Page 54 of Maybe
“Yep.” Right on my shoulder, Ezra grinned as I unlocked the internal door of my flat. “But haven’t you heard? They do this cool thing with kids these days. It’s called school. You drop them off when the building opens, and they stay there the entire day. Which means that I have plenty of time to get across town on this new-fangled Tube thingy, so I can make my hardworking brother his breakfast, tuck him up for a nap, and still get to Covent Garden in time for work. Pretty amazing, huh?”
On the morning after my second night shift, we went through the same routine. Ezra followed me into the flat and cooked my breakfast, whilst I took a shower and resisted the temptation to invite him to join me. If his incessant flirting was any yardstick, the teeny tiny matter of him being my brother, technically if not biologically, didn’t concern him in the slightest. Perhaps that was down to him not lying awake having imaginary conversations with Ed, Saffy, and my mother, explaining how we’d got ourselves into this mess. And even if I somehow surmounted that inevitable drama, an aggravating, puritanical, nagging voice in my head still refused to let me step over the line.
On the morning after my third night shift, Ezra wasn’t waiting on the step. Oh no, he was in the bloody flat. The kettle was whistling, and four rashers of bacon sizzled in a pan on the stove.
“How the fuck did you get in?”
“Me casa es su casa.” He greeted me with a wave of his spatula. The hook below my corkboard, which usually held my spare key, was glaringly empty. “Your words, I seem to remember, not mine. And stop with thehow did you get into my housebusiness. Just a 'thank you, Ezra, for cooking me a delicious hot breakfast' will do.” He threw me a heart-meltinggrin. “Or I’ll settle for a brotherly hug if you’re too tired for complete sentences.”
I was. It had been a hell of a busy shift. And Ezra was right there, his usual black and grey ensemble covered with a naff pink apron—God knows where from—with the wordsMeat & Two Vegemblazoned across the front. The heavenly scent of breakfast wafted under my nose and the most important human being in my life was within touching distance. What else could a tired boy do?
Ezra’s interpretation of a brotherly hug came with a few not so brotherly add-ons. Such as a back rub, stretching the interpretation ofthatby encompassing a bottom squeeze. Since he was taller than me, his groin pressed into my belly, stirring up a mortifying response I was astonished my weary body had the strength for.
Christ, I was only putting off the inevitable, wasn’t I?
“Nice bit of morning wood you’ve got there,babybrother,” he murmured into my hair, the fucker. My face burned like magnesium ribbon as he nudged my hard-on with his hip. How the hell did I ever imagine I’d keep him at arm’s length and be nothing but a generous uncle on Christmas and birthdays, with Ezra staring down at me with those fuck-me eyes?
He nudged my erection again. “Or should I call it a morning great sequoia?”
I groaned, though the hug was far too amazing to pull away. As Ezra gave himself another rub against my unasked-for boner, the smirk on his smart mouth told me he knew exactly what the future held. Now he even had a rough idea of how big it was. The only thing he didn’t know was how soon I’d cave.
Within the next ten seconds, if we carried on dry humping like this. With monstrous effort, I wriggled out of his grasp.
“Bacon smells cooked,” I said.
By the sixth morning, sharing a hug in the middle of the kitchen whilst we waited for the toast to pop up turned into a routine way of passing the time. Ezra played me like he played his damned guitar. Expertly.
“Stop poking me with that thing,” I grumbled. With his arms looped about my back, he predictably nestled in closer still. “It isn't happening. I’m not ready to step out of the brother zone.”
“Yeah, but a taste of my dick will help you sleep better.”
“I don’t recall that nugget of information from med school.”
“Nugget’s a bit harsh.” He circled his hips against me to prove the point. “More of a solid ingot at the moment.”
As if to prove the point, Ezra circled again, although there was no real intent behind it. “You know I’m only teasing you, Isaac. Sex is the least important thing for me right now.” His mouth planted a soft kiss against my temple. “I’m here because I love you, not because I want to get you into bed. If sex happens this week, next week, next month or even next year, it doesn’t matter. If all you’re ready for is me cooking your breakfast after a nightshift and then tucking you into bed afterwards then that’s fine. I’m not going anywhere.”
“We haven’t discussed how we’ll broach… us… with Ed and Saffy, nor my mother. And what about Jonty?”
Ezra’s mouth found my temple again. “Leave Jonty to me. You only need to concentrate on sleeping better, getting that exam under your belt, and then working out which direction your career is heading.”
“That might not be cardiac surgery,” I venture.
“And the world will keep turning,” Ezra promised, “And I’ll still be here.”
“You do know when I keep telling you how inexperienced I am at this whole thing, I’m not lying. You’re going to be horribly disappointed. I’m useless at even the vanilla stuff.”
He snorted. “Kink it is, then. I’m flexible.”
I grinned despite myself. “Don’t get me started on kink. I once invited a guy back I met in the pub who was wearing a leather jacket. I misread the cues—not all leather is the same apparently. Anyhow, we got to my place, and as we started getting down to something, he ripped open his man bag and pulled out a black harness contraption. I literally asked him if he was going sky diving later.”
“Shush,” said Ezra laughing. “I bet you’re great in bed.”
“Define great,” I huffed. “I don’t pinch the duvet, and I don’t snore.”
Ezra chuckled. “Well, that’s a start.”
Seventh morning, and Ezra texted his apologies. Jonty had a chesty cough again and was off school. I sent him my regards, but it was just as well; one more seductive breakfast cuddle and my resolve would have been in tatters on the floor, my ankles around Ezra’s neck.
