Wednesday Briefs: One Night Part 8

Well it's Wednesday again! That means another update for One Night. Yay! So, this week we had various photo prompts and line prompts, and I chose to use, "But you said..." Okay, on to the story!

One Night Part 8



“But you said you cared about me and that was a lie.” Bear crossed his arm over his chest, cradling the one in the sling. Valentine’s Day had come and gone without any fanfare. Kameron tried to get him to come out for dinner but Bear decided a granola bar he’d stashed in his room was good enough.   He had enough work to do anyway with that pain in the ass client’s site upgrade to keep him busy.

But he was all caught up now. After taking his shower and getting dressed in his favorite jeans that Jimmy had at least remembered to bring, Bear had snuck out to the kitchen. He wanted to get some food to appease his growling stomach and a cup of coffee before he settled in with a good eBook. It’d been a long time since he’d had enough downtime to kick back and read for fun.

Too bad Kameron had been standing in front of the fridge. He had on sweats and a tank top that showed off his nice arms and shoulders. Bear felt his heart begin to pound a little and he was glad his pants were tight enough to hide the way his cock began to plump up. Holding the food hostage, Kameron had finally gotten Bear to listen to him for the first time in three days.

“I do so care. I didn’t at first, but I didn’t know you. I would never have lied to you about my feelings.”

Bear raised an eyebrow. “No, just the whole reason for us to meet and go out in the first place.” 

Kameron’s hands clenched into fists. “I said I’m sorry about that, and I won’t say it again. These guys are bad business, Bear. Jimmy was trying to protect you; neither of us meant to hurt you.”

If Bear was honest, he knew that. He’d always known it. But they did hurt him. Worse was his embarrassment over the fact that Kameron had been made to go out with him. “Would you have asked me out, if Jimmy hadn’t made you?”

Kameron ran a hand through his hair. “No,” he held up a hand when Bear went rigid, “but not because of who you are, or what you look like, or anything like that. I never would’ve been in Capstone if Jimmy hadn’t sent me there. It’s not my kind of place.”

“A gay bar?”

“A bar at all,” Kameron snapped. “I’m not some young twenty one year old high on the novelty of getting drunk and hooking up with random guys. I got sick of the bar scene a long time ago. I want—I wanted—a real relationship like the one I thought I could have with you after I got to know you. I wanted to tell you the truth after the very first date but Jimmy and Loren said you wouldn’t let us protect you if you knew we had found out about Vilem.”

Bear’s shoulders dropped and he sank into the kitchen chair. “I probably wouldn’t have.”

Kameron sank down to his knees in front of Bear. “I care about you,” he said softly. “Please give me a chance to prove it.”

The sincerity in Kameron’s expression was impossible to deny. Bear reached out with a finger and traced the fading bruise under one eye. “You’ve had to deal with a lot because of me.” Kameron trapped his hand against his cheek.

“Completely worth it.” He leaned forward and kissed Bear gently. The kiss grew deeper as Bear parted his lips and Kameron slipped his tongue inside before coaxing Bear into his mouth. Bear groaned. Kameron’s mouth was bitter, like he’d been drinking orange juice from the carton, and under that was the taste of the man. Bear wanted to devour him.

His stomach chose that moment to snarl angrily.

Kameron broke their kiss, his eyes huge. “What was that?”

Bear felt his cheeks heat. “I did come out here looking for breakfast.”

“Well, maybe next time you’ll eat the dinner I make for you.” Kameron grinned. “I can scramble some eggs, if you like? I’m not a great cook but I can make those.”

“Yeah, that’d be good. I like eggs.”

Kameron stood up and went back to the fridge, pulling out the carton of eggs and some milk. “Maybe while I’m doing this you can call Jimmy. I know he’s been stressed out over how mad you are at him.”

“I … yeah, I should do that.” Bear went into the other room and made the call.

Jimmy hadn’t broken down or anything, but when Bear apologized for calling him all those nasty names, he’d made his own apology. He’d even quietly returned Bear’s I love you just before they hung up. The rest of that day Bear enjoyed spending with Kameron. Now that there wasn’t anything hidden between them a certain tension that had existed in the tall man was noticeably absent. They’d begun on opposite ends of the couch but by the time they were watching a movie after dinner Bear was snuggled up against his side.

Bedtime brought a new routine. Kameron checked all the doors and windows like he did the previous nights but this time he went into Bear’s room. He set his gun and his cell phone down on the nightstand, and then crawled into bed in just his underwear.

Bear came in from brushing his teeth. “Just sleeping, right?”

Kameron smiled and held up the covers, showing off his pajama choice. “Just sleeping. I don’t want to risk hurting you, and my ribs are a bit sore. We have all the time in the world, Bear, but I would like to hold you.”

“Okay,” Bear said simply. He got into bed and they snuggled together and drifted off to sleep.

***

“Hello?” Kameron answered his phone in the dark, his eyes searching for the clock. His eyes widened. “No!”

TBC

Okay, if you're interested in joining the Briefer's group and sharing your own weekly flash fiction between 500-1,000 words, let me know. I can steer you toward the proper lady to speak with. For my strictly reader type blog visitors, you can move along to the rest of the Briefers below and enjoy their contributions this week!

Other Briefers:

Nephylim  

Victoria Adams     

Chris T. Kat 

Lily Sawyer     

MA Church     

MC Houle         

Tali Spencer   

Julie Lynn Hayes