Frat Boy and Toppy (8 page)

What? U rly need me to tell you? Talk to him, dumbass.

What do I say?

Thx for not turning me in to prof for plagiarism.

That’s it?

Sure u can handle it from there.

No. Can’t.

Yes.

No, please?

Turning off phone.

Bitch.

How come she wanted to tell him every little thought she’d ever had about him being gay, but she wouldn’t help him when he asked?

Okay. He could do this. How hard was it? He’d watched tons of girls try to pick him up over the years. He’d just do what they did, right?

Somehow that didn’t seem quite kosher, but Sebastian started moving toward the door. Brad followed before he could stop himself or think anymore.

“Hey! Sebastian!” Sebastian heard the voice behind him once he was a good hundred yards from the frat, heading toward the closest campus parking lot. It was dark with a little mist drifting up off the ground, swirling around the tall firs that surrounded the college. Sebastian was almost to the halo of lights that marked the campus boundary. On-campus it was well-lit. Off-campus, one lonely streetlight was sputtering away a block back.

For a split second, Sebastian felt like he was in a ghost story. He shook off the prickles up his back and turned. It was probably a kid from history class.

The shouter was only ten feet from him before he managed to believe what his eyes were telling him. “Brad.”

“Hey.” Brad stopped and stood a couple feet in front of Sebastian, shoving his hands in his pockets. He looked nervous.

Silence. Sounds of the party in the distance. A car starting in the campus lot. For some twisted reason, it made Sebastian want to smile that Brad was mildly freaked out. He’d always been inappropriately amused by others’ discomfort. Especially guys who wouldn’t stop popping up in his head too often. Usually naked.

He probably shouldn’t, but he let Brad fidget with this hands in this pockets for a few seconds before breaking the silence. “Did you want something?” At least he was trying to smother the smile.

“Yeah. Um, I just saw you in the party and I wanted to say thanks.”

“For coming to the party?”

Interesting. Brad was blushing. “Um, no,” he kind of laughed at himself, glancing up at Sebastian. “For not turning me in for plagiarizing that paper.” Brad cleared his throat. One of his hands snuck out of his pocket and started scratching behind his ear. He shoved it back in.

“No problem. Everyone gets to screw up, once.” Although damn he’d been annoyed when Brad had.

Brad nodded and looked around again. His hands fidgeted in his pockets, trapped.

Sebastian took pity on him, finally. “So, you belong to Theta Alpha Gamma, huh?”

“Yep.” Brad nodded, looking grateful, and rushed on. “Kinda surprised to see you there.”

“Yeah?”

Brad looked less sure again. Then he opened his mouth and shocked the hell out of Sebastian. “That guy you came with, are you, um . . . is he gay?”

Sebastian’s eyebrows shot up. “Why? Are you interested in him? If you want to know anything about him, you’re going to have to ask Toby yourself.” Well, that was just . . . annoying.

“What?” Brad’s eyes got big. “No.” Brad forced another laugh. Not really believable. “I was just wondering if, you know, you guys were together.”

Sebastian laughed. “Oh. No, we aren’t together. I don’t do the boyfriend thing, much. I’d hardly leave him all alone at a frat party if we were seeing each other. What kind of boyfriend would that make me?” Sebastian smiled. “Can’t even claim to be much of a friend, leaving a gay boy all by himself at a frat party.”

Brad started to reach up to scratch behind his ear again, but stilled his hand abruptly. He shoved both hands back into his pockets and took a deep breath. “So, uh, that History of Rome class, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s a class.”

“Yeah. It’s kinda kicking my ass. I mean, I know it’s only the first week of the term, but . . .”

“I was kind of surprised to see you in it this quarter. It didn’t seem like you were into the previous section much.”

Brad couldn’t quite meet Sebastian’s eyes. He mumbled something about his schedule and scratched his ear again. Suddenly he took a deep breath and looked back up at Sebastian. “Um, I was hoping maybe you could help me. Tutor me or something?” He caught himself scratching behind his ear again and dropped his hand.

Sebastian cocked his head. “I probably shouldn’t, since I’m the TA.” And because, in spite of all the reasons he’d given himself not to be, he was still attracted to Brad. But . . . “Yeah, sure. We can do that sometime. I’m free Wednesday evening—”

“Like, maybe now?” Brad asked, his voice overly loud.

Sebastian eyebrows went up again. Did Brad have any clue what this was beginning to sound like? “It’s Friday night.” Brad flinched but held his gaze. If Sebastian didn’t know better, he’d think Brad was coming on to him. In a cute, juvenile, inept way. If he didn’t have a clue, Sebastian should probably give him one. If he did have a clue, Sebastian would be giving him an opening. “Why Brad, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to get me alone and take advantage of me.”

Brad choked on air.

Okay, Frat Boy
was
gay. Or bi. Or bi-curious. At least, judging by the way he was sucking air like a fish on dry land. Sebastian was willing to admit to a healthy interest in the answer; Brad did a little something extra for his libido.

Sebastian eyed him for a few seconds, watching him get even jumpier. Just when he judged Brad was about to flee screaming into the night, Sebastian asked, “Are you a tourist?”

“Uh . . .” Brad was a little wild-eyed.

“Just taking a walk on the wild side. Wanna see how the other half lives. Curious.”

Brad looked down at the ground and scratched furiously behind that ear, then pulled on the lobe. Sebastian was beginning to fear for his skin back there. “I’m sort of more serious than that,” Brad finally said. He flicked a look at Sebastian from under his brows and then was back to watching the ground.

Sebastian’s impatience—and his libido—got the best of him. After waiting for Brad to look at him for a few dozen silent seconds, he bent forward to put himself in Brad’s line of sight. Brad startled a little. “How serious?”

Brad took a deep breath and held it a second. “I’m gay.” It sounded like he’d used all that air he’d taken in to push that out. “I haven’t been with . . . a lot of guys. I’m, um, attracted to you, you know?” Brad straightened his shoulders as he spoke, finding some courage somewhere, or bravado. “Really attracted to you.”

“Ah.” Sebastian cocked his head. “So, I guess the only question left is, are you top, bottom, or verse?”

“Verse?” Brad snapped his mouth shut, looking embarrassed at how naive he sounded.

Sebastian wasn’t so sure continuing this was such a great idea, but . . . “Versatile. Or maybe you don’t do anal?”

Brad’s mouth moved a few times, like he was trying to say something but couldn’t quite shove it out. Just when Sebastian figured it wasn’t going to happen, Brad blurted, “I want you to fuck me.”

Well, that was a nut-tightener for you.

He just had to figure out what to do with Brad. Oh, his body had some ideas. It was already shuffling blood around, sending adrenaline through him. He tried to approach this logically, but his rational mind was getting drowned out by the blood rushing in his head. Shouted down by the part of him that just
wanted
. The part that had wanted Brad for a while.

Brad wanted him too, right? He was clearly inexperienced, but it wasn’t like Sebastian was, or like he’d hurt Brad. Sebastian wasn’t going to take advantage of him. He just wanted (
oh yeah, he wanted
) to give Brad what he’d asked for.

“Come home with me?” Sebastian’s mouth was moving before his rational mind was completely on board, but it was fighting a losing battle. It was trying to tell him something, but he doubted it was important right now, anyway. He could always listen later.

Brad was nervous. As. Hell. Like, his-stomach-was-eating-his-liver kind of nervous. He should have had a beer at the party, then maybe he’d loosen up some. Which he probably needed to do since he’d just offered his virgin ass to Sebastian.

Oh God. What if Sebastian had a huge dick? Like, beer-can thick? He’d seen a couple like that on the internet. Just the sight of a dick that big would make him clench up tighter than a nun. He slouched down even farther in the passenger seat of Sebastian’s car, looking out the window. His brain reminded him he’d been preparing himself for
this
. Getting fucked. He could feel his face blazing. Thank God Sebastian couldn’t see it in the dark.

God, he hoped Sebastian wasn’t some kind of mind reader. Given the choice between mind reader and beer-can dick, he’d take mind reader, though.

Sebastian’s hand on his thigh made him jump. It felt kinda nice, warm and heavy, but Brad was feeling jumpy, he guessed. He figured he had the right to some nerves.

“You really haven’t done this much, huh?”

Brad cleared his throat a couple of times. “No,” he croaked.

“We don’t have to. I can take you back, or we can just go somewhere and talk.”

Brad cleared his throat again, and an important thought finally filtered through the adrenaline haze. “Why are you doing this?”

He could feel Sebastian looking at him, but he just stared out the windshield. “Taking you home with me? Hoping you really meant it when you said you wanted me to fuck you?”

Oh God
. “Yeah. That.” Brad slouched down lower. Was he terrified or more excited than he’d ever been in his life? He couldn’t decide.

Sebastian pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex. One of those ones built out of cardboard in the last ten years, with about five hundred units in it and lots of open, concrete-riser stairways. He didn’t say anything, just parked the car, taking his hand off of Brad’s thigh to maneuver the steering wheel. He stopped the engine and turned to Brad. “Hey.” His voice was soft. “Look at me.”

Brad did it without conscious thought. Sebastian told him to, so he did. He swallowed as he looked at Sebastian looking at him. What did he see? Sebastian had unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned back against the window, one leg up on the bench seat. Brad couldn’t see him that well because the light was behind Sebastian, but he knew what he looked like from memory. He was so, just,
cute
. Sexy. His face was square, and his nose was long with an arch. He had a strong jaw and wide, large eyes with black lashes, and Brad could barely look at his mouth without getting hard. Speaking of which . . .

“You’re hot. Not just your body, which you have to know is amazing. I really want to see you naked. I like looking at you, and yeah, I’ve been checking you out. I don’t really know you, but I like what I do know.”

“Even with the whole, you know, cheating thing?”

Sebastian smiled, light bouncing off the corner of his upturned lips. He pulled himself away from the door and started leaning forward. “Yeah. You didn’t lie, and you didn’t get pissed and act like you had the right to do it. You didn’t try to tell me it was really your paper but you’d been selling it to other people on the internet for years and only now needed to use it for yourself.”

Brad swallowed. If he had to guess, he’d say his heart picked up another beat per minute for every inch closer Sebastian got. “Someone tried to tell you that?”

Sebastian’s smile grew, or maybe Brad could just see it better. “Yeah. People try to tell me it’s a coincidence, too. Somehow they wrote a paper that’s the exact same, verbatim, as one floating around on the web.”

Sebastian’s lips were maybe ten inches from Brad’s. He could smell cold night air and underneath it something warm and maybe a little spicy. Not cologne; just Sebastian. Brad’s breath hitched in his chest. “I bought it because I wanted to impress you.”

Sebastian stopped moving forward, and his eyes widened. He looked . . . delighted. “You bought a paper so I’d notice you?”