Chapter 14

The days were unusually quiet with Karl off his back seemingly forever and Mouse away hunting. At first, Francesco had been wary of his ex-bed partner if he could call the fucker that, but day after day he relaxed. Except for that strange evening when Karl had watched him and Mouse, nothing betrayed that the blond was still in the slightest interested in him. Francesco began to wonder whether he hadn’t imagined the whole thing; maybe he had been so marked by that asshole that he had had an illusion or something like that.

On the contrary, Karl seemed to go out of his way to interact as little as possible with him. Leon didn’t behave differently towards any of them, so the blond was still the de facto leader. In that quality, he was entitled to order Francesco around, but he did so in an impersonal way, while looking any other way but at him.

He had been worried about that, initially. Maybe Karl was like a poisonous snake, lying in wait, ready to strike, and lulling him into a false sense of security. But it looked like his ex whatever they had been didn’t care about pestering him again.

The most surprising part of all was that Francesco felt a bit empty once the realization that Karl no longer cared for his ass hit him. Was he alright in the head to even consider a thing like that? What? Did he like to get pushed around and messed up with so much? He hated himself whenever he thought of that.

Mouse was amazing. They fucked every night, and Francesco was discovering that there were many ways to give and receive head, among many other wonderful things. So, all in all, he should have been fucking pleased with how things were. Only there was that tiny part of him, stupid and a sucker to get punished or whatever that longed for something he didn’t even care to put his finger on.

In other words, he missed having a fat cock up his ass. Leon’s was out of the question; that had been a one time thing, and Francesco didn’t ever dare to attempt something in that direction. Ollie and his boyfriend were in love, and the chances of threesomes or foursomes were slim as fuck.

So, he missed getting fucked, not by Karl in particular, he tried to tell himself, because he hated the fucker, but in general because he was just a slut gagging for a cock pounding his ass into the next day. That was his dirty little secret and didn’t care to share it with anyone, not even Karl.

“Got those done already?” A gruff voice woke him up from his thoughts as he absent-mindedly polished a small spear meant for either defense or hunting.

He raised his eyes to meet Karl’s intense stare, expecting the other to move his eyes away and leave as fast as his feet could take him. That didn’t happen and Karl just stood there, his eyes set hard on him, scanning him like he was some fucking detection device. If he could discover a need for cock in Francesco, he deserved a special prize.

“Almost,” he replied after a while.

He couldn’t read that gaze. It wasn’t like before when it was clear that Karl wanted him, or even after when the blue eyes had stared at him with bloodlust and anger in them.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he said, unnerved by whatever was going on there.

“Like what?” The other boy’s voice was harsh and showed to anyone interested that he had no lost love for Francesco.

“Like you can’t decide if you want to fuck me or fight me,” he said after a bit.

There was a flash of anger in Karl’s eyes, but it died quickly. So fighting was, after all, what the fucker was after. It was better to know than not know. And if Karl brought it up, he was game, because that little dance they were doing was getting tiresome.

“Just do your job, Francesco. I don’t want nothing to do with you.”

Karl had taken to addressing him by his actual name and stressing it like some important detail. It was maybe his way of letting him know that they were through, indeed. And Francesco was pretty damn fine with it all, only that he wasn’t, not for good. Maybe they needed to fight already and get it out of his system.

“Then why are you still standing there?” he asked as he returned to his job at hand. “I’ll do my part, don’t worry. But if you want to fight me, just fucking do it already. Stop driving me nuts.”

To his surprise, Karl chuckled. There was something in that sound that reminded Francesco of that day when he and Mouse had been caught together by the asshole. He had come loads that time, even if he hated Karl. When he wanted, the fucker could fuck well. With proper education, maybe he wasn’t half-bad. He shook his head and wondered for the umpteenth time whether he was starting to lose his mind lately. In that heat, in their situation, maybe it wasn’t that farfetched to believe it.

“You’re no match for me, skinny,” Karl taunted him. “I’d be through with you in five seconds. What would be the satisfaction?”

Francesco felt the back of his neck getting hot. “I don’t know. You’d finally get over it.”

“It?”

“It, me, whatever. I don’t read minds.”

“You have too much of a vivid imagination, Cesco.” Karl’s voice warmed, and Francesco looked up at the mentioning of that nickname he hated. “I told you. We’re done.”

“Good. A reminder is nice. Make sure to tell it to yourself when you jerk off thinking of me.”

He knew he had said a stupid thing because the next moment, Karl was by his side, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him to his feet. He braced for a punch, cursing his big mouth. But Karl did nothing like that. He just kept him close and breathed on his face, while his eyes burned. For a moment, he expected Karl to do something idiotic like kiss him, but he was just pushed back.