As promised in
last week's excerpt post, here's a steamier teaser from
Blue Ruin 4: Need You Tonight. One of my goals with the
Blue Ruin series has been to explore varying elements of what, exactly, makes yaoi, well, yaoi! Book one explores the seme/uke dynamic. Book two is all about the angst. Book three plays with high yaoi fantasy, or what those of us who love the campier aspects of the genre refer to as whack yaoi plot points.
So what's book four about? Besides hot threesomes with one seme and two uke this time around? I wanted to pay homage to
shonen-ai, which is the cleaner cousin to yaoi and focuses more on the bond of friendship turned either sweet romance or forbidden longing between two young males. The term has apparently fallen out of disuse in Japan, but Stateside, depending on who you ask, shonen-ai has evolved to include both non-sexual romance and closed-door yaoi. Whichever term one prefers, I like a clean, sweet romance every now and then, believe it or not! So when I sat down to develop the friendship between Blue and Dusty, I thought I'd keep things innocent and shonen-ai for a while. Of course, this
is yaoi, and we're talking
Blue Ruin here, so things don't stay shonen-ai forever! But it was nice to create that build-up between these two beautiful young men, while allowing Blue the chance to explore something kinder and gentler than he's previously experienced in his love life.
I was also presented with the challenge of portraying a blind person with sensitivity, yet without being overly-sympathetic or exploitative. I read a few memoirs by blind people as part of my research, and one of the overwhelming sentiments shared between them was hey, we make mistakes like everyone else, and it's okay to laugh because that's how we cope with it! I also thought back to a young, gay blind man I knew years ago, and how he approached life. I bore this in mind as I wrote Dusty, and he turned out to be a good sport with a cheeky sense of humor. Hopefully readers will like this about him.
Enough blabbing about why or how I wrote this. Here's the turning point where things between Blue and Dusty start to look a little less shonen-ai and a little more yaoi. Plus it's fun to write about hot naked boys getting wet together. Enjoy!
*****
*****
**SLIGHTLY EXPLICIT**
Excerpt from Blue Ruin 4: Need You Tonight:
The clothes put away, Blue opened the bathroom door and stood aside. Dusty brushed past, carrying with him a whiff of charred wood. Flicking his wrist left and right, the blond tapped the red-tipped cane against the travertine floor, sending short, crisp echoes through the room.
“Let’s see how good my memory is.” Dusty paused and touched the cane to the shower stall door. “There’s the shower.” He made his way across the room. “Sink…toilet…bathtub.” He slipped the cane into the oversized tub and tested the basin’s perimeter. “Wow. That’s pretty deep. Is it marble?”
“Yeah. It’s really nice. You want a bath instead of a shower?”
“A shower would be safer but…I’ve always wanted to take a bath in a tub like this.” Dusty canted his head toward Blue. “Want to take one with me?”
Blue took a second to respond. He gave a nervous laugh. “Seriously?”
“We’re all boys here. Jodi says Japanese men bathe together in public bathhouses.”
“I’m sure she has some wild ideas about what goes on between men in Japanese bathhouses.”
Dusty laughed. “Apparently so, judging from the direction the conversation took from there.”
“That’s our girl.” Aware that Jodi made for a convenient topic of discussion between them, Blue considered Dusty’s suggestion. The guy was basically homeless. It might be comforting to enjoy a little taste of luxury. “I guess we could hang out Jacuzzi style and relax awhile.”
“All right.” Dusty smiled. He collapsed his cane and passed it to Blue. “I think I’ve got the layout of the loft down. I shouldn’t need the cane so long as you keep the floor clean and don’t rearrange the furniture while I’m sleeping.”
“Don’t worry,” Blue said. “Derek is a neat freak and likes everything in its place.”
“Including you?” Dusty teased.
“Especially me.” Blue laid the cane on the counter by the sink, then perched on the edge of the tub’s platform. He started the water. Satisfied with the temperature, he rummaged through the selection of body washes for a scent that Dusty might like. “Here, smell this.”
He turned to see Dusty had stripped down to boxers with both thumbs hooked in the waistband. Blue felt his face go hot.
Dusty paused from tugging down his underwear and leaned forward. He sniffed the opened bubble bath. “Mmm. Lemon and eucalyptus.”
“You’ve got a good nose.”
“Not really. I just pay more attention to smell.” Dusty stood straight and shucked off his boxers with no display of shame or modesty.
Blue guessed that being sightless eased any taboo concept toward nudity. And as Dusty had pointed out, they were both guys. Bathhouse patrons aside, athletes showered together in the locker room, so what was the harm of Dusty and Blue taking a bath together?
I’m supposed to seduce him for Derek, that’s the harm, Blue thought, mortified, his face burning hotter. Yet even on a casual platonic level, Blue couldn’t help but stare at his friend’s smooth, pale body. His gaze drifted down Dusty’s flat stomach to the nest of hair, the curls tinged with that same strange silver hue as the hair on Dusty’s head. His cock lay flaccid, while Blue’s suddenly became anything but. Blue’s normal type or not, the other man was simply a sensual delight to look upon.
Dusty reached out with his hand. “Help me in.”
Blue caught a glance of Dusty’s ass before it slipped into the water, noting it was small but nicely rounded. At his errant observation, Blue’s prick elongated another inch. Thankful Dusty couldn’t see, then immediately berating himself for such a horrible thought, Blue slipped out of his clothes and joined his friend in the water.
Dusty pinched his nose, closed his eyes, and dunked under the water for a second. He popped back above the water’s surface with a splash. He laughed. “It’s like a miniature swimming pool.”
“Yeah, kind of.” Blue gave a tight laugh. Dusty looked really sexy with his hair soaked wet and plastered to his face. As Dusty raised his arms and combed his hair back, water glistened and dripped down his lean torso.
This is what Derek sees when he looks at me, Blue realized. Could this explain part of Blue’s undue attraction to the blond? That in assessing Dusty as a potential playmate for Derek, Blue was coming to see him through Derek’s eyes?
What would Derek do if he were presented with this beautiful, naked boy in his bathtub?
His cock now standing at full mast, Blue selected a bottle of shampoo and waded across the tub to Dusty. “Smell this,” he said.
Dusty took a whiff of the shampoo. “Is that the overpriced strawberry stuff?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Blue squirted a dollop in his hand and set the bottle aside. “It’s also the best thing we have for fine hair like yours. Turn around and tilt your head back.”
Dusty scowled. “I don’t need help washing my hair.”
Blue kept his tone patiently playful. “I know that, you goof. You can wash mine too.”
“Oh.” With a sheepish smile, Dusty turned and arched his throat. Blue lathered the shampoo between his hands and worked the suds through Dusty’s baby-fine hair. He took care to stand at arms’ length lest his wayward prick brush the other man’s ass.
And what if it did? Blue thought. He wondered how Dusty might react. No, that approach would come off as too obvious and bordered on sleazy. Dusty seemed to be the type to respond more to a slow, sweet seduction. Bearing this in mind, Blue took his time massaging Dusty’s scalp, his libido gradually cooling in the process.
“That feels good,” Dusty said.
“We spent a week on shampooing at school,” Blue said. “The masseuse instructor came in one day and showed us how to integrate elements of massage.”
“Should I tip you when you’re done?”
“You can pay me in ass,” Blue quipped.
“You wish,” Dusty shot back with a laugh.
Blue flicked on the showerhead and rinsed Dusty’s hair, then followed up with conditioner.
Dusty sniffed. “Spearmint? I’ll smell like a stick of gum.”
“That’s what I told Derek the first time he used this stuff on me. Is your scalp tingling yet?”
“Ooh, yeah. It feels neat.”
“We’ll leave that in for a few.” Blue nudged Dusty around by the shoulders. He pressed the strawberry shampoo into Dusty’s hand. “My turn.” He took a breath and dunked below the water.
“Make sure I don’t get any in your eyes,” Dusty said after Blue surfaced. “Don’t need the blind leading the blind.”
Blue chuckled at Dusty’s self-deprecating remark. He was truly coming to respect Dusty’s way of playing the cards that had been dealt him in life. With that respect was a growing sense of affection laced with attraction. Blue may have agreed to seduce his friend for Derek, but he was beginning to feel something deeper for Dusty, both physically and emotionally.
They laughed together when Dusty slapped a handful of shampoo against Blue’s ear, laughed again when he flicked on the showerhead and shot water across the room. Other than those two mishaps, the process went smoothly, until they’d taken turns rinsing the conditioner from one another’s hair.
“Back scrub,” Blue announced.
He slid his soapy hands in a circular motion between Dusty’s shoulders. The other man’s skin proved smooth to the touch. Growing aroused again, Blue considered making his move, but as he rinsed the soap away, Dusty gave a tiny shiver. Noting a slight chill to the water, Blue pulled away to unplug the tub.
At the sound of the drain opening, Dusty turned, a stricken expression flitting across his features. “Done already?” he said, his laugh strained with a nervous edge.
Blue found the reaction odd. “I’m letting some of the water out to run more hot.”
“Oh, okay.” Dusty eased back against the edge of the tub and slouched a little deeper into the water, his cheeks mantling with a soft rosy hue.
As the tub warmed, it struck Blue that Dusty had shivered from pleasure, not cold, and that there was a reason his friend didn’t want to get out yet. He turned off the faucet and plowed back through the water.
“Fuck subtle,” Blue said.
“Huh?” Dusty asked.
Blue dove in for the kill.
*****
-- Excerpt from
Blue Ruin 4: Need You TonightComing November 24, 2009 from Loose Id
For more information on the
Blue Ruin series, please visit:
http://www.loose-id.com/All-Books/By-Theme/Series/Blue-Ruin/*****
