by J. M. Snyder
Gus hummed in encouragement.
“There was a knock on my door, and…” Luca’s voice trailed off. He would never forget what happened next. Even now, as he was safe in his husband’s arms, his stomach twisted into a knot. “It was my mother,” he whispered.
“What? Oh, no!”
Gus’s arms tightened around him. Luca felt a tender kiss on his forehead and closed his eyes as he thought back on what happened next.
At first, Luca had been happy to see her—he hadn’t heard from her since that last day when he’d picked up his things. He’d thought that her showing up in his dorm must mean she’d changed her mind and wanted him back in her life. And maybe it had, but Luca never found out.
She’d stood there and stared at him, her gaze, black with rage, had swept over his figure, taking in what he’d been wearing. She had focused on the short skirt showing off his long hairy legs, and she’d started screaming.
Every word that had come from her mouth had crushed Luca’s hopes just as effectively as if she’d torn his heart from his chest and stomped on it. Her voice had grown more and more shrill, and his door had still been wide open, so everyone on his floor had heard her every word. But the only thing Luca had heard was that one word.
Freak.
Chapter 9: That’s No Way to Make a Baby
Gus gritted his teeth and fought to keep calm, but every word that fell from Luca’s mouth only made him angrier. And when his husband trembled in his arms as he told his story in a strained voice, when his voice broke on the word freak, Gus wanted to kill someone. Preferably his mother-in-law.
But this wasn’t his trauma. What Luca needed was his calm and support, not his outrage. So he kept touching, letting his love flow through his hands into Luca’s body. He kneaded Luca’s neck and let his fingers follow along the spine all the way down to the swell of his husband’s ass. He murmured encouraging nonsense in Luca’s ear and kissed the top of his head. They almost never lay like this. Since Luca was much taller than Gus, their positions were usually reversed. Gus had to stifle a giggle at the thought of Luca’s feet hanging off the bed. This wasn’t the time for laughter.
“I didn’t hear from her again until graduation. She called me out of the blue and asked if she could attend. I…I couldn’t say no, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted her there. She’s my mother, and I love her. I just wish she’d try to understand.”
Luca sounded so small and uncertain, so different from his usual loud and bubbly persona. Gus was grateful he hadn’t known about this earlier when Giovanna came to see him.
“I’m so sorry,” he mumbled, not knowing what to say to make Luca feel better, but filled with a desperate need to comfort him.
“She only came for the ceremony. After, she said she was proud, gave me a gift, and left. I guess I should be happy I was wearing the gown so she couldn’t see the cute pink sweater I had on underneath,” Luca said with a bitter laugh.
Gus couldn’t take it anymore. He slid his hand up Luca’s body and tilted Luca’s head up. He sprinkled kisses all over his husband’s face: on the tip of the nose, on the eyelids, and on the corner of his pouty mouth. He rubbed their cheeks together.
“I would have loved to see you in the pink sweater.”
“Mm, you would. It was short and showed my belly,” Luca said, and Gus was happy to hear the bitterness gone.
“Anything showing off your skin is my favorite,” Gus breathed into Luca’s ear.
“I know. And…” Luca paused. “I wore strawberry gloss.”
“Awww, Luca,” Gus moaned and thrust his hips, pushing his hardening cock against his husband’s hot skin.
Luca burst out laughing. “You’re insatiable.”
“When it comes to you? Yes.” Gus nodded and felt no shame.
Luca pushed up on his elbow, grabbed Gus’s shoulder, and rolled him onto his back. He climbed on top and straddled Gus’s hips, resting his ass on Gus’s dick. And then he continued talking as if everything was normal, wiggling his hips from time to time, driving Gus out of his mind.
“She called me the week after graduation, and we kept talking on the phone for months.” Wiggle. “We’d just started meeting face to face when I met you.” Wiggle. “She was fine as long as I wore ‘normal clothes,’” he said, making quotation marks with his fingers and emphasizing them with a roll of his hips.
“Are you seriously grinding your ass against my cock while you’re talking about your mother?” Gus asked, hoping Luca wouldn’t call him out on getting hard while listening to talk about his mother-in-law.
Luca stilled, and he made a little choking sound before throwing himself sideways on the bed. He slapped his hand over his face. “Sorry,” he groaned.
“Don’t worry about it,” Gus chuckled and slid his leg over Luca’s hip. He scooted closer, pushed his hardness against his husband, and started a slow, teasing grind. “I mean, I almost creamed my pants in front of my mom earlier. Let’s see if I can make you cum while you talk about yours.”
Laughter exploded out of Luca, and he reached around and pinched Gus in the ass. Gus yelped and rubbed the spot, and Luca laughed even harder.
“Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?” he managed to ask between fits of laughter.
“Yes.” Gus nodded and stuck out his lower lip. He’d never pouted in his life before meeting Luca, but his husband had rubbed off on him.
So Luca did exactly that. He bent over and pressed a loud, smacking kiss on Gus’s ass. Then they both broke down laughing.
It took several minutes for them to calm down. When they finally stopped, Luca jumped out of bed and started fiddling with something on the nightstand. The sound of a cork popping surprised Gus. He hadn’t realized Luca had brought more champagne. He sat up and leaned against the headboard. Luca handed him a long-stemmed glass and joined him on the bed.
They clinked their glasses and took a sip of the cold, bubbly liquid.
“I don’t know if there’s much more to tell,” Luca said. “I think her Catholic guilt can’t take both having a child out of wedlock and a gay son. A gay son who likes girly things, not to forget.”
“But she’s never said anything about it,” Gus said, thinking back to the times they’d met her.
She’d never been cordial, but Gus had the feeling she tried hard to have a relationship with her son. She hadn’t been disrespectful toward Luca. Gus would never have tolerated anything like that, and she wouldn’t have been welcome in their home if she’d been rude or unpleasant.
“At least not with you around. Sometimes, when we were alone…”
Luca didn’t need to finish the sentence, Gus could fill in the rest. No wonder Luca had been hesitant to see her by himself.
“I’m sorry, Luca.” Gus leaned his head against his husband’s shoulder. “I can’t imagine how you must have felt.”
“No, you Swedes are so damned open-minded. I’m surprised Mona didn’t throw a party when you came out.” Luca giggled.
And if it weren’t for the fact that it was she who had outed him, that might have happened. One day over breakfast, freshman year of high school, she’d asked him if he was gay in the same tone as if she’d asked him what he wanted to eat. He’d choked on his porridge, and she’d calmly walked over to him and patted him hard on the back until he stopped sputtering. When he’d been able to breathe again, he’d confirmed her suspicions.
She’d said “Good, good,” and that was that.
Of course, he hadn’t always had it easy. But the difference between his and Luca’s experiences was that whenever someone had tried to bully him or discriminate against him, his mom had sharpened her claws and fought like a lioness for him and his rights. He’d always known she had his back, and it had given him the strength to stand up for himself. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have to fight one’s own mother, too.
Suddenly, there was something he needed to tell his husband. He straightened up, took Luca’s empty glass, put th
em both away, and turned back to Luca.
“You know I’d never ever treat our children like that, you know—”
He couldn’t finish what he was going to say because Luca covered his mouth with his hand.
“Oh, my gawd, you idiot. I know!” Luca narrowed his eyes and curled up one corner of his mouth.
Gus recognized Luca’s stubborn face. He pushed out his chin like he always did when he was expecting to be contradicted, and Gus giggled behind Luca’s hand.
“I’m serious, Gustav. Mona Hanson raised a good man,” Luca said, and his eyes shone with honesty.
Gus nodded, and Luca removed his hand.
“You’re a good man too, Luca.” He took his husband’s face in his hands, collected the long strands of hair, and pushed them behind Luca’s ears. He ran his thumbs over Luca’s sensitive ears before lacing his fingers together behind his husband’s neck. “You’ll be a great father. You’ll never treat our children the way you were treated.”
Luca squeezed his eyes tight like he couldn’t stand Gus’s gaze anymore, and his lower lip started to wobble. “You really think so?” he asked with a whisper.
“I know so,” Gus whispered back, and tears spilled out of Luca’s eyes.
Luca leaned his forehead against Gus’s. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said in a thick voice and drew a deep shuddering breath.
When Luca’s tears dried, he gave Gus a quick kiss and crawled over to the end of the bed and refilled their glasses.
“What do you want to do now? About your mom, I mean?” Gus asked as Luca handed him his glass and sat down with crossed legs in front of him.
Luca took a deep breath and shook his head. “Nothing,” he answered and sipped his champagne. “I can’t take it anymore. I’ve tried. She’ll have to do all the work this time if we’re ever going to have a relationship again.”
Gus rubbed his free hand through his hair and scratched his neck, not really sure what to think. But it was Luca’s decision, so he just nodded and said, “Okay.”
Luca smiled, untangled his legs, and retook his position from before in Gus’s lap. “This is what’s going to happen now, Mr. Spock.” He reached behind his back and made sure Gus’s dick was positioned perfectly between his ass cheeks. “We are going to drink this excellent champagne.” He took a sip from his glass. “And then we’re going to make a baby.” He made his point by grinding his ass on Gus’s dick, who gasped at the delicious friction.
Gus finished his glass in two big gulps, stretched over the bed, and put it away on the nightstand before grabbing Luca’s waist. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Luca increased the pressure. Gus thrust his hips, delighted when he succeeded in eliciting a quiet moan from his husband.
Gus took Luca’s glass, finished it off too, and hurried to put it next to his own. “I thought we were gonna wait,” he mumbled, his attention solely on Luca’s delicious movements.
“We are. But we have to practice.”
Gus couldn’t wait another second to feel Luca’s mouth, so he bent forward and let out a satisfied sigh when he finally felt his husband’s lips against his. The kisses were soft and chaste, a complete contrast to the dirty grinding going on below the belt.
“Who’s gonna be the mother?” he asked between kisses and slid his hands down and cupped Luca’s ass cheeks. He pulled them apart and ghosted his fingertip over Luca’s wrinkly hole.
“You.” Luca moaned and pushed his ass against Gus’s finger.
“Oh?”
“Yesssss,” Luca breathed and threw his head back. “My cute crop top sweaters wouldn’t fit…aaah…”
Gus increased the pressure of his finger and cut off the flow of Luca’s words. He grabbed Luca around the waist and scooted them down on the bed. He let go for a second, feeling around the bed until he found the lube they’d thrown away after using it earlier. He flicked open the lid, squeezed out lube all over Luca’s ass, and hoped some of it ended up where it was supposed to go. He abandoned the bottle and returned his attention to Luca.
He smeared the lube around Luca’s hole and asked, “You were saying?” before pushing his finger in.
Luca cried out and clenched his ass around Gus’s finger. He rubbed his cock against Gus’s pubes and panted. “You have to fuck me now or I will shoot all over your belly.”
Gus tightened his hold on Luca’s waist. “Do it,” he whispered and pushed his finger in further. “I want you to cum on me. Come on, do it. Mark me, make me yours,” he urged. Despite his awkward angle, he managed to nudge Luca’s prostate.
“Fuck.”
Luca hissed and sped up. His cock smeared pre-cum all over Gus’s belly, pushing Gus closer to the edge. He tensed, not wanting to cum before his husband.
“Come on. Paint me with your cum,” he growled. He grabbed the back of Luca’s head and kissed him as he pushed in a second finger. “Shoot all over me. And you can lick it all off after you’re done.” He pushed hard against Luca’s gland on the last word, and Luca froze for a second before bucking his hips.
“Mine,” he moaned and unloaded hot stickiness all over Gus’s belly. “You’re mine.”
The possessive words and the sharp scent of his husband’s semen pushed Gus over. He buried his face in Luca’s neck as his cock swelled and shot all over his husband’s ass.
They collapsed in each other’s arms, covered in sweat and cum.
“That’s not how to make a baby,” Luca mumbled against Gus’s throat.
“No?”
“Uh-uh,” Luca confirmed.
“Lucky we’ve got the rest of our lives to practice,” Gus said and swept away long strands of sweaty hair from his husband’s face, uncovering twinkling eyes and the full pouty lips he loved so much.
“Yeah, real lucky.”
Epilogue: Intervention and Happily-ever-after
2016
Luca looked around the bedroom to check that everything was ready for his intervention. Wine on the nightstand, vanilla-scented candles everywhere, and soft music playing on the stereo. A plate of sandwiches was ready in the fridge if Gus hadn’t had time to eat at the hospital as usual. He’d changed the sheets and set the LED-lights to turquoise, their designated “we have to talk” color.
He wore only pink velour sweats, and he had pulled his hair away from his face in a ponytail. He was comfortable and more than ready to discuss what was going on with his husband. Something had to be done about the black circles under Gus’s eyes, and Luca had a plan.
He wandered out to the kitchen, poured himself a glass of water, and stood in front of the window with his eyes trained on the driveway, waiting for Gus to come home. He was worried, and today was the day they were going to talk, whether Gus wanted to or not.
Gus had worked a lot lately, and they’d barely even seen each other some days. One of the doctors at the hospital had quit on short notice, and the management hadn’t had any luck in replacing him yet. This meant everyone had to cover his shifts, and Gus worked long, crazy hours. But even before the extra workload, Gus hadn’t been happy at the hospital for a while. He had spoken vaguely about doing something else, but nothing had come of it.
No more of that. Luca couldn’t stand by and watch his goofy, loving husband be dragged down and unhappy. Hence, the plan.
He put away the glass as he heard the car park outside on the driveway and went to welcome Gus home.
Gus seemed surprised to see him by the door, and he swept his gaze over Luca’s naked torso, but the usual hunger was missing. His eyes drooped, and he hunched over as if he was too tired to even stand up straight. Luca wasted no time. He grabbed Gus’s hand and dragged him into the bedroom, where he started undressing him.
“Oh-oh, what have I done now?” Gus asked as he saw the turquoise lighting. Luca was happy to see him manage a smile, even if it was weak.
“We’ll talk in bed,” Luca said and pulled off Gus’s sweater. He couldn’t resist running his f
ingers through Gus’s damp hair, and he was happy Gus had already showered at the hospital. That meant they could proceed with step one of the plan immediately. “Did you eat?” he asked and turned to the bedside table to pour the wine.
“I grabbed a sandwich before I left. I didn’t have time for lunch.”
“Good.”
Luca climbed into bed and leaned against the headboard. He spread his legs and patted the mattress in front of him. Gus wasted no time crawling in after him. He leaned his back against Luca’s chest. Luca wound arms and legs around his husband and put his chin on Gus’s shoulder.
“I’m worried,” Luca said.
“I know,” Gus mumbled.
“Talk to me, honey.”
Gus sighed, deep, weary. It sounded like it came all the way from his toes. “I’m so tired.”
The words were so frail and dejected, Luca felt as if someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“What for?” Gus sounded puzzled.
“For not realizing earlier how unhappy you are.”
Gus jerked and turned to look at Luca. “I’m not unhappy. You make me happy. I love you,” he said, his voice breaking and worry shining out of his big beautiful eyes.
“I meant at work, honey.” Luca leaned in and kissed Gus’s stubbly cheek, letting his lips linger, reveling in the contact. “I’ve never doubted even for a second that you love me,” he mumbled against Gus’s skin.
“Oh.” Gus deflated and laid his head back on Luca’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s been…stressful.”
That admission from Gus probably meant it had been hell at the hospital, worse than Luca had imagined. Gus never complained and always tried to be positive, so this acknowledgment was alarming.
“Tell me what you want to do,” Luca urged.
“I don’t know.”
Luca knew his husband well enough to tell when he was being evasive. “The truth, Gustav.”
Gus was quiet for a long time. Luca reached for the wine, gave a glass to his husband, and took a sip of his own while waiting for Gus to talk.
