The Locker Room (11 page)

when he was nervous, so dinner was finished off pretty quickly. Then

Chris turned to him, as he stood, practically dancing on his toes, and

said, “What?”

Xander couldn"t quite answer. Chris was in his sleep shorts, too, so

there was nothing but lovely tanned skin as Xander came and kissed his

neck and nibbled on Chris"s jaw and chin, his own body still absolutely

shivering from the pressure and the arousal and the absolute furious

need.

“Jesus, Xander, you"re shaking like a poodle here. Could you give

me a clue or something?”

Xander groaned and grabbed his hand, shoving it under the leg of

his shorts and begging, shamelessly pleading, said, “God, Chris, please?”

Chris felt the handle of the plug and his eyes widened, and he gave

the thing an experimental yank. It pulled out, sliding down Xander"s

thigh under the shorts, and Xander managed to control his flop onto the

bed, where he lay, facedown, while Chris stripped off both their shorts,

wrapped a strong arm around his middle and hauled his dilated ass up

and ready for plundering.

Chris"s cock followed in short order, and Xander gibbered into the

hotel comforter in gratitude. Oh God, it was everything he"d promised,

58

Amy Lane

every frisson of his skin was singing the praises of being mercilessly,

gloriously, amazingly ass-fucked by the person he trusted the most.

They reached, they reached, they reached feverishly for the

precipice of orgasm, hurled each other over it and howled release,

Xander into the pillows wadded up in his mouth, and Chris into Xander"s

shoulder as he bit down, hard, and spilled.

The whole world quaked under their knees as they recovered,

Chris"s arms wrapped around Xander"s middle so tightly Xander thought

he might be absorbed into his lover"s skin.

He welcomed the feeling.

It didn"t happen, of course. Sex always has a slide into afterglow,

and some slides are quicker and more frightening than others. This one

made them thud into the pillows, breathing heavily. Xander was smiling

tentatively, and Chris was frowning, as though trying to put things into

place.

“Give you time,” he said with a little laugh. “Man, Xander, I gotta

remember that. Sometimes, you just need time, right?”

“It was okay?” Xander asked anxiously.

“It was great, baby. You know. Just… just awesome. Thank you

for trusting me like that.”

Xander flushed, pleased. “Well, you were right, you know. Only

you.”

THEY fell asleep soon after, and the next day they got to the dorms.

Within an hour of their check-in they were moved into the plain room

with two extra long twin beds. They"d ordered them and had them

delivered the week before. They were freshmen, so they had to share a

room, but they knew that if they stayed on the team, eventually they"d be

put in one of the houses, the kind with a small kitchen and where

everyone had their own room. The thought almost frightened Xander. He

had finally gotten to room with Chris; he didn"t want to let that go. When

they had put their stuff in the hampers and drawers and put the sheets on

the bed and tacked the posters on the walls, they looked at the beds in

despair.

The Locker Room

59

“You think we can push them together?” Chris asked unhappily,

and Xander shrugged.

“You think the whole world isn"t going to see that?” he asked, and

their eyes met and locked. They figured out that they could push the beds

together, and they did, every so often, when nobody was there.

Otherwise, they had to settle for furtively making love in one of the beds

(or often,
over
one of the beds,) sharing a quick kiss, and then cleaning

up and climbing into bed before anyone came and knocked on the door.

And it wasn"t like the time was a given.

North Carolina took its basketball seriously. Running in the

morning, weight training in the afternoon, and that was even before the

season began and they started practicing in earnest. The boys had signed

up for the same classes, but Xander"s entrance scores had been higher

than Chris"s, and they had ended up in different sections.

They had time for a quiet moment in the evening, most evenings,

the kind they"d shared when working fast food while in high school,

where Chris would sit back between Xander"s legs, and Xander would

nuzzle his neck while Chris talked. Sometimes, when his body hurt and

his brain buzzed, and too many people seemed to want his attention and

think he was important to talk to, Xander lived for those moments when

he wrapped his arms around Chris"s shoulders, and they could just be.

One Sunday morning in mid-November, they had the entire

morning to themselves. The next day was Veteran"s Day, and the entire

campus was closed down. Most of the freshman within driving distance

had gone home to their parents" houses, and those left were hungover.

(There had been one hell of a party in the main team dorm the night

before. Xander and Chris had made an appearance before disappearing at

separate intervals to sneak into their own dorm room and push the beds

together. Everyone had their own idea of a weekend off.)

It was Xander"s turn to explore Chris. They didn"t really keep

score, but Xander had one of his rare moments of insistence. Since Chris,

he said, carried the bulk of the conversation that made Xander so happy,

Xander owed him something entirely new and interesting in bed.

Chris, who was eyeballs-deep in calculus tutoring and choosing a

major, had given him a tired and appreciative smile. Sometimes, when

you were laying your burdens down, even the burden of sex was too

60

Amy Lane

heavy, and that"s what Xander was doing now. Taking over for Chris, so

he didn"t even have to think, didn"t have to do, just had to lie back and

feel.

So Chris was lying back, his thighs spread, his heavy cock in his

hand, stroking it slowly, and squeezing it so hard the head was painfully

purple. Xander had his hands under Chris"s ass, raising it to his mouth,

so he could tongue Chris"s (freshly washed) body until it was loose and

sloppy and waiting.

Chris raised his free hand to his mouth and bit down on it, loosing a

long, drawn-out groan, as Xander replaced his tongue with his fingers,

and then Chris pulled Xander"s hand away and ordered,
“Now, Xander,

now!”
in his fiercest whisper. Xander was up and inside of him so

quickly the bed didn"t even have time to squeak. One of his feet was

down on the floor, and his other knee was drawn up underneath him, and

Chris"s thighs were slung over his shoulders as he thrust hard and thrust

quickly, watching in wonder as Chris"s eyes rolled back and his body

shuddered, and an arc of come shot over his belly. His hair was cut short,

and had been since they"d arrived, and his shoulders had widened, his

chest had become bulkier, and his muscles were the kind of thing you"d

see in body-building magazines. But his chin was still narrow, and his

eyes, even half-hooded in passion, were still depthless and limpid.

He looked beautiful.

As Chris shuddered around him, Xander came, too, slowly and

with intensity, before he collapsed forward, panting into Chris"s

shoulder.

They were so much better at this than they had been at the

beginning of the summer. Five months of it—even furtively—gave them

some comfort, some ease, and Xander kissed Chris"s ear and found his

mouth for a long, lazy kiss of afterglow. Chris fell away from him and

mouthed, “Thank you,” at him, with gratitude, when there was a sudden

knock at the door.

What followed next was the world"s quietest Abbott and Costello

video, except with two naked college students, trying hard to put their

clothes on and separate their beds, while Chris, who could think better on

his feet, shouted through the door.

“Who is it?”

The Locker Room

61

“It"s Cliff, guys, let me in!”

“Hell noes!” Chris said playfully, setting his bed down quietly and

throwing the cover over with a whoosh. Xander was doing the same to

his, and struggling into his UNC sleep shorts and dorm shirt, all at the

same time. “Xan sleeps naked, and I wouldn"t want to scare the shit out

of you.”

Xan looked at him indignantly, and Chris slid into his own UNC

sleep shorts and grimaced. It was obviously the first thing that came to

his mind.

“Ohmigod, if he says it"s that big, he"s lying!” Cliff called back in

exasperation. Chris looked at Xander and shook his head negatively,

even as Xander reached for the Febreze and started to hit their beds and

hit them hard. He threw the Febreze under the bed, grabbed his copy of

his English anthology and threw himself on the bed, pretending to study.

Chris unlocked the door and retreated to his bed saying, “Come in,

come in—Jesus, two guys try to sleep in or study, dammit, and the whole

world wants in!”

Cliff came hustling in. He was second-string center for the JV

team, and Xander was the starter, with Chris as his forward. Together,

Chris and Xander had been cutting a swath through their games with

gusto, and although they hadn"t yet had a chance to play an away game,

they were both looking forward to getting on the bus or the plane and

going off on an adventure.

“Guys, you"ll never guess what happened!”

“The president declared calculus illegal?” Chris asked hopefully,

and Xander threw a pillow at him. Chris fielded the pillow and added it

to the one under his head, and neither of them mentioned that it had been

his pillow in the first place.

“No. You two were both granted a stay of execution, because I was

gonna kill you myself!”

“Yeah? What"d we do?”

“Stole my chance at first string!” Cliff Washington was six foot

seven, and he"d been looking forward to being the JV phenom this year.

He had a narrow, dark face and a soft Southern accent, and seemed to be

thrilled that the two boys from the most diverse section of Nor Cal didn"t

62

Amy Lane

care if he was black or purple. More often than not, when someone came

pounding on their door, it was going to be Cliff.

“Well, I don"t see how you"re going to get that back!” Chris said, a

little bit of incredulity in his voice. Xander flat-out drilled the guy into

the ground, even Cliff knew it.

“Well, I will when you guys get moved up to Varsity!”

Xander and Chris looked at each other, mouths moving

soundlessly. Xander was the first one to speak.

“Really?” Oh God. They were good. They were really, really, get-

drafted-by-the-NBA
good.

“
Yeah,
really!” Cliff was practically dancing where he stood. “Now

c"mon, you two! What? You can pat each other"s asses on the court, but

you can"t even give a guy a hug and a high five in your own dorms?”

They ignored him, because they were both still in shock. “Are we

going to have to move into the Varsity dorms?” Chris asked, voicing

what was on both their minds. “Because we just got settled here!”

“Who the fuck cares!” Cliff jumped up and down on his toes. “If

one of you two doesn"t get up and scream and take me out to some

fucking breakfast, I"m gonna have Coach test you both for ludes. Man,

you"re
freshmen,
and you"re playing
Varsity.
Do you have
any
idea how

often that does
not
happen in college ball?”

Xander stood up and made a try of it. “Way to go, Christian,” he

said, using the part of himself that was sincere to say it. “I am fair to

partly impressed with us.”

Chris stood up, too, and met him in the middle of the room for a

high five and an “attaboy” pat on the back. “Me too, now let"s put on

some real clothes and go get some breakfast!”

“You boys got the car—anywhere we can afford!”

Chris and Xander looked at each other and said “Breadmen"s!” in

unison, and Cliff laughed, because the local eatery was about all he could

afford too. (Besides, they could walk to Breadmen"s, and that way, they

didn"t have to lose their coveted parking space. The car had been a nice

idea, and it was fun to use on breaks, but actually finding a place to put it

had proved to be an enormous hassle.)

The Locker Room

63

They grabbed jeans and some sweatshirts and dressed like they

hadn"t just been making explosive, tender love to each other before Cliff