[Hot Off the Ice 01.0] City Boy

by A. E. Wasp

  The movie ended, marshmallows were toasted, and the fire burned to embers. Parents carried sleepy children to bed and the people who were staying found couches, open floor space, or a spot in a popup trailer to sleep in.

  Bryce insisted that Jake and Robbie take his room, saying he’d find a couch to sleep on.

  After everyone was settled in the big house, Bryce walked behind the barn to wait for Dakota where they had arranged to meet. His breath showed in the chilly night air; the moon a bare sliver in the dark sky. Clouds moved slowly across the sky from west to east. It was funny how quickly he’d gotten used to looking west over the hills to see what weather was moving their way.

  He loved standing in the sunlight and seeing rain already falling on the furthest hills. When the sun from the clearing sky chased the black clouds it threw rainbows across the plains. The land that had seemed too open and a little barren to him a month ago, now showed him new beauty every day.

  Stiff grass crunched under Dakota’s feet as he came up behind Bryce. “Hi,” he said, slipping his arms around Bryce from behind and pushing his hair aside to kiss the back of his neck.

  Bryce hummed and tilted his head so Dakota could have better access. “Everyone settled in your place?”

  Dakota rested his chin on Bryce’s shoulder. “Yep. Yours?”

  “As settled as it gets.” He took a deep breath of the crisp air. “Gorgeous night.”

  “Was it a good day, too?” Dakota’s warm breath curled underneath the neck of the sweatshirt he’d changed into.

  “Perfect day.” He covered Dakota’s hands with his own, pulling them tighter around him. “I officially told my mother.”

  Thirty

  Dakota

  Dakota lifted his head. “Yeah? How’d it go?”

  “She knew. About us. Well, she had guessed.” He turned in Dakota’s arms. “She said she’d always suspected I was gay. Why didn’t she say anything?”

  Dakota slipped his cold hands up under Bryce’s sweatshirt. His skin was always warm. Dakota wanted to stick his whole body up under Bryce’s shirt.

  “Would you have heard her if she had?”

  Bryce rubbed Dakota’s arms. “No. Probably not. Looking back — something I’ve been doing a lot of lately — people may have hinted at it once or twice.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile.

  Dakota kissed the uplifted corner. “So, I found us a bed for tonight, if you’re interested. It’s not fancy, but it’s private.”

  Bryce eyed the rusty VW bus suspiciously. “Definitely not fancy. And not that private.” The bus sat next to the cars of those friends and family who had elected to sleep over.

  “Not here.” He shoved Bryce towards the passenger’s door. “Get in.”

  He drove them through the rows of trees to the furthest corner of the orchard where they could hide from the world for a while.

  Dakota climbed between the seats to the back of the van. Bryce wedged himself through with a little more difficulty.

  “This is exactly the kind of van I would expect your friends to have.” He lowered himself carefully to the mattress on the floor.

  “Sorry they don’t all have Porsches.” Sure this van was a bit of a mess. Pete had been ‘restoring’ it for the last ten years. So far he’d succeeded in taking apart most of the old fixtures, with the exception of one lone cabinet that looked brand new.

  But the engine and transmission worked great, and the mattress on the floor was clean and covered in soft blankets.

  “Hard to fool around in a Porsche,” Bryce noted, stretching out on his back on the mattress. “God, I’m beat.”

  “Oh?” Dakota asked sitting cross-legged next to him. “You think you’re going to get lucky? You think I brought you back here for nefarious purposes?”

  Bryce ran his hand up under the leg of Dakota’s jeans. “I hope so.”

  “Didn’t your parents warn you about getting into vans with strange men?”

  Bryce’s fingers circled Dakota’s ankle, his thumb rubbing at the bone and sending shivers up Dakota’s back. “Only if they offered me candy.”

  “I don’t have candy. But I do have brownies.” He pulled a slightly squished brownie from the pocket of his sweatshirt. “Want some?”

  “Sex and drugs? I am not that kind of boy.”

  Dakota raised his eyebrows skeptically.

  Bryce slid his hand further up Dakota’s shin. “Well, I wasn’t until I met you. You’re a bad influence.”

  He probably was actually. Seemed like Bryce had had a pretty good thing going on there before he ran into Dakota. “So you don’t want some?”

  “I didn’t say that.” Bryce held out his hand and waved his fingers. “Give it.”

  Dakota broke the brownie in half and handed it over. “Start with just a little.”

  Bryce examined the brownie to see if he could tell the difference between it and a pot-free, regular brownie. He broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth. “Been a long time since I got high.”

  Dakota chewed thoughtfully. The inside of the van was almost pitch black. Remembering something Pete had told him, he kneeled forward to open the cabinet. “I can’t imagine you ever getting high,” he said feeling around for the electrical cord Pete said should be there.

  Bryce took it as an opportunity to run his hands over Dakota’s ass. “No? I was a teenager at one point.” He drummed his fingers on Dakota’s ass as he thought. “When you were in kindergarten. You kids always think you’re the first ones to do things.” He shook his head sorrowfully.

  Dakota felt the cord, then ran his fingers along the underside of the cabinet searching for the outlet. When he found it, he gave a quick prayer that he didn’t get electrocuted and plugged it in.

  Rows of multicolored Christmas lights strung on the ceiling flickered on, casting red, blue, and green shadows across the van.

  “Ooh,” Bryce said. “Pretty.”

  “Shut up, Grandpa.”

  Dakota always forgot that ten years separated them. Sometimes it seemed like nothing. He felt so much older that his years, and Bryce had this perpetual innocence about him that made him seem younger.

  But ten years was almost half of Dakota’s life. In those years, Bryce had been places and done things Dakota hadn’t even dreamed about. Speaking of things he couldn’t imagine: “Did you really golf with Bill Murray?”

  Bryce nodded and took another bite of the brownie. “Yeah. Couple of times. He’s a nice guy. And I really do suck at golf. It’s embarrassing.”

  Bryce tugged Dakota down to the mattress next to him. Dakota pillowed his head on Bryce’s arm and watched the lights flickering on the ceiling of the van.

  “I feel like we should go full hippie,” Dakota said. Sitting back up, he dug through the cabinet for the incense he knew was in there. He lit the tiny cone, sliding it by the window so that they could smell it but not choke on the smoke.

  “Are you done moving around?” Bryce pulled him back down to the mattress. When Dakota tried to answer, Bryce shut him up with a kiss.

  Dakota tried to deepen the kiss, to pull Bryce down on top of him or climb on top of Bryce. But Bryce kept them facing each other on their sides, Dakota’s head resting on his arm. He held Dakota’s free hand trapped against his side, their mouths the only place their bodies touched.

  Dakota whined and tried to free his hand.

  Bryce smiled and leaned his forehead against Dakota’s. “Will you let me try something?”

  “Anything.”

  “Promise you won’t laugh?”

  What in the world could Bryce want that he thought Dakota would laugh at him? He could cover Dakota in whipped cream and cherries, and Dakota would beg for more.

  “Okay, sit up.”

  Thirty-One

  Bryce

  They sat cross-legged facing each other. Bryce took Dakota’s hand and watched as his finger traced the lines on Dakota’s palm, moving across the calluses and tiny scars and burns of a working
man’s life.

  The inside of the van filled with the sound of their breathing. Bryce breathed in and out, slowly and steadily, waiting for the rhythm of their breathing to synchronize.

  When it did, he threaded their fingers together and looked Dakota directly in the eye. “I keep feeling like time is getting away from me.”

  “It’s slipping away.” Dakota blinked, but didn’t look away.

  Bryce nodded. He pushed Dakota’s hair away from his forehead. “Then let’s stop it. Just for tonight. For a little while. Okay?”

  Dakota nodded, eyes on Bryce.

  “I just want to look at you. You’re so beautiful.” He clasped their hands together.

  Dakota blushed, but didn’t look away.

  Bryce had never stared at someone this way, never looked into someone’s eyes until he could see the individual dots of color in their irises.

  Dakota’s eyes were like a forest — green and brown and gold and even some stormy gray around the edges.

  Dakota’s lips twitched, and Bryce fought back the urge to laugh. The book he had found had told him that would happen, and he should just notice it and let it go.

  With a small smile, he squeezed Dakota’s hand. His palms tingled where their skin touched. As time stretched like taffy, he watched the emotions rolling somewhere deep in Dakota’s eyes.

  How could they show so much? Maybe he was reading things that weren’t there, but he could almost feel the fear flowing from Dakota. How hard must it be for Dakota to take a chance and let Bryce in after all the people he had loved and lost, and the one he had loved who had betrayed him?

  Though their hands trembled where they were clasped, he could feel Dakota’s heartbeat steady and strong in his fingertips.

  What was Dakota seeing in Bryce’s eyes? His brows lowered as he seemed to be searching for something. Bryce tried to open up and let his emotions show in his eyes, hoping that one of them was what Dakota needed to see.

  Who had he become in these too-short weeks?

  This moment seemed separate from any that had come before in Bryce’s life. His universe had narrowed to a rundown VW bus at the back end of an orchard in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains where he sat poised on the edge of understanding something he had no name for.

  The energy between them built, the lights and the heady smell of the incense swirling around in the air. A slight buzz from the brownie made every movement syrupy-slow and fanned Bryce’s desire.

  Somewhere inside Bryce a dam broke. Everything he had ever wanted to feel, everything he had held back or assumed he lacked, crashed over him, and, with a small ooh he closed his eyes, breaking the connection.

  Dakota surged forward, pulling Bryce’s shirt off as he lowered him gently to the mattress. Somehow, despite being unwilling to stop kissing each other, they managed to get undressed.

  Bryce closed his eyes as Dakota mapped his skin with his strong hands, sweeping up from thigh to nipples and back down again. His mouth followed his hands, leaving goosebumps and faint pink marks.

  Dakota placed a gentle kiss to the inside of his thigh, then nipped sharply at the soft skin before licking up the side of Bryce’s cock.

  Bryce moaned, and Dakota dragged the tip of his tongue around the head.

  They’d barely started, and Bryce was already so close to begging for it. He exhaled heavily through his nose, chest heaving, trying to slow down. This night had to last.

  Dakota’s eyes were black with lust, and his fingers dug bruises into Bryce’s hips. He wanted to have them tattooed into his skin.

  Was is always like this when you had sex with someone you loved? If it was, how did people survive it?

  And in the silence of that space, he could admit to himself that he loved Dakota, had loved him almost since the very first day.

  Dakota’s mouth closed over the tip of his cock, and Bryce shuddered at the almost unbearable intimacy. After looking so deeply into each other, there was no place to hide.

  Not that he wanted to.

  Hands pressing Bryce’s hips to the bed, Dakota knelt between Bryce’s legs and moved slowly up and down Bryce’s cock with perfect pressure, perfect heat, as if he could do it all night.

  Suddenly, he pulled off. Bryce yelled, hands clenching the blankets as he panted on the edge of orgasm.

  Head resting on Bryce’s thigh, Dakota clenched and unclenched his fingers around Bryce’s hips, face twisted as if he were in pain.

  “Kota? You okay?” Bryce rested his hand on Dakota’s head.

  Dakota pushed into the touch, rubbing his head against Bryce’s palm, kissing wherever he could reach. “Yeah. Yeah,” he said, voice shaky. “It’s just...just...”

  “Yeah,” Bryce echoed. “I know.”

  Dakota pushed up onto his knees and leaned over Bryce, trapping him in the cage of his body. He rested his forehead against Bryce’s forehead; his hair curtaining Bryce’s face.

  “It’s just, I fucking... You. And it’s never felt like this.” He shuddered as Bryce’s hands caressed his body from shoulders to ankles, following the curve of his body.

  “Yeah, Kota,” Bryce repeated, tilting his head up to capture Dakota’s beautiful mouth. “Me, too. Never like this. No one.”

  Wrapping a hand around Dakota’s neck, he pulled him in, kissing long and deep, the urgency building back up as Dakota opened for him, body lowering until they were pressed together.

  The way Dakota’s cock pressed against his as they slid through the slickness between them felt so incredible Bryce could barely think. He could come just like that, but it wasn’t enough.

  He needed Dakota inside him tonight. They’d never done it that way, but Bryce needed to get Dakota inside his skin, tucked up near his heart where Bryce could take care of him.

  Groaning, he yanked Dakota’s mouth away from the dirty and probably illegal things it had been doing to Bryce’s neck. “Christ, Dakota.”

  He pulled Dakota’s head back by his hair, forcing Dakota to look him in the eye. “Are you going to fuck me, or what?” The words cracked the erotic silence.

  Dakota’s eyes were wild, thin rings of blue circling huge, dark pupils. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s one of the only things I’m sure about right now,” he admitted. “Please.”

  “Jesus, Bryce,” Dakota whispered, voice raspy. He fumbled through the blankets, pulling out the condoms and lube he’d obviously shoved there before.

  Bryce laughed. “Always prepared.”

  Dakota’s grin was wicked. “Well, I didn’t lure you into my van to talk.” He settled back between Bryce’s legs, pushing his knees apart gently until Bryce could feel the burn in his groin muscles.

  Dakota bit his lips, eyebrows drawing in concentration as he fumbled the cap on the lube and squirted out way too much onto his hands.

  Bryce’s laugh slid into a grunt when Dakota quirked an eyebrow and slid one finger into Bryce without warning. “Still funny?” he asked.

  They’d gone this far before, and Bryce loved it. But tonight he needed more.

  “C’mon, Dakota. Don’t be a tease.” Bryce felt a mind-blowing orgasm building in his spine and the pit of his stomach.

  Dakota was right there with him, and faster than Bryce thought possible, he felt the delicious burn and stretch as Dakota slipped a third finger in.

  They both groaned as Dakota twisted his fingers, dragging them across that perfect spot inside Bryce that had him seeing stars. Bryce’s hips thrust up and down as he fucked himself on Dakota’s fingers.

  Sweat slid down Dakota’s temples, pooling at his collarbones, and shining all over his golden skin.

  Bryce clenched around the fingers inside him, trying to get more, and Dakota moaned like he was dying.

  “Fuck, Bryce. Fucking — feel so good.” He moaned, voice broken and wrecked. “Gonna come just from this. But I have to fuck you, I have to feel you come on my cock.”

  Dakota’s filthy mouth pushed Bryce even closer to the edge. “Oh, God. C�
��mon. Do it, please.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Dakota repeated mindlessly almost to himself as he scrambled to his knees. Hand shaking, he lined himself up and pushed slowly but inexorably into Bryce.

  Bryce’s eyes rolled up into his head, and the breath left his lungs at the long, slow slide of Dakota pushing his way deep inside Bryce. Right where he belonged.

  Dakota stopped, resting on trembling arms, head hanging down between his shoulders. “Okay?” he asked breathlessly.

  Bryce could only nod, afraid to move, afraid he would shatter. The bright sting of pain blending with the intense pressure carried the promise of pleasure beneath it.

  Dakota lifted his head up like it weighed a million pounds. “Yeah?” He didn’t sound convinced.

  Bryce shifted his hips, trying to get Dakota deeper. “Fuck, yeah, Kota. Jesus. Now move. Please, for the love of god.”

  Dakota barked a laugh. “Bossy. Okay, fine then.”

  Bryce gripped the blankets with both hands.

  Dakota sat back on his haunches, hooked his arms under Bryce’s knees, and dragged Bryce’s legs higher up his thighs, impaling him on his cock.

  Then Dakota started moving, hard and fast, driving the air out of Bryce’s lungs and the brain cells out of his skull. Oh, he was going to hurt tomorrow, but he couldn’t seem to care right now. Dakota filled him perfectly, punching against his prostate every other thrust.

  Bryce braced his hand against the wall of the van. His groin muscles screamed with the stretch and his knee ached like it hadn’t in a week. It was heaven. He closed his eyes against the enormity of the feeling.

  Dakota cursed steadily under his breath, “Not gonna last,” he groaned.

  Bryce dared to look past the view of his own cock jutting rock hard and red from between his legs. Dakota’s biceps bulged in his arms, and the muscles of his neck and shoulders were corded with the strain.

  “God, Bryce,” Dakota said in something like awe as their eyes locked.

  Bryce cried out as he came helplessly, white hot sparks flashing down his spine. His body arched off the bed. Dakota grabbed Bryce’s hand, gripping it as Bryce’s orgasm swelled until he thought he would die from it.