Never Give Up on Love Box Set

Chapter 2-2

The Black Sheep’s lights were soft; people’s shadows moving inside seemed like dark souls waiting for a body to enter. In fact, people came to this specific pub for that reason. He wasn’t the first to use the privacy given by the place to find a hot body to lose himself in. Thomas entered and looked around, a worried expression of his face. His fists clenched, arms stiff at his sides. He headed to the bar and leaned an elbow on it, observing the surrounding people, the darkest corners, the private rooms, and the dance floor, a small area that only fit a few people. The music was rhythmic but not too fast. It was kind of sensual, so different from the folk music you usually heard in most Irish pubs.

Adrian, the barman, slid a glass in his direction.

“Here you go, the usual,” he said, winking.

Thomas nodded and answered with half a smile, putting the money on the counter. He turned away for a few moments before looking back at Adrian.

“Do you know Elias?” he asked.

Adrian seemed to think for a moment. “Thin, black hair, even darker eyes, sexy as hell?”

Thomas blinked. From the description, it sounded like Elias, even if Thomas didn’t personally find him sexy as hell. That is, he couldn’t deny what he’d seen under those long locks was something magnetic, that his body seemed thin but not skinny, but…

Thomas shook his head. He was a boy. And a thief. And a stalker. And who knew what else? And he wasn’t interested in him in that way.

“I think so,” he finally replied.

Adrian smiled and gestured to a hidden corner of the tiny dance floor. There, wearing a pair of tight jeans and a white T-shirt, was Elias, dancing with a guy behind him who had one hand on his chest and the other on his belly. His eyes were closed, and he was moving his pelvis. Sexy as hell, actually. His head was reclined, leaning on the shoulder of the man behind him, and he had his hand by his side as he swayed.

Thomas picked up his drink and took a long sip. That boy owed him an explanation. Suddenly, he realized he couldn’t accuse him of anything without some kind of evidence. For a very short moment, doubt ran through his mind: had it really been Elias, or had Thomas finally lost it? Maybe when he’d been twirling under the rain like an i***t fighting his panic attack?

When he looked at the dance floor again, Elias had disappeared.

“What the f**k!” he burst out, frustrated, a second before feeling somebody touch him, a solid body pushing against his back and a voice speaking in his ear, softly enough so as not to be heard by anyone else.

“If they told me to choose who to f**k, I would choose you.”

Thomas turned suddenly and almost spilled his Guinness on himself.

There he was—Elias.

Thomas observed him for a few moments, and his brain registered different things. This time, he could see Elias’s face, even if it was barely lit. It was a very unusual face: thin, big black eyes, a sharp nose, and a large, full mouth. Elias wasn’t as thin as he first seemed. Or, yes, he was thin, but the right definition would have been slim. The stretch T-shirt highlighted his long muscles, as well as his tight jeans, which underlined the contour of his hips, molding his legs. His hair was long at the front and really, really black. His gaze in that moment was particularly intense. The corners of his mouth were turned up in half a smirk.

Thomas suddenly looked away from his lips, the taste of which he could still feel on his mouth, and took a sip of beer.

“I saw you while I was dancing. You came looking for me,” Elias continued.

It wasn’t a question. It was an assertion.

“No. I came looking for my wallet.”

Sure, he could have beaten around the bush, but this guy somehow got on his nerves, and he wasn’t in the mood for acting kindly. He waited for a question from him, even outrage. What he wasn’t expecting was Elias taking his hand, turning it over, and putting the wallet in it.

“And what does this mean?” Thomas growled. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”

“Isn’t that your wallet? Didn’t you come here for it? Here it is. No joke.” Elias’s expression was unperturbed.

“You stole it.”

“Had it on loan.”

“I could report you.” Better yet, I could arrest you. But he didn’t say that out loud because he didn’t want Elias to know anything else about him.

“Does it look like I’m stopping you from doing anything you want to do?”

Thomas itched to hit this asshole, but he tried to remain calm. He clamped his jaw shut and put the wallet in his pocket.

“What kind of game are you playing?”

“No game. I wanted to see you again, but I knew it wouldn’t happen without giving you the right incentive. I knew you would know it was me, and I hoped you would remember where I told you I’d seen you. It seems my plan worked out perfectly.”

Thomas grunted and turned to the bar, irritated as hell that this guy had played him and succeeded in his plan with no effort whatsoever. Was he so predictable? He finished his Guinness and thumped the glass down on the bar before climbing off the stool and getting ready to leave the pub. He wouldn’t even talk to him. If the boy thought he could set the terms, he was wrong. Thomas felt a little f****d around.

Suddenly, a hand with long fingers closed around his wrist, and a moment later, Elias’s mouth was against his ear.

“Stop. Please. Stay a little.”

A shiver ran through Thomas’s body. He wondered why and whether Elias had noticed it.

His voice was different from how it had been earlier, from how he remembered it. Somehow, it seemed hesitant. And it didn’t make any sense. Elias seemed anything but hesitant.

“What the hell do you want from me?” Thomas asked, turning a little, but not too much, in order to avoid finding himself mouth to mouth with Elias. His tone, anyway, had lost some of the rancor it had held earlier.

“You. Only you. For a while.”

The honesty of his answer shifted Thomas. More of his anger fell away. He tried again.

“You don’t even know me. You’re just a boy. Why are you persisting?”

Elias touched his cheek, making him turn, and his mouth found Thomas’s mouth once more. And again, Elias possessed his mouth. And again, this caught Thomas by surprise, who found himself closing his eyes for a moment and returning the kiss, leaning his hand on Elias’s side, turning more toward him.

He meant to stop, but a second later, Elias ran his fingers in his hair, holding his head, and the kiss was taking his breath away. Elias’s tongue killed his ability to think while it caressed him in an erotic dance, destroying any attempt to rationalize what was happening.

It wasn’t the first time he’d found himself in the clutches of a stranger in that place, nor the first time the stranger was younger than him, but they had never been so much younger. But then, he’d never met anyone like Elias. He was so…disconcerting. Because even though Thomas was trying to avoid how he felt, he wasn’t enthusiastic about the young man following him, stealing his wallet to see him again, and alternating moments of volubility with strange silences and s****l aggression.

A little voice inside him told him to end the absurdity as soon as possible, but Elias’s tongue continued to move hypnotically, slow and languid, making Thomas’s knees go weak. At thirty-eight years of age, he shouldn’t be going weak at the knees.

He put a hand on Elias’s chest and forced himself to push him away gently.

Elias moved his mouth away, but he grabbed Thomas’s hips and pulled their bodies together, moaning when he felt his erection—hidden under his jeans—pressed against Thomas.

“Are you sure this is what you want? You want to push me away?”

“Elias, you…Okay, you’re good-looking, and okay, I also feel tempted and you have an effect on me. But I can’t understand why you are so obsessed with me, and you’re…”

“If you say I’m too young one more time, I’ll kneel down right here and give you a blow job. It’s up to you.”

Thomas suddenly closed his mouth and shook his head. After a moment, he asked, “Why me?”

“Why not? I’ve seen you here many times, and you’ve never noticed me. I’ve seen the men you took home, or wherever you take them, and you never noticed me.”

Thomas looked at him carefully. “There are tons of men here, and you’re attractive and sexy. You could have whoever you wished. It doesn’t make sense for you to waste your time on me.”

Elias tilted his head back and again laughed harshly, almost like a bark. “Look, I’m not a pure virgin whose heart you are going to break. I’m not asking you to marry me. Or for anything else. I don’t want a date if that’s what’s worrying you. I just want to stay with you a while. s**t! Is it so difficult to believe?”

Thomas licked his lips and rubbed his forehead. He mentally noted that, even if Elias was a barefaced liar, he hadn’t told him that he wanted to f**k. A warning surfaced in his mind, but he was so perturbed by the crazy day he’d had, that he decided to ignore it.

“It’s not that it’s difficult, but you have to admit there’s something strange in the way you…acted.”

Elias stared into his eyes for a moment, then shook his head. “You know what? f**k you.”

Thomas blinked. “Sorry?”

“f**k you,” Elias repeated, shrugging. “I did everything I could to get you here, and you don’t give a s**t. I get it. It’s better not to waste any more time. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Well, to start with, maybe you could have approached me like a normal person, instead of following me and stealing my wallet!”

Elias glared at him but didn’t speak. Thomas was frustrated. He didn’t want to have Elias around, but now that he was telling him to get lost, it annoyed him terribly. This guy made him feel uncertain about everything. He never did what Thomas expected him to do.

“Do you want to say something?”

“Already did. f**k you.”

* * * *

Elias

Fuck you. His eyes, his false hesitations.

Like Elias hadn’t seen that Thomas would like to f**k him. He was as hard as a rock. Elias had felt it; he wasn’t stupid. And then the way Thomas had looked at him, how he’d responded to Elias’s kiss. But no, Thomas couldn’t admit to wanting to see him. He’d prefer to scream at Elias for stealing his wallet or doing something even worse, which he totally deserved. But Thomas’s annoyance at the false theft had quickly drifted away; Elias noticed that from Thomas’s gaze. And Elias had overreached himself for the first, inexplicable time, admitting to wanting Thomas’s company.

Maybe that was what annoyed him the most. Yes. Asking somebody to stay, trying for once to be honest, but realizing once again it was never worth it. Thomas, in the end, was just like everybody else. Would he ever meet somebody decent? Somebody dedicating him a f*****g hour of their life, not just to have their d**k sucked or pushed up his ass?

Elias left the pub without turning back, quickly walking into the night. His legs covered an ever increasing distance, his muscles stretching and contracting and becoming numb, but he wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t turn around and he wouldn’t go back. He jumped on the first bus that passed. He let himself fall onto the seat, put his headphones on, and crossed his arms over his chest.

Fuck you.

You may as well go home.

Hoping Liam hadn’t already returned. Hoping to have some peace, for once in his life.

Fuck.