Restaurant Wars Page 2

Thomas’s eyes narrowed, but at last he dropped it. Noah slapped some cash down on the table for the tip and then slid out of the booth to go to the register. Thomas followed.

  Once they made it out to the parking lot, Noah made a quick note that there were only maybe five cars in the parking lot and two of those belonged to them.

  “Want to go back to my place?” Noah tried.

  “Nope.”

  “I could come over to yours.”

  Thomas fished his keys out of the front pocket of his too tight pants and twirled them in his hand. “I don’t think so.”

  “You aren’t going to make this at all easy on me.”

  “Nope,” Thomas said again. He pushed the electronic locks on his car and opened the driver’s side door.

  “Can I at least kiss you?”

  “I taste like nachos.”

  “So do I.” Noah sensed victory. Thomas’s first response was not an all-out “no.” He put himself in Thomas’s personal space and leaned down slightly until his lips were close enough to Thomas’s he could feel the other man’s breath against his skin. “What are you afraid of?”

  “I’m not afraid,” Thomas provided the predicted denial.

  Noah touched Thomas’s bottom lip with the top of his own. “I think you are. I think you’re afraid you’ll like it.”

  “Why would I like kissing you?”

  “Why don’t you find out?” He saw Thomas’s eyes widen ever so slightly as he moved his mouth closer. “You have great lips.”

  Thomas’s lips parted on a hitch of breath and Noah pressed the advantage, sweeping Thomas up into a full kiss, connecting hard and hot. He grasped the back of the other man’s head, holding him there, in place, as his lips crushed over Thomas’s, possessive and sure.

  His blue eyes fluttered closed and with a sigh, Thomas opened his mouth at Noah’s insistent prodding with his tongue. Pushing past those plump lips, Noah’s teased his tongue inside Thomas’s mouth.

  Noah slid his other hand down the smaller man’s body until he closed it around the bulge in Thomas’s tight pants. He was rewarded with a soft moan.

  They broke away panting and Noah, foolishly, said, “And you said you weren’t easy.”

  All warmth and excitement left those startling blue eyes as though a door had been slammed shut. Noah recognized his stupidity too late.

  “Get the fuck away from me,” Thomas growled. He pushed at Noah until Noah was forced to acquiesce and release him. “You’re a dick.”

  “Thomas—”

  “Get lost, Petrie.” Thomas got into his car and slammed the door shut in Noah’s face. He started it and immediately backed up, barely missing Noah as he did.

  “Thomas! Come on.” But Thomas drove away, leaving Noah alone in the parking lot.

  God, he was an idiot. So close. What made him say something so idiotic to Thomas anyway?

  ****

  Noah had the next day off and he spent most of it doing errands and stopping by to see his parents. Always a frustrating thing because every time he saw his mom, she launched into her talk about when was Noah going to get married and give her grandchildren. Sure she knew he liked guys as well as girls, but she made it clear she didn’t see a permanent relationship with a guy in Noah’s future.

  The truth was Noah wasn’t looking for anything serious with anyone and the conversation always got uncomfortable.

  The following day he had the evening shift, always the busiest time, and he was pleased to see Thomas had the same shift. He planned on working his charm on Thomas again.

  There were a couple of things Noah noticed as they began their shift. Thomas never once looked in Noah’s direction, as he usually did, and Thomas had stepped up his game. So much that Noah heard several patrons requesting Thomas as their waiter instead of Noah.

  Noah frowned.

  “What’s got you looking surly?” Susan, one of the waitresses, asked as he waited for the drinks one of his tables had ordered to be made by the bartender.

  “I don’t know. I guess … Thomas.”

  Susan nodded. “Annoying, isn’t he?”

  “What?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I never have liked him. And it’s not the gay thing or whatever. Though I do wish he wasn’t in your face about it. I think he’s obnoxious.” She flashed him a flirtatious smile. “I’m sure you know what I mean.” She picked up her tray of drinks and winked as she moved away.

  Noah shook his head. He definitely did not know what she meant. Or maybe he did and that was the problem.

  He delivered his own drinks and took the order and was about to move on to a new group of people who had been seated when he watched the hostess helping them move across to a table on the other side of the restaurant.

  When she had reseated them, Noah approached her. “Abby?”

  Abby smiled. “Oh, hey, Noah.”

  “Did I take too long to wait on that table?”

  “What table?”

  “The one you moved from my section.”

  “Oh. No. It wasn’t that. They wanted Thomas.”

  Well, hell, so did Noah. But still.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, they said he’s the best waiter we have,” she replied with a small shrug. “Sorry, Noah. They probably just don’t know you.”

  Noah couldn’t help but feel like Thomas had declared some kind of restaurant war on him.

  Chapter Four

  “Hey.”

  Thomas looked up from the tray he was setting up with desserts when Noah approached him. His beautiful blue eyes looked wary. “Hello.”

  Noah frowned. “Listen, you aren’t afraid of me, are you?”

  “No,” Thomas instantly denied.

  “Good. That’s the last thing I want.”

  “What do you want?”

  “To ask you out. Again.” The truth was since their night at the diner, Noah had asked Thomas out three more times. And Thomas had refused each time. Normally, Noah would have given up by now because hell, he didn’t go around begging. But yet, he hadn’t given up and he still kept asking Thomas.

  And ever since he’d kissed Thomas in the parking lot of the diner, Thomas had been killing at the restaurant, taking away a lot of what had become Noah’s customers. He’d had to step up his game to compete. It was like they had a little war going.

  Thomas raised his eyebrows. “You don’t give up.”

  Noah grinned. “Nope.”

  Thomas smiled slightly as he arranged the desserts on the tray. “What do you have in mind?”

  For a moment, Noah was speechless. He hadn’t expected Thomas to be willing. “My place?”

  “Your place? Just like that?”

  “I mean, uh, you know, for like a movie or something.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Thomas picked up his dessert tray and left for a table.

  Well, it wasn’t no, at least. Progress. Only a few hours left of shift too.

  ****

  The shift was over before Thomas put Noah out of his misery and agreed to go to Noah’s place to watch a movie.

  “I can’t stay long,” he declared as they made their way out to their cars after they closed up the restaurant. “I’ve got classes in the morning.”

  “What are you studying for?”

  “Just my general education stuff for the moment. I’m undeclared for my degree. What about you?”

  Noah stopped at his car. “What about me?”

  “Are you going to college?”

  “Oh, hell no. I had enough of school back when I went to high school.”

  Thomas frowned. “Okay … then what? You’re going to be a waiter all your life?”

  “What if I am?” Noah asked with a shrug. “I make good money and I don’t have to be eaten alive by stress because I’m a lawyer or a stockbroker. Is that so bad, Thomas?”

  “Well … no.”

  “Not everyone’s ambitious. I guess I don’t care about that stuff. This is a good job and I’m good
with it at this point in my life. You ready to follow me to my apartment?”

  “Sure, yeah.”

  It was only about a fifteen-minute drive to Noah’s apartment complex and he kept an eye out to make sure he didn’t lose Thomas on the way. He wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if the younger man had gotten deliberately lost so he wouldn’t have to show up. He should have given Thomas his address so he wouldn’t have had an excuse. But in the end, Thomas parked in a visitor spot not too far from Noah’s reserved carport space.

  Noah grinned at Thomas as he walked up to him. “This way.”

  His apartment was on the second floor with a balcony overlooking a big oak tree and some planted flowers. It was an average one-bedroom apartment with nothing particular about it, but Noah didn’t intend to live there forever. Or even for long really. Already, with the money he was making at the restaurant, he could afford a better apartment at a nicer complex.

  “It’s nice,” Thomas said, glancing around. “Looks lived in.”

  Noah laughed. “A nice way to say your place is a sty, Noah.”

  Thomas smiled. He had a beautiful smile. “I wouldn’t say a sty.”

  Noah pointed to his big brown suede couch. It was one of the few items of furniture he owned that wasn’t a hand-me-down. “Have a seat. Want anything to drink? I have beer.”

  “I better not.”

  Noah nodded. “Okay.”

  He went and plopped down next to Thomas as close as he could, actually. “You smell good.”

  “I probably smell like sweat,” Thomas replied. “It was hot in there tonight.”

  “It’s hard for you to take a compliment, huh?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. From you? Yeah.”

  “The high school thing again?”

  “Skinny gay guys aren’t exactly popular in high school,” Thomas said quietly.

  “No, I guess not.” Noah brushed his thumb across Thomas’s pale cheek. “You sure are pretty now, though.”

  Thomas’s lips curved upward in a sort of half-smile. “You sure want in my pants.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Will it get it out of your system if I allow it?”

  Noah’s gaze went to those plump pink lips of Thomas’s. “Is that what you want? To be out of my system?”

  Thomas shrugged. “That’s what happens with most guys I sleep with.”

  “Then they are idiots.” Noah leaned toward Thomas. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

  “Me or my ass?” Thomas smirked.

  “Does it have to be either-or?”

  “For now, let’s go with the physical.”

  That surprised a chuckle out of Noah. “Yeah?”

  Thomas kissed Noah lightly, a tease. “You were expecting me to play hard to get?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “This from the guy who implied I was easy?”

  Noah winced. “Yeah, sorry about that. I was a real asshole.”

  “Uh-huh. Hey, Noah?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Shut the fuck up and kiss me.”

  Noah crushed his lips over Thomas’s, marveling in the hot and sweet taste of the younger man. No doubt about it. Thomas had addictive lips.

  Thomas curled the fingers of his right hand on the back of Noah’s neck as he lay down on the couch, drawing Noah with him. Noah’s eyes drifted closed as he felt the rise of his cock pushing against the zipper of his uniform pants.

  He slid his hands under Thomas’s shirt, caressing surprisingly soft but firm skin, hot to the touch. Thomas shivered and opened his mouth to allow Noah’s tongue to probe inside. He eased his hands up Thomas’s torso to his chest, noticing little hair covered the blond.

  “You’re gorgeous,” Noah murmured against his lips.

  Thomas stared at him through half-lidded eyes. “You gonna fuck me here or in your bedroom?”

  Noah swallowed as his dick jumped at the thought of burying itself in Thomas’s tight, round ass. “Bedroom. Now.”

  Noah rose from the couch at a dangerous speed for a klutz like him and pulled Thomas up with him. Fortunately, his bedroom door was down a short hallway.

  He’d forgotten he didn’t make his bed when he got up and he felt his face heat when he saw the rise of Thomas’s eyebrows and seeing the messy bed.

  “I, uh, I’m not much of a housekeeper,” Noah explained sheepishly.

  Thomas didn’t comment but instead undid the buttons of the white dress shirt we were both required to wear for the restaurant. Noah decided to take his cue from Thomas, but he only unbuttoned it enough to then yank it off above his head. He discarded it in the general direction of his rattan hamper.

  When he looked back at Thomas, the younger man was smiling sexily. There was nothing mocking or judgmental about it and it made Noah’s heart rate shoot up. He was pretty sure Thomas was the most gorgeous guy he’d ever met or maybe even seen.

  “You’re staring,” Thomas said, his voice whisper soft.

  “I’m wondering how I got lucky enough for you to say yes,” Noah admitted.

  “You’re a flatterer I see.”

  Noah shook his head. “Not at all. Never. You’re … you’re really hot, Thomas.”

  “Show me then.” He sat on the edge of the bed and toed off his shiny black shoes. Rather than remove his socks, Thomas undid his dress slacks and shimmied out of them, leaving them pooled on the floor by the bed. Now he only wore a pair of black boxer briefs and socks. Noah licked his dry lips thinking of a porno he’d once seen.

  Noah divested himself of the remainder of his clothes then and practically pounced on Thomas, who had lain down on his back, squeezing himself through his boxer briefs.

  “God, I love watching you touch yourself,” Noah murmured.

  “And here I thought you wanted to touch me.”

  “Fuck yeah, I do.” Noah covered Thomas’s hand with his own. “Let’s get these off you.”

  Thomas nodded slightly and rose enough for Noah to peel the briefs off his hipbones and down off his legs. He stared in awe at the golden thatch of hair framing Thomas’s erect cock and balls.

  “So, you’re a real blond.”

  Thomas laughed softly. “That’s all you have to say?”

  “Oh, I’m done talking.” Noah fastened his lips to Thomas’s, crushing their mouths together. Thomas’s lips softened under his, parting for the invasion of Noah’s tongue. He loved how pliant Thomas was, so open to whatever Noah wanted to do.

  He slid his hands all over the golden skin on display for him and nipped his teeth at the soft, plump lips before trailing down to latch on Thomas’s throat. He couldn’t resist sucking a bruise there when Thomas moaned his approval.

  Thomas began to caress him, his long fingers skimming over Noah’s back and ass, then up to Noah’s head, his fingers threading through Noah’s hair.

  He grazed his lips over Thomas’s jaw. “You taste, feel, and look amazing.”

  “I could say the same about you,” Thomas murmured. “Back in high school? I had sort of a crush on you.”

  “Just in high school?” Noah teased.

  “Well. I haven’t made up my mind now.”

  Noah smiled. “I want to fuck you so bad.”

  “I’d rather it was good.”

  “Funny.” He shook his head. “I never realized how funny you are, Thomas.” He kissed him. “Can I call you Tommy?”

  Thomas arched a brow. “Do I look like a Tommy?”

  “Yeah, you do.”

  “Stop talking and get busy.” Thomas tugged on Noah’s earlobe, pulling him down for a scorching kiss. Noah’s leaking cock jumped. Obviously telling him it was time to stop messing around.

  Noah pulled away, gaze still on Thomas’s glorious naked body, and went to his nightstand for a condom and lube.

  Thomas took the lube from Noah’s hands and squeezed some out as he parted his legs, revealing a perfect pink pucker. While Noah watched, trying not to pant, Thomas slipped a finger inside himsel
f.

  “Jesus, I’m gonna come watching you finger yourself.” He squeezed the base of his cock to slow down his response.

  Thomas answered by inserting a second finger into his own ass. Noah no longer tried to pretend he wasn’t panting like a damn teenager. Watching Thomas prepare himself was one of the hottest fucking things he’d ever seen.

  He curled his fist around his aching cock and jerked, licking his lips in anticipation. One day, soon, he was going to suck Thomas’s perfect dick, but for now, he wanted to be buried deep in that tight, round, perfect ass.

  Thomas winked and grasped his thighs, spreading his legs farther apart as his fingers thrust over and over inside him. He bit his lip, his gaze never leaving Noah’s face.

  Noah tried not to swallow his tongue and reached for the foil wrapper. He tore it open and rolled the condom onto his stiff dick.

  As Thomas withdrew his slicked fingers, Noah moved into position, hiking the younger man’s legs high in the air before wrapping them around Noah’s waist.

  Somehow as he pressed into Thomas, it felt more significant than it should. Like this was the start of something he couldn’t take back. Wouldn’t want to.

  For now, he shoved aside such unusual, intimate thought and concentrating on filling the tight channel fitting snugly around his cock.

  “Fuck, Thomas,” Noah groaned, as he pushed past the ring of muscle and slid fully into the other man.

  Thomas drew in a sharp breath and Noah paused.

  “Too much?”

  Thomas shook his head. “Just adjusting.”

  “I’m not hurting you?”

  “No.” He arched up. “Move.”

  Noah closed his eyes, threw his head back with a moan, and began to pump into Thomas’s passage.

  Thomas whimpered and Noah couldn’t help but open his eyes, wanting to watch as Thomas grasped hold of his dick and jerked it as Noah increased the speed and intensity of his thrusts, nailing Thomas’s prostate over and over until Thomas was a mewling mess.

  He was so damn responsive he was driving Noah crazy.

  “Noah,” Thomas gasped. Cum splattered from his cock, painting his stomach.

  Noah dug his fingers into Thomas’s hipbones as he slammed into Thomas again and again, pulling an excruciatingly intense orgasm from him.