Page 121 of Something Like Winter
“Thanks.” Ryan poked his head in without much interest. “Listen, do you think I could take a shower?”
Alone?
“Sure. Make yourself at home. It’s been a long day, so I’m going to crash.”
Tim showed Ryan the guest bathroom and made sure he had everything he needed before whistling for Chinchilla and heading to his room. Once undressed and in bed, he lay there with his eyes open, feeling ill at ease about having a stranger in his home. Then again, what’s the worst Ryan could do? Steal some things and take off? Tim could afford it.
He rolled over, watching Chinchilla sleeping in her new bed, the side of her body rising and falling. The motion was soothing, as was the gentle sound of her snores. More than once that sound had helped lull him to sleep. He was drifting off when his bedroom door clicked open. The hall light burst around a silhouette—lanky hair, a slender frame, and the scent of body wash.
Ryan walked to the edge of the bed, but Tim didn’t make a move until the towel dropped to the floor. Then Tim threw open the covers in invitation. Ryan barely had one knee on the bed before Tim had sat up to meet his kiss. Ryan didn’t miss a beat, his lips not leaving Tim’s as he climbed into bed and straddled him. Then he pushed Tim back against the bed with surprising force, his tongue tracing a path down Tim’s neck, across his right nipple, diagonally across his abs to his hip before returning to the center again.
Tim’s back arched as Ryan’s mouth was filled. The kid knew his stuff! Adjusting to the pleasure, he settled, sighing and moaning. He was lost in a cloud of bliss when Ryan stopped and flopped over to the middle of the bed. Tim raised his head and opened his eyes to find him on his stomach, a wild grin on his face. His ass being in the air probably had something to do with that.
“Come fuck me,” he said.
So much for taking things slow. Casual encounters for Tim rarely involved more than trading blow jobs. What Ryan wanted was special to him, with a few rare exceptions. But damn if he wasn’t pretty! Tim grabbed a condom and lube from the nightstand, hoping that such things didn’t have expiration dates because it had been a long time. Then he positioned himself over Ryan, kissing his neck and smelling his freshlywashed hair while letting his cock rub against Ryan’s inner thigh.
“Come on,” Ryan said impatiently. “Show me who’s boss!”
Tim didn’t like to disappoint. He bit and nipped playfully at Ryan’s butt cheeks while getting the condom on, grinning at theyipesthis caused. He meant to start slow, a little finger play and a reach around, but Ryan expressed impatience again.
“Stop messing around and give me what I deserve! Fucking use me!”
Unsure how much of this was just dirty talk, Tim slowly slid inside, but soon Ryan was bucking against him and begging for more. Spurred on by more trash talk, Tim let go of his inhibitions and really started pounding him. Only then did Ryan stop talking and start moaning. The bed shook as their flesh continued to slap together, Tim grunting in ecstasy, but he missed those pretty lips.
“Sit up,” he commanded.
Once Ryan was only on his knees, Tim wrapped one arm around his chest and the other around his neck, holding Ryan’s back flush against his chest as they twisted their necks to kiss. Tim held him there as he kept thrusting, Ryan’s breath huffing against his lips, sometimes in his mouth. Then Ryan squirmed free, falling forward on to his hands.
“Slap my ass!”
Tim was already doing so with his hips, but he started slapping the side of Ryan’s rump, responding to chants of “harder, harder, harder” until Ryan’s words became groans. Tim felt more like an animal than a human being, skin drenched in sweat and nearly howling when they finally came together. As he recovered from this bestial low, he felt a pang of guilt, worrying that he had hurt Ryan, had damaged his delicate beauty. But when they rolled over on their sides, Ryan squirmed up against him and sighed contentedly.
“You all right?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said, then after a couple beats, “but next time you don’t have to be so gentle.”
Tim laughed in relief, wrapping an arm around him and dozing off into an endorphin-induced sleep.
* * * * *
The weekend of Ryan’s dreams stretched into ten days. Tim, who had found the idea so boring, couldn’t get enough. During the day they would sleep in, waking up for progressively rougher sex. Once purged of these demons, Ryan was sugar-sweet the rest of the day. Forget the lost puppy from the first night. Ryan was more like a kitten in the way he would cuddle up to Tim when they watched TV, head on his lap so Tim could stroke his hair.
For food they called on any delivery service they could find, sometimes making brief excursions together for take-out. Or to stock up on beer or whatever liquor Ryan was in the mood for that evening. He kept researching cocktails on the Internet, begging Tim to get the different ingredients so they could try them. So far they’d had appletinis, bloodhounds, cosmopolitans, daiquiris, andel presidentes.The rest of the alphabet was sure to follow.
Tim was used to having the occasional beer, not drinking every night, but he was having fun. Ryan always got silly when he had a buzz, putting on music and dancing or making them do dumb things like shutting off all the lights both inside and out and going for a swim under the stars. Ryan was always at his side, even in the shower. All he wanted was to be with Tim, and Tim found all he wanted was to be with Ryan.
“We need to get you something to wear,” Tim said while folding laundry. “I’m tired of you looking all baggy in my clothes.”
“Should I take them off?” Ryan teased. “Or you could take me shopping.”
That sounded good. Fun as staying in had been, Tim needed to get out of the house for more than a quick errand. “All right. We’ll go shopping, but I’m not buying you an entire wardrobe. If you’re going to keep hanging around, you’ll have to fetch some clothes from home.”
For their shopping trip, Tim took Ryan to Soco, a neighborhood on South Congress Avenue full of weird and funky shops. Ryan ran from store to store like he was on a shopping spree, and Tim had so much fun that he indulged him, spending more money on clothes and music then he had intended.
After a quick meal of tacos from the food trucks at the farmers’ market, they drove by Ryan’s parents’ home. On the way, Ryan kept insisting the clothes they had bought were enough, fighting against seeing his family. Tim promised to take him out for dinner if he went through with it. The house they pulled up to was big—the neighborhood not quite as exclusive as Tim’s, but Ryan clearly came from money.
Tim waited in the car, not wanting to meet Ryan’s family. Their age difference wasn’t too drastic, but that, combined with Ryan’s parents not accepting his sexuality, made Tim keep his distance. Besides, meeting the parents was a big step, and Tim had no idea if this was an extended fling or something more.
