The Way to a Man's Heart

Chapter 31

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

This is a continuation of chapter 28.

Pavel's POV

I quickly rose to my feet after Dome reached his climax. I supported his weight when I felt his whole body go limp against my chest. I could still feel some of his juices trickling down his thighs against my own thighs as I held him close.

I enveloped him in my arms, and without stopping to think I whispered into his ear, "I love you, Dome."

Suddenly without warning he started to sob against my chest.

I lifted his chin with one finger so that I could look into his face, my heart beating awfully fast.

"What is it, Dome?" I asked.

For some reason, my intuition was telling me that it was something I should worry about because instead of replying to me, he turned his face away from me. He could not look me in the eye.

"Dome?" I prompted when he continued to be quiet and to keep his face hidden from me.

After what seemed to be an eternity, he finally started to talk.

"I ... I ..." he was trying to talk between sobs. "I am unable to love you back, Pavel."

He was crying in earnest now, and I found myself crying as well because I could not help from feeling emotional.

"I'm not asking you to love me back, Dome," I said, almost in a whisper, because my voice was having a hard time coming out of my throat, because of the sharp pain that I was feeling in my chest. "All I ask is your permission to let me love you."

"No! No! It's not fair to you, Pavel," he said, still talking between sobs, "You are a good man. You deserve to be loved by someone whose heart is a hundred percent free to love you."

"Listen, Dome," I said, placing both of my hands on either side of his face. "I'm not asking for a hundred percent. I'm not even asking for one percent. Please, just let me love you, that's all I ask, Dome, please."

I felt his arms go around me. I took it as his way of telling me that he was okay with my request.

This time I was the one who went limp in his arms.

"Let's dry ourselves up and have the breakfast that's waiting for us," he said, turning the shower knob off.

"Yes, let's eat in our birthday suits," I said with a chuckle, feeling things going back to normal.

He gave my back a playful slap, saying, "I omitted to say that we should put our clothes back on because it's understood, you cheeky brat."

"But seriously, I'm really hungry now and can't be bothered to stop and put my clothes on," I said. "I'm just gonna wrap my towel around my waist and go straight to the kitchen."

"Then I'm gonna do the same," he said, his voice sounding playful.

He plugged the electric kettle into the outlet in one corner of the kitchen counter.

I placed the platter with the scrambled eggs into the microwave to heat it because it had gone cold during our time in the shower.

I then took six slices of bread and placed them into my toaster oven.

The microwave and the toaster oven dinged at the exact same time as my front door dinged.

I did not stop to think that I still only had my towel wrapped around my waist.

I went straight to the door and opened it.

Tae stood just outside my door.

"Tee asked me to come over to bring you this binder with fabric cuttings," Tae said. "He wants you to go through them quickly and choose which ones he will instruct his father's factory workers to ..."

"Pavel, coffee, tea, or me?" Dome asked playfully as he walked from behind the kitchen divider still with only his towel wrapped around his waist and into the living room in full view of Tae.

Tae and Dome gasped at the exact same time.

Tae was in the act of handing over the binder to me but he let go of it before I could grasp it.