Chapter Nineteen The After #2
“Bed?” Eli asked quietly.
Lucas nodded.
The bedroom was softer than the rest of the suite; the light lower, the city beyond the large windows scattered gold by the rain. The world felt muted here, distant.
Eli didn’t hesitate.
He tugged his shirt over his head and let it fall where it landed. Then his pants, kicked aside without ceremony. By the time he climbed onto the bed, he was bare, unapologetic, utterly at ease in his own skin.
He sat back on his heels for a moment, watching Lucas with a small, knowing smile.
Then he patted the mattress once.
Lucas followed.
He moved onto the bed on his knees, the soft give of the mattress unfamiliar beneath him. Eli shifted forward, lowering himself onto his stomach and crawling toward Lucas across the sheets — slow, deliberate, eyes never leaving his.
The movement stole the air from Lucas’s lungs.
Eli stopped just in front of him, close enough that Lucas could feel the warmth radiating off him, close enough that their breaths tangled. Eli’s hands came up, light but sure, fingers brushing Lucas’s hips as if asking permission without words.
Lucas didn’t answer with words.
Eli’s mouth curved into a soft smile.
He leaned in, teeth catching gently at the fabric of Lucas’s underwear, tugging them down in an unhurried, almost playful motion that made Lucas’s breath stutter despite himself. Eli’s hands followed, steady and grounding, never rushing, never breaking eye contact.
Lucas tipped his head back, eyes closing for just a second as sensation anchored him back into his body. Eli laid back and pulled Luke down over him, his skin hot as fire—the both of them already hard as they slowly ground their hips together.
Eli broke the kiss for a moment to look into Lucas’ eyes; his own warm and full of love and adoration. “Tell me what you want. I want to make you feel good.” He licked his lips in anticipation.
“This.” Lucas breathed as his eyes took it all in, afraid to miss a single detail. “This is all I need right now—you.” Eli chuckled.
“Maybe that’s for the best… tonight was a hard game and the last time you fucked me, I was sore for days.” Lucas scoffed and then pressed a kiss to his lips.
“Then we’ll just take it easy tonight.” He reached between them and began to gently stroke them together, each little moan and whimper from Eli bringing him closer and closer—the man was truly beautiful when he was begging and moaning his name.
They locked together into a kiss—Lucas wasn’t even sure who finished first, just that both of their hips thrashed as they moaned into each other’s mouths as the moment came and went.
He removed his hand and before he could move to clean himself off, Eli pushed him onto his back and quickly licked his stomach clean.
“Fuck…” He whispered as Eli moved onto sucking Lucas’ fingers clean. “You have this whole ‘hot freaky seductive’ side to you and I need more of it.” Eli simply wiggled his eyebrows at him before settling into the bed next to him.
Eli rested his head against Lucas’s chest, listening to the steady thud of his heart. Lucas’s hand traced slow, absent patterns along Eli’s back, feeling the rise and fall of his breath, the quiet proof that this was real.
Outside, the rain continued its patient tapping against the glass.
Inside the room, wrapped in soft light and softer silence, Lucas felt something settle at last—not certainty, not resolution, but enough.
Enough to stay.
Enough to breathe.
Enough to choose this, again and again, without fear.
They lay tangled in white sheets for a long time after, the room dim and hushed, rain tapping softly against the glass like it was keeping time for them.
Eli had drifted into that half-sleep where his breathing slowed and his weight settled more fully against Lucas’s chest, one arm flung loose across him. Lucas lay still, afraid that even the smallest movement might break whatever fragile peace had finally taken hold.
He stared at the ceiling.
At the soft glow of reflected city light.
The moment felt like everything and nothing all at once.
The adrenaline was gone now. The noise. The roar. What remained was quiet — and with it, the weight of memory.
Lucas shifted carefully, easing out from under Eli’s arm. Eli stirred immediately, eyes blinking open, unfocused.
“Hey,” Eli murmured, voice thick with sleep. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said softly. “I just… I’ll be right back.”
Eli nodded, trusting, already settling again.
Lucas padded into the suite, the carpet cool under his bare feet. The other room was dim, untouched—jackets still draped where they’d been abandoned, the faint smell of takeaway lingering in the air. His eyes went immediately to the small table near the door.
His jacket.
The chocolate.
Still wrapped. Still pristine. The same one Eli had given Evelyn — passed to Luke in one of his darkest moments.
Lucas picked it up.
It felt heavier than it should have.
He stood there for a long moment, fingers curled around it, heart pounding with a familiar, aching regret. This… this stupid, well-intentioned gesture that had been a fault line. Not the cause, but the crack where everything had begun to split.
He went back into the bedroom.
Eli had pushed himself up onto one elbow, watching him with quiet curiosity, hair mussed, sheets twisted low around his hips.
Lucas crossed the room and held the chocolate out wordlessly.
Eli frowned slightly. “What’s that?”
Lucas swallowed.
“I hear,” he said, voice rough but steady, “it makes you feel better.”
Eli stared at the chocolate.
Then understanding dawned.
“Oh,” he breathed.
Something shifted in his expression—surprise giving way to something softer, heavier. He took it slowly, like it might dissolve in his hands.
Lucas sat down beside him on the bed, close enough that their knees brushed.
“I’ve been carrying that,” Lucas said quietly. “Not the chocolate. The moment. The way I didn’t say anything. The way I let you think you were alone in it.”
Eli’s fingers tightened around the wrapper.
“You weren’t,” Eli said gently.
“I was,” Lucas replied. “I just didn’t know how to be brave yet.”
Eli’s eyes burned. He blinked hard, once, then laughed softly under his breath.
“You know,” he said, voice unsteady but warm, “I don’t even really like that chocolate.”
Lucas let out a breath that was almost a laugh and almost a sob.
“Figures.”
Eli shifted closer, leaning his shoulder into Lucas’s chest. “I like the idea of it,” he admitted. “That I can do something to help someone I care about feel better.”
Lucas rested his forehead against Eli’s temple.
“When I saw you on the pitch,” he said, the words coming easier now, “it wasn’t just that I wanted you.”
Eli hummed quietly, listening.
“It was that I realized I couldn’t live like that anymore,” Lucas continued. “Watching you take pieces of yourself and hand them to other people because I was too afraid to claim them.”
He turned his head then, really looking at Eli — at the familiar curve of his mouth, the softness in his eyes that had always undone him.
“I couldn’t live without telling the truth anymore,” Lucas said. “Even if it cost me everything.”
Eli lifted his head, eyes shining.
“That’s a hell of a thing to decide in the rain,” he said softly.
Lucas smiled faintly. “I’ve never been good at timing.”
Eli’s breath caught when Lucas said it.
“I love you.”
The words didn’t echo. They didn’t demand anything.
They simply landed.
Eli closed his eyes.
A tear slipped free before he could stop it. He swiped at it quickly, embarrassed, then laughed—broken and breathless.
“Could get used to hearing that,” he said, voice thick.
Lucas felt his chest crack open, something long-held finally giving way.
“I love you too,” Eli said.
Lucas pulled him close then, arms wrapping around him like it was instinct, like it was muscle memory finally allowed to exist. Eli melted into him, chocolate still clutched loosely in one hand, forehead tucked under Lucas’s chin.
They lay there like that for a long time.
Rain and city and future humming quietly beyond the glass.
The chocolate rested forgotten on the bedside table.
In that instant, the past didn’t matter more than the present.
For once, choosing each other was enough.