Page 25 of Haunted Mediation
Leon must have leaned forward because the insides of his thighs had closed in around James’ sides. One of his hands had made it up to the back of James’ neck, and the other was clutching desperately at his leg. James’ hands were still pressed into the wall, which was probably for the best, because he had absolutely no idea what to do with them.
He also didn’t really know what to do with his mouth. Leon’s lips were soft and almost unbearably plush. He had slight whiskers above his mouth that were brushing the top of James’ lips.
Leon’s hand on his neck pulled him in a little closer, and James’ mouth went slack. Almost immediately, Leon’s tongue came out and brushed against his bottom lip.
Something about that one tiny movement broke the last wall inside him. Obviously, the hand behind James’ neck should have signaled this, but it took Leon’s soft tongue to prove that this wasn’t an accident. Leon hadn’t somehow fallen against James’ mouth.
Leon was kissing him.
And James was sure as heck going to kiss him back. If this was his only chance, he wasn’t going to squander it.
James pressed forward, chasing after Leon’s tongue. They met at the edge of their mouths, stroking and brushing, then James took a chance and pressed into Leon’s mouth.
Leon immediately opened to him, tipping his head to the side to deepen the kiss. His hand was steady on his neck, but the one on his leg was trembling.
That was probably the only thing that could’ve made James pull back.
James slowly opened his eyes, and warm brown irises the color of rich chocolate filled his vision. They stared at each other, and James pulled even farther back.
All of his words were gone. He had nothing left to say. All he had was a crushing hope that pressed in on him from all sides.
After a long, tense moment, Leon cleared his throat. “I don’t know good tricks for anxiety like you do. I don’t have any breathing exercises or grounding techniques or any of that shit and…it seemed like you…might have been panicking?” Leon said, his voice soft and uncertain.
James sank back onto his knees, his feet splaying out behind him, so that his butt slowly lowered to the ground, and his hands fell into his lap. He figured he probably looked a little like Leon had before: wide-eyed and pale-faced.
Leon licked his bottom lip, and James followed the movement with his eyes. “And…maybe now you’re panicking again, but…” Leon said.
But this time because his best friend had kissed him to shut him up?
Surprisingly…no. He wasn’t panicking. His brain was just short-circuiting. He shook his head, and Leon’s eyebrow quirked a little, but in disbelief, not in sass or in jest.
“Okay, well…good,” Leon said, and they were left staring at each other again.
What were they supposed to do now? They probably only had a few more minutes left before they needed to move to the next room.
He didn’t want to leave things as they were.
“Thank you,” James tried.
“For…kissing you?”
“Uhm, I meant for trying to help me stop panicking, but…” James swallowed and dug as deep as he could into the depths of his chest, to the very bottom of his heart. “Uhm, yeah. Also for the kiss.”
Leon searched his face. “That was…okay?”
James nodded so fast his neck cracked. Thank god his body seemed unwilling to give any response other than that.
“Are you sure?” Leon pressed.
His eyes had clouded over with uncertainty, another emotion James had never really seen on him before. He much preferred the cocksure, snarky pain in his ass at work. Or the brave, protective, caring man who had guided James through the haunted house.
James refused to be the person who brought out this uncertainty in Leon.
He raised his hand to the back of Leon’s neck, sliding his fingers through Leon’s wonderfully soft hair. Slow enough for Leon to pull away if he wanted to, James pressed back up onto his knees and leaned forward until he could feel the heat of Leon’s lips a breath away from his.
“James,” Leon whispered, and his lip quivered against James’.
“Yeah?”
