Page 21 of Mr. Frosty Pants
“What? Kissing?” Casey asked. His voice grew even gentler. He leaned in, and Joel felt his breath brush against his ear as he whispered, “Has anyone ever kissed you, Joel?”
Joel’s pulse beat insanely in his temples and behind his eyes. Dizziness swept over him as Casey touched his cheek.
“What are you doing?” Joel choked out.
Casey slid his fingers down to take hold of Joel’s chin. He stared into Joel’s eyes, giving him time to see the kiss coming, to avoid it if he really wanted. Joel gasped. It was slow motion, like molasses. It felt like he was dying as he waited for Casey’s mouth to dip and press, damp and soft, against his own.
Joel shuddered as Casey’s mouth touched his. The sweet kiss lingered. Then Joel moaned when Casey’s lips parted and the kiss grew wet. He didn’t know what to do, how to respond, and so he let it happen. He let Casey kiss him again and again. Softly, gently, carefully, and with soul-destroying tenderness. Joel shook, and his dick grew hard, pressing against his jeans.
“Wow,” Casey breathed against his mouth, and then he kissed Joel again.
Joel’s hands trembled as he raised them to Casey’s shoulders and finally kissed him back. His pulse thrummed wildly, and his cock ached. Time stretched out. Casey’s taste and the tingling sensation of his breath, his lips, and his gentle fingers broke Joel open until he was panting and shaking with need.
“Now you can’t say you’ve never been kissed,” Casey murmured as he pulled away. His eyes were blown wide, and they were glossy with emotions Joel didn’t feel confident enough to name.
The cool morning air tingled against his now-wet lips, and the only thing Joel could think to do was pull out another precious cigarette and light it. “I’m running low,” he whispered in explantion of not offering Casey a second smoke too. His hands shook as he took a draw. “Sorry.”
Casey watched him carefully, and Joel looked anywhere but at those questing eyes. What the hell had that been about? What was he supposed to say? Or do?
“We can share,” Casey said, plucking the cigarette from between Joel’s fingers and breathing in a puff. Joel’s stomach somersaulted seeing Casey’s plump, kiss-reddened lips wrapped around his cigarette. He wanted to kiss him again.
And that was no good at all. That was terrible, in fact.
Casey handed the cigarette back. “I shouldn’t smoke more. I might puke.” He smiled softly. “I don’t do it much now.”
“You never did it much back then either.” Joel let the cigarette dangle between his index and middle finger. His mind raced as he asked unsteadily, “So, what? Do you expect me to thank you for that?”
Casey laughed softly. “I should thankyou, actually. I’ve wanted to kiss you forever.” He slipped gentle fingers through the hair at Joel’s temple, pushing it back, and gazed at him with so much feeling in his eyes that it made Joel dizzy. And maybe a little sick like he’d been the one to smoke too many cigarettes after years of abstinence. It was scary as shit.
Joel stood and threw the barely smoked cigarette into the lake. He didn’t usually litter, and he didn’t usually fail to finish his death sticks, but he didn’t know what to do with all his jail-broken feelings now that Casey was here acting all…
He shuddered. Now that Casey had kissed him. Now that Joel was facing the wretched specter of some kind of fucked-up hope. The thing he’d never let himself indulge in when it came to Casey Stevens, and the thing he’d mostly banished from the rest of his life too.
Casey didn’t rise. He stayed put, studying Joel carefully. “What are you thinking?” Concern thickened his voice.
Joel sounded rough, like he’d smoked a whole pack, when he ground out, “I have to get to the nursing home.”
“My mom told me about your dad yesterday. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah. Well. Life happened. Whether you were here for it or not. It happened.”
Casey’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that. It makes it weird.” He’d never liked it when people told him they were sorry about his mother’s death, and he didn’t like hearing that they were sorry about Pop now. It just made things awkward.
“Right. I remember. Sorry.”
Joel shifted to relieve the pressure in his pants where his cock still hoped that the kiss meant more than it did. “Yeah, well, Dad expects me to bring him breakfast by nine, so…” He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time and waggled it at Casey. “I have to go.”
He didn’t wait for Casey to join him as he walked away. Bruno raced to his side, panting, with muddy front paws.
“Just to be clear, I left you behindbecauseI wanted to kiss you,” Casey called from his seat on the bench.
“And I let you go because Iwantedyou to kiss me,” Joel called back. He turned around slowly to meet Casey’s eyes for the next bit. “And I wanted a hell of a lot more than that back then.”
Casey bit his lower lip. It made Joel’s balls tighten again. “And now?”
“And now it’s been almost four years and, fuck, Casey. I don’t know. I need to go.”
