Page 49 of Enjoying the Band in Lockdown

“Wanna sleep out here or upstairs tonight?” he asked.

“What are we gonna tell the others?”

“Clock stopped. We could text them or fuck them.”

“I’ve already done that,” I laughed. “Text should be enough. I don’t want to move from here, and I feel like I owe you after that!”

“Babe, you don’t owe me anything. I should have asked first, or we should have talked about it. Sorry.”

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, other than not introducing me to that, before.”

“You’ve never?”

“Never.”

“Let me send the message.” I grabbed Xavier’s phone and took a selfie of my smiling after glow.

Xavier to Jax, Trent, Devon, Chase: Lock up, don’t wait up.

Jax: Time?

Xavier: You’ll never fucking beat it.

Jax: Time?

“What do you want me to say?” Xavier asked and I shrugged. Despite our slow start, Xavier’s time was still better than Devon’s. Only because Devon didn’t stop the clock after our first time, but if Devon wasn’t gonna tell Xav, I’d take that secret to the grave.

“How about the truth—we got carried away and forgot to use it.”

“The truth?”

“Technically, you got me from go to wow in minutes.”

“But the clock was supposed to start at nine.”

“Technically, the competition was about making me come the quickest. From the time of your first touch, you nailed it.”

“Technically.”

“Look at the smile on my face, do I need to draw you a picture?”

“No, but I think we could both benefit from a do-over.”

We didn’t respond to Jax.

We didn’t leave the bus until morning.

We didn’t need to explain, and no one wanted details behind our smiles.

“I want a night off.” I announced over lunch. “Last night was, a lot.” I didn’t force the blush, it came as naturally as Xavier topping up my glass with more soda and making sure I got the best pancakes. Today, he’d been the perfect boyfriend, and I wasn’t ready to lose our glow.

Not for Jax.

“Fine,” Jax snorted. Uncharacteristically accommodating. “I have a condition.”

Of course, he did.

“It’s not up to you. I want a night off. No question and no conditions.”

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