Sunset Park (18 page)

“Oh.”

Oli snorted. “You’re great at this conversation thing, Ray.”

“I don’t want to talk about this woman’s divorce and salary,” I replied. “It’s not good manners.”

“You didn’t strike me as the type to care too much about manners.”

“Yeah? How’d I strike you?”

Oli gave a rolling shrug. “Unrepentant bad boy who likes to be intimidating and sexy.”

I paused with the beer halfway to my lips. “You don’t seem too intimidated.”

“I’m hard to intimidate. I also like a challenge.”

Snorting, I drained the rest of my beer.

“How goes your Grindr adventures?”

“Not very adventurous yet.”

“Huh. I swore that profile picture would give you an easy access point to ass.”

It had, but not the ass I wanted. Talking dirty to random guys was fun, but I couldn’t bring myself to follow through on the multitude of invitations for
right-now
hookups with David on the brain. I’d thought about initiating something with him several times in the past few weeks but could never nut up enough to actually do it. Not when he wasn’t showing much interest in a repeat performance of our previous encounter.

Oli scooted closer, grinning his Cheshire cat grin, and dragged his fingers along my stomach. “If I saw abs like this on my dash, I’d be all over it.”

“You took the picture.” I set down my bottle and snagged his cigarette. Taking a deep pull, I said, “And weren’t all over shit.”

“Is that an invitation?”

It hadn’t been, but I hesitated before saying so. He was hot in a yacht club type of way, and the feel of his hand slinking lower was giving me a semi. Hard up didn’t begin to describe the state I was in. My eyes nearly shut when he palmed my dick.

“I think it was an invitation,” Oli said knowingly. “And I’ll return it with one of my own.”

He squeezed, and I spread my thighs wider without giving it a second thought. He pressed the heel of his hand against the thick length of my dick extending down the thigh of my pants.

“And hung too,” Oli murmured. “My lucky day.”

“Shit,” I hissed around a mouthful of smoke. “I can’t bail yet.”

“We don’t have to bail.”

Oli shot to his feet, snagged my hand, and dragged me into the apartment just as I flicked the cigarette to the ground. The volume of the music was up high enough to enrage the Orthodox Jewish families surrounding Karen’s place, but she didn’t seem to care. She was dancing with some guy and laughing merrily in the center of the makeshift dance floor.

Oli led me to a small bedroom at the farthest end of the hallway. It appeared to be the one belonging to Karen’s kid. I hesitated, but Oli nudged me inside with a giddy snicker before reversing our positions and backing me up against the wall. I wasn’t very keen on getting off while
Maleficent
and
Frozen
posters leered at me in the darkness, but these reservations vanished when Oli shoved my shirt up and bit my nipple. Fire raced through my veins and exploded in my gut.

“Oh
shit
.”

“Vocal too? Definitely my lucky day.”

He resumed sucking on my nipple while unbuckling my belt. Once my pants were gaping open and his lips found mine, I was reeling from sensation overload. I didn’t care where I was or who I was with—I needed to fuck. I needed it so badly that my hands were unsteady, but the spell was broken when I opened my eyes and caught another glimpse of the Disney posters. Discomfort softened the rod in my pants.

“I dunno about this, man.”

Oli straightened and nibbled at my jaw while trying to get me fully hard again. “I have a condom.”

“That’s not even what I meant, bro. I’m just not all about the setting of this little rendezvous.”

Oli huffed a soft laugh and shushed my complaints with another kiss. His tongue distracted me for just long enough for me not to see the door opening.

“Are you
kidding me?”

The weight of Oli’s body disappeared, leaving me exposed and wound up.

David had appeared and had yanked Oli away by the collar.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What are
you
doing?” Oli countered, pushing David away.

I stared at the two of them and only rallied when David threw me a vicious glare. An incredulous laugh bubbled up my throat before I could swallow it, and his eyes widened. Only after Oli wrenched David away did I register that he was seconds away from lunging at me.

“What the hell is your problem?” I fumbled with my pants, failing to get the button into the hole on the first try. “Now I’m not allowed to hang out with your friends after you dragged me over here?”

“
Hang out
? Fuck you, Raymond. You’re such a piece of shit.”

To Oli’s credit, he looked much calmer than either me or David. He took a deep breath and fixed his own clothing.

“If something’s going on between you two—”

“Ain’t shit going on. He’s just acting like some drunk, crazy bitch.”

The smack cracked across my face so hard my ears rang. I stood there, stunned, before a clean rage sluiced through everything else and prompted me to drop my shoulder back as my hand curled into a fist. I blanked out for just a second, but it was enough for me to raise my hand with the intention of knocking his teeth out. It was only Oli slipping between us that allowed me to catch myself. That, and the sight of David’s eyes wide and damp. He didn’t look scared, though. Just hurt and angry.

“To hell with all of this,” I growled.

I was out the door before either of them could say anything more, my ears still ringing while I shoved through his friends and stormed out the front door. Questions rang out above the laughter and music. I made it to the hall with David right on my heels. Him and Karen both.

“I’m sorry!” David grabbed my arm and tried to force me to stop. “I’m sorry, okay?”

“Get away from me.” I pried his hand off my arm. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back off.”

“Whoa! What is going on?” Karen put a hand on David’s shoulder, but she was as far gone as him and wobbled with each step. “What happened?”

“Ask your friend,” I said. “I’m out of here.”

David attached himself to me again, but he was so unsteady that he tripped and careened into my side. We tangled together and slammed against the wall with a thump hard enough to wake half the floor. I tried to detach myself, but he wrapped his arms around me with strength that shouldn’t have been possible in his narrow frame.

“Please don’t leave like this,” he slurred. “I’m just—”

“Get off.”

I unwound him from my body and strode down the hall, not giving a damn what Karen or anyone else thought. They were his people, not mine. Whatever happened, I would be the one looking like an asshole. They could console him with fifty more shots of tequila for all I cared.

Bypassing the elevator, I went straight to the stairs and jogged down. The door above me slammed open, echoing, and I redoubled my speed. Why he had to follow me, I had no clue, but I didn’t want to deal with him. I didn’t want to deal with any of this. If David drinking meant David acting like a jackass, I didn’t want to be around him at all. But I heard his footsteps behind me and I was so damned distracted, that I went down too many flights and found myself in the dimly lit lower level of the building with the laundry room and trash bins. The stink of sour milk and mildew was an abrupt change from the flowery, perfumed scent of Karen’s apartment, but it seemed fitting for the shitshow presently going down.

I looked around, spotted another exit, and headed to it. I was nearly there when I heard the unmistakable thud of someone tumbling down the steps in a heap. I paused, stared at my escape route, and slowly backtracked while cursing my idiotic overprotective streak.

David wasn’t sprawled on the ground with some debilitating head injury like I had imagined. He was sitting on the lower step with his head in his hands and looked so pathetic that my concern switched to guilt. As if it was my fault that he’d just made an ass of himself.

“What. Is. Your. Problem?”

David looked up. “You!” he shouted. “You’re my problem!”

“Because I kissed your friend?”

David leapt to his feet and got in my face again. I raised a warning hand, eyes narrowed.

“Touch me again, and I’ll knock your lights out. Don’t fuck with me, David.”

“Do it, then.” David pushed my hand away, stepping closer and forcing me to retreat. “Hit me. I don’t care.”

I clenched my jaw and took a slow breath. The more he challenged me, the more I wanted to respond the way I would have if we were on the street. But this was David and not some moron at the park. Even if he was acting the fool.

“Why don’t you cut the fake tough-guy act, already? I’ve had enough of fucked-up drunk people in the past year, and I’m pretty done with this drama shit.”

“You’re sick of
drama
?” Drunk David said everything with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “You started it. You were going to have sex with him, weren’t you?”

“It’s none of your business what I was gonna do.”

“Just answer the question! You were going to do him in her kid’s room like a scumbag.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I was going to bend him over the pink kiddy bookcase and bust in his ass.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

He was loud in the relative quiet of the area, even more so when I remembered there were several apartments one flight away from us. I yanked David into the laundry room and kicked the metal door shut. The clang was resounding in the cramped space. It was crowded with a handful of machines and dryers, all of which seemed to be a few decades old.

I tried to focus on the rusted coin slot in the nearest machine, but my gaze was drawn to David. His glittering eyes and trembling lips, the confused anger that exploded out of him in violence I had never thought him capable of. I’d heard of the antics of drunken David, but no one had ever given a review of this kind of show.

“What do you want from me, David?”

“I want you to tell me why you want him and not me. What’s so special about him?”

It was so ridiculous that I laughed again, and it went over just as well as it had the first time. He flew at me, grabbing the front of my shirt and getting in a couple of wild, haphazard blows to my head and chest before I pinned him to one of the washing machines. I threaded my fingers through his, clenched my hands, and trapped his arms behind his back. He stopped struggling and panted against the side of my face.

“Don’t laugh at me,” he guttered out. “You have no idea how much it hurts to know how little you care about my feelings.”

“That’s bullshit.” Restraining his hands with one of my own, I brought the other around to tilt his face up to mine. “Don’t play victim. Tell me what you want. No bullshit. No guilt trips. No vague accusations.”

“I want you to fuck me, not him,” David said, his voice low and husky. “I’m the one who—who has been there for you. But I guess all I am is the embarrassing faggot you hide from your friends but experiment with when no one is looking. You won’t even come near me when there’s no witnesses. You go to my friend. Maybe he’s more your type since he can pass for straight.”

“You’ve avoided the topic for two weeks!” My grip on his hands tightened, crushing them, and he winced. “I’m supposed to go knocking on your door looking for some attention when you’re avoiding me just because I called some douche bag a—”

“A
faggot
. Because that’s what you think of me. Of any gay person. Just admit it!”

“I’m not admitting shit.” I released him and stepped away. “I grew up with two gay people, you idiot. Just because I said something out of anger doesn’t mean I’m some homophobe. If you think I’m going to join the PC brigade just because I liked getting my dick sucked by a guy, you’ve lost your mind.”

I thought David would deflate, but he was still strung tight, ready to careen off the handle if I said the wrong thing. “Fine. Do what you want. Fuck Oli or one of the dozen guys you’ve been talking to on Grindr every night. I’ve seen you on there—for
hours
.”

It was hard not to laugh again. It was so stupid. So ridiculously off the mark.

“Ask me how long.”

“How long
what
?” he ground out.

“How long I’ve been thinking about you while I jerk off at night. In the middle of the day. In the shower.”

His eyes turned to slits, distrustful, but his breath caught. “How long?”

“Months, you idiot.” I closed the space between us and once again pinned his hands behind his back. “You know you’re a hot piece of ass. So quit being a fucking coward. If you want me, just tell me. Don’t wait around until I give you a cue.”

The words should have snapped him out of it—they would have for Crystal, Stephanie, any of the girls I’d slept with over the years, but he was still waiting. Waiting for me to say something that would make it clearer that I wanted him.

Instead of keeping on the verbal route, I went physical. I pressed my mouth to his, relished the way he sighed and parted his lips, and licked inside to find the taste of booze and sugar.

I didn’t lose myself like I had with Oli. I was too aware of who I was with, whose mouth I was ravishing, and whose body was straining while I kept his arms held back. I was too conscious of memorizing his taste, his smell, and every sound he made.

He spread his thighs as far as he could and rutted up against me like he was just as starved for contact as I was, but not being able to touch each other heightened my sense of anticipation. Without our hands, all we could do was tongue each other in an increasingly wet kiss and shove our hips together in rough, uneven motions.

Voices echoed outside of the laundry room. Laughing and talking that drew closer to our position. David stiffened, but I didn’t miss a beat. I slapped one hand over his mouth and used the other to rip open his pants. I wrapped my hand around his dick, pumping it twice, and I relished the sight of his eyes rolling back. David’s groan couldn’t be muffled by my hand, and his gasp of protest was even louder when I briefly pulled away.