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Henry was reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens while lying on his stomach on the lawn of Alex's childhood home in Austin. They had taken refuge there for a few days to find themselves far from everything and their commitments, a little enchanted parenthesis where Henry could be a writer madly in love and not a prince and Alex could finally rest a little from the politics, from his studies, in short, a moment that belonged only to them, a moment where they were free.
So Henry was reading on the lawn, and Alex was watching him from the porch where he had spent the last few hours repairing the old swing so that Henry wouldn't have to lie down in the grass. The image was charming, he was wearing a little too big jeans and an open shirt, his legs were swinging in a steady rhythm above him and he was turning the pages one after the other with a look of total concentration. Alex could see him biting his bottom lip and his brow frowning. He was so invested in his book and Alex was totally invested in watching him read this book in question. At times like this he fell in love with him all over again. It was his favorite version of Henry. The attractive and passionate nerd had a truly important spot in his heart.
Since he wasn't making any progress on the swing and apparently couldn't take his eyes off his boyfriend, he figured he better make the most of it. So he left the toolbox and swing under the porch and walked towards Henry, sitting down in the grass near him. Immediately, the latter raised his head from his reading and offered him the most beautiful smile. Alex was obliged to kiss him when he smiled at him like that, it was even a law that he should try to pass in Congress: “When his Royal Highness smiles at the President's son, he is obliged to cover that smile with his own lips.”
He caressed his boyfriend's perfectly shaven cheek before he resumed reading, laughing softly.
Alex lifted Henry's shirt slightly, enough to give him access to the skin of his lower back and he began to caress it with the lightness of a feather, before completely letting the pads of his fingers linger on the velvet of its epidermis. He could see the effect it had on Henry in the foreground, he was shivering gently, he had moved slightly under his fingers and the hairs on his arms had stood up. Alex smiled to himself, his favorite thing in the world was to unsettle Henry, to do all sorts of things to him to make him feel good. So he continued his caresses, concentrating on the gestures that gave his companion the most shivers. He traced invisible arabesques on his pale skin, went around his moles, carefully caressed the two small holes above his pelvis - Henry had taught him that they were called dimples of Venus and yes they were divine- and followed his spine passing his hand under his linen shirt. He traced a multitude of invisible paths that he would come, later in the evening, to trace with his lips and his tongue. Henry grumbled from time to time and he suspected that he was having more and more difficulty reading, and as proof, he had only turned the page once since he had been sitting there next to him. Did he reread the same line a hundred times without understanding a word of it? Was his entire brain focused only on Alex's fingers on his lower back?
All this greatly amused the American.
“Alex…” sighed Heny
"Yes?" he asked with feigned innocence.
“At least let me finish my chapter…or my page, considering where this is going…” Henry's voice was deep, hoarse, which made his heart skip a beat, but Alex was well and truly pleased with himself and the effect he had on him. Henry turned towards him a little, his finger marking where his reading had left off and his eyes were black, so black with desire. Alex wanted to have a little more fun... so he removed his hand completely and stood up. Obviously, Henry was going to be frustrated and that was a fact come true when he groaned at being deprived of his touch so radically.
“Finish your chapter or your page… Meanwhile I’m going to go shopping for tonight's meal,” Alex said, starting to walk away from him.
“Alex! You’re not going anywhere!”
He loved that authoritarian tone in his voice, and indeed he stopped dead in his tracks, he had gotten exactly what he wanted. Alex had his full attention and more. He turned with calculated speed towards him as if to demand that he’d really tell him what he wanted and that he probably would do it. Henry closed the book with one hand - without even putting a bookmark! - and he said, no, he pleaded: “Come back here please. You can’t leave a poor man like this…”
Alex laughed and happily returned to him. He knelt down again. Captured his pink lips, and ended up promising Henry that he would let him finish his chapter, but in exchange, he would have to follow him to their room straight away. It had been easy to get him to agree on that, Henry probably wanted it even more than he did.
Just to remain a winner in this whole little battle, Alex decided that he would indeed let him read, but he would not stop scratching his back, stroking him again and again...
He never knew if Henry had really read his chapter to the end or if he had finally had enough of being tortured by simple, and “pure” caresses, but they were in bed in record time.