Chapter
Sixteen
TYPICAL OF UK delays, three weeks passed before I finally held the deeds to the bar in my hands. By then Sasha and I had moved into a cottage on the outskirts of Woking. I would have chosen a large apartment, but Sasha fell in love with the cottage the moment he saw it on an estate agent’s website, claiming it was “cute.” The property was larger inside than it looked from the outside, but I had to remember to duck my head when I walked into the bedroom, to avoid bashing it on the low doorframe.
The cottage was twice the distance from my new Red Bar that my condo in Prague had been from Červenà, and I decided I would have to buy a car. Public transport took the scenic route, and taxis usually had to be booked in advance. Sasha was keen to learn to drive and had already applied for a provisional drivers’ license, and I knew he’d love to have a car.
I sat at our small breakfast bar, sipping coffee as Sasha checked his Facebook messages on his phone. So far Elena still hadn’t read his message, and he despaired of her contacting him. But as I glanced at him his face lit up and split into a wide smile.
“She read my message! She’s online now!” He waited with bated breath until a reply came up on his screen, then showed it to me before he answered.
Sasha, where have you been? I missed you so much. Mother and Father told me you didn’t want to come home. They said you had a new life. Why didn’t you call me?
“I don’t want to make her hate our parents, but I should tell her the truth,” he mused. “She wouldn’t believe I just moved on and forgot about her.” While he pondered on what to say, Elena typed another message.
I heard a story that you were made to leave because you like boys. Is that true?
“Oh shit.” He chewed his lip.
“She hasn’t said anything bad. It’s a good opportunity to just get it out.” I touched his arm and he nodded. I watched as he tapped out a response.
Yes, it’s true. You know what our community is like. I couldn’t be happy there. Someone found out and hurt me, so it was safer to leave. I found a place to live in Prague where everybody accepts me. I met someone there, an Englishman named Joel, and he brought me to England to join his family.
I waited for her response almost as eagerly as Sasha. Her message came quickly as if she’d been hammering her keyboard in excitement at reconnecting with her brother.
I cannot believe you didn’t tell me! I know I was just a kid when you left, but I still had my own mind. I know what our parents think, but it doesn’t mean I’m the same. I have a friend in school who is gay. He has to hide all the time, and I’m the only person who knows. He’s too young to have a boyfriend, but he says as soon as he’s old enough to go away to college, he’ll leave so he can be himself and meet somebody. I’m glad you have someone. What is he like? Is his family nice?
“Wow,” Sasha muttered and began to type again. I left him to talk to his sister and got to work on making calls. I had a list of contractors I’d compiled, and needed to arrange for them to visit the bar and give me quotations for restoration work. Sasha eventually put his phone away and told me Elena had to stop talking and go to her next class. She went to an IT club and used the school computer for her search for Sasha, when there was little chance of her being caught.
Sasha came with me to the club to meet the contractors, but it was clear he was distracted, over the moon at reconnecting with Elena. I stayed for the rest of the day, meeting with one company after another, while he returned to the cottage and promised to make something for us to eat that evening.
By the time I left the bar, I’d met with builders, joiners, decorators, electricians, and plumbers, and had been promised written quotations within a few days. Things were moving forward, and from what the various contractors had told me, perhaps it wouldn’t be a year before the Red Bar could open. I could see it happening by the end of the year—assuming the planning permission I’d applied for was approved quickly. The woman I’d spoken to at the planning office seemed to think it wouldn’t take too long. I wasn’t intending to change the outer structure of the building, and the fact that it was going to be used again, and for a similar purpose as before, was encouraging.
I arrived home to find a delicious smell of meat, garlic, and basil permeating the cottage, and a steaming bath waiting for me upstairs.
“I thought it was time I spoiled you. You’ve done so much for me. And I’m all better now.” Sasha grinned as I stepped closer to kiss him. Since arriving in England the most we’d done was mutual blow jobs, and as hot as that always was, I couldn’t wait to fuck him again. It had been much too long.
I soaked in the bath while Sasha finished dinner, the almost too-hot water relaxing my leg, which throbbed painfully after hours standing up. By the time I got out, my fingers had gone wrinkly and my skin had turned a vivid shade of red. I toweled dry and dressed in jeans and a shirt before joining Sasha downstairs.
Our living room had space for a small dining table and two chairs in one corner, and Sasha had set the table with a white cloth, cutlery, and wine glasses. We ate spaghetti with ragù, garlic bread, and salad, followed by ice cream in assorted flavors.
“This reminds me of that restaurant we used to go to, only better,” I commented.
“I don’t think my cooking is as good as theirs.”
“It’s better because you did it. And the best thing is that I get to do this.” I leaned across the table and pressed a warm kiss onto his mouth. He tasted of chocolate and strawberry ice cream.
“Not yet.” He pulled away and began gathering up the dishes. “I have something else for you first.”
“What’s that?”
“Wait and see. Turn your chair around.”
Curious, I turned my chair away from the table and sat waiting while he cleared the table, dimmed the lights, and selected some music. My lips twitched as I remembered that night he’d promised me a surprise. I wondered if he’d been going to dance for me then, before the man with the thick lips had snatched him from under my nose. My pulse quickened and a twitch in my groin made me grin. Over and over since that first date with Sasha, things had got in the way of our relationship. We hadn’t had much opportunity to date or have fun, and as hard as I’d tried to put him first, there had always been something interrupting us. Now it was just him and me. At last his ribs were healed, and he could do what he’d clearly been planning a long time.
“No touching.” Sasha turned the music up a notch and moved closer until he stood in front of me, our knees only a few inches apart and his feet placed either side of mine. I let my arms hang at my sides, intending to keep my hands out of the way of whatever Sasha might do.
For a long moment he only stood there, his long slender frame looming over me, and at last he began to move. The music was perfect—a hard beat, but not too fast. Sasha lifted his hands over his head and tilted his face to the ceiling, the way I’d seen him do many times in the club. His body swayed and writhed in front of me, hips bucking and twisting while his feet barely moved. My dick swelled and pushed against my fly and this time there was no one else to see it. I shuffled in my seat and adjusted myself to make things more comfortable, my gaze glued to Sasha as he teasingly unfastened one shirt button at a time, giving me glimpses of pale flesh as he let his fingers glide over his chest and stomach. When the shirt slipped from his shoulders and floated to the ground, he stroked his sides and belly, worked his way up to his nipples, and pinched them between fingers and thumbs.
Groaning, I bit my lip and plucked at the front of my jeans, brushing the hardness inside. My balls ached and dampness surrounded the head of my cock. He was going to torture me, and for the first time, I realized what it must be like to be one of Červenà’s patrons, rock hard and leaking in their pants, unable to touch, while one of the boys gyrated in front of them.
Sasha flipped open the button at the waistband of his trousers and allowed the zip to slide down a couple of inches. His erection, restrained by shiny black fabric, pushed at the opening and forced his fly open the rest of the way. I lifted my hand toward him, unable to stop myself. I had to touch.
“Joel, behave yourself. No touching allowed.” He grinned wickedly and I dropped my hand to my lap, giving myself a rub instead.
“You’re killing me here. I’m gonna end up coming in my pants like a school boy.”
“I hope so.” He stepped back out of my personal space and turned away, giving me a fine view of his firm butt. As he bent over, ass still swaying, his trousers slipped a little, giving me a peek at the pale globes, uncovered by underwear.
“Shit, what are you wearing under there?”
“One of my old costumes, modified a little.” He ran his hands down his body, gripped the trousers, and pushed them to his ankles, revealing the scrap of fabric underneath to be one of his jocks, trimmed in a way that left his hole exposed.
“Fuck!” I fumbled with my fly, desperate to relieve the pressure on my swollen dick. Sasha remained with his back to me, but took a step back, legs apart so his ass was practically in my face. He lowered himself, continuing to sway and writhe, until his butt brushed my hand where I cupped myself. I lifted one finger, just managing to touch the warm dampness between his buttocks before he moved out of reach and spun around.
“Move your hand.”
I did as he asked, letting my hand fall to my side again. I’d unfastened the top button of my jeans but that was all, and my cock throbbed painfully in its confines. Sasha maneuvered closer until he straddled my lap, the bulge in his jock bumping my stomach as he moved. Gradually he lowered himself until the delicious friction on my erection made me shiver. I was at the point of ignoring his instructions to free myself from my clothing, when he slid his hand between us and unfastened my fly for me, one button at a time, pausing after each to rub his thumb over my leaking head.
My balls tightened and I took long shaky breaths, struggling not to lose control. I hadn’t been joking when I said I’d come in my pants. It was still a possibility, but I wanted to feel skin on skin. I wanted to make it to the end of his dance and feel his dick against mine, or his mouth on me.
Finally I was free. The front of my jeans parted and Sasha deftly pulled my shaft out of the slit in my boxer shorts. My erection bounced when he released it, and he moved in closer, trapping it against my body and bucking his hips, letting his covered hardness slide up and down my erection.
I licked my lips and gasped for breath, aroused beyond belief. I only stopped myself from touching him through sheer willpower. I wanted to throw him on the floor right in front of the chair, tear the jock from his body, and pound into him, but I stayed still, eager for what might come next.
Sasha reached behind me and picked up a condom and a sachet of lube from the table. I hadn’t seen him put them there, but I must have been too distracted to notice. He tore open the condom packet and rolled the rubber onto my dick, taking the opportunity to stroke me just enough for me to protest.
“Please, Sasha. I’m gonna come.”
After removing his hand, he opened the lube and lifted one foot to rest it on the chair between my thighs. Wide eyed, I watched as he coated his fingers and prepared himself, thrusting two digits into his body, so close to me that I could hear the wet sound above the music. His dick twitched inside the jock and I longed to take it out, but he was in charge and I sat still, whimpering in anticipation.
“I know you were being careful of my ribs, but I’ve been desperate for this. I need you in me.” Sasha put his foot down, straddled me again, and grasped my erection to guide me. His thighs quivered as his body opened up to take me in, and I reached for him at last, gripping his hips to support him as he carefully lowered himself.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“I’ve been….” He lifted himself and plunged down again. “…using a toy the last few days. So I’d be ready. I was… planning this.” Gripping the back of the chair with one hand, he arched his back, driving my dick deeper into his body.
“Oh God. You’ve no idea how hot that is.” Immediately I pictured him in our bed, jerking off and thrusting a dildo into his ass. I’d have to ask him to demonstrate for me some time. Sliding one arm around his waist, I supported him as he rode me, and slid the other hand between us to stroke him through the silky fabric of the jock. He moaned, throwing his head back, and I eyed the pale column of his throat, just out of reach of my mouth. I tugged him closer, enough that I could press my lips to his neck and taste the salt of his sweat.
The tight squeeze of Sasha’s body around my cock drove me far too rapidly to orgasm. I’d already been close from the torment of watching him gyrate in front of me, his dick tantalizingly covered and untouchable. I slid my thumb inside the tiny garment and found hard, wet flesh.
“Oh! Fuck!” He clenched more and held still, thighs quivering as he came in long spurts, soaking the jock and coating my thumb.
“Right with you.” I let out a deep groan as I pulsed inside him, my dick gripped tight in his clenching channel. Sasha didn’t move, resting against me until I softened and slipped from his body. When he reluctantly rose to his feet and removed the jock, he grimaced at the sticky mess inside. I removed the condom and hauled myself up onto shaky legs to get rid of it. My dick dangled from the front of my jeans and I quickly tucked it away. Finally I reached for Sasha again and drew him into my arms.
“Did you like it?” He grinned and kissed my neck.
“Are you kidding? That was the hottest thing anyone’s ever done for me.” I cupped his cheek and guided his mouth to mine. Throughout his dance and our fucking, we hadn’t kissed, and I wanted that intimacy. Our lips clung, gentle and caressing now the passion was spent. “I love you, Sasha.” I whispered the words against his mouth, barely giving him the time to return them before I kissed him again. I eventually drew away with great reluctance. “I think we need a shower.”
Sasha laughed and turned away to lead me upstairs. As I followed, my eyes level with his ass, my spent cock twitched and began to come to life again. Usually it took much longer to recover, but I’d waited so long to be inside him it seemed I wasn’t yet done.
“How’s your leg?” Sasha turned the shower on and set the water to its hottest setting.
“What leg?” I grinned at him and joined him under the scalding spray. “It’s fine. That hot bath was a great idea.” I tugged him against me and closed my eyes. Hot water rained down on my head and my back, and Sasha’s body molded to mine. My dick swelled more, nudging his erection, and I shifted my lower body to let our shafts rise between our stomachs and press together. For several minutes we just stood there, enjoying the heat of the shower and the slow burn of arousal, our hearts thumping steadily in time.
For me, this was a dream come true. My life had changed drastically over the past few weeks, and I’d never imagined I’d leave Červenà and return to England. But what I had now was so much better. My businesses had been my life for ten years, but being truly in love and having this beautiful man in my arms made me realize how much I’d been missing out on. The Red Bar would be important and I’d make it something to be proud of, but Sasha would always come first.
Epilogue
New Year’s Eve
“ARE YOU ready?” I leaned across the bar toward Sasha, and he glanced at me as he passed two evil-looking green cocktails to a man in a painted-on silver shirt.
“Is it that time already?” Sasha glanced at the watch I’d bought him for Christmas. I nodded and turned to look around the packed bar. Opening night was going better than I’d hoped. Writhing dancers filled the floor, the crowd around the bar was three bodies deep, and the balcony seating area had been filled since ten o’clock.
It had been a close thing as to whether the Red Bar would open on time. The planning permission came through reasonably quickly, but the renovations had taken months. Full rewiring, installation of new water pipes and heating, stripping out of the floors and all the other woodwork, installation of new bathrooms, minor building works and roofing, new windows and doors, and on and on. Several times, a building inspector visited in order to approve what had been done. When the decorators came in on December 12, I’d feared I’d have to withdraw the advertisement for a New Year’s Eve opening and put it back maybe as much as a month.
I’d spent a lot of my time going through job application forms and interviewing bar staff, DJs, and security guys and had a full team lined up to start on the day. If opening had to be put back, I’d have let all of them down as well as the patrons. Andy and Tom had dropped in a couple of times during the past few weeks and announced they’d be attending with several of their friends.
But eventually it had all come together. The decorators had finished on Christmas Eve, stock deliveries were on time, and the sign went up on the front of the building the day after Boxing Day, even though it was a Sunday. The red lighting made the sign glow out of the dark at night, and when Sasha and I had arrived at six o’clock, far too early but too full of anticipation and anxiety to wait any longer, we’d turned on the sign and then gone to stand on the other side of the street and just stare at it for a few minutes. I felt the same pride I’d felt when Červenà opened. The Red Bar was much smaller—a cocktail club for a gay clientele, with a small dance floor—but it meant just as much. More in fact, because this time I was doing it with my lover.
Sasha was in his element as a bar manager. Despite having no experience leading others, he took to it easily, and the three barmen seemed to get along well with him. I loved seeing him happy, and the fact that he was now in regular contact with Elena only added to his joy in his new life. Elena was still very young, but several times she’d told Sasha that the minute she was sixteen, she was coming to visit. If that day came, Sasha intended to return to Russia so he could travel with her by plane, rather than let her come alone on several very long and lonely train journeys.
We’d both been in touch with Tomáš and Gabriel and the others too, and they were all happy with Vincenc and his manager running the show. Tomáš had moved out of the studio and lived with his boyfriend, Boris, although he still danced at the club. Boris had promised to bring him to England for a visit in the new year.
The music stopped and Davo the DJ told everyone they had one minute to grab their drinks and a hot man before the countdown began. Sasha served up another round of drinks and then slipped out from behind the bar to join me. Sliding my arm around his waist, I pulled him close and we waited in the sudden hush, the silence broken only by people shuffling around. Davo began his countdown and many of the clubbers chanted along with him.
“This is a bit different from last year,” I mused.
“Last year was horrible. You had so much heartbreak. And everything that came after that… I thought we’d lose each other.”
“I did too.” An image of Sasha lying bruised and bloody on the bed at Vincenc’s house popped into my head, and I banished it quickly. I didn’t want to think about that again. Piotr Kowalski had been locked away for a very long time and a call from Vincenc told me the man’s “gang” had fallen apart and vanished. “That’s never going to happen now.”
Sasha’s eyes sparkled as he met my gaze. “Love you.”
“Two…,” everyone shouted.
“I love you too, babe.” My words were drowned by the volume of noise as people began to yell happy New Year, and fireworks screeched outside, but I knew Sasha heard me. He leaned in closer and brought our lips together, sealing the end of our first year together, and the start of the rest of our lives.
Mовilism =)