Chapter 18
LUCAS
I opened my eyes, momentarily disorientated.
The soft comfort of the mattress was unfamiliar, as was the ceiling, which was oddly plain.
A shaft of bright light ran across the stark white illuminating a large swatch of the ceiling.
When I turned my head I saw the ill-fitting blind in the window, and the dark, tousled haired man lying on his side watching me with his intense brown eyes.
The corners of his lips danced upwards into a smile as he saw I was awake.
"Good morning, guapo," he said. Emi leaned across to press a firm but chaste kiss to my lips.
The gravel rash from our kissing session last night stung, but in a good way.
I was happy to feel the burn as his stubble rubbed over my abraded skin.
That clever mouth had done all manner of dirty things to me over the course of the night, but I was still hungry for his kiss.
There was no doubt, Emi was a fucking god in bed. But more than that, he was the sweetest, kindest, bundle of fun energy.
We'd moved from that uncomfortable couch to the bedroom after fucking and then spent the rest of the night exploring all the ways we could excite each other in Emi's bed.
At one point in the night, there'd been a loud rapping on the closed bedroom door and a stranger's voice yelled out, "C'mon Emi, shut the fuck up, it's the middle of the night.
Some of us want to sleep!" Then a door had slammed further down the corridor.
Emi hadn't skipped a beat and hadn't quietened down either. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, we must have fallen asleep.
From the brightness of the light running across the ceiling, the day was already well advanced.
I didn't want to rush out; the soft mattress and crumpled sheets, the heat from Emi's body close to mine, the pillow that smelled of him, and the odor of sex on the sheets...
I could have stayed here all day. My half-hard cock lay trapped between our bodies but neither of us made a move to progress things beyond the kiss.
I doubted there was anything left in my balls, and anyway, after the pounding he'd taken last night, I'd have been surprised if Emi were able to sit for a week.
Of course, there were plenty of other things we could do, but this quiet, affectionate kissing was perfect for right now.
It felt connected and gentle in ways that made something, maybe excitement, fizz in my abdomen.
Emi broke the kiss and rolled off me. I yawned and rubbed at my face.
"You wore me out last night, Emi."
He laughed, the sheets slipping lower around his hips, exposing his firm buttocks as he sat up. I was pleased to see the dark red mark where I'd been sucking last night.
"Then we have to restore your energy. Did you have any plans for today?"
"No, it's Saturday. Sleeping in?" I said hopefully.
"Good," Emi said cheerfully, lips parting in one of his wide grins as he totally ignored my suggestion. "We can start our date with breakfast."
"What about my sleep-in?" I groaned.
"Next time," he said. "I'm hungry and there's a cafe on the corner that serves the best coffee and croissants."
"Mmm... okay, yeah. That sounds good." Perfect even, since there was also going to be a next time.
It meant Emi was serious about the dating thing.
I hadn't been entirely sure he wouldn't change his mind about discarding his rules after a second session together.
From things he'd said previously, this was a huge change for him. Would he stick with it though?
"I'm going to shower," Emi said, sliding his legs out from under the covers and standing up.
I took advantage and had a good perv at his very fine ass as he headed for his ensuite.
Right at the door, Emi turned back and caught me watching.
He winked cheekily and sauntered out of the room, leaving me sprawled in his bed, exhausted but excited to see where this would lead.
◆◆◆
The little cafe was as good as Emi had led me to believe.
When we entered, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee hung in the air, and I inhaled a delicious lungful of it.
There was a metallic grinding coming from the far end of the counter, followed by some hissing, as the coffee machine worked hard to satisfy the steady stream of customers coming in.
The server walked past us where we stood in line, carrying a plate of pastries, the sugary scent making my mouth water.
My stomach rumbled as it finally woke up.
"This was a good idea. I didn't realize how hungry I am."
"Well, you used up a lot of energy last night, parce."
"Shut up!" I jabbed him playfully in the ribs.
The line moved forward. Emi pushed me forward too, moving in close behind me, his hot breath on my ear and his hands running over my waist, simultaneously playful yet suggestive; it made a part of me sit up and take notice.
"Not here, Emi," I whispered.
"Why not, mi amor? "
"You're making me go hard. I don't want people to think..."
"Think what, Lucas? That we sleep together? You think the people in here will judge us for that?"
My gaze swept over the room. At a table in the corner, two young women were holding hands and leaning across the table towards each other.
Beside the floor to ceiling windows, a table for four had three men and one woman seated together, two of the men with their shoulders pressed up against each other as they laughed at something someone had said.
I saw the way one of the men looked at the other, the expression soft and obviously besotted.
In fact, most of the couples in the cafe did appear to be from the LGBTQ+ community and the few that didn't obviously look that way, well they might still have been, of course.
"Point taken. I guess you come here often, right?, since it's only just down the road from where you live."
"Yep. My local." We moved to the head of the queue and gave our orders.
Deciding to sit inside because it was cool and blustery with the remnants of a southerly change that had passed through during the night, we found a table next to the floor-to-ceiling glass window looking onto the footpath where a surprising number of people were out and about despite the weather.
A short while later, our breakfast arrived and all conversation ceased until we'd recharged.
"Mmm, that feels better," Emi pushed his empty coffee mug away and reached for my hand. "What would you like to do today, Lucas? See a movie? Visit the Art Gallery? Go to the zoo? Whatever you like. I don't care... I'm just happy to be with you."
"I'd like to get to know you better," I replied. "How about we do something where we can talk... so, not the movies..."
The zoo seemed ideal for a get-to-know-you first date.
Although we'd spent a few afternoons chatting over a beer, we hadn't gone deeper with our conversations.
Emi was fun and we got along great, but I needed to know if we had enough in common for a serious relationship before I lost my heart entirely.
Although, if I was honest about it, it might already be a bit late to worry about that.
◆◆◆
The zoo was a hoot.
Emi was in a crazy mood. When the tiger prowled up to the glass viewing window, Emi wound his sweater round his neck like a ruff, and facing me, pretended to be rubbing up against the creature.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm pretending to be its mate," he said, pulling what I think he thought were tigerly faces.
"You're not. Tigers don't have manes, that's what you've got. If anything, you're a lion."
He puffed out his chest. "Ah, King of the Jungle," he crowed, "or the savannah, or wherever they live." A noisy bunch of people entered the viewing area.
Emi looked around. Dropping his voice, he added, with a waggle of his eyebrows, "King of the bedroom!"
"Idiot!" I said, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the enclosure, glancing behind us in case anyone had heard, but everyone was crowded around the window staring at the animals. Emi's other arm slipped around me, settling comfortably onto my waist, like it had always belonged there.
"Come on, let's go see the whales. Did you know the blue whale has a penis that's up to three metres in length?"
"I'm pretty sure there isn't a blue whale at this zoo," I told him.
"But think about it! That's gotta hurt, right?"
I shrugged, unable to stop the corner of my mouth quirking up. "If you say so. I wouldn't know."
"Let's go see. Maybe they'll have a southern right whale."
"And why would we want them to have a southern right whale?" I asked cautiously.
"Those guys have the biggest cojones - those m-f's can weigh around a thousand kilos!" Emi said, eyes wide in excitement? Admiration?
"How do you even know that?"
Emi shrugged. "Eh, I like to research things. Better than doomscrolling, right?"
Emi's enthusiasm was infectious and so hard to resist. We had such a fun time together, laughing and holding hands or sneaking in a cuddle and a quick kiss, in between seeing all the animals in the different enclosures, Emi rattling off unusual and lesser known facts about many of the creatures there.
Some of them had me in stitches, but I was still thinking about the right whale's 'cojones' when I heard an unfamiliar voice shout out.
"Hey, Emilio! Over here!"
"Ai, carajo!" muttered Emi, as two men detached themselves from the crowd hanging around the orangutang enclosure and headed towards us. They appeared to be of similar age to us, and the guy who had called out hurried over to engulf Emi in a massive bearhug. His friend hung back a little.
The stranger released Emi, but kept his arm around him. "Who's your friend, Emilio?"
Strangely, Emi's lightly tanned skin took on a rosy hue, as he introduced us.
"Eddy, Jase, this is... Lucas." I noticed the slight hesitation and wondered if one or both of these guys might have been one of Emi's many one-night-stands. "Lucas, this is Eddy and Jason."