Love Lessons (7 page)

Though Kelly wanted to pull his hand away, the skin where Walter’s lips had touched still burned, and he found he didn’t have the strength. Walter apparently loved making Kelly blush, like right now as he put his arm around Kelly, his hand massaging idly at Kelly’s waist. The touch thrilled Kelly and made him half-hard, and Kelly’s panic over his reaction only seemed to charge Walter all the more.

When Walter’s fingers tried to tease Kelly’s nipple through his T-shirt, Kelly freaked out and batted him away. “Stop,” he hissed.

Walter didn’t, trapping him against the table and continuing his octopus-inspired assault. “You don’t want me to stop. You’re sporting so much fucking wood you’re going to have leaves in your ears.”

It was true. Kelly pushed against Walter’s chest, but not very hard. “Come on. You know I don’t do this. Flirting, I mean.”

“I do know. Which is why it’s so fun to show you how wrong you are about it.” Even as he said this, however, his assault simmered to something much more manageable and far more dangerous. He rested his chin on Kelly’s shoulder. “Help me find some talent, baby. Daddy needs to get laid.”

Kelly scanned the dance floor because it gave him an excuse to let Walter’s hands skim his groin. He had no idea what he was looking at, just that Walter’s hands were the real talent. They were almost criminal, in fact.

Walter’s thumbs hooked idly into Kelly’s belt loop. “Slim pickings tonight. It would be easier if this were a gay bar, but that’s all the way on the other side of town, and only locals go there. Millennials, we hate labels. The gay and bi-curious boys hang out here, so this is where I fish.” He stilled, leaning in close to Kelly’s ear. “Ten o’clock. Tight jeans and faded tee.”

Kelly scanned the crowd, uncertain what exactly he was supposed to be doing, and then he saw the guy in question. Okay, he was definitely hot. Nice butt, and his shoulders…mmm.

Walter frowned. “Ah, but wait. I remember this one. Sophomore, not that he ever goes to class from what I understand. Fairly good in bed, but dim. Also he didn’t want to wear a condom, which ended things fast. I might do a BJ bare, but nobody’s going in my ass without a raincoat on.”

“Why wouldn’t he want to wear a condom?” The implications of what Walter had said hit Kelly, and he turned to his roommate with wide eyes.

Walter looked amused. “Yes, I pitch and catch. So do most guys I know, though there are still nelly bottoms and big alpha tops out there, I’m sure. However, since we’re doing sex ed, watch for the new trend of guys wanting to ditch protection. Somehow the word has gotten out that HIV is cured. So not true. Also, gonorrhea and genital herpes? Not sexy.”

“My mother handed me about sixty pamphlets. Trust me, there will be condoms.”

“Your
mother
gave you pamphlets? No wonder you’re shy about sex.”

Kelly tried to punch him in the arm, but Walter turned octopus again, and Kelly started whimpering instead. On another attempt to get away, though, he caught sight of a beautifully stacked guy with a blond buzz near the bar. “Talent,” he said, then felt his breath hitch as the blond met his gaze and winked. “Oh shit.”

“Nice,” Walter purred. “Hook and line. You going in, Red?”

The blond touched his junk, and while Kelly got turned on, he also turned tail. He sank against Walter.

Walter laughed. “I suppose he is something of a black run. If you’re passing, do you mind?”

Oh. Walter was going to fuck the blond. Feeling a bit bereft, Kelly shook his head, and Walter let him go.

“Thank you, roomie.” He tipped an imaginary hat. “Don’t wait up.”

Kelly watched Walter walk away. It took Walter about a minute to get the blond guy out on the dance floor, but after the blond smiled at him, it was clear sex was a given between them.

Kelly tried not to be jealous and crossed the room to give a more formal hello to Rose as a distraction.

Walter hadn’t thought it possible he’d enjoy living doubled in a single—in Porterhouse—but that’s exactly what he was doing. He genuinely liked Kelly and enjoyed spending time with him. He didn’t even mind, much, that having a shy virgin as a roommate was seriously cramping his love life. Less fucking, more jerking off to Internet porn while Kelly was in class, and he was solid.

The Disney thing, though, threw him completely for a loop.

He’d stumbled across his roommate’s guilty pleasure by accident one day when Kelly called him from the computer lab desperate because he’d forgotten to put an assignment on his flash drive and needed Walter to mail it to him before his class started. This meant digging around on Kelly’s computer, which was how he accidentally ended up snooping. The desktop wallpaper was no shock: Kelly loved the artist Sia, and his desktop was a montage of her album covers and publicity photos. But Kelly was a PC where Walter was a Mac, and as he fumbled, trying to use a shortcut that wouldn’t work on Kelly’s recycled Dell, he accidentally triggered the screensaver.

Which was a picture of Aladdin and Jasmine.

Walter blinked at the screen. “What the fuck?” When it shifted to a screen shot from
Tangled
, he burst out laughing.

On the other end of the line, Kelly turned wary. “Why are you laughing?”

The scene shifted again, this time to Belle and the Beast, and Walter collapsed back onto the green rocker, barely able to hold up the phone through his mirth. When he managed to put it on his ear, Kelly was chattering like a squirrel, demanding to know what was going on and threatening to come back to the room if Walter didn’t explain.

It had been on the tip of Walter’s tongue to tease Kelly, but at the last second some deep instinct warned him this would not be a good plan. “Nothing.” He got rid of the screensaver and went back to uploading the file. “You said it was right there on the desktop?”

“You were laughing at something. What were you laughing at?”

The terror in Kelly’s voice tore away the last of Walter’s amusement. “Hon, it’s fine. Stop freaking out. You’re going to be late for class. You want me to email it, right? To your usual?”

Even after they’d hung up, Kelly remained obsessed, texting Walter three times during his class, demanding to know what was so funny. Eventually Walter sent one of David Kawena’s sexualized Disney hero paintings as a reply—Aladdin, because that was the most recognizable one, but man did he hover over Prince Phillip.

OMG my screensaver
was all he got back from Kelly, and then radio silence until, exactly seven minutes after his class let out, Kelly came back to the room, breathless and sick with embarrassment.

Walter tried to calm him down. “Hey—sweetheart, seriously. It’s fine. The pics threw me for a loop is all. No sweat.”

“I forgot I’d never changed that. Lisa did that before I left as a joke.”

Walter simply raised an eyebrow and waited.

Kelly folded like a house of cards. “Okay, so I have a thing for Disney movies. I always have.” He held out his arms like a sacrifice. “Go ahead. Make fun.”

Walter shrugged. “Whatever. It’s a little weird, but it suits you in its own way. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. It was just the last thing I thought I’d see.”

Kelly leaned against the side of his loft, crossing his arms over his chest. “They make me happy. I don’t think that’s bad.”

“Didn’t say it was. Hell, I loved
Pete’s Dragon
when I was younger. Always got misty when I heard Helen Reddy sing ‘Candle on the Water’.”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes, really. What, you think I came out of the womb this cynical?” He put his hands behind his head. “I even took piano lessons just so I could learn to play the song. It’s the only thing I still know by heart.”

Clearly he’d chosen the right balm, because Kelly smiled and eased into the green rocker. “That’s cool. I never learned to play at all, so you’re one up on me.” He had his phone in hand, scrolling through until he’d pulled up the image Walter had texted him. “Where in the
hell
did you get this, by the way? There’s no way this pic is Disney issue.”

“You never saw that before? Are you kidding? There’s a whole fucking series.” He reached for his laptop and tapped out a search as he spoke. “I found them a few years back, but the artist has made more since I last looked.” After loading Kawena’s Facebook album, he passed the computer over to Kelly.

Kelly’s eyes went wide, then darkened with a quiet lust that Walter found more erotic than the photos. “Oh my God. Holy
shit
. Flynn Rider. And—
Jesus!
Tarzan. And the Beast!” He covered his mouth with his hand, but his eyes told Walter these images were burned on his roommate’s brain. “If I’d have found these at twelve, I’d have needed more therapy than I already had. Either that or maybe I wouldn’t have needed any at all, because this is pretty much how I saw them myself. Except somehow this is even better.”

Walter studied Kelly a minute, trying to decide if he were truly that casual about having been to therapy or if Kawena’s images were simply that distracting. This was confirmed when, a few minutes later, Kelly looked up with an expression that made it clear his brain had finally caught up with his mouth.

Oh, Red. So fucking adorable.
Walter played it cool, propping his feet up on the desk chair. “You were watching Disney while I was drooling over Tom of Finland. Why am I not surprised?” When Kelly gave him a blank look, Walter laughed and shook his head. “
Seriously
, baby, did you grow up in a cave? Google it.”

He smiled, slow and devious, as Kelly opened a search engine. Kelly went still in the same way he had when he’d seen the Disney heroes redone, except the expression on his face now was dirtier.

Good. Walter liked to think Kelly was untutored, not a prude.

“If it helps,” Walter said, “I
did
have to confess to peeking at Tom in therapy. Not because I thought it was wrong to be gay, but more that I needed help parsing out what ‘real’ gay was and what was fantasy. This is what happens when you grow up with a handful of half-assed role models and a whole lot of American Family Association on the airwaves.”

He wasn’t sure how subtle that had been, but he’d wanted Kelly to get he wasn’t the only queer boy who’d needed a leg up to get through adolescence.

“Did you really cry to ‘Candle on the Water’ when you were younger?” Kelly asked eventually. “Or did you invent that to make me feel better?”

“Like a baby, all by myself in my room with a blanket around my head so I could hide quick if anyone came in the room.” The confession made him feel too exposed, so he cleared his throat and made an impatient
come here
motion to Kelly. “Get over here and bring my MacBook. We’ll alternate between Tom and Disney and finish off with a nice masturbation session.”

“Not together!” Despite this protest, Kelly came over to the futon all the same, and as he settled in, Walter could tell his roommate was sporting a stiffy.

Not yet, there won’t be a masturbation session together,
Walter agreed, taking the laptop and surfing to an untitled piece he had bookmarked, a pencil of a nude blond man between the thighs of a booted biker.
Not yet. But soon.

Chapter Six

It took almost a month for Cara and Greg to get everything out of the garage at the old apartment, but the good news for Walter was on the last run, Cara came with Greg instead of sending her dad. It was the longest stretch in two years Walter had gone without seeing her every day, and he didn’t realize how much he hated that absence until she came down the campus sidewalk toward him, arms extended.

“It’s so good to see you.” She enveloped him in a hug, then pulled back and smiled at him a little longer. Walter drank her in like water.

“You look good.” He touched the tips of her hair, which she’d cut to frame her face in a sharp bob. “Cute hair. Love the color too.”

She touched the ends, making them bounce. “I miss the length, but this looks more professional, I thought.”

“Internship going well?”

“Yeah. I think I might have a few leads on a job, but things are still in the air.” She looped her arm through his. “So. I want to see this adorable roommate.”

“He’s out at some freshman mixer. I told him it was a waste, but every now and again he has to go rub his nose in that shit and find out I’m right.”

Cara laughed. “We’ll take him to Opie’s later.” Walter opened the door to the dorm, and she wrinkled her nose. “God.”

“Smells of piss and glory, doesn’t it?” Walter held the door wide and gestured for her to pass through. “After you, madam.”

“It seems worse than when you first stayed here,” Cara said as they ascended the stairs, the cacophony of brutish men echoing around them.

“I know. I think it’s the indignity of having to return to it. Somehow that makes it smell more rank.”

“I’m so sorry the apartment thing was a mess.”

“It’s hardly your fault.”

“Still. I hate leaving you here, stuck in Porterhouse.” She touched a peeling wall and sighed. “At least you have your roommate. And of course Williams. How’s everything going with him?”

“Good. He’s obsessed about his tenure, and so is Rose Manchester and the rest of the philosophers-wannabe. Rose is the most rabid about it, though. I think she smells a Pulitzer or something.”