Good Guys Don't Date Bad Boys - 28. Just Boyfriend Things

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Just Boyfriend Things

He had never had friends like that, Jonathan thought, friends to wrestle with on the floor, or tease or be physically close to without it seeming weird in any way. No, in the world of his family and life from before Sunny Hill, such things weren’t allowed. The whole Drew incident could be blamed on his lack of interactions of that kind with other boys. Even if others at his school before didn’t exactly fall into the same category as him when it came to family expectations, he hadn’t gotten too close to anyone.

Everyone there knew him. Maddox joked about narrative, but he had had one of his own before putting his foot inside a school. He was groomed to become someone people whispered about, and that meant other boys either approached him because they were pushed by their parents or their own ambitions to cozy up to the guy who came from a rich family and had all the trappings of a desirable connection.

At first, he had been pleased with the attention, but he soon realized that those attempts didn’t come from a good place. He had polite, standard relations with people he came in contact with, and God forbid anyone thought of getting too close.

He was envied, Drew had told him on more than one occasion. In their highly competitive environment, he was supposed to be number one, a winner, and that without even competing. It wasn’t fair; he had studied as hard as anyone else if not harder, just to prove that it wasn’t his family’s money that made him into a stellar student. It could have been his fault that he had not tried hard enough to get close to others, but he wasn’t good at that to begin with.

Here, at Sunny Hill, where no one knew him, people had befriended him without a second thought. Ray couldn’t care less about his family and had declared him his bestie from the first time they met. Maddox wasn’t impressed by his pedigree, as Xpress called it, either.

He was finally being treated like a normal person, and it mattered a lot, a lot more than he’d ever expected.

What he didn’t understand, though, was why Maddox shifted his weight from one foot to the other, while impatiently waiting for him to finish brushing his teeth. Jonathan looked at him a few times, but Maddox looked away like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

He hurried to finish just to hear what that was all about. “Well,” he said, resting against the sink and crossing his arms. “What’s the matter?”

“I’m not a kid,” Maddox warned him, pointing a finger at him.

Jonathan shrugged and then smiled as he looked the other up and down. Maddox was sexy in anything he wore, but in white shorts and a tee, his hair still a bird nest, he looked absolutely edible. “All right,” he said and put his hands up in surrender, “my bad.”

“Rusty is, though,” Maddox took care to point out.

Jonathan cocked his head and stared a little more. “Would it be so bad to still be a kid?”

Maddox rolled his eyes like he couldn’t believe the question. “I am boyfriend material,” he said and pointed at himself.

Jonathan let his eyes wander lazily all over Maddox. These days, he was behaving less like his old self, and more like a much better version. At least, that was what he liked to think, now that he was far from the life he knew before, a life that had felt like a cage, something he could only perceive now that he was free of it. “Top notch boyfriend material,” he confirmed.

“What do you mean?” Maddox eyed him suspiciously.

Jonathan laughed and reached for him to pull him into a hug. “Exactly that. You’re the best boyfriend material anyone looking for a boyfriend can find in the entire world.”

“You mean it?” Maddox asked while wrapping his strong arms around him.

Jonathan cupped his cheeks and kissed him loudly. “Completely.” Was it truly all right to admit to these things so freely? Would they be fine down the road? He chased away any anxious thoughts circling him like wild dogs. “Now how about we free up the bathroom? Rusty might need it.”

“He could go piss outside,” Maddox replied promptly. “Like the dog he is.”

Jonathan bit his lip hard. Picturing Rusty with a leg raised by a tree, his tongue lolling, crossed his mind. And he wasn’t the guy to picture such things; no, Jonathan Hamilton was supposed to think only correct thoughts and follow proper etiquette down to a tee, with both heart and mind. “I’m afraid that might end up in Xpress faster than your bi awakening.”

He bit his lips for another reason. Why was he so bothered by it? After all, he had Maddox in his arms, and he shouldn’t care about what some gossip publication chose to fill its virtual space with.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Maddox admitted. “And I don’t want to spend the entire Sunday in the bathroom, now that I have you all to myself.”

“What would you like to do?” He had very little experience in what boyfriends did on Sundays they decided to spend together. He and Drew never did that, but after all, he and Drew had never been boyfriends to begin with.

Maddox seemed more knowledgeable than he was in that respect. “Just boyfriend things,” he replied with a shrug.

***

Luckily, Rusty wasn’t waiting outside the door, ready to tease them just for the fun of it, and Maddox was silently grateful. Still, he needed to ask the clown why the hell he had looked so guilty when Jonathan walked in on them. Not that it was anything to walk in on, to begin with, but behaving so childishly surely lowered his market value as a boyfriend. He needed Jonathan to take him seriously. So far, their relationship had just happened like a game of ping-pong, with each player running to catch the other’s ball.

Or balls. Maddox shook his head and took a deep breath. Last night, after taking a shower and deciding to go to sleep, Jonathan had spoiled him with a proper ball licking and sucked him off one last time.

Damn, he wasn’t supposed to get hard again after what they had done last night. His ass felt it, Jonathan’s ass had to still be recovering, but just thinking of that hot amazing tongue on his cock was enough to make him want a blowjob, no matter how quick.

And he had told Jonathan so nonchalantly that they would do boyfriend things. If he just grabbed the guy and dragged him to his lair for more sexing, what would that make him? Surely enough, not that great a boyfriend.

What did boyfriends do when spending a Sunday together? Maddox stole a quick look at Jonathan. Did he have enough time to google it? Pizza date, they had done that. And they had ended by sucking off each other. Which had been awesome. Could they go for a swim again? That had ended up with them jerking each other off. And then going through a boatload of misunderstanding.

They could just go walking or joy riding. Car sex… Maddox let his mind wander; now that was something worthy of checking off the list. A pleasant walk was the safest bet because it was the least problematic option if he was keen on keeping his hands off Jonathan for at least some part of their Sunday together.

Of course, there would be another part of the day when they’d be indoors again, and if they were indoors, it meant that they would spend some time in bed because he only had one chair in the room, and if they were in bed…

He needed to stop thinking. Maybe even breathing, because he could still detect Jonathan’s cologne was on his clothes now from rubbing too much against the other. And if he thought of that, he immediately thought of how nice Jonathan’s skin smelled, and… He groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“We didn’t exactly talk,” Jonathan whispered, “but how are you feeling?”

They were at the table, having breakfast, luckily alone, but Jonathan was that kind of nice guy who didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation about sensitive things by accident, even if they were Maddox’s friends.

Hmm, talk. Now that was a good idea. He turned his head toward Jonathan and smiled. “How would you feel about a walk around the lake? We’ll take the car.”

“I’d like that,” Jonathan replied and smiled, as well. “Is there a reason why you don’t want to tell me more about how your lovely ass feels this morning?”

Maddox winked at him and grinned. “Yeah. If we’re going to talk about my ass, one thing might lead to another, and we might not go for a walk at all.”

Jonathan looked at him, blushed for a second, but then his eyes lit up. However, he chose to turn his attention back to his plate and play with his fork. “I’m crazy about you, Maddox,” he said so quietly that Maddox almost missed it.

That was so close to a full-on confession, right? But maybe, Jonathan meant it only as a sexual thing, and Maddox now had some tough work cut out for himself. There were no minced words between them when it came to their maddening sexual attraction, for sure. But there was more to it; Maddox was certain.

Maybe he was supposed to reply with a confession of his own. How could he put into words what he felt? He stole a quick look at Jonathan who continued to eat with elegant moves, his eyelashes dropping now and then, casting tiny shadows on his aristocratic cheekbones. While doing the most mundane things, he still managed to look stunning.

You’re so beautiful you make my heart ache. But before he managed to get the words out, Rusty burst into the room, saving him from saying cringe-y stuff. “Are you eating without me?” he thundered, like Maddox and Jonathan committed some atrocity on him.

“There’s plenty left,” Jonathan replied. “I can fetch you a plate.”

Maddox grabbed his arm before he could get up from his chair. “He can fetch it himself.”

Rusty didn’t seem bothered by that at all and just grabbed the pan from the cooktop, eating directly from it with his fingers and while standing. “So, whatcha going to do all day?”

Maddox licked his lips and grinned at his bestie, making sure to show more teeth than usual. “Don’t tell me you want to tag along.”

Rusty squirmed a little under his pointed look. “Nah. I don’t want you to kick my ass.”

Good. Rusty was smart enough to know when not to push it.

“How long have you two been friends?” Jonathan asked.

“Since first day of high school,” Maddox said promptly. “Rusty was new in town. I showed him everything.”

Rusty snickered. “Not everything. That chick Andrea showed me a lot more.”

“Like what?” Maddox asked.

“The moon,” Rusty replied and gestured with one hand to describe it as if the ceiling was suddenly the open sky.

“She rode you like a freaking pony,” Maddox said and laughed, as well. He stopped right away and stole a look at Jonathan. His boyfriend didn’t need to hear about Rusty’s crazy adventures, but Jonathan seemed amused and ready to hear more.

Rusty licked his fingers and then sucked them a little for good measure. “That is, if you usually ride a pony while it lies on its back.”

“She bragged to the entire school that she bagged the new guy,” Maddox said.

“She totally slut-shamed me. Told everyone I was easy,” Rusty said and sighed from the depths of his kinky soul.

“She slut-shamed you?” Jonathan asked and looked at Maddox for confirmation. “How, um, unconventional. What happened after that?”

Maddox could tell Jonathan was struggling to choose the right words. He didn’t have to worry so much, not when talking to Rusty, at least.

The kinkster brushed some rebellious strands of hair out of his eyes. “I took advantage of that. Girls came to me in throngs. I used to be called the Golden Tongue. Ah, the good ol’ times.”

Jonathan looked more and more shocked. “Did all of this happen in your first year of high school?”

Maddox exchanged a short look with Rusty, and they both burst into laughter. It wasn’t fair to their honorable guest to joke around like that. “Rusty became known as an awesome kisser, nothing more,” he explained. “Naughtier things than that happened a lot later. We’re from a very quiet town. Nothing too outrageous ever happens there.”

“There was that time when Mrs. Rogers walked outside all naked as a protest against furs,” Rusty reminded him.

“Yeah, but she was ninety. Everyone thought it made her happy, to be part of something important, you know.” He could tell from the corner of one eye that Jonathan was staring at him, not knowing what to think. “I’m kidding. The police took her home. But only after they guaranteed that the blanket they offered her was made of one hundred percent organic cotton obtained from sustainable sources.”

“Oh,” Jonathan barely managed. “Was it?”

“Was it what?” Maddox asked.

“Was it organic?” Jonathan insisted.

Oh, great, they were dragging the poor guy into their madness.

“Still, I was the first,” Rusty intervened, “to lose his virginity. Of all,” he added, gesturing enough to make it clear what he meant by that.

“He was,” Maddox confirmed. “Rusty likes to be first when it matters.”

“It’s good to have ambitions,” Jonathan said.

“And goals,” Rusty added. “That’s why I’m the king of Sunny Hill.”

“I thought you were the king of hookups,” Jonathan said. “Do the two positions overlap?”

Rusty shrugged. “It’s basically the same thing. I’m the most popular dude right now. Everybody wants to be me or be with me. In a word, the king. Two words,” he added, after a short deliberation with himself.

Jonathan chuckled and shook his head. The small dimples appearing on his cheeks made Maddox want to lean in and kiss him. What was stopping him, though? He smooched Jonathan’s cheek to make a point.

“Eww,” Rusty said in a playful tone, “why don’t you two get a room? Wait, wasn’t last night enough? I heard you showering at like two in the morning.”

“Enough? Yeah, right,” Maddox said and nuzzled Jonathan’s neck while he snuck his arms around his boyfriend.

“I’ve never tried kitchen sex,” Rusty continued his ramblings. “Let me know how that goes, ‘cause I’m out of here.”

Maddox sobered up right away. If he kept at it like that, Jonathan would only think that he was a horny dog who wanted nothing else. “We’re not having kitchen sex,” he declared. “We’re going out.”

“What are you going out to do?” Rusty wanted to know.

“Boyfriend things,” Maddox replied all matter-of-factly.

Rusty narrowed his eyes and examined him. “Meaning?” he asked, drawling the word slowly.

“You wouldn’t know,” Maddox said snappily. “You don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Yeah, yeah, brag about it now,” Rusty replied and stuck his tongue out. “Maybe I’ll get one just to piss you off.”

“You can’t piss me off. No one’s better than Jonathan.”

Jonathan wrapped his arm around his shoulders and shut him up with a kiss. “Let me do the dishes, and then we can go,” he suggested.

“Let’s leave Rusty to do the dishes,” Maddox suggested, but the last word barely left his mouth when Rusty vanished from the room at the speed of light. “That did it,” he said with satisfaction. “I’ll do the dishes,” he then offered generously. “But only if you kiss me again.”

Jonathan pressed their lips together softly and Maddox could feel him grinning against his mouth.

“You’re a very cheap dishwasher. Not even a quarter or anything.”

“I don’t think there are dishwashers working for quarters,” Maddox pointed out.

“There aren’t? I’d hire any that works for kisses, though.”

Their voices were dropping with each small kiss they gave each other.

“So lovey-dovey,” someone commented, and Maddox noticed Kane looking at them with stars in his eyes. And, of course, a good dose of something else telling him that soon enough they’d become the target for a variety of well-meant jokes.

This day was supposed to be about Jonathan and him. As much as he liked his friends, he didn’t want them butting in all the time. He had worked to get this day with Jonathan, and no one was going to take it away from him. As little as he knew about boyfriend things, one thing was certain; Jonathan would not be too judgmental about his lack of knowledge in the area. After all, they were both new to the boyfriend situation, which meant that they were on equal footing, and maybe he didn’t have to worry very much.

“Are we leaving the table like that?” Jonathan asked alarmed when Maddox began dragging him out of the room.

“Kane is in husband training. He’ll take care of it,” Maddox said cheerfully. He patted his friend on the shoulder. “Won’t you, Kane? Louise will love to hear about how good you are at washing dishes.”

No surprise, Kane made a face like he had just been offered to lick half a lemon, but he winked at Maddox and gave him the thumbs-up when they moved past him.

***

“So, what do you think? Do I have the approval of your friends?” Jonathan asked once they were inside the car. He tried to keep his voice light and playful, but both curiosity and a particular need to be accepted prompted him to ask the question.

“You do, but it wouldn’t have mattered even if you hadn’t gotten it,” Maddox said while kicking the engine into gear.

Jonathan couldn’t stop admiring the surety of Maddox’s movements, the way his strong hands rested against the wheel.

“You’re not saying anything, and you’re also staring,” Maddox said. “What’s on your mind? I’ll kick Rusty’s ass if he got you upset or something.”

“No, no,” Jonathan hurried to deny, “nothing like that. This day feels so surreal, though. It’s like any moment I might just wake up.”

Maddox smiled and stole a quick look at him. He was a responsible driver, his eyes always on the road. Jonathan wondered briefly if starting a conversation of the magnitude he was considering was a good idea.

“Well, don’t tell Xpress, but you basically popped Mad Dawg’s cherry last night.”

Jonathan hid his face in his palms, not because he felt like laughing but because he feared that his face might give away a little too much. “I did, didn’t I?” he muttered under his breath.

“And it was, oh, damn,” Maddox continued, “totally awesome.”

“How--” Jonathan stopped and reconsidered the question. “No regrets, then?” he opted for a lighter version of what was really on his mind.

Maddox shrugged. “Nope. You worked me like a pro.”

“Come on, you’re just saying that,” Jonathan protested. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

“My ass is kind of sore,” Maddox admitted, “but otherwise, I feel super-duper. That can only mean one thing.”

“What thing is that?” Jonathan demanded to know.

“That you excel in more than your studies. You practically made me realize that I like it in the butt.”

Jonathan snickered and threw a brief look at Maddox. He looked so pretty, a few strands of hair getting in his eyes, a big smile on his face, and that naughty glint that told an entire story of its own. “Hmm, it’s great to have confirmation. So, was I good?”

“Are you going to fish for compliments all day long? You gave it to me good,” Maddox said. “So good that I can barely sit. Is that enough for you to stop pestering me about my ass?”

Ah, so the mighty Mad Dawg – Jonathan was sure the world at Sunny Hill would turn upside-down if Xpress ever caught a whiff of the true story behind that nickname – was a bit shy about having put his ass up despite his bravado.

“I won’t pester you anymore,” Jonathan promised.

Maddox seemed to consider the offer. “Nah, you can do it. I’m just not used to it.”

“And by it, do you mean the--” Jonathan stopped to rack his brain for a correct term.

“Butt fucking?” Maddox supplied right away.

“Yeah, that,” Jonathan admitted.

“If you don’t mind getting me used to it, then I won’t mind you pestering me either,” Maddox promised.

Jonathan felt a small, yet now familiar, flutter in his chest. So, it had been good. Maddox was open and always saying what he truly thought, but it was also true that he, Jonathan, wanted to hear as many reassurances as his boyfriend could possibly give him.

***

“Do you remember what happened the last time we were here?” Maddox asked as they walked by the side of the lake.

It was a bit chilly, even though the day was fine, and there was no cloud in sight. Jonathan took Maddox’s hand and put it, along with his, into the pocket of his long coat. He had done it without thinking, but Maddox had found it completely natural and moved closer, falling in step with him as they went.

“It would be hard to forget,” he replied. “It didn’t happen that long ago.”

“Ah, and I thought you were going to say that it was too unforgettable,” Maddox said and pouted.

Jonathan stopped for a moment to face Maddox. He caught his cheek and leaned in to kiss the pouty lips. “There, better?” Maddox nodded with enthusiasm and smiled. “It was unforgettable.”

Although I bet you’ve had people kneeling like that in front of you before. Jonathan began walking again. If his mind took a break from negative thinking once in a blue moon, he would be so happy. What more could he want? Last night had come as a confirmation that Maddox wanted him just as much as he wanted Maddox. And that, the thing they had done together, wasn’t anything like others had done with the so-called bad boy of Sunny Hill in the past.

“Losing yourself in your head again?” Maddox’s voice pulled him back.

“A little.”

“Will you tell me something about you?” Maddox asked.

“Sure.” It was only fair.

“What’s your family like?”

Jonathan pondered for a moment. He knew a few things about Maddox’s family, and it was only fair that he disclose something about his own. “Very different from your family.”

“How so?”

“First of all, I’m an only child. Thinking back, I believe I had quite a lonely childhood.”

“Didn’t you have friends?”

“Other children visited, yes. But, usually, they came with their families from various places, and the friendships I struck up with them were short-lived.”

“How about school? Didn’t you have friends there?”

Jonathan pursed his lips. Would Maddox understand? Here, in the real world, people with a history like his had to be an oddity. “Not many, I guess. I was mostly a teachers’ pet, so to speak. That didn’t exactly endear me to the rest of the student body.” He had enjoyed studying ever since he was a kid. And, at first, the appreciation he got from teachers had made him happy, giving him the confidence he was doing the right thing.

“Come on, for real? Are you trying to tell me that none of those boys saw how awesome you are?”

“They just tried to get under my skin. I was lucky that they weren’t very good at it. I disliked it,” he admitted in all honesty. “The schools I went to,” he explained, “they didn’t have many students. For me, coming to Sunny Hill was a bit of a shock. So many young people in one place, it’s pretty amazing to see, you know?”

No, Maddox didn’t know. He could try to imagine, at best.

“You sound like you’ve just stepped out of the pages of some Victorian novel,” Maddox said. “And all that was because you got good grades?”

“It wasn’t only that,” Jonathan continued. “My family is very affluential in the area where I live… lived. My father is well known and the kind of person people with ambitions want in their corner. Maybe it was my fault, but I saw anyone trying to approach me as one of those visitors my father got, coming to him to ask for this or that. And it didn’t help that before middle school, my parents tried to home school me exclusively.”

A child’s sensibilities didn’t make a good topic of conversation, but Maddox seemed really interested, his face open as he took in the information Jonathan offered.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Jonathan added. “When I was little, I thought those boys I went to school with really wanted to be my friends. But I overheard plenty of the things they said to each other, and I understood quite quickly that they mostly saw me as a rival or someone their families ordered them to have as a friend. I suppose kids in general are not crazy about such things.”

Maddox let out a short sigh. “So, they didn’t bother to get to know you.”

“Something like that,” Jonathan admitted. “It all became worse when I went to high school. Alliances and loyalties were already formed. I wasn’t one of them. If younger kids didn’t like to be told that someone was better than they were, imagine what teenagers thought about it all.”

“What about Drew?”

It was only natural for Maddox to want to hear about him. Jonathan mulled over what to say, trying to choose the right words. Honesty was the best choice. “I thought myself in love with him at first sight.”

“He wasn’t one of those fellows who’d hated you since middle school, right?”

“No, he was new.” That had been part of the appeal, without a doubt.

“What does he look like?”

Jonathan stopped for a moment and searched Maddox’s face. “Nothing like you, in case you’re worrying about it.”

“Good to know,” Maddox replied, completely unfazed. “But I still want to know what he looks like.”

“All right, if you’re so insistent.” Jonathan closed his eyes to recall the face he had promised himself to forget forever. “His hair is very light in color,” he began. It had felt like spun silk under his fingers.

“Good. ‘Cause my hair is very dark,” Maddox pointed out decisively.

Jonathan couldn’t keep from smiling and glancing at his boyfriend. “Are you comparing yourself to him? Is that what you’re aiming at by asking me about him?”

“No,” Maddox said a bit too quickly for that to be the truth. “But I need to make sure that I’m nothing like him.”

“You’re nothing like him,” Jonathan said matter-of-factly.

“Continue,” Maddox insisted. “What kind of eyes does he have?”

“Blue.” They made him seem so innocent, so far removed from anyone Jonathan had ever known before.

“Hmph,” Maddox made a sound of displeasure.

“I really don’t get you,” Jonathan said and stopped again. This time, he disentangled his hand from Maddox’s so that he could cup his boyfriend’s cheeks and give him a kiss. “Trust me, if he were to sit by your side, not only would he come up short in every way possible , but no one, absolutely no one, would be able to see anyone other than you.”

“If he were to sit by my side, I’d punch him in the face,” Maddox said directly.

“Oh, you’d punch him? I suppose there must be some truth about that Mad Dawg persona Xpress writes about on their slow days, huh?”

“You talk about him as if you still think he’s beautiful.”

Jonathan groaned in despair. “I had a feeling you’d drag me into something like this with these questions. Can you imagine what it is like to be me and realize that I could never compare to your well-endowed ex-lovers?” To make a point, he made a gesture to indicate large breasts sprouting out of his chest.

Maddox pulled back a little, stared at him, and then started laughing. “I don’t care about that stuff. But it’s funny to see you a bit jealous. Plus,” he said and pulled Jonathan close and snuck one hand inside his coat, “lately, it looks like I have it bad for hard pecs.”

“You do?” Jonathan asked slowly as if he couldn’t believe that to be the truth.

“I’d fondle yours right now to convince you, but it’s cold, and I still want to know more about that asshole.”

“Fine,” Jonathan agreed with a sigh. “What else do you want to know? But promise me that you’re not going to use it as fuel for some unfathomable insecurity of yours.”

Maddox puffed out his chest. “Like I’d be insecure.”

Of course, what reason did he have to be that? Jonathan had to agree with him. “All right. Go on, ask me.”

“What made you fall for him?” Maddox asked, taking him by surprise.

That wasn’t easy to explain. “I suppose the fact that we were both outsiders helped us bond,” he started. “And he was just that kind, you know. The kind that doesn’t give a damn about rules and whatnot.”

“The bad boy,” Maddox suggested.

“You can call it that. It felt liberating for me. Finally, I had someone to talk to, really talk to, not just carry on superficial conversations with, and he was offering me confirmation that all that I thought to be wrong with my life was, indeed, wrong.” He stopped for a moment and closed his eyes as he recalled those times. “I thought I was getting out of prison for a breath of fresh air when no one was looking, but I was only taking an allowed pleasure walk within its walls and nothing more.”

“Brr,” Maddox said and shook his body like he was suddenly cold. “There should be laws against putting kids in schools like that.”

“Maybe I’m just too sensitive. God only knows how many times my father berated me for falling short of expectations. I suppose that many others thrive in that kind of environment. Maybe it just wasn’t for me.”

“Don’t make it your fault,” Maddox warned him. “Did Drew ever kiss you?”

Jonathan didn’t hide his surprise at the question. “Is it important?”

Maddox nodded. “Totally.”

“He did. Each time he wanted something,” Jonathan added quietly.

“You kiss really well. Did you practice on him?”

Jonathan hooked his arm over Maddox’s shoulders. “Not as much as you’d think. And I’d rather be practicing with you.”

“Really? What for?” Maddox teased. “You’ve got a perfect score already.”

“Even so, you know what they say. If you don’t use it, you lose it.”

“In that case, use it a little more.” Maddox was the one to pull him close and kiss him.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” Jonathan commented as soon as his lips were released. “Is the lake open to swimming in summer?”

“As soon as it gets warm enough, there’ll be plenty of guys and gals taking over the place for skinny-dipping,” Maddox replied. “I can barely wait to come here with you again.”

“Ah, too bad you told me I’m not allowed on the beach,” Jonathan teased.

“This isn’t the beach,” Maddox said promptly. “And there are also wetsuits, you know? The kind that cover you all over.”

“They’re very tight, though,” Jonathan pointed out.

Maddox frowned as he searched for a solution. It took him long enough that Jonathan decided to come to his rescue. “You’re cute when you’re jealous. But, trust me, no one else would ever look at me the way you look at me.”

An incredulous snort followed. “That’s what you think.”

“So, what would you like to do next? It’s a bit chilly outside,” Jonathan said, changing tack.

“Some more boyfriend things,” Maddox said promptly.

“Like what?” Jonathan asked.

Maddox seemed to ponder over the answer. “I really don’t know,” he replied and deflated right away. “As much as I think, I can only come up with sex stuff.”

Jonathan laughed. “I have some ideas. Do you trust me?”

“You fucked my ass. Sure thing I trust you.”

“Then let me take you somewhere for a change.”

Maddox snuck his hand inside his. “Let’s do it, then. Boyfriend,” he added for good measure.

Jonathan smiled. He didn’t mind being reminded of that. Maddox could repeat the word as many times as he liked, and he would never get bored hearing it.

TBC