Moment of Truth — Alex Jace

Max made a deadly mistake when he threw Arjen out of his house the morning after they first slept together. Now the proud Arjen is holding Max to the letter of what they agreed. No emotion, just sex. And every time Arjen walks away from him Max's heart breaks a little more. Max has never been in love before, but even he has to realise now that this is all too serious…

6300-word MM erotic romance.

Excerpt:

Arjen stopped when he was still a dozen feet away. “No,” he said. “Absolutely not.”

Max stretched out on the park bench, his fingers laced behind his head, and ran his eyes lazily up and down Arjen's lean frame. “You look good.” Good enough to eat. Arjen glowed in the sunshine, with his sharply chiselled features, his dark hair ruffled by the breeze, a leaf or two catching in the collar of his coat. The chill had brought out the colour in his face.

“Why the hell did you want me to meet you in a park?”

“It's sunny.” Max pointed out the obvious. Autumn was truly setting in now, a crisp bite in the air, the leaves starting to turn colours. Families strolled through the huge sweep of the park with their puppies and children scampering around them. Away down the tumbling slope, woodland gathered in a hollow, filling it with shadow.

Max crooked a finger. “Come here.”

Arjen folded his arms, staying right where he was. He was particularly handsome when he was smouldering like this, his dark eyes narrow. “I don't think so, Max. This is just sex, nothing more. So I don't see the need to hold hands in a park like we're teenage sweethearts.”

Max's jaw set. One day he was going to get through a conversation without Arjen coldly reminding him that Arjen had no interest in him whatsoever outside of bed. “You're trying my patience, Arjen.”

“Your patience?” Arjen was getting steadily louder. Heads turned. “You wanted it like this. You kicked me out of bed the first time we slept together. You told me that this was nothing, it was meaningless to you. So we're meeting to fuck. That's all.”

That was it. Max jumped to his feet and stalked toward him.

Arjen held his ground, his chin coming up; he was four inches shorter than Max but rarely shrank like most people did when Max was looming over them. “You're not going to -- ”

Max caught his face in both hands and kissed him. Hard. The fire of that first touch ignited in him, filling him with heat; he kissed him like there was no oxygen and only Arjen could save him from suffocating. Arjen melted into him like he always did, hands coming up to grip Max's lapels, and Max slid a hand down his spine to yank him against him so tight Arjen gasped. He kissed Arjen into breathless silence before finally taking his mouth away. “No more talking,” Max said.