Page 17 of Love Lessons

He tugged on boxers and jeans, grabbed the shirt on the top of the stack, and pulled a knit cap over his hair so he wouldn’t have to worry about it. Whatever.

When he got to the munch, he noticed Dustin’s coiled posture and strong shoulders before Dustin could see him. He wanted to go over to him, but that was ridiculous. He wanted to play together a few times, not get his approval.

Landon made sure to find the birthday boy before saying hello to anyone else. But he could feel Dustin’s eyes burning into him a moment later.

He offered up the sea-themed gift bag to Tim, who jumped up to collect it. He seemed to be mostly adult today, wearing typical adult clothes which meant he was Tim instead of Timmy, but Landon figured that a stuffy was still an appropriate gift.

Tim drew out the stuffed penguin, which Landon hoped was enough of an ocean creature to interest him. He’d gone to two stores this morning since none of them had any sharks or octopi or anything like that. The penguin was as close as he could get.

Timmy’s eyes lit up, his lips shaping a word that was clearly “Daddy!” He snuggled the penguin against his face.

He turned to his Daddy, David, to show off the toy. Landon didn’t even try to follow their conversation. When Timmy got excited, he forgot that Landon needed to see his mouth to speech read, and David wasn’t really talking to him anyway.

Their body language said it was a good gift, and that was all that mattered.

As Landon turned, Carol offered a hug and then started asking him about an event that they were co-organizing at the club next month. She was a slow talker, so he could speech read about ninety percent of what she was saying. It was usually enough to answer her questions.

He’d long ago stopped trying to figure out every single word when people talked. It was much easier to pretend to understand and nod when appropriate. This conversation was a bit easier because he already had a good sense of what she wanted to talk about from their emails.

Once he got a few questions about the food settled, he drifted further down the table. Dustin was still watching him. He felt a shiver down his spine but didn’t let himself move any faster.

He loved being watched that way. It made him feel important. Desired. Sometimes it was almost a let-down when he finally played with someone, because after a few scenes the heated looks always vanished.

He fell into the next tangle of people who were talking about floggers. There were too many people talking about too many things at once for him to follow it. Instead, he launched into his own story about a flogger he’d seen on the internet with glitter all over it. He couldn’t even imagine having to clean that up. What a disaster. And the skin irritation afterward…

Everyone laughed along with him, and he basked in the attention for a moment. Taking over the conversation so that he didn’t have to speech read was another one of his tricks, and he always kept a few stories ready for situations like this. It gave him a way to feel included without all of the stress of speech reading.

Next, Ash waved him over and he was more than ready to sign. Of course, that meant pulling up a chair to the already full table. Could he help it if that meant sitting next to Dustin?

Dustin’s eyes gleamed and his lips turned up when he said hello. It looked like he appreciated Landon’s proximity.

Ash was telling a story about one of their patients that Landon was pretty sure he’d heard before. Which was good, because he really wanted a moment to look at Dustin. His face, on its own, was unremarkable. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a slightly pointed nose. His age could be anywhere from late twenties to mid-forties, though Landon guessed it was close to his own mid-thirties.

No, what was so striking about Dustin was the way he held himself. He leaned forward like he was perpetually ready to move, his posture just a bit too straight and intentional. It made Landon want to crawl under the table at his feet.

Instead, Landon settled into his chair, “accidentally” brushing their arms together. He really wanted to touch him more, wanted to feel the warmth of his skin without both of their shirts between them.

Dustin looked over at Landon for a second, a mixture of arousal and threat on his face, then went back to Ash's story. Was Dustin actually ignoring him, or was he playing too?

After a moment, Landon reached over and stole one of Dustin’s fries. He made sure to slather it in plenty of ketchup from Dustin’s plate, stretching out the action, and then popped it in his mouth.

Dustin was watching his lips, and Landon felt warm everywhere.

Did you want some of my fries? he signed.

Landon nodded.

Ask. He looked a little dangerous. And sexy.

Landon lowered his head, making his body meek as he looked up at Dustin. May I please have some of your fries? Damn, that felt good. That had to be the sexiest un-sexy thing he’d ever said, but the chemistry crackled between them.

Go ahead. Dustin pushed over the plate with a few remaining bites of a burger, a limp piece of neglected lettuce, and about a dozen lukewarm fries. But Dustin’s indulgently amused look made him feel like he’d won a prize.

Ash caught his glance and raised a subtle eyebrow. Landon shrugged with the barest movement of his shoulder. Ash gave the faintest twitch of an eye roll.

They weren’t close friends, but he’d chatted with Ash enough at the munches to know what they were thinking. Maybe it was the universal language of subs, he thought with amusement.

Yes, Landon was chasing shamelessly after another man who would lose interest in him after a night or two. And yes, he was damn well allowed to do it because he was an adult and it was his choice.