Sparkle

by Jerry Cole

  “It’s hospital policy. Everybody who is being discharged has to be wheeled out of the building,” she said calmly. Obviously, she got this objection a lot.

  Simon snarled at the woman, looking like a toothless lion. He was in no position to put up a fight, but the idea of being wheeled out of the hospital was humiliating, even in his current state.

  “Come on; it looks like fun.” Sparkle’s coaxing only infuriated Simon.

  “I’m not a child.”

  “No, but you are my baby, so let me take care of you. Sit in the chair so this nice lady can do her job, and I can get you home. Then you can show me how you are all grown up,” Sparkle said seductively, stroking Simon’s face as he talked. The nurse cleared her throat nervously, embarrassed to be witness to the two men’s conversation.

  Slowly, and with great fanfare, Simon sat in the waiting wheelchair and allowed himself to be wheeled out of the building.

  “I’ll get the car,” Sparkle said, sprinting away from the building.

  “You are a lucky man. He is cute,” the nurse said as soon as Sparkle was out of earshot.

  “Am I?”

  “And he obviously adores you.”

  “Hmm.”

  “But, you might want to take it a bit easy on your first day back home. Although, with that one, it might be a little hard.” The nurse winked and smiled at the disoriented man. For a moment, Simon couldn’t tell if she was taunting him or not. In any case, her words only served to underscore the thing he has been thinking all day.

  He was too old to hold on to Sparkle. One day he would come home and find him in the arms of another man. Just like before. Only this time, Simon didn’t have another twenty or thirty years ahead of him to look forward. If he lost Sparkle, he would be alone.

  The thought terrified him, and he wasn’t sure if he feared loneliness or heartbreak more.

  The ride home was almost silent, with Simon feigning sleep as they navigated the city streets. Sparkle turned the radio low and sang along with almost all of the songs. His unique timbre moved expertly through the notes, adapting to each style. Simon didn’t even recognize most of the songs but found himself transfixed by the sound of Sparkle’s voice. It was another thing that he loved about the man. And that pissed him off. It would all be so much easier if he loved Sparkle less.

  “We’re home, honey.” Sparkle gently woke Simon, stroking his face. His hands were warm, his tone was soft, and he smelled wonderful. Simon discovered he hated him a little bit more. Every comforting, beguiling look and gesture grated on his nerves until there was nothing left. Simon made his way into his bedroom, feeling like an exposed nerve. Sparkle followed, completely ignorant of the turmoil in his lover’s mind.

  “Are you okay?”

  Simon dropped his body down on the bed and immediately regretted it. It felt as though he had spent the last six months on his back. Too weak to work out and too restless to lay down, he sat on the edge of the bed feeling ornery.

  Sparkle slithered over to Simon, straddling the vexed man’s lap and wrapping his arms around Simon’s shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug.

  “I’ve missed you. You worried me so much,” Sparkle said softly, pressing his cheek against Simon’s face.

  Simon reluctantly wrapped his arms around Sparkle’s thin waist. He struggled against the comfort of holding Sparkle in his arms. Slowly, a warm feeling began to invade his chest, making all the familiarity of his home, his room, his bed, his lover, seem much more precious than when he last saw them.

  “I missed you too.”

  Sparkle cupped Simon’s face in his hands and turned it up slightly, kissing him slowly and with all the smoldering passion that he had been saving since the beginning of Simon’s health crisis.

  If love had a flavor, it would be this. Sparkle’s slow and insistent kiss was a balm to Simon’s sore muscles and agitated mind.

  “I think I owe you something,” Sparkle said, his lips still pressed against Simon’s greedy mouth.

  “Hmm?”

  Sparkle’s hands slipped under Simon’s shirt, his fingers spread out over the smooth, hot expanse of his skin.

  “Do I detect hair?” Sparkle teased, coaxing a small smile from the body conscious older man.

  “Try a little lower,” Simon challenged him, lifting his eyebrows in defiance. Simon could already feel his body responding to Sparkle’s touch. The long separation would most likely mean that he wouldn’t be able to hold out as long as he was used to. He pushed the thought from his mind, refusing to allow worries about his performance ruin the moment. He was home again. He was with his beloved again. This ulcer was a setback. He would be up and chasing Sparkle’s perfectly sculpted ass around the house in no time.

  Sparkle slipped his hands down below the elasticated waist of his sweatpants. His fingers almost immediately made contact with the semi-erect member.

  “I guess you did miss me.” Sparkle nibbles the tip of Simon’s ear.

  “You thought I was lying?” Simon locked eyes with the man in his lap.

  “I had my doubts.”

  Simon frowned. Grabbing Sparkle’s shoulders, he shook the diva abruptly, making his teeth chatter together.

  “Don’t you get it? It’s got to be you! If it’s not you, I don’t even know what I’m doing here anymore.”

  “I was just—”

  Simon pushed Sparkle off his lap and stalked off into the bathroom. Sparkle watched as the man walked away from him, his face a storm of emotion, his fists balled at his side.

  “…teasing.” Sparkle took a deep breath and laid back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Some part of him wanted to write this incident off as the result of stress and painkillers. Who wouldn’t be a little strange after all he had been through in the last few weeks? Still, it didn’t feel like that was the right answer. It was too simple. Too straightforward. Sparkle was beginning to understand that Simon was never exactly what he seemed.

  He seemed straight.

  He seemed young.

  He seemed to be relaxed.

  He seemed conservative.

  The man was a bundle of illusions and trap doors, and Sparkle feared that he just inadvertently stepped into one. There was no telling how deep this one went. Lucky for them both, if there was one thing Sparkle was good at, it was drama. He could handle a little misunderstanding between them. If nothing else, the makeup sex would promise to be explosive.

  Whatever it was, he was sure they could get through it together. They were a team, and Sparkle was a great team captain.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sparkle woke up before the alarm, something he was doing more and more often these days. Beside him, Simon slept soundly. That was another thing that was becoming more frequent. If he had been any other man, or if he had been in love with any other man, nothing about this would have upset him. But they were both who they were, and there was nothing normal about this.

  The relationship that had once been passionate and intense had cooled into something akin to roommates. Maybe kissing cousins? Their relationship had all the trappings of a love affair—emphasis on trap—without any of the benefits. The most stimulating thing in Sparkle’s life had become his work.

  Sparkle swung his legs over the side of the bed, not bothering to look back at the sleeping man. He knew the routine. Ugh, routine. The thought made him depressed.

  The only thing that kept driving him forward was the thought of work. Rehearsals and lessons awaited him today. His role was demanding and was stretching his abilities in directions he had never thought of before. In fact, this was life imitating art. Both Sparkle and his character were men who just couldn’t seem to be the kind of man the world expected them to be. Both Sparkle and his character were too soft, too human, and too emotional for the times they faced. While the facts were the same, Sparkle found that playing his character forced him to think about issues and conflicts that he had long ago considered settled in his real life. He was discovering tha
t Sparkle the persona and Sean, the man, were not always as easily aligned as he once believed.

  Sparkle went into the kitchen and set a kettle to boil for Simon, then made his way to the bathroom. The whistle of the kettle would wake the sleeping giant and then Sparkle would join him, serving an assortment of fruits with salmon and toast on the side. They would chat casually, warmly, comfortably about nothing in particular and then they would each go their own way.

  The midday text messages ended a while ago. Sparkle’s attempts at enticing Simon with nude photos had done nothing to put the spice back into their love life. Even confronting the problem head-on seemed to yield no results. Simon simply blamed the lack of sparks on the amount of pressure he was under at work and had begun working longer hours, coming in long after Sparkle had gone to sleep.

  ***

  “Luckily you didn’t get rid of your apartment,” Aaron had assured him over lunch several days ago. “If it doesn’t work out, you don’t have to be homeless as well.”

  The two men nodded in agreement, Sparkle grasping Aaron’s hand like a grieving widow.

  “I’m just so…”

  “Disappointed? Do you think maybe he is having an affair?”

  “I thought about it, but every time I check up on him, he is where he says he’d be and he’s doing what he told me he would be doing. And I did a thorough investigation on him. I mean a full CSI investigation.” Sparkle threw his napkin on the table in a fit of temper.

  “Nothing, huh?”

  “I even sniffed the man’s underwear. Nothing!”

  “You didn’t?”

  “I did. He came through the door, and I said ‘drop ‘em,’ and he did.”

  “You are too much,” Aaron chuckled.

  “Did you two have a dry spell like this?”

  Aaron’s face answered for him.

  “See! See! This is what I’m talking about! I mean, I’m a man, I have needs, and every day my co-stars are looking better and better. Especially the lead. They have him doing those gladiator workouts. I know Simon has needs too, and if he isn’t getting them met with me, where is he going?” Sparkle tossed his head, still unused to the new length of his cropped tresses. “And they made me cut my hair. Maybe he just isn’t attracted to me anymore. The thrill is gone, and the spark is dead.”

  Aaron didn’t say anything in response. What could he say that wouldn’t confirm his friend’s worst fears? If the shoe were on the other foot, he would also assume that Jerrod was cheating on him, except that Jerrod was so predictable and responsible, it would be nearly impossible for him to imagine the straight-laced hunk sneaking around with somebody new.

  ***

  Still feeling slightly distraught, Sparkle got ready to face a new day.

  “You look great,” Simon said over Sparkle’s shoulder, watching the man get dressed with practiced indifference.

  “You always say that.”

  “You always look great.”

  Sparkle rolled his eyes and continued his morning routine.

  “Is there a problem? Are you angry with me?”

  “Why would I be angry? It's not like there is anything between us to be angry about. You would have to raise your blood pressure to cause me to be angry.” Sparkle’s biting words hit Simon like a brick to the face.

  “What is this about?” The athletic man slid off the bed and across the room, looking strong and virile in nothing but black boxer-briefs. The light stubble on his face and the natural waves of his hair only added to his rugged appearance and made Sparkle long for “the good old days” when he could be sure that Simon would handily screw him hard before work and keep the afterglow going all day.

  Unfortunately, Sparkle was almost sure that this confrontation would only end in a fight, and he had no desire for a lover’s spat right before work.

  “Don’t. Everything is fine, just like always. I just woke up in a funk,” Sparkle said, slipping out of Simon’s grasp before he could touch his already sensitive skin.

  “You don’t look fine. You’re not going to let me touch you now?” Simon’s eyebrows came together as his gaze accused Sparkle of some unspoken crime. Sparkle backed away, unsure what to say. He didn’t want to fight.

  “Why do you want to touch me now? You didn’t want to touch me last night. You haven’t wanted to touch me in a long time,” Sparkle admitted, betraying a hurt that he had been keeping silent.

  “That’s not true. I held you last night.” Simon grasped Sparkle by the wrist and pulled him close. “So what is this really about?”

  Sparkle looked up at the handsome face of the man he couldn’t imagine living without. For a moment, Simon looked like his old self. Sparkle didn’t bother to answer his question, instead opting to stand on his toes to place a kiss on his lips.

  Simon responded with expert technique and skill, fully reciprocating Sparkle’s kiss. The kiss wasn’t chaste, but it was barren, and it only took a few moments for Sparkle to notice that there was no heat in the meeting of their flesh. This kiss, like others before it, was a well-rehearsed dance. It was cold and practiced. To be sure, Sparkle’s body was on fire. One really couldn’t expect anything less from a well-heeled playboy like Simon. He barely had to look your way to raise your core temperature. But there was no intimacy in their kiss.

  Sparkle opened his eyes to see Simon looking at him. His eyes had, no doubt, been open the entire time. The shock and disappointment ripped through Sparkle’s chest almost immediately. He rubbed his lips with the back of his hand, stepping away from the temptation of Simon’s body.

  Sensing Sparkle’s hesitation, Simon grabbed Sparkle’s arms, pulling him back onto his embrace. Before Sparkle could protest, Simon crushed his lips in a hard kiss. Simon’s large hands didn’t loosen their grip on Sparkle’s biceps, even as Simon leaned into the kiss. Sparkle watched as Simon’s eyelids fluttered closed and let the tension drain from his body. This was more like Simon.

  The day’s agenda ran through Sparkle’s mind as Simon slipped his hands over Sparkle’s shoulders and across his back. This was not the time to indulge, and yet…

  It had been so long since Simon last showed interest, Sparkle’s resolve quickly melted away. He was still a diva. Even the hardest working diva in show business was still occasionally late. And for this, he was ready to be late. The heat from Simon’s body seeped into Sparkle’s skin and ignited the fire inside of him. Even if it was just this, just a broken fragment of the man he met, Sparkle was ready to take it.

  Simon stripped Sparkle’s svelte frame with ease. Sparkle clutched Simon’s well developed shoulders and tried to still his trembling hands.

  “Oh, Simon,” Sparkle moaned, cradling the larger man’s head against the crook of his neck.

  “You want me to touch you?” Simon ground out the words, each syllable pregnant, with a hidden meaning that Sparkle was too far gone and too desperate to investigate.

  “Oh, Simon, my Simon,” Sparkle exhaled, as rough hands made their way across his skin, followed by the soothing rasp of Simon’s lips and tongue.

  Simon lifted Sparkle and carried him to the bed that had been the site of so many failed seductions between them. The memory of every rejection, every failure made even the sweetness of their kisses turn salty.

  “Don’t” Sparkle begged, cupping Simon’s face and using his thumbs to smooth away the frown beginning to emerge from Simon’s rugged, boyish features.

  “Don’t think about it, whatever it is.” Sparkle kissed the older man’s face. “Just be here with me now.”

  With a renewed vigor, Simon threw himself into pleasing Sparkle. He retrieved body oil from the array of creams and lubes in the nightstand drawer and used it to explore Sparkle’s body. Simon rolled Sparkle onto his stomach. Mesmerized by the nearly perfect globules that Sparkle sported so confidently, Simon rubbed and massaged the meaty hillocks until they glowed.

  Without warning, the sharp sound of Simon’s hand landing on Sparkle’s cheek broke the silence i
n the room.

  “What are you doing?” Sparkle tried to hide his surprise as his cock began to stir.

  “You like it,” Simon boasted.

  “That’s not—” Crack! Another solid blow landed on his upturned cheeks.

  “You like it,” Simon insisted again.

  “I like it,” Sparkle admitted sheepishly. Because he did.

  “Good,” Simon said, spreading Sparkles leg apart and beginning his assault on Sparkle’s inner thighs. He used his teeth to torture the sensitive skin between Sparkle’s thighs before running his tongue across the head of Sparkle’s cock. Pressed between Sparkle’s body and the mattress, his throbbing length was a captive to Simon’s desires.

  Sparkle balled his fists in the sheets and pressed his face into the mattress to avoid screaming as Simon licked and sucked the swelling tip of Sparkle’s member. Simon gently spread Sparkle’s cheeks, exposing the tiny rosebud hidden in their depths. Simon attacked it with his tongue, licking and probing. Sparkle’s body spasmed, lifting him off the mattress as Simon buried his face between the starlet’s cheeks.

  Despite his squirming and begging for mercy or release, Simon relentlessly pursued Sparkle, biting at his sensitive areas and coaxing the lithe man’s tight hole until it became pliable and forgiving.

  “Let me make you feel good,” Simon commanded, stretching Sparkle across his lap and inserting one thick digit into Sparkle’s body.

  Just like the first time, Sparkle convulsed as his body adjusted. Simon continued his careful administration until Sparkle thought he would weep from the sexual tension.

  “Fuck me,” he begged.

  Simon remained silent, rolling Sparkle off his lap and pressing Sparkle’s powerful legs up over his shoulders. Sparkle felt open and vulnerable under Simon’s powerful stare. A type of determination etched itself onto Simon’s face.

  Sparkle closed his eyes and braced for impact. It was several minutes before he realized that something was wrong. Instead of the “make you late for work, sweat your edges out” fuck he had been anticipating, Simon was determined to coax an orgasm out of him manually. Sparkle rolled his eyes and tried to silence the doubts in his head as Simon skillfully brought Sparkle’s body to climax.