Hook, Line, and Sinker (Flirting with the Zodiac Book 1) Page 4

  Ty snorted. “How old are you? Who says that? Fool around.” Then he frowned. “Two things wrong with the plan, Laz.”

  “Oh?”

  “One, I still have my ring in, because I wasn’t expecting this. I have to get the doctor to take it out. So no matter what we do tonight …”

  “Okay,” Lawrence said softly. “To be honest, I didn’t think about that.” Ty almost sneered at him; guys rarely did, because most guys didn’t have to worry about getting knocked up. “Besides, I only want to go as far as you feel comfortable with.”

  “Right,” Ty said, “well, that’s the other problem. Technically, I can’t consent.”

  Lawrence frowned. Ty grinned. “If I’d smoked all the dope you left out, I’d be high as a kite, Lawrence, couldn’t consent to anything. And now you’re trying to liquor me up.” He lifted his glass, touched it to his lips.

  Lawrence swore softly, and Ty almost laughed at him. The blue-eyed man sighed. “I guess we’ll put a pin in it then, wait for—”

  “We can if you want to,” Ty said, his grin fading. He swallowed down nausea.

  Him and Lawrence. Lawrence and him. Doing … stuff.

  He wanted it, but it terrified him.

  “You just finished saying you can’t consent, so no, we can’t.”

  “I didn’t smoke everything,” Ty said. “Just one. I’m barely buzzed. And I’m giving you my consent now, before I get too deep into this.” He tilted his glass.

  “Ty, you—”

  “If I’m plastered and saying yes, Lawrence, then keep going.”

  Oh no, guilt was chewing up Lawrence’s expression again. “Ty, really.”

  “Only if you’re comfortable with that. If you’re not, we don’t have to do anything.” Honestly, it worked both ways. “But I’m saying if you want to and I say yes, even if I’m two bottles deep, it’s good.”

  Lawrence still looked apprehensive. “I trust you,” Ty tried, and that was it; Lawrence melted, all the worry and fear easing out of his eyes.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” the silver-haired man said, taking Ty’s hand and squeezing. “I’ll stop if I think we should, if I’m uncomfortable.”

  Ty nodded, and Lawrence squeezed his hand again, just as Yves stepped back into the room. “Monsieurs, are there any questions about the menu?”

  ***

  Ty wished he’d smoked all the Blue Dream, because the food was delicious and it was a shame he didn’t have more of an appetite. It was a rarity that a broke-ass student like him got the chance to indulge in five-star French seafood. As it was, the crab cakes were an excellent choice, and Ty could only imagine what the lobster tail had been like.

  They’d decided to cancel the limo and walk home, even through the snow; the wine had made both of them a bit drowsy, and the biting cold, the brisk exercise was invigorating.

  They didn’t touch on the way home, except if their shoulders bumped. They barely talked either. Ty couldn’t; his tongue was in knots, thinking about what came next.

  They stepped into the apartment, and Lawrence locked the door. It seemed to echo with some kind of finality.

  Ty was trapped. Except no, he really wasn’t.

  He toed off his shoes, then pitched his jacket. He froze when Lawrence’s hands landed on his arms, heat bleeding through the dress shirt. “Can I help?” his roommate asked, glancing down at him.

  “Uh … sure.” Ty didn’t know what to expect, but Lawrence unknotted his tie and tossed it, then popped the first three buttons on the shirt.

  Lawrence leaned in closer, his hands trailing down Ty’s chest, over his belly. “Can I kiss you?” he asked, then bumped their noses together.

  “I, uh, guess. That … could be nice.”

  How many times had he thought about kissing Lawrence, daydreamed about kissing Lawrence? And now they were standing here in the darkened entryway, actually doing something, and Ty was like a dead fish, unable to move, to think, to breathe.

  Lawrence’s fingers brushed under his chin, and he lifted his head without a second thought. He flushed furiously, realizing what he was doing.

  Pointing.

  Lawrence didn’t seem to notice or care, merely angled his head so their mouths came together and their noses didn’t. His lips moved against Ty’s, almost like a whispered prayer, and Ty stood there, frozen. He gripped Lawrence’s shoulder to steady himself, inhaling deeply as Lawrence’s arm wrapped around him, dragging him in close.

  He’d been kissed before; he knew how this went. He forced his eyes closed and kissed Lawrence back, licking at the seam of his lips, demanding entrance.

  Lawrence granted it, then pushed his tongue against Ty’s, driving him back into his own mouth. Ty snaked his arm around Lawrence’s neck, and Lawrence squeezed him tighter, tongues tangled, lips sealed together. Then Lawrence pulled back, heaving for breath. “Always wondered what that would be like,” he murmured. “Wanted to … just once …”

  “Kiss me again,” Ty demanded, following those lips, mesmerized.

  “Okay.”

  Lawrence dove back in, meshing their mouths together again. He squeezed Ty tighter, like he could meld them all along the edges of their bodies; Ty gripped his shoulder harder, dragged him in deeper, nipping at his lips, sucking at his tongue.

  “Mmmhmm,” Lawrence breathed against him, and Ty shifted. The silver-haired man jolted, grabbed at his ass, and Ty got one leg on the outside of Lawrence’s, squeezed against him. One of Lawrence’s hands slid down Ty’s thigh, to his knee, encouraging him up.

  They broke apart, gasping for air. Lawrence backed them up against the wall. Ty pressed their hips together; he wanted friction, and he wasn’t even unsheathed yet.

  “What the fuck is wrong with us?” Ty growled, and Lawrence shook his head. Ty reeled him in again, tearing at him with his teeth, and Lawrence cried out into his mouth, squeezed him even tighter and ground against him, sending electricity jolting through Ty’s skin.

  Why the hell had they waited so long to do this? They’d been living together for years, if Ty had just said something, then they could have—

  Lost it all, because this was just a convenient arrangement. Lawrence had a problem, and Ty could fix it. That was all.

  Fuck it, who cared? He’d fucked people who meant much less to him than Lawrence did. They could be friends who fucked sometimes; there didn’t have to be any romance between them.

  Except that Ty wanted a promise of forever. Offering himself up like this was an act of desperation; he couldn’t anchor himself to Lawrence in any other way, and he was so afraid of getting swept away in the tides of time.

  He knew he should come clean, be honest that this wasn’t at all about him being a good friend or a kind person.

  Instead, he tangled his traitorous tongue with Lawrence’s again, stopped up the words, the confessions, drowned himself in sensation.

  Six

  He rubbed at his eyes and stifled a yawn. He shouldn’t have taken that hit. He’d wanted to calm down, not pass out. The kissing was good and sex was going to be better, but he needed to get out of his own damn head for five seconds so he could actually enjoy it.

  “Mornin’,” Lawrence said as he casually strolled by, butt-naked like nearly every other morning for the last four years.

  Except this morning it was weird. Maybe because Ty was in Lawrence’s bed, not in the kitchen or the living room, or maybe because that was definitely a hickey on Lawrence’s neck and Ty recognized his own dental marks (he knew very few people who had a mouth full of what were effectually fangs).

  Whatever; it was weird, and he was staring. Lawrence must have thought that was weird, because he paused and turned back to Ty with a brow quirked. “What’s with the googly eyes?” He frowned. “Not like you haven’t seen it.”

  Which was true, which was why it shouldn’t have been weird, and yet it was, mostly because Ty was making it weird. They’d showered together, they’d changed together at the gym, Lawren
ce tended to walk around naked in the mornings …

  He lifted his gaze slowly. Lawrence’s frown deepened. “Are … you always neon yellow?” he asked, and Ty was pretty sure he turned bright pink at the mere suggestion.

  He huffed and turned over so he didn’t have to look at Lawrence. At least, that was what he told himself as he pressed his hips against the mattress. “You’re so observant,” he grumbled to the wall.

  “You’re not coming down with a cold, are you? I’d hate to get sick right now—”

  “You’d definitely get it if I were,” Ty muttered. “Besides, what do you have to worry about, not wanting to get sick now?”

  Lawrence paused as he turned back around, then resumed buttoning his shirt. “I, um … spring break is coming up.”

  Ty lifted an eyebrow. “Since when do you care about spring break? You’re not going home, are you?” He glanced over his shoulder.

  “No, not going to Earth. I … might have booked a trip to the Sea of Tranquility?”

  Ty turned over, frowning. “Really? And you’re just telling me this now, that you’re fucking off to artificial tropical paradise, while I get to sit here and—”

  “For two,” Lawrence finished pathetically, and Ty stared at him for a very long moment. Lawrence huffed and shook out his sleeves, yanked at his cuffs. “I mean, I thought maybe … it would be nice to … get away? Just … be alone together.”

  Ty’s ears were ringing. Lawrence wanted to be alone with him?

  Of course he’d follow Lawrence anywhere he asked him to go, whether that was tropical paradise or the pits of hell, the ice fields of Pluto, to Piscea and back again.

  “Let me get this straight. You booked a trip for us, during spring break.”

  A nod.

  “And you’re not taking me to party central, but to some … resort or something so we can bang.”

  “Well, when you put it like that …”

  Ty glowered at him. “I don’t know how to feel about this,” he said finally.

  Lawrence lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “I just thought it might be nice. Get away from here, the apartment, our friends. Maybe it’s less weird then?”

  “Definitely more weird.”

  “Sorry,” Lawrence murmured, and Ty sighed. “I just thought maybe a change of scenery would … help. I mean, if we’re actually going to go through with this.”

  “Yeah.” If they were gonna get to the part of having the kid, they had to make one first.

  “Are you gonna make a doctor’s appointment?”

  “Huh?” He looked at Lawrence, now completely befuddled.

  “You … mentioned something about a ring last night. Said the doctor had to take it out.”

  “Right.” Ty exhaled heavily. “My, uh …” He gestured. “Contraceptive.”

  Lawrence blinked. “So you really can get knocked up, huh?”

  Ty glared. “You really think I’d lie about that? I’d come up with something better, honestly.” He clambered out of bed, noting he still had his boxer-briefs on. Evidently, they hadn’t gotten very far after Ty’s last hit. “But yes, you can ask Dr. K about it if you want.”

  Lawrence perked. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  “No. Actually, you should just look it up. I’m sure Wikipedia has something about Pisceans.”

  Lawrence coughed, and Ty thought he heard the man mutter something about Pornhub.

  Whatever. “Anyway, I’ll make an appointment, see the doctor.” Get the ring out. Talk about having a baby.

  Was this actually his life?

  ***

  It turned out that, since they were going to the Sea of Tranquility, Ty needed a couple of vaccines anyway (his parents would be livid if they ever found out he’d gotten his jabs. Fucking hippies).

  He understood Dr. K’s surprise at the appointment, because Ty had asked about getting a prescription for his jabs, then hastily added the bit about needing his ring taken out.

  Which was why he ended up pleading with the good doctor for the better part of ten minutes, until Dr. K caved and lectured him about holding him up and not giving sufficient notice, not being prepared.

  Ty pointed out that, once, Dr. K had done an impromptu procedure because Ty had complained about pain and exhaustion and nausea.

  Dr. K glared at him pretty much the entire time, and Ty gave up on glaring back and stared at the ceiling, tried to focus on his breathing as the doctor pulled the tiny metal ring out of him.

  Ty had no idea how it worked, just that it did, and he didn’t need to take pills every day.

  Still hurt to get the damn thing taken out, and it cost way more than he could really afford to have it. He didn’t have much in the way of insurance, and his parents had just told him to boil rue or other herbs.

  He hated rue.

  “So,” Dr. K said as he dropped the ring in the trash, “what are we replacing this with?”

  Ty wished he’d smoked, just so he could deal with the doctor glaring at him. Some people would have accused Dr. K of not being very professional, and in some ways he wasn’t. Ty didn’t blame the man, though. There were few Pisceans around, and Dr. K was one of the few doctors who had any background in treating them. He’d apparently studied on Piscea, done a lot of volunteer medical service there. Ty would have liked to pick his brain about a lot of things, but there was never time in these rushed appointments, and at the end of the day, they did have a strictly professional relationship.

  Didn’t mean Dr. K didn’t sometimes treat him like a wayward child, or that Ty didn’t feel like he was answering to a parent. Like now, as Dr. K kept glowering at him. “Nothing,” he squeaked, then folded his hands in lap and stared at his knees.

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing.”

  Dr. K leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms. “You know, condoms aren’t enough, and—”

  Ty could feel the heat in his cheeks. “Not using anything.”

  Dr. K’s eyes darted back and forth, as though he were calculating something. “So, you’re going to be a monk now?”

  Ty shook his head. Damn, he so needed to smoke. Dr. K whistled low, then sank down onto the stool at the desk, still staring at Ty. “Okay, you wanna tell me about this? Last you told me, you’re single, underemployed, a chronic smoker, probably need treatment for anxiety, but you can’t afford it.”

  He paused for emphasis. “So, what changed?”

  “Look,” Ty spat, “I didn’t come here to be attacked—”

  “I can’t recommend trying to conceive in that situation,” Dr. K said, shaking his head. “I mean, ideally, we’d deal with the chronic smoking bit and the anxiety—”

  “I smoke weed because I’m anxious!” Ty snapped, then curled in on himself.

  The doctor sighed. “Listen, Tydeus. I’ve been treating you for seven years now.”

  Ty glared.

  “And you have been adamant that you absolutely must have contraception. What in your situation is different that you think you want to bring a child into that?”

  Ty knew he was red; he looked at the wall. “I just do.”

  “N

  ***, I don’t think so. You have a partner now?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Sugar daddy then.”

  “Oh, fuck you,” Ty spat. Dr. K grinned at him. Ty bared his teeth. “It could be a sugar mamma, what is it any business of yours—”

  “Hello, I’m your doctor. Your body is my business, and right now, you’re talking about renovating the whole thing—and bringing another new body into that, which also has to be cared for.”

  Dr. K paused, sighing. “Ty, you have an untreated medical condition. I know you smoke like you do to try and deal with that, but marijuana isn’t great for human babies, and it’s even worse for Pisceans.”

&nbs
p; Ty frowned. “It is?”

  Dr. K gave him a flat look. “Pisceans aren’t placental; the egg embeds directly into the lining of the pouch. There’s no filtration; whatever’s in daddy’s blood goes right to baby.”

  “Oh.” Well, now Ty felt like an idiot.

  “Since you’re half, it’s hard to tell what you’ll do, but there’s a chance that it will be direct transfer. Ideally, you wouldn’t use weed at all.”

  Ty shifted. Maybe he hadn’t thought this all the way through.

  Oh, hell, he knew he hadn’t thought it all the way through.

  Dr. K cleared his throat. “Then I want to know what your living situation looks like—finances, income, job, partner support, family support. All of that can cause stress, and you’re already anxious. You don’t need more, and stress is also very bad for babies.”

  He paused. “Do you see where I’m going with this? I’m saying from what I see, you have a situation that’s not conducive to having a healthy baby, so I want you to tell me what you’ve done to change that, to make this a consideration.”

  Ty rolled his eyes, let his head swing from side to side. Dr. K sighed. “Okay. If you got pregnant right now, you’re at a high risk of miscarriage—not sure how your mental state would hold up on that—and premature delivery. There’s a high chance the baby might have birth defects and—”

  “Stop, stop, stop,” Ty groaned. “Okay, I get it. I’m an unhealthy fuck and I shouldn’t ever have kids. I got it.”

  That stung, and he didn’t know why.

  “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m concerned about your health, and I want to know what you’re going to do if you …”

  Ty really, really needed a smoke, fuck. Dr. K tapped his pen on the desk a couple of times. “You two talked about getting married?”

  “Huh?” Ty blinked at him.They’d talked about having a baby, for sure, about being in an ongoing sexual relationship (or … at least pretending it was sexual. Ty wouldn’t have minded, but he was sure Lawrence wasn’t into that).