It was doing his head in, so Mal decided to go back to thinking about Jory instead. He’d had the right idea, saying they didn’t have to sort everything out at once. They could take it slow and easy.
The thought of him and Jory taking it slow and easy made Mal smile. And start getting a stiffy. He rubbed his dick through his jeans and wondered if Jory would be up for sexting.
Or a plain, U-rated phone call, even. Sod it. Mal just wanted to hear his voice. Anything else would be gravy.
He grabbed his phone.
Jory answered almost immediately. “Hi. Everything all right?”
“Yeah. Great. Dev and Kyle have gone back to the cottage to get an early night.” So they were probably shagging away like bunnies right now. If Kyle’s narcolepsy hadn’t cockblocked them again, poor sods. “I’m in the Sea Bell. In my room.” He paused. “Lying on my bed.”
“Oh. Oh. Is this where I ask you what you’re wearing?”
“Well, it sorta depends on if you’re alone right now.”
“Completely. Bran’s working, and Bea is . . . I have no idea what Bea’s doing. But she isn’t doing it where I am.”
“So where are you, then?”
“In the kitchen, raiding the fridge.”
“Find anything good?”
“There’s parma ham. I’m trying to find something to wrap it round.”
Mal laughed. “And there was me thinking we’d got off track with the phone sex.”
There was a pause.
“Jory?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really don’t want to have phone sex with you.” He paused just long enough for Mal’s blood pressure to go through the bloody stratosphere, then went on, “I’d rather save that sort of thing for when we’re together. At least for now. Does that make sense?”
Mal’s heart clenched painfully. “Yeah,” he said, and had to clear his throat. “Not like we got any good memories of actual sex, is it? What with me being such a fucking dick about it that time at the beach.”
“Mal . . . I wasn’t getting at you.”
“I know. But you shoulda. I treated you like shit.” Mal scrubbed his eyes. “Wish you were here right now.”
“I could be. If you want me to.”
Mal blinked. Of course he could be. He opened his mouth to say Yeah, fuck, come on down, but Jory beat him to it.
“I don’t mean . . . We don’t have to do anything. All I want is to be with you.”
“Well, yeah, see, that’s a problem, innit?” Mal said hoarsely. “Cos, you know, I just sorta melted into the duvet. Sorry.”
Jory’s laugh sounded a bit manic, but that was cool. It was more than cool.
“Come down here,” Mal told him. “I’ll make sure the back door’s unlocked.”
It was only half an hour from Roscarrock House to the Sea Bell if you walked it. Slowly. It should’ve taken Jory fuck all time in the car and probably did, but it felt like several hundred years before Mal heard a quiet, cautious tap at his bedroom door.
“Come in,” he said, ninety-nine percent sure it was Jory, because Tasha? Didn’t knock. She yelled.
The door opened and Jory stepped through. Mal smiled helplessly as he got up from his sprawl on the bed. “You made it, then?”
“Yes.” Jory was smiling too, and he looked fucking lovely. So Mal went up to him, slung his arms around Jory’s neck, and kissed him.
God, he tasted good. Although a bit on the minty side. “Did you clean your teeth? You never said you were going to do that. Now I’m worried my breath stinks.” Shit. Had he cleaned them since those lunchtime pickled onions? Yes. Yes, he had. Thank God.
“Your breath’s fine,” Jory said, squeezing him tight. “Better than fine.” He kissed Mal again which, fair enough, was a good way of showing he wasn’t just saying that.
Well, either that or he was just as gone on Mal as Mal was on him.
“Missed you,” Mal said, cos it was important.
“Me too. Um. I’m not actually sure what we do now.”
“Uh, the kissing’s good. Better than good.” Mal thought about it. “We could try it sitting on the bed.”
They sat down, arms still round each other, and kissed some more until somehow Mal found himself flat on his back with Jory on top of him. Which, yeah, was turning into one of his favourite positions to be in, so he was confused when Jory pulled back, screwed up his face, and said, “Sorry.”
“What for?”
“I said we wouldn’t—”
“Nuh-uh.” Mal was sure of his ground on this one. “You said we didn’t have to. Not that we weren’t gonna.” He thrust his hips up against Jory to make sure Jory knew which page he was on, and it was the one with the rude bits.
From the hard ridge that met his dick, yeah, Jory was on that page too.
Jory laughed softly. “I just . . . I don’t want to rush you. I know you’ve had your doubts about us.”
“I’m an idiot. You don’t wanna listen to me.”
“You’re not an idiot.”
“Yeah, I am. I hurt you, didn’t I?”
Jory cupped Mal’s face in his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. I’d say I forgive you, but there’s nothing to forgive.”
And . . . that was the biggest load of bollocks Mal had ever heard, but fuck it, if karma was having an off day and dumping a lot of undeserved happiness in his lap, he wasn’t gonna complain. He reached up to grab Jory and
