The ringing of the telephone startled both of us. We jumped apart like we'd been caught red-handed. But doing what? Since when was it against the law to hug someone? Or even kiss him? Okay, maybe I wasn't thinking all that clearly.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

A blast of arctic wind whipped out of the receiver and coated me with frost. I started to shiver. "Um...Jack? I was just going to call you. Honest."

"I was. I swear. Jack-"

I held the phone out to Bruno. "He wants to talk to you."

"How does he know I'm here?"

"How did you know he was here, Jack?" Shite, I was going to lose my hearing for sure if he kept that up. "Jack, it was just a question."

"What do you mean, where else would he be? I didn't know he was coming here. How did you-Right."

"Well?" Bruno asked, his arms folded so tightly across his chest, he was going to have pleats in his skin.

I blushed and refused to meet Bruno's eyes. "What? What is it?"

"He said he was so worried about me, he sent Arthur after me. I think he saw everything from the front window."

"Everything?" Bruno exclaimed.

I raised the receiver to my ear again. "Is Arthur still out there spying on us, Jack? That wasn't a very friendly thing to do, now, was it?"

I yelped and thrust the phone in Bruno's direction one more time. "Talk to him, please."

Bruno sighed and took the phone. "I'm okay, Jack. No, really. I told Robert to call you. Why did you have to hear that I was here from Arthur? Who's even now shivering from the cold? Well, I can't say that I feel sorry for him. He shouldn't have been sitting in front of the flat in the first place."

"I am not an ungrateful wretch!" Bruno slammed the phone down, only to have it ring again, almost immediately.

Bruno's eyes flashed as he picked up the receiver. "Yes, Jack?" he purred smoothly. "I didn't hang up on you. I...dropped the phone. Why? Umm...it was all Robert's fault."

"Yes, it usually is, Jack."

Bruno held out the phone to me. I stared at it like it was a poisonous snake. "I don't want to talk to him again. He's a fucking lunatic when he's like this."

Bruno placed the receiver against his ear. "No, Jack, Robert didn't call you a fucking lunatic." Bruno put his hand over the phone and mouthed, You're the one who's fucking crazy, at me. "Of course, you had every right to be worried. He was in no shape to go anywhere, eh? No, he didn't mention that to me. But then...I didn't give him much of a chance to talk."

I glared at the little son of a bitch. Look at how easily he ratted me out to Jack. Jeez. No such thing as fucking loyalty anymore.

"I was too busy kissing him," Bruno stated matter-of-factly. I almost screamed bloody murder. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Bruno offered me the phone, and I had half a mind to tell him where to put the damn thing. "Jack wants to know if we're on the bedroom phone."

"Crap!" I yelled.

I grabbed the receiver out of Bruno's hand. To my surprise, Jack wasn't shouting at all. He was fucking laughing. Hysterically.

"Stop that! That's bloody mean!"

Bruno's lips started to twitch. "Jack's probably sitting at his desk, bawling his eyes out, and poor Arthur sniffling from the big bad outdoors, too."

"You dick!"

"No, not you, Jack. I wouldn't call you a dick." Not to his face, anyway.

"Robert? Step away from the phone slowly and put...the fucking...phone down."

"Are you telling me what to do, you little bast--? Yes, Jack, I will." I put the phone back in its cradle.

"What did he say?" Bruno asked with a look that was undoubtedly going to get me in deep, deep trouble.

"He said to listen to you for some idiotic reason."

"Rehearsal's going to be a bitch tomorrow."

"Aye, thanks to you."

"We'd better get some sleep then. I'll take the couch. You need your rest. You're an old crank when you don't get your way, aren't you? So let's just cut to the chase and give you what you want."

"You don't know what I want," I said with a grin.

"Maybe not, but I can tell you one thing. Whatever it is...you don't have a hope in hell of getting it tonight."

I shrugged. "Have it your way, then. I'll be the one who's nice and warm and comfy in the bed."

Bruno laughed. That sputtery laugh that sent shivers up and down my spine and went straight to my dick. "Not without me, you won't be. Last night, you were wrapped around me tighter than a-"

"I was not!"

"The way I see it, Robert, we can stand here arguing or we can just bloody do it."

"Do what?" I whispered.

"Sleep together. What did you think I meant?"

Oh, he was a charming little creature, and I loved him to death, but he couldn't have me. Not yet.

"All right, then. But hands off. No touching. Just sleeping."

Bruno raised an eyebrow in that highfaluting way that made me want more than was good for either one of us right now. He took a step closer, and I almost fell over myself backing up. "Don't...even...go...there," I said, wagging my finger in his face.

He ignored me. He framed my face with his hands and kissed me. With his fucking eyes wide open. Watching me. Well, he wanted a reaction. So I gave him one.

I nudged his lips apart with my tongue, then I proceeded to lick his bottom lip thoroughly. When I felt him tremble, I knew I'd gotten back at him with a vengeance. I broke away breathlessly and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I tasted like him now. While he stared at me with helpless longing in those striking blue eyes, I licked my palm...slowly.

He made this tiny whimper in the back of his throat, and I took pity on him. I buried my face in his hair, and I felt him shudder. "Please..."

"We're not ready," I protested. "I'm not."

He made that sound again, and I held onto him with both hands. "I want more for us than just mindless fucking," I whispered in his ear.

"I...can't," he sobbed against my neck.

"I know." But he felt so damn good in my arms. I wanted that. I wanted him. More than I'd ever wanted anyone or anything.

So I was willing to wait. For as long as it took. I mean, why not? It's not like I was going anywhere, was it? Sooner or later, he was going to be mine. He thought he didn't want to belong to anybody. But he came back here. To me.

"Come to bed," I said.

He drew back then and stared at me. His eyes were wet, but he wasn't crying. He wouldn't let himself. I could see inside him...even if he didn't want me to. He was a mass of conflicting emotions, and God knew, I was no stranger to that.

"I'll hold you. Like last night," I said softly. I raised a hand to stroke his hair, and he jerked away, apprehension filling those wounded eyes. "I won't hurt you."

"People always say that. But they never mean what they say," he murmured brokenly.

"I won't make any demands on you. Swear to God," I vowed, crossing my hand over my heart.

He grabbed my hand by the wrist and pulled it against his damp cheek. He closed his eyes, and one lone teardrop traced its way down his face with tantalizing slowness. My whole body ached, but I stood my ground. He was already halfway in love with me, the stupid boy, but he couldn't admit it. Not to me, not even to himself.

"Why do you think you came back?" I whispered, pressing my lips to his jaw.

He groaned, and I refused to let go of him. He shook his head, and a moist strand of hair caught me on the cheek. "Bruno..."

He melted against me with a sigh that seemed to come from someplace too deep to venture safely. "Robert..." It was a plea. I don't think he knew he was making it. Or that I was willing to answer it.

"Be the other half of me," I surprised myself by saying. "Be my number two. Please?"

"You want too much."

"Aye. But what's life for if not for taking risks that you can't afford to take?"

He glanced at me with startled eyes. "Jumping into things without thinking is what my whole life's been about. That's how I got this way. Don't you think it's time I stopped?"

I rubbed my thumbs over his wet eyelids, and he closed his eyes again with a sigh. "Take a chance then. What's one more?"

"I'll end up hurting you. I always hurt the people I-"

I pulled him against my chest and kissed his hair. "You love me. You just can't say the words. But that's okay."

He wrapped his arms tightly around my neck, and I could feel his fingers pressing insistently at my nape. "People lie with words."

"Aye, true enough," I agreed. "But not about this. Not ever about this," I promised.

I felt something give way in him, and all at once, he couldn't seem to get close enough to me. "I'm so tired. Can we sleep now?"

"Yeah." We managed to make it to the bedroom without moving apart. I undressed him in silence, and he let me, all the while looking at me with solemn eyes. I helped him into bed without touching him any more than I had to, and he pulled the covers up to his neck protectively, his eyes still wide open and not a bit drowsy.

I got undressed as quickly as possible and slid under the covers. I lay on my side, facing away from him, because that much temptation I could not resist. That was when I felt him, snuggling up against my back. His arms wound themselves around my waist, and he settled his face against the top of my bare shoulder. "Is this okay?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.

I closed my eyes and placed my hands over his. "Aye, this'll do."

And it would. For now.

End