Jake crawled up on the sofa, unable to face Maddox when he glared with that level of intensity. The walls had already started to lift, and Jake curled his hands in pulses willing his brain to think.
“Can I still ask you a question now?”
Maddox cocked his brow, and the hardness remained in his features. “It’s midnight-”
“Please, Maddox.”
Jake forced his eyes to stay on their green counterparts. He was being dissected, analysed, but he didn’t dare look away.
“Is this what you’ve been stressed out about all day?”
Jake nodded and swallowed. “Please.”
Maddox sighed, shifting on the sofa until their bodies were fully turned towards each other. “Okay, ask.”
Jake dropped his gaze, and turned his head. So many things he could ask, so many things he wanted to know. He sighed, clutching on to a question and speaking before he lost his chance.
“Did…. did you enjoy spending Christmas with me?”
The words shook as they came out, he wondered in the following silence whether he should repeat himself. He didn’t turn back. Instead he stared at the floor hoping it would answer the question if Maddox didn’t.
His chin was cupped and lifted, but he refused Maddox and stared through his lower set of lashes. He had made an idiot out of himself, knew it and he feared Maddox’s smirking face, or his irritated one. Maddox despised idiots, and he had just asked something so painfully needy and tragic.
“Jake, look at me.”
There was no mocking in his voice, no angry warning either. His tone was soft, but Jake didn’t trust it. Maddox stroked his cheek gently, three brushes and Jake still refused to do as Maddox said. The words weren’t repeated, weren’t growled with annoyance, Maddox held his face with careful hands and didn’t force him into looking back.
“You could have asked me anything…. why ask something you know the answer to, you must know the answer to that…”
Jake hoped he knew the answer, but Maddox was so hard to read. They’d spent the day, eating, listening to music and having sex. All things Maddox enjoyed, it wasn’t a huge leap to conclude he enjoyed Christmas, but to hear him say it, that would’ve been the perfect end to the day even if Jake wasted his chance of learning more about the mysterious man.
“I-I just wanted to hear you say it.”
Maddox’s gaze burned into him; he didn’t have to glance at him to know. His skin reacted instinctively, heating up and reddening the longer Maddox stared.
“Jake, I enjoyed spending Christmas with you.”
Jake relaxed into Maddox’s hand, exhaling a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He flicked his eyes up, freezing in place when he saw the smile on Maddox’s mouth and the brightness in his eyes.
Maddox rarely smiled, he smirked, he snorted and he scowled, but a real heartfelt smile, Jake had doubted he could, but there it was. Maddox’s lips were lifted, his cheeks were rounded and happy creases surrounded his emerald irises. His whole face framed his eyes, dark hair on top and his stubble below.
“And if we’re both still alive next Christmas, we’ll spend that one together too.”
Jake shivered, brushing himself into Maddox’s palm. A barrage of emotion hit him, and he pressed his lips together to hold in any embarrassing sounds.
“And the one after that.” Maddox mumbled, moving closer, “and the one after that.”
Their lips met, and Jake gasped into the kiss with his heart fluttering.
Maddox hadn’t intended to, but he’d answered other questions that gnawed at Jake's mind. Keeping him meant more than a day, week or month. Maddox was planning on keeping him considerably longer. For as long as they were both alive, he had a place to be at Christmas. Maddox must’ve liked more than the sex, but him too.
Jake sunk into the kiss, climbing into Maddox's lap and pressing his body close. It was desperate and messy, and for once Maddox was forced to chase his mouth and match the pace.
“Bed.” Jake panted, and Maddox nodded in reply.
Fire and Sand
(Adrenaline Jake)
Novella 3
Louise Collins
April 2018
Festive Dog Page 5