“Or maybe he does, and he can’t make his body do what they’re asking him to do?”
Pain lanced Rupert’s heart. Though Jodi’s gaze had remained hollow since he’d opened his eyes, the thought of the real Jodi—the Jodi from before—trapped behind that blank stare, haunted Rupert every moment he wasn’t worrying that Jodi still might die. “I don’t know ... I don’t know anything about anything. Just gotta take each day at a time, eh? Trust him to get better.”
Sophie said nothing for a moment, her expression distant. “What’s going to happen to him, Rupe? If he doesn’t get better? How are we going to look after him?”
The junk food in Rupert’s mouth turned to dust. The answer to Sophie’s bleak question was complicated; Jodi’s physical recovery was slow but tangible. Despite Rupert’s pessimism, there was no denying the daily improvements—improvements that left Jodi’s damaged brain far behind. What would happen if he became too well for the hospital but too vulnerable to come home?
Rupert squeezed his eyes shut. He hadn’t believed there could be anything worse than what they’d lived—ha—through already, but that would be a whole new nightmare, and his grotty dinner had long gone cold by the time he found the words to answer Sophie. He opened his eyes and glared at her likeshewas the one who’d mowed Jodi down with a stolen car. “I’m taking him home. Whatever happens, he’s coming home with me.”
* * *
March 26, 2010
Jodi did put his arms around Rupert that first night, and the one after, and it wasn’t long before they fell into a comfortable routine. Rupert stayed over three or four nights a week, sometimes more, and eventually, Jodi found himself unable to sleep when Rupert went home to at his bedsit.
One morning, a few weeks after their bar date, Jodi awoke just before dawn to find him still sleeping. He rolled over and studied his companion, stretched out on his front, naked, because they’d ditched their clothes the night before and slept bare and open, facing each other, hardly daring to touch. Rupert’s body had seemed perfect in the darkness, his pale skin flawless in the shadows, but now, with the sun rising through the blinds they’d forgotten to close, Jodi saw that what he’d glimpsed the night before hadn’t done Rupert justice. Jesus fucking Christ, the bloke was beautiful. Skin, muscle, and bone, all melded together with a wry, warm innocence that made Jodi’s heart ache.
“Stop staring. You’ll give me a complex.”
Jodi came back to earth to find Rupert wide-awake and grinning. “Caught me, eh? Sorry, can’t help it. You’re too cute.”
“Cute?” Rupert pulled a face that made him look like a young boy. “That wasn’t the effect I was hoping for, lying here in my birthday suit.”
“You don’t want to know the effect your birthday suit is having on me.”
“Wouldn’t bet on that, mate.”
“That right?” Jodi leaned in and kissed Rupert full on the lips, letting Rupert’s strong arms engulf him in the embrace he’d come to crave when Rupert wasn’t around. The kiss deepened, and it wasn’t long before they were pressed together and gasping for breath, the point where Jodi usually put the brakes on, mindful of pushing Rupert too hard and too fast.
The wait for Rupert to make the next move had seemed endless, but Jodi forgot all about it as Rupert took Jodi’s cock in his hand and brushed his thumb along the length, his lips still fused to Jodi’s. Jodi jumped and let out a strangled groan, breaking their kiss. “Bloody hell. Do that again.”
Rupert repeated the gesture. “I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
Jodi begged to differ, but rather than scoff, he passed on the best nugget of wisdom he’d ever been given about pleasuring another man. “Treat my dick like your own and we’ll be just fine.”
“Yeah?” Rupert laughed and the nervous tension in his face eased. “Makes sense. I’ve had plenty of experience makingmyselfcome.”
Jodi found Rupert’s hand, which had drifted away while they’d been talking, and moved it back to his cock. “Haven’t we all. Now, show me what you do to yourself when you’re alone in bed.”
“That hasn’t happened much recently.” But Rupert gripped Jodi’s weeping cock all the same, squeezing and twisting, building up to a teasing rhythm that barely scratched the surface of the simmering heat between them.
Jodi bit his shoulder. “More.”
“More?”
“More.”
Rupert hesitated a moment, then threw the duvet aside, exposing them both to the early morning draft. But Jodi barely felt the chill in the air as Rupert scooted down the bed and took his cock in his mouth, enveloping it in a firm, hot suction that sent Jodi’s eyes into a rolling spin.
“Fuck.”
Rupert sucked harder and grazed his teeth along the underside with just a little too much pressure. Jodi hissed. Rupert adjusted himself with a gentle lick, and Jodi’s back arched from the sweetly subtle pleasure. He took note of the gesture and filed it away, ready for when they switched roles, something he couldn’t contemplate while Rupert was blowing him like this. Fuck no. This couldn’t end. Ever.
But it seemed Rupert had other ideas. After a few more false starts, he found his rhythm and picked up the pace, using his hand for extra friction, and grazing Jodi’s balls with the other. Jodi cried out again and fisted the sheets beneath him.Damn it. He was the one supposed to be giving the lessons, and now he was about to blow his load in ten seconds flat. How the fuck had that happened?
Orgasm crept up on him, rushing through him and spilling out into Rupert’s mouth before he had a chance to warn him. Rupert’s eyes widened, and for a moment Jodi feared he’d gag, but he didn’t. He swallowed with a smirk and then continued to tease until Jodi begged him to stop.
“You sneaky bastard.” Jodi heaved for breath and wiped away the sweat that had trickled down his face and chest. “You’re supposed to be a fucking amateur.”
