Stray Fears - Gregory Ashe Page 0,74

me, screaming around his mouthful of pillow. The sight of him like that, wrecked and still pistoning on top of me, sent me over the edge; my fingers dug into the hard muscles of his chest as I brought him down onto me hard, hard, hard and blasted off.

After, he dropped the pillow, grinning sheepishly. He kissed me, tasting like cotton, and he nuzzled into my neck, still straddling me, and he fell asleep. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t what I’d expected. I ran one hand along his back, following the curve of his shoulder blade, the side of his chest, the bandages on his ribs. I found blood where my nails had bitten crescents into sensitive skin. Then I dozed off too.

When I woke, he had slid off me, one arm still across my chest, and the sheet covered both of us.

“Morning,” Dag said.

“Morning,” I said.

“Sorry about that.” He blushed, and his eyes fell. “I’m, uh, really attracted to you, which you probably figured out.”

“It’s nice to hear it, though,” I said.

“Oh.” His eyes came up. “I’m really attracted to you.”

I smiled; something rippled in my chest like the water-light on the wall.

“I probably seem super needy,” Dag said, “coming onto you like that. Twice.”

“Not needy,” I said.

“You’re this gorgeous guy, and I know you’re out of my league, and even though I’m older you’re way more experienced because I’ve had, like, one boyfriend and he stole all my money and the sex probably wasn’t even that good.”

“Oh boy,” I said, propping myself on one elbow. “This is spiraling fast.”

“I just, you know, wanted to tell you, um, if you want me to do something different, you can tell me, or I could work out more, and I—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Tugging down the sheet, I ran my hand over the hard lines of his chest, flattening my palm over the ridged muscles of his belly. “I’m here with you. I like you. You are hot, ok? You’ve got a body like you could fucking break me in half. And the hair is really doing something for me.” Releasing a shaky breath, I met his eyes. “But I like you, who you are, I mean, even more. Nobody’s ever cared what I wanted. Nobody’s ever . . . been vulnerable for me like that. Trusted me.”

Dag’s eyes were wet. He touched my mouth. Then he kissed me. “I was worried you were going to freak out this morning.”

“Well, you were right. I was. Being on the receiving end of the full cowboy, though, went a long way toward changing my mind. That and having a human teddy bear pin me to the bed.”

Dag’s blush got even darker.

Laughing, I ran my hand over his buzzed, graying hair. “Come on. We have to face your parents sometime.”

“Nope,” he said. “I’m just going to die in here.”

“Up,” I said, swatting his butt. “Or I’ll tell them you were a gentle and considerate lover.”

“Oh my God,” he groaned, burying his face in the pillow. “They’d be so freaking proud. They’d never stop talking about it. I’d have to kill myself.”

Dag tried to be a good host, but I let him clean up first. He was fast in the shower, though, and when he came back, he smelled like soap and that faint, woodsy smell I had noticed on him before. I took longer, mostly because I had never, in my entire adult life, had to face a new partner’s parents over breakfast after the two best sexual experiences of my existence.

After dressing in fresh clothes, I found Dag and his parents in the kitchen. A huge breakfast casserole sat in the middle of the table, along with a baker’s box full of beignets. Dag had a piece of casserole almost as big as his plate, and he was working his way through the beignets pretty steadily.

Dag’s parents were still smiling.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Good morning,” Gloria cooed.

Dag groaned, powdered sugar puffing out from the beignet he was working on.

“I’m sure you boys worked up quite an appetite,” she said, serving me a piece of casserole almost as big as the one Dag had. “Would you like some orange juice, Elien? Coffee?”

“Stop fussing over them,” Hubert said.

“Thank you,” Dag muttered.

“The boys pleasured each other last night,” Hubert said. “That’s all.”

Dag expelled another cloud of powdered sugar.

“It’s perfectly normal and natural for them to bring each other to the heights of physical ecstasy. No need to cluck on and on about it.”

“Oh my God,” Dag