12. Archer

Chapter 12

Archer

My ringtone drags me from sleep. It's Sunday. Who's ringing me on Sunday morning?

"Who is it?" Jacob's voice is deep and sleepy.

He's spooning me, his arms wrapped around my waist and one leg hooked over mine possessively. His half-hard cock presses against my thigh. I fumble for my phone to check the time and see who's ringing. Mum.

"Half nine."

He chuckles against my neck. "I thought you were a morning person."

"You kept me up half the night."

He strokes his hand down to my cock, which, like his, is at half-mast. "You're up now too."

The phone stops ringing. I put it on my dressing table. It rings again. I groan.

"Do you need to get that?" Jacob asks.

"It's Mum."

He stiffens and pulls away.

"Relax. It's a voice call. I wouldn't video call Mum while I'm naked in bed with a gorgeous man."

Jacob doesn't move. My stomach dips. The sex might be good, but no matter how much he's squashing them, his hang-ups remain.

I roll onto my back while I take the call. "Morning."

"Why didn't you answer?" Mum asks.

"I was asleep."

"You're normally awake by now."

"Late night. What's up?"

"I've got a surprise for you."

I groan. "What have you done?"

"There's no need to be so suspicious."

The last time she surprised me was with the family photoshoot. Admittedly, that indirectly led to getting Jacob into my bed again and again and again, but that's not the point.

"I've booked a holiday," she sing-songs.

I rub my face. "Great. Where are you and Barry going?"

"Where are we going."

"Huh?" I'm too sleepy for this.

"We're all going."

"All—? Oh, Mum. You haven't."

Beside me, Jacob knits his brows and chews his lip.

"We're spending two weeks on Gran Canaria, in a three-bed villa overlooking the beach, with a private pool." She sounds like a travel brochure.

"Mum—"

"I'm not taking no for an answer. You don't have to pay a penny. You just have to be there."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

I knead my forehead with my thumb and fingers. "You can't force us to be a big happy family."

"I want to show Jacob I'm not the enemy. I want him to accept me. And I want the two of you to get along."

Oh, we do.

"Forcing us to go on holiday together isn't the way to go about it."

Holiday? Jacob mouths.

I nod miserably.

"Nonsense. I'll email you the details. Barry is going to call Jacob and tell him. Unless you think I should?"

"No. No. His dad should tell him. But, Mum."

"Yes?"

"Don't be surprised if he says no."

"He can't. It's all booked and paid for."

"He can."

"He wouldn't be that ungrateful. Would he?"

I bite my tongue and take a moment to compose myself. "I don't know, Mum. I don't know him well enough. But you should have asked us if we wanted to go on holiday before booking anything."

"We talked about it at the wedding reception."

"We didn't agree to it."

"Well, now you're being ungrateful."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "I don't mean to be. We're not kids, Mum. We're adults. You can't plan our lives for us and expect us to be okay with it."

"I'm not planning your lives for you. Only a holiday. I'll email you the details. You'll be excited when you see the villa we're staying in." She ends the call.

I sigh and hold my phone against my chest.

"Holiday?" Jacob asks.

"Yup. Your Dad's going to call you. Sorry." I expect him to lean in to kiss me, but he maintains his distance.

Well, fuck. Thanks for screwing things up, Mum. Then again, if all it takes is a phone call for Jacob to blow cold on me, maybe this fuck buddies-in-secret arrangement isn't such a good idea. But I love the sex, and I'm enjoying getting to know Jacob during our cuddle time. I don't want what we have to end.

I roll onto my side, facing him, and thread my fingers through his. "You can say no."

His phone rings.

He answers it. "Hi, Dad."

With a sigh, I slip out of bed and go to the bathroom to piss. Then I go to the kitchen and drink some water. I take my time, not wanting to hear Jacob's half of the conversation with his dad. When I haven't heard the murmur of his voice for a couple of minutes, I return and lean against the doorframe. Jacob is lying in bed, knuckles white as he clutches his phone.

"Are you mad?" I ask.

"Not at you." He wriggles his fingers, inviting me to join him.

I don't move. "What did you say?"

"That he could send me the dates, and I'd think about it. Dad said it would mean a lot to him and Molly if I went. Does Molly always pull shit like this?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"It's not your fault. Come here."

I push away from the door and crawl into bed. He pulls me to him and envelopes me in his arms, our noses touching. If only he'd been able to do that while I was talking to Mum or he was talking to his dad.

"It'll be weird, going on holiday together as a family," he says.

"Uh-huh."

"It's one thing pretending we barely tolerate each other for a meal, but sustaining that over two weeks is going to be hard."

"What are you saying?"

"I don't know. I'm thinking out loud." He tightens his grip.

We could tell them we're fucking .

"They can't know," he says.

"Secret fuck buddies."

"We won't be able to fuck while we're there."

I frown. "I guess not. Is that a bad thing?"

He cracks a smile. "I'm a little obsessed with fucking you."

"Yeah? Well, I'm a little obsessed with being fucked by you. But maybe abstaining for a fortnight would do us good."

He wrinkles his nose.

"I'm being serious. We could get to know each other outside the bedroom. Become friends, like Mum is so desperate for us to be."

"We are friends, aren't we?"

"I dunno. Are we? We don't hang out anywhere but the bedroom."

"That's what we agreed to. I thought it was what you wanted too."

I rest my cheek over his heart. "It is. I've had so much fun the past few weeks. Sex practically on tap? Yes, please."

"Why do I sense a but?"

"No but. Unless you mean this butt." I waggle my arse.

He chuckles. "That isn't what I meant."

I pout. "Shame."

"Archer?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure there isn't a but?"

I suck in a breath. "It would be nice to get to know you as a person, not just as the guy who satisfies me in bed."

"Can you handle being completely hands-off for two weeks? They can't know, Archer. They can't."

"They won't. And yes, I think I can manage. Can you?"

He whimpers. "It will be hard."

"Well, when you're hard, think of me and masturbate."

"They might hear," he whispers.

"How old are you? You're a grown man. You're allowed to masturbate in the privacy of your room."

"That doesn't mean I want my dad and Molly to overhear me."

I fold my hands on his chest and rest my chin on them so I can see his face. "Did your parents ever catch you jacking off?"

He grimaces.

"They did! Tell me about it."

"It was mortifying."

"Which is why it'll make a good story. Tell me."

"I was fourteen. I thought my parents were out. I could never get it up when I knew they were in the house. I had a collection of magazines?—"

"Did you keep them under your bed? Were they sexy ones? Men or women?"

"Men. They were bodybuilding magazines, so no full frontal nudity, but plenty of pictures of guys with bulging muscles, wearing nothing but skimpy underpants that hid nothing."

"Mmm, sexy."

"I kept them in a box, in the bottom of my wardrobe, under a stack of comics."

"Oh, sneaky. I love it."

"I was on my bed with my dick in a sock, and a magazine on my chest, pumping away with my hand, and Mum walked in to tell me her car had a flat and did I want her to put some laundry on while she waited for a taxi to take her to work."

I burst out laughing. "No! She said all that without noticing what you were doing?"

"Oh, she noticed. She stared at me. I stared at her. She walked out. We never talked about it again, and after that, she always knocked before coming into my room."

"I should hope so too. Did you at least finish jerking off after?"

"No. My cock wilted like old lettuce. After that, I made damned sure my parents weren't in the house. I was fucking traumatised."

I can't stop laughing. My shoulders, chest, and stomach shudder and shake. I press my face against his chest, trying to get a grip on myself.

"It's not that funny," Jacob mutters.

"It is," I say between wheezes. I take deep breaths until I manage to calm down.

"Your turn," Jacob says in a sulky tone.

"Mine's similar, except I was doing it under a sheet. Mum walked in. I froze. She looked at the penthouse created by my hard dick. She walked out."

"That was it?"

"Oh, no. It gets worse."

"How?"

"Over dinner, she told me she'd get me a subscription to a gay porn site if I wanted one, and she'd gone out and bought me a couple of gay magazines from the top shelf."

Jacob gasps. "She didn't."

"She did."

"How old were you?"

"Seventeen."

"Did-did you take her up on her offer?"

"Fuck, no. I didn't take the magazines either. I guess she was trying to be a cool mum or something."

"Wow."

I lean over Jacob and nuzzle his nose. "Now I've lightened the tone, are we going on holiday with my mum and your dad?"

He sighs. "I guess so. If I can take the time off work."