Lace

Chapter 4

Four

“So?” Caleb spun in front of the full-length mirror in Levi’s cramped dorm room. “How do I look?”

“If I say fabulous?—”

“Just don’t.” Caleb stopped spinning and leaned closer to dab at a smear of eyeliner.

“You sure about the boots, though?” Levi asked, still eyeing him.

“The boots, most of all.”

“There are so many buckles.”

“Levi, love, the buckles are precisely the point.”

“I’m just thinking of… you know… when we get home.”

Caleb grinned into the mirror, catching Levi’s focused blue gaze. “Relax. I can fuck you with my boots on, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Can and have,” Levi acknowledged with a nod that sent his dishevelled blond locks into his eyes.

“And will again.” Caleb turned from the mirror, a devil’s smile on his face. “So? Do I pass inspection?”

“Oh yeah.”

Levi planted a serious kiss on him, taking over his senses with his power.

He roved his big hands up Caleb’s legs, traveling over his leather pants, under the stiff pleats of the short, black leather kilt covering them, to dig into his ass.

Caleb groaned, rocking his hips forward under the pressure of Levi’s touch.

His cock strained in the tight confines of his constricting clothing.

Not for the first time, he appreciated the strength Levi surrendered to him, every time he let Caleb lead in bed.

“Lev,” He prised Levi away a fraction. “You’re going to make me ruin my outfit.”

“Can and have,” Levi panted.

“Not tonight, babe, please.” Caleb let his head drop back to thump on the wall Levi had somehow pinned him against. Hot kisses trailed down his throat and fingers raked into his hair. “Please,” he pleaded even as he sank his fingers into the mess of Levi’s hair and wrapped one leg around his hips.

“You want to dance?” Levi asked between kisses.

“Yes.” Caleb drew his leg tight, pulling Levi hard against him. “Show me off.”

“Or keep you all to myself,” Levi countered.

Caleb pulled Levi’s hair, prying his lips away from his throat. “Both.” He kissed Levi, thrusting his tongue deep before pulling away and sinking into the deep blue of his lover’s eyes. “Both. Show me off and let every one of them know you get me all to yourself.”

“You know just how incredibly hot you are, don’t you?”

“And how lucky. I have you to keep me.” He maintained eye contact—hoping—and was rewarded by a warmth there that still amazed him.

“I’m not too much for you?” he asked quietly, wishing Levi knew what he was really asking.

What he couldn’t say out loud, the things he hid under hoodies and tried to pass off as a kilt.

Even in this most private and supportive environment, he had his doubts about how accepted he could ever be.

As if reading his mind, Levi drew his hands out from under the kilt, straightened the folds of it and stood back, hands on Caleb’s hips for one more admiring look. “Not too much.” He caressed Caleb’s cheek and smiled. “Never too much, Cally. Whatever you want. Promise.”

Warmth spread through Caleb. “Love when you call me that, you know.”

“I know. Now stop being sappy and let’s go dance. I want every guy in the place to see you and know you’re mine.”

“Just let me fix my makeup.”

“And hair, I might have mushed it a bit.” Levi grinned sheepishly.

Secretly, Caleb approved of any amount of mussing of hair and makeup under these circumstances.

His own family might not want him, or care to try and understand him, but he had Levi.

He was even content with the small concessions he made that Levi didn’t know about.

And Levi didn’t have to know. It was enough that he accepted Caleb in his ‘kilts’ and eyeliner. He was happy with that.

“You ready, Cally?” Levi’s tousled head appeared in the mirror next to Caleb as he put the finishing touches on his black-and-blue curls.

“Yeah, I think.” He turned his head this way and that. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s missing one small thing.” Levi pulled something out from behind his back. “But if you squeal like a girl, I will take it back.”

“I do not squeal.” Caleb locked his gaze on the long, slender box in his lover’s hand. “What is it?”

“Open it.” Levi handed it over, an almost nervous look on his face.

Caleb’s own nerves made his hands shake. “Why did you get me this?” he asked, before he even had it open.

“Just open it.”

Caleb popped off the top of the box and peered under the folds of purple tissue paper. “Levi…” He pulled out the contents and a bit of bling glimmered at him. “What…?”

“Something you can wear out, or, you know, maybe just every day.”

It was a bracelet of simple black leather, fastened with a series of tiny buckles and embellished with two small, jewelled initials—an ‘L’ and a ‘C’.

“Levi…” It wasn’t girly, but it was still fancy beyond what most guys would wear. It went perfectly with the Caleb’s outfit.

“Do you?—?”

“Like it?” Caleb grinned and lifted it from its nest. “I love it, Lev. Help me?” He draped the bracelet over his wrist and moved to within Levi’s reach.

Thick fingers gentle and patient, Levi buckled each fastener until the bracelet circled Caleb’s wrist like a promise.

“It’s not my birthday or anything…” Caleb looked up at last and met Levi’s gaze.

“It’s just to show I appreciate you.” Levi said, wrapping his fingers over Caleb’s new acquisition. “Everything about you. Now—ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Caleb smiled. “Definitely.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Dancing always got Caleb high. Just the rhythm and the beat rising up through the soles of his boots was enough to get him revved.

He didn’t need to drink. Levi’s hands circling his waist—spinning him through the crowd and catching him again when he came sashaying back—got him hot, way more than the exertion and the sweat warranted.

The music spun through his soul, and Levi tethered him with strings on his heart.

He was in heaven.

If heaven had flashing lights and a driving bass and Levi.

“You ready to go home, yet?” Levi called through the music to him sometime well after midnight had come and gone.

His husky voice cut through the hazy euphoria and zinged straight to Caleb’s dick. He spun inside the circle of Levi’s big hands around his waist, his kilt flaring out around him.

“Nope!” He draped his arms over Levi’s shoulders and hung on. “We haven’t slow danced yet.”

Levi grinned indulgently and rested his arms over Caleb’s waist. “Slow dance it is, then,” he replied, guiding him to a more sedate pace that didn’t match the music even remotely.

Caleb didn’t care. Floating over the dance floor in Levi’s arms at any pace was always good enough for him. Nothing else mattered.

Until the music faded and for a stretched-out pause the dance floor stilled with it, allowing a harsh voice to carry over the milling and the waiting.

“Nice skirt.” Someone snickered. “Pansy-ass freak.”

Levi’s arms tightened around Caleb. Those expressive blue eyes went dark and menacing.

“Ignore it, Lev, please.” Caleb begged. This time, he was the one wanting to pretend the crap couldn’t touch them. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the heat between their bodies, Levi’s hard chest against his, and the rhythm of their breathing. “Just ignore?—”

“Who let the chick in?” Another derisive snort followed the question and somewhere further off someone added support to the insult.

Caleb found himself being spun, Levi turning them in place and putting himself between Caleb and the man who had spoken. Not surprisingly, Larry smirked at them from behind a drunken mask of bravado, fists clenched and body poised for a fight.

“Lev, please…” Caleb released his hold on his lover’s hand and wrapped both of his around Levi’s bulging biceps. “Don’t.” He didn’t want this tonight. For once, he just didn’t want this shit.

Before either of them could do more, a hard shove sent Levi crashing into Caleb, causing Caleb to stumble over someone else’s foot, and fall on his ass.

The music had picked up and already people were turning away, back to the beat and the heady intoxication of dance.

A boot stomped down on Caleb’s hand and he swore, yanking free even as something hard thunked into the back of his head.

He turned, only to receive the same treatment, a knee belonging to some mindless dancer, directly in his face, the hard knob crunching into his cheekbone.

A hand appeared from the mass above to help him up and he grabbed it, hauling his weight against the stranger’s until he had his feet under him.

“Thanks.”

“You okay?” The stranger was, if anything, even more flamboyant than Caleb, with a shock of long, greenish bangs brushed forward and low over eyes made falsely bright blue with coloured contacts.

He wore plaid pants fairly glued onto his legs and a fur-collared top that made a full show of tight abs.

Caleb pulled his hand back and only just refrained from wiping it on his shirt. “Yeah. Thanks.” He turned his attention back to Levi, ignoring the hurt in the stranger’s fallen expression.

That distraction was enough for their tormentor, who grinned at Caleb’s misfortune and took a swing at Levi, landing a heavy blow to the side of his head and sending him sprawling next.

Levi didn’t have time to react before he was pounced on, Shank clearly too drunk to know any better as he began flailing wildly at Levi’s head. Levi could only raise his arms and fend of the worst of the attack.

“Oh, fuck, no!”

Caleb launched himself, ploughing his full weight into Shank’s midsection and tumbling him off Levi.

He rolled both of them across the floor.

A quick flip landed Shank against the legs of the hastily retreating dancers.

Caleb twisted the bully onto his back where he could straddle his chest. One hand rested with most of Caleb’s weight behind it on Shank’s clavicle.

Caleb curled his fingers threateningly on either side of Shank’s throat and raised his other, clenched into a fist, over him.

“Who’s the pansy-ass now, dickwad?” he snarled.

“Get the fuck off!” Shank squirmed uselessly beneath Caleb.

Behind Caleb, shouts rose, panic blooming up from where he pinned the jerk who’d dared to hurt his boyfriend.

The music thumped, the beat winding heedlessly through the crowd, stirring heavy threads of aggression with it.

Hands gripped Caleb’s arms and he let a bouncer and Levi pull him to his feet.

Someone else helped the other man up and they stood glaring at one another.

The fight was over, Caleb knew that, and as the adrenaline rush faded, his chest tightened and his breath clammed up behind steel bands of panic around his chest.

“Caleb…” Levi’s hand moved from his arm to his chest. “Babe, let’s go. Come on. I have your puffer.”

“Caleb,” another, gruffer voice on his other side drew his attention, too.

Slowly, he turned his head to peer into dark brown eyes set in a concerned face. Dwayne, Angel’s cousin, peered at him. “Hey, Dwayne.”

“Yeah, buddy, we’re going to take you outside. To get some fresh air, yeah?”

Caleb nodded but glared back to where his adversary was still being held between another bouncer and the guy who had supported his taunts.

“Him first, though. He doesn’t get to diss me and not get tossed out on his fucking head.”

Dwayne made a motion, and his bouncer partner and the other man hauled Shank towards the exit.

“Okay?” Dwayne asked.

They headed for the door as well, and Caleb followed without protest as Levi handed him his inhaler. He only needed a quick puff of the medicine to right his constricted air passages.

On the way out, he noticed the stranger who had helped him up watching him leave. The man ran a self-conscious hand over his top and looked away the instant Caleb met his eye. It took a fair amount of concentration for Caleb not to let the sting close up his airways again.

“Want to get out of here?” Levi asked him as they made it to the front door of the bar.

“Yeah.” Caleb smiled at him. “Yeah. I do. Let’s jet.”

“Hey.” Dwayne’s hand remained on Caleb’s arm.

“You guys either call campus security or I’m calling Eric to come get you.

” Eric was Dwayne’s boyfriend and always seemed to be at the man’s beck and call.

“I wouldn’t put it past an asshole like that to wait just out of sight for another chance to get his ass kicked by a fag in a skirt. ”

Caleb gave his kilt a stiff tug. “It’s a kilt, asshole.”

“And it suits you,” Dwayne agreed. “But call the patrol anyway, right?”

“We will.” Levi replied for them, already holding his phone to his ear.

He asked for the escort, not having to explain why they needed it.

Likely some bar employee had already called the patrol and asked them to come do a walk-by—standard procedure after a brawl in the campus pub for the very reason Dwayne had already cited.

Only took one jerk-off with a vendetta to make the whole of the school grounds feel unsafe.

They waited just inside the door, next to Dwayne’s post, for the guard.

“So…” Caleb said when the stretch of quiet between the three of them grew uncomfortable. He glanced at Dwayne. “Glad you decided to take this job now?”

Dwayne studied him for a minute. “Yeah, actually. I am. Pays the bills and I get to use some of the fantastic training being in the slammer offered.” He made a face. “Why?”

Caleb shrugged.

“You think you’re the only one people shit on, think again.” Dwayne nodded to the flashy guy who had picked Caleb up off the dance floor. “The world is full of assholes making judgments, and you’re the one can’t meet that kid’s eye, so you tell me what’s what, yeah?”

Caleb flinched. Dwayne was one of those perceptive types. Caleb spared another glance for the man leaning on the bar, watching them. This time, it was the other man’ gaze that flitted away first and Caleb felt another stab of guilt.

“Campus cop’s here, babe,” Levi told him, settling a hand on the small of his back and rubbing, like he knew the contact would press the softer material under Caleb’s clothes against his skin. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Caleb turned away from the club, relieved at not having to answer Dwayne’s hinted accusation. He snuggled his lanky frame under Levi’s arm.

Fall swirled around them with a winter promise right behind as they hurried out into the night.