Blood Red Roses

by S. J. Coles

  “That’s the Cellar Jazz Band…”

  “What?” Kim had to yell to be heard. Rick repeated his awed statement, louder and Kim grinned. “It’s a Jazz and Soul festival. As soon as I heard it was on, I thought of you. I was gonna tell you yesterday but then—”

  “You fellas want a table?” They nodded to the waitress who had appeared at their side and followed her through the crowded room to a table near the front. The music was so loud that it precluded any further conversation, but the energy, the exuberance, the sheer joy that it pumped into the room, along with the buzz created by the very good bottle of bourbon Kim ordered, pushed everything else out of Rick’s mind.

  He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten how good it was to watch live music. Couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to forget. He spent a troubled moment wondering why he’d let that happen but then the band blasted into their next number and he allowed himself to be swept away again.

  The afternoon slipped into evening. The Cellar Jazz Band were followed by the Chicago Sinners, a blues group he’d long been hoping to see, who in turn were followed by The Mississippi Aces. Before he knew it, he was more than comfortably drunk, the festival was over, and they were stepping out of the stuffy club and into the crisp, cold night. There were several missed calls on his mobile and one clipped voicemail from DC Walsh asking him to call, but the potent mix of alcohol, music-induced euphoria and mounting physical need for Kim was more than enough to distract his thoughts from the unpleasant events of the night before.

  “I’ll get a car,” Kim broke off their hungry kiss to say in a slightly slurred voice. His pupils were large, arousal darkening the blue of his eyes, but he moved out of reach when Rick tried to pull him close again. “Not here.”

  “Okay, where?” Rick said, stepping up behind him, mouthing at his neck and running his hands over his ass.

  “Christ,” Kim swore, shivering at the touch and jabbing at his phone. “Anywhere. Fucking anywhere, so long as it’s close.”

  A green tick appeared on his phone screen and Kim made a satisfied noise, wrapped one arm round Rick’s neck and ran his free hand over his chest and thigh. By the time the car arrived, Rick was so hard that it almost hurt.

  “What about your car?” he mumbled as they climbed in.

  “I’ll get it tomorrow,” Kim replied then pulled Rick back in for more burning kisses, making the driver focus pointedly out of the windscreen.

  The car journey then the stumble through a hotel lobby then up to a luxuriously furnished room went by in a blur. They only stopped long enough to strip then they were tumbling into the cool, anonymous hotel sheets. Kim’s skin and mouth were hot and tasted like sharp fruit and smoky bourbon. He rolled Rick on top and Rick sank his weight onto him with a low, long moan. It was so good to let go, and Kim was so heated and so willing that Rick almost came just feeling his hands roaming all over his flesh and his body moving under him.

  “Fuck me, Rick,” he said, an edge of desperation in his voice so sharp that Rick wondered if he heard a slip in his accent. “I want you to fuck me. Hard.”

  Rick made a helpless noise and hooked a hand under Kim’s knee, lifted his leg to the side so he could push against the intimate space between them. When Kim started to whimper, he backed off long enough to force out, his voice tight with regret, “I haven’t got anything with me.”

  “Coat,” Kim managed, gesturing at the floor. “Coat pocket.”

  Rick stumbled off the bed and rooted around amongst their discarded clothing for Kim’s overcoat. He fumbled through the pockets and returned with a condom and sachet of lube.

  “I knew you liked to be prepared, but this is something else,” Rick said, kneeling on the bed and recapturing Kim’s mouth.

  “Well,” Kim slurred between kisses, “I was in the Scouts, so—”

  Rick chuckled, kissed him harder and thrust his trembling erection against the inside of his warm, firm thigh, so desperate for friction that he almost forgot everything else.

  Kim reached for the condom where Rick had dropped it on the pillow and broke the kiss to open the packet and, carefully—if hurriedly—rolled the sheath onto Rick’s aching length. He opened the sachet of lube with his teeth and squeezed some onto his hand and leant in, kissed Rick deeply and smeared the liquid—cool, even through the condom—on his cock.

  “Fuck,” Rick swore into Kim’s mouth and felt him grin.

  “That’s the general idea,” he said before pulling away to look him in the eye, face suddenly serious. “But only if you want to.”

  “I want to,” Rick said, sitting up and pulling him into his lap. He gazed into Kim’s flushed face, his mouth wet and open, his eyes hot like a tropical sea. Kim blinked at him, breathing heavily, and Rick tried to speak but couldn’t.

  “What is it?”

  “You’re not too drunk, right?”

  Kim grinned. “No such thing.”

  “You know what I mean,” Rick insisted, fighting through the haze of alcohol and arousal for the strength to hold back. Kim regarded him for a long moment and, for one instant, unease flickered in his eyes. The sight was so completely unfamiliar that Rick went cold, but then the younger man leant forward and brushed kisses across his lips, along his jaw and neck while pumping his lubed cock, slowly and steadily.

  “I’m certain I want this,” he said, his hot breath brushing Rick’s shoulder. “Certain I want you.”

  “Why?” Rick hadn’t meant to ask it, but the drink, the desire, the events of the day and the night before had left his inhibitions in shattered heaps.

  “Why what?”

  “Why all of it?” he forced out. “Agreeing to hiding from my work. Travelling all over London to see me. The music festival, everything. Why are you doing all this?”

  Kim took Rick’s chin in his hand, tilted his face so he was looking right into his eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re amazing, Rick.”

  “You don’t know me.”

  “I know you better than you think,” Kim said in his ear then took Rick’s earlobe between his lips and and increased the pace on his aching cock. “And I know more than anything I want you to fuck me.”

  Everything in his mind crumbled away and Rick kissed him savagely. Their teeth knocked together, and their hot breath came in gasps. Rick arched into Kim’s hand and fumbled blindly for the lube and emptied what remained onto his fingers.

  He reached round, and Kim lifted himself so Rick could slide a finger towards his entrance. Rick started to rub his lubricated finger over the tight band of muscle, and Kim shivered and groaned. It took all of Rick’s fast-eroding strength to take his time as he listened to Kim’s increasingly desperate noises as he rubbed faster then finally pushed in. Kim’s lithe frame stiffened. He pressed his forehead against Rick’s, crushing his eyes shut. Rick closed his own eyes and felt his way forward, pushing his finger deeper until he found the spot that made Kim jerk in his arms.

  “Fuck,” Kim said between clenched teeth, and Rick pushed another finger in, repeating the action and drawing an almost-pained cry from the younger man.

  “You’re so beautiful,” Rick said as he opened his eyes and panted as he watched Kim’s mouth open and his cheeks redden. Kim blinked his eyes open, hot and blue, met Rick’s gaze and started to move against his fingers. Rick added a third finger and massaged and rolled them, making Kim’s grasp tighten on his shoulders.

  “Now, Rick,” he said, voice, in that moment, harsh and unfamiliar. “Now.”

  Rick withdrew his fingers, took a firm grip of Kim’s hips and guided him forward and down. Kim lowered himself onto Rick’s cock with a helpless noise. The tight heat engulfed him and Rick let out a shuddering breath, lightning shooting along his nerves and fire flaring in his belly, balls and along his spine.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” Kim swore. He spent a long moment sitting there and breathing deep, then started to move. He leant farther back, one hand gripping Rick’s shoulder tight enough to bruise, t
he other clutched his shin. He took Rick in deeper, harder and with increasing speed. Rick grasped his hips like a drowning man would cling to a life raft and thrust upward, driving himself into the, tight, delicious heat over and over.

  Rick’s breath left him. His muscles burned. His nerves sparked and sung. The feel of a truly seismic orgasm building under his belly threatened for one beautifully terrifying moment to overwhelm him. Then Kim was crying out his name and plunging Rick’s cock deep into himself one last time and he came, hot and hard, against Rick’s belly.

  Rick let out a sound somewhere between a prayer and Kim’s name and arched, forcing himself deep as thunder, lightning, snow, ice and fire coursed through his flesh. The sensation was chased with electricity and the taste and smell of fruit and sweat and an almost-unbearable sweetness.

  They clung to each other, each breathing heavily. Kim kissed him, chastely, tenderly and a little desperately, like, again, he was trying to say something he couldn’t find words for. When Rick opened his mouth to ask, Kim shook his head, disentangled himself and drew him towards the bathroom.

  They showered, Kim soaping and rinsing him as though he were paying reverence to every inch of his skin. The fire faded, but a steady, bright flicker remained, only partially fuelled by the alcohol still thrumming in Rick’s veins. When they were clean and dry, Kim guided him into bed, pulled the covers over both of them and turned the light off. Rick started to ask how he should get home but Kim shushed him, drew his head onto his shoulder and wrapped his arms around him. Rick allowed himself to be drawn in, snaked his arms around the lean, warm body and, after a brief internal debate, let himself relax.

  He was teetering on the edge of oblivion when Kim murmured something. He frowned, trying to decide if he had said what Rick thought he’d said. But the combination of sated desire, booze and the pleasantness of feeling safe, warm and needed stole him away before he could come to a conclusion.

  * * * *

  He woke, groggy, with a foul taste in his mouth and a pounding head before the grey of morning had started to blur the edges of the hotel curtains. He fumbled for his phone and blinked blearily at the numbers until he was able to determine it was a little before eight a.m.

  He groaned and dropped back into the pillows, throwing an arm over his eyes. A low moan next to him told him Kim wasn’t feeling much better. Though when the warm mouth found his in the dark then moved down his body to see to his morning wood, he was able to forget about his hangover for a little while longer.

  When Rick finally managed to tear himself from Kim’s arms and start to gather his clothing another hour had disappeared.

  “I really have to go,” he said, even though Kim hadn’t spoken. He lay on his side with his head propped on his hand, looking so tantalising, dishevelled and languid that Rick’s over-sensitised cock stirred yet again and he had to make himself turn away. “I must. That lawyer’s coming over today.”

  “Yeah,” Kim said, sitting up with a wince. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t hide you here forever, as much as I’d like to.” That was said in a quiet, contemplative tone, almost like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud. But then he sighed, pushed the covers back and smiled. “How you doing?”

  “Fine,” Rick lied. “Why?”

  “Lawyers. Cops. Heading back to that flat.” Kim shrugged while pulling on a sock. “Not the nicest way to spend a Sunday.”

  “No, I can think of better,” Rick said, tilting Kim’s surprised face up and stealing another kiss.

  Kim pushed him away. “Go on, dickhead. If you start me off again, we’ll never leave. Then I’ll have to pay for a second night.”

  Rick retrieved his coat from the back of a chair. “What is this place, anyway?”

  “I dunno,” Kim said, grabbing his T-shirt. “A Radisson?”

  “You didn’t want to take me to your place?” He swore to himself silently. He hadn’t meant to ask it, certainly hadn’t meant to ask it and sound so needy.

  “Traffic at that time of night is insane. This was the closest place with a room on Booking.com.” He stood slowly from the bed and stepped forward, took hold of the corner of Rick’s coat and drew him close. “I didn’t want to wait,” he said, smiling against his lips.

  Rick allowed himself one last, lingering kiss, drinking in Kim’s complex taste and smell then pulled away. “I really have to go. But…” He hesitated, pretended to search for his other shoe for a long moment, “Can I see you again? Soon?”

  “Didn’t think you were getting away that easy, right?” Kim said. Rick smiled a relieved smile, which Kim returned but his face shifted. Something changed in his eyes then he looked away. “How’s next week?” he said, looking at his phone. “Tuesday?”

  “That’s great,” Rick said fastening his coat. “Not sure what time I’ll be free, though. It depends on work…” Rick trailed off, assaulted by sudden and unwelcome thoughts about what might await him at the office. Cecily had been nice on the phone, but the firm surely couldn’t ignore what had happened…

  “Text me later, okay?” Kim added, pocketing his phone and smiling, his face back to normal and Rick shelved the unpleasant train of thought. “Let me know how it goes with that lawyer.”

  “I will.”

  “And what the police say.”

  Rick blinked. “The police?”

  “Yeah. They’ll want to speak to you again.”

  “Why?”

  “Forensics will be back soon,” he said calmly. “And background checks.”

  Rick blanched. “What does that mean?”

  “Well,” Kim said, with a shrug, “I’m sure they will all prove you had nothing to do with it. But they’ll probably need a few more facts to eliminate you. Just make sure you don’t speak to them without the lawyer.”

  “Okay,” Rick said, not liking the crawling sensation under his belly. “Have you been involved in something like this before?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You seem to know a lot about it.”

  Kim frowned. “Aren’t we beyond this now?”

  “Beyond what?”

  “You not trusting me.”

  “I do trust you,” he insisted. “Of course I do. This is all just…confusing. And new. To me, anyway.”

  Kim’s face softened. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry. I guess I just—” He made a noise somewhere between a snort and laugh and flashed Rick a surprisingly vulnerable smile. “Some of this is new to me too.”

  “Yeah?”

  Kim shrugged. “Sure. I don’t book five-star hotel rooms at a moment’s notice for just anyone, you know.”

  Rick let himself smile and attempted to clamp down on the strength of the emotion that surged in his chest. “Glad to hear it,” he said, kissed Kim one more time and left, ordering an Uber as he hurried to the lift.

  Chapter Seven

  Valerie Stanhope was a tall woman in her early forties with dark hair streaked through with a vibrant red, a forthright manner and a severe expression. Her eyes behind a pair of rimless Gucci glasses were bottle green and she darted her gaze to and from her phone, iPad, folder full of papers and across the coffee table at Rick in a way that suggested she was constantly absorbing and processing every detail. She quizzed him about his alibi, his actions on arriving home and finding the blood and what he knew of the victim in a way that made him think she already had all the facts but wanted to make sure he had them too.

  She was with him for almost three hours, at the end of which, with an almost jarring shift in her manner, she told him not to worry, that it was all in hand and that this would all be cleared up soon.

  His rational mind told him he should be reassured, but he wasn’t.

  Ella came over the moment she’d left, and Rick then spent another exhausting hour going over it all again.

  “When do the police want to speak to you again?” she asked as she pushed away her plate of half-eaten jerk chicken stew.

  “Tomorrow morning. First thing
.”

  “And the lawyer will be there?”

  Rick nodded, pouring out another beer for them both, willing it to poke holes in his still-raging hangover and settle his fluttering nerves. “She said she’s going to do all the talking from now on, so I don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing. Kim thinks it’s just to eliminate me from the enquiry anyway.”

  Ella’s worn expression brightened a fraction. “Spoken to Kim about it, huh?”

  Heat rushed into his face, but he just gave his sister a bleak look over the top of her beer glass.

  “What? He’s nice. Real nice. And, well…” She waggled her eyebrows.

  “Yes, he’s fit.”

  She snorted.

  “Okay. Really fit.”

  “So?” Ella prodded, leaning forward with the first smile she’d worn all evening.

  “So what?”

  “How’s it going? You seemed to be getting on well yesterday. And, well, the doorman said you didn't come for your new keys until this morning.”

  Rick smiled despite himself. “Yeah, we had a good time. But—”

  “But…?”

  Rick chased his doubts, flinty and prickly and gaining traction now that he’d spent the day back in the real world. “Everything’s so complicated right now,” Rick admitted, with real regret. “Just trying to figure out how much change I can handle at once.” He stared at his plate for a long moment then his phone started to buzz. Ella grinned when Kim’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Complicated doesn’t seem to bother him,” she said.

  “No,” Rick said, staring at the screen but not answering the incoming call. “But perhaps it should.”

  “Bollocks should it,” Ella said, scraping the leftovers into a bowl. “You owe it to yourself to at least see where it goes.”