Page 48 of Lord of the Lock

“I’m not going to smother you,” I muttered. He barked out a laugh.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I’ve been more trouble than I’m worth.” Dad said ruefully, and finished off his water. “But…I thought I’d get more independent. Told your mother not to bother helping me shower this morning. And look where that got me.”

“I was talking more like getting your own beer from the fridge, Dad,” I said. “We can work our way up to showering when you have the faintest idea how to use the shower seat.”

“Just…sorry,” Dad said. “I didn’t want to help myself, but I resented your help too. And I didn’t want you back in this place where you were caused so much pain. So I tried pushing you away.”

“Well, shit happens, Dad,” I said. “But thing is, you were the one person I could rely on as a kid to support me. When I was stupid enough to dye my hair every colour under the sun in school you were there for me. When I was with Lewis and getting caught in the rugby club toilets with him, you were the one who made sure I didn’t get a bloody criminal record. You supported me through everything, no matter how much of an idiot I was or how I pushed you away. So I want to help you. Meet me halfway and I’ll do anything to pay you back for how fantastic a father you were to me. I’d push this fucking wheelchair up Everest for you.”

A tear leaked down Dad’s cheek. “Everest it is then.”

The front door opened and Mum stepped through. “Is everything OK? I had missed calls from you and I couldn’t get hold of- Oh, hi Nathan. Hi Finn.”

Blue flickering lights filled the room, and there was no time for pleasantries as I wheeled Dad out of the door and to the waiting ambulance. He might seem fine, but I wanted to know that he was, and that he hadn’t sustained any internal injuries in his fall.

“He fell in the shower,” I explained to Mum as a couple of paramedics got out.

“Right, let me go with him to the hospital,” she said. “You’ve done your bit for the night.”

In minutes, they had Dad bundled up in the ambulance with Mum holding his hand. The ambulance pulled out into the street, and Finn and I were left standing in the warm September night. And I wrapped my arms around his big frame and held him tight.

“You OK?” he asked.

“I will be,” I said.

“Want to come back to mine this evening? I don’t like the thought of you alone in the house for hours after everything you’ve been through.’

“Yes please,” I said almost as soon as he’d gotten the sentence out.

Finn patted his shorts, groaned and held up one tiny key. “All my stuff is in the changing rooms. Including my house key. So we’ll have to stop off at the rugby pitch again.”

“Awesome.” I laced my fingers through his, and we walked back down the street toward Pont’s rugby grounds.

* * *

We walked into the darkened gym, and Finn raised his arm to sniff. “Jesus,” he said. “I forgot how rugby can make a mansmell.”

“Like a man,” I said under my breath. All I could smell on him was freshly cut grass and an earthy smell and I really liked it. Finn locked the door behind us. In the darkness, I reached out one hand to grab his.

We walked past the gym equipment and Finn and Rhod’s office and headed into the shower room. Finn flicked the light switch on. His bag was stuffed into a corner and his clothes were hanging out of it. “Got changed in a rush,” he explained.

“I saw you run on,” I replied.

And then for a few seconds we stood there. Three feet apart. The whole world at our feet under a couple of inches of old tile. And I didn’t know what to do. Or say. Because there was a tension between us now we knew we were real.

And then Finn was stepping in closer to me and I was moving to meet him, and those big hands were touching my face, tilting my lips up as he leaned down to kiss me.

God, I was safe in his hands. And not just safe, but loved. And as our tongues danced around one another and I rubbed at Finn’s massive shaft through his thin rugby shorts, I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to be.

Finn broke off the kiss. “Is all of this OK with you?”

I appreciated him asking. It made me feel even more safe, and somehow even more turned on. “From this moment onward, Finn Roberts, I promise you I’m comfortable enough to say no if I don’t want something.”

“I know, but enthusiastic consent is good,” he said.

I grabbed at his thick bulge through his shorts and gave a tug that made him moan. “Enthusiastic enough?”

“Yup, all…all good with me,” Finn breathed as I dipped my hand into those shorts to pull out his length. I loved how warm and weight his cock felt in my hand.

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