Page 10

Chapter Ten

Ryan

Beat the Clock night happened a couple of days ago, and I couldn’t stop fucking thinking about it. Getting down on my knees for Jay was one of the absolute hottest things I’d ever done, and I wanted to do it again.

We didn’t end up fooling around that night. We both got really drunk and completely passed the fuck out the second we got back to the dorm. And the next few days were a bit of an awkward dance as we tried to navigate things while we were completely sober. I’d brought it up—quite a few times—and he would get all flushed and bumbly as soon as I said it. I loved it. Loved how hard he made me and how hard I knew he’d get. I kept waking up with morning wood that wet my sheets with all the precum from my dreams of playing with Jay.

Jay sat at his desk, the cap of his pen in his mouth. He kept whispering to himself, moving his hands and tapping his feet. It was late in the afternoon. We’d both had lunch, separately, and found ourselves with an empty schedule for the rest of the day. I decided to spend it playing video games, although I secretly wanted to spend it naked with Jay.

“Are you silently rehearsing over there?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the TV screen as my character got smacked with a firebolt.

“Are you silently creeping on me over there?”

“Maybe,” I answered with a smirk. “You know you don’t have to be quiet. You can, like, move around and shit. I won’t mind.”

“Thank you for your permission, Dad.”

I looked away from my video game for that. “I prefer the title ‘Daddy.’” Even saying it made my cock twitch. I wore a soft pair of gray shorts and nothing else, so if I got a boner, there’d be no hiding it.

I shot a quick glance at Jay. Was he blushing?

“Fine.” Jay got up from his chair, setting his script down. “But don’t judge me. I still have steps I need to get down.”

“You’re forgetting something already,” I said with a slight smolder in my voice.

“Daddy,” he added, his tone a little seductive. He was definitely blushing. Was he playing with me? I wanted him to say it again except louder, more high-pitched, more needy.

I put my phone down on the nightstand and sat back on my bed, propping some pillows up behind me. Jay took center stage and started from the top.

“What characters am I playing?” I asked.

“All of them besides Julius.”

“Oh,” I said. I looked down at the chunks of text. “Ok, I’ve got this.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not the one that has to go off-book.”

“True, true.”

“Alright, ready?” Jay asked.

“Let’s do this.”

Jay immediately fell into character, which was apparently someone from the Roaring Twenties, judging by the accent he threw on. His body movements changed. He moved around the tiny dorm with a little more heft to him. I could instantly tell his character was older, larger.

We ran through the script a couple of times, and I was about to suggest taking it from the top again when Jay said he needed a break. He sat down in his chair, the script rolled up in his hand. He leaned back. The chair rocked back with him. He seemed to have forgotten it leaned because he jerked forward with a frightened expression.

“I always forget too,” I said, sitting at the foot of my bed. “Scares the fuck out of me every time.”

“Felt like I was falling.”

Same.

“Thanks for helping me get these lines down. I didn’t realize you were such a thespian.”

“No, I’m gay.”

“Ha. Ha,” he said dryly before the mask fell, and he started to crack up at my dad joke.

“Have you always wanted to be in plays?” I asked when the laughter died down. Jay interested me in so many different ways. He was a puzzle I wanted to piece together until the entire rainbowscape of his soul was on display for me. And I could tell he wasn’t as guarded right now.

“Yeah, I was a theater geek from the second I popped out the womb. I probably came out doing jazz hands and singing a show tune.”

I laughed, watched as he grabbed his phone from out of his black shorts. They were high up his thighs, showing off those miles of legs. He got up from his chair and came over to my bed. “Here, look at me in fourth grade.” He sat down next to me, the cheap mattress sinking so that we were sort of pushed together.

Damn. Even the furniture wanted us to fuck.

The image he pulled up was a photo of another photo, showing him as a starry-eyed ten-year old standing at the center of the stage with the spotlight beaming down on him. He had his arms open and the biggest smile on his face, wearing a Peter Pan costume, the fake sword comically too big for his tiny frame.

I loved it. “You were eating up all that applause, weren’t you?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

He showed me some more photos, all apparently from the same album. All showed the same happy little kid who grew up into the happy guy sitting next to me.

Then he scrolled over to one photo that made his entire demeanor shift. It was him standing next to his father. They had the same exact face.

Jay took a deep breath. “This is one of the last photos I have with him.”

He looked down at his feet, firmly planted on the floor. It was as if an invisible anvil had been placed on his shoulders, the weight nearly too heavy to bear. I wished I could reach over and pluck it off him. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not right now,” he said with a simple shake of his head. “Let’s go back to your photos. I want to see what extravagant family vacations you’re going on as you destroy the environment in the process.”

“Jay…”

He laughed and waved a hand in the air. “I’m joking. Kinda.” Instead of his hand returning to his lap, it landed on my leg instead. And it didn’t move. I looked to him, seeing a familiar spark in his expressive eyes. I could count the few freckles and beauty marks that dotted the landscape of his face, like tiny accents specifically added only to enhance his natural beauty. I could stare at him all day and still find new things to appreciate.

“Want to tell me about him?” I broached.

“I… he was a great dad. He was that kind of dad that’s always a safe space and a fun time all at once.”

“How so?”

Jay glanced at me. “Sometimes he’d sneak me into the local marine animal rehab center after hours, and he’d give me a private tour that felt so fucking magical. I remember the first time that happened really solidifying my love for animals. It was just… awesome.”

“It does sound like something out of a movie.”

“It really was. This movie just had a really fucked up ending.”

Jay took in a deep breath and let it out. He shifted the conversation, which was totally cool with me. I wanted him to know that he had a safe space in me if he ever needed to talk.

“ Soooo ,” he said. “Did you catch up on the newest Liars episode? ”

“I did. I can’t believe Wendell went home. She was my favorite. She always had something perfect and bitchy to say.”

“Yeah but she accused the wrong person. She didn’t play the game.”

I shook my head. “I think she played it perfectly. How would you play it?”

“Sneaky as fuck. I’d be tip-toeing around the entire mansion like I was some kind of spy, gathering intel. Then”—I clap my hands—“I come out and snatch the wig right off the real liar.”

“I think it’d be fun playing it with you.”

He chuckled. “It would be. We have to become reality TV stars first.”

“Well, we have something to work toward now.”

Jay’s hazel gaze shimmered. He stayed silent for a bit before he spoke. “You know… I keep thinking about the other night in the stall at Shenanigans.”

“I do too.” Damn, even bringing it up was getting me hard. I wasn’t wearing any underwear, so the fabric of my gray shorts was already beginning to shift. I put my hand on his, which allowed me to use my forearm to press down on my growing dick.

“Do you regret it?” I had to ask. I half expected him to say yes, knowing how he felt about my family’s business. It would hurt like a motherfucker, but I think I would have understood. Or at least I liked to believe that I would have.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to find out. “No,” he answered almost instantly. “Not in the slightest.”

And before I could even blink, we were kissing, my hands cupping his face. I gently guided him back so that he could lie on the bed, our tongues still probing and swirling. I got on top of him, rutting myself against him, the passion between us roaring like an out-of-control wildfire.

I pulled his shirt off, he took mine off. I sat on his lap. Admired his body. My fingers traced over the dip in his chest, the nipples that were hard to the touch.

“You’re so hot.”

He smiled up at me. There was a growing blaze in those green eyes.

I leaned down. Pressed my lips against the subtle rise of his clavicle. He sucked in a breath. I moved down to his chest. My targets became the dark beauty marks that dotted the landscape of his soft, tan skin.

“This okay for being ‘just roommates’?” I teased.

“Shut the fuck up and take off the rest of your clothes,” Jay said as he pulled his shorts off, revealing that he’d been commando this entire time.

“Oooh, am I starting a trend?”

“Off. Now.”