Too Stupid to Live(Romancelandia) (25 page)

“Just tell me one thing,” T said hoarsely. “Why him?”

Because he makes me feel good
. “Why not? Me being with him should mean fuck-all to you.”

Tierney looked like Ian had gut-punched him, gasping for breath as his eyes went wide. It was almost as satisfying as the actual thing. But it was Tierney who first punched Ian in the gut, literally. Well, head-butted him, same thing. Lying on the ground with grass tickling the back of his neck, Ian could hear shouting over the ringing in his ears, but it was a distant concern, far behind his need to suck in some oxygen.

One voice came through loud and clear. “Get up, you fucking faggot! Bet you can’t fight a real man since that little nellie boy got you up his ass, can you? How is he, huh, Ian? Does he squeal like a pig when you—”

Ian hooked Tierney’s legs with his knee and yanked them out from under him. Then he wrenched Tierney’s sweatshirt in his hand, yanking him close enough for Ian’s fist to connect with his face.

After that it was all about rolling around on the ground, trying to punch T harder than he was getting it. By the time the guys finally separated them, Ian’s left eye was throbbing, and Tierney’s cheek was swelling, blood seeping out of his nose. Ian shrugged everyone off after a minute. The guys who held Tierney still had to restrain him—he was lunging for Ian. Ian grabbed his pack, breathing heavily with adrenaline and exhilaration, and backed off. Everyone was silent; the only sound was Tierney’s occasional grunt of exertion as he tried to break free.

“See you guys around,” Ian said, meeting as many eyes as he could. A couple nodded at him blankly. He turned and walked off, confident no one else would go after him.

In the truck, it took him a few tries to get his key in the ignition. Then he slumped back in his seat, closing his eyes. Tierney must have hit his lip, because it hurt when he suddenly smiled.

Sam didn’t leave Ian’s. He had everything he needed to get ready for tomorrow, and he could prep on Monday for his Tuesday morning class. Instead he ate toast and drank coffee, worrying about Ian.

He had a feeling Ian was going through something worse than the swirlies Sam had suffered in high school for being gay.

He’d just managed to settle down enough to start on his homework when his cell rang. He lunged for it, dumping his backpack upside-down to find it, digging through the pile of papers, pens, notebooks, and candy wrappers that had cascaded out (thank God he’d already taken out his laptop). He found it on the third ring and checked the display.

It was Ian.

“Are you all right?” Sam asked as soon as he hit the button to answer.

“I defended your honor,” Ian said. It sounded like he was driving, judging by the background noise.

“Are you in the pickup?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way home. Have you left yet?”

“It’s illegal to talk on the phone while you’re driving,” Sam pointed out. “It’s dangerous.”

“It’s not illegal if you have one of those headsets.”

“Do you have one?”

“No,” Ian said cheerfully. “Did you hear what I said?”

“About you driving and talking on your phone? Yes. I don’t think you shoul—”

“No, about me defending your honor.”

“Wait, you what?”

“Defended your honor,” Ian enunciated carefully.

Sam pulled the phone away and stared at it for a second, then put it back to his ear. “I’m not sure whether to be annoyed about that or happy.”

“Why would you be annoyed? You read all those romance novels; doesn’t that shit happen all the time?”

“Yeah, it happens. To
girls
. Wait, are you saying you got into a
fight
?”

“Yep.”

“With Tierney?”
Not the whole rugby team, please
. Of course, then he’d be calling from the hospital, right?

“Yep.” Sheesh, he was cheerful about it. Sam had always thought fights looked painful. “I even got a black eye, I think. And maybe a swollen lip.”

Sam gulped. “A fight about what?”

Ian sighed. “Hello? Defending your honor?”

“Oh, um, did Tierney besmirch my honor?”

“He certainly did!”

“Oh my God,” Sam muttered, dropping his forehead into his free hand. “Maybe I didn’t need you to defend my honor,” he pointed out.

Ian made a noise that sounded like he was motorboating his lips. Sam had the hardest time imagining that, but he couldn’t figure out what else it would be. “You can defend your own honor next time,” Ian said. Wow, fighting really put him in a good mood. Not that Sam thought he should do it more or anything, it was just an observation. But, wow. “Besides, you defended your own honor with Marley. It was my turn.”

“What?” A warm little glow kindled in Sam’s chest, but still.
Fighting is bad. Hot, but bad
. “No I didn’t. You’re the one who scared him off. I was just walking away.”

“Sometimes that’s the right answer.” Ian’s voice had gone from cheerful to serious. “Taking on that asshole or provoking him would have made it worse.”

“But . . . but you said I let him push me around!”

“I’m sorry. I was being a jerk. He just—all that shit he said about you just made me crazy, kiddo,” Ian said, almost indiscernible over the background hum of his pickup.

“Oh.” They were both silent a couple seconds. “Thank you,” Sam said.

“I want to see you tonight.”

“I have an early class . . . but I want to see you, too.”

“Do you want me to pick you up later?”

“Well . . . actually I never left.”

He swore he heard Ian smile. “Good. I’ll be home in five minutes. Be waiting for me.”

“Oh.” Sam’s heart jumped and his stomach tightened up into a ball. “Okay.”

Ian clicked the phone off.

Fighting, Sam discovered, not only put Ian in a good mood, but also made him crazy horny. Not just horny, but passionate. Sam thought he might be devoured alive on Ian’s living room floor, but he was okay with that. Ian nearly ripped Sam’s boxers off and swallowed him whole, jerking himself while he sucked Sam like it was an Olympic event. Sam came like he’d won the gold, then Ian lunged up and shot all over his stomach. He licked it up until Sam was almost ready to go again.

Afterward, naked on one of Ian’s rugs, with a tiny afghan wrapped around as much of them as possible, Ian told him about Tierney. First the fight, which—in spite of all Sam’s best intentions to disapprove—was hot enough to keep him from falling asleep like usual, and then how Ian and Tierney had become friends during college in the first place.

“We were in the same dorm, and he thought we were alike. I kept trying to find a girl who could do it for me, and he kept trying to find a girl to do. I don’t know, he just hung around. After a while he just seemed like part of the landscape, I guess.”

“That’s not a lot to build a friendship on, is it?” He and Nik had a lot more in common.

Ian shrugged, jostling Sam’s head where it rested on his shoulder. “I guess not, but it sort of stuck. He stuck.” Ian rolled onto his side and pillowed Sam’s head on his biceps. It wasn’t actually that comfortable, and it left Sam’s feet uncovered, but Ian was looking at him intently, so Sam settled in and listened.

“You know how I figured out I like guys?”

Sam shook his head. He finally noticed Ian’s swelling eye, and his fingers itched to touch it. “Shouldn’t we put something on that? Like a steak or something?” And hadn’t he said something about a bloody lip? Sam couldn’t see any evidence of it, but Ian’s lips were kinda puffy now anyway . . .

Sheesh, that was hot. Sam wiggled closer to Ian, running his palm over Ian’s chest hair to feel the almost-tickle that made him shiver.

Ian ignored him, caught up in his story. “Tierney and I got drunk one night, and he dragged me down to this basement bathroom on campus and introduced me to a glory hole.”

Sam bounced up like he had a spring-loaded elbow. “You’re fucking kidding me!”

Ian laughed. “Serious. He had to know there was a guy on the other side, I mean you could see half the dude’s face and his five o’clock shadow. Tierney let the guy suck him off after me, too. I was sitting on the floor outside the stall, completely losing my shit because I’d just gotten harder than I ever had in my life and then came until I saw stars, and I was watching Tierney and boning up again. Tierney was looking at me, too. It’s fucking weird he didn’t figure me out.”

Huh. “Maybe he did,” Sam said, lying back down and tracing Ian’s cheekbone with his finger. His lip wasn’t that bad. Actually, it was barely swollen at all. Or that might still be the dick lips.
Mmm
.

Ian stared at the ceiling, apparently lost in thought. “Shit, I never thought of that,” he said slowly. He focused on Sam again. “You think he could be gay?”

Sam nodded. “It’s possible. They say a lot of homophobes are at least bi-curious.”

They both fell silent, Sam running his fingers through Ian’s chest hair, then down his happy trail. He dragged one finger down along Ian’s cock, causing a stir of interest there. Ian’s foreskin was pulled back. That always made it look like his dick was wearing a turtleneck sweater. Sam kept that to himself. “What did you do after the glory hole incident? Have a slutty period?”

“I got a girlfriend.”

Sam jerked his head up, although he probably shouldn’t have been shocked.

“Jurgen was so mad at me when I finally told him I was pretty sure I liked guys more than chicks. I was still seeing her, Sherri. He said I was using her, and I needed to man up.”

Sam sighed and looked back down at Ian’s belly. “Jurgen is really rigid about some things.” Then he snickered. “Rigid.”

Ian huffed a laugh and kissed Sam on the temple while Sam swirled his fingers in Ian’s belly hair. “Did you man up?”

“Not for a while after that. I did eventually. I never told her why I didn’t want to be with her anymore, but there was no way to avoid hurting her . . . I don’t think. What do I know?”

He totally shouldn’t be asking this, but Sam knew it was pointless to try stopping himself. He watched his fingers tangle in Ian’s pubic hair and asked, “Did you love her?”

Ian kissed him on the temple again. “I wasn’t in love with her. I’ve never been in love before.”

The
now
that Ian hadn’t tacked onto the end of the sentence rang in Sam’s ears. His heart lightened so much and so fast he nearly floated away. He rewarded Ian by wrapping tight fingers around his shaft and slowly stroking. Ian
mmm
ed in his ear and rested his thigh on Sam’s. With all that room, Sam could fondle Ian’s nuts, weighing them in his other hand and feeling the way the skin wrinkled in reaction to his touch and how the hair there seemed to tangle around his fingers like it was reaching for him.

“You really have a thing for balls, don’t you?” Ian murmured.

Sam smiled, more to himself than for Ian. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t know why. I like the way they dangle and the way they look kinda heavy. You have beautiful nuts. When you’re standing up and they’re relaxed, the way they hang down just below the tip of your cock . . .” Sam wiggled with the shiver that crawled up his spine. He was getting hard just thinking about it.

Ian reached for his balls, cupping him carefully. Sam sighed and arched his back, shoving his hips toward Ian. It was getting crowded down there, with both their hands and all that excited genitalia, and now he wanted it to get sloppy too.

“You like it when I play with yours.” Ian very slightly increased his grip around Sam.

Sam gasped. “Yeah, but mine aren’t sexy.”

“I think they’re sexy.”

Sam made a grunt of disagreement. “They aren’t. It’s not fair. I’m this tall, gawky, gangling guy, but the one part of me I want to gangle is tight and small.”

Ian frowned against his ear, then kissed it before asking, “Is gangle a word?”

“For the purposes of speaking about my testicles, yes,” Sam said between breaths. Ian was making him crazy with the way his fingers were mapping out the shape of his testes through his skin. Sam strained toward him, wanting to get his hips as close as possible.

“Let’s go lie down in bed,” Ian murmured in his ear, then took the lobe between his teeth and tugged lightly, tickling Sam with his breath.