Stockholm Syndrome 3 - No Beginning, No End by Richard Rider Read Free Book Online

a pub and Pip ate a toffee apple walking down alongside the beach, but it felt too much like all the times they wandered round Llandudno when they used to live there all those years ago and then everything went strange and awkward. They got back in the car and just drove east instead, as close as they could keep to the coast; they passed Dover not long ago, and that was weird as well, seeing all those people on their way to France.
    There's no point avoiding it. They're supposed to be talking, that was the whole reasoning behind this stupid dating idea Pip's been regretting more or less since the second he suggested it. "Do you miss it?" he says abruptly, forcing out the question. "Living in France?"
    Lindsay doesn't answer for a moment, keeping his eyes fixed on the road and guiding the car around a bend. "I did. Less the place, more you."
    "Oh." Pleasure unfurls somewhere in Pip's stomach and creeps out through his whole body. He wonders if he's ever going to get used to hearing things like this again.
"I've not been back since I left, it was too... don't know. All your shit's still there, if you want it."
    "Yeah, maybe." Reclaiming some old t-shirts and paintings vs. never having to go to that paradise prison ever again. It's tough. He changes the subject instead. "Where we going?"
    "Not a clue. You just said let's drive."
"Can I have a go?"
"If you want."
"Pull up somewhere."
    There's a turn-off a few minutes ahead and a sign Pip doesn't see properly before it's too late to read it. Some kind of lookout point up a cliff somewhere, a winding road ending in a little carpark surrounded by trees, with some wobbly-looking picnic benches clustered on the grass. Lindsay pulls up facing the wide darkening sky and sea and turns off the engine.
    Pip's laughing without meaning to, trying to hide behind his fingers. "You could've just stopped at the side of the road and swapped seats."
    "Could." "What you brought me up here for, then?" "Depends." "I ain't having sex with you, you wouldn't respect me after." "Probably not." "I might let you kiss me, though."
    Lindsay's been stroking his fingers through Pip's hair since he stopped the car, luring Pip in to settle his cheek against his palm, but now he tugs harshly and drags him closer, hard enough to make him do a really pathetic hungry little noise, and kisses him. It's hard and relentless, almost like he's angry but his fingers are gentle again in Pip's hair, stroking and coming round to cup his jaw and hold him close there. They didn't even take off their seatbelts; Lindsay's is loose but he dragged Pip across so sharply that his seatbelt locked and he cant move, aggravated and struggling to find the button to pop it free without having to stop kissing. He manages it after some fumbling, doing Lindsay's for him too, trying to untangle the strap and pounce on him again at the same time. He's half in the space between the seats, the gearstick is jabbing him in the side of the leg, this is the crappest car ever for parked-up mischief.
    "Buy me a new Ferrari," he murmurs, kissing up Lindsay's cheek to his ear and just getting a mouthful of hair. Lindsay laughs, trying to brush it out of the way, his sound of amusement morphing into a cracked little gasp when Pip finds his earlobe and bites down gently.
    "I bought you one, it's not my fault you lost it."
"I want another one."
"What for?"
    "No roof." He sits back a bit, flushed and breathing unsteadily, trying to figure out how to make this work. They got each other off in cars loads of times before but they were always convertibles with endless space to move up and down without crashing your head off a chunk of metal. There was one time Lindsay's precious old XK8 was involved, but since Pip was shoved face-first up against the boot leaving sweaty fingerprints and harsh condensing breaths smeared over the back window he's not sure it counts. He finds the lever under the front of Lindsay's seat and pulls it up so the seat slides back as far