Helping Hand (11 page)

liked working there. Helen was nice—on a good day —and Paul was an

all-right bloke too. Jez would probably be able to find another part-tim e

j ob eventually, but it m ight take a while. Ply m outh was full of students

looking for work that fitted around their classes, so the com petition for

suitable j obs was fierce. Not to m ention the fact that half the graduates in

the city couldn’t get decent j obs these day s, so they were working in bars

and superm arkets too.

“Thanks, Jez. And if things im prove and we have m ore hours for

y ou in the future, I’ll get in touch.”

Chapter Eleven

It was raining again as Jez walked hom e, heavy drops that chilled his

skin and dripped off his hair and down the back of his neck.

He stopped at Tesco Express on his way, by passed all the Christm as

shit, and headed straight for the alcohol section. He bought som e beer he

couldn’t really afford—especially now—but he deserved som ething good

after his shitfest of a day. As soon as he left the warm th and brightness of

the superm arket, he opened one and started drinking.

As he walked, he wondered whether Mac had talked to Josh, or vice

versa, and whether Mac was still freaking out about the m orning. Jez was

too low and distracted to care m uch, but he trusted Josh to keep quiet

about it any way. If Mac was in a state about it, that was his problem .

Jez got hom e to early -evening chaos at the house. Too m any people

in the kitchen, all try ing to m ake things to eat before they went out and

arguing over whose turn it was next to use the bathroom . Dani’s boy friend

was visiting, so there was an extra person in the m ix, which didn’t help

m atters.

Jez put his unopened beers in the fridge and beat a hasty retreat to

the living room where he found Mac and Josh watching TV. Josh was

forking up noodles, and Mac was drinking som ething in a m ug—so

presum ably non-alcoholic.

“Hi.” Jez greeted them both and crossed the room to sit on the sofa

next to Josh rather than j oining Mac on the closer one.

“All right, m ate.” Josh nodded, a clum p of noodles slipping from his

fork as he glanced up at Jez.

“Hi.” Mac gave Jez a quick, tight sm ile before turning his attention

back to the TV.

Jez drank his beer in silence, watching Mac rather than the screen. A

m uscle ticked in Mac’s j aw, and he picked at a loose seam on the arm of

the sofa.

“How was y our day ?” Josh asked casually.

Grateful for the attem pt at norm ality, Jez replied without thinking,

“Okay.” Then backtracked. “Well… actually it wasn’t, really. I lost m y

j ob.”

That got Mac’s attention. He snapped his head around to look at Jez.

“Shit. Why ?” Josh said.

“Yeah. They j ust can’t afford to keep m e on any m ore.”

Josh frowned. “I’m sorry. That sucks.”

Mac still didn’t say any thing. He turned back to look at the screen

again.

“Yeah.” Jez took another gulp of beer. “So I need to look for

som ething else after Christm as. There’s not m uch work around, but I’ll

find som ething eventually. I’ll have to.”

Silence fell again. Josh’s phone buzzed with a notification, and he

read as he ate the last few m outhfuls of his noodles. As soon as he was

finished, he stood.

“Okay, I’ve gotta run, or I’m going to be late.”

“Hot date?” Jez raised his ey ebrows.

“Som ething like that. Have a good evening, boy s. Don’t do any thing

I wouldn’t do”—Josh glanced at Mac, who had his gaze fixed on the telly

again, and then gave Jez a wicked grin—“but that leaves y ou with plenty

of scope.”

Jez snorted, am used. “Fuck off.”

Mac’s ears had turned bright pink, and he was studiously ignoring

them both. Jez hoped that Josh’s teasing wasn’t freaking him out too m uch.

He was afraid it m ight scare Mac off.

Once Josh had gone, Mac turned away from the TV and faced Jez

instead.

“Are y ou okay ? About the j ob I m ean?”

Jez shrugged. “I’ll survive. I’ve paid off quite a bit of m y overdraft

already, and m y parents will alway s help m e if I ask. They won’t let m e

starve.” Not that Jez would ask them for help unless he absolutely had to.

Having to adm it the size of his overdraft to his parents back in the

sum m er was one of the m ost hum iliating experiences of his life. They ’d

sat down and m ade a plan for how he was going to repay it, and Jez was

determ ined to stick to it, even if it m eant living on the cheapest baked

beans on toast for the rest of his student day s. He also had student loans,

of course, as every one did these day s, but he didn’t have to worry about

pay ing those off until he was in full-tim e em ploy m ent. “Any way,

speaking of starving—I’m bloody hungry.” Jez drained what was left in

his beer. “I’m going to go and see what I’ve got in the way of food.”

The kitchen was still m ay hem . Shawn and Dani were fighting each

other for space on the cooker top, and Dani’s boy friend was chopping

things up for what looked like a stir-fry. Jez couldn’t face the scrum , so he

poured him self a bowl of Frosties and used up the last bit of his m ilk. He

should have bought som e food as well as beer in the shop; his shelf in the

fridge was woefully bare.

“Is that y our dinner?” Mac looked disapprovingly at Jez’s bowl as he

sat down again.

“It’s fine. Cereal’s fortified with vitam ins, isn’t it? I couldn’t be arsed

to cook any thing. There’s too m any people in there.”

Jez and Mac stay ed in the living room as others cam e and went.

Shawn j oined them for a while to eat his dinner on the sofa, and then

Dani and her boy friend cam e to sit at the dining table with plates of

whatever they ’d been cooking.

Mac got up. “I’m gonna go and m ake som e food.”

The others left. On the way out, Shawn m ade a vain attem pt to

persuade Jez to j oin him and Mike at som e new bar that had opened down

by the harbour, but he didn’t push when Jez declined, as usual. Once he’d

gone, Jez was bored with what was on TV, so he went to j oin Mac in the

kitchen.

“Do y ou want a beer?” Jez offered.

“Yeah, cheers.”

Jez grabbed a couple of cans from the fridge, passed one to Mac,

and then sat up on one of the worktops, watching Mac as he stirred

som ething in a pan. It sm elled delicious. Jez’s m outh watered. The

Frosties hadn’t filled him up m uch; m ay be he’d have som e toast later.

“Whatcha m aking?” he asked.

“Tom ato sauce for spaghetti. I stuck som e bacon and m ushroom s in

there too.”

“Nice.” Jez m ade a m ental note to go shopping tom orrow.

Jez drank his beer while Mac grated cheese, stirred his sauce and

drained the pasta. But then Jez’s phone buzzed with a text from his m um ,

so he wasn’t pay ing attention when Mac dished up because he was busy

reply ing—letting her know that y es, he was still alive, and y es, he was

working hard and eating properly.

“It’s ready,” Mac said.

Jez looked up to see Mac with a steam ing plate in each hand.

He stared at him . “Is one of those for m e?” Mac had never cooked

for him before.

“Who else would it be for?” Mac looked at him as if he was stupid.

“If y ou want it. It’ll keep it for tom orrow, if not… I j ust thought….”

“Yes! I definitely want it,” Jez replied quickly. “Thanks.” He slid

down from the worktop and took the plate that Mac held out to him . Jez

sm iled, grateful, and the warm th in Mac’s answering sm ile m ade a warm

bubble of happiness expand in Jez’s chest.

They sat at the dining table to eat and didn’t bother to put the TV

back on. They chatted about random stuff: their course, a test they had to

study for, m utual friends. Every tim e their gazes m et across the table, Jez

felt another little twist of good feeling. He had to keep tam ping down the

urge to grin like an idiot.

After they ’d eaten, they decam ped to the sofa and put on a DVD of

Game of Thrones. Jez used to watch it for the boobs as m uch as the story,

but these day s he found him self looking at the guy s as m uch as the girls.

Had his tastes changed, or was he sim ply m ore aware of his capacity for

sam e-sex attraction now? None of them were a patch on Mac, though, he

decided. He glanced sideway s at Mac’s profile, adm iring his full lips and

the square cut of his j aw.

Feeling bold, Jez sidled closer and put his hand on Mac’s thigh. The

hard m uscle tensed for a m om ent and then relaxed. Without looking at

him or say ing any thing, Mac brought his arm up and put it around Jez’s

shoulders. With a happy sigh, Jez settled in beside him and went back to

watching the show. But with the warm th of Mac beside him and the

weight of Mac’s arm holding him close, he wasn’t really following the

story. His m ind kept turning over with unanswered questions. How did he

really feel about Mac? Was this a crush, or som ething m ore? And did

Mac feel the sam e? Surely if this was j ust about sex for Mac, they

wouldn’t be sleeping together and cuddling on the sofa. But Jez wasn’t

brave enough to ask in case he didn’t like the answer.

A sex scene on the TV finally captured his attention. It wasn’t quite

porn, but there was enough bare flesh and heavy breathing to get Jez

turned on. It rem inded him of how he and Mac had got together in the

first place, and he wondered if it was affecting Mac too. He m oved his

hand on Mac’s thigh, stroking slowly, gradually inching higher as the

couple on the screen writhed, their bodies entwined. The m an was

thrusting into the wom an, and she had thrown her head back in ecstasy.

Jez’s arse clenched as he im agined being fucked by Mac. Jez had

indulged in a little solo experim entation in the shower again y esterday

and found he could take two fingers quite easily. The thought of Mac’s

thick cock inside him m ade him nervous, but insanely horny at the sam e

tim e.

Jez’s hand reached the bulge in Mac’s sweats. The rigid length of

Mac’s dick lay diagonally, trapped by his underwear. Jez thum bed the

head. Mac’s breath caught, and Jez’s cock j erked in response.

“Not in here,” Mac said.

Jez m et his gaze. Mac’s ey es were nearly all pupil and his lips were

parted. Jez couldn’t resist leaning forward to lick at them , pushing his

tongue between them in a m essy, needy kiss.

Mac groaned and kissed him back, tightening one hand on the back of

Jez’s neck and bringing his other up to clutch Jez’s shoulder and pull him

closer. But then he pulled away again.

“Upstairs,” Mac said, breathless now.

“Yeah.”

For all Mac’s protests, he couldn’t keep his hands off Jez as he

fum bled to turn the DVD off, and he let Jez take his hand to lead him up

the stairs. They stopped on the landing again to kiss, all hot wet m ouths

and wandering hands as Mac guided Jez along. But when he went to open

his bedroom door, Jez broke the kiss to say, “Can we use m y room ?”

A slight frown tugged at Mac’s brows as he stared intently at him .

“Does it m atter?”

“I, uh….” Jez took a deep breath, his cheeks burning hot as he looked

down at where his hands gripped Mac’s T-shirt. “I’ve got som e lube. I

thought m ay be we could try som ething new.”

The silence felt painfully long, and Jez didn’t dare check Mac’s

reaction. Fuck. He should have kept his stupid m outh shut. He’d probably

overstepped som e invisible line with the suggestion, and he’d m essed up

what had been a perfect evening until now.

“I suppose.” Mac sounded uncertain. “But… which way round were

y ou thinking?”

“Oh. I m eant for y ou to fuck m e… if y ou wanted to try that? Not

that I wouldn’t want to fuck y ou. Of course I would. I m ean, why

wouldn’t I? But I didn’t think y ou’d be into—”

Mac m ercifully cut off Jez’s nervous ram bling with another kiss. Jez

kissed him back enthusiastically, unsure of what the kiss m eant but

assum ing it could only be a positive sign.

“Yeah,” Mac finally m uttered between kisses. “Hell y eah, I wanna

fuck y ou.”

Jez’s knees went weak at the desperation in Mac’s voice. Unable to

wait any m ore, he grabbed Mac’s hand and pulled him towards his

bedroom . “Com e on, then.”

Chapter Twelve

Jez turned on the lam p by his bed and got the lube and a condom out

of his bedside drawer. He tossed them onto the bed where they lay, proof