Page 39 of After the Siren

Theo helped with the dishes and then followed Jake out to what Lydia and Debbie called ‘the den’.

The den was a small granny flat that Lydia and Debbie had converted for Jake once he’d turned fourteen.

To give him privacy, apparently. Theo wondered whether what they really meant was to give Debbie and Lydia privacy.

Theo and Jake had dropped their bags in there earlier and the room was exactly what Theo would have expected.

There was an artful array of surfboards, a guitar (possibly never played) in one corner, a spirited attempt at fuckboy LEDs, several football posters of varying levels of homoeroticism and a single rail for Jake’s clothes but two cabinets stuffed full of footy memorabilia, all lovingly arranged.

Plugger watched them mournfully through the sliding door as they walked away from the main house. It had turned properly cold, the grass a little damp under Theo’s bare feet. He broke into a jog to cover the last few steps.

They’d barely made it through the door when Jake’s hands were on him, pulling him into a hungry kiss. Theo kissed him back and tugged him closer. Jake was still warm from the fire, his mouth tasting of chocolate and mint.

Jake broke the kiss, his hands in Theo’s hair. He was smiling, the ridiculous lights threading red and orange through his hair. ‘Thanks for coming,’ he said.

Theo didn’t know what to say, so he cradled Jake’s face in his hands and kissed him again.

Jake’s mouth opened under his and they kissed until Jake was shoving at Theo’s t-shirt and they broke apart so Theo could pull it off.

Jake’s hands were on his chest immediately, his thumb teasing one of Theo’s nipples, his mouth on Theo’s neck.

‘Hey, so,’ Jake said, breaking the kiss and tugging Theo towards the bed by his belt buckle, his smile mischievous. ‘Wanna fuck me?’

‘Uh.’ Theo nearly fell over his own feet. He caught himself and let Jake pull him over to the bed. Jake sat down and Theo stepped between his legs, Jake’s hands sliding up Theo’s thighs.

Jake was still grinning, but it had gone sweet around the edges. ‘You don’t have to.’

It had occurred to Theo, obviously, that there were options beyond blowjobs and handjobs.

He hadn’t quite known how to bring that up, especially as he wasn’t sure how he felt about anything going into his own ass.

He knew, theoretically, that it was something many people did, and enjoyed, presumably without accident or humiliation.

But still, the anxious part of his brain was apprehensive.

Reddit hadn’t helped.

‘I’ve never ... done it like that. With anyone.’

Jake leaned forward and pressed a kiss just above Theo’s waistband. His mouth lingered there, then he looked up at Theo. ‘Do you wanna try? We can take it slow.’

Theo’s answer to that was probably obvious, because Jake’s face was level with his dick. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I do.’

Jake’s fingers were deft on Theo’s belt buckle. He pulled the belt free with a hiss of leather and then flicked open the button on Theo’s shorts. ‘Get naked,’ he said.

‘You’re the one with all your clothes still on,’ Theo pointed out. He started to say, ‘For once,’ but Jake pressed his mouth against Theo’s briefs and he lost the words.

Jake slid his hands around Stavs’ ass to pull him in a little closer and Stavs sighed happily.

He’d looked a little nervous, and Jake had figured that a bit of distraction couldn’t hurt.

One of Stavs’ hands was in his hair now, the other on Jake’s cheek, and Jake could feel him trying to hold himself back from pushing harder into Jake’s mouth.

‘Stop,’ Stavs gasped, and Jake pulled back and licked his lips.

Stavs pushed him backwards onto the bed and followed him down. ‘You’re still not naked,’ he said.

Jake kicked off his shorts and wriggled out of his singlet.

Stavs leaned down to kiss him, slow and hot, and Jake got a foot behind his thigh to pull him closer.

They both groaned when their dicks slid together, slick and perfect.

Stavs knew, by now, exactly how Jake liked to be kissed, and he’d found all the places that made Jake shiver: the spot under his ear where his jaw met his neck, the hollow of his throat, the crease of his thigh.

He kissed them, then kissed them again, because he was a cruel fucker who didn’t care that Jake was so hard it was painful, his body humming with the promise of having Stavs inside him.

‘This isn’t fucking me,’ Jake panted, squirming. Stavs had pinned his wrists against the bed.

‘Not yet.’

‘It won’t be ever if I die of frustration,’ Jake pointed out. ‘Or come,’ he added, when Stavs let go of Jake’s wrists.

Stavs smiled in the way he only did when they were tangled up and naked together. ‘I thought we were going slow?’

‘I changed my mind.’

‘I didn’t.’

He hadn’t. He kissed his way down Jake’s body again, so fucking slowly , and, this time, took Jake’s dick in his mouth.

He didn’t do anything that was likely to get Jake anywhere close to coming, just kept it languid and wet until Jake had one hand wrapped in the sheets and the other on Stavs’ shoulder.

It would serve Stavs right if his fingers left bruises.

‘Fuck,’ Jake said. He bent his knees, feet on the bed, and Stavs took the hint.

Jake made an inadvertent, wounded sound when Stavs took his mouth away, but then he was kissing the spot where Jake’s thigh met his ass, dragging his tongue occasionally over Jake’s balls, and Jake was undoubtedly saying a lot of dumb shit, trying not to actually beg.

‘Lube?’ Stavs asked, after a million years.

Jake fumbled the bedside drawer open. He’d lost a bit of manual dexterity somewhere along the way, but he managed to find the bottle and hand it over.

At least Stavs was a bit shaky as well. Jake was going to have to get his shit together or he was going to come after approximately ten seconds of getting fucked. Which would be a fucking tragedy .

Stavs was generous with the lube in a way that was probably going to be fun for them and bad for the sheets. Jake rolled over, onto his knees and elbows, and Stavs ran the hand that wasn’t covered in lube down his spine.

‘Hey,’ Stavs said, sounding a little hesitant.

Jake looked over his shoulder. ‘Yeah?’ He would be fine if Stavs had changed his mind. Totally fine.

‘Can we ... I’d like to be able to see your face.’ Stavs was looking down at him in that way he did sometimes – the way that made something happen in Jake’s stomach that definitely wasn’t butterflies. Nothing about this whole situation was supposed to cause butterflies.

‘Sure,’ Jake said, shifting onto his back. He felt vulnerable in a way that he usually didn’t during sex. He wasn’t sure what Stavs might see on his face.

‘What’s ... what’s the best way like this?’ Stavs asked.

‘I don’t know if this is something you can, like, optimise.’

Stavs narrowed his eyes and Jake really hoped that he was in trouble. He bent his knees up again. ‘Have at it.’

Stavs choked on a laugh. ‘You’re absurd.’

‘You l–like it.’

Stavs didn’t reply, but he did run a slick finger down the crease of Jake’s ass.

Jake closed his eyes, let himself fall into the sensation.

Stavs took his time, teasing, while Jake tried not to squirm, tried not to press against Stavs’ fingers.

Stavs dipped his head to kiss Jake’s neck as his knuckle pressed just where Jake wanted it and Jake made an objectively embarrassing noise.

Stavs exhaled when he finally pressed a finger inside Jake’s body, as though they were doing this the other way round.

It had been a while, and it felt so fucking good. ‘Yeah,’ Jake said. ‘Like that.’

Stavs was so careful, so gentle , that it made Jake’s chest go tight. He’d had people go slow before, to tease him or whatever, but he knew Stavs wasn’t just teasing, he wanted to make sure it was good for Jake.

Stavs smiled when he found the angle that made Jake’s body jerk, and Jake wanted to kiss him, wanted to feel that smile against his mouth. He realised he’d grabbed Stavs’ free hand, twining their fingers together. Stavs was staring down at him like he couldn’t quite believe Jake was real.

‘We good?’ Jake asked. He was certainly good.

‘Yeah,’ Stavs said, breathless. ‘Yeah, you’re so ...’ He slid another finger in beside the first.

‘I’m so what?’ Jake asked. They were still holding hands.

‘You’re so fucking hot, it drives me crazy.’

People had said way dirtier shit to Jake in bed, told him how hot he was, what they wanted to do to him, but he couldn’t remember anyone ever saying something that had made him feel like this.

Stavs never really said much in bed, but now he was looking down at Jake, his eyes blown dark, his fingers inside Jake’s body, and Jake regretted doing this face to face. It was too much, too intense. He knew his face was revealing things that neither of them should be thinking about.

‘Stavs, please ,’ he said, because he had to say something , and then Stavs had another finger inside him and he wasn’t going slow anymore, though he was still careful.

He leaned down to catch Jake’s mouth in a hard, messy kiss, and Jake was trying to touch all of him at once: his shoulders, his back, his biceps.

He needed him closer, needed more of him.

‘Condom?’ Stavs asked, pulling his fingers free, and Jake gasped at the loss. It took him a second to register the question.

‘In the drawer if you want. I’m on PrEP and I got tested after Kyle, so if you don’t want to ...’

Stavs hesitated. ‘I’m good, too, but are you sure ...’

‘Yeah,’ Jake said. ‘Yeah, I want it like that, just hurry up .’

They’d managed to knock the lube onto the bed, so there was a brief scramble to retrieve it. Jake ended up finding it first and slicked up Stavs’ dick while Stavs’ breathing went ragged.