“A deal’s a deal,” he answered with a textbook Romeo shrug. He looked sure, but he sounded strange, as if his chest were tight and he found it as hard to breathe as I did.
He reached between his legs and guided me into him as if that were easy too. His hips rose to meet me as I drilled into heaven. A quick hiss and the appearance of little lines around his eyes said it wasn’t easy to take me. As always, I felt his pain as if it were my own and winced. I tried to stop, to back up, but I couldn’t because Romeo was pulling me down. His arms and legs were wrapped around me, holding me tightly, cocooning me, a gravitational force I was powerless to resist.
I looked down at him to make sure he was okay. He nodded and his eyes said yes. They said he wanted more. I’d never seen them like that. Naked. Pupils blown out so big that they almost looked black. Tiny sparks in the dark with endless constellations buried inside them.
His jaw worked repeatedly, teeth sinking into a fleshy bottom lip each time I thrust. The sounds he made were sweet and soft and a little bit strangled. I was strangled too. Ecstasy had me in a chokehold. I was mainlining pleasure. Gulping it down. Swallowing every morsel I could find. Licking his neck and kissing his mouth as I moved with a care and gentleness I hadn’t known I possessed. The world was on a knife-edge. Every breath seemed to matter. Every second. Every touch. It all felt new and old and completely addictive. The only thing I wanted was to make Romeo feel good. I wanted that more than I’d ever wantedanything. I searched his face and nearly turned inside out when I saw nothing but pleasure. His eyes were frozen, fire, locked on mine. Not moving. Not blinking.
I clung to him and onto the edge for as long as I could. I kept thrusting until my mind went vacant and white spots appeared in my field of vision. Until pleasure started to change and feel other. Until Romeo reached between us and started frantically jacking his dick. There was an urgency to his actions that matched the roar of blood pumping through my body. His ring began to spasm around me, a dull pause and tight clench that forcibly dragged my orgasm closer to the surface. Closer and closer. So close I felt the seam ripping. I felt myself tearing. Breaking. Shooting. Thick, boiling love and lust shot out of me and into him. I pushed it in deeper and deeper, hips grinding against him in helpless spasms until he cried out and the space between his body and mine was warm and slick too.
Afterward, he looked like he was floating. He stayed on his back with one leg splayed over mine and didn’t move. His arms were limp at his sides, palms up, hands open. His chest rose and fell at semi-regular intervals and his mouth was ajar. He didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it. I lay by his side and breathed him in. The entire room was laced with his scent. I could smell his skin and what we’d done. Gentle waves of pleasure surged through me whenI inhaled, and until I lost my battle with sleep, all I could taste was Romeo’s kisses.
17
“Fortunes fool”
Now
Selby gets home tofind Romeo has not used the wicker baskets she instructed him to. Instead, the pages he’s working on remain strewn all over his desk. To make matters worse, the fruits of today’s efforts have been added to yesterday’s pages. Not only are they not stacked next to the baskets. They’re not stacked at all.
She’s not happy about it. She pinches her mouth into a tight line, sets her bag down on the kitchen counter, and marches over with purpose. Despite telling myself in no uncertain terms to stay out of it, I pull myself up from where I’ve been lying on the sofa and peek over the back to see what’s happening.
She’s giving him hell. Quiet, hissing hell. He’s letting it bounce off him, but as it goes on, I notice his shoulders drooping. The rage it incites in me is the same as it was then. The same as it was when teachers yelled his name or people upset him. It’s instant. A hot rip that’sso intense I have a physical reaction to it. My face changes. The beast is awakened. Romeo recognizes it as soon he sees it.
He looks at me and gives me an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
It’s not worth it,the air around him whispers.
It is fucking worth it, so I get up and stalk over to where they are and turn to Selby.
“I think Romeo’s still working on that,” I say with a bright smile I learned from her.
She rolls her eyes angrily before remembering she’s a wonderful hostess and I’m a beloved guest in their home. She quickly corrects. “Oh, you,” she says, whacking my arm just a little harder than a playful whack calls for. “You’ve always been like this, haven’t you? Thick as thieves, you two. But fine, have it your way. He can keep it out, but you better make sureyou’rethe one to help him tidy it up because I’m not available to do it.”
She heads upstairs to change out of her work clothes, leaving a strange mood in her wake. Her absence feels big in the room. Big, but welcome. I feel distinctly told off. I really do. I’ve been scolded. Corrected. Put in my place by someone who believes they’re the boss of me. I feel exactly how I used to when Romeo and I were kids and we’d get in trouble at school. The same thing happens now as happened then.
A small, rough snort leaves me and Romeo’s shoulders shake. He surreptitiously clamps a hand to his mouth and his eyes bulge slightly.
We look at each other and time doesn’t matter. We laugh the way we laughed then. Loud, unhinged cackles spray out of us, interspersed by wheezes and gasps and weird, pained howls.
“Shh,” hisses Romeo, panicking like he always did when this happened.
I don’t stop laughing. He doesn’t either. We laugh and laugh until we’re so weak we have to lean against each other for balance. His shoulder touches my shoulder, digging into me, reminding me of everything.
Reminding me that Romeo is everything.
I slide my hand up his back and hook my arm casually around his neck. It’s an old, instinctive move. Something that’s happened so many times it’s written into my bones. I freeze the second it’s done. I’m a fool. One who is suddenly, painfully, brutally aware that this is now, not then. I wait in red-hot discomfort for him to snarl and push me away.
He doesn’t.
He turns toward me the slightest amount. The tiniest bit. Just a degree or so, but holy fuck, I feel it. His body, his presence, near mine. In my orbit. My atmosphere. Inthe air I breathe. He tilts his head, and for one, maybe two seconds, he rests it lightly against mine. My knees almost give way with relief.
For the first time in years, I’m home.
Romeo is grilling burgers. Selby’s bounced back, smile firmly back in place, and is on the patio supervising him as she sips a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. I’m sitting next to her, watching Romeo. Tiger sits at his heel, looking up at him as if he hung the moon.
I know the feeling.
Now and again, Romeo leans down and says, “How many times do we have to go through this, boy? You know I can’t pet you now. I’m cooking.”
