Page 87 of Roommate
“Well, I won’t,” I say abruptly. And then a bunch of nonsense comes tumbling out of my mouth. “And when you won’t eat the food I’ve bought, I really can’t tell if we’re a team at all. It’s like you don’t want to give me that satisfaction of helping you.”
Roderick flinches. He takes a bite and chews. “Honestly, I really didn’t plan to like you so much. I wasn’t looking for more than a roommate and then a hookup. I thought I’d make you orgasm a few times and send you off to find a boyfriend. But you are irresistible.”
“I don’t want any other boyfriend.” Just you.
“Yeah, maybe I’m irresistible, too. If you like hot messes with car trouble and relationship baggage.”
“Maybe that’s my fetish,” I say, cramming another big bite into my mouth.
“It must be.” We eat in silence for a couple of minutes.
Roderick sets his plate down and then grabs mine and sets it down, too. He climbs into my lap, straddling me. “Merry Christmas, lumberjack. For someone who claims to hate Christmas, you’re pretty good at it.”
“It’s not so bad,” I say, kissing his jaw, then nosing into his hair to take a deep breath. He smells like bacon and all the good things in life. If you’d told me two months ago that I could be so wrapped up in another man’s embrace, I would have thought you were crazy. But here I am, holding Roderick on the sofa.
My boyfriend. I try that word on in my head. It seems odd, but I like the concept a whole lot. I like making breakfast together in the kitchen and opening presents under our tree. “Can we please make another slice of French toast, with syrup?”
Roderick laughs in my arms. “Sure. But I thought you were about to say—can we please have some sex? I have a one-track mind.” He kisses my neck and then slips his hands up under my T-shirt.
“Mmh.” The contact with his skin makes me feel electric. “Now that you mention it, I like this idea.”
Roddy doesn’t argue the point. Instead, he puts his hand down my pants and strokes my thickening cock. His lips move sweetly across my throat. I can’t help it—I thrust into his hand.
“Kieran,” he says against my skin. “There’s one more present I got you for Christmas. But now I’m not sure if I should show it to you.”
“Unngh,” I groan. “Show me later.”
“Well, it’s relevant to the topic.” He slides a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and unfolds it. “Look, I got tested again.”
I squint at it for a fractional second. “That’s good, right?”
“Yeah, I wanted a follow-up, because of the cheater. And I thought…” He clears his throat. “Well, I thought maybe you’d feel better about fucking me if you knew I was healthy. In case that was holding you back.”
“Oh.” I lean back on the couch and sigh. “That was never holding me back. You’re just plain tasty.” I run a hand up his chest to prove my point. “But we have a lot of fun the way things are. And sex makes me think of…” It’s not easy to say out loud.
“You can just tell me,” he says quickly. “Not everybody likes the idea of anal.”
“Oh, I like it fine as a concept. But I don’t have any game at all. Before…” I pause again. This is super awkward. “I don’t think I ever satisfied anyone. Least of all me. And with you—it’s not like I’ll suddenly know what I’m doing.”
Roderick doesn’t laugh, although I’m not sure I’d blame him. He strokes a thumb across my stubbly cheek and looks me right in the eyes. “That sounds stressful. I get it. But what if this wasn’t an Olympic event? I just want to be that close to you.”
“Oh,” I say slowly. “I don’t suppose there’s a book to teach me this, too? You could put flags on the relevant pages.”
Now he smiles. “Sounds like a really fun book. Especially if there were illustrations.”
“There should be.”
Roddy leans down and kisses the corner of my mouth. Just once. “Tell you what—we could do this mise en place.”
“What?”
“You know when I teach you a new recipe, I arrange all the ingredients so that you can focus on the technique?”
“Yeah,” I say warily.
“Come on.” He climbs off my lap, then tugs on one of my hands. “Come in here for a second.”
I let him lead me into the kitchen. “You fry up the rest of the French toast, because it freezes well, for reheating later.” He hands me the spatula. “And come upstairs when you hear Adele.” He turns the music back on.
