‘Yeah, I can tell… But I wanted to say, about earlier, that was also the short story of how I’m yours. You showed up in my pub. The end.’
‘I don’t believe that. You had to make sure I wasn’t a true twat.’
‘Okay, it took two hours. You sealed the deal when you tipped me a tenner.’
Charles smiles and sinks the back of his head into the pillow. ‘Best investment ever. But I’d like to enjoy the full extent of my profits, so can you quit sweet-talking me as if you still needed to?’
Loris nods and takes a deeper breath. The sudden hot press of his hand on the back of Charles’ thigh sends a blinding wave crashing over him.
‘Talk to me, okay?’
Charles nods in turn, his throat tightening a little.
At first, he’s actually unable to speak, and he wouldn’t want to anyway, because the softness of Loris’ kisses, as he prepares him with his fingers covered in lube, is reassuring enough. Charles feels himself opening up, slowly, until he doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t ready for this. Until his senses, already upside down, stop making any sense. Until the need to receive Loris becomes unbearable.
He murmurs, ‘Now please,’ and lets go of Loris’ shoulders to clutch the sheet.
The pain is sharp, but unlike all the pain he’s experienced before, he doesn’t translate it as a signal that something is wrong within him. He accepts it as a herald of the unparalleled pleasure he will learn to relish and climax from.
And in the end, he doesn’t say much, as most words have also lost their meaning the second he became one with Loris. He only whispers his name, because it will always mean everything, and he screams it in silence whenever a spasm shakes his body that he’s discovering anew.
‘I can’t believe I got you for ten pounds… You’re truly underpricing yourself.’
Loris’ panting morphs into a jerky laugh. ‘Let’s not talk about money right after I fulfilled a pressing sexual wish of yours.’
‘Didn’t I make it clear that’s the only reason I’m in this?’ Charles caresses Loris’ flushed and sweaty face, enraptured as ever by the sight. ‘Thank you.’
‘How are you feeling?’
‘I’m glad I don’t have any obligations that involve getting up in the morning. But I feel good. Great, actually. Besides, that might be a misleading impression because my body is twinging in ways I’m not used to.’
‘I’m afraid it’s not, you’re gonna have to take it easy tomorrow.’
‘That’s alright. You’re working all day, and I’m soon to be broke, I can’t afford to pay someone else for sex.’
Loris smiles tiredly and closes his eyes, leaning into Charles’ palm.
‘How areyoufeeling?’
‘Amazing. I’m just also twinging in ways I’m not used to.’
‘From what?’
Loris looks at Charles with an intensity that melts and remoulds his heart before he even speaks.
‘Wanting you. All of you, at all time, and with all of me. With every cell of my being. It’s new. I usually manage to protect some so they can grow, multiply and bring me back to health if therelationship goes south. I failed with you. But it’s not twinging painful, only a bit scary.’
Charles swallows hard and wraps his arms and legs around Loris, to trap him with all the strength he has left. ‘You’re calling me a virus.’
‘You called me a prostitute.’
‘Let’s keep these pet names for the bedroom.’
‘No worries, I’m gonna call you “sugar” or “honey” in public.’
Charles scowls, and laughs, and moans into another feverish kiss, feeling it in his own cells that he holds Loris’ heart in his hands.
TWENTY-SEVEN
