Read Online Dancing Lessons by R. Cooper - Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t even noticed until now, or at least hadn’t let himself think about. Somehow he’d stopped expecting John to flirt with him and tease him, as if it was something couples didn’t do once they lived together. He’d stopped expecting a lot of things, as if he wasn’t worth the effort.
    “I didn’t mean to make it awkward.” Rafael’s soft apology broke into his moment of realization. Chico must have been quiet for a while.
    This time he did twist in his chair to give Rafael a quick smile. It only lasted for a moment, until he actually got a good look at Rafael sprawled out on the couch with his shirt twisted and more of his chest exposed, his arm along the back of the couch and his legs open like Chico ought to crawl between them.
    He swallowed and lifted his gaze too late not to be caught fantasizing about Rafael’s cock in his mouth. He turned around.
    “Awkward is my natural state these days,” he revealed shakily. Rafael shouldn’t do those things while Chico was this vulnerable. The man taught dance and emphasized precision and how movements had meaning. He knew exactly what his body was doing. And his mother was right there .
    “I can’t deny the awkward, but I have to say there’s something sweet about it. You’re very honest, even when you aren’t speaking. It’s those eyes. Truthful and sincere and incredibly appealing.” And then Rafael had to go and be kind again.
    “ Too honest,” Chico corrected, as though his blood wasn’t singing at what he was hearing. “I’m not exactly at my best.”
    “You’re nervous and sort of skittish, if you don’t mind me saying so, but so are most people who’ve been through the wringer.” Rafael was curious, and Chico couldn’t blame him, considering how all over the place he was now. “But for all that, you seem pretty together to me. What do you consider you at your best?”
    “You really want to know?” Nobody just asked questions like that, certainly not people Chico barely knew. “I’m not that interesting,” Chico added. “And ‘skittish’ makes me feel like a deer.”
    “A soft, little deer on wobbly legs, with the hugest, brightest brown eyes I’ve ever seen,” Rafael said softly.
    Chico spun around to look at him and found he couldn’t meet Rafael’s eyes while those words were hanging in the air between them.
    He faced forward and stared at the notebook. “You’re teasing me, Mr. Raf.”
    Rafael hummed in agreement… or perhaps encouragement. “I’m flirting with you, Mr. Silva.”
    Davi must have told Rafael Chico’s last name. Davi could have told Rafael anything about him, and still Rafael was trying to flirt with him?
    Chico tried to imagine his old life, and if Rafael would have liked him if they’d met in the city.
    “Me at my best?” he wondered, after several moments of contemplation. “I haven’t felt that way in a while. Years, maybe? I can’t remember,” he answered at last. “Oh shit.” He put his head down in the middle of stiff, itchy tulle and let one high laugh escape, then another. He waved a hand behind him when he heard Rafael move. “I’m not having a breakdown. I just… is it your quiet teacher vibe? Because I don’t do this around anyone else, not even Davi.” He chortled into the tutu, then lifted his face. “You know. I don’t think I had anyone to tell about John. I think he liked it that way. Not in a scary abuser way, or, yeah, I guess. Not scary. But definitely isolating. As though if I was around other people, I’d notice what a loser he was. God, he was such a loser. All my time ended up going to make him look better. Nice, clean apartment, advertising our social life so all his friends online could see it, learning to make quinoa, as though I’m any sort of a cook. As though it’s some miracle food, when I’m tired and I just want a peanut butter sandwich.”
    Chico stopped to heave a breath. “And now you’re flirting with me, and it’s so nice I don’t know what