by Riley Knight
Those fluids, too, were just as sweet and innocent as everything else about Isaac. He tasted exactly like Ben would expect, and he swallowed down everything he was given, then pulled away with a smirk.
“Seems like you liked that,” he drawled, rising to his feet, his lips aching from the force of the thrusts which Isaac had given him. He had made the man lose control, exactly as he had hoped to.
What he didn’t expect was for Isaac to start to work determinedly at the front of his pants, to have them almost torn off by the panting, sweating, utterly breathtaking young man.
“It’s your turn now,” Isaac informed him, and if Ben hadn’t been diamond hard before that, he would have been then.
SIXTEEN
If anyone had told Isaac, even a week ago, that he would be lowering another man’s pants with the express intention of putting his mouth on their throbbing erection, he would have flat out not believed them.
Here he was, doing just that. He had no idea what he was doing, but he was doing it anyway, hoping that what Ben had just done to him would be enough of a guide.
Ben shifted his powerful hips, and his pants fell to the floor. It took only seconds for Isaac to lower Ben’s underwear and bare him completely, and when he was seated on the bed and Ben was standing above him, it put him at exactly the right level to look directly at his dick.
He had never even suspected that he would like this as much as he did, but Ben was just as beautiful here as he was everywhere else. Isaac reached out to touch him, then looked up into those glowing green eyes, catching his lower lip behind his teeth uncertainly for a second.
“You might have to help me,” Isaac admitted. There were times when he hated that he had absolutely no experience before. He was fumbling his way through this, but at least he had pretty much the best possible first partner that anyone could hope for.
“No problem,” Ben murmured, and Isaac watched, a sensation of arousal so intense it was almost painful gripping his stomach and balls as he watched Ben reach down and grip his own cock, pointing it toward Isaac’s lips.
The invitation was clear, and Isaac wasn’t nervous anymore. Not with how much he honestly wanted to do this. So he parted his lips and moved in, taking just the head into his mouth and swirling the tongue over Ben’s blunt head, just as Ben had done to him.
“Mmph,” Isaac commented, because Ben tasted good, beyond good. He tasted utterly incredible, and Isaac started to suck, going for more than that slightly bitter saltiness.
Just like with kissing, he soon realized that he’d been so worried about nothing. This was the most natural thing in the world, once he was actually doing it. It was like something in him did know what to do, and had known all along.
“Oh fuck, Isaac,” Ben growled, that sexy voice of his dropping even lower. Their eyes met as intimately, if not more so than the pressure of Ben’s cock in Isaac’s mouth, and as long as Isaac was looking up into those jade green eyes, he found that he wasn’t nervous at all.
Ben did guide him, too, just as Isaac had asked. Not with words, but with the pressure of his hands, with his moans and soft, erotic noises of pleasure. When Isaac raised his hand to jack the part of the cock that he couldn’t fit in his mouth, Ben really seemed to like that, his hips flexing as he gripped Isaac’s head and pushed into him.
Isaac kept waiting. Each time he and Ben did something, he waited for it to seem wrong. For that act to be the one that crossed the line and made him feel dirty. But it wasn’t, and it didn’t. This was just as utterly flawless as everything else they’d done, and Isaac was starting to think that he was going to wait forever.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do with this man. Nothing.
Their movements were slow, at first, but they didn’t stay that way. Soon enough, Ben was tight and tense, his every muscle trembling as Isaac touched him, stroking over as much of his body as he could reach with his free hand. This was new to Isaac, but he was still starting to be able to tell when Ben was getting close, and he subconsciously braced himself for what he knew was going to happen.
“Isaac! Fuck, Isaac, I’m gonna,” Ben warned, but Isaac didn’t need that warning. He was ready, and he tried to signal that readiness to Ben with his eyes, and by increasing the movements of his lips and his hands.
Another first. Isaac tasted Ben, felt his cock jerk and twitch as he pumped a salty-sweet fluid between his lips. It tasted like nothing else Isaac had ever had in his mouth, and he considered whether he liked it or not as he looked up at Ben, who was shaking and barely seemed to be keeping his feet.
He liked it, he decided, and he swallowed down what Ben had given him. He liked it because it came from Ben. Because he had been the one to make Ben feel that way.
Slowly, in fits and starts, Ben withdrew from his mouth. Isaac’s jaw ached from the unaccustomed pressure that had been put on it, and his tongue was tired, but he didn’t regret it, not a single thing that had happened between them.
“… Thanks, baby,” Ben murmured, and his hand was gentle as it traced the curve of Isaac’s cheek. He practically fell onto the bed, wrapping an arm around Isaac and pulling him close.
“Did I do it okay?” Isaac wanted to know. Obviously, he had made Ben come, so that had to be good, but what he really wanted to know was if he had been anywhere near as good as anyone else that Ben had taken into his bed.
“You did it perfectly,” Ben reassured him, and Isaac smiled. That was all he needed to let bliss fill him, and he rested his head against Ben’s strong chest and cuddled up to him, more convinced than ever that he didn’t want to let this man go.
Maybe Ben would push him away. He didn’t seem to be exactly the relationship type. But for as long as this lasted, Isaac was going to enjoy it.
* * *
It seemed utterly impossible, how fast Isaac’s life had changed.
The social worker was coming by today. Ben had arranged it. Everyone was in a hurry to get Sammy settled before the court date, which was drawing nearer and nearer. Would Ben go, Isaac wondered? Would he watch his mother’s trial?
Would Isaac go to a trial for his parents, at this point, with what they had done to him? He shook his head as he got ready for the visit, pulling on his clothes and squinting in the mirror as he tried to tame the unruly mass of his dark hair. It never would lie flat, and he sighed as he gave it up as impossible.
The fact was, he didn’t know what he would do if anything like that happened. But it wasn’t like he would ever know, anyway. His parents had never done anything to break the law in their life.
A knock came at the door, and Isaac turned to Ben, who looked remarkably composed. There was a seething mass of restless energy behind his eyes, though, that belied the claim that the rest of his face and body was trying to put out, that this was just a normal day and that he didn’t much care what happened.
More and more, that mask was slipping. Was it just that Isaac was getting better at seeing it? Or was Ben really letting his guard down more?
“Probably her,” Ben commented, and Isaac reached for his lover’s wrist. Was that the right word? Was Ben his lover? Isaac really had no idea how any of this worked.
“What am I, if she asks?” Isaac met Ben’s eyes, worrying at his own lower lip with his teeth. She might ask, and she would have every right to ask, and no matter how nearly divine their experiences together might seem to Isaac, he knew very well that many people would not approve of the things they did.
Ben hesitated and then sighed.
“Look, I’d like to be able just to call you my boyfriend, but … I don’t know. This woman could decide whether Sammy can live here or not.” Ben didn’t say it, but Isaac knew very well that Ben had gotten to a place where he actually really wanted Sammy there. And, to be honest, so did Isaac.
A bubble of euphoria formed in the very center of his being and Isaac couldn’t help but grin as he squeezed Ben’s hand. His boyfriend. Ben had just called him that, hadn’t he? Or as good as.
&nb
sp; “Okay,” he nodded, pretty much willing to go along with anything Ben said, as long as Ben kept on calling him that. Boyfriend. Funny how much he liked it, and how very true it seemed.
“So maybe you’re just a friend couch surfing for a while. That might be okay. She already knows you and likes you.” Ben leaned in, his lips brushing a sweet, intimate, though brief caress against Isaac’s.
And then the man was gone, going to answer the door. The social worker, who Isaac remembered had introduced herself as Sylvia, stood on the other side of the door, just as tiny as ever.
“Hello, thank you for having me,” she said, and Isaac looked at her thoughtfully. There was something strange about her expression. It took him a second to identify it, but he finally realized that it was nerves.
She was worried, and Isaac would guess it was because Sammy hadn’t been settled yet. How many kids did she have to worry about? And she still worried about all of them. This woman was pretty much a saint, doing a job that Isaac knew that he couldn’t do. Very few could.
It made him warm up to her immediately. He had already liked her upon meeting her the first time, and this just built on that.
“Sure,” Ben shrugged as if it was no big thing, but Isaac knew better. Maybe Sylvia did, too.
“Isaac. It’s good to see you again.” Sylvia sounded sincere, but the gaze she turned on them was curious. She had met Ben exactly twice, and both times, Isaac had been there. Obviously, she was wondering about what that relationship was, and Isaac was glad he and Ben had come up with a story.
Not that it was even a story, he assured his conscience. It was more or less the truth. He was staying at Ben’s house, just for awhile, down on his luck. He was going to move out, just as soon as he could find a job.
What they did in bed was, Isaac decided firmly, quite frankly none of her business. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.
“You too,” Isaac nodded to her, and he meant every word of it.
Most of the meeting was about what Isaac would have expected. There were questions, lots and lots of questions, and Sylvia poked around the apartment. She paused at the threshold to the room which would, hopefully, be Sammy’s soon enough.
“There’s no furniture,” she pointed out, and Ben nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll get a bed and dresser and stuff before he comes,” he promised, and Sylvia nodded and scribbled something down on a notebook that she was carrying around with her.
“That would need to be taken care of before he could move in. It’s possible that there may be some funds to help with the cost of that.” Sylvia hesitated, then looked over at Isaac, who sat on the couch and tried desperately to look like he was nothing more than a friend, just someone who was sharing this space on a purely temporary basis.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Sylvia told them, and Isaac felt like she meant it, “But it seems like you two are together a great deal of the time. Isaac, do you live here?”
Somehow, Isaac had been braced, ready for this question, sure that it was going to come. In a way, it was a relief that it finally had, and he forced his hands to hold each other instead of shaking, which someone as observant as her might notice.
Yes, this was 2018, and a lot of places in the world, even if he and Ben had been living together, it would be fine. But this wasn’t most places. This was Texas, and small-town Texas, at that. What should be the case and what was the case wasn’t always the same thing.
Look at his parents. They would rather kick him out than even think about him being with another man. They would rather run him out of their lives completely than consider accepting it. And they didn’t even know all the details about him and Ben.
“Ben is letting me sleep on his couch for a while. I just went through … a tough family situation,” Isaac admitted. “I won’t be here for long, though.”
Sylvia looked at both of them, and Isaac felt obscurely like he was being sized up by a parental figure, despite the fact that she was smaller than him and that she was probably about half of Ben’s size.
What would she decide, when she had finished that sizing up? Was Isaac going to end up being the reason that Ben didn’t get Sammy? He would go crawling back to his parents before he would let that happen. He would leave, and figure something, anything, else out, before he took Ben’s brother for him.
“If Isaac is going to be living with you,” she said carefully, and there was a hidden meaning to her words, one that really wasn’t that difficult for Isaac, or Ben, probably, either, to figure out. “Then he’s going to have to get a criminal record check, too.”
And that was it. She clearly knew that something was going on between them, but she didn’t seem to care. As long as Sammy was safe, Isaac could tell, she was okay with whatever arrangement that they had. And she hadn’t even scribbled anything down in her book.
Isaac was used to thinking of his relationship, whatever it was, with Ben as being something which had to be completely secret. This woman had figured it out, Isaac was sure of it, and relatively easily, too. And more than that, she didn’t even seem to care. The fact that this could happen was a revelation to Isaac, and maybe to Ben, too, at least from the look on his face.
“I can do that.” Isaac’s lips, his tongue, his whole mouth, felt numb and dry. Surely, the other foot was going to drop at any moment, but the fact was, he knew he would have no problem with a criminal record check. He had never been allowed to live enough in the world to have had any chance of breaking any of its rules.
“Okay. I’ll expedite the process on my end as much as possible. With any luck, Ben, you should be able to take Sammy as early as next week. I’ll contact the nearest school, once those checks are back. And I’ll have to come back to make sure Sammy’s room is furnished appropriately.”
There were a lot of words there, but from what Isaac could tell, they all boiled down to one simple concept. They could have Sammy. No, he shouldn’t think about it that way. Sammy wasn’t his little brother. But Ben could have him, and Isaac saw the same exact realization dawning on Ben’s handsome face, giving him a sort of glow from within.
“Thank you,” Ben managed, and Isaac ached to go to him, to cross the floor and take the other man in his arms and hold him, share his joy. But Ben was still obviously struggling not to even show that joy, and Sylvia, as surprisingly nice as she had been, and as much as she seemed willing to keep their secret, was still a near stranger.
“Here’s my card. Go ahead and call me if you have any questions, or to let me know when I can come back to see Sammy’s room,” Sylvia said. She handed it over to Ben, then gave them a beautiful wide smile which lit up her pretty face and made it radiant.
This was working out just perfectly for her, Isaac realized, and he found himself smiling back. All three of them were smiling, actually, and it might seem sort of dorky, but it was actually the best possible sign that this thing which was happening, this big change in Ben’s life, and Isaac’s, too, was the most positive thing that could happen.
Then Sylvia was gone, and finally, Isaac could go to Ben, wrap his arms around him, and rest his head on his chest. He could listen to the pounding of his heart, and feel the desperate clasp of Ben’s strong arms around himself in return.
This was terrifying, probably for all of them. For Sammy, too, Isaac would imagine. But it was also the best thing that had ever happened to Isaac, and he, he told himself firmly, was only peripherally involved.
It was just that it didn’t feel like that. It felt like Isaac was getting more family, and maybe that was a bad way for him to feel. Maybe he should remember that that wasn’t the case before he got himself too involved and Ben ended up hating him for it.
Only maybe it was too late for him to hold back his heart because he was pretty sure he was already giving it far too freely, both to Ben and to his little brother.
SEVENTEEN
Isaac wasn’t with him, and Ben told himself he was very okay with that. He didn’t need the young man around h
im all the time. He wasn’t attached to Isaac. They weren’t conjoined twins who needed to stay close to each other every second of every day.
Okay, so maybe he wanted to be around Isaac every second of every day, but it wasn’t a big deal that they were apart. And he definitely wasn’t rushing his shopping so that he could make it home in time for dinner. Although Isaac had said that he would cook and Ben was looking forward to that since it had been awhile since he’d had a real home-cooked meal.
This trip was important, anyway. He had to buy furniture for Sammy, which would mean dipping into his savings, which weren’t really all that exciting to begin with, but it was worth it. Even if Sylvia couldn’t get her boss to pay him back, he was good with spending the money.
A bed, a dresser, a desk, Ben had bought it all and arranged to have it shipped to his place since it wouldn’t all fit in his car. It should be there the next day, and then he could call Sylvia and let her know it was all systems go, at least on his end.
Though he was curious, what happened if their mother, by some miracle, got a very, very lenient judge and didn’t end up going to jail at all? Sammy was in foster care already, so Ben wasn’t sure how that worked. Would Sammy come to live with him regardless?
And then, as he was driving out of the city, he drove past Spider-Man.
Of course, he stopped. Sammy was in his thoughts, and he couldn’t help but remember how his little face had lit up when he talked about the superhero, who was quite clearly Sammy’s own personal hero. So he pulled to a halt in front of the comic book store, and he couldn’t help the little grin that tugged at the corners of his lips.
