Chapter 12
TWELVE
Fuck, they were really doing this. Jude shivered from more than just the cold, damp air of the island as he prepped in the outhouse.
He didn’t really have to clean out that much, since he really hadn’t eaten much in the last few days.
He’d been far too nervous, and with good reason.
Everything he’d longed for and feared had just smacked him in the face. He and Nally were going to have sex.
When he headed back into the cottage, Nally went out to use the outhouse.
Jude used the leftover water they’d heated for tea, which was still marginally warm, to take a bath using just a washcloth and an old cake of soap.
He would have preferred a full, long shower and some fruity bath gel, but they were out in the middle of nowhere, so he had to take what he could get.
Still, it felt ridiculous and embarrassing to stand next to an ancient woodburning stove, scrubbing his privates with a wet, soapy rag, then worrying that he’d left too much soap behind and that Nally would taste it. The process left him completely limp instead of excited, like he should have been.
He should have been excited, right? Not terrified, not embarrassed.
He loved Nally. He was falling in love with Nally.
That’s what this whole thing was about, really.
Quentin was a real and dangerous excuse, but an excuse all the same.
The true purpose of stranding themselves on an island in the middle of nowhere was exactly what they were doing now.
“You can do this,” he whispered to himself as he headed into the bedroom, feeling ridiculous, not to mention cold, for walking around the cottage naked.
It was clear that Nally had prepped the bedroom while Jude had been in the outhouse.
The bed was neat and tidy with the covers turned down, and the lube and condoms sat on the bedside table like a neon sign of how bad an idea this whole thing was.
Jude slipped into bed to wait, but too much time ticked by and he felt awkward.
He got out of bed, fluffed the covers, then did his best to smooth out some of the lumps in the mattress.
It was an incredibly ancient thing, more like a big bag of straw and horsehair, supported by a rope lattice across the irregular frame, and definitely in keeping with his nutty family’s determination to make the island as rustic as possible.
Although he was fairly certain his dad had restuffed it with actual cotton bed stuffing a few years before.
God only knew what sort of things had happened in that bed over the years. His mum and dad could have—
No, he wasn’t going to go there.
He'd just straightened from checking the ropes when he heard Nally reenter the cottage. Suddenly panicked, Jude snapped straight and turned to face the door, like he was waiting for the bogeyman.
“Hey,” Nally said, the single word coming out strangled and breathless as he marched into the doorway.
He still wore his pajama bottoms, t-shirt, and coat, which made Jude feel even more like a fool, standing there with his soft dick just hanging out.
Nally’s eyes swept straight down his body to said dick, but the shy thing only gave a little bit of a twitch in response.
“Hi,” Jude said, raising a hand to wave, although what he really wanted to do was cover his cock and balls with both hands like he was in some nightmare where he was suddenly naked in front of an entire church.
An interminable pause filled the space between them before Nally flinched like someone had fired a cannon and said, “Shit. I should get naked, too.”
“Yeah, you should,” Jude said, trying to be funny but sounding like an idiot.
Nally scrambled to throw off his jacket, then to pull his shirt off over his head. Jude inched forward, like he should help, then scooted back half a second later. He could only stand there lamely as Nally bent over to pull off his shoes then shucked his pajamas.
And then they stood there, like two mute teenagers seeing a naked man live and in person for the first time.
It wasn’t even the first time they’d seen each other naked, but it felt like Jude might explode with awkwardness.
At least Nally was hot. He looked amazing naked.
Only Fans would love him. He’d make a fortune posing and preening and playing with himself for the webcams.
Jude sucked in a breath as his cock twitched in earnest. “Maybe we should get in bed?” he suggested, his words falling out of him like a pair of old sneakers tumbling down the stairs.
“Yeah, that’s generally how this works,” Nally said with a nervous laugh.
They stood there for a few more seconds before both moving for the bed at the same time.
Their shoulders smashed together, but not in the good way.
They both mumbled apologies like the true British aristocrats they were and turned into a mass of flailing arms and legs as they clumsily fell into a horizontal position.
Things were better once they were lying down with the heavy quilts on top of them.
They’d snuggled and slept together so many times that their bodies slipped together naturally, even if their minds still had no idea what they were doing.
They scissored their legs together, and after a few fumbling, false starts, they managed to press their mouths together without knocking noses.
Once they started kissing, the pace picked up and Jude started to relax into what they were doing. “See?” he asked between light, teasing kisses. “This is nice. We can do this.”
“It is nice,” Nally said, smiling in the dim, grey light.
Their kissing turned more confident as the bed warmed up, Jude risked letting his hands wander and actually liked the warm flesh and solid contours he encountered. He’d always liked Nally’s body, and hadn’t he been saying secretly to himself for ages that he wanted to explore more of it?
Nally’s hands wandered, too. Their kissing continued, and Nally slipped one hand down to toy with one of Jude’s nipples.
“I like that,” Jude whispered as he came up for breath. “You can even pinch, if you like.”
“Can I?” Nally seemed surprised. Had they never talked about what they liked in bed before?
Actually, no. Come to think of it, they never had.
“I like it a little rough sometimes,” Jude confessed. It was just a few words, but it felt like he was peeling back a layer of his soul and showing it to his friend for the first time.
“Me, too,” Nally said, eyes bright, pupils dilated.
“Brilliant,” Jude said on an exhale, then dove into kissing Nally again.
They were getting somewhere. Both of them were heating up and getting harder.
It was exactly where things needed to go.
Nally tugged Jude forward, rolling to his back so Jude was on top.
Jude took advantage of the position to kiss Nally harder and to slip his hand between the two of them to stroke their cocks together.
Nally made a sound of appreciation and grabbed Jude’s ass, pulling at his cheek.
Jude suddenly became deeply aware of his hole and how badly he wanted it stuffed.
Every one of his fantasies of Nally going at him came rushing back to his mind, and he had to let go of their cocks and focus on kissing for a while to stop himself from coming far too soon.
The kissing was good, though. It was hot and urgent. They took unspoken turns exploring each other’s mouths, tongues rubbing and tasting. The secret space they’d created for themselves under ancient bedcovers had heated to the point where a sexy level of sweat broke out all over Jude’s body.
He shifted to the side, tugging Nally with him until Nally was half on top of him. For some reason, Nally’s movements were suddenly awkward, even though they still managed to kiss the strangeness away.
The bubble broke when Nally muscled himself up, reached toward the condoms on the bedside table, and said, “Do you want me to put one on you?”
Jude blinked. The question made no sense at first. Until it did. “I don’t really need to wear one if you’re the one who’s going to do the fucking.”
Nally froze, his arm outstretched. “I thought you were going to fuck me.”
“I—” Jude’s mouth dropped open. “I thought…. I’m usually a bottom.”
Nally’s eyes went wide. “Fuck! I’m almost always a bottom, too.”
“Shit.” All energy drained from Jude’s body as he sank into the mattress.
“I’ve only topped one time in my life, and that ended up being a total disaster,” Nally went on, slipping to fall at Jude’s side.
“I’ve topped a couple times, but it’s been ages,” Jude said, a weird, hysterical feeling bubbling up in him. “Honestly, I love the feeling of having my hole stretched and my insides rearranged.”
“Me, too,” Nally said.
A moment of absolute horror crackled in the air between them.
Then Nally started to giggle. His eyes sparkled and his face was so bright with the ridiculousness of it all that Jude couldn’t help but snort into laughter as well.
The spell broke, and the two of them flopped onto their backs in the overheated bed.
“I can’t believe it,” Jude said. “This is completely mad.”
“Why didn’t it dawn on us that we’re both bottoms?” Nally asked, still laughing uncontrollably.
“I’m not married to the position,” Jude said, everything within him relaxing as he tried and failed to be serious. “I could be vers if I needed to.”
“So could I, but this is definitely the weirdest situation I’ve ever been in,” Nally said.
“God, we’re a complete mess,” Jude somehow managed to groan in the middle of his laughter, rubbing his hands over his face. “We are such wankers.”
“We absolutely are,” Nally said. “But at least this solves the sex problem.”