This Epicurean Frolic
Liko’s love was full of power that night, his power fueled by love.
“God, you’re so good,” he whispered against Dane’s mouth. “You’re like the greatest thing I’ve ever known.”
The room was lit by a dozen candles, flickering shadows on Nomi With Dusk Tiara.
In the middle of the king bed, Liko had Dane under him.
Dane’s heels in his palms, Dane’s knees tucked tight against his ribs.
Liko was inside him, just a little, hyper-attentive to Dane’s breathing and sounds and the fingertips curling into Liko’s skin.
They were good at each other, getting better each time.
Easily saying and showing, discovering moves, taking risks, changing minds and setting limits.
Figuring sex out slow and careful, like the most intricate and detailed of paint-by-number kits.
Dane still didn’t quite trust what his body could do, how far he could open, how much he could take.
Liko barely moved past the tip, but just that much could make his cells melt like wax.
He held still and burned like another candle, hanging by the moment and thinking of nothing else.
Expecting no more than what was happening, right here, right now.
Just as he was letting go of binaries and roles and constructs, he was letting go of criteria and definitions.
Letting these nights of lovemaking create themselves.
Quick sketches, huge murals, abstract impressions, surreal allegory. A different masterpiece each time.
Tonight, back home in the farmhouse, naked in bed, the day’s events turning them dire, desperate, tender and bonded, Liko eased inside Dane and right away, something was different.
The night trembled as both men drew an identical, surprised breath and stared at each other.
Wondering. Contemplating. Feeling it through.
“Oh my man,” Dane said.
“Is it all right?”
“Come in more.”
“Can I?”
“Feels so good tonight.” Dane’s hips curled up as he exhaled and Liko could feel a letting go, a surrender.
Permission granted for a body to do what it could.
Dane’s trust opened and Liko slid into that faith.
It was like moving into the heat of an open oven door.
A ferociously tiny, fevered kiln, both crackling and smoldering.
Dane’s knees came up to hug Liko’s sides tight while his arms flung wide and loose.
“Christ,” Liko said, putting his forehead against Dane’s heaving chest. “I’m gonna lose my mind.”
“Holy shit, Lee.”
“You all right?”
“I’m unbelievable.” Dane’s arms dropped over his face, then dropped back out. “How is this… What is happening?”
Euphoria hugged Liko from all sides, buttery warm and snug like a leather vest. Softer than the down of a duckling. Tough and resilient like a trampoline. He ran fingers up the midline of Dane’s body, tracing the border where the wisteria blossoms did not cross.
“I’m falling in love with you,” he said. “I swear, it started the night we met and it never stopped.”
Dane kissed him. “I know your memory had to let that night go a little while, but I kept holding it. I never forgot. I thought about it every day. When I opened the door and it was you, I almost died.”
“Don’t you dare,” Liko said hoarsely. “You stay alive.” Thrumming and crackling, he slid arms beneath Dane’s back. He put his heartbeat against Dane’s. Pressed his stomach against Dane’s hard cock. Set their brows together. Looked for everywhere they could fit.
“All right?”
“So all right,” Dane whispered. “Keep giving it to me just like that.”
Liko gave all he had, moving slow and easy, but with long, deep strokes. Dane stayed relaxed and open, taking it, eyes closed and smile magical against the candlelit night. Liko took his head and nudged Dane’s lips apart with his fingers to drop a secret on his tongue.
“I love making love with you.”
Dane caught Liko’s chin and whispered back, “Right now, you’re fucking me.” His tongue ring slid along Liko’s lip. “Like nobody and nothing I ever knew in my life.”
“Think you can turn over?”
“You want me to?”
“You wouldn’t believe the things I want.” He slid out carefully and Dane rolled over. Liko pulled a pillow under his hips, got him tilted up a little, then he sank back in, stretching out long, putting his heart on Dane’s glistening back.
“All right?”
“Yeah.” Their fingers twined tight and they made love for a long, slow, timeless time, letting it pile up around them.
“Do something for me?” Dane said.
“Hm?”
“Just for a few seconds, fuck me the way you want to. I mean the way you really want to. Not so careful. Let me feel you be selfish for a minute, and don’t ask me if I’m sure.”
So Liko let the wind take his caution and he closed his eyes and he fucked.
Blindly, wantonly, varying his strokes hard and fast with the slow ones, selfishly finding the best angle and heat and friction.
When Dane closed tight fingers around his wrist in an unmistakable signal, it was an effort to stop.
Liko lay still, poised on the edge, breathing hard, tadpoles swimming before his eyes.
“That’s how I want sometimes,” he said thickly.
“Okay,” Dane said, breathing just as hard. “Okay.”
“All right?”
“Yeah. That’s just…too much tonight. Not too much ever,” he added. “Just too much tonight. Jesus…”
He shifted a bit, squeezing around Liko’s cock, either inadvertently or on purpose, and Liko came. It fell out of him. Fainted out of him in a few swooning pulses and then one great shudder out his ears.
“Fuck,” he gasped. “The hell you do to me, man…”
Dane’s hand came up and back and curled around Liko’s head, cradling it on his shoulder. “I swear, I had no idea it could be like this.”
Slick and spent, his head spinning, Liko turned Dane over and finished him off with hands and mouth, humming and groaning deep in his chest as Dane’s back bowed off the mattress and his voice bounced off the walls.
“God, I love making you come,” Liko said.
“Holy hell,” Dane gasped. “I can’t feel my face.”
Liko laughed and kissed him, then went to chuck the condom and grab towels.
They cleaned up and wandered naked down to the kitchen.
There they scavenged the fridge like hyenas, eating with their fingers straight out of jars and containers.
Cold steak, limp grilled vegetables, all the cherry tomatoes, burrata piled on heels of bread, balsamic drizzled on everything.
Taking sloppy bites over the sink, kissing between bites, passing a bottle of Malbec back and forth.
A Klondike bar each to finish. It was a debauched, Tom Jones bacchanal and if Liko had experienced something like it in his sexual career, he couldn’t remember.
This epicurean frolic was going in his hall of fame.
“I love food,” Dane mumbled around a mouthful. “I love sex. I love food. I love growing food that I can eat after having sex.”
“It’s so cliché, but I could totally go for a smoke.”
“I got some around here. Jackie or Pao always leave packs behind and I’d keep them for the bad nights when I was drinking alone and sobbing.”
Liko considered, licking the last bits of chocolate off the Klondike wrapper. “This is a good night,” he said. “And more kissing is to be done.”
Salma had been exceedingly gracious all this time, but her expression around the chew toy in her mouth grew more and more woebegone. The men let her outside and dove into the pool, throwing the ball to her from the cool water as they talked and talked.
“Who do you think sent me the letter?” Liko asked.
“I’m keeping all theories simple. Either someone at Henshe Games has an eye on the forums, or enough gamers contacted Henshe to tell them about Kyle and your post. Eventually it got to someone who wanted to do something.”
“Someone who not only knew who Jonathan Henshe really is, but where he lives. Lived. Once.”
“Where was the envelope postmarked?”
Liko laughed. “You know, I was thinking about the postmark the other day and I have no idea what it was. I kept the letter, but I guess I put the envelope in the recycling.”
“It’s entirely possible Ethan sent it,” Dane said absently.
“This is true.”
They stared a thoughtful beat.
“You didn’t send it,” Liko said.
Dane smiled and shook his head. “I don’t go on those forums. I’m not a gamer, and I already know about everything that’s in Three Hares. Including the mystery at the end.”
“Fair.”
“Do you believe me?”
“I do.” And because it felt good in his heart, Liko said it again. “I believe you.” He dove under the water and surfaced by Dane. Took him under the arms and hoisted him up to sit on the pool’s edge.
“Smooth,” Dane said, squeezing Liko’s sides with his calves.
“I just believe you,” Liko said, taking Dane’s head in his hands. “I believe you.”
Dane’s hands closed around his wrists. “I believe you.”
“I believe in you.”
“I believe for you.”
“I believe this night.”
“I believe in the Green Man.”
“I believe you’re the Greatest Dane.”
“I believe I’d like to fuck you again.”
Liko sucked his teeth drew back. “You know, we were having a nice moment and you had to get all filthy about it.”
“You know, when you get huffy your T-H turns into an F. Filfy.”
“Yeah? Get out of the pool. I’ll show you what else turns into an F.”
The day broke with a sunbeam stab to the eyes and the sound of a rooster screaming with his whole face.
Dane rolled over with a groan. “Which god do I thank for being a country boy?”
“Who do I gotta fuck to get a cup of coffee?” Liko croaked.
Dane sat up with a visible effort and yawned. “You got fucked last, so I guess I’ll make the juice.”
Liko caught the yawn and stretched with it, joints cracking. “I don’t really care about the coffee. I just want to see you walk around naked.”
“Given the recent spate of people barging into this house at inconvenient moments, I’ll put clothes on.”
“Take your time.”
Dane obliged by walking slowly into the bathroom, then out again. His back to the bed, he opened a dresser drawer. Closed it. Held still a long moment, which allowed Liko to cram his eyes.
“Want to see something?” Dane finally asked.
“I don’t know, the view’s pretty good right now.”
“I got a better one. But you might not be able to handle it.”
“Try me.”
Dane brushed all his hair over to the left side of his head. Then he slowly turned, giving a three-quarter profile. Enough for Liko to see he had tucked his genitals between his thighs.
The girl trick.
Liko had pulled it on Janelle every now and then.
Busting out of the shower or closet with his junk tucked away, striking an exaggerated diva pose with crossed legs.
Janelle either ignored him, rolled her eyes, or murmured something diplomatic like, “Yes, dear, that’s lovely. Did you put the recycling out?”
Liko stared now. Not being at all diplomatic as he thought, Oh my God, she’s lovely.
Diane stood still, a hand on the dresser. The other smoothing a few long strands behind her ear. Miles of smooth skin, interrupted only by the whorls and spirals of a Blaschko’s line.
A thousand spirals, Liko thought. A kilo-koil.
He stared. An immeasurable moment passed.
“Hi,” Diane said.
“Hi.”
“Close your mouth.”
“Can’t.”
Her hand went from her hair to her hip. “Handling it?”
“No.”
“The correct words are, you were right.”
“You were right,” Liko said. “I was so unbelievably wrong.”
She smiled. A lopsided, closed-mouth smile. Its curve was a little skeptical, a little amused, and a little cautious. Yet it lifted up into the blue of her eye, deepening to sapphire in the sunshine.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Liko said.
Her chin tilted. “That’s right, we’ve met before.”
“I didn’t really like you.”
“I wasn’t myself that day.”
And Liko just sat with that a long time, mesmerized and astounded.
“Show me…” He trailed off and shook his head.
This moment was a privilege, not a trick to be performed on demand.
But Diane smiled, and turned toward the dresser.
Continued turning until she was three-quarter profile on the right side.
And she was no longer Diane but Dane. Untucked and brown-eyed, his hair lying close and tight along his head.
Inked and adorned with a brazen, toothy smile. “Handling it now?”
“Barely.”
Dane turned and Diane looked at Liko. She turned and then Dane looked.
“Funny,” he said. “Remember how I told you how they/them pronouns never quite fit me?”
“I remember.”
Dane’s expression was far off and intent. “They fit right now. I mean, I feel…them right now. In a way I usually don’t.”
They turned back to Diane’s side. Looked at him with that Mona Lisa smile and that impossible blue eye. They crossed their arms, laughing, and said, “You can barely even.”
“I literally can’t.”
They turned to face dead-on, shook their head and raked hands back through their hair, breaking the spell. Then it was only Dane, all Dane, standing naked in a splash of sunlight, saying, “I’ll stop before your head explodes.”
“You’re so beautiful.”
“Who?”
“You. Both of you, any of you, all of you.”
Dane’s eyes started to roll, then dropped and settled on Liko’s. “Thanks,” he said.
“Does Diane ever want to go out?”
“Out?”
“Like…to dinner.”
“You mean a date?”
“Yes,” Liko said. “Exactly. A date.”
Dane slowly unfolded a T-shirt. “No. I love the invitation,” he added quickly. “Thank you for asking. Maybe someday, but right now, no.”
“You don’t have to explain. And you really are beautiful.”
Dane’s head popped out of the collar. He came over, took Liko’s face and kissed him. “It’s just the company I keep.”