Page 124 of Replay
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Spook was sitting with his feet dangling in the pool when Xane wandered over, a cold drink in hand.He settled against the railings at the top of the pool steps.“You all right?”he asked pushing his sunglasses up his forehead.They’d not properly had a chance to speak since the previous morning.Leastways not without numerous sets of eyes fixed on them, anticipating further seditious behaviour.Like they’d actually set out to cause dissent.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled, which was more or less the truth.
Xane quirked his pierced eyebrow.“Is that a piss off, and stop being nosy, fine?Or a ‘Why the hell are you asking me, you know I’m not fucking fine,’ fine?”
All right, bad choice of phrasing.“It’s a ‘I fucked Alle last night, fine,’ and I’m processing that.”
It was testament to their friendship and his trust in Xane that he so readily admitted it.Even so, it still felt strange saying it aloud.
His friend’s other brow joined the first in rising.“For real?”He squatted down by Spook’s side, and put his drink on the ground with an attention drawing wallop.“You actually—”
“Yeah, I actually…”
“—did the dirty deed?”Xane’s mouth curved into a smirk.He reached out as if he meant to ruffle Spook’s hair, but then seemed to think better of it.A shifty glance over his shoulder said why.Public displays of affection were off limits between them at the minute so as to avoid more hair tearing and heartbreak.“And how are you feeling about that?”he said instead.
Maybe Spook shouldn’t have opened his mouth.He didn’t really want to do a full emotional stocktake.It had worked out okay in the end with Alle.Actually, it had been pretty damned amazing, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t entertaining a few dark thoughts about it.
“Spill,” Xane prompted him.He took a perch on the edge of the pool, but kept his feet out of the water.
“What if I caved in for the wrong reasons?”
Xane affectionately cuffed him around the head.Apparently restraints only went so far.“You and your freaky sex hang-ups.Did you enjoy it?If the answer’s yes, then stop fretting over the whys and wherefores.”
“But…” he muttered.
Xane sank onto his back, so that he was looking up at the powder-puff clouds.“What’s up?She twist your arm?”
“No.”Well, not exactly.Alle had been desperately trying to get him to fuck her from the moment they’d met.But, if anything, last night she’d been the one saying slow down and consider if this is what you actually want.
“So, wrong reason how?”
“You,” he said bluntly.“I’d been with you.It made it kind of hard to justify continuing not being with her.My vow of abstinence wasn already null and void.Ergo, how could I love her and not touch her, when—”
“—you begged to be fucked by yours truly?”Xane finished for him.“You told her why though, right?”
Perhaps without as much clarity as he’d have liked.It hadn’t been easy.“I told her everything.”Maybe that had been a mistake.What was to say she didn’t wake up today and realise that actually, she didn’t need that much crazy in her world, or that actually, she only had his word for how things had played out?Except, what choice had he really had?None, considering the bombshell her cockwomble of a brother was about to drop.The last thing he wanted was for her to learn about his past as part of a journalistic hatchet job.
“You know, I’m not sure your celibacy claims were exactly holding up prior to that point.Sex is sex, my friend, whichever way you go about it.Penetration is not the be all and end all.”
“Yeah, I know that.But Alle has different rules.”
“She’s all about the cock, eh?”What began as a smirk soon transformed into a lewd grin.
“Oh, shut up.”Spook kicked water at Xane, who crunched back into a sitting position with a howl of protest.He eyed his damp clothing, then squinted at Spook in a manner that suggested future retribution.Then, his frown smoothed out, and he brushed the droplets from his clothes and face.
“If you’re not sure you did it for the right reason last night, go and do it again today, and keep on doing it until there stops being a reason, because that’s when it’s time to call it quits, not before.Spook, you’re a match made in heaven.”
He signed deeply.“Yeah, maybe.”
“Not maybe, definitely.Shit, by some fucking miracle you stumbled into one another and happen to like all the same things.What are the odds?Also, where the hell else are you going to find a woman who likes being spanked and restrained with quite the same zealous glee as she does, and who is also prepared to put up with your sorry arse?You’re not, is the simple answer.So, get over yourself, and stop having conniptions over the fact you’re kinky.”
“It was purely vanilla last night.”
“First time.”Xane gave a dismissive shrug.“Today you should absolutely dally with your deviance.”
“Xane.”Spook frowned.
