Campus Visit

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Alex drove them to the coast in his Subaru with the roof racks, which, Damian knew, sometimes held surfboards or kayaks. In high school Alex had been on the track team, and since coming to Santa Cruz for college he’d taken up other outdoor sports, too. Damian’s own exercise, then and now, consisted mainly of farm work for his parents—summers, weekends, and whenever else he could spare the time. Surfing the Pacific would be a fun change, he thought, watching the waves crash on the shore as Alex swung the station wagon into a parking lot near the beach. And whatever Alex had been doing to keep fit lately, it had certainly been working, judging from how Alex’s naked body had looked, stretched out for him on the mattress.

The recollection sent a rush of desire through him. Maybe Alex would be up for a little more when they went back to the apartment…

“Come on, before it gets any darker.” Alex’s voice brought him out of his fantasies. Alex had already opened the driver’s side door and was hopping out.

Damian got out, too. The brisk wind off the ocean knocked reality back into him with its chill and its fresh, salty smell. He zipped up his fleece and fell in step next to Alex.

“Low tide. Good.” Alex pointed along the beach. “We can walk under the cliffs.”

Leaving the boardwalk with its lights and garish attractions behind them, they set off across the wet sand. Barnacle-covered boulders and rafts of kelp lay scattered across the beach. Green-topped cliffs rose next to them on the shore. Damian craned his neck to look up the steep face of one. Above it, the sky had turned a twilight purple. Juxtaposed, the colors were gorgeous. He wished he’d brought his camera.

“How’s Maria?” Alex asked.

Damian thought back to the last time he’d heard from his older sister: a few comments exchanged online the previous week. “She’s okay. Complaining about the cost of everything in San Francisco, as usual.”

“Enjoying being on her own, though?”

“I think so.” Maria was three years older than Damian. She had attended college in the Bay Area and lived there still. “She parties too hard, as far as I can tell. I’m not sure she likes her boyfriend much. And the office supply world isn’t where she wants to work.”

“Still wants to be a chef?”

“Something like that, yeah. And she’s a good cook. But she doesn’t have the actual culinary school training—because Mom and Dad wouldn’t spring for it—and in a place like San Francisco, you can’t get a good restaurant cooking job without pretty awesome credentials.”

“So she’s settling for some cubicle job?”

“Yeah. She claims it suits her better than farming.”

“If only everyone could admit that.” Alex sounded sardonic.

Damian gave him a resigned smile. “Going to start with this again?”

“It may be my last chance. You graduate in one more term. We both do. You’re good at art, you like it, and I still say it’s what you should look for a job in.”

Damian kicked a shell out of his path. “I haven’t given it as much time as a real artist would. I’ve had the ag studies…”

“You double-majored. You balanced both your worlds—agriculture for your folks, art for you—but now you’ve got to choose.”

“It was never a choice. The farm is what I have to do. Maria’s not going to, and I’m the only other kid, and besides,” Damian added, overriding the protest he could see Alex about to make, “it’s hard to make a living as an artist.”

“Oh, while farming is the easy life?”

“No, but—”

“Plus you’re wrong,” Alex went on. “Oil-on-canvas art, sure, that may be hard to sell. But graphic design, which you’re equally good at, you can get jobs in that all over the place.”

Damian smiled. “Of course you’d be trying to get me behind a computer.”

“You’re already behind one all the time. Everyone is. Dude, you propositioned me in email, remember?”

Damian chuckled, slipping his hands into his fleece’s pockets. “All right. But people still need farmers, because they still need to eat. And the main point is, the farm is my responsibility.”

“I still say it doesn’t have to be,” Alex said, but he sounded less argumentative.

“Speaking of ag, I meant to tell you, I have a five-page paper due Monday, so I need to block out a few hours this weekend to work on it.”

“I’ve got a project write-up to do, too. We’ll have to be sure to behave long enough to get some work done.” Alex glanced playfully at him, and Damian answered with a smile, excitement flooding back into his body.

They’d meandered closer to the cliffs, and the sky had darkened to cobalt blue. A bright star or planet twinkled overhead. The face of the cliff curved inland here, forming a narrow cove—probably a deadly bowl of pounding, ricocheting waves when the tide was high. Just then it was merely a wet, high-walled hideaway. Reaching out to touch the barnacled surface, Damian followed the curve inward. The wind softened to a gentle breeze as he entered the cove, and the sparkle of Santa Cruz’s lights vanished behind the rock.

Damian looked up the steep cliff to watch a bat wheeling in the sky, then glanced at his friend. Alex stood beside him, hands in his sweatshirt pockets, hair tousled by the wind. The twilight shimmered in his eyes and darkened his lips.

“What about you?” he asked, more softly now the wind wasn’t battling their voices. “You’ve been talking about some job in Switzerland.”

Alex looked up the cliff, too, and nodded. “My major professor found it for me. A tech company over there is expanding and needs a bunch of us geeks, speaking lots of different languages, to do the program translations and customer service and stuff. I put my name in. We’ll see.”

“How long would you be there, if they accepted you?”

“I think a year. Maybe longer, if it works out.”

Damian wandered deeper into the cove, finding himself dismayed at the idea of Alex transferring overseas. He wondered if he should say anything along the I’ll-miss-you line. No. Too sentimental. He turned to make some lighter remark and was startled to find Alex at his elbow. On the soft sand, he hadn’t heard Alex following.

A naughty smile played on Alex’s lips. He let his gaze rest on Damian a moment, then turned casually to face the ocean. “Did you have any other ideas about what you wanted to do this weekend?”

Damian’s body tingled in lust. He moved to stand behind Alex, but didn’t touch him—yet. “Ideas for inside the apartment or out?” he asked, to make sure.

Alex went on gazing at the waves. “Hopefully both.”

Damian eased closer and set his hands on Alex’s hips. His erection pressed Alex’s ass. Alex caught his breath. “I do have a few ideas,” Damian said.

Alex swallowed. His hand slid up to stroke one of Damian’s fingers suggestively. “Such as?”

Damian started kissing the side of Alex’s neck, breathing in the heat of his skin as it mingled with the cool Pacific wind. “Maybe we could go hiking,” he murmured between kisses. “Catch a movie, if anything good’s playing. Some other things.”

“Those sound good. Especially the ‘other things.’” Alex pivoted and crushed his lips against Damian’s with enough force that Damian staggered backward. Alex moved with him, not letting the kiss break, dipping his tongue deep into Damian’s mouth. In the black shadow of the cliff, hidden from the city, they made out for a stolen half-minute. Alex reached between them to massage the bulge at Damian’s crotch. Damian groaned and did the same back, cupping Alex through the front of his jeans.

Movement on the beach caught his eye, and he stepped away from Alex. A pair of joggers bounced past on the sand, at least fifty yards away and without even glancing in his direction. But their appearance was enough to send a rush of mixed alarm and excitement through his body.

“Relax.” Alex sounded amused. “They didn’t see us.”

“I know. But it’s cold out. Let’s go back.” At the thought of returning to the apartment and locking a private door between them and the rest of the world, Damian’s lust redoubled. He ran his hand over Alex’s ass, ending with a squeeze.

Alex laughed. “Good idea. Soon it’ll be too dark to see where we’re going.”

They picked their way back to the car through the sandy boulders and salty wind. Damian was shivering by the time they climbed into the Subaru and shut the doors.

Alex started the engine and twirled the heater dial up high. “Let’s warm you up, valley boy.” From the glance he dealt Damian, intimate and aglow in the dash lights, Damian knew the double entendre was intended.