Chapter 4: Between the Sheets

Kris stood in his room and looked around. The summer sun had gilded his red hair and turned his skin a deep shade of tiger brown. He dragged a hand through his hair, then let his fingers wander along the soft trail of copper that thickened down past his half moon of a navel. He had woken up with a hard on, but after massaging himself for a few moments had lost interest and got up. He hadn't slept too well, tossing and turning and getting trussed up in the sheets. The summer was fading fast and the window was grey and spattered with rain. His eyes were of a colder hue this morning, his bad mood brought in by the oppressive grey. Kris always flourished best in summer. It wasn't over yet, he told himself, not yet.

"I have one more thing to do, before the summer ends."

Kris began to get dressed, unconsciously sexy as he slid himself into tight black jeans and a girl's top, black and red with slashed sleeves. He padded around his room in socked feet, placing the last bits of his life away in the dark. His book, a cushion, the evil eye that hung on his wall. They all went in the last box. Kris sat down heavily on one that contained all his books and looked around at his bare room. Surely everyone felt nervous when they left home for the first time. Sure he was worried, but not half as bad as he had been when he had brought Erasmus home for the first time to meet his parents.

They'd spent a lazy afternoon lying on the sofa in the summer sunlight, Erasmus reading. Kris just lay and watched him. His Lion had been so splendid, the curve of his shoulder, the little lines around his eyes as he smiled unconsciously. That tiny frown that Kris had longed to kiss away. He'd nestled himself against the big man and Erasmus had stroked him like a cat, murmuring to him with a wordless hum that sent beautiful chills through Kris's lithe body.

When they'd arrived at Kris's house he was a nervous wreck. Erasmus was flawless. He greeted Kris's parents perfectly, his suit was smart but he was casual in it. Kris had fiddled with his food while his father had asked about Erasmus's work. They'd assumed him the son of Sarano, not the actual man. Lion didn't mind, he smiled charmingly, he got that all the time. Kris hadn't trusted himself to say much, too scared of saying something terribly incriminating. His parents knew he liked men, but he'd never brought a boyfriend home before. He'd never really had a boyfriend before. The realisation made him well up inside. His mother had wanted to know what was wrong, was he ill? Kris just shook his head, trying to covertly wipe the tears from his eyes. It would be wrong to say that Kris's parents had been happy about letting him bring an older man around. They thought him vulnerable and innocent, they being oblivious to his former career. Poor things, Kris thought, they don't realise I've gone ahead and grown up without asking permission first. It had been hard to say goodbye that night, on the doorstep, allowing himself a single chaste kiss, when all he wanted was to be absorbed by the man he loved. He had lain awake, staring at the ceiling, saved from tears by Lion, ringing him from his apartment, lying awake too. They conducted their conversation in soft urgent whispers, fingers wandering.

And now he was leaving.

He'd quit the street life, though sometimes old clients still waylaid him on the street. He shrugged them off, though to some he was downright rude. He had the rumours circled that Chilito was no longer on the market, for anything. His rent friends teased him for getting a sugar daddy, but Darren praised him for getting out of the game. Get out alive, he'd said, that's the trick to it. Go on, enjoy your pretty man.

He's not a man, Kris had said, smiling, kissing Darren's cheek, he's a Lion.

Erasmus had practically begged him to come and work for him and Bishop.

"I'll never fit," was his answer, trying to pry those strong arms from around his waist, "What with the two of your and three clerks, I'll have to sit on Paul's lap," he paused and smiled, "That's actually quite tempting idea." Taking the lax in Erasmus's guard, Kris escaped him laughing on his way down to the kitchen for coffee.

Nothing paid as high as renting, but nothing else came with the cost of losing both dignity and boyfriend. It wasn't a hard decision. Kris had saved up a fair bit over the years. And it was terribly easy to get a new job. Well known for his public speaking it was a breeze to get a job as a clerk and archivist in the low courts, Kris breezed the interview. Nine to five, five days a week in a suit with a selection of wonderful shirts and ties.

By evening he met Lion for dinner, or at the Club. Erasmus had bought his lover unending membership to the Circle Azure and he and his tiny swimming trunks were very popular. There were friends to be made, and more old clients to be run into. Kris loved the showers, standing with his eyes closed under a jet of steaming water, knowing that the rest of the clientele were scouring his naked body with their eyes. There were always a few hard-on's in the showers and a few times people had come along who offered to take his away from him. Tempting, but Erasmus's sweat and swim coated body was far more so and Kris had found he liked nothing better than to sit back on a wooden bench in his under wear and watch the other man soap himself down and eventually get dressed. Some nights, he went out without his lover, back to old haunts to greet old friends, or with Darren for coffee.

So why with everything going so well was Kris so terribly uncertain today? He' made the decision with fervour enough, he had thought, to last through until he was settled. Lion was happy, and his parents were OK about it. Why was he worried? Kris put it down to nerves and did what he always did when he was nervous. He re-made himself.

He searched through his boxes for his clothes and make up bag. He stripped off completely and then laid out his clothes before getting dressed again. Girl's under wear, tasteful blue velvet with a tiny sliver of black lace at the edge. Low cut silver jeans that seemed to have been painted onto his skin, flaring out at the bottoms and studded with gold and silver rhinestones. Tight metallic blue mesh top with long fitted sleeves and a loose straight cut black short sleeve over the top of that. He left it open at the front. He slid several silver bangles over one narrow wrist and painted his nails shiny blue. Blood red boots with an inch platform and a slight heel, nothing too drastic. He spiked silver into the front of his hair, combing it back at one side. Slick black kohl and then silver and blue glittering eye make up. He dashed his lips with silver and then speckled glitter onto his cheekbones. He looked like he did when he went clubbing, and he loved it. Flamboyant and beautiful. He felt desired, hugged by his clothes and showed off by them, the tempting shadows in his navel, his nipples dark against the ultra fine mesh. Now he was ready, now he could face the idea of moving out.