"Vítor."
"Yes, baby."
"I haven't finished telling the story."
"Shall I stop kissing your face?"
"No."
I was going to lose my heart to this man. When I didn't think I had it in me to love someone else other than my husband, I was finding that maybe my heart still had some room for more.
"I asked him to stop, but he wouldn't. He said he was in love with me and couldn't stop thinking about me. I knew it was wrong, and I didn't want it, but he said if I said anything to anyone that my mom would be the one to suffer. I knew she loved him, and in a way, he loved her, too, but he was also a sick bastard.
"When I realized I couldn't make him stop, I did everything I could to leave. I'd been helping some elderly neighbors with gardening and shopping since I was thirteen to earn some pocket money, but as soon as I turned sixteen, I got a job and started saving money. I studied so hard I got a scholarship to go to university. When the letter came through, it was like I was finally free."
"Did it stop when you went to university?"
"It did for me."
Fuck. I knew what he was saying. The abuse stopped for him because the monster found a new victim.
"I didn't come home for the whole of the first year. I used work as an excuse because even with the scholarship, I still had to pay my living expenses, so I got a part-time job during term time and worked full-time during the breaks. When I finally came home after almost a year, Afonso was different. He'd always been such a chatterbox and used to follow me everywhere. Even when I was doing my homework, he was in my room with me. That summer, he was quiet. I tried to do things with him, but he didn't want to do anything. He was eleven then. I never thought my stepfather would do the same to his own son. I thought he did it to me because I wasn't his."
Tiago's hands clenched around the fabric of my shirt.
"You have to believe me, Vítor. I didn't know. That bastard was doing it to his own son, and I let it happen for three years until he'd had enough and ran away from home. He didn't even try to call me. I would have come for him; I would have brought him to the city and kept him with me. I would have told the truth."
"I know you would have. Your brother was scared and probably felt as alone as you had in all those years. Maybe he saw running as the only option to keep you safe, too."
Tiago looked up and locked eyes with me. I saw the questions there, but this moment was about him letting go and sharing his pain.
"Tell me what I can do to take the pain away, baby."
I knew if I did this, there would be no going back. Dri had been the first and only man I'd ever been with, and here I was contemplating intimacy with another man. But even as doubt crossed my mind, it wasn't that I thought I'd be cheating on Dri or that I didn't have enough experience, but that I knew deep down being with Tiago would change my life.
"It'll never go away," he said.
"Then how about we put it in a box and seal it away just for a little bit?"
His nod was so slight I could have missed it if I wasn't so focused on giving him the respite he needed. His hand came up from my chest to reach behind my neck and pulled me into a kiss.
His kiss was gentle, not more than a peck, but it was enough to set my body on fire, and I had to fight hard to keep my hands where they were, resting on his waist. I didn't want to deepen the kiss before he was ready for it. Not that I had to wait long because when Tiago reached under my shirt and touched my skin, I gasped, which gave him the right opening to explore my mouth with his tongue.
Tiago was everywhere, while his mouth hadn't left mine, he'd positioned himself on top of me and was using his hands to touch any part of me he could reach, and even though they hadn't been anywhere near my cock, his hip movements were enough to get me close to coming.
There was a desperation in his touch. I wanted to believe that desperation was for me, but I suspected in that moment, he just wanted to feel so he could forget.
"Baby," I whispered when he left my mouth to kiss all around my chin and down my neck, "fuck… Tiago, baby."
He stopped and looked at me. I could see he was about to apologize and stop, which hadn't been my intention, so I pulled him into a stupor-inducing kiss, and then said, "Let me look after you."
He nodded and followed my direction when I asked him to lie down on his back. His glasses had been on the bedside table all this time, and I was in two minds to ask him to put them on because I'd been fantasizing about him in nothing else but those damned glasses since the night we'd met.
I didn't bother taking off his T-shirt because the sounds he was making as my hands roamed his body told me he was already on the edge, so I went for the buttons of his jeans.
"One day I'm going to chart the miles of your skin and make a map of all the places I'll want to come back to."
"Vítor, please…" His voice was demanding and desperate.
