Love & Other Curses, 1985 | bxb | ONC 2024

CHAPTER 15: Falling In Love

What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?

~ Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.

Adam held the green-eyed boy and kissed him back. He had been obsessed with this moment ever since meeting Thomas Harding. What would it be like to kiss the innocent boy? How would it be to kiss a boy? Would it be another lustful moment to satisfy a physiological need? Or perhaps Mud Boy had been nothing more than curiosity masked as infatuation. The Hail Mary he hoped for was that the green-eyed boy might be his true love's kiss.

Adam doubted such a kiss existed, but he had been obsessed with the possibility ever since he learned about the Grimm Brother's adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, published in 1812, a mere six years before Mary Shelley introduced the Monster to the world. A monster that yearned for such a miracle both then and now. He wondered if one tale had inspired the other without the happy ending.

The kiss on the lonely hill answered all his questions.

Thomas opened a chamber in Adam's heart that he didn't know existed. In the moment Mud Boy pressed his virgin lips against his, he experienced the power of the rising sun at sunset. And Adam never wanted to let go of the light. He never wanted to let go of Thomas.

When their lips finally parted, Adam rested his brow on Thomas and whispered, "Just remember, you kissed me first."

Thomas sighed, oblivious to the blood dripping down his leg. "Can we do that again?"

"Hell, yes," Adam said, cupping the boy's head and gently kissing him until he moaned in pain. "What is it?"

Thomas looked down at the blood. "My thigh."

"Holy shit." Adam ripped off his t-shirt and knelt on the ground, covering the leaking wound. He wrapped the material around Thomas' leg and tied it off tight.

"Ok, easy," Thomas said. "I don't need a tourniquet."

Adam's hands lingered around the back of Mud Boy's smooth leg as he checked to ensure the bandage would hold, grazing the hem of those amazingly short Dolfin shorts. An amused grin spread across his face over the irony of his current position.

"What?" Thomas asked, always the innocent boy.

Adam pulled the knot tighter. "Nothing."

"Ow," Thomas yelled, pushing him over with a gentle shove. "You did that on purpose."

Adam laughed, looking up at the green-eyed boy under the airy canopy of the lonely hill. "Maybe. But trust me. Of the two options in my mind, that was the better."

"So now you're keeping secrets from me?"

Adam stood up and moved closer.

Thomas kept his hands at his side, unsure what to do with them now that Adam had removed his shirt. So, he stared at his chest, then his abs, and finally his icy blue eyes—he stared at all of Adam Lawson without shame or remorse. "How are you so beautiful?"

"No fair—that's what I was thinking about you."

When Adam pulled Thomas in and kissed him, the hesitant boy's arms remained at his sides, but his greedy lips pushed and parted, letting the tips of their tongues touch in an entirely new sensation that made him moan—this time in pleasure.

Adam kissed him harder.

But when Adam eventually pulled away, Thomas leaned in, his lips refusing an end to exploring uncharted territory. So, Adam gave in, allowing Mud Boy to have his way with him regardless of how torturous it would be to finish without finishing.