“Hasn’t everyone? This town, though, it’s something else, eh?”
I couldn’t deny that. Porthkennack hadn’t been my home for a long time, if it ever truly had been, but the claustrophobic town always held a certain magic, even if I did feel like I’d returned to it to die this time around. “Word on the street is that you’re a tattooist as well as an epic furniture craftsman. What came first?”
Kim shrugged. “I’ve been tattooing for as long as I can remember—grew up doing it in my best mate’s garage—but I’d been in AA three times before I realised my heart wasn’t in it, at least, not in the way I’d thought it was.”
Intrigued, I put my elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I’ve never met a tattooist who is anything less than obsessed with their work.”
“Oh, I was—I am—but growing up, I was more into my mate than what we were doing.”
Ah.The penny dropped. “Was he straight?”
“Brix? Fuck no, but we’re like brothers, man. I saw that once I got out into the world and met other blokes, you know?”
Growing up in London, the world had been thrust upon me before I’d been truly ready for it, but Kim’s tale was one I’d heard before. “How did you get into the furniture making?”
“Through AA. My old sponsor was a chippie. He used to invite me down his workshop when I was having a bad day. Put a saw in my hand, and then a welder. I never looked back, ’cept when I fancy a skinful.”
It sounded almost romantic, though I was willing to bet by the subtle tension in Kim’s soft smile that it had been—and still was—anything but. “One day at a time, eh?”
“Indeed. Anyway, enough about me. If you’re not running for the hills, you wanna explain how you ended up back here when it’s clearly the last place on earth you want to be?”
“Porthkennack’s not the last place I want to be.”
“But?”
When had I become so transparent? “It’s just not the place I thought I’d end up. I had a good life in London, and it was popping, you know? I could work three gigs a day if I wanted to. Back here I get three in a month if I’m lucky.”
“Bet your quality of life is better, though. Brix looked like death when he moved back home. Took years of sea air to set him right.”
“Brix Lusmoore? The bloke you were in love with?”
Kim rolled his eyes. “I was never in love with him. Brothers, remember?”
Yeah, yeah.I didn’t know much about Porthkennack’s notorious Lusmoore clan, but I’d met Brix when my dad had bought some scruffy bald chickens from him, and the bloke was almost as gorgeous as Kim.
Almost.
Not that being gorgeous made a man lovable, or worthy of the effort it took to bother. Fuck no. I’d learned that hard lesson, more than once, and I was done getting my heart burned.
Kim tapped my temple. “You’re miles away. Don’t be. Keep your shit to yourself if you want. I don’t need to know anything about you, if you’re happier that way. We can just fuck.”
“We can just fuck.”God, the idea was tempting, but even as I turned in my seat and leaned closer to Kim, parting my lips in anticipation of his kiss, I knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that. Couldn’t be, because nothing ever was, right?
Kim’s lips brushed mine, and the coherency required to give a shit evaporated. I kissed him back and let the thrill of his touch wash over me, eclipsing any sensibility I’d arrived with—not that there’d been much. And before long, I found myself bent over the table with my legs hooked around Kim’s waist.
I arched my back, groaning as Kim wrestled with his belt buckle. “Hurry up.”
“I’m trying.” Kim finally loosened his belt enough for his jeans to drop down his slender thighs. “I’d kinda planned on getting you into my bed this time around, not fucking you at the kitchen table.”
The fact that he’d planned to fuck me again sent shivers down my spine. I reclaimed my legs then gasped as Kim lifted me from the table and deposited me on a nearby rug. The contrast between the soft wool and the cool tabletop was startling, and electric. My heart sped up, and I watched, breathless, as Kim found a condom who-the-hell-knew-where and rolled it on.
“Do you still have lube in your wallet?”
“Just spit on it,” I ground out impatiently.
Kim shook his head. “No way. That shit burns.”
My lust-addled mind realised that his knowledge on the subject likely meant he was versatile, and my cock throbbed so hard it hurt. I loved getting reamed until my mind was devoid of all else, but the thought of holding Kim’s lean legs and sliding my dick inside him was bewitching.