The Greatest Force Ch. 06

"I used to have nightmares all the time before I met you that day."

I started undoing Alec's pants while he talked to me. His body swayed lightly at each tug and pull I forced -- the difference between our strength being very evident. I could break his arms in a couple of seconds if I wanted to. Or crush his ribs. Or throw him across the room. His refusal to worry about this fact was unbelievable and stunning. Knowing Alec trusted me that much -- me being nearly twice his size and being very capable of falling into an angry fit -- said a lot about the level we had achieved in our relationship.

"All the time. There wouldn't be a night that went by that I didn't wake up in cold sweat."

I tore off all of our clothing and grabbed Alec in my arms.

"Dreams about my parents mostly...or sometimes the dreams would be flashbacks of memories that I don't like thinking about. Sometimes about Cara."

I carried him to the bathroom just like the day of the incident. I set him down on the ledge of the bathtub and ran hot water. There was a small blue towel hanging on a rod that I used to gently rub away the dirt that clung to Alec's face.

"The ones about Cara didn't come as often, but when they did-" Alec winced and fluttered his eyelids at the pain of tiny rocks leaving his skin, "they were usually the worst."

Alec rested his chin on his palm and watched the water run while I fetched a lighter from the sink drawer and lit the candles around the tub.

"I've been fucked over so many times that I lost track of how many times it's been." He said coldly.

I turned off the water and dipped myself in. The tub was so spacious that there was still extra room in all directions. I waved a "come here" hand and watched as Alec lowered himself in with me and rested his back against my chest. He sighed deeply as I wrapped my arms across his chest and kissed his hair.

"Ever since you started staying over, I don't dream about anything. It's just black. There's nothing. It's so quiet and peaceful." Alec laughed quietly. "Kind of like you're a human dreamcatcher."

"A dreamcatcher." I repeated.

"Yeah." Alec whispered.

I lapped water in my hands and softly ran it down Alec's face to wash away the leftover dirt and blood. He closed his eyes and let me take care of him, probably savoring the moment for as long as he could. I could imagine the last time anyone physically cared for him was more than just a couple of years ago.

I pushed his hair back with a damp hand and massaged his chest. He took my hand and guided it over his heart, wanting me to focus on the area. The skin was still a bit bruised, and his shoulder twitched the first time I put down a heavy hand, but eventually he relaxed and let me go on. Several seconds passed before he spoke again. I felt his body vibrate.

"The doctors don't know what's wrong with me." Alec's voice was high. He sobbed once and covered his face with his hands. I slowly stopped rubbing his chest.

"They tried everything, it won't go away. First they thought it was cardiomegaly -- like a -- like an enlarged heart," Alec's speech quickened. "Then they thought maybe it was thyroid cancer or arrhythmia or something but they decided it was just depression and they loaded me up on meds," Alec dropped his hands and frowned through his tear stricken face, "but the meds don't even work, Jett. They're supposed to prevent it from happening but they only work if I take them right after it happens."

I didn't know what to say. In the moment I felt it was better to not say anything at all.

"It feels like I'm dying." Alec sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Kind of like someone's taking the dull end of a knife and trying to pry my heart out..."

"Why does it happen?" I questioned, guiltily and curiously, massaging Alec's upper arm in attempt to soothe him.

"I'm not really sure..." he shook his head. "But it only happens when I feel hurt about something." He sniffed and wiped his eyes. "You're the only person who knows about it. I've never told anyone before. It's sort of embarrassing." He laughed weakly. "It's actually really embarrassing."

I smiled and warmly laughed at his naked honesty. I squeezed him in my arms and pulled him up to look at me. His bright eyes released one gorgeous, spherical, sparkling tear as he smiled up at me.

"I like you a lot." I blurted. "I like you so much."

His bottom lip trembled faintly before he curved his head to graze his feather-soft lips over mine. We lingered that way for a couple of seconds before I impulsively allowed my body to rise like a lion and lunge for a kiss. Water fell over the side of the tub as we wrestled in it. I could feel that Alec's penis was nearly as hard as mine and wasted no time in fumbling for the drain plug and getting up with Alec still against my body.

We kept our lips locked while walking backwards towards the pearly, grand shower. We stumbled in and Alec hastily twisted on the hot water without looking. The showerhead blasted cold water, causing us both to gasp and laugh. While the water warmed up, I took Alec's throbbing penis in my hand and dragged him closer to me. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow with water trickling down his eyes and over his lips.

For the first time in months, I came to notice that Alec always trembled when we were getting intimate. His hands would shake lightly and he'd occasionally bite his lip in anticipation. It made me a little anxious when I noticed this. Suddenly I felt like I was responsible for the balance and steadiness of the universe.

"You've done this so many times before, I can tell" Alec said.

I grinned wide. "All to get to you." I tugged him in my hand and let the water warm him up.

"You have to show me how to do this stuff," he moaned as I stroked his shiny cock. "You're the only person I've ever done this with."

I pushed my body against his and held his ass in my palms, pulling it together and apart.

"Don't worry about keeping up, just go with it." I cooed. Alec nodded in my shoulder and sneakily grabbed my penis. This caught me by surprise and a splurge of precum escaped freely. He played with it in his fingertips, examining the foreign, sticky substance.

I pushed him against the shower wall and lifted him up so he could wrap his legs around my waist. "Holy fuck, if my parents knew about this-" Alec clung to my neck.

I positioned him above my twitching, hungry penis and pressed ever so slightly as to warn Alec that I was about to make my move. He didn't seem to object, and I slid in smoothly against his tight walls. I couldn't tell if it was easy entry because he was relaxed, or because I was much stronger than Alec. Either way, it felt amazing, and as soon as I picked up a steady rhythm, I carried him under the falling water and watched him rise and fall against me with his mouth gaping open and his hair clinging to his forehead. Every so often, Alec would squeeze his eyes shut and grab me a little tighter, still not used to having sex and slightly pained by it. I held him by the thighs and slowed down, thrusting deeper and longer. Our heavy breathing intermingled and Alec's gasps of pleasure paired perfectly with his clambering hands that searched for something to hold.

When I leaned him up against the shower wall once more, another thought occurred to me that had never before. I considered having sex with Alec as "making love." Not just having sex for the sake of having sex -- but because honest emotions were behind it and were driving the action. I'd never considered that to be the case with the past people I'd slept with, and this new realization made me uneasy. I wasn't sure of whether or not I felt okay with it -- the thought of me possibly getting too attached. The earlier feeling I had of balancing the universe in my hands came crashing down on me. I didn't want it.

I suddenly stopped before either of us could come. I pulled out of Alec and left him catching his breath against the running water. He watched me walk into a towel to dry and then back to the bedroom.

Alec didn't join me until a couple of minutes later. He'd dried himself off as well and held a towel in his hand while he stood in the doorway. We looked at each other for awhile. He watched me get situated on the bed and I watched him rub his neck with the towel he held.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked shyly.

I shook my head and frowned. He pulled on a pair of pajamas bottoms and sat at the foot of the bed, rubbing his face in his hands. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and fell backwards, landing on the billowing sheets, his face leveled with my hips.

In less than ten minutes I found that Alec had fallen asleep. I pulled him up by the underarms and tucked him under the sheets.

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It was around 2 A.M. when Alec knocked out. I swung a leg over his body and pulled him close, knowing how he liked to be swaddled and held tight.

The flickering light of the red candle cast blush colored hues across Alec's sleepy cheeks. His hand was under his face, making his cheek look chubbier than it actually was.

His eyelashes moved a little from time to time, lost in the haze of a dream.

Unconscious fingertips twitched and reached out for something, always ending up bumping into my chest.

His breathing was calm.

Even.

Relaxed.

The perfect intervals of the rise and fall of his body were in tune with the world around him. Alec inched closer and closer to me throughout the night until there was no more space between us.

I noticed all of this because I never fell asleep.

I just stared at him for hours.

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Getting up to leave before the sun rose, I slipped out of bed and walked up to the window where a chilly wind was wafting in. Dew had coated the glass, and some drops fell away as thought they were frightened at the faint sound of shutting the window.

I turned around to see the upper half of Alec's back uncovered by the brisk, white sheets. The muscles and bones in his body were shadowed behind the light of the candle. I stood still to catch the slow sighing of his body. He twisted in place and faced me, but still asleep.

"Jett..." he murmured, grabbing for me next to him, only holding empty air and a fistful of blankets.

I blinked once, coming back to my normal senses.

I grabbed my shirt, slipped on my shoes, and walked out the door.

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There was a sense of uneasiness hosted in my body from the moment I started walking down the stairs, almost like the universe was trying to tell me something...trying to keep me from doing something...trying...

I opened the door quietly and stepped into the hazy air. I was looking down for the most part but as soon as I looked up, all that was in my field of vision was Parker.

"Hey." He snarled. No words came out of my mouth.

This wasn't good.

It was 2 in the morning, I had just walked out shirtless, and most importantly, out of Alec's house. I stuttered and stammered and blinked profusely.

"I figured." He laughed evilly.

"Look-"

"Save it, Foster. I'm not telling anyone about this."

Though Parker and I had been friends our whole lives, something in the way he spoke made me suspicious.

"If you agree to the deal I'm about to propose." Parker twiddled his fingers together. His nose was a pinky red in the cold.

"Shoot." I beckoned.

"Nobody knows about this...this..." he searched for words, "sick, love affair between you and the loser as long as you each give me something I want."

I blindly agreed.

"Hosting a big party, we are. Jenna and I, that is. Tomorrow. At 9. Can't have it at my place. Too overdone." He tapped a finger on his chin. "Can't have it at Jenna's. Too girly." Parker smiled rudely. "Can't have it at your place. Too wasted."

I sickeningly rolled my eyes, impatiently waiting for him to ask what I already knew.

"How about this place, hmm?" He asked innocently. "It's nice and spacious. Great neighborhood and," he pointed behind him, "gets a great view of the sunset, don't you think?"

My stomach churned. How long had he been following us? How much did he see?

"How long have you been waiting out here for?" I asked, a little shaken.

"That's beside the point," he waved a hand as if to wipe away the question. "Yes or no? Little loverboy in there gonna agree to this or am I going to have to do some dirty work?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Use the house for your party." I shrugged. "Go ahead."

Parker bounced up and down to warm up his body. "Great. That went better than I planned it would, bud."

I started to walk away, but Parker jumped forward and grabbed my arm. I snapped my face at him and watched his shiny square teeth glisten as he spoke.

"We haven't discussed your part of the deal."

Frosted breath wafted out of our mouths.

I knew Parker was about to request something that would not come easy.

Something he was aware would be a difficult task.

One with dire consequences.

A major risk.

He parted his lips so slightly, then spoke darkly:

"You provide...all...of the booze."

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Note to the reader: I appreciate your commentary more than you know. I love seeing you read between the lines and analyze character traits and predict future events and get angry. I love seeing you get angry. That may sound sarcastic, but I'm not being sarcastic. Seeing passion come from you because of the series is wholly gratifying. I value the readers that keep coming back and the readers that divulge me with how they feel about the writing, including those who e-mail me (I try to reply to as many as possible) -- you're all truly fantastic. Thanks for being so involved.

P.S.S. I usually submit a new chapter in less than a couple of days after releasing the last -- the site takes about a week to put it up (not very sure why, I don't mean to keep you waiting that long).