Uneasy Pieces: The League, Book 4

by Declan Rhodes

  I shouted wordlessly as my cock erupted shooting ropes of cum against the opposite wall of the shower enclosure. Bending my knees slightly, I worked the last drops out of my cock and then stuck my head directly under the warm shower letting the water stream down over both my chest and back. I wondered how many times I was going to cum thinking about Jordan before I got to kiss him again.

  * * *

  Billy gave me a huge hug and said, “Marshall, you’re a lifesaver.”

  I hugged him back and looked over his shoulder around the house. I said, “I’m happy to help, but I really don’t know what the big problem is around here. Some sweeping up of the hardwood floors and dusting the shelves and windowsills and you’re set. You keep your bathrooms really clean.”

  Billy said, “There’s this one bedroom upstairs.”

  “Is that the door that’s always locked?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Well, why don’t you just keep it locked while they’re here.”

  Billy said, “Then I have to explain why.”

  “Will I be sorry that I asked why?”

  He laughed and said, “It’s not really scary. It’s just a pit. A lot of people might use their garage or the basement to store things. I use that bedroom. Every time I do a quick cleanup before Becca comes over, I pitch things in there.”

  Tilting my head to the side, I said, “So it’s storage, Billy, what’s such a big deal about that.”

  “I’ll show you, but first, Marshall, tell me about the date. You did go out with Jordan, right?”

  I said, “Why don’t we have a cup of coffee before we go upstairs, and I’ll tell you.”

  Billy said, “It’s a deal but we can’t waste too much time.”

  I followed Billy to the kitchen and we each made a quick cup of coffee. Before tasting it, I put my face over the steaming mug and inhaled. It was a deep, rich coffee smell. Billy always kept quality coffee around. I mostly opted for the cheapest at home.

  I sipped at it and said, “Mmm, this is good stuff. Should we head to the living room?”

  Billy followed behind me, and we both sat on the sofa. He asked, “Was he as good as you thought?”

  I nodded. “He was great. It was the best first date I’ve had in a very long time.”

  “Aww, Marshall, I’m happy for you.” Billy blew gently on the mug of coffee and then sipped.

  I said, “We went to that theater where you sit on the little couches and loveseats. I got to hold him in my arms the whole movie.”

  “That’s very sweet,” said Billy, “And then you did the second feature in your bedroom?”

  “Nope, just a really sweet kiss goodnight. He knows how to kiss.”

  Billy waved a hand. “Wait, Marshall, you’ve been stalking each other for weeks now. You finally went out, and all you did was kiss?”

  “Yeah, all we did was kiss. It was really very sweet, Billy. I didn’t see any need to rush.”

  “You’re almost adorably old-fashioned, Marshall.”

  I nodded and said, “I’m as guilty as the other guy of the one-night stand, but when I think there might be something special there, I like to take it slow. I want to make sure we’re really a good fit before we hop in bed together. If we like each other and then have sex too quick, it might feel like we’re trying to force it.”

  “Force what? Your big cock into that little hole?”

  I sighed. “Billy, let me explain.”

  “Yeah, why don’t you explain, Marshall. There must be some wisdom behind your glacial pace with a hot guy.”

  “Well, you know some of this already, but my parents weren’t much for raising children. In fact, they were absent much of the time, but I spent long, glorious summers with my grandparents when I was just a kid. My grandfather taught me how to throw and hit a ball. That’s where my eventual place on the softball team started. My grandmother was also very wise and had a really colorful way of talking about almost everything.

  "I remember spending long hours with Grandma putting together jigsaw puzzles on the screened-in back porch. We would spread out the pieces all across a table like this.” I waved my hand across the coffee table. “She told me, ‘I always do the easy parts first. I save the hard parts for last. You know, the parts of the picture where everything looks the same, and you have to look really close to make sure the shapes of the pieces match. You can’t force it. They have to fit, but it’s hard to find which piece goes with which piece. It’s hard, not easy. That’s why I call them uneasy pieces.’

  “Grandma was really smart, and I’ve always looked at people the same way. When it looks like we’re going to fit together perfectly, sometimes it’s hard to focus enough to make sure that we really fit. I want to make sure with Jordan before we head too far down the path. I want to make sure because I really do like him a lot.”

  Billy said, “Okay, okay, but you really do have the patience of Job compared with me. Becca and I were banging away just hours after we met. I had her in the back seat of the car.”

  I nodded and said, “Yep, I think I’ve heard the stories of your conquests. So let’s see what this room looks like upstairs. I’m really curious now.”

  Billy set down his coffee and led the way to the staircase to the second floor.

  I grabbed the banister and the knob at the bottom nearly came off in my hand. I asked, “Did you realize this is loose down here, Billy?”

  He turned to look and said, “Oh, yeah. I’ve got a glue gun in the garage. We can give that a quick fix.”

  We stood outside the door to the mystery bedroom and Billy fished around in his pocket for the key. He turned it in the lock and then pushed the door open. It creaked almost like in a horror movie, and then we both peered inside.

  I started to laugh. Billy frowned at me and said, “What are you laughing about?”

  “Well, it’s cluttered and all, but it’s hardly a terrible thing. Look, you’ve got stuff piled neatly. It almost looks like an old-fashioned thrift store. I could go shopping around this room and pick out things to take home.”

  “You can take all of it home right now as far as I’m concerned,” grumbled Billy.

  We dug through the piles like we were excavating Billy’s past. He had individual stacks of papers from college, high school, and even elementary school. I pulled one paper out and began to read.

  Billy snatched it from my hand and said, “No reading. We don’t have time. You can just make a neat stack of those in the closet.”

  Two big bags of old clothes were piled in one corner of the room. I said, “These can go to charity.”

  “Yep, they’ve just never made it there. Can we stick those in the trunk of your car?”

  With a quick stop for lunch, we were finished with Billy’s house by 3:00 p.m. I asked, “Do you want me to bake a batch of cookies? That will make the whole house smell good.”

  Billy turned to me, placed his hands on my shoulders and said, “Marshall, I completely respect that as a sentiment, but with no malice at all intended, I’ll say, I’m not a gay man. I don’t think Becca’s parents will be expecting this straight man to bake a batch of cookies for them.”

  8

  Jordan

  Every day I thought about the next date with Marshall. I was excited about it, and I couldn’t wait for the hours to tick away. Fortunately, I only had to wait three days, and there was no softball game in between to try and figure out how we should present ourselves to the rest of the world. Then when the day finally arrived, the butterflies took flight in my stomach, and my throat constricted making it hard to even eat.

  Insecurity is not a common thing for me, but that’s exactly what took hold of my mind as I stared into the mirror after my shower the morning before my next date with Marshall. It wasn’t about what I saw staring back at me. It was a concern about experience.

  Marshall suggested dinner again and a play after. It was our second date, and I wondered if there was more than just a kiss coming after the play. In fact,
I hoped there would be more. I wanted to see Marshall’s body. I wanted to touch it. I wanted to kiss it, but I wanted to do it right.

  As I stared into the mirror, I saw a 25-year-old man staring back, and I knew that he was dating a man over 40 years old. Marshall was an older man who likely had experience. I guessed that he had a lot of experience.

  I knew how to have sex, but so little of my past experience was really making love. It was getting off together. There is a difference. I wanted to make love with Marshall, but I was intimidated. I imagined that Marshall had a lifetime of hot, sweaty, intimate sexual experiences, and I had far too little. The butterflies grew ever more restless, but it was too late to back out now.

  I picked correctly when I selected my outfit for the night. Since we were going to a play, I decided to dress up a little more, and I wore a sport jacket along with shined leather dress shoes. Marshall did the same, and my knees wobbled slightly when I saw how handsome he was.

  He offered to meet me at my door and drive downtown. That meant that I needed to be prepared in case we ended up inside my small rental house for a nightcap. Fortunately, I’m neat and tidy. Everything was already clean and orderly.

  Marshall drove a nice little sports car kept in perfect condition. After I climbed in my side of the car, he leaned across and gave me a kiss. It was just like before except this time the kiss lingered just a little while longer, and Marshall placed one of his hands on my thigh. I grew instantly stiff and knew that my face was flushed, too.

  Coming up for air, Marshall said, “And it’s good to see you again, too.”

  I placed a hand on his chest and stared into his eyes. I said, “I’ve missed you. From the moment I said goodnight to you I missed you.”

  A handsome smile filled his face as he said, “I missed you, too.”

  Marshall chose a downtown steakhouse for dinner. It was more elegant than the neighborhood Italian restaurant. I had the sensation of floating above my seat when our wine glasses clinked together to toast our relationship. Marshall matched the stylish surroundings perfectly. It was almost like we were in a movie.

  In between courses, Marshall told me stories about his travel adventures. We laughed about his minor mishaps with the local language in various European countries, and I ooh’ed appropriately when he described the beauty of the Greek islands and Sicily. Marshall asked where I traveled.

  I said, “I went to London when I was in college, and I’ve been to Mexico and the Caribbean.” I really did love London, and I was able to describe some of the reasons why including the multicultural crowds and the history that seemed to be everywhere.

  Marshall was encouraging and a good listener, but I still managed to feel like my life experience was somehow lacking. I knew in my head that he would understand that was due to me being so young, but in my gut it made me less desirable.

  We had an hour free between dinner and the start of the play. The restaurant and theater were just a few blocks apart, so we decided to stroll along the Milwaukee River boardwalk in between.

  I asked, “Have you lived in Milwaukee your whole life, Marshall?”

  He said, “My entire adult life, yes, but I grew up in Kansas.”

  “Do you still have family there?”

  He said, “I’m not entirely sure.”

  I raised an eyebrow and asked, “Not sure?”

  He said, “I know it sounds awful, but my parents weren’t really that into parenting. My mom was pregnant with me when she was 17, and as she told me over and over again, my dad married her because his parents insisted on it. When I was three, they divorced. I lived with my mom for nine more years during the school year, but I spent the entire summer with my grandparents on her side.”

  I placed a hand on his back and said, “Wow, it sounds like that was tough.”

  Marshall shrugged and said, “My dad basically disappeared completely from the picture when I was a teenager, and I moved in with my grandparents full-time beginning when I was twelve. My grandparents died when I was in college, and that’s when my mom disappeared as well. So there might still be distant relatives in Kansas. I just don’t know them. I keep in touch once or twice a year with a couple of cousins out on the east coast, but that’s it for my family.”

  I asked, “So you don’t have any relatives that you’re close to?”

  He said, “No.”

  We stood near one of the bridges watching it go up and down for the traffic on the river. Marshall wrapped an arm around my back and said, “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, Jordan. It’s just the way it is. It all happened long ago, too. What’s important is what’s going on now. Billy is probably more like a brother to me than any genetic brother could be.”

  As he said that, I looked into his eyes and watched his face. Some sort of nerve twitched at the corner of his eye. Dealing with all of the family issues had to be more difficult than Marshall said it was, and the twitch of the eye betrayed the truth.

  Marshall asked, “What about you?”

  I smiled and said, “I think I’m fortunate. My parents live out in the suburbs, and I have both a brother and a sister in the city. I’m the youngest, and I’m the only one that isn’t married. We all manage to get along.”

  “So you have Thanksgiving dinner together every year?”

  I echoed, “Every year. It rotates back and forth between my parents’ house and my older sister’s. We have turkey with all the trimmings.”

  Marshall nodded and said, “I do miss that.”

  The play was serious, but it ended on an upbeat note. I think everyone left the theater with a smile on their face. That included Marshall and me. I said, “Thank you so much for suggesting the play. I loved it and seeing plays live is so different from going to a movie.”

  Marshall said, “That’s one of the reasons I love to live in a city. There is a vibrant theater scene. In smaller towns it’s hard to see anything but community and school theater productions.” Then he said, “It’s getting a little late. Is it okay if I drive you home?”

  I smiled and said, “Oh, of course it is.” I felt a tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach thinking about climbing back into the car with Marshall.

  Before he turned the key in the ignition, we shared a brief kiss, and he gripped my thigh again with his strong hand. This time the fingers shifted slightly more to the inside, and my breath caught in my throat.

  The traffic was thin at night, and it was a quick drive south to my rental house. Marshall said, “Look, it’s rock star parking at the curb right in front of your house. You can’t get better service to your door than this.”

  I said, “I’m not sure I want to get out immediately,” and I leaned across the front seat to give Marshall another kiss. I wondered if I should have just invited him inside, but he was receptive to the kiss.

  I nearly climbed clear across the seat to press my body up against Marshall’s and then I smiled to myself when he tilted his seat back slightly. After seeing it in old movies and TV shows, I had fantasies about making out in a car, but I’d never really had the opportunity.

  We kissed hard and hungrily and pressed our bodies together chest to chest. Then I felt Marshall’s hand between my legs and I gasped audibly. He asked, “Is it okay?”

  I moaned, “Yes, yes it is,” and I responded by unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt. It was enough to make room to slip my hand inside. His chest was smooth, and the muscle was solid and firm. I kneaded at it with my hand while I buried my face in the crook of his shoulder kissing at the side of his neck.

  Marshall let out a deep, rumbling moan and then he unbuttoned the top of my pants and slowly slipped the zipper down. The zipper caught three different times before he finally had it down all the way, but the awkwardness only made me more excited. My brain raced in all different directions. I wondered if he was going to stroke me or if he wanted me to suck him. It was clear that he knew what he wanted to do, and I kissed his mouth hard again while I let Marshall lead t
he way.

  Those big, thick fingers slipped inside my boxer briefs and wrapped around my cock. I was hard as a rock, and I began to involuntarily rock my body against Marshall. I pulled open two more buttons of his shirt and kissed his chest.

  Various parts of the car poked into my body and threw up barricades to our freedom of movement, but I wanted Marshall. It was possible I would wake up with odd bruises in odd places in the morning, but for the moment it didn’t matter at all. I wasn’t letting anything get in my way.

  His fingers quickly brought me to the edge. With a jagged, breathless voice, I grunted, “I’m close already.”

  I’ve always been a relatively quick trigger. When I’m on top, I need to take it slow along with stopping and starting or I will blow my wad far too soon. Marshall didn’t stop. He just stroked slowly and relentlessly.

  My tongue found his nipple, and I sucked. Marshall rolled his head back moaning, “Oh fuck, yes, do that…” Seconds later I couldn’t stop myself. The train barreled over the crest of the hill and I yelped against his chest.

  Marshall gripped the back of my head pulling me upward to kiss me hard and hungrily. Our tongues touched and the sensation made my toes curl. We both pulled back from the kiss to catch our breath, and Marshall said, “That was damn hot, Jordan. I hope you liked it, too.”

  I laughed softly and said, “I hope I didn’t make a mess all over your car.” I reached down to try and zip my pants back up and could feel wet and slick cum everywhere. I looked into his face and saw only the dim outline of his sculpted jaw and perfectly shaped nose in the light of the street lamp. I said, “I’ve never cum in a car before.” As I made the comment, my face blushed and grew warm. Fortunately, it was too dark for Marshall to be able to see it.

  Marshall said, “Here’s to new experiences. I really like spending time with you, Jordan.”