What Remains (9 page)

Indie hopped nimbly from the roundabout and climbed up Jodi’s legs until she was safe in his arms. “Can we go ice skating next time?”

“Next time?” The thought of seeing her again was more heartwarming and appealing than he’d ever thought possible. “Sure, but you’ll have to stop me falling on my arse—er—bum, okay?”

Rupert coughed, hiding his grin, and pried Indie back. “That makes two of us you’ll have to supervise, kiddo. Say bye to Jodi.”

They said their good-byes, and Jodi left them to it, fighting the urge to glance over his shoulder as he walked away. Kiddie time in the park wasn’t how he’d expected to spend his afternoon, but he’d loved every moment, and though he really did have work to do, going home was the last thing on his mind. He caught a bus back to Tottenham. As Harringay disappeared behind him, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to the one person in the world he loved as much as he was coming to love Rupert.

Fancy some pie and mash?

Sophie met him in Tottenham at their favourite hole-in-the wall café, a dive that served all-day breakfasts and the best pie and mash in London. Jodi’s Mediterranean brunch felt like a lifetime ago. He ordered as much as he dared before Sophie reined him in.

“Flipping heck, Jodi. I haven’t got hollow legs, you know. Some of us can’t eat our body weight in gravy and get away with it.”

“Fuck off. I’m having two pies.” Jodi placed his order, paid for both of them, then steered Sophie to a table by the steamed-up windows. “Besides, you’re bloody gorgeous and you know it. More of you, the better.”

Sophie pulled a face that did nothing to make her any less lovely. She’d put on a few pounds since she’d quit her job as an estate agent and retrained as a nursery nurse, and she looked amazing.

“So . . .” Sophie dumped sugar in her tea. “To what do I owe the pleasure? I’ve been trying to get you to buy me lunch for weeks.”

“Hey, that’s not my fault. You’re never around when I’m free.”

“That’s because I work all day and sleep all night, like the rest of the world. Try it sometime.”

“I’ll have you know I went to bed at eleven o’clock last night.” Jodi didn’t add that by then he’d been up for thirty-six hours, rushing to meet a deadline he’d neglected in favour of rolling around on the floor with Rupert. He didn't have to. Sophie knew him well enough to fill in the blanks.

“So when do I get to meet this hunky fireman, then?” she said on cue. “How long have you been seeing him?”

Jodi counted back in his head. He’d met Rupert on Boxing Day, and it was April now. “Four months.”

“Pictures.” Sophie held out her hand for Jodi’s phone.

He relinquished it, waiting until a waitress had set their plates on the table before he directed Sophie to the album where he’d stored the precious few snaps he’d managed to sneak of Rupert.

His heaping plate of two steak-and-ale pies with mash, peas, and gravy proved a welcome distraction as Sophie scrolled through them. He’d made good headway by the time she passed the phone back with a low whistle.

“He’s
beautiful
. Fancy sharing?”

The question wasn’t as innocent as it might have been between two other friends. Jodi and Sophie had ended their romantic relationship more than a year ago. They’d fallen into bed together a few times since, sometimes with company, but that didn’t appeal to Jodi anymore. He loved Sophie with all his heart. Sharing
Rupert
though? Fuck no. Jodi couldn’t imagine sharing him with anyone. Didn’t want to. In fact, he couldn’t imagine sharing a bed with anyone else ever again.

Like she’d heard his epiphany, Sophie smiled and patted Jodi’s arm. “It’s okay, babe. I can see how much you like him. This is the real deal, isn’t it?”

“I think so.” Heat flooded Jodi’s face. He took a gulp of hot tea, which did nothing to quell the warmth filling his chest. “Just gotta hope he feels the same.”

“How could he not?” Sophie’s smile waned with a touch of the sadness she rarely let Jodi see. “Embrace it. I’m over the moon for you, Jojo.”

Later that night found Jodi growling at his computer. Eventually, a glitch in the operating system froze the screen. He admitted defeat and shut it down, retreating to the couch with the old grey blanket that seemed to follow him around when the weather turned colder, a relic from his student days. It was tatty and holed, but combined with
Blackadder
on the telly, it felt like an old friend, and it wasn’t long before he fell fast asleep.

A low chuckle woke him sometime later. “You look like a Hobbit, wrapped up in that.”

Jodi grumbled and pressed his face into a cushion. He’d jumped a bloody mile the first time Rupert had used the spare key and crept into the flat under the cover of darkness, but he was used to it now. Loved it. There was nothing better than waking up to Rupert’s comforting warmth beside him when he’d gone to sleep alone.

Rupert laughed again and pulled the blanket back from Jodi’s face. “Wake up for me, boyo. I want to tell you something.”

Jodi raised his head and cracked an eye open. “Mate, I already know you’re gay.”

“Very funny.” Rupert scowled briefly, but he clearly wasn’t annoyed in the slightest. In fact, he seemed happier than Jodi had ever seen him.

“That grin’s gonna split your face. Spill.”

“Indie loves you.” Rupert grinned wider. “She’s been talking about you all afternoon.”

“Really?” Jodi couldn’t name the emotion that stirred in him. He couldn’t deny he’d been a little spellbound by Indie in return. She was nothing like the children he’d come across before. No snot and whinging. No constant trips to the toilet. “What did she say?”

“It’s more what she asked.”

Jodi sat up. “Asked?”

“Yeah.” Rupert caught the blanket as it slipped from Jodi’s shoulders. “She asked me if you were my boyfriend.”

“Seriously? Where did she get that idea?”

Rupert shrugged. “I think she might’ve overheard something at home. Jen’s big on slating me to anyone who’ll listen.”

“Still?”

“Aye, but I don’t give a shit. Her big mouth’s done me a favour. I’ve wanted to tell Indie for a long time. Just didn’t know how.”

A slow grin crept over Jodi’s face. “So you told her I’m your boyfriend?”

“Er, yeah. That’s okay, right? I mean, I know we’ve never—”

Jodi silenced Rupert with a quick kiss. They’d never had that particular conversation, but their casual friendship had slipped so seamlessly into a warm, companionable relationship, there hadn’t been the need. They had much to learn about each other, but boyfriends? Fuck yeah, Jodi was having some of that. “I
am
your boyfriend.”

“Thank God for that.” Rupert’s mile-wide smile returned. “Because I told Indie everything—the Disney version, at least.”

“Wow. I don’t know what to say. That’s awesome.” And it was. Jodi didn’t have to know shit about raising kids to see how much being out to Indie meant to Rupert. “What about Jen, though? She won’t do anything shitty and try to keep Indie away from you, will she?”

“She’s going to do her nut, but there’s nothing she can do about it. The courts have already told her she can’t restrict my access to Indie because of my sexuality.”

“You told the courts you’re gay?”

Rupert nodded. “Didn’t have much choice really. Jen outed me straight from the bat. Tried to paint me as a bloody deviant. Didn’t do her much good, though. The judge took my side. First time anyone ever did that.”

Jodi’s heart ached. Rupert didn’t give much away, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out the scars he carried from his old life, both back home in Ireland, and here, with Indie and Jen. Some days, Jodi couldn’t bear to think about it, but others, curiosity burned in his chest, and he wanted to know it all, no matter how painful it was to hear.

Today was a curious day. A thousand questions fought for dominance in Jodi’s mind, but Rupert clearly had other ideas. He lunged at Jodi, catching him off guard, and covered him with kisses before Jodi could take a breath to speak.

Jodi fell back on the couch, but he’d barely touched the cushions before he found himself up in the air and bent double over Rupert’s shoulder in a seamless fireman’s lift. “Motherfucker!”

Rupert laughed, a sound Jodi was becoming gloriously used to. “Yup. Watcha gonna do about it?”

Nothing, obviously.
Rupert was lean, but, damn, the bloke was strong. Jodi knew better than to waste his energy wrestling him. Besides, as Rupert carried him through the flat and dumped him on the bed, he had little desire to resist whatever Rupert had in mind. They’d fucked many times since that first time a month ago, and Rupert had grown in confidence with each heady night that passed. Jodi was a bossy lover by nature, but sometimes—just sometimes—it was fun to let Rupert have his way.

Rupert stripped Jodi of the jogging bottoms and T-shirt he’d fallen asleep in, then he drew his own zipper down slowly, revealing that he’d made the journey to Jodi’s place sans underwear.

“Commando?” Jodi raised an eyebrow.

Rupert grinned. “Didn’t know I was coming over till I was halfway here. Too late by then.”

Jodi wondered what Rupert had been doing at home without his boxers on, but was quickly distracted by the cock pressing against his lips. He opened up and met Rupert’s gaze as Rupert slid his dick into Jodi’s mouth. Rupert licked his lips and shuddered with obvious pleasure, a far cry from the nervous wreck he’d been when they’d started messing around like this.

Not that either of them was messing around right now. Jodi craned his neck and drew Rupert closer, relaxing his throat and taking him as far down as he could manage.

Rupert groaned and gripped Jodi’s hair. “I was thinking about this on the way over. Think about it all the time. You’re fucking amazing, boyo.”

Despite the context, the words seemed heartfelt, and they surged through Jodi. He sucked harder, clawing at any part of Rupert he could reach, until Rupert pulled his dick away and shed his remaining clothes.

Naked, he covered Jodi with his body and kissed him deeply. “I mean it. You and Indie, you’re everything to me.”

He took his kiss down Jodi’s neck and chest without waiting for a reply. Jodi writhed as Rupert worked his way lower and lower, grasping the duvet, the sheets, searching blindly for something, anything, to hold on to. He found Rupert’s hair and dug his fingers in, scraping Rupert’s scalp with his nails. “The feeling’s mutual, you know— Fuck!”

Rupert held the base of Jodi’s cock and blew warm air over the head, a gentle warning, before he took him in his mouth.

Jodi arched his back and cried out as Rupert stroked and teased him with his tongue, moaning quietly, a low, vibrating hum that buzzed around Jodi’s cock.
Jesus fucking Christ
. Jodi fought release, biting his lip and twisting Rupert’s hair. Rupert was maddeningly good at driving him insane, coiling him tighter and tighter around an invisible string until he was so turned on he didn’t know which way was up. Didn’t know anything except that if he didn’t come soon, he was sure to combust.

A thousand terrible firefighter puns flashed in Jodi’s sex-fogged mind, but the coherency was fleeting. Rupert moved up the bed again. Jodi lunged for him and yanked him close, kissing him hard enough to clash their teeth. He wanted more. Needed more.

“Condom. Now.”

Rupert took the command and leaned over to rummage in the bedside table. A condom and a well-used bottle of lube were dropped onto the bed. Jodi sat up. His hands shook, but somehow he managed to roll the condom onto Rupert and squelch enough lube out of the nearly empty bottle.

He slathered the lube on Rupert’s cock, squeezing and releasing, until Rupert growled and batted his hands away.

“Get on your knees.”

That was a new one, but Jodi obeyed without hesitation, rolling over and dropping his chest to the mattress. Rupert came up behind him, his cock pressing against him, pushing gently as Rupert aligned them.

“Ready?”

Jodi nodded. “Fuck yeah. Do it.”

Rupert placed a hand at the base of Jodi’s spine, warm and soothing, and a stark contrast to the coolness of the condom as he eased inside, slow and careful, pausing with every inch to mutter words of comfort Jodi rarely needed.