Author: Alexa Land
Category: LGBT
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/alexa-land/page,4,529414-all_in.html
When all the food was gone and Dante had polished off most of the bottle of wine, he pushed me onto my back on the floor and kissed me as he lay partially on top of me. A tremor of desire went through me even as part of my brain started to gear up in panic, just in case it turned out that we’d reached the wild monkey sex portion of the evening.
He said, “I think my theory about the garlic cancelling itself out because we both ate it has proven to be sound. What do you think?”
“I think you’re right.” I carefully unwound myself from his arms and got to my feet, stalling for time. “I’m going to get this cleaned up. And then I quickly want to check those sacks we brought back from my parents’ house. I want to make sure there aren’t a few bags of actual garbage mixed in that might start attracting mice,” I said with a little shudder (because mice are pretty much the grossest thing in the world). I grabbed the containers from our dinner and carried them through to the kitchen.
The pasta had come in heavy plastic containers, so I decided to wash them and keep them as dishes. Dante came into the room carrying some of the wrappers from our meal and deposited them in the trash. He raised an eyebrow when he saw me washing the containers, then opened a cupboard and took a peek inside. It was completely empty. “Ah,” he said, answering his own unspoken question about what I was doing.
It took only a couple minutes to tidy up after dinner, and then I dried my hands on my jeans and went and took a look in a couple of the big black garbage bags. The first two contained most of my wardrobe. When I opened the third bag, I went very still.
Dante noticed this immediately and crossed the room to me, gently touching my arm. “You ok, Charlie?”
“Yeah,” I answered automatically.
“What’s in that bag?”
It took me a minute to answer, and when I did I said softly, “My childhood.”
Dante leaned over and tugged the bag open. Inside were all the framed photos of me as a child from my parents’ house, and all the photo albums from when I was growing up. And there were stacks of report cards and school projects and drawings, mementos and keepsakes. I pulled a bent and wrinkled drawing out of the bag. It was one I’d done at about the age of six or seven, a crayon sketch of the house I’d grown up in, the house I’d broken into just tonight, bright flowers in the front yard and a cheerful yellow sun overhead. “They’ve completely gotten rid of me,” I whispered.
I’d been trying so hard to be brave about all of this. To just deal with it. I kept trying to tell myself to be mad, not hurt, because somehow that seemed like a better response to what my parents had done to me. But I was hurt. More than that. I was devastated.
A few tears rolled down my cheeks, and I brushed them away with the back of my hand. Dante put an arm around my waist and handed me yet another clean, white, monogrammed handkerchief. I burst out laughing at that, but it sounded slightly hysterical. And in the next moment, I was doubled over and sobbing.
I dropped to my knees, wrapping myself into a little ball as wretched sobs shook my body. Dante wordlessly knelt beside me and wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on my back, holding me securely.
I don’t know how long I cried. It could have been minutes or hours. I just let all of it out, all the hurt, all the pain, all the anger, as I completely gave myself over to my tears. I mourned the loss of my family, the loss of their love, the loss of the home I’d grown up in, the life I’d had.
It had been so much to lose.
Finally my tears slowed, then stopped. I realized I was laying on the floor of my living room with Dante wrapped around me like a protective shell, pressed against my back. I rolled over in his arms and clung to him, and he held me tightly. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t offer advice, or try to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. He just held on to me. And it was so perfectly right.
When finally I trusted my voice to work, I whispered, “I’m sorry.” It sounded raspy from all the crying.
“Angel, you have no reason to apologize.”
“But I do. I’m so sorry to put you through that. You were having fun. You were enjoying our date. And then I had to go and ruin it for you by—” I didn’t get to finish my apology. Dante took hold of my chin and tilted it upward, so gently, and his lips found mine. The kiss was tender and sweet. It was more than that, too. It held so much promise.
We lay on the floor kissing for a long time, and then Dante sat up and leaned against the wall. He unfastened the top button of his shirt and loosened his tie, and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me securely once again.
“We can’t sit like this,” I murmured, even as I snuggled against his shoulder. “I’m too heavy. Your legs will go numb.”
He just went right on holding me as he murmured, “No they won’t.”
After a while I said randomly, “This was my first real first date. Jamie and I never dated. We just sort of transitioned over a long period of time from friends who hung out to friends that made out. Then when I broke up with him, I started going out with a girl named Callie.”
“I didn’t realize you’re bisexual.”
“I’m not. I was with Callie because I thought I could deny who and what I was. I thought I could force myself into a straight lifestyle. It got pretty serious between Callie and me, even though we never slept together. I even got as far as asking her to marry me, and she actually said yes. Our engagement didn’t last long. I recently admitted to her that I was living a lie, that I was gay, and we broke up. She should hate my guts for doing that to her. I don’t know why she doesn’t.”
“I think it would be impossible to hate you,” Dante said quietly, running his hand over my hair.
“Oh, it’s not impossible. And she really should hate me now. I feel so bad for letting her get caught up in the lie I was trying to tell myself.” After a pause I said, “I’m not sure why I started talking about that.”
“You were telling me about your dating history.”
“Oh. That’s right. So, yeah, I dated Callie for a few months. But that was just going through the motions as I tried to be something I wasn’t. So when you think about it, this, tonight, was my first real date. And we spent it breaking into my parents’ house and then burning through your handkerchief collection as I totally had an emotional breakdown on my living room floor.” I sighed and said, “I was wrong to involve you in this, to pull you into my fucked up family drama. I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing you along. Except that I really didn’t want to do this alone, and I didn’t know who else to ask, and then you came to the bar, and—”
“I’m so glad you didn’t do that alone.”
“You must be so damn sorry you ever asked me out,” I said with a sad little smile, my head still on his shoulder.
“On the contrary. This has been one of the best nights of my life.”
I chuckled a little at that. “If there was any possible way that was true, I’d really worry about what the rest of your life must be like.”
“It’s absolutely true.” I sat up a bit to look at him as he said, “I don’t date. It’s just not something I do. The last time I even attempted it was with Dmitri, and that was over two years ago. I’m lucky that fiasco didn’t end up costing me a friendship.”
“So, if you don’t date, what do you do?”
“I fuck.”
“Ah.”
“You won’t believe me when I tell you I’m so glad we had this night, instead of the night I had planned. The one where I was just going to buy you dinner and then take you straight to bed.”
“Oh, I can easily believe that you wouldn’t want to sleep with me after this.”
“That’s in no way what I just said. I’m saying I’m glad I got to spend time with you, talking to you, laughing and crying with you, getting to know you. I still fully intend to take you to bed in the near future, provided you’ll consent to going out with me again. And while I wholeheartedly look forward to that, I’m grateful that we got
to do this, too.”
“You’d have to be insane to actually ask me out again.”
“Charlie, will you please go out with me tomorrow night?”
“Ok.” I grinned and held him a little tighter and kissed his shoulder. “It really is nuts, you know, wanting to go out with me again after what I just subjected you to.”
“It’s crazy that you agreed to go out with me in the first place.”
“Oh yeah, saying yes to an incredibly hot, sexy, fascinating man – clearly, that’s completely crazy.” I was still grinning.
“But you must have known who I am, what I do,” he said quietly. “Or if you didn’t, you obviously found out soon after I asked you out. And yet, you gave me a second chance and agreed to go out with me tonight.”
“I’m so glad I did.”
His dark eyes searched my face. “Don’t you want to know who you’re getting mixed up with? Don’t you have questions about my line of work?”
“You know, when I first agreed to go out with you, I was also thinking this was only going to be about sex. You’d take me to bed, you’d fuck me, and that would be it. It didn’t really matter to me what you did, because you were just going to be a fling. And now I’ve had a chance to get to know you, and you’re sweet, and kind, and you make me feel so good. So, I kind of feel like I do know who I’m getting mixed up with, because you showed me who you really are tonight.” He ran his fingers into my hair and pulled me to him, kissing me gently.
Ok, eventually, if this thing between us kept progressing? Yeah, I’d have questions. I’d need to understand what he was involved in. But for right now, I knew what I needed to know.
We kissed for a long time, sweet and tender giving way to hot and heavy. I ended up straddling Dante’s lap, my hard cock pressed against his through our clothes. He pulled my t-shirt off and ran his big hands over my body, and then he swung me onto my back on the living room floor and stripped me, so that I was completely naked while he remained totally clothed. I laughed self-consciously when I realized this, and he rolled over and pulled me on top of him, his hands sliding down my back to cup my ass. He rocked me gently, rubbing me against his cock as we kissed.
And then he surprised me by rolling me onto my back on the floor again and sliding down my body and taking my cock down his throat. I was already so aroused that I just went with it, pushing down the panic that usually accompanied sex and focusing on the incredible pleasure Dante was sending through me. I propped myself up on my elbows and watched him, his dark head moving up and down between my legs. And then he looked up at me.
The moment we made eye contact was electric. I think I actually gasped. But who knows, because I was already panting and moaning, totally caught up in the moment, totally caught up in Dante. He held my gaze as he brought me right up to orgasm, and then swallowed me to the root and took me right over the edge. I cried out, throwing my head back and bucking my hips as his warm, wet mouth kept working me. He sucked me until I was totally drained and I collapsed back on the floor, sweaty and shaking, trying to catch my breath.
Finally he slid his mouth off my cock and sat up, leaning against the wall. Again he pulled me onto his lap, cradling me securely. As I held on to him, my body still shaking a bit as I came down off that incredibly intense orgasm, he said, “Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for?” I asked. His black hair was a little long, and I brushed it back from his eyes as I met his gaze.
“For letting me do that to you.”
“I think you have that backwards,” I said with a big grin. “It’s me that should be doing the thanking.” I kissed him before asking, “Would you like me to do that for you now?”
“Not tonight, Charlie. I just wanted to make you feel good. I don’t want anything in return, apart from this.” He hugged me to him and kissed me gently.
After a while, he slid me off his lap and stood up, then took my hand and pulled me to my feet as he said, “Come on, angel. It’s late, let’s get you tucked in bed.”
“Will you spend the night with me?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said, and I felt a stab of disappointment. “I just can’t sleep in unfamiliar places. But I’ll get you tucked in before I take off.”
“K,” I murmured, and let him lead me to the bedroom.
He pushed the door open and stopped short when he flipped on the overhead light. The room was empty except for a cheap air mattress topped with a thin pillow and thinner blanket, my gym bag open on the floor beside it. Dante frowned at this, and asked, “When is your furniture supposed to arrive?”
I grinned at that. “Well, whenever my neighbors decide they don’t want some of their stuff anymore and drag it out to the curb for disposal. Shortly after that, it will ‘arrive’ in my apartment, after I drag it up the stairs.”
“You haven’t bought yourself any stuff? Not even a bed?”
“I made nine dollars today by working the nonexistent lunch rush,” I told him. “So for now, it’s air mattresses and milk crates, but with a forecast for secondhand castoffs in the hopefully near future.”
“You can’t live like this,” Dante said, knitting his brows together. “Get dressed. You can stay in my guest room until we get your apartment squared away.”
I crossed the room to the air mattress and slid under the blanket. “This is fine.”
“This room is really depressing,” Dante told me. “You’re not spending the night here.”
“Sure I am.”
“Please come home with me.”
“I appreciate your concern, Dante, but I’m happy here. If Jamie wasn’t making me a great deal on this sublet, I’d be living in my truck right now. So to me, this place isn’t depressing. It’s a palace.”
Dante considered this for a long moment. Then he turned off the overhead light and crossed the room to me. I could see him pretty clearly in the illumination provided by the streetlight outside my bare window. He sunk down carefully on a corner of the air mattress and said, “What are the chances this thing can hold both of us without exploding?”
“Slim to none. But let’s live dangerously.” I stretched out on my side, and he pulled off his tie and his shoes and lay down gingerly beside me, gathering me into his arms. I ran my palms up his broad back and snuggled against him as I murmured, “What are you doing? I thought you were going to deposit me in my bed and be done with me for tonight.”
“I was going to deposit you in your bed, back when I thought you had a bed.”
“And now, what? You’re staying to compensate for the lack of furnishings?”
His laugh was deep, warm and genuine. “I’m staying because you’re too stubborn to come with me when I tell you to.”
“You didn’t want to spend the night with me. There’s really no reason for you to stay,” I told him.
“Are you telling me to leave?”
“Well, no.”
“Ok then.” He shifted his arms around me, settling in. “Just so you know, I’m going to go home sometime during the night. I’ll never be able to sleep here. But I’ll stay long enough for you to fall asleep.”
“You never really explained why you’re even staying that long,” I murmured drowsily as I cuddled against him.
“I just can’t walk away and leave you all alone in this depressing room with this depressing air mattress.” And after a few moments, he said quietly, “I’m staying because you make me want to protect you like I’ve never wanted to protect anyone or anything in my life.”
I mulled that over as I nestled into the space between his chin and shoulder. And then I whispered, “Thank you.”
Chapter Four
It was disappointing to wake up alone the next morning, even though Dante had forewarned me. And not entirely surprising to find myself lying on the hard floor. The cheap air mattress had indeed not been up to the task of holding both of us last night. But instead of exploding, it had apparently slowly and anticlimactically leaked to death.
&nb
sp; I got up off the floor and padded into the kitchen, in search of my morning caffeine. It was going to have to take the form of a can of soda, because that was all I had here.
Or it used to be all I had here. I stopped short at the sight of a shiny new coffee maker on my counter, coffee pot full, a couple white mugs lined up beside it. There was a pink bakery box on the counter, too, and I flipped the lid to find an assortment of bagels. A search of the kitchen revealed Dante had also bought me groceries, pots and pans, silverware and dishes. Really? Where did someone even find dishes this early in the morning?
Wow, talk about over the top.
Sweet, though.
But definitely over the top.
I had some coffee while standing at my kitchen counter, then went into the bathroom and found a note taped to my mirror with a bandage (not like I had any actual tape). It said: Good morning, angel. I hope you slept well. Please text me when you get up. D.
After using the restroom, I located my cell phone and sent the following text to Dante: The kitchen transformation was quite a surprise. You really shouldn’t have. But thank you.
Within a minute he replied: You’re welcome. Are you dressed?
Ok, that was odd. I texted, No.
Get dressed, angel, he wrote.
I started to ask why, but then I really didn’t want to be hanging around naked anyway. I grabbed a pair of gym shorts out of my duffle bag and pulled them on, then dropped the phone into my pocket. About a minute later, there was a knock at the door.
A burly guy with a clipboard was standing in the hall. He looked at me disinterestedly and asked, “Charlie Connolly?”
“Yes.”
“Delivery.”
“I didn’t order anything,” I told him.
“I know.”
I raised my brows at him. “Does this have something to do with Dante Dombruso?”
“Yes, sir.”
Oh my God, seriously? “Well, please take it back. Whatever it is, please tell Dante I said thanks, but no thanks.” The kitchen items were already too much. Whatever now required a burly deliveryman was certainly too much.