Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

Finally, something was going right. And all it had taken was for Rhys to get the hell out of his own way and let himself treat Early the way they should be treated. The Chameleon Club had been the perfect first date for the two of them. Early had been quiet around the boisterous members of The Brotherhood, but they’d enjoyed themselves all the same. Rhys didn’t need to ask a bunch of probing questions to know Early felt comfortable in an environment filled with people just like them, and just like him as well.

Dancing with Early had been an unexpected treat. It had been part of the night’s plan from the start, but Rhys hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much. He also hadn’t expected to take Early aside so that he could give the apology Early so desperately deserved. It had taken a hell of a lot of courage to say those things, and really, more needed to be said.

But for now, as they drove along the M20 with the scattered lights of the other cars occasionally lighting Early’s face and casting intriguing shadows, Rhys was on fire. He hadn’t dared to say much since leaving the club for fear that the mood between him and Early would be broken by ordinary conversation, he’d just put on the radio to a soothing station and let the music and the night do its work.

He was still buzzing by the time they pulled into the family parking lot at the back of Hawthorne House. Judging by the smile Early gave him when they both got out of the car and headed for the door, joining hands once they were on the path, Early was still in the mood, too.

Mood or no mood, Rhys was determined not to make the same mistakes twice once they reached his flat and the door was safely shut behind them.

“Do you think we should talk about things?” Early asked, one arm stretched across their body as they rubbed their other arm. Their face was turned down, their eyes peeking up at Rhys invitingly, and a strand of dark hair had come loose from their sexy style. It hung across their pale cheek, where a tiny dark patch along their jaw hinted they’d missed a spot while shaving earlier.

Rhys loved that hint that everything wasn’t black and white with Early, that they were as interesting and mysterious as an unexpected present under the tree on Christmas day. He stepped forward until he was so close Early had to let go of their arm and look up at him to maintain eye contact. He brushed the strand of hair off Early’s face and tucked it behind their ear, then grasped their head with both hands and leaned in for a kiss.

For all his lack of experience, Early was a wonder to kiss. They were so open and accepting, probably more than they knew. Rhys had kissed a lot of people in his past, but they’d all tried so hard that he’d felt put on the spot.

With Early, he felt none of that. He felt strong and protective, like he could take on the world and make it a better place for Early. And yes, it was ironic, because the very sense of control and experience that he felt now had been part of the list of excuses he’d come up with not to get involved with Early in the first place.

That list was out the window now. It had been born out of fear at any rate, and although he was still terrified of everything that could happen between him and Early, he was certain it was worth the risk now.

“We don’t have to talk about anything,” he whispered across Early’s soft, searching lips.

Early made a tiny sound of confusion and tensed. “I thought you said we should talk things through before we try—” they swallowed and sucked in a breath, “—having sex again,” they finished in a whisper.

Rhys smiled, more aroused than he could ever remember being as he kissed Early’s lips gently. He breathed in Early’s fresh, flowery scent, reasonably certain it came from shampoo and not any sort of fancy perfume, then kissed them again.

“We’re not going to have sex tonight,” he said, brushing his thumb across Early’s cheek.

“We’re not?” Early instantly worried and their lower lip wobbled.

God, they had no idea how sexy they were.

“Nope,” Rhys said, kissing them again, then rocking back. “I have other things in mind.”

“What other things?” Early asked, their voice wispy with expectation.

Rhys stepped back farther, turning to the side, and said, “Take your clothes off.”

“You want me to…but we’re not going to….” Early blinked and twisted awkwardly as they followed Rhys with their eyes.

Rhys headed to a cabinet by the side of the room and opened it to take out an array of painting supplies from the stuff he kept in his flat. “You’re an experienced model now,” he told Early over his shoulder with a grin. “You know all about posing nude for an artist. I said before that I wanted to work with you outside of that class.”

“You want me to—” They stopped themselves and smiled. “Okay,” they said, then went to work slipping out of the glittery gown they’d worn that had ignited Rhys’s imagination all evening.

The supplies Rhys kept in his flat were rudimentary. He only had acrylic paints upstairs, and he hadn’t used most of them for years. It was pure luck that he had a small, cheap canvas board in his cupboard, but he didn’t have an easel. It didn’t matter. The board was small enough that he could rest it on his knees or a side table, and it wasn’t like he was creating a masterpiece anyhow.

That thought tugged at something darker in him as he headed to the kitchen to fill a cup with water. Downstairs, still waiting in his studio, was Raina’s landscape. He should have been putting his effort into working on that, not playing around with Early.

He should have been thinking about Raina and mourning her instead of pulsing with desire for Early and contemplating getting on with his life. Every step he took to move his life on took him one step farther away from the brother Raina had known. She would never know the man he would become.

“Is this okay?”

Early’s voice from the sofa stopped Rhys from spiraling in those sad thoughts. He turned around and found Early draped seductively across the sofa, one leg bent slightly and one arm hooked back behind his head. If ever a pose said “Come over here and fuck me”, it was that pose.

Not tonight, Rhys reminded himself, though his cock lifted eagerly against his trousers as if it hadn’t gotten the memo.

“Perfect,” he said, returning to the chair across from the sofa and setting the glass of water on the side table.

It didn’t take him long to set up, though it was amazing that he could focus on his paints and palette with Early’s gorgeous body splayed for his own personal view. It didn’t help either when he noticed a dead-sexy pair of black lace panties sitting with the discarded dress on the chair near the sofa either. That was something he definitely wanted to know more about.

“Don’t you need to sketch me first?” Early asked, a cheeky sparkle in his eyes. “Or apply an underpainting of some sort? Wasn’t that what you taught your class to do?”

“Shush,” Rhys teased him with a wicked grin. “Models are supposed to be silent and lovely, not mouthy little tramps.”

The words spilled out of him before he could check himself. He tensed with the fear that he’d said the wrong thing, but Early just laughed low in their throat.

“Mouthy little tramp,” they repeated. “That’s something no one has ever, ever called me.”

“If you want an apology, I’ll give it,” Rhys said as he squirted a few colors onto his palette and started to blend them to get the base color of Early’s beautiful skin.

“Oh, no,” Early said, sounding more relaxed at precisely the moment when Rhys thought he’d get super nervous. “I like it. It gives me something to aspire to.”

Rhys chuckled, then spent a few minutes sketching the basic shape of Early’s stretched body with broad strokes.

“This reminds me of Titanic ,” Early said when the silence between them had stretched on too long. “Paint me like you do your French girls,” they paraphrased.

Rhys laughed. “ Titanic stole that scene from a thousand actual moments between artists and their models throughout hundreds of years.”

“And with good reason,” Early said.

Rhys peeked at them. Early grinned back. Their body had a flush to it that was unmistakably arousal. It wasn’t just the flush that hinted they were turned on either.

Early must have seen where his eyes wandered. They squirmed a little, and their smile faltered.

It took a few more minutes before they said, “I’m sorry I’m not much to look at.”

Rhys raised his eyes from his painting and frowned. “What do you mean? You’re beautiful.”

An embarrassed grin played across Early’s face before they lost their smile again. “I’ve…I’ve always been self-conscious about having…a small penis.”

Rhys blinked, no idea what Early was talking about. “What do you mean?” he asked, dabbing his brush in the paint again and trying to focus on his work so Early didn’t get nervous.

“I’m not that big,” Early said, like they were admitting something.

Rhys glanced up again with a frown. “What makes you say that? You’re fine. I’d say average, but that word makes it sound like you’re not special. You’re definitely special.”

Early sucked in a breath. “I’m smaller than any of the pictures I’ve seen,” they said.

Rhys stopped everything he was doing to stare at Early’s eyes. “Are you comparing yourself to porn?” he asked.

Early didn’t answer. At least, not with words. The bright pink on their cheeks said everything.

Rhys set his canvas aside and shifted from his chair to sit on the sofa by Early’s side.

“This might be a weird question, but have you ever seen a guy naked in person before?” he asked.

“I always hated changing around the other guys in school,” Early said, going out of his way to avoid Rhys’s glance. “I was so skinny and pale growing up, and it only took one of the other boys making fun of me once to have me changing where no one could see me for the rest of my pitiful school athletics career.”

“Which meant you never saw any of them naked either.”

Early shook their head. “I guess one of the disadvantages of being raised by conservative parents who don’t agree with your life choices is that you end up with a lot of gaps in your knowledge. My family isn’t like your family at all. I didn’t even know where to start learning about sex.” They paused, then added, “You must think I’m pathetic and na?ve.”

Rhys slipped a hand under their chin and tilted it up so Early was forced to meet his eyes. “You’re beautiful and amazing,” he said, smiling. “And average. Nothing you see in online porn is even remotely realistic, so get that out of your head right now.”

“Now I feel stupid,” Early whispered, trying to avoid Rhys’s eyes again.

“Hey, none of that,” Rhys said softly.

He rubbed his thumb over Early’s bottom lip, which ended up being way sexier than he anticipated. Both of them lost their breath for a moment.

“Tell me what you like about your body,” Rhys asked a beat later.

Early blinked at him. “What?”

“Your body. Tell me what you like about it. And you can’t convince me the answer to that is ‘nothing’. No one who hates their body agrees on the spur of the moment to pose nude for an art class.”

Early smiled the most alluring, bashful smile Rhys had ever seen. “You’re going to laugh at me,” they said.

“Only if it’s appropriate,” Rhys promised.

Early drew in a breath then glanced up at him. “Okay,” they said. “I like my belly button.”

Rhys burst into a smile. “Your belly button?”

“Yeah. It’s silly, but I like it.” Early smiled at him in return. “I’ve always wanted to wear crop tops because of it.”

“I highly approve of you wearing crop tops,” Rhys said, reaching back for his palette and brush.

Early watched curiously as Rhys filled his brush with red paint. When he was satisfied, he scooted forward again and painted a circle around Early’s navel.

Early sucked in a breath, and their cock twitched slightly. Their breathing turned tighter, and Rhys could practically taste their arousal.

“What else do you like about your body?” Rhys asked, filling his brush with more paint.

“I’ve always liked my arms,” they whispered.

Rhys hummed, then brushed blue paint up the underside of Early’s arm that was lifted up over their head. Early shivered and caught their breath.

“What else?” Rhys asked, having a hard time breathing himself.

Early hummed for a moment, like they were deciding how daring they wanted to be. “My neck,” they whispered.

“You do have a beautiful, long neck,” Rhys said, stroking his brush from the base of Early’s ear to their shoulder.

There wasn’t much paint on the brush at that point, so he leaned in and kissed Early’s neck, then kissed lower, then lower still until he could kiss their Adam’s apple.

Early let out a shaky breath, quivering under Rhys’s touch and stretching slightly to the side to give Rhys more access. Rhys could feel the energy coursing through their body, like they might burst into sunlight at any moment.

“Do you want to know my favorite parts?” he asked, sitting straighter and filling his brush with paint again.

Early could only manage a tight reply of “Mmm hmm?”

Rhys grinned heatedly, then stroked his brush straight over Early’s right nipple.

Early reacted like Rhys had brushed them with an electric current. They sucked in a hard breath and arched into the touch. Their cock had gone hard and a bead of moisture had formed on its tip. Rhys traced his brush over the same nipple in a different direction, causing them to whimper and shudder even more.

It was so erotic that he was in pain as his own cock begged to be freed. He wasn’t going to give himself that luxury, though. This was all about Early, about giving them something that would make them feel good without pressure.

Rhys charged his brush again then treated Early’s left nipple to the same treatment as the right. Whether Early was hypersensitive or just completely carried away by the sensual play, Rhys didn’t care. He was fascinated by the canvas of possibility before him.

He kissed Early’s parted, desperate lips again, earning a low moan and an undulation of Early’s entire body as they gave themself over to the feelings Rhys was creating. It would have been so easy to strip out of his own clothes and make love to Early the way his body was screaming at him to, but Rhys wanted more.

He filled his paintbrush again, then drew a line over Early’s belly and down to the dark hair around their groin. For some, nonbinary meant ignoring all of their gender features, but Rhys wondered if, for Early, it might mean embracing all of them, feminine and masculine. He certainly hoped so, because he genuinely liked cock as much as he liked breasts. Hair was all a part of the masculine traits he liked.

He took more paint from his palette and stroked his brush across Early’s tight balls. He liked those, too. A lot. If he hadn’t just slathered them in paint, he would have been tempted to shift Early so that he could suck on theirs.

He’d made his decision about the night’s activities, though, and he intended to stick with it. He set his palette and brush aside, but scooped up a large blob of pink paint on his fingers.

Early had held their pose almost perfectly for the entire time Rhys had painted and played with them, and that didn’t change as Rhys spread the pink paint from his fingers up the underside of their cock. Early let out a moan and tilted their head back for a moment as Rhys concentrated on his fingerpainting, then panted restlessly as Rhys closed his hand around their cock and worked their length.

He kept going, watching Early intently as their pleasure grew and consumed them. He had to reach for his own crotch with his other hand and squeeze to stop himself from coming as Early’s face contorted with everything he gave them. It was nearly impossible not to lose it when Early’s breath grew frantic, then they let out a cry moments before thick, pearly white joined the red and pink and blue already painted across their belly.

Watching Early come was its own masterpiece. They held nothing back because they didn’t know how to, and Rhys loved that. They continued to thrust their hips, like they wanted more, after the last drops spilled. When that was done, they collapsed into the sofa, their arms still held perfectly above their head, like they didn’t dare move.

“Absolutely beautiful,” Rhys murmured. He spread his hands across Early’s messy belly, pushing the paint and cum around to make a riot of color and shapes. “This is the only kind of mess I should make with you.”

“I love it,” Early panted, their body hot and their breath coming in tight pants. They lifted their eyes to meet Rhys’s gaze, and Rhys was certain they were moments from saying they loved him, too.

He wasn’t ready for it. Not because he didn’t feel the same, but because he felt it far too potently. Saying I love you for the first time should be something that happened with certainty, not because one person had just had an orgasm and the other was one strong breeze away from having one.

Rhys straightened. “I think it’s time to bring this amazing date to a close,” he said. Early started to look worried, so Rhys pressed a finger to their lips and said, “Not because of anything wrong, but because everything tonight has been so beautiful, and I think we need to let it be beautiful just as it is without adding too much to it.”

“Like a painting,” Early panted, sitting up when Rhys took his hand away.

Rhys smiled, partly because Early now had a splotch of pink paint across his lips. It was so erotic that he had to concentrate not to come. “Exactly,” he said instead.

He stood and hurried into the bedroom to grab his robe from where it hung on a hook inside his bathroom door. When he rushed back to the main room, Early was wobbling to his feet.

“Here,” Rhys said, moving to throw the robe around Early’s shoulders. “Don’t worry about getting paint on it. Everything I own has paint on it. I’ll walk you down the hall to Rafe’s place.”

They were lucky that only a hallway separated Rhys’s apartment from where Early was now staying and that none of the rest of the family was out wandering the halls. It took half a minute for Rhys to get Early to the door.

“Sleep well, baby,” Rhys whispered to them as they stepped into Rafe’s apartment.

“I think I’m going to have good dreams tonight,” Early said with a bashful smile that did nothing to quell Rhys’s erection.

He kissed Early one last time, then let them go before turning and hurrying back to his apartment.

Once he was alone in his own space, Rhys practically threw off his clothes as he rushed into his bathroom and turned on the shower. He barely waited until the water was warm enough before diving in and letting the water hit his tight, overheated body. He washed the paint from his hands, then rubbed some extra soap over his body before leaning back against the shower wall and taking his cock and balls in hand.

He groaned as his body responded instantly, then let it all go and let out a cry of, “Early!” He was already so primed and ready that it took less than two minutes before he lost his load in spectacular style, eyes closed, while imagining plowing a paint-smeared Early on a wide, empty canvas.

It took him a long time to catch his breath once the power of his orgasm had passed. The warm water of the shower felt good, though. Even better was the feeling that he’d actually managed to get things right with Early. The promise of everything else the two of them might get right going forward stayed with him as he cut the shower, dried off, and went to bed.

He could do this. He could build something real and true with Early. He could be the kind of boyfriend that would have made Raina proud.