Page 74 of Natural-Born Cullers

“Jack….?” Jan twisted around. “What…?”

Jack shivered, then looked at Jan, who’d lost his fight against sleep. So many questions hit his eyes and seemed to find no answers in the heat, because of the heat, and he backed off, not stopping until he shoved open the en suite bathroom.

Gray eased off the bed, and as Jan went to shift with him, Gray raised a finger in Jan’s direction, needing him to stay there.

The shower came on, and as he made his way over, Gray pushed through a moment later, then paused in the doorway, keeping his distance.

Jack would have been in the shower by now, scrubbing away whatever hell had disturbed his routine. But he stood with his back to the sink, gripping the duvet low at his waist as he looked down, shivering.

Giving a frown, Gray grabbed a housecoat off the back of the door, but as he went to wrap it around him—

“Not. Fucking. Jack. Here.” Martin shoved his touch off without looking up.

“Yeah.” Gray rested a touch on Martin’s neck and brushed a thumb at his jaw. “I know.” He gave a sigh. “Easy.” Something had upset Jack over the past few hours for Martin to switch, but he’d switched mid-heat this time, and it threw him out of his natural ability to think quickly. And his look, right here? This was why the switch never usually came in the heat of the moment when Jack was drugged or tied down with Gray. It was unusual to have it happen during sex, period. Something had really dug into Jack.

Anger crashed through Martin’s look, and he went to shove Gray off again, but Gray gave a gentle shake of his head, and his rough cup of Martin’s neck made sure he stayed close.

“I said easy, just for a moment, until your head clears and you can work out what’s going on.”

They’d planned for something like this, and Jack had asked that Jan would back off, and he did now, staying back in the bedroom. That left Gray to deal. Reality crashed in with it, because for all the heat and temptation that Martin offered, all the build-up, the interplay, mouth, and need to touch one of his own, Gray, he….

He stepped back and wrapped the housecoat around Martin’s shoulders with all the shaking and anger burning through Martin now.

Jack had consented, but Martin… waking up into a kiss and touch on someone he didn’t ask for? It crossed so many distorted lines, all of them left playing around Martin, who wouldn’t offer his honest kiss to anyone. Play head games with the tease of it, yes. But let anyone get close enough to take who he was away from any game playing, mostly because Martin didn’t know who he was away from any game playing? No. And it more than showed now.

“What the fuck’s wrong with him? Why switch now?” Martin spat that out, but it was internal, more to himself as he tried to reason through Jack’s heat.

Gray didn’t know, but something had unsettled Jack. Now Martin was left trying to figure out a threat with a heat running his body that couldn’t be switched off so quickly.

Giving a sigh, Gray kept his stroke gentle on his neck. “Cool it down,” he said quietly. “Give yourself time to think, to—”

“Did you fuck him?” Martin’s anger was back on him.

Gray frowned.

“Did you fuck him?”

Gray tensed his jaw, forcing calm. Jack was still close. The same crawl of skin over having the threat of come on him played in Martin’s eyes, misfiring the switch in so many different ways, or maybe this was Martin trying to cope, to force a threat to explain what was going through his head and body.

“A kiss, light touch on his part, but nothing more,” breathed Gray. “Get in the shower, go—”

“Just fuckingmove.” Martin’s look was on leaving, not taking the shower.

Gray cupped his neck with both hands, making sure Martin’s look came to his. Too much chaos played in his eyes, too much potential for him to walk out the door and pick a fight that would see someone hurt, or see both him and Jack hurt. “Breathe. Take a moment to calm it.”

“Oh I’m perfectly fucking calm.”

He wasn’t. The hard pound of his heart under Gray’s touch called it out.

“Fuck off.” Martin tried to shake him off.

“Stay,” said Gray, going in close and breathing against his jaw. “Stay safe here.”

Martin grimaced a moment later, his look on the door saying he needed out, or to find some game play to justify the heat running his body, and Gray stepped back to let him bolt if he needed it. Only Martin didn’t move. His grip on the duvet tightened, and as he glanced down, long hair buried the anger over not taking the walk.

Yeah, it was there. Martin had only ever touched someone in the middle of head games. Now he faced his own need away from any game play when it came to touch. When it came to knowing he wanted to touch himself without any games around Gray.

“Same question,” Gray said up close, his breath playing Martin’s jaw. “If I asked you to stay…?”

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