Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 12:21:49 +0200
From: Noel Welch <nwelch247@gmail.com>
Subject: To Have Faith: Chapter 5

All the usual disclaimers apply here guys; I'm not going to bore with
something you've read a hundred times.

All Rights Reserved

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The dynamic duo is back

Chapter 5

On the flight, Lucas entertained me with stories of his family; he has six
brothers and one sister. "It must be hell for her," I remarked. "It is," he
said with a grin. He backtracked quickly though when he saw the look I shot
him, "but it's mostly the others, not me," he said.

"Tell me about your family."

"Well there's not much to say really, my mom's a doctor, my biological
father is absent, my mother recently remarried. I have two sisters,
Christine and Marina, both eleven and irritating as hell. But everybody is
back home in South Africa."

"Aha! That's where you're from! You sound like a weird mixture of English
and Australian. I initially thought you were from Australia, but I can
actually understand what you're saying so you couldn't possibly be
Australian."

"Yup, I'm from South Africa. My mom is French and my dad's Scottish, but I
was born in South Africa, so ya."

"What does 'ya' mean?"

"It's the South African equivalent of the American 'yeah'"

"Oh, hey there's the Eiffel Tower," he said as we were nearing Charles
Gaulle.

"It always looks beautiful, no matter how many times I've seen it," I said,
looking at the Eiffel through the small window.

"Lucas, what do you say I show you around Paris? I've come here almost
every year of my life to visit my grandparents, so I know my way around," I
asked with a smile. "I would love that Alistair. Whew, I thought I would
have to survive on the streets of Paris alone!"

"Shut up, I need to go tell Callum of our plans."


A flight attendant notified the passengers that the flight was over. I went
to check on Callum in first-class, "Hey Cal, I need to ask you something,"
I said a bit cautiously while sitting next to him, unsure if he was still
angry at me or not. I found him with his earphones in, eyes closed. I
touched his arm, he opened one eye but at the sight of me, woke up
fully. "Yeah?"

"I just wanted to ask if I could show Lucas around the city?"

"Alistair, you know you don't have to ask me."

"I know, I want to, it's just that this trip was kinda supposed to be me
and you, you know? And now Lucas is in the equation."

"I'm absolutely knackered, I'm going to go and home and sleep. I'll send
someone to pick you up once you're done," he said while we were standing
up. "You forgot something Alistair," he said with a smirk. "What?" I
asked. "How could you leave without giving your best friend a hug?"

"Oh God," I said while walking into his outstretched arms. Mmmm, I could
definitely get used to this, I thought to myself, while feeling Callum's
cut chest pressed against mine.


I returned to Lucas, "Let's go."


We dropped off Lucas' luggage at his hotel and emerged from the hotel,
excited to explore Paris. The day passed by quickly, I showed Lucas all the
tourist attractions, the Champs-Ellyses, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel
Tower, we even went for a tour of the Louvre. It was early evening and
Lucas and I were leaning on each other, slumped on a bench in
exhaustion. "I didn't know Paris was this big."

"I forgot Paris was this big."

"So hungry," he groaned in reply.

I chuckled; there was a cafe across the street. "C'mon cowboy, let's go get
some food in you," I said while pulling him to his feet. We entered the
cafe, a petite waitress approached us, "Bonjour, welcome to Chocolat. My
name is Nadine; would you like a table for two?" "Oui, merci." She looked
surprised, staring at my very American companion then looked back at me, at
that moment I understood, Americans in general were disliked in France-
Europe as a whole actually. They were generally considered to be an
uncouth, loud, boisterous people. The French especially considered them to
be unsophisticated. "Le table, s'il vous plait," (the table, please) I
said. "Pardonnez-moi! Par ici, s'il vous plait," (Sorry! This way
please). She led us to a candlelight table by a window which overlooked the
street. "Well, this is romantic," I said in jest, as we sat
down. "Actually, it's exactly what I wanted," he said while looking into my
eyes.

I looked down, blushing. I didn't think a guy that looked like Lucas would
be even remotely interested in a guy like me. "I hesitated at first 'cause
I thought you were with that guy, but I've never met someone like you,
there's certainly no one like you in Texas." He chuckled. "Someone like
me?" I was curious. "You're smart and funny and kind and just an amazing
guy." He looked a bit flustered. All day, even while he was staring in awe
at the Eiffel Tower, he seemed so confident and self-assured, and now he
was pouring out his heart to me. I don't think my face could get any more
red.

"Not to mention the fact that you're hot," he said with a wicked
grin. "Shut up Lucas." At this moment a waiter appeared at our table, he
asked if we wanted to order, I quickly scanned my menu, I didn't even get a
chance to look through it 'cause earlier Lucas seemed to be on a mission to
see how many times he could make me blush in 10 minutes. Lucas ordered the
American cheeseburger with a beer, while I ordered a Cajun & lemon chicken
burger, sticking to an orange juice. "So since you're from South Africa,
what were you up to in England?"

"I actually go to school there, well, I'll be going to school there."

"Why so far from home?"

"My stepdad suggested it, I thought about it and I decided to take him up
on his offer."

"I finished high school last year, I'd always wanted to travel so I decided
to take a gap year and now I'm backpacking around Europe." He grinned.

While we were talking, he managed to take my hand in his without my
noticing, the sly dog, I thought to myself, though I made no move to remove
my hand. Unfortunately, the waiter decided to return with our orders, we
reluctantly separated. As we tucked in, I asked, "So, does the cheeseburger
live up to your high expectations?" "It's okay, it needs to be more
American, how's yours?" "Mine's pretty good, not spicy enough though." We
continued to eat in silence- though we hadn't known each other for all that
long, it was comfortable. The waiter came back with dessert menus, "we
won't be needing those," he said to the waiter. "We won't?" I asked in
confusion, Dessert was my favourite part of the meal, I ate the main course
only as a formality and I really wanted to try their specialty, gateau
chocolat. "I wanted us to go for a walk in the park." He looked at me,
hoping I wouldn't say no. I relented and reluctantly asked for the bill,
the make-out session you're going to have better be worth it, I'm missing
out on some gateau! my subconscious bitterly said. He was about to open his
mouth and protest but I said, "Before you say anything, I brought you here
so I'm paying. No arguments." "Fine." He didn't look too happy about this,
what is it with guys and paying the bill? I'm not some girl, contrary to
popular belief, fags actually like paying the bill (well, independent fags
do), only once in a while 'cause it's really gentlemanly when your guy pays
the bill.


We walked through the park in silence, appreciating each other and our
beautiful surroundings, hand in sweaty hand, Lucas was the culprit, while I
was as cool as a cucumber (I never understood that particular saying, I
mean, cucumbers aren't known to be particularly cool). While there were
lamps illuminating the park, they were sparse in this part of the park; but
the light of the moon and the stars was sufficient for us to see our
surroundings, "Let's sit," he said abruptly, stopping by a large oak,
interrupting me from my reverie, I sat down beside him, leaning against the
tree, shoulder to shoulder. "There's the Big Dipper." He pointed to a
cluster of stars that some idiot a long time ago thought looked like a
giant bear, "And that's the North Star." He pointed to a bright star that
was north (obviously) of us.


"So," I said, breaking the silence as we admired the beautiful night sky,
"are all rednecks amateur astronomers, or is it just you?" I asked with a
cheeky grin. "Why you little shit, I'll show you a redneck!" I giggled as
he launched himself at me, we wrestled light-heartedly, rolling around on
the grass, eventually he won our playful fight for dominance and I ended up
on my back with him straddling me, his legs in between mine, my hands being
held by one of his while his other hand was under my t-shirt tickling my
ribs. I was out of breath from laughter, "Stop, stop!" I said in an
inappropriately breathless voice. He stopped, his hand still against my
heart. The park was silent; his heavy breathing was the only sound I heard.

"Wait, why did you stop?" I gave him a perplexed look. And then it hit me,
I let out a surprised "oh": how fucking obtuse can you be?! my subconscious
yelled at me, God, I swear you were born blonde, I'm too fabulous to be
stuck in someone so dumb, but with the economy the way it is, I'm stuck
here! it raved. I blushed furiously as I realised our position, I don't
anyone has ever -or will ever might I add- given me a look as desirous and
lust-filled as he did in that moment. I watched as his head lowered slowly
towards mine, we were almost nose-to-nose at that point.

He bridged the now tiny gap between us and captured my lips in his in
almost aggressive manner. He kissed me furiously, he bit my bottom lip
softly, at my moan, his tongue darted in, exploring my mouth. His hand was
exploring my hairless chest; he found my nipple and tweaked it, eliciting
another moan from me. After a few minutes of this, we broke apart, my
forehead against his, I'm sure everyone in the park could hear our heavy
breathing, "We should stop. We're in the middle of a park. On the grass
like some idiotic, hormonal teenagers." My voice thick with arousal.

While I was talking, he dotted my face with kisses, he moved lower, kissing
my jaw, moving upwards towards my ear, where he said, "I don't know about
you, but I'm feeling pretty hormonal right now." I involuntarily shivered
at the feeling of his breath against my ear. He bit my ear lobe, I groaned,
he moved downwards, kissing and nipping at my neck now. "Fuck," I said in a
low voice. I was loving every moment of it, but when he started kissing my
neck, things ramped up a notch. My neck was like my spot, for example: you
get guys who just love having their nipples played with, if they were
nipple guys, I was a neck guy, it sounds a tad bit weird when I say it like
I am right now but I love having my neck kissed and nipped and all the
other crazy things Lucas was doing to me. At this point, my dick was
uncomfortably hard in my boxer briefs and leaking precum like crazy. I
unconsciously started grinding my crotch into his; he let a low growl and
attacked my throat with renewed vigour. He was distracted, I broke my hands
free and felt up his muscular back while he was grinding his hard crotch
against mine. My hands moved downwards seemingly of their own accord and
gripped his ass as he ground himself against me. I felt them clench and
relax, it turned me on even more -if that was possible at this point. I
heard some leaves softly rustle a few metres to the right of me, I looked,
it was nothing but another oak tree, surrounded by some shrubs. Eh,
probably a squirrel or something, I thought, but something didn't feel
right, I had this persistent, vague feeling someone was watching
us. "Lucas, cool off for a bit." "Wha?" "I don't want to cum in my pants
while I'm in public." He gave me a look of equal parts wickedness and lust,
that made me blush, the cause being that a part of me secretly wanted us to
continue. I sat up, and inspected the source of the sound I heard earlier,
the deep shadows surrounding the tree seemed to contain something, I
squinted, I saw a vague human shape. WTF, was this perv watching us, I
thought in embarrassment, alarmed, I approached the tree carefully, a
figure in black came out of the shadows, surprising Lucas.

"Who the fuck are you?! Some sort of perv who gets off on watching guys
make out?!" Lucas was extremely angry, he looked like he wanted to beat up
this mysterious man, I held Lucas' bicep, restraining him. The man ignored
him and instead turned towards me, "Alistair McLeod," he said in a deep
unaccented voice. "Yes," I answered cautiously.

"Sir, I've been employed by Mr. Richards to be your temporary bodyguard."

"Alistair, what is this guy saying?"

I ignored him, my mind was racing and my blood was slowly starting to boil.

"Are you the only one?"

"Yes sir, my partner is stationed over there." He gestured towards a man
sitting on a bench reading a newspaper about 20 metres from us.

"We're also to make sure you reach Mr. Richards' house safely."

"Of course you are," I said between clenched teeth.

"Lucas babe, looks like I got to leave." I gave him kiss, it was meant to
be short but he deepened it and we kissed passionately for a few minutes. I
broke apart from him, embarrassed and blushing at our public show; then I
remembered it was always a public show, and I reddened even more.

He pulled me to him, we embraced, "Don't be embarrassed, when can I see you
again?" he whispered in my ear. "In a few days, I promise."

We separated.

I looked at the -I refuse to call my bodyguard- bodyguard, "We drop him off
before we go to Mr. Richards', understood?"

"He's staying at the Holiday Inn on 92 Rue de Vaugirard," I said to the
guard.

"Understood."


I walked out of the park with Lucas by my side and the two bodyguards
trailing behind us. "You're really hot when you're angry, you know that?"

"Shut up Lucas."

"Yes sir." I could hear the grin in his voice. We were near the street now.

The guards walked past us to their car, a black Mercedes S-class, one
opened a door for me and Lucas. Before I entered the car, I knocked on the
window, it was quite thick and heavily tinted. Bulletproof. This is
ridiculous; who does Callum think he is! He hired guards to watch over me
on my date with Lucas, like Lucas is some kind of criminal! When I get to
that bloody house I'm going to rip him a new one so badly he won't be able
to look me in the eye for a week, I fumed silently. Lucas was rubbing my
thigh in comforting circles. "As much I don't want to say this, what
happened was actually a blessing in disguise, things were getting a bit out
of control."

"I was wondering how far I could take things with you before you said
stop."

I mock-gasped, "What kind of Southern gentleman are you?" His hand was
slowly rising.

"The horny kind." He massaged my now hard dick. I let out a surprisingly
loud groan, I clapped my hands to my mouth, shit, I thought, I looked to
the front in panic, only to see there was a privacy screen up, like the
ones you find in limousines and such. Two can play this game, I thought to
myself. I boldly gripped his tool through his jeans. Clearly he wasn't
wearing briefs because his dick slid down the leg of his tight jeans; we
were in the dark so I couldn't really tell how long it was, but it was
quite thick. I slowly rubbed it, up and down, he let out a hiss, it was
almost a competition to see who would cum first, and renewed his efforts,
rubbing my dick while sucking on my neck, I was leaking precum like a
tap. I was going to lose it pretty soon if I didn't do something. I
discreetly started unbuttoning his jeans while he was distracted, slipped
my hand down his jeans and fervently massaged his dick through the thin
fabric of his boxers. He let out a surprised moan, panting, he lay back and
I continued giving him a hand job. He was now panting louder, his dick
became engorged, "Fuck!" he yelled as he came. We didn't even get the
chance to relax as the car came to a stop. The partition slid down, Lucas
hastily buttoned up his jeans. "Sir, we've arrived at the hotel."

I gave Lucas a kiss on the cheek, "Bye farm boy, hope your jeans aren't
stained too noticeably," I whispered in his ear.

"Don't worry; I'll be sure to return the favour." He exited the car, I
watched him walk into the lobby of the hotel.


"Where are we going anyways?"

"To Mr. Richards' house in Troyes."

Troyes was a quaint town in the Champagne-Ardennes region of France, east
of Paris, so that meant it would take almost 2 hours to get there. I whiled
away the time by browsing on my phone.


"Sir... sir, we've arrived," said one guard. I drowsily opened my eyes,
must've fallen asleep, I thought. I woke up instantly when I realised where
we were. My earlier rage returned to me in full force. Callum came out of
the house, wearing pyjama pants and a robe, his chest bare. As angry as I
was at that moment, I had to admit how undeniably sexy he was. I approached
him, my strides long, I seriously considered punching him, but decided
against it at the last moment. "We. Need. To. Talk." I punctuated my words
with hard pokes to his chest. Callum stayed outside to talk to the
guards. I walked past him in quite an undignified huff. Inside the house I
found a set of wooden sliding doors were to my left and stairs to my right
with a hallway in front of me. I opened the sliding doors; I entered what
looked to be Callum's father's study. I sat down on one of the stuffy
armchairs and waited. I heard Callum come into the house about 15 minutes
later. He entered the study with an unconcerned air about him, "Explain
yourself."

My voice cold as ice. "I hired two bodyguards to discreetly watch over you
throughout the day," he explained as if it were the most obvious thing in
the world. "Do not patronise me Callum. Why though, why the fuck would you
do something like that?! What normal person does shit like that?!" I
shouted at him. "You just met that guy Alistair! You met him less than 24
hours yet you spent the whole day with him traipsing around Paris! Think
for a second Alistair, instead of just blindly trusting everyone! He could
have been a serial killer for all you know! You know next to nothing about
that guy! What I did, I did for you, Alistair."

His words hit me hard, "Did you ever stop to think that I can take care of
myself, I have a black belt in karate, and I think I'd be able to knock out
Lucas if necessary, in addition to that, my grandparents live in Paris, so
think I can get around," I said acidly, "When will you realise that I'm not
some china doll that you can mollycoddle, while I may be more trusting than
others, I am not oblivious to the world around me. If you ever do something
like this again, this-," I gestured between us, "will be over. Is that
understood, Richards?" Unbeknownst to me, while I was talking, Callum
 was coming closer and closer to me until he stood an arm's length from me,
I backed away from him. I was tired, it was 3 in the morning, and I did not
have the inclination to be ensnared in Callum's mind games. My emotions
frayed, I was feeling vulnerable. No, I don't want to be over- analysing
his every single touch or action towards me. I don't want to be
second-guessing my feelings towards him or his towards me - fuck, I don't
even want to have feelings for him.

"Stop. Don't come closer Callum." He didn't heed my words, "Stop, please,"
I whispered. He stopped where he was, a metre away from me. His touch was
bad for me, I let my guard down, it made me feel safe, I couldn't think
straight when he was this close to me, much less when he was touching me. I
backed away. Hit the empty fireplace's mantle behind me.

A pained look stretched across his face, "Don't do this Alistair, don't
shut me out."

A sigh escaped me, "I just need time." My voice barely above a whisper. I
walked out, brushing past him in the process, reminding me what I was
leaving. I opened the sliding doors, slipped out, turned around, saw
him. He looks so crestfallen, I thought. I almost gave in and ran to him. I
steeled myself and shut the doors. This was the part where I was supposed
to storm into my bedroom in a flurry of anger and hurt, except I didn't
know where my bedroom was, great going, my subconscious sneered at me. I
followed the hallway, passed the kitchen, and came across a door where the
hallway turned right into the family room. I opened the door, alas, a
bedroom, my subconscious said drily. It was indeed a bedroom, I trudged
towards the bed, exhausted at the day's events. I took off my clothes; I
noticed a bit belatedly that there was a pair of pyjama pants, folded
neatly, on the bed. Completely naked -I slept sans underwear, I found it
comfortable- I put on the pyjama bottoms, threw the throw pillows off the
bed, got in and tucked myself in. As exhausted as I was, I just wasn't
sleepy, my mind was still whirring, recapping the day, analysing, sorting,
evaluating today's events. I evaluated my feelings for Callum. They were
dangerous, he's straight, I berated myself. He's just gone through a messy
break-up and he needs a friend to lean on. A friend, that's it
Alistair. Nothing more, and that won't change -as much as I'd want it
to. Thoughts raced through my head. Tomorrow (well, today) is a new day. I
heard my bedroom door open and close. Soft footsteps. I felt Callum slide
into bed with me, felt him gently pull me towards him. We were spooning
now. His naked chest against mine, his breath against my neck. I was tense
at first but relaxed at his touch. I couldn't help the little sigh of
content that escaped my lips.



Hey guys! I am really sorry I haven't been able to update recently, my
little brother was running around with my laptop, slipped and fell, my
laptop flew from his hands and crashed onto the tiled floor (RIP my
Toshiba; 2011-2012). It was all very dramatic, moving right along though,
I'm now using a friend's laptop until I can get a new one. At least I'll be
able to post regularly (hopefully) from now on. There wasn't much Callum in
this, but I hope you enjoyed Lucas! E-mail me your thoughts on the story or
any thoughts really, if you're thinking about what to have for dinner I
WANT TO KNOW, but keep in mind that this is meant to be a romance, not
smut. I'm trying to assemble a sort of cast for this story but so far
Callum is Alex Pettyfer (That man is sex on legs). When I post the next
chapter, the full cast will be included. Alternatively, you can follow me
on twitter: @ThatsSoTristan. And remember, my e-mail address is up there
for a reason, don't be a stranger :)

P.S. If any of you guys are in Johannesburg, South Africa, I'd love to meet
you, I need more gay friends in my life plus I'm single ;)