An Enchanting Liftoff

by A. J. Marcus

  “I need a ride.”

  “A ride? Where are you?” For a moment Rusty wondered if Candice had left Tyler at the hotel when she failed to wake him in time for the Dawn Patrol.

  Tyler sighed dramatically. “On a dirt road a few miles north of I-40 just west of town. I’m lucky I’ve got a cell signal.”

  Rusty wasn’t sure he’d heard Tyler correctly. “What?”

  Chad came over as the ground crew started loading into the chase trucks. “We need to move out so the next balloons can land.”

  “Okay.” Rusty nodded as Tyler repeated his location.

  “You’ve got GPS on your phone. Text me your coordinates and I’ll come get you.” Rusty walked beside Chad as he started toward his truck.

  “Okay.” Tyler sighed again. “I guess I’m lucky it’s fall and not summer.”

  Rusty chuckled. “And we had a cold front come through last night. I’ll bring you a bottle of water, just in case.”

  “Thanks. I’ll just sit here on the side of the road until you come get me.”

  “Like I normally do when you call for help.” Rusty climbed into Chad’s truck and fumbled with the seat belt. “I’ll wait until I get you to hear how this happened.”

  “Oh, it’s a doozy.”

  “It always is. Send me that text.” Rusty disconnected the call.

  “What’s going on?” Chad asked as he pulled the truck out onto the road with just the slightest bump as they went over the curb and onto the two-lane pavement.

  “Tyler needs to be picked up. I’m guessing Candice dropped him out in the desert west of town.”

  “That’s harsh, even for someone like Tyler,” Chad said.

  “Oh, I bet most women he’s been with want to drop him somewhere,” Rose said from the backseat. “Bottomless pits come to mind.”

  Rusty had heard more than a few of the women who went out with Tyler make such comments about him. Knowing how far Tyler was from Rusty’s idea of a perfect man, Rusty couldn’t help chuckling. “That’s what I’ve heard. But I thought… well, I assumed….” Rusty struggled with how to politely ask as he glanced over the backseat in her direction.

  “That I’m a lesbian?” Rose filled in for him. “I am. So is my wife. That didn’t stop Tyler from coming on to both of us the first time he met us and Chad. If you ask me, I think he found us a challenge.”

  “Yeah. I can see that.” Rusty nodded thoughtfully. “Actually, he claims he likes having two women at the same time.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “He’s a pig. So Candice dumped him in the desert? That’s almost funny.”

  “Shall we all go and get him?” Chad offered. “We’re on the southwest side of town. Did he say exactly where he is?”

  “Off I-40.” Rusty started as his phone beeped with an incoming text. “That’s probably his coordinates.”

  “I want to go!” Rose said gleefully. “Can we all witness his walk of shame?”

  “I can’t say as I’ve ever seen him ashamed,” Rusty said as he pulled up the text. “Yep, here’s where he’s at.”

  Chad pulled his GPS off the dash and handed it to Rusty as they turned onto a four-lane road. “Here, put it in and we’ll go get him. Rose, radio the others and tell them what we’re doing. They can either follow along or head back to the hotel. We’ll have some down time until this evening.”

  “Not this evening,” Rose corrected him. “It’s the special-shapes glow. Rising Pride isn’t a special-shape balloon. We get to sit this one out or go as spectators.”

  A heavy sigh escaped Chad. “I’d completely forgotten about that. Okay. So we can all get together about five and figure out what we want to do and get a schedule figured out for the rest of the week.”

  “Okay.” Rose pulled the walkie-talkie out and started talking.

  “Rest of the week?” Rusty asked, then immediately felt stupid. “I’d forgotten the fiesta goes ten days.”

  “Right.” Chad turned as the GPS instructed him to. “Not all the balloons stay the whole time, but since we’re local… well, Santa Fe is close to local for Albuquerque… we tend to fly most days the weather is good. If we have a tour, we take a break, but otherwise we’re here every day. It’s almost a working vacation for us.”

  “I bet.” Suddenly Rusty wanted to call the office and get a few more days off, but he remembered he had a meeting with a major client Monday afternoon. But he could come back the next weekend and spend it with Chad. He hoped Chad would be open to him doing that.

  “But it’s also a ton of fun,” Rose said. “We’re even entered in some of the competitions during the week.”

  “Competitions?” Rusty hadn’t thought about any kind of competitions involving balloons.

  “Ring races. Tests of pilot skill. Distance races. A few different things,” Chad explained as they got onto the highway and headed west out of town. “If you’ve got some free time, you should come down and either watch or fly with me.”

  “I’d like that,” Rusty replied. “I’ll have to check my schedule.” And he decided then and there he was going to get his secretary to clear everything out from Wednesday to the end of the week.

  “That’d be cool.” Chad flashed him a bright smile.

  Ten minutes later they found Tyler sitting on a boulder with his arms crossed, glaring at the world. He quickly climbed into the backseat with Rose and eagerly accepted the bottle of water she offered him.

  “Okay, so what happened with Candice?” Rusty asked as Chad turned the truck around and started back toward town.

  “Can this wait?” Tyler grumbled, pulling the collar on his jacket up and ducking his head.

  Rose laughed. “Nope. We drove all this way to find you. We deserve to hear the tale of how you ended up out here.”

  He looked up and flashed her a dark look. “Fine. If you must know, Candice failed to tell me Damian, the pilot of the Dawn Patrol balloon she had a ride on, was her old boyfriend. Halfway through the flight, he figured out we’d spent the night together and wasn’t real happy about it.”

  “There’s only one Damian flying on the Dawn Patrol this weekend,” Chad interjected. “He’s got a major temper. You’re lucky he didn’t just drop you out of the balloon.”

  “I guess so.” Tyler pouted. “What he did was bad enough. I can’t believe he wouldn’t give me a ride back to the launch field, at least.”

  “What about Candice?” Rose asked more than a little gleefully.

  “Oh, when she saw how upset he was, she was all over him. It was like they’d never broke up, and she damn near blew him in the balloon.” Tyler shook his head. “I bet if I hadn’t been in the basket with them, she would’ve.”

  Rose laughed, then turned to look out the window as they got back on the highway.

  “Sorry things didn’t work out the way you wanted them to,” Rusty said. He wasn’t really, but he figured someone in the truck should give Tyler a certain level of sympathy.

  “Right.” Tyler slouched in his seat and looked like a turtle trying to pull his head deeper into his shell. “At least we can head home, and I can get to work on the pictures I got this morning.”

  “We might hang out until after the glow this evening.” Rusty glanced at Chad and remembered their talk the night before about taking advantage of the downtime between events at the fiesta.

  Tyler scowled. “The glow? Well, it is the special shapes, isn’t it? Those pictures always sell well. What are we doing until then?”

  “I was hoping you’d be able to entertain yourself. If we need to, we can see if the hotel can cut you a half-day rate or something so you can work in your room.” It was all Rusty could come up with. If he and Chad were going to try for some quiet time, they didn’t need Tyler hanging around and in the way.

  “Or you could hang out in Denny’s,” Rose suggested. “There’s one across the street from our motel. They’ve got Internet.”

  With a heavy, resigned sigh, Tyler tilted his head tighter into his jacket. “Fine.
I’ll work something out.”

  For a moment Rusty wondered what was eating Tyler but figured they could talk it out on the drive back to Santa Fe that evening. He was normally the one inconvenienced by Tyler’s sexual escapades. It was about time the shoe was on the other foot.

  RUSTY COULDN’T remember being as jittery as when he and Chad headed for Chad’s motel room. They’d had brunch, checked Rusty and Tyler out of their hotel, and gotten Tyler settled into the Denny’s across from Chad’s motel.

  “So, another movie?” Chad asked as he slipped the card-key into the slot on the motel room door.

  “If you want.” Rusty rubbed his hand against the small of Chad’s back, hoping the touch would relay a bit of sexual interest that had nothing to do with more science fiction movies.

  Chad swung the door open and pulled Rusty into his arms. “I was thinking about something a little more intense than another galactic shoot-out.”

  Smiling, Rusty kissed him and pushed him against the wall. “Hey, you didn’t say anything about Serenity. That might be more interesting than the sex we’d talked about last night.”

  A deep, sexy chuckle welled out of Chad. “Yeah, I like you, Rusty, but why don’t we explore other aspects of life, and if we have time, we can see if they’ve got Serenity on pay-per-view here.”

  Rusty kissed Chad again before grabbing his hand and leading him toward the bed. “Sounds good. But I should start by saying I’m not big into the up-against-the-wall sex like some guys are.”

  Chad gave him an odd look. “Guys are still into that sort of thing?” He shook his head. “Shows you how much I get out.” Hugging Rusty tight to his chest, Chad eased them down onto the bed. “I’ve always been more of a lying down on a bed sort of guy myself. Although showers can be fun. Yeah, okay, pressed up against a wet tile wall. I can see that, but not just a general rough fuck against a wall.”

  “Good.” Rusty claimed Chad’s mouth as Chad’s weight covered him. He pulled Chad’s shirttail free as they kissed. Chad’s skin was warm to his touch as he ran his hands up under Chad’s shirt, feeling the hard muscles of his back.

  Shortening their kiss, Chad rose up above Rusty and yanked his shirt off. “Better?”

  Rusty reached up to caress the hard planes of Chad’s chest. The hair there added to his excitement. It had been a long time since he wanted a man the way he wanted Chad.

  Chad pulled at Rusty’s shirt. “Yours too. I want to play with you too.”

  “Sorry, getting ahead of myself.” Rusty grinned and arched his back as Chad pulled his shirt free of his pants, then yanked it over his head.

  “That’s better.” Chad leaned over and started sucking on Rusty’s nipple.

  The sensation sent tingles of pleasure through Rusty. He pushed against the pillow under his head and lifted his chest like the motion would let Chad get more of the nipple in his mouth. He combed his fingers through Chad’s short hair, holding his mouth to his chest. He didn’t want the sensation to stop but wondered how incredible Chad’s full mouth would be on his cock.

  Chad lifted from Rusty’s chest and kissed his lips. “You’re very tasty.”

  Unable to stop, Rusty grinned like a fool. “And you’re very good with your mouth.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet.” Chad kissed him again. “You’ve got me really hot right now. I need to taste your cock.” He fumbled with the button on Rusty’s jeans.

  When Rusty started to help him, Chad batted his hands away. “I can get it. Unwrapping is part of the fun.” Seconds later, he had the button undone and started on the zipper.

  It was all Rusty could do not to quiver in anticipation as Chad opened his jeans enough to slip his hand in and beneath his underwear. Then Chad’s big hand wrapped around Rusty’s already-hard cock. It was warm and exciting.

  “That feels like a really nice cock.” Chad stroked him slowly but awkwardly in the confines of Rusty’s jeans.

  When Chad shifted his weight slightly, Rusty pushed his jeans down closer to his knees. He wanted to get a feel of Chad’s cock too but knew he’d have his opportunity soon. They had several hours, and he didn’t want to rush anything. Then Chad’s mouth closed over his cock, and all other thoughts exploded out of his head with the warm pleasure of Chad’s attention on his dick.

  Chad engulfed his cock in a single fluid motion, taking him down to the pubes. The action left Rusty gasping for breath. Then Chad settled into an easy motion of sliding up and down on Rusty’s rod while pulling lightly on his balls. Rusty thrust his hips toward Chad once, fighting the urge to fuck Chad’s inviting mouth, but he held back and enjoyed the sensation of Chad sucking on him.

  “Oh yeah.” Chad licked his lips when he straightened from Rusty’s groin. “Nice and tasty. You’ve definitely got a great cock.” He gripped Rusty’s cock at the base and gave it a good wiggle. “Nice balls too.” He grinned wickedly. “But you know, I always heard that Wookiees had two cocks.”

  Rusty laughed. “You’re calling me a Wookiee again.”

  With his free hand, Chad combed his fingers through the thick hair on Rusty’s chest. “Well, yeah. With all this, what else can I call you? Bigfoot?”

  “My feet aren’t big enough for that. Yours, on the other hand….” Rusty hugged him and rolled them over so he was on top.

  “I’ve heard about my big feet for years.” Chad grinned up at Rusty.

  “And are folks normally disappointed when they get to compare your feet to the rest of you?” Rusty ran his hand across the front of Chad’s jeans and knew he wasn’t going to be disappointed.

  Chad shook his head. “Not normally. All the size queens in college wanted me.”

  “But none of them got to keep you.” Rusty undid Chad’s jeans a little faster than Chad had undone his. He pushed Chad’s jeans and underwear down and got a good look at the fat, throbbing nine-inch cock nestled in a thick bed of brown hair with a pair of large balls dangling right under it.

  “Nope. None of them caught my attention long enough.”

  “Good.” Rusty kissed Chad again before kissing his way down his torso. The thick, veiny cock gave him a bit of pause. He kissed it first, not prepared to swallow it down in one smooth motion like Chad had done his. A thin sheen of sweat coated the bulbous head, but it added to the succulent taste as Rusty kissed his way down to the musky base and Chad’s balls. He licked them one at a time, slipping first one, then the other into his mouth. Chad rewarded his attentions with soft moans of pleasure.

  When Rusty turned his attention back to Chad’s cock, he had to ease his mouth around Chad’s girth. Since it had been a while since the last man he’d been with, it was a bit of a struggle to get the wide thing down, but he did.

  Chad shook under him. “Damn. You’re good. I make a lot of guys gag.”

  Rusty pulled off Chad’s cock and gave it a quick lick. “Almost. There’s a lot of you to go down on.” Then he did it again, easing himself down until his nose rested in Chad’s pubes, filling him with Chad’s musky scent. He reveled in it for a moment before he started working Chad’s thick shaft in earnest.

  “Damn!” Chad arched his back and put his hands on Rusty’s shoulders after a couple of minutes of the blow job. “You’d better stop. I don’t know if I want to cum yet.”

  “Then don’t.” Rusty pulled on Chad’s balls. “Or are you up for cumming more than once?”

  “You’ve got me hot enough. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” Chad’s voice was deep and husky with lust and ecstasy.

  “Good.” Rusty kept working Chad’s cock while he tugged on Chad’s balls. It didn’t take long for Chad’s breathing to change. The excitement coming off him energized Rusty and urged him on even as his own body responded to Chad’s sounds.

  Chad held Rusty’s head still and buried his cock as far down Rusty’s throat as he could get it. It pulsed against Rusty’s tongue, and Chad moaned loudly. Rusty knew if they hadn’t been in a motel where other people could hear them, Cha
d probably would’ve been shouting at the top of his lungs as he emptied his load down Rusty’s waiting throat. The feeling of the cum hitting the back of his throat pushed Rusty even further, and his own body released a heavy load onto the bedspread.

  “Damn.” Chad quivered under Rusty.

  Rusty slowly lifted his mouth free of Chad, licking carefully to get off all the cum he could find. “Very nice.” Rusty grinned at Chad as he slowly moved up Chad’s body to lie across Chad’s broad chest.

  “Oh, I think that went beyond nice.” Chad kissed Rusty. “I think you came too, didn’t you?”

  Rusty did his best not to lay his legs in the large pool of jizz on the bed. “Can’t deny that one. That’s the first time I’ve ever cum without my cock in someone or being jerked off. Damn, you make me hot.”

  A frown crossed Chad’s handsome face. “I just realized I didn’t pack any condoms. I don’t normally come to these events to get laid.”

  It hadn’t been something Rusty had thought about either. He wasn’t Tyler, and he wasn’t about to call him and ask for some condoms to be delivered. He sighed and kissed Chad’s neck. “Then I guess we’re going to have to do this again sometime when we’re prepared. I know I’m clean. I got tested a year ago, after it had been six months since my last encounter.” Saying it out loud, it hit Rusty how odd it must sound to go a year and a half without sex with another person. He honestly didn’t think his hand, dildo, and Fleshlight counted as real sex.

  “Same here. But it wouldn’t be a bad thing to get tested again.” Chad stroked Rusty’s hair; the motion sent soft, calming waves through him. “I’d like to do this again. In fact, if you’re good with it, I’d like to try dating for a little while. It’s been a long time since I had a boyfriend, especially one who didn’t make fun of my geekiness.”

  Rusty tweaked Chad’s nipple, then eased his hand down Chad’s torso. “I think I’d like that. It’s nice finding someone who likes the same kind of entertainment I do. I get tired of guys who are so shallow they just want sex all the time, or want to cuddle and watch chick flicks.”