Page 22 of Mr. Frosty Pants
Casey rose and trotted after him, breathless. “I’m in town until the new year. Can I see you again?”
Joel’s heart leapt eagerly, but he clenched his fists. Hope was pointless. This thrill of joy screaming through his body was stupid. It could never go anywhere good. They could neverhappen, not really. Casey was, just as Joel had claimed last night, slumming it during his winter break. He was horny and lonely and bored. That’s all it was. All it could ever be.
But Casey didn’t let up. “For lunch? For dinner? For anything?”
“What? You got my first kiss, Casey. You want to be my first everything now?” Joel rounded on him, hands shoved deep in his pockets so he didn’t grab Casey’s broad shoulders and kiss him again. His heart skipped wildly.
“Would that be so bad?” Casey gazed at him with a heat that made Joel’s dick swell and his heart twist up hard.
Joel tried to glare. He was pretty sure he failed. “I don’t need a pity fuck.”
“You think that’s what I feel for you? Believe me, it’s not pity, it’s lo—”
“Don’t say it.” Joel held out his hands, stopping the word halfway out of Casey’s mouth. “Don’t leave for nearly four years, come back here like you’re something special, and think you have any right to say that word to me.” Especially when Casey didn’t mean it. Couldn’t mean it. Not the way Joel wanted him to anyway.
Joel let out a slow breath and called to Bruno, “C’mon, boy. Back inside.”
Casey lingered silently as Joel used a dirty towel he kept by the trailer door to wipe off Bruno’s feet, opened the door, and let Bruno in. Of course Casey followed at Joel’s heels again once he started toward his truck.
“What time do you eat lunch?” Casey asked when they reached their vehicles at nearly the same time.
“Same time as most folks, I guess.”
“I’ll see you then. And I’ll bring you something good.” He pointed at Joel with a commanding finger, forestalling his protest. “I’ll be there.” Then he climbed into his SUV and buckled up.
Refusing to look at Casey, Joel tried to steady his frantic mind by taking his time checking the ties holding a wheelbarrow he’d borrowed from Vreeland’s in the back of his truck.
After Casey drove off, Joel sat in the driver’s seat of his Chevy and stared at the Christmas wreath on his door and the colored lights around the gutters. His lips tingled, and his chest burned with a screaming sensation. Fear and excitement combined.
Casey Stevens had left town because he’d wanted to kiss him.
And today Caseyhadkissed him. With his beautiful mouth that Joel had admired since they were just kids playing in their backyards.
“Merry fucking Christmas to me,” he whispered, touching his lips. He could still feel the sting of Casey’s prickly stubble against his chin. In a daze, he backed out of his lot and started on the road toward the nursing home. His head was a spinning, cascading, maddening mess of amazement.
Casey’s palms sweatedon the steering wheel as he drove aimlessly away from Joel’s plot of lakeside property. He turned on a country road and kept going, taking the winding curves, his heart racing and his breath coming in sharp gasps.
When he was a good five minutes into his stunned retreat, he rolled down his window, stuck his head out into the crisp winter air, and yelled as loudly as he could out across the rolling fields.
His engine and the wind rushing down from the Tennessee hills swallowed the sound, but his throat relished the strain. Giddy and wild, he yelled and yelled until his own laughter cut him off.
He’d done it.
He’d kissedJoel Vreeland! With his mouth!
OnJoel’s mouth!
Multiple times!
Maybe he should have slipped him more tongue, unbuttoned Joel’s jeans, and taken the kiss to a more passionate place. But that hadn’t seemed right. It’d been a pure moment, vulnerable and sweet. Joel had seemed almost childlike in his acceptance of it.
Eventually he’d kissed Casey back, but barely. Just teased his tongue into Casey’s mouth and then back out again, like a scared thing. The memory of it made Casey’s heart pound. Casey had taken the risk and gone for it. Had opened himself up to possible rejection despite his fear. Goddamn, he was proud of himself. Proud of Joel too.
He laughed, shaking his head. What a fucked-up pair they were, but they’d actuallykissed! He stuck his head out the window again and howled with delight.
When he was relatively calm again, Casey drummed his hands on the steering wheel. He had to figure things out. He needed to excavate the truth between them. He wanted to crack Joel open. He wanted to see all of that beautiful, scared vulnerability again and again. He wanted to explore him slowly, breaking down his fears and resistance, until he was soft and sweet under Casey’s hands. That would be amazing. Beautiful. It was all he’d ever wanted.
Casey groaned. His cock grew hard, and he yelled out the window again.
