“So we’ll get some more. Fuck it.”
Rupert slipped his arm around Jodi’s waist, and they started walking back the way Jodi had come. Jodi leaned into Rupert and absorbed his warmth, trying not to wonder if Rupert was touching him because he wanted to or simply holding him up. Did it even matter? For a little while, Jodi convinced himself that it didn’t. Everything else was either falling into place or carving itself a new one. Why would this be any different?
“Jodi?”
“Hmm?”
Rupert stopped walking and put his hands on Jodi’s shoulders. “Can I try something?”
“Try something?”
“Yeah. It’s probably something we should do at home, but everything seems so ...” Rupert winced. “It gets so heavy there, you know? I just want to ... Fuck it. I just want to kiss you in a place where you can run for the hills if you need to and still have a home.”
“You want to kiss me?”
Rupert grinned nervously. “I do. Is that okay?”
It wasveryokay, but Jodi couldn’t quite find the words to say so. He covered Rupert’s hands with his own and leaned forward, stretching his neck to reach Rupert’s lips. He kissed Rupert once, twice, three times—light, gentle kisses—and then something changed. The air shifted, and Jodi needed more, much more, and he needed itnow.
He released Rupert’s hands and put his palms flat on Rupert’s strong chest, shoving him back into the wall of a nearby bank. Rupert let out a surprised grunt, then he gripped Jodi’s jacket and pulled him tight against him. “Don’t play with me. I haven’t got it in me to lose you again.”
“You’re not going to lose me.” Jodi kissed Rupert harder this time, like he could drive Rupert’s doubts away with clashing teeth and bruised lips. “I want this, Rupe. I want you, and that’s never going to change. It’s part of me. I can feel it.”
“I can feel it too.”
It took Jodi a moment to cotton on to what Rupert meant. Then he felt it: the mind-blowing sensation of Rupert’s hard dick against his own. “Oh wow.”
Rupert grinned, though Jodi didn’t miss the flash of relief in his gaze. “Yeah. Wow. We still got it.”
“‘Still’? This crazy heat isn’t new?”
“Not for me,” Rupert said. “You’re the only bloke I’ve ever been with, but you blew my mind from the start. It’s always been incredible between us. Couldn’t ask for more.”
“You blew my mind.”The echo of Jodi’s own thoughts left him dizzy, but the good kind of dizzy: the heady, giddy kind that made him feel lighter than air until a growl from his stomach interrupted a chain of thought that was about to getwayout of hand.
Rupert chuckled. “Jesus. I felt that too. Hungry, are ya?”
“Guess I must be. Does that mean we have to go home?”
“Do you want to go home?”
Jodi shrugged. There was nothing he wanted more than to hustle home with Rupert and let the chips fall where they may, but something—perhaps his own raging boner—told him they both needed to cool off before they hit the ground—the bed—running and fucked everything up all over again. “Can we eat somewhere else?”
“Sure. Got anywhere in mind?”
Of course he hadn’t. Jodi hadn’t eaten out in years—five to be exact if his sieve-like brain had its way.Fuck it.He pointed across the street to the first restaurant he saw.
“You want Moroccan barbecue?”
“Erm, yeah?”
Rupert laughed. “That’s good enough for me. Let’s go.”
Eighteen
The restaurant was dark and warm, and the food spicy and rich. Rupert had never eaten anything like the fruity meat stew that had appeared after he’d pointed at the first word he’d recognised on the menu—couscous, as it happened—and he hadn’t had a beer in months.
“Go on,” Jodi said. “Just have one. Fuck it, right?”
