GHOST TOWN

        “Hmm, those are great ideas,” Her tone soft like a blanket and hunger thick like muscle, Ella slowly leaned towards Jaime until she was inches away from him. “I think you know exactly what I want.” Before she knew it, both of her palms were stuck to each side of his face and her lips were dancing with his. Kissing him passionately at first and deepening it every second she could, she was liking where this was heading. As her lips and tongue did wonders with his own, she was very confident in her kissing skills, but she was more hands-on when it came to great make-out sessions. Kissing him like no other, she let her hands do some magic. They had some fun running along and playing with his hair, but it was time they moved south. Running them down his chest and torso, they wanted to go straight for his pants and what was hiding underneath, but her teasing wasn’t done playing for the evening. Tugging lightly at his jeans, they moved underneath his shirt and met his abs. Making a mental note that she was going to lick them at some point, they explored his chest and gripped lightly when they landed on his shoulders. Pulling away from his lips, she caught her breath after a few moments and locked her lustful eyes with his. “I want to have crazy, hot sex with you right here, right now, but I have boundaries. Would you mind locking the front door? You can leave the windows as they are so there’s added risk to this.” She told him quickly, wanting to go back to what they were doing. “Also, are you in pain? If so, let me know what you can do. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I’m more than willing to satisfy all of your needs without you moving an inch.”

Arlo lifted an eyebrow and shook her head. “Not contagious, silly. It’s literally just something I blow into to make my lungs stronger.” She said and rested her head on his shoulder. She smiled and looked towards the tv, continuing to rest against his shoulder. She smiled as Hercules was started. “How’d you know that this is one of my favorites? The music, the story, Hades, Danny DeVito. It’s the perfect movie.” She asked curiously, looking up at him for a moment. She was glad for Jaime. Though she loved her brother and his worry, sometimes she just wanted someone who wasn’t overly worried, or at least he didn’t show it. 

  “Oh, is it?” Jaime mused, cheek leaning into her head and resting on her hair gently. She always felt so fragile, he half expected the weight of his own head (let’s be honest, his ego had it blown up anyway) to break her. “I had no idea. I just like it ‘cause he reminds me of.... me,” Jaime laughed. The intro began, and he gave a tiny sigh - deciding to go ahead and state the thought mulling around in his head. “You know, I don’t watch Disney a lot. I used to, but it’s kinda got sad shit attached. Maybe you’ve noticed, but I don’t do sadness.” A pause. “Maybe you can fix it.”

While the male had displayed some sort of interest already, his words were picked out a little more carefully than River’s was, seemingly not as comfortable in their current position as himself. Or maybe he just wasn’t used to strangers hitting on him so out of the blue in the middle of a place like this, which would surely come as a surprise, given the looks of the other. Even more so, the more the guy spoke, the more confidence he seemed to gain. And the more confidence he gained… the more interesting River found him.

A low chuckle left his throat at the initial question, cocking an eyebrow while amused eyes landed on the other’s. “What, you really gonna make me work for it?” While he knew very well that the other was just teasing, River was quick to bite back. “That’s cute.” With the words, an amused smile grew on his lips, the guy surely having piqued his interest by now. It was funny how the other came off as a little… shy, yet intrigued all at the same time. Maybe that was what River found so unique in the first place. Or maybe he was just weak to the ones who didn’t seem to know what they were getting themselves into. The innocence.

“Mmh.” Letting the other’s words sink in, his offer even, River pretended to give it a moment to think it over, when in reality there was never any question. “My car is parked right outside.” He finally replied with, eying the guy over one more time. “You point me in the direction of your… gratitude, and I’ll be sure to earn it.” Through the ride itself, or entirely different means…

   “And now you’re saying I’m work, I see,” Jaime fired back, not missing a beat, despite his initial hesitation. Now, he was more actively engaged in the flirting - whatever was holding him back had faded, giving him more courage, almost... a playful aggression as he bit his lower lip, letting the pause extend. The other man was thinking it over - but Jaime already knew that play. It would seem both men shared the same book of tricks and lines. This could be fun in many ways, a subtle battle of flirty wits at the same time of attraction and sexual tension. 

   Jaime wasn’t going to think too much about it, because if he did, he’d begin to hesitate once more. “Downtown, right off Parks and 2nd Street. The big building - not the shitty one,” Jaime instructed, but didn’t make a move yet to leave to the parking lot. Instead, he gave one more sweeping gaze, and a smile - as if finally saying alright, I’ll play. “By the way? I’m Jaime.” 

  — —

   Once at his apartment complex, and after sending a text to Sirena and ensuring she wasn’t home currently, Jaime unlocked the door and let them both in. The lights were off still, but otherwise the shared living space was normal and mostly clean. Snacks on the counter, a bra flung over the back of a chair. Jaime led the way to his bedroom, wondering what exactly he’d gotten himself into now. 

  “I take it you don’t mind it if I change in front of you?” Jaime chuckled, seeming to have no issue with dropping his pants once inside, kicking them to the side and turning to rummage in a laundry basket for sweats. 

If they’d had this conversation at another point then maybe she wouldn’t even be able to relate to him being hungover and still having to work but after a couple of the situations that she’d gotten herself into recently, she could sympathize. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint but I haven’t been up to much either. Aside from feeding my caffeine addiction and kind of making new friends, I wish my work was busy but after the storm half of my customers decided to cancel their orders and it hasn’t really picked up since.” Of course there was the fact that she did the job because she enjoyed it and not for survival reasons. His compliment after the pause took her by surprise, not necessarily that it was surprising he was complimenting her but it had been a while since anyone had complimented her at all. “Thanks.” Carmen grinned.

Arlo looked over after her coughing stopped. “Of course I’m worried about you. You’re my friend.” She said and shook her head some. “You’re so funny Jaime. So funny.” She said with a smirk, laughing. “What, Jaime. You should have taken your pain meds. Don’t try to be mister tough guy.” She added and frowned. “Honestly, I don’t even know at this point. I do have this little breathing thing that I have to use a couple times a day to get my lung functioning correctly all the way.” She said and grinned. “So, this is a date now, huh?” She moved over to very carefully lean up against him. “Let’s just want a disney movie or something?”

  At the mention of a breathing thing, Jaime cast Arlo a wary glance. “Well, just don’t get your sick all over me, or whatever,” He cautioned, but opened his arm up for her to come in closer when she leaned into him - if she wanted. Jaime never minded when his personal space was invaded. In fact, living with Sirena, he had all but lost all concept of privacy, anyway. Arlo’s question made him snicker. “Hey, why not? You’re the one who is calling me tough and acting all worried,” He gave a one shoulder shrug, careful not to jostle her and start another coughing episode. In fact, Jaime tried his best to remain still - her track record of safety was already so low. “Wow, a Disney movie. Been a hot minute,” Jaime agreed, but was glad that Arlo couldn’t catch the momentary cloud that passed his expression - there had been someone in his past who loved Disney. “Hercules it is,” He decided, throwing the movie up after a few moments of scrolling on his streaming service. 

Maybe he had been coming off a little too strong for the other’s taste, but River wasn’t too worried about consequences — it wouldn’t be the first time a straight guy had told him off. A grin rested on his lips as he watched the other male do his best to get the worst of it off, but without any real success. Truth was it was a lost cause already from the start, only the male didn’t seem to want to admit to that just yet himself. Leaning back in his seat, keeping a good view of what was happening before him, River’s gaze didn’t stray when he could feel the other male’s eyes on him, looking him over. Maybe — hopefully — even checking him out.

The response that finally surfaced actually came as a nice surprise. He hadn’t expected the other to bite, and yet, he couldn’t help but feel like he was flirting back. Pushing himself off his chair, River got up to approach the guy instead, stopping before him, eyes trailing down to take in the damage done to the area around his crotch once more — not at all being discreet about it. “Yeah, it would. Probably not in the middle of a public place like this, though.” When his gaze moved back up, it was to meet the other’s. “But we could go somewhere a little more private, and I could help you out there.” If his intentions hadn’t been made clear already, they certainly had to be now.

  Nothing about Jaime, or his behavior and lifestyle choices, screamed safe - for fuck sake, he still had bruises left over from the car accident weeks ago, a result of his carelessness and lack of seat belt. Much of his worse mistakes came from that same habitual force of diving into everything blind and eager - and for a moment, Jaime almost fell victim to that again, throwing caution to the wind the moment he encounters an interesting stranger. The self-satisfied smirk only deepens when he confirmed that the man was indeed checking him out - and apparently, seemed interested in what he saw. 

   What could Jaime say? He’s a hot commodity, a tatt’ed up beach bum, straight from the sands of California. “Well, I agree with you there,” Jaime confirmed, tearing his curious gaze from River to glance around the half-empty bar. Still a bit too crowded for comfort, especially with how close they stood currently. Jaime was ready to play along - at least, attempt to take the bait, but he hesitated a moment longer - River’s second comment reminding him of the last time he tried (and mostly failed) any sort of lustful encounter with another man. 

   “What, not even gonna buy me dinner first?” Jaime teased, acknowledging with humor that he understood what River was suggesting - and hopefully it would be clear he wasn’t entirely opposed. “I didn’t drive, and I live across town, so if you’re trying to offer me a ride, I’m not going to say no. I’ve got a roommate, but we don’t mind guests,” Jaime paused, letting his words hang in the air a moment before extending the olive branch. “You could come in, stay awhile. As an expression of my... gratitude.” His eyes flicked down once more, and his lips turned upwards in a smile. 

Sirena never knew if having one bathroom in their home was a good thing or a bad thing. It sucked most of the time, but one bonus was that she and Jaime didn’t have as many boundaries as normal roommates would have. Maybe that was why she had no problem with barging in on him while he was in the shower. It wouldn’t be her first time seeing him naked. She didn’t even bother to knock, she just let herself in. “Make some space, dickhead, I’m coming in,” she called out to him. 

It only took her a moment to undress herself and grab herself a towel before she was stepping into the shower with Jaime. “I’m hungover and I need this. Just deal with it,” she said. “Also, you’re cute with your hair all sudsy from the shampoo.”

@jamesoncastello​

   ‘Personal space’ to Jaime really had... little meaning, if he were honest. It was a surprise to him when Sirena seemed to accept his lack of boundaries just fine, and now somehow the two of them managed to co-exist while constantly invading each others bubbles, and Jaime loved it. 

  But it still managed to surprise him at times, too. He had been standing outside of the stream of water, letting his clarifying shampoo that he used once weekly to really soak into his hair as he brushed his teeth, and paused when a fully naked Sirena waltzed right into the water. “Oh,” Jaime mumbled around the toothbrush between his lips, not sure if he should laugh, stare, or grin with a foamy mouth. At her compliment, he did all three at once. “Hungover?” He repeated, leaning in closer to her to reach the drain, spitting his toothpaste out. An eyebrow raised as he pulled away once more, but his gaze didn’t stick to her eyes for long. “Yeah- uh, you’re... cute too. Want me to wash your back for you?” 

Arlo laughed a bit, which caused a couple coughs, which she was thankfully able to get back under control. “Oh yeah, took a pitstop in my car and then got stuck. it was great.” She said and frowned slightly as she looked at the bruising. “That looks awful Jaime.” She admitted and shoo her head. “No, it looks like you got into a fight with a tree and lost, not badass. Are you sure you’re alright?” She asked honestly. “Both. I was worried and I also missed you.” She said and offered him a small smile as she leaned against the couch, eyes closing for a moment. “You know what’s exhausting? Medication.” She said as she looked back over towards him, reopening her eyes. “We are falling apart.”

   “Fuck, don’t do that!” Jaime protested her coughs, as if he could remedy it with just a simple demand. Arlo’s concern surprised him a bit - usually Jaime hadn’t gotten much of it, especially this far out from the accident to begin with. Maybe it didn’t help he cracked jokes all the time about it, too. “Aw, you are worried ‘bout me!” He smiled, head tilting, a little curious even under the teasing tone. When her eyes drifted shut, he kept them on her a moment longer, but sent them elsewhere in the room when she opened them once more. “Medication? Yeah, I feel that. My pain killers made me sick for about a week, and I never even finished taking them, anyway... didn’t need them. You’re on.. what do you even get for that, pneumonia? Steroids?” He paused, then smiled again. “If you’re tired, this could always become a nap date.”

The plan had just been to grab a drink or two while he humored himself with a telephone meeting and then head back home, yet River found himself still in his seat nearly fifteen minutes after having finished up his call, swirling around the last contents of his glass while glancing out the window. Giving himself some time to think on his own was rare, and mostly he found himself indulging his surroundings instead. Today ended up not being any different — but he could easily blame it on the entertaining scene that went down just a table away from him, simply unable to take his eyes off it. By the time the male spilled the full contents of his drink, a low chuckle escaped his lips, picking his glass up to kick back what was left of his own. River wasn’t really staring, but he wasn’t not looking either, so maybe it wasn’t so strange that the male did in fact notice his gaze to begin with.

“Mmh.” Somewhat thoughtfully, eyebrows rose at the question he was given, eyes trailing from the male’s face down his figure, slowly taking his time to go over every part in detail — he had never been known to be one to try to hide when he was checking someone out, much less a male. “Honestly?” A light scoff followed as he repeated the question. “It looks like you’ve just jizzed in your pants.” Needless to say, mild amusement was all over his features. Figuring that the male was aiming to go to get most of it cleaned off, he added, “You need some help with that? I’m very good with my hands.” The innuendo was fully intentional, because while he liked to entertain himself with a good flirt, he usually didn’t start off too strong with a possibly straight guy. But then again, which straight guy would deliberately ask you to stare at their crotch?

  Even though it had been Jaime to ask for the man’s opinion - he hadn’t been exactly expecting the stranger to be so thorough about it and found himself wondering if he was reading into the prolonged gaze and full body scan deeper than he should be. It wouldn’t be the first time that Jaime jumped the gun and assumed something was there when it was in fact, definitely not. “Oh? Great. Exactly the look I was going for... fuck,” Jaime cursed under his breath, frown back firmly in place, the momentary distraction of being checked out so obviously fading. His hands full of napkins went back to trying to blot up the spill, but it was an obvious lost cause -

   Then he spoke again, and Jaime looked up from his task at hand, this time looking at River closer, too. Was there something about Wilmington that made the men bolder, hotter - or was Jaime just slowly starting to accept something about himself? His eyes narrowed slightly, and he allowed his own gaze to flick up and down River’s body. “Uh-huh... I bet you are,” He answered carefully at first, hesitating before giving into the temptation to flirt, and returning his smirk with one of his own. “I feel like it’d just be easier to get out of my pants entirely at this point.” He left it open-ended, curious more than anything, about what this man would say back to that. 

        At this point, Ella’s sex addiction was controlling her every action. All she could think about was ripping Jaime’s clothes off right here and right now. Her lustful eyes watching him like a hawk, she was distracted, but not stupid. Even in her hunger, she noticed his wincing as he moved and visible injuries on his arms. She had every intention of asking if he was okay, but the little fires burning inside stopped her from doing so. “If you think it’s hot, that’s all that matters,” The smooth line escaped her lips in a sexy tone, hoping that he caught her obvious drift of wanting to turn him on. Taking position on the long chair, she moved herself as close as possible to him. Their legs rubbing up against each others, her next action became one of her favorites. “Do you think you can put the tattoo…” Keeping her lecherous eyes fixed on his, she undid the button of her jeans, zipped them down to expose her red, lace thong, pulled the right side away from her body to expose more skin, reached her free hand down to grab his own, pulled it close to her pelvic region before skimming his fingers along the location she wanted the tattoo to be. “Here?”

Getting her daily dose of caffeine was perhaps her favorite part of the day and despite the small changes that were adding up it was one of her routines that she made certain she continued to keep up with. The sound of her name coming from him was something that was as familiar as it was sweet. “Hey you.” The brunette grinned, sitting down at the table with him. She had missed him that was something she was certain of but it seemed that everyone in town had been extra busy after the storm, for reasons that absolutely made sense. They kept in touch but it was still a lot better getting to see him in person. “I’ve missed you, too.” It was interesting how it always felt like the first time she was hanging out with him, the same mix of excitement and some level of nerves. “How have you been? What have you been up to?” 

  For as much time as Jaime spent near the Wrightsville beach, he may as well pack his bag and move there - ditch the Downtown craziness and evolve into the beach bum he truly was inside. Coming from California gave him a deep appreciation for the water front, and so it was more common to find Jameson on an afternoon off fucking around at the Palm Room than it was to spot him in the city area. 

  Jaime had just settled into a cozy little bench by a window with a drink in hand when a furry, friendly dog ran up to him out of nowhere, jumping up with his front paws in Jaime’s lap, and causing his fresh beer to spill all over the place - more specifically, all down the front of his pants. “Ah shiiit...” He hissed, setting the mostly empty glass down and begrudgingly giving the pooch a little bit of pets. “Uh- hello? Excuse me? Does this guy belong to someone?” 

  No one spoke up, so Jaime sighed, pushing the dog off of him gently, and stood to go fetch napkins or paper towels. He felt the man’s eyes on him first, but turned with a smirk. “Just my luck. Be honest - how bad does it look?” He turned to the man, arms to the side, showing the full extent of the damage left on his clothes from the beer. 

It wasn’t difficult to imagine him as a power ranger or as someone who had in general lived a rather interesting life, it would have been harder to believe that nothing had ever happened in his life or that he didn’t have a handful of interesting stories to tell. She was going to comment when he began talking about the weather but she knew that he wanted to focus on more positive things and truthfully so did she, therefore she simply allowed the comment to slide and focused on his following question. “As long as you’re not going to dare me to run down the street with no clothes on or something like that then I am totally game.”