Helping Hand (16 page)
Authors: Jay Northcote
to soften and shrink.
A gentle finger traced through the sticky m ess on Jez’s belly. He
squirm ed, ticklish, and opened his ey es to see Mac gazing down at him .
His ey es were soft now, full of em otion that m ade Jez’s stom ach flutter.
“Wow,” Mac said, and his m outh curved in a sm all sm ile.
“Yeah.”
“That was a m illion tim es hotter than any porn I’ve ever watched.”
“Sam e.” Jez was still too fucked out to m anage m ore than
m onosy llables.
Mac laughed softly. “You’re a m ess.” He reached for the tissues by
the bed, passed one to Jez for his hand, and cleaned their com bined m ess
off Jez’s belly as best he could. Jez lay there and let him . He liked being
looked after.
“Wanna go back down to the party ?” Mac asked.
The deep bass of the m usic was still vibrating through the floor. It
would probably go on for hours.
“Nope. I want y ou all to m y self.”
They got under the covers, still naked and a bit sticky, and curled up
in each other’s arm s to trade lazy kisses.
Jez was drifting on a cloud of bliss. Their im pending separation was
a tiny niggle at the back of his m ind, but it wouldn’t be for long. And right
now, with Mac wrapped around him , it was hard to feel any thing other
than happy.
Jez was alm ost dozing when Mac said quietly, “Jez… I think I’m in
love with y ou.”
Jez’s heart surged, but he kept his tone light. “You think? How about
y ou get back to m e when y ou’re sure.”
“Fuck off,” Mac huffed. “I’ve never felt like this before, so it’s
confusing, okay ? But y eah, I’m pretty sure.”
Jez sm iled against Mac’s shoulder where his head was resting.
Norm ally a m an of few words, it was adorable when Mac babbled. It
only happened when he was nervous.
“I wanted to tell y ou before we go hom e for the holiday s,” Mac
continued. “So y ou know how into this I am . You don’t have to say it
back…. I j ust wanted y ou to know, so—”
“Mac.” Jez finally cut him off, lifting his head so he could see Mac’s
face. “I’ve been in love with y ou for weeks, y ou idiot. I’m glad we’re
finally on the sam e page.”
Mac’s sm ile was radiant. “Me too.”
Jez put his head back on Mac’s chest, and they were silent for a
m om ent.
“So…,” Jez began. “At New Year, if m y m um wants to know how
we got from being friends to boy friends, what are we gonna tell her?”
Mac snorted. “Oh God, will she ask?”
“Probably. She’s dead nosey.”
“How about… we tell her I was struggling with a particularly hard
assignm ent one night, and y ou gave m e a helping hand, and then one
thing led to another.”
“Technically, I think the first tim e, I gave y ou a helping m outh.” Jez
chuckled, then snuggled closer and closed his ey es. “But other than that,
it’s the perfect cover story. Let’s run with it.”
About the Author
Jay lives j ust outside Bristol in the West of England, with her husband, two
children, and two cats. Jay com es from a fam ily of writers, but she
alway s used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed her by.
She spent y ears only ever writing em ails, articles, or website content.
One day, she decided to try and write a short story —j ust to see if she
could—and found it rather addictive. She hasn’t stopped writing since.
Em ail: j ay northcote@gm ail.com
