Page 26 of Christmas in Paris
He let himself moan softly, no longer caring if Nancy heard, as the tip of one slick finger breached him. It was an odd sensation, but not a bad one, to have the finger push inside of him, inch by inch. It made him squirm a little, but there was no pain. Still, he wasn’t quite sure what the big deal was. Why men seemed to like this so much was a mystery to him. Sure, it didn’t feel bad, but …
And then Ray crooked his finger, and Simon understood everything. That was all that it took, a skillful movement inside of him, to make him see stars. He knew about the prostate, of course, and had gotten good at finding it in the people he slept with, but that was a completely different thing to feeling it himself.
How long it took Ray to prepare him, Simon didn’t even know or care. The younger man kept up his stimulation of Simon’s prostate the whole time, and that was the important thing. Their eyes stayed linked the whole time, and Simon was stunned when the whole thing started to feel even better than it had at first. It shouldn’t have been possible, but as Ray opened him up, he found that he was getting closer and closer to release with every clever thrust of that finger.
One finger, and then two, he was soon taking easily and eagerly. He even pushed his hips up, trying to get more, deeper. He had brought other men to this point but never been here himself. One finger had felt almost like too much at first, but now he felt empty, and there was only one thing he knew would fill him.
“Now,” he demanded, and he might have been annoyed by Ray’s chuckle of amusement if he hadn’t been so desperate to be taken. “Now, Ray, or I swear to God …”
Ray slid on top of him, a look of satisfaction on his face. He had said that he had definite ideas about how to do this, and those ideas had proven to be good ones. Simon’s body felt like it was burning him, fever that only being impaled on that gorgeous erection would be able to cure.
“I …” Ray started, and Simon’s heart clenched in his chest almost painfully. It was stupid, but he had the idea, just for a second, that Ray was going to tell him that he loved him. Which was, of course, ridiculous. “I’m glad that we don’t have to be quiet anymore,” Ray continued, after a brief pause. He unrolled a condom over himself, all the way to the base, as Simon thought about that.
What was stupid was how disappointed Simon was. Part of him had been hoping so much. But someone like Ray could never be in love with Simon. Ray had been absolutely crystal clear on not wanting to be in love with anyone.
The disappointment didn’t last long, though. Because right then, Ray drove himself inside of Simon, who was so slick and ready for him that Ray slipped inside easier than either of them expected. They let out mutual little groans and clung to each other as they joined, Simon squirming his hips to try to get Ray deeper inside of him.
Part of him was shocked that he had gone his whole adult life and never felt this before. But mostly he knew that, if he ever had done this with someone else, it wouldn’t have been the same. Because he was in love, and that made it better than it ever could have been with anyone else, no matter how skilled a lover they were.
It wasn’t slow. They were both too worked up, and there wasn’t as much of a need to be quiet as there had been before. Simon knew that he didn’t have it in himself to hold back, and it seemed like Ray was in the same situation.
Besides, there was an edge of desperation to their movements now. If nothing else, it had been made very clear by the events of the night that this relationship was almost at its end. That changed things between them, making them just slightly rougher with each other.
Once Ray’s hand closed around Simon’s erection, that was when it was all over. He convulsed as a pleasure completely unlike anything he’d ever felt before rocketed through him. Being inside of Ray was not something he wanted to give up, but this was something different and just as good, maybe even better. It felt like his release gripped him for hours, and it left him gasping and panting and covered with sweat, weak as a kitten as the waves of sensation receded.
“You’re really not straight, you know,” Simon murmured, and he couldn’t help but be a little bit smug about that. “In case you were wondering. Merry Christmas.”
He was already dozing off, worn out by his first time being taken, so he barely heard Ray’s chuckle. But he did very clearly hear him say, “Merry Christmas,” in return.
The part where Ray told him that he loved him, though, was almost certainly in Simon’s dream.
Chapter Nineteen
Ray
It had been a stupid thing to say, but luckily, Ray was positive that Simon was asleep too quickly to hear it. Ray had gotten those three forbidden words off of his chest, and no harm was done, probably.
The last week of their vacation, their stolen time together, drew to an end quicker than Ray would have thought it was possible for time to go. There were so many last-minute things that the class wanted to do, and Ray was very aware that, whatever nice things Simon had said to him about it not being impossible, he was unlikely to be able to come back. At least anytime soon. So he was just as eager as the teenagers were to see everything before they went home.
He and Simon were still having as much fun together as ever. Maybe more, since they had lost all fear of Nancy finding out. But there was an edge to the fun now. They had both always known that this was time-limited, but somehow, that knowledge didn’t make it any easier to come to grips with the fact that they were almost done.
There was still a chance that Simon wouldn’t lose his job. So even though they had been caught, they didn’t flaunt their illicit affair. Other than Mandy, who was a bit of a loner, Ray would have been willing to bet that none of the students had the slightest idea that he and Simon were involved at all.
New Year’s Eve was generally a festive occasion, but Ray was sure that this one wouldn’t be. They were going to have to be on a flight out of Paris and back to the United States tomorrow, after all. It would be best if they had a quiet night and woke up rested for the long flight back home.
But the students had different ideas. They weren’t interested in spending their last night in Paris, not to mention New Year’s, being quiet in bed. Honestly, Ray didn’t blame them. If he’d been their age, he wouldn’t have wanted to, either.
It didn’t help that the hotel staff wanted to see them off in style, either. The lobby had been beautifully decorated in shimmering silver and glistening gold, with an impressive array of food and drink set up. It would be rude—Ray was assured by Ashley and her friends—to turn up their noses at all the work that the amazing hotel had done.
He tended to agree, actually, despite his daughter’s obvious ulterior motive. Simon didn’t have it in him to turn them down, either, so the party went ahead, despite the early flight in the morning and Nancy’s obvious dislike for the whole situation.
That last point only made it better. Seeing her there glowering made it just a little bit better that everything was about to fall down around them. She was going to get her way, more likely than not, in the long run, so she could handle one party.
It was funny to watch her glaring at the students who were dancing together. From the way her mouth was all primped up, she obviously would have loved to say something about it. If she’d been the teacher, she would have stopped them immediately, but she wasn’t. Simon was, and he didn’t seem to mind at all.
It was a pretty fun party. Ray knew that when he was a kid, he would have loved to have something like this. This trip, he knew, every single student here would remember for the rest of their lives. That was the gift that Simon had given them, against all the odds.
Simon just walked around changing people’s lives. He had changed Ashley’s, and God knew he had changed Ray’s. But Simon himself had no idea or seemed not to. It was just this aura around him. He couldn’t seem but help trying to lift people up, with no hope of personal gain.
