor’s tongue to slide inside. The flavor of chocolate burst over his tongue, and it took him a few seconds to realize that Connor must have licked the melted chocolate. The mental image of Connor, lips and tongue painted with the sweet, sticky s’more made Jake groan, and he cupped the back of Connor’s head with his hand, pulling him in even closer so he could deepen the kiss.

“You’re such a tease,” he growled when Connor pulled back.

Connor snickered, flicking the lighter on again. His face was lit with a halo of dancing light again, and Jake smugly noted that Connor’s lips looked a bit swollen from his possessive kiss. He watched as Connor went through the process of melting more of the chocolate, this time leaving the lighter lit as he lifted the s’more to his mouth and licked it.

Jake was ready for the darkness this time, easily tracking Connor’s movements as he came closer again. He opened his mouth eagerly, stroking Connor’s tongue with his own to strip away all the chocolate that somehow tasted even sweeter mingled with a taste that was all Connor.

“Christ,” Jake muttered when Connor broke away again.

“Good, isn't it?” Connor bent his head, nipping at the tender skin of Jake’s neck. “And think, it's just the two of us, all alone on a deserted patch of beach.”

Jake was scrambling for the blanket before Connor had even finished his sentence, shaking it roughly to rid it of any lingering sand before spreading it carefully.

“God, your mouth,” Jake murmured, fixated on the dark outline of Connor’s lips, barely visible in the light of the moon. He groaned when he realized Connor still had the half-eaten s'more clamped in his teeth. “Would you forget the stupid s’more and just get down here?”

Connor grinned around his mouthful, winking as lasciviously as he could with graham cracker and marshmallow stuffed into his mouth. He dropped to his knees on the blanket and leaned over Jake, fishing in the sand for the discarded lighter.

“Trust me?” 

WIP Wednesday: More Connor and Jake

This summer seems like it's flying by! I'm heading off to Hilton Head Island for two weeks with the kids and Hubs on Saturday, and I'm really hoping to get a good amount of writing and editing done while I'm there. So next #WIPWednesday will be coming at you from the beach, though I haven't decided which project is going to be lavished in my attention while I'm there yet. Any suggestions? I'll be finishing up Some Assembly Required with Lex while I'm there, but after that I'll be diving into something else.

Should it be The Zen Den with sexy yoga teacher Owen and his newest student, Kincaid? Or maybe it's finally time to finish my YA manuscript Incoming Credits with adorably geeky Zeke and his heartthrob Hatcher. And I also have Connor and Jake languishing out there, the poor guys whose manuscript doesn't even have a title to call its own yet.

Connor and Jake's particular brand of angst is what I was feeling this week, so you get another snippet of their story. The two of them have just come from their first night out together in weeks, spent at a bar with a group of their friends. We come in on their cab ride home.

Let me know which WIP you'd like to me to work on in the comments! *g*

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Jake spent the short cab ride wondering what he should say to Connor once they were alone. Had he read too much into the way Connor had swayed into him during the chorus of the song they’d sung, or the way his own voice had hitched as he’d sung the last verse? They were both still a little drunk; maybe Jake should let it go until he was more level-headed.

Connor was unnaturally quiet as they made their way up two flights of stairs to the apartment he shared with their roommate, Gavin. Instead of slipping down the hall that lead to their bedroom as Jake had expected him to, though, Connor detoured into the kitchen.

“I have a little bit of work to get through before I can call it a night,” Connor said quietly, out of deference to Gavin, who was sacked out on the couch.

“It's Friday night, Con. Come on.” Jake knew he was perilously close to sounding whiny, but he didn't care. He just wanted Connor in bed with him, even if it was just to sleep.

“Just a few emails. I promise.” Connor was already immersed in something on his laptop, not even looking up when Jake sighed and gave up, retreating down the hallway.

It seemed like a shame to climb into the freshly made bed stinking of smoke from the club, so Jake shut the bedroom door so the sound wouldn't wake Gavin and walked through to the bathroom, turning the shower taps on and shirking out of his clothes. Leaving them in a pile on the floor never failed to get a rise out of Connor, and Jake felt a small zing of satisfaction at knowing the clothes would drive Connor crazy when he saw them. The contentedness from the club had definitely waned, and Jake felt himself falling straight back into the pit low-level resentfulness and irritation he'd been wallowing in lately.

He was enjoying the hot spray and too caught up in his own thoughts to hear the door open, and Jake had to bite back a yelp when he saw Connor’s head poke around the shower curtain.

“Jesus. A little warning?”

Connor’s eyes swept down Jake’s bare chest, traveling over the flat planes of his stomach and lingering at the trail of wiry blond hair that led down to Jake’s half-hard cock, which despite his anger at Connor putting him off to work was definitely showing interest in Connor’s appraisal now.

“You should be ashamed of how much water you waste,” Connor said with a grin, pulling his own shirt up over his head and tossing it in the hamper. He cast a glance at the pile of Jake’s discarded clothes on the floor, shaking his head. “I bet you took a shower before you came out tonight, too. And one this morning.”

“We can’t all be like you, Conservation Connor,” Jake teased, watching as Connor’s jeans went into the hamper. “Saving the planet one uneaten hamburger at a time.”

Connor wasn't a vegetarian, but he never ate red meat and rarely indulged in poultry or pork, preferring vegetables and fish. It was a running joke between them—Connor had been one of the only people at the Texas university where they met who didn't eat beef. Connor laughed at the familiar jibe, slipping past him into the shower. Jake watched him, studying the way the rivulets of water coursed over Connor’s pale skin as he held his face up to the spray, his dark hair flattening against his skull.

“Lucky they didn’t make us sing New Age Girl,” Connor said, licking the water from his lips in a way that made Jake’s mouth go dry.

“Yeah?” Jake asked, stepping closer and backing Connor up against the tiles, his lips hovering just over the other man’s. “I don’t I know that one.”

“More evidence of your appalling taste in music,” Connor said, ducking his head a bit and nipping at the stubble on Jake’s chin. “Maybe Coldplay will remake it someday.”

Jake was feeling too generous at the moment to respond to the barb, angling his neck instead so Connor could press a row of kisses along his jaw. He canted his hips forward, rubbing his wet body against Connor’s, their erections brushing against each other.

“It’s about a girl,” Connor said, his warm breath, cooler than the water they’re under, making Jake shiver as it skated across the shell of his ear. “A vegetarian. Who likes—”

His hand ghosted down Jake’s body, leaving no question as to just exactly what the vegetarian in question—and Connor—liked.