Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder - Part Twelve
Title: Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder
Pairing: Dom/Elijah
Rating: PG13-R, R this part (at last!)
Part: Twelve
Disclaimer: No I don't own them, yes this is made up.
Feedback: As always, any feedback (inc. CC) is welcome.
Notes: AU. Comes from a plot bunny by cara_dee that I read and couldn't stop thinking about: "A modern day beauty and the beast. Lij is in England, and Dom is a man who has been on his own for a very long time. These two, the beauty and the beast, come together, and give one another just what each need." So I adopted the bunny, and here it is. This will be a series - updates short but regular. :)
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Elijah stayed for the rest of the evening. He insisted on cooking, some sort of tomato sauce with pasta, and they talked - over everything and nothing - sitting side-by-side on the small sofa, this time with more than their knees touching, watching the fire. As night began to fall, the wind outside picked up, battering hard against the window frames, and Elijah stretched and yawned.
“I’d better get going,” he said. “I don’t really want to drive when it’s pitch black.”
Dom’s face fell involuntarily. “Oh. OK then. I...I thought you’d be staying.”
Elijah’s brilliant eyes flew to meet his.
“I don’t want to rush you,” he said gently. “If you’re not ready to go another step then that’s OK...we’ve got plenty of time.”
“I am ready!” Dom countered. “Fuck, Elijah, I’ve been ready for years!”
Elijah didn’t smile. “Honestly, Dom, don’t feel you have to, if you don’t want to. I don’t mind waiting.”
Dom sighed. “Elijah, listen to me. I’m ready. I want to...” He stopped, a slightly embarrassed flush working it’s way into his cheeks.
Now Elijah’s lips curved into a cheeky smile. “You want to...what?”
***
Dom hadn’t really imagined the sex beforehand. It started slightly awkwardly - his fingers fumbled too much to even undo the button on his jeans. It didn’t matter - Elijah’s hands were there, careful and slow but nearly too much for Dom, who was painfully hard before they even reached the bed. Elijah sprawled across the sheets on his back, expanses of silky white skin spread over slender, strong limbs. It was like fresh snow - Dom partly didn’t want to touch, in case his fingers left dirty marks.
“Come on, then,” Elijah prompted, voice light and casual, belying the state of his cock. His self-confidence was rubbing off on Dom - he managed to ignore the first prickle of shyness, and leaned over Elijah on all-fours, before dipping his head for a kiss.
“Condom?” Elijah asked eventually, as they drew apart reluctantly. His cheeks were flushed a bright pink and his eyes had darkened to almost black with arousal.
Dom could have kicked himself. He settled for slapping a hand to his forehead and a groan.
“There’s one in my car,” Elijah offered.
Dom seized the chance. “There is? Where?”
“Where do you think?” Elijah teased. “Glove compartment. The keys are in my pocket.”
Dom hopped off the bed and rummaged carelessly through the pockets of Elijah’s jeans, which had been
thrown carelessly onto the floor against the wardrobe. He drew out the keys triumphantly.
“Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back,” he ordered, racing down the stairs, only barely aware that he had sounded like a daytime television presenter introducing an ad break.
The need for speed erased all other logical thought, and he sprinted outside completely naked, opening the car and going through the glove compartment, tossing loose sheets of paper, pens, a half-eaten packet of Walkers Salt’n’Vinegar crisps, paperclips and a tube of lube before his hand landed on the condom. As an afterthought, Dom took the lube as well, and locked the car, taking the stairs back up to his bedroom three at a time.
Elijah didn’t look like he’d moved at all, though he raised his head urgently as Dom flung himself in.
“Did you get it?” he demanded, voice not so casual now.
“Yeah,” Dom said, fingers shaking again. With a resigned smile, Elijah took care of it.
***
They lay in the aftermath, like two survivors of a fatal blast, panting and clutching each other. Dom’s face was streaked with tears and sweat, while Elijah’s breath caught in his throat in soft gasps. Dom finally had the presence of mind to withdraw from the clamping heat of Elijah’s body, and flopped bonelessly down onto the mattress beside Elijah.
“...beautiful,” Elijah breathed. He was still trembling, small vibrations shaking Dom where they came into contact.
Dom tilted his head to the side, and kissed Elijah’s damp shoulder.
“You can say that again,” he said quietly.
***
When Dom woke the next morning, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was that was making him feel warm and glowing. He cracked one eye open and was met with a pale, smooth forehead. He opened the other eye and looked down on Elijah, still fast asleep, breath warm and slow on Dom’s throat. His happiness intensified.
Normally Dom would get up, but instead he just lay, soothing one hand on the hollow of Elijah’s narrow waist between his ribcage and hip bone. Elijah sighed in his sleep and unconsciously pushed his head gently into Dom’s shoulder. Dom felt a flutter of eyelashes and Elijah raised his head again, eyes opening.
“Good morning,” he whispered, giving Dom a beatific smile.
“Morning,” Dom replied in a soft murmur.
Elijah ran his hand along Dom’s, still resting on his side, and gripped gently. The weak sun streaming in through the windows - Dom had forgotten to close the curtains the night before, he’d had other, more important things on his mind - illuminated his skin in a way that reminded Dom of angels in old paintings.
Mind you, he thought wryly, he’d never been aroused by an angel before.
***
“What are you doing today?” Elijah asked over breakfast. They sat opposite each other at the small table in the kitchen, a teapot and a toast-rack between them.
“Don’t know,” Dom said, through a mouthful of toast with a thick coat of butter. “What are you doing?”
Elijah shrugged. “I might do some writing later, but apart from that, no plans.”
“It’s a lovely day,” Dom said. “I think I’ll tidy the flowerbeds or something.”
Elijah smiled and took another slice of toast. “I could sit out with you, couldn’t I?”
“You could,” Dom agreed, pouring them both another cup of tea. “So long as you wouldn’t distract me.”
Elijah giggled, ran a hand through his hair. “I think it’s a bit late for that, don’t you?”
***
Dom made a start on the garden while Elijah drove to his B+B to get changed and retrieve his laptop. The flowerbeds were a mess - some dead trunks of shrubs still remained, but Dom had largely ignored the garden over the last year or two, and the majority of the plants in the beds were weeds. Dom had sorted out a bucket, found the hoe and spade in the garage and was just setting to work at digging everything up when the blue Morris pulled back in, and Elijah got out, arms full with his laptop, notebooks and a guidebook.
“Hi!” he called, sitting on the second step to the porch and arranging the books on the step.
Dom waved absently - now he had made up his mind to sort out the flowerbeds he wanted to get started as soon as possible. He glanced up - Elijah was watching him, a fond smile on his face, but looked away when he saw Dom looking. Dom gave himself a mental shake and bent down to pull out the first of hundreds of nettles, unknowingly giving Elijah a perfect view of his behind.
It ended up being a case of Dom distracting Elijah, rather than the other way around.