Serpentine Walls (34 page)

“I know that,” Matthew said, his voice beginning to regain its usual liveliness, “but why?” He squeezed Pete’s hand, and Pete could tell he was teasing him.

“Because. I think you should finish what you started back in Coupe’s.”
Scared shitless
didn’t even begin to describe Pete’s emotions, but he stood his ground and kept his eyes on Matthew.

“You do, do you?” Matthew asked in a playful tone.

Pete smiled, relief flooding him at seeing the old Matthew again. He liked the crinkles around Matthew’s eyes when he smiled back at him, and he liked it even more when Matthew leaned down and kissed him. Matthew’s lips were soft, and he smelled like cherries, and it was
Now, Voyager
and
Casablanca
and all the best chick flicks rolled into one, but better. Far better.

They broke apart, both of them breathing quickly, and stared at each other.

“Wow,” Pete said, surprised by the huskiness in his voice.

“Yeah.” Matthew’s voice sounded more shaky than husky. “Wow.”

They stared at each other again until Pete ventured, “Um… how was that?”

“Oh, I’d give it a perfect ten.” Matthew grinned, and Pete relaxed.

“So, um, we’re doing this, right?”
Why are you even asking, lamebrain?

“Come here.” Matthew drew Pete to him and enveloped him in a tight hug, murmuring, “We’re doing this.” He pulled away too soon for Pete’s liking and held him by his shoulders, shaking his head as he studied his face. “Pete Morgan, foiler of celibacy vows the world over.”

“Dude.”

Matthew smiled ruefully. “I mean it. There I was, living my celibate life, and then you show up at our party, and that was it on me.”

“Really? That soon?”

“Yep. You sang that karaoke thing with Aidan, and I drooled.”

Pete laughed in disbelief. “Well, the drooling was mutual that night.”
Even though I ended up going home with Aidan
, he thought but didn’t say.

“Instant attraction. And when we started working on your film, I knew I was in trouble.”

“Yeah?”

“God, Pete, you were so smart and fun and gorgeous, I could barely keep my hands off you.” He put his hand on the back of Pete’s neck and gazed down at him. “All I wanted to do was….” He kissed him, still just a press of his lips to Pete’s, but let his mouth linger and then slowly pulled away. “That.”

“Yeah.” Pete let out a breath, wanting Matthew’s lips back on his that instant. But Matthew continued to talk.

“Anyway, the more we hung out, the more gone over you I got, and this celibate thing started to be ridiculous. But I kept fighting it, and I kept seeing you with Aidan.” Pete opened his mouth to protest, but Matthew answered, “I know, I know. Aidan is a nonissue. But I didn’t know that then. And after our fight at Coupe’s, I totally freaked out.” He ran his hand down Pete’s arm. “Sorry for doubting you and running off. Twice.”

“That’s okay.”
Is that all you can say?
he chided himself. But Matthew’s revelations of how much he’d wanted him had knocked him into a happy daze.

The daze seemed to be mutual. They fell into each other’s eyes, staring wordlessly, until a burst of loud music from a passing car startled them out of it.

“Where were we?” Matthew asked and then brightened. “Wait! Your card! I need to read it.” He pulled it out of his blazer pocket and opened it, moving to stand more directly under the streetlight.

“You don’t have to,” Pete began.

“Hush, I’m reading,” Matthew said, eyes on the card. Pete fidgeted. When Matthew looked up, his eyes were shining. “No,” he said, pocketing the card.

“Huh?”

“No, you don’t need to get down on one knee. I do.” Matthew sank down on one knee and took Pete’s hand in both of his. One of the cars whizzing by honked.

“Matthew,” Pete protested, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Pete, will you do me the honor of being my boyfriend?” Matthew asked, his eyes big and beseeching.

“Yes! Just—get up, you goofball.”

Matthew cracked up as he scrambled to his feet and then put his arms around him. “Now, how do we seal the deal?” he murmured, moving Pete away from the streetlight and into the shadows on the side of the bridge, where they weren’t the focus of every car that drove by.

“This is a good start,” Pete was about to say when Matthew captured his lips.

Pete sighed, happy warmth spreading through him as Matthew cradled his head with one hand, placing tender kisses along his mouth. When he ran his tongue along Pete’s bottom lip, his mouth parted of its own volition. Matthew’s tongue slipped in, sliding against Pete’s ever so slowly, and Pete felt a lustful stirring all through his body. Matthew’s tongue was in his mouth! He felt he could die a happy man.

They might have stood there all night, had a soft rain not begun to fall. At the first drops, Matthew pulled away enough to whisper to Pete in a hoarse voice, “Come home with me?”

“Yeah. If I can walk.” Pete’s cock strained against the front of his pants, and a quick glance down Matthew’s body showed him to be in a similar state.

Matthew laughed. “We can do it!” he said in his best cheerleader voice, pumping his fist in the air. He grabbed Pete’s hand, and they practically jogged along the sidewalk.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the blue house, ran inside, and flew up the stairs to Matthew’s bedroom. Matthew closed the door, but instead of swooping in for more, as Pete had expected, he paused, gazing at the floor. Pete wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Hey.” He touched Matthew’s arm and he raised his eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Matthew bit his lip. “I will be. It all just hit me, you know? That I’m—that we’re doing this.”

“You don’t have to.” Pete felt Zen about it, for once. Matthew was way more important to him than whether or not they had sex. “I meant it when I said I’d be a monk with you.”

Matthew chuckled. “And that’s one of the many reasons why you’re perfect,” he said, a brilliant smile illuminating his face. “Come here.”

He grabbed Pete by the shoulders, pinned him against the door, and kissed him hard, once, twice, before pressing in so that their bodies were touching from their chests to their thighs. His tongue demanded entrance, their kisses became wilder, and Pete felt Matthew’s belt buckle dig into his stomach and below that—
oh God
—his cock, hard against Pete’s hip.

Pete held on for the ride, pressing against Matthew, running his fingers through his thick hair. He tilted his head back and gasped for much-needed air when Matthew started to mouth along his jaw, closing his eyes to savor the sensation of Matthew now kissing his neck, now sucking a mark into his skin where his neck and shoulder met, now nipping him with gentle bites.
Jesus
. He’d thought Matthew would be good, but he’d had no idea….

About to be overwhelmed, Pete tugged a little on Matthew’s hair. “Hey.”

Matthew lifted his head from where he’d been nuzzling Pete’s collarbone. “Yes?”

“That’s better,” Pete said and cradled Matthew’s face in his hands. “I want to look at you for a minute.”

He ran his thumbs over Matthew’s cheekbones, drinking in the sight of him—eyes dark blue, cheeks flushed pink, lips swollen from kissing. He was struck by the expression on Matthew’s face as he underwent Pete’s scrutiny—serious, almost somber.

Moved by the vulnerability he saw in his eyes, Pete said, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to break your heart.”

“I hope not,” Matthew responded with a small smile. “Because you’ve got it.”

An odd mixture of protectiveness, joy, and a tinge of fear swept through him. He leaned forward and kissed Matthew, then opened his mouth to tell him how he felt, but words wouldn’t come.
Damn.
Stymied, he fell back on the refuge of guys everywhere.

“Can we move this to the bed?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

They tumbled onto Matthew’s nice big bed. No silk sheets for him, Pete noted. Matthew’s sheets were plaid and flannel, and they smelled good, just like Matthew.

They lay on their sides facing each other and resumed kissing. And kissing. And kissing some more. Pete couldn’t get enough of Matthew’s clean scent and the way he tasted and his freckles as he set about to kiss every single one. Words continued to fail him, so Pete talked in kisses. This one said
thank you
. This one said
you rock
. Here was one that whispered
I’m so happy,
and another that said
I love your face
. And Matthew was talking back to him, not in words, but in the way he looked at him, and stroked his cheek, and laid gentle kisses along his eyebrows.

Eventually, Matthew pulled away, beaming.

“What?” Pete asked, running his hand through Matthew’s hair.

“This is so much fun. I love this!”

Pete laughed. “Good to know.” He paused. “Is it—” He stopped, not wanting to offend. “I mean, what’s it like for you to be with someone again?”

“It’s wild. And great. But that’s because it’s not ‘someone,’ it’s you.”

Pete felt himself blush and leaned over to nuzzle Matthew’s neck while Matthew hugged him tightly.

“Besides,” Matthew added, pulling away with an impish smile, “sex is like riding a bicycle—you never forget. But thanks for your concern.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” Pete rolled over on top of him and held him down by the shoulder with one hand while his other snuck to his waist. “Just for that, I’ll….” Matthew jumped when he poked him with his finger.
Oh
. That felt good, especially where they had their dicks pressed together.

But Matthew had other things on his mind. “Oh no, not my ticklish spot!”

“Um-hmm,” Pete said meaningfully, bringing his other hand down so he was holding both sides of Matthew’s waist and digging in with his fingers.

“Agh, help!” Matthew squirmed, putting more delicious friction against Pete’s cock. “Uncle! I’ll do anything you ask—just, no more tickling.”

Pete withdrew his hands, remembering being tickled by Rob as a kid and how he’d hated it when he wouldn’t stop. “I’m stopping.”

Matthew smiled up at him, flushed and panting, but Pete was preoccupied by how fantastically big Matthew’s cock felt as Pete lay on top of him. He gasped for breath, his own dick hardening to the point of pain.

“Well?” Matthew asked.

“Well, what?” Pete was so turned on, he had no idea what Matthew was talking about.

“I’m waiting to find out what you want, since I said I’ll do anything.”

Pete rolled off of him and back onto his side, facing him. He put his hand on Matthew’s cheek, feeling absurdly tentative, despite his raging hard-on. “I want you to do whatever you want.”

“Okay,” Matthew said softly and sat up with a big grin. “I want us to get out of these clothes.” He started unbuttoning Pete’s shirt, but Pete sat up as well.

“How about you get out of yours and I’ll get out of mine?”

“Good plan.” They jumped out of bed and peeled off their clothes, the only sounds for a moment those of shoes clunking, belts unbuckling, and zippers unzipping.

Pete stepped out of his underwear and turned around, stark naked, to find Matthew in a similar state, staring at him, eyes big. But before Pete could get more than a fleeting look at Matthew’s hunky body and impressive erection, Matthew jumped in bed, slid under the covers, and pulled them up over his head.

“What?” Pete exclaimed. “Where’d you go?”

Matthew popped his smiling face out of the blanket. “I’m shy,” he said and disappeared again.

Laughing, Pete hopped in bed and joined Matthew under the covers. His laughter ended in a soft gasp at their first naked embrace—skin on skin, the feeling of Matthew’s muscular arms around him, the hair on his chest, and the incredible warmth as Matthew entwined his legs around Pete’s and they pressed their bodies together.

“Mm,” Matthew hummed, and kissed him deeply, stroking down his back and letting his hand come to rest on his butt.

Pete had never been so aroused—he was panting, and his heart was pounding like he was running a sprint. When Matthew took hold of his cock and slowly stroked it from base to tip, he thought he’d have a coronary. But he didn’t want to die yet, because this felt too amazing.

“God, I—this isn’t going to take long,” he warned.

“S’okay, honey,” Matthew murmured in his ear, “just let go,” and kissed him again.

And Pete did let go. His mind shut up, and suddenly he was floating, safe and warm and held and loved and—Matthew. Warm, rosy, merry, sexy Matthew. Matthew’s hand, Matthew’s lips, taking him over the edge with sure, steady strokes and wild, deep kisses.

I’m in love
, he thought and came with a hoarse shout.

A
WEEK
later, Matthew and Pete walked along the sidewalk, holding hands.

“It was an honor to be the one to take your virginity,” Matthew said.

Pete almost swallowed his chewing gum. “You… what?” Matthew knew Pete wasn’t technically a virgin in any aspect of gay sex, but they hadn’t even gotten beyond blow jobs at this point.

Matthew broke out laughing. “Sorry. I meant your Antonioni trilogy virginity.” They had just come from Matthew’s, where he had finally screened
L’Avventura
for Pete.

“Jerk. Getting me all riled up right when I’m going to meet John to work out.” Pete let go of Matthew’s hand to grab his ass.

“Mm, watch it. You’re distracting me, and I need to work on my thesis.”

“You started it,” Pete said, dropping his hand. Matthew immediately recaptured it in his own.

They crossed the street in front of the gym, and Matthew sighed. “I wish we could spend the rest of the day in bed.”

“Doing what?” Pete murmured in a suggestive tone.

“Watching Antonioni, of course!”

“Ass.” Pete tried to glare at him but couldn’t help but smile when Matthew laughingly pulled him closer and bestowed a kiss on his forehead.

“Take it to the bathhouse, faggots!” The taunting voice caused them to break apart. Three jock types who were probably frat brothers stood in front of the gym, hooting and looking like the assholes they no doubt were.