Another Believer (6 page)

How much more out of his league could he be? Exactly none. Jonah looked like he could have stepped off the pages of a Ralph Lauren ad.

Just then Jonah looked down and caught David’s gaze. He smiled and David wanted to smile back, but couldn’t. If he let himself believe for even a minute that this was real, he was sunk. This was an anomaly. Some statistically improbable occurrence that shouldn’t ever have happened--like conjoined twins or math savants. Jonah was going to come to his senses any minute now, and the less David invested, the easier that was going to be to take when Jonah walked away.

Jonah let go of him long enough for the two of them to take the circular stairway down to the lower level, but as soon as they were heading down the hall again, Jonah rested a hand on David’s shoulder. The train rattled over a bumpy section of rail and David widened his stance for better stability, but Jonah didn’t seem too need to make any adjustments at all--probably the yacht thing again. Every time their gazes met, Jonah just flashed him that carefree smile, as though hooking up on board a train as it made its way up the coast was an everyday thing.

The room turned out to be even smaller than David had imagined. Just a twin-sized bed, a little table and a chair, all upholstered in the same nearly indestructible synthetic material favored by most forms of public conveyance. David tried not to think about the causes of the various stains he couldn’t help but notice, only to have the whole pot-and-kettle analogy hit him right between the eyes.

“Not exactly The Fairmont, but it beats the alternative, huh?” Jonah tossed his bag on the little bed before lacing his fingers together and stretching his arms overhead. Not only was he so tall his arms almost touched the ceiling, but his shirt rode up, revealing a choice few inches of tanned, flat belly.

David wanted to lick him.

Too soon, though, Jonah lowered his arms and began rotating his shoulders in alternating directions and reality set in. They were alone in this little room on a moving train for one reason, and that reason wasn’t fascinating conversation. Whatever Jonah had in mind must be pretty athletic, though, if he had to loosen up for it like it was the NCAA playoffs.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“You guess?” Jonah’s gaze sharpened. Caught in mid-stretch, he froze for an instant. Then, with slow and deliberate motions, Jonah sat down on the single bed, locking his elbows and bracing himself as he leaned back on his hands. “So what’s the deal, then? You don’t really want to be here? I pushed too hard and now you’re having second thoughts?”

“No, I…” Fingering the strap of his backpack as it hung from his shoulder, David had no idea what to do. Open his mouth and let Jonah see what a social incompetent he was? Or stand here, silent, and let Jonah think the worst? Letting his gaze flick over Jonah, David wondered desperately what the best thing to do was.

“What?” Jonah looked up at him with the most beautiful green eyes David had ever had the privilege of gazing into. When would he ever have a chance like this again? Did he want to be an old man, like Uncle Hiro? A quiet, careful man, who’d spent his life doing research in a lab--too cautious to ever get out and have an actual life?  The silence spun out, broken only by the rhythmic clanking of the metal on metal beneath them.

No.

He didn’t want that.

What he wanted was right in front of him.

So what if he couldn’t have it forever? So what if he was only borrowing perfection? At least he could say he’d experienced it. He’d be able to look back later and have something to measure the rest of his life by. “No, I want to be here. I want this.”

Letting his pack slide off his shoulder, David let it fall the rest of the way. He moved the two steps it took to reach Jonah and touched a finger to the chapped but still soft lips that were now curving up into a smile.

Jonah sat up and put his hands on David’s waist, grinning. “Cool. Because I really like you and it would suck if you didn’t like me back.”

“Oh, yeah. As if.” Dismissing the possibility, David slipped a hand into Jonah’s hair, letting it slide between his fingers--cool and silky on top, but warm underneath. “Has anyone turned you down, ever?”

David put a knee on the bed first, then another hand on Jonah’s shoulder and brought the other knee up, until he was nearly sitting on Jonah’s lap.

“Believe it or not, they--
whoa!
” Just then the train that had been clacking rhythmically along beneath them lurched sharply, toppling Jonah backward and David on top of him. Jonah’s head hit the corner of the window with a sickening thud and he slumped sideways at an awkward angle.

Looking on in horror, David froze. Jonah’s face twisted in pain as he moved his hand from David’s body and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, shit.” Unbelievably, he began to laugh. “That really hurts.”

“Ow, jeez, are you all right? Here, let me feel.” David helped Jonah to untwist his body and lay flat on the bed. Slipping his hand beneath Jonah’s head, he immediately ran up against Jonah’s. Pushing it out of the way, he gently explored Jonah’s scalp. “Huh. Not much. Oh, wait. Here’s a little bump.”

“Ouch! Easy there, all right?”

“Sorry.” David eased his hand out from underneath Jonah’s head. “I’m sorry, that was all my fault.”

Large, green eyes with thick, auburn lashes looked up at him quizzically. “How was that your fault?”

“Because… because it was.” He stroked Jonah’s forehead, brushing the hair back with his fingers, marveling at its soft waves. “I’m so sorry.”

“You know, if you wanted to make me feel better. Sort of take my mind off the pain, as it were…” Jonah drew his legs up and David slid forward, his ass coming to rest atop Jonah’s crotch. As Jonah’s voice trailed off, one eyebrow rose suggestively. Something else was rising, too.

“I’d do that. For you.”

“Yeah?” His hands on David’s hips, Jonah’s long fingers dug into David’s ass, even as he undulated his body so that David could feel the dick hardening there.

“Oh, yeah.” David’s voice came out as a husky whisper, sounding totally foreign to his own ears. And why shouldn’t it? Everything about this day was alien to him. The hot, built guy… wanting
him
? Unreal.

David got so lost in the heat in Jonah’s eyes that forgot he was supposed to be doing anything. And not just anything, but something kind of specific.

“I’m ready to feel better now.” Jonah flexed his hips, and a wonderfully hard thickness beneath his shorts ground up into the crack of David’s ass, and David lost it. The last semblance of coherent thought went up like so much vapor--just floated up on the air, getting thinner and thinner until there was nothing left of it.

Gorgeous, green eyes got a heavy-lidded look to them and that seductive mouth opened a fraction, as if in expectation. Desire. For him. For David.
Ohmygod
. David leaned forward, onto his forearms, and practically attacked Jonah’s mouth. They were kissing, drawing on each other, David’s tongue trying awkwardly to get inside Jonah’s mouth.

He hadn’t had much practice, didn’t really know what he was doing, but Jonah made it easy. Made him feel like a natural. Like all he’d ever really needed was the right guy and suddenly he was competent. Attractive. Sexy, even.

David rubbed his chest against Jonah’s, nipples tiny and hard, easily distinguished beneath the thin fabric of Jonah’s t-shirt. Groaning at the feel of that hot, hard chest beneath him, David rubbed his thumb over one nipple, thrilled that he’d apparently done this to Jonah. Jonah groaned back and angled his head, trying for more of David’s mouth.

The conductor’s disembodied voice came over the P.A., announcing… David couldn’t tell what.
Jonah’s mouth. God!
“--arriving at--” A few words sunk in, but not much. “--in ten minutes. In ten minutes, arriving at--”

“What did he say?” Lifting his head, David met Jonah’s gaze. “Could you hear that?”

“Not a word. Ask me if I care.”

***

“Hurry. Come on! We’re going to miss it. I cann
ot
miss this train.” David’s brown eyes were wide with anxiety, his eyebrows likewise raised in alarm. Already Jonah had developed a weird obsession, memorizing the nuances of David’s eyebrows.

Like now.

So high they nearly disappeared under the shock of shiny black hair that he kept shoving out of his way, in stark contrast to when he was relaxed. When Jonah had had David’s dick in his mouth, they’d been practically horizontal. Jonah couldn’t wait to see where they’d be when he was balls-deep in David’s ass.

Jonah shrugged. “Dude, you’re the one who insisted on getting off the train here for snacks.  Besides, we’re fine. We’ve got five more minutes until departure and we’re practically there. What’s so special about these things, anyway?” Indicating the foam box he held in the crook of his arm, Jonah raised it up a bit and took an appreciative whiff. “They smell good, sure. But I’m guessing they’re something special if you’re willing to risk being left at the station. Hey, wait up.”

Catching at David’s arm, Jonah caught David’s hand and held on. David’s gaze flitted down to where his hand now lay, captured by Jonah’s, then back up to Jonah’s face. David looked slightly uncomfortable, but he’d just have to get used to it. If they were going to be a couple--and Jonah was surer of that with every minute that passed--David would just have to get used to it.

“They’re not for me, they’re for my lab partner.
Salteñas
are Bolivian and so is Guillermo--I guess they remind him of home. Anyway, these are his favorite, and I promised I’d stop and pick some up for him, but I… I got kind of distracted.”

A little glow lit up inside Jonah at David’s confession and he was momentarily silent. It startled him, in fact, just how moved he was. “No, that’s okay. I mean, I like trying new things and it beats train food.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“Not a problem.”

They covered the last few yards of sidewalk and made their way through the station and back to the train. The next several minutes were taken up with threading their way through the scattered groups of people and getting back to their room. ‘Roomette.’ Goofy name. But Jonah didn’t care if it gave him time alone with David.

He couldn’t figure out what it was, but he was completely gone over this guy. He’d been hot for a guy on first sight before. Plenty of times, in fact. But he couldn’t remember ever being so totally into someone this fast. Ever.

David was smart and cute and funny. Even David’s prickly façade was adorable, and if that wasn’t a measure of how infatuated he was, Jonah didn’t know what was.

“Do you want to try one?” David set a box, identical to the one Jonah carried, on the little table that stood next to the room’s only chair.

“They smell great. What’s in them, again?” Jonah shrugged and sat on the bed as David removed the box from its plastic carry bag and opened the lid. The pungent aroma of meat and something baked quickly filled the little room.

“Uh, meat? I dunno. Chicken, I think. And some beef. A few vegetables. I think there’s even some hard-boiled egg in there. They’re pretty good. Here.” David handed one to Jonah and took another for himself. “It might still be hot inside, so be careful.”

Jonah grasped the warm meat pie carefully and took an experimental bite. Juice squirted out as soon as his teeth punctured the crust, dripping through his fingers and onto the floor.

“I should have warned you. They’re kind of messy. Supposedly a real Bolivian can eat one without spilling a drop. The rest of us just look like buffoons.” Laughing, David finished his off in a few economical bites, cramming the last of his into his mouth and smiling happily at Jonah as he chewed and swallowed.

“So explain to me again how this fits into your whole macrobiotic, healthy eater, trans-fat-Nazi persona again?” Smiling a little to take the sting out of it, Jonah took a couple more bites, and pretty soon he was finishing off his first
salteña
.

“I’m not that bad.” David was laughing, but it had a self-conscious ring to it and Jonah could swear his ears were tinged with red

“Yeah, you kind of are. Don’t make me play back the tape from my hidden recorder.”

“Okay, there’s probably lard in the crust--I’ll give you that one--but the rest of it’s not too bad. And I only get them once in a while; whenever I’m going back and forth from home to school. I get home more often than G. does.”

“Yeah? Where’s home?”

“Huh?”

The juice from the meat pie had run all down Jonah’s hand and, instead of using one of the napkins so thoughtfully provided in the box, he was licking his fingers, sucking them clean one by one. David would probably be appalled if he realized how avidly he was watching, but Jonah wasn’t going to mention it. “Home? Where is it?”

“Um, Huntington Beach. Harbor and Adams.”

“Nice area.”

“The best. I love it there. How about you?”

Jonah took a couple of last swipes before cutting David some slack and reverting to napkins. Now that he had some food in his belly and the train was moving again, it was time to get back to some serious seduction. He swung his feet up onto the bed and leaned back, propping his head up with one fist. “Hancock Park… L.A.”

David shrugged. “I don’t get up to L.A. very often. What’s it like living there?”

“It’s nice. Not as trendy as the west side, but close enough to downtown that I don’t feel like I miss anything. All the best music comes to town, so that’s good.” Jonah scratched his stomach, letting his shirt ride up a little bit. Slipping his hand up a little higher, he thumbed first one nipple, then the other and David’s eyes went wide for an instant. “You like O.C.?”

“Yeah. My family’s all there… cousins, grandparents. Brother and sister, and parents, obviously. It’s the best.”

“That’s right, you already said that. Duh. Now I’m the one who’s distracted.” He let his gaze travel over David’s body, liking the lean, compact body. The dark brown eyes with their exotic almond shape; the glossy, nearly blue-black hair.