Page 61 of Love Lessons: Expanded Edition

Chapter 10

Dustin

Dustin swatted away Landon’s hand as he tried to sneak a strawberry. Those are for dessert!

Just one? Please? Landon went all pouty and adorable, and it just turned him inside out.

Just one,he agreed. We don’t want to ruin your appetite. He sliced off a piece of strawberry and pressed it to Landon’s lips, then held it back, pausing until Landon stood there, waiting, with his mouth open and his body still. Beautiful.

He was dressed more conservatively today, like the middle school teacher that he was, and there was something about seeing him that way that made Dustin want to crack through everything. Give him the space to forget.

Dustin slowly pressed the treat to Landon’s tongue, leaving his finger there so that Landon sucked on both. If he hadn’t been turned on before, he certainly was now. This was exhilarating.

When the juice was running down Landon’s chin, he withdrew his finger, amused and touched that Landon leaned forward to follow it.

He gave him a playful slap on the ass and turned him toward the microwave. No more until after dinner. And that felt fucking amazing, too.

Dustin had started the evening feeling like an imposter. He’d been reading all week about bratty subs and power exchange relationships, and while he recognized the craving inside him, he wasn’t sure if he could actually pull it off.

He’d imagined dozens of scenarios, some during the long, steamy showers he seemed to be taking every day, and some while nervously reading through yet more blogs and websites, trying to figure out where he fit into all of it.

And then Landon had looked up at him, with that sneering, rebellious expression and that hint of a tremble in his lip, and it had just flowed.

Dustin wanted to be in control, and it seemed that Landon wanted to give him that control, though not without a fight first.

The only thing was, he could feel himself getting greedy for it. Now that he’d dipped his toe in the water, it was like some cavernous pit had opened beneath him.

He’d been fighting it all week. Wanting to know where Landon was. Wanting to know if he was happy and healthy and had everything he needed. Wanting him close by.

But he also knew that only crazy stalkers thought like that, and he tried to reel it back in. He’d even put a limit on how many times he could initiate a text with Landon each day: two, though he was allowed to reply back once a conversation started.

So he thought he was doing alright, but that looming pit was ready to swallow him up as soon as he let his guard down.

He really wasn’t sure what kind of person this made him, and knowing that other people were in power exchange relationships wasn’t helpful. How did they even get that way?

More importantly, was that something Landon might want?

They still hadn’t officially agreed on anything but “lessons” and Dustin’s demands that they at least act like friends. It didn’t help that when he’d suggested that they could consider this either a date or a hang out, Landon hadn’t answered.

If Landon wanted out in a few weeks, it was going to crush him.

He told himself that it didn’t make any sense. They’d hooked up once and it had been hot. They’d spent a day together and he’d made Lena do her laundry while she pouted at him. And now Landon was here, in his kitchen, shaking his ass in those formless khakis while he microwaved chocolate chips and Dustin thought about forever.

He watched Landon dip a finger into the melted chocolate and swiftly intercepted with a harder swat to his ass.

Hey! I was testing to see if it was melted.

Dustin gave him two more swats, even harder, and watched while Landon’s body tensed and then relaxed. That’s for lying to me. Dustin pulled Landon’s hand to his mouth and sucked the chocolate from his finger. Landon’s eyes widened, drawing Dustin in.

Dustin pressed one more kiss to his open palm. It hadn’t escaped his notice that gestures like that, the ones that were more romantic than sensual or sexual, made Landon nervous.

So he kept reminding himself that this might be temporary.

You finish the salad and I’ll dip the fruit, he told Landon in mock annoyance.

Landon stuck his tongue out, which was even funnier when he was wearing his incongruously grown-up clothes. I don’t really like chocolate that much anyway.

Really?He couldn’t tell if he meant it or was just being difficult.