Art of Love (Valley Boys Book 1)

by Vicki Tharp

  “That’s a very distorted fine line. Nothing like this better happen again.”

  “No worries, sir. It won’t. I’m with the only man I want.”

  21

  Demetri and Roman drove to the community lot together. Roman hadn’t been to his apartment except to get changes of clothes since he’d arrived on Demetri’s doorstep late that Monday evening a few weeks before.

  He hadn’t moved in. But he hadn’t not moved in either.

  And as much as Demetri wanted Roman to live with him, things were going well the way they were, and he didn’t want to do anything that might upset that. And while Roman still hadn’t uttered those three little words, his smiles got all shy, and he snuggled in deeper whenever Demetri told Roman he loved him.

  Progress. He’d take it.

  “It’s looking good,” Roman said as they walked up to the lot, their fingers linked together.

  Demetri kissed him on the cheek. Glad that he didn’t have to worry anymore who saw him with Roman. “We do good work.”

  They were a couple of weeks behind on completing the lot due to an issue with the concrete company pouring the last pad, and then there had been some rain—in southern California. Go figure—that hadn’t helped with the schedule either.

  If they pushed hard over the next two days, they might be able to get it all finished.

  The painted walls were nearly done. They needed touch-ups and a clear coat on all of it. The planters needed paint. And the remainder of the game patterns placed on the concrete pads. Then all they needed was a thorough general cleanup, and they’d be finished.

  Tavi, Remy, and Grant were already there when they arrived. Grant came over and shook their hands, and Tavi and Remy waved from the far corner where it looked like they were laying out stencils to paint on the concrete to paint.

  “You boys look happy,” Grant said.

  As much as Demetri liked Grant, he didn’t want to get into the details of his relationship with Roman. Too much of their relationship was already public fodder. “We worked out a lot of the kinks.”

  Grant grinned. “Is that so? Sebastian and I usually like it when we can work the kinks in. But hey, I’m not judging.”

  Roman laughed. Demetri did not need to know about his cousin Sebastian’s sex life. But he loved that Grant didn’t give two fucks what anyone thought. For a guy so recently out of the closet, that was refreshing.

  “You boys ready to get to work?”

  Roman glanced around. “Is it just us today?”

  “Afraid so. Niko wrangled Sebastian into helping with some big project at the studio, and we figured we’re at the point where the younger kids would be more in the way than a help.”

  Demetri groaned. It was going to be a long day. “Let’s get to it then.”

  A construction crew worked next door at the church. Apparently, after the fire, they decided to do some much-needed remodeling, so the normal Saturday activities were non-existent. As Demetri rolled the protective clear coat onto the wall near the churchyard, he missed the shouts and shrieks and laughter of the kids that normally played on the church playground beyond where he stood.

  He caught movement in his peripheral vision and set his roller down. The pastor approached, not in his usual church clothes, but in ratty shorts and a T-shirt.

  “You need help?” Demetri asked. They hadn’t heard much from the man since he and Roman had helped him move stuff out of his flooded basement. Demetri called that a win.

  “What? No. I...” The pastor glanced around, then met Demetri’s eyes. “I came to see if I could help you.”

  Demetri sputtered. He wasn’t proud of that, but that had been the absolute last thing he expected the pastor to say. “Excuse me?”

  Demetri felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. “Is there a problem here?”

  Roman’s protective streak was something else about Roman that Demetri had come to appreciate and love. He was always the first person to stick up for someone if he perceived a threat.

  “No. The pastor here was offering to help.”

  “Call me, Tom.” He held out his hand, and Demetri and Roman shook it in turn.

  Roman didn’t question Tom’s motivation. He clapped him on the back and said, “Come with me. I’ve got the perfect project for you.”

  At the end of the long day, Demetri put a lid on the last of the cans of clear coat and walked across the lot to where everyone else looked like they were finishing up, too.

  “Hey, babe.” Though they were both hot and sweaty, Demetri threw his arm around Roman’s shoulders and kissed him on the cheek then addressed the rest of them. “You guys about done?”

  “Just about.” Grant stuck out his hand. “Thanks, Tom. We appreciate the help. Especially when we were so shorthanded today. And if I ever need someone to paint planters for me, I know who to ask.”

  Tavi and Remy walked up holding hands but dropped them when Grant shifted, and they saw Tom. Tavi hitched his thumb over his shoulder toward the truck. “Yeah, so...We’re going to wait over there.”

  “Hold on a minute, son,” Tom said. He had a presence to his voice, probably from all those sermons he gave.

  Tavi stopped, but Grant and Roman both stiffened, ready to jump in if Tavi needed protection.

  Grant folded his arms over his chest. “What is it?”

  “I owe you all an apology. I’m not saying I agree with your lifestyle. I’m not saying I’ll ever understand. But you’ve all done good work here for the kids, and our city. I can respect and appreciate that.”

  “We’re trying to help the community the best way we can,” Grant said. “Just like you.”

  Tom glanced at the bright reds, blues, and yellows painted on the fence. “You might do it with a little more color than I do,” Tom said as he looked around the lot. “But yes, I get that now.”

  They shook hands all around. Even Tavi and Remy. It wasn’t like Tom had given them his blessing—not that they needed it—but seeing him move on his position, for him to see their humanity, it meant something.

  After saying their goodbyes, Demetri and Roman walked back to his car and pulled out into the Saturday traffic.

  At a stoplight, Demetri turned right instead of left.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Sneaky Pete’s. I think we need to celebrate the near completion of the lot.”

  “I’m kind of sweaty and stinky.”

  Demetri gave him the side-eye but served it with a smile. “You wanting to pick someone up?”

  “Nope.” Roman linked fingers with Demetri over the center console. It was a simple gesture, but damn if it still didn’t send a shock of awareness through his body. Maybe home was a better option.

  The tinted door for Sneaky Pete’s came into view, and before Demetri could pull into the parking lot behind it, Roman said, “Or we could go home, skinny dip in the pool. We have plenty of beer in the fridge.”

  Home. He loved the sound of that word falling from Roman’s lips. Demetri pulled a U-ey in the middle of the street, his tires barking as he accelerated toward home.

  Roman laughed. “That’s what I thought.”

  “You should know by now that I’ll never pass up an opportunity to get you naked.”

  Roman cannonballed into the pool. Beneath the water, he heard Demetri’s shout as the wall of water he sent up engulfed Demetri on the side of the pool.

  He came up for air to find Demetri’s powerful strokes, propelling him through the water, aiming for Roman. By the look on Demetri’s face when he came up for air, Roman was dead meat.

  But in the best way.

  Demetri dunked him, and they wrestled underwater until their lungs burned. Roman spit out water, panting as he caught his breath. He groaned as he wiped the water off his face. “This water feels so damn good.”

  Demetri pulled him close, wrapping his legs around Roman’s waist and his arms around his neck. “I know something else that will feel good about now.”

  “
You’re incorrigible.”

  Demetri grinned and whispered in his ear. “Is that a complaint?”

  Roman palmed Demetri’s ass and rubbed him up against him. “What do you think?”

  Leaning back so he could see Roman’s face, Demetri said, “I think you’re sexy as hell. Your eyes are bewitching, and I’m never going to get enough of you. If Ming doesn’t hurry with our takeout delivery, he’s going to get an eyeful.”

  “I’m good with that.”

  Headlights flashed through Demetri’s windows. “Food’s here.”

  They probably ordered from the Chinese restaurant up the street a couple of times a week and had become friends with the delivery driver. They’d even gotten to the point where they left the key under the front doormat, and Ming let himself in.

  They waved as Ming opened the sliding glass door, a bag full of food in his right hand. He set the food in a dry spot by the edge of the pool and squatted down. “You boys want company?”

  “Any time you and your boyfriend want to come over and swim, you’re welcome.”

  “Maybe once the semester is over, we’ll take you up on it. He’s either working or has his nose in a textbook.”

  “Thanks for the special delivery,” Roman said. “I’m sure the neighbors appreciate us not getting out of the pool naked to answer the door.”

  Ming smiled. “If you two were my neighbors, I’d be fine with it.” He stood to leave. “You two have a nice night.”

  “You, too,” they said in unison.

  Demetri reached for his phone and quickly added his usual overly generous tip. Then they laid the cartons of food on the pool deck, grabbed a beer out of the little cooler Demetri had packed, and dug into the food.

  All conversation stopped except for the occasional ‘can you pass the soy sauce’ while they filled their bellies.

  Roman thought back to earlier in the day with the pastor. When Roman started getting full, he dropped his chopsticks and washed his food down with his beer. “What did you make of Tom? I never expected him to come around.”

  Demetri huffed out a rueful laugh. “Tell me about it. I don’t think Tom will ever wave a rainbow flag in the pride parade, but maybe there’ll be a little less fire and brimstone and hate in his sermons and a little more acceptance and love.”

  Roman closed the small gap between them, bracing his hands on the pool deck on either side Demetri. He leaned in for a kiss, tasting the hops and the Kung Pao chicken on Demetri’s tongue. “I love your optimism.”

  “Oh yeah?” Demetri wrapped his arms around Roman’s waist and pulled him in tighter, his dick already getting hard and pressing against Roman’s hip. He nibbled on Roman’s ear and ground against him. “What else do you love about me?”

  Roman knew Demetri expected something crude to come out of his mouth. This wasn’t the first time Demetri had asked that question in a similar manner, and it usually ended up with someone getting fucked and them both getting off.

  But after all the time they’d spent together, practically living under the same roof, Roman had a different answer this time. “I love your generosity, I love the way you’ll drop whatever you’re doing to help one of your students, I love your talent, and the way you always remember to buy beer and condoms but can never remember to buy groceries.”

  Demetri grinned. “Priorities.”

  Demetri went to kiss him, but Roman knew that if he didn’t finish his thought, it might be another month before he got the courage up to tell Demetri what was in his heart. He placed a staying finger on Demetri’s lips. Demetri nipped the tip and licked away the sting with his tongue.

  If Demetri kept that up, Roman would never get the words out.

  “Most of all, I love how you love me.”

  Demetri blew out a puff of breath as if he’d taken a soft blow to the heart. Were those tears glistening in his eyes?

  “There isn’t a day that goes by that I question how you feel about me because you show me in all the little and big ways.”

  “What—”

  One shake of his head shut Demetri up. “What I’m trying to say, professor, is that I love you.”

  “You’re—” Demetri cleared his throat when it cracked. “You’re going to have to say that again. You know, to make sure I heard you right.”

  Roman took Demetri’s face in his hands. “I love you. Thank you for giving me the compassion, understanding, the space I needed to figure this out for myself.”

  “You’re a smart man,” Demetri said. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you realized what I already knew.”

  “And what did you already know?”

  “That I’m yours. And you’re mine.”

  Roman lifted Demetri, wrapped his legs around his waist, and squeezed Demetri’s ass. “Then I guess that makes this mine as well.”

  “Definitely.”

  “Hold on.” Demetri held on tight as Roman carried him up the pool steps and opened the sliding glass door. “Cut the lights.”

  Demetri reached in and cut the lights in the den. The blinds were open, but at least they’d be harder to see. Not that Roman cared. Water drained off them, dripping at his feet as he hurried, careful not to slip on the tile and bust his ass.

  He dropped Demetri on his back in the middle of the bed, the sheets and bed soaking up the water. They’d have to sleep in the guest room until the mattress dried out, but Roman was good with that.

  Demetri rolled to his stomach and shook his delectable ass. Roman palmed it, crawling on the bed between Demetri’s legs and biting one of his ass cheeks. “God, I love your ass.”

  Demetri glanced at him over his shoulder with that mischievous, sexy smile on his face. “Shut up and fuck me.”

  22

  Demetri came out of the bedroom dressed in his tux. “Aren’t you going to take a shower? We’ve got to leave in about twenty-five minutes.”

  Roman glanced up from his laptop. “I was—”

  “Trying to decide between the jobs?” He handed Roman his cuff links, and Roman put them on for him.

  Roman scrubbed a hand over his head. Demetri could feel the stress rolling off him. In the month since his December graduation, Roman had had two job offers, and he hadn’t accepted one yet.

  “Can’t this wait? Don’t you have another week to decide?”

  Roman stood and started stripping off his clothes on his way down the hall to the shower. Demetri followed not only to continue the conversation but also because even after months of being together, he rarely missed an opportunity to see Roman naked.

  “I do. With the holidays, it was generous of them to give me that much time to accept the offer.”

  “Well, it’s a big step. Moving to New York. Working for one of the biggest LGBTQ non-profits in the nation. It’s a lot to consider. Plus, for a non-profit, the money’s very enticing.”

  “No kidding.” Naked, Roman stepped into the shower, his voice muffled under the spray of the water behind the glass door. “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t an incentive.”

  “As it should be.”

  Roman sudsed up, and Demetri enjoyed the play of water and bubbles running down Roman’s back and down the crack of his ass. Demetri was already getting hard, and as expensive as his tux had been, it didn’t exactly provide a lot of room in the crotch area for that sort of thing.

  The shower door steamed up, and Roman turned, rubbing a circle clear. “But Grant’s job offer wasn’t bad. And you know, my friends are here. You’re here.”

  Roman rinsed and cut the water off. Demetri handed him his towel and leaned against the counter. “We’ve been through this. The job in New York is an amazing opportunity. If you want it, take it. I’ll come as soon as I can find a position up there. It may take a semester or two, but—”

  Roman leaned in and kissed him on the lips. “But I don’t want to be away from you.”

  “It won’t be for long. There are these cool things called airplanes, and I can visit over spring break,
and we can do naughty things over Zoom.”

  Roman pulled on the pants to his rented tux. “It’s not the same as the real thing.”

  Demetri hadn’t ever said this out loud before, because he didn’t want to influence Roman’s decision, but he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He dropped his voice and said, “Stay then.”

  Roman buttoned up his shirt, and Demetri fixed his cuffs for him. “But, fuck, it’s such a great opportunity.”

  Demetri smiled. It mostly wasn’t forced. No matter what Roman chose, they would figure it out, and it would be okay. “Then go.”

  “But your tenure.”

  Demetri cupped the back of Roman’s neck and gave it a squeeze. “Tenure isn’t everything. Don’t forget that.”

  Roman nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

  Demetri patted his shoulder. “Put it to the back of your mind, babe, and let’s enjoy tonight.”

  “You’re right. I’m being an asshole. Today is supposed to be all about you and your show. I can’t wait for the world to see how talented you are.” Roman glanced at his watch and slipped into his shoes. “We need to be going.”

  You would think for an art professor, Demetri wouldn’t be so nervous about his art show at Premier. But he hadn’t been able to eat all day or knock that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Or his nausea had more to do with what was going to happen after the show. He shook his head, not able to think about it without almost throwing up.

  They both grabbed the hangers with their tux coats and headed for the car. Roman buckled in beside him, but his door still hung open. Demetri started the car. “We ready?”

  Roman unbuckled. “Hang on. I need to do one last thing. It will only take a minute.”

  Demetri tramped down on the bubble of irritation. “Can’t it wait?”

  “No.”

  Demetri’s fingers tap-tap-tapped on the steering wheel while he waited. True to his word, Roman wasn’t gone more than a minute. He re-buckled and leaned over and kissed Demetri on the cheek. “Let’s go. I want everyone to know how amazing my boyfriend is.”