Kissing Lessons Read online

  “Okay.” Merry’s brow cleared as he understood the advice.

  Boone cupped Merry’s face, tilted his head slightly, and pressed their lips together. The touch was firm, not loose like before, as their mouths fused. Merry hugged Boone tighter, craving more closeness for reasons he didn’t understand. Had to be instinct, he concluded.

  This time Merry could taste everything about Boone, and he was sweeter than any honey Merry had ever tasted.

  The first lick from Boone’s tongue almost sent Merry into a flurry of nervous motion, and he nearly broke the kiss. But he managed to keep their lips sealed. When Merry didn’t draw back, Boone did it again, a soft press of his tongue against Merry’s, and a hot wetness that glided over its surface.

  Then Boone swirled and entangled his tongue around Merry’s. It was a game changer for Merry, who felt the intense touch all the way down to his curling toes. Every hair on his body stood on end as chills generated goose bumps. But his dick stood hot and hard, and his balls boiled, pulled up tight, ready to spill at a moment’s notice.

  When Boone suddenly pulled back, Merry actually whined in protest.

  Boone chuckled. “C’mon, Mer. Your turn. This time you control the kiss.”

  “Uh, I… I…,” Merry stammered, unsure if he was ready to take charge.

  “Don’t worry, baby. You’re gonna do fine.” Boone’s encouragement got more intimate with each passing sentence. Merry expected to bristle. Instead he felt hot and naked inside his skin. “C’mon, Mer. It’s not like I’m asking you to give me an australian kiss. Just a french one.”

  Merry frowned, confused. “What’s an australian kiss?”

  Boone grinned wickedly and winked. “A french kiss down under, if you get my meaning.”

  For a confused second, Merry didn’t get it. When he finally did figure out the reference, his face burned, and he swallowed hard. Now, that provocative image was all he could think about. A faceless someone’s lips wrapped around his cock as their tongue swirled around the shaft and dipped into the slit.

  Worst of all was the fact that because Boone had evoked the vision, his face was the one that emerged as clear as day through the fire-hot, bloodred haze of arousal in Merry’s mind. He cursed inwardly till he ran out of swear words. A couple of mental slaps did little to help dissuade his brain that the image wasn’t supposed to involve Boone.

  “Earth to Mer.” Boone waved his hand in front of Merry’s face and snapped his fingers to get his attention. “Still with me?”

  Merry shoved his hand away. “I’m still sitting on your lap, aren’t I?” He narrowed his eyes in warning. “Or did you forget? Here. Let me remind you.” He rolled his hips to shift gently in place, all the while rubbing his backside over Boone’s groin.

  Boone immediately stilled Merry’s movements with his hands on Merry’s hips. “Yeah, okay. Made your point, honey.” He smiled, though, seeming impressed with his best friend. “So, you gonna kiss me or not?”

  “Yes.”

  With that serving as a heads-up, Merry dove right in.

  Boone remained passive, allowing Merry to explore and experiment. Boone puckered his lips just a little, giving Merry an indication of how best to fit their lips together, so when Boone pushed his lips forward, Merry followed suit.

  Merry then molded their lips together, fused them in a firm lip-lock, and prepared to delve deeper. Merry held on to the sides of Boone’s face to ground him a little, but in every other sense, he let go—of his fears, his doubts, his inhibitions. He could trust Boone implicitly.

  Where there’d been salty sweetness to Boone’s taste before, now the flavor of his breath was simply him. Merry savored the sensations. He swept softly over Boone’s lips with the tip of his tongue, then slipped it farther inside ever so gently, like an offering.

  Merry touched his best friend’s tongue with his own, gliding over the silky, warm wetness. Heavenly. He hadn’t expected kissing to feel this good. If this was a preview of actual sex, as Boone had called it, there was a lot to look forward to.

  Their tongues contacted for only a few seconds at a time before one or the other of them pulled back to draw breath or tilt their head in another direction. But each time their lips fastened together again as though that were their natural state.

  At one point, Boone withdrew and spoke. “Light touches in the beginning, okay? Then go for broke.”

  Merry nodded and kissed Boone again. He kept his tongue moving, back and forth and twirling around Boone’s the same way Boone had demonstrated before. Merry flicked the tip of his tongue over Boone’s and made tiny little circles. He couldn’t believe how sensitive his mouth was. Every little thing felt huge, as though he were being kissed all over his body at one and the same time.

  Soon Merry had to take a deep breath, and Boone stopped him before he could carry on. “Here’s a tip for you. Breathe through your nose. I know our mouths are open, but don’t try to breathe through your mouth. An occasional little gasp is fine. But beyond that… nose.”

  “Got it.”

  Merry was immensely grateful for the advice. He’d been having a hard time maintaining the lip-lock because he needed to inhale. Now he kissed Boone, their lips joined delectably, and kept on kissing. The touching of tongues was erotic, and each lick sent shivers up and down Merry’s spine. He remembered Boone telling him not to dart too fast and not to jam in too deep, so he kept his touches light and his pace nice and slow.

  Boone wound his arms around Merry’s back again, and Merry wrapped his arms around Boone’s neck. Merry realized faintly that he was rocking in Boone’s embrace. But since Boone said nothing about it, Merry thought it must be okay.

  “You’re doing great,” Boone whispered, as if he had no voice to speak of. “Now add a bit of suction to the tongue lapping, okay?” When Merry nodded, Boone continued, “You can use teeth but don’t bite hard. No one wants to taste blood or be in pain when kissing.”

  Merry rested his forehead against Boone’s, looked into his green eyes, and smiled. This wasn’t as scary or as hard as he’d expected. But Merry would not have had the courage to try this with anyone else.

  He tilted his head a bit more, pressed their lips back together, and slowly deepened the kiss. Merry did as he was told and sucked on Boone’s tongue. Boone quivered, and then he repeated the move with Merry, sucking on his tongue. Merry moaned into the kiss, and a heartbeat later the vibrations carried through his body like waves crashing against a shore.

  Boone nipped at Merry’s tongue first, showing him how it was done. The curious sharp sensation danced along Merry’s nerve endings, not quite painful but not fully pleasurable either. Boone continued and then mixed it up by rubbing the backs of Merry’s teeth and his palate with his tongue. That tickled, but Merry went with it.

  “Now a bit harder,” Boone said as he ripped his mouth away from Merry’s, but only for a blink of an eye before diving back in and claiming Merry’s lips with unexpected ferocity.

  Merry found he couldn’t keep still, not with Boone ravaging his mouth with such wild hunger. His hands roamed across Boone’s upper back, shoulders, and neck, and threaded through his hair, gripping hard here and there. Merry loved how silky and soft Boone’s hair was, how good he smelled—kind of woodsy—and how taut and strong his bulging muscles were. He couldn’t stop touching, tasting, and inhaling.

  Boone tugged at Merry’s body as if trying to get him closer, even though there was no room. His hands wandered too, up and down, his fingers traversing Merry’s spine all the way down to his lower back to caress, fondle, and then grab at his asscheeks. Merry shuddered, his need growing by leaps and bounds.

  The kiss grew ravenous. Neither of them appeared to be in control anymore. Merry sure as hell wasn’t. He loved how passionate Boone was, how he sucked Merry’s tongue, licked his lips, and took what he wanted from the kiss. Merry wasn’t about to finish last, so he did some claiming of his own, remembering to suck on Boone’s lips, to lap at his tongue, and to
nip each on occasion.

  Before Merry even caught on to what was happening, his back hit the floor and a man’s weight settled on him, over his chest and between his legs. And, dammit, Merry was so turned on he was humping Boone extravagantly.

  Abruptly, something clicked inside Merry and snapped him back to reality.

  This wasn’t a lesson on kissing anymore. This was a mere heartbeat away from… sex.

  “Wait.”

  Chapter 5

  “YEAH. YOU’RE right.”

  Boone rolled away from Merry and rubbed his feverish face with his trembling hands. He wasn’t exactly sure how he and Merry had ended up lying on the floor. Everything was a blur. A perfectly sweet and sensuous blur. But hazy nonetheless. It was like his brain wasn’t functioning properly.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to….” Boone’s voice faded. He was at a loss for words. What had he not meant to do? Kiss Merry with a passion and a potent sex drive he’d never felt before? Push him on the floor and frot him till they ignited sparks and turned them into wildfires? Let his hands slip underneath Merry’s clothes as he’d nearly done?

  Shit, we almost did it. We almost… had full-on sex.

  “N-no. Me neither. Sorry.” Merry sounded small and tentative, even kind of fearful.

  Boone wanted to grip his own dick, stroke hard and fast, just this side of pain, and get that damn itch scratched. But he didn’t dare. Not in front of Merry; not after Merry had been the one to get him so turned on. Fuck, but that boy learned fast. He’d taken a simple lesson in kissing and turned it into the hottest foreplay Boone had ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

  Surreptitiously, Boone glanced in Merry’s direction.

  And, hot damn, the guy’s jeans were tented at the crotch, same as Boone’s. Clearly neither of them was immune to the ravaging effects of making out like a bandit. Sexually speaking.

  Boone tried to look away, but he couldn’t. That bulge in Merry’s pants drew his gaze like an irresistible magnet. The weirdest thing was, Boone was practically salivating at the sight. What did that mean? That Boone wanted to suck Merry’s cock? That notion was beyond ridiculous and out-of-this-world insane. Neither of them was gay.

  Well… there’d been those two times Merry didn’t know about. Boone sighed. Things were getting awfully complicated.

  “Th-thanks,” Merry whispered next to him.

  “For what?”

  “Teaching me. I… I think I’ve got it now.”

  I’ll say. But Boone left that bit unspoken. “No problem.” Then, because apparently he was losing his sanity, he added, “Any time you wanna learn more, you know where to find me.”

  Boone felt rather than saw Merry steal a glimpse at him. “Why’d you say that?” Merry chuckled as he spoke. “Never mind. You said there were hundreds of different kinds of kisses.”

  “Yeah, I did.” Boone stared up at the ceiling, frowning as he went over the short list of people he’d slept with. None of them had involved this level of smooching or making out. That had to mean something. Lack of desire, maybe? Or perhaps the wrong person?

  Merry sighed. “Wow. Talk about teenage hormones. Didn’t expect… that.”

  Baffled, Boone had to ask himself what that comment meant. It certainly sounded as if Merry had decided the heat arcing between them and the passion they’d both clearly felt was nothing more than a physical response to sensuous stimuli. Nothing more.

  Merry’s cell phone chimed. He fished it from his front jeans pocket and swiped the screen to read the text he’d received. Then he half harrumphed, half chuckled.

  “Lunch is ready. Mom wants to know if you’re coming too.”

  “Uh-huh.” Boone’s stomach rumbled on cue.

  If Merry’s mother didn’t occasionally feed him, Boone might have starved or gone on binges in fast-food joints and ruined his health. His own parents worked long hours and traveled a lot, which meant Boone was often on his own. Not quite abandoned, but alone. Good thing he knew how to avoid visits from social services. Besides, his folks did call him every day on Skype, so it wasn’t like he was completely forsaken.

  Merry stretched and stood. “C’mon. Let’s get some chow.”

  Boone nodded and followed his best friend to lunch.

  THE NEXT week passed in a blur for Boone. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d done with Merry. He replayed each and every delicious detail over and over in his head throughout the day, from his morning jack-off session to his evening shower. He felt dirty all the time.

  But Boone suspected he wasn’t suffering alone, at least.

  Merry kept giving Boone sly glances, only to look away quickly if Boone caught his eye. He licked his lips when doing so, as if he too was reliving the experience they’d shared. On occasion, Merry would stammer in Boone’s company, as though his thought processes had been interrupted, and he would blush. At times they were friends still; at other times… something else.

  It seemed to Boone they were both having a hard time putting that kissing lesson behind them.

  On Friday, Boone typically had a date. This week was an exception. On Saturday, he’d usually have a movie or gaming night with Merry. Since it was Friday still, Boone suggested they go see a movie. Merry had looked surprised at the change in routine but said nothing more about it. They went to see The Dark Tower and came home talking enthusiastically about it.

  “Man, I’d wondered if Idris Elba could give us a convincing gunslinger,” Merry said as he stepped out of the car in Boone’s garage, smiling widely, his eyes dancing with excitement.

  “I still would have preferred to see Javier Bardem in that role,” Boone said with a shrug. He’d liked the movie okay but he’d expected more subtlety and horror finesse.

  “I guess.” Merry walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge as though he lived there. Boone didn’t mind. “I mean, Bardem was awesome as a Bond villain, so sure, he could’ve done the role of the gunslinger justice too.”

  “Jackie Earle Haley was cool and intense, as usual,” Boone commented and took a sip from the soda Merry handed him. “He’s a great actor. Underappreciated, though.”

  “He was in that superhero movie. What was it called?” Merry asked, frowning.

  “Watchmen.”

  “Right, that one. Then he was in that series about those strong guys who protected their clients from weird threats and stuff.”

  “Human Target. But only the first season rocked. Then they brought in those two chicks and the show went downhill fast. Action show writers clearly don’t know how to write female characters. Instead of trying, they should’ve just left it as an honest guy show.”

  Merry grinned at him. “You know everything.”

  Quite unlike him, Boone flushed bashfully. “Not everything.”

  Merry laughed. “Most everything.”

  Boone rolled his eyes and turned to the fridge to get some cold air wafting over his hot cheeks. “Want some Rocky Road? Or I could make us something to eat.”

  Merry laughed harder. “Didn’t we just eat takeout on the way home? You can’t still be hungry.” Boone pressed a hand over his belly and, sure enough, it rumbled. Merry slapped him on the shoulder. “I swear, your stomach’s a bottomless pit.”

  Boone harrumphed. “Please. You’re one to talk. I’ve seen you. You can put it away just as much as me.”

  “We could order pizza,” Merry suggested with a smirk.

  An hour later they were finishing off their last slices as they sat on the floor side by side in Boone’s bedroom in front of the TV, watching a pirate series called Black Sails on Netflix.

  Boone didn’t pay much attention to the show, though, as his gaze was mostly directed on the little sticky droplets of cheese attached to the corners of Merry’s mouth. He’d ordered mozzarella sticks along with his spicy chili-pepperoni pizza. Boone was no better, having ordered fried onion rings with his own mexican pizza with beef, jalapeños, nachos, and guacamole.

  Neither of them was going to h
ave fresh breath for their next kissing lesson.

  Boone suppressed a deep sigh and rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. There would be no second kissing lesson, dammit. One had been bad enough. Well, no, obviously it had been freaking awesome, and good and hot and…. But they weren’t going to do it again. No way, nohow. At least that was what Boone kept telling himself.

  “What’s his name?” Merry asked, nodding toward the male lead, Captain Flint. “I can’t remember his real name.”

  “Toby Stephens.”

  “Right.” Merry snapped his fingers, the sound somewhat squishy thanks to his molten cheese-covered fingers. “Wasn’t he a Bond villain too, like Bardem?”

  “Yeah, Gustav Graves in Die Another Day.”

  “See?” Merry gave him a triumphant grin. “Told you, you know everything.”

  “Shut up.” Boone loved hearing Merry give him praise. At least, he’d used to. Now no matter what Merry said, it sounded… intimate. Like a boyfriend complimenting a lover. Boone was being ludicrous—he knew that, but he couldn’t dispel the association. “Just seen too many movies is all.”

  Merry nudged Boone’s arm with his. “You’re too modest, as usual.” Then he bit into his slice of pizza and mumbled with his mouth full, “Think he’s hot? Flint, I mean.”

  Boone went stone-cold rigid, his gaze frozen at a point somewhere between Merry and the TV screen. “Wh-what?”

  “Personally, pirates don’t do it for me,” Merry answered his own question, as if he were conversing with himself, not Boone. “After Jack Sparrow it’s hard to take any of them seriously. Sure, this series does a pretty good job of making them kickass again. But in general, not really my type.”

  Boone was dying to ask who or what exactly was Merry’s type, but he didn’t dare as he was quite effectively tongue-tied. He struggled to keep up, but that proved difficult. Why would his best friend even say something like that? Merry wasn’t attracted to pirates, fine. But… could he be attracted to actors playing pirates? Specifically… male actors? Was Merry saying he liked both girls and boys, or that he was gay?