Junk (37 page)

“Hom-ey. Home-like. Cosy. Whatever you want to call it. This is it.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”

“So…” Jasper paused, biting his lower lip. “You think you could live somewhere like this?” The question had a hopeful lilt to it.

“Jasper, I…” He had to be honest, no matter how much he wanted to toss caution aside and agree to whatever Jasper asked for. “I’m not really in a position to be setting up a life with anyone right now. I’m going back to Cardiff Uni in the autumn. Just part time. I want to write a thesis on hoarders, but it means I’m going to be broke.”

Jasper blanched. “You’re moving away? To Cardiff?”

“God, no. I couldn’t afford that. I’ll be staying with Mum and Dad for the next few years, working with Carroll and going in on the train a couple of days a week. It’s going to be tough, and I’ll have no spare time, but I really want to do this. I think I can write something that’s going to help more therapists have success with people like you.”

Jasper had broken into a smile as Lewis spoke, and now he stepped forward and cupped Lewis’s jaw. “That’s wonderful.”

“You sound sad.”

Jasper’s lips turned down at the corners. “I’m happy for you.”

“But sad for yourself.”

Jasper’s shoulders twitched in what looked like an attempt at a shrug. “I’d hoped…”

He’d hoped? Lewis waited, aware of the gentle ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece and the hissing of the logs on the fire.

“Come on,” Jasper said. “Let me show you the rest of the house.”

Jasper opened the kitchen doorway. “I haven’t had a new kitchen fitted yet, but it’s pencilled in for the spring.” He fought to keep his voice light. This wasn’t the way it was meant to go. Lewis wasn’t meant to be throwing more barriers up between them. Not now.

But he folded up and put away that thought, and concentrated instead on the look of wonder on Lewis’s face.

“It looks fantastic.” Lewis sounded genuine, anyway.

“It’s not that different from when you saw it last, once it had been cleared.”

“It is. You’re really living in here now, aren’t you?”

Jasper glanced at his laptop and books open on the table, and the empty mug sitting beside them. “I like it in here. I have tried setting up a study in the dining room, but it just doesn’t feel as comfortable.”

“Show me.”

So he did, and Lewis spun on his heel in the near-empty room. “You just need more furnishings. A rug. An armchair. New curtains. Hey, was this desk yours before? It’s gorgeous.”

Jasper nodded. It had taken him days to scrub the heavy oak clean and wax it to its current finish, but he was proud of the work he’d put in. “Do you want to see upstairs?” he ventured.

“I’d like that.” Lewis’s reply was too soft to catch any hint of flirtation, and Jasper tamped his hopes back down again. The man was just looking at the rooms, that was all. He was congratulating himself on a job well done as a therapist. A project successfully concluded.

Jasper should probably show him the most impressive room first. Let him know just how complete that project was.

He turned left at the top of the stairs, towards Mama’s old room. He ignored the overhead and flipped the switch for the reading light instead. The room was bathed in the blueish evening glow from the window and the warmth of the old-fashioned brass lamp.

Lewis’s mouth hung open as he turned to take it all in. “Jasper! It’s… I don’t know what to say.”

Good thing someone did. “I didn’t want to make it into a shrine, but I wanted somewhere to go where I could remember the good bits, not just the end.” It was simply furnished with a rug over the bare boards, an armchair, a footstool and a table, but he had fresh flowers on the mantelpiece and the walls were lined with shelves and pictures.

Lewis walked over to the bookshelves. “These are all children’s books. And the pictures too.”

Jasper had tracked down prints and framed them, covering one wall with Tenniel’s
Alice in Wonderland
illustrations. Stupidly sentimental of him, but it made him think not only of curling up as a child, but of Lewis and Carroll—and all they’d done for him. “This is my safe place. The whole house is now.”

Lewis’s eyes were wide, luminous, as he stared at Jasper like he was finally seeing the truth of him. He cleared his throat and blinked, and when he spoke, his voice carried a yearning to match Jasper’s own.

“I want to be your safe place too.”

They stepped towards each other, meeting somewhere in the middle of the rug. They moved as one, searching for each other with lips and arms. Jasper’s heart pounded as he mashed himself closer to the man he loved.

Lewis tasted like home.

“I missed you,” Lewis said when they finally came up for air.

“Me too. It was bloody awful at times.”

“But you did it. All this. All by yourself.”

“I had help.”

“But not from me.”

“Oh yes, from you too. Whenever I felt like giving up, I’d think of the things you taught me. It’s like you never went away. Not really. Not when you were in here.” Jasper pointed at his head, then smiled sheepishly and moved his hand to his chest. “And here.”

“You’re just an incurable romantic, aren’t you?”

Jasper smiled. “Yep. And it looks like I got just what I wanted in plenty of time for Christmas. Hey, you can help me pick a tree. I mean, if you’ll be living here, you should have a say in all that.” He halted, remembering Lewis’s words from earlier. What if he was serious about staying with his family? But no. Lewis had just kissed him, and that had to mean something. “You will be moving in, won’t you?”

The dazed look on Lewis’s face sharpened. “I don’t know.”

“You could study here just as well as at your parents. In fact, you can have the study downstairs, if you like it. Or one of the rooms up here, if you’d prefer. And I know you’ll be busy, but at least this way we can still see each other at nighttime.”
Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.

“I don’t want to take advantage of you,” Lewis whispered.

“You really wouldn’t be.” Jasper watched the hesitation waver on Lewis’s face. Time to nudge. To tease? “If anything, I’ll be the one taking advantage of you.” He squished Lewis’s bum with both hands, then realised how that might sound. “If you’ll let me,” he amended bashfully, turning the squeeze into a gentle pat.

Something flickered in Lewis’s eyes. “Maybe I won’t let you.”

“God, I’m so sorry.” Jasper drew his hand away.

Lewis grabbed it back. “What I meant was, maybe it’s my turn to be in charge. I don’t just like it on the bottom, you know.”

All of a sudden, Jasper’s buttocks were being groped, expertly and thoroughly, at the same time as his neck fell victim to a pair of hungry lips. He groaned. Oh yes,
this
. This was what he’d been after all along. But with Lewis it was something else. The contrast. Gentle, kind—Jasper jumped as Lewis pinched him through his jeans. Gentle, kind,
sexually aggressive
Lewis.

When Lewis pushed him towards the armchair, Jasper let himself be steered. He collapsed into the chair, under Lewis’s weight. Lewis grinding down into him, kissing the breath out of him. Felt so right.

All except for that something hard poking into his side. Whatever it was, was in Lewis’s coat pocket rather than his trousers. Jasper wriggled to move it out of the way.

Lewis stopped kissing him.

“Oh, hey, I got you a present.”

“Later,” Jasper insisted, his hand massaging Lewis’s erection through his trousers.

“No. Now. Won’t take long, I promise. Then I’ll have my wicked way with you.” Lewis reached into the coat pocket and handed Jasper a gift-wrapped parcel beautifully done up with ribbon and tasteful paper.

He pulled the ribbon and eased off the paper. “You really shouldn’t h—”

Jasper fell silent as he realised what he was holding. “Lewis, is this…” He stared at the first edition hardback of
The Little Prince
. “Oh!” He stroked the cover reverently. The slipcover was yellowed and dog-eared, but that didn’t matter. He opened it, releasing the sweet, heady smell of old paper. “Oh Lewis, this is beautiful.”

The word was inadequate. The illustrated plates gleamed despite the spotting around the edges of the paper. It might have been well-loved, but it was still incredibly beautiful. He smiled at the picture of the fox peeking out of his burrow; then a thought made him frown.

“I hope you didn’t go bankrupting yourself for this.”

“Not really. It’s the sixth printing, so it goes for considerably less than the earlier ones, so I’ve been told. Also, it’s hardly in mint condition.”

“But still, you really shouldn’t have bought it for me.”

“I should, and I did. Read the inscription.”

Jasper turned to the beginning, to find Lewis’s elegant handwriting on the title page.

Dear Jasper,

Please forgive me for letting you walk away.

All my love,

Lewis x

Jasper looked up, his eyes watery. “You’re forgiven.”

“Thank you.” Lewis leaned down to kiss him then.

“And you’ll move in?”

Lewis sat up straight and arched an eyebrow, a smile teasing his lips. “Just try stopping me.” This time when Lewis leaned down, Jasper halted him with a fingertip.

“Of course, you do realise you’ve just increased my hoard again.”

Lewis lifted his head and looked around. “This isn’t a hoard anymore.” He grinned and kissed Jasper on the nose. “This is a
collection
.”

About the Author

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. She blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo is a member of the
Romantic Novelists Association
 and publishes regularly with Samhain. She’s one of the organising team behind the
UK Meet
, an annual event celebrating GLBTQ fiction. She has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion, although she prefers to leave the “boring bits” of the book creation process to someone else.

Visit
www.JosephineMyles.com
for more about her published stories, saucy free reads and regular blog posts.

Look for these titles by Josephine Myles

Now Available:

Barging In

Handle with Care

The Hot Floor

Screwing the System

Two plus one equals scorching hot fun.

The Hot Floor

© 2012 Josephine Myles

Dumped by his boyfriend and reduced to living in a grotty bedsit, Josh Carpenter has gotten used to expecting the worst. Now he lives only for his job as a glassblower…and occasional glimpses of his sexy downstairs neighbors, Rai Nakmura and Evan Truman.

Every time he overhears the diminutive academic and the hunky plumber having loud and obviously kinky sex, Josh is overwhelmed with lust…and a longing for a fraction of what they have.

To his amazement, Rai and Evan find his embarrassing tendency to blush utterly charming, and the three men grow closer over the course of the long, hot summer. Despite Rai’s charming flirtation and Evan’s smoldering gaze, Josh is determined never to break his new friends’ loving bonds.

On the night a naked Josh falls—quite literally—into the middle of one of Rai and Evan’s marathon sex sessions, the force of their mutual attraction takes control. But just as Josh dares to hope, he senses a change. Leaving him to wonder if the winds of love are about to blow his way at last…or if history is about to repeat itself.

Warning: Contains one well-endowed stud with a sexy accent, one improbably toppy bottom boy with an unfortunate owl obsession, and one blushing naïf who can’t believe his luck. Also, the occasional indulgence in mathematical spanking and some shameless armpit sex.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Hot Floor:

“Hey, Josh—great to see you, hon.”

Rai stepped back into the tiny entrance hall to let me in, then ambushed me with a hug as the door swung shut behind me.

“Oh, hi. Good to see you too.” I hoped the chocolate HobNobs I was carrying weren’t getting crushed to bits between our bodies. It was either that or they’d be melted into one giant cylindrical biscuit. I did my best to concentrate on those biscuits, because Rai’s tight embrace and faint aroma of herbal shower gel were stirring up an entirely inappropriate physical response.

“Come on in,” Rai said as he pulled back, taking hold of one of my hands. “We’ve been looking forward to this all day.”