My ice cream forgotten, I watched the tip of that tongue circle the ice cream in his hand, then take the flavor inside his now probably cold mouth.
He had such a small tongue and lips that looked extremely soft. For some reason, I remembered the last woman I’d kissed years ago and realized that that yearning was nothing compared to the attraction I felt toward Nino’s lips at that moment.
The knowledge I suddenly possessed didn’t help one bit. I blushed like a girl and started eating my ice cream as if I could hide behind it. It looked more like a desperate devouring than a slow enjoyment, but I was beyond caring. I’d just thought of Nino as someone I wished to kiss. That wasn’t anything to be taken lightly, but it also wasn’t a feeling I’d experienced before. Ever!
After I finished eating, I walked to the edge of the boardwalk and looked down at the water, giving Nino the time he needed to eat his ice cream. I didn’t have the nerve to stand next to him for one more second. I was afraid of my sudden thoughts as much as his honest reactions about everything.
Only when I saw him from the corner of my eye, standing up and heading toward me, did I turn back. I took my bike and mounted it, trying desperately not to look as if I were in a hurry, and Nino followed my example by getting on his.
We were back on the road soon enough, the sea looking more blue than when we had been heading out. The view was as spectacular as ever, but despite my honest enjoyment, thoughts crowded my already bruised mind.
I was the kind of man who never had any time for relationships. Even sex was squeezed in between my canceled meetings, or it took place on slow nights, but every single one of those encounters contained a woman in the mix. Men had never found themselves in my busy schedule as someone with whom I could have anything more than a conversation.
Who would have thought that I, Jonathan Morgan, would imagine kissing a man, but not only that; that I, Jonathan Morgan, would be excruciatingly attracted to the idea? Well, I certainly didn’t fit in with the ones who would have predicted such a thing.
Time passed in silence, for which I was grateful. The sun was slowly sinking on the other side of the island, leaving us to ride in cricket song-filled shade.
Nino was a man who allowed me to come out of my shell, to experience the world as I had never known it before. And he did all of it with pure delight—looking happy with every meal, smiling at every small event we’d shared since we’d been here. I had realized from the first moment I laid my eyes on him just how handsome he was, but it was only now that the observation reached its full meaning. Where there was attraction, there was bound to be something more.
The only thing that scared me more than a relationship with a man was the tumor growing slowly in my head, killing me. Considering the latter option meant certain death, a relationship really wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
One thought pulled the other to the surface, and by the time we’d reached the house, the headache that had eluded me that morning came on with a vengeance.
“I’ll make some dinner later. Do you want to do something while we wait?” Nino asked as he leaned his bike against the house.
“I have a headache. I’m going to bed,” I told him, not even giving myself time to look at him.
I grabbed a glass of water before slamming the bedroom door behind me. It was another one of those rash decisions that pulsed throughout my skull as I downed two pills and crashed on the bed.
* * *
The next few days were as fun as the first few, filled with new experiences, interesting places, and even better food. My headaches stopped being my wake-up call, which allowed me to open my bedroom door smiling and eagerly awaiting Nino’s delicious breakfasts.
I loved spending time with him, something that only intensified the more time passed on the island, the same as my feelings. The attraction was still subtle, but also something I gave more and more credence to.
My limited life span made me a man of many risks, and despite the fact that I lacked certain bravery where Nino was concerned, I was determined to make some kind of a move before my life on earth expired.
One of the new things in my life were the shorts I started wearing when going out. Exposing my hairy legs was unthinkable in the corporate world, but here it didn’t seem to matter. The heat forced me out of my jeans, and in a little over a week, I was unrecognizable.
My hair never stayed the way I arranged it in the morning, but that stopped bothering me for some reason. A smile was permanently attached to my face, as well as a tan that painted my skin. Casual banter with Nino gave me pleasure, but it was his crazy ideas that made me feel like a changed man. I went out with him, and work never even crossed my mind, whereas before, it was something I never stopped thinking about.
“Boss!” Nino called from the kitchen. “Lunch is on the table; get your stiff ass in here.”
His vocabulary was relaxed too, shocking me at times, but mostly just making me smile. I got up from the deck chair, bringing the beer bottle with me to the kitchen. Just the smell was enough to make me moan and for Nino to snicker in satisfaction.
The meals he gifted me with daily—and they couldn’t be called anything less than a gift—were addictive. Like the best drugs money could buy. I thanked God, fate, whatever higher force made me crash into his bike, every night. Now that I’d known him, I couldn’t even picture myself somewhere different.
“What is it?” I asked, looking inside the pot from where the smell lured me.
“It’s a Mediterranean fish stew. Hope you like it.” He sat down, motioning me to serve myself first.
I happily obliged, already aching for a taste. It was only as I sat down that I noticed warm bread buns beside the pot. I took one, bringing it to my nose first, and discovered an amazing aroma from it too.
“Did you make these as well?” I looked at Nino, already knowing the answer. The man was a genius in the kitchen.
“Yes.” He blushed, a trait I found attractive on him. “It has onion and herbs in it. I think it would go great with the stew, but I have white bread too if you would like that instead.” He wasn’t insecure much, but sometimes he tiptoed around me when the most trivial things were in question.
It only made me more curious, more determined to discover what hid beneath the thick layers of his persona.
“No, this is wonderful, thank you. I think I’m not paying you enough,” I said as I scooped up a prawn with my spoon and brought it to my mouth.
The taste was divine, almost forcing little hearts to appear in my eyes, the same ones the characters in the cartoons we’d started watching had.
“I think you overpay me. All I do is cook and keep you company. You even hired a cleaning lady so that I’d have more time for you,” he complained, but only halfheartedly. I’d also discovered which smiles went with which mood when he was in question.
“That’s because I’m a selfish bastard. Not much you can do about that. It’s probably carved in my genes.” I grinned at him, loving every minute of the conversation.
He just smiled with something close to affection, but what were the chances that two straight guys would be attracted to each other when found in a different environment? It wasn’t a likely scenario, so that was just one other emotion I attributed to amusement.
“I also made a fruit compote, but it’s cold. I was thinking we could take it to the terrace.”
“That’s fine with me. What are our plans for today? Are we going somewhere?” I asked in between bites.
“We could go to that bar next to the store. Most of the young people around here spend their nights there playing pool.” His eyes found mine. I could see the question within.
“Yes. That sounds great.”
“You do know how to play pool, right?” Nino asked jokingly.
I hesitated enough for him to realize that in fact, I had no idea how to play pool.
“Don’t worry about it; you’ll learn tonight.” His eyes had mischief written in them as he spoke the
words.
Good God. What have I gotten myself into?
* * *
I stormed into the house, slamming the door behind me. Nino had hurried after me all the way from the bar, but I didn’t stop for his idiotic explanations. I was so angry that I saw red.
The last time I’d reached this level of pissed off was a long time ago, but nothing had come close to it since I’d been on the island. Nino opened the door behind me, and I heard him come into the kitchen. His face was marred with what looked like a permanent scowl, and I could see the edges of anger pooling to the surface.
What he had to be angry about, I had no idea, but the problem was I didn’t even care.
“What got you all hot and bothered out there?” He came into my space, demanding an answer.
“Your idiotic behavior! That’s what!” I shot back, not guarding my expression in the least.
“What the hell was wrong with my behavior?” Traces of confusion could be heard among all that anger.
“What do you think? You left me there, for fuck’s sake! You didn’t even tell me you were leaving, not to mention when you would be back!” I could feel my face getting warm as I tried to lower my tone.
“So what? Are you a baby all of a sudden, and I have to hold your fucking hand every minute of every day?” His words were bitter, hurting, and the last thing I needed to hear.
“No, you don’t need to hold my fucking hand! I was idiotically worried about you! I kept imagining something happening to you, that you got drunk and fell into the sea, that someone beat you to death and you were all alone. So excuse me for showing my concern in such an obvious way!” I watched as color drained from his face and the words got stuck in his throat.
I was still angry, but now I was also hurting. Nino was the first person I’d opened up to since I was a child, and the last thing I needed was to be burned for it.
I took four beers from the fridge and headed to my room, purposely ignoring him.
“Wait. I’m sorry…” He tried calling after me, but I was too far gone to listen.
“So am I!” I shot back and slammed the second door in just as many minutes, locking myself in my room so I could escape from the world.
I threw myself on the bed the minute I put down the bottles, tears coming of their own volition. The night had been amazing, right up until the moment some girl started spinning around me and Nino edged away to make some other guy laugh.
The woman was cute enough, but I only had eyes for him. His hands kept brushing me innocently, forcing me to hide my erection behind the pool table. He’d shown me how to stand, how to hold the pool cue, and even kept fixing my aim. It almost became an obsession, to guess which fingers he would touch me with the next time it was my turn.
I couldn’t believe such an amazing night had turned into utter bullshit.
It was the moment the woman had leaned over to ask me to come to her house. I had no intention of accepting, but just that one moment was enough to lose sight of Nino. Both he and the guy who’d been pestering him were gone. I excused myself from the company we had accumulated throughout the night and went in search of him.
A few guys I asked saw him leaving toward the back of the settlement, but no one had any idea where exactly he had gone. After an hour of useless searching, I was already out of my mind. Imagining all the worst scenarios—that someone had kidnapped him, that he’d drowned, even that someone had killed him for some inexplicable reason. Not even once did I think he was enough of a man to take care of himself. He had the physical build as well as the experience to get out of stupid situations, but in that moment, common sense was so far out of reach for me that I would have believed even in the insane story that aliens took him.
I sat up and wiped my tears with the sheet under me. Then I stared at the wall and downed two of the beers before I decided to walk down memory lane again. Nino had reappeared after almost an hour and a half had passed, walking next to that same guy, laughing about something. That sight had all my worries boiling down into anger, and I stormed toward the house before I lost it and told him something irreversible in public.
Unfortunately he caught the look on my face and hurried after me. Called my name all the way to the house, trying to persuade me to stop and explain myself.
By the third beer, I started wondering what exactly they had been doing all alone somewhere behind the trees. I would have pegged it as a fuck break if not for my certainty that Nino was as much a straight guy as I was. Only my straight gene had taken a detour to fairyland the moment my eyes caught the shine of those luscious lips.
By the time I got to the fourth beer, all I thought about was the erection in my pants. I took off my clothes and spread my legs on the bed. The erection straining between them was anything but innocent, and every inch of swollen flesh was caused by none other than the man in the room opposite mine.
I squirted some lube on my palm, wrapped it around my dick, and closed my tired eyes. The images started dancing right away. Those lush lips were sucking on my leaking head, his fingers playing around my sensitive balls. I watched the messy hair that moved with his every motion, the way his cheeks hollowed with every suck.
In my head he moaned around me, mimicking my own sounds of satisfaction that had no other choice but to escape. The heat of his mouth couldn’t be compared to anything I’d ever experienced, but it was the way he took all of me inside that blew my mind. At the same time the tip of my dick hit the back of his throat, his fingers slid between my cheeks, and I came with a shout.
A string of white marred my naked stomach, and I was dazed enough not to see Nino standing at my door until a soft moan escaped his lips.
It was a moment of shame, shock, satisfaction, and longing, all packed into one. I wanted him, badly, and I’m sure he would have caught all that on my face if not for his rushed words.
“I’m sorry. I knocked, but you mustn’t have heard. Sorry.” And the door closed behind him as he escaped. But not before I caught the outline of an erection in his pants.
* * *
I woke up the next morning, expecting a painful conversation, but it all went as usual. There were no accusations or uncontrolled crying. Like real men, we pretended nothing had happened and continued with our usual good fun.
A week later I came out of my room looking like an exotic dancer just about ready to shed his clothes. Nino had bought me something to wear, saying how I needed to look good enough for a dance club.
Good enough for him meant the tightest pants in existence and a shirt that was only a notch looser. But the shirt made up for it with its blinding red color. I also had a bracelet made of seashells and metal that I thought looked kind of girly but secretly liked because it was a gift from Nino. The shoes were a pair of my black ones that I was actually fond of, so I was planning on keeping my mouth shut about them.
But any argumentative words flew from my mouth when I saw Nino standing at the end of the hallway. His pants were tight too, but contrary to mine, they were white. I had nothing against white when it hugged an incredible ass, an ass that was covered only with that white. I only vaguely noticed that the shirt matched his green eyes, because my jaw just wouldn’t come back up off the floor, despite all the effort I put behind that action.
He turned around just as my eyes were climbing to the back of his head, his gaze instantly traveling from my chest down to my feet and then back again. There was something burningly hot in that look, some kind of want no woman had ever directed my way.
I was flattered, but more than that, I was turned on. In the past week, I’d become painfully aware of just how little was needed for me to react to Nino’s movements, smiles, not to mention his touches and looks.
My erection became a constant reminder of how much I wanted him, and the boundaries I’d set for myself concerning him were slowly disappearing with every day that passed.
“Hey,” he said a moment before his eyes connected with my hair, and he rushed toward me.
“Your hair can’t look like that.” His fingers passed through it, lifting it from my scalp, but simultaneously sending little arousing shocks down my body. “Come with me.”
His action reminded me tremendously of his cooking, where everything else would disappear except his main focus. Right now, that focus was my neatly arranged hair, and he led me into the bathroom.
“Don’t worry. I won’t mess it up much. This will just give it a little boost and make you look younger. The chicks will be all over you, trust me.” The only thing wrong about that statement was that no chick could measure up to him in my world anymore.
I tried with all my might not to close my eyes or moan as his fingers continuously pampered my hair, making it look like something from my worst meeting nightmares.
“Are we going to the club right away?” I asked, just to keep my mind distracted.
“No. First we are going to get drunk. Well, still-being-able-to-walk kind of drunk. I want you to be relaxed by the time we get inside,” he told me, not looking at my face. “God knows I could use some relaxation.” The mumbled words came next, not really meant for my ears, or so I guessed.
“Are you feeling tense?” I asked, forcing him to look at me directly for the first time that night.
“No. No. I’m fine,” he deflected, doing his finger thing again.
“Will we be going to the bar for drinks?”
He laughed slightly at that. “No. We’ll buy a bottle of vodka and some juice, then walk to the dance club. There’s nothing but a road and a pine forest leading to the place, and it’s a long walk.”
“We are drinking while walking. How is that smart?” I wanted an explanation but wasn’t planning on passing up the opportunity.
“I didn’t say it was smart, but I am saying it’s fun. The walk will burn out some of the alcohol, and by the time we get there, we will be perfectly buzzed.” He stepped back finally and washed his hands in the sink.
Looking for Adventure Page 8