Chapter 75

Heat pooled within the eyes watching him through fluttering lashes. The longing gaze drew closer as warmth spread over Yuri’s mouth. Another tear escaped, traveled down Cherriot’s cheek, and disappeared between their joined lips. With their hands still clasped, Yuri lifted his chin and accepted him.

Cherriot’s tongue parted Yuri’s dry lips and slipped gently inside. It moved slowly, brushing once across Yuri’s rigid tongue. A shudder raced down his spine.

Only then did thirst awaken. Yuri had been parched all along without realizing it. Now that he finally tasted what he wanted, his throat began to burn. When Cherriot’s tongue tapped against his, Yuri tangled them together with sudden force and rubbed their lips.

A man inexperienced in receiving love was equally inexperienced at kissing, but Cherriot guided Yuri in his own practiced way. He sucked Yuri’s insufficiently damp lips into his mouth, released them with a soft sound, then slid his long tongue deeper and stroked Yuri’s palate. His tongue explored places within Yuri’s mouth Yuri had barely touched himself.

“Hah… ah…”

Every movement sent prickling chills through Yuri’s body. The ticklish sensation spreading from the roof of his mouth nearly emptied his mind. A soft moan slipped free.

The instant Cherriot heard it, the kiss intensified. His grip on Yuri’s hands tightened. His tongue searched Yuri’s mouth as though trying to reach his throat. It wrapped wetly around Yuri’s uncertain tongue and licked it, then, just as Yuri struggled to swallow the saliva gathering in his mouth, sucked hard.

“Ah…!”

The sharp sensation made Yuri arch backward. He released Cherriot’s face and attempted to pull away for breath, afraid his head might burst, but Cherriot immediately wrapped an arm around his waist and pressed their bodies together. One hand climbed Yuri’s back until it cradled the rear of his head.

Held as though he might otherwise fall, Yuri endured another relentless kiss. Their tongues twisted together without pause, leaving saliva to spill over Yuri’s lips and trail toward his chin.

“Cherry… stop. I can’t… breathe,” Yuri finally managed the words between ragged breaths.

Cherriot slowly withdrew. A fine silver strand stretched between their lips before breaking.

Green eyes darkened with desire gazed down at Yuri in rapture. Color had returned to Cherriot’s face, now flushed rather than bloodless, and he looked so beautiful that Yuri could only stare.

He wanted to kiss him again. He wanted to take Cherriot to bed and join their bodies as they had before.

Cherriot appeared to share the impulse. At some point, the hand around Yuri’s waist had pushed up his shirt and begun stroking bare skin. Each gentle pass of Cherriot’s fingertips sent electricity along his waist.

“Ah… this is driving me insane.” Before Yuri could ask whether they should go to the bedroom, Cherriot recovered his senses. After touching Yuri with eyes briefly stripped of reason, he released him with obvious reluctance.

They were both clearly aroused. Yuri saw no reason not to continue, but Cherriot shook his head and warned himself aloud. “I can’t touch Yuri until he’s completely recovered. Get a grip, Cherriot.”

“I told you this morning that I’m fine,” Yuri countered. “My rehabilitation sessions have already been reduced, and even walking for hours caused no problem.”

“But I…!” Cherriot covered his face in anguish. “I don’t trust myself to stop after once. So I’m going to endure it.”

Doing it once would surely be preferable to doing nothing, but Cherriot shook his head and lightly slapped his own cheeks. Yuri watched him with a displeased frown.

Cherriot covered Yuri’s eyes with one hand, just as he had earlier that day. “Don’t look at me like that. Those eyes destroy my self-control.”

“I think I would prefer doing it.”

“Mmm!”

As though silencing him, Cherriot pressed a deep, emphatic kiss to Yuri’s lips. The affection filling it soothed a little of Yuri’s frustration. What Yuri wanted most was to go directly to the bedroom, but sex between two Alphas required preparation, and they had made none.

We could begin preparing now… Woof! An animal barked outside while Yuri was considering the matter. Still immersed in the afterglow of the kiss, both men turned toward the backyard. After a brief silence, they looked at each other once more, then hurried toward the rear door.

When they stepped outside, Yuri saw a dark shape within the bushes where the dog had appeared that morning. Its eyes shone through the foliage. Yuri immediately knew the animal had returned.

“Cherry, that’s the dog.”

“It must have realized Wolfie needed a friend and come back,” Cherriot whispered so as not to frighten it, descending one step and crouching. He slowly extended a hand. “Hello, friend. Were you frightened coming all this way?”

The dog remained where it was. Its tail, concealed within the shadows, appeared to sway once, but it did not approach Cherriot.

“Cherry, keep talking to it.” Yuri rushed back inside and snatched up the paper bag he had dropped in the entrance hall. When he returned and rustled the bag while removing a tin of wet food, the dark shape in the bushes raised its ears.

“Wolfie, when did you buy that?”

“I happened across it while walking.”

“I hated that you left your phone, but I think this was a good decision.”

Yuri stepped outside and sat beside Cherriot, placing the open tin on the ground. The meat smelled appetizing even to a human. The bushes rustled, but the dog still did not emerge.

“Its hind leg is injured,” Yuri noted. He did not know how the injury occurred, but a wounded animal required patience before it would trust anyone. He settled onto the ground, prepared to wait as long as necessary.

Cherriot immediately removed his suit jacket. “The ground is cold. Sit on this.”

“You’ll ruin it, Cherry.”

“It’s only clothing,” Cherriot said, spreading the jacket on the ground and tapping it, beckoning Yuri closer. “Wolfie’s comfort matters more to me. But if you truly refuse to sit on the jacket, you can sit on me instead. Here. My thighs are incredibly comfortable.” He patted one muscular thigh, its shape visible even beneath the suit trousers.

Yuri burst into quiet laughter. Cherriot sounded entirely sincere. The offer was bewildering, but Yuri felt happy, as though the uninhibited, willful Cherriot from Big Fox had finally returned. He loved this side of Cherriot.

At first, I thought I hated it. Yuri once believed that Cherriot’s eloquence and effortless intimacy would make them fundamentally incompatible. Cherriot crossed every safe distance without hesitation, closing the space between them so easily that Yuri considered him frivolous. He assumed a heart gained so easily would leave just as easily.

Yuri had been wrong. Confined behind walls of his own making, already resigned to abandoning life, he had failed to see many things. Cherriot’s seemingly careless words each carried sincerity. The reason his closeness felt so uncomfortable was not that Cherriot was shallow, but that the new emotions he awakened in Yuri were frightening.

“Oh, Wolfie! Look.” Cherriot stopped patting his thigh and called to Yuri in surprise.

Yuri followed his gaze. The dark shape within the bushes had stepped halfway into the moonlight.

“Wow. Just as you wrote, it really does have fur like crunchy chocolate chips. What a beautiful little thing.”

Yuri had never written crunchy chocolate chips, but perhaps Cherriot’s interpretation was not entirely wrong. When neither man moved toward it, the dog gradually relaxed. Drawn by the delicious scent, it limped slowly toward the tin. Its blue eyes flicked repeatedly between Yuri and Cherriot. At last, it reached them and lowered its head to eat.

“It’s beautiful.” Cherriot smiled radiantly as he watched the dog begin its meal.

Yuri sat with his shoulder pressed against Cherriot’s and slowly allowed his own eyes and mouth to soften. Catching sight of Yuri’s calm, gentle smile, Cherriot’s expression brightened even further.

“What do you think, Wolfie? Should we take it in?”

“Would that be all right?”

“I want to. I’ve always dreamed of raising a pet with my partner,” Cherriot rested his head lightly against Yuri’s shoulder. “Incidentally, my partner is a man named Yuri Kiselyov.”

Yuri laughed softly. The man beside him became more lovable each time he spoke. Yuri lowered his head and pressed a deep kiss to the reddish-gold hair resting against him. It smelled faintly of a fragrant forest.

They watched the dog finish its meal in silence. Crickets sang steadily within the woods. A cool breeze brushed Yuri’s throat, carrying the scent of wild grass and leaves. Beneath the distant rhythm of the sea, he could faintly smell the water.

The peace overwhelmed him.

A man who had once awakened every day longing for death in search of rest finally understood that the peace he wanted had always been something else. It existed here.

This was the summer his mother had described. It was plunging into water until his clothes were soaked, meeting someone with whom he could run and laugh like a child over the most ridiculous jokes. It was eating food made with care until his stomach was full, then opening his entire body to the song of summer insects and the wind thick with the fragrance of the woods.

This was the life his mother had died telling him to experience. The boy who survived because of her had continued living somehow, and at last, he had reached the time she promised.

Yuri would never see his mother again. Yet when he realized that her own radiant summers must have contained moments like this, peace entered his heart. Yuri had fulfilled her dying wish. As Yekaterina said, life was precious. No matter how wretched or humiliating it became, it was an opportunity granted only once, and surviving was better.

After enduring moments that felt like hell and tasting life again, Yuri discovered it was far more brilliant than he remembered.

Fireflies glimmered in the distance. As Yuri watched the faint lights, something warm touched his foot. He lowered his gaze. The dog had finished every morsel and now sat beside him. Their blue eyes met briefly.

The dog stared at Yuri, opened its mouth in a wide yawn, then lowered itself onto Cherriot’s suit jacket and rested its chin there.

“See?” Cherriot whispered with a grin. “My suit is made from the perfect material for sitting.”

Yuri’s quiet smile deepened, and low laughter escaped him. Cherriot watched with limitless affection, then joined him with a bright, carefree laugh.

The fireflies observing the peaceful trio began circling before drifting apart. They rose slowly into the sky and mingled with the stars, becoming tiny lights that shone down upon them.

🜼 🜼 🜼