Page 81 of Charlie
“Oh, for fuck's sake.” Charles and I stood frozen with our clothes soaked. We tried waving down a taxi but all of them were full.
“Hold this.” Charles gave me his bag and ran to an intersection where cars were waiting at a red light. Knocking on a car window, he spoke to a man in his fifties and turned to wave me over. “Get in.”
I was soaked and ready to get a hot shower, so I didn’t question why we were getting into the backseat of a stranger’s car.
The driver turned to look at us. “Are ye really givin’ me five hundred euros to take ye to Howth?”
“I am.” Charles pointed to the light, which had turned green. “Could you turn up the heat? My girlfriend is wet and freezing.”
At that moment, I didn’t feel my wet clothes. All I could feel was the heat pumping through my body with an acute arousal for Charles. It was such a turn-on to see him be assertive and take charge. From our first lunch we’d put the cards on the table. He knew that I wanted the whole package with marriage and kids, and his comment about hearing me say “I do” told me that he was as serious as me.
Leaning in, I whispered in his ear. “When we get back to the house, can we take a shower… together?”
A smile spread on his lips as his shoulder bobbed up with a tic and he wrinkled his nose.
God, he was so cute when he did that.
CHAPTER 20
A Cry for Attention
Charles
Liv and I had just made it into the bathroom when we began kissing and undressing each other. Our wet clothes fell to the tile floor one piece at a time. I couldn’t get her naked fast enough, because being inside Liv had become an addiction to me.
“I thought about you while I taught today. At one point, I stood with a goofy grin on my lips.”
“Yeah?” She licked my neck. “Did you imagine yourself pressing me against the shower wall?”
I pulled my sweater over my head and turned on the water in the shower. “Actually, I was replaying our lovemaking from this morning.” With an expectant smile, I walked to the rack where beige towels were neatly stacked. Like my room, the bathroom was on the top floor in what had once been the attic. A large skylight window gave a beautiful view of the large grounds that belonged with the Red Manor. Despite the rain falling on the window, I caught something out of the corner of my eye and stopped to stare. “What in the world?”
“Charles, what’s wrong?” Liv came to stand next to me, looking out too.
“There, in the pond.” I nodded, unsure if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
“Is that… what is he doing?
I had no idea why Nathan was sitting in the pond. “The water must be freezing.”
Liv was already putting her clothes back on, but when her wet pants gave her trouble, she settled for her panties, sweater, and socks and ran out the door with two large towels in her hands.
“Hey, wait up.” I was cursing as I hopped on one leg, forcing my foot through my pants leg.
Unlike Liv, I took time to put on shoes while she was already down the stairs, shouting Nathan’s name. Trying to catch up, I slid down the railing like I’d done as a child in my own house.
Liv had swung open the French doors in the living room, leading to the back yard, and she was already by the pond as I stormed after her.
Running across the lawn, I watched Liv pulling Nathan out of the water shouting questions at him. I couldn’t hear his answers but she looked back up at the house, and wrapped him in the towels she’d brought.
When I got there, I began with my own questions, “Nathan, what were you doing? You’ll get pneumonia It’s far too cold to swim this time of year.”
The boy was naked except for his boxer shorts and the two towels that Liv was rubbing his body with. His lips were blue and quivering. Being of mixed race, Nathan’s normal skin tone was golden brown, but now it had a sickly pale color with dark circles under his eyes.
“I… wa… wasn’t swim… swimming.”
Liv was rubbing his back but with the rain coming down, the towel she’d wrapped around him was getting as wet as him.
“Come here.” While Liv bent to collect his clothes, which had been placed in a pile on the grass, I picked up the boy and jogged back to the house with him over my shoulder.
