Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

skin."
    Devin knocked over one of his knights.
    Smirking, Sam picked it up for him. "I'll consider than an accident, not a concession."
    "I should go."
    "Oh, to get ready for that hot date you don't have lined up with those friends who are busy with relationships now?"
    "Sam, don't."
    "What?" He pulled his hand back across the table. "I want to spend time with you tonight. You'd rather run off and avoid me. I thought we'd gotten past you being upset about what I told you."
    "I don't want to hang out with Lee, all right?"
    Sam frowned. "Do you really hate him that much? I don't get what your problem is with him. He's really nice. He's funny. He'll even cook for you so you don't have to eat that deep fried, chemical-filled crap anymore."
    "Yeah, he sounds wonderful," Devin said. He pushed back from the table and grabbed his gym bag. "Enjoy your date with him tonight. You'll have a lot more fun without a third person there."
    When he went upstairs, Sam didn't bother calling for him to come back. This time, he got the message.
    ****
    Tease. There really wasn't a clinical term for the way he'd acted around Devin. And there was no mistaking the other man's reaction: body-rocking heat in the form of a promise to return whatever was given to him tenfold. Before Sam had screwed it up. The look Dev had given him before he closed himself off had been, frankly, inspiring. So much so, Sam had trouble focusing on anything but fevered imaginings of what it might feel like to kiss him, to have Dev's hot tongue and quick hands all over him, doing his damndest to make Sam pay for teasing him.
    He needed to do that again.
    "Earth to Sam," Lee said. He leaned over the dining room table and snapped his fingers in Sam's face. "Don't tell me you're still worn out from practice."
    "No, I took a nap," Sam responded. He looked around. He must have really been out of it. In the time he'd been contemplating just how to get Dev to come around to his way of thinking, Lee had laid out a plate of eclairs, three plates of cookies and what looked like danish fresh out of the oven. Lee had invited them over to try his offerings— his way of auditioning for a job at a local bakery. Since Mike had a date and Dev was off somewhere sulking, that left Sam to give Lee his unvarnished opinion.
    "I'm not going to be sleeping again anytime soon, am I?"
    "I don't know, you seem pretty out of it," Lee said. "What's up?"
    "Nothing." A lie. One so bad Sam didn't blame Lee for his skeptical look. Sam sighed. "It's Devin."
    Lee sat next to him, gray eyes sparkling with humor. "Ooh, I knew it. Mike told me he was trying to get you guys together. So, tell me, is he a good kisser?"
    "I wouldn't know. He ran out of there so fast, the paint practically peeled from the walls," Sammy said. "All I did was talk to him."
    Lee raised one eyebrow. "That's all you did?"
    Oh hell. Was he that obvious? Sam's cheeks warmed. "I... fine. I may have been a little less subtle than I could have been, but it wouldn't work any other way with him. He thinks you and I have a thing."
    Sam and Lee stared at each a long moment, each contemplating the possibilities between them. Then they burst out laughing. Sam reached for a cookie.
    "Seriously?" Lee asked. "You're sweet and all, but you're like a little brother to me. Want me to tell him that?"
    "No, please don't talk to him." Sam chewed and swallowed the cookie he'd shoved whole into his mouth. "He'll be upset that I talked to yet another person about him. Mm, these are good," Sam said, reaching for another cookie. "Besides, he doesn't like you."
    "I kinda picked up on that. Good sign though, right?"
    "What do you mean?"
    Lee motioned to the middle plate of cookies and Sam picked one up. The ribbon of rich melted chocolate inside it made him nearly fall off the chair. He moaned and stuffed the rest of it into his mouth. Trust Lee to find his weakness when Sam was finally getting the hang of sticking to his New Year's diet. He was going to have to do 500 crunches to make up for the cookies alone. Of course, it would help if he wasn't trying to make himself feel better about the situation with Devin by appeasing his long-neglected sweet tooth.
    "He flat out told you he thinks something's going on between us and he doesn't like me. You don't think those two facts are related? You see the look on his face every time we're together," Lee said.
    "You think he's jealous?"
    Lee nodded. "I don't even think he knows it. He's been acting that way