Pete
I got home in time for dinner with Mae and a friend of hers, visiting from Japan. He was a nice guy but I think he liked Mae. I wasn't sure how I felt about that especially since Mae showed no interest herself.
"Why were you looking at him like that Pete?" She calls me out on it after he has left.
"Oh. I was just thinking about the fact that you don't date Mae and he really likes you."
She blinked at me like I was speaking in a weird language and I realized that she was not aware of his feelings. How could she not be thought? His signals were so clear. Then she laughed.
"I think your reading too much into this Pete."
"Mae. He reminds me of Ae when we were in college. Ae would get my food simply because he wanted to even after I figured out how to work the cafeteria line. He touches you casually but in intimate places. He looks at you with longing and I definitely know how that feels right now."
She looks very amused by me but I know what I'm talking about. I'll have to ask Tin to take a look at him for me. Sure they have been old friends, but he doesn't have to come and visit personally so often.
"Anyway. Can we have our meeting tomorrow? I know I was supposed to meet with you on Friday but Ae and I kind of made plans to talk and..."
"Come see me tomorrow afternoon at 3 and we'll talk then. So how are you really feeling right now Pete?"
"I feel like I'm not totally lost and floundering. I actually had plans, things to do, an agenda. I also saw Ae and it was reassuring so I feel much more confident about everything and if there is a setback then I'll work through it. I've learned how to do that. He was good for something after all."
"Do you think things would have been different if you had stayed here?"
"No. But I think his methodology changed me. I mean, I am still Pete but when I would have backed down, I can stand up and when I would have held my voice back or not said anything, I will speak up because if I don't the consequences could be dire. That was the first lesson he ever thought me. Not just him either, the both of them."
She hugs me and I bury my face in her neck and inhale her scent. She has always smelled like roses though we have never named our hotels as such.
"I have been keeping track of him Pete. Do you want to know what he's doing now?"
"No. I don't care what he does, as long as he will never come near me again." I shudder. I don't even want to think about him.
"I see. Well if you ever need to know, just tell me."
I kiss her cheek then remember something. "By the way Mae. Who did the paintings in my room? I was thinking of adding the artist into our hotel roster. I noticed his work wasn't at Noir. Or were you planning to use him at the new hotel?"
"Why don't you check out the name yourself. It's on the painting. And, honestly, he uses many mediums. I don't know why we never contracted him and he's never offered. He just does it and brings it to me because he wants to. It's more of an outlet for him than anything else."
"Oh." Now I am really curious and a little suspicious. I try to think of all the people I know who paint or do any kind of art works and no one comes to mind, except Ae and Pond who are good at it but not really interested and Tin who can actually draw but had never been that interested in painting anything.
The work on my wall is very realistic if a little melancholy and quite fluid. It almost has a 3D feel to it, as thought there is movement on the canvas. I am so curious as to how the artist manages this.
I have seen many works since I have travelled with father but none are quite like this, similar, but, in my opinion, not as good.
I walk up to the painting on my wall as Mae follows and look for the signature until I find it at the upper right hand corner.
"InTouch. Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh...!" I whip around to look at Mae only to see him standing there instead. Huh?! My mind is all topsy turvy right now and I can't understand what I'm seeing.
"I did those."
"Ae?"
"Yea. Pond told me you came by the office today as we were about to leave the site. I almost killed him. Ass. He had so much time to tell me and he waited until the end of the day. Anyway. It started out as something to pass the time. Also something like therapy. Turns out I was a lot better at it than I thought. Especially the sculpting and the clay. I'm not a great whittler thought. I suck at it quite a bit so I don't do it very often but I did do that piece holding your scented oil."
I look over and see the carved wooden bowl with the beautiful finish. It's a scene of two men, making love, I'm pretty sure. I blush but I also see the craftsmanship. It's not perfect but it was expertly done and it was marketable.
"Ae. You really... I am so shocked. I mean, I have seen you draw for school and so on so I knew you had some skill but I never realized you were actually this talented."
"Well I never cared for drawing or anything like that. I just wanted to put things together and watch them become something new but most importantly something that works. While you were gone, I needed to do something and I needed an outlet for all my feelings that running and working couldn't offer me. So one day I let ChaAim convince me into going to her pottery class and it all started from there."
As he spoke, Ae slowly moved to wards me and I to him.
Is it crazy to say we felt each other's pull like magnets? No? Then that overused comparison will have to work because one moment we were a room apart and the next moment we were face to face and he has touching me. Just rubbing his hand on my cheek the way he does that makes me feel treasured and I wanted, no, I needed more.
His name was on my lips when I moved in and kissed him.
Oh God. To describe this feeling. It is impossible.
I have wanted this so badly from the moment I saw him and to have him in front of me and touching me is too much.
My lips, my body, is greedy for his and are moving on their own accord. I try to stop myself because we haven't even said two words properly yet but it's too late.
Ae is now kissing me with ferocity. His tongue is kicking in my lips and I open for him with a moan. He slips inside me and sweeps my mouth before pulling away and I follow.
Our tongues are dueling and playing before I finally slip mine into his mouth and he sucks on it powerfully, making me feel as though he is sucking me down there.
It is such a lewd feeling and I almost come from just that.
Slowly he releases me, but it is too late. I am a quivering, begging mess and I am about to offer myself up as a sacrifice on his alter, willingly.
"Boys?" The sound of Mae's voice jolts me out of the hypnosis of Ae's eyes and I step back and look at her.
"Yes Mae?" I ask her quietly and blush at her knowing look but I don't look away. I refuse to feel guilty.
Ae
When Pond told me that Pete had shown up at the office to speak with Forth, I had been shocked to say the least. He hadn't said anything to me.
I thought about why he would have come by and decided it had to do with his walk through of the hotel. He must have found some work that needed to be done and was willing to hire us.
Then I killed Pond for keeping info about Pete from me for the entire afternoon. Idiot.
I am actually on my way home when mom called. She told me her friend from Japan wanted to see me about some work. I told her I would head over but I'll be honest. I'm not sure I like the guy. He is way to interested in mom for my comfort.
I get caught up in a bit of traffic so I call mom and tell her that I'm already on my way but I'll be late so he can leave information for me. This is my second commission from him and I'm surprised he came back because I charged him the maximum I possibly could the last time and I'm sure he knows it.
When I get there, Par Jiew tells me everyone just went upstairs. I follow and see mom standing in front of Pete's room door. I go up to her and she walks away after patting my shoulder.
"...InTouch? Oh? Ohhhhhhhh!" Then he turns and our eye collide. I can see the confusion in his face. He was checking out my paintings. Finally. I had done those just for him.
"I did those," I confirm.
"Ae?" He steps towards me and I smile softly.
"I did those. I needed an outlet that wasn't sports or running and going to work. Then ChaAim talked me into a pottery class when Pond couldn't go with her. That's how I figured it out."
He looked at me in wonder as though I was an apparition and inched closer and closer. His eyes were taking in every part of me and I wondered how I looked to him now. I begin moving towards him too but it's so quiet now that I begin to get nervous. I start to fill the silence.
"Turns out I'm a lot better at it than I though, especially the sculpting and the clay but not so much the whittling though I did do the bowl that's holding your scented oil right now."
He glances over then blushes and looks back at me. I know he sees what's on the bowl. It's the two of us, making love. The way I see us, all wrapped up in each other.
Now Pete is right in front of me. I can actually feel his cloths brushing against mine. My hand reaches up and I do the thing I've been longing to do since I saw him again. I run my hands through his soft hair and cup his soft cheeks. They are just as soft as they were the last time I touched them.
Pete gasps softly and I hear my name breath from his lips before he's kissing me and I just savour it for a second.
Then, I'm kissing him back, licking at his lips and asking him to let me in.
Pete opened up to me and I didn't just feel like I had come home. I already know that Pete was my home. I already knew that he completed me.
Instead I felt perfectly content. Such a simple phrase encompassed every bit of emotion that surged inside me. I wasn't just happy. I wasn't just relieved. I wasn't just satisfied. I was perfectly content to have Pete in my arms again.
The longer we kissed, the more that feeling morphed into something else. Now I just want to feel him against me. I want to hug him naked and I want him to know it. When his tongue slips into my mouth, I suck on it forcefully.
I know Pete's body and it hasn't changed at all. He's still so sensitive and sucking on certain parts of his body is like sucking on Pete down there. I know he's feeling it too. His moans are driving me crazy.
"Boys?" Pete jolts in my arms and I step back hastily. I can see his blissed out eyes and blushed face and I feel like I can run the whole continent on our sexual energy.
"Yes mae?" Pete finally answers but I don't turn to look at her. I'm so hard right now that I might scare her.
"Were you spending the night Ae? Also here is the information from Kitaouji san." She is so amused by our predicament while I just want to disappear.
I look at Pete and I know we both want me to stay but I make a hard decision and step back further. If I stay here we will never have that talk we so desperately need and jumping into sex isn't the best idea. I don't want either of us to have any regrets.
"If I stay, we may make some bad decisions and I don't want Pete to second guess himself or have any regrets. Even if all we have to say to each other is 'I love you but this isn't going to work' because of some madness then let that be it." I say to Mom but I'm looking at Pete.
"I know but it's so hard to watch you walk out tonight and if you stay then I wouldn't be able to leave you alone." He confesses.
"I'm too worked up. If we try to talk tonight, I'm not going to hear a word you say when all I want to do is be with you."
Oh God this is killing me. I just... I have no choice. I turn and bolt. I know Pete will understand but my dead run to the jeep is the worst thing I have ever done in my life even if it is the right thing to do.
I don't even look back as I drive off as fast as I can. I can't look back. I would stop the car and go back there if I do. I love him that much. I need him that much.
I am so whipped.