if Victor really felt the same way that he did, or if this was all part of him
trying to be different, to not define himself. Kisses were one thing, but if
Victor was really attracted to him…
Something hot and hard bumped against his hand as he explored.
The breath caught in Jace’s throat as he wrapped his fingers around it.
He likes me! Jace held back a laugh, and started pumping instead. Victor
let out a moan, but he didn’t remain stationary.
“Hold up,” he said.
After some desperate shifting and squirming, Victor managed to roll
around to face him. Jace attacked his lips hungrily, his hands searching
out his prize again. He wanted to throw off the sleeping bag, see
everything laid bare, even if they would freeze. Before he could suggest
it, Victor took hold of Jace’s cock, and he was pretty damn sure those
angels were nearby after all, because it felt like heaven.
“Taller than me and bigger,” Victor said with faux frustration.
Jace tightened his grip. He didn’t have any complaints about what he
was holding! “Kiss me,” he said.
Victor did. Rolling onto him a little, his tongue twisted around
Jace’s, their hands working in unison beneath the sleeping bag. Jace kept
holding back, not wanting it to end, but it was so damn exciting! Another
guy, letting him do things he’d barely even dreamed of. And there was so
much more he wanted. His body tensed.
Victor stopped kissing him, pulling back and fixing those
mismatched eyes on his own.
“Maybe we should—” Jace whimpered, barely able to speak. “Uh,
we should get out of the sleeping bag or I’ll make a mess.”
“I promise you I’ll make a bigger one,” Victor said.
The thought pushed Jace over the edge. He was groaning and
shooting and writhing in ecstasy, but he kept his arm pumping until
Victor joined him. Then they released each other, panting for breath, but
Jace hated even that small separation. He wrapped his arms around
Victor, pressing their bodies together again, kissing him until Victor
started laughing.
“What?” Jace asked.
“I don’t know,” Victor said. “You make me happy.”
Jace grinned in response. “If that did the trick, then I’m willing to
make you happy any time you want!”
“Deal.” Victor touched his forehead to Jace’s. “Now let’s get out of
this sleeping bag. We’ll dry off by dancing around the fire like a couple
of lost boys.”
“You be Tinker Bell, I’ll be Peter Pan,” Jace teased.
Victor pushed himself up and onto Jace. One eyebrow cocked, his
face was deeply shadowed by the fire’s light. He looked like a scoundrel.
“You be Peter,” he said, and then he thrust his hips meaningfully. “I’ll be
Captain Hook.”
Jace swallowed. Perhaps he had bitten off more than he could chew!
* * * * *
The light in the clearing was soft, the embers of the fire still
smoldering, sending wisps of smoke up into the treetops. Jace licked his
dry lips, taking stock of his situation. An arm was wrapped around his
neck in the softest of headlocks as Victor snored steadily into his ear.
Their bodies were pressed together as they had been all night, and though
they had put on some clothes to stay warm, he could feel Victor’s
hardness pressing against his back.
Despite being uncomfortable, thirsty, and desperate to pee, Jace lay
there as long as he could, enjoying every second. Only when absolutely
necessary did he untangle himself from Victor, waking him. Unzipping
the sleeping bag, Jace stumbled to the edge of the clearing. When he
came back, Victor was sitting up, sipping from a canteen that he offered
to share.
Jace enjoyed the first two swigs, but nearly spit the third out. “Shit!
What time is it?”
He handed back the canteen and kneeled, digging through his
backpack for the travel alarm clock that he had packed and then
forgotten. Eleven in the morning! Jace groaned and rolled over onto his
butt.
“Trouble?” Victor asked.
“I’m dead,” Jace said. “It’s a school day.”
Victor shrugged, like it didn’t matter.
“Don’t start,” Jace said. “You may have escaped the system, but I’m
still subject to its rules. In particular, my mother’s.”
“Yeah, there’s no getting away from a mom,” Victor said with
sympathy. “So I guess you’re leaving?”
“Have to,” Jace said. He looked at Victor sitting shirtless under the
lean-to, the sleeping bag crumpled up around his hips, half an inch of his
pubic hair peeking over the edge. “In a few minutes.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Victor said. “People sleep-in all the time.
She’ll understand.”
“Maybe,” Jace said, but thoughts of his family were far from his
mind as he continued to check out his boyfriend. Victor might not like
titles, but Jace already thought of him that way. “Is that a tattoo?” he
asked, nodding at dark line around one arm.
“Yeah,” Victor said, raising his arm to examine it. “Did it myself.”
“Seriously? How?”
“All you need is a needle and some ink. And skill, which I’m sadly
lacking.”
“I think it looks cool,” Jace said.
Victor didn’t seem convinced. “I wanted the line to be thicker and
darker. Then I wanted a fox running along it.”
“Why a fox?”
Victor grinned. “Because I might not be the smartest, the biggest, or
the strongest, but I’m clever.”
“Are you?” Jace teased. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah, well, which one of us is in trouble?”
“Good point.” Jace sighed. Time to face the music. “I have to work
tonight. Want to come by? You can ride into town with me.”
Victor shook his head. “I’m not ready to face civilization just yet.”
“Okay.” Jace hesitated. “I’ll try to come see you. After work. Is that
okay?”
“You don’t need my permission,” Victor said, spreading his arms
and flopping onto his back. “This is the real land of the free.”
“Well, in that case…” Jace crawled over to Victor and kissed him.
Victor reciprocated, pulling Jace down on top of him, tangling his fingers
through Jace’s hair.
“I love it,” Victor whispered, pulling away to better see. His eyes
darted around the edge of Jace’s face.
“My hair?”
Victor nodded. “Even now when it’s a goddamn mess!”
Jace did his best to look offended, sitting up and trying to tame the
unruly mop, but mostly he felt glad that Michelle had made him grow it
out. Victor sat up to kiss him again, and it took more willpower than Jace
knew he had to pull his lips away and stand.
“Hopefully that will go down before you get home,” Victor said,
nodding at Jace’s jeans.
Lost for words, he blushed and started gathering his things.
“Just tell your mom the clock battery died,” Victor suggested.
“No, you were right the first time. She’ll understand.”
Jace stared at Victor, wishing he could take a photo to preserve this
memory forever. When Victor winked, looking amused, Jace forced his
eyes away and turned to leave. He was only minutes away when a
yearning filled his chest, and although he couldn’t be certain, Jace didn’t
think the feeling would cease until he saw Victor again.
* * * * *
His mother was home. Of all the ill omens that could have awaited
him, this was the worst. Jace had expected an angry letter, or maybe a
passive-aggressive pickle loaf sandwich—the kind he hated—in his
lunch bag, but instead his mother was sitting at the kitchen table. Not for
long. She stood up so quickly that the chair toppled over behind her. Her
features were crinkled with enough concern that Jace thought he’d be
okay, but once she looked him over, the worry turned to anger.
“Where were you this morning?”
“Camping,” Jace said. “I slept in.”
“You’re missing school! I trusted you to come home when you said
you would. I treated you like an adult, and this is how you repay me?”
“It was an accident!” Jace said, his voice rising. “It’s not like I woke
up on time and sat around the woods just to piss you off.”
Serena’s cheeks grew red. “Watch your mouth! Did you even bring
an alarm with you?”
“Yes, but—”
“But what?”
“I forgot to set it.” Jace regretted his honesty instantly. His mother
launched into a tirade, the word “responsibility” being the most repeated.
He should have lied and said the battery had died, just like his clever fox
suggested. Jace took the brunt of the lecture, occasionally shouting in his
own defense, but his mother wouldn’t listen. Instead, she passed
judgment.
“For the next week, you aren’t going anywhere but work and school.
I’ll be driving you to school in the morning, picking you up in the
afternoon, and will do the same for your work. You’re grounded from the
car and you’re grounded from seeing anyone.”
“That’s bullshit!” Jace yelled.
“No,” his mother said, eyes narrowing. “That’s fact, and if you don’t
want to be grounded for two weeks, you’ll button your lip!”
Jace fumed on the car ride to school, hatching a million schemes in
his mind. As soon as he was home again, he would gather all the food he
could carry and run straight down the valley and back into Victor’s arms.
No one would ever see Jace again. The system wanted to punish him for
an honest mistake? Fine. In that case, he wouldn’t play the game
anymore.
But as he walked into the school building, Jace was plagued with
doubt. He knew he couldn’t do it, because it wouldn’t work. Victor’s
plan didn’t make sense. He couldn’t live off the land anymore than Jace
could. Without the food from his parent’s cupboard, or handouts from
strangers, Victor wouldn’t make it. Unless Jace continued to support
him, took responsibility for him. Doing so would mean working a stupid
job and putting up with unfair rules, but if it meant getting to keep his
lost boy, letting him remain wild and free, Jace knew he could bear the
burden.
Lunch period was ending as Jace arrived. He spotted Greg in the
hall, but his best friend averted his eyes. The anger rose anew in Jace’s
chest, so much that he swiped at a student-made poster on the wall,
tearing it down. The hallway cleared around him as students give him
wide berth. Good! Jace hoped he looked as crazy as he felt. Let them see
just how maddening he found this stupid world!
Jace glowered his way through classes, not answering in calculus
when the teacher called on him. He managed to stay silent until the end
of the day, but by then his anger had simmered into frustration and
eventually lost all potency, leaving nothing but misery. He spoke briefly
to Michelle before dinner, telling her about the injustice he was
suffering. She was sufficiently sympathetic. After dinner, Jace’s mother
drove him to work. There at least he felt slightly better because Victor
might show up, desperate for cigarettes or company. Being alone in the
woods all day had to get boring. Jace pictured Victor sitting there for an
entire week, waiting for him to return. Maybe he could get Greg to go
down and tell him what had happened.
But no, all of that was messed up too.
“Everything all right?” Bernard asked.
Jace flinched in surprise. He was in the back room fetching more
jumbo-sized cups for the soda fountain and hadn’t seen Bernard sitting at
his desk.
“Fine,” Jace said.
“You don’t look fine.”
Jace almost snapped that Bernard should mind his own business, but
the older man’s expression was genuinely concerned. Unlike the other
adults in his life, Bernard had never betrayed his trust, despite having
more reason to than others. Hell, Jace would probably be in a psych ward
now if Bernard hadn’t agreed to keep his suicide attempt a secret.
“I can always tell when my son’s had a bad day because his face gets
flushed like yours. Looks like geysers of blood want to come shooting
out of your ears!”
Jace managed a small smile. “It was a shitty day. I’ll live.” He meant
this as a figure of speech, but he supposed it told Bernard what he needed
to know.
“What do you think of the job so far?” Bernard tapped a bunch of
envelops against the desk’s surface, straightening them. “You seem
happy here, aside from today.”
“I like it,” Jace said. “You were right. It’s hard to feel sorry for
myself when I have so much to do.” Except for today.
Bernard cocked his head. “How do you like working with Dan?”
Jace answered the question carefully. “I probably wouldn’t invite
him to my birthday party.”
Bernard cracked a smile. “Yeah, he doesn’t make a good first
impression. Or second or third. He’s a good worker though, right?”
Jace hesitated. As much as he disliked Dan, he didn’t want to rat him
out, or be responsible for him losing his job. He pictured someone
wearing a werewolf mask, rushing the counter and grabbing the shotgun
before he could get to it, except when the mask came off, this time it
would be Dan’s sneering face.
“He does his thing, I do mine.” There. That wasn’t a lie, exactly.
Bernard studied him, then nodded. “I better get home to the missus.
You know if you need anything, my phone number is taped on the desk
here.” He tapped a finger on the metal surface. “You write it down, put it
in your wallet. Never know when it might come in handy.”
Jace stared. What had he done to deserve the star treatment? Was
Bernard this nice to everyone? Jace walked with him to the door and
wished him a pleasant evening. After Bernard’s car had driven away, he
went up to Dan.
“I’m grounded,” he said.
Dan snickered.
“Yeah, real funny. But before you laugh too hard, my mom is
picking me up after work every day. If you don’t come back from your
break, I won’t be here to cover for you.”
The smile slipped off Dan’s face. “Did you say something to
Bernard? Did he ask?”
“No and no. But he’ll find out if you try anything like that again.”
Mostly because Jace would go home and the store would get robbed,
but he let Dan interpret this as a threat. Releasing a little of his anger felt
good. Maybe this would be the new him, stomping through life and
raging at the machine. Screw his dumb coworkers and his homophobic
friends. Jace would growl at the whole world! Aside from those moments
