Page 6 of Cherry Picked
If I hadn’t already felt like the whole world had tilted on its axis, that would’ve done it.
“Fuck, Hawk! Stay still. Stay still, dammit.” I rolled, trapping his flailing limbs beneath me.
Grettatsked as she passed us, dragging her husband further down the trail toward the parking area. “Language, Jack Wyatt! And kindly remember, this is apublichiking path!”
I stared after them for a few seconds, waiting for the world to come back into focus, and then Hawk squirmed beneath me—beneath me—which was the moment I realized that I was lying fully on top of him, the full length of my body sprawled indulgently over the full length of his.
I stared down into his honey-brown eyes, which were looking up at me with love and affection and—ah, fuck—want. “Shit.” I started to roll off him, but he freed his hands and grabbed at my shoulders, holding me in place while blinking rapidly.
“It’s okay! Seriously, Jack, I’m fine! Could you just stay still and listen for a second?” He swallowed hard. “Look, I know maybe this is a bit of a, um… surprise? But it doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s just… I hadn’t intended to stay a virgin this long, and I realized that I keepreadingabout this stuff but never experiencing it, a-and I decided that I wanted to. To experience it, I mean. A-and I’ve been thinking for a while—kind of a long while, really—that you’d be the perfect person to experience it with. I want it to be… well, notspecial-special, exactly, but… nice. And I know you’re not, like, in love with me or whatever…” He bit his lip. “Unless… I mean… Are you, by any chance?”
“What?No!” I gasped.
“Right!” he agreed quickly. “No, right. Of course not!Same. But sex doesn’t have to mean a relationship or love or whatever, right? I just think, in an ideal world, my first time should be with someone I think is reallyhot—which, like, have you seen you?—and also someone I trust, and I trust you more than anyone. So.” He shrugged, as much as a person trapped against a bed of pinecones could shrug, and stared up at me beseechingly. “What do you say?”
“Erk!” I squawked. My heart was beating in my throat so hard I couldn’t get any actual words out.Wasthis heatstroke? Was I hallucinating? Was I dying?
Hawk thought I washot? Hawk wanted…? Withme?
Hawk continued as if my squawk hadn’t been a clear refusal. “Maybe don’t answer me now, okay? I know you probably need time to think about it and, like… plan it or whatever. I mean, notplanit, plan it, since obviously you know the, ah… mechanics and whatnot. I remember Peter, that smug asshole you dated for a couple weeks last year, bragging about you being a ‘demon’ in bed—which, not gonna lie, left me with a whole lot of questions I’d really like you to answer. And Donny Whatshisface, the guy I saw you with at the Stag and Crowne back in March, who must’ve had, like, forty-seven hands, couldn’t stop groping you in public and whispering all the stuff he liked you to do to him in a voice that wasnota whisper—”
“Hawk,” I groaned, my face going hotter than it had been while we were hiking, which was weird because all the blood in my body had rushed south.
“No, right, sorry. Tangent. My bad. Anyway, I was thinking we could get tested… o-or if you’d rather use condoms, I’m open to discussion—”
“Hawk,” I insisted, belatedly rolling away to flop onto my back… only for him to sit up and continue talking while peering down at me.
“Okay, maybe not adiscussion,per se,” he said, more desperately than ever, “since clearly talking about this is making you more uncomfortable than Donny with the hands ever did, so you just tell me which you’d prefer, and it’s all good with me! See how simple and straightforward this will be? You’re basically my favorite person. And we’ve been friends forever—I’m helping you fix up your house, you helped me with my car when it had that timing belt issue—so, why not help me with this, too?”
“Hawk!” I sat up also, putting more distance between us, not that it did anything to dispel the images that were taking over my brain of all the ways I could “help” Hawk.
“Because you said it yourself, Jack!” Hawk shifted onto his knees, his voice openly pleading. “You said, ‘if you’re attracted to someone and you care about them, what’s the problem?’ So, like—”
“Halt.” I managed to bark. “Halt this now.”
The edge of Hawk’s mouth turned up. “Halt? What are you, a castle guard now?”
My head spun, and as it often did, my gaze focused on the little hoop nose piercing Hawk had gotten a couple of months before. It was oddly delicate, like Hawk himself.
“I mean, please stop doing that mile-a-minute talking thing you do when you’re nervous. I just need to think—er, torecover. From the fall. And the pinecones. And the… Pilkners. And… Wait. Are you okay? No, you’re clearly not okay. Here, take my hand.”
I yanked him up so quickly he nearly tumbled into me and sent us sprawling again. Thankfully, he wasn’t heavy enough to knock me over the way I’d done to him a few minutes earlier.
“Now who’s nervous babbling?” Hawk muttered under his breath. “Yeesh, I asked a simple question…”
Simple?Was he high?
“I’m not taking your vir—er… having…” I swallowed thickly around an obstacle in my throat. “With you… the sex,” I hissed.
“Jack,” Hawk said, soft and rebuking. “You make it sound dirty. I know for a fact that you sleep with people all the time. It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything illicit—”
“Sleeping with my best friend’s baby brother is plenty illicit!” I sputtered, stomping several feet back down the path before turning to stomp in the other direction. “Not to mention dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Sex with me?” Hawk’s nostrils flared as he tried to hide a smile, but I knew his expressions too well to doubt what he was feeling.Amusement, damn him. “I know I’m a lot younger than you, Jack, but I think you have the stamina to keep up, at least if Peter is to be believed—”
“Not dangerous like that! Jesus. And stop mentioning Peter. Also, my stamina is not an issue, thank you very much,” I couldn’t help but add before remembering that my sexual stamina was not a thing I should be discussing with Hawkever. I spun around again. “But youarea lot younger than me. And Webb might be my best friend, but he’d still murder me and bury me in a shallow grave if I laid a hand on you. Hell, I’d be lucky to die a quick death. More likely, he’d get your brothers to help, like some kind of… fraternal vengeance posse. Webb, Knox, Porter. God, even Reed would make a trip north, and he probably has CIA torture training or some shit.”
“Reed’s a consultant. No one actually believes he’s a spy,” Hawk scoffed. He stood with his arms folded over his chest, watching me pace back and forth. “That’s just something Porter jokes about. And since when do you care what people think?”
