Chapter 6
Chad nodded, getting out of Derek’s car awkwardly. Although the truth was, he’d much rather have stayed inside it and practiced some more kissing. Man, that had blown his mind. No one had ever kissed him quite like that before. He fell into step beside Parker as they started back toward the convention center. He was acutely conscious of the other man, and it seemed to his addled brain that he could feel the warmth of Parker’s body across the intervening space and through his armor. His eyes kept darting sideways to land on the other man’s mouth. He was remembering what it felt like when it had moved over his.
“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, Chad, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to control myself,” Parker remarked suddenly, making him jump.
He blushed furiously. “I’m sorry,” he began helplessly.
Parker laughed. “Are you? Why?” he asked with an impish glance at Chad. “I’m not saying that I don’t like it when you look at me that way. I’m just saying that it’s hard on my self-control. Is that necessarily a bad thing?”
Oh. Chad considered this, and felt a spurt of something rather like pride that his just looking at Parker could have an effect on the other man’s self-control. Reading his expression, Parker grinned. “You are too cute,” he said.
He’d never been called ‘cute;’ before this, either. Skinny, geeky, gawky…all of those, but never cute. He found that he rather liked it. “Umm…” he began.
“Yes?” Parker looked at him, which didn’t help his ability to speak coherently at all.
“If I win the costume contest tomorrow…” Chad began.
Parker held up an admonishing finger. “No ‘if’,’ he said severely. “WHEN you win the costume contest tomorrow…”
Chad smiled shyly. “Okay, WHEN I win it…the Grand Prize is two tickets to a sci fi movie premiere, and dinner at a fancy restaurant afterward. Did you want to go with me?”
Parker stared at him, then nodded. “Of course I’ll go with you. Free tickets to a movie premiere are nothing to sneeze at, after all,” he teased.
Chad felt both exhilarated and even more nervous. HE’D just asked a guy out on a date! And the guy had said yes! He felt light-headed, and his feet didn’t quite seem to be touching the ground right now. “Okay. Umm…you might need to like rent a tuxedo or something…” he said when he could speak again.
Parker smiled. “That’s fine. I think I’ll look pretty snazzy in a tux.”
Chad agreed with him on that. But then, he thought that Parker Jones would look fabulous in sack cloth and ashes. Or nothing at all. Dear God, nothing at all…he swallowed heavily and stumbled as all of the blood tried to rush out of his brain and head for parts lower in an instant. The image of Parker wearing nothing at all had done him in. A hand caught his arm and steadied him.
“Hey, you all right, Chad?” Parker asked in concern.
No, not really. He felt like hyperventilating and maybe passing out on the concrete. But since that would be impossibly lame and idiotic, he took long breaths and pulled himself together once more. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. “Just lost my footing there for a sec. This armor isn’t very easy to get around in.”
“I’ll bet,” Parker agreed, going along with his excuse. “Maybe you should take it off for awhile? I know you’re proud of it, and you have reason to be. But it looks pretty heavy and it must be hot. You could don it again before the contest tomorrow, and just wear street clothes for now. I’ll help you get out of it,” he added, with a look in his eye that said that this was not an innocent, friendly proposal of help.
Chad gasped a little. “Err, maybe I should take it off,” he said, gulping.
Parker smiled like a shark. “Yes, you should,” he purred. “Most definitely. Come on, let’s go up to your room,” and he towed a suddenly docile Chad along with him into the main building and toward the elevators.
But to the disappointment of both of them, they found Derek waiting by the elevators. “There you are, Chad!” he cried as though his friend had been long lost. “Dude, I need to change out of this stupid costume. Cassie doesn’t like it. But since you snagged the hotel key, I don’t even know which number it is.” He explained.
“Umm, I’ve got the key right here,” Chad said, admirably hiding his disappointment. “And I wanted to get out of my costume too, because it’s getting heavy. Did you still want to come up with us?” he asked Parker unhappily.
Parker gave Derek an annoyed look. “No, you’re friend can help you take your costume off,” he replied. “Where is Cassie? I thought you two were going to watch a movie together?”
“We were, but the place was pretty full. We couldn’t get good seats.”
“All right. Where is she now? I’ll go and meet her, and you guys can come down and find us once you’re done.”
Chad’s shoulders slumped as Derek replied: “She’s in the display room again. She said she wanted to buy something from one of the booths.”
“Okay. I’ll see you both in a little bit,” Parker smiled ruefully at Chad before walking away.
Chad stood and stared hopelessly after him, before turning to his friend. “Let’s go up to our room, Derek,” he said despondently.
His friend eyed him as they got onto the elevator. “What’s wrong with you?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” he said shortly.
Parker strolled among the booths until he spotted Cassie. He went over to find her just turning away with a bag in her hand. “Oh, hey, Park. How’d it go?” she asked eagerly.
He grinned at her. “Pretty good, I think. I’ve got me a weekend long date,” he told her.
She squealed and clapped her hands together. “That’s awesome, Park! I just knew you’d meet somebody great here this weekend!”
“Yeah, although his friend is starting to annoy me,” Parker told her mock-severely.
She snorted. “Derek is just a big puppy. In that he tries to drool down my neck,” she added wickedly to make him laugh.
Chad morosely pulled off his costume piece-by-piece. Derek paused in yanking off his own stupid Stormtrooper costume to eye his friend. “You okay, Chad?” he asked abruptly.
His friend sighed. “I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just…Parker was going to help me take my costume off…”
Derek’s brows shot up. “He was? Were you two going to…” he trailed off, not wanting to even think about two guys going at it in the same hotel room that he was going to be sleeping in tonight.
Chad shook his head. “No. Not this weekend, anyway. But he asked me out, Derek! He says that he wants to date me, not just hook up at the Con!”
Derek’s jaw dropped. “Really?!” he blurted. Then he realized how astonished he sounded, and shut up.
Chad’s lips lifted in a wry smile. He understood his friend’s shock completely. A hot guy like Parker Jones wanted to date HIM?! It was inconceivable. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the whole situation. But Derek shook his head after a moment.
“That’s cool, man,” he replied. “And I guess if somebody awesome like Cassie will actually go out with a loser like me, then it stands to reason that a great guy like you could find somebody too.”
Chad’s attention was caught. “She’s actually going to go out with you?” he asked rather incredulously.
“Well, she said that this weekend is a test. But if I pass it, we might actually start dating,” Derek explained. He got a blissfully goofy expression on his face. “She’s so amazing, Chad! And I could actually have a real girlfriend!”
Chad found himself smiling. “That’s terrific, Derek,” he said. “I’m really glad.”
“Thanks, Chad. I can’t believe we might both hook up at the same Con. It’s a freakin’ miracle,” Derek commented.
“Well, we’ve always done everything together,” Chad pointed out. “So I guess its no surprise that we’re doing this together too.”
Parker and Cassie had found a bench near the elevators and were sitting waiting for the return of Chad and Derek from their hotel room. “It should be interesting to see Stormy out of his dumb costume,” Cassie commented as she twirled her long braid between her fingers.
“Yes. Not that Chad’s costume is dumb, but I still can’t wait to see what he looks like without it on,” Parker replied.
“You just want to see what he looks like without ANY clothes on,” his friend said slyly.
Parker shrugged. “Sure, why not? He’s cute and sexy in a geeky sort of way. And I haven’t been with anybody except for a couple of guys I hooked up with for one-night stands since I dumped Jace. My young, male hormones are raging out of control.”
She giggled. “Blue balls, blue balls, whatcha gonnna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you…” she sang.
He chuckled. “Are you seriously telling me that you’re not horny all the time?” he asked her.
“Sure,” she replied. “What men don’t understand is that we ladies actually have a higher sex drive than you do. But ‘getting our rocks off’ isn’t enough for us most of the time. We have a genetic predisposition to look for a lover who’ll stay with us so they can hunt for us while we crank out babies. And just try telling your biological system that the thing it’s spent thousands of years doing doesn’t apply anymore. It isn’t a very good listener,” she added ruefully.
Parker patted her arm sympathetically. “You girls have it bad,” he remarked with a grimace. “Periods, pregnancy, and a brain that keeps telling you NOT to hook up with the first hot guy who comes along…geez, I’m glad I‘m a man.”
She gave him a dirty look. “Jerk,” she said severely, making him grin.
“Ah, but you love me anyway,” he replied.
She snorted. “Yes, although I’m not sure exactly why. It can’t be your good looks, since you like other guys. Or your personality, since that leaves much to be desired…”
“It’s my charm,” he said wickedly. “You know it is.”
“Probably,” she said dryly.
“So what are you going to do with your puppy dog?” Parker asked, stretching his legs out in front of him.
‘Train him,” Cassie replied promptly.
“Even in bed?”
“ESPECIALLY in bed. What guys don’t get is that being able to train a guy sexually isn’t a bad thing at all. If he’s a good learner you can teach him everything you like. Then you get the perfect lover. With a guy who thinks he knows it all, it’s a lot harder to get what you want. He wants to show off his prowess in bed, and to hell with what you want. Stormy will be willing to do anything I ask him to. Anything that will get him laid.”
“That’s pretty cynical,” Parker noted.
“It’s also true. Besides, I wouldn’t be contemplating putting in the time to train him right if I didn’t like the guy. If he were a total jerk or a complete loser, I wouldn’t waste my time and energy on him. But Derek has potential.”
“For what?” Parker asked drolly.
She elbowed him smartly. He grunted and rubbed at his side. “Hey!” he protested. “What was that for?”
“For being mean about my potential future boyfriend. I haven’t teased you about Chad, have I? And he’s a geek with all of those geeky qualities that are so easy to make fun of. But I wouldn’t do that because you like him. And because he’s a sweet guy,” she went on.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. You have a point. That Derek guy doesn’t seem like a bad guy either. And if you like him then that’s the only important thing. But if he ever hurts you Cass, you tell me right away…”
She grinned cheekily. “Like I can’t handle myself? But thanks for the offer, Park. You’re a good friend,” she patted his arm to make up for the elbow in the ribs.
The elevator dinged just then. Both of them turned to look at it, and after a moment the doors slid open to reveal Chad and Derek within(now sans costumes). They both hesitantly walked into the lobby as Cassie and Parker looked them over. Chad was tall and skinny, his long frame now clad in a t-shirt with the original poster for Star Wars printed on the front and a pair of rather worn jeans. Derek was stockier and shorter, and the t-shirt he was wearing(with Yoda on the front of it) revealed that he wasn’t corpulent like so many of the other Con goers. He didn’t work out, so he didn’t have ripped abs; but his belly was relatively flat under the t-shirt. The pair of jeans he was wearing looked surprisingly good on him. Cassie gave him an approving look as the two young men came over to where she and Parker were sitting on the bench.
“So that’s what you look like under that stupid costume, Stormy. Not bad. Not bad at all.”
The approval in her voice made his chest swell visibly. Parker’s lips twitched as he looked at Chad. “You’re really tall, Chad,” he said as he rose to his feet. “I didn’t realize how tall when you were wearing the Boba Fett costume. You make me feel like a dwarf in comparison.”
Chad looked anxious. Parker grinned. “Don’t be worried. I don’t mind having a boyfriend who towers over me. I just hope I don’t have to stand on a box to kiss you.”
Chad’s face turned rather red as Parker walked right up to him and very ostentatiously stood on his tiptoes. Their mouths were very close. “Nope, won’t need to stand on a box,” Parker whispered, making him gasp a little as his eyes fastened on the other man’s mouth.
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Chad nodded, getting out of Derek’s car awkwardly. Although the truth was, he’d much rather have stayed inside it and practiced some more kissing. Man, that had blown his mind. No one had ever kissed him quite like that before. He fell into step beside Parker as they started back toward the convention center. He was acutely conscious of the other man, and it seemed to his addled brain that he could feel the warmth of Parker’s body across the intervening space and through his armor. His eyes kept darting sideways to land on the other man’s mouth. He was remembering what it felt like when it had moved over his.
“If you don’t stop looking at me like that, Chad, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to control myself,” Parker remarked suddenly, making him jump.
He blushed furiously. “I’m sorry,” he began helplessly.
Parker laughed. “Are you? Why?” he asked with an impish glance at Chad. “I’m not saying that I don’t like it when you look at me that way. I’m just saying that it’s hard on my self-control. Is that necessarily a bad thing?”
Oh. Chad considered this, and felt a spurt of something rather like pride that his just looking at Parker could have an effect on the other man’s self-control. Reading his expression, Parker grinned. “You are too cute,” he said.
He’d never been called ‘cute;’ before this, either. Skinny, geeky, gawky…all of those, but never cute. He found that he rather liked it. “Umm…” he began.
“Yes?” Parker looked at him, which didn’t help his ability to speak coherently at all.
“If I win the costume contest tomorrow…” Chad began.
Parker held up an admonishing finger. “No ‘if’,’ he said severely. “WHEN you win the costume contest tomorrow…”
Chad smiled shyly. “Okay, WHEN I win it…the Grand Prize is two tickets to a sci fi movie premiere, and dinner at a fancy restaurant afterward. Did you want to go with me?”
Parker stared at him, then nodded. “Of course I’ll go with you. Free tickets to a movie premiere are nothing to sneeze at, after all,” he teased.
Chad felt both exhilarated and even more nervous. HE’D just asked a guy out on a date! And the guy had said yes! He felt light-headed, and his feet didn’t quite seem to be touching the ground right now. “Okay. Umm…you might need to like rent a tuxedo or something…” he said when he could speak again.
Parker smiled. “That’s fine. I think I’ll look pretty snazzy in a tux.”
Chad agreed with him on that. But then, he thought that Parker Jones would look fabulous in sack cloth and ashes. Or nothing at all. Dear God, nothing at all…he swallowed heavily and stumbled as all of the blood tried to rush out of his brain and head for parts lower in an instant. The image of Parker wearing nothing at all had done him in. A hand caught his arm and steadied him.
“Hey, you all right, Chad?” Parker asked in concern.
No, not really. He felt like hyperventilating and maybe passing out on the concrete. But since that would be impossibly lame and idiotic, he took long breaths and pulled himself together once more. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. “Just lost my footing there for a sec. This armor isn’t very easy to get around in.”
“I’ll bet,” Parker agreed, going along with his excuse. “Maybe you should take it off for awhile? I know you’re proud of it, and you have reason to be. But it looks pretty heavy and it must be hot. You could don it again before the contest tomorrow, and just wear street clothes for now. I’ll help you get out of it,” he added, with a look in his eye that said that this was not an innocent, friendly proposal of help.
Chad gasped a little. “Err, maybe I should take it off,” he said, gulping.
Parker smiled like a shark. “Yes, you should,” he purred. “Most definitely. Come on, let’s go up to your room,” and he towed a suddenly docile Chad along with him into the main building and toward the elevators.
But to the disappointment of both of them, they found Derek waiting by the elevators. “There you are, Chad!” he cried as though his friend had been long lost. “Dude, I need to change out of this stupid costume. Cassie doesn’t like it. But since you snagged the hotel key, I don’t even know which number it is.” He explained.
“Umm, I’ve got the key right here,” Chad said, admirably hiding his disappointment. “And I wanted to get out of my costume too, because it’s getting heavy. Did you still want to come up with us?” he asked Parker unhappily.
Parker gave Derek an annoyed look. “No, you’re friend can help you take your costume off,” he replied. “Where is Cassie? I thought you two were going to watch a movie together?”
“We were, but the place was pretty full. We couldn’t get good seats.”
“All right. Where is she now? I’ll go and meet her, and you guys can come down and find us once you’re done.”
Chad’s shoulders slumped as Derek replied: “She’s in the display room again. She said she wanted to buy something from one of the booths.”
“Okay. I’ll see you both in a little bit,” Parker smiled ruefully at Chad before walking away.
Chad stood and stared hopelessly after him, before turning to his friend. “Let’s go up to our room, Derek,” he said despondently.
His friend eyed him as they got onto the elevator. “What’s wrong with you?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” he said shortly.
Parker strolled among the booths until he spotted Cassie. He went over to find her just turning away with a bag in her hand. “Oh, hey, Park. How’d it go?” she asked eagerly.
He grinned at her. “Pretty good, I think. I’ve got me a weekend long date,” he told her.
She squealed and clapped her hands together. “That’s awesome, Park! I just knew you’d meet somebody great here this weekend!”
“Yeah, although his friend is starting to annoy me,” Parker told her mock-severely.
She snorted. “Derek is just a big puppy. In that he tries to drool down my neck,” she added wickedly to make him laugh.
Chad morosely pulled off his costume piece-by-piece. Derek paused in yanking off his own stupid Stormtrooper costume to eye his friend. “You okay, Chad?” he asked abruptly.
His friend sighed. “I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just…Parker was going to help me take my costume off…”
Derek’s brows shot up. “He was? Were you two going to…” he trailed off, not wanting to even think about two guys going at it in the same hotel room that he was going to be sleeping in tonight.
Chad shook his head. “No. Not this weekend, anyway. But he asked me out, Derek! He says that he wants to date me, not just hook up at the Con!”
Derek’s jaw dropped. “Really?!” he blurted. Then he realized how astonished he sounded, and shut up.
Chad’s lips lifted in a wry smile. He understood his friend’s shock completely. A hot guy like Parker Jones wanted to date HIM?! It was inconceivable. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the whole situation. But Derek shook his head after a moment.
“That’s cool, man,” he replied. “And I guess if somebody awesome like Cassie will actually go out with a loser like me, then it stands to reason that a great guy like you could find somebody too.”
Chad’s attention was caught. “She’s actually going to go out with you?” he asked rather incredulously.
“Well, she said that this weekend is a test. But if I pass it, we might actually start dating,” Derek explained. He got a blissfully goofy expression on his face. “She’s so amazing, Chad! And I could actually have a real girlfriend!”
Chad found himself smiling. “That’s terrific, Derek,” he said. “I’m really glad.”
“Thanks, Chad. I can’t believe we might both hook up at the same Con. It’s a freakin’ miracle,” Derek commented.
“Well, we’ve always done everything together,” Chad pointed out. “So I guess its no surprise that we’re doing this together too.”
Parker and Cassie had found a bench near the elevators and were sitting waiting for the return of Chad and Derek from their hotel room. “It should be interesting to see Stormy out of his dumb costume,” Cassie commented as she twirled her long braid between her fingers.
“Yes. Not that Chad’s costume is dumb, but I still can’t wait to see what he looks like without it on,” Parker replied.
“You just want to see what he looks like without ANY clothes on,” his friend said slyly.
Parker shrugged. “Sure, why not? He’s cute and sexy in a geeky sort of way. And I haven’t been with anybody except for a couple of guys I hooked up with for one-night stands since I dumped Jace. My young, male hormones are raging out of control.”
She giggled. “Blue balls, blue balls, whatcha gonnna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you…” she sang.
He chuckled. “Are you seriously telling me that you’re not horny all the time?” he asked her.
“Sure,” she replied. “What men don’t understand is that we ladies actually have a higher sex drive than you do. But ‘getting our rocks off’ isn’t enough for us most of the time. We have a genetic predisposition to look for a lover who’ll stay with us so they can hunt for us while we crank out babies. And just try telling your biological system that the thing it’s spent thousands of years doing doesn’t apply anymore. It isn’t a very good listener,” she added ruefully.
Parker patted her arm sympathetically. “You girls have it bad,” he remarked with a grimace. “Periods, pregnancy, and a brain that keeps telling you NOT to hook up with the first hot guy who comes along…geez, I’m glad I‘m a man.”
She gave him a dirty look. “Jerk,” she said severely, making him grin.
“Ah, but you love me anyway,” he replied.
She snorted. “Yes, although I’m not sure exactly why. It can’t be your good looks, since you like other guys. Or your personality, since that leaves much to be desired…”
“It’s my charm,” he said wickedly. “You know it is.”
“Probably,” she said dryly.
“So what are you going to do with your puppy dog?” Parker asked, stretching his legs out in front of him.
‘Train him,” Cassie replied promptly.
“Even in bed?”
“ESPECIALLY in bed. What guys don’t get is that being able to train a guy sexually isn’t a bad thing at all. If he’s a good learner you can teach him everything you like. Then you get the perfect lover. With a guy who thinks he knows it all, it’s a lot harder to get what you want. He wants to show off his prowess in bed, and to hell with what you want. Stormy will be willing to do anything I ask him to. Anything that will get him laid.”
“That’s pretty cynical,” Parker noted.
“It’s also true. Besides, I wouldn’t be contemplating putting in the time to train him right if I didn’t like the guy. If he were a total jerk or a complete loser, I wouldn’t waste my time and energy on him. But Derek has potential.”
“For what?” Parker asked drolly.
She elbowed him smartly. He grunted and rubbed at his side. “Hey!” he protested. “What was that for?”
“For being mean about my potential future boyfriend. I haven’t teased you about Chad, have I? And he’s a geek with all of those geeky qualities that are so easy to make fun of. But I wouldn’t do that because you like him. And because he’s a sweet guy,” she went on.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. You have a point. That Derek guy doesn’t seem like a bad guy either. And if you like him then that’s the only important thing. But if he ever hurts you Cass, you tell me right away…”
She grinned cheekily. “Like I can’t handle myself? But thanks for the offer, Park. You’re a good friend,” she patted his arm to make up for the elbow in the ribs.
The elevator dinged just then. Both of them turned to look at it, and after a moment the doors slid open to reveal Chad and Derek within(now sans costumes). They both hesitantly walked into the lobby as Cassie and Parker looked them over. Chad was tall and skinny, his long frame now clad in a t-shirt with the original poster for Star Wars printed on the front and a pair of rather worn jeans. Derek was stockier and shorter, and the t-shirt he was wearing(with Yoda on the front of it) revealed that he wasn’t corpulent like so many of the other Con goers. He didn’t work out, so he didn’t have ripped abs; but his belly was relatively flat under the t-shirt. The pair of jeans he was wearing looked surprisingly good on him. Cassie gave him an approving look as the two young men came over to where she and Parker were sitting on the bench.
“So that’s what you look like under that stupid costume, Stormy. Not bad. Not bad at all.”
The approval in her voice made his chest swell visibly. Parker’s lips twitched as he looked at Chad. “You’re really tall, Chad,” he said as he rose to his feet. “I didn’t realize how tall when you were wearing the Boba Fett costume. You make me feel like a dwarf in comparison.”
Chad looked anxious. Parker grinned. “Don’t be worried. I don’t mind having a boyfriend who towers over me. I just hope I don’t have to stand on a box to kiss you.”
Chad’s face turned rather red as Parker walked right up to him and very ostentatiously stood on his tiptoes. Their mouths were very close. “Nope, won’t need to stand on a box,” Parker whispered, making him gasp a little as his eyes fastened on the other man’s mouth.
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