Page 24

He set them on the little table. His eyes had darkened, the grey leaching into the black.

“I painted the hut for her…” Zeph kept babbling. “She gave me the code for the padlock. She doesn’t use the hut at weekends. Is it a good surprise? Am I pushing too hard? Tell me it’s a good surprise.”

Zeph’s chest was rising and falling as he breathed too fast.

Jack’s mouth was dry, his throat thick with lust. “Yes,” he managed to say. Zeph was chattering too much and Jack couldn’t get more than one word out at a time.

“I don’t suppose she had this in mind,” Zeph whispered.

“What?”

“Us debating the state of the world.”

“Oh.”

Zeph smiled. “What do you think I meant?”

“I…” Jack could barely breathe.

“I thought we could do a bit more than kiss,” Zeph said quietly. “Is that okay?”

“Maybe you better define a bit. ” Oh, more words.

“Er… I’m not sure I can. I definitely can’t debate the state of the world. At this precise moment, I don’t care if it explodes around us.”

Jack took a step towards him and pulled him into his arms. Zeph melted against him with a tiny sigh.

There was some sort of day bed behind them, and Jack propelled Zeph onto it, half-tumbling on top of him, their mouths slamming together, teeth clashing, their tongues surging.

And instead of thinking he’d been too rough; all he could think was more! His heart hammered in his chest.

Zeph’s hands were at his waist, holding tight while Jack supported himself on his elbows, trying not to flatten him.

The air was full of the sounds of their heavy breathing and the bed creaking.

As Zeph began arching into him, Jack groaned into his mouth.

Too much. He pulled back, then instantly moved forward again.

Not enough. He ran his tongue over the crease of Zeph’s bottom lip, then sucked gently.

There was a tiny voice in his head telling him to slow down, but it was drowned out by a chorus of voices urging him to take this just a little further.

Just a bit. Even if neither of them could define it.

Not all the way. They shouldn’t. They couldn’t.

Not without running into the sea to hide what would happen in their clothes.

He did let himself consider that for a moment, but Thomas wouldn’t be fooled.

Jack could feel Zeph’s hardness through the thin material of their shorts and knew Zeph would also feel the state he was in.

Their hands were all over each other, but stayed above the waist, as if they both feared pushing the other too far.

“Can we take off our tops?” Zeph whispered.

Oh God. Jack knew what he should have said, but he moved to the side and removed his.

“Wow,” Zeph muttered, eyes wide, as he slid his hands up Jack’s chest. “Proper muscles. You’re so beautiful.”

Jack swallowed hard. No one had ever… When Zeph rubbed his thumb over one of Jack’s nipples something started to twist and boil inside his chest. Except not just his chest. He could feel the sensation elsewhere in his body. How?

“Your top too,” Jack managed to say.

“Don’t be disappointed.” Zeph wriggled out of his T-shirt, tossed it aside, then locked eyes with Jack again.

“Why would I be disappointed?” Jack was so hard, he was in physical pain. He’d never felt like this before, this desperate, this aroused. Making himself come was nothing like this.

“I don’t have a beautiful chest,” Zeph said. “Do you think I should get a tattoo? Imagine my muscles. ”

Jack smiled. “You’re not old enough.” He could never have one. It was too permanent a mark. Something to be identified by was dangerous.

“What sort of tattoo do you think I should get?” Jack stroked Zeph’s neck and was rewarded with a long groan.

“A dragon.”

“Sounds good. Where?”

“I have no idea.”

Jack ran his finger in a circle around one of Zeph’s nipples.

“Oh…Now I’ve forgotten what we were talking about.”

Jack chuckled.

Zeph pressed his mouth to Jack’s shoulder and Jack’s mind went blank. If he’d ever had any illusion that he was in control, it vanished. They lay on their sides and Zeph pulled him in, licked up his neck and kissed him, a frantic, messy, breathless kiss that Jack eventually fed back to him.

Chest to chest, lips together, Jack could have stayed there all day.

Then his phone rang. They pulled apart.

“Where are you?” Thomas asked.

Jack checked the time. Shit! “Nearly back. See you in a few minutes.”

Zeph sat up, his eyes wide in his pale, narrow face.

“I need to go,” Jack told him and began to pull on his clothes. “Stay here for a bit. If we arrive together, I think Thomas might guess.”

“Okay.” Zeph began to dress too.

When Jack was ready to leave, he hesitated, then pulled Zeph into his arms. Zeph’s eyes looked bruised and his hair was messy and Jack thought he had never seen anything more beautiful. He brushed Zeph’s lips with a kiss.

“See you,” he whispered and left. He ran back to the bandstand, and didn’t look back.

Thomas sat waiting. “No Zeph?”

Jack shook his head. “Not today.”

He was sure Thomas knew he was lying but he didn’t say anything.

Not until they were in the Land Rover. Then he detonated the bomb.

It could have been a real one for the effect had.

They were leaving. Jack wouldn’t be going back school.

Thomas had packed that morning, and they would be departing that afternoon.

“What was the point of school then? Just for a few weeks?”

“You’ll be going to a new one.”

“Where?”

“America.”

Fucking hell. Jack said nothing and thought plenty. What could he say to Zeph that would make any sense?

“It’s better this way,” Thomas said. “End all contact.”

Of course he’d know what Jack was thinking. But anger was pointless. Jack stayed quiet. Maybe he didn’t want this life after all.