Page 31 of These Old Lies

Charlie nodded, eyes hazy with lust and damp hair sticking up from where Ned had pulled it. “I have a room upstairs.”

Ned held Charlie’s hand as he followed him up the narrow staircase, the kind of tender gesture he never would have dared during the war. He wasn’t sure how Charlie would respond, but his calloused hand tightened around Ned’s.

“Decided I needed a bit of my own space when I came back,” Charlie said, “I cleared out an old shortage room and set it up as a place to sleep.”

In other circumstances, Ned would have soaked in every detail of Charlie’s room. Instead, his eyes skipped over the plain wooden dresser and the faded postcards pinned to the wall until they landed on the small camp bed, tucked up against one corner.

Charlie still hadn’t let go of his hand. Ned ran his free hand up and down Charlie’s back, revelling in the familiarity of his spine and ribs. “What now?” Charlie murmured against him.

Ned’s mind went to any number of options, but the uncertainty in Charlie’s voice made Ned raw in his own answer. “We stand like this. We kiss. We sit together on your bed and drink tea, or something stronger if youhave it. We get naked. We say good night. Whatever we damn please.”

Charlie leaned in and kissed Ned deeply in a way that made him feel like his body was on fire. “You please me.”

“Perhaps I could take my clothes off?”

He swore he could hear Charlie swallow. “That wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

Ned’s suggestion had been driven by a desire to get out of his damp clothes as well as wanting Charlie to feel in control of where their mutual passion was heading. But now Ned suddenly wondered whetherhewould lose his nerve. He knew he wasn’t unattractive, but he had never felt at ease in his body when it came to intimacy. He was too large, too hairy, too muscular. His body was that of a different type of lover—a lover who enjoyed being in control, who did the fucking. Ned’s desires were so much morenuancedthan that. But Charlie had already bared his soul, shared his secrets and fears. Ned couldn’t do any less.

Ignoring the slight tremble in his hands, Ned’s fingers went to the buttons at his cuffs. He hadn’t been planning to go out when Charlie had knocked on his door, so he had no jacket or vest to worry about. The room’s cool air hit his damp skin and made his muscles tense as he pulled off the shirt’s sleeves.

The intensity of Charlie’s stare made Ned’s breath hitch. He seemed to be taking in every inch of Ned’s body, and Ned tried not to think about the softness he had acquired since the war, or the scar that ran down his chest from quick and dirty stitches in a field hospital. He hated the hair that covered his chest and back, the stubble on his face, all of which made him feel like a hulking beast. But he kept going, undoing his trousers, and then, before he could lose his nerve, undoing the knot at the waist and sending his drawers to the floor. Better for Charlie to reject him now while he might still be able to reassemble the pieces of his heart.

“Jesus Christ, Ned.” Charlie’s hands traced Ned’s body just an inch away from his skin, as if Ned were a piece of art that couldn't be touched.

Ned’s cock jumped at Charlie's reaction before his mind could figure out what to say. Charlie gave a half smile at the movement and brought his eyes back up to Ned’s. Without speaking, his hands reached for his own shirt.

Charlie still managed to bridge youthful energy with the confidence of aman who had seen something of life. It had taken Ned’s breath away in that bar in France in 1916, and it took his breath away now. Charlie didn’t mess around with buttons like Ned had, and efficiently divested himself of his shirt and trousers within seconds, letting them pool around his feet.

Charlie undressed so swiftly Ned only caught flashes of his body in the dim light. Now he could see all of Charlie. Scarred, calloused, and muscled Charlie, yet with skin so pale and delicate it looked translucent in spots, blue veins almost at the surface. Ned couldn’t resist looking further down to Charlie’s cock, and his mouth went dry. There was no doubt that Charlie wanted Ned.

And being the greedy bastard that Ned was, looking wasn’t enough anymore. “Bed?”

Charlie crawled onto the bed with him, their bodies barely touching, quite a feat considering the size of the two men and the limited space. Charlie gasped in pleasure when their skin finally pressed against each other’s and then said, “I’ve never done it like this before. Naked. Not rushing.”

Charlie ran his hands down Ned’s chest, fingers tracing patterns in his hair there. “Show me what it could be.” Charlie’s voice was lower than usual.

In the trenches, their interactions had been led largely by Charlie. Ned had revelled in how Charlie would run roughshod over Ned’s authority as an officer and as a gentleman. Now Charlie was asking Ned to set the tempo and to show him experiences outside his own.

With any other lover, such expectations of aggressiveness would have made Ned’s desire collapse. With Charlie, the trust was overwhelming. It made him feel like a king, and more vulnerable than ever, to share and show Charlie pleasure.

Ned brought one arm around Charlie, pressing their bodies together so that they touched from shoulders to toes, skin against coarse hair, hazel eyes meeting blue. The other hand he brought between their two bodies.

Charlie leaned into Ned’s hold and thrust into his hand at the same time. For a moment, Ned let himself re-find the rhythm that made the other man tremble. Charlie’s deep groan of pleasure made Ned wonder if they should stop at this familiar act, but he was keenly aware that Charlie had asked formore. Before, their intimacy had always been about efficiency, getting each other off as fast as possible with as minimal movement as possible, whichalso meant that there was normally one giving and one receiving. There had never been the space and time for mutual pleasuring. Tonight, they had both at their disposal.

So Ned extended his grip, bringing his hand together over both of their cocks. Charlie jumped at the feeling of the silky sensitive skin touching.

Ned had always loved the intimacy of sharing pleasure together simply and equally. Based on Charlie’s quick thrusts, he seemed to agree. “Join me, Charlie.”

Charlie’s hand slowly intertwined with Ned’s own, subtly altering their pace and movement. Hands, cocks, thrusts, all together, losing a sense of where one ended and the other began. Charlie’s habit of monologue was reduced to, “Oh God, oh God.” For Ned himself, the pleasure was already too good, too right, but Ned knew it wasn’t going to a place where it crested. To watch Charlie lose himself to pleasure was more than enough. Ned stroked Charlie throughout his climax as he let his own cock slide out of his grasp.

Of course Charlie, even as lost in pleasure as he was, noticed. He glanced down and with a simple quirk of an eyebrow communicated his offer. Ned blushed and shook his head. Charlie kissed him, as if Ned needed another reason to lose his heart to this man, who never judged Ned for the way his body worked but found a way to make it erotic and normal at the same time.

Still tangled in Charlie’s arms, he closed his eyes for a moment to focus on the smell of sex and sweat. Ned’s thoughts fragmented. They should talk. Ned should probably go home. Could he find a cab in this weather? First, though, he would enjoy one more moment in Charlie’s arms, listening to the rain still pounding on the windows.

???

If one was honest, Charlie’s camp bed wasn’t really up to the task of holding two largish men. Ned couldn’t claim that it was the most restful night’s sleep he had ever had, but still he awoke to the early morning light feeling more content than he could remember feeling in a long time.