Yours Is The Only Ocean

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Alex didn't sleep for long, and when he awoke, the first thing that hit him was how much the room stunk. A heady mixture of sweat and spunk that was erotic at the time, but in the cold light of day, was quite repulsive, especially when he rolled onto his back and realised his chest and stomach were crusted with it.

Miles snuggled closer to him, giving a contented grumble. He stank too, but he made Alex feel so heady, he didn't care. He looked out of the window and saw it was a beautiful, sunny day. No one would ever realise it was November. Alex felt the sudden need to be outdoors with Miles. He'd loved that night at Bluff Cove, once Dom and Liam had gone and it had felt like him and Miles were the only people in the world under that huge expanse of sky and he wanted to do it again.

Alex felt different. He didn't really know in what way, but it was like he could finally see all the colours of the world. He'd spent thirty years walking around in a fog, preoccupying himself with other people, mainly because he cared, but also because it distracted him from the beast within him. That shame that told him his desire was unnatural and two men could ever s8hare the same sacred union a man and woman did. But now he felt no shame. He was a human being given a body to feel pleasure, and since last night, he had experienced the sort of ecstasy he'd never imagined. It mattered not one jot that the person who had driven him to the point of madness was a man. He loved Miles, and if he lived in a world where men were allowed to marry, he would have wed him tomorrow. Did he care Miles was a pirate? A thief? Not at all. He was everything he wished he could be, himself.

"What you thinking about?" Miles asked, not opening his eyes. How did he even know Alex was thinking?

"Would you like to go swimming today?"

"Swimming?"

"Yes. About ten minutes from here is a lake and it has a hot spring. I shall catch you some fish and cook it for supper."

"You can fish?" Miles laughed.

"My grandfather taught me. I'm not completely useless."

Miles laughed and reached out, running his hand down Alex's filthy stomach.

"I know that," he said. "You're a very accomplished student."

"We could also do with washing. We're covered in each other."

Miles propped himself on his elbow and looked at Alex. His eyes looked softer than usual, and Alex felt as if he was seeing the real him. Inside that bravado and cockiness was a scared little boy who'd been abandoned and thought he didn't need anyone.

"Do you regret it?" he asked Alex.

"Not one second. I feel like I've been reborn. Does that sound silly?"

"I want you to feel like that. I've known a lot of people, Alex, and as soon as I met you, I knew you were different. Like under it all there was a little fuse that needed lighting to bring you to life."

"I've always been rebellious but I could never do what I really wanted to do. I've known so few men like me..."

"So you've never kissed a man before?"

"There was a boy....Robbie. When I was sixteen. He was a gardener. We spent a summer together, but all we did was kiss. To be honest, I don't think either of us knew what we were supposed to do. It was all very innocent."

"Unlike me."

Alex laughed.

"There's nothing innocent about you, Miles."

Miles lightly ran his finger along Alex's jaw, and he seemed to feel it in every nerve in his body.

"I like things that give me pleasure. Sex, good food....looking at beautiful things. You fulfil all those things."