22. Leo
Leo
Iwas getting very used to waking up next to Alex every morning.
For the past week I’d barely left his bed.
Even when we went out, we always ended up back in his room the moment we got back.
It turned out that keeping my hands off him was impossible.
And Alex couldn’t get enough of me either.
But I couldn’t blame him. If I’d spent years in a sexless marriage, I’d be desperate for some affection too.
Then again, I was just as desperate as he was.
He was just… nice to be around. Really nice in fact. Of course his thick cock was ridiculously tempting as well.
But during all that bliss, I was vaguely aware of a small voice in the back of my mind.
It was the one that kept reminding me that there was a time limit on this small heaven I’d found myself tangled up in.
Two weeks had gone by. Only one remained.
I was staying in Italy, but Alex had an apartment and a life to rebuild back in the states.
Despite how much he loved being inside me, I doubted that was enough reason to get him to stay.
And as far as I was concerned, I wasn’t worth the fallout that would inevitably follow the announcement of us doing any kind of relationship.
No, this was going to be a short-lived affair. Beautiful, but short.
And that’s why I wanted to make the most of it. I wanted to make as many memories as possible before Alex left, ones I could hold on to for the rest of my life without anyone knowing just how forbidden my sex life had gotten for my first few weeks in Livorno.
“Let’s go do something today,” I said, tilting my head up at Alex from my usual spot on his bare chest. “Something you want to do.”
“Like what?” he said, brows furrowed.
“Something fun,” I smiled back.
He nodded. “Okay. Like what?”
“You have to tell me what you like,” I replied. “I can’t read your mind.”
“I…” He paused. “I don’t know,” he said, and I could hear the frustration in his voice. It was the same frustration I’d been hearing more and more of lately, like he was angry at himself for not having everything figured out already.
I sat up slightly, propping myself on my elbow so I could look at him properly.
His blonde hair was messy from sleep, his blue eyes still soft with the remnants of whatever dream he’d been having before I woke him.
He looked younger like this, less guarded.
Less like the bitter, broken man who’d arrived in Italy with me two weeks ago.
“Okay,” I said gently. “Well, what did you used to like? Before everything fell apart?”
He was quiet for a long moment, his fingers tracing absent patterns on my bare shoulder. “I used to like golfing,” he said finally. “I was pretty good at it. Had a handicap of six before I stopped playing.”
“Why did you stop?”
“Amanda didn’t like it. Said I spent too much time away from home already.” He paused. “So I gave it up. And after she left, I just... didn’t want to anymore. It wasn’t like I had any friends or coworkers to go with so it just seemed pointless.”
I could hear the weight of his depression in those words, the way he’d let everything he enjoyed get stripped away by circumstance and heartbreak. It made my chest ache a little, knowing how much pain he’d been in.
“Well,” I said, sitting up fully now and swinging my legs over the side of the bed, “I’m not sure there’s a golf course here this close to the sea.”
“There is,” Alex nodded. “But it’s tiny. And I doubt you really want to go golfing.”
“I don’t know how but I can try?” I offered, giving him a shrug. “How hard could it be?”
“Let’s maybe do something else.” He spread his arms wide, stretching before letting out a slightly pained sound. “My shoulders probably wouldn’t put up with golfing right now, anyway.”
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?”
“You’ve been sleeping on it for a week,” he grinned. I made a face, and he held up a hand to stop my retort. “I’m not complaining. It’s just sore right now.”
I turned back, leaning down and placing a few kisses over his shoulder. “Well… why don’t we got to the bathhouse in town? It might help you relax.”
“A bathhouse?” He lifted on eyebrow. “Is this like an orgy thing?”
“No!” I couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s one of those Roman style baths where they have hot and cold pools, massages, and saunas. Stuff like that.”
“Oh,” he said, relaxing slightly. “That actually sounds really nice.”
“Right?” I pulled back, settling against his chest again. “And apparently they do amazing massages. I looked it up online. There’s supposed to be this one place that’s been around for like two hundred years. They’ve got a very good reputation.”
He was quiet for a moment, his fingers resuming their absent patterns on my shoulder. “Okay,” he said finally. “Let’s do it.”
I lifted my head to look at him, surprised by how easily he’d agreed. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Why not?” He shifted, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “We could both probably use the relaxation. And it beats sitting around here trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.”
I smiled against his chest, feeling something warm settle in my stomach.
This was what I wanted to remember. These small moments where he agreed to do something just because I suggested it.
Where he was willing to try things outside his comfort zone.
It felt significant somehow, like maybe he was starting to let go of some of the rigid control he’d wrapped around himself for so long.
We got up and showered together, which turned into more than just a shower when Alex pressed me against the tile wall and fucked me under the spray of hot water. By the time we actually made it out of the bathroom, we’d wasted an hour, but neither of us seemed to mind.
I called ahead to book an appointment at the bathhouse for early afternoon.
The woman who answered spoke great English with a thick Italian accent and assured me they could fit us in.
She even offered to arrange for a couples massage if we wanted one, which made my heart do little flips in my chest. Alex didn’t even blink when I told him I’d agreed to it.
We grabbed lunch at a small café near the water, sitting outside under a striped awning while we ate fresh pasta and drank cold white wine.
Alex seemed lighter than he had in days, his shoulders less tense, his smile coming more easily.
He reached across the table and took my hand while we ate, unconcerned with who might see us.
There was nobody in Italy we knew anyway, much less Livorno.
The bathhouse was tucked into an old stone building in the heart of the old town.
Inside, it was all dim lighting and the sound of water echoing off the ancient walls.
The attendant, a woman with kind eyes and gray hair pulled back in a bun, led us through a series of rooms. She explained the protocol in careful English.
We were to enjoy the hot pool first, then cold, then the sauna, and finally the massage room where the massage therapists would work on us simultaneously.
“You can leave your things in the lockers,” she said, gesturing to a row of small wooden compartments. “And there are towels here.”
Alex and I exchanged a look. I wasn’t sure how he felt about being naked in front of strangers, but he seemed to take it in stride, stripping down without hesitation and wrapping a towel around his waist. I did the same, trying not to stare at the way the towel sat low on his hips, revealing the sharp lines of his hip flexors.
The hot pool was blissful. We sank into the steaming water, and I felt every muscle in my body go loose and heavy. Alex made a sound of pure contentment as he settled beside me, his head tipping back against the edge of the pool.
“This was a good idea,” he murmured.
“I know,” I said, reaching under the water to find his hand.
We stayed there for what felt like hours, though it was probably only twenty minutes. The heat was working its magic on both of us, melting away tension and worry. When the attendant came to tell us it was time for the cold pool, neither of us wanted to move.
The cold pool was a shock to the system, but it was invigorating in a way I hadn’t expected.
Alex gasped when he hit the water, but then laughed, a real, genuine laugh that echoed off the stone walls.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper, and for a moment we were just two lovers in a cold pool in Italy, with nothing else mattering but the feel of his skin against mine.
By the time we made it to the sauna, we were both thoroughly relaxed. The heat wrapped around us like a blanket, and we sat side by side on the wooden bench, our shoulders touching. Alex’s head found my shoulder, and I turned to press a kiss to his temple.
“Thank you for this,” he said quietly.
“For what? The bathhouse?”
“For dragging me out of bed. For making me do things.” He paused. “For caring enough to try.”
My stomach clenched at his words. This was the dangerous part, the part I’d been trying to avoid thinking about. Because caring about him made the inevitable ending of this trip so much harder to contemplate.
“Of course,” I said, keeping my voice light even though my heart was breaking a little. “I like taking care of you.”
He was quiet for a moment, and I could feel the weight of something unspoken hanging between us in the humid air of the sauna.
His arm came up around my shoulders, pulling me closer, and I let myself lean into him, breathing in the familiar scent of his skin mixed with the eucalyptus oil that had been drizzled over the hot rocks.
“Leo,” he said finally, and there was something in his voice that made my stomach tighten. “We need to talk about what happens next.”
I’d been dreading this conversation. I’d been actively avoiding it, if I was being honest with myself. Because as long as we didn’t talk about it, I could pretend that maybe, somehow, this could last. That maybe Alex would decide to stay. That maybe we could figure out a way to make this work.
But I knew better. I’d known better since the moment I’d bought the villa and decided to move to Italy permanently, before I even knew he was coming. I was going to have to leave everything behind. The problem was, before all this, I didn’t think I’d have much to lose. But now, things had changed.
“Not here,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “Let’s not do this here.”
“When then?” He pulled back just enough to look at me, and his blue eyes were serious in a way that made my heart ache. “We have less than a week left, Leo. We can’t just pretend that’s not happening.”
I stood up, needing to move, needing space. The sauna suddenly felt too small, the heat too oppressive. “I know how much time we have left,” I said, and I could hear the defensiveness in my own voice. “Let’s just wait until we get home, okay?”
The attendant appeared then, thankfully, telling us it was time for our massage. We followed her in silence through the dim corridors, and I felt the easy comfort we’d built over the past week crumbling around us.
The massage room was cool and dimly lit, with two massage tables positioned side by side and our masseurs beckoning us forward. We were shown where to lie down, and soft music began playing as soon as we were settled under the sheets.
I tried to relax into the massage, tried to let the skilled hands work the tension out of my shoulders and back.
But my mind was racing. Alex was right. We couldn’t avoid this forever.
But I also didn’t have any answers to give him, and I was terrified that whatever came out of this conversation would be the thing that finally broke us.
The massage therapist’s hands worked methodically across my shoulders, finding knots I didn’t even know I had.
I could hear Alex’s breathing beside me, steady and deep, and I wondered if he was actually relaxing or if he was thinking about the conversation we’d just postponed.
The music playing overhead was some kind of ambient thing designed to be soothing, but it only made me more anxious.
I kept my eyes closed and tried to breathe through it. The therapist moved down my spine, applying pressure in a way that should have felt good but instead just made me more aware of how tight everything was. My whole body was coiled like a spring, waiting for the impact I knew was coming.
We had less than a week. Six days, maybe.
And in six days, Alex was going to go back to his apartment in New York and rebuilding his life there.
Meanwhile, I was going to stay here in this villa that I’d bought with money meant for a future with someone else.
Asking Alex to lean into his feelings here, where nothing was on the line was one thing.
Asking him to stay and out himself to everyone was just too big of an ask.
The massage ended too soon. The therapist stepped back, letting me know with a gentle touch that we were done. I sat up slowly, wrapping the sheet around myself, and tried to look like I felt better than I did. Alex was already sitting up on his table, his expression unreadable.
We changed back into our clothes in silence and made our way back through the corridors toward the exit. The attendant was waiting with two bottles of water, which we accepted gratefully. The whole experience was supposed to have relaxed us, but somehow it had done the opposite.
“Thank you,” I said to the attendant, forcing a smile I didn’t feel. “It was wonderful.”
“You come back soon,” she said, patting my arm. “You both look like you need more rest.”
If only rest was the solution to this problem.
I’d only managed to take one step toward the door when I heard a gasp behind me.
“Alex?! What the fuck are you doing here?!”