Page 49 of All That Remains
"Sosoft," he whispered, tracing a vein atop my foot. Then he kissed it. "You've got freckles here, y’know?" He lifted it and blew raspberries along the sole until I nearly pissed myself laughing.
As he lay beside me again, I tucked a hand beneath his shirt, settling into the warmth of his belly. He began to doze. My fingers roved his stomach, noticing he wasn't particularly ticklish, but that hewashighly sensitive around his lowerabdomen leading into his groin. It took him a while to grow accustomed to my touch there without flinching.
I bent and kissed his abdomen, then allowed my tongue to dip into his navel, prompting a laugh. It seemed he would allow me to touch him in any way I pleased, at any time. That kind of trust was hard-won. I savored the heat of his flesh and the steady rise and fall of his breath. His skin was feather-soft, responding readily when I ghosted my lips closer to his hips. To hear the unguarded sighs he emitted lent me mad confidence. I had reduced him to that.
When I went to pull down his briefs, he stopped me and said he needed to shower first. Problem was, I wanted it so badly I could already taste it. I wanted—no,needed—to feel it in my hand. In the days prior, I’d begun to grab at it in any given opportunity, and sometimes he had to deter me when we weren't alone. There was a weird sort of solidarity I shared with it now, and I yearned to pull it between my lips—to let it slide down my throat, scraping past my teeth and pressuring the roof of my mouth.
I nearly salivated thinking of the way he bounced about liberally through his briefs in the early mornings and late evenings. So much of him contained in that one space. Such a secret and delicious part. I wanted to know the things it was capable of. I wanted it inside of me, splitting me—wherever he chose.
"Hey..." he whispered, with a tentative smile, as if he could read my mind. Most times, he could. I must’ve been staring again, since he subconsciously covered his groin. I bent and kissed his dick through the briefs, mouthing it and the textures of the fabric until his hips squirmed. Soaking the material with my fat tongue. I found the tip and stroked it lightly, torturing him with unhurried caresses like he always did me. He put apillow over his face then—halfway where I needed him to be, visibly filling his briefs more than a few moments ago.
I lifted him free of the wet material and he came alive in my hand, springy and swollen, pulsing down my palm like bone deep currents. Sweet fuck,this was too good. It was so virile and fleshly. Sohim. He groaned into the pillow. I had him now. He was powerless to stop me.
I ran my hand up and down his length, studying his complexion and how much deeper it was than mine—being slightly darker than the rest of him. I had no idea what I was doing, but I followed my instinct, indulging the visceral urge to draw him into my mouth and savor all. After the first contact with my tongue, he began writhing in silence. I smelled him—every bitof him. I couldn't consume as much as I wanted, struggling with the mouthful I’d already managed, but always strove for more. The act was far more difficult than it appeared, lending me a great deal of empathy for females who blew me in the past.
I breathed hard through my nose, thinking of my next move. He was slightly salty; full of curious textures and elusive flavors that made my mind reel in an attempt to pinpoint them. When I withdrew him, soaking wet, he moaned in protest, slinking down the bed. I followed, brushing my tongue along the ridge—along the tip and its hole. That made him sit up suddenly, unsure what to do with himself.
"Rafe, babe,stop..."
I tugged his shaft, eliciting a guttural sound from his throat, rotating my tongue around the tip until he came down my hand. I studied him as he unloaded. His orgasm was violently sensual. One of welcome anguish. Is that how I looked when I came? Brow furrowed, mouth agape, clenching the sheets? His eyes mere slits—totally white since the pupils had slipped into the back of his skull. He looked like he was having an out-of-bodyexperience. When he descended, he fell back onto the mattress with a whimper.
"Babe...what thefuckare you even doin’ to me?" he panted, still ebbing from his climax.
I smiled and lay against his belly after cleaning my hand. Utterly triumphant. It couldn't have been later than 5AM. Dawn crept in, so the room was paled by the day's earliest light. I smelled notes of the cologne he'd been wearing all week and whiffs of my own saliva. This was paradise. Right here between his legs, nestled in the warmth of his privates.
Now the curtains had been drawn back on something sublime between us, and there was no way I would allow them to fall back into place. It was our last day together of uninterrupted bliss, and even though I knew I’d be working with him closely each day going forward, the thought of us leaving our sanctuary felt like the onset of a bad dream.
Later I went to shower and brush my teeth, and he fell asleep again. Relentless kisses became my priority until he awakened, and I didn't give a shit about his morning breath or the fact that the others could burst into the room any minute. Having coaxed me back beneath the sheets with him, he held me the remainder of the morning; the two of us pensive. This couldn’t be over. I played with his fingers and the sensation resounded throughout my core, leaving me with an unadulterated impression of what it meant to bealive.
***
Throughout the day he couldn't stop watching me with a curious smile. Anytime the other boys wanted in on our private joke, he'd just duck his head and keep it to himself.
"Yous bois are being weirder than usual...of a morning," Levi said, reaching across where we all sat on the floor in the lounge, three boxes of pizza between us. Rome and I shared becausewe both loved chicken and sweet corn. He sat across from me, gobbling several slices like he hadn't eaten in days. It was the first time at the bungalow that he wasn't picky aboutwhathe ate. The other boys shared one plain cheese pizza and another loaded with veggies. Whenever they grabbed a slice of the latter, I reached across and ate the oily toppings that had fallen back onto the box—limp and coated with mozzarella.
"So, this is it, yeah?" Nathan said, acknowledging it was our last day together off grid. The film crew had wrapped and left for good, leaving us alone for several hours until my mum arrived to drive us back to her place.
"It's been real," Rome said, mouth full.
I got up, staring absently at the fridge magnets as I poured us all soda. Alex requested water, so I grabbed him a bottle. He'd been staring at me strangely all morning, and I hadn't had a chance to pull him aside and ask what was wrong yet.
"Next few months gonna be mad, won't it?" Nathan continued. "The listening par-tee—" Everyone piped up to mimic the way he saidparty, to which he burst out laughing and joined us in repeating the word like he hadn’t said it himself.
Levi knocked his drink over and I yelled"Noooo!"dramatically. I was dead. My dad would chew me out, then my mum would rip my head off for upsetting him. The one thing he’d asked was that we eat in the dining room only, but the boys had cried about wanting to watch the telly, so I relented because it was the last day. For fuck’s sake.
"For God's sake!" Alex snapped. "You've had one job, Leo mate, not to screw it all up for the rest of us! Poor Ralph."
We piled the spot with napkins and went back to discussing our upcoming schedule. Rome held up a few fingers to count while Nathan called out our upcoming gigs, chiming in to correct him whenever he missed something important. A few of his fingertips were still greasy from the pizza.
"We've got: theLate Show,Teen Awards, Sweden, Germany, France—"
"So much bloody press," Rome chimed in.
"Yeah..." I muttered, reaching to grab the second to last slice. I chomped while they continued, stretching my legs out beside the box and wiggling my bare toes.
"We’re gonna be mad by the time it's all over, bois. Dey've got us goin’ non-stop," Nathan concluded.
"Not to mention," Rome piped up again. "We've got the start of the tour in December, yeah? And theX-Mas Ball? I've heard that's a great gig, that."
