More Than A Manny: Gay Romance

by Trina Solet

  The strain of Brent's muscles, the sweat pouring down, drove Nate harder and deeper. Brent pushed back, showing Nate what he could take.

  "I want to see you," Brent said.

  "I'll finish you face to face," Nate promised as he slowed the pace, not ready to let either of them come. He pulled out, and Brent let out a growl of displeasure at the loss. He flipped over quickly and glared at Nate, who couldn't help but laugh since he had asked for the change of position.

  "Nate!" Brent warned him as he panted and raised his gorgeous, muscled legs. Nate's thrust was almost a shove. Brent arched under its power, gripped Nate hard with his legs to pull him in closer.

  "Nate." His name was now said lovingly, as praise.

  If he had been looking at him like this from the start, Nate wouldn't have been able to last. Brent's eyes were beautiful and burning into him. His name sounded even sweeter as he watched Brent's mouth say it as a moan. He pounded him and watched his head thrown back, throat corded, every muscle etched. Brent was too beautiful as he came, pulsing hot against him. Nate followed as Brent's whole body tightened like a vice around him. Dizzy with the release of pleasure, Nate didn't let either one of them catch their breaths before he was kissing Brent, trying to say his name. He was trying to say and show too much at the same time while Brent did the same. They both calmed down, maybe through loss of oxygen. Though their passion had subsided, they still clutched at each other, pressed their sweating bodies close.

  "You like an outdoor fuck, don't you?" Brent said, rubbing his head against Nate's chest.

  "Now and then," Nate admitted.

  "We can do it in the bushes at home any time you want," Brent offered. He was still a little breathless.

  "It's not the same," Nate said. Then he quickly added, "That wasn't a no."

  Brent laughed.

  "You have a kink you want me to satisfy?" Nate asked.

  "My only kink is you," Brent said so sweetly.

  "I can satisfy that one easy," Nate told him and kissed him again.

  With his head on Nate's chest, Brent traced the outlines of his muscles with his fingertips. It had been everything he had ever wanted from a fuck and more because it was Nate. Brent looked around. The trees were dark against a blue-black sky. Stars were becoming visible between wispy clouds that glowed in the night. Brent could tell that it was getting cold, but he couldn't feel it. He could smell grass and feel Nate's body against him. They were together, naked, warm and happy. It was the best night of his life.

  Chapter 17

  Nate wished they could have slept out there, but as two responsible adults, kind of, they decided to go home. Quin had already brought the kids back and was sitting with them past their bedtime. Nate felt like he was glowing, grinning like a fool. Quin clapped him on the back as he left. Both kids looked at Nate funny when he and Brent put them to bed. Once the kids were asleep, Brent took his hand to lead him to his bedroom, but Nate shook his head. After their lovemaking, it wasn't easy to tell Brent he wouldn't be sleeping over, but Nate felt overwhelmed, like his brain had been fried. And if Brent was within reach, he wouldn't get any sleep.

  In the middle of the night, Nate came out of his room a little disoriented. He had been woken by something. The sound had been Ricky crying out. By the time he got to his room, Brent was already there.

  "Mommy! Georgie!" Ricky yelled.

  "Shh. It's me. I'm here," Brent was telling him. He was taking Ricky in his arms.

  "Georgie is sick! She's gonna die!" Ricky said in a panic.

  "No, she isn't. She's fine. We'll go see her. Georgie is fine. There's nothing wrong with Georgie," Brent told him emphatically but in a low voice.

  Nate could see Ricky's hands clutching desperately at the back of Brent's t-shirt as Brent held him.

  Nate looked in on Georgie quickly. She hadn't woken up. He touched her forehead gently. She was only warm from sleep. There was nothing wrong with her. Nate went back to Ricky's room. Seeing that it was still only lit by the light from the hallway, he warned them, "I'm turning the light on." Then he gave his report.

  "I just checked on Georgie. She's sleeping and she's fine," he told Ricky, who didn't react.

  Brent was holding Ricky as he struggled to calm down. His eyes were still a little wild as Brent wiped his tears and pushed his sweat dampened hair off his face. Since Ricky was quiet now, Brent picked him up and carried him to Georgie's room. There, he let him down. Georgie had a small lamp on. It was dim, but it let Ricky see her. Ricky went close and peered at her. After a while he seemed to become convinced that she was OK. He calmed down, but he didn't move.

  Brent turned to Nate and whispered, "Can you bring Ricky's pillow and blanket?"

  Brent went to sit down on the floor, with his back against Georgie's bed. When Nate came back and handed Brent the pillow and blanket, Brent put the pillow over his outstretched legs and touched Ricky's shoulder. For a minute Ricky only looked at him. Brent tapped the pillow. Ricky curled himself against it, and Brent covered him up. For a while Nate only stared at them. Then Brent looked up at him and smiled. He mouthed, "He's OK now."

  The next morning, Nate was up early. As a reward, he got to see Georgie's reaction when she found Brent and Ricky sleeping on the floor of her room. Brent was slumped against the side of her bed with his arms around Ricky. Ricky was curled around one of Brent's arms, using it as a pillow. The pillow and blanket Nate had brought were off to the side. When Georgie opened her eyes, she laughed in surprise and clapped her hands.

  "Slumber party!" she yelled, waking up her father and brother.

  Brent looked a little confused about where he was. Ricky put on that cute, embarrassed face that always made Nate smile.

  After the kids had gone to school, Nate had a few minutes to spend with Brent.

  "You could have stayed," Brent told him about last night.

  "That was father-son time," Nate said.

  "I talked to Quin," Brent told him as they each had a second cup of coffee. "He mentioned that Ricky might have heard his grandmother talking to a friend of hers about someone who was in the hospital and not expected to make it. That kind of thing sets him off sometimes," Brent said. "When Greta died, Ricky got it into his head that something could happen to Georgie. He gets frantic if Georgie is sick. Even a little fever or a cough can set him off. Then he refuses to leave her. We had to keep him out of school so he could stay with her when she had a cold. He's better than he was. But as that nightmare proved, he's not over it."

  "That looked like some kind of routine," Nate said remembering how Brent arranged himself on the floor.

  "Right after Greta died, Ricky couldn't sleep if he was away from Georgie. The two of us would stay in her room like that. That's the only way he would go to sleep. And I wanted to be with the kids too. Death was too real in those days, too close."

  Nate realized that Brent and Ricky shared the same fears, and Brent knew exactly how to calm him. Without him there, Nate wasn't sure he would have known what to do or say. That worried him, and it also made him envious of Brent. He really did have amazing instincts. And whatever their issues, he and Ricky had a strong father-son bond. That was so clear last night.

  It was an overcast, gloomy day. Nate was glad when it finally started raining. After he and the kids came home and had a snack, Nate and Ricky lingered at the kitchen table. The droplets of rain were on the window, but it only drizzled now. They talked about some stuff he learned in school and then went off on a tangent. Ricky had finished his snack, but he had become engrossed in a discussion of shifting continents. It was kind of beyond him, but it made his eyes go wide with wonder, so Nate had to tell him more. Nate caught Brent watching the two of them. Brent had a funny look on his face. Once he sent Ricky to wash his hands, Nate asked him about it.

  "What's with you?"

  "You and Ricky. You two are kindred spirits, and I'm jealous as hell."

  "Pick up a book sometimes," Nate urged him, but he knew Brent didn't need
to do anything. Last night he had seen for himself how close Brent and Ricky really were. He just wanted to play on Brent's show of ignorance and disdain for anything scholarly. Brent played along.

  "Books only exist so unattractive people have something to hide behind." Brent pretended to hold a book open in front of his face to demonstrate.

  "You are even jealous of books."

  "Both of you like books better than me," Brent whined.

  Nate wanted to tell him how jealous he had been of him. He had never envied people with kids before, but Georgie and Ricky were special to him now. Brent was lucky. Instead of saying any of that, Nate kissed him.

  "There. I've never kissed a book in my life," he told Brent.

  "I'm not sure I believe you," Brent said.

  "It doesn't count if there's no tongue," Nate said as Brent nuzzled and sniffed him. "Why are you sniffing me?" Nate asked.

  "I want to see if you smell like old books."

  "And?'

  "You smell nice."

  "I'm warning you though. I have work to do," Nate told him.

  Nate and Ricky were reading quietly when Georgie ran into the library.

  "John is talking to Pammy!" Georgie announced. She then ran to tell her father then back to John in the office so she could bug him. She wasn't the only one though. Brent came by to collect Nate, saying he wanted to introduce him to Pam. Ricky ran ahead eager to talk to her too.

  "Is it the 50's? Is there only one phone in this house?" Nate asked seeing everyone assembled in the office along with Quin who was already there. Nate knew that the kids talked to Pam regularly and John even more often. He didn't see why they needed to hijack his phone.

  "We can't let John hog her," Brent said.

  Georgie agreed.

  "I wanna talk to Pammy!" Georgie demanded and jumped up and down next to John, reaching for his phone.

  "Wait your turn, G," Quin told her. He picked her up to keep her from trying to grab the phone from John. Quin spun her around and said, "Show me that mean face I taught you."

  As Georgie made a face that was more funny than mean, Quin encouraged her, "Yeah, like that. Look tough, like you're going to tear me apart, like you're really going to mess me up."

  Georgie's face only looked more comical. "A'ight, G, keep working on it. Grow some facial hair maybe," he told her. Seeing that John was ready to let her talk to Pam, Quin let her down.

  At one point, as she was speaking to Pam, Georgie said, "Kiss, kiss, kiss" into the phone. Hearing her, Brent got a strange look on his face then smiled. Ricky seemed startled. His eyes never left Georgie as he pulled on Brent's sleeve.

  "She said, 'Kiss, kiss, kiss'. That's what Mommy used to say every time she talked to me on the phone," Ricky whispered.

  "I told Georgie about that. I guess now she does it too," Brent said. When Ricky looked up at him, Brent smiled.

  Ricky turned to look at Georgie. She smiled at him too, and he blinked away tears. He stayed close to Brent, who squeezed him even closer with an arm around his shoulders.

  Chapter 18

  While stretching his legs after too much sitting, Nate had been idly looking over the titles on the shelves in the library. By chance he noticed that something was under some books. He pulled out a photo of Brent and Greta. It was clear from the way she looked in the picture that she was very sick. Next to her, Brent stood looking kind of unhealthy himself, thin and drawn. Seeing that John was still in the office, Nate showed him the picture.

  "Brent still sort of looked like that when I started working for him," John said. "He didn't sleep much either. He said he lost the habit." John shook his head as he looked at that picture. "I can't believe how people talk about him, and he was right there for her every minute."

  "What do they say?" Nate wanted to know.

  "Crap like he influenced Greta when she was sick, drugged her, or threatened her into changing her will and letting him adopt Ricky so he could get control of his inheritance. No one can touch Ricky's money or Georgie's. Greta made sure of that. But even before she died, there were wild rumors that he brought guys here while she was sick and had parties and orgies while she was dying. Even that he killed her."

  "Fuck! Who the hell is saying this shit?" Nate said.

  "Assholes with nothing better to do. They don't know one fucking thing about him." John looked at Nate and saw that he was pissed off too now so he told him, "It's not as bad any more. It was worse right after Greta died. Things have calmed down since then."

  Nate couldn't believe that anyone could say those things about Brent. As soon as he met him, Nate knew that whatever his faults, Brent was incapable of cruelty or callousness. He wanted to talk to Brent about this, but tonight's dinner and a movie plans got in the way.

  Quin had cooked them all dinner and that meant he got to choose which movie they watched in the big TV room.

  "I've seen every Bruce Lee movie at least a million times," John complained as he came in with two big bowls of popcorn. He had to hold them above his head so Georgie couldn't grab them.

  "It's not my fault the man didn't make enough movies before he died," Quin said coming in behind him.

  "It is your fault that you're in love with him," John said.

  "The man is long dead, baby, you got nothing to worry about," Quin assured him.

  Tonight's movie wasn't Bruce Lee though.

  "Kung Fu Zombie? That's quality entertainment," Nate said when he saw what was on the menu.

  Hearing the name of the movie, Georgie started kicking and punching the air in an uncoordinated way.

  "Watch it, G, you'll knock yourself out," Quin warned her.

  "I'm strong," she said.

  For the movie, Quin made the kids sit on either side of him. Nate saw why later on. It was so he could censor the movie for them. Quin must have had the movie memorized. He knew just when to cover their eyes. Georgie tried to pull his hand down, yelling, "I'm missing it! I'm missing it!"

  "I should make you put her to bed," Nate said to Quin when he saw how worked up she was getting.

  "Not my job, Nanny Nate," Quin said.

  Just as Nate predicted, it was a struggle to put the kids to bed after that much excitement. Once they were down, Nate was ready to go join Brent in his room, but Brent showed up at his door.

  "Saved you a trip," he said and pulled Nate into a sudden kiss.

  They kissed for a while. But what John said was on Nate's mind so he stopped. Nate had stuck the picture of Brent and Greta in a book. He took it out and showed it to Brent, who looked at it sadly.

  "Pam took pictures on Ricky's birthday and had them developed for the kids. Greta didn't like looking at that one. She stared at it and said, 'This is what I look like? Like death warmed over?' So I stashed it. I didn't even know where it ended up."

  "It was under some books in the library," Nate told him.

  He considered how Brent looked now and in the picture. He was so young and even younger in the picture. But in the picture, he didn't look it.

  "Judging from this, you drove yourself pretty hard," Nate said.

  "She needed me. It was my chance to do something for her. I wasn't going to let her down." As he said that, Brent wore a look of stubborn determination, like nothing mattered except being there for Greta.

  "She must have had nurses?"

  Brent looked pained and far away as he answered.

  "Sure. But it's not the same. When you need someone to hold your hand through the pain and the fear of dying, you need someone who cares, who knows you. Plus she liked to talk about the kids, to hear old stories, new stories, it didn't matter. When she felt up to it, she would tell me things from before we were married so I could tell Ricky and Georgie after she was gone. She often couldn't sleep at night so we spent a lot of time together."

  "You must have become close," Nate said as he sat on the bed and touched Brent's hand lightly. He was thinking about how quickly he had fallen for Brent. He found it hard to believe that Greta cou
ld be married to him and resist him.

  "Not in that way," Brent said like he knew what he was thinking. "Greta was still in love with her late husband." Brent closed his eyes then went on, "She would say, 'My beautiful Brent,' and she would look right through me. I knew she was thinking about him."

  "Did that bother you?" Nate asked. From Brent's expression when he talked about it, it didn't seem to.

  "I wanted to be with a man, she wanted to be with a dead man. I had no right to complain."

  "You guys had a weird marriage," Nate said, looking up at him.

  "It kind of worked though. We got along. We both loved the kids and cared about each other." Brent shrugged.

  "I guess that's something."

  Neither one of them thought it was enough.

  "I just had to bury this longing inside me," Brent said and took both of Nate's hands in his. "While I was with Greta, I thought it was a longing to be with men. But then I got that. I fucked some unbelievably gorgeous guys."

  "Don't brag," Nate told him, interrupting, and pulling his hands away.

  Brent smiled and sat next to him on the bed.

  "But the feeling didn't go away. It wasn't a longing for guys, it was for something else."

  "The one guy," Nate said.

  "No. I think I wanted to love someone as much as Greta loved her late husband." As he said this, Brent looked at him.

  "Isn't that what I just said?" Nate asked as Brent held his gaze.