by Dawn Sister
"What?" I feel my eyes widen and my breath quicken, "How?" My heart is pounding in my chest.
Cal smirks at me as he leans back into the pillows and regards me with an extremely smug expression, but not an angry one,
"You think I didn't notice all the times you hid behind your ivy, or stood just beyond my sight in your kitchen, Jake?" He is smiling, but I have no idea why, because he should be frowning, scowling, spitting furiously. He should be kicking my ass for every time he's caught me covertly spying on him. Why isn't he? "I'm deaf not blind." He explains, "And because I'm deaf I see a hell of a lot more than others do, I notice a hell of a lot more."
I regard him with a feeling of dread, because he knew. He knew all along I'd been watching him and he never said a thing,
"W-why aren't you kicking my ass right now?" I ask him, my voice barely a whisper, "Why don't you hate me? Or-or think I'm a creep?"
"Why would I do that?" he looks incredulous, "Don't you see? It was your watching me that kept me safe."
I gasp, because this is what I have thought, but it was only wishful thinking on my part, only a way to justify what I'd done.
Cal pats the bed to urge me to sit once more but I'm too wound up. I begin to pace, my hands in my hair as I begin to ramble,
"I shouldn't have done it I know. I shouldn't have been watching you. I couldn't help it though. God you were so beautiful, and I wanted to get to know you but you wouldn't answer your door that first day. You were so alone and looked so lonely and sad, you kept inside most of the time and when you went outside you had those head phones on and you were so watchful and wary and always so careful."
"Jake!" he shouts at me, "To my face or not at all." He orders, and I stop with a gasp and turn to him, "You're rambling, old man." He says a little more gently, "I need you to say it to my face otherwise there's no point in saying it at all." I give a helpless shrug,
"You know it all anyway." I feel defeated, hopeless. He's going to hate me forever, although, without thinking I have flopped back down on the bed. I hang my head in despair, "Why don't you hate me, Cal?"
"Jake, I don't hate you, god how could I ever hate you?" He lifts my chins with his forefinger, "I was the luckiest man alive when I moved next door to you."
"I-I don't know how you can think that? You know all about my stalking, you probably even know about the note book." He frowns,
"Notebook? What notebook?"
"Oh holy shit!" I gasp hoarsely, because if he didn't know about it he does now. I take a breath, intending to add this confession to my other indiscretions.
Cal dismisses the notebook explanation with a shake of his head,
"Whatever, Jake, tell me later, I have something I need to tell you. I need you to listen and then you can decide whether or not to have a nervous breakdown, okay?" he looks deep into my eyes and I try to meet his gaze but I can't, I just can't. I screw my eyes shut and just nod,
"Okay." I swallow hard, because this is where he tells me he doesn’t want a relationship with a creepy pervert who watched from behind his curtains despite everything else he's said to the contrary.
"When I first moved here I knew my Uncle and Aunt wouldn't leave me alone for long. I suspected something would happen and I suspected they were having me watched. I'd suspected I was being watched before I moved here." I nod, opening my eyes now and meeting his gaze. What he is saying is making sense, the feelings of inevitability I'd felt from him when his house had been trashed. He'd expected something to happen,
"I thought something would have happened before it did." Cal continues, "but it didn't and I know why now. I understand why."
"Why?" I ask with a frown. Cal grabs my face again and stares deep into my eyes once more,
"Because of you Jake," he whispers, "Because you were watching me, like a guardian angel. Who was ever going to try anything with my guardian angel watching over me?" I gasp incredulously. He laughs and runs his thumb affectionately along my bottom lip, "When I realised this was the case I started getting bolder. I started going out surfing more, making sure you'd seen me and noted where I was going. I knew I was safe going for a run because you would see what time I started and would know what time I usually finished. I knew if I wasn't back in time you would have come looking for me."
"Oh, Cal!" I sigh, feeling suddenly weak that he had had so much confidence in my ability to protect him before we had even met.
I dare to touch his cheek, caress it even and he leans into the caress with a soft moan, holding my hand against his face and kissing my palm,
"I wanted to meet you so badly and I had a plan, but then you took matters into your own hands I got kind of spooked."
I chuckle at the memory of how scared he'd been when I'd just accosted him in the street the day he'd left his wallet in the market,
"I'd sensed I was being watched in town, but I just didn't know who by. I felt like such a fool running away from you both times, but you genuinely did scare me that second time. I worried I'd got you all wrong when I saw what you had in your basket."
I groan and face palm,
"I am never going to live that down am I?" I ask him and he shakes his head with an impish giggle,
"Never!" His smile and giggle is infectious and I return it, shuffling closer to him and holding his hands in mine as he continues to give me his explanation, "So I thought I'd got you all wrong, then when you delivered that basket of stuff from the drugstore along with the flowers and an apology I realised I'd got you all right. I was plucking up the courage to come over when you fell out of your balcony and I had no choice. I had to see if you were okay."
"You were so defensive though." I tell him, "I thought I'd blown it when you just up and left."
Cal shrugs, "I wanted to play it cool. I couldn't let you know I liked you, I was afraid you'd treat me like a kid, tell me it was a crush. I knew it wasn't. Plus I knew we were being watched, I had to be careful." I remember the photographs of Cal pulling me to my feet and of him standing on my deck that day. I feel sick knowing he was going through so much stress,
"Cal," I press a kiss to the corner of his lips, "I watched you because you were beautiful and I wanted so much to get to know you. I watched you because you were so alone and I wanted to see you smile so damn much."
"You told me that when you got drunk and I found you singing on your porch." I grimace,
"I still can't remember everything that happened that night." I confess, "You are going to have to fill in the blanks."
"You didn't say anything to be ashamed of." He assures me, drawing closer to me and cupping his hand around the back of my neck, "You said all the right things, Jake."
"All the right things for what?" I ask, feeling my breath hitch as his lips brush tantalisingly close to mine,
"All the right things to make me fall in love with you."
His breath ghosts across my cheek as his lips press to mine. His tongue brushes my bottom lip and I open to him with a sigh. His words send delightful shivers down my spine and I melt into his touch.
Gently I lower him down onto the pillows and brush his hair from his face, covering his lips, his cheeks, his jaw with feathery kisses as he whispers my name so softly I think I might be hearing it in my head,
"What did I say to you that was so effective?" I ask him, suddenly curious, "I think I might need to say those things again, just to see the moment for myself."
Cal chuckles and runs his fingers through my hair,
"You told me you wanted to make every part of me smile."
"Then that's exactly what I'm going to do right now, Cal," I tell him, leaning in for another soft tender kiss that I know will soon heat up to blistering, "Because I fell in love with you the morning you arrived and you brought the Sunshine with you."
Our lips crush together in earnest now as he pulls me down on top of him, his hands knowing exactly where to touch me for maximum effect. I gasp and moan into his mouth as he feeds his hand up inside my T shirt to find my sens
itive nipples. This is only our third time together but it's as if we know each other by heart.
He's right to say it was stupid to dismiss the possibility of finding the love of my life just because there was an age difference. If I'd listened to myself I wouldn't be here with him right now telling him I loved him with all my heart.
I pull back from his urgent kisses with a gasp,
"I haven't told you that yet." He frowns,
"Told me what?"
"That I love you." His eyes widen and he smiles, reaching up to pull me back into another blistering kiss that goes straight to my groin without any preamble,
"I don't need to hear it." His words are soft breaths in my ear, "I see it with my eyes. I feel it with every inch of my body."
I feel the reaction in his body, the hardness and heat of his cock against my though.
I hesitate though, because he is hurt, he needs to be taking some rest, not grappling with me between the sheets,
"Are you sure you're up to this?" I ask him, pulling away again and eliciting another frustrated growl from him, although this time he is more amused than irritated,
"It's my ankle that got broke, not my dick, Jake." He tells me bluntly. Far from finding his words crass, they've turned me on even more. He pulls me back down to continue the kiss and I feel myself losing the battle once more, not that I was putting up much of a fight, just I don't want to hurt him, "I'm not asking you to fuck, me, Jake, just please, I need you to touch me. I need to touch you. I need to know you're still here, and this is still real after everything that happened today."
I bury my face in his shoulder with a sudden gasping sob, "Cal." I murmur, "My beautiful Cal."
He pushes me away when he realises I'm crying. I didn't even know until I feel the wetness of my tears. But his words called back the terrible moment when I'd seen him fall to a heap on the ground by my feet and thought he was dead,
"I thought I'd lost you." He wipes my tears, whispering softly to me,
"You haven't, you won't ever. I'm here always. I'm yours, Jake, forever yours." I give a soft cry as I kiss him again,
"And here I thought I belonged to you." I smirk. He chuckles,
"You do!" his expression says this should be duly understood and noted, "Just as long as you realise that everything will be just fine."
"Cocky bastard!" I hiss but I soften the words with a kiss that makes him moan and shudder and tells me that he is at least a little at my mercy. I'm going to enjoy showing him just how much I can make him mine, "Now how about you show me just how much I belong to you." Cal groans as I suck wet kisses down his neck and over his shoulder, his t shirt discarded without a second thought,
"Oh god yes, Jake." He calls out desperately, as I push my hand down into his pants and he throws his head back in pleasure as I wrap long, practised fingers around his erection, "God." He hisses, then lifts his head to look at me with those damn gorgeous blue eyes, "Make me smile, Jacob Reuben, make me smile."
That's all I've ever wanted to do, Cal.
The End.
About Dawn Sister
I like chocolate, coffee and donuts, sometimes all at the same time. I love evenings around a campfire singing in the company of good friends. I like listening to the dawn chorus even if I've been awake all night. I like reading stories with characters that are filled with hope even in their darkest hours. I like happy endings.
I write M/M romance (with happy endings of course). Find me on Goodreads, follow me on Twitter (@Dawnsister1) and on Facebook (Dawn Sister, Author).
My other stories can be found at www.fictionpress.com/~dawnsister and www.fanfiction.net/~dawnsister