“Mmm,” I mumble. Rex tips my head back and kisses me again, smiling now.
“I bet you were cute when you were a skinny kid,” he says. “I can picture you looking pissed off at the world, glaring at people, only they thought it was cute because your eyes are so damn pretty.”
“Um, my rage at the world was not cute,” I insist, winking. He squeezes my ass and my knees go a little weak.
“Right there,” he says. “Your eyelids flutter and your eyes go all sleepy.” He runs a rough thumb over my mouth. “You go from mad to liquid so easy.” His voice must be hypnotizing me or something because my eyes do not go all sleepy. Do they?
“I bet you ran your hands through your hair until it stuck straight up, just like you do now,” he says, smoothing my hair back. “Right? You probably leaned back against the school with a cigarette in your mouth like James Dean and closed your eyes. I bet there was some guy you drove crazy.”
“Like you?” I ask.
“Nah,” he says, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t have even looked at me twice in high school.”
“I bet I would have,” I say.
He looks at my face, runs fingertips over my eyebrows, my cheekbones, the bridge of my nose, mapping my features like a blind man.
“I was so shy I wouldn’t have known even if you had,” he murmurs. “Never talked to anyone.” His accent comes out a little when he’s not paying attention.
“No one?” I ask, my breath coming a little quicker as his hand drifts down to my chest and finds my nipples, his rough finger pads tracing them lightly.
“No one,” he says. “Never talked in class. Never talked period. Stuttered if I tried. Didn’t look at anyone. Not at any of the schools.” His fingertip slides into my navel and down to trace the edge of my jeans where they’ve slipped below my hip bones.
“Schools?”
“We moved a lot.” He presses kisses to my collarbones and my chest as he unbuttons my jeans and pushes them down. “Made it easier ’cause no one really notices the new kid anyway.” His hands cup my ass, squeezing gently, and I shiver against him.
I run my hands up and down his sides, feel the huge expanse of his ribs as he inhales. Compared to his hands, the skin here and on his back is smooth and untouched. His stomach’s another story. At first I didn’t notice because of his dark hair, but the flickering firelight casts a scar into relief on the right side of his stomach.
“What’s this from?” I ask, running my finger over the raised scar.
“Had my appendix out,” he says, then kisses me again, dragging me tight against him. I grab at his waist to keep my balance.
“Daniel,” he grinds out, his voice like crushed rock. “I want you so bad.” I feel an answering pulse in my groin.
I nod, try to answer, but it just comes out as “Mmphfhm.” Apparently Rex understands, because he takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom. It’s spare but comfortable. There’s an iPod and a Discman on the bedside table. I didn’t know anyone still listened to Discmen. Rex’s sheets are—I see just before I end up on my back on top of them—green flannel.
Rex drops his pants on the floor next to the bed and crawls on top of me. His legs are powerfully muscled, his thighs twice the size of mine, and his plain white briefs fail to contain his erection. He is, all in all, overwhelming. His size, his heat, the fucking delicious smell of him that’s now mixed with a scent that must be his arousal. I cup his balls through the damp fabric and he growls, shimmying out of his underwear and dragging mine down too.
He flips me onto my stomach effortlessly and kisses the back of my neck and down my spine. When he gets to the small of my back, he licks his way back up. I shiver as the wet stripe catches the air. He nuzzles my neck and kisses my ear and I turn my head to try and catch his mouth.
“You don’t know what you fucking do to me,” he murmurs. I can feel his erection pulse against my ass with the beat of his heart.
My skin feels too tight but my hips and spine are loose with desire. He flexes his hips and his hardness slides between my cheeks. Rex moans and kisses the center of my back. I feel shivery and a little uncertain, realizing that I’m about to fuck Rex. Or, what seems more likely is that he’s about to fuck me. I want to just lose myself in his body, his strength, but my heart starts to race, and a little voice in the back of my head is whispering things I don’t want to hear. It’s not safe to be this vulnerable, it whispers. You can’t trust someone like that. He’ll think you’re weak.