Page 56 of After the Siren
That went straight to Theo’s dick. He must have made some sort of noise, because Jake looked smug about it.
‘Such a romantic,’ Theo told him, reaching out to hook a thumb in the waist of Jake’s trackies to pull him closer.
‘You won’t be complaining tomorrow,’ Jake said. He tilted his head up for a kiss, but broke it before it could get heated again. ‘Come on,’ he said, grabbing Theo by the hand and tugging him down the hall. ‘I’ll get you a Gatorade.’
He did get Theo a Gatorade, and he also retrieved Theo’s abandoned shirt from the living room, gave Theo a spare t-shirt to sleep in and put some water on the bedside table, then pulled him down onto the bed and into another kiss, lazy this time, like they had all the time in the world, like there wasn’t every chance that they’d wake up tomorrow and pretend this had never happened. But Theo wasn’t going to think about that now, not when Jake was here, his hands gentle in Theo’s hair, his mouth tasting of toothpaste.
It was Jake who stopped the kissing, in the end, lingering for a moment with his forehead resting against Theo’s. Then he shifted to the side and tucked his head against Theo’s shoulder, one arm draped loosely over Theo’s torso.
‘G’night,’ he murmured.
‘Night.’
Theo wondered if he’d struggle to sleep – he didn’t always do well in strange beds – but Jake’s mattress was comfortable, and he felt himself slipping towards sleep, lulled by the rhythm of Jake’s steady breathing and the smell of his shampoo.
Chapter Thirteen
Jake woke up with his cheek pressed against the warm fabric of Stavs’ t-shirt. He always wrapped himself around anyone sleeping beside him. Paddy said he was like a fucking koala and made him sleep next to Xen if they ever had to share. Kyle had found it irritating.
In this case he’d managed to curl up with one leg over Stavs’ calf, his face pillowed against Stavs’ pec. He couldn’t believe Stavs hadn’t shoved him away. But here he was, next to Jake, his breathing even, his face softer than Jake had ever seen it.
Jake resisted the urge to nestle even closer and instead reached out to tap his phone. It was half past seven, and they had nowhere to be until midday. He was ... not nervous. It would be stupid to be nervous. And he was very comfortable. It was nice to wake up next to someone again. At some point in the night they’d thrown off the doona and shoved the sheet down so it was tangled around their thighs.
Stavs was sleeping with one arm flung out above his head, and Jake let himself just admire his chest and his shoulders and hisarms.
It wasn’t like he didn’t see Stavs naked or half-naked all the time, but it was different like this. Different to have Stavs here, in his bed, and to be able tolook.To be able to look, aftertouching. The t-shirt Jake had loaned him was a bit small on him and it was a whole situation.
It was probably a good thing they hadn’t fucked. If it all went sideways, Jake could walk it off. He didn’t think Stavs was going to be a dick; he might be awkward about it, maybe, but not a dick. Still, however Stavs reacted, Jake could probably manage to get them back into ‘friends’ territory. They’d been drunk, they were fired up after the game, shit happens. It didn’t mean anything.
Lying propped up on one elbow to watch Stavs’ sleeping face didn’t mean anything either. Anyone would look at that face. At those ridiculous eyelashes. People paid good money for eyelashes like that. And Stavs had a nice mouth. Jake had beennotlooking at it for weeks, but he could look at it now, look at the strong line of Stavs’ jaw, the dip of his throat, the fading bruise above one collarbone. He had a scar just under his left eye, a tiny pink line against his dark skin. Jake wanted to know how it had happened. He wanted to know lots of things about Stavs. It was a problem.
Jake felt the moment that Stavs woke, felt the sudden tension in his body. He wanted to press a kiss to Stavs’ chest, in case it was the last one.
He didn’t.
‘Hi,’ he said.
Stavs blinked a couple of times, as though he was trying to work out where he was and why. ‘Hey.’
Stavs’ voice was rough with sleep and Jake felt it somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach. There was a dark shadow on Stavs’ jaw and cheeks. Jake wanted to feel that stubble against his skin.
He shuffled back to give Stavs some space. He probably didn’t want to process the situation with Jake’s morning wood pressed against his thigh, even if the sheet had been pushed down far enough to show that Jake wasn’t the only one with that problem.He didn’tthinkStavs was going to be pissed about this. True, Jake wouldn’t have kissed him if he’d been a little less buzzed himself and had stopped to think about the fact that Stavs didn’t usually drink. But Stavs hadn’t been obviously fucked up, and Jake hadn’t realised until they’d stood up that he was drunk.
Maybe at that point he should have taken a harder line against more kissing, but he was weak.
Stavs blinked a couple of times and ran a hand through his hair. He was, unfortunately, extremely hot when he was sleep-rumpled and a bit bleary.
‘I figure you’ve got some options,’ Jake said, before Stavs could say anything. ‘You can bail, or we could get breakfast, or we could get off. Or a combo of those things. And we can pretend this never happened, if you need to. Whatever option you pick.’
The part of Jake that listened to Xen knew that fucking and then having Stavs bail and pretend it had never happened was not a good idea. It would have made a worried little line appear between Xen’s eyes. But Jake was only human. Stavs washot, and he smelled great, and he was here in Jake’s bed, and maybe if Jake knew going into it that Stavs was going to fuck and duck, it would all be fine. It wasn’t like Jake hadn’t fucked people before on the understanding that they’d never speak of it again. It wasn’t his favourite way to do things, but he was the one in the closet, so. Yeah.
‘What do you want to do?’ Stavs asked, his voice still husky. He shifted slightly, propping himself up on one elbow.
Jake continued not to look. Much. ‘I asked first.’
Stavs rolled his eyes.
Jake sighed. But it wasn’t as though he hadn’t put his cards on the table already. ‘I’d like to get off, get breakfast, and then not pretend this didn’t happen.’
