Chapter Twelve
Theo
“Earth to Theo…. Come in, Theo.” Kai’s hand waved in front of my face, snapping me back to reality.
I looked up from where I was sat on the enormous bed in the house Jake had rented for the weekend to see Kai looking down at me with a curious expression on his face.
“You okay? You were kinda just staring at your feet.”
“Oh… yeah, I’m fine. Sorry,” I said, embarrassed at having been caught. “I hope I didn’t worry you. I was just…”
“Looking at the rope around your ankle?” Kai asked with a smirk.
“Is it that obvious?”
“What? The rope or the staring?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a pillow from behind me, attempting to chuck it at him and missing wildly.
Kai laughed—it was a deep, melodious sound that always filled me with joy.
He was another utterly gorgeous man inside and out, with rich, dark skin, the most gorgeous plush lips, hands to utterly die for, and a cock that was sheer perfection.
I’d met him through Austin and totally fallen for his charming smile and the way he could pick me up with one arm.
I didn’t know how Austin seemed to find a collection of men who were all well over six foot and walls of sheer muscle, but I wasn’t complaining.
“The staring,” I said. “I don’t think the ropes are that noticeable. I asked Laurie to just make them look like bracelets.”
“They do,” Kai said. “They’re just noticeable because I’ve never seen you wear anything like it. And ’cos every time me or Jake turn around, you’re looking at them… or stroking them.”
“Fuck off.”
“Nah, Jake’s just ordered pizza. I’m definitely not leaving. The man ordered garlic bread and mozzarella sticks too.”
“And chicken wings,” Jake said, strolling through the bedroom door. He was still just wearing the boxers he’d thrown on after we’d finished shooting. “Gotta have chicken wings too.”
“Mate, I hope you got enough for all of us,” Kai said as he gestured between the three of us. “Or I’m fucking disowning you.”
“Disowning me? What am I, like, your brother?”
“Might as well be, all the time you spend at my house. You’d think you haven’t got one of your own.”
“Yeah, but yours is nicer,” Jake said with a teasing smile.
He was also well over six foot and built like a rugby player, with shoulders and thighs for days and an ass to die for.
He had dark stubble, tattoos, and a nose ring along with a wicked sense of humour and a weakness for pretty men in lingerie.
The first time he’d seen me in panties and stockings I’d thought he was actually going to pass out.
“Mate, I don’t know what to tell you but interior design is a thing. Pinterest is a thing,” Kai said, flipping Jake off. “Get yourself to, like, B&Q and get some paint instead of whining.”
I chuckled as they continued bickering, my eyes falling back down to the slim pale blue rope bracelet around my wrist. It had a pretty knot on the inside of my wrist that pressed against my pulse point and made me feel like Laurie’s hand was wrapped around it.
The one on my ankle was similar, except that one was yellow.
I’d asked for two so that whatever position I ended up in, I’d always be able to see or feel one of them.
“You’re staring again,” Kai said as he gently nudged me with his elbow.
“What else was I supposed to do while you two were bickering like old people?” I asked with a scoff. Kai just grinned.
“You could’ve taken my side,” Jake said, walking over to the bed and sitting down on my other side. “But Kai’s right—you do keep staring at them.” He pointed at my wrist. “Where’d you get them?”
“Laurie did them for me.”
Jake raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile on his face. “And is there a reason your roommate is making you shibari bracelets?”
“He’s not just my roommate,” I said, casually ignoring the rest of his question.
“I know,” Jake said. “He’s your boss, your best friend, and your… I don’t know. Austin said you got pretty fucking flustered when he called Laurie your boyfriend.”
“He told you about that?”
“Yeah,” Kai said. “Was it some sort of secret?”
“If it helps, he was proper worried about it,” Jake said. “Thought he’d really upset you.”
Kai chuckled. “Austin, man. He’s the world’s cockiest bastard but if he thinks he’s hurt your feelings, it’s like dealing with a fucking kicked puppy.”
“He didn’t upset me,” I said, feeling a funny wave of emotions rising in my chest. It wasn’t anxiety…
but it also wasn’t not… I ran my finger across the rope on my wrist, gently pressing the knot against my pulse.
“It’s just… it threw me. I know Laurie and I are close but, like, that doesn’t mean anything.
Or it didn’t anyway… And ever since Austin said it, things have been weird, and then my brother emailed and it’s all just fucked up and horrible and I don’t like any of it. ”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Jake said with a sympathetic clucking sound as he put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me back against his massive chest. “Why the fuck didn’t you say anything?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I didn’t want to mess up the weekend by being all mopey, and filming is a good distraction, especially with you two.”
“We are pretty fucking special,” Jake said. Kai snorted before reaching out and resting his hand on my foot—the one without the tie.
“Do you wanna talk about it now?” Kai asked. “You don’t have to tell us. We can just go downstairs and eat pizza and steal Jake’s chicken wings and watch a movie if you want.”
“I’m telling you, I got enough for all of us.”
“Six chicken wings won’t be enough.”
“Fuck off, you wanker. I got a box of, like, eighteen.”
I giggled. They were so funny together. Sometimes I wondered if they were more to each other than just good mates, especially since they seemed to hang out all the time and it was super clear when we filmed that they’d fucked off camera.
I could always tell with people—there was just something in the way they interacted, the way they looked at each other and the way they both seemed to know the other’s body really well without any guidance.
I wondered if that was similar to what people wondered about Laurie and me. Not with the sex, obviously, but just with the way we were around each other.
“Can I ask you something?” I piped up. Both of them stopped arguing about the best sauce for wings and looked at me.
“Sure,” Jake said. “What’s up?”
“Are you two fucking? I mean, in real life. Off camera.” The pair of them stared at me and then looked at each other. I grinned. That was all the proof I’d needed. “I knew it! You’re so cute together.”
“How’d you…” Kai started, then shook his head and pushed one of his stray locs over his shoulder. “Never mind. Yeah, we fuck sometimes but it’s not really serious.”
“It’s just for fun,” Jake said. “And you know how fucking good his dick feels.”
“It’s very good,” I said. “Ten outta ten, would bang again.”
“I’d hope so since I made you come twice today,” Kai said as he patted my foot. “But this isn’t about me and Jake. This is about you. And Laurie.”
“But then you started arguing about chicken wings and I got distracted,” I said. “And that’s how I knew, by the way. You fight like you’re fucking.”
Jake laughed. “That’s not a thing.”
“It’s totally a thing.” I looked up at him sweetly. “Will the pizza be here soon? I’m hungry. Also, did you order anything sweet to go with it?”
“Should be soon, and no, I didn’t but I can get you some ice cream or something afterwards. Leeds has gotta have one of those dessert places that delivers.”
“Yay, you’re the best.” I smiled and leant up to kiss his cheek. “I should probably put some clothes on first.”
I’d showered after we’d finished filming, with my ropes covered with plastic bags so I didn’t have to take them off.
Afterwards I’d just sat down starkers on the bed again.
I’d been meaning to get dressed but then I’d gotten distracted by Laurie’s ropes when I’d unwrapped them, and then Kai had started talking to me, and here I was still naked.
“You can eat pizza naked if you want,” Jake said. “Just don’t drop hot cheese on yourself.”
“Nah, I’ll get dressed,” I said. “Laurie always makes me put clothes on before I eat.”
“Wait, do you just walk around your flat naked?” Kai asked, trying super hard to hide his surprise and failing miserably.
I shrugged. “Sometimes. Like, if I’ve just had a bath and I forgot to take my pyjamas in with me. Or if it’s really hot and I don’t want to wear clothes. Or if I’m getting dressed in the morning and I need to ask Laurie something. I mean, it’s not like he hasn’t seen me naked before.”
“So… you’re not together but he regularly sees you naked, does rope work for you, and you’re best mates…
Are you two…” Kai asked as he tried, and also failed, not to sound surprised.
From their perspective, and hearing Kai talk about it like that, I could kind of see where he was coming from, even if I didn’t want to.
“We’re not having sex. We haven’t even kissed, not really.
Just the kisses I give everyone.” I liked kissing people and did it as often as possible, as long as they were comfortable with it.
It was usually just a light peck on the lips or cheek, and while I didn’t do it with many of my friends from Heather Bay, I sometimes kissed Laurie when it was just us.
He’d never objected. But I hadn’t done it much recently because I didn’t want to fuck with our very nebulous boundaries.
“Okay,” Jake said slowly. “Do you want to have sex with him? In whatever form that takes—I don’t mean you have to aim for, like, full-on penetration. Anything from a hand job upwards counts. And it definitely includes frotting. Anything that might end in an orgasm for at least one of you.”
I thought for a second, even though I already knew the answer. “Yeah, I do.”
“Then go for it,” Jake said.
“But what if…”
“Theo,” Kai said firmly. “There is no way on earth that man doesn’t want you too.”
“You really think so?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Agreed,” Jake said, squeezing me tightly. “You’ve just gotta go for it. I don’t know Laurie, but I doubt he’s the kinda guy who’d just randomly offer to do shibari on anyone.”
“He’s not,” I said. “I didn’t even know it was a thing he did until a few weeks ago.
My brother, who I haven’t spoken to in, like, fourteen years, suddenly emailed me and I was getting really anxious about the idea of talking to him, even though I wanted to, and Laurie thought this might help.
The first time he did it he made me some pretty gauntlets and I really liked them.
They made me feel calm. So I asked him to keep doing it… ”
Jake hummed but didn’t say anything, but I saw his lips twitch. I didn’t know whether to say any more but I decided to be honest.
“The next day he did me a garter to go under my skirt for work and he… he kissed the inside of my leg afterwards. And then we just… didn’t stop.
He usually does me something every day—they’re not big, just little bracelets or garters or ankle straps.
Something I can either hide under my clothes or that isn’t really noticeable. It’s just become a thing.”
We hadn’t even really talked about it. We’d just fallen into a routine where every morning Laurie would tie me before I got dressed. And every time he finished he’d kiss my skin softly.
It had become one of my favourite parts of the day and it pulled us closer in some unspoken way.
“Babe, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s definitely not platonic,” Jake said and I laughed.
“Probably not.”
“You should talk to him,” Kai said. “Tomorrow. The longer you leave it, the harder it’s gonna be to find the words.”
“I suppose.” I didn’t want to admit they were right, but they both already knew it.
Luckily, the shrill ring of the doorbell stopped them from interrogating me further. “That’ll be dinner,” Jake said, releasing me from his embrace. “I’ll go grab it. You find some clothes.”
“I’ll come down with you,” Kai said and stood, giving Jake a wry smile.
“Do you not fucking trust me or something?”
“Gotta make sure you’re not lying about the chicken wings.”
Jake flipped him off as he walked towards the door, muttering darkly under his breath about how a man should be allowed his fucking chicken wings, and Kai shot me a wink before following him.
I grinned as I hopped off the bed to find some shorts and a vest top. If I was sailing down a river of denial about my feelings for Laurie, those two definitely weren’t far behind me.