Shit, I was actually excited about returning downstairs, to Kieran. What the hell was going on with me here?
I was clearly divided on the issue. My mind was insisting one thing, that it was beyond wrong to want that man, but my dick had other ideas and it was infecting other parts of my body, too. Emotional parts. It was horrifying but it was pulling me inexorably for the stairs. I barely had enough time to throw on some loose basketball shorts and a Nike tee before my bare feet were padding down the smooth wood of the stairs.
To Kieran. Damn it.
The living room was dim and gloomy, lit only by the bluish glow of the 55′ Plasma HDTV, and Kieran was sprawled on that big suede couch watching Limitless. Flickering shadows leapt and quivered on the walls and across his face but I saw no sign of Molly and Rick.
I skidded to a halt. “Uh, where’s Molly and the Cro-Magnon?”
Silently, Kieran hooked a thumb over his shoulder. I followed the direction he indicated and glanced out the huge windows behind him, seeing that a tent had been erected in the yard. The flickering glow of a lantern provided silhouettes of the happy couple and they were, well, gyrating. I still considered busting up their little outdoor tryst, to prevent me from making a fool out of myself in here, but before I could I heard a dreamily sighed, “Oh, Rick.” Those damn windows or that damn door was still opened.
Shit, as much as I didn’t want to be alone with Kieran, I wanted even less to interrupt that.
I was stuck with the lesser of two evils. A very hot, very tempting evil.
Clearing my throat, I perched my ass on the very edge of the couch, in the farthest spot from Kieran I could manage. Clasping my hands between my knees, my shoulders hunched, I stared intently at the television to avoid glancing at him. But I didn’t need to glance at him. I could feel him, his presence radiating with enough magnetism that I felt my body leaning unconsciously to the side.
I caught myself before I ended up sprawled across his lap. Stiffening my spine, I sat ramrod straight, body clenched to avoid anymore leaning.
The silence, that damned silence, was getting to be a little awkward.
Apparently, Kieran thought so, too. In my periphery, I saw him pluck up a small remote. One press of a button and I heard a gentle whirring of gears, the wood ceiling up above sliding away, revealing a sheet of Plexiglass that protected the interior of the cabin from the elements and gave us an unobstructed view of the velvety, starry night sky. My lips parted, a sigh escaping. That was amazing.
Almost in a trance, I laid back on the couch, staring transfixed at the flickering pinpoints of brightness in the sky. In LA, I never got the opportunity to do much stargazing, and I’d forgotten just how beautiful the sky could look. And, yes, I was aware that sounded sissified.
The couch shifted and suddenly Kieran’s head was beside my own, the top of his brushing against my shoulder. Silky strands of midnight black hair tickled the side of my face but I didn’t find myself scooting away. It felt… nice. Ridiculously so.
His pale arm rose, indicating a cluster of stars. “That’s Cassiopeia,” he told me softly.
I tried to see it but I couldn’t. I thought maybe I recognized the Milky Way but I could’ve been mistaken. Constellations hadn’t ever been my forte; I just thought the sky was beautiful like this. It always ended up reminding me that the universe was a gigantic place and I was just a small blip among billions. That might’ve been disappointing to some but to me it was comforting. Comforting to know that whatever mistakes I made, someone else had made the same mistakes. If I loved, hated or grieved, someone else was doing the same.
I was insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
I cleared my throat and searched for something to say to Kieran. Unfortunately, idle chitchat also wasn’t my forte. “Do you live here year…”
He made a soft sighing noise.
Hitching up on my elbow, I gazed down into Kieran’s face, his eyes closed, lashes dark twin crescents on his pale skin. Deep, even breaths whispered in and out of his slightly parted mouth. He looked so… young. Innocent. A real Sleeping Beauty. My hand rose and my fingers hung, suspended and trembling, over that silky hair, preparing to smooth it off his forehead, but the emotion currently gripping my heart halted me.
Tenderness. I didn’t do tenderness, not with anyone, and I didn’t plan to start here. Not in this moment, at this place, with this man. No. I refused to.
My fingers curled into a fist but I couldn’t quite tear my gaze from his peaceful slumber.
Shit, I was really in trouble here, wasn’t I?
~*~Day Two~*~
I awoke at the buttcrack of dawn.
It took me several long seconds to recognize my surroundings. You know the feeling, that anxiety you couldn’t entirely quell when you were confronted by things unfamiliar to you, that thought of, oh, shit, where the fuck am I? I stared up at the open ceiling, the first bright rays of dawn glinting and burning my retinas, the cobwebs dusting off my memory enough for me to remember, vaguely, that I was somewhere in the wilderness with Molly and Rick.
And Kieran.
A blush burned my cheeks as I remembered — shit, did I remember — the night before, that close call I’d had where I’d nearly caressed the man’s silky hair. I didn’t normally do shit like that and the fact that I’d almost done it to Kieran, to a man… It was fucking with my mind.
I’d actually slept with him. Well, next to him. Pressed right up against his warm, muscular body all night long, keeping me on edge even in my dreams, I’d snuggled up close, breathing in the woodsy, spicy scent of his cologne. It was soothing, damn him.
Speaking of, where the hell was he?
Stretching my arms above my head, I pulled the kinks out of my back, feeling my bladder protest. I had to piss worse than a fucking racehorse and that running water I heard was not helping matters.
I rolled to my feet, a jarring impact that left my legs tingling, and paused for a moment to orient myself. The water I heard wasn’t coming from upstairs but it didn’t appear to be coming from outside, either. I tilted my head, listening closely. It seemed to be coming from… there.
More curious than I was concerned with relieving my bladder, I followed the sound to the back of the cabin, not even pausing at the door I’d assumed led outside. I shoved it open. Strode over the threshold.
And gaped.
Kieran, all nekkid and wet and glistening, stood just a few tantalizing inches away. But almost as enticing as that view was, but not quite, was the actual room he was in. If it could even be called a simple room. There were no walls, no ceiling, only the trees standing sentinel against prying eyes, the floor smooth granite that tapered off into the springy grass. There was some ingenious pipe work at play, a pole extending to the middle of the space, a round showerhead spitting out a gentle stream of water.
Water that was currently pelting the delectably naked and oblivious Kieran O’Brien.