Page 14 of Lace

“Yeah.” Caleb turned away from the club, relieved at not having to answer Dwayne’s hinted accusation. He snuggled his lanky frame under Levi’s arm.

Fall swirled around them with a winter promise right behind as they hurried out into the night.

Five

“Back to yours still, right?” Caleb asked Levi as they followed the burly campus security guard towards the dorms.

“You sure?” Levi studied him. “If you’re not up for it?—”

“Shut it.” Wanting to make sure Levi didn’t dare voice another word of dissent, Caleb planted a lingering kiss on his lips. “I’m always up for you. You know that.”

“Student res, then?” the guard asked, rolling his eyes at them and not even trying to hide his grin.

“Yeah.” Levi trailed a hand down to cup Caleb’s ass under his kilt and used his tongue to find the exact spot on Caleb’s neck that made him shiver and melt consistently. He managed to walk and nuzzle at the same damn time so Caleb was half hard and tingling all over when they reached the dorm entrance.

Once there, the guy waited for them to go inside before he turned and headed back towards the pub. Caleb barely noticed the guy’s departure, so wrapped up was he in Levi’s attentions. One thing about bar fights—they made a guy horny and Levi was making no bones about what he wanted from Caleb now.

His hand, in fact, had moved from Caleb’s ass to his crotch where the kneading and rubbing was clearly intended to finish the job of getting Caleb hard.

“No, wait.” Caleb struggled out of the distraction of Levi’s touch and craned for the door. “Wait, Lev, I want to show you something.”

“Why?” Levi looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “What? Only thing I want to see right now is your ass under this skirt free of all that extra leather.” He gave Caleb’s ass a good whack, hard enough to be felt through the thick layers of said leather.

“You’ll see.” Caleb grinned and pushed primly against Levi’s chest, creating a measured space between himself and his boyfriend. “This is important. Won’t take long.” He towed Levi after him as he left the safety of the dorm entrance and hurried across the damp lawns in the direction of the music building. “Come on!”

Where are we going?” Levi glanced about, his gaze darting to the shadowy corners.

Caleb gripped Levi’s hand and ran with him around the corner to a small, less conspicuous access door, knowing that this time of night the main entrance would be locked up tight. Dew-damp grass left condensation on his boots and a trail of footprints behind them. Bright lights showed up their passage, but Caleb didn’t care. If they got caught, they hadn’t done anything wrong. Yet. A wide grin curled his lips and he clung tighter to Levi’s hand. “Don’t worry. Anyone tries anything, I’ll protect you. Now hurry up!”

Tucked into a darker corner, beneath the branches of a maple whose leaves had pretty much finished their transition to autumn flames and now dropped in the thin breeze around them, a single, steel door was held ajar with a cracked brick. Caleb slipped his fingers between the door and the frame and hauled it open.

“Shouldn’t this door be locked?” Levi asked, glancing over his shoulder before Caleb managed to drag him inside.

“Should be,” Caleb allowed. “Hardly ever is. Someone always tapes over the catch or something. They don’t have enough practice rooms, so people have to have access at all hours to get in enough practice time.”

“Practice for what?”

“Music, goof. It’s harder than it looks, you know. Come on.”

Caleb scurried his lover down the deserted hallway to a labyrinth in the basement that contained a warren of tiny rooms. The brass blare of a trombone came faintly from one distant corner, and a piano trilled from the furthest end of another long, narrow corridor.

“It’s the fucking middle of the night. Are people really practicing?”

“Only time you can get in here if you’re an undergrad or if you’re not in with the right profs. It’s a fucking nightmare.”

“And how would you know?” Levi asked, pulling Caleb up short and yanking him around, catching him, chest to chest. “Being a business student and all?”

Caleb’s heart skidded at the sudden force that propelled him around and into Levi’s embrace. His pulse pounded, heart hammering happily away. “I got friends,” Caleb told him, relaxing his body against his lover’s. “I know stuff.” He shrugged. “And business was just so I’d have a place to stay. Keeps Uncle Jase happy. Music?” He stifled the wilting sigh he wanted to let loose. “That’s for me.”

“So why arewehere in the middle of the night?”

“Because I want to show you something.” Caleb squirmed closer, leaning so he could nibble on Levi’s earlobe. “And those dorm walls are so thin. I hate when people bang on them when I’m nailing you. You’re so loud.”

“What makes you think—mffhp!”

Caleb cut Levi’s comment off with a kiss that had his resistance sliding away in no time. Only when Levi was moaning and his muscles had gone lax did Caleb prop him on the wall behind and remove his mouth from his lover’s.

“Now.” Caleb straightened a few strands of hair off Levi’s forehead as he pulled away from the kiss. “Keep quiet, because there is a security guard around here somewhere. He might not kick kids out for practicing, but he will have our asses in a sling if he finds us here for any other reason.”

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