Operation Fake Relationship - Jay Northcote Page 0,38

shit this was so fucking hot.

“Gonna come,” he managed, but his warning was a little late because the first shot splashed right across Nick’s cheek and into one eye, making him flinch.

“Shit. Sorry.” Jackson aimed lower, getting Nick’s lips and chin with the next lot before the final feeble spurt trickled over his own fist.

“Ow!” Eyes shut, Nick scrunched his face up in discomfort. “That stings like a bitch. Quick! Get me a tissue or something.”

Jackson looked around helplessly. There were no tissues anywhere that he could see. He leapt up and grabbed his underwear off the floor and wiped his hands on them, before picking up Nick’s and bringing them to the bed. “Here.” He pressed them into Nick’s hand. “Better than nothing.”

“Thanks.” Nick wiped his face and then cranked his eyes open to see what he was holding and laughed. “Nice.”

“First thing I could think of. Are you okay?” He peered at Nick whose eye looked red and sore.

“Just about. I’d better go and rinse it though.” He got up and pulled on his jeans before letting himself out of their room.

While he was gone, Jackson put on some clean underwear and then checked the bed. Luckily there was only a tiny wet spot on one of the pillows, which wouldn’t be noticeable once it was dry.

Nick returned smelling of toothpaste. He smiled ruefully at Jackson, one eye noticeably red and bloodshot. “Been a while since anyone got me in the eye. I’d forgotten the hazards of facials.”

“Let me see.” Jackson beckoned for him to sit down on the bed. He put his hand on Nick’s cheek and tilted his face towards the light. “Oh shit. I’m really sorry. That looks sore.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was my own fault. I asked for it.”

Jackson chuckled. “Yeah. I guess you did.”

They smiled at each other and Jackson’s heart swelled. But even as he felt the rush of affection for Nick it was doused by a cold trickle of anxiety. How were they ever going to get back to their old version of normal, when laughing about him coming all over Nick’s face didn’t feel odd at all?

Ten

Nick lay awake listening to the sound of Jackson’s breathing. Deep, slow, and regular, it sounded as though Jackson was asleep but Nick wasn’t sure. He thought about asking, but decided not to risk waking him.

Craving comfort, he rolled onto his side and hugged his pillow. He wished he could snuggle up to Jackson, but he didn’t know whether that was a good idea. Everything between them was different—temporarily at least—but he wasn’t sure exactly what the new boundaries were.

As the post-sex high wore off, Nick felt more and more anxious.

What the fuck were we thinking?

But the we was hardly fair, because in his heart Nick knew that nothing would have happened if he hadn’t initiated it. Sure, Jackson had been a willing partner in what had followed, but Nick had lit the fuse. This was all down to him.

What the fuck was I thinking?

Thinking hadn’t really come into it. When he’d kissed Jackson in the Pirate Tree earlier, he’d acted on pure instinct. He had no idea where the desire that had swept over him had come from. As long as he’d known Jackson, he’d never wanted him like that before. It wasn’t that Jackson wasn’t attractive. He was clearly drop-dead gorgeous. But he was also Nick’s best friend, his flatmate, his rock. Plus, he wasn’t the sort of guy that Nick usually went for. He was far too nice. Jackson was worth a hundred of the arseholes who Nick usually dated. He’d let himself fall for wankers over and over again until he’d finally given up on relationships altogether to focus on himself.

Two years of counselling later, Nick understood what had kept him trapped in that painful cycle of disappointment and heartbreak, and his counsellor thought he was ready to move on. But Nick didn’t trust himself. He was still too wary to try again in case he got swept back into that harmful pattern.

If I was in a relationship with Jackson, it would be completely different.

Nick shoved the thought away quickly, because it was too dangerous to think of Jackson like that. Even if Jackson did have feelings for him, who was to say that would last? And if they became lovers, what if Nick got bored and wanted out after a couple of weeks—like he always had with guys who didn’t treat him like crap?

All those years of friendship