Rhys #3
My eyes darted around, locking onto him as he rose up from a seat behind a booth promoting community wellness, where they seemed to be handing out pamphlets about where to get tested for free, as well as various types of condoms.
I opened my mouth to speak but instantly froze as my breath caught in my throat, all the muscles in my body clenching to hold me in place as my brain processed what he looked like as he walked over to us.
His outfit, if you could legally call something that covered so little of his body an outfit, consisted of tiny black cutoff shorts and a completely sheer top made of pink fishnet, under which his nipples were crossed over with what looked like black bandages.
Black cat ears protruded from his head, and the pink collar around his neck had a silver bell hanging from it.
It sparkled in the sun just like the ball pierced through his bellybutton.
“Pick up your jaw, Mister none of those flags describe me,” Dolly suggested lightly. I quickly closed my mouth, but could barely tear my eyes away from his bare thighs. His white thigh-high socks had cat faces printed at the top.
“Hi guys,” he greeted us cheerfully, but seemingly without all the awkward tension I felt. As he got closer, I noticed he was wearing makeup. Black eyeliner that flicked out in a sharp little wing to elongate his eyes, and shiny stuff on his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. “What’s up?”
I suddenly regretted everything, but it was too late to escape now.
Was he thinking about how the last time we’d seen each other was when I’d experienced the humiliating trifecta of not getting hard on my date, blowing my load in his mouth before the five second mark, and then crashing the fuck out on his couch before I could even try to really explain myself?
There was no way he wasn’t thinking about that, right?
“Oh, just bringing you this lost little lamb,” Dolly explained. “He told me he was part of your flock.”
Kendall chuckled a little but seemed used to her strange sense of humor, and didn’t look too surprised by her wording. I, on the other hand, wanted to sink through the asphalt straight to the molten core of the Earth and die.
“Were you looking for me, Rhys?” He questioned gently, tilting his head. His bangs shifted as he moved, shimmering in the bright sunlight, such a pretty pink that it made my stomach clench.
My words threatened to stick in my throat like glue, before I determinedly pushed them out.
“I, uh… Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“Well, I…” He glanced back at the booth.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll cover for you,” Dolly volunteered, sailing past us to head over to the booth. “Who wouldn’t want to get condoms from me?” She wondered, dragging another chuckle out of Kendall as he thanked her.
“Okay,” he said, once she’d taken his seat. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Um… In private, maybe?” I asked weakly, trying not to squirm with embarrassment at the request. There were people milling around us in every direction. They didn’t seem to be paying too much attention, but… I felt vulnerable enough as it was.
He looked around, our eyes landing on a skinny little alley between two buildings at the same time.
I followed him over, moving past the trash cans and down the little path, where there was a small alcove that led to the side.
When we stepped into it, we couldn’t be seen from the road outside the alley.
The sound of the music and crowd was loud enough to drown us out too, but the tiny space forced us to stand so close it was easy enough to talk.
He backed up to the wall, lifting one knee to rest the sole of his shoe on the bricks as he peered up at me through his long lashes.
The alley smelled musty and vaguely like old trash, but the way his fruity shampoo lingered in his hair, along with the sharp, mineral scent of the sunscreen he must have slathered on, drowned it all out for me.
“Is everything okay, Rhys?” He asked, his brows drawing together in obvious concern for me.
Right. He wasn’t going to bring it up if I didn’t bring it up.
So if I never brought it up, then we’d just never talk about it.
Was that okay with me? Did I even want to talk about it?
I didn’t know what the hell I wanted. Even less so now, staring down at him in his stupidly hot little cat costume.
Costume wasn’t the right word for it. It was a slutty outfit with cat ears and a collar.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I searched my brain for a response to give him. I didn’t know if everything was okay because I didn’t know what the fuck I wanted or why I’d dragged him back here.
I’d gotten so worked up over the idea of him leaving with another guy, but I didn’t have the right to bring that up to him.
And why did I care so much if he did that?
Was it because I wanted all of his attention for myself?
Because his attention was basically the only good thing in my life right now?
“Rhys?” He asked again, the concern in his voice and pretty eyes intensifying in the stretch of silence.
“God, I am so fucking pathetic,” I finally said, because the thought had been swelling and swelling and I hadn’t been able to keep it inside me anymore.
“No, you’re not,” he denied. “I could never think that about you.”
“No, I…” I suppressed a groan, pushing my hair up off my forehead.
“I know you couldn’t.” That was why he was the person I found myself constantly thinking about and wanting to be around.
If there was anyone who would view me with permanently rose-tinted glasses, it was Kendall. “But maybe you should.”
“You’re being way too hard on yourself,” he said, his voice softening and gentling until it was like warm, soothing honey flowing into my ears and down into my burning, squirming guts to calm me.
He reached out, lightly gripping my wrist. My veins thrashed under the pad of his thumb, my pulse thundering through me as I tried not to show how incredibly affected I was by the simple touch.
Why did it feel so much better from him than it had from Brie at the bar?
“You’re an amazing person, Rhys. You know how I feel about you. ”
I scoffed, instinctively looking away from him as embarrassment crept over me.
But I couldn’t pull away from the light contact of his hand on my wrist. The parts of my skin he was touching were starting to get hot, and the combination of the warm burn and the way he smelled and the way he was looking at me were making my dick hard. Again.
“Yeah, banging on your door in the middle of the night and… And…” I trailed off. I couldn’t even say it. “I’m sure you thought that was very cool of me.”
He bit down into his plush lower lip, obviously trying to hide an amused smile, lightly stroking his thumb over the veins in my wrist. It took every ounce of my self control not to whimper.
“I didn’t mind. I told you I was glad you came to me.” When I scoffed again, unconvinced, he went on. “You don’t think I’ve had fantasies about you like that? You don’t think that I… liked taking care of you?”
My breath shuddered out, my fingers giving an involuntary twitch, but I was afraid to move too much and make him think I wanted him to stop touching me.
“Did you?” I rasped out. I already knew the answer, but suddenly the need to hear him say it out loud felt paramount to my continued existence. Kendall leaned in closer to me, and I found myself drifting in toward him, too.
“Very, very much,” he answered, his voice so much lower now. Like he wanted me to lean in even closer. I swallowed hard, all my thoughts racing in panicked circles in my brain. This wasn’t why I’d come to talk to him, but… I couldn’t deny what my body was screaming for.
“You must think I’m such a coward,” I finally breathed out. My free hand, the one he wasn’t holding, raised up from my side and hovered up close to his hair. It was so shiny and silky, I couldn’t help but want to touch it. I flattened my palm against the bricks next to his head instead.
“I don’t,” he promised. We were practically smashed together now, so close that I could feel his breath fluttering out against my lips. I knew he could feel mine on his, my breath coming out so hot and labored I was practically panting already. “I just think you’re confused.”
The lack of judgment and expectation in his voice was wonderful as always, this ethereally pleasant thing it felt like I could only get from him.
“I don’t,” I said. “I don’t know what I want. I don’t… I…” I stopped, because I could feel myself starting to stutter.
“I think you do know,” he murmured. “At least, you know what you want right now.” My gaze dipped down to his pretty pink lips.
It was torture, having them so close when I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about him like that.
But he was clouding up the senses in my brain and making me forget everything but my most primal, baseline desires.
“Yeah,” I admitted, then shivered when he laid his palm flat on my chest, right over where my heart was banging against my ribcage.
“Do you want me to do it for you?” He wondered, the pretty lilt in his voice making my cock jump and strain against the thin fabric of my shorts. I wanted him. I wanted to kiss him, taste him on my tongue, and feel his tight little body writhing against mine. Fuck.
“Yes.”
His hand moved the rest of the way up my chest and over my shoulder to cup the back of my neck, dragging me down as he tilted his face up to close the tiny gap between us.