Page 19 of Rock Giant

“It does?”

“Absolutely.Your licking skills are legendary.Want to remind me how good they are?”

He took her by the hand immediately.“Let’s go.”

Ash and Ginny wandering off into the night prompted the rest of them to start exiting.Alle and Spook soon followed.It seemed the party was over, and fucking hell, it wasn’t even five past ten.

“Wanna tag-team Luthor?”Dani asked Xane, and off they trotted too.

“Guess that leaves thee and me,” he said to Ronnie, who was staring at the departing figures with his brow furrowed.He had a row of jelly rings lined up on his middle finger, which he proceeded to suck off one by one and chew contemplatively.

“It’s not very rock and roll, is it, turning in this early?”

“We’re a metal band.”He didn’t know why he’d said that.

“It isn’t very metal either.”

Paul meant to clap him on the shoulder and say something glib about finding some bites to bat the heads off… bats to bite… or something like that.Virgins, to willingly sacrifice?But wound up patting him on the cheek instead.“You’re not wrong, mate.Not wrong.We’ll just have to make our own fun.”

“Blowjob?”

“Maybe in a bit.”He cracked another bottle open for Ronnie, who proceeded to decorate the neck with more jelly rings.His own, he poured straight down his throat.Was he possibly a teeny bit sloshed now?Maybe.The trees weren’t dancing yet, but he was seeing all their pretty auras.Moreover, he didn’t like how quiet it had become, nothing but the whisper of leaves and the crackling of the wood in the fire.It perked up the fine hairs all over his body.

Ronnie sat up and considered him with his head tilted over to one side.

The way he was currently staring, with his lips parted, made Paul suspect he might be about to attempt to kiss him, and he hadn’t yet decided where he stood on that.

Hell, maybe he muttered as much because Ronnie said, “I’m not convinced you’re all that onboard with the idea.”

Honestly, he wasn’t sure how into the idea he was either, but he did know he needed to stretch his legs.His left calf was half-asleep, and he hated pins and needles.

“Get up.Need to move.”

Turned out he wasn’tthatwasted, as he stood without any bother.After the two of them had pissed on the fire to help put it out, he cracked another bottle, and they struck off in an arbitrary direction away from the bus.

CHAPTER 6

Paul “Rock Giant” Reed

“I don’t remember if it’s the ones with yellow legs or the trumpet-y ones I’m supposed to be picking,” Ronnie said.After he’d expressed remorse over his earlier foraging efforts, Paul had agreed to give him an impromptu lesson.

“Both,” Paul said from where he was leaning against a tree.He and the beech had been having a heartfelt one-to-one.He just couldn’t remember entirely what about.“Just not the ones that look like parasols.They’ll make you sick.”

“What about these?”Ronnie leaned against the bark alongside him and shone his phone torch over the collection of fungi in his hands.

Paul picked out and chucked the objectively dangerous, and not so dangerous but definitely not worthwhile mushrooms, which left them with a grand total of… one.One weedy looking Horn of Plenty.

“I don’t get how Spook found all those…what did you call them…chanterelles, earlier.”

“Bought them.”

“When did he go to the shop?”Ronnie pointed out quite reasonably.He could be as irritatingly logical as he could be inane.

“Ages ago.”Paul didn’t know that for sure, he just had a suspicion.Nah, Spook wouldn’t cheat like that.Ash, maybe.More likely, Spook had grown them from spores specifically for the occasion.That’d be a very Spook thing to do.He waved his hand vaguely, which unfortunately knocked the last mushroom from Ronnie’s palm.Neither of them bothered to bow down to hunt for it.Weren’t worth it.“Probably growed…grow-ed…grew themespesh-ully.”

“I didn’t know that was allowed.”

He patted Ronnie’s clean-shaven cheek.“It’s a harvest.Course stuff you’ve growed’s allowed.”