“I don’t know if someone told you that all this self-deprecation was cute one time, and you decided to run with it, but you may have been given bad advice,” Kai told me.He said it with a smile creasing his lips, but there was no doubting that he was being serious, too.
I looked away, unable to meet his gaze.Our closeness, which had felt so tender just moments before, suddenly felt constrictive.The echo of my ex’s comments - which fell along the same lines of Kai’s observation, but said with all the spite and intentional malice that only the stuttering of a dying relationship can instill - rang potent in my ears.
He sighed, and then I felt him swing his leg up and over me, carefully parting our bodies.Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him finally push his Speedo all the way down and off; as he straightened, he rubbed his thighs briskly.
“Did I ruin the moment?”he asked.
I took a breath, and then turned to look at him again.Forced myself to smile, to recall the happy, contented feelings I’d been immersed in only minutes earlier.“No,” I replied, only really believing it when I heard the word out loud.“I’m just a little too self-aware of shit like that, y’know?”
He examined my face, as though if he looked hard enough he might be able to discern the truth from my spin.Whatever he deemed to be there, he seemed satisfied enough by it.
“I didn’t mean to be an asshole,” Kai explained, “I just find it, god, I don’t know...a little frustrating when someone I like is so down on themselves all the time.”He picked up a towel from the table, and rubbed half-heartedly at his sticky chest.It didn’t seem the most productive attempt, smearing more than it was cleaning.
Gingerly, I pushed myself up.Seeing my efforts, Kai reached out and helped pull me to my feet.
“Are you going to be a good host and invite me in for a shower?”he asked.
I frowned.“Oh, so it’s not enough that you use my pool, now you want to use my bathroom, too?”
He chuckled at my feigned seriousness.“I was under the impression that I paid you back when you choked me on your dick just now,” he countered.
I made a show of considering it.“I suppose,” I conceded, my tone playfully grudging, “that you could consider it payment of a sort, sure.”
Kai grinned more broadly.“And the price of a shower?”
I ran the back of my hand across my face, still wet from his climax.“I’ll just make a note of it in the ledger.”
Chapter Seven
I’d watched him lookingaround, curious, as I led him upstairs to the bathroom.Figured he’d have something to ask by the time the water was running; sure enough, he did.
“I didn’t see any personal photos up,” he observed.
I shrugged.“You don’t think I picked that charming abstract in the hallway myself?”
Kai laughed.“Oh, it’s definitely you, absolutely.”
