by Jet Mykles
“What? No fancy film locations and barely dressed girls?” Lance kept a straight face, but his blue eyes were dancing.
“Or barely dressed boys?” Noble asked.
Gordon snorted. “Not unless the record company signs on, providing us with a bigger budget—which they still haven’t.” He held up a hand at the groans. “We’re close to a deal but still not golden.”
Danny didn’t let that discourage him. Big record deals were even harder to get these days with the Internet taking over the music business.
“So, that’s it.” Gordon closed his laptop. “Take what you need tonight, and we’ll get the rest packed up and moved when you’re done.”
Danny kept his seat as his bandmates stood to ready their instruments for rehearsal. They had a lot to discuss now that they had a live gig to prepare, but he wanted to take this one moment to soak it in. To enjoy. It was happening. The Indigo Knights really were coming together.
Chapter Five
Danny didn’t even see Cash again for three days. He spent the rest of the day and both of the next in rehearsal with the band, coming up with a set list. The one night he did spend at home, Cash wasn’t there, presumably spending a late night at school. The next night, Danny spent at Brent and Hell’s, leaving for the dinner shift at the pizzeria straight from there. Thursday morning, the day before the gig, as he bolted down a bowl of cereal on his way out for the early lunch shift, Danny finally saw Cash.
Cash eyed the bright red-and-white-striped shirt Danny wore. “Did you work yesterday too?” He kept his gaze away from Danny’s face.
Danny didn’t have time to press him, although he did briefly wonder what Cash would do if he grabbed him and kissed him. “No. Rehearsal. We’ve got a gig this weekend.”
Some of Cash’s caution evaporated, and he took a step closer. He even smiled. “Really? That’s great.” He laid his hands on the counter. “Congrats.”
“Thanks.” Danny set his empty bowl in the sink. “I’ll be home tonight, though.” There. Cash now had fair warning if he wanted to avoid him.
Cash drew his eyes up to meet Danny’s. There were no hints there for what he was thinking. Maybe a little defiance, but mostly it was a neutral stare. “Yeah. Okay.”
Danny rushed past Cash and filled his hands with jacket, hat, and gloves before he could fill them with Cash. “See ya later.”
* * * *
Three days of rehearsal and two full shifts at work had Danny beat by the time he got home that night. But he felt a second—third? fourth?—wind coming on when he saw Cash on the couch. He wore a faded yellow Big Bird T-shirt and equally faded gray sweats. Thick socks protected the feet he had propped on the coffee table. Attention fixed on what looked to be a cop drama, he didn’t even glance up as Danny divested himself of outer garments.
“It’s colder’n hell out there,” Danny tried by way of natural greeting as he took the few steps into the hall to throw his coat and things into his bedroom.
Cash just grunted and kept his eyes on the TV screen.
Okay. “You eat?” Danny shook a paper bag he’d brought with him. “I’ve got sandwiches.”
“I ate.”
“Oh.” Danny took the bag to the kitchen and stuck it in the refrigerator next to a plastic bowl that was half full of some kind of pasta that would have originated from a box. Cash practically lived on that premade stuff, although he brought home leftovers once or twice a week when he went to see his parents. Gearing himself, Danny went to the edge of the couch and looked down at Cash. “Are we talking or what?”
Finally Cash looked up at him. The eyes behind those glasses were sharp and bright but not angry. At least, Danny was pretty sure of that. “Why’d you do it?”
“The kiss?”
“Yes.”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
He wanted to sit but wasn’t sure he should get too close. Not yet. “Haven’t you ever been caught up in a moment?”
Cash finger combed hair from his eyes. “Is that what it was? A moment?”
“Yeah.”
Cash shook his head. Some of the laser focus in his eyes softened as he looked back to the television. “No. Never.” He sank a little, a small sign of vulnerability that pulled at Danny.
Taking a chance, Danny sat on the couch, leaving a full cushion between them. “Cash.” He had to be careful with his next question, but the curiosity on this point had been plaguing him for months. “Have you ever been kissed?”
Cash didn’t seem to take offense. He stared at the magazines on the coffee table, a distant look in his eyes. “Sure. Yolanda Carter in eighth grade. Spin the bottle.” He swallowed and returned his gaze to the television. “And, uh, a stripper at my uncle’s bachelor party when I was eighteen.”
Danny put aside the shock of a stripper. “Only twice?”
Shrug. “If you don’t count family. Yeah.”
Inwardly, Danny reeled. He couldn’t fathom never having kissed anyone. But then, he wasn’t an introverted computer nerd who rarely found the need to talk to people in person. “So you’ve never had sex?” Might seem obvious, but Danny wanted to make sure.
“Supposedly.”
The immediate and strange answer caught him off guard. “Run that by me again?”
Cash’s thumb played over the buttons of the remote control, not changing the channel, just touching. “The stripper. My uncle gave her some money and told her to make a man of me. Only, he got me drunk first. I don’t remember any of it, but she said I did okay.”
Danny had never seen Cash drunk. Had never even seen him drink a beer. Judging by the look on his face, the experience in his past might have put him off alcohol. “That’s all?”
“That’s all.” Then, before Danny could respond, “When was yours? First kiss.”
“Me? Laurie McDiarmid. Third grade.”
Cash turned a little toward him, surprised. “Third grade?”
“I was cute.”
Cash snorted.
Danny grinned. “First kiss with tongue was in seventh grade.”
“A girl again?”
“Yeah. Didn’t kiss a guy until I was sixteen.” He let himself remember that shining moment of awkwardness. It’d been Gerardo Hayhurst’s first kiss too. They’d shared a lot of firsts.
“Did you know then?” Cash’s question brought Danny out of his memory. “That you were gay?”
“I was pretty sure by then. Wasn’t all that enthused about the girls I’d dated.” Danny laughed. “That was my thing. I always became better friends with my girlfriends than anything else. The fooling around never worked so well.”
Usually that’s when totally straight guys shook their heads and gave up on him. Cash, however, looked thoughtful. “But with a guy…?”
“Oh, that worked just fine.”
Cash flushed a little around the ears and faced the television again. Danny studied Cash’s profile and realized some heavy thoughts were going on inside that head. Kissing and sex were definitely not in Cash’s daily program. It was good, though, that they were talking so openly and that Cash was asking him pointed questions. He took a chance and probed further. “Hey, Cash, you jerk off, right?”
“Sure,” he answered, but the distant look in his eye suggested he was thinking of something else.
“What do you think about? Then?”
Cash shook his head, staring thoughtfully into space. “Not much. It’s always dark. It’s just kind of…shadows and feelings.” Shrug. “Then it’s over.”
“‘Over’? Oh man.” Danny’s head was always filled with fantasies. Many didn’t make much sense, but they were always there. In the last few months, Cash had starred in a number of those fantasies. But he didn’t need to know that. Yet. “You watch porn?”
“Some. But that doesn’t always get me off.”
“Ever watch gay porn?”
“No.” Just a simple no, not a horrified negation as in Why would I ever do something like that?
>
Danny pushed up on his knee, leaning closer to Cash. Cash finally turned to look at him fully. “What are you doing?”
Danny braced an arm on the back of the couch and slid it behind Cash. “Let me kiss you.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Why do you want to?”
“Because you need to be kissed.”
Cash snorted. Tossing the remote control onto the couch between them, he stood. “You’re just saying that because of what I told you.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Danny got to his feet, but Cash now had the couch between them. “Okay, yes. But that’s not all of it.”
“Then what is it?”
Good question. Danny struggled for an answer that wasn’t just an expression of his selfish desire to put hands and mouth on Cash’s body. Catching Cash’s gaze with his, he started around the couch. “Did you like kissing me?”
“No.”
“Try again.”
A tiny sneer lifted one side of Cash’s upper lip as he watched Danny get closer. He didn’t move away. “Okay. Yes. But that’s probably because I’ve never kissed anyone like that.”
As soon as he could, Danny reached up to slide his fingers along Cash’s jaw, back into that silky mess of brown-and-gold hair. “Then let’s do it again.” He used his other hand to pluck Cash’s glasses from his nose. “I’m very good at kissing.”
Cash kept his eyes averted, watching Danny set his glasses aside. The heavy fringe of his hair threatened to hide his face, but Danny kept Cash’s face tipped up enough to prevent that. “I’m not sure I want to be gay.”
“Okay.” Danny leaned in again, dragging Cash up against his body. Those eyes were so much larger, more vivid without the glass obstruction. The two men were pretty much the same height, so all their parts were in alignment. Perfect.
Before their lips could touch, Cash caught Danny’s shoulders, holding him at bay. “Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, sure. It’s okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ll be gay for both of us.” He touched his lips to Cash’s.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Danny wound his other arm around Cash’s waist, holding tight. “Stop thinking.”
“But—”
Danny bit his lip, hard enough to surprise words away from Cash’s mouth. “It’s okay.” He licked at the lip he’d just abused. Sucked on it for a brief few seconds. “Just let me make you feel good.”
Melting. That digital mask Cash showed to the world was melting to display a true, needy human being underneath. Fingers dug into Danny’s upper arms. “I can’t…”
He swept his tongue into Cash’s mouth, delighting in the soft, tiny squeal that emitted. “You can.”
“But—”
“Shut up.” He took Cash’s mouth, stopping any hope of speech. Holding on to the back of Cash’s head, he put all his own desperate longing into the kiss, pouring it into Cash.
Gradually, Cash’s grip on his arms loosened. Hands slid toward the center of his back until Cash had both arms wrapped around him, almost clutching. That was when his head angled, his mouth opened, and he gave in completely to the kiss. Danny loved it, holding Cash up when the other man leaned in to him. He let Cash respond, allowed the awkward clash of teeth and tangle of tongue. It told him better than words that Cash wanted this. Needed this. Hell, to hardly ever be touched? Danny was definitely doing him a service. And service he would. If he could.
He carefully nudged Cash back a step. Then another. A quick peek past Cash’s head let him aim for the hallway as he continued to walk Cash backward.
Cash caught on when they reached the hall. He pulled his mouth from Danny’s and set his feet. “Wait.”
“Oh, don’t stop now,” Danny murmured, ducking his head to sample the skin above Cash’s thudding pulse. He gloried in the full-body shiver his touch provoked. “We’re just getting to the good part.”
“I’m not gonna fuck you.” Deliberately harsh. Cash was trying to shock himself out of this.
Not if Danny could help it. He licked up the length of Cash’s neck. “Okay.” He nudged Cash back another step.
“Jesus.” Hands gripped his shoulders again. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.” Danny lifted his head to grin at Cash. “There’s plenty other stuff we can do besides fucking.”
As he’d thought it might, that threw Cash. He blinked, and Danny managed to push him into the open doorway of his bedroom. Not Cash’s—no way Danny could maneuver in that mess of clothing, game memorabilia, and computers. Besides, any necessary supplies were quite handy by Danny’s bedside.
“Other stuff?”
“Oh yeah.” He backed Cash up until his heels hit the edge of the mattress and box spring that sat on the floor. Danny grabbed Cash’s hips and yanked forward so their cocks pressed together through layers of denim and cotton. He kissed Cash hard. “My hands and mouth work just fine with my pants on.”
A simple nudge toppled Cash onto his back on the unmade mattress. To Danny’s eye, his navy blue sheets were a perfect nest for his soon-to-be lover. With the lamps and the overhead light off, the only illumination came from the open door behind Danny, and it threw deep shadows in all sorts of interesting places. Danny knelt and hooked his fingers in the waist of Cash’s sweats.
Cash grabbed his wrists. “Wait—”
Danny distracted him with another kiss. “But you need to be naked.”
“But…”
Danny tugged and managed to expose the first tufts of the curly brown hair in Cash’s crotch, but a helpless sound stopped him. He took a deep breath, realizing his zeal might be clouding his judgment. Much as it pained him to do so, he pulled his fingers from Cash’s waistband and instead slid his palms upward, gliding underneath the hem of the T-shirt and along the silky-soft skin of Cash’s sides. He moved so he would end up kneeling over Cash, low and close so they shared body heat.
“Too fast?” he asked when his nose brushed Cash’s.
“Um…”
He settled his palms on Cash’s chest. His right forefinger brushed over the pebbled tip of Cash’s nipple. “We could just do this.” He kissed Cash again, this time drawing it out. He took little bits at a time—lips, then teeth, then tongue. He wanted so badly to devour, but his patience was rewarded when Cash started to kiss back. When Cash sucked in his bottom lip, Danny groaned and gave in to the desire to pinch the nipple teasing his fingertip.
“Ah!” Cash jumped, his head jerking back into the pillows.
Danny grinned and pinched again. “Like that?”
Cash’s eyelids fluttered. “Yeah.”
Danny nipped at his chin. “There’s more I can do.” He pinched the other nipple. “You can stop me anytime you want.” Danny meant the words, but he prayed hard that Cash wouldn’t stop him. He nuzzled the soft bend where jaw met neck as he played both thumbs over Cash’s nipples.
When Cash sighed, Danny took the lack of protest as permission. He shifted down Cash’s body and pulled the Big Bird shirt out of the way so he could get his mouth on one of the tasty treats he’d been teasing with his fingers. They were small but clearly very sensitive; Cash started squirming when Danny flicked the nipple with his tongue. Danny slid his hand down Cash’s side, caressing warm skin. There was little tone to Cash’s muscles, but there was also no fat, just slim, smooth muscle. Danny moved lower and kissed the first soft dip of Cash’s belly right below his rib cage. His breath was audible now, his hands restless. One was smoothing over Danny’s back, and the other clutched the sheets at his side. As Danny continued down to lap at Cash’s navel, the hand on his back slid into his hair, fingers squeezing, then releasing.
Unable to hold off any longer, Danny slipped his hand over Cash’s sweats to cup the arousal that tented the crotch. He could smell precum and knew the briefs inside those sweats had a damp spot. He squeezed, and Cash’s entire body clench
ed, arching a little. Danny glanced up to see the heated grimace of pleasure that took over Cash’s face. He grinned and held Cash’s hooded gaze as he lowered his head, extended his tongue, and touched it to the cotton that shielded the tip of Cash’s cock.
Cash’s chin tipped up, his eyes closing, back bending. “Shit.”
Permission enough. Danny quickly hooked his fingers into the waistband of sweats and briefs and pulled them down to expose the cock he wanted so very badly to devour. It was every bit as gorgeous as he could have hoped—maybe not especially long and thick, but hard and flushed and leaking a little. With a groan of his own, he sucked in the head and took his first real taste of Cash. Delicious.
“Oh shit!”
Fingers tore at his hair, but Danny barely felt it. Eyes closed, he sucked in more of Cash, letting salty bitterness coat his tongue and slide down his throat. He wrapped his hand around the shaft and pulled back to the tip before sliding down to the base. Meantime, Cash was curling toward him, surrounding Danny as his body constricted. His free hand gripped Danny’s shoulder while the one in his hair yanked instinctively. Danny rode it, turned on by Cash’s lack of control. He sucked and squeezed and knew immediately when Cash’s orgasm triggered.
“Fuck!”
Cash’s hips pumped, and only Danny’s hold on his cock kept him from shoving down Danny’s throat. The leg not trapped under Danny’s body flailed, Cash’s heel slamming down on the mattress once, twice, to help release some of the tension. A flood of cum filled Danny’s mouth, enough to dribble from his lips before he could swallow it. He held on to Cash as he subsided, slowly releasing his cock but staying close enough to lap it clean. As Cash breathed hard, Danny licked at the cum on his belly, then, when it was gone, just licked at his skin. The death grip released from his hair, and Cash’s hand fell away to thump on the sheets.
When Cash’s breathing leveled, Danny pushed up onto his elbow. His own cock was furious, pressing against the inside of his zipper, but he kept his struggle from his expression as he watched Cash’s eyes drag open. “Good?” he asked with a cheeky grin.