Special Needs (5 page)

“Maybe when I get the flyers done...” His eyes met Liam’s and he didn’t like what he saw this time one bit. It was pity. He was pitying him for not getting laid because of the wheelchair. “Oh don’t you worry. I get enough action,” he quickly said. “Just ‘cause you don’t get to meet my dates, doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

Fay turned her back at him, when she started washing up. “Just saying.”

“Internet’s like the god of sex.” Rodney looked up, as if he were staring at some kind of kinky supernatural being.

Liam burst out laughing. “Seriously, man...”

“Ah, fuck you,” Ryan muttered and moved away from the table. “None of you know about all my hook-ups. I don’t kiss and tell.” He was
not
having Liam think that he was a wheelchair using, virgin gay boy, who only jerks off to Internet porn all day. Even if it was all the action he was getting right now.

“No, seriously guys!” Rodney didn’t pay any attention to Ryan’s tantrum. “Forty years ago, what could you do if you wanted to, say, cum into a teddy bear and then give it to someone else to fuck? Sure, you could pay some junkie or homeless guy to do it, but it isn’t as fun if they don’t get off on it too, right?”

Liam just stared at him. “Oh man, that’s fucked up...”

Ryan shrugged, wheeling towards the door. He hoped Liam would get the hint. “People have very different needs. It’s not always something you can just keep in the closet.”

His new caretaker was smart enough to say some quick goodbyes and follow him. “Hey, I’m not judging. Anyone can do whatever they want as long as I’m not forced to watch.”

“That’s the spirit! And...” he started, when they slowly moved along the dark hallway. The thick velvet wallpaper seemed to swallow the light. “I’m not saying I’m some man magnet, but I do get
some
, all right?”

Liam gave him a small smile. “Why wouldn’t you? I had a friend who married a guy like you.”

“It’s just... hard with gay guys sometimes. A lot of them are all about being fit and shit,” Ryan said as they reached the elevator and he pressed the button. He was lucky to have all those wheelchair-accessible features in the house. His uncle was paraplegic, hence the decision to make the whole house accessible for him, and later, for Ryan. He could even access the pier from the house on his own.

Liam leaned against the wall, his strong body curving into a perfect line. “Yeah, I get it... especially if you want go long term, right?”

“Well, yeah. It’s not hard to find someone who wants to get their dick sucked. The problems start when they’d have to put more effort into it.” Even saying that was getting Ryan angry. His love life was a failure on so many levels.

Liam sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. It was large and very hot. “I guess women might be more flexible.”

Ryan shook his head, as they moved into the small elevator. “Good for you, but you’re not helping.” He sighed.

“There are some great guys out there. Maybe you should be going to the clubs? Just saying...”

“I don't have a driver's license, but since I got you now, maybe I will go.” Ryan forced a smile. He just never felt comfortable in gay clubs. Like some kind of freak people approached out of curiosity.

“Sure thing, I don’t mind,” Liam said as the elevator stopped, opening into a dark corridor with no windows. One more floor to go.

“Unless, you’d feel uncomfortable. I’d totally get that!” Ryan wheeled out and turned on the light. This was the part he really liked. He liked it enough to pretend the elevator wouldn’t go to the top floor. Of course, he felt guilty about it, but what could a guy do if he liked getting carried as much as he did?

“So it’s the top floor and uhm... the elevator’s broken for the last bit. If you can carry me up to the room?” His heart was already pounding. He could actually feel the blood pulsing faster in his thighs as the straps were attached so tightly.

Liam blinked. “Oh, sure thing!” And just like that, Ryan was back in those strong arms. He closed his eyes, inhaling Liam’s fresh and soapy scent. “And don’t worry about the club, it’s not like I’m gonna get gangbanged in the middle of the dancefloor.”

Ryan grabbed onto his neck. “Who knows. With your looks, you actually might.” He chuckled, imagining a heap of naked men throwing themselves at his new caretaker . It would be just like the best bits of a football game, improved by the lack of clothes.

“I know, right?” Liam didn’t seem bothered with this little bit of sexual harassment in the workplace, and started climbing up the stairs.

“Just don’t take any drinks from strangers,” Ryan said in a serious tone, but struggled to keep a straight face. Liam was not only sexy, he was so funny too.

“That’s all right, I’ll have you to back me up.”

They reached the top floor, moonlight casting a warm glow inside through a huge window hanging over the staircase. Rodney and Fay lived downstairs, close to the kitchen, so he would be alone with Liam.

“I can always run them over with my monster truck wheelchair.” He pointed at a door with a big blue ‘radioactive’ sign on it to indicate where they were heading.

Liam cackled, opening the door with his hip. “I can see it on the news. ‘He saved my ass with his big-ass wheels’.”

“‘Ryan, age twenty five, takes care of his caretaker’,” he snorted and pressed his body tighter against Liam's, under the pretense of avoiding bumping into the door frame. He loved how hard Liam's torso felt.

“Take care of him now and turn on the light, smartass.”

Ryan leaned away with one arm and reached for the switch. The room was instantly illuminated with green light from the big crystal chandelier. It was one of the reasons he chose living up here over the comfort of the ground floor. It used to be his aunt and uncle’s room and even though he made some significant changes, the chandelier stayed. Plus, the room was massive and had a grand balcony that faced the seaside, a bathroom fit for a disabled person, and even an adjoined room, for a caretaker.

When Liam put him down to the bed, he was tempted to grab that long hair and pull him onto the covers, but he didn’t do it, of course. They shared a few more laughs and then, his new caretaker went back down to fetch the wheelchair.

Ryan looked up at the posters of tattooed hunks on the ceiling above his bed. Oh, he wouldn’t be thinking of any of them tonight. When Liam brought in the chair, they arranged that he’ll wait in his new room for Ryan to prepare for the hair dying.

As soon as Liam disappeared behind the door, Ryan locked it using both the key and the external lock, and frantically wheeled over to the bed. One thing he was really ashamed off were his legs. If he was going to get help in the shower, he needed to change into his wetsuit pants. He had them custom made, with sides reinforced for extra stiffness and attached fitted rubber socks, designed so that his only foot wouldn’t move much.

He methodically unbuckled every little strap of his leg braces, starting with the thighs and continuing onto the kneecaps, to finally take off the stirrups and go on to do the same on the other leg. He felt strangely vulnerable to have his legs free, like after taking off a corset. And he would know, cause he wore a medical one at some point. It was constricting and uncomfortable, but gave him a feeling of safety and confinement. The day it was finally removed was among the scariest in his life.

Looking back at the door, just to make sure that the locks were in fact closed, he stretched out his legs, feeling that pleasant tingling in his muscles after a whole day of forced immobility. He got up and stretched once more, before quickly limping over to the wardrobe. Walking on a prosthetic foot was awkward and made Ryan imagine how useless it had to look. He had to be careful for no one to find out his secret, but he got used to it and having his legs look limp came naturally. Sometimes, it seemed it was the way they should have been.

Even when on his own, he would usually move around in the wheelchair, apart from the time he used for daily exercise, but he had no time to spare right now. Liam was waiting for him, and Ryan wanted to be in the shower with him as soon as it was humanly possible. He threw all his clothes on the bed and sat down on the floor to put on the wetsuit pants. Maybe Liam would take him to the beach someday? He looked like someone who surfed, so maybe that tattoo below his collar bones had a double meaning? Ryan smiled at the thought, pushing his prosthetic foot into the stiff rubber sock. After all these years, even looking at it made him cringe. He didn’t know what was worse, the plastic foot, the stump or the burn scars all over his legs. It was always a relief to put on a pair of pants and forget about the disgusting scars for the day. Yet another thing guys wouldn’t find hot to see.

It wasn’t really the easiest thing to walk in the stiff orthopedic wetsuit pants, so he fastened the last zipper already back in the wheelchair. Despite the initial hurry, he took his time to calm down before opening his door and moving towards Liam's bedroom, already feeling self conscious about being half naked.

Ryan took a deep breath and knocked.

Chapter 3

Liam dropped to the old, queen-size bed in his room. A set of solid turn-of-the century furniture made him feel homely, even though his family never owned anything that even resembled an antique. Over the bed hung an oil painting depicting a naval battle scene, and there was a vase of flowers on a small, round table by the window. The room shared a balcony with the master bedroom, and he loved the view. He couldn’t wait to watch the sunrise from here and had already planned a barefoot jog down the beach for tomorrow. The flowery wallpaper and matching curtains didn’t bother him all that much, it actually reminded him of his grandmother’s home in the suburbs of Lima.

His gaze drifted to the boxes and bags on the floor. It was a bit sad that these contained his whole life, but when you lived in someone else’s house there wasn’t much you had to buy.

A knock on the door made him jump.

“Hey! It’s me.” Ryan said as if it wasn’t obvious.

“Coming.” Liam shot up to his feet and opened the door with a wide smile.

Ryan was in his wheelchair, topless and in just some sort of leggings. Screw the leggings, his arms and torso were smoking hot: not too muscular, but lean and smooth. Combined with the cute face? What a gorgeous twink.

Liam assumed Ryan wore the pants out of consideration for the employee that he believed was straight, so he didn’t point it out.

“Ready?” The twin spikes below Ryan’s mouth moved as he spoke and it took all of Liam’s will not to stare. He had to get desensitized to this kind of eye candy.

“Sure, just tell me what to do, I’ve never done this before.”

“No problem, come over here.” Ryan moved back towards his room and led him straight to the bathroom. Muscles became more defined under the skin on his arms every time he pushed the wheels, and Liam noticed something he hadn’t before. Under the colorful fire and smoke, Ryan had quite a few scars on one of his forearms. Liam decided it was better not to ask.

He only got a glimpse of Ryan’s room when he brought him in earlier, so he was eager to have a look around. Didn’t they say ‘you know the room, you know the man’? Well, maybe they didn’t, and if they did, Liam should had known Todd was a pretentious fuck since day one. Too bad he hardly ever listened to his own advice.

The green light from the massive chandelier was strange enough, but there was so much clutter and color all around that he didn't know where to look. A chaos of band posters decorated the walls, loads of books and magazines laid around and there were even a few life-sized prints of tattooed guys on the ceiling above the bed. Liam exhaled, looking between the posters and Ryan’s back. He wouldn’t mind being asked for a massage. The idea alone was enough to widen his smile.

“Cool.”

The room looked more like a teenager’s than an adult’s, and if Liam weren't convinced by everything else, there was a plush toy on Ryan’s bed to confirm Ryan's state of mind. Even if it was a massive octopus, still a plushie.

They entered the large bathroom, which was shockingly sterile and white in comparison with the bedroom, but gave enough space for moving in a wheelchair. It was more of a wet room, really, as it had an open shower, with only a curtain to prevent excessive spatter. The toilet had steel handles on both sides, and the sink and mirror were both installed very low for Ryan’s convenience. Below the broad and flat shower head was a small, plastic seat. The whole room reminded Liam of a medical facility.

“If you can help me to the seat...” Ryan held out his arms and now, in bright light, Liam could finally get a better look at his tattoos. Above his pectoral muscles were large fire extinguishers, throwing flames all over his arms, where they danced with smoke up to his fingertips.

“Great tats.” Liam’s voice was practically a growl. He picked Ryan up much more abruptly than he intended.

“Whoa! Careful.” Ryan gripped onto his neck with an amused gasp. His fingers were hot and as Liam touched his legs, he realized the leggings were in fact the bottom of a wetsuit. “And thanks.”

“Thank you for thinking about me, but I’m not afraid of male junk.” Liam gently lowered him to the plastic stool. He definitely wouldn’t mind seeing Ryan’s.