Page 47 of Sundowners
Creed laughed again and pulled me close. “I could be persuaded, especially if you let me eat you first.”
“Deal,” I said, surprised at how easygoing he was about all this. “Now, tell me…Georgia, then you came here?”
15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Creed
The trick wasto tell Roman the true story of my involvement with Gateway of the Sun without the time element…and to do that while we were both pressed together, our dicks aching for each other.No sweat.
“I hitchhiked my way to San Francisco first. Always wanted to go.”
“Oh wow,” he said. “Like a little hippie boy, huh?”
“Right…but this was, like—”Shit, how old am I supposed to be?I was always so careful, but Roman had me unsettled.
“Yeah, how oldareyou? I’m almost twenty-six. I guess I thought you were younger, but then you say shit that has me thinking—”
“We’re about the same age then,” I said, smoothing right over that discussion. “So this was like eight years ago.”
“Still some hippies there I bet. Just, with different drugs?”
“Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It wasn’t about the drugs for me, man. I wanted to be where people were trying to change the world. Isn’t that what San Francisco is supposed to be all about?”
“Eh, maybe. I think some people in the city still are, but it’s mostly tech bros there now.”
“Right, well, after a year of living on the streets basically, I ended up meeting some folks who were going to a commune in the Santa Cruz mountains, and my friend Muse and I—” Oh, fuck, it hurt to say her name. It came so easily because I wanted to be open with Roman, but part of me wished I could tell the tale without her in it. Maybe then it would be as if tragedy had never struck.
“Muse?”
“I, um, met her in the city, and we kind of looked out for each other. We went with these people up to the commune. It was such a change. Really beautiful. A safe place to sleep and enough food to keep us comfortable, if not full.”
“Oh, wow, what was that like? It’s strange to think there’re places like that still around, but I see folks like that sometimes down at the beach. There’s something timeless about this area, I think.”
Roman’s intuition was so strong, I wondered if he had any clue how in tune he actually was. “Yeah, I’ve met them. Different group, same M.O., I think. It was just what you’d think a spiritualist community was like; lots of meditating, terrible food, and a whole lot of roughing it.”
His smile faded a bit and he ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “Sounds like it was challenging. Was it…”
“It was a shock at first, especially after coming from the streets where there was no schedule, no routine. This was like boot camp but without the weapons and violence. We had classes in herbs and manipulating good and bad energy—”
“You mean like chakras and chi?”
I relaxed a little. I should have expected that Roman would get it. He was a psychologist. Damn near had his doctorate degree in a field that was often treated like hocus-pocus. I was relieved that he didn’t ridicule me.
“Yeah, something like that. The Leaders at the commune, they taught us how to heal people by helping them purge the negative energy and replace it with the good stuff.”
“Hmm,” he said, still running his thumb over my cheekbone. The more he pondered what I was saying, the more rhythmic his movement became. I wondered if he realized what he was doing, that his attempt to soothe me was working. “Kind of like recycling then, huh?”
“It’s subtle,” I said.For you maybe. Not so much for me.“But it helps a lot, especially over time.”
He sat up a little and stared at me. “That’s…you do that with the old folks. At the home. That’s…that’s why they’re so—”
“Happy?” I interjected, laughing nervously. This was make-or-break time. Either he would start laughing and tell me it was bullshit or maybe…just maybe…
“Yeah,” he said, his face lighting up. “Wow. So you really are magic,” he said, snuggling a little closer.
“I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve,” I said, leaning forward to kiss his neck.Oh, Goddess, to have a taste of him while he’s glowing like this…
