didn’t say I wanted your dick. I said I wanted you.” Though to be fair, he did also want his dick.
“My ass isn’t a parking space for your cock.”
“God, I wish it were,” David confessed. He thought he heard a chuckle from the other end of the line.
There was rustling, then another voice came to the line. “Rook, this is Derrick. Keep your hands and dick away from my partner. Got it?”
“What the fuck, man? This is a private conversation.” David’s cheeks heated. He’d known Derrick and Nate were close, but sharing pillow shit wasn’t cool. Especially since David didn’t tell people things they didn’t need to know about his preferences.
“It quit being private when you’re—what did you call him?” There was a muffled answer from Nate. “Yeah, when you’re a closet monkey .”
“I’m a what?”
“Emotional freeloader who gets off by sneaking out of the closet to throw a wrench in things before slamming your gay closet door in his face,” Derrick thundered.
“I’m trying to get with him, asswipe !”
“It ain’t happening. He deserves someone who’s going to invest in relationship type shit.”
“Maybe I want that, too!” David snapped.
“Maybe?”Derrick didn’t sound believing.
“What I want has got Nate tucked up in there somewhere. Put his ass on the line. I’m done with you. I called to talk to him, unless of course he’s too fucking chicken to take my calls.”
“Bite me!” Nate yelled, having taken back the phone during David’s tirade.
“Did that,” David said, breathing heavily, but softening his words. “Liked it a lot. Wanna do it again.”
“I don’t do quickies. That was an exception I’m not repeating,” Nate answered. “Damn it, Nate. I want to see you. Not just once or twice.”
“Oh, so you want a weekly conjugal visit,” Nate translated, flatly.
“No. Shit. Why do you have to make this difficult? I want more than cock.”
“More than cock, less than serious.Well, Rook, that’s the hang up. I don’t give cock unless I’m serious. Last Tuesday is a non-repeatable offence.”
David felt like Nate was doing a two step on his heart wearing cleats. The conversation made him hot and cold, made him sweat with the sensation that he was losing and losing big. That there was no way to get off the road they travelled, and Nate had a head start. God, if he could only catch up!
“It’s David,” he said, weakly. “Just…just say my name once.”
He could hear Nate breathing. Could feel his indecisiveness. “Why is it important to you?”
“Because I’m not my badge, and it matters.”
“Why?” Nate repeated calmly, the strength of his voice increasing.
“The badge calls me Rook. To you, I want to be David.” He’d squeezed out the last of his dilemma for Nate to see and trounce. Would he? The exposure stung.
Nate sighed. It wasn’t the sound of frustration or pleasure, more one of letting go.
David squeezed his eyes tighter, waiting. Moisture cooled the inner corner of his eye and he knuckled it away.
“David,” Nate said, his voice soft.
David’s cock throbbed in time with his heart. God, was a sweet sound it was to hear his name on Nate’s lips. He was about to say, thank you, when Nate continued in that same soft tone.
“What do you want from me?”
“I don’t know. Just more than this. There has to be more than this,” David hoped.
“It’s called dating.”
“That’s—I don’t think…”
“Until you’re ready to be seen with me, there isn’t more than this, Rook. We just…aren’t,” Nate finished. “Goodbye.”
“Wait!” David pleaded. Emptiness filled the earpiece. Too late. Nate had hung up.
Nate’s fingers tightened on his thigh, resisting the urge to pull the latch and rush over to Rook’s side. David . He wanted to be called David. The word echoed intimately in his mind.
“Are you sure?”
Megan Keith, Renee Kubisch
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas