Rumpling Riley by Nelson Virginia

Author:Nelson, Virginia [Nelson, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Zero, Ohio Series - Book 1
Publisher: Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
Published: 2013-08-23T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

An hour. Riley spent an hour trying to decide what to wear. And he shaved.

He shaved everything.

Putting that kind of thought into getting ready to teach a class…beyond abnormal.

The ingredients he needed lay in Tupperware containers, neatly stacked and measured by his assistant, ready to go.

Pulling them out, he kept his back to the class. Nerves made his hands sweaty, his breath fast.

He fought not to look up, to see if Basil had appeared yet and stood at his station.

It made no sense to look needy, to reveal all his cards this early in.

Especially since Basil, beyond the kiss and a little masturbation between friends, hadn’t shown much interest.

That was the rub, really. Riley wasn’t some fresh-from-the-closet-somewhat-bisexual man. He’d been around the block a time or two. He got how hookups worked.

Attraction, a quick roll in the sack. If he got lucky, enjoyed it…maybe an encore performance.

He’d been in one lasting relationship, the kind he saw on television when they chose to represent gay men at all. One where they held hands, walked in the park, snuck kisses over dinner.

One.

And he was thirty-two this year.

Not that relationships were a problem unique to gay men. He had cable. He got that no one found the path to love easy.

Love. Who was he kidding? Love lived in a land where unicorns romped and Santa brought good little gay boys anatomically correct GI Joes for Christmas.

Even if he knew it was a fairy tale, he remembered a clip he’d seen on the Internet. Two men, together for years, old and bent, getting married.

Kissing like it was the first time, not the millionth.

He wanted that.

Breathing in deep, he checked again. Basil met his gaze, almost like he waited for Riley to see him. He looked good. Damn good.

Riley’s heart thudded hard in his chest.

He liked Basil. He wanted that happily ever after.

Aside from the kiss? Nothing. They’d gone out a couple more times. He showed up weekly for the cooking class. The phone sex…. No overt sexual action, though.

They talked for hours on the phone. Late into the night, he lay in his bed, phone pressed to his head, fighting sleep while he talked about Basil’s classes, his day, whatever.

But no more kisses. No touches. Nothing.

He was drowning in the friend zone.

“Welcome, everyone! We only have a few weeks left of this class so I thought, since it’s close to Valentine’s Day, we’d focus on a romantic dinner for you and your sweetie!” Putting false enthusiasm into his words, he glanced up at the mirror aimed at his station. The angle was good; the class could see his motions. He began, without needing to think about the familiar recipe, to combine ingredients, rattling off what they should know to copy his motions and, hopefully, remember the comfort food how-to for later.

But his mind continued to circle the problem at hand. He didn’t want to be in the friend zone. It pissed him off. Finally, he’d found a guy who made his heart pitter-patter

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