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Chapter eighteen

Storm Break

Rusty

For the entire train ride back to Lust, the purple three of keys burned in Rusty’s pocket. Given how upset Gem was that he’d “lost” the card, Rusty almost felt guilty. Like he almost felt guilty for touching Gem’s ass without permission. Almost.

Beside him, Gem was pouting. He kept checking his pockets, then he completely emptied his purse onto the seat beside him, muttering about thieving bug-monsters.

The contents of his purse piled high, a lip gloss dropping to the train floor and rolling into Rusty’s foot.

Leaning down, he grabbed it before it could roll away and held onto it as Gem upended his purse and shook it, releasing a worrisome amount of condoms onto his lap.

Rusty grimaced. “Unholy shit, why do you need so many condoms?”

“Because I am nothing if not prepared.” With a defeated hiss, Gem forlornly returned the contents of his purse back into the gutted bag. Using all six hands, he collected the offensive number of condoms, shooting Rusty a sly grin. “Why? Are you jealous?”

Honestly, yes. Or at least, he might have been jealous had Gem actually smelled like another man. But he didn’t. In fact, he hadn’t in a really long time. Since that night on the Montana ranch, when they’d lain beneath the stars. Maybe even before that; Rusty couldn’t be sure.

At first, Rusty had thought Gem was going through a slump.

Except Gem didn’t go through slumps. In the six years Rusty had known him, he’d never seen Gem lack bedfellows.

He was beautiful and outgoing and had no qualms asking for exactly what he wanted.

Rusty had watched him waltz right up to a stranger and demand they buy him a drink so he could suck their dick as a thank-you.

And who in their right mind would refuse?

So, no, Gem didn’t go through dry spells. Which meant he was choosing not to sleep with anyone, and Rusty didn’t know what to do with that. It made him hope, however dangerous that hope was. If he was smart, he’d stamp it out before it grew.

Apparently, Rusty was a very stupid man because when Gem asked him if he wanted to sleep over at his, he found himself nodding, that spark of hope catching and spreading.

With an extra spring in his step, Gem twined the fingers of his lower hand with Rusty’s and dragged him through the station and into the night.

Instead of taking the tram, they walked back to Gem’s, hand-in-hand.

Gem chattered, an endless stream of consciousness that Rusty could listen to forever.

He commented every now and then, so Gem would know he was listening, but he didn’t want to interrupt too much.

He liked the sound of Gem’s voice more than his own.

Two blocks from Gem’s house, the cloudy sky opened, and rain started to pour. With a shriek, Gem broke into a jog, and Rusty laughed as he kept pace. They managed to make it to the flat before Rusty’s fur was too soaked, but his clothes were done for.

Cackling maniacally, Gem handed Rusty his juicy shorts, and he accepted them with a flip of his middle finger.

He changed in the bathroom, using a spare towel to dry off as best he could.

Gem had set up his drying rack in the living room, and Rusty hung up his damp clothes as Gem puttered around behind the room partition.

Rusty shuffled across the room, peeking around the divider to ask if he should get them a snack from the kitchen, but his words died on his tongue.

Because Gem still wasn’t dressed. He was standing in front of his dresser in nothing but a pair of tight, cheeky panties as he blotted his hair dry with a towel.

He tracked a droplet of water from Gem’s shoulder down his long, lean back to the band of the cotton fabric.

Gem had back dimples, and the water collected in one for a moment.

Rusty wanted to lick it up. Maybe pull down those panties with his teeth before sinking his canines into the ample swell of Gem’s ass.

At the image, his dick twitched, then started to harden, and he tore his gaze from Gem’s panty-clad ass, only to meet several of his eyes. The Araknis was smiling at him, entirely unconcerned to find him peeping on him while he was practically naked as he continued to dry his hair.

“Sorry,” Rusty said, giving Gem his back. “I thought you were dressed already.”

Gem snickered. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not shy. Plus, you helped me into the bath so it’s not like it’s anything you haven’t seen before.”

That was technically true, but Rusty had done his earnest best to preserve Gem’s modesty that day. He’d already experienced a violation, and Rusty hadn’t wanted to add to it.

“I didn’t look,” Rusty said hoarsely, glaring down at the half-chub plumping up the front of the shorts, threatening it with dismemberment should it continue growing. “That day at Toni’s. I didn’t… look.”

Still mostly naked, still unconcerned, Gem stepped out from behind the divider with a shirt in two hands while his upper hands continued to squeeze the water from his curls. He smiled sweetly down at Rusty, a lower hand reaching out to boop Rusty’s nose.

“I know. You’re a gentleman, after all.”

Rusty released a weak laugh. “If you say so.”

At the moment, his thoughts were far from gentlemanly.

He wanted to shove Gem down on the bed and taste every inch of skin he could.

He wanted to sink his teeth into the fleshy inside of Gem’s thick thigh.

Fuck, he wanted to drop to his knees and swallow Gem’s cock, which was kind of a big deal for him since he’d never particularly enjoyed sucking dick.

But sucking Gem’s dick? Yeah, he had a feeling he’d like that.

As Gem pulled a large, long t-shirt over his head, Rusty pinched his thigh until his eyes burned, forcing his dick back into submission. Gem could read his pheromones, whether he liked it or not, but Rusty didn’t want him to catch him with a hard-on.

The shirt fell just past Gem’s hips, barely covering his underwear, and Rusty bit back a groan when he made no move to retrieve any pants. This was apparently Gem’s choice of pajamas for tonight. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Before we go to sleep, I really need to talk to you about something. You good with a quick snuggle-girl-talk sesh?” Too distracted by the fullness of Gem’s bare thighs and perfectly sculpted knees, Rusty simply nodded, and Gem grabbed his wrist and hauled him toward his bed.

“Good. This requires a blanket fort situation, because it’s top secret. ”

Oh no, that was a bad idea. It was a terrible, no good, very bad idea! Because Rusty was in a pair of flimsy shorts and Gem wasn’t wearing pants at all. And they were going to be under the same covers, lying on the same bed. Together!

Gem pulled back the blankets and tugged on Rusty’s wrist, silently commanding him onto the bed, and even though his brain was screaming at him to run, he obeyed.

“Do not get in that bed,” his brain warned.

Rusty got in the bed.

“Do not get under the covers!” his self-preservation cried.

Rusty got under the covers.

“Do not, under any circumstances, let Gem snuggle with you!” his instincts begged.

“Fuck you,” Rusty’s dick said when Gem immediately scooched across the mattress to cuddle into his side, pulling the covers over them both so they were hidden beneath them.

Sharing a pillow, Gem captured Rusty’s hands in his top ones as his lower arms curled over his waist and hips. They were so close Rusty could smell the sugar from Gem’s earlier soda on his breath, and their legs tangled together, Gem’s so much longer than his.

“This okay?” Gem checked in, knee sliding between Rusty’s thighs.

Not close enough to his groin to be inappropriate but still intimate.

Rusty didn’t think friends cuddled like this.

Even with Gem’s proclivity for physical affection, he didn’t think this was normal, but his touch-starved heart soaked it in like a sponge.

“Yeah,” Rusty said weakly.

Gem snuggled impossibly closer, and Rusty’s belly swooped. “Okay. You can’t tell a soul about what I’m going to tell you. ”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious,” Gem insisted intensely. “Not anyone.”

Rusty chuffed a laugh. “Who would I tell? You’re my only friend.”

“That’s not true. Ollie’s your friend,” Gem corrected, his mouth pinching as he added, almost grudgingly, “and the Lepid.”

In Rusty’s mind, Enfys was barely a friend at all.

They texted, and they’d met up for coffee once in Lust to fulfill the rain check.

But beyond friendly chatting, that was the extent of their contact.

Not that Rusty didn’t like her; he did. Honestly, he was surprised by how easy it was to feel comfortable with her, but he chalked it up to their shared backgrounds and the fact she genuinely wasn’t interested in fucking him.

Unless he paid her, but they both knew that would never happen.

Since Enfys—or as Gem always labeled her, the Lepid—was a touchy subject, Rusty smoothly dismissed Gem’s claim. “I’m sure I’ll manage to keep it to myself.”

“Don’t be cute. This is serious,” Gem sniffed, and Rusty knocked their foreheads together briefly with a smirk.

“I won’t tell a soul. Now, stop leaving me in suspense.”

Gem’s two large eyes dropped to their twined hands as his jaw worked before he blurted out, “Glyma and Quin are expanding the cafe. They found a location in Greed. Tiny place. Standing room only. And they asked me to run it. Well, not just me, technically. Ollie’s coming too.

But yeah, I’m gonna be a manager or some shit.

Which is crazy and stupid and wonderful, but also really scary. ”

Whoa, okay. That was… a lot.

“I get how that feels scary,” Rusty said carefully, stifling the sudden sinking feeling in his gut at the thought of Gem and Oliver leaving him behind. “But it’s a great opportunity for you. It’s amazing. ”

Gem grimaced. “Is it?”

On some level, Rusty didn’t think so, but that was selfish. So he nodded and said, “Isn’t it?”