Chapter Fourteen
Lulu
Lulu couldn’t recall the last time he’d slept this fucking good.
When the alarm on Xavi’s phone rang, it was like a muffled bell sounding from far, far away through a layer of thick cotton.
Burying his face into the pillow, it took his brain a few seconds to register that it was way too solid to be a pillow and didn’t at all smell like artificial ocean but instead of musky morning man.
Xavi. Lulu blinked his eyes open and found himself staring right into Xavi’s white T-shirt.
When they’d gone to bed, he’d hoped, prayed, that Xavi would strip down to his boxers, but he’d kept his T-shirt on just like he always did.
As they’d pulled the comforter aside, Xavi had stretched to reach the far corner, his massive, golden thighs flexing deliciously, a generous dusting of dark hair scattered across his skin.
Lulu had seen them, though, the pale silvery scars trailing along Xavi’s inner thighs, the evidence of what one part of his body had lost to repair another.
Multiple times the surgeons had grafted skin from Xavi’s thighs to repair his torso, back, and left arm.
Lulu might have a vivid imagination, too vivid at times, when he fantasized about Xavi and all the things he wanted to do to him, but nothing could make him imagine the sheer amount of agony Xavi must’ve gone through as a kid.
The numerous surgeries followed by long recuperation periods where he wasn’t allowed to move and do all the other things kids his age did.
“Mornin’.” Xavi’s voice came out deliciously raspy from deep within his chest.
“Morning.” Lulu peeked up from behind his lashes, his fingers curling into Xavi’s T-shirt. No way he was ready to get up yet. Not when he had a real fucking hombre lying next to him for once. Xavi was so warm and big. Ribbed yet soft in all the right places.
“Sleep okay?” Xavi murmured into his hair before he turned onto his back and stretched his arms above his head with a loud, contented groan.
“Like Baby Jesus on Valerian,” Lulu sighed, shuffling across the bed so he could be up close to Xavi again.
If Xavi thought they were disembarking yet, he had another think coming.
Lulu loved snuggling, and now that they were trial boyfriends, he was damn well going to use every chance he got to snuggle his favorite teddy bear.
“Cono,” Xavi grinned at him crookedly, his eyes still closed, that motherfucking dimple winking at Lulu, driving him mad.
Then, because Xavi knew Lulu so damn well, he drawled, “Five more minutes, lazy pants, and then we hit the shower. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us today.
Wanna reach Nebraska today. Omaha should be realistic. If not, then Des Moines.”
“We?” Lulu knew what Xavi meant, but of course he had to tease him about it. He was Lulu after all. “That’s some next-level novio shit, oso. Showering together.”
Xavi exhaled languidly, wiping at his face, digging his palms into his eye sockets, mumbling something that sounded like, “I knew this was gonna happen.”
“What?” Lulu grinned.
“It’s a separate we. You first, then me.”
“Oh, bummer.” Lulu pouted. “Maybe next time?” He blinked his eyes. “In case there are places you can’t reach.”
“I can reach everywhere just fine,” Xavi grunted. “Hasn’t been a problem for almost thirty years, and it ain’t gonna be a problem now, so calm your tamales, mano.”
Ugh, Xavi was no fun. With a huff that was exaggerated even for an actor, Lulu cozied up for the five minutes of snuggle time he had so graciously been rewarded.
“Five more minutes,” he sighed, rubbing his nose against Xavi’s neck.
“Four and a half,” Xavi rumbled. “You already spent half a minute being a pain in my ass.”
“Hey, that’s not fair! I didn’t get to be anywhere near your ass.”
“And you never will,” Xavi chuckled, wrapping his beefy arms around Lulu, squeezing him so tightly it would’ve been suffocating had it been anyone else.
“You never bottom?” Lulu asked, sobering suddenly.
“No.”
“Why not? It’s the best thing ever, taking a trip to Bottomland.”
“Bottomland?” Xavi snorted, his breath hot against Lulu’s forehead.
“Yeah. You’ve never heard the saying ‘You’ve never truly lived until you’ve had your prostate pounded?’”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not a saying.” Xavi shook his head, then squeezed Lulu even closer against him. Cono, Xavi was a great snuggler; then again, Lulu had always known he would be, his big closet cuddler.
“Oh, it is. In the dark corners of the gay bars. It’s all they ever whisper about.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Xavi laughed, and the sound went straight to Lulu’s butthole. Sucking in a breath, he clenched his ass cheeks and said his Ave Maria twice like a good boy.
“And you never answered my question.”
Xavi groaned, an outdrawn sigh moving through his body, and Lulu couldn’t help but wonder if that was one of the many sounds Xavi made when he was in the throes of passion or when he came, his entire body shaking, convulsing, as he reached his climax.
And if he, Lulu, would ever get to experience that. He bet it’d be fucking spectacular.
“I don’t know,” Xavi eventually said.
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying. I’ve just never wanted to, I guess.
And why are we even talking about this? Your five minutes are up, hermano.
” Xavi attempted to push Lulu off his body, but Lulu just wrapped his strong dancer’s thighs around Xavi’s hips and clung to him like a baby koala.
Xavi struggled underneath him, but couldn’t contain the low chuckle bubbling from his throat.
“But what about all those magnificent dildos?” Lulu insisted. “You use them, right?”
“That’s different.”
“Why is it different?”
“It just is, okay? Besides, it’s none of your fucking business. Now get off me, mano.”
“Not until you say it,” Lulu gritted as he leaned in and licked Xavi’s neck sloppily.
“Ewww, what the fuck?!” Xavi winced. “That’s fucking gross.
” He started wiping demonstratively at his neck, but the flicker of heat in Xavi’s deep brown eyes didn’t escape Lulu.
He saw it for what it was. Xavi wanted him.
He was aroused. Lulu felt it against his core, where Xavi was hardening, slowly but surely.
Xavi just needed to fucking admit to himself that he wanted Lulu as fiercely as Lulu wanted him.
“Say it!” Lulu demanded as he ground his hips against Xavi’s. “Say it, and I’ll stop.” He knew he was walking on the edge of a cliff right now, but somehow he knew deep down that all Xavi needed was just a small push. To allow himself to fall right along with Lulu.
“Get. Off!”
“Not now,” Lulu laughed. “There’s not enough time, big guy. We wanna reach Nebraska today, remember?” he panted.
“Lulu, I’m not kidding.”
“Say. It!”
“Okay, okay. Please, will you motherfucking please get off me, cisne?”
Cisne. Shit, how he loved that name on Xavi’s lips. The name Xavi had given him and carried along with him in secret for God knows how long. It almost brought tears to Lulu’s eyes. Lulu relaxed his thighs, releasing the grip he had around Xavi’s waist.
“Sí, oso,” he breathed. “When you ask me all nicely like that, there’s nothing I won’t do.” Rolling onto his back, Lulu stretched, then sat up, rubbing his face. Then, he reluctantly slid from the bed and headed for the small bathroom.
“Leave me some hot water, will ya?” Xavi called after him as he disappeared into the bathroom. Lulu had already put all his stuff in there the night before, getting it all organized on the shelf above the sink.
“Maybe,” he smirked over his shoulder. Fuck, he loved that they’d woken up still being them.
That was the one thing he’d feared the most after last night’s confession time: that things would get weird between them and they’d wake up being different somehow.
That Xavi would be all guarded and awkward because of what Lulu had convinced him to do.
But they were just the same old version of Lulu and Xavi, teasing each other, their ping-pong roasting intact.
Sure, Xavi still needed some convincing when it came to the concept of the two of them belonging together, but Lulu had four fucking days to make that happen, and he was going to use every little chance he got.
The small diner was buzzing with the early morning rush when they entered.
Early birds like truckers, construction workers, and nurses were busy chowing down as much fried breakfast as possible, washing it down with gallons of tar-black coffee.
They grabbed a booth by the window facing an equally busy parking lot.
The diner looked even more dismal inside than it had from the outside.
Not that they wanted a Michelin-style breakfast or anything, but the sad, decayed 80s decor didn’t exactly lift your spirits.
Xavi, although grumpy because he’d run out of hot water mid-shower courtesy of Lulu, looked fine as fuck in his tight navy blue Henley and his leather jacket.
His scruff was even denser this morning, a dark shadow along his chin and cheeks, and Lulu shifted in his seat when he imagined how scratchy it would feel against his inner thighs.
Sucking in a breath, Lulu quickly reached for the menu and hid behind it.
The laminated plastic felt sticky against his fingers as he scanned the menu.
It was nothing mindblowingly exotic, just your average diner selection, but Lulu’s stomach rumbled something fierce.
Protein. He needed protein. And sugar. Loads of it.
Minutes later, a waiter swept by their table to take their order, and suddenly Xavi was all pleasant smiles and polite head shakes—when he’d barely spoken two words to Lulu after they’d left the hotel.
The waiter was annoyingly gorgeous, with his wide, boy-next-door smile, jock physique, and huge blue ‘blow me before I blow you’ eyes.