Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 12:21:49 +0200 From: Noel Welch Subject: To Have Faith: Chapter 5 All the usual disclaimers apply here guys; I'm not going to bore with something you've read a hundred times. All Rights Reserved Donate to Nifty guys!!! It's a great service and it would really suck if we had to pay for an awesome service like this. Donate what you can, how big or small the donation is immaterial. The dynamic duo is back Chapter 5 On the flight, Lucas entertained me with stories of his family; he has six brothers and one sister. "It must be hell for her," I remarked. "It is," he said with a grin. He backtracked quickly though when he saw the look I shot him, "but it's mostly the others, not me," he said. "Tell me about your family." "Well there's not much to say really, my mom's a doctor, my biological father is absent, my mother recently remarried. I have two sisters, Christine and Marina, both eleven and irritating as hell. But everybody is back home in South Africa." "Aha! That's where you're from! You sound like a weird mixture of English and Australian. I initially thought you were from Australia, but I can actually understand what you're saying so you couldn't possibly be Australian." "Yup, I'm from South Africa. My mom is French and my dad's Scottish, but I was born in South Africa, so ya." "What does 'ya' mean?" "It's the South African equivalent of the American 'yeah'" "Oh, hey there's the Eiffel Tower," he said as we were nearing Charles Gaulle. "It always looks beautiful, no matter how many times I've seen it," I said, looking at the Eiffel through the small window. "Lucas, what do you say I show you around Paris? I've come here almost every year of my life to visit my grandparents, so I know my way around," I asked with a smile. "I would love that Alistair. Whew, I thought I would have to survive on the streets of Paris alone!" "Shut up, I need to go tell Callum of our plans." A flight attendant notified the passengers that the flight was over. I went to check on Callum in first-class, "Hey Cal, I need to ask you something," I said a bit cautiously while sitting next to him, unsure if he was still angry at me or not. I found him with his earphones in, eyes closed. I touched his arm, he opened one eye but at the sight of me, woke up fully. "Yeah?" "I just wanted to ask if I could show Lucas around the city?" "Alistair, you know you don't have to ask me." "I know, I want to, it's just that this trip was kinda supposed to be me and you, you know? And now Lucas is in the equation." "I'm absolutely knackered, I'm going to go and home and sleep. I'll send someone to pick you up once you're done," he said while we were standing up. "You forgot something Alistair," he said with a smirk. "What?" I asked. "How could you leave without giving your best friend a hug?" "Oh God," I said while walking into his outstretched arms. Mmmm, I could definitely get used to this, I thought to myself, while feeling Callum's cut chest pressed against mine. I returned to Lucas, "Let's go." We dropped off Lucas' luggage at his hotel and emerged from the hotel, excited to explore Paris. The day passed by quickly, I showed Lucas all the tourist attractions, the Champs-Ellyses, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, we even went for a tour of the Louvre. It was early evening and Lucas and I were leaning on each other, slumped on a bench in exhaustion. "I didn't know Paris was this big." "I forgot Paris was this big." "So hungry," he groaned in reply. I chuckled; there was a cafe across the street. "C'mon cowboy, let's go get some food in you," I said while pulling him to his feet. We entered the cafe, a petite waitress approached us, "Bonjour, welcome to Chocolat. My name is Nadine; would you like a table for two?" "Oui, merci." She looked surprised, staring at my very American companion then looked back at me, at that moment I understood, Americans in general were disliked in France- Europe as a whole actually. They were generally considered to be an uncouth, loud, boisterous people. The French especially considered them to be unsophisticated. "Le table, s'il vous plait," (the table, please) I said. "Pardonnez-moi! Par ici, s'il vous plait," (Sorry! This way please). She led us to a candlelight table by a window which overlooked the street. "Well, this is romantic," I said in jest, as we sat down. "Actually, it's exactly what I wanted," he said while looking into my eyes. I looked down, blushing. I didn't think a guy that looked like Lucas would be even remotely interested in a guy like me. "I hesitated at first 'cause I thought you were with that guy, but I've never met someone like you, there's certainly no one like you in Texas." He chuckled. "Someone like me?" I was curious. "You're smart and funny and kind and just an amazing guy." He looked a bit flustered. All day, even while he was staring in awe at the Eiffel Tower, he seemed so confident and self-assured, and now he was pouring out his heart to me. I don't think my face could get any more red. "Not to mention the fact that you're hot," he said with a wicked grin. "Shut up Lucas." At this moment a waiter appeared at our table, he asked if we wanted to order, I quickly scanned my menu, I didn't even get a chance to look through it 'cause earlier Lucas seemed to be on a mission to see how many times he could make me blush in 10 minutes. Lucas ordered the American cheeseburger with a beer, while I ordered a Cajun & lemon chicken burger, sticking to an orange juice. "So since you're from South Africa, what were you up to in England?" "I actually go to school there, well, I'll be going to school there." "Why so far from home?" "My stepdad suggested it, I thought about it and I decided to take him up on his offer." "I finished high school last year, I'd always wanted to travel so I decided to take a gap year and now I'm backpacking around Europe." He grinned. While we were talking, he managed to take my hand in his without my noticing, the sly dog, I thought to myself, though I made no move to remove my hand. Unfortunately, the waiter decided to return with our orders, we reluctantly separated. As we tucked in, I asked, "So, does the cheeseburger live up to your high expectations?" "It's okay, it needs to be more American, how's yours?" "Mine's pretty good, not spicy enough though." We continued to eat in silence- though we hadn't known each other for all that long, it was comfortable. The waiter came back with dessert menus, "we won't be needing those," he said to the waiter. "We won't?" I asked in confusion, Dessert was my favourite part of the meal, I ate the main course only as a formality and I really wanted to try their specialty, gateau chocolat. "I wanted us to go for a walk in the park." He looked at me, hoping I wouldn't say no. I relented and reluctantly asked for the bill, the make-out session you're going to have better be worth it, I'm missing out on some gateau! my subconscious bitterly said. He was about to open his mouth and protest but I said, "Before you say anything, I brought you here so I'm paying. No arguments." "Fine." He didn't look too happy about this, what is it with guys and paying the bill? I'm not some girl, contrary to popular belief, fags actually like paying the bill (well, independent fags do), only once in a while 'cause it's really gentlemanly when your guy pays the bill. We walked through the park in silence, appreciating each other and our beautiful surroundings, hand in sweaty hand, Lucas was the culprit, while I was as cool as a cucumber (I never understood that particular saying, I mean, cucumbers aren't known to be particularly cool). While there were lamps illuminating the park, they were sparse in this part of the park; but the light of the moon and the stars was sufficient for us to see our surroundings, "Let's sit," he said abruptly, stopping by a large oak, interrupting me from my reverie, I sat down beside him, leaning against the tree, shoulder to shoulder. "There's the Big Dipper." He pointed to a cluster of stars that some idiot a long time ago thought looked like a giant bear, "And that's the North Star." He pointed to a bright star that was north (obviously) of us. "So," I said, breaking the silence as we admired the beautiful night sky, "are all rednecks amateur astronomers, or is it just you?" I asked with a cheeky grin. "Why you little shit, I'll show you a redneck!" I giggled as he launched himself at me, we wrestled light-heartedly, rolling around on the grass, eventually he won our playful fight for dominance and I ended up on my back with him straddling me, his legs in between mine, my hands being held by one of his while his other hand was under my t-shirt tickling my ribs. I was out of breath from laughter, "Stop, stop!" I said in an inappropriately breathless voice. He stopped, his hand still against my heart. The park was silent; his heavy breathing was the only sound I heard. "Wait, why did you stop?" I gave him a perplexed look. And then it hit me, I let out a surprised "oh": how fucking obtuse can you be?! my subconscious yelled at me, God, I swear you were born blonde, I'm too fabulous to be stuck in someone so dumb, but with the economy the way it is, I'm stuck here! it raved. I blushed furiously as I realised our position, I don't anyone has ever -or will ever might I add- given me a look as desirous and lust-filled as he did in that moment. I watched as his head lowered slowly towards mine, we were almost nose-to-nose at that point. He bridged the now tiny gap between us and captured my lips in his in almost aggressive manner. He kissed me furiously, he bit my bottom lip softly, at my moan, his tongue darted in, exploring my mouth. His hand was exploring my hairless chest; he found my nipple and tweaked it, eliciting another moan from me. After a few minutes of this, we broke apart, my forehead against his, I'm sure everyone in the park could hear our heavy breathing, "We should stop. We're in the middle of a park. On the grass like some idiotic, hormonal teenagers." My voice thick with arousal. While I was talking, he dotted my face with kisses, he moved lower, kissing my jaw, moving upwards towards my ear, where he said, "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty hormonal right now." I involuntarily shivered at the feeling of his breath against my ear. He bit my ear lobe, I groaned, he moved downwards, kissing and nipping at my neck now. "Fuck," I said in a low voice. I was loving every moment of it, but when he started kissing my neck, things ramped up a notch. My neck was like my spot, for example: you get guys who just love having their nipples played with, if they were nipple guys, I was a neck guy, it sounds a tad bit weird when I say it like I am right now but I love having my neck kissed and nipped and all the other crazy things Lucas was doing to me. At this point, my dick was uncomfortably hard in my boxer briefs and leaking precum like crazy. I unconsciously started grinding my crotch into his; he let a low growl and attacked my throat with renewed vigour. He was distracted, I broke my hands free and felt up his muscular back while he was grinding his hard crotch against mine. My hands moved downwards seemingly of their own accord and gripped his ass as he ground himself against me. I felt them clench and relax, it turned me on even more -if that was possible at this point. I heard some leaves softly rustle a few metres to the right of me, I looked, it was nothing but another oak tree, surrounded by some shrubs. Eh, probably a squirrel or something, I thought, but something didn't feel right, I had this persistent, vague feeling someone was watching us. "Lucas, cool off for a bit." "Wha?" "I don't want to cum in my pants while I'm in public." He gave me a look of equal parts wickedness and lust, that made me blush, the cause being that a part of me secretly wanted us to continue. I sat up, and inspected the source of the sound I heard earlier, the deep shadows surrounding the tree seemed to contain something, I squinted, I saw a vague human shape. WTF, was this perv watching us, I thought in embarrassment, alarmed, I approached the tree carefully, a figure in black came out of the shadows, surprising Lucas. "Who the fuck are you?! Some sort of perv who gets off on watching guys make out?!" Lucas was extremely angry, he looked like he wanted to beat up this mysterious man, I held Lucas' bicep, restraining him. The man ignored him and instead turned towards me, "Alistair McLeod," he said in a deep unaccented voice. "Yes," I answered cautiously. "Sir, I've been employed by Mr. Richards to be your temporary bodyguard." "Alistair, what is this guy saying?" I ignored him, my mind was racing and my blood was slowly starting to boil. "Are you the only one?" "Yes sir, my partner is stationed over there." He gestured towards a man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper about 20 metres from us. "We're also to make sure you reach Mr. Richards' house safely." "Of course you are," I said between clenched teeth. "Lucas babe, looks like I got to leave." I gave him kiss, it was meant to be short but he deepened it and we kissed passionately for a few minutes. I broke apart from him, embarrassed and blushing at our public show; then I remembered it was always a public show, and I reddened even more. He pulled me to him, we embraced, "Don't be embarrassed, when can I see you again?" he whispered in my ear. "In a few days, I promise." We separated. I looked at the -I refuse to call my bodyguard- bodyguard, "We drop him off before we go to Mr. Richards', understood?" "He's staying at the Holiday Inn on 92 Rue de Vaugirard," I said to the guard. "Understood." I walked out of the park with Lucas by my side and the two bodyguards trailing behind us. "You're really hot when you're angry, you know that?" "Shut up Lucas." "Yes sir." I could hear the grin in his voice. We were near the street now. The guards walked past us to their car, a black Mercedes S-class, one opened a door for me and Lucas. Before I entered the car, I knocked on the window, it was quite thick and heavily tinted. Bulletproof. This is ridiculous; who does Callum think he is! He hired guards to watch over me on my date with Lucas, like Lucas is some kind of criminal! When I get to that bloody house I'm going to rip him a new one so badly he won't be able to look me in the eye for a week, I fumed silently. Lucas was rubbing my thigh in comforting circles. "As much I don't want to say this, what happened was actually a blessing in disguise, things were getting a bit out of control." "I was wondering how far I could take things with you before you said stop." I mock-gasped, "What kind of Southern gentleman are you?" His hand was slowly rising. "The horny kind." He massaged my now hard dick. I let out a surprisingly loud groan, I clapped my hands to my mouth, shit, I thought, I looked to the front in panic, only to see there was a privacy screen up, like the ones you find in limousines and such. Two can play this game, I thought to myself. I boldly gripped his tool through his jeans. Clearly he wasn't wearing briefs because his dick slid down the leg of his tight jeans; we were in the dark so I couldn't really tell how long it was, but it was quite thick. I slowly rubbed it, up and down, he let out a hiss, it was almost a competition to see who would cum first, and renewed his efforts, rubbing my dick while sucking on my neck, I was leaking precum like a tap. I was going to lose it pretty soon if I didn't do something. I discreetly started unbuttoning his jeans while he was distracted, slipped my hand down his jeans and fervently massaged his dick through the thin fabric of his boxers. He let out a surprised moan, panting, he lay back and I continued giving him a hand job. He was now panting louder, his dick became engorged, "Fuck!" he yelled as he came. We didn't even get the chance to relax as the car came to a stop. The partition slid down, Lucas hastily buttoned up his jeans. "Sir, we've arrived at the hotel." I gave Lucas a kiss on the cheek, "Bye farm boy, hope your jeans aren't stained too noticeably," I whispered in his ear. "Don't worry; I'll be sure to return the favour." He exited the car, I watched him walk into the lobby of the hotel. "Where are we going anyways?" "To Mr. Richards' house in Troyes." Troyes was a quaint town in the Champagne-Ardennes region of France, east of Paris, so that meant it would take almost 2 hours to get there. I whiled away the time by browsing on my phone. "Sir... sir, we've arrived," said one guard. I drowsily opened my eyes, must've fallen asleep, I thought. I woke up instantly when I realised where we were. My earlier rage returned to me in full force. Callum came out of the house, wearing pyjama pants and a robe, his chest bare. As angry as I was at that moment, I had to admit how undeniably sexy he was. I approached him, my strides long, I seriously considered punching him, but decided against it at the last moment. "We. Need. To. Talk." I punctuated my words with hard pokes to his chest. Callum stayed outside to talk to the guards. I walked past him in quite an undignified huff. Inside the house I found a set of wooden sliding doors were to my left and stairs to my right with a hallway in front of me. I opened the sliding doors; I entered what looked to be Callum's father's study. I sat down on one of the stuffy armchairs and waited. I heard Callum come into the house about 15 minutes later. He entered the study with an unconcerned air about him, "Explain yourself." My voice cold as ice. "I hired two bodyguards to discreetly watch over you throughout the day," he explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Do not patronise me Callum. Why though, why the fuck would you do something like that?! What normal person does shit like that?!" I shouted at him. "You just met that guy Alistair! You met him less than 24 hours yet you spent the whole day with him traipsing around Paris! Think for a second Alistair, instead of just blindly trusting everyone! He could have been a serial killer for all you know! You know next to nothing about that guy! What I did, I did for you, Alistair." His words hit me hard, "Did you ever stop to think that I can take care of myself, I have a black belt in karate, and I think I'd be able to knock out Lucas if necessary, in addition to that, my grandparents live in Paris, so think I can get around," I said acidly, "When will you realise that I'm not some china doll that you can mollycoddle, while I may be more trusting than others, I am not oblivious to the world around me. If you ever do something like this again, this-," I gestured between us, "will be over. Is that understood, Richards?" Unbeknownst to me, while I was talking, Callum was coming closer and closer to me until he stood an arm's length from me, I backed away from him. I was tired, it was 3 in the morning, and I did not have the inclination to be ensnared in Callum's mind games. My emotions frayed, I was feeling vulnerable. No, I don't want to be over- analysing his every single touch or action towards me. I don't want to be second-guessing my feelings towards him or his towards me - fuck, I don't even want to have feelings for him. "Stop. Don't come closer Callum." He didn't heed my words, "Stop, please," I whispered. He stopped where he was, a metre away from me. His touch was bad for me, I let my guard down, it made me feel safe, I couldn't think straight when he was this close to me, much less when he was touching me. I backed away. Hit the empty fireplace's mantle behind me. A pained look stretched across his face, "Don't do this Alistair, don't shut me out." A sigh escaped me, "I just need time." My voice barely above a whisper. I walked out, brushing past him in the process, reminding me what I was leaving. I opened the sliding doors, slipped out, turned around, saw him. He looks so crestfallen, I thought. I almost gave in and ran to him. I steeled myself and shut the doors. This was the part where I was supposed to storm into my bedroom in a flurry of anger and hurt, except I didn't know where my bedroom was, great going, my subconscious sneered at me. I followed the hallway, passed the kitchen, and came across a door where the hallway turned right into the family room. I opened the door, alas, a bedroom, my subconscious said drily. It was indeed a bedroom, I trudged towards the bed, exhausted at the day's events. I took off my clothes; I noticed a bit belatedly that there was a pair of pyjama pants, folded neatly, on the bed. Completely naked -I slept sans underwear, I found it comfortable- I put on the pyjama bottoms, threw the throw pillows off the bed, got in and tucked myself in. As exhausted as I was, I just wasn't sleepy, my mind was still whirring, recapping the day, analysing, sorting, evaluating today's events. I evaluated my feelings for Callum. They were dangerous, he's straight, I berated myself. He's just gone through a messy break-up and he needs a friend to lean on. A friend, that's it Alistair. Nothing more, and that won't change -as much as I'd want it to. Thoughts raced through my head. Tomorrow (well, today) is a new day. I heard my bedroom door open and close. Soft footsteps. I felt Callum slide into bed with me, felt him gently pull me towards him. We were spooning now. His naked chest against mine, his breath against my neck. I was tense at first but relaxed at his touch. I couldn't help the little sigh of content that escaped my lips. Hey guys! I am really sorry I haven't been able to update recently, my little brother was running around with my laptop, slipped and fell, my laptop flew from his hands and crashed onto the tiled floor (RIP my Toshiba; 2011-2012). It was all very dramatic, moving right along though, I'm now using a friend's laptop until I can get a new one. At least I'll be able to post regularly (hopefully) from now on. There wasn't much Callum in this, but I hope you enjoyed Lucas! E-mail me your thoughts on the story or any thoughts really, if you're thinking about what to have for dinner I WANT TO KNOW, but keep in mind that this is meant to be a romance, not smut. I'm trying to assemble a sort of cast for this story but so far Callum is Alex Pettyfer (That man is sex on legs). When I post the next chapter, the full cast will be included. Alternatively, you can follow me on twitter: @ThatsSoTristan. And remember, my e-mail address is up there for a reason, don't be a stranger :) P.S. If any of you guys are in Johannesburg, South Africa, I'd love to meet you, I need more gay friends in my life plus I'm single ;)