Chapter 26 #2
“Oh, it’ll make me fit in better, probably. A fair number of them don’t have the expected sort of relationship. I’ve always been a little awkward that way. Certainly won’t be a bother with work.” It came out a hair flippant, but Matty thought it was accurate. “You? Talk to me, Matty, please?”
He’d been thinking about that. “I don’t have your sort of funds. But I’ve got some put aside. I’m excellent at my job. And I like my work now it’s not grinding me down. I enjoy making sense out of chaos, making things work better for people in a way that matters.”
He sucked in a breath. “Being visible, is that the word?” Claudio nodded, and Matty went on, “It’d be a challenge.
Make doing my work harder. At least until the gossip died down, perhaps a lot.
I wouldn’t be able to push forward some kinds of things.
But I’d have support, more places than you might have noticed.
” He added, “Urania’s Apples, a particular spot for the Ministry folk like me.
Us.” Claudio nodded his understanding. “And I live my life in Trellech, mostly. No worries about prosecution. Mum and Dad have never figured out that’s part of why I can’t stand London. ”
“Part?” Claudio leaned a little more, the pressure decidedly soothing.
“The way you can still see the bombing. The destruction. Does it take you like that?” Matty glanced at Claudio’s face, and found something deeply mysterious there. “No?”
“I didn’t grow up there. But I understand enough of it, I think. The way it scars up, and you’ve got to learn to work around the scars. When people let you.” Matty waited for a moment, but Claudio said nothing else.
He hesitated. “Do you have scars like that? That I should know about now? Besides the, um, your entire upbringing, part of me desperately wants words with your mother.”
“There is also a line for that. And for shouting at my father’s grave.
” Claudio let out a huff of breath. “I don’t know what Challenging is going to shake loose.
There’s a bit of that I should talk through with you, but not today?
It’s not about making the Challenge, it’s the flavour of it.
Except that I’m more and more certain that being, um.
On the outside of the societal approval may actually be not only relevant but actually useful. Necessary?”
“Useful.” Matty snorted, but then he considered and let his hand move, finally, to rest on Claudio’s knee.
He ought to ask more things, logic said that.
But the rest of him was shouting to do something else, all the Boar trained impulses, aimed at a target he’d chosen.
Was going to keep choosing. And if Claudio were going to go off and have a series of complicated conversations, surely he ought to have some more experiences to draw on.
He swallowed, then said, “So if I proposed more of the actual experience, less of the talking, you’d want that? ”
“Oh, yes.” That was suddenly breathy. “You’re the one with the expertise.
What should I be learning about first?” Claudio added, “Though, um, to be clear, I’m on duty early tomorrow.
I do need to be home to prep my kit and get enough sleep.
So whatever might fit in—” He craned his neck to peer at the clock over the fireplace. “Two hours, maybe three?”
“Gives us some scope.” Matty’s mind was racing, trying to figure out what he wanted to offer first. Or ask for.
He desperately wanted to find out what Claudio felt about who had a bit more control as they went.
He’d done things both ways over the years, and he had some preferences, but he didn’t know how that would go with Claudio.
What Claudio would permit or enjoy, or encourage.
They certainly couldn’t try out everything in one night, no matter how hard he currently was at the idea.
“My bed. And how do you feel about less in the way of clothes? Undoing things, to start, not going bare.” For one thing, if they were going to do that, he’d want to warm the place up a bit more first for his own sake, as well as Claudio’s.
Cold toes were not something he found remotely arousing.
“Mmm.” Claudio stretched, reaching for the abandoned beer bottle and casting a charm to seal it up again. Matty did the same instinctively. No sense wasting it. “I like that idea. Lead the way?”
A minute later, they were on Matty’s bed, having shed their shoes and jackets.
Matty shoved two pillows out of the way.
Claudio was willing enough to let Matty take the lead again, as Matty pushed him onto his back on the bed.
He got one leg between Claudio’s to help put some pressure in the useful places.
And he was a quick learner, as quick as anyone Matty had ever been with.
People found tongues awkward, or made it into a battle, with one winner.
Claudio took a little to figure it out. Then it was as if they were together against the world, ebbing and flowing in a way that Matty could and did get lost in.
And his hand. Claudio got his fingers into Matty’s hair in a way that wasn’t demanding, just connected so solidly there wasn’t any doubt about how he felt or what he wanted.
By the time they were both breathless, he could feel how hard Claudio was. Matty lifted on one elbow. “May I touch you? Stroke you, I mean. I’ve got some oil.”
Claudio blinked once, then laughed. “Should tell you, my clothes are enchanted six ways to Sunday to be easy to clean. And protective in various ways. You needn’t be delicate on my account.
” There was something primly delighted about it that had Matty lunging for the side table and the bottle of oil he kept there for stroking himself off when he did.
He remembered, just in time, to undo Claudio’s clothing before pouring the oil on his hand.
And his own. It was a mess, and he had to shove his trousers and pants down closer to his knees with his other hand, fumbling until he could touch.
Claudio bucked up into his grasp immediately, grunting with it, but Matty was absolutely certain it was all pleasure.
“Oh, we’re going to have fun, aren’t we?
Some day soon, we’ll take it slow. Not tonight.
Tonight’s all about you learning what you want more of so you can ask for it.
” He sucked in a breath and trusted his instincts. “Beg for it.”
That shattered everything, an explosion of sound and fluid. Claudio was driving up against him, groaning with it, utterly caught up in what he was feeling. Matty wanted to do that over and over until he was certain it’d be fixed in his memory forever.
When Claudio was finally blinking at him, half-lidded and coming to grips with what had just happened, Matty kneeled up a little.
“Touch me. Stroke me. You’ve done that enough with yourself?
” He suddenly wasn’t sure, the way Claudio had talked.
But he got a little nod, and he took the offered hand, cupping it around his own cock. “Won’t take long.”
He was taking what Claudio had said about the clothes for truth.
There wasn’t time for anything else. Claudio got a half dozen decent strokes in, shifting his fingers precisely as he watched Matty’s reactions.
Then the world went black for a second. Matty could feel himself shuddering, and the way he had to be soaking Claudio’s face and chest. It couldn’t have lasted too long— everything was too urgent for that— but it felt like forever.
He let himself settle back, kneeling, until Claudio tugged him forward by one hand before his eyes properly focused.
Then, there he was, half across Claudio’s chest, legs tangled, both of them breathing hard and needing to say nothing.
They lay there until his feet got cold and everything was slightly damp and sticky. Matty was the one to speak first. “All right?”
“Grand. More than grand.” There was a huff of breath. “Beg, you said?”
“You like the idea, then?” Matty half-pushed himself up on one elbow so he could see Claudio’s face. “Not offended?”
“It’s possible you’ll offend me sometime. But you haven’t yet. Good odds you won’t.” Claudio opened his eyes. “Um. What’s the etiquette for now? Or, more to the point, what do you actually want?”
Matty considered the question. “You want to borrow my bath to wash up and do whatever charms you do for your clothes? I can get dressed and pop out and find something for supper. You’ve an hour before you needed to leave?
” He added, out of honesty. “I want more time. I want to be greedy and ask for all the time. I know neither of us can. We’ve other things we need to do.
So maybe we need to figure out a thing for after. All the wanting, but then the quiet.”
“Remember. I said— was it only a fortnight ago?— I want that too. Meals with you, and sitting reading in the same room. Though yes. Entirely interested in more in bed, now you mention it.” The posh accent made it suddenly hilarious.
Matty lifted himself enough to kiss Claudio’s forehead and rolled himself off the bed without actually falling over his own feet.
“Let me go see about some food, then.” It did give him the advantage of getting a good look at Claudio, utterly debauched, half-dressed, on his bed.
He’d be getting himself off to that bit of memory for weeks to come.
Until he had others to work with, which seemed likely soon.
It was with some difficulty that he turned away to rummage for a change of clothes in the wardrobe.
Then he went off to the bath to shrug them on and go find something to eat.