I could say that I threw a hiss fit myself and pushed him off of me immediately. I didn’t. I also didn’t kiss him back. The touch of his tongue was very gentle, sweet even, as he tried to seduce me to open up for him. That was a no go.

Pulling back, I gave him an apologetic smile.

“Don’t. You can’t, I can’t. You know that.”

He leaned forward and touched my forehead with his own, and drew a shaky breath.

“Yes, I know. Obviously I wish things were a bit different. Tell me; if you and Ross weren’t together, would you…”

I swallowed, knowing what he was asking me and told him the truth.

“Yes. Probably.”

He tried going for it again, a bit more forcefully.

“He doesn’t have to know,” he whispered when I held him off, which wasn’t easy because my back was against the wall and he was blocking me. “We could keep it a secret.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Kyle. I love Ross. If things were different…”

“So you want me too…”

“No, I…”

He pushed himself against me.

“I want you. Do you feel that?”

It was hard to miss.

“I’ve wanted you from the moment you stepped into my office. I wanna take you to the bedroom; rip off your clothes and fu…”

“Kyle! Stop it,” I interrupted, when he tried to kiss me again. “I better go now, before something happens that we’ll both regret.”

He lifted his hands as if surrendering.

“I’m sorry. Oh god, Mark… I don’t know what came over me.”

Whatever. I didn’t look at him as I made my exit.

**********

I was furious with Kyle for pulling that stunt on me, and I guess Ross noticed that I was a bit agitated, after he came home.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re jumpy,” he asked, when I startled as he hugged me from behind. “Did something happen?”

“Nah, it’s nothing. You just startled me.”

He grinned, and stole a long warm kiss that felt so much better than anything Kyle could ever offer.

“Mmm. What do you say to staying in, get some takeout, and me giving you a massage? Get that tension out of you.” He winked.

“Sounds very good to me,” I grinned back, turning around in his arms. I wanted him to kiss me again, and he happily obliged.

“Wanna hit the shower?”

“Yes…” God yes. I wanted to be with him, and from the feel of it, that was his exact intention.

**********

That evening we had one of our more intense episodes of passion. I just kept asking for more, and Ross was only too happy to oblige. Three, four times we made love, and in-between I stayed as close to him as possible, pressing my naked flesh to his, caressing him wherever I could touch him. If he was surprised by my lack of restraint, he didn’t show it, instead taking it all and giving it back equally.

“I love you,” he sighed deeply, after the fourth time, softly kissing my painfully swollen lips. His hands were kneading my ass after a workout that had us both panting heavily. “I wish you’d agree to marry me.”

I grinned lazily.

“Why? So you can legally assault me, like you did just now?”

“Hah! I didn’t assault you; you asked for it. ‘Harder’, you said. ‘Take me’, you said. I only do as requested.”

I snickered.

“Right. Well, we can’t marry in Colorado.”

“Screw Colorado. We could go to Canada. I don’t care where, just as long as I have a piece of paper telling me that you and I are together.”

I loved it when he talked to me like this, all possessive.

“Gimme a pen and paper, and I’ll write you a note instead,” I said, kissing his collarbone.

“What would that note say?” he smiled, letting his hands slide up to the middle of my back.

“Umm, how about; I, Mark Norcross, belong to Ross Forester, from this moment on into eternity.”

He sought my lips with his for a long sweet kiss.

“Mmm, sounds good to me. Still, I want an official document. Like Michael and JJ. They went up to Canada…”

“Yeah, I know. It’s not recognized here, in the US, otherwise I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Yes, President Idiot and his…wait a minute. You’d do it?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll marry me?”

“Yes.”

He sat up, showing himself in full glory, making a winners gesture into the air. I snickered.

“Finally! Did hell freeze over? I thought you didn’t believe in that… what did you call it; crap?”

“No, pigs flew, about oh…ten minutes ago?”

“Calling me a pig, now?”

“Ross, you were a pig, ten minutes ago. Grunting like one, more like, but st…”

He silenced me with a hot kiss, the prologue for the fourth time. And the fifth, and the…

CHAPTER *42*

I didn’t see or hear anything from Kyle, the following days, and maybe that was for the better; I didn’t want to think about him.

Ross was in full romantic mode, these days, even taking time off to be together, and we spent days in bed, going even as far as blowing off the, by now, mandatory dinner with Sofia. She wasn’t pleased. Ross didn’t care.

At long last, though, I knew I did have to face Kyle at some point. I hadn’t told Ross about it, knowing he’d blow up, not to mention that he’d probably pay his ex another visit.
Little did I know that it would all blow to hell anyway.

It happened during a late afternoon; both Ross and I were at home, relaxing on the sofa, watching some sort of documentary, when the intercom rang. Ross went to the unit, hanging on the wall beside the door and answered it. I didn’t really pay attention, since it wasn’t all that weird; he received papers and packages on almost a daily bases. I did look up when he pulled the door sideways, and sure enough, I saw a young man handing him a large envelope, after he signed for it.

He came back and sat down beside me again, eying the TV while opening the envelope. He pulled something out, I could see what, but whatever it was, it had some sort of effect because he inhaled sharply. He sat forward, and I heard the rustle of thick paper, one shoved behind the other. Then, when I put my hand on his back to rub it, I knew something was terribly wrong; he tensed as soon as I touched him.

“Ross?” I asked, frowning. When he didn’t react, I said his name again. Then he smashed the envelope on the coffee-table, its contents spreading out in a neat row.

They were black and white pictures, five of them. I couldn’t see exactly what was featured on them.

“Care to add anything to that, Mark?” he said, in a strange low voice, gesturing to the pictures.

I frowned and leaned forward.

I wish I never had done that, lean forward I mean. The sight of what was one the pictures sickened me like nothing else ever could; they featured Kyle and me in Kyle’s hallway, kissing. I knew immediately when they were taken, obviously, and they had had to be lifted from security camera footage. I’d never even seen a camera in Kyle’s apartment.

“Th-that is not what it looks like. I know how it looks, but it…”

“It’s you and my ex kissing,” he interrupted roughly, “and from the looks of it, you weren’t exactly fighting him off, were you?”

Actually, I had!

“Ross, I…”

“Save it. Just save it. All this time, you promised me you had called the whole thing off. You didn’t, did you?”

I slowly shook my head.

“Instead, you went further, didn’t you? You started to see him behind my back, fooling around while I, idiot Ross, believed you. Believed that he was gone from our lives.”

“No! That… those…” I sputtered, pointing at the pictures, “He attacked me! I pushed him off!”

“Oh really? And what’s that, then?”

He picked up a particular photograph, pointing out a specific section, where it was obvious that Kyle’s tongue was halfway between my lips, which were half opened.

“You’re not fighting him off. In fact, I’d say you enjoyed it.”

“Ross…where are you, going? Ross! Ross!”

He’d risen from the sofa, throwing me a look that had the effect of a punch straight into my gut.

“So that’s what your love really means. Absolutely nothing. Sit! Down!”

I’d started to rise as well but his words hit me like a whip and I froze.

“I don’t want to hear another word from you, I swear, so help me god; I’ll kill you.”

He stalked straight towards the stairs and ran up, taking two steps at a time. I blew out a shaky breath, and reached for the pictures, looking at them one by one.

“Bastard,” I whispered at Kyle’s image. “Fucking bastard. You’ll pay for this…”

**********

It took Ross all of ten minutes to gather his things. I’d never forget it, for the rest of my life. He came down the stairs with his arms laden; he’d gotten any and everything he’d brought here. When he stepped down the last stair, he stood there, silently, watching me. The he croaked out the two words I feared the most.

“We’re done.”