Diplomacy

drapes and felt Jack enfold him in his arms again. Lucas started fiddling with his tie in an attempt to get rid of some clothes. They were both accustomed to dressing professionally, but Lucas was starting to feel constricted in his shirt-tie-jacket attire. He felt Jack’s breath on his neck, which was a very sensual feeling, but they needed to get a little more comfortable. Jack detected Lucas’s fidgeting and loosened his grip, giving the other man the freedom to turn around.
    Lucas took Jack’s face in his hands and looked into the grey-blue eyes.
    There was certainly some confusion in there and a touch of fear. “Tell me you’re sure of this. Tell me you want this as much as I do.” Lucas thought Jack needed to hear himself say it as much as Lucas needed to hear it and he wanted to be sure he wasn’t pushing Jack to do something he didn’t really want.
    Jack nodded.
    “I want to hear it from you, Jack. I want to hear you say what you want.”
    “I want you. All of you,” Jack whispered.
    Lucas slowly let his lips touch Jack’s and allowed his hands to slip from his cheeks to his jaw, down his neck to the top of his shirt. He gently tugged the knot of the American’s tie open. His movements were slow and deliberate, as if he was expecting Jack to lose his nerve and push him away again. Instead the American returned the gesture, slowly pulling the two ends of Lucas’s black silk tie apart until they came away from each other. Lucas felt Jack smiling into the kiss they still hadn’t broken, as four hands were fighting for maneuvering room in the small space.
    “Maybe we should do this one at a time,” Jack suggested, their lips only just touching.

    D i p l o m a c y | 65

    “Or we could stop kissing?” Lucas offered.
    “Hell, no!” Jack rebutted a little more loudly, as he pushed his body closer to Lucas’s again and covered his mouth with a flurry of little kisses.
    Lucas was smiling under his lover’s bombardment and trying to get out of his jacket at the same time. He attempted to throw it onto one of the chairs but missed.
    Jack chuckled as he saw the jacket fly across the room from the corner of his eye. He didn’t care where their clothes ended up and sort of liked the idea they would be together in a heap. As Lucas was pushing his jacket off his shoulders, Jack let go of the young man’s face one hand at a time to shrug off the garment.
    When Lucas started unbuttoning Jack’s shirt, the American wanted to help with that, too.
    “Please let me do it?” Lucas asked, their faces still close together.
    “I want to peel the layers off slowly. Is that okay with you?” Jack nodded and unbuttoned his shirtsleeves instead, letting Lucas take care of the other buttons. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt his patience being tested, but he saw the almost childlike innocence with which the young man was exploring his body and didn’t want to break the spell. Lucas had, after all, asked nicely, and for some reason, this made Jack feel it was okay to surrender completely to Lucas’s lead.
    The Brit wrapped his arm around Jack’s chest underneath the shirt and let his mouth trail down to his neck and collarbone.
    “God, you taste heavenly,” Lucas said to no one in particular as he continued licking a trail to Jack’s nipple.
    “I want to feel your skin, too,” Jack answered, trying not to put too much urgency in his tone. He wrapped his arms around Lucas’s lean frame and gently pulled the shirt up, releasing it from his trousers and giving him free access to Lucas’s back. He could feel the tight muscles rippling under his hands every time Lucas shifted a little. He had been semi hard ever since they started kissing, but Lucas’s hot mouth on his nipples and the soft skin underneath his hands had the blood rushing to his groin.
    As if he was reading the older man’s mind, Lucas raised himself upright again and rasped, “I’ve been teasing you, haven’t I?” 66 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    “No,” Jack answered, feeling like he needed to clear his throat too.
    Lucas stepped back a bit as he opened the top button of his shirt and quickly lifted it over his head, pulling at the sleeves when he couldn’t get his hands free right away, only to reattach himself to Jack’s mouth immediately after discarding the garment.
    They struggled with each other’s belts, until they realized the humor of the situation. Grinning, they moved apart momentarily, kicking off their shoes and