The Stains Beneath Our Skin [mxm] ✔

17.3 | Showing Teeth

Note: A few of you non-British folks missed it so I'll clarify here. Eton is a very posh boarding school in Britain.

The crowds streamed past, elbows and shoulders butting up against some invisible wall. People swerved around the three of them as if they stood as a bend in the river of the street. The voices nailed into his skull, laughter the hammer beating them in. Casper's eye gave a nice little twitch on his next drag, and he could hardly part his gritted teeth to take it.

Jack stared at Cain, ugly twist to his pretty lips. Cain stared back with teeth ruining a smile. Casper drowned.

"Alright—" Jack tore his eyes from Cain and grabbed Casper's shoulder, and only habit kept Casper from shrieking and throwing it off.

Jack led Casper right up to the window of Best One where racks of lighters and tacky signs hustling the offers of the day loomed over them behind the flimsy glass. At the first step away, the tether yanked Casper's arm out, a little reminder echoed in the smirk curling Cain's lips before he let Casper go. Sorry, sorry – permitted him a length on his leash.

Watching. Always watching.

He could whisper it to Jack right now low enough that Cain wouldn't hear.

The window wobbled as Jack smacked his hand against it, up above Casper's head as Jack ducked his closer. The alcohol still came acrid off his breath, but something warm lit his eyes now. It was the tenderness that went with the finger he brushed over Casper's hollow cheek.

"I'm sorry I ain't been by sooner, alright? Just like ... It's been a hard few weeks, y'know, and I did drop by but I guess you weren't home and I guess I didn't come enough, and that's my fault. I know that, baby."

Hard few fucking weeks. If Jack knew—

Casper bared his teeth. "Maybe I was just still mad about the other week."

The touch flinched away, a flash of hurt in Jack's eyes like that had any fucking right being there. "Are you serious? You—"

Someone stepped out of the shop, shouting loudly back inside in a language Casper didn't know, and Jack stopped, a sneer gathering through his lips as he tapped his foot, waiting for the customer to leave.

"Cassie?" Smooth, idle, Cain's voice floated over to them from where he stood, looking all tall and delicious with his coat pushed back behind the hand planted on his hip. The display showed off the lines of his body in those expensive clothes.

Okay, maybe this boner was still drowning sense from his brain.

Funny though, how Casper had forgotten how stupid gorgeous he was, seeing as Cain had kidnapped him and all. Really took the thrill out of those kinds of things, but hey, maybe Casper should at least try some aesthetic and erotic appreciation if he was gonna be jammed up there for eternity.

Look at you, Roach. You've already fucking given up. Find that fucking backbone.

As soon as Casper met his eyes, Cain continued, boredom a blanket across his voice. "Could you get this over with? I have a meeting at twelve."

All casual like he wasn't clearly doing that on purpose to provoke exactly that snarled, snag-toothed reaction from Jack. This was going to turn into a fucking mess.

Hand still pressed against the shop window, a tightness going through his fingers that drew them to white-tipped crocodile teeth, Jack pinned an ugly glare on Cain.

Yeah, ugly – the one that tasted sour to see – but still ... something about the cast of Jack's face winched an ache through Casper's chest, high and keen digging a pit through his lungs and his throat. The dull grey light that filtered through the clouds was still miserable, but in Jack's eyes, it shone with breathtaking lambency amongst the pearl river rays. Dreams of laughter overlaid the vicious set of his jaw, and amongst the chaos around them, Casper could almost hear it.