Page 12

Chapter twelve

Flyn

I can’t believe Jade is here. In my house. On my sofa. Sitting next to me.

It feels like a fever dream come true and I can’t concentrate at all on this stupid Netflix film I randomly chose to put on.

Jade seemed a little on edge when he first got here. More so than usual. But he has slowly relaxed. It might be time to pull the old yawn-and-stretch-arm maneuver, and put my arm around him. I’d like that. Sitting here in the dim lighting with my arm slung over Jade sounds amazing.

Just as I am getting really excited by the idea, the opportunity appears. Jade leans forward and towards me a little. Innocently shifting his position as he reaches for the popcorn in the bowl perched between us.

I stretch. I yawn. And as I lower my arm back down, I let it come to a rest around Jade’s shoulders.

He startles at my touch. He turns his head towards me and stares at me with wide eyes, his handful of popcorn frozen halfway to his mouth.

His dazzling green eyes drop down to my lips and his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. It’s all the encouragement I need.

I lean forward. My movement exaggerated and slow. I want my intention to be obvious, so he has every opportunity to tell me no.

His eyes widen. He doesn’t move away, he moves towards me, and our lips collide halfway between us, somewhere over the popcorn bowl.

His lips taste sweet. Softer than candyfloss. Warmer than apple pie. There are fireworks again, but these ones can’t be seen by anyone else. They are igniting in my soul.

I’m kissing Jade. Again. How the fuck did I get so very lucky? This is incredible.

Our kiss deepens and grows. I can taste his hunger, his need. His passion.

My heart beats loud and strong. It quickens my pulse. My head is spinning and a deep, profound arousal is burning through me.

Breathlessly, I pull away. Just a little. I rest my forehead on his.

“Can I blow you?” I gasp.

Jade squeaks and pulls away, trying to push himself into the sofa as if he wants to disappear. He stares up at me with frantic eyes.

I back off carefully.

Jade’s cheeks flush a cherry red. “You don’t want to do stuff like that with me.”

I can feel my brows furrowing with confusion. I’m really, really sure that I do want to do stuff like that with him. All the stuff. All the time.

“Why?” I manage to say.

He squirms and looks away. “My body count is really high.”

I blink in surprise. I have no idea what I thought he was going to say, but it wasn’t this.

“You have an Only Fans or something?”

“No,” he mumbles.

I suck in a breath. “So, you went wild in your college days?”

“No,” he says in a tiny voice.

Okay, now I’m perplexed. Jade looks so miserable. He is all hunched up as if braced for a punch. He looks… ashamed. But having fun is nothing to be ashamed about. I’m only surprised be cause he seems so shy. I didn’t think he was the type to fly through Grindr.

Has someone told him his past is wrong? Some stupid nonsense about being dirty?

Jade draws his knees up to his chest and hugs his legs. He hides his face and turns into a small ball of misery.

I blink. Then my guts feel with cold, jagged ice. My jaw drops open with horror.

I think this is Jade’s dark past. The shit he has been through. The stuff he never wants to talk about.

He isn’t talking about consensual fun. He is talking about evil. About violence and abhorrent violations.

Oh god. I want to hug him and hold him tight. I want to kiss him and promise him that nobody is ever going to hurt him ever again.

I lean gently closer. “I don’t care about the past. The future is the only thing that interests me.”

Jade peaks over his knees to stare at me incredulously. His green eyes are bright. Shining through the shadows of my living room.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I say softly.

His eyebrows shoot up and a silence settles around us. The film babbles away in the background, casting flickering light around the room.

“The guys I live with, we were all held captive together by a wealthy asshole.”

I nod solemnly and concentrate on keeping my expression neutral. I need to listen, not display my horror and outrage.

“He…he named us after colors. Red, Blue, Gray, Pink, Yellow, but everyone called him Lello. And Ned was Indigo, but he refused to use it. It was… we were Ritchie’s Rainbow. His harem. For his own use and for his friends.”

My mind is spinning. Whirling. It latches onto something stupid and thoroughly unimportant.

“Ritchie? Ritchie Smithson? That tech-bro jerk? ”

Jade nods slowly.

“Didn’t he fall off his balcony and die after taking too much cocaine?”

Jade grows pale. “Um… yeah. That’s how we were freed.” He squirms uncomfortably. “The harem was covered up. Bad publicity. That’s why you haven’t heard about it.”

I shuffle a little closer. Hopefully not so close that I’m making him feel crowded. I’d like to take his hand, but he’s hugging his knees so tightly I can’t reach them.

“Thank you for telling me,” I say as calmly as I can.

I don’t want him to hear my anger because it is not for him. It is for a dead man and the injustice of it all.

Jade nods and then looks determinedly at the TV screen. That’s fair enough. I angle myself away from him and also pretend to be engrossed in the film. It’s a good excuse to give him space. He’s bound to be feeling all sorts of emotions after sharing his trauma with me.

And to be honest, I’m kind of reeling too. I know dark and awful stuff happens in the world. But I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in real life who has been subjected to something of this level.

A good twenty minutes pass in silence. It feels weighted, but not tense, and I’ll take that as a good sign. Especially when he lowers his feet down to the floor and sits in a much more relaxed position.

“Did you really want to give me a blow job?” Jade blurts suddenly.

I can see him blushing out of the corner of my eye. So, out of mercy, I keep looking at the TV.

“Still do,” I say with a grin.

Jade lets out a little squeak. “Are you just saying that to be nice?”

I chuckle. “Jade, dude, I’m not so nice that I go around offering blow jobs out of the kindness of my heart.”

Slowly, carefully, I turn my head to look at him. He isn’t blushing anymore. He is staring at me. Eyes intense and full of hunger .

My heart crashes against my ribs. I can feel my pulse in my throat. My knees have gone weak. I lick my lips.

“Can I blow you?” My words come out dry and hoarse. But maybe Jade will think it sounds sexy.

I’d love to blow him. I really, really would. But he might be feeling vulnerable because of sharing such deep stuff.

He slowly licks his own lips. Mirroring my gesture. My lungs pause. Jade nods, slowly and shallowly. But it is absolutely a nod.

My body flings into motion. My hands snatch up the popcorn bowl. My torso twists to place it on the side table. My lower half moves almost simultaneously and in no time at all, I’m on my knees on the floor in front of Jade.

He stares down at me, looking for all the world like a startled rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.

I inch closer, and slowly, oh so slowly, lift my arms up and reach for his fly.

His Adam’s apple bobs again, but he doesn’t look away. Or move away.

I inch even closer. I’m kneeling right between his spread legs now, and it feels heavenly.

There is color back in his cheeks, but this is a different kind. It’s heated, like his gaze. He wants this, every bit as much as I do.

Carefully, I unwrap his dick. Thankfully, it’s only hidden by a pair of jeans and a pair of boxers. It doesn’t take me long to free it.

It’s already fully hard. Long, thin, with a delicious curve to it. Pale, with a rosy flush at the head.

Just feasting my eyes on Jade’s cock is making me drool. It’s gorgeous, just like the rest of him. And I’m so damn ecstatic that he is this hard just from the idea of me sucking him. Talk about flattering.

I tear my eyes away to look up at his face and check he is still okay. His pupils are blown and he looks very, very okay. In fact, he looks like he really wants me to get the fuck on with it. And that’s a request I’m very happy to oblige with .

I dip my head down. My tongue pokes out, pretty much of its own accord. I lick Jade’s cock. One long broad stroke all the way from root to tip.

He gasps. His cock twitches under my touch. It actually moves. Bucking like a wild thing.

My lips stretch into a grin. This is going to be so much fun.