Page 19 of Level Up (Franklin U 2 #4)

Chapter Nineteen

Jay

“You look great,” I said to Ryan as he stepped out of the bathroom, hair freshly styled and a slight fog from his shower drifting out. His cologne filled the room with an oaky and leather scent that made my heart start beating a little faster.

“Thanks, baby, you too.” He came over and kissed me, hand slipping under my shirt and over my back. “I’m excited for tonight.”

“I can tell,” I said, pushing my hips forward. He was already hard, which made me start swelling up. Even though we’d fooled around less than an hour ago, I was still horny for him.

My phone pinged. “Our Uber’s here,” I said against his lips, smiling, and his cock pulsed against mine.

“Damn,” he said. “Can we cancel it?”

“And get dinged on my perfect rating? I don’t think so, sir.” I playfully grabbed a handful of his crotch and squeezed. “We’ll wait for after the club.”

“ Fiiiiine ,” Ryan said, being extra dramatic and pouty .

I couldn’t help but laugh. God, he was so fun to be around. I kissed him again, reaching behind me and fumbling to grab my wallet off the desk. It fell on the floor. “Whoops.” I bent down to grab it. I rubbed my face against Ryan’s bulge as I went.

“Oh, fuck you,” he said, holding my head down on his crotch. I smiled as I mouthed his sexy bulge over his dark jeans. “You’re such a tease.”

I got back to eye level. “And so are you,” I said before I leaned in and playfully nipped his bottom lip. “Daddy.”

“ Fuuuuuck ,” Ryan said. I chuckled as I walked around him and out of our dorm. I heard him start to unzip.

“You sure you don’t want to have a four point nine rating instead of a five-star?”

“Yes,” I said. Even though I was fully rock hard and wanted to play with Ryan as much as he clearly wanted to play with me, I somehow managed to fight away temptation and close the door to our dorm. Ryan shouted a “Hold up!” from inside before he ran out to follow me. He must have tucked his boner under his waistband—same thing I did—because the obvious tent was gone.

“I’m fucking you so hard when we get back.” He reached a hand into the back pocket of my black shorts and squeezed.

“Good,” I said. Someone from down the hall opened their door. Ryan’s hand quickly disappeared from behind me. I couldn’t help but feel a slash of disappointment at that. I knew he was doing it because of me, and that didn’t make me feel good at all.

I sighed. Maybe after a night at Passions, I’d be ready to let go of all my hang-ups and surrender to my own damn passions. My feelings and attraction for Ryan were undeniable, so why the hell was I so bent on hiding it?

We got in our Uber and sat with plenty of space between us. But at one point, our hands met in the center, and our index fingers crossed, hooked together. I smiled as the driver pulled into the parking lot, dropping us off in front of the three-story building flanked by a tire shop and a sex toy shop.

“Look,” Ryan said, “you can get whatever rubbers you need here.”

I gave a loud belly laugh at that. “You’re so dumb.”

And I love it.

It was still relatively early—only eight o’clock with the sun having recently set—so we didn’t have to wait in any lines. We walked down the slightly faded red carpet and gave our IDs to the leather jacket-wearing bouncer, getting a stamp on the back of our hands and walking into the dimly lit entrance. There was a bar directly ahead, backlit by deep red lights. The shirtless and hairy bartender shot us a wink as we approached. I got myself a vodka pineapple, and Ryan got himself a beer.

Of course. “You’re such a bro,” I said as we walked over to a standing table pushed against a window. There was loud music playing and the smell of cigarettes coming in from an open door that led out to the patio.

“You don’t like beer?”

“Not really, unless it’s like an IPA.”

“Try this one, then.” He slid the bottle to me. I picked it up and took a sip. Surprisingly, it was good. I checked out the bright orange label.

“Okay, fine, you have good taste.”

“Obviously. I like you, don’t I?” My cheeks got all hot. I gave him a wink and handed him his beer. Our fingertips touched, sending tiny little bolts of electricity shooting through my hand, past my wrist, up my arm. I could trail the sensation all the way straight to my heart. I took a chug of my drink.

“This was a good idea,” Ryan said. He leaned on the high-top table, his forearms looking delicious. He wore a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. A silver Cartier bracelet shone on his wrist. “I needed it after today.” That’s right. The fight with his dad. He hadn’t really talked much about it, but it was obvious he was thinking about it.

I decided to try my luck again. “Want to talk about it?”

He rolled his head, exposing his neck. Gah damn he was hot. I really wanted to kiss that spot between his jaw and throat.

“It’s okay if you don’t,” I quickly added. “I don’t want to pry or anything.”

“You can never pry, trust. It’s… I dunno, it really surprised me. My dad and I always got along. I know he’s done things that are shitty, but he was never a shitty father. I could genuinely say that. So him kicking me out of his office today really fucking sucked.”

I reached over and rubbed Ryan’s shoulder. He was normally such a smiley guy. I’d seen him frustrated over tests for his classes or exhausted as hell from rowing practice, and yet he always managed to wear a smile. I wasn’t sure where he got the endless well of positivity from, but I loved that about him.

Seeing him this tight-lipped and stern-faced made it clear that this really affected him.

“What was the fight about?” I asked.

He took a big gulp of beer. His emerald eyes drifted over to the television hanging in the corner. It played a mix of music videos from the early 2000s. “I love the Gorillaz,” he said.

Damn.

So he wasn’t going to open up to me. I stuffed away the sting of disappointment. That was fine. He didn’t owe me any kind of information, whether we’d been dating for a few hours or a few years. I was happy to give him his space.

“So did I,” I said, looking at the music video. “They’re a great band.”

“You know them?”

“Duh,” I said. “I’m a theater gay. I know almost every band in existence.”

Ryan chuckled at that. “They had a song in one of the first video games I was ever obsessed with. It’s what got me into gaming, actually. Made me really love video games as an art form. I thought it was so impressive how you can blend so many different aspects of art using code in a computer. There’s so much storytelling involved.”

There was that smile of his. It lured me in like a moth to a campfire. I leaned closer to him, fascinated by this side of him.

“Why didn’t you go into game development?”

“That’s what the fight was about. He wanted to bring me onto the—onto a project he’s working on. I told him no. And I told him how I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. I wanted to follow my passion instead. He basically called me a failure and told me to get out.”

The split of emotions I was hit with was severe.

On the one hand, I was proud as hell to hear Ryan trying to forge his own path, and on the other, I felt sad for the pain it clearly caused him. “I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching out for him. He looped a thumb around mine. “That’s so shitty. You don’t deserve that kind of treatment, and I know it hurts so much more coming from your own father.”

“It does. It sucks. And it doesn’t help that I’ve been stuck on the same concept for a game since last year. I feel like I’m failing my dad and myself, and that shit sucks.”

“You’re not failing anyone. Are you kidding me? You’re doing great in all your classes, even though you hate them, you kick ass as a rower, and you’re a decent karaoke singer. You’re winning at everything.” I leaned in and kissed him, holding the back of his head. His hair felt so soft. “Plus, you’ve got a huge dick, and you know how to use it.”

“Damn, you know exactly what to say to make me feel better.”

“Obviously.” I kissed him again, my tongue finding his and my legs nearly buckling. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll figure things out with your dad, but don’t lose the spark following what you love. There were plenty of people that told me not to follow my passions, but I had to listen to myself first.”

“You’re right,” he said. His gaze dropped down to my lips. His curled in a mischievous kind of way. “How can you be so cute and so smart at the same time?”

“It’s a gift,” I said. “Why don’t you switch majors? I know it’s a little late, but it’s better than never.”

“I actually don’t think I’d need to. I’ve been taking classes in my schedule that line up with computer science, mixed with my finance classes. Some worked for both, others I had to double up some semesters. But it was worth it. The adviser said I’d be graduating as a double major.”

“Oh, wow, that’s huge,” I said. My admiration of him only grew. I couldn’t believe I was so bristly toward him when we first met. Fuck, I felt like such an asshole. “Cheers to that, then.”

“To following your dreams,” he said, tapping his beer against the rim of my cup.

“And to putting in the work that makes them happen.” The sweet tang of pineapple mixed with a heavy smack of vodka hit the back of my throat. I swallowed it down, taking a few more sips before looking around the space.

For still being early, the club was already packed. And we were only near the entrance. This place had different floors, each serving a different vibe. The first floor was full of dark corners and secret crannies you could get lost in, with an entire dark room toward the back. The second floor was where all the dancing happened, with four rooms dedicated to different types of music.

And then there was the third floor. “Want to go to the third floor?” I asked.

“What’s on the third floor?”

“Gay gasp .” I flung a dramatic hand to my chest. “I didn’t know you were a Passions virgin.” I grinned and cocked my head. “That makes tonight so much more fun.”

“Just be gentle with me.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t.” I grabbed his hand and walked toward the stairs near the bathrooms. We were about half an hour away from campus, so I didn’t really care too much about being spotted holding hands with the Ryan Redpine himself. And frankly, as the alcohol started to work, I found myself not caring even if we were spotted together.

Fuck it .

Ryan wasn’t out there himself signing off on his dad’s projects. Sure, he didn’t drive electric and rarely recycled, from what I could tell, but those were all things that could be fixed. He clearly wanted to be the author of his own story, and that’s all I would ever ask of him. Let people think whatever they wanted.

We reached the second floor, crossing a packed dance floor lit by a pair of disco balls—the left hanging slightly lower than the right—that looked a whole lot like actual balls. The next flight of stairs was cramped, the dark black brick walls coming in closer as the stairs narrowed the further you climbed. Each step lit up by a dark blue light. A wall of beads shimmered ahead of us.

I stopped at the topmost stair and turned around. “You ready for this?”

“I think so?”

“Good,” I said, tugging him through the curtain of beads. It felt like stepping through a portal to another world.

It was Ryan’s turn to gay gasp now.