by Ana Ashley
"Yes."
Kris chuckled.
"Was it true? What you said earlier?"
"About what?"
"What happens in the rain?"
"Yes," was all I said before fisting my hands on Kris’s shirt and going for another kiss. Between his body heat and how I was feeling inside, I was surprised I hadn't combusted yet despite the cool rain.
"I want to taste you," Kris said before he gave me a last soft kiss, got on his knees, and unbuttoned my jeans. He only pulled them down enough to take my already-leaking cock out.
The relief of having my erection free from the trap of the wet jeans was short lived when Kris took my cock in his mouth and sucked my crown. My knees nearly gave way under the pleasure, and I had to place my hands on Kris’s shoulders to keep upright.
One of Kris's hands wrapped around my cock, twisting deliciously, and adding pressure that, with the additional sucking of the head, was getting me close to blowing. The other hand taking turns massaging my ass and tugging on my balls.
"Oh god, Kris…ngn…" I brought one hand up to my mouth and bit hard to stop myself from being too loud in case there were any curious passers-by.
When I felt myself engulfed in the heat of Kris's mouth all the way down to the root, I couldn't hold it any longer. I came so hard I had to place my hand back on Kris's shoulders or I'd have been a messy gooey puddle of pleasure on the ground.
Kris stood and embraced me, kissing me reverently as though I'd just given him the best gift ever, and not the other way around.
I allowed Kris to command the kissing while I recovered from my earth-shattering orgasm, but as soon as I could think with the correct head again, I went for Kris's jeans.
They were soaking wet, which made them hard to open. Just as Kris had done, I only pushed the jeans down enough that I had room to play. Kris was long and thick, and I wondered how amazing it would feel to have him inside me. Despite having just orgasmed, my hole clenched at the thought.
It wasn't something that would happen today, or maybe ever, so I decided to focus on what I'd been dying to do all day, have a taste.
I went down on my knees and replaced my hand with my mouth.
"Holy mother of—" Kris swore. My chest expanded at the thought that I was the one responsible for unraveling the tall, sexy man in front of me. I changed my position so I could look up at Kris and found him looking back, his mouth slightly open and his eyelids half closed.
I hummed my pleasure at the musky, salty taste. Unfortunately, I couldn't take all of his cock, so I'd had to use my hand, choosing instead to focus on the purple head. When I reached farther into his jeans to tug on his balls, he came in my mouth with the best sound of pleasure and abandon I'd ever heard.
Kris slid down the tree and sat on the wet ground. It was still raining, and we were now soaked to the bone. I straddled Kris and then kissed him, pulling the dark wet hair away from his forehead. Kris looked as thoroughly debauched as I felt. We both laughed.
"Come on, we should go back and change into dry clothes," Kris said as he ran his hand up and down my back, making me shiver. The awareness of the cold rain was starting to settle in. I knew the rain would wash away all the evidence of what we'd done, and soon we'd both be in dry, clean clothes. This would be just a memory, a dream, the one time we both gave in before everything was reset back to how it was.
Before we got up, Kris reached for the pocket of his jeans and took out a small bag of seeds. He gazed into my eyes, and without breaking eye contact he put half the seeds in my hand, and together, we spread them around us until there were none left.
The walk back to the apartments was in silence, but not silent because my mind was loud and working overtime, wondering what would happen now and if this had changed things between us. So much for the rain washing it all away. I laughed.
"What's up?" Kris asked, pulling me closer to keep me warm as we walked.
"Nothing, just…nothing." I sighed.
Kris kissed the side of my head. "Didn't really work for you either, did it?"
"What didn't?"
"The rain. It didn't wash it away."
"No," I admitted quietly.
"I don't want it to. I want to remember this forever so I can carry it with me everywhere I go."
"Oh, Kris, don't say stuff like that. You're making it really hard."
"I'm sorry, baby."
We decided it was best to go to our separate apartments for a shower, but Kris had asked me to come back to his apartment using the connecting door and to bring my bigger sketchpad.
I wanted to punch the tiled wall of the shower in frustration. I didn't know how to tell Kris that I wanted more than the days we had in Chester Falls. Why couldn't we date? Some long-distance relationships worked, right?
I thought about what I knew about Kris, and it wasn't much. It dawned on me that while I'd talked a lot about myself, my work, my passion for drawing, and had introduced my family due to our plan to avoid Rory, Kris hadn't said more than the reason he was in Chester Falls.
Kris had talked a little about his family but not much about his dad. Were they estranged?
Part of me wanted to focus on the missing information as a way to find a fault in Kris so it would make it easier to put some distance between us. Then again, I'd looked into his eyes as he'd spoken about his mom's favorite movie the night before. Those feelings had been real, and then Kris had asked me to stay the night as though he really needed me there.
There wasn't much I could do, so I finished my shower, dried off, and picked some tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt to wear.
I knocked on the connecting door before opening it, smiling at the thought I'd had when I first came to the apartment, wondering if I'd have a noisy neighbor.
When I went inside Kris's room, I noticed a tray with fresh coffee and cookies from Benny’s. My stomach rumbled at the sight of the snack, and I was dying for a coffee, so I went over to the tray and poured the coffee into the two empty cups.
Kris came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his hips, and his hair was messy from the shower. He smiled and went to his suitcase to grab some clothes. I kept busy serving the coffee to avoid looking in Kris's direction.
When I knew Kris was fully clothed, I turned around to give him his drink, and that's when I noticed the large mirror that was propped onto two chairs facing the bed.
15
Kris
Charlie stared at the mirror and then looked at me.
"What's the mirror for?" he asked.
"Do you remember when I asked you to draw me? I changed my mind."
He looked disappointed so I clarified.
"I want you to draw us. Come," I said, coaxing Charlie toward the bed.
"Us?"
"Yes."
I took the coffee mug from Charlie's hand and placed it on the side table. I sat on the bed against the headboard and pulled Charlie to sit between my legs. The way we were sitting with the mirror slightly on the side meant Charlie had a good view of our profile rather than looking straight on.
I reached out for the sketchpad and placed it on Charlie's lap.
Our eyes met in the mirror and time stopped. This was what I'd imagined when Charlie was sketching his family at the barbecue. I'd known without even seeing then that we'd fit together so perfectly it was almost painful to think of us not being together both on paper and in real life.
Charlie picked up his pencils and started drawing.
I didn't want to look until the drawing was finished, so I broke one of the cookies into small pieces and fed them to Charlie, drank my own coffee, and mostly just stared at our joined reflection in the mirror.
Charlie shivered when I sat back a little and ran my hand over his back, placing small butterfly kisses all the way up and then on the back of his neck. The small light hairs on Charlie's neck stood up under the soft touch of my lips.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to distract you," I said when Charlie paused. He h
ad his eyes closed and his head tilted to give me better access.
"Then you'll need to stop doing that."
"Noted."
I resumed my appreciation of our reflection, focusing on Charlie's look of concentration. I let my mind wander to places I probably shouldn't but decided to indulge for a few minutes.
Would Charlie like Lydovia? I was convinced he would. Charlie was a country person at heart despite living in the city. I imagined a life where he would spend his days drawing and the nights in my bed. A life where we'd attend events together and work with the charities we were passionate about.
It could happen, right?
"It's ready."
"Yes…sorry, what?" I stuttered as my mind came back into focus.
"The drawing is ready. Do you want to see it?" Charlie held the sketch against his chest like he was terrified to show it.
"Please."
My voice became trapped in my throat when Charlie revealed the drawing. I'd thought Charlie would draw our figures together with Charlie sitting back against my chest on the bed.
Instead, he'd drawn our heads and shoulders as if we were locked in an embrace. My head came over Charlie's shoulder, with my eyes closed and a smile that captured everything I was feeling. Charlie was looking down and only part of his face was drawn, the rest faded out until it blended with the white paper, but I could see it was Charlie. He had a tiny beauty mark under his right eye. His eyes were open and looking down, but despite it being a pencil drawing, I could swear I saw the real green color of Charlie's eyes.
"Charlie." I choked. "This is the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Second?" Charlie laughed, although it came out more like he had something trapped in his chest.
"The real you is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
I took the sketchpad and placed it on the side table, then I pushed Charlie down on the bed and kissed him. We made out for the longest time, no words exchanged, just light touches, some hot and heavy kissing, and some soft pecks. We lay on the bed side by side, staring at each other until his cellphone went off.
"What's that?" Charlie asked, still looking dazed from our make-out session.
"Sounds like your phone."
"Oh."
He got up to answer it while I picked mine up to send Aleks a text. When I put my cellphone down, I looked at Charlie, noticing his sudden change straight away. He turned around, looking worried.
"My parents are inviting us for dinner," he said and placed the phone against his chest.
"Would you like to go?"
"Yes, but…"
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I um…do you want to come with me?"
I chuckled. "I would love to. Besides, your family already loves me," I said, hoping he'd feel reassured with whatever he was struggling with.
It seemed to work because he rolled his eyes and smiled, pulling the phone up to his ear to let them know we'd be there later.
Charlie tore the drawing from the sketchpad and gave it to me before he went back to his room to get ready.
I walked to the window with the drawing in my hand. I looked at it again in the brighter light now that it had stopped raining. I had no clue what to do. No surprises there.
Maybe I could speak to Aleks. She'd know what to do.
I stared at the view outside the window and saw Tristan chatting to Olly, who was pointing at some flowers. My cellphone rang, making me jump.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Brat, how's it going?" Aleks's voice was like a soothing balm washing over me. I hadn't realized how much I'd miss my sister while I was away.
"How are you? How's Dad, is everything okay?"
"The king is fine. I know you told me you don't get good signal there, but I don't know, I just had this feeling…"
"I'm glad you called. I need advice."
"Of course."
"Aleks, I'm falling for someone, and I don't know what to do." I sat on the edge of the bed and rested my head on my hand.
"What happened?"
"I met this guy. He's staying in the apartment next to mine. He's really sweet and perfect, so talented, and I can't look in his eyes without wanting to tell him how I feel."
Aleks sighed on the other end of the line. "Does he feel the same way?"
"I don't know. I think so."
"But he doesn't know who you are."
"Yeah, and there's more. I'm meant to be his fake boyfriend at his sister's wedding."
Just saying it aloud made my stomach turn. Because it sounded ridiculous, and because I didn't want to be a fake anything. I wanted it to be real. I wanted to explore these growing feelings and see if Charlie felt the same way.
Aleks laughed.
"Aleks?"
"Oh my god, Brat. Are you serious?"
"Yes!"
"I can name off the top of my head at least five novels on my bookshelf with fake boyfriend stories, and one of them even has a prince."
"Yes, yes, very funny," I said, rolling my eyes. "Any tips on what I need to do for a happy ending?"
Aleks was silent for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was steady and firm.
"Real life isn't like a novel, Kris. If you really have feelings for this guy, you need to tell him the truth. If he accepts you for who you are, that's great, but he'll need to understand what comes with being in a relationship with a prince. Not many people would want this life."
"What do I do if he doesn't?"
"You'll need to let him go, Brat."
What Aleks said wasn't news, but after hearing it, I knew I'd need to tell Charlie, well, eventually. I wasn't quite ready to lose what we had, especially after today.
"Thanks, Sestra."
"You're welcome."
I got ready quickly and knocked on the connecting door before going into Charlie's apartment.
He looked good enough to eat in his tight jeans, white shirt, and navy suit vest on top.
"What do you think?" Charlie asked.
I dragged him to me and inhaled the scent of his aftershave. "Hmm, edible." I kissed the side of his neck and bit the lobe of his ear.
"We'll never make it to dinner at this rate," he said.
I kissed him one last time and let him go, albeit reluctantly.
"Let's go. We don't want to keep your family waiting."
"Says he who's started with the post-dinner activities already."
"Baby, you're the starter, main course, dessert, and post-dinner activities," I said in a deep husky voice I almost didn't recognize as my own. "No matter what I'll have for food, I can guarantee I'll still want to ravish you later if you'll let me."
"Fuck."
I didn't miss Charlie adjusting himself as we walked down the long corridor to the main stairs of the Old Mill. Tristan really was doing a great job with the look and feel of the building. I'd noticed how touches of color appeared in some areas, blending the industrial origins of the building with its new incarnation as a place for people to live in and socialize.
Charlie stopped a few feet short of his parents' front door.
"Hey," I said, turning him to face me and tilting his chin up so I could look into his eyes. "It's going to be fine. I've got you, okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
Hannah opened the door with a bowl of chips in her hands.
"Come in, guys. Dinner's nearly ready."
"Does Mom know you're ruining your appetite?" Charlie asked, picking a few chips himself.
"Nope, and you're not telling her either."
She turned toward the stairs, but Charlie stopped her and whispered, "Is Rory here?"
Hannah narrowed her eyes. "No, why would he?"
"Isn't he staying here while his apartment is having work done?"
She waved her hand. "That was all finished days ago. He's back at his place."
I would have been angry that Charlie had had to stay away from his family because of this guy, and he wasn't even here anymore,
but seeing Charlie relax turned my focus where it should've been, him.
"Come on, sweetheart. You have some childhood photos to show me."
"What?" he said and blinked in shock.
"I believe it's in the boyfriend manual. Letting the parents embarrass you by showing all your baby photos."
"That is correct, darling," Charlie's mom said, appearing out of nowhere, hugging us both. "If you want to wait in the lounge, I'll call you when dinner is ready. We can do embarrassing photos after."
I followed Charlie farther into the house as he mumbled something about betrayal and family. I pulled him to me so his back was to my front and put my arm around his waist.
"You also get to show me your childhood bedroom," I whispered in his ear so no one else could hear. "Guess what the boyfriend manual says about that."
He let out a small groan and continued to lead us to the lounge where his dad was nursing a beer in front of the TV.
Martin invited us to grab a drink and watch a soccer game with him. I could tell Charlie wasn't sure what to do, so I sat on one of the sofas and pulled Charlie so he was snuggled against me. He relaxed a little, leaning into me, and lacing our fingers together.
We sat in silence for a while until the soccer game got exciting.
"Oh, come on, he was clearly offside," Martin shouted at the TV.
"I agree," I said. "The referee needs an eye test. It was clear the guy was in the wrong place."
We clinked our bottles together, and I noticed Charlie staring at me.
"You okay, baby?" I whispered.
He nodded and looked back at the TV.
Charlie's mom announced dinner just as the game finished and within seconds Hannah, Ellie, and a guy I assumed was Charlie's brother, Connor, joined us at the long wooden dining table in the kitchen.
"So, you're the guy I keep hearing about," Connor said, shaking my hand. "Nice to meet you, man."
"Nice to meet you too."
"Okay, who's going to tease Charlie about bringing a boyfriend home for the first time ever?" Hannah asked and five hands raised.