Vestige

Chapter Six



The nightmares were growing more violent. Caleb decided when he woke up that morning, that what he needed was distance. Distance from this city with its sweltering heat and damp air. He needed time to sit in balmy breezes and slide his toes into warm water. He needed to find a way to leave behind the city of his father, where he had been taught the three great truths of life. People were expendable, friends were lethal, and love was a akin to a crowbar; a useless tool to open doors before it was thrown away.



The city was a coffin, and Caleb was not ready to lie down and die yet. That was why he brought up the idea of Florida to Felix. He mentioned his beach house, though he did not mention that he had been given it by his sister. His father had cut him out of his will after he had found Caleb with one of his business partners. He had walked in on them while Caleb was behind the older man, who was bent over his desk with his pants puddled around his ankles.



Dorothy had given him the beach house as a testament to her generosity, and then quipped that if he decided to bring any of his little playmates there she would rip it from his hands and sell it. Typical Dorothy Bennett Manchester fashion, Caleb supposed. He also supposed that what his big sister didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. They packed their bags and boarded a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, touching down as dusk entered the sky.



Felix was charmed by the sandy white beaches and clear, jade water. He wanted a moonlit walk along the sand, but Caleb was too tired and suggested they stop by the house first for a cat nap. When Felix saw the house, however, napping was out of the question. He wandered about the 1,200 square feet like a child, big eyed, his fingers lightly touching furniture and knick knacks as though he were in a museum. Caleb bemusedly watched him, quite aware of the lovely shape of his body, the toned strength in his bare arms.



“You know what the price is for that vase?,” Caleb asked, as Felix picked up the gorgeous object and turned it in his hands. He shook his head. “Fifty thousand dollars,” Caleb finished, and then laughed as Felix quickly returned the vase to the mantle, shoving his hands in his pockets purposefully.



“I feel a little cheap in here,” Felix said with a light sigh, looking around the huge space with some trepidation. “I’m sure everything in here is worth more than me.” Caleb crossed the space between them and wrapped his arms around Felix’s waist. “There’s nothing in this world worth more than you, Felix Morales.”



“Trying to charm me out of my pants,” Felix chuckled, before the articles mentioned were lowered down his hips and hit the floor. “It seems to be working.”



Caleb powerfully drug the man into the kitchen and threw him over the table. If Dorothy found out about this, he thought, as he pushed deep into Felix’s body and felt him bite into his throat, She’d kill me.







They meandered along the beach like two children, giggling with their heads together. The night was warm and the air smelled of salt, and Caleb felt that if any one place could cure what ailed him, this was it. Much like Felix, the place was a balm for him, a great comfort. They stopped at the shoreline, and Caleb produced a blanket from the knapsack on his back, Felix smirking at the blonde. “Always prepared,” he murmured, “You must have been a boy scout.”



Caleb held up his hand and absently performed the boy scout sign at Felix, rooting through the knapsack with his free hand and producing a bottle of wine. “The cheap stuff too, so a little bit of jostling around won’t hurt it any. It might improve it a little.”



“Mm,” Felix hummed, resting on his elbows on the blanket, and feeling the tide gently roll over his naked toes. “Only the best for me, huh?”



“Of course,” Caleb agreed, taking out two glasses from the pack and filling them, before lying next to Felix on the blanket. Felix sipped the wine and leaned his head back, looking at the stars spread through the black velvet sky. He had never seen so many before, and it honestly took his breath away. There were lips at his exposed throat, warm and moist with wine. Felix purred and curled his toes into the wet sand, a little high on wine and the beautiful scenery and his love for the silly curly haired boy.



“What are we doing?”



“Mrm, making out,” Caleb murmured, mouth insistent on Felix’s throat. Felix laughed, and Caleb felt the vibration beneath his lips and teeth. “I meant, what are we doing with each other? I’m not usually concerned with a relationship; I’m the type who likes to sit back and enjoy the ride. But most of my men don’t fly me across the country and make love to me in swanky beach houses. Most of my men don’t make me feel this way.”



“What way?”



“Like I’m lost,” Felix answered hesitantly, closing his eyes. “Like I don’t know where I am. I woke up one morning and you were the only one that I could think of. And now, I can’t imagine a moment without you in it. I want to know that you feel the same way.” Felix set his glass aside and gripped Caleb’s hair, pulling him from his throat and putting his dark eyes on his face. “I want to know that you are as lost as me, Caleb.”



“I’m fucking lost, baby,” Caleb answered. “I’ve never been this lost before. But you’re taking me somewhere good, I can feel it.”



“Like the north star,” Felix said wryly, looking up at the jewels in the sky. “I’m trying to lead you home. But I don’t know what home you want.”



“Any,” Caleb whispered, “As long as you’re there.”



Felix kissed him strongly, and let his hands shift through his hair and claw at his back. The moment grew intense, sharply sexual and erotic, but Felix cooled it as he sat up and pulled his body from Caleb’s. The blonde whimpered a little and chased after him, but Felix only grinned and pulled his knees up to his chest. “Ah, give me a little break, love,” Felix whispered, “We’ve been fucking like rabbits for weeks now.”



“And?”



“And,” Felix laughed, “I’d like to just lie here with you. Is that alright, Caleb? If we just lie here together?”



“I guess that’s okay,” Caleb lamented, watching Felix extend his beautiful body across the blanket and lift his arms above his head. Caleb felt a heat spike through his groin, and he swore softly under his breath before resting on Felix’s chest.



“Where ever you go,” Felix murmured, “The stars are always there. You can’t escape them. It’s like they want us to see them.”



“More Goddam philosophies,” Caleb mumbled.



Felix smiled and let his fingers twine slowly around a few honey colored curls.



“They burn for you and me, Caleb.”



“Mm, I bet,” Caleb whispered, listening to Felix’s heartbeat. That moment was the best of his life, and he cherished it. He listened to Felix’s heart and could swear his own beat in time with it. He could sense the change inside of himself, a release of all of his old anger and grief and childish fears and insecurities. A need not to own, not to subjugate, but to love and to be loved. To feel a lover put his hands on him, to not worry if those hands meant to chain him.



“I bet they do,” Caleb finished, drifting a little on Felix’s chest.







“You look like a lobster,” Felix was laughing, as Caleb walked through the door with a bag of groceries in his arms. Sunglasses were propped on his head, and the only area of his face that was not completely red was a small strip across his nose, where the glasses had rested.



“I feel like a fucking lobster,” Caleb grunted, setting the bags down on the kitchen counter and waddling around the living room. “I’m burned all over. I can’t even goddam walk.”



“Aw,” Felix giggled, lightly taking Caleb’s hand and pulling him towards the bathroom. “Come with me, lover.”



“Felix, there’s ice cream in there…”



“Shh, shh,” Felix quieted, slowly and gently stripping his lover and moving him into the bathtub. “No kinky stuff I promise,” Felix explained, as he disrobed and climbed in after Caleb, turning on the showerhead and letting cold water rush out over their bodies. Caleb gasped and jerked from the spray, but Felix caught him by the waist and drug him back, spooned against his back, fingers slowly and lovingly working over his reddened flesh.



“Do you know how harmful the sun is, especially to someone so fair?,” Felix asked and lectured, kissing Caleb’s freckled shoulders. “Doesn’t that feel nice?”



“Nn,” Caleb moaned, resting his brow against the tiled wall. He shivered from the cold, though his stomach and loins were suddenly and painfully on fire.



“I think I found a part of you that wasn’t burned,” Felix purred, gripping Caleb’s erection and stroking slowly.



“Felix,” Caleb gasped, “Fuck, Felix.”



“Ahh, Caleb,” Felix groaned, tugging a little harder, thumb pressing against the head of Caleb’s cock, feeling his sticky pre-come. “You make me crazy.”



Caleb cried out and muffled the noise in his arm as he came in Felix’s hand, the prickling skin he had felt beneath the chilly spray of water now burning hot. He felt his lover huddle against his back, panting with him, before his own warm come poured out over Caleb’s backside.



Felix had said that he was trying to lead him home, and Caleb wished that he could tell him that the only home he desired was in his arms. They laid down still wet and cold, cuddled together and desperately aching to get closer. To melt into each other in a way that would forever make them one.



Caleb slept in the afternoon sunlight, Felix cradled in his arms, and for the first time in weeks, he slept without dreams.