Page 28 of Epidermis

“It would have been a grievous understatement.”

Jasper reached out, carefully holding one side of Konrad’s face, watching Konrad’s eyes fall shut at his touch. He traced a high, prominent cheekbone with his fingertips. The earliest shadow of silver stubble scratched against his palm.

Jasper’s phone rang and he jolted like he’d been doing something he wasn’t supposed to.

He needed to get ready soon anyway, and if he pursued what he could feel trying to take shape in that moment, he wouldn’t be leaving for a while. So he unhappily sat up and answered the phone. “What’s up, Hiyori?”

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know I’m going in early to check out some of the other artists, so I didn’t want to leave you hanging around outside the hotel waiting for me.”

“Well, thanks for not standing me up like an unwanted prom date.”

“I wish you’d taken me to prom.”

Jasper chuckled. “Bye.”

“Bye!”

He hung up and ran a hand over his face. What a trip this had been already.

Konrad was oddly quiet, and Jasper looked over to find him staring. Not his usual brand of staring. His lips were parted, and there was a touch of color in his cheeks.

Jasper only realized in that moment that the blanket had fallen to his waist when he sat up. It had been dark last night, and he’d been under the blanket since waking. This was the first time Konrad was seeing him shirtless. Being shirtless was usually such a mundane, meaningless thing, but Jasper tended to stay covered up. It was an extra layer of defense against the world, a safety net.

Now he sat exposed before Konrad and felt dizzy under the intensity of his stare. He pressed his tongue against the inside of his lip, flustered. “You could just take a picture, it would last longer.”

Clothes were one safety net. Sarcasm was another.

“On the contrary. I’m committing every detail of you to the deepest corners of my memory.” Konrad sat up, folding the blanket down, off their bodies. “Can I touch you?”

“I have to get a shower,” Jasper said, his voice cracking along with his resolve.

“Just for a moment.”

Jasper laughed. “Fine.”

Konrad picked up his hand, feeling along the smoke-like wisps of black ink on Jasper’s fingers that bled into the gothic design and crescent moon on the top of his hand, all the way up to the snake and mongoose skull on his forearm. He cupped Jasper’s elbow for a moment before he traced the raven on his upper arm. The wing followed the natural curve of muscle in Jasper’s bicep, and he shivered as Konrad stroked that line of definition.

Konrad tilted his head as he felt his way across the words that spanned Jasper’s collarbones, and the death’s head moth at the center of them. The words, inked in all caps and an almost handwritten looking font, read needing some other kind of madness. The tattoo tended to make people think Jasper was a tortured soul, when in truth, he just really liked Bauhaus.

Then Konrad flattened his palm below that, against the center of Jasper’s chest. He tilted his head, his eyes darkening as he looked at the silver barbells through Jasper’s nipples. Konrad gave a quiet hum of approval and Jasper was mortified to feel them hardening, a reaction he didn’t stand a chance of concealing with Konrad staring at them. They weren’t the only thing getting hard.

“Konrad,” he whispered pleadingly. They didn’t have time to finish what Konrad was starting. He wasn’t even touching anywhere erogenous and Jasper was melting in his hands.

“My apologies.” Konrad trailed his hand lower, feeling every ridge of Jasper’s abs, then withdrew. “You’re just… devastating.”

Jasper flicked his eyes down to Konrad’s mouth.

No. If Jasper did that, he was going to start something they didn’t have time to finish. “I’m gonna take a shower.”

“I’ll order your coffee and—oh. How lovely.” Konrad cut himself off when Jasper stood, exposing his other tattoo. A swan on his right shoulder blade, reaching more than halfway down his back, entwined with irises and water lilies.

Konrad reached out and Jasper stepped away with a laugh. “Behave.”

He felt Konrad’s eyes pouring over him all the way to the bathroom, until he closed the door and denied him any further ogling. Jasper would be lying if he said it wasn’t a rush to be looked at that way. Like Konrad wanted to consume him.

There wasn’t even enough time to get himself off in the shower. Jasper unhappily scrubbed last night’s sweat off his body and gave his hair a quick wash, ignoring his still half-hard erection. He thought about Konrad’s reaction to his nipple piercings and wondered if he would be equally fascinated with the ladder of barbells that ascended his cock, along with the Prince Albert that sat snugly in the tip, or if he’d find it disturbing.

Jasper wasn’t finding out this morning, at the very least. He got dressed in a hurry, hating how his jeans felt being pulled up over slightly damp skin. He ran some product through his hair before brushing his teeth. It was going to make his coffee taste weird, but he was going to have to drink it on the way to the convention center anyway.