Blood & Milk (23 page)

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The hotel itself was a four-star place, fancy as hell compared to what we’d lived in for the last year. The poor girl behind the counter, with her perfect hair and make-up and neatly pressed uniform, looked at me like I was some hobo off the streets. I made a very quick phone call to my bank back in Australia to make sure they hadn’t frozen any of my accounts, which they hadn’t. Thank God.

Luckily for us, Doctor Tungu did most of the talking to the hotel reception. He asked for some clothes from the gift shop, all extra small in size, and he even ordered room service to be delivered. He didn’t ask what we liked, he just ordered a range of nutritionally balanced food. I didn’t argue. I didn’t have the energy.

“Are there personal products in the gift shop?” I asked.

Doctor Tungu nodded. “Go ahead and get what you need.”

I took Damu with me into the small souvenir shop. There was a small range of personal hygiene items; this place was, after all, the only convenience store for miles. I grabbed toothbrushes, toothpaste, a hairbrush, shampoo, deodorant, soap. There wasn’t any lube, but there was a small tube of 100% aloe gel, and figuring it would be good for Damu’s eye as well, I grabbed two.

Damu was quiet, taking everything in with wide eyes, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was all new to him. Not just the products on the shelves and the artificial lighting, but the procedure of buying goods. “Remember when I was teaching the kids and we would pretend to buy rice with rocks as money?”

He nodded.

“Well, this is kind of like that. Except my money is in this card.” I held up my credit card. “Well, the money is in the bank, which is a place that holds all the money. And when the lady behind the counter puts my card into the machine, it tells the bank to take the money from me and give it to her.”

I figured that was the easiest way to explain electronic funds transfer. I gathered I’d be explaining a lot of things to Damu in the future, much like how he explained things to me when I first arrived in his world. He wasn’t stupid, far from it. It’s just that he was learning new things. Like I’d literally landed him in a different world and had to explain things from scratch.

I handed over my purchases to the lady behind the counter, and sighed with relief when my card worked. If my bank had frozen my accounts or cancelled my card sometime in the last year, I’d have been screwed.

She handed me the room key, and Doctor Tungu seemed pleased. “I’ll show you to your room.” We followed him to the furthest room in the complex. He smiled as I slid the key card into the slot and the door pushed open. “This room is one of the older ones, but I figure you won’t mind. And there is just one bed. It’s a double. I can organise a pull-out cot if you prefer, but something tells me it won’t be necessary.”

“Oh, I um…” Shit, I wasn’t sure how to answer.

The kind doctor just smiled. “I’ll come and see you in the morning. Your food will be delivered on the hour, shower, eat, sleep.” He gave a bow of his head to Damu before walking back the way we’d come.

“Doctor Tungu,” I called out. He stopped and turned. “Thank you. For everything.”

He waved me off. “Don’t mention it,” he replied.

Damu and I watched him walk away, then we went inside. It was a small room, but huge in comparison to Damu’s hut. It was about four metres squared, with a double bed, a small round table with two chairs, and a glass sliding door that opened onto a patio overlooking the Serengeti.

I threw my purchases onto the bed and let my backpack slip off my shoulder. Behind me was a door that led to the ensuite bathroom. But the wardrobe door was a full-length mirror. I stood there, staring back at the strange reflection, still not fully believing the man looking back at me was actually me.

I had to wonder what my doctor back home would think if she could see me now. Actually, what anyone from back home would think if they could see me now…

I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it onto the bathroom floor. The bones in my shoulders stuck out, I could see my collarbones, sternum, and ribs. My skin was ingrained with dirt and my hair was filthy.

Damu stood beside me. “You are sad?”

“No. I’m just really tired,” I replied weakly. “I’ve lost a lot of weight.”

Damu stared at me in the mirror. “You look the same to me.”

I smiled and toed out of my joggers and unrolled the waistband of my shorts, letting them slide right off my hips. I kicked them onto the tiles as well, standing completely naked in front of the mirror. I stared at how my hip bones jutted out, how my thighs were almost as thin as my calves.

I noticed Damu staring at my naked reflection. His eyes raked over me. “Heath Crowley, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to have the longest shower in the history of the world,” I said, collecting my toiletries off the bed and stepping into the small bathroom. Then I remembered… “Oh.”  I threw the soap and shampoo onto the shower floor and pulled Damu into the ensuite with me. “This is called a basin or a vanity.” I turned the tap on and smiled at his expression as he watched the water run. “This is a toilet. You pee and poop and the toilet paper is to wipe your arse when you’re done.” I lifted the toilet seat and started to urinate, and the look of shock on Damu’s face was almost comical.

“You not do that inside! In the water!”

I smiled as I flushed the toilet. “Yes, you do.”

He stared as the water flooded the bowl, swirled, and disappeared, completely amazed. “Where does it go?”

“I’ll explain all that later,” I said. “I want to show you the best part.” I turned to the shower and turned the taps. “This is called a shower. And dear God, I’ve missed this.”

He watched the water cascade from the shower rose and how it ran down the drain and slowly put his left hand into the spray. I took his right hand and gently unclasped his splint, then pulled at his shuka, letting it fall from his body. “What are you doing?” he whispered.

“I want you to join me.”

“In the shower?”

I nodded, then pulled at the material straps of his cod piece. I stepped into the shower, letting the warm water hit my chest and then my face. I groaned. “God, that feels so good.”

When I turned around, Damu was behind me. I’d never seen him unabashedly naked in the daylight before, nor him me. Sure, we’d seen each other’s bodies at the river, but this was different. This was close up and personal, with no fear of being seen.

There would be time for closer inspections later, for now, I needed to scrub my whole body. I moved aside and pulled Damu under the shower spray while I soaped up.

I scrubbed the cake of soap up my arms, over my chest and down my legs; the bubbles on my skin were a dirty brown. The water at my feet swirled brown, and I scrubbed and scrubbed at my skin. When I looked up at Damu, he stood under the water, seemingly not interested in the shower at all, because he couldn’t take his eyes off me. “Let me wash off,” I said softly.

We traded places again and I rinsed the soap off. Then I put my head under, lathered up shampoo and scrubbed my fingers into my scalp. I could literally feel grains of dirt lifting from my scalp and groaned again as the water rinsed me clean. I had my eyes closed and my head back under the water, letting the shampoo rinse out, when Damu’s hand touched my chest.

I opened my eyes, but his eyes were transfixed at the bubbles running down my skin. It was like he just had to touch them.

I took the soap and ran it over his chest, down his arms, and I turned him around so I could wash his back. His skin was so dark, so beautiful in the daylight, I couldn’t help but press my lips to his shoulder. Then I went to my knees and washed his legs. “Turn around?” I asked. My voice was thick with desire.

He did as I asked and gasped when he saw me on my knees. I was looking straight at his cock. He was half-hard. His shaft was dark and long, thin and perfect. His balls were up tight, and my mouth watered with the need to taste him.

“Heath Crowley,” he whispered, and his voice hitched. His left hand threaded through my hair, and I looked up at him. His eyes were black, his lips parted, and just when I was about to lean in and take his dick into my mouth, he lifted me to my feet and crashed his mouth to mine.

He pressed me against the tiles, his left hand cradled my neck, lifting my jaw so he could kiss me properly. He kissed me so deeply, so thoroughly, my eyes rolled back in my head and my knees went weak.

Then I remembered that the doctor had ordered room service. Reluctantly, I pulled my mouth from his. “Our food will be here soon. I don’t think they should find us like this.”

Damu took an immediate step back, out of the stream of water, but I slid my hand around his neck and drew him in for another kiss. “After we eat, you can have me in bed. I want you inside me tonight.”

He gasped out a groan. “Heath Crowley, you should not say such things to me.”

I smiled at him and handed him the soap. “Wash my back for me?”

I turned around, and he washed me like I’d just washed him. His hands ran over my arse, and I heard his breath hitch.

“You like taking showers?” I asked.

He barked out a laugh. “I’m not sure if it’s very good or if it’s torture.”

I laughed at that and turned around to wash the soap off my back. I let my head fall back into the water once more, before trading places with him again so he could rinse off. “We can shower together again later tonight if you want.”

He nodded keenly. “I want.”

I reached past him, our bodies close, and whispered, “Then you shall have.” I shut the water off. He let out a rush of breath over my neck, making me shiver. “We better get out of here or the food service people will be in for a shock.”

Reaching out, I grabbed two towels and handed one to Damu. I dried myself, and he followed my lead, using the towel as I did. When I was dry, I wrapped the towel around my waist, then I helped Damu tie his off in the same fashion. The white terry-towelling looked remarkable against his smooth and beautiful skin.

Before I could get carried away in admiring his body and wondering what his skin tasted like after a shower, I held up the toothbrushes and toothpaste. “Remember when you first showed me how to clean my teeth with o’remiti?”

He smiled warily. “Yes?”

“Now it’s your turn.”

His eyes went to the tube of Colgate. “Oh.”

I chuckled, and after ripping open the toothbrush packages, I squeezed a small amount of the toothpaste on each. “We wet it first. I don’t know why. We just do,” I said, holding it under the tap for half a second. “Then we do this.” I started to brush my teeth, and although it wasn’t a taste I’d had in what felt like forever, it was a familiar comfort. “This is good,” I said with my toothbrush still in my mouth. “Come on, your turn.”

He held the toothbrush like it would electrocute him, and after watching me for a little while, he tried it. He only did about three rotations before his whole face contorted like he’d sucked on a lemon. “Bad, bad, bad.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I pointed to the mirror. “Is that what my face looked like when I tried o’remiti?”

He glared at me, which made me laugh some more. I spat and rinsed in the sink, then Damu did the same. “Not good. How is it a cold spice?”

I chuckled. Cold spice was actually a pretty good way to describe toothpaste. I pecked my lips to his and hummed. “Mmm, minty.”

I unfolded the shirt on the bed and pulled it over my head. It was still too big, but it was new and clean, and it felt nice. I pulled on the new shorts, two sizes down from what I used to wear, and they buttoned easily. I looked like a walking advertisement for the hotel, but I was scrubbed clean and I was warm, and I was with Damu. Nothing else really mattered.

A knock on the door startled Damu. “It’s just room service,” I said. “They’re bringing food.”

I went and opened the door and was met with a smiling lady holding a tray of covered plates. “I bring in for you,” she said, her English just fine.

I held the door open for her, and when I followed her in, I found the room empty and the bathroom door half-closed.

When the lady had gone, I slowly opened the ensuite door. Damu, still wearing just a towel, tried to look around me to see if anyone was there. “It’s fine,” I told him. “It’s just us now.”

He breathed in a visible sigh of relief, and it made my heart hurt. I understood it. I just didn’t like it.

“From now on, Damu,” I said, taking his injured hand. I gently refixed the splint and tightened the straps. “From now on, you don’t need to be afraid. In this country, we still have to be careful, of course, but no one knows us. To the outside world, I’m just a tourist and you’re my guide. That’s all they need to know, and what we do is just between us, okay?” I leaned up on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

He gave me a small smile and nodded. “Okay.”

“You hungry?” I asked. “Because I am.” I didn’t wait for him to reply. I took his left hand and led him to a chair at the table. I pulled my seat right in close to him, my knees on the outside of his, and took the lid off the first plate. It was grilled chicken and salad, and it smelled incredible. I cut into it and stabbed a piece onto the fork and put it to his lips. He slowly opened for me, and I slid the fork inside his mouth and watched as his lips closed around it. He chewed slowly, his eyes never left mine.