Family Matters - 1. Family Matters

Jamie looked up from his half-finished burger and smiled at his mother. He took a sip of his imported fruity cider, just to bide the time, and then put down his food. Now was as good a time as any to break the news. He’d waited long enough, finished listening to his mother bitch about the latest episode of office infighting at work, sat through all of the news of his aunt’s latest escapades in Florida, and patiently given his attention to the discussion of the new town planning meeting which he didn’t really give two shits about. No one could say he hadn’t been a dutiful son, and now was the time.

“Mum?”

“Yes darling? How’s your burger?”

“Grand, thanks. Mum, I’ve got some news for you.”

“Oh?” His mother paused, a slight frown marring her otherwise smooth forehead. Whenever Jamie announced he had news, his mother still looked exactly like she had whenever his school had called with the newest fault in his behaviour. Jamie hadn’t attended school in well over a decade.

“Mum, you’re going to be a grandma.”

Jamie hadn’t actually been sure what he was expecting, but it had not been a slap around the face.

“Mum!” He pressed his hand to the stinging throb of his cheek. “Ow.”

“You irresponsible fool! What have you gone and done now?”

Jamie groaned. His husband had warned him this wouldn’t be the best way to tell her.

*

Jamie had stood in the living room of the tiny apartment, behind the ironing board which had taken him four goes to set up, pressing flat his best, and truthfully his only, shirt. At sixteen, he’d never voluntarily ironed anything in his life, but this was important, because he’d also never felt the way he felt now, about anyone. His mother and her best friend Trisha had wandered in from the equally minuscule kitchen, a glass of wine held aloft each.

“And where are you off to, young Jamie?” He’d known Trisha since he was only very little, and sometimes Jamie wondered if, in her quest to remain young, Trisha genuinely hadn’t noticed Jamie had grown up into a teenager.

“I’ve got a date.”

“Oooh, how posh! In a shirt no less.” Trisha looked impressed as Jamie unplugged the iron, stowed it away, and pulled his sky blue shirt on carefully, settling the collar flat and tucking the fabric into the waistband of his newly washed jeans. He was just beginning to fuss his hair in the mirror, when his mother sighed.

“You look fine sweetie.”

“Thanks Mum.”

“So who’s this hot date of yours?” Trisha asked after sipping her wine.

Jamie had bit his lip and blushed to be asked the question, because he could hardly believe the answer himself. Every time he thought about it, his heart thudded almost painfully.

“Ste’s taking me out.”

Just as Trisha had started to look incredibly shocked, the doorbell had rung, and Jamie hadn’t spared his mother or her friend a second glance as he’d dashed to go and meet the boy who made his insides feel like hot buttered crumpets. He’d heard his mother’s voice well enough as she had explained her only child’s choice of sexuality.

“I will never have grandchildren.”

Then he’d opened the front door, and been hit with the smile which had taken up all of his sleepless nights.

*

“Mum?” The attention his getting slapped had earned them in the foodie-centric country pub had slacked off, but Jamie was very aware he was talking to his parent as though she might be an unfamiliar and dangerous animal. “Mum, I thought you’d be pleased.”

His mother turned to him with a hard, flinty glare.

“How could I possibly be pleased?” She sipped her white wine, and then drained the rest of the glass in one. “I came to terms that you would never have children a very long time ago. And now, what? You’ve gotten some poor girl knocked up, and cheated on your husband? I’ve never been more ashamed of you Jamie.”

Silence descended over the table, and for a long moment Jamie replayed what his mother had said. Then he laughed.

“Mum! Quite apart from the fact I’m very happily married, how on earth do you think I managed to have sex with a girl?”

*

Jamie took the bottle offered to him with two fingers, being very careful not to touch Ste’s hand in a manner which would get them noticed. He’d regretted the decision to hang out with Ste’s friends since the moment the other boy had asked him to join them in the park when it got dark. Quite unlike Jamie, Ste was sporty and popular, his friends equally so, and Jamie was unsure how wise it was to spend time drinking in the company of people who had openly bullied him for years. But Ste said he wanted to spend more time with him, and Jamie hoped being willing to hang out with the other boy’s friends might give Ste the confidence he needed to ask him out on a real date.

“So, Jamie-boy,” Ste’s friend Kacie took the half empty vodka bottle from Jamie before he’d properly finished swallowing, and held the wet rim against her cherry painted lips for a moment before she swigged. “How come you’ve chosen to join us?”

“Umm...”

“I asked him too.” Ste’s rough voice made shivers run up Jamie’s spine.

In the dark it was harder than ever not to think about the kiss, hurried but delicious, hot and desperate, they had shared in the narrow deserted stairwell which lead from the street up to the flats where they both lived, though at opposite ends. Jamie could feel himself getting hard, and hoped his jeans and the fact he was sitting crossed legged in the park, would hide his erection from Ste’s mates. Jamie glanced across at his friend, wishing he could tell Ste how grateful he was. Ste’s smile was fleeting, and somehow private, but Jamie could tell he understood.

“And just about in time too.” Kacie went on, apparently oblivious to what had passed between the boys. “I’m sick of there not being enough cute guys in our circle.”

Another lad across the circle of discarded cans and the remnants of a slightly futile paper-fed bonfire laughed mockingly.

“Only ‘cause Kacie has run out of people to sleep with.”

“You’re such a dick Paul.”

“At least I don’t spend all my time sucking them!” he shot back. Kacie stuck her tongue out at him, and drank from the vodka bottle again in a lewd and suggestive way before she passed it on.

“He’s just pissed because I wouldn’t let him get further than second base.” Kacie’s grin held no shame at all, and Jamie wished again he hadn’t come as she laid a hand on his thigh. “Not that he could’ve, mind,” she sniped across the circle, “what with him not lasting that long.”

“Bitch,” Paul muttered into his can of lager.

“Douche.” Kacie turned her forceful attention back to Jamie. “I bet you wouldn’t do that to me, would you Jamie?” Her fingers slid up his leg, perilously close to Jamie’s trapped hard on, and Jamie swallowed nervously. “You’re a nice boy. You wouldn’t leave a girl hanging...”

“Ummm...”

“Kacie, leave ‘im alone.” Ste sounded resigned, but his shoulder next to Jamie’s had stiffened as he tensed. “You know he’s a virgin.”

Jamie blushed, and hung his head, but the words had the desired effect, and Kacie leant back as she clapped her hands together in glee.

“Then we should have a game!” She snatched the nearly empty bottle of vodka from her friend and plonked it down in the centre of circle. “Spin the bottle!”

Jamie hid behind his hands at her suggestion. He knew there was no way he was going to be able to get out of kissing a girl unless he got up and left now, which wasn’t going to improve his standing in Ste’s opinion, and would probably result in extra teasing and roughing up come Monday morning. On the other hand, when the bottle finally spun his way, and Kacie’s much prettier friend Hannah leant across the circle with a good inch of cleavage showing, the mere idea of kissing her made Jamie’s erection vanish as quickly as it had appeared.

*

Jamie returned from the bar with fresh drinks, thankful he was driving and his mother could have another white wine to help soothe the news he’d given her. Setting the glasses down, he smiled as he slid into his seat.

“Mum?”

“So this is something you boys decided to do together?”

“Yes mum. We’ve been talking about it on and off for years; pretty much since we got married.”

“You never told me!”

Jamie sighed, wishing he could just get through this conversation, go home, make something delicious and warming for dinner, and wait for his husband to come home from the office and fuck him senseless on the kitchen table.

“I don’t always tell you everything Mum.”

*

“You told your Mum?”

“Yes?” Jamie looked up from the bed, confused at the anger in his boyfriend’s voice.

Truthfully, he didn’t want to be stuck doing homework on a Saturday when he could have been kissing Ste, but he also knew that unless he passed English with at least a C grade, he wasn’t going to be graduating in the summer with all the rest of his classmates. Jamie laid his pencil down, all too happy to get his mind away from Shakespeare for a little while, and smiled up at his boyfriend.

“Ste? What’s the matter?”

“You told your mum you’re gay!” Ste’s shout was a heated whisper. Everyone knew how thin the walls of the flats were, and Jamie had learnt over recent weeks how to have an orgasm in near silence with Ste biting his shoulder, the both of them coming all over each other’s hands.

“Because I am gay.” Jamie glanced across at the latest copy of Attitude magazine on his night stand, happy he was no longer forcing himself to hide it under his mattress.

“She’s gonna tell people!” Ste sounded really worried. “What if she tells my Dad?”

“She won’t.” Jamie frowned. “She likes you Ste.”

The sound of Ste’s half polished football boot dropping to the floor was somehow deafeningly loud in the silence. Jamie was about to ask his boyfriend if he was OK, when Ste crossed the room and grabbed the front of Jamie’s shirt roughly.

“You told your Mum we were going out?” He snarled, not waiting for Jamie to reply. “You useless prick! I may as well beat my own head in when my Dad hears. You don’t fucking think about anyone but yourself, do you Jamie?”

“Ste… don’t...”

“Fuck off!” Ste’s angry movements sent Jamie’s work book, pens, copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Attitude all crashing to the floor. “Not everything is as easy for other people as it is for you Jamie!”

Jamie gaped at him. It hadn’t been easy to tell his mother he was gay, hadn’t even been easy to tell himself he was: that fancying boys, and Ste in particular, wasn’t just a passing thing he’d grow out of in a few years.

“You think it’s easy for me to get bullied every day at school while you just walk on by?” he snapped.

Expressions of rage and fear chased each other across Ste’s face.

“Because having seven shades of shite beaten out of me by my father is such a fucking cake walk? You have no idea what my life is like Jamie! You cannot understand: you have it so easy!” Ste threw up his hands in frustration and anger. “I can’t do this with you any more Jamie.”

“What?” Jamie got up from his bed, wanting to take the two small steps which would have transported him across the room and into Ste’s warm arms, but he couldn’t. “Ste, what do you mean?”

“It’s too risky Jamie. I like you, but I can’t be with you. I can’t tell people I’m... whatever.”

Jamie stared at him, trying to balance the anger and pain and disappointment in his chest.

“That you’re gay? You can’t even tell yourself, can you Ste?”

“Fuck off Jamie!” Ste gathered up his football boots and the tin of cheap polish. “I’m done with this.”

Jamie watched him go, heard him slam the front door hard enough to make the glass rattle in the window, and stomp along the walkway. When his mother asked him later if he was going out with Ste, he’d simply replied ‘not tonight’ and never mentioned his first boyfriend again.

*

Jamie finished eating his burger, and began to draw patterns in the mayonnaise on his plate with a chip.

“Jamie… don’t do that.” His mother sighed. “I’m still not sure I understand you. Where is this child coming from?”

“It’ll be our baby, mine and Blaine’s. Aren’t you happy for us Mum?”

“It’s not that I’m not happy Jamie… but who is this poor unfortunate creature who’s gotten pregnant? What if she chooses to keep the baby? It happens, sweetheart.”

“Mum...” Jamie wondered if his mother was being deliberately dense, or if she really didn’t know anything about how a guy like himself might go about having children. “We’re using a surrogate.”

“Who is this is woman?”

“Her name’s Della. We found her through some friends. They ended up adopting, but she’s incredibly nice.”

“Well, what if she decides to keep the baby?” Jamie’s mother had always had a flair for the melodramatic. “She could be a crazy person, Jamie!”

“Don’t be silly mum. We have a contract, all drawn up by our lawyer, and Della’s got her own children. She’s been a surrogate twice already before.”

“Why?”

Jamie shrugged. Try as he might, the amount he understood about why women did what they did wasn’t enough to fill a shot glass.

“She likes to help people, I guess? She’s very much into natural birthing and organic food and stuff. Her daughters are really nice, and her husband is great. He and Blaine turned out to sort of know each other through work in some really roundabout way.”

“She could still...” Jamie’s mother stopped, and took his hand across the smooth wooden surface of the table. “She’ll be a parent to this child Jamie. This Della woman could take the baby. And you know what courts are like. The dads never win custody battles.”

“No mum, she won’t be a parent. Not to our child anyway. It’s not her egg.”

“Huh?”

“Della is our surrogate. The egg is coming from Megan.” Jamie smiled. “You remember, Blaine’s best friend? She was his ‘best man’ at our wedding Mum! The girl in the red dress.”

“Ohh!” Realisation spread like a sunrise over his Mum’s face. “Why her?”

“She and Blaine have been best friends since college, and she doesn’t want kids of her own: ever. Plus she’s really pretty.”

His mother frowned at him again.

“Oh, so there are girls who you think are pretty?”

Jamie groaned.

“Mum...”

*

“You’re not going out tonight?”

Jamie glanced up from his prone position on the bed to where his mother stood in the doorway. She was dressed for work, another late shift at the hospital, and Jamie took a moment to pray to the universe that he never had to work nights. As it was, he was trying to revise for his upcoming early science exams. Jamie knew he wasn’t bright, not one of those high flying kids whose report cards were littered with predicted A's and A-stars, but he also knew he did not want to spend the next two years at college repeating his GSCEs.

“No.”

“You haven’t been out in while Jamie.”

“I’m studying,” Jamie replied, “obviously.”

“That Leah is pretty.” Jamie’s mother wandered further into his room and perched at the head-end of his bed, next to his feet. “Why don’t you ask her out?”

“Mum!” Jamie turned to stare, aghast at his mother. “You did not suggest I ask out Leah Stafford? She’s a vapid bitch! What on earth do you think I would talk about with her?”

“Language!” she scolded without feeling. “She’s very beautiful.”

Jamie made a snorting noise.

“If you like that sort of thing.”

His mother rubbed the back of his calf through his jeans, and Jamie longed, just for a moment, to be a little boy again, when the world had been simple and easy, and even though he’d still been bullied at school, he could at least come home and curl up in the shelter of his mother’s arms. It had been a long time since he’d been smaller than her, and Jamie missed the feeling of being protected and safe. He knew that, despite how sweet and delicious it had been with Ste, the other boy had never been his shield.

“You could talk about boys you both fancy?” his mother offered. “It’s been a couple of months since you and Ste-.”

“Mum!” Jamie turned away from his mother to glare at his textbook. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Well, you should talk to someone sweetie. I have to go to work. I’ll see you in the morning before school, OK?”

“Yes Mum.” Jamie exhaled sharply, but sat up to give his mother a hug, before watching her leave.

The closing of the front door should have heralded silence, but sounds came through the walls of the flat, footsteps from above, their downstairs neighbours TV playing some quiz show loudly below him. As Jamie returned to studying his science textbook without really seeing it, he heard voices raised through the far wall, the sound of something breaking, and he grabbed his headphones, turning his music up loud so he wouldn’t have to think about the fact the two little girls and their mother next door might all have fresh bruises in the morning. His ex-boyfriend wasn’t the only one on their estate who got hit.

Bowie singing in his ears was too distracting, and Jamie rolled over onto his back, and stared at the whirls of textured paint and plaster on his ceiling. The revision could wait, because his mother had been right about one thing, and it had been a long time since he and Ste had last been together. Jamie couldn’t do anything to fix anyone else’s domestic situations, and the idea of going out to find someone was distinctly alien. The pages of Attitude magazine and Gay Times were littered with pretty young men, but Jamie knew he was too young to get into the places where they hung out, and he couldn’t imagine the estate held many other people like him and Ste. And even if it did, he had no idea how he’d find one of them.

Jamie divested himself of his clothes, hid himself and Bowie’s amazing voice in the dark under the duvet, and brought himself off to fantasies he didn’t have enough context for to adequately describe.

*

“So, why you?” Jamie’s mother glanced up at him from the dessert menu with a slight frown. Truthfully, Jamie was way too full after the artisan burger with hand cut chips and beer battered onion rings to eat dessert, but he wanted to treat his mother, and he also didn’t want to end up having the bulk of the conversation in the car while trying to negotiate the traffic. His mother still thought everyone drove as they did in London, often forgot Jamie had been making his way around the roads down here in his big Mitsubishi truck for the last six years, and she was a terrible backseat driver.

“Sorry?”

“Why you? Why isn’t Blaine doing the… the…”

“Donation?” Jamie filled in carefully. The number of jokes and euphemisms he and Blaine had come up with over the past six months for jerking off in a sterile container to order had been near limitless.

“Indeed.”

Jamie shrugged.

“I wanted to do it together, so it really would be our kid. We might not even know who had been you know, the one, but apparently this is one of the areas where TV is a very unreliable source of facts.” Jamie had been only slightly shocked and disappointed to learn his semen would be screened and filtered and examined, and really there wasn’t any chance involved in the whole process at all. It felt a bit like a sixth form science experiment, only much more expensive. “Megan is Blaine’s oldest friend. He said it would be like having sex with his sister.” Jamie saw the look which passed over his mother’s face. “Not that there’s any sex involved! It’s just an expression mum. And anyway, Blaine wears glasses, and his family has a history of diabetes, so we figured I’d do it.”

“We have good genes you and I.”

“Yeah,” Jamie agreed, smiling to hide the flood of mixed emotions that came whenever he actively thought about his father. “Yeah we do.”

*

“You look nice sweetie.”

“Thanks Mum.” Jamie reviewed himself critically in the mirror. He hadn’t been sure what he was supposed to wear for his college interview, but he figured he should look the way he wanted to work, professional but ready to get stuck in. He’d never been to the engineering department of the local sixth form college, but it probably wasn’t going to be like in American high school movies. He’d taken all his pocket money and bought a new button down plaid shirt and a good quality leather belt to go with his neatest and newest pair of black jeans. The idea of wearing his school trousers, like a lot of his classmates were going to do, didn’t fill Jamie with confidence. “Do you think I should cut my hair?”

“Now?” His mother ruffled his un-styled dirty blond curls with a smile. “You’ve not got time. Anyway, I prefer your hair longer.”

“Dad had long hair, didn’t he?” As soon as he asked the question, Jamie wanted to take it back. The image of his father wavered in his inner vision, a single blurry half-remembered photograph, something he’d not seen in years.

“It was the mid-eighties. Everyone had long hair.”

“Did they?” Jamie remembered plenty of films from the nineteen-eighties where not everyone had long hair. He glanced back into the mirror, looking over his shoulder at his mother. They had the same colour skin, slightly pink, but her hair was much more golden, and she had blue eyes to his brown. Jamie frowned. “Am I like my dad?”

“No,” his mother replied too quickly, “no, you’re like me.”

It was at least partially true, they both shared a similar shape of face, high cheekbones and a square chin which on his mother made her less classically attractive, the sort of woman who could be called handsome. On Jamie the effect only served to accentuate the long limbed rangy-ness and height which had nothing at all to do with his maternal lineage.

“Good luck today sweetie.”

Jamie picked up the slim folder containing his application, his references from his teachers, and his less than perfect predicted grades, and checked his pocket for his house key.

“Thanks Mum.”

Once upon a long time ago, Jamie remembered asking about his father. His mother had said he was rich, but that he hadn’t wanted children. Jamie wondered if he had been a bit of a hippie, the blurry photograph he remembered had shown a man in loose bright colours sitting in the back of a van in a field somewhere, one arm around his mother. He thought for a wistful second, imagined his father would come back and be proud of him, wouldn’t mind his only son was not smart, not bright, was going to try and become a mechanic, and was gay. It was a lot to hope for, and Jamie knew he would never know; none of his questions would ever really be answered. After all, Jamie had never even known his father’s name.

*

“Baby is going to be due in March.” Jamie watched his mother trying to do the maths in her head and failing. “Della is twenty-six weeks Mum.”

His mother looked affronted.

“Why have you waited so long to tell me?”

Blaine had been the one who’d wanted to tell people right away, and Jamie wondered how his loving, beautiful husband, who could be so sensible with all the other aspects of their lives, could throw caution to the wind. Jamie had been the voice of reason, making them all wait until the contracts were signed, until money had changed hands along with a small amount of precious genetic material, and their potential human was safely growing well, before they told their friends the happy news. It wasn’t that Jamie expected it to go wrong, but he had seen hope crushed in his husband’s eyes before, and he would give anything to stop it happening again. After the first scan, Jamie and Blaine had shared the news with their very closest loved ones, but Jamie had put off telling his mother much longer than he needed to.

“I didn’t want to do it on your birthday….” He knew his excuses were poor, but then, his mother’s reaction hadn’t been great either. Jamie knew he should have taken Blaine up on his offer to come with him, but that would have only delayed all of his mother’s impertinent questions, not quelled them completely. “We wanted to wait until everything was sure and certain, Mum.”

“Is it a girl or a boy?”

“It’s a surprise.”

*

“So what do you guys think?” Della had smoothed a hand over her stomach, only now beginning to become rounded and taut with the life growing inside her. “All my friends at work have been saying it’s a girl, because of how it’s sitting, but I think it might be a boy.” She pressed a hand over her sternum quickly, and then dug around in her bag for an antacid. “Whatever it is, it’s gonna have hair! Lots of heartburn!” she added, seeing Jamie’s perplexed expression. “It’s an old wives' tale, but it seems to be true for me so far.”

“You’re the expert.” Jamie grinned at her. It was almost strange to be friends with Della, knowing once the baby was born, she would, without ceremony or fuss or hard feelings, fade out of their lives just as smoothly and quickly as she had entered them. Right now, she was probably the most important person in his and Blaine’s marriage. Sometimes more so than each of them were.

“You do say the funniest things Jamie.”

Jamie felt his husband’s presence before he heard him, and turned as Blaine was about to say hello, opening his arms for the gorgeous man he had married. Generally, it didn’t matter how long they’d been apart from each other, a couple of hours or the agonisingly long three weeks Blaine had spent working away from home on the other side of the world, because seeing his husband always set off butterflies like fireworks inside Jamie’s chest. Blaine smiled warmly, because he knew the effect he had on the lanky mechanic, and Jamie felt the bottom of his stomach go all warm and soft. No one had ever made him feel the way Blaine did.

“Hey.”

“Jamie-baby.” It was an affected nickname from their early days of dating, when often they’d lain around for hours in bed, drinking, kissing, fucking with abandon, and ignoring the responsibilities of the outside world. “Am I late?”

“Nope.”

“Della Allen?” The voice of a nurse behind called out, and Jamie grinned at his husband.

“In the nick of time as always.”

They both followed Della into the little room where the scan would take place. Della knew the drill, toed off her hemp and cork shoes, and perched on the end of the bed as Jamie reached out automatically to take her bags. The midwife and the technical ultrasound operator stare at the three of them momentarily, and then the nurse glanced down at the maternity notes. After the first scan, when they spent a long time explaining their situation, Della had made a new front-sheet and taped it over the front of the folder. Jamie watched the nurse read ‘Jamie and Blaine Anderson are the parents of this baby. I am their surrogate Della Allen’ twice, before she looked up and smiled properly.

“Right then, hop up on the table, and we’ll see how this baby’s doing shall we?”

Like the first scan, it took longer than Jamie had expected. The nurse transcribed measurements and details, which meant nothing to Jamie, into the maternity notes in between asking Della how she was feeling, and how everything was compared to the other times she’d been pregnant. She seemed surprised Della had been a surrogate before, and asked her lots of questions about why she did it. Jamie wondered if Della would have given different answers if he and Blaine hadn’t been sitting just a few feet away.

Jamie didn’t listen to the conversation though, because the moment the ultrasound wand had touched Della’s taught skin, the rhythmic underwater throbbing of his child’s heartbeat had filled his ears, and with Blaine’s hand clutched tightly in his own, Jamie had barely been able to pay attention to anything else.

It seemed a long time before the technician asked Della a question, and turned the screen.

“Would you like to see your baby now?”

“Yes!” Blaine’s tone gave away his excitement, and it made Jamie smile all over again to hear how happy his husband was. “Please?”

Jamie had to admit he couldn’t really tell what he was looking at for a while. It all seemed very fuzzy, clouds and nebula in outer space seen through a grey and black filter, but when the technician zoomed out, there was the profile of a tiny person with a button nose and one hand held tightly closed by its face.

“Baby’s sucking its thumb,” the nurse commented softly, “that’s lovely.”

“I’ll print you that one.” The technician was beaming too. Jamie was surprised, because surely the woman saw things like that every day. It felt weird to know his joy, his and Blaine’s, was shared already, and would be shared ever more exponentially in time. Jamie leant against his husband’s shoulder, snuggling into the warmth of the broad chested man he married as Della was allowed to wipe her belly and sit up, rearranging her clothes. He missed his child’s heartbeat instantly, wishing there was a way to capture that noise, because made him so incredibly happy.

“So, would you like to know the sex?” The technician still had the picture of the baby up on the screen. She’d asked Della, and their surrogate rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at the two men sitting arm in arm, taking up less space than two full grown adults should, because somehow Jamie had ended up practically in Blaine’s lap again.

“Not my place to decide. Sorry.”

“What do you think Jamie-baby?” Blaine asked him gently. Jamie smiled

“It can only go one of two ways right?”

“Generally.” Della smiled.

“Let’s not.” Jamie knew he’d echoed his husband’s thoughts when Blaine squeezed him hard enough for Jamie’s ribs to creak. “Let’s wait and meet him or her when they’re good and ready.”

“I love surprises.” Blaine purred happily.

“Don’t I know it?” Jamie couldn’t help but give his husband a grin he knew would make Blaine all hot and uncomfortably aroused, considering they were in the pre-natal wing of the local hospital.

After waving Della off and racing home, Jamie had barely had time to attach the picture of their baby to the fridge with a magnet before Blaine attacked him from behind, and they ended up screwing right there with abandon on the kitchen floor.

*

“March…” his mother mused in a distracted manner Jamie knew better than to be fooled by. “And what exactly are the two of you planning on doing with a new-born baby? You both work.”

Jamie shuffled uncomfortably on his side of the table.

“Blaine’s work will give him paternity leave, fully paid for six months. I only get two weeks.” Jamie had been aghast but unsurprised that the garage could afford him so little time with his new baby. The letter of the law required two weeks fully paid, and though he’d been offered another couple of extra weeks, there wouldn’t be any money involved. Blaine had told him it wasn’t important, he could have the extra time, and they would manage with the money, but Jamie knew if he was away too long, he would start to be replaced. He hadn’t stayed in the same job for the last seven years, worked his way up the ranks and become well respected among his co-workers only to get squeezed out now.

“And after six months? You can’t possibly want to have children just to put them in nursery.”

You did, Jamie thought bitterly, but he didn’t say the vicious thought lodged in his head. He knew things had been very different for his mother. Jamie remembered what Blaine had said when Della’s pregnancy test had come up positive, and Jamie had broken down a little bit about the enormity of what they were doing.

‘You had a hard life baby, but we can make sure things will be difference for our child. Better. We’ll both be there to give him or her all the love they’ll ever want, more even.’ Blaine had hugged him tight. ‘No one’s going to have to go hungry in our house. I promise.’

“I’m going to go part time at work,” Jamie explained eventually. “Do two days a week and Saturdays until the garage closes at one.”

“Why you?” His mother was instantly peeved, and Jamie felt a little bit proud.

“Because Blaine’s job pays far better than mine, and he really loves it there.”

“That’s hardly fair; you love your job too.”

*

“Oi, Smith!”

Jamie raised his head from behind the wheel arch of the four-door family Ford, locking nut and ratchet in hand.

“Boss?”

“I have to run a client home. She’s leaving her car with us, an’ only lives around the corner. It’s pretty quiet. You get to lock up.”

“No worries Dave.”

Jamie went back to finishing the new wheel on the Ford. Really, it was the sort of job he had graduated out of over the past year, but when doing a full service, he liked to stick with the whole thing and ensure that when he handed the customer back the keys he could say with all honestly he had done each thing on the invoice waiting to be paid. It wasn’t the first time Dave had left him to finish up and lock the garage, and Jamie quite enjoyed being by himself with the silent cars and the racks of tools. He changed the radio station over to something which played a lot more interesting rock and classic pop from the seventies, and slid himself underneath the Ford to do a last check with his flash light.

“Hello?” a strong male voice called from the little office at the front of the garage. Jamie hadn’t assumed there would be any more customers, it was already gone five. “Is anyone there?” There was a sigh, and an indistinct mumble, and Jamie had the distinct impression whoever had wandered in really wanted to swear. A breath later he was proved correct. “Bollocks.”

“Hey there.” Jamie shunted himself out from underneath the car and sat up.

Standing in the doorway to the office, framed by the square of light, was a man in a suit. He was shorter than Jamie, most people were, but he had broad shoulders, and his suit tapered against his narrow waist. Jamie swallowed, his throat suddenly made of desert sand, because the sight of the young man was doing interesting and unprofessional things to his crotch.

“Can I help you?” Jamie asked carefully, making sure he didn’t let his mouth run away from him. His radar had never been good, but he seriously hoped he could do something more for the beautiful man than just fix his car. He jumped onto the balls of his feet and crossed the expanse of the garage workshop towards him. “I’m Jamie.”

“God, I do hope so.”He licked his lips, and Jamie suddenly found himself trapped by the brightest pair of green eyes he’d ever encountered. “I’m Blaine Anderson.”

Afterwards, Jamie hadn’t been able to recall exactly what Blaine had said, or what he’d replied back, but the attractive man in the well-fitted suit had sat on a vinyl chair in the office and waited for him to finish up his paperwork, hang the keys to the Ford in the cabinet and wash his hands in the little bathroom out back. And then Blaine had been sitting in the cab of his Mitsubishi truck.

“Where’s your car?”

“A couple of hundred yards up the road? I just left it sitting there.” Blaine brushed his fingers through his hair and Jamie followed the motion with his eyes hungrily, “I figured if I hurried to the garage, I might catch someone.” He turned to Jamie with a smile which the young mechanic couldn’t interpret, but it looked good. “I’m so glad I got you.”

Blaine’s car was a sporty little two seater Mercedes with an overly long bonnet and a vicious front end. It was the kind of aggressive looking car Jamie really liked, but he knew he’d never own. He loved his truck too much, even if it was second hand with unreliable air-conditioning. Like the suit, it looked expensive.

“So what happened?”

“Came around the corner, and maybe I was going a bit fast, swerved to avoid hitting that damn cat.” He spoke like he had an affectionate grudge against the creature in question, and then the brakes made a funny noise and I ended up here. It didn’t sound happy when I tried to move it, so I figured I’d leg it to come get you.” Blaine gave him another smile, and Jamie felt his knees turn to jelly as a tingle ran the length of his spine and short-cut across his brain. The image of what Blaine might look like naked filled his inner vision, and Jamie had moved a fraction closer to the other man before he’d realised it. “Can you save me?”

“Ummm….”

Jamie turned all his attention to the car to avoid looking at Blaine. The man was making it hard to think, and only the cool clear air of the late autumn evening was keeping Jamie breathing in an even slightly regular manner. He’d never, especially not stone cold sober, wanted to rip another guy’s clothes off quite this fast. The shape of Blaine’s lips made him think of hot hard kisses and blow jobs, and Jamie knew already he would be willing to do just about anything the beautiful green eyed man asked him.

The Mercedes was fucked, and Jamie said as much with an unhappy frown.

“Your calliper broke, ripped through the brake disc. Your pads were worn down to nothing anyway; when did you last have this thing serviced?”

“Eight months ago.” Blaine replied, sounding sheepish.

“Fucking hell; you drive too hard. What are you, a professional drug courier?” Jaime had no idea if his arched eyebrow and gentle teasing were going to get him the reaction he wanted.

“I’m a chartered surveyor.”

“And I thought you lot were supposed to be sensible.” Jamie turned as he spoke, looking up at Blaine in his slick sharp suit. To his surprise, he found the green eyed man’s long fingers touching his short blond curls.

“Only at work,” he replied with a grin. This time Jamie saw the glint in Blaine’s eyes, and felt the smallest tug on his hair at the back. Unconsciously, his eyelids drifted half closed, and his cock twitched in the uncomfortable confines of his work trousers. “You’re beautiful Jamie.”

“Yeah?”

Jamie couldn’t tell afterwards if he’d stood and Blaine had not let go of his hair, or if Blaine had tightened his grip and Jamie had simply followed the direction until he was on his feet. Blaine took his jaw and kissed him without haste, just the soft play of his lips on Jamie’s own, and it wasn’t until Jamie opened his mouth that Blaine invaded him. Within seconds the kiss was rough and bruising, and Jamie gave as good as he got, catching Blaine’s tongue stroking with his own even as the other man bit his lip hard enough for it to hurt momentarily. They broke apart after headlights turning the corner made them both wince in the dark, and Jamie looked into the bright green eyes of the beautiful young man and never wanted to leave.

“Can I drive you home?”

“Please.”

Jamie didn’t want to waste time, but he also knew if Blaine came back and found his car vandalised or stolen in the morning, it would put a definite damper on their encounter. He chained the chassis of the Mercedes to the hitch on the truck and got Blaine to sit in his own car as he towed it back to the garage. The moment the shiny car was safety stored in the secure lock-up at the garage, Blaine was climbing back into his truck like it was the most natural place in the world for him to be.

He loosened his tie as Jamie began to drive them back to the main road, following Blaine’s directions.

“That car is such a problem child; it’s not right for the way I drive.”

“It’s gonna cost a bit to fix,” Jamie chipped in.

“Yeah. Can you sort it for me? Then I’ll sell the damn thing.” Blaine peeling out of his suit jacket and rolling up his shirt sleeves was incredibly distracting and Jamie was glad to linger at the red light. Blaine caught him looking, and now there was no mistaking the lustful, slightly predatory look in his eyes. “Been thinking about trading up for a while, and you know the new Audi TT has just been released. Damn sexy car.” Blaine looked Jamie up and down in an obvious manner. “You’ll fit, you’re not that tall.”

Jamie gulped, but didn’t say anything. He parked the truck outside Blaine’s building and glanced up at the very new and trendy flats which were a long way out of his price range. His letting agent had wanted him to look around one, to tempt him, but even if Jamie had handed over his entire salary each month and eaten nothing at all, he still wouldn’t have made rent.

“Nice place.”

“I guess.” Blaine shrugged, like it didn’t matter. “Thank you for the lift.” Blaine blinked, really slowly, like he was getting up the nerve of say something else. Jamie smiled at him, and then Blaine had leant across the cab of the truck, fastened a fist in the front of Jamie’s shirt and pulled his skinny frame half out of his seat for a deep kiss. “Why don’t you come inside, Jamie-baby, and I’ll thank you properly?”

“Yes please.”

Jamie wasn’t sure how he’d made it out of his truck, or up to Blaine’s apartment, or how Blaine had divested him of all his clothes without taking off a single stitch himself, but as the green eyed man pushed Jamie back into his bed, slid down his chest and engulfed Jamie’s hard cock in his mouth, Jamie could barely remember his own name. He gripped the mattress with both hands, then wound his fingers into the back of his own hair and clung on for dear life as Blaine had tortured him with teeth and tongue, pinning down his hips, and taking total control of the situation until Jamie was a shaking, sweaty mess in his bed.

He groaned when he came, growling “Fuck...” between his teeth just once as Blaine unflinchingly swallowed his orgasm.

“You’re fucking amazing!” Blaine said, placing soft kisses along Jamie’s length. “Shit, but you taste delicious too.”

“Thanks.” Jamie didn’t think anyone had ever said anything quite so strange or lovely to him. He glanced down at Blaine’s noticeable bulge as the other man knelt between his thighs. “And do I get to return the favour?”

“Not tonight Jamie-baby,” Blaine purred, peeling out of his shirt. “You just lie there looking like a fucking prize. God, I’m lucky.”

A month or so later, Jamie wondered how minuscule the odds were of relationships which started with accidental, mind blowing, all night, four orgasms before dawn sex lasting even as long as theirs already had. And then Blaine had come in from the shower buck-naked and fucked him without preamble with one hand pulling his hair just so every time they kissed, and Jamie hadn’t cared for statistics after that.

*

“I don’t have any of your old baby stuff, you know.” His mother’s tone was hard, but Jamie knew it was because she was feeling suddenly guilty about the fact she’d thrown everything away when she had finally moved out of the dilapidated flat Jamie had grown up in. “I never ever thought you would have children.”

“It’s OK Mum.” Jamie smiled at her gently. “If I went back ten years and told myself I was going to have kids with my boyfriend, I’d have said I was nuts too.”

“I never was married.” Jamie reflected silently that sometimes his mother’s habit of stating the obvious was incredibly irritating. “When you first told me you were… gay, I never thought you’d get married either.”

Jamie didn’t miss his mother’s pause.

“Mum? You are proud of me, right?”

“Of course darling.” She squeezed his hand firmly. “If only all those horrible wastrels who used to live on our estate could see you now. You’ve got a nice big house out of the city, and a job you love, and your own car. You made it, sweetheart.”

“And I got married to the man I love.” Jamie reminded her.

“That too.”

Jamie knew that to the people he’d grown up around, none of his success would ever matter, because he would always be just another fucking poof as far as they were concerned. Jamie tried not to care, because those people weren’t part of his life, hadn’t been for years, and now he had people who cared about him. Jamie fiddled with the titanium and gold wedding band around his left hand ring finger, looking worn after six years of abuse in the garage, and smiled happily as he thought about Blaine.

“Jamie? How did you know?”

“Hmm?”

“I remember when you told me Blaine was ‘the one’, but I never got to ask you. How did you know?”

Jamie bit his lower lip and blushed.

“I think I always kinda knew, Mum.”

It was one of those times when it was best not to tell his mother everything.

*

Christmas shopping for his boyfriend had given Jamie a headache. Finding something to buy a stunning young man with a great job, a fab apartment, and a shiny top of the line Audi shouldn’t have been such a daunting task, but Jamie had stood in a department store feeling like an itinerant covered in grease, and tried to find a present which trod the exact right line between casually sweet, and admitting that he was head over heels in love with the guy he’d spent the last five months having deliriously good sex with. He hadn’t told Blaine he loved him. They’d not even been together half a year, it was far too soon for that sort of thing. But this would always and forever be their first Christmas together, and with the deadline and festive cheer fast approaching, Jamie already knew he couldn’t possibly imagine spending the holiday season away from Blaine. He didn’t want to come on too strong, nor did he want to seem too casual, as though he and Blaine were just two guys who had great sex and nothing more.

He’d eventually come home with a lovely deep red silk tie which had cost far more than Jamie had ever spent on a single item of clothing which wasn’t boots, and climbed out of his truck to find a message from Blaine waiting on his phone.

Horrible day at work. Missing you deeply.

I’m coming over tonight, and I’ll bring dinner.

Chicken and ribs? Love you xxx

Jamie grinned happily, stuffed the phone in his pocket and decided it would be best if he didn’t have grease embedded in his fingerprints when his boyfriend arrived. He dumped the bag with the silk tie on the floor by the bed, tore off the sheets, threw them in the washing machine with all his clothes, and set the drum rumbling as he climbed into a hot shower.

When Jamie had shopped for flats to rent, the water pressure and style of the shower had been right at the top of his list. He could cope with the poky little kitchen, the slightly bizarre colour scheme the place had been decorated with, and the fact there was a conspicuous smoke mark up one wall in the living room where the previous tenants had been a bit too keen on their candles, because the bathroom held a shower which could pummel Jamie’s muscles into submission on a daily basis and fill the entire room with thick warm steam. Jamie stood under the spray with his eyes closed, listening to his heartbeat, trying not to think too hard about the fact he wasn’t entirely convinced by the present he’d bought. He thought the receipt was probably still in the pocket of the jeans he’d just put in the washing machine. Whether he gave it to Blaine or not, he wasn’t going to be able to take it back.

“Bugger.” Jamie muttered to himself. He scrubbed himself until his skin was pink once more, rinsed his hair, and climbed out of the shower and into the warm fluffy embrace of a towel. Jamie regarded himself in the mirror, swiping away the steam as it clouded over, and wondered if there was any chance Blaine felt the same way he did. It was only a text message, a small, casual thing, but though Blaine had often signed off with a little row of x’s, he’d never written ‘love you’ before. He dismissed the thought with a sigh and dried his hair: only people in films ever got that sort of romantic luck.

Jamie pulled on a pair of black boxer briefs and began to spread fresh sheets out over the mattress. He’d rented the apartment unfurnished, and his bed was one of the things he’d spent good money on. Like the shower, it was as different as could possibly be from what he’d grown up with, and Jamie had become a dab hand at manipulating the weight of the king size mattress by himself. He finished smoothing the sheet and stilled at a noise behind him.

“Mmm… that’s just the sight I like to be greeted with when I come home.” Blaine’s voice was heavy with lust. Jamie felt a shiver run up his spine as his boyfriend wrapped strong arms around his torso. “Hey Jamie-baby.”

“Hey…” Jamie was already breathless, Blaine’s voice against his ear making his knees quiver, his boyfriend’s rough stubble and smooth lips grazing his neck as he kissed his way down to the spot where neck met shoulder. Blaine bit him, hard, and Jamie gritted his teeth to keep from crying out. He groaned as Blaine worried at his flesh with his teeth in just the way which was guaranteed to make Jamie hard as a rock, flicking his nipples as he did so, and skating a free hand down his flat abdomen to cup the weight of his cock through his underwear.

“Fuck, I missed you.” Blaine spoke in between more hard and sharp kisses. “You’re so beautiful Jamie.”

“Blaine!” Jamie gasped as his boyfriend abandoned his throbbing erection and instead slipped his fingers efficiently into Jamie’s boxers and groped his arse.

“Yes, Jamie-baby?”

“Ahhh….”

“Mmmm, that’s a good boy.” Blaine’s possessive tone made Jamie’s spine about as effective at supporting his weight as warm honey, and he let Blaine push him down onto the bed. “What have we here? How excellent!”

Jamie was distracted by Blaine’s persistent kneading of his butt enough not to immediately question the way his arms were pulled up over his head. His boyfriend had pinned him down before when they’d had sex, but never had Jamie felt something tied around his wrists; he glanced over his shoulder at Blaine’s delighted grin, and felt his cock twitch in excitement. Blaine turned him over, secured to the headboard of the bed by a long dark red silk tie, and kissed him until Jamie was dizzy.

“You’re so fucking delicious.” Blaine always lost control of his carefully composed image when they were alone together. Jamie knew in a professional setting, his boyfriend would never swear, no matter how angry he was, but the profanities sounded like endearments to Jamie’s ears. “God, but I’ve been thinking about doing this to you all day.” Blaine punctuated his words by stripping Jamie of his underwear and sliding two lubricated fingers past his sphincter without warning.

Jamie cried out, so unprepared for the invasion into his flesh, and growled up at his lover as Blaine smirked. It probably wasn’t normal, he thought distractedly as Blaine worked in and out of him at a fractionally gentler pace, to love the way his boyfriend sometimes hurt him when they were together. But Jamie didn’t care. His cock was hard and leaking clear fluid, and Blaine looked like a god above him, still half dressed with his shirt open and his pressed suit slacks puddled around his knees. Blaine lifted his leg, and kissed his inner thigh, suddenly tender and soft, and smiled down at him with green eyes full of adoration.

“I love you, you know.”

“Blaine…” Jamie could barely find his voice. He wanted to tell his boyfriend that he loved him too, wanted him forever, needed him like he’d never needed anyone in his entire life. He couldn’t, because Blaine was kissing him again, all lips, teeth and tongue, hard and thrusting into his mouth, fingers wound tight into the back of his hair making Jamie moan wantonly.

Blaine fucked him hard, almost brutally so, and Jamie loved every single second of it: every driving thrust of his boyfriend’s cock into his arse, every kiss which went on for what seemed like hours, every bite which marked his skin, every gripping embrace which would leave him with bruises in the morning. Blaine came inside him with a drawn out whine between his teeth, continued to fuck him as he jacked Jamie’s own aching erection, grinning down at him possessively.

“You’re fucking amazing. Come for me Jamie-baby. Go on, I wanna watch you come all over yourself. Fucking gorgeous….”

Jamie thought he probably could have achieved orgasm just from Blaine’s words, but the combination of his boyfriend’s commanding tone, his fingers manipulating his cock, and the sensation of Blaine’s own still hard length ramming into him, were far too much to resist.

“Fuck…” Jamie came with a snarl over his abdomen and Blaine’s hand, and felt his body spasm around his boyfriend’s penis. Blaine’s eyes went wide with shock and pleasure, and then he was gripping Jamie’s hips so hard as to border on actually painful, fucking him forcefully for another ten thrusts before he came again. He collapsed on top of Jamie, panting, both of them sweating and grinning like fools.

“You gorgeous bastard.” Blaine practically purred. “How do you do these things to me?”

They kissed for several long minutes until Jamie thought he might pass out from lack of oxygen. Blaine sat up and carefully extracted himself from his lover. He disposed of the condom quickly, and then began to untie Jamie’s wrists.

“Nice tie.”

“It’s your Christmas present.” Jamie laughed breathlessly. He had the satisfaction of seeing Blaine blanche in shock and surprise.

“Oh Jamie-baby…”

“Sorry you got it early,” Jamie smiled and wrapped his boyfriend in his arms. “I love you too.”

“Yeah?” Blaine’s smile was completely different from the possessive dominant one he wore when they were fucking; now he was sweet and uncertain, and Jamie rolled them both over until he had his boyfriend pinned beneath his taller frame.

“I love you,” Jamie said again. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Does this mean you want your Christmas present early?” Blaine grinned. “Get off me you pointlessly tall moron.”

Jamie rolled his eyes and sat back in his previously brand new clean sheets. He ached in all the best ways, and slumped back onto the bed as Blaine got up, divested himself of the rest of his clothes, and vanished from the room. Jamie shivered happily as his boyfriend began to draw a line up the back of his leg and over one mound of his arse with something small, hard, and cold.

“Turn over.”

Jamie twisted in the bed and gazed up at his boyfriend kneeling over him. He blinked, and focused on the silvery house key Blaine held out before him.

“Blaine?”

“Move in with me? I know it’s fast, and too soon, and everything, but I hate sleeping without you. Please?” Blaine stared at him. “Jamie-baby? Say something!”

Jamie grabbed his boyfriend around the waist, sending them both crashing to the floor, lips already locked together. When he came up for air, his was grinning.

“Yes!”

*

“You will let me know if there’s anything you boys need for the little one when he or she arrives?”

“Yes Mum. Are you sure you want to take the train home? You’re welcome to stay with us overnight, and go back in the morning.”

Jamie’s mother hugged him hard.

“Don’t be silly Jamie, it’s fine. Anyway, I’m on early mornings this week, so I have to be at work for seven.” She turned to Jamie’s truck. “Did you have to buy something so high up?”

Jamie held out his hand to help her step up into the cab.

“You say that every time Mum.”

“For a kid who was always so… unassuming, you turned out to be kind of flashy, didn’t you?”

“Mum!” Jamie gaped at his mother, but she closed the door, and he had to walk around the truck, frowning and wondering if she meant it in a good way or not. “I’m not flashy.” Jamie glanced down at his clothes. His nicest outfit was still basically the same as it had been when he was sixteen, jeans and a button down shirt, though the jeans were better fitting, and the shirt was trendy, second hand with a contrast yoke and American pearl button snaps.

“The man with the pretty house, the enormous truck, and the good-looking husband. You’d turn all the girl’s heads back home.”

“Thanks Mum.” Jamie knew it was the best thing to a compliment he was going to get. His mother had never been great at expressing herself. “I’m glad we could have lunch today.”

“Me too.” His mother sighed wistfully out of the window as they drove. “I’m going to be a grandmother. Trisha will be surprised.”

Jamie stood on the platform and waved his mother off until the train pulled away out of sight. She always told him not to bother, he could just drop her at the ticket office and go, but it was an old habit Jamie wasn’t willing to let go of.

Just think, he told himself as he climbed into the truck, in a year you’ll stand there and wave to her and your kid will wave too. Jamie glanced into the empty back seat. I’m going to have to buy a car seat.

Blaine had to have left the office uncharacteristically early to have arrived home before him, but Jamie was relieved to find his husband in the living room, setting down a gin and tonic on the coffee table, still holding Jamie’s own preferred drink of Lynchburg Lemonade in his other hand. Maybe his mother was right, and he was fancy now.

“Hey Jamie-baby? How did it go?”

Jamie crossed the room in a dozen long strides, took his drink from his husband’s fingers, drained it, and sat the glass on the coffee table with a sharp thud.

Blaine arched a slim dark eyebrow at him.

“That good, eh?”

Jamie fell onto the couch and shook his head.

“Fuck me.”

Blaine didn’t even blink as he replied.

“Well, if you insist.”

Jamie was about to hug him, push him off, laugh at the joke, but Blaine’s tongue was in his mouth, fingers carded into his hair, and Jamie groaned as his husband’s weight settled over his lap. It didn’t matter they’d been married six years. Blaine could still get him hard and begging inside ten seconds when he wanted to.

They fucked with abandon, not caring where their clothes ended up, or how much noise they made. Jamie didn’t spare a second though when Blaine bit his neck hard enough to leave a bruise which would last a week and get him teased mercilessly at work; the buttons of Blaine’s shirt skittered across the floor when Jamie ripped it open, and neither of them noticed much. They were equally rough with each other, ending up on the floor as Blaine pushed his husband’s shoulders against the floor, gripped his hips and reamed him mercilessly until neither of them could adequately form words.

“Fuck Jamie-baby, you’re so goddamn beautiful.”

“Fuck….” Jamie came first, unable to resist his lover’s touch and Blaine bit the back of his neck as he came too.

They collapsed on the floor together, panting hard, and eventually Jamie rolled over to find himself cradled in Blaine’s arms, their emissions cooling rapidly on his skin. They’d stopped using condoms years ago. Jamie and Blaine kissed lazily for long minutes which seemed like hours, then Jamie took his husband’s drink and sipped it, so for a while they passed the alcohol between them in the glass and kisses. Jamie glanced at the clock without really looking at it, and groaned.

“What?”

“We’re going to be parents soon. We’re going to have to stop shagging all over the house.”

Blaine grinned possessively.

“Not for another four months Jamie-baby. I’m gonna fuck you in every room in the house before then.”

“Oh yeah?” His husband’s suggestion was having a very predictable reaction on his anatomy.

“Oh yeah. At least twice.”