Avoiding the question.
Fine. He wasn’t ready for this conversation, and I wouldn’t make him have it.
No matterhowmuch I wanted to offer myself up for experimentation purposes.
“Quid pro quo?” I asked, prodding the fire.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Damien,” Carter said. “Now you’re starting to sound like a lawyer.”
“I was actually thinking of Hannibal Lecter,” I said.
“Same difference.”
I laughed. Where did he get off being sofunny? Not class clown funny, noteveryone pay attention to mefunny, but the kind of person who made other people laugh because of his sense of humor.
It was a shame to see a man with so much to offer so wracked with self-doubt. He clearly had no idea how attractive he was and he didn’t go to any trouble to make the most of his best assets.
“You’re so mean,” I said, still laughing. “Who knew you had a razor-sharp tongue?”
“Hey, you kissed me earlier,” Carter said. “You should know.”
“Not with tongue,” I pointed out. “If you want tongue, you gotta ask.”
There. I’d said it. Even if it did sound like a joke, at least Carter knew I was comfortablejokingabout it. Maybe that’d be enough to make him comfortable thinking about it.
“So do I get the first question?” Carter asked.
“Go for it. Can we make a rule that we decline to answer instead of lying to each other, though?” I asked. Playing a game was one thing, and I had so many questions for Carter, but there was a tiny little seedling of trust growing between us and I didn’t want to stomp on it.
“That sounds like a good rule, and you’re probably gonna use it right off the bat,” Carter said. “But I guess it can’t hurt to ask.Whydo you have a cock piercing? Because you told me everything else about it, but the why is still tripping me up.”
I laughed again, thrilled to know that Carter had been thinking about my dick this entire time. Maybe Iwasin with a shot, after all.
“I can tell you,” I said. “But are you sure you wanna hear it?”
“I’ll risk wanting to bleach my brain,” Carter said. “I’m just… dying to know what thepointis.”
“Well, firstly, weighs it down a little so I don’t have to adjust myself so often,” I said, which was true, but it wasn’t the real reason. “On my first trip to Belgium I met a guy who had one. Took him back to my hotel room and… y’know.”
“Slept with him,” Carter finished for me. It felt like a good idea to let him pick the euphemisms.
“Sure, that. Anyway. Came so hard I passed out, got him to do it for me the next day. Good guy. Last I heard he was living in a triad in Portugal.”
Carter blinked into the fire. “How didhispiercing makeyou—oh.”
“Did you forget about anal?” I asked, laughter welling up in my chest again. I didn’t want to laughatCarter, but he was adorable.
“For like a second. I dunno, I’ve never done it,” Carter said, cheeks flushed. Not from the heat of the fire, either.
“Well, you should,” I said, which I probablyshouldn’thave, but I would’ve recommended it to anyone. What was the point of having a body if you didn’t get to play with it? Otherwise we might as well all be brains floating in jars.
“That good?” Carter asked, and he was trying to laugh it off, but there was that curiosity again.
“For me? Definitely. Can’t promise you’ll like it, but it also never hurts to try.”
Carter licked his lips, and I could practically hear him thinking again. “Guess it’s your turn to ask me a question,” he said.
I could’ve asked him about whether he’d ever enjoyed kissing a man since making out with my brother when he was eighteen, but I’d seen how distressed he’d been about answering the first time.
