Page 14 of Hansel and Gerhardt (The GriMM Tales #3)

What Happens in the Forest...

I n their search for a safe place to sleep, Hansel and Gerhardt had found a rocky outcrop, not far from the abandoned fire pit, at the top of a steep hill.

Aware there was every chance the person who started the fire was still nearby, they decided to set up camp on the edge of the cliff, away, they hoped, from people and animals.

They took their carcass, they gathered sticks, and they settled down for the night under a billion sparkling stars.

They watched them for a time, making shapes with them, Gerhardt musing about how the vastness of the ocean would be just the same, or so he’d heard once.

Hansel didn’t tease him. He was beautiful like that. Softly spoken, glowing in the firelight, his cheeks pink with warmth and more food than either of them had eaten in one go for many winters. Relaxed, his arm long and languid, he pointed out his pictures in the sky.

Hansel was the same in Gerhardt’s eyes. His shoulders rested easy against the stone, no longer drawn up tight.

No longer was he always listening for the sound of their father, always alert for trouble.

Even in this dangerous place, he was so much calmer.

So much more human than either of them had ever been in that awful place.

“I’ll take the first shift,” Gerhardt eventually said, when Hansel’s eyes began to droop.

“No. No, you fell asleep last time.”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did too! I awoke this morning to find you sound. Thank goodness another gnome didn’t stumble across us.”

“I was—” But he cut off. He hadn’t fallen asleep,thoughhe had pretendedhe was, because those noises Hansel was making…

He didn’t want to embarrass him by mentioningit.

After all, what could he say? That he’d become so enamoured withHansel’sbreaths and moans that he’dhad to turn away?

That he could have died for shame at what those innocent noises did to his body?

“You’re right. I’d forgotten I fell sound asleep.

But it was after dawn by then,sono harm done.

I promise, this time, if I get too drowsy, I’ll wake you. ”

Hansel didn’t look sure, but he did look tired. His handsome head barely raised in an attempt to protest. Gerhardt stretched a hand out, and sinking his fingers at the hairline, he pushed it back down. “Just for a short time. Lay there.”

Hansel smiled. He watched Gerhardt a few beats longer, such warmth in his eyes, then he pulled his arms upbehind his headas a pillow and,warmed by their crackling fire,let his eyelids shut on the night.

Lonely hours passed, and Gerhardt made himself stay wide awake.

It wasn’t hard. The night was cold, and the forest was scary now his one companion had drifted away to some dream world.

They were up high, with a view over a vast expanse of black.

There were howls, scratchings, the creak and groan of wood, then a distinct crack.

It seemed to have come from below. Not too far from their fire, but far too close for his liking, over the ledge, on the other side of Hansel’s sleeping frame.

Gerhardt scrambled forward as silently as possible. It wasn’t worth waking him for a false alarm, yet if there was something down there…

He leaned over Hansel, his chest hard against him, keeping low.

He inched forward, slowly, slowly, and a little grunt escaped Hansel’s lips.

Small, gravelly, deep. Even in his heightened state, Gerhardt wondered somewhere in the back of his mind what Hansel was dreaming about. He hoped it was a happy one.

Gerhardt poised one hand over Hansel’s lips, ready to silence him should he wake. The other he pressed hard into the cold rock, stretching his neck to peer into the dark below. He was so close to the edge, but still not close enough to see.

He slipped his knee over Hansel’s, straddling him, shifting forward, scanning the forest below.

There wasn’t a thing to be seen. No flash of grey fur or pink skin. Perhaps a pine cone had fallen from a tree.

With a rush of relief and a modicum of embarrassment, Gerhardt’s anxious body relaxed a little. His head dipped down onto Hansel’s shoulder, where he gave a small sigh.

At that, Hansel gave another one of those sleep noises of his, only this one slightly louder and slightly longer.

Gerhardt, cheek to cheek with him, tensed. His head turned slowly to study him in the dying light of the fire’s embers. And he was caught.

Hansel’s lips parted, and that sound… That soft and wonderful murmur in the back of his throat. That sound that slipped over such lovely lips. Those cheeks high and broad and flushed, that precious nose, those long, beautiful lashes. And that sigh again. What was he dreaming about? He looked so…

That sigh. That… It could only be called…

sensual. The sound of it made the blood rush to his dick.

Made him want to hide and watch him. Made him want to sigh in unison as he touched himself.

Made him wish Hansel would do the same. Would think of him like that.

That he could watch him take his pleasure while he was thinking of him.

Gerhardt’s mind returned to the forest as he tried to shut down the thoughts. Returned to him there, lying on Hansel, his body so large and firm and strong beneath him. And fuck, how he wanted to grind his hard dick up against him.

It was shameful. Terrible. His own brother.

Gerhardt pulled back, trying to put some small distance between them. But he found himself stuck. He tried again, but something down low would not give. Something held him in place, somewhere about his breeches.

Another moan broke from Hansel, that much louder, that much more enticing, and a panic began to claw its way through Gerhardt’s chest.

He reached a hand down to try to free himself, and there met an enormous bulge, not his own. But quite close to his own. And he realised, with some horror, that the tie of his breeches was caught on Hansel’s sizeable erection.

Gerhardt let out a long and shaky breath. Fuck . This was terrible. Absolutely awful. His dick locked against Hansel’s, even as he dreamed of Hansel, while Hansel slept, dreaming, no doubt, of something perfectly pure.

Gerhardt slipped a hand around to try to free himself. The string was pulled tight, two bulging cocks making it as taut as a mousetrap, and a small plea of desperation slipped from Gerhardt.

Hansel answered it with a gasp, and his hips bucked, pressing his cock into Gerhardt’s, making Gerhardt’s whole body scream in anxious delight.

How Gerhardt wanted to press his own hips back towards him. How he yearned for the sensation of his dick sliding across Hansel’s naked cock.

No!

Very bad thoughts!

Not okay to think these things in the first place, but most especially not while Hansel slept so innocently.

He’d probably never had a vulgar thought in all his life.

It was probably a totally incidental erection, and he was probably dreaming of nothing more shocking than a mouthful of cream pie.

Just imagine if he woke to Gerhardt with his hand on his dick!

The idea terrified Gerhardt enough to make him wrench both hands away from his breeches.

Straddling Hansel’s thighs, he placed his palms either side of his head, and from there made to push himself up and back, hoping to free his cock.

But before ever he could make such a move, Hansel’s blue eyes flung wide open.

Gerhardt froze.

Hansel froze.

They stared at one another, the pair of them shocked and frightened, until Hansel whispered, “Gerhardt? Is it really you?”

“Yes,” Gerhardt heard himself say, amazed he could speak at all.

And he stayed, trapped in the gaze that searched his, Hansel’s cock stuck in his breeches, the beautiful eyes that stared back at him sparkling with the last gasp of light.

He had to say something. But what? Anything. Something ! “Hansel—”

“Gerhardt.” Hansel’s warm hands pressed against his cheeks.

The fingertips of one hand slipped over and behind his ear, traced down his neck, and landed on his heart, the wild beat of it reverberating back into his chest like an axe.

Then Hansel’s great arm wrapped around Gerhardt, and pulled him down, and Hansel kissed him.

Hansel’s eyes closed, but not Gerhardt’s.

He searched Hansel’s eyelids for a sign he was truly awake—that he’d meant to do it.

That this was real, really happening right here and now up on this rock in this godforsaken forest, and that Hansel wanted to kiss him.

But that kiss beneath his lips. That mouth against his, that hand on the back of his neck… He melted like Hansel was a spring morning and he the very last winter frost. He closed his eyes, and he kissed Hansel. Kissed him again, but it wasn’t enough.

His hand found Hansel’s chest as he steadied himself, and Hansel, as though he thought he might slip away, tightened his hold on his neck.

Gerhardt’s mouth opened, desperate for more of him, and Hansel’s opened in kind, his lips firm, the strike of his tongue against Gerhardt’s delicious, unprecedented, achingly satisfying.

Hansel’s hips ground forward and their dicks grazed, and though it was perfection, the moment Gerhardt had daydreamed of just a little earlier, he pulled back, and waited for Hansel’s gaze to meet his own. “Are you awake?”

Hansel tilted his chin, stretching up for another kiss. A kiss Gerhardt had no strength to deny him. A soft, beautiful kiss, broken with the words, “I don’t think I can be.”

Hansel kissed across Gerhardt’s cheek, letting him speak. “Do you want to be?”

Hansel paused just there, his head dipped into the curve of Gerhardt’s shoulder. His hair brushed Gerhardt’s cheek, and the totality of Gerhardt’s soul begged, Please don’t stop .