Read Autumn Fire for Free Online

“About Saturday...”
    Dustin held up his hand and took a quick glance around. “You’re new to hookups, aren’t you?”
    Kyle chewed his lower lip then nodded once.
    “There’s an unofficial Hookup Code, which helps in situations like this. When you meet someone in real life after having fun, you either pretend you don’t know each other or you act like best friends—but in either scenario, the Hookup Code demands the confidentiality of the hookup.”
    “So, for us...”
    “I’ve never met you before in my life.”
    Kyle worried his lip again, visibly calculating his options. He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not looking to repeat Saturday.”
    “Don’t worry. One hookup doesn’t equal an ongoing commitment.”
    Kyle’s eyes searched around, confirming no one sat within audible range. “I’m in the closet. I’m not even sure if I’m gay or bi or whatever. I’ve never even felt an urge for a guy before. I was thinking and I—”
    Dustin cut off his rambling with another raised hand. He glanced around to further confirm their privacy. “I’m very much in the closet and I’m comfortable there. I don’t want to emerge. I’m not going to out you, don’t worry. I don’t care if you’re gay, bi, straight, or something else entirely. I enjoyed our encounter, but it will remain a private memory of mine. No one will hear of it and it will stay in the past.”
    He really wanted to say he couldn’t stop thinking about Saturday, there had been an energy there more substantial and meaningful than simple animal lust, but he let those thoughts whither and die.
    “So, what do we do from here?” Kyle asked.
    Dustin nudged his textbooks with a finger. “I think you’re supposed to help me understand this stuff.”
    As if shifting gears and giving into his duties, Kyle zipped open his backpack and pulled out a stack of loose-leaf paper and a handful of tutorial worksheets. Pencil in hand, Kyle leaned a bit closer. “Tell me where you’re at with linear algebra. What do you struggle with? And what do you confidently understand?”
    Kyle’s delicious recently-chewed mint gum breath rolled across Dustin’s face. Dustin wanted to kiss him, to taste the breath and let it fill his mouth.
    Infinitely better than being tutored by the amorphous blob of a man he thought was Kyle, this would also be infinitely more difficult since he’d have to reign in his lust on a regular basis.
    Dustin flipped through the textbook. “Well,” he cleared his throat, “I think I understand the elementary row operations fine, though I seem to be prone to many tiny mistakes. Accidentally changing a positive to a negative and things along those lines. I understand the concept of an identity matrix, though I often have difficulty in creating one, but that’s probably due to my sloppy row operations. And I can barely attempt anything with the word ‘vector’ in the problem. I always get a completely different answer than the book.”
    “Hmm.” Kyle tapped his pencil against the table, his long, delicate fingers brushing against the wood. Those fingers would go good in Dustin’s mouth...or sliding in and out of his ass. “I bet most of your problems are due to your row operations, especially if you continuously make minor errors, like you said. Fuck those up and you fuck up everything.”
    Kyle’s eyes flashed wide, as if suddenly conscious he just swore twice in a professional context. Dustin smiled to assure him it was okay.
    “I’ll have to examine some of your work and go through some questions with you to be sure your operations are your problem. It may also be you have a few other issues going on and fixing your row operations is just the first step.”
    As he listened, Dustin surreptitiously scoped out the man before him. Kyle wore a short-sleeve shirt this time, exposing his arms. They were covered in just a light dusting of golden hair which darkened slightly as it approached his wrists. His arms, while not overly