as they walked in silence. It lit the ceiling when he placed it at the head of the bed, the portholes dark circles above them. He stayed quiet until Jude lay flat on his bunk. “One thing,” he then said, after kneeling over him. “Just to check.” Rob dipped down for a kiss, lips barely touching Jude’s before he pulled back a scant inch. “You didn’t help yourself to a finger or two of cognac from the bar before coming to find me, did you?” His knees were so close to the edge of Jude’s bunk that he slipped after straddling him.
Jude grabbed him with one hand on each of his hips, raising his knees to keep Rob steady. Once he was, Jude slid both hands under Rob’s T-shirt, hands travelling up and around to appreciate where his back broadened. “You think I’d need to be drunk to want this? Why?”
Rob’s gaze skittered away.
It wasn’t easy to switch position. “Jesus, you’re a lump.” Jude pushed up while twisting, rolling them over so Rob was beneath him. “Why, Rob? You really think my judgement needs to be impaired to want you?”
“No… I… well, yes.” Rob’s hands skimmed Jude’s hips, his waist, the curve of pectorals that were more pronounced after a year’s sailing. “To be fair, I have had months of Lou telling me about how you never do this.”
“This?”
“It’s nothing.” Rob’s touch was distracting, but Jude stayed on topic.
“Tell me. What did Lou say I never do?”
Even in the dim light, Rob’s mask slipping again was visible. “Let people get close.” He squirmed, awkward before adding, “Besides, have you seen you?” He pushed Jude’s shirt higher. “Some people might say I’m punching a teensy bit above my weight.” He glanced down at that last word to where Jude had one hand on his belly. Rob’s skin was soft and giving. “Too many second breakfasts.”
“You’re gorgeous,” Jude said, and he meant it. Had done from their first meeting. “Annoying, but gorgeous.”
Rob pulled him closer and Jude sank into it, lying instead of kneeling, kissing instead of thinking about what might come tomorrow. With his eyes closed, and Rob’s arms around him, Jude was back in London, after the contest semi-finals, only this time—now—he wasn’t about to stop at kissing. No, if he’d learned anything this year, it was to take as much as he could, because tomorrow could get washed away without any warning.
He popped open the buttons of Rob’s jeans and got a hand in, awkward at this angle, the back of his fingers skimming where Rob’s skin felt hottest. “I want this,” Jude said.
They both struggled out of their clothes to press together, naked in a bunk he’d built with his dad’s help, and had never expected to feel half this good in. Certainly, he never expected to share it with someone like Rob, whose grip was now tight on the edge of the mattress, his breath shuddering as Jude kissed his way down his belly.
As Jude moved even lower, Rob’s cock nudged his cheek. He got his mouth on him then while Rob groaned. Jude closed his eyes to better focus on the coarse brush of pubes against his palm, the wide crown that parted his lips, the scent of Rob—sexual and strong—as Jude did what he’d dreamed of so often aboard the Aphrodite. There, he’d wondered, but here he knew—this was everything they both needed.
Jude moved when Rob pushed, guided, steered him where he wanted until he was flat on his back. “Fuck, look at you,” Rob said. He held Jude’s cock and knelt over him to return the favour, the slickness of his mouth intense; perfect. Jude’s orgasm roared close. Rob slowed the bob of his head, but Jude’s climax started to crest, crashing through him as Rob pulled off and stroked him instead. The moment Jude stopped spilling, his semen a stark contrast against the tan of his stomach, Rob stroked himself off too. Jude braced him as he added to streaks that glistened in the light cast by his phone.
There was the smile that had been missing since he’d heard about Guy Parsons’ visit.
He didn’t realise that he must have smiled back just as widely until Rob lay at his side, still panting, and touched his face with one finger. “I didn’t know you had a dimple,” he said, followed by a quiet, “Shit,” when the light died, his phone’s battery depleted. “I wanted to be sure to get up early.” Rob made as