Page 76 of Rent: Paid in Full
Miller gives a proud wave. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a shithole,” I reply as he shoulders open the door. The inside isn’t as bad as the outside, though that isn’t saying a lot. “Where’s the furniture?”
“The seller took most of it when they vacated.”
“Mm-hmm, and what are we going to sit on while we’re here?”
There’s a rickety dining table near the kitchen and one cane barstool that seems to have dropped in straight from the eighties, complete with faded floral cushion. There’s a moth-eaten rug in the middle of the living room, but no sofa. Strangely enough, there’s a string of multicolored Christmas lights strung up over the mantel and around both of the windows that frame it.
Miller gives me a great bigaw-shuckssmile, cocking his head sympathetically. “But, baby, you’re going to be bent over or flat on your back the whole time we’re here.” My dick jerksinvoluntarily, straining against my zipper. “You’re not going to be sitting. You’re not going to need furniture other than a bed, and that bad boy is brand new. Had it delivered the week after the sale on this place went through.” Say what you will about Miller, but the man does have a way of explaining things. “D’you know why I brought you here?”
“Um, ‘cause you’re a pervert.”
“Always.” He nods in earnest agreement. “But not just because of that. This place is special. It’s the first land I’ve bought. This place is going to be big for us, Ry. It’s going to be the start of our future, you’ll see. I wanted to share it with you before I share it with anyone else.”
He meets my blank stare with a patient smile. “Also, we’re miles and miles away from anyone else out here. It’s just you and me and the trees and the sky.” He leans in as if he means to kiss me, stopping a hair’s breadth away from my lips. “I’m going to show you the stars while we’re here, baby. You’re going to see them all night.”
He leans in again, closer this time if such a thing is possible. I clench my teeth to stop my tongue from sweeping across my bottom lip.You don’t need to taste Miller’s breath,I tell myself.There’s no need for it. You already know what he tastes like. Jesus. Get it together. “And if you ask nicely, I’ll make you see them all day too.”
I don’t have the first clue how to respond to that, and despite being my first and only language, English seems like a bit of a reach for me right now. I set about silently wiping down the kitchen counter while Miller unpacks the groceries.
“Does the microwave work?” I ask when I can’t find another thing to wipe down. “A lot of what we brought to eat needs to be microwaved.”
“Yeah, that’s new too. I got it the second time I came up here. You don’t even want to know what happened the first time.” Hesmiles broadly and doesn’t give me a chance to ask. Not that I was going to. “Cereal breakfast, lunch, and dinner for four days.” He laughs riotously at that. “Four days. I was here forfourdays.”
As amusing as the thought of Miller suffering is, I feel a little hurried. You know the feeling you have when you have someplace to be, but you can’t remember the details. You know you can’t chill, but you can’t remember where you’re supposed to be or what you’re supposed to be doing. That’s how I feel. Think it’s from being in the middle of nowhere. The great outdoors has never really been my thing.
“Should we have the chicken curry tonight?” I ask.
“Sure, why not.”
He uncorks an expensive bottle of red and pours it into a set of pink plastic cups.
We carry our wine and food outside and sit on an old quilt that Miller has laid out for us. There’s a clearing all around the cabin covered in long grass that urgently needs mowing. Red oak and black cherry trees lean over us, a comforting canopy that frames the night sky.
It’s uncomfortable as hell.
“Told you we needed furniture,” I say when he straightens his legs, flexing and stretching to recover from sitting cross-legged for too long.
He takes my cup from me and sets it down beside his. “Yeah, and I told you we didn’t.”
He pulls me down onto the blanket with him, stretching a beefy arm out and offering it to me in lieu of a pillow. We lie back and look up at the sky. There are stars galore. So fucking many of them. A million. Maybe more. My cock is a little confused about the platonic nature of stars and gets the wrong idea, stiffening for no good reason. Miller talks at length about things like the Little Dipper and Zeus and something about bears. He points upward and makes me follow his finger across the sky. I don’tknow shit about this kind of thing, so I have no way of knowing if he’s bullshitting me or not. I have no choice but to nod now and again and let his voice lull me into a trance of sorts.
It’s one of those balmy nights that confuses your senses. It starts out so warm and sultry that I don’t realize when the temperature drops. I only know that at some point, Miller is the warmest thing in the middle of nowhere, and every time he drops a hand on my chest, it warms me too.
I’m still feeling hurried. Waiting. Somewhere to be. Something to do. It’s late now. We’ve eaten and finished the wine. I’m getting antsy. Miller said free use. He said it so many times that I was left in no doubt whatsoever that he loves the sound of his voice saying those words. He said he’d fuck me from morning till night. He said he’d fuck me so many times my belly would swell from all the loads he put in me. He said he’d fuck me so long and so hard my ass would feel strange without his dick rammed inside it.
We’re in the middle of goddamn nowhere for the express purpose of a fuck fest, so why the hell isn’t he making a move?
“Want to head in?” he asks at last.
I jump up with speed but manage to catch myself, slowing my movement before I do something stupid like alerting Miller to my…hurriedness.
He showers first, and after a great deal of deliberation, I come out of the bathroom, head held at a moderate height, sleeping shorts tied tightly around my waist. Miller raises a sleepy brow, head already buried into his pillow.
“You’re adorable, you know that, Ry? God, those little sleeping shorts and that stick up your ass…so sweet. So, so sexy.”
I roll my eyes hard enough to strain them as he opens the covers for me.