Page 41 of Natural-Born Cullers

“Thanks so much for bringing it up.” He went over as Ray munched on the hash brown. “The lads get theirs?”

Ray nodded. “Hm-hmm. Thank you. You didn’t have to buy for them too, you know.”

Jan emptied the bags and put the tubs on the table as the percolator boiled. “Feels weird, us eating and not you guys. And as Jack’s had a few days off from… everything to—”Recover from Gray’s touch three days ago. “—get back into the swing of things, I’m on breakfast duty still.”

Ray laughed softly. “You really don’t do high society too well, huh? Even after how many years now?”

“Three.”

Ray nodded. “I swear it doesn’t show… soft lad.”

“Oh fuck you.” Jan laughed and flipped him the bird.

Ray nearly choked on his hash brown. “But I see Jack’s influence coming out more and more, though.” He fell quiet for a moment. “Everything okay on that score?”

Jan glanced back. “Hm?”

Ray’s look back towards the stairs was a little off. “It’s just been a little quiet the past few days.”

“Ah. You kind of worry more when there’s no fire alarms going off, huh? Easier to see where and what people, and I mean Jack and Martin here, are up to if they are?” Jan started setting out the plates. “This why you brought the breakfast order up from your secondary home at the gatehouse? You’re making sure the disappearance of the staff a few days ago really was down to Gray, not… Martin?”

“You know you sound just like Light, right? So little trust from the youth around here lately.”

“I’ve just touched thirty.”

“Exactly… youth.” Ray started to head for the back door. “I hate the lot of you.”

Jan laughed, and as Ray left him alone, he poured the coffee, then started sharing out the breakfast: sausages, bacon, eggs… extra mushrooms his own way.

A hold slipped around Jan’s waist a moment later, and a kiss came at his neck. “Smells damn good.”

Jan jolted and glanced back at Gray, and for a moment, Gray frowned.

He’d been honest and so bloody frank over everything that had gone down a few days ago, especially how he’d gone in on Jack. It angered, mostly confused, but Jack…. There’d been no anger in Jack, not in the aftermath, and Jan buried the danger signs over exactly what had happened, mostly because they both had this… this is the extremeusease with each other. He was glad Jack had been there during Gray’s fall. Jack knew how to run with Gray and defuse, but because he wasn’t a psychopath—Gray’s usual target—that kept him a hell of a lot safer than any ilk of Gray’s to get caught underneath him. Which was damn lucky, all things considered. Most saw the gentleman in Gray, sometimes the culler, but Jan had learned over the past few years, maybe more so after fucking Jack the way he had a few days ago, Gray was something else entirely when it came to core roots as the psychopath, no culler collar in tow. Gray and Jack knew it, where Jan was still catching up with the raw truth over what happened when Gray was allowed to dig deep enough.

“It’s a skill,” Jan said with a smile, although he shook a little. “You know, me being able to order food in where Jack usually cooks it.”

Gray kissed at his neck again as if transcribing the minor tremors, and being caught on a spider web where moves were anticipated came to mind, which didn’t help one bit.

“Easy. I won’t ever hurt you, Jan.”

Jan cocked a smile at him. “Still doesn’t…do itfor you, huh? Me in that context?”

Gray gave a hard sigh, a brief rest of head on Jan’s shoulder. “At that level, it scares me just how much Jack… does.”

Jan looked out of the window, never more conscious of exactlywhatGray was. He’d hate to see his fully exposed roots, where he didn’t need Jack’s pull back into life. But he damn sure understood now why Gray stayed away for weeks… months at a time. He maybe needed to.

“He’s still here, Gray. We’re both still here.”

A rough sigh came. “Might be the safest option,” Gray said quietly. “I’d never rationally let you walk away. Which almost worries me more.”

Jan snorted, seeing it. But they stayed because this… this was them.

He looked towards the door a moment later. “He sure he’s okay to go back to work today?” One thing Jan had learned: an afternoon of brutal pleasure took weeks to recover from. Rightly so, because the comedown knocked the best about, and Jack had been out of it for nearly two days before he was comfortable enough to ease out of bed, let alone into a medicated bath.

Gray had slept for an hour that first night, then seemed to snap out of it, taking over from Jan and applying ice to the welts on Jack’s back, ass, and feet. They’d kept that up every fifteen minutes for forty-eight hours, both Jan and Gray working from home for a while, Gray never seeming more relaxed in their home, in how all routine had been pushed to the wayside.

That was where it hit home for Jan, where they only found comfort and peace in the aftermath of bleeding all routine out, and no doubt why it felt odd to Ray. Gray rarely touched that level of… comfort.

---