by Lou Harper
“So what happened?”
“He said he’d take me for a whole weekend to this cabin in the woods. Totally fucking romantic, right?”
“And out of sight.”
“Yeah, that too. So anyway, I begged off early from work. I got home and found him already there—fucking my roommate over the kitchen table.”
“Let me guess—you charged in and cut off his balls.”
“Nah. That would’ve been letting him off too easy. I was really angry and wanted to hurt him back. I recorded the whole thing on my iPod—a gift from him, by the way. They didn’t see me. Then I sneaked out, waited half an hour and came back like nothing happened.”
“I can’t wait to see how this turns out.” Despite himself, Sam was getting caught up in the story.
“We went off to the cabin, had a good time, but while he slept I went through his wallet, all his personal stuff. His phone was a gold mine. Guess what I discovered?”
“What?”
“The asshole had a wife! And kids! I wanted to strangle him.”
“I can see that.”
“I stayed up all night thinking of the things I wanted to do to him. By morning I had a cunning plan. Something totally fucking evil. But first I had to get the full story. Once we were back I got Rick, my roommate, stinking drunk and got the whole story out of him. He told me that Dave had been fucking him the whole time he’d been fucking me. It was like a two-for-one deal for the three-timing bastard! But you know, even after that, I wanted to give him a chance to…I dunno, explain himself. So I confronted him. Guess what? The fucker blamed it all on me! According to him, if I’d let him bareback with me, like he wanted, he wouldn’t have had to fuck Rick, who didn’t mind. And he was married! How fucking stupid is that?”
“Very. So what did you do?” Sam asked, although he already knew where this was going.
“By then I’d figured out his wife’s email address, and sent her the video.”
“Serves him right.”
“I may have also sent it to everyone else on the contact list I’d found on his phone. I had to leave Denver in a hurry after that.”
“Ouch. Evil,” Sam said grinning. He drew Jay closer. “Remind me not to piss you off. Again.”
Jay nuzzled into Sam’s neck. His voice was muffled when he spoke. “You smell like bacon.”
That earned another chuckle from Sam. He pinched Jay’s ass. “Shower.”
Jay wondered what he’d gotten himself into, and what kept him there. For a minute he had been truly scared, but even then there’d been pinprickles of thrill racing through his body. It was official—he was sick. He didn’t care. Sam was dangerous, strong and so very real. He imagined that people working with big cats must feel the same rush. A couple hundred pounds of muscle and power pressing him to the yellow tiles of the shower made Jay dizzy with desire. He didn’t protest as Sam slapped his hands on the wall above his head, and covered them with Sam’s own larger ones. Jay tilted his head, exposing his neck to Sam’s lips and teeth, but he also pushed his hips back, grinding his ass into Sam’s groin, demanding more. They were both slippery with soap. Sam squirted more shower gel on his hand and massaged it between Jay’s buttocks. He teased Jay’s hole, rested his thumb against it, but didn’t push in yet. Jay braced himself against the wall and moved to widen his stance, but Sam stopped him.
“No,” Sam said in that familiar commanding tone that made Jay’s balls tingle. “I want you to be able to walk. Close your legs.” He prodded Jay’s foot with his own for emphasis.
Sam’s cock slid between Jay’s slippery thighs. It started slow. Sam’s shaft rubbed against Jay’s hole and the soft skin of his perineum, the blunt head bumping Jay’s balls at every stroke. Sam’s hand on Jay’s cock mirrored the infuriatingly lazy movements of his hips. Jay wanted to urge him, to make him go faster, but Sam’s other arm held him firmly in place. Jay grunted in frustration.
“Patience, Tiger,” Sam said, squeezing Jay’s cock in reprimand.
The relentless, maddening stimulation of his cock and ass made Jay’s body hum. Sam’s solid weight pressed against his back in another sign of his possession over Jay. He wanted to come, and he wanted to stay there on the edge forever. Just as he felt himself about to tip over, Sam’s hand halted and pressed harder at the base of Jay’s cock. He groveled and whimpered in protest to no effect.
“You fucking bastard!” he snarled.
“If only you could see yourself, Tiger.” Sam’s voice sounded husky and smug as his murmured into Jay’s ear. “You’re hot as hell like this, my needy little slut.”
Jay had the sudden urge to do something to Sam, to pay him back for all the damn torture, but he forgot all about it as Sam’s movements gained momentum. Sam’s hand gripped Jay’s cock firmly, moving at a quicker pace now. Jay hurtled toward the edge again, only Sam’s arm, his possessive, controlling hold keeping him from going over. Then there was a tightening grasp and a murmured “now”—given permission, Jay tumbled and fell, arching into the shuddering, jerking body of Sam.
Jay’s thighs still trembled as Sam manipulated him under the spray of water, rinsing the soap and jizz off his skin.
“That was… Fuck, where did you learn to do it like that?” Jay asked.
“Don’t tell me nobody’s ever fucked you this way before.”
“Nobody’s ever fucked me quite like you before,” Jay admitted in a moment of post-coital weakness.
Sam gazed back at him silently, his expression free of smugness. Breaking his gaze, Sam stepped out of the shower, dripping water all over the bath mat.
“Get dry and get dressed,” he called back. “We’re going to town.”
Chapter Four
NT: You got something?
SR: I found something very interesting. I’m not sure if it’ll help, but your friend kept interesting company.
NT: Meet me tonight. Usual place.
“So what’s my cover?” Jay asked conspiratorially as they got into Sam’s pickup. Now that his annoyance was gone—fucked out of him, pretty much—it all seemed like a game. Sam picked up on it, judging from the wink he gave.
“Your mother’s name’s Carol, she’s my younger sister, and you all live in Springfield. Your mom sent you to me for the summer.”
“What for?”
“You don’t say. If anyone starts asking too much, just hedge. They won’t though, not directly, and Bill won’t ask at all.”
“You and I don’t look anything alike. It’ll be tough to sell the family connection.”
“That’s because you’re adopted.”
“Now, how will I drop that tidbit in a casual conversation?”
“You won’t have to. While you’re with Bill, I’ll run some errands, including getting a haircut. Marianne at Choice Cuts is the biggest gossip in town. All it’ll take is a few dropped hints, and by the week’s end the whole town will know.”
“Oh, you’re a cunning one, secret agent Mayne.”
“I do my best.”
“By the way, who’s this Bill I’ll be spending time with, and why?”
“He runs a martial arts school for kids, and self-defense classes. I want him to teach you some basic moves. You obviously need them.”
“Hmmph.” Jay colored, remembering how easily Sam had taken him down.
Sam’s hand fell onto Jay’s knee, slid halfway up his thigh and gave a little squeeze. “We can practice them together later.”
“Oh nice, you’re gonna give me a boner when you know I can’t do anything about it.”
Bill Harmon, with his severe crew cut, lean, muscular body, was unmistakably ex-military. While Jay generally found his kind of exaggerated manliness hot, experience had taught him that it often came bundled with a strong case of homophobia. On one previous occasion he didn’t like to recall, only his fast feet had saved him from a certain ass-kicking. What the hell was Sam thinking bringing him here? Jay straightened out, trying to look his most hetero. Shit, he needed a wardrobe
downgrade if he was gonna stick around this town…but was he? Instead of wondering about that, Jay made an effort to turn his attention back to the conversation going on between the other men. It was about him, after all.
“I don’t like it,” Bill grumbled. “There’s not a whole lot I can teach him in two lessons.”
“Anything’s better than nothing,” Sam soothed him. “Junior here tends to get into jams and he needs a few skills to get out of them.”
“I could devise an accelerated self-defense and urban-survival course for him,” Bill suggested. “Some judo, unarmed combat, a few survivalist skills. With at least three lessons a week he could learn something actually useful in a month or so.”
“We might take you up on it. It depends.” Sam glanced at Jay who developed a sudden interest in his own shoelaces.
“Fine,” Bill conceded. “I can show him a few holds and throws.” He turned his attention to Jay. “The changing room’s over there. There’s a spare uniform.”
Sam left and Jay changed into the judo outfit. It was loose-fitting but made out of a very sturdy material. After stretching and warm-up, Bill started to explain the fundamentals and show a few basic moves. Jay paid attention, not wanting to anger Bill. Then the women showed up. It was the twice-a-week class they took. It was for both workout and learning useful self-defense skills, as Leanne Harris explained to Jay, but the way some of them were batting their eyes at Bill, Jay was guessing there were ulterior motives at work too. As Sam had predicted, Jay became the subject of politely probing questions, but decorum kept them from being too forward. Bill put an end to it by starting the workout. Jay really started paying attention after the petite Leanne tossed him onto the mat a few times.
“How was the lesson?” Sam asked at dinner.
Jay shrugged. “Fine. I learned how to fall. Bill threw me down onto the mat a few times, and then let me do the same to him.”
“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.”
“It was all right. Okay, so it’s pretty cool how easy it is to trip somebody up if you know what you’re doing. Like using their own momentum or messing with their center of gravity. I just don’t get why you want me to do this.”
“The point is that it’s a wild world out there, and you’re lunch. I could tell you to stop hitching around, taking stupid risks, but you won’t listen. At least I can help you to get a few tools to protect yourself. No one’s better suited than Bill to teach them to you. He was in the Marines, and comes from one of those families who’re always waiting for the end of the world. He’s a regular McGyver.”
“So it’ll protect me from big bad wolves like you?” Jay asked with a flirty smile.
Sam stayed serious. “No, but it may keep you safe from garden-variety predators.”
Jay edged closer to the source of his unease. “Bill…he’s so very military. His kind generally doesn’t like my kind. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Bill’s cool.”
“He’s not even remotely gay, you know.”
“Of course I know that. Not everything’s about sex.”
Well duh. But still. Another thing popped into Jay’s head.
“Do you really have a sister?”
“Yes,” Sam said, curtly, his expression closing off.
“Does she live in Illinois?” Jay prodded on.
“No.”
Sam pushed himself away from the table, picking up the dirty dishes and taking them to the sink.
“I’m so not surprised,” Jay said to Sam’s back.
“She used to. We all did,” Sam replied, turning the water on.
“So where is she now?”
“Out of the country, thank God.”
Dishes clattered and there was a finality to Sam’s tone. Jay let it rest. Sam was a hornets’ nest he didn’t want to poke. Yet.
The air in the truck was thick with silence. Sam looked hell-bent not to break it, and Jay let it be. He fiddled with the radio dial till he found something tolerable and stared out the window. Green fields and mountains passed. Very picturesque. It all reminded him of that TV show his nana liked to watch, about the painter with his white afro and his “happy trees”. Despite the scenery, Jay didn’t feel cheerful. He knew he had to make a decision whether to take Sam up on his offer and get on a plane to Seattle or not. Common sense told him it would be the smart thing to do. Sure, Sam was a fantastic fuck, but how long before he’d turn into a frog too? And how long till Jay himself went screaming mad from living in the middle of bucolic nowhere? This thing with Sam was destined to fail. He should cut his losses early, before they got too high, right? His backpack was with him, fully packed. There was nothing to stop him.
Sam pulled off to the side of the road where the cemetery met the airport. He switched off the radio and turned to Jay. His face was a closed book.
“So…this is it. Say the word and I’ll get you a ticket anywhere you want to go.”
“To Paris?”
“If that’s what you want,” Sam replied with utter seriousness. “There might be a few stopovers and plane changes. Do you have a passport?”
“I do, but I was joking,” Jay said with a smile to hide his nerves.
Sam looked back at him, unsmiling, blank as granite. Jay wanted to do the right thing, but a strange sensation came over him, like all his senses sharpened. He could see every single pore of Sam’s skin, the stubble on his chin, strands of black hair poking out from the neckline of his shirt. Jay’s nostrils filled with Sam’s scent till he felt he’d bust open from it. It wasn’t exactly sensual, but dizzying anyway. Jay had to roll down the window to clear his head.
“I think I could stay for a while,” he breathed out at last.
“Sure?”
He wasn’t. “Yeah.”
Sam’s lips twitched. He put the truck in gear and got back on the road.
They didn’t go far from the airport before making a left turn into a large parking lot.
“Whalemart?” Jay sniggered. “You’re spoiling me.”
Sam cuffed him on the ear in jest. “When in Rome… We can pick up pretty much everything we need here in one stop.”
He deposited Jay in the men’s clothing section and wheeled off his cart. Jay figured there was no point in pining for designer clothes in the armpit of nowhere, and it wasn’t as if it mattered what he wore here anyway. He managed to dig up some suitably baggy jeans that didn’t look too crummy, and a few T-shirts to match. Rummaging around he came across something that made him grin ear to ear. When Sam returned half an hour or so later, Jay greeted him holding a T-shirt adorned with a particularly colorful rendition of a bass leaping out of the water to swallow a bait.
“What do you think?” Jay beamed.
Sam rolled his eyes.
“You said I needed to blend in,” Jay said in mock protest.
“Wiseass. I don’t think anyone without a beer gut is allowed to wear those.”
“Spoilsport.” Jay tossed the bass back on the rack, and his serious loot into the cart. His eyes widened for a second at the sight of Sam’s own collection. Sam just winked at him.
“While we’re here, pick up a dozen jockstraps,” Sam said.
“What for?”
“I want you to wear them from now on.”
Sam checked them into a pretty decent motel. One room, two beds, of course.
“I promised you we’d go clubbing, and I don’t intend to drive back to Coldwater at 3 a.m., drunk,” he explained.
“It’ll be an early night then?” Jay quipped as he walked into the room.
There was a sound of shopping bags dropping to the floor and Jay was body-tackled to the nearest bed. He twisted and squirmed in Sam’s hold till they were chest to chest. Jay inhaled a lungful of Sam’s scent.
“Us old people go to bed early,” Sam murmured, squeezing Jay’s denim-wrapped behind.
“You’re not that old,” Jay said. “I don’t think you’re really old enough to be my father either.”
&
nbsp; “Theoretically I could be—if I started at thirteen,” Sam mused.
“Thirty-five?”
“Will turn thirty-six in November.”
“My dad’s definitely older than that.”
Sam’s hand released its hold on Jay’s rear. Apparently, the daddy-talk was a turn-off. That confounded Jay, but he figured he could set things right by divulging a simple truth about himself.
“I like older men. Always have,” he explained. “My first real boyfriend was forty-two when we met.”
“How old were you?”
“Eighteen. Jeff was a year older than my old man.”
“What did your parents think about that?”
“They didn’t know. I took off the day I turned eighteen. I only saw my dad about three times a year anyway.” Jay aimed for a flippant tone, shooing away the tinge of bitterness.
“Where did you go?” Sam asked. His hands came back to life, stroking and kneading.
“St. Louis.”
“Did you hustle?” Sam asked, as he unhurriedly unbuttoned Jay’s jeans and pulled the zipper down.
“I didn’t have to. There’s a big university there—I got a job in a coffee shop next to the main campus. Great place to hook up with college boys.”
“Found a place to stay?”
“Yeah, college kids are always looking for roommates.”
Jay lifted his hips, letting Sam push his jeans down his thighs. He toed off his shoes and wiggled till he got the jeans the rest of the way down.
