“Don’t do that. Not now.” Donny scrunched his face together and shook his head at Roland.
“Not now,” Roland parroted, his voice soft.
“Not now,” he affirmed, leaning down and pressing their lips together. They kissed until Donny separated their mouths, and he smiled down at Roland whose eyes looked slightly clearer than they had in the past.
“Come with me,” Donny said, again extricating himself from underneath Roland and tugging him into the bathroom. “Stay here, okay?” He sat Roland down on the closed toilet and went into the kitchen.
He yanked open Roland’s junk drawer and found a pair of scissors, then returned to the bathroom. He set the scissors on the counter, and Roland eyed them, then shifted his look up toward Donny.
“You have clippers?” Donny asked.
“Yeah.”
“Where are they?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Under the sink.” Roland pointed at the cabinet.
Donny squatted down and grabbed the case that held the clippers and then set them on the counter beside the scissors. He pulled Roland’s razor and shaving cream out as well, lining everything up so he could reach it.
“Is this okay?” Donny asked, his intentions clear.
“Yeah,” Roland’s voice was rough. “Yes,” he clarified, sounding a little more certain.
Donny held Roland’s face in his hands and stroked his thumbs across his cheekbones. Roland closed his eyes and breathed into the touch
Donny picked up the scissors and snipped a section of Roland’s beard away.
“You are so beautiful,” Donny whispered when he snipped another section of hair away. Roland looked up at him, his eyes still clear, but full of doubt. Donny clipped Roland’s entire beard to a manageable length, then set the scissors down and plugged in the clippers.
“The trust you give me is beautiful,” Donny said, using the clippers to trim a line up Roland’s cheek. Donny could feel Roland’s eyes on him, following the movement of his eyes and hand.
“The way you give me your body is beautiful,” Donny trimmed Roland’s other cheek and his chin. “The way you let me take what I need from you is fucking beautiful.”
Donny finished with the clippers and set them on the counter. He turned on the tap and filled the sink with warm water. Roland reached his hands up to his face and ran his fingertips along the short hairs, then set his hands under his thighs on the lid of the toilet.
Donny dunked the razor in the sink and set it on the counter. “Do you not believe me?” he asked, squirting shaving cream into his hand.
“I want to believe you,” Roland answered, closing his eyes when Donny brought his cream lathered hands to Roland’s cheeks. Donny covered the remainder of Roland’s beard with shaving cream and then dunked the razor in the sink.
“That’s a start,” he said smiling and dragging the razor down Roland’s cheek. Once the hair was gone, Donny slid his thumb up and down the smooth patch of skin that had been revealed.
Donny rinsed the razor and shaved another patch of skin, and another, and another until Roland’s face was smooth and clean. He ran a washcloth under the tap and raised it to Roland’s face, wiping away the remaining shaving cream.
Roland tilted his face up and looked at him, and Donny’s breath caught in his throat. His lips parted, and he grazed a knuckle down Roland’s cheek. He felt as though he was seeing therealRoland for the first time. Roland was the fucking winter sunset, the green flash— his eyes. Donny couldn’t help himself; his heart stuttered like it had in Gabriel’s hallway, and Donny dipped his head down and seized Roland’s mouth in a kiss. And it wasn’t soft or tender. It was hungry, it was furious. Donny’s kiss made demands.
Give me this.
Give me you.
I deserve more than what you’re giving me. I deserve it all. I want it all. I’ll take it all. I’ll take anything you give me.
And that was Donny’s reality. He was in need of Roland and would take whatever he could. Donny pulled him to a standing position but kept Roland’s face pulled down so their lips were together.
“No one makes me hard the way you do. No one’s made me come the way you do,” Donny spoke the words into Roland’s mouth, hoping they’d reach his heart that way— reach his mind. Donny moved Roland’s hand between them and pressed it against his cock, which was quickly getting hard.
“I deserve everything you have, Roland. But for now, I’ll take whatever you’ll give me.”
Roland sighed, separating their mouths, his tongue licking across the top of Donny’s lip.
