New York Christmas Read Online Free Page B

and even leaned forward a little to show her interest. Chris thought back to the very first time he had seen Daniel. That was as good a place to start as any he guessed. “Well, the first time I saw Daniel was maybe the second lesson after I was asked to TA for English. He walks in all swagger and money and with a group of other freshman kids his age all hanging off his every word. He was bright. So bright. But he cruised the year. I never actually caught him doing anything remotely like studying but somehow he managed to score just enough in all his classes to pass. Funny enough the only class he struggled in was English. So they tasked me with afterhours tutoring.”
    “This sounds like the start to a porn film.” Ame laughed as she said this. Chris smiled. If Ame could have seen inside his head she wouldn’t be laughing. Him and Daniel and sex was suddenly very close to the front of his thoughts.
    “He was younger than me and from completely the opposite side of the campus.
    And he literally slept with anything that moved, girls and boys. So he was something well outside my comfort zone. I used to watch him. I know that sounds kinda creepy, but I would watch him when he was studying to see if I could get my head around why someone so pretty, so strong, so funny would need to sleep around. I never actually understood it. Anyway, unrequited lust, etcetera and so on. I left at the end of his first year, my final year, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
    “Awww,” Ame said. Great, she was using her cute voice, the one that Chris feared. “So how many years later now? He walks into this coffee shop and finds you.
    Oh my “—she pressed a hand against her chest—”how cute is that.”
    What was it with girls finding gay guys and what they got up to cute? He was sure as hell that she wouldn’t find it cute if she walked in on him and a man going at it the way he wanted to with Daniel. Even with the wine having its usual effect on his libido, he was getting hard at the thought of being on all fours on this bed with Daniel inside him, marking him, wanting him. He wriggled to get comfortable, his damn prick was getting caught in jersey material, and he really needed to do a repo on the source of his discomfort.
     
     
    “Did you ever get it on at college?” Ame leaned forward, a slice of pizza in one hand, half a glass of red in the other, and an avaricious gleam in her eye. What, she wanted details?
    “We kissed once.”
    “Tell me more.”
    “We were drunk…” His voice trailed off as he yet again remembered the alcohol-fueled kiss.
    “Default college setting,” Ame interjected.
    “Yeah, well. I never drank much even then and two glasses and I was anyone’s. So four beers and a bottle each of brandy and bourbon and I was fucked. Seriously off my head. I was on my own with Daniel. We kissed. It was epic.”
    “Really?” Ame said dreamily.
    “No!” Chris said with a laugh. “Far from epic. I don’t remember much about it at all. It was just one of those drunken things. He avoided me the rest of the semester except for tutoring and we never talked about it.”
    “Oh.” Ame sounded deflated. What did she want? A storybook gay romance? Like that was going to happen. “But,” she continued, “he’s back and I’m thinking he’s interested.”
    “Ame, I say again, he fucked the entire campus—any girl or boy, gay or bi—in a year. Yet he didn’t go anywhere near me. What does that tell you?”
    She considered his question for a moment and chewed on a bite of pizza.
    Swallowing a mouthful of wine, she delivered her expert opinion.
    “He was saving himself for you. Or you for himself. Or whatever.” She laughed and it was infectious and suddenly, pizza and wine forgotten, Chris and Ame were laughing until they cried.
    It was a hell of an evening and just what he needed to help him forget.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    Monday, November 26th
     
    Not for the first time Chris wondered why the hell