Wild Raspberries (9 page)

“No need.” His hand fitted itself to the angular shape of Dan’s jaw without conscious thought or volition, holding Dan’s face where he could see it. He didn’t mean to kiss Dan, either, but that happened, too, a moment later, the gap between them disappearing as Dan leaned in.

Tyler couldn’t link this feeling to a memory. It had been so long since he’d done this — Dan’s kiss the night before didn’t really count — that every kiss he’d ever given had faded to gray. Dan’s mouth slid over his with an endearing initial clumsiness that made it real, tying Tyler to the moment. He concentrated on returning the kiss, both of them learning each other quickly, so that in the space of a minute, Tyler had discovered that Dan loved having his lower lip bitten gently and taught Dan to lick across his in a slow, hot drag of tongue.

Dan kissed him until Tyler’s lips were numb and his ears buzzing and humming with the beat of blood.

“Can we?” Dan said against Tyler’s mouth. “Please. Something. God, I want you so bad, Tyler. Please.”

Dan was hard; a glance down told Tyler that, because the towel was on the floor now, hiding nothing. He’d known it anyway, from the fever-heat of Dan’s skin and the way he was pressing against the edge of the couch, trying to get closer.

There didn’t seem to be a single good reason why not, if he ignored the throb in his ankle and the way sleep kept catching at him and making his eyes close for too long to be a blink.

“If you can get me to a bed before I fall asleep, you can do whatever the hell you like,” he said recklessly.

Dan rocked back on his heels and then stood, a fluid, graceful movement that Tyler didn’t have time to admire because he was being hauled to his feet and, once upright, into his bedroom.

“God, if you fall asleep, I don’t think I’d stop,” Dan said. With a forethought that got him points, he turned down the bed before helping Tyler undress. Naked under the covers, they reached for each other, Tyler cursing the injuries that stopped him from playing more than a passive part in the encounter. He wanted to feel Dan’s strength, not his caution, careful, considerate — shit, not that.

Dan bit down on Tyler’s collarbone and made a frustrated mewling sound that went straight to Tyler’s cock. The kid was humping up against him, all fire and hunger and need, and if he didn’t slow down, it was going to be over in about thirty seconds, with nothing left to show for it but a wet patch on the bed and, if Dan stayed as he was, with his cock tucked up against Tyler’s stomach, on Tyler, too.

“Slow down,” he whispered against Dan’s ear. “Slow the fuck down, boy. I’m awake, I swear it. Slow
down
.”

Dan bit his shoulder, and Tyler rolled his eyes and slapped Dan’s ass, not hard, but hard enough to get his attention. “Wait.”

“Uhn.”

Was that even a word? Tyler shook his head and sent his hand down, forcing Dan to shift back an inch. When he had the solid weight of Dan’s cock against his palm, he ran his hand up and down it, fingers curled, jacking Dan lazily. “Listening now, are you?”

“Don’t stop,” Dan begged, his hips arching up wantonly, eagerly. Tyler tried to recall a time when he’d been that uninhibited with a virtual stranger and stopped when a few examples came immediately to mind.

“If I don’t stop, you’ll come.”

“I don’t have a problem with that.”

Dan’s mouth found Tyler’s nipple and went to work. Tyler took a handful of Dan’s hair and tugged him off before he went from licking it, which was okay, if wet, to biting it, which wasn’t. “Doesn’t do a thing for me. You want to get me as hot as you are, find something else to chew on.”

Dan chuckled, which at least meant he was thinking again. “You mean you aren’t? What’s that digging a hole in my ribs then?”

He was about to tell Dan that he wasn’t
that
big, when Dan started to slide down the bed, pushing the covers back as he went. The head of Tyler’s cock bumped gently against Dan’s ribs and chest, chin and nose before Dan stopped. “Roll onto your back,” Dan ordered. “I want to blow you.”

“I’m not stopping you.” He wasn’t, either, not once Dan ran the tip of his tongue around the head of Tyler’s cock and left it tingling. Tyler grinned. Mint toothpaste.

Dan wasn’t the best Tyler’d had at this, but he was new enough to still be trying things out, which made it an interesting experience, and there was nothing to complain about in the way he made soft, happy little moans now and then, mixed in with what felt like genuine enthusiasm. “God, you just taste good,” Dan told him, mid-lick. “And you smell good, too.”

Tyler blinked. “Uh, thanks?” He propped himself up on his elbows and watched the dark head bobbing busily, getting a glimpse of his cock disappearing inside Dan’s mouth now and then. He moaned, arousal temporarily curing every ache and pain, because he felt too good to be hurting. Sweet, wet heat wrapped around his cock, a hand cupping his balls snugly, warmly, and, God, yes, a finger, spit-slicked, no more, exploring further back and making his hole clench in anticipation of a touch.

It didn’t come. Dan pulled his hand back and put it on his own cock, which Tyler couldn’t really blame him for, even though it meant that Dan’s rhythm was shot to pieces and the onset of Tyler’s climax receded. Still, the kid had come into the bed ready to shoot and Tyler knew how that felt; he just wished Dan had let him finish.

Oh, well. “Dan.”

“Mm?”

Tyler allowed himself a moment to appreciate what “mm” felt like against the sensitized, licked tender skin of his cock and then patted the pillow. “Turn around. I do you, you get back to doing me.”

“I was!”

“You
were
. You stopped.”

“Sixty-nine, you mean? I’ve never done that.” Dan looked intrigued. “Seen pictures.”

At some point when his balls weren’t snugged up tight and high, he was going to find out just what Dan
had
done when it came to sex, but right then Tyler was more interested in getting off than talking about it. Dan obligingly twisted around, and Tyler eased onto his side and after a relatively short amount of adjustment, with Dan’s amusement at their clumsiness evident in the stifled chuckles that tickled Tyler’s belly, they were positioned just right.

Dan stopped smiling when Tyler’s hand slid between his thighs, his intention only to pull Dan closer. Tyler felt the smile vanish and tension replace it and kept his hand moving until it was curved around Dan’s ass.

“This okay?” he asked, giving Dan’s ass a pat to make sure Dan knew what he meant.

“Yeah, I guess.”

That sounded so much like “hell, no” that Tyler took his hand back and then let it rest on Dan’s thigh. “Never mind. How’s this?”

“I — it’s fine, okay?”

Tyler sighed and guided Dan’s erection into his mouth, more to shut himself up than anything else. There was a moment when he thought Dan wasn’t going to continue, but it passed, with Tyler’s tongue being as persuasive as it could be. Dan whimpered and began to fuck Tyler’s mouth, his own empty until Tyler pointedly nudged him with a knee.

This wasn’t Tyler’s favorite position; it was too difficult to split his attention between what he was doing and what was being done to him, but he did like the sense of working toward a common goal and the silent communication as Dan copied him and he in turn mirrored back anything Dan did that felt good. By the time he’d come, spurred on by the assiduous application of Dan’s tongue against the underside of his shaft, flexing and flicking in just the right place three times out of four, which was enough, more than enough, he’d lost any residual irritation with Dan for taking off the way he had.

He gentled his thrusts into Dan’s mouth as considerately as he could, given this was the first time he’d done this in years and he was shaking from the intensity of a climax he hadn’t brought about himself, and finished Dan off within the space of thirty seconds. Tyler remembered what Dan had liked the night before and built on it, tucking away the knowledge that too much suction wasn’t a good idea and a hint of biting made Dan’s fingers clutch hard at whatever he was holding.

They rolled apart, panting and wearing identical grins.

“You know what you’re doing, don’t you?” Dan said and wriggled his ass against the bed like a cat in a patch of sunlight. “You just about blew the top of my head off, there.”

“Out of practice,” Tyler demurred, and with a rare moment of tact didn’t add that Dan was easy to please. Twenty and horny as hell? God, just about anything would work. He put his hand out and ran it along Dan’s leg, surprised by how possessive he felt. Dan reached out and put his hand over Tyler’s for a second and then squirmed around, making the bed rock, and got face to face with Tyler.

“You could have kept your hand where it was.”

Tyler knew Dan wasn’t talking about a moment earlier. “Yeah? You didn’t seem too comfortable.” Tyler shook his head. “I’m in no shape to fuck you, if that’s what you were worried about.”

“I know. And I wasn’t worried. I’ve done it before. Lots of times.”

Tried it once with someone who didn’t know what they were doing and got hurt, Tyler translated silently. He let the half-truth lie between them unchallenged but unaccepted, and Dan flushed. “I
have
.”

“Boy — Dan — I don’t care. I don’t want you taking it into your head to run off again — and I won’t chase you a second time, just so we’re clear on that — so I’m not going to ask you any questions. Besides, it really isn’t any of my business what you’ve done and who with.”

“No, but you’re still interested, aren’t you?” Dan said, showing a hint of shrewdness.

Tyler shrugged. “I guess I am, but I meant it when I said I wasn’t going to ask. Hell, it’s about all I can do to keep my eyes open.”

“So close them, and I’ll tell you, and I’ll pretend you’re asleep.”

Cute. Tyler yawned, post-sex lassitude combining with the physical weariness he felt. “Sure, if you don’t get your feelings hurt when I start snoring.” He pulled the covers up and flipped them over Dan as well. “Want to sleep in here tonight?” he offered impulsively. It was a bad idea, given his ankle, which wouldn’t take kindly to being jarred, and the implications of sharing a bed for something other than sex, but part of him wanted the company.

Dan answered him by getting out of bed and turning off the light, returning before the pang of disappointment Tyler felt was expressed verbally.

In the dark, it was easy to move closer, Tyler on his back, Dan’s head resting on Tyler’s shoulder, his hand on Tyler’s stomach. As hugs went, it was lacking, but it was enough. Tyler laced his fingers with Dan’s and waited.

“I told you I knew I was gay, and I did. I never really thought about it; I just knew what turned me on, and it wasn’t the cheerleaders.” Dan’s breath was a whisper against Tyler’s shoulder, but his words were clear. “How about you?”

Tyler resigned himself to a quid pro quo arrangement and cleared his throat. “About the same, I guess, though I tried a few cheerleaders before I got it into my head that it wasn’t going to work.”

“Actual cheerleaders? Or metaphoric ones?”

“Actual,” Tyler confessed. “I was a jock; they were a perk.”

“I was a nobody, and the jocks didn’t care enough about me to even beat me up.”

“Well, that sucks,” Tyler said, just to get Dan to chuckle drowsily and move a little closer.

“I know. But I was lucky; small town, sure, but people were mostly okay about it. In fact, one of the jocks was gay, and I’m pretty sure another one was, but he kept it quiet. I could’ve come out and no one would’ve given me hell for it at school.”

Times had changed. Tyler couldn’t imagine what his own school days would’ve been like if people had known. “But you didn’t?”

“You know I said ‘mostly okay’? My dad wasn’t. Okay, I mean. He wasn’t the kind to get roused up over it and beat people up, but whenever the subject came up, he just — his face got all closed off and he —”

Dan broke off and Tyler waited, giving him time, and then, when Dan remained silent, gave him what small comfort he had. “My dad and yours would have gotten along just fine.”

“Yeah.” Dan rubbed his cheek against Tyler’s shoulder. “I bet they would. Anyway, I was doing okay. I dated a few girls to keep him from suspecting — and he didn’t really want me having a social life, anyway; too much work needed doing on the farm.”

“No boys? Just girls?”

Dan sighed. “One boy. Man, really.”

“Luke.”

“Yeah.” Dan slid his hand free and began to trace light, meaningless patterns on Tyler’s stomach with his fingernails. “Luke. Luke Carter. Dad took him on to help out in spring and I just — oh, God, he was —”

“I can imagine,” Tyler began to say.

“No, no, you can’t.” Dan’s voice was vehement and there was a good six inches between his body and Tyler’s now. “He was twenty-five, that’s all, just six years older, and he didn’t seduce me, I chased him —”

“Do I look like your fucking father?” Tyler interrupted as Dan’s voice rose in volume. “You want to have this argument with him all over again, go out the door and start walking. Or call him up; I don’t mind if it’s long distance. But don’t make me into him.”

“I wasn’t,” Dan muttered.

“Yes, you were. So you and Luke started something and you got caught; was that it?”

Dan nodded, the movement felt rather than seen. “Dad was supposed to be at a poker game. Every month, same thing; he goes into town, plays with his buddies for a few goddamn dollars, and comes back at eleven. So we thought we had time and we didn’t, because the truck broke down on the way in and he got a ride back from a neighbor. Sam dropped him off at the end of the road and so we didn’t hear him coming —”

“Awkward for everyone,” Tyler said. “What happened?”

“He went for Luke. Got in two good punches before I stopped him, and Luke, well, he’s not built like you, but he’s strong enough. Things were said, and Luke just wasn’t there in the morning. Left me a note telling me he was headed to Canada and it’d been nice knowing me.”

“Ouch,” Tyler said. He wasn’t unsympathetic, but he couldn’t see the faceless Luke as being much of a loss either.

“I stuck around for a few weeks, then I just couldn’t take it anymore. He wouldn’t stop talking about it. On and on and fucking on… Said I was sick. Said I’d been influenced by Luke. Said I was doing it to piss him off, get back at him for something. Said just about every goddamned thing you can imagine except that it was okay, he still loved me, and he’d accept it and move on.”