by Willa Okati
“Thank you,” Ewan whispered. “Hell. Thank you.”
Closing his eyes, Christian hugged Ewan tight. He made a decision in his heart and acted on it before he could change his mind. “Forget the money,” he whispered. “This is just for you and me.”
Ewan stirred, his hair surprisingly soft on Christian’s chest. “Money?” he asked, sounding sleepily confused. “What money?”
Christian’s lips parted. He thought ... and I -- fuck. Fuck. But ... he knew me from on stage; he must have known what I do for extra cash. And -- and it doesn’t matter, does it? I’ll find another way. This was just for him and me. “Nothing,” he said, patting Ewan’s back. “Forget I said a word. Just enjoy the afterglow.”
I know I am. Damn. Who’d have thought?
Chapter Seven
“So, what, are you like a collector or something?” Christian picked up a shiny thing with attachments. He had no idea what it was or what it might do. Probably either a bomb or a toaster.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Ewan rescued the doohickey from Christian, handling it as carefully as an Easter egg. “Watch where you’re puttin’ those hands, huh? You might get yourself in trouble, what with all the junk I keep in the place. Hey, c’mere.” He pulled Christian in for a quick kiss. “Not all of it’s safe for hu-- for you. ’Kay?”
Christian kissed Ewan back, grinning as he pulled away. “You’re the boss,” he answered happily. God, but he was floating (flying, soaring, zooming) on a cloud of endorphins. Making love to Ewan -- and it was lovemaking -- made Christian feel so damn good. He felt almost cleansed, as if he were becoming something new. Someone who didn’t dance at the Pleasure Palace or sell himself for money.
What money? Ewan had asked. What money, indeed? Cash, dollars, dinero. I don’t need anything right now but to be here. Fuck, this is good.
“Do you have a stereo in all of this?” he asked, standing back far enough to take Ewan by the hands once Ewan had put the gizmo down. “Out of all your toys, there’s got to be something that makes music.”
“Yeah, I got a boom box.” Ewan swung Christian’s hands. “What, you wanna dance?”
Christian felt a surge of excitement. “I always want to dance.” He thought briefly about his job. “Almost always. And, yeah, I want to dance with you now. I kept interrupting us back at the club.”
“We’re both bare-ass naked,” Ewan pointed out.
“So? We can go cheek-to-cheek.” Christian cracked up at his own bad joke. It took Ewan a second to clue in, but then he guffawed and gave Christian a push. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Let me find the thing, then.” Ewan turned to scan a shelf full of gleaming metal and chrome objects, puzzling through first one, and then another. Some were painted in bright colors, while others had matte black parts to them. Not a one looked like a stereo to Christian, but he was fast learning that nothing was what it appeared to be in Ewan’s home. A cave was a house, a gadget that looked like a cross between a can opener and a squirt gun wasn’t safe, and he wasn’t a whore. He was, at least for the night, a lover.
“Not this ... no, not here ... man, I guess it’s been a while. I get to workin’, and the music distracts me.” Ewan tossed an apologetic look over his shoulder. “Sorry about the delay.”
Christian leaned against a clear patch of wall. “Don’t be sorry. I get to enjoy the view.”
“You get to -- oh, man.” Ewan shook his head. “At least tell me it’s decent scenery.”
“Some of the best ever.” Christian admired the toned muscles of Ewan’s ass as he bent to a lower shelf and began searching through the stacked items there. “Why do you wear all those baggy clothes, anyway? You’ve got a great body. You should show it off.”
“Well, I get cold.” Ewan shrugged, seeming uncomfortable with the subject.
“Ewan? In case you hadn’t noticed, it has to be one of the hottest nights on record. I was sweating in my tank. You were cold enough to need a sweatshirt?”
“Well, yeah. You’ve felt me. My body temp runs a little low.”
“Mmm.” Christian folded his arms. He guessed that was true enough. Even while they were fucking, Ewan had felt kind of chilly. Speaking of which, if Ewan ever found that stereo ...
“Ha! Right, here we are. I gotcha, you battered old thing. C’mere.” Ewan dragged out a black box that looked to have been made circa 1980, but was still in good shape. “I don’t have any tapes or anything, but the reception down here is gonna be great if I can just ...” He carried the stereo to a table, pushed a few things aside, and jacked a cord into a socket on the side.
Music blared out. Both Ewan and Christian jumped, then burst into laughter. “Okay, so I’ll turn it down.”
“Let me.” Christian sidled up to Ewan, kissing his shoulder, and quickly assessed the stereo. He lowered the volume, then fiddled with the tuner until he found a station playing Ricky Martin’s Spanish music. “Sí, es perfecto.” Christian took hold of Ewan’s arms and put them around him. “You hold me, just like this. There’s not much room in here, so we sway together. Yeah, you’ve got the idea.”
Ewan made a soft noise when their cocks came into contact with one another. “You call this dancing, or a prelude to a kiss?”
Christian hummed contentedly. “I don’t know. I could go again.”
“God. I’m not a kid anymore.”
“You’re not ancient.”
“Don’t bet the farm.”
“Even if you talk like an old fogey from time to time.” Christian nudged his hips forward. “Look, I can tell that at least part of you likes the idea.” He leaned up to kiss Ewan. “Dance with me, and then ... we dance the horizontal tango. Sounds like a good idea, right?”
Ewan moaned into his mouth. “Yeah, you’ll be the death of me,” he said. “Whatta way to go, though, huh?”
“You said it,” Christian replied, leading Ewan back toward the bed. “Come on and dance with me.”
* * * * *
“Oh, yeah. Right there. God, yes. Again. Do it again, please, Ewan, harder --”
Ewan’s hands skated down Christian’s back. They’d gone for a different position this time, with Christian on his hands and knees while Ewan knelt behind him. The penetration was deeper, satisfying a sort of primal need within Christian, one he hadn’t known was going unfulfilled.
Plus, it put Ewan in exactly the right place to hit his sweet spot, which he was doing over -- and over -- and over. Ewan grunted as he thrust, each explosion of air and sound spurring Christian on. It was awkward, but Christian managed to grab his own cock and began to jack it, rough and tough, trying to time his pulls with Ewan’s pushes, but losing the rhythm almost right away.
“Hey, hands off,” Ewan insisted, stopping to reach around and take over. “I wanna do that. My turn to play.”
Christian closed his eyes in bliss as the man’s hard hand closed around his cock. Ewan might have claimed to be out of practice at some things -- yeah, right -- but he was a master at bringing somebody off. His cock throbbed inside Christian as he ruthlessly pumped away, bringing Christian so close to the edge that he was teetering, toes over -- and then he was falling, no, soaring, hearing a loud cry and realizing it was his own voice, plus a roar that was Ewan coming as well.
When they collapsed the second time, Ewan quickly doing away with the condom, Christian felt more inclined to lie in the man’s arms, sleepiness weighing down his eyelids.
“Just gonna --” he yawned. “Gonna take a little rest, okay? A quick nap.” Soft snores ensued. Grinning, Christian lifted as much of the blanket as he could and threw it over both of them. The cave was still bright, but he felt like he could doze off. He wouldn’t sleep for long, maybe just a few ...
* * * * *
“So you actually have a shower down here?”
“Whaddya think, I wash up in the tunnel?” Ewan gave Christian a push. “Jeez, how long were we out?”
“Do I look like I have a watch on?”
“Oh,
yeah. Sorry.” Ewan paused, checking his own wrist. “Not more’n an hour, I don’t think. Shit, man. You don’t play around, do you?”
“I’m insatiable.” Christian tugged at Ewan’s arm. “Come on, I want to get clean. Then dirty. And clean again.”
“Slow down, slow down. We got all night.”
“Yeah, maybe. But that just means we can do more.” Christian pulled harder. “Hurry up!”
Ewan allowed himself to be pushed out of the main room and toward a smaller room. “Not too much water in the tank,” he warned. “It’s usually just me, so I wet down, lather up, and rinse off.”
“Usually just yourself? Who else have you brought down here?”
“Until you?” Ewan stopped, brushing a wisp of hair away from Christian’s face. “No one. You’re the first.”
“Then let’s see how long the water really will last.”
“It’s gonna be cold.”
“Bracing.”
“You’ll freeze your balls off, and I’m kinda attached.”
“Not yet, but you will be.”
“Fuck, you weren’t kiddin’ about being insatiable.”
“I never kid.”
“Must make life hard, bein’ so serious.” Ewan stopped Christian yet again, pulling him into a hug. “But, hey, now you got me. And you’ve been laughin’ tonight. Maybe you’ll have to keep me around, huh?”
Christian thought about the Pleasure Palace, all his bills, and bit his lip. “Let’s just enjoy tonight, okay?” he asked, moving Ewan along. “I want to wash your cock off, and then I want to suck you down like a straw.”
“Jesus! With the imagery, even. Okay, you’re on. Watch the first step down, it’s kinda -- oops, got you -- yeah, it’s a little steep. Hafta keep the water away from all those electronics, right?” Ewan led Christian into the far end of the room, where a clearly self-installed showerhead led from a small water tank via a series of pipes.
Christian stared. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Ewan looked embarrassed. “Yeah, well, now you do.” He tagged Christian’s arm. “You were sayin’ something about getting dirty and clean?”
Christian felt a gleam come to his eye. “Oh, yeah. Where’s your soap?”
* * * * *
The tank had just enough water for both of them to wash down. Christian had to admit that it was freezing cold.
But the sex? Talk about hot.
On his knees, the smooth rock cold underneath him, Christian took Ewan’s newly cleansed cock into his mouth. Although soft at first, one lick down the length and he began to stiffen.
Ewan leaned heavily against the wall, his breath already speeding up. “You’re actually gonna ...”
“Planning on it.” Christian pulled off to say. “And those are the last words you’re going to hear from me until I’m done.”
“Jumpin’ Jesus.”
“Mmmph.” Christian hummed around Ewan’s cock, loving the taste he was beginning to associate with the man -- rock. Sucking on him felt like putting a skipping stone in your mouth, and it had the same flavor, but beneath all that there was salt and the tanginess of male skin.
Christian hadn’t done much willingly in a while, but back with his old boyfriend, he’d learned one thing -- he loved to suck cock when he had a choice about it. It had been some time since he hadn’t just been performing, but he used all the old tricks he’d learned and added a few to his repertoire. Playing the length of Ewan’s cock like a flute, with a few arpeggios for good measure, he made Ewan laugh in between his swearing. He cupped Ewan’s balls in his hand, feeling them draw up at the touch, and rolled Ewan’s nuts between his fingers.
His lover was fully erect by then, and Christian took every advantage. He devoured the man’s cock from the tip up to the root, deep-throating him as far as he could, then applied suction and pressure on the way back down. Christian used his tongue, knowing it wasn’t playing fair, but doing it all the same, tapping out a rhythm with no blues and wishing he could lap up what he knew would be some seriously piquant precome. It would still taste a little like stone, but what did that matter? It was part of who Ewan was. Christian imagined the flow growing stronger as he sucked even harder.
“Chris ... hey, Chris ... gonna ... gonna go off --”
Christian sighed contentedly, then bit down ever so lightly. Ewan gave a shout, yanked on the water chain, and doused them both as he came like a geyser in Christian’s mouth.
As he leaned back, panting, Christian drew off and pulled away the condom, tying it in a knot and tossing it aside. “Bet you’ve never had this much fun in the bath before,” he said quietly.
Ewan tousled his hair. “Not even when I was a kid. But you make me feel like a real man. You got a gift, you know that?”
Christian laid his head on Ewan’s thigh and sighed. He didn’t agree, but if he’d made Ewan happy, then that was enough.
* * * * *
Collapsing back onto the mattress, Ewan swore under his breath as Christian reached for him. “Give me a minute,” he said with a laugh. “Can I just hold you?”
Christian felt oddly moved. “Yeah. Feel free.”
“Thanks.” Ewan maneuvered them around into a spooning position, curling his body against Christian’s from behind. The man felt like a cool boulder behind him. Even his breath, blowing out against Christian’s neck, was chilly. And his heartbeat ...
“Ewan, are you sure you’re okay?” Christian twisted his head around as far as he could to try and look at his one-night lover. “Unless we’re doing it, your pulse is so slow. And you’re freezing.”
Ewan mottled. “Cripes, I’m sorry. You want I should get another blanket? Maybe you wanna borrow one of my sweatshirts?”
“Ewan, Ewan, calm down. I’m just worried about your health. I don’t mind the cool.”
“Yeah? You sure?” Ewan settled and hugged Christian closer. “Don’t fret then, okay? This is normal for me. So just relax and enjoy, huh?”
“How could I not?” The sentence escaped Christian before he could stop the words from coming out. He bit his lip, hoping Ewan would let his comment go by without remark.
He didn’t. “Not much like dancin’ at that teaser joint, is it?” Ewan asked, holding Christian tight. “I saw your face, and that smile you had on was fake as your breasts. And then I looked at you tonight, at the club with those fauns, and I thought, ‘There is a happy man.’”
“And when I look at you?” Christian asked softly.
“Ahh.” Ewan’s hand opened and closed on Christian’s stomach. “You make me hope, Chris. Somethin’ I haven’t done in a long time.”
Christian had to know. “Hope for what?”
“Ah, c’mon ...” Ewan shrugged his shoulders. “You promise you won’t laugh or nothin’? Okay, then, but you asked for it. You make me hope that maybe this isn’t a one-night stand. You make me feel as if you like me enough to do this again sometime. Maybe even just come to hang out, or if you’d let me, I could go to your place.”
“Ewan.” Christian put his hand over the man’s. He thought about the still quiet of the cave, broken only by the hum of electronics and, recently, the sounds of passion. Mentally, he compared it with the place he called home, where the seven other occupants were always pounding up and down the stairs, cooking something greasy, or blasting discordant music way too loud. “You could come over,” he said, feeling some last barrier give way in his chest, “but you wouldn’t enjoy yourself. I’d rather be here.”
Ewan squeezed him. “See? You give me hope.” He paused. “You gonna go back and work in that club again? I kinda know what ...”
Christian felt himself start to shake. “It’s not like --”
“I know what it’s like. And, hush, okay? I’m not mad. But Christ, Chris, there’s gotta be another way. You could go into business with me. I’ve got all these inventions but I don’t know how to get them out to the public.”
“Liar.” Christian’s heart slowed a little fr
om its rapid pumping. “You could walk into a patent office any day.”
“Actually, I couldn’t. Don’t ask me why, okay?”
“Why?” Christian rolled over in the circle of Ewan’s arms and looked at him, eye to eye. His lover’s glasses were endearingly crooked from how he lay on the pillow, and Christian plucked them off, putting the black plastic frames to one side. He trailed his fingers from Ewan’s deep brown eyes down the line of his jaw, then raised up a little for a short, sweet kiss, finally lying back down and pillowing his head on Ewan’s arm. “You’ll be asleep tomorrow, probably, but any other day.”
“I have my own issues,” Ewan said. He leaned forward, bumping heads with Christian. “Don’t push me on this, all right? The night is my time, and patent offices don’t stay open past the nine-to-five.” He got a better grip on Christian. “Just ... think about it, okay? So maybe it’s selfish of me, but I wanna keep you for myself. An’ if you love to dance so much, there’s gotta be a better place for you. We’ll put our heads together.”
Christian nudged his cock forward, doing as directed. Ewan grinned and rubbed his hand down Christian’s back. “Big heads, ya dope. There’ll be a way. You’ll see.”
“I don’t ...”
“Shh. We’ll figure it out.”
“Ewan.” Christian fought for words, stumbling over the truth but wanting to get it out. “When I came down here, I thought ...”
“Yeah.” Ewan was silent for a minute. “I figured that out. But I know when someone’s playin’, and when it’s for real. What we had then and what we have now, none of it’s fake. You gave yourself to me, no bill of sale, and I took you in instead of puttin’ you on. I’m gonna keep you, too, if you’ll let me.”
“Ewan ...”
“Hey, hey, it’s all right. C’mere.” Ewan held Christian tight. “You’ve been through hell, I pretty much figured. But there’s a way out. We just have to find the stairs. Maybe take a few more rides through the Tunnel of Love. But we’ll think of somethin’.”
Christian closed his eyes tightly. He could feel something release, like a giant ball of tension unraveling beneath his ribs. “You promise?”
