Chapter 3

AN: Managing to get a quick update in before all the medical tests start again. A good ol’ catscan awaits for me Monday. Anyway, that doesn’t matter. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this story. It’s actually proving to be more angst ridden than I had planned. I don’t know where it’s coming from, to be honest. Oh, that doesn’t matter either.

Enough rambling from me. Enjoy~

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Chapter 3:

Kolya had been unable to get Catalonia’s words out of his head. They kept repeating over and over again, reminding him of why he left Kale, why he had fled from the island. It was because he wasn’t good enough for someone like Kale. He was never good enough. He could never be good enough.

And, well, not good enough wasn’t enough for someone like Kale Karlton and his influential family. He deserved perfection. He deserved someone that was good for him, someone who fitted into his world. Someone who could keep up with him.

Kolya? No, he wasn’t that person. He couldn’t be that person. He was just some Aussie far away from home.

Catalonia even gave him a few examples of why he and Kale couldn’t be together. There was a photo of Kale at a social event, surrounded by so many beautiful women. And he looked so comfortable in their presence. He was fun, flirty and most of all charming. He had everything to offer everyone. But Kolya didn’t. He didn’t have a single thing.

He still had that photo. He kept it with him as a reminder that he wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t good enough for Kale.

He had another photo as well, one of Kale with a group of kids. And once again he looked so utterly natural. He would make a fantastic father. One he had no chance of becoming if he was married to Kolya, a guy and completely unable to have kids.

But, even leaving Kale had disastrous results. Kale was wary of marriage now, because of him. He should have a beautiful wife and a couple of kids now. He deserved that perfect dream, as did his family. His parents deserved grandkids and a perfect daughter-in-law. But now Kale was single, stoic, serious and cold. Not the Kale he knew and loved. He had changed. Because of him.

Typical. Even when he tried to do the right thing for someone else’s benefit, he screwed it up. There wasn’t anything he could do right. Or even properly.

Kolya abruptly ran a hand over his face when he felt his eyes sting with unshed tears. He was so useless.

Someone bumping into him pulled Kolya back into reality and he found himself outside, the sun well and truly set. He had finished work for the day and had been gathering a few things when his mind began to wander.

Turning to the person who bumped into him, Kolya notice that he was a slightly older man and who was clearly intoxicated. He was staggering on his feet and his eyes were unfocused. Kolya straightened his posture and tried to look and act casual. He had been around plenty of drunks and he didn’t mind a drink himself once in a while, so he knew how to handle most drunks.

He just hoped this guy wasn’t an overly aggressive drunk who thought he had awesome kung-fu powers.

“You need something, mate?” Kolya asked him cheerfully.

The drunk stared at him for a moment and Kolya wondered if he was so drunk that he wasn’t listening until the man gave him this drunken leer. “Heh, you’re pretty cute looking for a guy,” he slurred.

Kolya blinked at him for a second before lifting his arm and scratching the back of his neck in a sense of confusion. “Ah, is that meant to be a compliment?”

Of course, only a drunk would think he was good looking in any sense.

“Why don’t you come to my room for a little fun?” The man suddenly requested, grabbing Kolya by the wrist in a surprisingly firm and tight grip.

“Ah, no thanks,” Kolya said as he tried to stay placid, tugging subtly at the hold on his wrist. “I’d rather not.”

The drunk quickly turned aggressive and gave a sharp tug on Kolya’s wrist. “Where’s you going?” he practically snarled.

Kolya was getting agitated himself. “Mate, back off,” he said firmly as he ripped his wrist from the man’s grip.

The man suddenly lunged at him, surprising Kolya with his height and strength, grabbing him by the arms and pushing him against a wall. “Not good enough for ya, huh? Is that it?”

“Hey, let go!” Kolya yelled out as he attempted to push the man away.

Suddenly, a hand landed on the man’s shoulder and he was abruptly pulled away, the force so quick that the man staggered when he was let go. Kolya blinked, confused by what had just happened and found himself staring at the back of a man who was tall and blond, his shoulder’s squared and back tense.

…Kale?

“What’s going on here?” Kale asked, but it wasn’t so much asked as a question, but more as a demand.

“Huh?” The drunken man slurred as he spun around, squinting at Kale before frowning deeply. “Hey, I saw him first.”

“Sorry, but he’s not a part of the hotel’s services. We don’t run that kind of business,” Kale said, his voice professionally polite, but yet somewhat…dangerous at the same time. “Perhaps it would be better for you to return to your room alone. Or I could have some escort you back to your room if you like. Someone from security, perhaps?

The drunken man just stared blearily at him, seeming sizing him up. But even though he was plastered, he seemed to know what fights he could win and fights he couldn’t, so he staggered back and picked up a bottle that was on the ground. He then staggered away, muttering to him. “Bah, pretty boys are all the same.”

Kolya breathed a soft sigh of relief as the man staggered out of view. He then swallowed thickly when he was left alone with Kale, nervousness settling in the pit of his stomach. “Kale?” he said as he shuffled away from the wall, giving him an embarrassed smile. “Ah, thanks for helping. And, well-Hey!”

Kolya suddenly found himself pressed against the wall again, this time Kale being the one to hold him there, his hands gripping his elbows tightly, forcing him to look him in the eyes. And his eyes, they were darkened with a sense of anger. Or was it protectiveness?

“Did he touch you?” Kale unexpectedly asked him.

“Huh?”

“Did he try anything?”

Kolya was at a lost as to why Kale seemed so possessive with him. Didn’t he hate him? He had hardly pulled together two sentences that weren’t terse or abrupt. But now…?

“What are you talking about?” Kolya managed to say as he found some fight back in his limbs, pushing against Kale by placing his hands on his chest and using the wall behind him as leverage. “He didn’t do anything but try to slobber over me. Mate, why would he want to do anything to me?”

Completely absurd.

Kale just stared at him silently for a moment before his eyes flashed with an unreadable emotion and a sigh of pure exasperation escaped his lips. “You really haven’t changed,” he muttered. “You’re still naïve.”

Kolya felt annoyed, if not a little bit confused by that. “What?”

But Kolya was unable to say anything more when Kale suddenly adjusted his grip on him, and his mouth closed over his. A fierce wave of pleasure suddenly consumed Kolya as his eyes shut upon reflex, plunging his world into darkness. There was suddenly no distance between them at all. Kale’s body touched Kolya’s from shoulder to knee; you wouldn’t have been able to get a piece of paper between them. Kale’s arms clamped Kolya to him so tightly that he could just breathe.

Kolya tried to break the kiss by turning his head away, and only managed to utter; “K-Kale, what are-?” before he was kissed deeply again. And he all but fell limp in Kale’s arms.

He couldn’t push him off. He didn’t have the strength or the will to even try to struggle. His traitorous and selfish body wouldn’t respond to what his head was screaming at it to do. He shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be here, in Kale’s arms, allowing the man to ravish his mouth in a toe-curling kiss.

But…holy shit, did it feel good.

He missed Kale. God, he missed him so much. Those six years, they were torture.

Suddenly, a high-pitched sound of a mobile phone ringing shattered whatever spell they were under and they sprung apart from each other like a couple of teenagers who had just been caught by their parents.

Kale plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. But before he could even utter a terse hello, a panicked voice was heard. “Mr Karlton!”

Kale reeled back in surprise. “What?”

“The construction site; it’s been vandalised!”

“What?!”