19. Chapter Nineteen

Jared

The house was dark when I stepped inside. I was relieved to be home, my shoulders relaxing as I dumped my bags on the couch in the dark and stumbled to the light switch to illuminate the room. The next thing I did was rummage through the bags until I found the one with the camera. Charlie had texted me and asked me to film our reunion, and so film our reunion I did.

"Matty?" I frowned when he didn't answer and flipped on more lights as I made my way through the house, holding the camera steady in front of me. It was very late on a Monday—technically it was very early on a Tuesday—and I couldn't imagine where he might have been besides sleeping. I made my way into his bedroom, but he wasn't there. My gut twisted and my chest constricted—had he changed his mind and left? The camera wobbled in my hand. Would he do that without telling me? Before I could decide what to do next, I heard Matty's voice call out, sleepy and confused, from a few doors down the hall.

"Er det deg?"

The center of my chest relaxed and warmed. I loved the way he reverted to Norwegian when his brain was fuzzy, usually during sex or when he was waking up. I especially liked it during sex, for some reason I couldn't quite pin down.

I didn't know much Norwegian, but between my years with Matty as a friend and the handy language learning app I'd downloaded to study over the past month, I think I could interpret what he'd said. Instead of answering him with confirmation that yes, it was me, I followed the sound of his voice, hurrying down the hallway and pushing open the door to my bedroom. There on the mattress was Matty, clothes rumpled, blinking as he adjusted to the light flooding in from the hall. Next to him on the bed was a paperback book that had fallen shut.

I leaned against the doorframe and smiled, getting his sleepy face in the frame of the camera. "You look…"

"A mess," he supplied.

"I was going to say, ‘fucking edible,' but sure, a mess works, too." I grinned and took a step forward. "What are you doing in here?"

He rubbed a hand over his face and groaned, a noise that went straight to my dick. "I didn't mean to fall asleep. I just sat down to read a bit and the next thing I knew, you were calling my name."

I hit pause on the recording. "I meant, what are you doing in here? Didn't you set your things up in the other bedroom?"

He bit his lip, furrowing his brow. Uncertainty flooded his expression. "Is it okay that I'm in here?"

I sat down on the edge of the bed and took his hand. "Hey, of course it is. I don't have anything to hide from you. I was just surprised, that's all."

He squeezed my hand and pulled away before sitting up, cross-legged on the bed, and facing me. "After you being away for so long, I thought it might just be for the best if we shared a space when you returned. I just wanted to be near you. I hope… was I wrong?"

"Not at all," I murmured, shaking my head. My heart fluttered at the thought of it. "Just to be certain, you're moving into this room then?"

The soft smile on his face seemed shy, almost reluctant. "I already did. If you want me to go back, I can," he added in a hurry.

I moved my hand to his face, cupping his jaw, stroking the curve of his cheek with my thumb. "I'm so glad you moved in here."

"Not just for sex?"

I smirked. "A little bit for sex. But also… I meant what I said. I want to wake up holding you. I want to pull you close and feel your warmth. I want you to let me show you what it's like to be in a relationship with me." I turned the camera on again and tipped my head at it meaningfully, so he knew I was recording.

He nodded and yawned. "Let's get to bed, hmm?"

I glanced at the clock. "What, you don't want to stay up and watch trashy TV with me? It's only one in the morning."

"We are the trashy TV people watch at one in the morning," he murmured sleepily. "And you get exactly no days off before we have to start wedding planning. You shouldn't stay up late either. We have plans that begin in nine hours."

A deep sigh escaped me. "Fine. I'll skip the ice cream sandwich that was calling my name. You did stock us up right?" When he nodded, I continued. "But only because I have this incredibly hot Norwegian man in my bed begging me to sleep with him."

He snorted. "Hvis du sier det s?." If you say so.

It wasn't long until we'd both discarded our clothes on the floor, set the camera aside, and crawled under the covers of my king-sized bed. I pulled Matty close and held him tight, grateful to be home.

The blare of the alarm woke us entirely too early, me rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as Matty rolled to end the screeching from his phone. Neither of us were excited to get up, but the business of reality TV was calling. It was eight, which meant Charlie, our American producer, and Heidi, the camera person, were going to be at our house in literally two hours. I had two hours to unpack, shower, eat, and show Matty just how much I'd missed him.

Because I had my priorities in line, I pulled Matty to me and palmed his groin, his morning erection twitching under my touch. He groaned in response before batting my hand away.

"Sk?yer," he murmured before rolling out of bed.

"That's not one I'm familiar with." I sat, gathering the duvet around my waist, not ready to admit defeat yet.

"Oh," he said, and hummed. "Let me think." He frowned as he made his way to the dresser and pulled out clean clothes. "It's sort of like calling you a jokester or a rascal. You know, an affectionate insult."

I scrunched up my nose. "I think I'd rather you call me Daddy," I muttered, sliding out of bed.

He laughed and shook his head. "Not happening. How about min kj?reste instead?" Matty tugged a t-shirt over his head and leaned in, placing a quick kiss on my lips.

"I don't know, what's that one?"

His cheeks turned a deep shade of red. "My dearest." Matty quickly straightened and looked away, grabbing jeans and then pulling them on. "It's, um, got a little more gravity to it though. Kind of old-fashioned sounding in Norwegian."

My own cheeks heated and I nodded. I mumbled my response. "I think that one's good."

Soon enough, my bags were unpacked, we'd showered—without attacking each other's bodies—we'd eaten breakfast, and we'd even cleaned up. Just as we were about to sit down and relax, the doorbell rang. Matty sprang to his feet and opened the door to Charlie and Heidi standing on the other side.

"Matt, hi," Charlie said, pulling him into a big hug. From behind her, Heidi waved, a smile on her face.

I glanced at Matty and repeated what Charlie had said wordlessly. Matt? He just shrugged in response.

"It's good to see you both again. This is Jared."

"Yes, of course!" She bustled past him and wrapped me in a warm hug as well, squeezing me against her shoulders. "Now, let's not waste any time getting started."

Charlie planted us on the couch and interviewed us extensively about our wedding plans—of which we had none so far. She drew out of us what kind of wedding we both wanted, including guests, scale, location, themes, all boring things that I had absolutely zero interest in, and it seemed that Matty felt much the same.

After it became apparent that we were going to be typical, useless grooms in the wedding planning department, she changed gears and quizzed us about the past month, the time we'd spent apart.

"What was the hardest part?" Charlie leaned in, as if we were dishing secrets.

"Not being able to develop our—" Matty started.

"Physical relationship," I interjected. His gaze whipped in my direction and his cheeks turned a bright red, much the same as they'd done earlier in the morning. I looked at him as innocently as possible, batting my eyelashes. "Right, min kj?reste?"

The blush that had been localized in his cheeks spread rapidly from the tips of his ears to his throat. "Right," he mumbled, squeezing my hand.

Charlie didn't miss a beat, grinning widely. "I can imagine. After being apart for half of your lives, it must be nice to have the freedom to explore that dynamic."

"Something like that," Matty murmured, looking mostly at his lap. His blush still hadn't died down.

"I certainly appreciate it," I said with a smirk.

"Speaking of appreciating things…" Charlie cleared her throat. "Jared, have you told Young Spades management how much you appreciate their new offer?"

My stomach went cold, my expression freezing on my face. "New offer?"

"Oh, I was sure you'd heard by now. Their manager called yours after your last show on the tour. They want to bring you back for the rest of the tour, the whole Canadian leg. Another three months. Congratulations!"

"Are you serious?" Acid flooded my throat.

"Of course. Your manager let us know yesterday. How do you think you'll handle this new challenge in your relationship, especially with Matty not being allowed to travel outside of the US for now?"

I glanced at Matty, my eyes wide. His expression was a mirror of my own—panic—except with tears pooling in his eyes. He slid his hand out of mine and stood before rushing to the bedroom and shutting the door loudly behind him.