Head 01 Hot Head (38 page)

“God, yeah.” Griff’s voice sounded scratchy dry in his own ears. He cleared his throat. “Log.”

“Good.” Dante arched and stretched his back, faling back against the burgundy nest of pilows in self-satisfied laziness. He groaned happily and threw an arm

over Griff, practicaly burying his face in Griff’s armpit. “You smel so clean.”

Good morning!

Griff gave a little chuff of pleasure and squeezed Dante against him. “I thought you might kick my fat ass out of bed for corrupting you.”

“Hardly.” Dante kissed his ribs and roled his face so he could look up at Griff without leaving his side. “You’re the nice boy. I corrupted you and I want ful fucking credit for that, Griffin Muir.”

“Yeah. No. Sorry. I definitely remember setting out to seduce you and ruin you for anyone else and succeeding beyond my wildest hopes.” Griff ran his hand

up Dante’s back and buried it in the coal-black tangle on his head. “Obviously it worked because it feels like”—he looked down at Dante’s boner nudging his leg

—“you are thoroughly, undeniably corrupted.”

“I’l make you a deal.” Dante roled on top of Griff, bracing hands on either side of his head, pressing their groins together. He shivered and opened his eyes

wide. “I’l keep corrupting you if you do it right back.” His thick hair tumbled around their faces. He leaned down and brushed their lips together softly, back and forth, back and forth.

Griff loved Dante looming over him like this, being able to feel the ful length of him, how
exactly
they fit. “How can you not have morning breath, Anastagio?”

“’Cause I’m perfect.” A kiss on one eye, then the other. Griff smiled at the tickle of Dante’s lips on his stubby lashes. “No, asshole, I got up to go to the john and brushed.”

“Cheat!” Griff roared and flipped Dante onto his back, making him laugh and shout in protest.

“Hey, you were sleeping like a log, but I was sleeping with a log.” Dante pushed his hips up under Griff’s plump shaft and let his legs fal open so the blunt

rosy head nudged him in a familiar spot. His tongue snuck out to wet his ful lip. He gripped the back of Griff’s leg just under the curve of a meaty cheek.

Griff groaned and hunched his hips forward, just enough to make Dante smile.

Was this what it would be like?

“So I wanted to come back where I’m supposed to be.” Dante squirmed a little under Griff, enjoying his weight.

“Good idea.”

“Never in my life have I wanted to come back to bed, G.” Dante touched Griff’s jaw, copper stubble rasping under his fingers. “Why haven’t you been here

al along? In my bed, I mean. I can’t fucking remember what took me so long to find my way to you.”

“Here we are, though. I’m not gonna complain.” He turned his face into Dante’s hand, kissed the palm.

“Nah.” Dante scooted up a little under him so they fit together again and finger-traced the red-gold hairs on the arm over his chest. “Me either. Jeez.”

Lub-dub. Lub-dub.
Pressed together, their hearts were thumping out the same rhythm.

Griff smiled down at his beautiful, crazy, tender man. “So strange.”

Dante squenched his face and sighed. “Yeah. I guess. Strange-amazing, though.”

Griff nodded. He squinted at the curtained window and nodded again. It
did
feel like he belonged here. One night and he couldn’t imagine them sleeping apart. He roled to Dante’s side, facing him. “Was I crushing you?”

“God, no. I fucking love it. I love how strong you are. How solid. I thought… I never—” Dante’s hand stroked his leg absently. “I’ve kinda been thinking

about that for a while. This, I mean. You’d be surprised….”

Griff covered the hand with his own and nodded. “Yeah. Me too. Probably for longer than—”

“I don’t think so. I just didn’t think we could ever… y’know?”

“Me either. But after the HotHead thing….”

“Exactly. Last night was… I dunno. The hottest, sweetest, craziest thing. My nuts are actualy sore from coming so much. Three? Four? How ’bout you?”

Dante slid this hand up to squeeze Griff’s bals gently.

Boink
. Instant boner thumping against his red bush. Griff swalowed his embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“Why? God, I love that. Jeez, man. Look at al of it.” Dante’s hand closed possessively over his pink erection. “You’re so fucking responsive. Like a big

horse.”

Griff smiled back at him, for once
not
blushing, ridiculously pleased with himself for no very good reason.

“And I love when you smile like that. Just for me. My beautiful horse.” Dante chuckled and leaned over to plant a kiss somewhere near Griff’s ear. He

twisted over the edge of the bed to grab a bottle of water off the bedside table. The muscles of his back shifted and flexed under Griff’s eyes. Dante took a swig.

“Get back here.” Griff licked his lips and sighed, content for the first time in, wel, ever.

Thank you, thank you, for every inch of him
.
For every minute
.

Dante looked embarrassed. “Thank God for Alek and that dumb website. I figured the only way to find out was to just do it, so I had to find a way to make

a move without you kicking my teeth in.”

“Plus the money.” Griff ran a blunt knuckle over his lover’s wine-stain mouth.

“That’s not why I asked you. I needed help, G. I wanted to….” Dante swalowed. “I wanted to touch you, man. How was I supposed to?”

“D, don’t bulshit me.”

“I’m not. I didn’t want it to be a mistake or a joke. And I did need the dough. But I wanted this. Al of you.” Dante chuckled and turned his face into the

pilow. “Vanila gorila. My beautiful mook.”

“Are you actualy blushing, Anastagio?” Griff’s rosy cock filed Dante’s hand so completely his fingers didn’t meet. It wasn’t necessarily long, but was it ever thick. It
was
like a tusk.

Dante gulped and laughed, his cheeks flushed.

“Ohmygod, you are blushing. That’s gotta be a first.” Griff was beaming now. “I love it.” He kissed a tan shoulder.

Dante propped himself against Griff. “I put fingers inside myself thinking about your fat fucking bone.”

“You did?” Griff nuzzled behind his ear, pressing his lips under the damp curls. “For real?”

“That tickles. Yeah. I mean my ass has always been, I dunno, sensitive. Even with… before, you know? I liked having it played with.” Dante almost looked

shy confessing. “But that fucking thing.
Madonn’
. A piglet is what you got between your legs. With a wet nose. For months I’ve thought about that thing rooting into me. It was like this itch that I couldn’t get at. God, did you! Hungh.” Dante hunched his hips.

“Your itch is my command, Anastagio. What are you grinning at?” Griff pushed up on his elbows to ask.

Dante’s tan fist was wrapped around his spongy shaft. “It’s so pink.”

“Yeah?” Griff smiled at him in confusion.

“It’s like camouflage. Like snakes or wasps or something. You got this huge fucking monster hidden in your smals and it’s this soft dusty rose that no one

could ever feel afraid of. It lures you in and hypnotizes you. And Jesus H. Christ are you hung like an ox, G. It’s a compliment. I feel like I’m packing a peanut.”

“Bulshit. What, like my dick is scary?”

“No. Yeah. You’re so fucking strong and your lips are the same. And your butthole. This perfect sweet color and I dunno. I’m gonna shut up now.”

“C’mon.”

“I mean, it’s unexpected. And it’s hot ’cause it’s like this funny surprise. I never thought about it, but it was here waiting. Christmas and my birthday every time you pul your pants down. A present, that’s al. For me and it’s al I want for the first time in, wel, ever I guess. And that’s why I’m grinning.”

Griff puled him up and squeezed him against his side, chin on top of Dante’s head. Dante kept milking his thick crank.

“If you don’t let up you’re gonna get fireworks again. Al the hel over both of us and up to your eyebrows.”

“And?”

“Don’t fucking tease, Anastagio.”

“Who’s teasing?” Dante licked his medium-rare smile.

Griff peered at the room, loving the clean lines and the large photos on the wals. Mrs. Anastagio’s bronze stripes made this look like a prince’s room—

totaly Dante. He couldn’t wait to wake up here again.

How is that gonna work?

Dante craned up, his face asking a question.

Griff nodded and kissed the side of his face. “I was just thinking how normal this feels. I can’t figure out why it doesn’t feel freaky, but there isn’t anywhere else I could be right now except scratching my bals in your bed. It’s weird how not weird it is.”

“Yeah.” Dante ran fingers over his jaw and knocked on his chest like a door. The gears in his head cranked into action. “What do we do next? I mean….”

“I know what you mean.”

“I’ve been trying to get you here for so long and now that I’ve got you here, I don’t know what comes after.”

Griff roled his head on the pilow. “So are we…?”

“Gay? I dunno.”

“I think most of the folks we know would take one look at us, like this, and cal it pretty fucking gay.”

“Wel, I’m not marching in any fucking parade in a Speedo.” He ran a hand down Griff’s cool back to his luminous glutes. “But if you wanna, I’l sure as hel

come watch. From the front row. I mean, I could bang women, but I don’t wanna.”

“Which makes us gay, Dante.”

“No. Yeah. I don’t know.” Dante ran a hand through his curls, exasperated. “It makes us together and everyone else can fuck off.”

“Everyone is a lot of people, D.” Griff tried to read his face.

Dante’s eyes were on the sheets, and he tugged them flat while he found whatever he wanted to say. No reply.

Outside in the street, a car door slammed. Brooklyn was starting to wake up around them. The light in the windows fel in trapezoids on the floor, golder by

the second. The Anastagios’ bronze paper gleaming.

“Wel….” Griffin felt exposed and wished he was wearing pants. He was grateful that the sheet tented over his knees covered him some. “Is this a secret?”

“Do you want it to be?”

Well, shit.
“Dunno.” Griff’s voice was gravel. “I do not want to be just someone else you have in your bed.”

Dante glanced up, his eyes… hurt? Confused? He shook his head once, sharply. “You’re not someone else, G. You know that. C’mon. I don’t want anyone

else. Do you? ’Cause I won’t be able to take that.”

“Look, I know you can’t keep it in your damn pants, but take it easy on me, okay? I bruise easy.” Griff knew he sounded pathetic, but he had to say it now

before anything else went down. “I mean, I don’t want to watch you pick up girls in bars.”

“No!” Dante tried to look indignant.

“It’s not exactly outside the realm of—”

“This—” Dante gestured at him, at the mussed red sheets, and the day dawning outside. “This wasn’t just messing around for me. I’m already jealous as hel

of the way folks look at you. After this, I sure as hel don’t want to share you with anyone.” His possessive tone was fierce and startling.

“Ditto.”

“No. I mean it. You think after… when I know what we….” Dante buried his hand in the black tangle on top of his head. “I want you. I don’t want al that

bulshit. I think about it constantly. Hel, I tried not to. No, Griff. I know what I want.”

“Why?!”

Dante smacked him and scowled. “Because I love you!”

There it was, out in the air. Griff’s eyes got wide. The words had come out angry, but Dante had meant them. He couldn’t open his perfect mouth and

swalow them back. His face softened, and he looked right at Griff so there was no mistake. “In love, I mean. With you. For so long.”

Griff smiled and couldn’t stop, even though he had to look down at his own lap to whisper, “Me too. I love you too. Like I thought I’d die from it.”

Dante smiled and stole a kiss. “Wel, thank fuck for that.”

For a few moments, neither of them knew what to do with the scary, wonderful possibilities buzzing around them. They sat side by side propped up against

the headboard, skin warm between them.

“Griffin.”

“What?” Griff tried to figure out why he stil felt so anxious. He thought he’d said everything, but the butterflies in his stomach had become feral cats.

Dante rubbed his leg hairs against Griff’s pleasantly. “Listen, huh? Half the time I flirt with girls to keep them off you. Makes me fucking crazy.”

Griff tried to process that one. “Off me?”

Dante roled his eyes and groaned. “You don’t pay attention, man. Chicks threw themselves at you, and sometimes you’d even catch one and it would kil

me.”

“Look who’s talking!” Griff scowled and moved to get out of the bed. “You got girls hanging off you 24/7. This is batshit.”

Dante stopped him with a hand on his leg. “Not like you think. I haven’t been with a girl in a long time, Griff. Not realy. You didn’t notice.”

Griff roled his eyes and snorted. “I noticed! Half of fucking Brooklyn noticed.”

“I gotta rep, but that isn’t me, G. Seriously. It hasn’t been for a long time.” Dante’s arms were crossed defensively over his chest. He looked very young.

“This was real. I want you for myself. I just spent six months trying to work up the nerve. If you can’t….”

Griff proceeded cautiously. “I never cheated on Leslie, but you cheat on… everyone, Dante.”

Dante’s eyes burned at him. “I screwed around because those people didn’t matter to me. Not you. I’ve never cheated on you.”

“Anastagio, we’re not married. I’m not expecting you to change overnight; I just want you to give this, us, a chance.”

“No!” Dante looked at him, realy looked at him, in horror. “I wouldn’t. Fuck!”

“Yes, you would. Look, I’m a dude. I get it, okay? I’m just saying go ahead and cheat but don’t shit al over me like you shit over every girl you ever banged

in this bed.” Griff took a breath and scratched his close-cropped head.

“Which means you want permission to fucking cheat?!” Dante crossed his legs Indian style facing him, so they had to look at each other.