Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Austin
When I was fully back to consciousness, I could sense that he was awake, my head rising and lowering with the movement of his chest, his arm snug around me.
I folded my hands atop one another on his chest and rested my chin on them so I could look into his eyes.
He snapped his eyes shut but opened them back up immediately. I tilted my head in question.
“How long have you been awake?”
He sighed, taking my head up and down for the ride. He closed his eyes. “About an hour.”
I sat up, and he followed. “Randall! Just shove me off next time. I don’t expect you to be my pillow. Although I have to say, you make a really nice pillow. On second thought, maybe it’s a good thing you’re still here,” I said as I climbed on top of him and kissed the shit out of him.
“Austin, we just …” His lips moved against mine.
“Yeah, but then we napped,” I teased as I wiggled on top of him and reached a hand down between us to grab his soft cock.
The most beautiful and artless moan escaped him, and he wrapped me up tight in his arms. We were rolling around and rubbing our bodies together as much as possible when a pop could be heard outside, and the lights flickered around us.
I dropped to the floor, an arm still underneath Randall’s neck. “Power’s back.” Randall was lying flat next to me and catching his breath. I felt his nod against my arm, but he didn’t respond, so I added, “Obviously,” which at least got a chuckle out of him.
The blanket we had snuggled under was tangled by our feet, and not being wrapped up in Randall, I could feel the chill in the air.
I sat up, intent on pulling the blanket back over us, but Randall followed me, sitting and running a hand down my back, which didn’t help the situation with the chill as I felt goose bumps chase his fingers along my spine.
I pictured myself following him the same way those sparks up and down my back followed his hand, like I'd never want to be apart from him. How was it possible to think that about someone you’d only known for a few days?
Sometimes I had thought I’d never feel that way about anyone.
He draped himself over my back, hooking his chin over my shoulder. “Feed me?” he said playfully, and I turned in his arms, my eyes alight, my hand on my dick.
He shook his head at me, laughing. “Dinner. We should have something to eat while the stove’s working.”
I sighed in exasperation but smiled at him as I did so. “And we should put the bloody weather station back on too.”
He picked up on my silly accented word, and as he stood up, responded, “It’s more like ‘bloody,’ barely any ‘d.’”
We volleyed the word back and forth as we headed in opposite directions to use the bathrooms and throw some clothes on.
We prepared dinner like we’d been sharing space for years, the TV informing us that the worst of the weather was behind us. A switch to the local news informed us that snow removal was underway on the major roadways and that crews would be working through the night.
“We usually get plowed out pretty quickly because of the resort. Lots of guests coming and going and lots of workers that can’t call out due to the guests. The resort sometimes even comes this way with their plows.”
“What about your driveway?”
“My neighbors and I pay a guy to plow. I imagine he’ll be out soon. I’ll text him later if we haven’t heard from him. But he’s fairly consistent.”
“So this is it?” I could hear the sadness in my voice. The little snow globe of a bubble we were in was about to burst and shove us out into the cold world.
Randall knew what I meant. “Our little dream is coming to an end.” We were drinking wine, and he stood as soon as he said it, picking up both of our glasses and walking to the counter to refill them.
I wasn’t ready for Randall to walk away from me and hold his feelings inside. It seemed clear that he did that a lot. I didn’t want him to have to do it with me.
“It doesn’t have to be, Randall. You’re in the closet. I get that. It’s complicated because of my parents. I get that too. But what I don’t get, what I don’t see, is one reason that you and I can’t find time to spend together.”
He stood at the counter, his back leaning against it, his arms crossed. “Even if those other things weren’t factors, you’re busy at school. You’ll be starting med school next fall!”
“And you’re busy with work. Traveling between here and New York and Boston. Conferencing with people in England. Couples have careers, Randall. If it’s worth it to be together; they find time to be together.”
He nodded but said no more.
“Randall?” His look was so pained and stressed that I didn’t say anything other than, “May I have my wine, please?”
He returned with an arm outstretched for me to grab the glass. Then he sat back down. I took a sip before putting my glass down and dragging my chair closer to his.
We ate in companionable silence, with our arms and legs touching. We laid our forks down at the same time, and he took one last sip of wine before pulling back enough to turn in his chair so that we faced each other. I followed, our knees interlocked.
“How could I possibly be worth it, Austin? You have your whole life ahead of you and an entire planet full of people who didn’t introduce your parents to each other.” He was listing reasons we shouldn’t be together, but he hadn’t moved further away.
“I may not have met people on both sides of the planet like you have, but I know how I feel. You’re worth it, Randall.
Just as you are.” I took his hands. “Look, next week is going to be awkward and uncomfortable. We’ve made sure of that with how we’ve chosen to spend our time together these last few days.
Whether we decide this was just two guys fooling around because the power was out, or if we spend the rest of our lives together, we have to get through next week first. So let’s just press pause on this, get through the holidays, and then … ”
“And then?”
I stood up and kept one hand in his. “Mr. Glenn, would you do me the honor of going on a date with me?”
“A date?”
“Yeah! Have you ever been to HU? When I get back, you can come up to campus, and I’ll show you around, take you to dinner. Then …”
“Then?”
“Well, that depends on how the date goes, doesn’t it?”
“We pause, and then we go on a date after the New Year? That’s your plan?”
“Yes!”
“No!”
I dropped back with a thump but tried to hide my frustration otherwise when I said softly, “No?”
He leaned in closer, taking my hand once again and looking me straight in the eye. “Did you forget your promises?”
I’d forgotten just about everything, including my name in that moment, with the way he was looking at me.
“Promises?” He nodded slowly, and each rock of his head was like a surge to my manhood. The light behind his eyes was playful, but somehow there was a fire behind them as well, and holy fuck, all that energy was too much. I was clenching his hand, awaiting his response.
“You promised I could fuck you too,” he said without breaking our gaze. No hesitancy, just heat and humor. All we were doing was holding hands, and my dick was standing at attention, like he was stroking it with his every word.
My next sentence came out on a croak, and I had to clear my throat after the first word. “You said promises, plural.”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “You also said we’d eventually sleep in a bed.
” I don’t know whose smile was brighter after he said it.
We broke apart, and I stood. Part of me wanted to strip my sweatpants off right then and there and free the beast that was protruding from them, but when I stood, I took in the little dinette table.
“Let’s hurry the fuck up and get this table cleared so we can get up there.”
It was Randall’s turn to clear his throat as we both stacked dirty dishes like we were seasoned waiters at a three-star restaurant. “Austin?”
I deposited my dishes in the sink and turned the water on, turning to take items from his hands. He’d whispered my name, and I’d barely heard it over the sound of the water starting. So he held onto the dish I was trying to grab.
“Austin?”
“Yeah, Randall?”
“I have this … fantasy.”
The word yes almost fell from my lips; I was fairly sure I would be up for whatever Randall had in mind.
My body pulsed with excitement. I took the dish and turned to the sink, knowing any fantasy of Randall’s would include a clean kitchen.
He was right beside me, placing more items in the sink while I started rinsing. Shoulder to shoulder, I looked at him.
“Go on.”
“You won’t … It’s dumb …”
I handed him a rinsed dish, and he bent to put it in the dishwasher.
“Go. On.”
“When I first walked in this place, with the realtor, we came in the front door. You open that door, and you’re looking straight out the back.
” He pointed to the floor-to-vaulted-ceiling windows beside the kitchen.
“That big open window. The valley below. The resort somewhere behind those trees on the other side.” He paused.
“That’s the view you sent me when we were texting during my exams, right? It’s amazing,” I agreed. “Truth be told, I might have been in love with this place before I ever set foot inside, London. Beautiful view, beautiful home. What did it make you think of on that first day?”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at me again. The honesty in his eyes was unnerving. “I want to fuck you in front of that window, Austin. Both of us naked, pressed up against it.”
My brain may have short-circuited for a second, and Randall had to yank the plate I was holding out of my hand, which was ironic because all of a sudden I was in an all-fire hurry to be done cleaning up the fucking kitchen. Him yanking away the plate brought me back into focus.
“How hot was that realtor?” I joked.
Randall laughed, and I could hear the anxiousness leave him. He was all relaxed smiles as he shook his head. “Not my type.”
“A woman?”
He nodded again.