Page 74 of The Sound Of Us

Eight p.m. rolls by and still no chance of the rain stopping. I set aside my dinner. I don’t even know what I’m eating. Chicken penne?

A text vibrates from my phone. It’s from Mrs. Dalton. Switch off the lights, he’s scared. He’ll come around the back.

I don’t even bother responding to Mrs. Dalton. Tomorrow I’ll take her somewhere nice and buy her whatever she wants.

I hurry through the house, switching off the lights and then return to the back of the kitchen to make sure the back door is unlocked. Then I pace, wearing the new wood floor back into the ground.

When a minute has gone by and Axel still hasn’t arrived, I panic and text Mrs. Dalton. Where is he?

She responds immediately. The path around the back is slippery. Alberta broke her arm down that path once. He’s coming. Pepper’s with him.

My excitement knows no bounds.

I watch the door like a hawk and when the first turn of the knob catches my eye, I step forward and fling the door open, almost taking it off its hinges.

Axel stands there, a hoodie over his head and raindrops clinging to his eyelashes. He peers up at me.

I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. This is it for me. He is it. I pull him into the warmth of the house, his face between my palms, crashing my lips to his, telling him with my kisses how much I want him here, hoping to erase every speck of doubt I find in his eyes.

He wraps his arms around my neck, kissing me back so hard I have to ease back to accommodate his demanding mouth.

Somehow, without breaking the kiss, we manage to get an obedient Pepper into the house, and I kick the door shut.

Axel softens the kiss, and a light suddenly shines on his face. It’s from his phone.

“Lock the door, Eli,” he says.

I reach around him and lock the door.

“I told Frank I’m helping Mrs. Dalton with something. That I’ll be gone for about two hours. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner. I’m sorry I’m late.”

It's too many sentences in one go, so I don't get everything but I get the important parts. I wave my hand, dismissing his apology.

“She knows about us,” he says.

I take his phone from him and open up his notepad. I know, we talked over the weekend, I type.

Axel takes the phone from me and types. We can trust her.

I pull him into the kitchen, using his phone for light. There, I get Pepper the biggest bone I can find, plus a few treats. Enough to keep her busy out here for two hours.

Then I gently pull Axel toward my bedroom.

I wish it didn’t have to look like this. Like two people in it only for the sex. I wish we could walk down the street together like we belong to each other. I wish I could erase all links he has to Frank. I wish we had the luxury of getting to know the deep things and insignificant things about each other. I wish these moments didn’t have to be stolen.

But for now, this is all we have.

We stand in the middle of my bedroom. I try to make it right.

With the lights all off, I leave the one window’s blinds up so we can have the moon at least to guide us in our sins. Axel stands in front of me, shaking. From the cold he’s just come from or something else, I can’t tell. I reach out to remove his hoodie. He lifts his arms. Underneath is a basic t-shirt. No double and triple layers of clothing today.

I remove the t-shirt and then run the palms of my hands over the outer side of his arms. He shivers. His head tips back ever so slightly, his eyes drift closed and his lips part. I imagine the sound of his exhale. My dick is rock solid. I could take him right now and he’ll open for me like a delicate flower.

My hands move, fingertips skimming his shoulders, then flattening again to glide over his pecs, down his abdomen, over his abs. Skating across the skin where the waistband of his sweats hangs loosely on his hips.

Axel drops his head onto my shoulder, his hands reaching for my body. It takes all of me not to wrap him inside me and devour every inch of him on the bed behind me.

Then he takes over.

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