42 A Kind of... Emotion

Anita instinctively wanted to refuse the invitation, but thought about the fact that the atmosphere around Rafał was not very good at the moment, so if she started to discourage people from coming to them, the situation could become even more unpleasant.

“Fine” she agreed. “Thank you. But only until Rafał returns...”

“That is enough” Marzena smiled charmingly and they both went towards the door of the restaurant.

***

“Look out!” shouted Rafał and pulled Damian so suddenly that he did not even have time to react. All he could do was fall inertly onto Brylski.

A metal sheet with a metallic sound flew over their heads.

What had actually happened? Damian blinked his eyelids as he looked into the mesmerizingly green eyes of Rafał Bryslki, whom he had under him. What had happened? Had Rafał just saved him?

Time suddenly slowed its course. It flowed so slowly, as if it were actually standing still. There was no whirlwind, no set, just those two gorgeous green eyes and the warmth of the other man's body. The situation was somehow familiar, and yet Damian's heart beat faster this time...

At that moment, the first huge drops of rain fell. Their weight and coldness sobered Damian from his green hypnosis and brought him back to reality. And reality was that they needed shelter. Quickly.

“Damn it!” cursed Radosz and rose. He held out his hand to Rafał, and helped him up. For a moment he had the impression that an electric charge had flowed into him from Brylski. He shook off this impression. They had no time... “It will rain soon...”

“Here” suggested Rafał pointing to an old building by which Damian had talked to Mońka earlier.

The building was old and ruined, but the raindrops were falling more and more thickly and it was still far from the car.

“Let's go” agreed Damian.

The drops were already falling so densely that by the time they reached the door, they were already wet.

The building was probably a hundred years old or so. It was built of red brick, so the walls looked as stable as Gothic castles and as safe as they were. A few windows were broken and on the other side there was a door missing, so the wind blew through the spacious interior. Other windows were so dirty that it was difficult to see anything through them. Even the roof had many holes through which the rain came in. Nevertheless, the building gave them protection from the rain and wind, all they had to do was to find the right angle.

Damian looked at Rafał, who was just looking around for a good spot to hide from weather.

“Oh, that would probably be the best place” Brylski pointed at a place where the walls were covered with bright graffiti, but the rain streams coming through the hole in the roof could not reach it. Neither did the beer cans abandoned there dance in the wind.

It seemed that this corner had long ago been discovered by local people as the best place to spend time.

Damian Radosz only noticed all this out of the corner of his eye, because his gaze was caught by the red, bloody abrasion running down the corner of Rafał's hand pointing to it...

“Your hand...”

Damian felt his heart squeeze with an iron hoop at the sight of the scratches on the inside of Rafał's palm. The blood drained from his face. Brylski had hurt himself saving him from that wind-driven sheet metal... Rafał had hurt himself... because of him.

Radosz took the man's hand and began to look at it very carefully. How deep is the wound? How serious? There was also dirt from the sand on the skin that had been torn off, and it looked as if it had been driven deep into the flesh...

Rafał's hand injured because of Damian....

Ba bum!

A beautiful, heated hand, mutilated by him. For him.

Ba bum!

That wound, though it didn't look deep and serious, must have hurt. The grains of sand stuck under the skin must have been burning and pinching. And all because Damian was careless.

Ba bum, ba bum, ba bum!

Rafał was suffering because he had saved his. And yet it was Radosz who was supposed to protect Brylski! He was supposed to be his sheepdog!

Damian lifted his gaze and saw two green, mystical flames ignite over the rosy cheeks of the ruggedly handsome man.

Ba bum ba bum ba bum ba bum...

„Leave it” asked Rafał in a strangely uncertain voice and just as uncertainly withdrew his hand. “It's only a scratch. Why are you looking at me as if it was something serious?”

“I don't know," Damian admitted helplessly, feeling as if he were hanging in a thick, sweet fog of pink cotton candy. He tried to disentangle himself from it, but... “I just don't want to see you suffer.”

Brylski laughed nervously.

“It's only a scratch” he repeated shyly running his eyes from him. “I am not a little child, such trifles do not impress me.”

It's true, Rafał was not a small child, he was a grown up, beautiful man...

Wait, wait, did Damian just think of his companion as a "beautiful man?"

Ba bum ba bum ba bum...!

Damn, Rafał was really beautiful. On top of that, the raindrops had wet his T-shirt so much that it clung to his body showing that although slim, it was nonetheless beautifully sculpted and the chill that came with the wet rain made two swollen, hard points appear on the front of Rafał's T-shirt....

Wait, wait, wait! Where does Damian's gaze wander to? What is he even thinking about?

Ba bum ba bum...

Radosz forced himself to return to reality. He chased away the strange thoughts that had just started to haunt him. He must get a grip on himself immediately before he really started imagining something strange. After all, they were both men, and on top of that, Damian had always loved women. Damian just absolutely had no right to feel anything disturbingly pleasurable about another guy! He couldn't!

His heart, however, was acting a tad too strangely.

Stop it, damn it, stop it! Radosz rebuked himself, and it helped.

But only for a little while.

***

Damian touched Rafał's hand. For a moment he held it in his hand and the actor felt a warmth flow from his companion across his hand and reach all the way to his heart.

Rafał's heart moved restlessly, like a young bird trapped in a cage, feeling the breath of an approaching fire. Brylski nervously withdrew his hand not understanding what had actually happened?

Because, in fact, nothing had happened. Rafał slowly calmed his breathing. It was probably just the storm that triggered an adrenaline rush in him, and then the sheet metal that rushed towards them made his adrenaline level jump dramatically. Yes, it was just adrenaline. It was the one that made Rafał now feel excited and eager and full of vitality, like he was about to go skydiving. It was because of her that in his eyes Damian, in his rain soaked shirt, looked so handsome now.

Damian was a handsome man in general, and now, under the circumstances, with the adrenaline pumping through the blood of both of them, with the excitement of it in the air and the electricity almost palpable because of the storm around them, Rafał felt a little... aroused.

“You're not a child, of course,” Radosz answered him, “but it should be bandaged nonetheless.”

Time slowed down strangely. Rafał's heart must have beaten a thousand times before the young actor came back to reality and realized what a bizarre scene he was in,

After all, Rafał couldn't feel any of this kind of... emotion.