by Riley Knight
Their lips met again, and the kiss was slow and sweet and devastating, pushing aside all thoughts, getting rid of everything except how much he wanted this. How much of a relief it was that Ben seemed to want it, too. Isaac wound his arms around Ben, around his strong, sturdy torso, and they moved together as their tongues met. Ben thrust his leg between Isaac’s and his strong thigh was right up against Isaac’s aching cock and balls, and it was heaven. Pure, erotic, irresistible heaven.
There was a bizarre, skittering sound, rattling through the room, and Ben groaned with what seemed to Isaac to be exactly as much frustration as he felt when he realized it was the phone ringing. It had been set to vibrate, but the noise it made as the phone bounced against the wooden night table was loud enough to pull them both right out of it.
And they’d just been getting to some pretty interesting territory, too. Isaac was breathless with the force of his need, which pounded through his body and made it clench, made his muscles melt and his pulse hammer in his temples and his throat to the point where he could actually feel it.
It was glorious, this wanting. It was hell. It was everything, and Isaac stared at Ben as he reached for the phone. It was his, since Isaac’s was still in his pants pocket, probably dead by now. He didn’t have access to his charger here. Or his clothes. Or any of his things. They had all been taken from him, just as surely as his very home and his family had been.
“Yes?” Ben asked, impatience clear in his voice. Isaac groaned and pressed himself against Ben, not even able to help himself. It didn’t seem like Ben minded, though. His arm came, warm and strong and protective, around Isaac’s body, hauling him close.
“Oh. Yeah.” Ben cleared his throat, and his voice became a little less … well, not hostile, exactly. He had never sounded quite hostile. But it did become more open, less like he might just hang up on whoever was on the phone. “Yeah, I did think about it.”
Isaac froze against him, because all of a sudden, he knew who was on the phone. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. He even tried to keep his breath quiet, wanting to hear every word, wishing he could hear the other side of the conversation, too.
“Yeah, I understand. I can do all of that.” Ben paused to listen, and Isaac strained his ears, but he still couldn’t tell much about what the person on the other side of the line was saying. It was a woman, but that much he already knew. Ben was talking to the social worker. He knew that intuitively. But what was being said?
“Okay. Then that’s what we’ll do.” Ben refused to meet Isaac’s eyes, which was driving him insane. The conversation was unclear. What had been decided? It seemed to Isaac almost like Ben was keeping it a secret on purpose, though of course that was ridiculous.
“Oh. No problem. Okay. Thanks. Bye.” Ben hung up the phone and then lay back, one arm still around Isaac’s, but the other one draped over his eyes so that Isaac couldn’t even try to read his expression.
“What did she say?” he finally asked, though he wasn’t even sure if it was his place to know. But his curiosity was killing him or at least bothering him too much for him to keep his mouth shut.
“She said that she was sorry for not calling yesterday,” Ben told him, his tone somewhat absent like he was lost in his own thoughts, which was understandable, but definitely frustrating for Isaac. “She had an emergency come up that she had to deal with another foster child.”
Isaac fought back the low growl which threatened to escape his lips at that. It wasn’t what he meant, and he was sure that Ben knew it. Though maybe that wasn’t fair. Ben obviously had other things on his mind.
“I mean, what did she say about Sammy?” Isaac prodded, and Ben finally moved his arm so that Isaac could look into his face, into his eyes. There was the strangest expression on Ben’s face, almost completely blank.
He was looking at a mask, he realized. A mask so complete that it covered even his eyes, which usually showed everything that Ben was thinking and feeling if you knew how to look. It was bad news. It had to be, to make Ben look like that.
“She said I’ll have to have a criminal record check, and they’ll have to come by my house to make sure that it’s a good place for Sammy to live,” Ben said slowly, but his words didn’t make much sense to Isaac, not at first. He was so ready to hear Ben say that it wasn’t going to work out that he didn’t even know what to do with it when he didn’t hear that at all.
And then it hit him, and he gasped softly. Ben was saying that Sammy was going to be coming to stay if these conditions were met. Speechless with happiness, he just clung to Ben, hugging him close, and even though his cock was throbbing and demanding attention, he utterly ignored it.
There were more important things going on here. So he just held Ben tightly, so happy that he felt like his heart might burst with it, so completely thrilled for Ben, who was getting a family again.
The tears in his eyes were not only of sadness, from having lost his own family, but also euphoria, so much that he felt like he and Ben might float right away, out the window and up into the clear blue sky.
FIFTEEN
There was this wall around Ben’s heart. He had built it there, stone by stone, each stone being something that had happened to him as a child. His mother got high and missed a meeting with his teacher, that was a stone. A social worker came and took him to an overcrowded foster home where they resented him for existing, another stone.
With just a few words, another social worker pulled at those stones, right at the very base of the wall, and started to tug them free. Sammy was going to come live with him. As long as he could pass the criminal record check, and he knew that he could, and as long as he could find a place for the two of them to live, and he knew that he could do that, too, he could have his little brother.
“Isaac,” Ben spoke, his voice sounding quiet and echo-y in his own ears. Could Isaac even hear him? But those shimmering eyes fixed on him, those slender arms still around him, and Ben knew that Isaac heard everything. “There was a sign in the front, wasn’t there?”
“A sign?” Isaac asked, shifting so that he was holding Ben even closer. Ben was much bigger than Isaac, but he still felt cradled, protected, by that slender body which was tangled up with his own.
“Yeah. I just remembered,” Ben admitted. “They had to evict Sadie and Mitch. Not that it was much of a loss …” He was making no sense, he knew, but Isaac still looked evenly at him and let him speak as much as he needed to. “Too many parties. I heard the place was trashed, but they must have renovated it.”
He was almost sure of it, but he had to make absolutely positive. Feeling as though he moved through water instead of through air, Ben pulled gently from Isaac and started to track down his clothes and tug them on.
“Ben?” he heard Isaac ask, but he just beckoned the younger man to follow him as he pulled on his boots. Waiting just long enough for an obviously very confused Isaac to get clothes on himself, as well, Ben led the way out through the hallway of the apartment building and into the tiny front yard.
“Yeah. There.” Ben pointed at the shiny white sign, obviously brand new, which had been shoved into the weed-choked grass of the front yard. “Look.”
Isaac looked and then turned to Ben, a slow smile of gradually dawning understanding growing on that lovely face.
For Rent. Two bedrooms.
Those four words changed Ben’s life, made all of the things which had seemed so impossible to him even yesterday suddenly not only possible but even likely. He knew the landlord, and he’d never missed rent or even been one day late.
“Ben,” Isaac murmured, and their eyes met, and they were out in public so Ben couldn’t do what he wanted to do, he couldn’t sweep Isaac into his arms and kiss him senseless. In small-town Texas, that was just not the sort of thing that it was a good idea to do, even at 10 am on a weekday.
“Well? What do you think, Isaac? You wanna live with me for a little while? It looks like I’m going to come with a kid attached for a while, tho
ugh.” Ben tried to sound offhand, but he was sure that Isaac, who seemed to see everything, could see right through that.
“Maybe I can get your old apartment,” Isaac replied, with a slow, but undoubtedly happy smile, a small one which nevertheless crinkled the corners of his eyes and made them seem to glow as he looked at Ben. “Once I get a job.”
Ben smiled, but a faint hint of sadness touched him when he thought of Isaac leaving. Well, the guy would be in the same building as him, hopefully, and it wasn’t weird that he was thinking of them being roommates, or whatever they were going to be, would be a temporary situation. That was better for Ben anyway, right?
What was wrong with him, anyway? He’d never been willing to share his house with anyone before, and now he was looking at picking up two strays. And the weirdest thing about it was how weird it didn’t feel. How it, for some reason, felt like the most natural feeling in the world.
“I’m going to go talk to the landlord right now,” Ben decided, and Isaac smiled and fell into step with him as they walked right back into the apartment building, with a whole new hope that Ben could not remember having ever felt before.
* * *
Less than half an hour later, it was all dealt with. A new rental agreement had been signed, and the landlord, a gruff old man who had seen more than his fair share of bad tenants, seemed completely happy to hand over the keys to Ben’s new place. He didn’t even have to pay a damage deposit, even though the rent on the new place would be more than the old one.
Several hundred dollars more, actually. Ben wasn’t tottering toward the poorhouse by any stretch of the imagination, but that was going to sting. Still, he could swing it, and was he really going to let his brother live with strangers just because it was a little pricier to have him with him?
“You can move in today,” the landlord had told them, and Ben didn’t have very many things. With Isaac’s help, he was completely able to move his things, including his furniture, over to the new place, which was one floor up and just down the hall from his old place.
It seemed huge to him. Two whole bedrooms. And it was clean, too, freshly painted. The landlord wasn’t a super nice guy or anything, but he was decently good at his job, Ben had to give him that. God knew that he and his mother had lived in much worse places than this …
And that was the hard part about Sammy coming to live with him. It brought up memories of the past far too much, a past which he had tried not to think about for so long. He’d succeeded, too. Before running into his old friend at the movie theater, he couldn’t actually remember the last time his mother, or his childhood had figured in his thoughts for more than a second or two at a time.
Gazing around at his new, bigger place, Ben shook his head. He didn’t have enough furniture for a place like this. But he would make it work somehow. He had some savings.
Isaac, who had been an absolutely lifesaver that day, came up behind him and wrapped his arms around him, his cheek resting against Ben’s back, his hands sweetly on Ben’s stomach. It was sort of amazing how quickly things could change. Even a week ago, Ben had had no one and nothing, other than his job, if he was completely honest with himself.
Now he had a little brother, and … and a boyfriend because that’s what Isaac was, how Ben felt about him. He never had a boyfriend, though he had plenty of people who had been through his bed. When he was younger, it had been a lot more often, but none of them had interested him for more than a short time.
Isaac still fascinated him. The way his kisses tasted of innocence, the way his body responded to Ben’s touch, how eager the younger man was to learn everything, it all enslaved Ben utterly, made him not even able to consider ending things. Not just yet.
Something rebellious in the deepest, darkest parts of his heart, the part that he didn’t look at too often, the part that still knew how to feel, whispered Not ever, maybe?
Turning abruptly, Ben pulled Isaac into his arms and leaned down, stealing his lips for a very intense kiss. He didn’t really know how to say what he was feeling. How grateful he was that Isaac was here, that Isaac had thought to come to him when his parents had kicked him out. How relieved he was that he hadn’t had to move by himself.
Of course, he assured himself, he would have been okay alone. But there could be no doubt that it had been a hell of a lot easier because he hadn’t been, and something inside of himself, something that had been locked up for a long time, was responding, hopeful.
It was stupid, but wasn’t it possible that he wouldn’t have to be alone anymore? That he’d found something that would be around for more than just a few nights? Something … maybe even something permanent?
“Ben!” Isaac seemed surprised by the full, desperate force of Ben’s lips against his, but not upset, and Ben just grinned at him in response. He reached around and gripped that tight little ass, the one that seemed to fit so perfectly into his hands.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what we were doing when the phone interrupted us this morning,” Ben murmured, and then, while Isaac looked up at him with the most beautiful expression of wonder in his lovely eyes. It seemed almost like it constantly shocked Isaac that Ben wanted him, which didn’t make a lick of sense to Ben but he did want to change that.
“Ben,” Isaac said again, and Ben, pressed close against him, felt it when the other man started to harden. He smirked a little bit, then groaned as he felt Isaac’s fingers ghost over his face, tracing over the line of his jaw. No one had ever touched him like that, so gentle, so sweet, and he would never have thought that he would even want it.
“I have something I want to try,” Ben admitted. The things that he’d done with Isaac in bed so far had all been amazing, and more than he had actually imagined would happen back when he had first met him, spoken to him, but there could be no doubt that he’d thought about some pretty filthy things when he had this incredibly sexy, sweet, gorgeous man in his mind.
“Yeah?” Isaac asked, and the interest was suddenly right there in his eyes, as clear as day. His face was as clear as a window pane, Ben could see right through into his soul, and it was reassuring to be able to do that.
“Yeah. Come with me,” Ben murmured, and wrapped his arm around Isaac’s waist and tugged him toward the bedroom, where they had just set up the bed less than half an hour ago. It didn’t even have sheets on it yet, and the blankets were folded on the end, but it would do for now.
“Sit here,” Ben directed, and pressed Isaac, with two strong hands on his shoulders, down to perch on the edge of the bed. “I think you’re gonna like this, babe, but if you don’t, tell me, and I’ll stop.”
Isaac nodded, and Ben kept the connection between their eyes as he fell to his knees. His hands came to rest on Isaac’s slender thighs, stroking up toward the junction at the top of them, where he could feel heat already starting to radiate.
Settling with his knees on the floor, Ben shifted both hands up so that they were cupping the intriguing hardness that he could feel starting to form there. It didn’t take long until Isaac was fully aroused, and even softly moaning as he pressed his hips up toward Ben’s hands.
Slowly, letting it linger on and on, with his eyes very firmly fixed on Isaac’s flushed, desperate face, Ben lowered the zipper of Isaac’s pants and then drew them down, baring his boxers. His cock showed clearly through the fabric, precome already leaking through and making a wet spot in the front.
Ben cupped that bulge, palming it, rubbing against it, and Isaac gazed down at him with his face utterly transfixed with wonder. Those slender hips rose up against his hand, and a shudder went through Isaac’s whole body.
It was amazing how responsive this man was, and Ben was barely getting started. For a moment or two, he just rubbed at the thick cock he could feel tenting out the front of those sweet white boxer shorts, but then he hooked his fingers in the waistband and tugged them down, too.
For just a second, he waited, with Isaac bare and ready for him, waiting to see if Isaa
c would object. That seemed to be the last thing on the young man’s mind, though, and Ben smirked to himself and then nuzzled with his lips against the leaking head, letting the smooth skin press against his mouth.
“Ben!” Isaac spoke, just the one word, but there was an entire essay worth of comments in it. A whole ocean of desire, of need, of lust, and Ben was the one who had made this innocent young man feel all of it.
His lips parted, and his tongue came out, swiping over the head, probing at the slit, tasting him for the first time. Isaac’s body tensed, and he gave Ben more and more precome, which he busily licked up, and when he felt Isaac’s hands settle on the back of his head, he knew that the man was ready for it.
“Please,” Isaac whispered, managing one more word, but his eyes said much more as he looked down at Ben. There was really only one thing that Ben could do, and he did it. He parted his lips and then slowly, inch by inch, he started to take Isaac into his mouth.
Only as he did, he reached some sort of limit with his own patience. He had wanted to tease and torment Isaac until he was writhing under him, but hadn’t he already done that? And now, Ben found himself wanting to show him something different.
So, with a sudden movement, Ben sheathed that beautiful hard erection all the way in his mouth, even lodging it in his throat, not stopping until his lips were wrapped around the base of him. He let him slip free, only to repeat the action, deep throating him, keeping his lips tight and swirling his tongue around the head every chance he got.
Keening, Isaac’s fingers dug into Ben’s scalp, slipping through his short hair as he rocked helplessly up toward the sensation. Ben took every thrust, and looked up with real pleasure at Isaac’s face, at how pink it was, how bright those eyes were, how obviously Isaac was being pleasured.
The strongest desire to say three words that he had never said to anyone in teenaged or adult life came over him. Good thing his mouth was stuffed full, or he might not have been able to hold them back. And good thing, too, that Isaac was soon crying out, holding Ben’s head down with more strength than it seemed like he would have in his whole body, bucking up into his mouth as he flooded it with his come.
