Jacked by Mia Watts

Chapter One
     
    “What’s it like?” Donovan asked, leaning across the narrow restaurant
table. Words like “gay” shouldn’t be said above a whisper, he felt. Those were
words that could wreck a perfectly good reputation. Wreck a perfectly good
business partnership and put a stain on the company they were trying to build.
    Belatedly, he shot a look around to see if anyone had heard.
It didn’t seem like it. A harried waitress rushed by, clearly stressed by the
lack of staff on tap for the lunch rush.
    “What’s what like?” Ty pressed his back into his cushioned
booth seat. He eyed Donovan skeptically as though he knew what he’d been asked
but wanted it spelled out for him.
    “Kissing a dude,” Donovan hissed.
    Ty’s eyes lit with humor. “What’s kissing a chick like?”
    Donovan huffed, dropped back against his booth bench and
crossed his arms as he leveled a glare on his best friend. “Soft.”
    “The same.” Mischief winked around the edges of Ty’s smile.
“Unless you want it rougher.”
    Donovan didn’t know what to think about that. It couldn’t be
the same. Not in any of his wildest imaginings—and he wasn’t admitting that he
had imaginings—did he think that kissing a guy felt like kissing a girl. Girls
were soft, smaller and full of sighs. They had small hands and curved bodies.
They laughed a lot and flipped their hair.
    Guys were big and angular. He’d never seen one who flipped
his hair—unless he had Jesus hair—and not one of them had ever sighed or
batted his lashes at Donovan.
    “I don’t think so,” Donovan answered.
    Now Ty leaned across the table. His fingers wove together
and he cocked his head. “This isn’t the reaction I thought I’d get when I told
you I was gay.”
    “It’s still sinking in.”
    “But,” Ty continued, “this is the first thing you ask me?”
    Donovan frowned. “I have questions.”
    Ty laughed. “Yeah, I expected that.”
    “What did you think I’d say?”
    “Oh I don’t know. Maybe, ‘how long have you known?’ Or, ‘why
didn’t you tell me sooner?’”
    “Yeah, about that,” Donovan snapped. “Why didn’t you
tell me sooner?”
    Ty shrugged. “Guess I thought you’d flip out on me.”
    “I didn’t.”
    “Nope. Instead you asked me what it was like to kiss a dude.”
Ty grinned again.
    “I’m curious about the dynamics,” Donovan defended.
    “This I have to hear.”
    Donovan dropped his gaze, feeling stupid. Was he supposed to
be irate or shocked? He didn’t know why he wasn’t. Best friends were supposed
to share everything but this was a secret Ty hadn’t shared with him until just
now. Maybe he’d known? Except he couldn’t say that he’d known when he’d
known—so to speak. Just that hearing it now sounded about right and that
tension he didn’t know had been there had gone. Like everything was on the
table. And that felt good.
    “That was an invitation to ask,” Ty told him when Donovan
didn’t speak right away.
    “You’re okay with me asking shit?”
    “Yep.”
    “If I say something that isn’t all politically correct, you
aren’t going to chafe my ass?” Donovan wanted to know. “Because I might. I
don’t know all the gay lingo yet.”
    “That was only mildly derogatory.”
    “Sorry.”
    Ty’s grin relaxed. “Keep going. Get it all out. I can see
the questions bouncing around in your head.”
    “Do you go on dates?” Donovan asked.
    “Frequently.”
    “Do I know them?”
    “Maybe, but I don’t know if they’re out and it wouldn’t be
fair to tell a secret that’s not mine to share.”
    “That makes sense. Okay, how come you’ve never introduced me
to your dates?” Donovan mentally counted the people Ty had introduced him to.
There weren’t many because he and Ty had met their last year of college and then
worked together for two years.
    “I haven’t met anyone special enough to introduce to you.
When I do, you’ll be the first one I bring him to.”
    Donovan smiled,