Quinn laughed. And Jake laughed. They fell into each other on the bed and Jake didn’t find himself caring about his freckles or his fall or the premature ejaculation.
Chapter twenty-three
Quinn
After they both gottheir feet back under them and their heads on straight, they ambled back to the bathroom. Jake drained the tub and Quinn turned on the shower. They both needed to at least rinse off. Especially Jake, given where Quinn finished. There was nothing to be done for the bed sheets, but Quinn helped him get the cum washed off his back.
They wrapped themselves up in plush white bath robes and laid out on the bed next to each other. The TV played softly in the background, showing off a bunch of jewelry they could buy for the low, low price of way more than it was worth.
Jake sighed. “Thanks for coming. To the hotel room, I mean. I take credit for the other cumming.”
“I started literally doing that in my sleep when I was twelve, but sure. You can take credit.”
Jake’s grin lit up his face and he slung an arm over Quinn’s shoulders, then brought his hand up and scrubbed his knuckles briefly across Quinn’s scalp. “You’re a little shit.”
“Only sometimes.” Quinn sighed and looked at him. In the dim, shifting colors from the TV screen, Jake was somehow even prettier than usual. His hair was still damp and stuck up in weird places around his head. It was longer than it looked when he had it all styled into place. The hollows of his cheeks caught all the deep parts of the color, and the highlights swam across his forehead and the bridge of his nose. Somehow, the deep blue of his eyes was almost untouched by the light quality. They still bore down on Quinn, endless and bright all at the same time.
Quinn glanced at the TV screen. A middle-aged man showed off a rose gold ring with a large, pear-shaped green stone surrounded by smaller white diamonds. The volume was low, and he’d missed the info that flashed across the screen. It still caught his eye. “That’s hideous.”
Jake tilted his head, then nodded. “Yeah. Not my choice. Maybe if it was on silver? Or a ruby or something a different color if they want to keep the rose gold.” He tutted his tongue. “You dropping hints? Feels a little early for engagement.”
“It is. But if we get there, don’t get me that ring.”
“Deal.”
Quinn shifted, leaning his head against Jake’s chest and shoulder. “I should get up and get going at some point.”
“Well, I’m not stopping you.”
He wasn’t. Quinn stayed put anyway. “You haven’t told me much about your life back home. Not to pry—”
“Open book. I know plenty about you at this point.” Seemingly without thinking about it, Jake stroked his fingers softly through Quinn’s hair as he spoke. “It’s not exciting, though. When we had the channel, we did a ton of work around Pine Point. Slimmed down the options for work a lot, so I generally haveto go out of town for carpentry jobs. Imightplay a little more Armored Spirit than I implied, but I still feel like I never have time. I like to go thrifting and antiquing a lot. Really, any chance for some retail therapy is good in my book.”
Quinn nodded. “Plenty of thrift stores around here, or up in Chicago. Maybe we can go some time.” He nuzzled into Jake a little deeper. “And I knew you were bullshitting me on Armored Spirit. I bet you’re some kind of semipro player or something.”
“Hardly. I just don’t have the headspace to get involved in too many new series. I still watch the same TV shows I did when I was in my teens and twenties. You know. Always feels like a whole-ass commitment that I’m not ready for.”
“I’ll hook you up with some good games any time you want.” Quinn closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “You know what I always liked? Playing RPGs with someone else in the room.” Another deep breath. “I remember in high school, my friends and I stayed up way, way too late trying to get to the shirtless cut scene in Veins of Honor IV.”
Jake chuckled, the sound rumbling and vibrating through his chest and into Quinn’s back. “I remember that. I may have bought a few pieces of bootleg fan art of Silvaeus at a con when I was young.”
“A con?” Quinn snorted. “Nerd.”
“Guilty as charged.” He kept stroking Quinn’s hair and it felt so nice, so peaceful. Quinn yawned, so he only caught the back half of Jake’s sentence. “…we can play it and check in across the country?”
Quinn didn’t need the first part to put the gist together. “Any game, any time.” Those fingers on his scalp felt so nice, and the bath robe was soft against his skin, holding in all his warmth. “I’ll make a list and we’ll work something out.” He started thinking through his own backlog and wishlist, trying to figure out what would be good.I think Veins of Honor is stillgoing. There’s that western one with the Cthulhu monsters. Or Magestone.
RPGs drifted through his mind as Jake continued to speak, his voice fading into a low rumble, then finally to nothing.
Bang bang bang.
Quinn jerked awake and his mind clunked the pieces of the puzzle together. Not quickly, but it did the job as he looked around. It came together a chunk at a time to form the whole picture.
One: he was decidedly not in his bedroom.
Two: Jake was asleep next to him, barely opening one eye.
Three: They were both naked and the room smelled like cum.
