Page 54 of After the Siren
He wanted to know what it would be like to kiss Jake. Wanted to know how Jake kissed, what he liked. Wanted to know whether he’d moan if Theo kissed up his throat to his jaw, if Theo traced the edges of that mermaid tattoo with his tongue.
Everyone started to crash around 10 pm, worn out from the game and the drinking. Nobody had been goingtoohard, and Theo ended up on the end of the couch between Jake and Paddy, still battling forMario Kartsupremacy.
‘Gonna crash,’ Paddy said, after a resounding loss. He levered himself to his feet and retreated, leaving Theo and Jake on the couch.
‘We gotta finish this round,’ Jake said.
‘I should go.’ Theo wasn’t sure whether he’d be relieved or disappointed if Jake agreed.
Jake just looked at him, tipping his head back against the back of the couch. ‘Come on. We’re even. We need a decider.’
‘It’s pretty late.’
‘You can crash here if you like.’
Theo felt like he was teetering on the edge of a precipice, looking down. Jake’s singlet had ridden up to show a strip of tanned skin and the waistband of his underwear. The sensible part of Theo’s mind was screaming at him to say goodnight and go home, but every other part of him was humming with the need to stay where he was, to see what would happen. Becausesomethingwould happen if he stayed. He knew it, and Jake knew it, and Jake was looking at him with a challenge in his eyes.
‘Alright, let’s go,’ he said, and Jake’s smile made his stomach turn over.
They were one-all and Theo was winning the last race when Jake – theasshole– grabbed Theo’s controller right out of his hands and held it out of his reach. Theo lunged to reclaim it and Jake kept him off with one hand and a knee, gasping with laughter as Mario spun out and crashed on the screen. Jake lost his own controller in the scuffle, Princess Peach going the same way as Mario. Then Theo was sprawled on top of Jake, struggling to keep both of Jake’s wrists pinned to the couch, their legs tangled together, both of them shaking with laughter.
‘You’re such a shit,’ Theo said, trying to catch his breath.
Jake grinned up at him. ‘You like it.’
Theo needed to stop looking at Jake. Needed to stop looking at his mouth, specifically. He let go of Jake’s wrists and Jake shifted, his hands going to Theo’s waist as though to push him off. Theo’s shirt had slid up in the struggle and he couldn’t stop his breath from catching as Jake’s fingers brushed his bare sides.
Theo wasn’t sure who kissed who. One moment he was trying (failing) to tear his eyes away from Jake’s lips, to pull away from the heat of Jake’s body, and the next he’d kissed Jake or Jake had kissed him – someone had kissed someone, and someone was kissing back.
Jake kissed the same way he did everything: confident, a little messy, sweeter than Theo had expected. Theo cradled the back of his head, getting his hands into Jake’s hair. He tugged, gently, and Jake pressed closer, one hand on Theo’s jaw and the other on Theo’s hip. There was nothing sweet about the way he moaned into Theo’s mouth, the way he nipped at Theo’s bottom lip like he wanted Theo to bite back.
Theo was so familiar with Jake’s body on the field, taut and resisting, and Jake’s easy tactility with his friends, but this was something else entirely: Jake yielding underneath him, Jake’s fingers tightening like he needed to hold on to something, Jake’s mouth against his, hot and open and demanding.
Jake was a good kisser, because of course he was. Or maybe it was just that he kissed exactly how Theo liked, not caring if Theo knew how much he wanted this, how much he wantedTheo. Theo had always loved kissing, and kissing Jake Cunningham was turning out to be a revelation. It had been so long since he’d kissed someone for the first time – kissed someone and worked out what they liked from the way they kissed back, the way their body responded, the way they shivered.
It was different to kissing a woman, but not in any way that felt significant. Jake’s stubble against his mouth when he moved his lips to Jake’s jaw, then his neck. The hard planes of Jake’s chest when Theo trailed a hand up his torso. (Why the fuck did Jake have a shirt on – foronce– when Theo needed it to be gone?)
Theo made do, because he was good like that: got the tips of his fingers under the hem of Jake’s singlet and waited until Jake breathed, ‘Yeah, come on,’ against Theo’s mouth. Then there was warm skin under his fingers and he could feel the tense and tremble of Jake’s abs beneath his palms, the way Jake shuddered when Theo slid his hands over Jake’s ribs.
Theo shifted on the couch, one of his thighs pressing between Jake’s legs, and Jake hooked a leg around the back of his thigh to urge him closer, to bring their hips together. Theo tried to bite back a noise he was sure was going to be embarrassing – failed, because he felt Jake’s lips curve into a smile. They were both wearing trackies and Theo could feel the hard line of Jake’s dick against his thigh. That was new, too, but all Theo could think wasThank God, because he was painfully turned on and all they’d done was roll around on the couch and make out.
‘Is this ... are you ...’ he said against Jake’s mouth. Jake seemed very into it, but he’d also been unusually quiet.
Admittedly, his mouth had been pretty occupied.
‘Yeah, yeah,yes, I’m good,’ Jake said, tangling his fingers into Theo’s hair to pull him into another kiss. ‘C’mere.’
So apparently the key to shutting up Jake Cunningham had been to just kiss him.
Theo thought maybe he could kiss Jake for hours. Days. Maybe it had been hours, or days, and he’d just lost track. Every little thing that had annoyed him about Jake – every infinitesimal way he’d gotten under Theo’s skin – and then every little thing that he’d come to like about Jake – had crashedtogether and caught alight. He wanted to hold Jake down and touch him until he begged for it.
They broke apart and Theo took a moment to just look, Jake sprawled underneath him, his hair dishevelled by Theo’s fingers and his lips swollen. Jake quirked an eyebrow at him, smirking, so Theo had to press a kiss to the edge of Jake’s jaw, under his ear, and then set his teeth to the same spot, just to remind Jake that he wasn’t in charge. Jake’s eyes slipped shut and he sighed something that might have been Theo’s name.
Theo shoved at the hem of Jake’s singlet and Jake took the hint, wriggling back to sit up a little so he could pull it off.
‘You too,’ he said.
Theo unbuttoned his own shirt with shaky fingers and then they were chest to chest, Jake’s thighs bracketing Theo’s hips, Jake sliding his hands over Theo’s arms and chest and back like he couldn’t decide what he wanted to touch more.
