Identity Check

Chapter 11

They didn't bother with coffee. They didn't even turn on any lights, until they reached the bedroom, where David turned on a lamp over the bed, bathing it in a inviting, warm light. He turned the bedclothes down and came back to Patrick.

"Those clothes are far too good to rip off and dump on the floor, so you just be patient, sweet thing."

He started to undress Patrick, ignoring any pleas to hurry up. When Patrick tried to undress him in return he pushed the eager hands away and said, "patience". He took the coat, the jacket, the shirt, the trousers and hung them in the wardrobe one by one, even closing the wardrobe door between each trip. While he hung up the trousers, Patrick got out of his briefs, tossing them to join his already discarded socks on the floor.

Naked, his hair falling forward over his face, breathing fast, Patrick felt like a savage beside the fully clothed David. David even still had his coat on. He walked slowly back over to Patrick.

"I feel very overdressed now," he said. "Maybe you can take care of that."

"You're driving me crazy here! You know that?"

"I have some notion." He glanced down at Patrick's erection. "So the sooner you stop talking and start unbuttoning, the better for both of us."

Patrick growled in frustration, the game both arousing him and driving him as crazy as he said. He followed David's example, undressing him, hanging up the clothes a piece at a time and finally turning from hanging up the shirt to see David on the bed. Patrick pounced on him, making David laugh and wrestle Patrick onto his back, arms held down at the wrist. Patrick struggled, not to escape, but egging David on, pressing against him.

"Slow down, sweet thing," David said. "We have all night. Now, I know you're young and on a hair trigger..."

Patrick flushed. Oh God, he's noticed that I come too fast. I'm fucking useless in bed.

"But I can make you last. I've learnt a few things over the years."

Simon had been able to do the same. When Patrick's own efforts to delay orgasm failed, Simon's technique took over and made their lovemaking last long enough that Patrick was often exhausted by the time it was over.

"Just put yourself in my hands," David said. He grinned. "In every sense. I know what I'm doing."

"Yes," Patrick said. "Whatever you want." And whatever it took to make him stop talking and get on with it.

David took control.

*

In the morning, after a night with very little sleep, they shared a shower and stayed in there for a long, long time. But it was Saturday and David had constant hot water. Why hurry?

Eventually, Patrick had to leave though. He couldn't expect David to make him lunch too. Despite an offer to drive him home, he insisted he was fine to get he Metro and headed out in his suit and winter coat.

He needed the walk and the fresh air to think this over. Last night had been more than sex. For the first time since Simon he'd felt like he was making love, not just having sex. Did that mean he loved David? He'd only known him a few days, but did that matter?

And what about Simon? Could he fall in love with someone else, while still in love with him? Was Patrick in love with him? Had he ever been, or had his head been turned by the attentions of a sophisticated older man?

Screw Simon! Where was he anyway? Had Simon broken up with Patrick by simply not calling him? The 'no contact' break up - the action of a coward and a bastard. Who could love a man like that? But he couldn't be sure, not until he could talk to Simon again and resolve this. Until then he couldn't be sure how he felt about either Simon or David.

He took out his phone and slid it open, checking the messages. None from Simon of course. A few of the usual, some from Phil, some from Colin, one from Nick.

U going to be home for lunch? Nick's message asked. Patrick sent a Yes, on way back and closed the phone again.

So much unresolved, he thought as he walked down the steps into the Metro station and bought a ticket. Even this little yellow ticket symbolised how unresolved everything was. Phil kept telling him to get a pass and he knew he should. But doing that would feel like making a decision that this was his life now, and he didn't know for sure if that was true. So much left to figure out. His family, his education just for starters. Both of them were just as unresolved as the situation with Simon. So many loose ends.

When he reached home he found only Nick there, Colin out with a girl for the day. That made him smile, glad to spend some time with Nick. Colin was great, a good friend now. But Nick was blood.

They laughed and bantered as they had lunch, then took mugs of tea and a packet of Jaffa Cakes into the living room to settle down with a couple of DVDs for the afternoon. The simple pleasures of that easily rivalled those of the French restaurant from last night.

"So, how was the date?" Nick asked as he cued the DVD up and sat on the couch beside Patrick.

"Oh, um, good." Did Nick really want to know this? Well maybe just about the restaurant. "Really nice place. Great food."

"Expensive?"

"Very! It was sort of weird in some ways. I felt like... I don't know, like I was the girlfriend."

Nick laughed at that. "Heck, if I could find someone to take me to fancy places, I'd be happy to be the girlfriend."

"And it was sort of funny too. He thought I was a country bumpkin, with being from the village and all that."

Nick chuckled. "And then you showed up in that suit and that coat."

"Yeah," Patrick said, laughing in return. "They made quite an impression. Anyway, he apologised about it, about assuming things."

"I like people who apologise. Shows character, my dad would say. So you're going to be seeing him again?"

"Definitely! A lot if I have my way." He grinned sheepishly at his over enthusiastic tone.

"Oh yes?" Nick looked up at him, interested. "Getting serious?"

"Maybe. I hope. He's... I like him."

"That's good," Nick said, smiling. "You're kind of a romantic fool, Stretch, so don't go getting in too deep right away, but if you decide he's worth it, then you go for it and good luck."

"There is still... well, Simon."

"Screw Simon."

"Nick! Look, I know, it's probably over with him, but... I have to be sure."

"Okay, I'm sorry. I know he's important to you. But he's treated you badly, leaving you hanging and I don't think you owe him anything. You deserve better."

"Do I?"

"Why not?"

Patrick shrugged and sipped his tea. Maybe Nick was right.

Screw Simon.

*

A week later, David's Porsche stopped outside Patrick's house. After another long night together, Friday into Saturday, Patrick had said yes to a lift home.

"I've got tickets for a concert tomorrow night," David said. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Yes."

"I haven't even told you who's playing."

Patrick laughed and put his hand on David's knee. "Who cares?"

David chuckled at that and leaned over to kiss him. It startled Patrick, who darted glances around, fearing they'd be seen.

"Um..." he said, breaking away from the kiss quicker than he wanted to, but still self-conscious. "Do you want to come in for a minute. Let me make you a coffee."

"That'd be great," David said. "Maybe you can show me your bedroom?" He winked and Patrick blushed. Nick and Colin might be home and he couldn't imagine doing it with them in the house.

As he expected, they found Nick and Colin and, more unexpected, Russ, in the living room with textbooks stacked high and notes spread far and wide.

"Oh, sorry to interrupt," Patrick said. "Guys, this is David King."

That piqued their interest and they all exchanged handshakes and hellos and cast keen looks at him.

"Good to meet you all," David said. "Patrick never stops talking about you two," he nodded to Nick and Colin. "Sounds like you guys have some fun here."

"I'm going to make coffee," Patrick said. "I'll bet you lot could do with a refill. Come and see the kitchen, David."

He took David out there and started preparing the coffee machine. David strolled around, checking the kitchen out and then brought over some clean mugs for them all.

"It's nice to meet the guys," David said. "So that's the same Russ you've been hanging out with down the Triangle?"

"That's right. Him and his friends."

David stepped closer, backing Patrick back right up against the kitchen counter. He put a hand on the counter on either side of Patrick, enclosing him, before leaning in for a kiss. Patrick flickered a glance at the door and hoped to God Nick or Colin didn't come out to see them snogging. But the kiss was soft and sweet and he couldn't help but close his eyes and enjoy the gentle touch, and the contrast with the way David had him trapped up against the counter.

In a few moments David broke the kiss. Reluctant, not wanting it to be over, Patrick opened his eyes to look into David's smiling face.

"Has he had you?" David said.

"What?" Patrick said.

"Russ. Has he fucked you?" David stroked a strand of Patrick's hair, then trailed a hand down Patrick's arm, raised goosebumps when his fingers touched skin.

"Er, yeah, um a couple of times," Patrick admitted, though that understated the case. "But it's just a casual -"

"He's pretty hot, isn't he?"

"Well, yes... I think so, but I don't -"

"I'd hate to think he was my rival."

"Oh, he's not! Definitely not."

"That's good to hear." David leaned in to kiss him again.

David didn't want to share him. Wow. That made Patrick thrill all over, that confirmation of the strength of David's feelings for him. He slid his arms around David's waist and rubbed them over his muscular back, making David sigh and deepen the kiss.

"What about that tour you mentioned?" David said softly. He reached between Patrick's legs and caressed his hardening cock. "Feels like you're eager to give it to me."

Patrick was very eager, but the sound of a door opening poured a bucket of cold water down his spine and David stepped away. Nobody came into the kitchen, but they heard footsteps going up the stairs.

"Um, in a minute," Patrick said. "Right... where was I? Oh, yes, the coffee." He tried to regain enough control to be business-like again. "Can you grab a tray please, from over there?"

They prepared the tray with mugs and spoons, milk and sugar and Patrick took the now full carafe from the coffee machine and placed it on the tray. He went to pick the tray up, but David's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Let me," he said, and Patrick stepped aside and let him pick it up.

Back in the living room, Patrick poured the coffees and handed them around. David took the only free armchair, so Patrick sat on the arm of that chair.

"So what year are you guys in?" David asked the students.

"Second," Colin said.

"Any thoughts on specialisms yet?"

"Endocrinology," Russ said at once. Did he smirk a tiny bit there, Patrick thought, when David just looked at him blankly? "It's the study of hormones. Insulin is my main interest. Diabetes."

"Ah, of course," David said, nodding. "That's definitely going to be where the money is, right?"

"It is going to be one of the major health issues of the coming decades, yes." Russ's voice dropped to a temperature a little above absolute zero.

"I meant grant money, research funds," David said.

"Oh, of course." Russ gave a rather curt nod. Patrick frowned at him. What the hell was his problem?

"What about you two?" David asked Nick and Colin.

"I'm still thinking of going into general practice," Nick said.

"Your parents have a practice, don't they?" David asked. "Patrick told me. So I suppose you have a guaranteed job there. Sensible plan. Colin?"

Colin and Nick exchanged a glance. Russ meanwhile wore a dark look, directed right at David. Was he jealous? But that's nuts, Patrick thought. He's not my boyfriend, he never wanted to be.

"I'm keeping my options open right now," Colin said. "Maybe tropical medicine. I like to travel, so I want to work abroad after I qualify."

"Right. Like on a cruise ship?" David said. His free hand slid around Patrick's waist, making him jump and blush. Wait, Patrick thought, not in front of the straights. "Or maybe those foreign worker compounds in Saudi or Dubai?"

"Well, yeah," Colin said, sounding doubtful. "Those are options. Though I was thinking more of working for an aid agency or an NGO."

"Not going to pay off your student loans very fast that way."

"You know," Russ said in a quiet voice, "people have been know to practice medicine for reasons other than making money."

Patrick jumped to his feet. "Come on, David, I promised you a tour, let's go."

David rose, holding Russ's gaze before turning away to smile at Patrick. "Okay, sweet thing, show me around."

Patrick felt sure Colin giggled at 'sweet thing' and he blushed furiously. Christ, not in front of the straights! He hurried David out of there and closed the door behind them.

Patrick's bedroom still felt oddly impersonal, he realised, when he led David in there. He hadn't decorated it with much to make it his space, leaving it more like a hotel room than anything. As if he wasn't staying for long.

"Nice," David said, in a not entirely convincing tone.

"Oh, it's just a place to sleep and change clothes. Other that that, I'm never in it!"

David sat on the bed, bouncing a couple of times, like a potential purchaser in a furniture shop testing the springs.

"Good mattress. Shame it's only a single," he said, giving Patrick a wicked grin. "Though I'm sure you manage."

"Have done so far," Patrick said, coming over and standing beside him. David took his hands and gazed up at him.

"You are so gorgeous," he said, softly. "And I see where you get that from." He looked at the framed photograph on the nightstand, of Patrick and his father. "I'm assuming that's your dad?"

"Yes it is." Patrick sat beside him and picked up the picture. "I just wish... you know, that I could talk to him, about everything. All this stuff I'm going through." David put an arm around Patrick and held him close. "I just want to know what he'd have thought of me, of who I've become." He stopped talking, voice choking off. David kissed him softly on the temple.

"He'd have been proud of you, Patrick. You're magnificent."

Patrick laughed. "Not sure that's the word I'd apply to myself."

"I'd apply it. When you arrived at the restaurant the other night, I thought that I had to be dreaming, you looked so incredible. And then when we left and you put the coat on too, I thought that if it was a dream I never wanted to wake up."

"God, David, you certainly know how to flatter a guy."

"Not flattery, sweet thing, just facts."

Patrick saw the sincerity in his eyes. Not just a line. David meant what he said. He leaned in, closing his eyes and their lips met. Passionate, intense, yet no more than a kiss. Neither made a move to take it further. A kiss for its own sake. Patrick didn't do that often. Usually a kiss was just a prelude, foreplay. But with David it could be something to savour just by itself.

They parted, both breathing fast, cheeks flushed, but still looking for no more than a kiss.

"Patrick, I want to keep seeing you," David said. He stroked Patrick's hair. "I don't want this to be only a fling. You're something special and I want to try to make what we have together something special too. Is that what you want?"

"Oh, God, yes."

He longed for those feelings again. The feelings he'd shared with Simon. The men since then had been so casual. Nothing but lust driving him to them. But to feel like this every day, every hour of the day. That's what he wanted. That's what he should want. Love. He didn't dare say the word, fearing he'd frighten David off by moving too fast. But that's what this could grow into.

"Yes, David, it's exactly what I want."

"Fantastic." David moved closer, and they kissed again, ended up lying on the bed, though still neither made a sexual move. Patrick would let him, he decided, if David tried. He didn't care that the door wasn't locked, or that the others were downstairs and would hear the bed squeak, or hear them cry out.

But David didn't try. They lay wrapped in each others arms and just kissed. Something special, Patrick thought. Something beyond lust.

"Patrick," David said, after a moment, or perhaps an hour. Who could tell? "It may be selfish, but I don't want to share you. Not if we're going to be a real couple."

"You mean, be exclusive?" Patrick said, amazed.

"If that's what you kids are calling it," David said, with a quirky smile. "I know, most gay guys seem to believe in this open relationship thing, but I'm afraid I don't. Maybe that makes me old fashioned, but it's who I am."

Patrick leaned up on one elbow. "It's who I am too. I think you're right. How can it be a real relationship if it isn't just the two of you?" Did that make him a hypocrite. After all, this was cheating on Simon, wasn't it? Screw Simon. Simon wasn't here. "Yes," he said, firmly, as much to himself as David. "I want to be exclusive. I want us to be a real couple and see where this can go."

"That's fantastic," David said, and pulled Patrick down to kiss him again. And now, at last, Patrick made the move. He began to undo the buttons of David's shirt and work his way slowly down the exposed skin. David sighed and moaned softly and by the time Patrick got there, David's trousers were stretched tight over his erection.

Patrick slid a condom from his back pocket and unzipped David's trousers. He pulled them and the briefs down just enough to give him access to David's erection. David was more than ready, giving soft moans, his desire clear in them, his hips moving on the bed.

When Patrick's mouth slid down over David's sheathed cock he thought for a second that David would come right away, but he regained control and lay with his head back, hands gripping the headboard as Patrick pleasured him.

Slowly, Patrick thought. No need to rush. We have all the time in the world here. All the time in the world.