Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

tugging ever so temptingly at the waistband of those jeans. His tanned torso was gleaming with sweat, shoulders growing pink in the sun. He had just enough hair on his chest to shadow the valley between his pecs. And make Jordan's fingers itch to feel.
    His mouth went dry when Cal stood to listen intently to something Thomas was saying. Jordan appreciated the complete attention he gave the teen-aged boy. He sighed out loud when Cal dragged a hand through his hair, pulling it back from his forehead where it had clung in damp curls. A professional posing such a picture couldn't have done it better. Cal's moving to remove his tool-belt and set it aside was damn near pornographic. Like he should be bending over that fence and begging Jordan to take him like he meant it.
    But then Cal did something that was to be the end of rational, take-it-slow Jordan. The stunning man threw his head back and laughed. Open and carefree and loud, abs clenched into ridges, eyes squinted almost closed in absolute delight, laughter. The wide smile, white teeth, laugh lines, and an inner shine transformed the solemn man before his very eyes. Jordan could do nothing but stare, completely mesmerized. His heart pounded audibly in his chest, and he rubbed at it through his shirt.
    The two sweaty teens were suddenly moving past him, saying something about getting drinks, and Jordan nodded to them absently. He barely realized he was moving until Cal turned, alerted to his presence by the tiny woof from Brutus, er, B. The smile faded from those beautiful lips and dark chocolate eyes stared, turning more and more cautious the closer Jordan came. They were almost toe to toe. Jordan's attention dropped from the suspicious eyes to the clenched jaw and stubborn mouth before he frowned and lifted his hand to touch a fingertip to Cal's firm bottom lip.
    "What?" Cal clearly tried for obstinate but blinked rapidly at Jordan, undermining the effect. Jordan could feel Cal's struggle to allow the contact and was proud of his boy's refusal to back down.
    Jordan tugged Cal's lip hard enough it had to sting and finally lifted his gaze to meet Cal's eyes. He made sure he had Cal's undivided attention before he said, "I would give anything to watch you do that again."
    Cal tensed even more and narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?" Jordan couldn't tell if Cal was more irritated with his reaction to Jordan or his inability to hide it.
    "I mean... I feel like I've been cheated. Like you've kept this incredible secret from me by never letting me hear you laugh. Or see you smile like that."
    "Like what?" Oh, yeah , Jordan thought. Breathless was good.
    "Like… with your whole being."
    Cal's cheeks flushed and he snatched his head away, looking almost wounded. "Come. On." He snarled, turning away from Jordan. "Give me a break."
    "No." Jordan's tone stopped Cal in his tracks.
    He glared at Jordan over his shoulder. "No?"
    Hostile was less good.
    "No." Jordan stood firm. His muscles actually ached with the effort to appear calm when everything in him wanted to rush to the man and hold him tight until he submitted. "Come back here."
    His pulse pounded and he had to remember to exhale while he waited. Cal didn't move. His eyes were locked on Jordan's as if trying to find... something. Whatever the man needed, Jordan was willing to give it.
    "Cal." It wasn't a plea, but it was close. "Come. Here." As Jordan waited, he felt the pressure build in him, absorbing every emotion Cal experienced. He saw fear, indecision, desire, everything Cal felt in that eternal suspension of time he spent studying what seemed like the very depths of Jordan's soul. Jordan couldn't have opened himself more at that moment. He felt brutally exposed, but he wasn't hiding anything. Cal would know it in an instant, and that would be the end.
    The standoff had Jordan fully, impossibly erect and straining against his khakis. There was no hiding it from Cal, should he be compelled to look, but Jordan wasn't about to hide his reaction from the man who did this to him.
    Finally—God, finally —Cal's expression seemed to settle on one exquisite emotion. Want. Jordan could barely think when Cal took that first step toward him. He could hear Cal's breathing, imagined he could hear his pulse pounding in time with his own, but then Cal was there, standing closer to Jordan than he'd ever been.
    "I think I've given you enough breaks," Jordan said softly but with the confidence of one absolutely certain of what