Neil swallowed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. He’d already done his duty and looked at Derek’s ass to make sure it was okay. It’d been a little red, but otherwise anything Derek was feeling was just a stretch, and he’d be fine.
“Listen,” Neil said. “We’re…roommates. This was—”
Derek rolled over to his back, grinning blissfully. “Don’t tell me we’re not doing this again, because we so are. But if you don’t wanna be my boyfriend, that’s fine. Just fuck me through the floor like this and we’ll call it win/win, okay?”
Neil was uncertain. He’d experienced this kind of thing before. Back in his first life, there’d been a fellow graduate student, and he’d fallen for Neil after promising that he just wanted sex. But that was a different time. Another life.Derekwas different, from a new generation, and he seemed completely fine with casual sex. Neil had heard it going on through the thin wall separating their bedrooms often enough to know just how fine Derek was with that.
Besides, Derek was a decent guy. Neil didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. If fucking Derek kept him from picking up so many random strangers, then maybe it would keep him safe, too. Homosexuality wasn’t the big deal it used to be, but there were still plenty of homophobes in the world, and rapists didn’t disappear just because it was okay for gays to get married just like the straights these days.
“Don’t worry.” Derek pulled himself up to sit on his ass, wincing a little as he did. “I know where I stand. And this way you won’t be upset when I throw you over for a real boyfriend.” He eyed Neil’s limp cock and grinned. “Though with that thing hammering my ass whenever I want, I’m not sure how eager I’ll be to find one.”
Neil stared at Derek and decided he was sincere.
After a shower, a sandwich, and a nap, Neil knocked on Derek’s bedroom door, and sixty seconds later he had a cock in his mouth and a mouth on his cock. It was just as good, if not better, than Neil remembered, and when Neil blew his load, grunting in pleasure and clutching at Derek’s slim hips, he decided it was a fantastic arrangement.
Chapter Nine
It was afterabout three weeks of fucking that he and Derek actually became what Neil would consider to be friends. He hadn’t had many friends in his life, not in this one and not in the one before, but Derek was easy going, helpful, and pretty smart for an English major, in his science-biased opinion.
Neil knew it was dangerous to let things overlap, but Derek seemed sincere in keeping the sex separate from the rest. They never cuddled after, or talked to each other while still sweaty and covered in come. It was all sex until they were satisfied, and then they went their separate ways.
The friendship came in and around that. Neil would work in the lab until he couldn’t see straight, and then come back to the apartment, fuck Derek if he had the energy, go to sleep, and wake up to do it all over again. Somehow, though, he found himself lingering over breakfast with Derek and chuckling at Derek’s conversation, but the true tipping point came when Derek asked him about his books, the stacks and stacks of them lining his bedroom.
“So, what’s up with the fascination on reincarnation?”
“It’s a hobby.” Neil tried to herd Derek back out of his room, but Derek wasn’t having it.
He plopped down on the bed and waved a beat-up copy ofOld Soulsat Neil. “Obviously, but why?”
Neil shrugged.
Derek opened the book, flipping through some pages. He tilted his head to read some of the notes Neil had made in the margins. “Do you believe in reincarnation?”
Neil took a slow breath and then said, “Does it matter?”
“I believe in it,” Derek offered. “My grandmother said she was a weaver at the court of Queen Victoria in her past life.”
“A weaver, huh? Not Queen Victoria herself?”
“Nah. Never even met the queen, she said.” Derek shoved hair off his face and shoved the pillow under his head to get comfortable. “I think it makes sense, you know? Energy to energy. Soul to soul.”
“I don’t,” Neil said. “I don’t think it makes sense at all.”
“Well, you’re a scientist, so…” Derek shrugged. “If you don’t think it makes sense, why do you read about it then?” He pulled the book from Neil’s bedside table. “Where Did You Go: The Surprising Journey of Life Beyond Life. I mean, you’re really into this!”
“I do believe in it,” Neil confessed, his palms going sweaty. “I just don’t think it holds up scientifically.”
“More mysteries on earth than…wait, how does that go?”
“It’s Shakespeare. I thought you were an English major?”
“I study poetry.” Derek put the books aside. “So why do you believe in reincarnation?”
Neil licked his lips, his stomach flip-flopping. What did he have to lose by telling Derek? He already said he believed in past lives, too, and he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to decide Neil couldn’t fuck him anymore because he thought he was born again. “I remember who I was before I died.”
“Cool!” Derek enthused, smiling. “Were you like, I dunno, someone cool? James Dean or one of the Romanov children? Anastasia maybe?”
Neil snorted. “I was a nanite researcher.”
