The fact that Banks had shown up on the same campus, even looking for the same thing, was more than just a blessing.It was a revelation.The things Banks had done to him in that movie theater, the way he’d made him feel, his heart racing, pulse pounding, cock leaking, were as new to him as the stiff confines of his spiffyPridet-shirt, and just as scary.
It wasn’t the sex that scared him so much.This was, after all, what Harper had dreamed of, and so very much more.No, it was Banks himself that scared the hell out of him.Harper had had boy crushes before.Too many to mention, in fact.
This was something else entirely.Something new and altogether frightening, only because Harper had never felt this way before.Not about anyone, ever.Not the other cute boys on the swim team, not about the pretty twinks in the jerk-off videos he watched online, late at night, after his mom had gone to bed.Not about the guy in the Speedo he’d jerked off his first week as a lifeguard.
Sure, his experience was limited, but Harper knew enough to realize that love existed, and that for a guy like Banks Principle, it was strictly off limits.
Despite all they’d shared since that morning—Jesus, he thought, had it only been since that morning??—Harper knew he was falling, and falling fast.Not just fast, but hard.The kind of hard that could only result in broken things—hearts, predominantly, but other things as well.Broken promises, broken vows and, worst of all, broken friendships.
Sure, Banks was good with his hands.And those lips?Jesus, if they’d nearly made Harper come just from kissing, what might they do wrapped around his leaking cock, thick and wet and tender?
He ached, balls, stomach, heart and everything else, just thinking about it.But more than Banks and his expert hands and throbbing lips, Harper straight uplikedthe guy.Period.His quick wit, his funny remarks, his withering sarcasm, his outlook on life, his cheesy jokes, hell, they even had the same taste in old cult movies.
Banks was literally everything he’d always wanted in a guy, and he’d been right under Harper’s nose the whole time.And now that they had the run of the campus together, he was both relieved and terrified.Relieved that Banks seemed to be as into him as Harper was into Banks, but terrified that, once his new friend met some other cute guy—cuter, in fact—that Banks would be up to his old man whore ways, this time just with guys instead of girls.Harper believed Banks when he said he wanted him to spend the night, but he could also imagine Banks offering the same thing to a new guyeverynight.
Did he really want to be another notch on Banks’s bedpost?Was he willing to risk that pain and heartache of losing the first boy who’d ever made him come by watching him slip away when some cuter, more experienced, cockier freshman caught his eye at one of the Welcome Week festivities the next day?Or the day after?
Or the day afterthat?
How long could he keep Banks by his side with a whole campus full of sexy young hotties vying for his attention?And what would Harper do the first time Banks threw him over for someone new?How would he cope with seeing Banks around campus, that big, sinewy arm slung over some other boy’s shoulder, whispering sweet nothings in his ear, making him spew buckets in the back of the campus theater or, worse yet, naked and writhing in his sweaty dorm room?
The thought literally made Harper sick, hunched over and moaning quietly, as he held his stomach in the empty Day Room.He sighed, balls tight with desire and heart already sick with ache.
For the first time in his life, Harper’s heart literally ached.He sighed, reached for his backpack, and nodded, his decision finally made.Banks might be hot, but so was the gripping fear that nearly singed the butterflies dancing in his belly, one by one.He tugged out a spare shirt, rolling it into a makeshift pillow before curling up into a ball on the day room couch and, not for the first time in his sad, pathetic life, crying himself to sleep...
Chapter Fifteen
Banks
“Harp?”
Banks stood in the doorway, wide awake and not just because of the gentle rapping that had roused him from his twisted sheets and warm, safe bed.Harper stood, grinning nervously, looking rumpled but eager in his V-neck t-shirt and baggy Madras shorts.
Banks stifled a relieved smile, giving Harper an admiring once over from head to toe and back again.“Did you dress in the dark?”
Harper merely hoisted a navy blue backpack, half-empty, before quietly nodding.“Can I ...come in?”
