Page 62 of Sass in the Grass

“No, you’re honest,” Dixon said while cupping Jovian’s cheek. “It’s refreshing.”

“I’m blunt and rude. And…I never want to be rude to you.”

“I’m glad you don’t want to be rude to me. Listen, Jovian, I’m not pressuring you about anything. I just want to help you become the best person you can be.”

“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

“Good. Let me make you some tea.”

Chapter Sixteen

Itwasthesweetesttime, sitting on the comfortable sofa while sipping tea that tasted of oranges and spices. Dixon confessed the honey was fresh from a hive in the forest.

“How did you get it?”

“I went in while it was cool in the morning, and the bees were sleepy.”

The man was amazing. “So, the self-sufficient thing is real. Like…you never go to stores?”

“Not never. I go once a month. Unfortunately, I have a coffee addiction and can’t grow my own. I mostly use honey, but I get sugar for backup. I need flour, and I don’t grow my own wheat. Some things I need at the store.”

Unable to believe anyone could go an entire month without shopping, Jovian tried to picture it for himself. Jovian could notimaginethat. “I almost live at stores. If I’m not at them, working or shopping, I’m online. How could someone like you want someone like me?”

“Because we’re so different?”

“Yes! I’m addicted to coffee too, but I’m sure you don’t have an espresso machine in your kitchen. I’m addicted to shopping, to lunches in expensive restaurants. I’m a self-centered, shallow person, Dixon,” he said, and tears fell all over again.

“I think you’re a little harder on yourself than you need to be,” Dixon said, taking Jovian’s cup from him and setting it on the coffee table. “Come on. Come with me.”

Jovian was being pulled to a door on the western side of the room, and his fear struck him in the chest, making him stop moving. “Where are you taking me?”

After his head fell back, Dixon answered, “Well, I was going to take you to the bedroom.”

“No!”

With his head righted and his eyes narrowed in worry, Dixon grabbed Jovian’s tiny biceps and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“You said that we could fuck and then be friends. I don’t want to just be friends with you!”

“Oh, fuck!” Dixon took Jovian’s face into both his hands and kissed him with feather-light pecks before he whispered, “You’re just a scared baby. Don’t worry, Jovian. This isn’t that. It’s me wanting to make you feel good. Wanting to show you that you don’t have to be scared with me, ever.”

His body immediately lost the tension that had threatened to break him apart and he jumped up and wrapped his arms tightly around Dixon’s neck, holding him like if he let go, he’d lose Dixon and also, he’d lose himself. If he gave himself to Dixon, he could lose himself too, but he knew instinctively that wouldn’t happen.

Dixon held him off the floor and kissed him. “There, there, baby boy. Let daddy make you feel good, hmm?”

“I’m…scared.”

“What are you scared of baby boy?”

“That…once we…do this, you won’t want me anymore.”

“Is that what’s happened in the past?”

Jovian stilled for a moment, and then his head nodded a little as his eyes slid shut, ashamed of the revelation.

“Tsk, they didn’t know what they had. A prize beyond all the prizes this world has ever given. Maybe I’m glad they didn’t keep you. Then I couldn’t have found you.”

The way Dixon’s eyes were locked onto his, once he let himself open them, he knew Dixon wasn’t lying. Jovian figured there wasn’t a lying bone in the man’s body. He was what he was. If someone didn’t like it, he moved on. How freeing that must be.

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