Got the Blues

Chapter 4-1

Chapter 4

He was holding hands with a woman, looking into her face. The park around them was full of laughing children, barking dogs. An empty swing-set, the swings still rocking in the breeze. Slides glinted sparks of summer sunshine.

“Vinyl,” she said. “Sweetheart.”

They stepped over a low barrier and onto the sand. It must have rained recently. The sand was more mud, sullen water puddled against the side. She wasn’t watching where she was going. The sun disappeared behind a cloud. The wind snagged, grew vicious and cold, tugging at his coat, his skin.

The woman stepped in the puddle. She screamed, once, before she vanished beneath the clear water. He couldn’t hold her; her frail fingers were ripped from his grasp.

For one last second, her hand clenched desperately at nothingness.

“Mom! Mom, no!” He scrambled through the water, heedless of the quicksand around him, searching, sobbing, screaming.

She was gone.

Vin woke with a start, his heart pounding like it was trying to escape from his chest. He fisted his hands in the blankets, met no resistance. He inhaled sharply, trying to calm himself. The bed was empty, although a warm spot remained where Beau had been. Faintly, he could hear water splashing across a body, the soft, low pitch of Beau’s voice, singing in the shower. Good. At least he hadn’t screamed.

Vin rolled over and punched his pillow viciously, several times. “Damn, damn, damn.” After brutalizing the inoffensive feather-stuffed pillow, he rested his forehead against it, trying to slow his breathing. Sweat had beaded against his skin and he shivered as his body cooled. He snuggled into the warm spot where Beau had lain until some weird farmer’s instinct woke him. That much, Vin would never understand. Beau rarely set an alarm, and without consulting a watch or clock, just decided when he was going to get up. No slapping of the snooze button, no groaning and complaining. The only time Vin had ever seen him sleep late was in the summer, when he had no job and no plans. As far as Vin was concerned, it was a sure sign his boyfriend had made an unholy pact with the devil himself. No normal person got up like that. Vin was not a morning person.

Usually. He became slightly more aware of his morning wood, pressing urgently into the warm, luscious, Beau-side of the bed. Vin cracked his eyes open. The green electric numbers informed him that it was a little past six-thirty. He did math in his head: Beau had an eight-in-the-morning class, which meant he needed to leave for the college no later than twenty-till. His boyfriend was somewhat fanatical about not missing class, and extremely studious, a habit Vin might have found more admirable if it hadn’t meant that he’d been absolutely unable to convince the man to skip. Ever.

Vin finished his calculations and slid out of bed. He had time to molest Beau in the shower before Beau would push him away, gently, but meaning it, to get to class.

Vin opened the door to the bathroom, letting out a cloud of steam. Beau was the boil-a-lobster sort for his morning showers, filling the tiny room with thick wetness. He snagged the Listerine off the side of the sink, took a mouthful, and swished. It wasn’t the same as a full brush, but it got the flavors of his nightmare out and down the drain. Still hissing with the astringent sting against his teeth, Vin peeked around the corner of the shower curtain.

Beau was standing perfectly still, one arm braced on the wall, his head hanging down, letting the water stream over his hair and down his lean, slender body. Vin took a long moment to admire: his lover was tan, strong in a way that had nothing to do with gym and squats and everything to do with throwing heavy objects and using his muscles for actual work. Against his shoulder was a tribal tattoo, harsh black against the fish-belly white skin that his clothes usually covered. Deceptively simple, the tattoo suggested, more than portrayed, a ghost or wraith.

Beau had long legs, dusted lightly with blond hair, a firm ass, and a smattering of red scars along his ribs where Vin’s ex-roommate had worked Beau over thoroughly with a baseball bat the previous fall. Almost a year and the scars had faded, a bit. They only gleamed so red and hot when Beau had already parboiled his skin in the shower. Otherwise, they were only pale purple lines against his otherwise flawless skin.

“Mind if I join you?” Vin was as quiet as he could be, trying not to startle, but Beau jumped anyway, knocking body soap and shampoo to the tiles with an ill-timed jerk of his arm.

Beau granted Vin a wide, brilliant smile. “Sure. Water’s fine.”

“Water is bloody boiling is what it is,” Vin complained, gasping as droplets splattered along his bare skin.

“Step back a moment,” Beau said. He dropped into a squat to pick up the soap and shampoo, putting him on eye level with Vin’s groin and his fully erect, impatient c**k. “Well, good morning, sunshine.”

Vin groaned, looking down. “Evil, evil man.”

Beau slid one hand up Vin’s thigh. “Are you sure about that?”

“Decidedly evil.”

“Oh, well, in that case,” Beau said, shifting to get back up. Vin put one hand on the top of his head, pushing him back down.

“Didn’t say I was complaining about that.”

“All right, then.” Beau’s mouth came down on Vin’s c**k, slick and wet. Vin tensed, bobbing up on his toes, eager against Beau’s wicked tongue.

“God, that’s good,” he said, his hands tangling in Beau’s wet hair. That pull, the way Beau used his lips. Beau reached a hand up, his fingers exploring Vin’s nutsack, rubbing against the base of his c**k, warm and wet and a nice, long slide. He couldn’t tell where Beau’s mouth ended and the hand began and that was perfectly fine with Vin, f*****g that perfect, slick, wet tube.

Beau nudged the cord to the detachable shower head with his back, the device wobbled uncertainly and Vin reached up a hand to steady it, deflecting the stream of water and getting a solid blast in the face. He slid the shower head out of its resting place, held the detached end up to his chest, let the water stream down his body while Beau continued to work his c**k over with mouth and hands and dear God, that was fine!

“Wait, wait, jeez,” Vin protested, squirming up against the shower wall, tile cool under his ass cheeks. “I’m gonna come all over your face in like five seconds.”

Beau pulled back, peered up quizzically. “Isn’t that the idea?”

“Get up,” Vin said, tugging on Beau’s hand lightly.

“Already there,” Beau said. He ducked his chin, pulling the “I’m shy” routine, as Beau was prone to do.

Vin groaned at the pun, and in doing so, gave Beau time to continue on with what he was doing, licking Vin’s c**k, sucking, and then lower, drawing Vin’s balls, one at a time, into his mouth. Beau wrapped his arms around Vin’s thighs, pulling him closer, gagging on the length of Vin’s c**k. He rubbed his wet cheek against it, drawing a line of kisses along the side, then licked and nibbled around Vin’s thighs, tiny, soft kisses.

Beau was an expert, it seemed, in the art of driving Vin absolutely bugshit out of his mind. He varied his movements, licking and sucking, stroking and teasing, until Vin could barely see, and would have come at least twice, except Beau always seemed to know the exact moment to pull back, slow down.

Beau finally stood back up after Vin was so wrung out with wanting, with needing, that he could barely stand. A quick lather of his hand with the shower gel and Beau rubbed his c**k against Vin’s, slick and soapy and wet and warm. He pressed in, kissing Vin open-mouthed and hungry, devouring his lips. Vin thrust his hips against his lover’s, c***s rubbing together hot and soft and, oh, dear, sweet God, he—

“God, Beau!” Vin locked one leg around Beau’s hips, pulled him closer, closer, bit Beau’s shoulder and grunted, his orgasm so powerful that he felt it from the soles of his feet all the way to the tingles across his scalp.

Beau stiffened against him for just a moment, soundless in his pleasure.

“Ah, Christ!” Vin exclaimed as the water shifted, quite suddenly, from hot to cold.

Beau hissed like an offended cat, turned, and twisted the knob hard to the right, cutting the stream. “Well, now I’m awake.” They shivered together in the rapidly cooling room.

Vin reached out of the shower and snagged a towel off the rack. “Here. Happy birthday.” He stepped out onto the bath mat and rooted around under the cabinet for another towel. He drew a heart on the steam-coated mirror and quickly scribbled B & V in the middle.

“Aw, you’re adorkable, you know that?” Beau grinned, toweling his blond curls into some semblance of dry and stepped out of the shower, the towel draped around his shoulders. He dropped a kiss on Vin’s neck. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Being you. Loving me. f*****g me in the shower. You know, the usual.”

“It’s your birthday,” Vin replied. “Seriously, call in dead today. We’ll go up to the city and celebrate.” Vin grabbed Beau’s hand and reeled him in for a kiss.

“And miss the surprise party you and Ann-Marie have planned for me?” Beau asked, c*****g an eyebrow.

“You know about that?” God damn it, he’d tried to keep those preparations secret. He’d really actually wanted Beau to be surprised.

“Well, I do now.”

“Oh, you son of a b***h,” Vin exclaimed, snapping his towel at Beau’s bare ass. “That’s cheating!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll act surprised,” Beau said. He caught the towel one handed and pulled Vin in for another kiss. “If I could stay home, I would. But I have to get to class.”