Shiny! (16 page)

He was crying. Oh God. Kenny was
crying
.
And Will wanted to make it better.

Will pulled him into his arms and enfolded him, wrapping Kenny’s smaller body into his chest and his arms and just holding him, waiting for the shaking to stop.

“I swear,” he said, stooping slightly so he could kiss the top of Kenny’s head. “I swear, I want you because
you’re my friend, not because you’re pretty. You’d think that, I know, but I keep looking at other guys and expecting to feel the same thing, and some of them are pretty, but you just keep getting… shinier. Better
.
”

Kenny was struggling out of his arms, and that wouldn’t do at all. Will had just gotten used to him being there. “No—don’t you get it? I’m like your gaypiphany—that’s not a lasting thing, Will, that’s—”

Will kissed him.

Mouth over mouth, until whatever Kenny was trying to say faded into a whimper, and Will groaned in the back of his throat, because oh my God,
this
was kissing.
This
was someone’s taste—harsh and sweet with soda and cinnamon gum.
This
was why they made such a big deal of it in the movies. Kenny moaned back, the sound resonating in Will’s mouth, and Will thrust his tongue forward and tasted and tasted and tasted.

Kenny went soft in his arms, yielding, pliant. He wrapped his arms around Will’s neck, and Will cupped his taut, perky little bottom and lifted. Kenny took the hint, wrapping his legs around Will’s waist, and Will carried him, a step at a time, toward the house.

He got to the entryway and stopped walking, leaning Kenny against the wall so he could set him down.

“Mmmnnn….” Kenny refused to end the kiss and refused to put his feet down, and Will grimaced, thinking he wasn’t
that
strong.

“Key,” he gasped before taking another kiss. “Key! Inside!”

Kenny pulled back—but kept his legs wrapped around Will’s hips. “I am
not
having sex with you!” he gasped.

“I don’t even know what that means,” Will mumbled and kissed him some more. Pure water after a desert thirst had nothing
on Kenny Scalia after a lifetime dry spell. Kenny’s legs clasped tighter and omigod
there was a bulge
in his pants and it ground up against Will’s bulge and it was
heavenly
but not enough. “Keys, Kenny!”

Kenny’s response was to hold Will’s face in place so he could plunder Will’s mouth this time. Will opened, hungry, wanting.
It’s nice to be wanted.
God, Kenny
wanted
him.

Kenny’s feet touched the ground and he pulled Will down to him. Will let himself be pulled, and Kenny ate him alive.

Will dug in the pockets of Kenny’s chinos for his goddamned keys. Oops, got a little personal there—

“Gahh!” Kenny panted, twisting his hips and thrusting towards Will’s palm. “Will, please—”

Will found the godforsaken keys. His hand shook as he fumbled with the lock, and Kenny whimpered and ground against his thigh. They crashed through the door, and Will remembered to slam it shut behind them so Princess didn’t get out. Will pushed Kenny up against the closed door, kissing his neck, shoving his mustard-yellow polo shirt up and mauling that tight, compact little body while Kenny made keening little moans over his head.

“Will, this—talk, we need to—”

Will found an absurdly small plum-colored nipple and pulled it into his mouth, playing the end with his tongue.

Kenny whined and clenched his hands in Will’s hair, so Will felt free to continue. He kissed and suckled tender ribs and a skin-soft abdomen while Kenny leaned back against the door and closed his eyes, and Will had no doubts where he was heading. He straightened a little for Kenny’s other nipple while he worked Kenny’s belt, and then Kenny’s clothes seemed to dissolve, giving Will free access to all points south.

He sank to his knees and kissed down a dark-furred happy trail, pausing a few inches below Kenny’s tiny divot of a navel to look up.

Kenny was looking down at him, stroking Will’s hair, his forehead, his cheeks. “I want to do this
so
badly,” Will confessed with a little smile, and Kenny nodded, closing his eyes.

“I don’t want to stop you.”

Will grinned then, full-out. “That is
excellent
news!”

He licked down to the thick black pubic hair and then stopped and nuzzled it, because the strands were silky and because it
smelled
so different than a woman did, and the smell was dark and sharp and rich and he loved it.

Kenny’s hands tugged reassuringly in his hair, and he looked up and smiled wickedly, then ran his tongue from the root, right where the hair ended, very slowly to the tip. He got to the end and started to play, licking broadly across the head, teasing the slit, diddling with the little guitar string of the frenulum, until Kenny let out a long, frustrated moan.

“Will, precious? I hate to rush you here, but….”

Will engulfed Kenny’s crown before letting his evil chuckle rumble around his palate, promptly rewarded with a little spatter of precome. He flattened his tongue against Kenny’s cock and decided it didn’t taste that bad, and then pushed his head further, making sure he covered his teeth—and wrapped his tongue around the shaft as much as humanly possible.

The sound Kenny let out was more than encouragement, it was a
reward
.

Will pulled back, sucking hard, and then let the suction pull him forward. Kenny’s cockhead was a little uncomfortable in the back of his throat, but Kenny made that growl/moan/hiccup sound again, and Will wanted it—wanted
him
—more.
Anything
, he thought, stroking back and forth again.
Anything
—shoving his head forward and swallowing just to have more of Kenny inside him.

“Will!” Kenny protested. “Will, I’m going to come!”

So? HIV-free—Will knew it for a fact. Kenny could come and come and come and Will could make him, and that was just amazing!

“
Will
!”

Will swallowed him deeper, then pulled back and wrapped his hand around and stroked firmly toward the crown, opening his mouth when his fist got to the end.

Kenny’s entire body spasmed, and Will wrapped his other hand around Kenny’s hip to ground him. The cock in Will’s hand spat come, irregular white clots, and Will closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and let it happen.

“Nngn,” Kenny groaned, and tightened his hand in Will’s hair to the point of pain and then let go. Will felt both hands on his face, wiping come from under his eyes, and when his eyes were clear, he opened them and smiled sunnily up at Kenny.

Who was looking dazedly back at him. “Proud of yourself?” he asked rhetorically.

Will bobbed his head enthusiastically. “Absolutely,” he said and then grimaced. He was a big guy—being on the floor on his knees was
not
comfortable.

“Want some help up?” Kenny asked, nodding because they both knew it was true.

“Yes, please,” he asked, not humbly at all. Kenny reached down and helped lever him to his feet, and before he could say anything else, Will wiped his face off on the sleeve of his shirt and kissed him.

This was a different kiss—tender, sweet—and when he pulled back for air, his chest still felt full of sunshine. Kenny’s answering smile didn’t do anything to bring the clouds.

“You want me,” Kenny said softly.

“More than anything in the world,” Will told him sincerely.

“Ready to see what all of me is like?” There was something fragile about Kenny in that moment, and Will wondered how many Giffords, how many Cliffs, had breezed through his life.

“If you can stand to see all of me,” he answered back, looking Kenny straight in those dark-blue eyes.

Kenny’s lower lip trembled. “I’ve wanted you for so long,” he said, his voice shaking, and Will didn’t want any sadness, not tonight.

This kiss was warm and full, and Will wrapped his arms around Kenny’s waist and lifted him clean out of his loafers, chinos, and boxer shorts.

And then carried him to the magic bedroom, the one place in the house he’d never been.

The bed was king-size, the furniture was simple oak, and the bedspread was the same color as Kenny’s eyes.

“A
W
!” N
INA
crowed, clapping her hands. “That story was
amazing
! Thanks so much for telling it!”

“And now let’s dance!” Cara said gruffly, standing up and tugging on her bride’s hand. They disappeared into the throng, and Will took Kenny’s hand.

“Want to dance?” Kenny asked hopefully, and Will shrugged, trying not to feel self-conscious.

“I’m still not very coordinated—”

Kenny cut him off with a roll of his eyes. “It’s pretty packed out there. C’mon, big man—they’re playing ‘Open Arms.’ All you have to do is hold me and dance….” He faltered, because they both remembered those words, and their eyes met as something warm and tender passed between them.

“Sure,” Will said, standing and letting himself be towed to the dance floor. Once they got there, Will folded in his arms in a perfect tuck, and Kenny nestled in there like he was hiding from hurt.

He’d grown melancholy as Will was telling his part of the story, and Will sort of thought he knew the problem, but he wasn’t always sure.

“Do you think they know?” Kenny mumbled into his chest.

“That we stopped before the end of the story?” Will asked, kissing the top of his head and smiling.

“Yeah—I mean, it sounded like the happy ever after, but there’s more.”

“Well, yeah!” Will pulled back enough to kiss him softly on the lips this time. “I want there to be a lot more. There should
always
be more. The story should go happy ever after ’til death do us part!’”

Kenny wrinkled his nose, and Will could tell he was trying to look annoyed. “God, don’t be morbid.” His mock annoyance faded. “Will it really?”

Will shifted his stance and murmured into Kenny’s ear. “Do
you
remember what happened after that?”

Kenny’s smile up at him was, in Kenny’s own words, precious. “All of it, right up until this moment.”

Will smiled back, and he was pretty sure it was that same half-embarrassed, half-wicked, all-infatuated grin Kenny was giving him.

“Me too,” he said, under the music and the babble of couples dancing.

“It’s only been nine months,” Kenny said primly, and Will laughed.

“Yeah, but you’re even shinier now.”

“Yeah?” And oh, there went that wistful quality to his voice. If Will could do anything, he would take that away. He would make Kenny believe he would always be bright and glittery, like bubbles in a crystal decanter of champagne.

“Yeah.” Will nodded. God. He wondered if Kenny remembered the past nine months with as much joy as he did. “It’s been the best year of my life.”

“Mine too,” Kenny confessed to Will’s shirtfront, and Will grinned.

“Honest?”

“That night was like… like… perfect.”

Excellent.
Kenny must be remembering it just like Will was. At least Will hoped so.

Pretty Plates
and Other Dazzling Things

W
ILL
’
S
BODY
was even better than Kenny had imagined.

Yeah, part of that was that he’d been riding his bike and working out a lot in the past six weeks, but most of it?

Was just… solid. He wasn’t fat so much as solid. His chest, his arms, his thighs, even his knotty calves, were substantial. He’d lifted Kenny like a kid and kissed him all the way into the bedroom, and Kenny had
trusted
that. How often in his dating life had Kenny trusted anything? His parents, bless them, had raised him, pampered him, and sent him to art school, and he’d taken the freedom of college and pretty much fucked his way into a productive adulthood.

But never, not in a boyfriend’s bed or a stranger’s arms, had he had that security he’d felt as a kid, sleeping in his own bed, with his brother down the hall. Not since he’d taken his first plane to San Diego and his parents had proudly proclaimed he was an adult. That was why the house—even if he could only afford one in a crappy neighborhood. That was why he kept trying to make it pretty, even when Gif had lived there and hadn’t appreciated it.

Will
appreciated it.
Will
loved home, and loved solid, and loved real.

Will
was standing in his bedroom, having just taken off his shirt, and was peeping out at Kenny from under his brows, hoping Kenny found him acceptable.

No spit, no breath, no words
.
Kenny stepped into Will’s space, placing a careful hand on Will’s bicep. He squeezed a little, remembering that first night and how he could not stop groping the straight boy.

He swallowed hard and flattened his palm along Will’s triceps, aware his lips were slightly parted and his heart was thundering in his throat.

“You look so serious,” Will rumbled, and Kenny looked up into that dear face. Not handsome, no, and even leaner it was still a very stolid square, but God. The more Kenny knew of him, the more roots he put down in Kenny’s heart, the more beautiful he appeared.

“You are a very serious lover,” Kenny said, clearing his throat twice to get it out. “You… when you leave, it’s going to take me more than fifteen minutes to find someone else.”

Will stretched out a gentle fingertip and traced it across Kenny’s cheekbone, ending with a tap on the nose that made Kenny look up and meet his eyes. “I’ll have to make sure I never leave,” he said seriously. “Eat my veggies, drive safe, only go out for a beer if you’re going to take me home.”

Kenny laughed a little and blinked hard. “I will
always
take you home,” he whispered, and Will framed his face with both hands and kissed him again.

Kenny made sure to take advantage of the kiss, rubbing his exposed chest against Will’s and planing his hands across every muscle, every ripple on his arms and his back. For his part, Will finished with the buttons on Kenny’s shirt and slid it down his shoulders, and now they were both skin on skin, naked and panting. Kenny slid a hand down between them and….