Wednesday Whip

Well then.

I thought I was going to be over at LRC (Love's Romance Cafe) today, chatting and generally cutting up with a whole slew of the Mlr Press authors...sadly, not enough of us were available today to make it viable, so it got cancelled.

And now I'm late posting the Wednesday Work in Progress.

Again, mea culpa.

So sorry, my lovelies.
Friday is release day for The Soldier & the State Trooper, and there will be prizes and contests, both here the week of the 5th through the 12th and over at AuthorIsland during my launch party on Saturday the 6th. The prizes and contest will be different, so be sure to check out both events.

Okie, dokie. On to the Whip. Lol. Really more of a WIP today, very little kink involved.

Eh, maybe a little bit.

Unedited Excerpt from Touch & Go

Tony was so excited he couldn’t stop bouncing on his toes. They were going to the fair today. With rides and everything. And then, tomorrow, Neil and Kevin were taking him to the arts show and they were all going together and it was so exciting he just had to bounce on his toes again a couple of times.

He was waiting by the car, and he was following the rules. Well, he wasn’t breaking any rules. Not really. They didn’t have a rule for when you could get up, or how early it was okay to go wait by the car.

So he was almost completely sure it was okay.

Kevin didn’t get mad when he guessed, unless it was about danger stuff. If he guessed about danger stuff then Kevin’s face got red, and a little muscle in his jaw jumped, and…sometimes he would cry. Because of Tony. Kevin got scared that people would be mean to Tony and it made him cry. Tony had a note in his own writing to remind him of that. Cause it was important.

Tony’s eyes got stingy, and he had to sniffle a couple of times.

He didn’t like it when Kevin was scared.

But he was pretty sure this was okay. He was still in the house. Kind of. The garage attached to the house, and he left the door open. But he didn’t want to wake Kevin and Neil so early. They didn’t get as excited about things like the fair. They got excited about “sleeping in”, and “a nice night out”.

Whatever.

            Tony would take the fair any day. He bounced again.

Cotton candy, rides that made his stomach flip and whirl…and the faces. All those faces he could soak in, and then paint later, when they seeped back out of him.

A bird started to sing outside the garage.

Tony lifted up on his tippy-toes, very slow. It was not what he would call a bounce.

Birds meant Kevin and Neil would be up in an hour or so.

Maybe.

Tony’s stomach rumbled, and he decided he might have time to eat before they got up. He walked backwards into the kitchen, pulled down his special cereal bowl (pink like his phone) and poured a third of the box of Captain Crunch into it. Then he very sneakily added some of Neil’s Vanilla Flavored coffee creamer to his bowl, topping it off with the 2% that Kevin said was healthy. He thought maybe they wouldn’t catch him about the Vanilla Creamer this time, because he even wiped off his finger prints like the guy from CSI.

Tony grinned and ate his cereal. Then he ate another bowl, because the first one tasted so good, and by the time Neil and Kevin got up he had finished off both the Captain Crunch and all the special Coffee Creamer. That was how Neil said it, with capital letters. Very particular.

Neil started the coffee, and Tony was glad even though it brought the finding out of him using up all the creamer closer, because making the coffee was on the list. He wasn’t allowed, because when was working on a project one time he forgot and put macaroni in the filter. The canisters were right next to each other, and Tony was too busy thinking about all the shades of red and gold he would need to paint Neil’s hair to pay attention, and somehow between him and the macaroni the and the wandering off to mix paints in the studio, the “whole damned coffee machine” got ruined.

Those were Neil’s exact words. He was late to a very important lecture that day, but he still remembered to kiss Tony good-bye and tell him to paint from his heart that day. So, anyways, they made a new rule, and Tony didn’t make the coffee cause he didn’t want to ruin another “whole damned coffee machine”. 

Kevin laughed every time he said those words, and he made Tony laugh too, but he still insisted on the rule. He said Neil got cranky without his morning coffee. Tony and Neil eyed each other and silently agreed that it was Kevin who got cranky, but it was okay. Everybody had their cranky buttons.

Tony started to sidle out of the kitchen when Neil realized the Vanilla Creamer bottle in the fridge was empty, and he lifted his big head of shaggy red hair to lift a red and gold brow as his sky blue eyes cut a hole in all Tony’s defenses.

Tony thought that maybe he shoulda remembered that one of Neil’s cranky buttons might possibly be to run out of his very special Vanilla Creamer for his coffee.

 “I’m sorry Neil. I didn’t mean to use it all up. It just tasted so good and with the Captain Crunch it made magic in my mouth—”

Neil’s gaze dropped to Tony’s mouth. The edges of the professor’s mouth turned up in a little smile. His eyes lifted back to Tony’s, full of a twinkling light that Tony knew meant the older man was amused.

“Eh. I can certainly vouch for the magic in your mouth, Tony, and don’t worry about the creamer. I have more.”

Tony lifted his tee-shirt and scratched absently at his stomach.

“Really? Because I’d sure like some in my coffee.”

Neil laughed out loud as his gaze strayed to Tony’s rock hard abs. He pulled a bottle of creamer from somewhere in the depths of the fridge, and handed it to Kevin, who took it with a silly smirk on his face. Kevin’s eyes were still on Tony’s stomach, even though the tee-shirt was back down over it.

“I told you he drank it all, Neil. You so owe me a foot-rub when I get home from work.”

Neil pointed to the counter where he’d put out three coffee mugs.

“Pour, Florence, we have pigs to see and money to lose on rigged games.”

Tony bounced again, just once, with a really big grin stretched across his face.

*****