Free Chalk Butterfly: Part One (First Time Erotic Romance) by Audra Red Page B

could hear him walking, shoes against hard wood.
     
    “Alexander,” Daniel said. “Do I make you
nervous?”
     
    “No, of course you don’t,” Alexander
responded immediately. “I just don’t know you all that well.”
     
    “I can almost hear you squirming.”
     
    Alexander squirmed.
     
    “I’m… not the best on the phone,” Alexander
explained. ‘And you scare the living fuck out of me. Nervous
doesn’t begin to cover it,’ he thought, frowning hard. “I like to
look at someone when I’m talking to them, and I’m worried I’ll run
out things to say by Friday… fuck, Friday’s tomorrow?”
     
    “Well, generally, yes,” Daniel said. He
couldn’t keep the gravelly texture from his voice. “If you do run
out of things to say, then we’ll just have to look at each
other.”
     
    “Oh….” Alexander gulped, his breath hitching
audibly.
     
    “Don’t worry,” Daniel said, holding back a
small laugh. “We haven’t even gotten into my loveless marriage yet—
there will be loads to talk about.”
     
    “Oh, okay,” Alexander replied. “Marriage? I
thought…”
     
    “Alexander,” Daniel laughed.
“Alexander.”
     
    “Daniel,” Alexander countered.
     
    “No loveless marriage, I promise,” Daniel
said, laughter bordering on a giggle. “I think I’ll let you go now,
let you rest up for the torment that will be a few straight hours
with me tomorrow evening. Straight? What am I saying…”
     
    Alexander laughed without thought, felt the
chuckle rumble low and warm in his belly. “All right,” he said, a
slight smile sneaking across his lips. “I… look forward to it.”
     
    And it only bothered Alexander because it
was the truth.
     
    “Masochist,” Daniel huffed, and Alexander
smiled wider.
     
    “You keep saying that, maybe it’s true.”
     
    “I’ll pick you up at six,” Daniel said,
jotting down the address Alexander gave. Daniel made a noise of
satisfaction as he finished scrawling down the address, and then
murmured lowly, “Sweet dreams, Alexander.”
     
    Alexander scooted down deeper into the couch
cushions. “Thank you too. I mean, thank you and you too.”
Alexander’s faced heated up for the thousandth time that night, but
he didn’t mind, and Daniel hummed affectionately in response.
“Goodnight.”
     
    “Goodnight.”
     
    Alexander clicked off the phone and closed
his eyes, his body going slack. “Oh, please don’t be a fool
tomorrow. This could be so good for me… if I let it.”
     
    His eyes slipped open and he stared down at
his hands folded across his belly. A sudden bolt of frustration
seared through his pleasant mood and he felt like curling up into a
ball.
     
    “I…just…”
     
    He squeezed his hands together hard, wincing
against the pain, head jerking back. His jaw clenched tight, but he
did not cry out.
     
     
    Chapter
Five
    back to top
     
    “But you’ve got to promise not to tell
Elizabeth,” Alexander said, as Elijah tugged him back behind a
large shelf of books. “And I mean really this time, unlike last
time when I was just saying it for my health.”
     
    Elijah rolled his eyes. “I promise.”
     
    “I don’t believe you,” Alexander said.
     
    “If you don’t tell me right now I’m going to
burst,” Elijah exclaimed, a little too loudly for Alexander’s
taste.
     
    “Hush,” Alexander hissed. Sometimes he
couldn’t believe Elijah ran the entire library, as childish as he
often acted. Though Alexander had to admit, that’s why he loved his
friend so much, his unique ability to never take anything too
seriously.
     
    “Alexander, I demand you tell me, or you’re
fired,” Elijah tried, raising an eyebrow. Alexander just scoffed.
“No good? Well, how about I lay the guilt trip on you?”
     
    “Elijah,” Alexander sighed.
     
    “Seriously, I can’t believe that you don’t
think you can confide in me. It really hurts, Alex. We’ve been best
friends for four years, and I always thought you could tell