Page 33 of The Weight Of It All

And it struck me, right in the middle of aisle two of Coles that I didn’t want to be a bitch about this.

I’d spent eight years of my life with him, and we were adults.

“I should thank you, Graham. I mean, I didn’t realise it at the time, but you leaving was the wake-up call I needed.

Neither of us were happy and weren’t for a long time. I can see that now.”

He seemed a little surprised by my honesty, but his eyes softened. “I’m glad it’s working out for you.”

“Are you happy? ”

He gave a bit of a nod. “Yeah.” I didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but it was no longer my place to say. “And I’m sorry I never replied to your text.”

“I gave your stuff to charity,” I said. “Anika wanted to set fire to it, but I wouldn’t let her. I was tempted, though.”

Graham almost smiled. “Yeah, I guess I deserved that.”

My “hell yes you did” went unsaid. I turned to Reed and put my hand on his side. “We should get going, yeah?” He gave a nod, so I looked at Graham. “It was good to see you.”

“Same,” he replied. “And you really do look good, Henry.”

We left him there in the middle of the cold aisle―the irony of that was not lost on me―and Reed put his arm around my shoulders. I had no doubt Graham was still watching us, so I put my arm around Reed’s waist as we headed for the checkouts. “You okay?” Reed asked.

I gave him a bit of a squeeze. “Never better.”

We loaded the few groceries into my car and went back to my place. Reed was a little quiet, and I knew there was something we needed to address. I put the grocery bags on the counter and wasted no time. “I’m sorry you met him,” I said. “And I’m sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s not that,” he said. “I kinda behaved like a jerk. Sorry.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Well yeah, I did. You were mature about it, and all I could think was that he’s been with you, and he knows things about you that I don’t.” He frowned. “That sounds really bad, doesn’t it?”

I closed the distance between us and leaned up on my toes in an attempt to kiss him.

I still couldn’t reach, so I slid my hand around his neck and pulled him down to meet me.

It made him smile. “It doesn’t sound bad.

It sounds honest. And yes, I have a history with him.

I can’t change that. But seeing him tonight made me realise he’s the last person on the planet that I want to be with.

What I had with him is well and truly over. ”

He finally smiled. “He’s not what I pictured him to be like,” Reed mused. “I wasn’t expecting black hair.”

“Did you see the hair dye? I can assure you, he didn’t have that when we were together.

Dark hair, yes. A little grey even, but that dye job was bad.

” I put my hand to Reed’s chest. “Jokes aside, I want him to be happy. I don’t want anyone to be un happy.

But my happiness isn’t with him, it’s with you. ”

He put his hand under my chin and lifted my face so he could softly press his lips to mine. “I wasn’t kidding when I said we were working on the boyfriend thing. Was that okay? Or too much?”

I laughed and put his hand to my chest. “Definitely not too much.”

His eye-crinkling smile made my stomach somersault. “Good.”

“And just so you know, if we happen to run into your cheating ex-bastard, I won’t be as civil as you were with Graham.” Reed laughed, but then his stomach growled. “Okay, okay, I’ll start cooking.”

I filled a pot with water and set it to boil, then added baking paper to my bamboo steamer.

I placed the fish inside, and as I chopped the chilli and ginger and got the sauce cooking, Reed sorted out the rice in the microwave cooker and steamed some bok choy and button squash.

We worked well as a team in the kitchen, and while I made sure everything was cooking to perfection, Reed stood behind me and pressed his lips to the back of my neck.

“We won’t be eating tonight if you keep doing that,” I warned, though I’m sure the tone of my voice spurred him on to keep doing it. “Well, there might be shots of protein…”

He chuckled against my neck and pressed himself against my back, his hands on my hips, and his groin firm against my arse.

I’m not sure which of us groaned the loudest, and I contemplated leaving all the food to burn while I took him into my bedroom.

The microwaved beeped, and he growled in frustration and shivered with disappointment.

“Rice is done,” he said. When I glanced over at him, he was standing at the far end of the kitchen, leaning against the counter, his eyes were a little dark and there was a bulge in his jeans. “I’m staying over here or dinner will be ruined.”

I chuckled, but the static in the kitchen bloomed to almost-suffocating levels. I adjusted my cock, which made his nostrils flare. I had to swallow my desire so I could speak. “Plates are just to your left.”

I served up two plates of fish, rice, and steamed veggies, while Reed found the cutlery and two bottles of water. Sitting at the table opposite him seemed to quell the sexual tension a little, until he took a bite and made a noise that went straight to my cock.

“Oh my God, Henry. This is so good.”

And it was. With each bite, a burst of flavour hit my tongue. “I didn’t know healthy could taste so good.”

He chuckled and savoured his mouthful. And just like that, the tension between us simmered a little. Enough for us to eat, anyway. When he pushed his plate away, he patted his belly and sighed contentedly. “Absolute perfection. Though my lips are tingling from the chilli.”

They did look a little pinker than normal, and my mind fell to the gutter when his tongue peeked out and ran across his top lip.

By the look in his eye, he did it deliberately.

“Here, let me take these,” he said with a smirk, collecting the empty plates.

He just happened to stand really close to me, so the fly of his jeans was level with my face.

Bastard.

He laughed as he walked into the kitchen, which made me believe I might have said that out loud .

When he didn’t return straight away, I followed him in to find him stacking things into the dishwasher. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s done now.” He closed the dishwasher door and stood up straight. “Gelato in front of the TV?”

“Perfect.”

He collected the little tubs from the freezer, I grabbed the spoons, and we both fell onto the sofa.

He sat at one end, me at the other. At first I was a little disappointed at the distance between us.

I didn’t know why he sat a full metre away from me, but the way he eye fucked me made me very glad he did.

When I put the spoon in my mouth and tasted the passionfruit gelato, I moaned like a two-dollar whore. I couldn’t even be embarrassed because Reed let out a low breath. “Jesus, Henry. I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”

I laughed. “Sorry. But this is really good.” I was already at the bottom of mine. “You weren’t kidding when you said they were two mouthfuls. I’m now regretting not getting a bigger tub.”

Reed slid over and took my empty gelato cup. He was so much closer now, his body heat was heady, and he leaned in and ran his nose along my jaw. “If you want something more…”

I shot off the lounge, grabbed his hand, and dragged him to my room. He started to laugh until I pushed him onto the bed and straddled him. “Oh Henry,” he murmured, pulling my hips onto his. The denim between us did little to hide his erection, and I loved that I turned him on.

I kissed him, hard, until he was bucking his hips, searching for more friction.

Only when he was impatient and breathless, did I kiss down his neck and shuffle down his body.

I lifted his shirt up, revealing his perfectly sculptured abs and the wide planes of his chest. I flicked his nipple with my tongue and he hissed, and he gently pulled my hair.

“Oh, fuck. ”

I kissed down the centre of his six-pack to his navel and sat back to undo his jeans. I popped the button, undid the fly, and gently released his cock. God, it made my mouth water.

“Henry, please.”

So I licked him, his length, the head, the slit. His scent was pure musk and man, and it kicked my desire up a notch. I wrapped my fingers around his base and slipped my lips around him, moaning as I took him in.

He carded his fingers through my hair and rolled his hips. “God, your mouth.” A groan rumbled in his chest. “Feels so good.”

His cock was long and thick, veined with a bulbous head, and as I slid it into my throat, I could almost imagine what it would be like sliding into my arse. God, I ached for it.

I wanted to feel him stretch me, fill me, own me. I wanted to be his, in every sense of the word. God, I needed him inside me. I swallowed around him and swirled my tongue up his shaft as I pulled off. “I can’t wait to feel you inside me.”

And that was all it took. “I’m gonna come.”

I took him in deep once again, just in time to feel him swell and surge in my mouth. He arched his back off the bed and gave a strangled cry as he filled my mouth. I drank everything he gave me, making him moan and writhe. Eventually he let out a low, breathy chuckle. “Jesus, Henry.”

I kissed the soft skin above his pubic hair, then gently nipped at those epic muscles at his sides above his hips. He squirmed and laughed. “What are these called?” I asked, kissing the exact spot on both sides.

Reed leaned up to look down at himself, his six-pack flexed under his skin as he did. “Those are a result of working the transverse abdominals, internal and external obliques. They don’t really have a name.”

“Yes they do. They’re called the V muscles, and I’m pretty sure it’s what put the V in heaven. Anyway, they’re my new favourite thing.” Then I kissed up his muscled ribs and licked his nipples, making the dark flesh pebble at the touch. “No, wait. These are my new favourite thing.”

He barked out a laugh, then before I knew which way was up, he flipped me over, pressed himself between my thighs and pinned my hands above my head.

“Your turn,” he whispered against my lips.

“Now let me show you my new favourite thing.” He smirked and kissed me softly.

“Here.” Then my jaw. “Here.” My throat. “Here.” He pulled my shirt up and kissed my chest, my stomach, my navel. “Here. Here. Here.”

I couldn’t even be self-conscious. True, I didn’t like anyone seeing my naked belly, let alone touching it and even worse, kissing it. But he was so reverent, so honest, that I trusted him impeccably.

He undid my jeans and pulled them off my legs without any effort at all.

And when he took my erection from my briefs, I was so turned on, I didn’t care about the insecure parts of me.

“And here,” he murmured. When he took my cock into his warm, wet mouth, I lost all inhibitions, all coherent thought.

He slid his hand inside my briefs, rolling my balls with deft fingers before sliding them as far in as the fabric would allow. His blunt finger traced my perineum, he sucked me harder, and I couldn’t hold back any longer.

I came hard enough that my head spun, my body shook, and my hands trembled. Reed was soon lying beside me, and he pulled me into his arms while my orgasm subsided. He kissed the side of my head and nuzzled his nose into my hair. I couldn’t keep my eyes open for a second longer.

I woke up at about three o’clock in the morning with a start, until I remembered the huge warm body in my bed was Reed.

He was sleeping soundly with his back to me, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of him in my bed.

Motionless, the moonlight made his back and shoulders look as if they were carved of marble.

A sculptor’s masterpiece on the perfection of the human body.

I gently ran my hand over his muscled frame, feeling the strength and purpose there, even in sleep.

He stirred and rolled over to face me, mumbling something and lifting his arm in invitation. So I snuggled into him, and he wrapped his arm around me, settling straight back into sleep. I kissed his chest with smiling lips and fell into a dream of safety and strength, warmth and wonder.