Page 34 of Lost Little Boy
“What? What’s so damn funny?”
“Carmie sucked me into a camp like that in the Adirondacks when we first started seeing each other. I was attacked by a horde of mosquitoes and had to walk around with pink anti-itch lotion on me the whole weekend. Poor Carmie was beside himself and wanted to leave on Saturday morning. He claimed it was his fault I got attacked. It was a good weekend for me. He was diligent in trying to keep my mind off the itching.”
I joined him in laughter, imagining Ossie, who had a perpetual tan due to his Creole heritage, walking around a campground with pink dots on his tan skin. He would have stood out like a sore thumb.
“Well, I’ll make sure to take plenty of bug spray. Perry had us staying in a tent, but I upgraded us to a cabin with indoor plumbing. That’s about as outdoorsy as I can be. City boy, born and bred.” Ossie lifted his glass to touch with mine in toast to all of us city boys.
“So, the grand opening isn’t until the end of the month, but is the club open yet?”
“We’re doing the soft opening next weekend. Right now, the instructors are training the staff who are participating in the demonstrations. Carmie went to a ShabariFestival with three other boys he’s friends with last fall. It’s a detailed artistic craft. He was able to enlist the help of a guy from Berlin to plan the club. There are all sorts of suspension devices being installed. Does your boy like to be tied up?”
“We haven’t explored those limits yet. When I say this is new, I mean it. We’re establishing trust, which isn’t easy when you’re getting to know a stranger. It takes time, as I’m sure you know.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me. I met Carmie seven years ago at a club in New Orleans when I was visiting my family. My grandmother was ill, so I was going back and forth a lot. He swore I had a boy here in New York and after our initial meeting and hookup, he refused to let me take him out again. For two months, I chased that boy around the French Quarter, and then he disappeared. He’d moved to DC without a word to me. I finally had to hire a private detective to find him, but that’s another story.”
“It’s very exciting. Does your Daddy let you tie him up like that?” I turned to see Perry and Carmie behind us, having returned to the bar.
Carmie laughed. “I’ve been given the freedom to tie him up from time to time. It’s a beautiful display of his trust in me that he’ll let me truss him up when we play.”
I glanced at Ossie to see his loving gaze as Carmie answered Perry’s questions, for which I was grateful. I’d tied a boy or two to a headboard in the past, but what they were talking about was well above my abilities. Nothing inside me wanted to do harm to Perry, but if he was interested in learning the techniques of rope play, I’d be open to giving it a try.
After another drink with Carmie and Ossie, I was ready to go home. Seeing the fascination on Perry’s face at Ossie and Carmie’s interactions gave me hope that one day, Perry and I would have that same lovesick expression when we were around other people.
That would be a dream come true.
Over the next week, Perry and I had lunches and dinners together. We went to a concert to see a group he liked and we hung out at both of our apartments. He decided to stay at his apartment a few nights, and I slept for shit on those nights. His things, however, were still at my corporate apartment. It made me believe that he was on the verge of making some decisions, and I didn’twant to push.
Wednesday evening, I arrived at his apartment building after I finished a dinner with my father and one of our large distributors on the West Coast. After work, Perry had planned to go to the community college to fill out the paperwork for the classes he was interested in taking over the summer to see what a degree in education might entail. I was proud of him for opening himself to the idea of learning something new.
I entered the code to get into the building and jogged up the stairs to the second floor. I rang the doorbell, and when the door opened, I was surprised to see a tall guy whowasn’tPerry. “May I help you?”
“Is Perry here?” I looked at the door to see I was at the right apartment.
“He’s in his bedroom. Are you Wexler Grassley the third?” The guy tilted his head and grinned as if he was waiting for my reaction to the fact he knew who I was.
“I am.Youare?” I raised my eyebrow at him because, let’s face it, he was a strange man in my boyfriend’s apartment while I was still standing in the hallway.
“I’m Aaron Kamper. I posted a flier on the bulletin board at school that I’m looking to share an apartment. Perry called me and we met for coffee yesterday. We decided we could probably get along living together.”
“Wex! Come in.” Perry rushed into my arms, which was exactly what I needed. I kissed his forehead and let him pull me into the apartment. “Guy I Don’t Know” closed the door and went back to the couch, picking up a video game controller. I glanced toward the television set Perry bought when he moved into the apartment to see a gaming system that wasn’t there the last time I was in the place.
“You got a video game system?” Something wasn’t adding up.
“No, that’s mine.” Aaron hit a button and the sounds of gunfire filled the room.
I took Perry’s hand to lead him down the hallway to the primary bedroom and closed the door. Immediately, I was angry, but I wasn’t exactly sure why. Was it because some cute, unknown guy opened the door of his apartment and had moved in without me knowing, or was it because I was afraid Perry was going to replace me with someone closer to his age?
Chapter Seventeen
Perry
Daddy was pissed, and even I could see why he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion when Aaron answered the door. I’d been so excited to show Wex my negative test results that I’d forgotten to tell him about Aaron moving in.
I was anxious for us to do more than just frottage—a word I’d learned from my new friend Carmine. I wanted more withWex, and now I had proof that I was not a threat to his health and we could do anything we wanted.
Since meeting Carmine and Oscar Leone in New York, I’d been texting with Carmine because he’d been kind enough to answer any questions I had about Daddy/boy dynamics or anything else since it was my first relationship. How did I survive without Wex and Carmine in my life? Carmine’s sense of humor kept me laughing all the time.
“I planned to introduce you to Aaron in a better way, but I was busy. We met and talked, and he’s nice. He was living on his sister’s couch, and she is getting ready to have a baby. He works at the college in the IT department, so he makes money, and he’s taking one of the same classes as me.”
