Home is Where the Hard is

by Caraway Carter

  Home is Where the Hard is

  Summer Bigger Than Others

  An Anthology of Short Hot Summer Reads

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

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  Copyright 2015 Caraway Carter at Smashwords.

  Caraway Carter: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/carawaycarter

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  This novel is a work of fiction and the characters and events in it exist only in its pages and in the author’s imagination.

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  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Home is Where the Hard is

  About Caraway Carter

  By Caraway Carter

  Summer Bigger Than Others

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  Home is Where the Hard is

  Caraway Carter

  Chad has a lot on his mind; a failing relationship, a deadline. He’s looking forward to a month alone at his uncle’s beach house. But within the first twenty-four hours there, his life is turned upside down. He gets a day of innuendos and unexpected sexual encounters.

  Is this the beginning of a wonderful new life?

  Tags: MM romance, contemporary, open relationship, polyamory, role play, taboo, pseudo-incest (unrelated characters), explicit

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  Dedication

  Grace, Ashley, Michelle, and the slowest reader alive—Dave.

  Thanks for giving me the advice and taking the time to read

  something way outside your box of experience.

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  Home is Where the Hard is

  “Look, it’s over if you zip that duffel bag.” Nik stopped and looked into Chad’s eyes. “Then I’ll know you aren’t willing to fix this,” he said and turned to lean against the wall.

  This was the same forty-five minute fight that had been going on for the past three months. Nik and Chad would agree to disagree, go about their business and then Chad would say something stupid and the fight would start again. But it was the first time an end to the five-year relationship was left hanging in the air.

  They’d had their ups and downs. Chad firmly stated the relationship was open, that he could have other partners, and Nik went along with it for a long time. But when Chad said they needed to add a third to the relationship: that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That was when the fighting began.

  Chad had a deadline looming, and he knew the beach house would be the place to calm his mind, get him away from the constant arguing. And what that meant was that the duffel bag needed to be zipped.

  “Look, Nik…” he said and then shrugged. “I guess we’ll never fix each other. I want something you’ll never understand because you’re not willing to be open to more than just me.” He rubbed his face, grabbed a couple of books on the nightstand and tossed them in the bag before continuing. “Maybe books about threesomes are being written because it’s what authors want but can never get.”

  “You never gave me a chance to explain. You have never listened to me, Chad. Ever.”

  “I have. It’s gonna be over, and I’ve given up on your—” he made quotes with his fingers “—exploring more.” Chad zipped the bag closed, as Nik took a deep breath, sighed and gave up.

  ***

  Chad stopped in the driveway, noting the midnight-blue sports car parked next to the garden. He’d just pulled the calendar up on his phone to verify the date and time was correct when the passenger door opened and his uncle slid into the seat next to his.

  “Chad…I’m glad you made it, I know I said you’d have the run of the place. I’m just here another night. Nothing at all to worry about.”

  “All right, Uncle Jason. I’ve never worried about you being here. Is that a new car?” Chad pointed to the Porsche.

  “It was Pete’s idea. I think he’s trying to kill me off.” He placed his hand on Chad’s knee and squeezed. “Come on, let’s get you settled.”

  “Who’s Pete?” Chad asked as he pulled his duffel bag from the backseat and followed his uncle back to the house.

  “My new-old boyfriend. Your father introduced us before he… I’m sorry.”

  “No, it’s fine, Uncle Jason. He lived an awesome life. He and Mom were happy for a long time. He told me once in confidence that if he’d never found Rose, he would have married you in an instant.” Chad wrapped his arm around his uncle’s waist.

  “He said that?” Jason’s hands clasped at his throat.

  Chad grinned and left a gentle kiss on Jason’s cheek.

  “It was the night I discovered that you weren’t my uncle, but a dirty old man that my pop secretly loved.” Chad smacked Jason’s; he secretly loved the old guy too.

  “I’m not a dirty old man. I bathe every chance I get. We should go swimming later, and I’ll show you.” Those wicked eyes winked, and Chad felt as though his clothes had been ripped off, but he didn’t care at all. In fact, he couldn’t wait to get in the house and get comfortable.

  “Won’t Pete mind you skinny-dipping with another guy?”

  “He’s already in Europe on a book tour—he’ll meet me in Spain in a couple of days. I’m heading out later so he can have some play time without me hanging around.”

  Chad motioned for Jason to follow him into the bedroom. “You mean the two of you don’t spend every minute of every hour together?” Chad laughed at himself even as the words left his mouth. He reached into the duffel to pull out some underwear, and on the second grab found the neon yellow and pink Andrew Christian jock. He heard staccato laughter from over his shoulder, and he grinned at Jason.

  “Why don’t you put that on for later when we go swimming?” Jason suggested.

  Chad could feel the blush beginning and wondered why he’d invited Jason to follow him into the bedroom in the first place. “Do you really need that fantasy in your mind before you head out to meet up with Pete?”

  “Fantasy, my ass. I’m hoping to show you a good time before I leave. I’d hate to be a bad host. Unless that boyfriend of yours—Nik?—would have issues?”

  And then Chad remembered the fight. He pushed it from his mind and reached for the jock. “Why wait till tonight? But can I at least start with a little privacy?” Chad pushed Jason into the hallway and pouted seductively as he closed the door.

  Thinking about Jason, about what this man would do to him, made Chad put his clothes away faster. He stood in the middle of the room and undressed. As his hands moved over his defined muscles, he was grateful he had been swimming; the last few stubborn pounds were drifting away and beneath his fingers he felt a body that would one day be as strong as Jason’s. He picked up the Andrew Christian jock and laughed as he slipped it on. It had been a joke gift from a fuck buddy of his, for when he wore a kilt or something with easy access. He shoved himself inside the snug-fitting fabric, enjoying the way his ass felt in the jock. Chad found a pair of gray sweat shorts that he knew revealed almost everything when he sat with his legs spread, which he hoped to do at one point today. Before opening the door, he pulled on a loose, blue, Swallows T-shirt over his head and emerged to find Jason standing outside the room, in a white terrycloth robe with a gold monogram stitched on the left breast.

  “Is that yours?”

  “It’s mine because I’m wearing it. The initials are of someone I met in the H
amptons—some rich guy that Pete and I seduced. The three of us played all weekend, and I got this as a prize and remembrance.”

  “This Pete seems like a boon for you. Why would you want me?”

  “Because you are here, and I’ve had you before. I’d like you again without sticky strings, or the fear of your father walking in on us.”

  Chad started laughing. “That summer was the best one ever. I think I was nineteen, right? Home from college, and you were showing me your new boat.”

  “Well, I had the best of intentions. I didn’t expect you’d trip on me, or that your hand would end up where it did. Or that my body would react in that way, but I was sure happy that fate dealt the hand we got.”

  “So was I.” Chad pulled Jason by the belt that was keeping the robe closed; the knot slipped a little. He was grateful that they were the same height, two men with arms wrapped around one another as their lips found their resting place. The softness of Jason’s mustache brought a smile to Chad’s lips, and memories of past hookups flooded his mind. Those thick lips caressed Chad’s as they connected, met, and moistened…he could taste the lingering mint of toothpaste, and he was lost. Jason’s lips moved down the chin to the neck, and if Chad hadn’t known better, he’d have thought that Jason was a vampire, the way he nibbled at his neck, the swirling twist of his tongue, followed by more nibbles.

  All Chad could do was sigh in pleasure, his fingers gripping Jason’s ripped body, and soon he found himself untying the belt around Jason’s waist to reveal his muscular, tight frame. This man took care of himself; sure he was older, and Chad often wondered what he did to stay in such good shape. Then it flashed through his mind: this was what he did. Sex and conquest were what kept him young. But then images of Jason and his father invaded his thoughts, and he pushed Jason away.

  “No…slow. We need to go slow. Besides—” Chad grimaced “—I just thought of Dad and you doing this.”

  Jason laughed. “Well, you and your dad are very different men.” He inched his hand inside the back of Chad’s shorts, and Jason’s fingers gripped his ass.

  Chad’s eyes grew large, and he grinned. “Well, you aren’t letting much get in the way.”

  Jason twirled Chad around and slammed his chest against the wall, yanked down his shorts and before long Chad felt a sensation of wetness, but it wasn’t cum; it was spit. He felt his ass being spread, and Jason’s tongue traveled over him, stopping once or twice behind the balls, and poked at his ass. Chad couldn’t help the sounds escaping his throat, Jason’s fingers would flex and unflex, and then Jason added a finger to his tonguing so that he could speak.

  “Boy, you’d done more than I’d done by the time you were twenty-two, are you trying to tell me you never did this?”

  “Honestly…” Jason hadn’t stopped; he’d switch between tongue and fingers, sometimes both, sometimes two or three and the tongue. Chad found it hard to speak. “Unc.. Uc…Jason, I was the giver, not generally the receiver. Nik isn’t exactly a domineering sort; I had to take con…control. You are totally alpha dogging me here, and I…I…uh, I’m willing unless you wanna wrestle for it.” Chad tried to laugh, but he was lost in ecstasy, lost in the moment, and Jason didn’t seem like he was planning on letting up anytime soon.

  “That’s funny, with Pete, we take turns, but you get us in a threesome, and we suddenly make the third the one who gets both of us domineering. I think I’ve only been the bottom third with Pete and that guy in the Hamptons. Such a great fucking night.” Jason was using his fingers during that speech. Chad’s hand had snaked down under his balls, and his fingers connected with Jason’s.

  Out of breath, sweating and turned on so fucking much, Chad raised a hand and said, “RED! Red…can we take it slow, I need a breather.”

  “Wow, I haven’t heard you use red in a long time. Jason backed away and let his fingers slide out of Chad one, two, three…as the third released, Chad took a deep, ragged, exhausted breath.

  “Think we could get a drink and sit on the patio? I mean, I believe I can sit. Were you preparing me for you? Or do you have a trick up your sleeve, Jason?”

  He grinned, and Chad glimpsed his thick cock before he wrapped the robe around him. “Coffee? I’d prefer it if you were not getting drunk, I like to fuck sober men,” he said.

  ***

  They walked into the white and green kitchen. There were little yellow curtains covering all the windows, nearly identical to the style his mom had at her house. “Did you and my mom share designers?” Chad asked and then laughed as he opened the stainless steel fridge and grabbed the heavy cream. “Oh! I love coffee with thick cream in it; it lets me fantasize about what the future might hold.” He smiled wickedly.

  “Trust me, tonight will involve lots of cream, boy.” Jason looked up at the curtains, “Yeah, your mother and I found the designer in New York. She picked him out for me, because of his ass; I picked him out for her because of his knowledge of color and skill with butcher block. We were both satisfied with our experiences. Even after she found out that I’d been fucked on the counter before it was sealed.” Jason rubbed his hand over a very darkened section. “I only told her about that experience because she was talking about how perfect her counter was.” Jason turned to Chad. “I never told her what we did in her dining room chairs, but she loved Bob’s interior skills as much as I did.” There was that wink again.

  Chad loved this man, and his heart sank a little realizing he would be soon heading off to Spain to be with his lover. He chuckled thinking about his mother, though, and then he had to ask. “Did she know about you and Dad?”

  All movement stopped in the kitchen, Jason tilted his head and chuckled to himself. “I think so, maybe. Yeah, well she asked a lot of questions all the time. Or she’d say something off the cuff about something your pop did to her.” Jason looked around the room, at the knick-knacks that brought back little memories. “Rose, David, and I went to school together in the late sixties, early seventies. It was a time of free love, and we experimented with a lot of things. I discovered early on what I liked, even then. David took his time but settled on Rose—I shouldn’t say settled, they loved each other very much, and the three of us were friends all our lives. Did you know I still send Rose holiday cards?”

  “Whose idea was it for us to visit you in the summer?” Chad pulled the cups down from the same cupboard they had always lived in. Standing beside Jason while he put the coffee together, Chad slid his hand between the folds of Jason’s robe and squeezed his ass, as Jason had done with him before.

  Jason stopped what he was doing and chuckled. “Uh…You can’t pinch my butt as I talk about your mom.”

  “Now you see how I felt when you were rimming me and I was thinking about Dad.”

  They looked at each other, nodded their heads and smiled. Jason reached out his hand. “We’ll chat about your parents before any more sexual shenanigans proceed? Deal?”

  Chad shook his hand. He poured cream in the cup and presented it for the first drips of coffee. “Deal. So, we were talking about my mom and her designer cum-coated chairs.” Chad chuckled and wished they’d finish this talk so he could get his hands on Jason’s ass again, but he had started the conversation.

  After both men had cups of coffee poured, they ventured to the patio and sat staring at the languidly rolling waves.

  “I didn’t come on her chairs; that must have been you and one of your boyfriends from college.” Jason took a sip of his coffee. “Rose used to call me up and complain about you and your boyfriends. You know, she never cared that you were gay. She just worried you were having sex all over her beautiful furniture when she wasn’t home.”

  Chad choked on his coffee. “Actually I think I only had sex in the game room, on the pool table.” He nodded his head, “That was Dad’s domain. I masturbated tons of places but I’ve only ever been fucked on that pool table by this guy I picked up at a bar when I was housesitting for them.”

  “Damn, wish I had a pool tabl
e for that.” They both laughed.

  “Seriously? Jason, you can fuck me anywhere you want. I’m open to anything.”

  “Yeah, I know…three fingers showed me you could take so much more.” Jason couldn’t help laughing. “So, I thought you and Nik were serious. Rose told me that she was pretty certain the two of you were gonna be the first gay couple in the Hudson River Valley to get married.”

  “We were serious, we were happy, we were watching the states pass every day. He let me play on the side, but I got scared. I wanted more. I wanted to add a third to our relationship. I wanted more experiences. I wanted to know that I could get more than Nik if Nik and I didn’t pan out. You know, sorta like a sexual third as a prenup… Funny it made more sense when I said it to Nik last night.”

  Jason had a hard time controlling his laughter. “Oh, boy. You can’t word it that way. I mean, not everyone understands open relationships. They think we’re just sex fiends. That thought isn’t always right, I mean I can go weeks without thinking about another cock in my ass or mouth. Some months I’ve gone without even touching myself. That happens when I’m tired or working hard on a project.”

  Chad sipped at his coffee. “Well, I don’t want to talk about him. He made it known that my dream of a threesome was impossible, but I ask you, Jason: if they are impossible, how do you and Pete do it? How come all those threesome books are so popular? I mean it’s possible, right?”