Never too late, p.27
Never Too Late, page 27
“Wow, they’re going to look amazing when the lights are turned on. I think he’s going to love it, Dax. I’ve never seen a side to you like this before. He brings out a side to you I didn’t know existed and for that, I’ll forever be grateful,” Tyler says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
“I just wish I could do something more – he deserves so much. This isn’t enough.”
He smiles at me in a way I’ve never noticed him do before. It’s a lazy smile, and his face softens. It’s a smile I’d seen from Mum many times, and seeing him do it reminds me just how much he looks like her.
“Do you think she’d be happy, Ty? Do you think she’s proud?”
He lets out a deep breath. His shoulders start to relax.
“I think she’s the proudest mum in the sky, D. I know I’m definitely the proudest brother here. The person Jae brings out of you, I couldn’t be more thankful for. You’re you again. You’re the same person you’ve always been but you have a sparkle to you, a light. I don’t know how he does it, But he keeps it aflame. And you keep his aflame too. Together you burn bright. I think Mum will be able to see that. She’ll see how happy the two of you make each other. She’ll know you’re safe.”
A tear comes to his eye, as it always does when we speak about Mum. Ty doesn’t speak about her as often, he works too hard on being the strong one. But I know how much losing her has affected him. Affected us both.
And I remind myself, I don’t show him how grateful I am for him.
And I need to do something to change that.
Taking a step back, I praise myself, appreciating the lights hanging from the trees and the flowers in a vase on the table underneath. The twinkling in the trees replicates the stars perfectly and I’m happy my vision for this went to plan, because not everything else did.
After my earlier disaster of putting a chicken in the oven, releasing two hours later I never turned it on, I decided to order in; Jae doesn’t like sushi like I do, criminal. He does, however, love Chinese takeout. So, the house special chow mein came to the rescue five minutes ago, exactly the same time he texted me telling me he was on his way home from work.
I feel overwhelmed and I feel exhausted.
And I’m going to blame it all on the chicken I angrily threw in the trash after realising it wasn’t cooking after all.
I’m quickly brought back to reality when I hear Jae’s car engine pull up outside, instantly rushing to the trees to make sure the lights are turned off, then make my way inside to draw the curtains to block the view.
His deep voice echoes in the corridor, just as I take the plates and cutlery from the cupboard to bring to the coffee table in front of the TV. “Something smells good, pretty boy.” My skin instantly forms goosebumps.
Turning around, I see him appear through the door frame, his face softening when he comes into view of me. Butterflies start to swarm my stomach; an overwhelming sensation of love and longing starts to rise. The way the light reflects from his skin, begging for me to come closer, the way his lips form the most ravishing smile and the way his emerald green eyes, remind me that I’m home.
He’s perfect.
He rounds the sofas before sitting down, coming to press a kiss to my forehead. “Thank you, baby. You didn’t have to order takeout. We could have made something together.”
I never want to cook again after the disaster I’ve had today.
“I just wanted to do something nice. I think we both deserve a treat,” I hum as he pulls away from me, distracting myself before I have the chance to pull his lips to mine.
Taking the plates from my hand, he lays them down side by side onto the table and starts plating the food up from the trays already laid out.
“Coming home to you is my treat, but thank you. I love this. And you.” He smiles, licking the fork while staring at me with hooded eyes.
I feel my cheeks heat as I take a seat next to him on the sofa, picking up my own plate and slowly starting to enjoy the burst of flavours in my mouth. I’ve always struggled with eating and trying new things before I met Jae, it’s his doing that I enjoy the food I do now. He always encouraged me to try new things and experience new tastes. It’s always been a texture thing – I still struggle with certain things now and I still don’t eat the wide variety of food he does, but he’s helped me to enjoy food again.
We decide not to turn the TV on as we sit together and eat. Instead, we talk about each other’s days, I tell him about Tyler and Novah, and he laughs telling me he also assumed there was something going on between the two of them. He then goes on to tell me about his day in the florist and about how Bernie has mentioned he hopes someone takes the shop after him who will keep the dream alive and I smile because I know my sunshine would be the perfect person for that. I knew he would enjoy being around Bernie, even I enjoy being around him. He knows a lot about flowers, almost as much as me.
Another thing I need to thank Ty for.
“Thank you for ordering food, Dax, it was perfect. Who’d have known I’d turn you into a romantic,” I hear him say as I put the last of the dishes into the dishwasher.
I laugh at the confession, because it’s true.
And he doesn’t even know half of it yet.
“It must be dark outside now, why don’t we go sit in the garden and watch the stars?” He stands, making his way towards the window, wanting to check outside.
I instantly close the dishwasher with a slam, not caring to press the on button as I dart across the room and throw myself in front of the curtain. “No, we can’t do that.”
“Of course we can, why can’t we?” he asks with a confused look on his face.
“What if it’s not dark enough yet?”
“That’s why I was going towards the window, but you threw yourself in front of it, I can’t check if it’s dark if you won’t let me.”
“But what if it’s too dark and we can’t see anything?”
“Why can’t I look out of the window, what’s happened? Why are you acting strange?” he asks with both confusion and sadness.
“I mean, I am hiding something from you, but it isn’t what you think.” I sigh as I start to play with the dog tags around my neck.
His face no longer shows a combination of confusion and sadness, but now only shows the one I hate the most.
Pain.
I can’t hurt him again.
“Close your eyes.”
“If I close my eyes I can’t –”
“Jae Summers, close your goddamn eyes.”
His face instantly shifts from sadness into a shocked expression. “Bossy. I like it.” He covers his eyes with his hands.
Taking a hold of his forearms in each hand, I slowly bring him towards the back door, removing one to turn the handle, slowly pushing it open. I can hear his chest rising, faster and faster so I don’t want to keep his hands over his eyes for too long, sensing he’s uncomfortable.
Removing both of my arms quickly, I turn to face the lights and the flowers to take a final glance before I tell him to remove his hands, but completely forget to do so when all I can say is, “Wow.”
It’s not until I feel his arm come around my side, placing onto my hip that I realise he’s now removed his hands from his eyes too.
“Wow,” he whispers in disbelief. I look over to him, seeing his face light up. The colour of the lights reflecting in his eyes. “When did you do this? How did you do this?” His voice starts to break. “Why did you do this? I mean it’s beautiful. But you didn’t have to do any of this, Dax.”
“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to. I was going to suggest we could go to the cliffs together to see the stars but after talking to Ty, I thought I’d bring the stars to us.”
Above our heads, hundreds of small fairy lights are scattered up high, mimicking the stars in the sky. Some strings are wrapped around the branches in contrast to those hanging at different heights. Ty told me it wasn’t an easy job, I noticed it wasn’t when he came back looking at though he’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. We covered the lie, saying he’d been to the gym when Jae asked.
He’s too busy looking at the lights above, focusing on them twinkling in the dark to notice the flowers on the table in front of him, but I notice he’s finally paid attention to them when he lets out a shallow gasp. “How did you know I had my eyes on these? You wouldn’t have known, unless –”
“Who do you think asked Bernie to make the bouquet in the first place?” I beam. Feeling full of pride.
He’s speechless.
I’ve finally made him speechless.
He pads his feet across the ground, making his way towards the flowers, gently running his fingers across the petals, feeling the velvet texture on his skin.
And I can’t help but stand and stare.
At him, the lights, the flowers, the stars, everything.
“So beautiful,” he says, taking in everything around him.
“Yeah, you are,” I reply. Unable to take my eyes away from him.
I feel my heart starting to race, it’s as though the butterflies in my stomach have started to overtake and are now in full control of my body. There’s so much I want to say, so much I want to do. But I struggle to make one word come from my mouth.
As though he senses it without me saying a word, he turns his back to the lights and bouquet and makes his way towards me, taking my hand in his own. I move my head down to look at where they’re joined together. And fuck, my heart feels as though at any given moment, it could explode.
He completes me.
“Hey, pretty boy, what’s wrong? Breathe with me, okay? One... Two... Three.”
He always grounds me.
I look up at him, eyes wide open, still unable to speak, unable to breathe, just admiring who’s standing in front of me.
He lets go of me, moving behind me instead, wrapping his arms around my waist, bending down slightly because of the height difference, resting his head in the crook of my shoulder. “I wished every night you know.” He inhales a deep breath. “Every night I was away from you, I looked up at the stars and wished to come back home. And my wish came true.”
And I’m certain my heart has just leapt from my chest.
We stand for the next fifteen minutes. Watching the lights and the stars twinkle in the sky above, not wanting to leave each other’s embrace,
Until it starts to rain.
Chapter fifty-two
Dax
“I almost lost my life. I thought I was a goner. And your face is the only thing that has the power to bring me back.”
Large droplets of rain fall from the sky one after another, the air no longer clean and cool, now replaced with humidity and coldness. The lights in the trees are slowly starting to switch off, one by one. Luckily, we managed to save the bouquet before it got destroyed as Jae carefully places the vase down on the coffee table in front of the log burner in an attempt to dry them off.
“We should probably get out of these clothes quickly before we get sick.” he hums as he stares into the fire blazing on the logs in front of him, slowly starting to peel his sweatshirt from his torso.
With his back still facing me, I take the opportunity to dart my eyes between the muscles standing dominant near the top, and the dimples on his lower back. I will never not get lost in the sight of his body. Even though he doesn’t work out as much anymore due to his side, he’s still in pristine shape. He carefully pulls off his shoes before he slides his jeans down his legs, and I can’t stop my mouth from watering from the sight of him.
Nothing he’s doing right now is sexual, but the way the fire light reflects onto his dark skin, makes my cock twitch.
He haltingly turns to face me, raising a brow when he sees I’m still sat fully clothed. “Do you need any help?” he questions in a deep, husky undertone.
I don’t reply. I can’t.
I’m too busy salivating at the sight of him.
He casually starts to approach me, taking one step at a time. Keeping his eyes on mine in the process.
“Everything you did for me tonight was amazing, pretty boy. You don’t have to do anything for me, you know. You just being here is enough. It’s more than enough,” he says as he stops in front of me.
“Lift your arms, let’s get your shirt off.”
I follow his command.
Slowly taking hold of the hem at the bottom, he slides the shirt up my body and over my head in record time, dropping it onto the floor.
Once off, he takes his fingertips and traces them around the shape of the sunflowers on my chest and stomach as he slides my shoes from my feet with his other hand, they also join the pile on the floor before he moves to the zipper of my jeans, torturously sliding it down to move his hand to the waistband, starting to tug them off. He nods his head at me once, signalling me to lift my hips, and I do so happily, with my eyes following the movement of him removing them from my legs.
Holding his hands out in front of me, I take them both as he pulls me up to stand in front of him.
“You’re shivering, we need to get you in front of the fire to warm up,” he says softly, interlocking his fingers with my own, leading the way towards the log burner.
We round the table, hand in hand, and take a seat on the floor in front of the fire.
“I was worried when you said you’d come home early, I thought something was wrong. I didn’t expect something like this. The lights, the flowers, you. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”
“There’s nothing lucky about being stuck with me. I’ve got a fucked-up mind, you could have anyone in the world you wanted.”
“Well, it’s a good job I don’t want anyone else then, isn’t it?”
“But what if it gets too much? What if my brain gets too much? What if I get too much?”
“That’ll never happen. You’ve not too much, Dax, you’re more than enough.”
Lowering my head to shy away and hide the warmth in my cheeks, he moves his hand underneath my chin, catching it in his hold to bring upwards to face him.
“Don’t shy away from me. I want to see your beautiful face.”
He doesn’t give me time to respond before he takes a hold of my hips and pulls me on top of him. Now making me straddle him.
“Hi,” he whispers deeply.
“Hi.”
I bring all my courage up, pushing myself forward and this time, I make the move first. Taking his lips with my own, sliding my tongue along the line of his mouth begging for entrance. He responds instantly, allowing my tongue inside, allowing me to taste him as he groans into my mouth.
As I slide deeper into his mouth, he places both hands on my thighs, pulling me down, stopping me from being able to move as he raises his hips from the floor in search of friction, which causes both of our cocks to jump at the sensation.
We haven’t allowed ourselves to be intimate since he came back, I’ve been too scared about hurting him.
But I have a burning need for him, and I think he does for me too.
“Sunshine, you’ve got to stop before you start something we’re going to have to finish,” I say in a husky unrecognisable voice.
“But what if I’m ready to finish it?”
I don’t need to hear any more words coming from his mouth.
Our kisses turn frantic, heated with need and passion. This isn’t just a kiss, or a promise like usual, this is the two of us devouring one another. We’re taking. We can’t stop.
Both panting and groaning into each other’s mouths, neither of us want to pull back or take our mouths away from the other, but I feel as though if I don’t sometime soon, I will no longer be able to breathe.
Eventually pulling myself away, he groans from the loss of contact, pushing his hips up further so our cocks are rubbing against one another through the fabric of the only item of clothing we have left on.
“Please, Dax, I can’t take it anymore,” he whimpers as I move my hips alongside his, both syncing in rhythm.
Fuck. I forgot how much I loved that sound.
Something about making Jae whimper rushes straight through me.
“We need to take these off,” he says with fire dancing in his eyes. In this light, he looks otherworldly. The colours from the fire reflecting from his skin perfectly. Framing his prominent features as the light behind him glows.
He doesn’t give me the chance to respond as he wraps one arm around me, moving another to his boxers as he lifts himself up, still holding me in place, and pushes his boxers over his hips, dragging them down his legs. Once he’s naked, I lift myself up so he can remove mine the same.
Taking my mouth back with his, he slowly moves his other hand down my body until it reaches my cock, and he gently grasps it with one hand, sliding up and down, using his thumb to continue teasing the tip.
Pulling his mouth a few inches from mine, he whispers, “I’ve missed the weight of you in my hand, the taste of you wasn’t enough. I’ve been desperate to have you again.”
I groan into his mouth at his confession as he swallows it down.
Removing his hand from my cock, he takes hold of his own, pushing both of them together, now wrapping his hand around us both.
Jae’s cock is bigger than mine, thicker, and feeling the friction of them rubbing together makes me want to come. It feels like heaven and hell in one, the torture and the pleasure rising in me, begging to release.
Wrapping his arm around my waist again, he gently lifts me once more, leaning forward to push me down so I’m now laid on my back as he leans over the top of me, his cock twitching as he comes closer towards me.
I can feel the heat of his body, smell the scent of his skin, the weight of his hard cock against my stomach, and my mind is foggy with lust.
Moving himself to the side, he places his hand on the table, pulling a rose from the bouquet sitting on top.
“Red roses. Beautiful, aren’t they? They’re my favourite. I didn’t understand the power of flowers until you taught me. I fell in love with this bouquet when I walked in the shop. I couldn’t stop thinking about how special the person was who would receive it. I never thought it would have been me.” He takes the rose bud and traces it across my skin. The smooth velvety texture, gliding over effortlessly as he brings it down to my groin. The sensation makes my cock jump, begging to be touched. I attempt to slide my hand round, wanting to relieve some pressure, and he taps my hand out of the way, shaking his head side to side. He lays the rose to the side of me, leaning over to pull out another flower, a Heather. “This is a new flower. A Heather. I learnt that today. Do you know what these flowers mean, Dax?” he asks with confidence.
