Bear Hunting

by R. W. Clinger

  Toby doesn’t tell Jim anything about his recent breakup with Denver. He feels it’s unnecessary to bring up such details because Toby knows that the situation with Denver is water under the bridge, over. Instead, he forgets about his morning with the nutritionist and lets Jim Bone kiss him for as long as he wants, finding pleasure with the Californian, and lust.

  Chapter 47: Bear Blog, Jim Bone 1

  There’s a special bear in my life that all of you readers might want to know about. The bear’s name is Millard LeCarre, but you probably know him as Jim Bone, the rather famous adult star of Thor Media Productions. Jim is thirty-two years old, six-one, and weighs two hundred and forty pounds. If you follow his movies, a string of man-on-man gay porn, you know that he’s a blond with green eyes. And you probably know that he has an eight-inch long dick that is two inches wide and can break any twink in half. You also probably know that he’s been in a variety of gay skin flicks, some of which are your favorite: Bone In, Military Takeover Two, Bone Versus Bone, Man Fantasy Nine, Cop Dick for Hire, Bone-ified Liar, Boyfriend Bone, and Tackle & Touchdown.

  What you don’t know about Jim Bone: I grew up with him in my hometown of Templeton, Pennsylvania near Lake Erie. I considered him my first boyfriend, although we never touched or made out with each other, and he broke my heart when he turned fourteen because he was forced to move to California under his mother’s care; the place where he currently calls home. Other details pertaining to the pornstar include: he doesn’t like pickles, although he has been fucked by one, he likes cats over dogs, and he…

  * * * *

  Toby finishes the blog within the next hour. He tells a short story about how the adult star’s career started in West Hollywood, Jim Bone’s infatuation with brown-haired guys, and how the man prefers disco music over everything else. The blog is swift and basically writes itself. Before Toby realizes it, it is complete, without errors, and he uploads it to his site.

  The other five blogs about Jim Bone are debatable. Toby makes a list of things he can write about, all of which detail Jim’s life. The man’s fake tan, his liking for mystery novels, where he enjoys vacationing (Aruba), and his second home in Palm Springs. Toby also can write about Jim’s allergies (chocolate and pine nuts), how he loves anything Oriental, and how he enjoys participating in water sports, both the clean and dirty kind, of course. Toby knows it isn’t going to be too difficult to derive five topics for his collection of Jim Bone blogs. Frankly, there’s too much to discuss about the XXX star, and he fears that his readers will only beg for more details of Jim’s private life.

  No matter what the five other blogs will entail, Toby is committed to write them, which he intends to enjoy. He plans to outline each blog first before beginning them and post pictures of a semi-naked Jim Bone on his site. He also wants to list all of the movies that Jim starred in, and supply his readership with a few scandalous DVD covers of Jim’s top-selling films. Frankly, Toby knows that this is an exciting project to take on for the next twelve weeks, and it pays well. To fail such a task will be foolish, which he has no intention of doing. Full steam ahead, he’s already thinking of his next blog about his friend, brainstorming a few fresh ideas.

  Chapter 48: A Late Evening Visit

  September 7, 20—

  382 Bretton Way

  10:27 P.M.

  Toby isn’t drunk, but he has had a few whiskey shots, downing them like a cowboy from Stockton County, Oklahoma. The drinking is a celebration of writing his first blog, and completing it, about Jim Bone. Perhaps he has had one too many shots because he doesn’t hear the front doorbell ring, both the first time, and the second time. Rather, he hears it the third time, and his name being called out from the front porch.

  When opening the front door to his humble castle, he becomes flummoxed to see Jim Bone standing on his porch in the dim light. It’s a warm evening and Jim’s wearing nothing more than a pair of ball-tight shorts and sneakers. No socks. No tank. No ball cap. And Toby thinks he looks sexy with a semi-smile on his handsome face.

  “You want some company?” Jim asks. “I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by.”

  Jim’s Aunt Bev lives two miles away; the place where Jim is staying until he returns to California and his porn career. Toby also knows that the man has been driving his aunt’s Jeep Liberty around town, which isn’t parked on Second Street in the street lights. This prompts Toby to ask, “Did you take a cab here?”

  Jim laughs. “How’d you know?”

  “I can see it on your face. Remember, I’ve known you since we were boys. You can’t hide anything from me.”

  “So you want some company or not, boyhood friend? Either let me in or let me walk back to my aunt’s house with my tail between my legs.”

  “Come in,” Toby says, and steps aside, allowing their late evening to begin, together.

  * * * *

  They discuss Toby’s relationship with Denver and how it has ended. Jim asks a dozen or more questions about the topic while they share a few shots of whiskey. And Toby says that he will always love Denver, no matter what.

  “Your heart is broken,” Jim says.

  “I think I always knew that it would be broken by Denver.”

  “You really do love the guy, don’t you?”

  “I do. But that doesn’t mean my life won’t go on. Nothing lasts forever as the old cliché goes, right?”

  “It doesn’t, although we sometimes want it to.”

  They sit in Toby’s study, across from each other in reading chairs. The room isn’t very big, but it’s comfortable and chilled by the whole-house air conditioning. After the conversation concerning Denver ends, Toby gets straight to his point and asks, “Jim, what are you doing here?”

  “Let me show you, if you’ll let me. It’s something I’ve wanted to do now for a few years.”

  “What kind of something?”

  Jim sets his empty shot glass down on a nearby table, walks in front of Toby, stands over him, and reaches down for Toby’s chin, which he lifts with two fingertips. He kisses Toby with an open mouth, pulls Toby’s T-shirt off, pinches one of his nipples, lathers his splay of neck with kisses, and seduces the blogger the way maybe Toby wants to be seduced, broken-hearted or not.

  * * * *

  The next hour is a blur for Toby: becoming naked with Jim Bone in the study, providing each other with relentless blowjobs, rimming tight bottoms, suckling nipples, and pinching cockheads. He barely even recalls Jim lying on his back and holding his erection up with his right hand, between his strong legs, and telling Toby, “Don’t be shy and ride it. I think we both know you want to. And don’t think that I’m going to be gentle with your ass. I don’t work that way, but you already know that from watching the films I star in.”

  So Toby rides the pornstar’s dick, enjoying himself, rising up and falling down on Jim’s cock, and building up perspiration on his chest and inner thighs. And as he jostles in a north and south motion, busy with his labor, it’s Jim who throttles his ass, pounding his cock upwards, inside Toby, until both men come, spraying each other down with semen, and eventually sticking together as they kiss.

  Chapter 49: Sometimes You Can’t Help Who You Fall For

  September 8, 20—

  Second Street

  6:51 A.M.

  “You’re leaving today and I feel that we’re just getting things started between us,” Toby says against Jim’s hairy chest. He has his head planted between the actor’s pecs and his mouth is only inches away from one of Jim’s firm nipples.

  “I’ll be back. You know I will. There’s something irresistible about you that I can’t put a finger on.”

  “We’re kind of meant to be together, even though we’re not. What do you think about that?”

  “I think that I’ve loved you for a while now, but my career, the distance between us, and you and your boyfriends throughout the years have deterred us from being together. That’s what I think.”

  “We could never
make a relationship work. You’re too far away and I’m too needy.”

  “That’s not true. We could make a relationship work, but only if we both wanted to. As for you being needy, I don’t think so. You’re one of the easiest guys to get along with.”

  Toby chuckles. “You just called me easy.”

  “If the latex fits, wear it, my friend.”

  They kiss. To Toby it feels like something out of a male with male romantic novel. Shivers of warmth gather at his spine, his cock hardens, and his heart becomes frantic inside his chest. Following the kiss, he says, “I should have let you fuck me moons ago. Why didn’t I?”

  Jim laughs and admits, “I already told you why. The distance, my career, and…”

  “I hear you.”

  “Of course you do, but you’re not listening to me.”

  “It’s a man’s prerogative not to listen. Women can’t get away with that.”

  “Shut the fuck up and blow me,” Jim says, and pushes Toby’s head down to his waist for a twenty-minute suck and lick job.

  * * * *

  They make love—it’s not sex or fucking Jim tells Toby, its hunger for each other that they share—for the next hour, shower together, and have breakfast at a diner called Shirley Swirly’s. And after breakfast, loaded up with carbohydrates and saturated fats, Toby talks Jim into taking a walk through Templeton Park and they ride a seesaw, swings, and climb a metal rocket that is five stories high. At the top of the rocket, jailed by bars and a low ceiling, some fifty feet above the earth, they take in the view together: pine and maple trees, a giant sandbox for local kids to play in, and two slides.

  Jim clutches one of Toby’s hands within his own. “I’ll miss you when I leave today. I don’t think I’ve ever not missed you.”

  “Why would you go and do a silly thing like that?” Toby huffs, half laughing, rolling his eyes.

  “Sometimes you can’t help who fall for.”

  “Do you mean that, Jim?”

  “I do mean that. You’re my guy, and both of us know this.”

  They kiss for the longest of time at what feels like the top of the world. When they eventually pull away from each other, Jim says, “I have to get to the airport. Will you drive me?”

  “I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go, Millard LeCarre.”

  “I like that name. You should start calling me that instead of Jim Bone. Millard LeCarre sounds real, like the relationship we have with each other.”

  “Millard LeCarre it is,” and they kiss again, climb down the five ladders inside the barred rocket, and make the trip to the Templeton Airport, which is mostly in silence and somewhat melancholic.

  Chapter 50: Fool

  3:27 P.M.

  The efficiency apartment above King’s Barbells and Boxing is miniscule with a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and bedroom. It’s slender like the confines of a trailer, homey, and smells like Bea Curt (strawberry shampoo and a French perfume), the woman King is currently dating. King is bare-chested and wears a pair of tight boxer-briefs. A cotton towel is draped over his shoulders. He says, “I just got out of the shower.” And he tells Toby that Bea, the woman he’s starting to feel serious about, is in the bedroom, trying to sleep. He adds, “Her head is buried under three pillows, which blocks the light out and numbs the sting of a migraine that she currently suffers from.”

  “Poor Bea. I hope she feels better soon.”

  King says, “She will.” He pulls the towel off his shoulders, dries his torso, and adds, “I got your text earlier. So you dropped the pornstar off at the airport, right?”

  “I did.”

  “And now you’re blue. Am I right again?”

  “You are.”

  “You know he’s not done with you, Toby. Jim Bone likes you, and always has. Hell, he spent almost his entire trip here in Templeton with you. That says something.”

  Toby nods. “I don’t know what to say, think, or how to feel. There’s a whole lot of confusion going on in my skull and heart right now.”

  “Trust me when I say that it will all work out.” King drops the towel over the only recliner in his small living room, finds a navy tank, and slips it over his hulking chest. Then he steps into a pair of running shorts that are ball-tight. “You’ll never guess who I saw this morning at Cliffy’s Café.”

  “Who?” Toby asks. King knows a lot of people in Templeton and the surrounding small towns because of his gym. It could be anyone at all and a guessing game could never end between them.

  “Denver. He was having a cup of Joe with that DPS driver, Carey Cunningham. They looked like they were on a date or something. Both were dressed in running gear and sweaty all over.”

  “I don’t care what Denver does. We’ve moved on from each other. He can fuck Mario Lopez or Zeb Atlas and I wouldn’t care.”

  King laughs, shaking his head. “Denver’s not hot enough for Mario or Zeb.”

  A smile forms on the edges of Toby’s face. “I hope Denver finds love someday. I don’t know whether it’s going to happen or not, but I’ll cheer him on.”

  “You’re a good man, Toby. I would find a way of making his life hell because he dumped me.”

  “There’s no reason to be brutal and conniving. No one deserves that. Denver can’t help it that he doesn’t love me. No one can help that. I get what he’s going through and respect him for it.”

  “Sometimes I think you’re a fool, Toby, but I still love you. I wouldn’t be nice to Denver if he dumped me. Why you want to be kind to him is beyond my reasonable thinking.”

  “Friendship has no limits, does it?”

  King shakes his head, collects a pair of canary yellow running shorts from the recliner, which acts as his dresser, slips into the shorts, a pair of booty socks, Nike athletic shoes, and says, “It doesn’t. Now walk me down to the gym. I have a meeting with my staff. Denver included.”

  Toby listens, following his best friend out of the trailer-like apartment, down a flight of narrow stairs, and enters the gym at his side, happy to have the man in his life, believing their relationship is healthy, even if Toby is sometimes considered a fool.

  Epilogue: December 20

  The Bear’s Den

  8:22 P.M.

  Eight inches of wet snow covers Templeton, and four more inches of the white mess is supposed to fall by morning. The temperature is twenty-four degrees out with a heavy wind that blows off the lake. The roads are layered with ice and dagger-sharp icicles hang from all of the gutters across town.

  Toby doesn’t care how cold it is out, or how much snow falls. He loves winter, and has ever since he was a little boy. He can remember playing in drifts of snow with Millard, building forts and tunnels, freezing their toes and fingers, and then escaping into one of their houses where they enjoyed mugs of hot chocolate with puffy white marshmallows.

  Millard (no longer does he call him Jim Bone) is still in Toby’s life. He flies to Pittsburgh from LAX and makes the three-hour drive north to Templeton. He stays with Toby for a few days at a crack and the two men make love, eat too much, shop, and watch movies together. Millard makes it a point to visit him at least once a month. And thus far he hasn’t disappointed Toby, keeping his promise of staying in contact and carrying out a relationship with the blogger.

  Tonight The Bear’s Den is having its annual Christmas party. The bar rocks with festive holiday music and drinks are half off. Two Christmas trees, three menorahs, and Kwanza decorations sparkle and shine within the bar’s interior. Some of the bears are dressed as Santa Claus while others are decked out in Mrs. Claus garb. There are horny elves everywhere with very few clothes on, twinks dressed as Misfit Toys, and bare-chested hairy Marines who wear red and green sunglasses and suck on mega-long and thick candy canes. Peppermint gelatin shots are the prize of the night and Toby decides to have four. Other treats include rum fruit cake, gingerbread men with doughy dicks, polar bear cupcakes, and a bowl filled with free condoms—One Per Person, Please!—that have holiday sayings on their
foil wrappers which read: Merry XXXmas, I’m A Snowblower, and EILF, which interprets as an Elf I’d Like To Fuck.

  Toby sees Denver and Carey dancing under a disco ball that’s been decorated to look like hanging mistletoe. They wear identical sweaters, rock to and fro to a Bing Cosby classic that is only played around the holidays, and kiss. Both look happy, pleased to be with each other, and in love, which Toby isn’t so sure about, and probably will never find out.

  Blue Danning is also at the Christmas party. He’s wearing a sky blue leather bikini covered with snowflakes. He carries an illuminated wand in his right hand and a beer in the other. He’s barefooted and wears a pair of silver wings on his back. The man looks high and drunk, Toby thinks, which he most likely is. Toby decides not to say anything to him, nor does he make eye contact. Before he knows it, Blue is in a corner getting sucked off by an eighteen year old jock who just happens to be dressed as a reindeer.

  Grant Stevens is not present this evening at the party. He’s somewhere in New York City celebrating Christmas with his rocker friends. Truth is, Toby hasn’t heard from him since their brief encounter a few months ago. Grant’s been traveling around the country doing concerts, performing songs from his new album, and making a shitload of fans and money in the process.

  Toby has two whiskey and waters at the bar. Some brown bear with model good looks and beautiful gray eyes hits on him. When the musclehead attempts to kiss him, Toby pushes the man away. He says to the guy, “You’re gorgeous, but I’m waiting for someone.”

  “A guy by the name of St. Dick?”

  Toby laughs. “Not quite, although I like the guy’s dick a lot who’s meeting me here.”

  Brown Bear runs two fingertips over Toby’s lips and says, “If your dick doesn’t show up tonight, I’ll take you home and cuddle with you in my den.”