Campus Visit

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Damian’s early-nineties SUV pulled up to the curb on Friday afternoon, three days after the momentous call. Alex hopped off the concrete retaining wall where he’d been sitting with his phone in his lap, trying to read an article for a class. In truth he’d been unable to do anything except squirm in impatience as he waited for his friend to arrive. Friend and this weekend’s f**k-buddy, he corrected in his mind, still astonished at the notion. s**t, how long had he wanted to fool around with Damian? They were twenty-three and they’d hit puberty around thirteen, so…yeah, this opportunity had been on Alex’s wish list for a solid decade now.

Damian hopped out of the driver’s seat, his black hair springing several directions in spikes and wayward cowlicks, as usual. Alex thought it gave him an appealingly punk-rock look, though Damian would never have labeled himself as “cool.” If anything, he seemed to depreciate himself as a hick, a farm boy. Apparently one with same-s*x yearnings. Having grown up in Rancho Amantes himself, Alex knew only too well how that felt.

Damian slipped off his sunglasses and sent his crooked, shy grin at Alex. “Okay if I park here?”

“Yep. Good spot. You’re lucky—they fill up fast.” Alex strolled forward, tucking the phone into the pocket of his sweatshirt.

Damian’s navy blue T-shirt set off the golden tan of his skin, a hue Alex with his pale flesh had always envied. Alex got called “cute” often enough, which he wryly figured was the price of being only 5’7”. But Damian, blessed with a taller frame, amazing coloring, and a profile that a classical sculptor could have designed, easily passed for “gorgeous.” He seemed to have no idea that everyone thought so, and his modesty made him all the more alluring.

Goosebumps prickled the bare skin of Damian’s arms. Alex would have loved to attribute those to himself, but knew better. Watching Damian shiver in the coastal breeze, Alex chuckled. “I’m guessing it’s warmer in Fresno these days.”

Damian hugged himself. “Jesus. Yeah. By about twenty degrees.”

“Wait till summer, when it’s a hundred and ten in the valley. You’ll be begging to come see me over here.”

Their gazes met, and Damian’s eyes blazed a deeper blue as his face blushed red. “Maybe so,” he said.

Alex swallowed, forcing himself to look away before he pounced on Damian right there. He glanced at the many apartment windows beneath the forested hills, then smiled at Damian. “Why don’t you come inside so I can greet you properly?”

Damian hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder and nodded.

Alex tilted his head toward his apartment building, and Damian followed him up the outer stone steps to the second floor.

Ordinarily when bringing people to the apartment he shared with Sheryl, another computer science student, he apologized for it being such a hole. But Damian had been there before and already knew what to expect. Sure, the place had the same thin walls, peeling linoleum, and rickety wooden railings as the cheapest motels in Santa Cruz. But drive for five minutes, and you were on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

“My building may be nicer,” Damian had said last time, referring to the palm-shaded stucco complex containing his Fresno apartment, “but your location beats anything the Central Valley’s got.”

Alex let Damian into the apartment and closed the door. The familiar smell of old carpet and Sheryl’s fruity perfume lingered in the living room.

Damian slid his pack onto the futon couch. “Sheryl here?”

“Nope. Out with her new boyfriend. We arranged it so she wouldn’t be around much through the weekend.”

“Okay. Good. Does she know it’s me who…?”

“Yeah. But don’t worry, she’s cool with it.”

Damian nodded and shot him a look fraught with uncertainty and excitement. “Thank you, for this. I can’t believe how quick you said yes, how you just understood…”

“Hey, no, you’ve got this all backward. I should be thanking you. Getting to break in the hot bi-curious guy? All gay guys want that job.”

Damian’s mouth slanted up in a tentative smile. “So how were you going to greet me properly?”

Impressed that Damian was flirting already, Alex grinned. He stepped close, and cupped Damian’s warm face in his hands. “As a greeting, this is traditional.” He leaned up the three inches necessary to touch Damian’s lips with his own.

The kiss began as a cautious peck, feeling out one another’s contours, but one peck followed another, and in less than a minute Alex closed his eyes and parted his lips to capture more of Damian’s mouth. Damian did the same, his hands settling upon Alex—one cupping the back of his head, the other low upon his spine.

When the kiss broke, Alex sighed in pleasure, still lingering in Damian’s arms. “And that would be a yes.”

Damian lifted his eyebrows. “Hmm?”

“All those times I’ve seen you kiss your girlfriends, I’ve thought, ‘Wonder what it would be like to kiss him? He looks like a good kisser.’ And I was right.”

Damian smiled. “Oh, good. I was thinking ‘And that would be a yes’ too—meaning, yep, I guess I really do enjoy kissing a guy.” He leaned in again for another set of kisses.

Alex sank into the embrace gladly. Damian’s hot tongue soon slid along Alex’s upper lip, causing him to skip a breath. Clenching his hands tighter in the tangle of Damian’s hair, Alex sucked Damian’s tongue deep in, stroking it against the walls of his mouth.

Damian gasped, his breath warm across Alex’s lips, his body swaying. The hand upon Alex’s back spread wider.

Alex hummed in approval, pushing his hips forward to let his erection bump Damian’s thigh. He meant only to give Damian a taste, a feel, expecting his friend would be too shy to go any further until later that night, or even the next day.

So it came as a welcome surprise when Damian responded by sliding his hand over Alex’s ass and hauling him closer, grinding Alex’s crotch against the hard bulge in Damian’s black jeans.

Their wet kiss broke, and Damian lowered his face to Alex’s shoulder. “Wow,” he whispered.

Lust pounded through Alex’s body. Heat flared from their joined, gyrating groins—Alex figured Damian was plenty warm enough now. And he’d barely been here five minutes, and they were still wearing all their clothes and standing in the front room.

“Damn,” Alex said. “I planned to at least buy you dinner first.”

Damian planted kisses on Alex’s shoulder and neck, hand still massaging his ass. God, that felt good. “Sorry,” Damian murmured. “I was thinking about it all week, and the whole drive over here, and I guess I got kind of…excited.”

“Stop apologizing. Like I’ve been able to think about anything else either.” Alex slid a hand to the bottom hem of Damian’s T-shirt, then let it glide beneath the cotton and across the warm bare skin of his back. Alex imagined reaching into Damian’s boxers, squeezing his ass, slipping to the front to wrap a hand around Damian’s c**k.

With his face on Damian’s neck, Alex groaned. Damian smelled of warm male with a twist of orange peel. His family grew oranges, and Damian seldom went a day without eating one. The fragrance made Alex want to lick every inch of him.

But scaring him off at this early stage was not what Alex wanted. So, with reluctance, Alex bestowed a final kiss on Damian’s supple mouth and stepped back, pulling his hands free. Damian looked sweetly disappointed, blue eyes studying him.

Alex smiled to reassure him. “Come put your stuff in my room. Let me get you a drink or something, and we can…talk.”