Attorney Sam Kimball finally gets what he’s wanted ever since meeting Derek Rossi across a conference room table—his legal rival in his bed. The sex is fantastic, but Derek makes it clear from the start this is a no-strings arrangement. That’s why Sam doesn’t bother letting Derek know about the weekend he needs to spend in Napa as best man in his friends’ commitment ceremony.
But when Derek finds out, and inexplicably agrees to go along as his date, Sam is both excited and terrified. This will be the first time either of them has met the other’s friends. He has no idea how Derek is going to handle it, or worse, if he really wants to handle it at all...
EXCERPT
...Sam traced along the edge of the cardboard sleeve on his still-too-hot coffee, waiting for Derek to continue. This was information he could have emailed Sam rather than tell in person. There had to be more to why he’d sought out Sam.
True to form, Derek cleared his throat. “So I was thinking. We haven’t really had a chance to see each other this week, and this feels like something we should celebrate. At my place.” His dark eyes honed in on Sam’s, fathomless, intense. “All weekend.”
The deep hunger gleaming in Derek’s gaze electrified Sam’s veins. Hell, everything about Derek had driven Sam to distraction from the moment they first met. But after things had turned sexual, in those moments just between the two of them when Derek would let his guard down and look at Sam with every ounce of desire he had, Sam nearly lost it completely. He’d had his share of lovers before Derek, but not one of them pushed him as hard as Derek did, not one of them had ever left him shaky with just one burning glance. It was actually better in some ways that they tried to avoid each other at the office. The longer they were involved, the harder it got to keep his hands to himself.
He absolutely loved Derek’s suggestion. There was only one problem.
“I can’t. I’m not going to be here this weekend.”
Derek frowned, his features shuttering. “You have plans?”
Though Derek carefully guarded his tone, Sam could read him well enough to know the admission surprised him, and more, that he didn’t like it. Any other time, he might have wallowed in the jealousy he’d sparked. This wasn’t that time, though.
“I’ve had them for a while,” he said. “Friends of mine are having a commitment ceremony in Napa on Sunday. I’m one of the best men.”
“Oh. That’s why you need the suit.” Derek shifted in his seat, breaking the spare contact of their legs beneath the table. “Well, we can just do it some other time. It’s not a big deal.”
Except it was. Because Derek had made the effort to find him and to extend a weekend-long invitation he’d never dared before. And Sam knew Derek. He’d use this as an excuse to back off again, and it would be another week—or worse, two—before he’d crumble and even speak to Sam.
“You could come with me, you know.” He blurted the invitation without thinking, but there was no way he’d stop and take it back once it was out there. “I do get to bring along a guest if I want.”
Derek was already shaking his head. “You don’t want me along.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Why would I have invited you if I didn’t want you to go?”
“You feel obligated because I cornered you.” Derek sipped at his coffee. Though he kept his face a blank mask, Sam saw through the façade. He always had. “If you’d really wanted me to go, you would’ve told me about it before now.”
Snorting, Sam shook his head. “I didn’t tell you about it, because I knew you’d turn me down. I thought I was saving both of us the trouble.”
“Why would I turn you down? I love Napa.”
“And you hate public displays.”
“You think I’ve never been to a wedding before?”
“I’d bet my truck you’ve never been to a gay one, yeah.”
Derek’s mouth thinned. Sam didn’t blink in the unspoken acknowledgement that he’d guessed right.
“Look,” Sam tried, leaning forward and lowering his voice. “I knew what I signed up for when we first hooked up. Casual. No strings. No pressures. Hell, I’ve never met anybody you hang out with outside of the office—”
“That’s because I don’t.”
“That’s because you’re a workaholic.”
“Like you’re not.”
Sam smiled. “We’re not debating my work ethic here. We’re talking about the fact we don’t know much at all about the other people in our lives.”
“And you think I can’t handle that?”
This was more treacherous territory. “I don’t know,” Sam conceded. “You tell me...”
