I eliminated the space between us in two steps. I reached both arms around your neck so that our faces were just inches apart. I could smell your expensive cologne and see the stubble of your five o’ clock shadow. I wanted to rub my cheek against it.
“Don’t you want me, Henri?” It hurt my feelings that I even had to ask.
You licked your lips and stared at me like a dog waiting for a bone. Very carefully you reached up and gently lifted my arms off your shoulders, rearranging them until both of my hands were clasped in yours. They pressed against my sternum, our fists a physical barrier between us.
“You are young and reckless. I am very, very old, and I know better.”
“It’s not nice to call someone stupid. No matter how you phrase it.”
“It’s not a matter of intelligence, Orlando. It’s a matter of wisdom. I don’t want to take advantage of you to satisfy my selfish urges.”
“So, you admit you have urges.” I spread your arms so that your hands were flattened against the wall of the building and pressed against you. My pants were skin-tight, and even with the dance belt, I knew you could feel my hard-on.
Yeah, I knew I was pushing it, but I was seventeen years old, horny as hell, and I wanted you. I’d been honest about it from the beginning. You were the one playing games.
“You are very good at hearing only what you want,” you said.
I glanced down to where your erection tented your very fine dress slacks. “Your boner is coming through loud and clear.”
Instead of pushing me away, you wrapped your arms around me in a strong, comforting embrace. Your nose trailed along the curve of my neck, sending shivers through me. You were smelling me like those posh pricks sniffed their wine before drinking it. Would you bite me? I tensed and waited for a pinch that never came.
“You should find yourself a human boyfriend, clever boy.”
I turned my face toward you, so the tips of our noses brushed. I didn’t believe a word you said. “You want to watch me fuck other guys? Is that what you’re into, Henri?”
You hissed through your teeth. I knew I was being a brat, but provoking you was the only way I could get the truth.
“No, I don’t want to watch,” you rasped. “I don’t want anyone else putting their hands on you.”
Now we were getting somewhere. I untangled myself from your arms and backed away.
“You can’t leave me now. I can’t do this alone.”
You couldn’t give me talent, but you could certainly give me an edge. I needed your attention, praise, and constant vigilance. I needed whatever power you provided that I couldn’t conjure on my own. I needed you.
“You underestimate yourself,” you said.
“Fine then. I don’twantto do it alone. I want you with me every second of every day. I don’t want a human boyfriend. If I did, I’d be with him right now, not hitting on a man who looks old enough to be my father.”
“Too old?” you asked.
I smiled. “Just a tad.”
“Aren’t you weary of my company by now?”
“Never,” I said vehemently.
But I wanted more than just your voice in my head. I wanted your flesh and bone, breath and sweat. I wanted to fall asleep to your heartbeat. Have you trap me beneath your naked body and trap you under mine. I wanted you to give me back what Roger stole from me. Only you could do it—I believed that sincerely. There was no one else I trusted the way I trusted you. I wantedeverythingwith you, and I wanted itnow.
But I’d still take what we had over nothing.
“I want you, Henri,” I said again. “Stay with me in whatever form you can. Promise me?”
Your shoulders relaxed, and you drew me back to you, guiding my head so that our foreheads rested against each other. Your sigh signaled your surrender.
“I’ll stay with you,” you said. And then, as if I’d forced it out of you, you confessed, “You are my favorite human, after all.”
“Are there others?” I asked with a prick of jealousy.
