12 Days

"And trying your damndest not to have to say it too often." I laughed.

"I agree."

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm walking through your house. Do you mind?"

"Not at all. I just wish I was there with you."

"You will be soon."

"Yeah. I'm passing Harriman so I'll be there in about 45 minutes."

"Oh my God." I said.

"What?! I'm not speeding, I told you."

"No. You have a picture of us." It was a picture of the two of us taken at least four years ago. It must have been taken-

"It's from the day we met. At Drew's party."

"You kept it?" I asked, picking up the frame and seeing the frayed edges of the picture. It had creases like it had been folded and opened many times before being kept in a pocket or wallet.

"Of course I did. I had a few exes that didn't like it but I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. Tried to tell myself that we could never be, but somehow I never believed it."

"Jesus, Charlie." I sighed. "What the fuck took you so long to come back to me?"

"I don't know. I wanted to. I tried calling you so many times. I did call a few times. You would pick up and I would hear your voice and then lose my nerve."

I walked through his house as we spoke on the phone and finally made my way into his bedroom. I laid down on his bed and smiled as I listened to his voice. My heart felt whole and full, near to bursting really. Everything felt right and I was surprised and a little scared at the hope I felt.

"What are you doing now?" He asked.

"I'm laying on your bed."

"Oh yeah?" He said in his bedroom voice. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking about you."

"Are you doing anything naughty?" He chuckled.

"Yeah. I'm playing with my nipples." I said, in my own bedroom voice.

"Oh God."

"Now I'm running my hand over my belly wishing it was your lips."

"It will be. I promise you, it will be."

"I'm unbuttoning my pants and slipping my hand inside my underwear."

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY YOU FUCKING MORON!!!! THE LIGHT'S FUCKING GREEN!!!!" He yelled suddenly and I dropped the phone from my ear. Picking it up, I heard him calling for me.

"Yeah, I'm here. What the fuck was that?"

"Some asshole is driving like two fucking miles an hour and won't move for a fucking green light. He doesn't know that I've got the love of my life finally at home waiting for me and I CAN'T FUCKING GET THERE CAUSE HE'S GOT TO DRIVE LIKE AN ASSHOLE!!!"

"Charlie!!!"

"What?!"

"Calm down. I'm still gonna be here when you get here."

"You promise?" His voice sounded insecure for a moment, like he was afraid that I would change my mind and that this spell would break.

"I promise, Charlie. I will be there for you whenever you need me."

"I'm gonna hold you to that, babe. Forever." He said and I heard the sound of a truck pull up outside. I lifted up off the bed and glanced out the window, seeing him jump out of the truck and run toward the house holding the cell phone to his ear.

"You can, babe. Cause it's true."

I heard the front door open then slam shut and his feet pounded the stairs bringing him closer to me. He stepped into the doorway of his bedroom and stopped taking a moment to stare at me.

"What?" I asked.

"I almost thought you wouldn't be here."

"I told you I was."

"Yeah. Things haven't always gone right for either one of us though."

"That was the past. Let's work on the future." I stood up off the bed and walked to him, drawing him into my arms and meeting his mouth for a hungry kiss.

He laid me back down on the bed and slowly stripped my clothes from my body, taking care of the cast on my arm. As he undressed me, I returned the favor and threw his clothes off to the side of the bed. He laid his naked body on mine and fit us together with our arms wrapped around each other. Our kisses were both fiery, passionate, needful kisses and soft, caresses that spoke of our emotions. I lifted my hand to touch his hair and instead, clunked his temple with my cast.

"Ow! Jesus!"

"Oh, tiger. I'm sorry." I said, laughing. He chuckled, then looked at the cast.

"I didn't mean to hurt you that day. I'm sorry you felt you had to do this."

"I lost it for a bit, but I'm glad it happened. If we had slept together that day I think I would have been able to lie and tell myself that I just needed a good fuck to get you out of my system. I could have made a really huge mistake."

"You don't have any doubts now, do you?"

"No, not anymore." I said, and knew that it was true.

"Good. You'll never have to doubt me again. You'll never have reason not to trust me." He looked down into my eyes.

"I'm not worried. I have faith in you." I said.

"Thank you." He smiled.

"No problem." I grinned. "Now shut the fuck up and kiss me like you mean it!"

Charlie leaned in and took my mouth in a slow, hot, possessive kiss which had me trembling from my head to my feet. He broke from my mouth and kissed his way down to my stomach. I moaned when he took my cock into his mouth and I felt his silky tongue swirl around the head and shaft. Charlie's hand grabbed my balls and stroked and pulled on them until I felt precum leak out of my tip. He moved further down, bathing my ball sack as he went, until he reached my ass. My legs were spread and I closed my eyes as I waited for what I knew was coming. I moaned again when I felt the rough scratch of his five o'clock shadow on the inside of my ass. That combined with the soft, wet lick of tongue, his very talented tongue, made a shiver run down my spine and forced a quiet expletive passed my lips.

"Oh fuck." I whispered.

"In time, baby." He chuckled and turned attention back to my ass.

For five minutes he lavished my hole with tongue, mouth and fingers as I stroked myself spilling precum on my groin and belly. He finally lifted himself up and covered my body with his, bringing his face close to mine.

"Are you ready, Ryan?"

"Oh yeah, Charlie. Fuck me." I demanded.

"The condoms are in that drawer there." He said and nodded toward a bedside table. I got a pack to sheath his large cock and poured a generous amount of lube that I had also found.

He fit the tip on my hole and I felt the pressure grow as my body opened to receive him. Charlie rocked against me, giving and pulling back till I wanted to yell with frustration. I locked my legs around his waist and tried to pull him into me but he held back and chuckled.

"Not yet." He said with a wicked smile. "I want you begging for it."

"God Charlie, I'm begging now! Please fuck me!!"

"I will, baby." He answered and locked his elbows behind my knees, lifting me and leaning in to stare into my eyes. "Soon."

"Now, Charlie. I want you inside me!" I needed him inside me. My whole body was humming and ached for him.

I reached up and played with his nipples and was rewarded when his eyes closed with the pleasure of it. He always had loved nipple play. I tweaked them and pulled gently as he frowned and started bucking harder into me.

"That's not fair, babe." He said and when his eyes opened they were as dark as a stormy sea.

I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down closer. Our foreheads touched and I could smell myself on his face.

"I'm not trying to be fair, Tiger." I whispered. "Now fuck me!!"

He slammed himself into my willing ass and buried his cock to the hilt. We both moaned in a mix of gratification and pain. My body accommodated him quickly but we lay still, wrapped in each other. Charlie lowered his face back to mine and seemed content to just stare into my eyes as I was to stare into his.

"Ryan, I never thought we could get this back. After everything we've been through, I never thought you could come back to me." He said, his eyes a little glassy from unshed tears.

"I'm here, Charlie. And I don't want to think about the bad stuff that we've been through. I want to think about the great stuff we'll do together. The good stuff, the bad stuff, the boring stuff... it's o.k. as long as you're with me."

"I will be, baby. Forever." He kissed me and started moving his cock within me.

I moaned in his mouth as I felt him thrust. The length of his cock sliding in and out from tip to base, giving me pleasure as he took his own. He stroked every part of my body he could reach with his hands as I held his face and nibbled at his jaw and ear lobe. He always loved his ear lobe nipped, sucked, licked and blew into and I treated him to the best of my abilities. I watched as his eyes squeezed shut with the feeling and his mouth drop open as his breaths came short and ragged with the sensation. I licked his ear till it was nice and wet and then blew into it. He moaned loudly and began pounding into me in answer to my efforts.

"Oh God, Ryan. I missed that so much." He said, as his hips continued thrusting at an increasing pace. "I missed you so much!"

"Make love to me, Charlie." I whispered in his ear. "But do it as hard as you can."

I stopped him only long enough to flip around onto my belly and take him back into me. He took me from behind and immediately resumed his rapid fucking. I grabbed the sheets of the bed in my fists as I submitted to him. The strong grip he held on my hips as his own met mine, again and again, would surely leave a bruise in the morning but I couldn't care less. There was nothing but this moment and I intended to live in it with him for as long as I could.

Charlie repositioned himself so he was topping me more completely, with his chest lying on my back, his cock still pounding my ass and his hot breath on my neck. His hands were pulling on my shoulders, keeping me still as he plunged himself into me. I moaned into the bed and moved back to met him in time with his rhythm.

"You like that, baby?" He asked, his mouth inches from my ear. "You like my big cock inside your tight ass?"

"Oh my God, yes! I love your cock in my ass!"

"I'm gonna cum soon, Ryan."

"Me too!"

"I want you to be on top when we do." He said and pulled out of me.

I straddled him as he lay on his back on the bed and felt him slip inside me. The need to cum was so insistent that I rode him as hard as he had fucked me using the headboard from as much leverage as I could take from it. It squeaked and groaned in complaint but I didn't care. I was able to raise almost completely off him and came down with my entire weight.

"Oh Jesus, Ryan! You're so fucking hot! Ride my dick!!"

"I'm going to make you cum, Charlie! I'm almost there!"

"Me too, baby! Make us cum!" He said and sat up to wrap his arms around me.

As Charlie fucked up into me and I rode down on him we found our ecstasy together in a loud coupling. Charlie's cock swelled in my ass as he shot his orgasm into me and I released mine over his stomach, chest and chin as my hole clamped down and spasmed around his dick.

We held each other tightly, waiting as the waves of euphoria washed over us. I had never had such an intense orgasm in my life nor felt as close to anyone, even Charlie himself, as I did at that moment. Generally, when I came my mind shut down experiencing nothing but the sensations in my body. This time I felt not only my own joy but his body, his scent, the sound of his breathing, the feel of his muscles trembling in release.

"I love you, Ryan." He whispered. "I always have and I always will."

"I love YOU, Charlie." I answered. "I always have and I always will."

Christmas

We laid together in his bed, holding each other. Sometimes we slept, sometimes we would just lie there soaking in the feeling of being together again, allowing the peace of the morning heal any lingering wounds we may have had. As the sky began to lighten I stared out the window, holding his hand in my own, feeling his body pressed against my back and smiled.

"You're smiling." He said, which made my smile widen.

"How do you know?"

"Cause I'm smiling." He said, his voice gruff from sleep and emotion.

"Strangely enough, that makes sense."

"Merry Christmas, baby."

"Merry Christmas, Tiger."

"We're going to have to get up eventually." He said and I heard the regret in his voice.

"Not yet." I snuggled back into him, pulled his arm and the covers further up around my shoulders.

"O.k." He chuckled and pulled me tight against him.

When we finally did get up, we spent an enjoyable hour under a stream of hot water washing the night off our bodies. Kissing and stroking each other to another incredible finish before heading downstairs. He made coffee as I sat at the kitchen table in an extra pair of his pajama bottoms and was content to watch him. He looked so beautiful in the morning light.

"What were your plans for the day?" I asked and he looked up and grinned.

"I had no plans for today. If you didn't come back to me when I went up to your house yesterday I was going to come back here and get shit faced and stay that way for the rest of the year so I cleared my schedule."

"Practical." I said and we both laughed.

"We can do whatever you want. We can go to my aunt's house in Ho-ho-kus. We can go to your house, if you want. We can even go to the Berkshires and spend the day with Sarah and Drew." Charlie brought over two cups of steaming coffee and sat next to me, our legs intertwined under the table. "What do you want to do, baby?"

"I was up at Sarah and Drew's yesterday. Drew said something that I thought made a lot of sense and so I came here."

"What did he say?"

"He said there was no where he'd rather be than with someone he loved on Christmas. So I thought who do I want to spend Christmas with and the only person I wanted to spend it with was you."

"Drew's a very wise man. I had the same thought. That's what I was doing at your house." Charlie said and pulled me in for a kiss. "Come on."

"Where we going?"

"To the living room." I followed and he told me sit on the couch.

He went to the tree and grabbed an armful of packages and brought them to me. He had even gotten me a stocking and filled it.

"Charlie, what are you doing?" I asked, though I was scared I knew the answer. The bastard had gotten me Christmas presents and I didn't have anything for him. I felt like an asshole.

"I couldn't help myself. I didn't know how it would happen but I knew you were going to be here for Christmas and if you weren't I'd probably just have mailed them to you."

He sat next to me and handed me a brightly wrapped box.

"I don't have anything for you." I said, miserably.

"Don't worry about that shit. Just open your present." He said like a little kid.

I opened the box and the next and all of the presents he had bought me, feeling more and more uncomfortable. The gifts were great but I felt horrible since I had nothing to give in return. I opened the last box and found a shirt of an incredible blue.

"I had to get you that. It matches your eyes."

"Thank you, Charlie." I said. "Thanks for them all. I love them."

"You haven't gotten the big one yet." He said, with a bright smile.

"Oh Jesus, Charlie. I already feel like a schmuck."

"Why?"

"Cause I didn't get you anything."

"There is something you can give me, Ryan. Something I want really badly." Charlie said, suddenly unsure of himself.

"What do you want?" I asked and he pulled a small box from the stocking.

"All I want, for this Christmas and every other Christmas after, for every birthday and St. Patrick's day and Groundhogs day and Labor day and every day in between, is you." He opened the box to show me the silver claddagh ring laid on black velvet. "Can you do that, Ryan? If not, it's o.k., I'll keep this ring until you can but-."

I stood and walked upstairs.

He didn't follow and simply looked at me, resigned as I came back downstairs dressed. My heart broke as I saw the confusion on his face but also that he thought I had rejected him. I leaned down and kissed his forehead.

"I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be right back."

"I'll come with you." He said.

"Charlie, I'll be right back."

I left and drove to Paramus till I found a jewelry store that, by the grace of God, was open on Christmas. A bit of a contradiction but I wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"I can't believe you're open." I said to the attendant as I walked in. I could tell by her expression that she couldn't either and was irritated as hell.

"We're open seven days a week, 365 a year."

"Well, I'm extremely grateful."

"Let me guess, you forgot to get your girlfriend something for Christmas."

"It's a bit more complicated than that but basically." I said, not letting her attitude get to me. "I need an engagement ring."

"Sweet." She said, warming a bit to the romantic notion of getting engaged on Christmas. She started toward a row of cases. "Do you know her size?"

"Um... it's a guy and no I don't know his size."

"Oh. O.k." She changed directions and headed toward another row of cases. "So you have no idea what his ring size is?"

"Well, not really. He's got hands like mine but I couldn't really say."

"That's gonna be a problem." The lady frowned, then a spark of inspiration seemed to cross her face. "I think I know how we might be able to figure it out or at least get close but I can't guarantee it'll work."

"How's that?" I asked.

"How... freaky are you guys?"

"Huh?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"You ever suck on his fingers?" She asked.

"Well, yeah. Actually, I have." She took out a key chain looking thing and poured some hand sanitizer on them and dried them off.

"I still don't get it."

"Each one of these rings are a finger size. Put each one in your mouth till you find the one that feels like his." She said and I looked at her like she was crazy. "It's the only thing I can think of. Unless you want to wait."

"No, I can't." I said and began putting ring after ring in my mouth.

I felt stupid and didn't think it would work till I started getting to the bigger rings.

"This one." I said and handed it to her.

"O.k. We have those rings right over here."

An hour later I left the shop and made my way back to Charlie's house. He was in the kitchen rolling out dough, frowning down at it. He hadn't heard me come in and was surprised and relieved when he noticed me.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"I had to get something."

"Before giving me an answer?" He asked.

"Yeah, Charlie. Before giving you an answer." He sighed and seemed to try to calm himself.

"Look Ryan, it's o.k. It was stupid for me to push the issue. I'm just glad you're still here."

"I told you I'm not going anywhere."

"I know but then I pushed you and I realize that was a stupid ass thing to do."

"Oh. So you don't want to marry me?" I tried hard not to grin which only seemed to confuse him more.

"Of course I do. It was stupid of me to ask so soon."

"So you're not asking now."

"No. We'll wait till you're ready."

"O.k." I said and smiled. He smiled back but it was a weak grin. "What if I ask you when I'm ready?"

"That'd be fine. We can do that. Whatever you want."

"Good." I said and pulled him into a bear hug. I took the box from my pocket and handed it to him. "Marry me, Charlie."

"What?"

"That's where I went. To get you a ring. There was no way I was going to let you get me all those presents and a ring and not have anything to give back to you so I went and got a ring." I opened the box and showed him a ring similar to mine but just slightly different. "If all you want is me, then you got me. Cause all I want is you."

Our hands shook as he slipped the ring on my finger and my vision blurred a bit as I slipped his ring on his finger. We stood in the kitchen and held each other for a while enjoying the moment.

"Sarah's gonna be pissed." He said.