Page 63 of The Locker Room

he was a frightened kid, fucking around at fucking around.

He blinked again, and he was what Christian needed him to be: a

man in love.

“You could never fuck up loving me,” he said throatily. “You

never could. It"s not in you. You grew up knowing how to do this, you

see? I took the high school crash course, and I"m learning the rest by

feel. You… if I like it, keep doing it. If I"m all soft and boneless, ask me,

and I"ll tell you—”

“Yeah, but Xan, Ibegyou!”

Xander flushed. “Then I"ll beg you,” he promised, hoping he could

keep that one. “I"ll beg you. I swear, next time we do this, I"ll beg for

your cock in my ass, right?” If those were the words Chris needed to

hear, well, those were the words Xander would say. Anything to make

Chris know that he wasn"t alone in this. Xander needed his touch,craved

his touch, just as much as Chris needed Xander"s. It was only fair, right?

Two nights later, they were just west of North Carolina. Xander

told him to stop at a hotel, because, he lied, he didn"t want to have to

deal with dorm people or moving in when it was all dark.

The truth was, he wanted Christian all to himself just one last time,

dammit. One last time before they were the freshman dream team for

UNC, one last time before they had to hide every touch of the hand or

brush of lips on skin from the rest of the world.

The day before, they"d been coming down from Kentucky, and

they"d gotten lost in what felt like an endless horizon of thick trees.

Christian had been driving, and he"d gone into a turnout to turn the car

around, and they"d gotten out a map to check and see where they were.

The Locker Room

55

(Ten years later, Chris would never be without the latest smart phone,

just to make sure he never got them that ass-fucking-lost again.)