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“Kissing isn’t needed for sex. It’s too intimate,” Sebastian murmured. “I don’t want to be intimate with you.”

It stung.

“Your cock’s still up my ass, that’s intimate in my eyes.”

Sebastian slid out. “I don’t kiss. If that’s a problem, we can stop.”

“No,” Rory blurted, spinning around. “I need this.”

Sebastian smiled. “Okay.” He cupped Rory’s face and brushed a thumb over Rory’s lips. “It would complicate things. Sex is…”

“Simple,” Rory finished.

“Yeah, intimacy isn’t, so let’s keep it simple. It’s best for both of us.”

Rory already knew it was too late for him to do that. He was falling for Sebastian Claw and there was nothingsimpleabout it.

Sex and chess were the only times Rory didn’t feel the pressure of his emotions crushing him. He didn’t think about Ollie’s imminent heartbreak or Captain’s self-destructive path. He didn’t think about letting Hamish down, or Morris’s judging stare, or being a disappointment to his dad. He didn’t even think about Sebastian the murderer, or his future criminal activities.

He thought about Sebastian’s mouth, his hands, his cock that filled the empty void inside him. Even when they played chess, Rory ended up thinking about sex. Sebastian had started to stroke Rory’s claimed pieces across his lips, the same way he brushed his lips over Rory’s nipples before sucking them inside.

Rory grew hard under the table, and their pupils turned darker, the longer they played the game. Many matches were abandoned because of their mutual need to get back to their celland settle the game in a different manner. In the game of sex, Sebastian always won, and each time Rory lost to him, a piece of his heart was unwillingly claimed by him too.

16

Rory woke to thesound of buzzing. He groaned and tried to get his bearings. When he hopped down from the top bed, he ended up crumpling to his knees and groaning as he looked up in confusion at the bed. He’d not been on the top like he’d thought, but he had fallen asleep on Sebastian’s bed. Sebastian dropped down from the top bunk, cursing as he frantically patted his hand around the bed.

Rory rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes and tried to remember why he was on the bottom bunk. They’d been having sex, standing up, and Sebastian had told him not to come across the bed. His deep voice had sent Rory over the edge, and he’d done what Sebastian warned him not to. Sleeping in the damp bed was the consequence.

The whole bed had smelled of Sebastian, and Rory inwardly decided he’d come on it more often if he got to sleep there. It was like being embraced by him all night.

Sebastian pulled the phone out of a hidden slit in the mattress, then hissed into it, “What the hell are you—”

His angry voice cut off. Rory couldn’t see Sebastian’s face, but he noticed how tense his shoulders had become.

“What?” Sebastian murmured. “That…that can’t… Are you sure?”

Rory didn’t hear the other voice, but Sebastian’s harsh tone cleared the last remains of fog from his mind. Sebastian was angry, then shocked, then angry again.

“I don’t know,” Sebastian snapped. “I have no idea.”

The heavy weight of guilt pressed on Rory’s chest. Something on the outside had gone wrong, and Rory suspected it was to do with the farm or the barrels Sebastian was getting his friend to store. Whatever had happened was on him. Rory swayed as he got to his feet and clambered onto the top bunk.

“You can’t just… Well, think of something,” Sebastian said before ending the call.

Rory bit his lip, staring at the ceiling.

“Is something wrong?” Rory asked.

Sebastian replied softly. “Yes.”

Rory’s throat tightened. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Night, Sebastian.”

Rory didn’t get a reply.

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