The Lotus Thief novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: What the Mushrooms Did

Ton looked at him.

The fire was between them and the bud was between them and neither of them moved.

Then Bua got up and came around the bud and stood over him.

His chest was going up and down too fast.

"We should stop," Ton said.

"Say it again and I will."

Ton didn't say it again.

Bua knelt down and took his face in both hands and kissed him.

It was not careful. It was a mouth that had been holding itself shut all day.

Ton made a sound into it and got his hands in Bua's hair and pulled.

Bua came down on top of him and drove him onto his back in the leaves.

The weight of him was enormous and hot and Ton's whole body arched up under it without asking.

Bua's hands went to his sash and pulled it loose and then his jacket was open and then his shirt.

The night air hit his skin and then Bua's mouth did.

"Wait," Ton said.

Bua stopped with his mouth on Ton's ribs.

"I'm not saying stop. I'm saying."

"What."

"Your arm."

Bua looked at his own forearm. The rope had taken the skin off in two stripes and it was bleeding again.

"It's fine."

"Let me."

Ton pushed him up and got the root out of the bag and chewed a piece and spat it into his palm and put it on the stripes.

Bua's arm twitched under his hand.

Ton wrapped it with a strip torn off his own shirt, working fast.

Then he pulled Bua back down by the collar and kissed him again.

Bua got his wrists.

Both of them, crossed, in one hand, and pinned them above Ton's head in the leaves.

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