Page 60 of Crying in the Rain

Rubbing his palms together to warm the gel, Kris knelt beside him and smoothed his hands over Ade’s lower body, covering him in a slick, clear film, a sensual exploration, each touch eliciting a shudder.

“And you terrorised me for being ticklish,” Kris teased.

“I’m not ticklish, I’m just…super turned on right now.” Ade sat up, delivering a kiss so messy that they laughed through the fumble of getting the condom out of the packet and on to Kris.

“I’ve never done this before,” Kris admitted. “Not with a guy.”

“It’s kind of new to me too,” Ade said but once more took the lead by lying on his side and beckoning for Kris to lie behind him. Kris did so, and immediately Ade pulled him closer, aligning their bodies.

“OK?” Kris asked.

“Perfect.” Ade turned his head, holding Kris’s gaze as he guided Kris’s hand downwards. “It feels like we’ve done this before. It’s…familiar. Comfortable.”

“Yeah.”

“How’s your short fuse?”

“Longer than it was.” Kris rocked his hips slightly and grinned. Ade laughed.

They stayed like that for a while, getting used to the probing contact and intimacy. As they began to move together, they watched each other, taking their cues from facial expressions, and they talked, or mostly Ade talked. Whether it was intentionally to reassure Kris, he didn’t know, but it had that effect, easing his anxiety that he might accidentally hurt Ade and giving him the confidence to go a little faster, a little harder.

“Oh God, yes,” Ade cried out, then clamped his hand over his mouth, and they both froze like teenagers sneaking a bit of nookie, but wherever Shaunna was, they couldn’t hear her, so hopefully, she couldn’t hear them either because Kris was close to the point of no return and Ade was already there.

That irrepressible motion took over, accompanied by Ade’s moans, muffled by his hand, while his wide eyes urged Kris on. He wanted to stay there forever, in this crescendo to climax, tingling all over from the pressure, the closeness, the heat of the friction and the desire, all of his nerve endings awakened at once in a perfect moment, a voluntary connection of souls, hearts, bodies. Ade’s muscles tensed, and Kris felt it in every part of him until his awareness was nothing outside of succumbing, first one then the other, to this gift of release and of trust.

21: Time

Kris

“Morning!” Kris walkedstraight past Shaunna, dressed for work, to the back door to let Casper out. Shaunna grunted and added more water to the kettle, frowning at Kris because he would usually either be walking the dog by now or have left for the studio. He smiled and gave her a wide berth. She was much more human once she’d had her first cup of tea. Until then, it was best not to get too close or too chatty.

“Sleep well?” she asked.

“I did. You?”

“Yes, thank you.”

After twenty years, he was well used to the forced politeness. There were times he’d wondered how he and Krissi had made it out of the house alive, especially when Krissi was in her teens and seemed to think taking her mother on before school was a good idea. Other than that, she hadn’t been too much trouble as a teenager, but like any dad, he missed the little girl who’d depended on him for everything.

Glancing around the kitchen, he could still see ten-year-old Krissi on the day they’d picked up the keys, opening all the cupboards and telling them exactly where everything should go. She’d mostly got her own way too. Now she’d left home, and her bedroom was Kris’s, but despite having replaced all her furniture with his own, every night it had felt like he was sleeping in the spare room—proverbially, as they didn’t have one—waiting for the dust to settle on an argument. Every night until last night.

“What’re you doing?” Shaunna asked.

Kris shrugged. “Thinking about when we moved in here.”

“OK.” She narrowed her eyes, rightly suspicious that he was only telling her half the story. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only just woken up.”

“Really? Kris Johansson, always up with the lark, thinks he can waylay his long-suffering estranged wife with ‘I’ve only just woken up’?”

“It’s true. Ade’s still out for the count. I’m not sure whether I should disturb him or let him sleep.”

“Presumably, you’re staying off today?”

“There was nothing on the schedule, and I want to be here when the mechanic calls.”

“Ah, yeah. Good point. So whatwereyou thinking about?”

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