Red Dirt Heart 03.5 (2 page)

Mistletoes and a broken nose.

“What else did you do?” I asked, lookin’ in the hallway. I couldn’t see anything else particularly Christmassy. But Trav was out of his jeans and wearing shorts and a t-shirt, bein’ all barefoot, like he was done for the day. “You put on a shirt, I can see that much.”

He snorted. “Well, it’s too hot for jeans and boots. And you might like me shirtless, but I don’t think Ma did.”

“She’s such a spoilsport.”

“I heard that,” Ma hollered from the kitchen.

Travis chuckled and nodded toward the lounge room. “I finished the tree,” he said and disappeared through the open doorway. I followed him to find the pine tree he’d brought in earlier now covered in tinsel, ornaments, and baubles. “I know you think the whole Christmas thing is kinda silly, but—”

“I love it,” I said. “The tree. I mean, I love what you’ve done to it.”

“I didn’t have much to work with,” he said. The corner of his mouth pulled down in a frown. “And it was all pretty old. I hung up all the things you made as a kid. I just wanted to do something.” He shrugged again. “I mean, it’s Christmas.”

“Trav.”

“And I know you guys aren’t big on the whole festive thing out here,” he said. “But I just thought it’d be nice, ya know? It’s Gracie’s first Christmas. Granted, she’s only four weeks old but that’s not the point.”

“Trav.”

“It’s about building memories, Charlie,” he said softly. “Family memories. Not just with everyone here, but
our
family. Ours start now. This is
our
first real Christmas too and I just thought it might be nice if you, you know, thought it was special too.”

I stepped in close to him and softly pressed my lips to his. “I do. And I gotta say, Trav, when you talk family as in me and you, it does somethin’ to me in here,” I said, putting his hand to my chest. “Can you feel that? Makes my heart go beat itself all outta rhythm.”

He shook his head at me. “Why do you have to go saying stuff like that?” he whispered, before he nudged his nose to mine. “Being all sweet and shit.”

“Same reason you do your nose nudgin’ thing,” I whispered back, givin’ him an almost-kiss. “But I don’t need it to be Christmas Day to remind me how lucky I am. I wake up every day with you in my bed, so I
know
how lucky I am.”

He put his hand to my face and kissed me harder. It was a deep kiss, an I-love-you kind of kiss, and just when I was imagining takin’ him into our bedroom….

He headbutted my nose.

“Ow!” he cried, taking a step back. I might have seen that he was holdin’ his foot if I weren’t looking through tears.

“What the fuck, Trav?!” I said, holding the bridge of my nose, tryin’ to ignore the blinding spear of pain that was shootin’ through my skull. My eyes were waterin’ and my nose… shit, my nose.

“Nugget bit me!”

By this time, Ma was standin’ in the doorway. “What on earth happened?”

“Nugget bit me,” he said again, still holding his foot. I could see now there was blood on his foot, seepin’ through his fingers.

“I think you broke my nose,” I told him, still holding the bridge of my nose. I could taste blood in the back of my throat. There weren’t any blood dripping out, but it sure felt broke to me.

“Come into the kitchen, both of you,” Ma said.

I followed her in, holding my nose with my head back, and Trav limped in behind us. Nugget, the little shit, was nowhere to be found. I pulled out a chair for him and me, and when we sat down, I pulled his injured foot up onto my thigh. The blood was still pourin’ freely from two very distinct puncture wounds.

“That freakin’ wombat hates me,” he said.

“No he doesn’t,” I was quick to tell him. “He just doesn’t like anyone getting too close to me.”

Ma handed me a bag of frozen peas for my nose and put a wet cloth on Trav’s foot. “Well, he got you pretty good,” Ma said. “Maybe he bit so hard ’cause he’s used to biting you when you’re wearing boots.”

“Oh no,” Travis shook his head. “He knew exactly what he was doing.”

“Does it need stitches?” I asked.

“Mm,” Ma looked closer. “Don’t think so.”

I took the bag of frozen peas from my face and looked at his foot. The bite was just down from his two smallest toes. At least the blood had stopped a bit, but the bite itself looked deep. “Did he get the bone? ‘Cause that’ll be a trip to the doctors if he did. It’ll get infected for sure.”

“Great,” Travis grumbled. “I’ll get mad-wombat disease.”

I laughed, which reminded me with another stab of pain that my nose was broken. “Ugh,” I said, putting the bag of peas back onto my face.

“I’m sorry I headbutted you,” Trav said. “I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t expecting the evil wombat to sink his fangs into me.”

“’S’okay,” I said, sounding all nasally. “I’m sorry he bit you.”

“I’ve been trying to keep him away from that tree for the last hour,” Travis said. He winced as Ma dabbed the cloth to his foot. “How’s your nose?”

I put the peas on the table and let him have a look. “Am I still beautiful?”

Travis barked out a laugh. “Oh yeah.”

Ma looked up from bathing Trav’s foot and gave my face the once over. “It’s not broken.”

It’s possible I pouted. “Feels like it.”

Ma poured some Dettol into a bowl with warm water. Travis scrunched up his nose. “What’s that stuff?”

“Disinfectant,” Ma said.

“The smell of my childhood,” I said with a smile, which of course made my entire skull hurt.

Ma lifted my hand, holding the peas back to my face. “Keep the peas on it or you’ll have two black eyes.”

Travis frowned again. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t feel bad,” I told him from behind the peas. “I’ve had worse. Hey Ma, remember that time when I was a kid and I got bucked off that bull and face-planted into the railing. Now
that
was a broken nose.”

Ma grumbled at me. “Do I ever. Your face was so swollen you looked like you fell face first into a drum of hornets.”

I lifted the peas off again. “That was fun.”

Travis raised one eyebrow. “Fun?”

“Not the face-planting. The bull riding.”

Ma gave me her best glare. “Don’t you even think about bull riding again, you hear me?”

“I wouldn’t,” I said, but I think my smile made it look like I was lyin’.

Ma held my face and inspected my nose, gently feeling along the bridge with her fingers. Then without warning or without sayin’ a damn thing, she held the back of my head in one hand, took my nose between her two fingers and yanked it upwards.

“Ow!” I yelled. “Ma!”

Then she whacked the peas back on my face with the finesse and gentleness of an unbroken brumby. “Quit your whinging, Charlie. You’ve had worse.”

All Travis could do was laugh.

“I thought you said it wasn’t broken?” I asked from behind the frozen peas. I was grateful they couldn’t see my eyes watering.

“Now it’s not,” she answered.

“Jesus H. Christ,” I mumbled. Then Ma proceeded to put some soft gauze on Travis’s foot and strapped it like he was made of glass. “How come he gets the special treatment?” Okay, so now it was possible I was sulking.

“I needed to do it quickly,” Ma replied.

Just then, George walked into the kitchen and stopped when he saw us. “Did I miss the tickets to the circus?”

“Oh har har,” I said, pulling the peas off my face to show him my nose.

“Hmm,” he pursed his lips as he inspected my face. “You’ve had worse.”

“Is there a sign out front sayin’ ‘Leave your sympathy at the door’?”

“Dunno,” George answered in that dry drawl of his. “I came in through the back.”

Travis and Ma laughed. I put the peas back on my face and ignored them all.

Oh come, all ye faithful.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have two black eyes. I didn’t even have one. Maybe just a bit of discolouration in the corners of my eyes, but there was an angry red line across the bridge of my nose. “Maybe it’ll bruise up by the morning,” I said, getting into bed.

Trav was already lyin’ down with just the sheet over him—it was too hot for anything else—and his bandaged foot sticking out the side. “How’s the foot-biter?”

“Well, he still weren’t too keen on comin’ out from behind the lounge, but he’s in bed now, all snuggled up with Rumble Bear. He said he was sorry for bitin’ ya.”

“Did he now?”

“Yep. Said he prefers the leather of your boot, for what it’s worth.”

Trav shook his head at me and his smilin’ faded to frownin’ when he looked at my nose. “Looks sore,” he said. “And I am really sorry.”

“You gonna make it up to me?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that blowjobs are good for broken noses.”

Travis snorted. “Oh, really? And where did you read that?”

“In the ‘What to do when you break your boyfriend’s nose’ handbook.”

He grinned. “Was there a chapter on feet-biting wombats?”

“Nope. All about the boyfriend. Mostly just dick-suckin’ and making him cups of tea.”

His blue eyes shone as he laughed. “Is that so?”

“Yeah. And Trav?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want a cup of tea.”

“No?”

“Well, maybe with breakfast, but not right now.”

“Right now you want the dick-sucking?”

I nodded. “It was conditional though.”

“I’m sure it was.”

“It had to be reciprocated. I’m sure there was a clause in there somewhere about if my face is too sore because of well, you know, the broken nose, then I should consider letting him… you know, do something else….”

Trav smirked. “Such as?”

I could feel myself blush. “You gonna make me say it?”

He nodded. “I’ve told you before you don’t have to be embarrassed about telling me what you want.”

I cringed. “Well, you didn’t break my arse, so I was thinkin’…”

“Yeah?”

“You could, you know, have me that way instead.”

His smile was slow and salacious. “You want me to fuck you, Charlie?” he whispered.

I swallowed hard, but managed to nod.

Trav pulled himself up against the headboard and propped a pillow behind his head. Then he patted his chest. “Straddle me,” he said. There weren’t no politeness to it, it was more a demand.

I was quick to comply. I was only wearing briefs and he pulled them down at the front and took my already-gettin’ hard dick out. He licked his lips and looked up at me. “Hold on to the headboard, Charlie,” he said gruffly, then he licked the head of my cock.

I gripped the wooden bedhead as he took me into his mouth. He put his hands on my hips and guided me, in and out, sucking me so hard.
God, it feels good
. He took me deep and slow, then sucked on the head, workin’ me for what felt like hours of heaven, yet nowhere near long enough. And then he did that thing with his tongue…

“Trav…” I tried to warn him.

He replied with a moan and dug his fingers into my hips before exploring just that little bit further. He was reachin’ around so he could tease my arse and balls before takin’ me all the way.

And I was done. That feelin’ of pure pleasure, wound tight in my balls, lurched, and my orgasm barrelled through me. Travis moaned as he drank me down and my whole body buzzed from the aftershocks.

I all but fell to the side of him. My muscles were spent from hangin’ onto the headboard so tight, and I didn’t even feel Trav move until he pulled me around like I weighed next to nothing. I was flat on my stomach—still all heavy and boneless—my briefs were still pulled down, and he was pourin’ lube over my arse. All I could do was moan and raise my hips for his fingers to stretch me.

I loved this. I loved giving myself to him like this. He could do with me what he wanted, and I would let him. I was his. He owned me, in every sense of the word. And after a time, when I was all but beggin’ him, he put his cock to my hole and pushed inside me. Slow and deep, he took his time, and took me to that place—that place of bliss and stars—where only he could take me.

His legs were on the outside of mine, one of his arms wound under my chest, and he lifted my head back so he could kiss my neck and whisper dirty things in my ear.

Oh, how he knew I loved his dirty mouth.

“This is what you wanted,” he breathed. His lips were hot on my ear, his cock was deep in my arse. “You love it when I fuck you like this.”

I whined. He knew damn well I did….

“I love being inside you,” he moaned. He leaned back a bit, pushing deeper inside me still, and ran his hands down my arms. He threaded his fingers with mine above our heads and rocked his hips. I lifted my arse so he could thrust a little harder. “Jesus Charlie, I’m gonna come.”

“Please.” I don’t think I meant to say it out loud.

His grip on me tightened and he thrust harder and harder, deeper and deeper until he cried out and stilled. I could feel him pulse inside me as he came, and finally he collapsed on top of me.

“Fuck.”

I chuckled. “Yep.”

He kissed my shoulder with smiling lips, but never moved to get off me. After a while, he asked, “How’s your nose?”

In that moment, I could feel nothing but spongy bones and a pleasant ache in my arse. “What nose?”

He snorted and rolled to the side, taking me with him. He tightened his arm around me, and I immediately wanted him back inside me. The longer I lay there, the more I wanted it. I wiggled my arse back onto his softening cock. He sounded sleepy. “Again?”

“Are you Santa Claus?”

He chuckled into my shoulder blade. “You mean, do I come only once?”

I smiled and ground my arse onto his dick. He slid into me easier the second time, and I can truly vouch, that Travis Craig ain’t nothing like Santa.