“So you are,” he said with an air of wonder. “And what a wonderful thing that is.”
“Someone’s feeling sentimental,” I teased.
“Yes, well, that’s what happens when you get fucked so good your brain goes off the rails a bit,” he said with a snort.
I brought his hand to my lips and kissed his knuckles. It was good; it was perfect. I might not be able to do what I wanted, but at the very least, I could make sure I stayed in the moment with him. That was easy enough as his leg slid between mine and his hip bumped against me as he sidled closer.
“Staying the night?” I asked softly.
“If you want me to leave, I can…though you’ll have to wait a little while; I’m not completely confident in these legs of mine,” he said with a chuckle.
“Then stay,” I said, and when he smiled, I added, “But we’re going to need to get a fresh blanket.”
“We forgot a towel,” he said with a heavy sigh. “And so I will have to get up.”
We’d also forgotten the condoms, but that never occurred to either of us, so there was no point in bringing it up now. The trust we had built over the years was coming into play even now, even with something like this. It only occurred to me because I worried for him, but then again, I knew there was nothing he needed to worry about, not with that anyway.
Other things? Well, I guess we would see if either of us had any cause for concern.
REGGIE
I should have seenit coming.
The signs were there, but I’d been distracted and, really, I knew all too well that sometimes we missed the most obvious things because we simply didn’t want to see them. How easy it was to push away what we knew, to smother our suspicions, to ignore the signs, and continue in blissful ignorance. Even when we know what we’re doing, even when we know we should be listening to our gut, we still ignore it.
So I did, and boy, was that an awkward mistake.
“I’m impressed,” I told Jude as I pulled on my pants and grabbed my shirt from the locker. “I thought you were going to avoid something like that for the rest of your life.”
“It was…a little weird,” he admitted with a shrug. “At first, but you were right, you get over it after a while.”
I could sympathize, even though it had been years since I could remember being self-conscious about being naked around other guys. Then again, after high school and before I met Malcolm, there had been a wild few years, where plenty of people had seen my naked body. Once you were exposed that often, and willingly at that, you got a little less fussy about being seen naked by relative strangers.
Yet, despite how nervous he had been, Jude had finally used the springs without a stitch of clothing on. Which hadn’t been surprising, but I was surprised when he had done it after asking me to come with him. Not that he’d announced that’s what he was doing. I had figured as we undressed in the locker room he would yank on his bathing shorts and I would have to consider whether to do the same.
Except he’d stripped naked, wrapped himself in a towel, and gone to the showers. After a moment of surprise, I followed suit. The only part that had been difficult for me was figuring out if I should talk while our dicks were out or keep my silence. That sort of thing would have probably made it more awkward, but ironically, being awkward about it was what made it weird for me. Yet once he was in the springs, he had talked, and after thirty minutes, when we’d climbed out, he seemed back to his normal self.
“Well, I’m glad you did,” I told him as I pulled my shirt on and dug my shoes out. “I’m not going to stand here and say the springs have some weird, rejuvenation powers that only work when you’re nude, but there’s something nice doing it without clothes on.”
“It was…different,” he said as he wrangled his jeans on. “A little freeing. I think…once I realized no one else was paying attention to me, it got a lot easier.”
I chuckled. “You’re in good shape, kid. And you’re pretty handsome. I don’t think that if anyone around here was staring at you, it was because something was wrong with you. If they were staring, you might want to consider whether a trip to the clinic is in order.”
“Hilarious,” he said with a snort as we packed our bags. “So, when are we heading out?”
“In about an hour,” I told him as we walked out of the locker room into the hallway. “You’re all packed?”
“I am,” he said with a shrug. “Though, I mean, it’s a bit of hiking and camping in a tent with a few guys, I don’t really need to pack much.”
“That’s true,” I said, and then sighed. “You really know how to take the mystique out of things, don’t you?”
“I didn’t know there was supposed to be mystique,” he said with a snort.
I walked him to his room and stopped outside as he let us in. “Well, meet us at the courtyard in like twenty minutes. I have to go make sure your dad is ready.”
“Does he normally go on these?” Jude asked curiously.
“Pfft, he doesn’t think he’s better than anyone else and not participate,” I told him as I slung my bag over my shoulder. It wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t want to tell him Marc had never gone on a camping trip with the group before. That would give the game up that his dad was trying to spend some time with him, under the guise of going on one of the scheduled excursions with the rest of the resort.
