Crushed

by J. M. Snyder

  Hearing his voice, the dog jumped off the couch and ran into the hall, tail wagging. “Hey there, girlfriend,” Nathan murmured. He closed the door and knelt on the floor, giggling as the dog licked his face. “You seen my boy?” he asked the dog. She barked as if answering him. “Where is he?”

  “Right here.”

  Wes watched Nathan stand. The dog jumped around his legs to lick at his hands. The words “my boy” rang through Wes’s mind as Nathan approached. I’ve always wanted to hear you call me that. When Nathan eased down on the sofa beside him, Wes ran an arm around his waist and hugged him close. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Nathan whispered. He traced Wes’s jaw with his thumb and gave him a tight smile. “He was here.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Wes nodded anyway.

  Nathan’s face clouded with anger, but there was nothing Wes had to fear in it. This anger, unlike Roger’s, wasn’t directed his way. “Did he hurt you? Did he—”

  “I’m fine.” Wes kissed Nathan’s hand. “He’ll be back tonight to get the rest of his stuff. He’s not exactly happy about this…”

  Nathan laughed. “Why would he be?” His hand curved around Wes’s chin, his fingers gentle as they turned Wes’s face up so Nathan could kiss his mouth. “Look what he’s just lost. I’d think he’d be livid.”

  “He was,” Wes admitted. When Nathan started to say something else, Wes pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. “Let’s just leave it at that, okay? Please?”

  Nathan kissed his finger and smiled. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’m so sorry I’m late. Did he just leave? If I missed him by like three minutes—”

  “He’s been gone a while now,” Wes told him. “It’s okay.”

  Part of him was glad Nathan hadn’t been there—Roger might have been worse, things could’ve gotten ugly real quick, and Wes still couldn’t quite believe that he had ousted his ex-boyfriend by himself. The thought made him feel weak and light-headed and somehow impossibly strong all at the same time. Me, his mind kept whispering, over and over again. I dumped him. Me.

  He thought maybe Roger wasn’t so upset about losing him as much as he was about not being the one to do the breaking up. He always wanted to be in control and Wes suspected it galled the hell out of him to know that in the end everything had fallen away from him—the relationship, Wes, everything.

  Nathan’s tender kisses turned urgent as he lay Wes back against the sofa. His hands trailed along Wes’s chest, his stomach, the waistband of his jeans; as they kissed, Wes worked the buttons on Nathan’s shirt free, until the light fabric hung open from his arms. His bare chest was so warm against Wes’s palms, so smooth. Nothing had ever felt so right before this, lying here in Nathan’s arms, letting his kisses and caresses erase Roger and the harsh memories of the way they had been together.

  By the time the phone rang a half hour later, Nathan’s shirt was on the floor, the dog already settled down onto it and starting to doze. His pants were unzipped, the fly open beneath a thick erection that strained the confines of his underwear, and his hands cupped Wes’s ass. The leg bands of Wes’s briefs cut into Nathan’s wrists as he tried to work his pants down without climbing off long enough to make it easy. The tight material bit into Wes’s crotch as he thrust up at Nathan, rubbing their erections together with a sweet crush that seemed to make Nathan frantic with lust. “Get these off,” he muttered, tugging at Wes’s jeans, as the phone rang again. “Who the hell can that be at a time like this?”

  “Let me answer it and see,” Wes told him.

  The phone rang a third time; the last thing he wanted was to have someone talking into his answering machine while they were getting it on. How unromantic would that be? He wanted this first time between them to be special—he wanted it to be everything he had ever imagined loving Nathan would be, and he didn’t want any interruptions. Pulling his legs from under his friend, he slid out of the jeans and rolled off the sofa. “Nathan, please—”

  “Get back here,” Nathan growled, tossing the jeans aside. “They can wait.”

  But Wes was already out of reach. With a laugh, he lunged for the phone, snagging the receiver just as the answering machine clicked on. “Hello?” he asked, straightening his briefs. When the machine clicked off, he said, “Don’t hang up, I got it. Who’s this?”

  “Wes?”

  It was Cindy—he’d recognize her bright voice anywhere. You have bad timing, sugar.

  Behind him, Wes heard Nathan’s jeans hit the floor. Then strong hands were on his legs, stroking at his dick through his underwear. “Hey, Cindy,” Wes said.

  Nathan groaned as he knelt in front of Wes. “Hang up.”

  “Wes?” Cindy asked in his ear. “You there?”

  “I’m here.” Wes gasped as Nathan began licking up the smooth flesh of his inner thigh. “Did you just call to chat or something? Cause I’m sort of in the middle of things right now…”

  She laughed, a sound like the tinkling of bells. “I just wanted to call and see how you were doing, check up on you, stuff like that.” She waited a breath and then, lowering her voice, added, “Hint, hint.”

  “You want to know if I called him.”

  The way Cindy laughed again told him that was exactly what she wanted to find out.

  Nathan’s tongue painted a wet path around Wes’s thigh and up his hip, then it flicked into the leg band of his briefs to lick at tangled curls and hidden skin. With a sharp intake of breath, Wes told her, “Cindy, this isn’t a good time—”

  “Is Roger there?” she asked, concerned. “Oh, God, Wes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble. Call me when he’s gone, okay?”

  Wes pressed a hand against Nathan’s forehead, trying to hold him back, but his friend wrapped his arms around Wes’s waist and held him tight. Catching the fabric of Wes’s underwear in his teeth, Nathan began tugging at his briefs, trying to pull them off. “It’s not Roger,” Wes told her. “He’s already gone.”

  Nathan’s tongue slipped into his fly and licked the sensitive tip of Wes’s cock; his whole body sang out in a glorious song that rushed through Wes’s veins, striking all senses, eclipsing all thought. Who was he talking to again? And about what?

  “Gone?” Cindy asked. “As in for good?”

  “Yeah,” Wes sighed. “Cindy, please—”

  “Damn,” she murmured.

  Damn? That wasn’t the first word that came to Wes’s mind. Then again, right now, with the way Nathan’s tongue was swirling around his balls, no words came to mind to describe the myriad of emotions tumbling through him. His fingers were beginning to go numb, the phone threatened to slip from his hand, and the last thing he needed was to have Cindy hear them getting it on before he managed to hang up the phone.

  In his ear, she kept up a steady stream of words he could barely comprehend. “I was sort of calling you about this dinner party we’re thinking of having—”

  Wes moaned as Nathan pulled the front of his briefs down and finally, finally, took his hard length into his mouth.

  Mistaking his meaning, Cindy cried, “Wes! It’s not like that, I promise! Just a few couples, that’s it.”

  With difficulty, Wes managed to push Nathan away. “One more minute,” Wes mouthed. Nathan’s thin lips pulled into a pretty, damp pout that made Wes’s heart ache. He covered the receiver’s mouthpiece with one hand and whispered, “There’re some condoms in the bathroom. One minute, that’s all I’m asking for here.”

  “That’s all you’re getting,” Nathan said, rising to his feet. He kissed Wes’s cheek with a loud, wet smack. “Tell her I said hi.”

  “Wes?” Cindy asked in his ear.

  “I’m still here,” he told her, forcing himself into his briefs again. Down the hall he could hear Nathan rummage through the bathroom cabinet. He wondered if he should go in and help him look. He didn’t think that was such a bad idea. “A party? Cindy, can we talk about this later?”

  “It’s couples only,” she explained, choosing t
o ignore the “later” part. “I was thinking you and Roger could come by, but if you say he’s gone—”

  “Completely out of the picture.”

  From the bathroom Wes heard a loud crash, and then the dog barked once. “Cindy, look, I gotta go.” Nathan’s tearing my place apart, he added as he heard his friend curse and the dog barked again.

  “Maybe I’ll make it a singles party,” Cindy was saying. “I know this great guy I could hook you up with. He’s a real sweetie—you’d like him. Very sexy, works with Tom, about your age. I think he may have gone to your high school. What do you say?”

  Wes turned as Nathan stepped out of the bathroom, his boxer briefs discarded somewhere along the way. The sight of so much bare skin made Wes’s mouth dry up with lust; a faint line of hair started below Nathan’s navel and plunged into a shock of warm brown curls, so thick, so inviting. The plum-tipped erection jutting up from those curls pointed Wes’s way.

  Leaning in the doorway, Nathan waved the box of condoms in one hand. “Found them. Your minute’s up. Get off the phone.”

  Into the receiver, Wes told Cindy, “I’ve already found a guy like that. Tell you what—make it a couples thing after all and I’ll bring him over. I think you might like him.”

  He hung up on anything Cindy might have to say to that and followed Nathan to the bedroom. Later, after Wes had opened himself up to Nathan, the two of them lay entwined together amid the bed sheets. As they cuddled, Wes savored the softness of Nathan’s touch, the strength in his arms, the safety of his embrace. Everything he had ever dreamed up or imagined fell short of the reality of the man holding him, loving him after all this time.

  THE END

  ABOUT J.M. SNYDER

  A multi-published author of gay erotic/romantic fiction, J.M. Snyder began writing boyband slash before turning to self-publishing. She has worked with several different e-publishers, including Amber Allure Press, Aspen Mountain Press, eXcessica Publishing, and Torquere Press, and has short stories published in anthologies by Alyson Books, Aspen Mountain Press, Cleis Press, eXcessica Publishing, Lethe Press, and Ravenous Romance. For more information, including excerpts, free stories, and monthly contests, please visit jmsnyder.net.

  ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC

  Founded in 2010, JMS Books LLC is owned and operated by author J.M. Snyder. We publish a variety of genres, including gay erotic romance, fantasy, young adult, poetry, and nonfiction. We are an invitation-only small press. Short stories and novellas are available as e-books and compiled into single-author print anthologies, while any story over 30k in length is available in both print and e-book formats. Visit us at jms-books.com for more information on our latest releases!