Page 45 of Epidermis

Jasper (11:53 PM)

How do you think I feel? You wear suits all the damn time

Konrad (11:56 PM)

Not all the time.

There was a picture below the message and Jasper had to lay the phone down for a second. He pressed his face into his hands, then picked it back up, looking at the picture of Konrad freshly out of the shower, hair still dripping, a towel wrapped low on his waist. Jasper wanted to lick every drop of water off him. Logically, he didn’t think he should be flirting before apologizing, but his fingers moved across the keypad anyway.

Jasper (11:58 PM)

fuck you’re sexy

His cock was making a valiant effort to get hard despite him trying his best to ignore it. Well, maybe not his best. He was still staring at the picture.

Incoming Call

Konrad

Oh shit.

Jasper almost threw his phone. Fuck. Okay, this was fine. He would just act normal. He definitely hadn’t been in a dry spell since Vegas, and his cock definitely wasn’t at half-mast. His palms started to sweat as he answered the call. “Hey.”

“Hello, Jasper.”

He bit his lip. God, Konrad’s accent sounded even more pronounced over the phone. “How, uh... how was the rest of the opening?”

“Once you left, the rest of the evening was quite unable to compare.”

Jasper wanted to say he was sorry for taking so long, for ever letting Konrad walk away in the first place, but he owed Konrad that apology in person. “I know you’re probably going to have less free time now that the restaurant's open, but do you think I could swing by one night after you close up? I want to talk.”

“My time is always yours, Jasper. Free or otherwise.”

Butterflies were just going to be a permanent part of his stomach’s ecosystem, if Konrad Iversen had anything to say about it. “Okay. Sunday night?”

“You can come to the house. Let’s say eight o’ clock.”

“That sounds good.” Jasper pressed his tongue against the inside of his lip, feeling the smooth metal of one of his snakebites. “Any particular reason you didn’t want to keep texting?”

“Texting is impersonal. I accept it for brief exchanges, but beyond that, I would not deprive myself of the chance to hear your voice.”

Jasper dropped his head back against the wall and tried not to blush. He failed. Konrad was just always so sincere, easily saying things that would take Jasper half the night to work up the courage for. “I’m glad you called.”

“Then I will do so again tomorrow evening.”

They’d spent enough time together that Jasper didn’t think he should look forward to that so much, but it almost made him giddy. “Sure. Good night.”

“Good night, Jasper.”

Jasper hung up and held his phone against his chest like a hapless schoolboy with a crush. They’d fucked, for god’s sake. This wasn’t some budding, fledgling relationship. It wasn’t anything at the moment, thanks to Jasper, and even once he apologized for that he still didn’t know what to ask of Konrad.

He wanted Konrad. He just didn’t know how to let himself need him.

At least there was one problem he could solve at the moment. He couldn’t even bring himself to feel shame as he reopened the picture Konrad had sent him and slid his hand into his boxers.

“You seem to be in a better mood,” Lawrence said.

Jasper got to the end of the line and lifted the needle from Lawrence’s tanned arm. “Yeah. I guess.” He leaned back in his chair and rolled his shoulders. Lawrence took the intermission to take a drink of water, watching Jasper in that way he did when he wanted to push, but wasn’t sure if he felt like trying his luck.