“Closer, but not entirely correct?” Colby tipped his head back, nestled into Jason’s arms. Jason’s arms felt firm and safe, circles of iron that would protect rather than crush. At least, that was the idea; he told himself that. He wanted that; he wanted to be held, if he could believe in it. “And you know that I would. I do so appreciate learning…whatever you’d like to teach me.”
Jason let out a rumbling possessive noise. The arms got a bit tighter. Colby still didn’t precisely mind, but the not-minding inched more toward the tipping point.
Jason, as Stephen, murmured, “I adore you, Will. You must know that.”
“I know.”
“I worry about you and you leap into a borrowed hack and turn up on my ship without gloves or a hat, and you ask how you can help. You write to the Admiralty—I know you
