Page 68 of Eye Candy

There once was a woman from Toronto

Who fell in love with my man pronto…

“Caroline?” Chase called, two frames in his hand and a third on his face, the tag sticking up over the bridge. “Do you like these?”

“Sure,” I said, going over and tucking the tag down. “They look great.”

“Which pair would you like for me? I want you to pick.”

I looked at him for a long minute, then turned and searched the aisles. It took three rows, and hopefully Jan got in some good eye banging while I was busy. Eventually I found what I wanted and took them back to Chase.

When he saw what I held, he frowned.

“These are?—”

“The same as your broken ones,” I finished, as I slid them over his nose. “I know.” I met his gaze through the familiar surround of round wire frames. “But these have little clear thingies that go over your ears. You can feel them, and you’ll know I picked them. But I don’t want to change a thing about the way you dress, Chase. You don’t need to style yourself to fit me. You already do.” Heedless of the other customers, and Jan, I put my palm over his heart. “Because of this.”

It fell short of what I really wanted to say, those words that were trapped somewhere in my chest, tied down with stress andwhat ifs. But it was a piece of it. A piece I could freely give.

Chase’s eyes were full of feeling as he reached out and stroked a finger along my cheek.

“Besides”—I grinned—“who am I to mess with ‘the beauty of the world’?”

He kissed me in the store.

The weekin Canada that followed was a dream. Chase and I spent nights tangled in soft sheets and days lost on asphalt streets.

I wanted to see everything in Toronto, and Chase was an excellent tour guide. He hadn’t lived here since he was a boy, and his mom was currently cruising around the Mediterranean, but he had an easy familiarity with the bustling, colorful metropolis.

Guiltily, he revealed he kept an apartment in the inner city, a few blocks from his mom’s place. The fact it must sit empty most of the year made me feel itchy, but when I suggested offering it to artists or academics on residency when he wasn’t in town he seemed receptive.

I had to admit though, I loved being somewhere without roommates or housekeeping. We could have sex on the couch, in the shower, and, my new personal favorite, over the kitchen counter.

After pastries on the terrace, we walked to every market and gallery within a ten-mile radius, and I saw the insides of more fancy buildings than I ever had in my life.

In the evenings, I tapped into the local performers’ grapevine (Jessica) and dragged Chase to nightclubs for small shows that were too cool to advertise in open forums, delighting whenever I found a place he didn’t know existed. I took him to gigs down rickety stairs and up hidden elevators. Wary of audience interaction, Chase made us sit so far in the back it was hard to see the performers, but I didn’t mind. I liked showing him my world.

Besides, Chase could see the performers perfectly, even from a distance, through his brand-new glasses.

CHASE

I held myself over Caroline,sheets twisted around our limbs, her beautiful body bared. I loved to see her this way, mussed and a bit dazed. Nobody else got to have her like this, only me.

“How do you want to do this, Floss?”

I didn’t mean to phrase myself like a Dungeon Master. But she didn’t know that.

Her eyes met mine and she licked her lips. Her pink hair was splayed on my pillow, her floral perfume was all through my bedding, and her very specific, intimate scent was on my fingers. This woman was leaving her mark on me in every way possible.

I was happier than I could ever remember being. With Caroline, it didn’t matter if I acted in contradictions, it didn’t negate my values. I could be a good man with her, and a bad one too. I could be all facets of myself, not just the parts that were most unlike my dad.

“You don’t have to ask to kiss me,” she whispered. “You don’t have to ask anymore. If I don’t like something I’ll tell you. You don’t have to ask to hug me or strip me or to do that thing with your tongue I like. In bed like this, I’m yours.”

“Mine.”

She didn’t slap me. She nodded.

I kissed the column of her throat and she wrapped her legs over my hips, trying to pull my cock toward the soft, slippery apex of her thighs where she wanted me.Neededme. And I loved to be needed, especially by her.

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