Ryder's Boys

by Cody Ryder

  We returned to the recording studio and on the way I had considered excusing myself to avoid the unpleasantness of having to be around a bunch of people who obviously didn’t want me there, but I knew I had to stay to make sure my ruse as Will’s new photographer stuck.

  A little later, the door to the studio opened and I was surprised to see Frankie standing there, her arm clad with a large Louis Vuitton handbag and eyes covered in dark shades. She removed the sunglasses and, and for the first time that day I saw Linda’s expression change to one that could be called warm. She let out a little squeal of delight and held out her hands to Frankie, giving her a big hug. “Honey, I wasn’t expecting you to come by!” she exclaimed.

  “Just thought I’d swing by on my way to the studio, see how you and Will were.”

  “Oh, well I’m sure he’ll be so happy to see you. And maybe you can talk some sense into him, tell him to be more cautious with who he associates himself with. He went out and hired a random photographer for some personal project of his without even consulting me.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I think that boy doesn't give any thought about who he is.”

  “He’s a dreamer,” Frankie said. “He likes to follow his heart on things.”

  “And it’s going to get him in trouble one of these days. He has to learn to think with his head, too.”

  Yes, he did, I thought. He needed to stop, think, and realize that following his passion was better than living a lie!

  And that was when something clicked inside my head. Wasn't that exactly what I was doing? Living a lie? Wasn’t it what I had agreed to, going into this thing with him? Today I had experienced Will’s skill. During our time alone together, I had felt his passion and heard the emptiness in his voice that appeared when he talked about it, like it was something lost, too late to ever attain. I badly wanted for him to be able to follow that path, to realize that it wasn't too late. How could I want that for him when I was hiding too?

  I realized then that keeping our relationship a secret was going to be much more difficult than I had thought.

  “Oh, hey!” Frankie turned and saw me. “It’s you.” She gave me a puzzled look, waiting for my explanation. It was obvious she knew that I wasn’t here as Will’s man.

  “I’m shooting photos for the project,” I said. “Good to see you again, Frankie.” I shook her hand.

  “Right, the project,” she said knowingly, but she still looked a little puzzled like she couldn’t believe I was actually there. The track ended, and Will came out from the booth. He grinned when he saw Frankie.

  “Well isn’t this a nice surprise,” he said.

  “Hey, babe,” Frankie replied, and she gave him a kiss. I felt just the slightest tinge of jealousy, but knew it was unfounded. Mostly I was just impressed at how good an actor she was – both of them, actually. The fact that they were able to be so natural about faking it around so many people was impressive. Will flashed me a secret look of apology, and immediately afterwards Frankie did too. “I’m just on my way to the studio, thought I’d drop by,” she said to him. “We’re doing a table read for the new Madagascar penguin movie. I was surprised to see Luke here, I didn’t think you two would be starting your project so soon.”

  When Frankie was on her way out I decided that it was probably the best time for me to slip away too. Linda gave Frankie a warm hug and completely ignored me, Michael gave me a stiff handshake, and Will shook my hand too, and I felt him palm a small slip of paper into my mine. “Thanks for coming in today,” he said formally. Yeah, keeping things secret was going to be more difficult than I thought. Feeling good about it, at least.

  Outside, Frankie stopped me by my car. “You guys really need to be more careful,” she said in a low voice.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “I'm his photographer.”

  “I’m serious, Luke. Look, I’ve known Will for a long, long time. Sometimes he doesn’t think things through all the way, he just…does them. He really likes you. No, it’s more than that. I know that because otherwise he wouldn’t have done something as risky as introduce you to Linda. She’s like a hawk.”

  “All I did was shoot some photos, they heard us talk about our fake project, everything's cool,” I said. “If anything, it gives us more legitimacy to be seen together. But I understand. I’ll be careful.”

  She nodded. “Well, I've got to go be the voice of a rabbit or something. I’ll see you around. Remember! Be careful. Try not to go out in public too much. Paparazzi suck.”

  “Don’t worry,” I called after her. “We’ll be careful.” I said this, fully believing that I knew what I was doing. We were being secretive. Nobody would suspect a thing, we had a legitimate reason to be seen together. Besides, all we needed to do was to make sure we saved any intimate stuff for the apartment.

  The inside of my car was baking from sitting in the sun for the past few hours, so I started the engine and turned on the air conditioning. I turned up my palm and looked at the little scrap of paper that Will had passed to me. It was torn from a piece of sheet music and folded in half. I opened it and laughed.

  Meet me tonight. 11PM

  There was an address written below that was not his apartment’s. I sighed into a resigned chuckle. So much for trying not to meet in public too often. What was I going to do? Say no? I couldn’t do that. I was sure I’d do anything Will asked of me at this point. It was pretty clear to me now that I had fallen in love with the guy.

  Eight

  The address Will gave me was out in Santa Monica, near the famous Santa Monica pier. And checking the location on Google showed that it was some women’s clothing store. Frankie’s warning was on my mind. Why did Will want to meet me out here? Especially out here – Santa Monica was a major tourist attraction, and it was surprisingly crowded for a Sunday night. The bars were open, tourists were walking the 3rd Street Promenade, there was bound to be plenty of people here who would recognize him.

  I parked my car in one of the public parking structures and walked towards the address which was located right on the promenade which was still bustling with people. Street performers danced and did magic tricks for gathering crowds while couples, families, friends and everyone in between strolled the streets. The bars were open, and people were getting their drink on despite it being Sunday. I found the clothing store and wondered if I should go inside, and did a quick glance at my phone to check the time. It was five past eleven. I was about to walk into the store when I heard my name.

  “Luke.”

  I turned, surprised, and saw a guy in an old flannel shirt and jeans wearing dark glasses and a cowboy hat standing against the wall by the entrance. He had a guitar case next to him, and I had just figured him for another street performer, but on closer glance I realized that it was Will. He grinned.

  “I thought you were a homeless guy,” I said truthfully. He lowered his glasses for a second to give me an ocean blue wink, and I greeted him with a fast kiss. It made me a little nervous, but even more than that it was exciting. I wondered if this was how flashers felt, walking around in public with nothing under their coats or skirts, knowing they could be caught at any moment.

  “That’s the idea,” he said. “Hey, I wanted to apologize for today. I didn’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable position.”

  “It’s probably best I limit my contact with your mom,” I said, giving him a thin smile. “Wouldn’t want her to suspect anything.”

  “Suspect anything? Nah, she wouldn’t suspect anything.”

  “Frankie seems to think we should be more careful. She talked to me, and said we shouldn’t go out together in public so much.” I looked around. “But I guess it’s too late for that, isn’t it?”

  “My mom loves Frankie. She’ll listen to anything she says, and Frankie is looking out for us. Don’t worry, Luke. We’re fine.”

  “Okay,” I resigned. “So what are we doing out here anyway?”

  He gave me that smile of his and then laid out the guitar
case onto the ground, undoing the latches and pulling open the lid to reveal a well-used acoustic guitar. “You asked me about my original music the other night,” he said. “And for the first time in a while, I got a hankerin’ to play it. So I’m going to play for you.” He pulled the guitar out, strapped it around his neck, and pulled up a sign in the open case that said, “All proceeds will go to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation.”

  “Out here?” I asked in surprise. “Why not play at your place?”

  “Because it’s more fun this way, now do you want to hear me play or not?”

  I held up my hands in surrender and walked in front of him, his solo audience member. He cleared his throat, and began to play.

  You know those scenes in romance movies where something amazing happens and all the sound drops out as the camera slowly and dramatically zooms in on the main character’s face? That basically happened to me. I’d heard Will sing all those times before, but when he opened his mouth and strummed those first notes on his guitar, it was the first time I had ever heard him sing. It was his voice alright, the smooth clarity I knew from his pop music, but the style in which he sang was different now. It was bluesy, folksy, and nothing like the dance pop way I had heard him singing in earlier that day. It was beautiful, and it sent chills down my spine. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Almost immediately, people began to stop and listen. Soon a crowd had formed, with me front and center. People began taking out cell phones to take video of him, and I wondered if any would end up on the Internet, and if they did, if anyone would figure out the identity of the singer.

  Just as this was going through my mind, I heard a girl whisper to her friend, “Doesn't he sound kind of like William Masterson?”

  “Oh my God, you’re right!”

  “Why is he wearing sunglasses at night?”

  “Maybe he’s blind?”

  I felt my heart jump, and I hoped that no one would make any further connections. And if they did…then what? There would be a bit of a frenzy, for sure. Screaming girls, autographs demanded, lots of selfies, but that was it. Nobody would see us and suspect anything. I relaxed. Will played. It was wonderful.

  Applause erupted when he finished the song, and everyone’s attention seemed to be patiently trained, excitedly waiting for him to begin the next one. He did, and when I glanced around I was surprised to see that a huge amount of people were gathered watching, and his guitar case was quickly filling up with cash. And despite the crowd, despite the dark glasses covering his eyes, I could feel that Will was singing only for me.

  “I wrote this last song recently, today actually, for someone really special to me. I never thought that I would fall in love, but here I am. And that's the name of the song.”

  There was a murmur of quiet laughter and touched sighs. A wave of warmth spread through me, tingling my heart and my fingertips all the way down to my toes, and I smiled. At that moment I was absolutely soaring.

  We left afterwards, and just in time too. I heard people commenting that Will deserved to be famous, that they wondered if he had a CD, and also a few whispers that they were positive that he was William Masterson in disguise.

  We were back at his apartment, and the moment the door clicked shut behind us I let him have it.

  My lips crashed against his, our tongues eagerly exploring one another's. He was going for my shirt, his fingers wrestling with the buttons, and then it was off my shoulders and on the floor and his warm palms were caressing my back and my neck. I tugged at his shirt too, but apparently was taking too long for him because he reached up and with one quick motion tore open the front, sending the buttons flying and pattering across the floor. He wriggled out of it, the sleeves clinging tightly to his thick biceps, and I helped him, yanking it down so hard there was a loud CRRRIP as one of the seams tore. He tossed the tattered remnants of the shirt onto the floor and I let my hand glide up his abs to his chest, reveling in his amazing physique.

  I was pushing up hard against my underwear, and I could feel my cock was getting slick with pre-come. Nothing was going to stop me this time. All apprehension was gone. Just like he was reading my mind, Will’s hand fell from the small of my back, gave my ass a quick squeeze, and deftly worked open my pants. Then his hand was slipping down into the band of my underwear, his fingers gliding through the curl of my pubic hair, and, oh fuck, wrapping around the shaft of my cock.

  He held me there, gripping me firmly, his other hand curled around the back of my neck. “Is it your first time?” he asked, his voice soft and smooth. I nodded. “Mine too,” he said.

  Then he started to stroke me – strong, languid movements that pushed the front of my underwear down so that my cock popped free – and my hand desperately moved for the lip of his pants, wanting to feel the weight and heat of his girth. And I felt it, hard, pulsing gently, so similar yet so foreign – another man’s cock. Will’s cock.

  I got his underwear down too, and we both stroked each other off as we kissed, our lips groping, tongues intertwining. I pushed myself up against him so that our cocks rubbed up against one another, and I felt the heat of his on mine, and we both wrapped our hands around our double package and moved back and forth.

  We took our excitement into the main area of the loft, where I pushed him back onto the raised bamboo mat sitting area in the middle of the room. He fell back onto his butt, and I quickly dropped between his knees, tugging his underwear down to his ankles and then tossing them aside. His cock stood tall and erect, the very first I’d ever seen in person besides my own.

  And then it became the first I’d ever tasted.

  “Oh, wow…” Will groaned as my lips slipped around his head, my tongue caressing his shaft. I was worried that I might not do it right considering it was my first time, but looking up into his eyes I saw nothing but pleasure. He ran his fingers through my hair, cupping his palm around the back of my head and gently guided my motions over his cock, and I felt it throb lovingly in my mouth. I swirled my tongue over the tip, tasting a bitter flavor that I knew was his pre-come, and when I used my hand to milk his shaft, more of his flavor spread out over my tongue. He was intoxicating.

  When Will was close to orgasm he leaned back onto one elbow and gripped my hair with his hand, firmly guiding the speed of my bobs faster and faster. “Look at me, Luke,” he said urgently, his voice thick with an ecstasy that I then saw in his eyes, a look that instantly made my cock ache to feel him and from that point on, could bring me immediately to arousal. It was the look of a man deeply in love, an expression that was reserved only for the most passionate moments, and one that was reserved only for my eyes. Then his expression tensed, a strained groan escaping his lips. “Fuck, I’m coming!” I moved my mouth on his a little faster and felt the swell of his cock against my tongue and the sudden burst of his bitterness into my mouth. It was my first time ever tasting it, and for a moment I was surprised and overwhelmed by this brand new flavor, but then savored it, welcoming every little aftershock of the orgasm that continued to pulse more of him into my mouth.

  I swallowed it all, and wiped the side of my mouth with the back of my hand. Then Will took my arm and pulled me up to him, soul kissing me and licking what remained of him from my lips. “You’re naughty,” I commented, grinning, and then let out a little gasp as I felt his fist close around my cock. He drew me in and guided me down onto the bamboo mat, and I knew without any words what he wanted to do with me. It was what I wanted too, and had wanted for so long. I got on all fours, bending over and pressing my ass out to him, my cock hanging hard and heavy between my legs. Will had his in his hand, and he was already erect again.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said, and he bent over and laid a light kiss on my ass cheek. “Don’t move.”

  He went away and came back with a small bottle of massage lube, and spread some on his cock. Then I felt his fingers on my opening, circling and slicking it with the stuff. I shivered and let out a soft moan. I was impossibly hard, my cock and my ass p
ractically trembling in wait for him to fuck me. “Is it going to hurt?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said softly. “If it does, I want you to tell me to stop.”

  I reached back and spread myself open for him. “Come on and do it,” I said.

  He came forward, his thickness in his hand, and pressed the head up to my entrance. Then he gripped my waist with and slowly entered. There was the overwhelming feeling of being pushed open, then of fullness, and I inhaled sharply as I felt the hard bulge of his cock pushing against my prostate. Will let out a long groan as he pressed in deeper, his cock getting swallowed and enveloped by my tightness. It did hurt, but the joy of having him inside me and being one with him overwhelmed that. All I wanted was for him to fuck me. Then his hips started, soon I was shouting for him to fuck me harder as his fingers pressed into the flesh of my ass, grabbing me hard and pulling me against him as he slammed in deep.

  Even though I had fantasized about taking another man’s cock, I never really understood how it could actually feel good. It did though, with each thrust sending explosions of pleasure through me in a way that I had never known before and never could’ve imagined. My cock bounced and throbbed with waves of ecstasy coursing through me from the inside out, and I knew I would hit the climax soon. The hand that I had on my asscheek reached back and Will took it, and he panted and grunted and squeezed my hand until the orgasms hit us both. We hadn’t done anything to trigger them, they just came over us at almost the exact same time. I felt him swell up inside me, his grip tightening on my hand. At the same time, a wave of pleasure erupted through my body and I tightened down on him as my muscles contracted with climax. His cock stiffened, my asshole squeezed, and I felt a burst of his warmth inside me just as my own cock flexed and shot out a stream of thick come, our cries of unified pleasure filling the walls of his apartment.