Page 44 of Stalked By Shadows
Instead of blue goo I pictured my come dripping out of his ass and felt my cock awaken. Fuck. “Alien dildo?”
“There’s a collection in the other room. Colors and unusual heads or even barbs.”
“Barbs?” I could only picture thorns like on a rose bush.
“Some animals have them when they mate. It locks the two together to keep the seed inside. There’s more science than that, but the toys are all about illusion, so it’s simply a really hard-ending nub on a dildo. You’re supposed to sit on it and grind into it to get thebarbsensation. They also make a cock ring that your partner can wear with a lot of the same effect.”
The idea of him riding me was all that filled my head in that moment.
He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Seriously? I begin to doubt the excuse that you haven’t been functioning until now.” He pointed to the crotch of my shorts and my very obvious erection.
I tugged the T-shirt down, like it was somehow ever going to be long enough. My face burned with embarrassment and desire. “I promise I’ve not always been this sexually awkward.” Okay that was a lie, and the years serving having nothing but alley meetings and fast fucks between tours with strangers, wasn’t really experience. “Okay, I’m awkward. You sure you even want to take a step in that direction? It’s fun flirting with you, but you know I’m a little messed up, and what if I’m bad in bed?”
He shrugged. “There are two types of lovers. Those you screw because you’re physically attracted to them. They might be good in bed or bad in bed, doesn’t matter so much because the physical attraction is there. Usually you get them out of your system, sometimes it takes a few days, but never lasts. Sort of like a fast spark and then it dies.”
“And the second kind?”
“The kind you train. Those are the ones you want to keep, maybe because you like their personality or their lifestyle fits yours, so you educate each other on what you like, building a relationship through knowledge as well as physical attraction. That one is more than a spark, it’s genuine interest in learning more about a person with a side of the physical desire.”
“How do you know the difference?”
“Physical burns hot and fast, like a lit match, and then after a few seconds you have to put it out or get burned. You sleep with them once and are like eh, okay, and move on. Sometimes they last a few weeks before you realize you really don’t like the person for more than sex. Relationships aren’t really like that. Not for most. You might be attracted to someone, but life gets in the way. Unless you’re cruising for a hookup, it’s unlikely you’re gonna have to screw that person right this second. If you walk away still thinking of them, even pass a few days and they are still on your mind, that’s a training situation. And it either works or becomes the first type of lover. Not every lover wants to be trained. Either way you’ve had a good time.”
It was a very different way of looking at relationships. I guess I’d had a lot of the fast ones in my life. The quick spark that leads to nothing. Never had a training sort of one. Hadn’t met anyone I wanted to keep before, not in real life. I admitted to being curious about Micah. Not only sexually attracted to him, though that was a large enough factor on its own. Did I think we could mesh? Maybe. Was it worth a try? Again, I thought maybe.
Micah unloaded another box of T-shirts. “Choose some shirts to take home with you. So you have stuff for work.” He looked me over and smiled. “Pick a smaller size than your brother does.”
I glanced down. “If I pick a smaller size it will cling.”
“Yep.”
“And show everyone I’m aroused when you walk into a room,” I pointed out.
“We’ll see if we can strike a flame after work and fix that,” Micah said.
“Huh?” Was he saying we’d be having sex after work? My body was likeoh fuck yeah, we’re on board. Maybe I was translating that wrong. Was he speaking a language I’d missed somehow while being overseas? Maybe it was an age gap thing. I’d always thought of him as barely legal when I’d watched the videos of him. Now I wondered, hoping he had been of age, or else I’d really feel like shit. “How old are you anyway?”
“Twenty-two.”
Fuck. Ten years. I felt really old in that moment. At least he’d been over eighteen when he made videos.
“But I like older men, if you recall.”
Again, back to the videos. I sighed and hung my head. “I’ve not seen this much action in most of my life,” I confessed. “And we haven’t done anything yet. I’m not sure we should. We work together. What if we are a lust flame or whatever?”
“Then we burn and burn out. It happens. Best to know now and be done right? I’m adult enough to work with you after we have sex. And maybe it will stop you from always getting wood around me.”
Unless it made it worse. “Hmm.”
Micah stepped into my personal space and put an arm around my waist, pulling us close. I had to look down to meet his gaze, and it was intense, a heat flashing between us with little more than a touch and a glance. His lips breezed across mine for a few seconds. A teasing pass of softness and the scent of peppermint on his breath. I had to admit that while his touch revved my body up to lightning horndog speed, his presence also relaxed me. I should have been worried about Sky walking into the room, or getting interrupted by a customer, or a thousand other things. But in his arms, looking down into that intense blue gaze? It didn’t matter. He was my focus right then. Maybe that’s what Lukas had meant about me finding someone to steal my attention?
I held on to him and realized that I was curious. Could we be something? More than a broken soldier interested in a guy he’d once watched in porn? Was it a fantasy? And did it really matter?
“I’m not sure what this is,” I told him a little breathily. “Lust?”
“A spark,” Micah agreed. “Time will tell if we can be more. Let’s get this stock out.” He pulled away and lifted a box of supplies. “Nothing sells from the storeroom.”
I picked up the box of shirts and followed him out, a thousand things on my mind, but most of it centered on him.