Tales From Cushman Row

by Suanne Laqueur

  “Thanks, sobrino,” he said aloud, pleased that his voice stayed steady.

  A bit of silence.

  “Just don’t be screwing in front of my dog, okay?” Ari said.

  The car wobbled in its lane as Jav burst out laughing and smacked the back of his hand against Ari’s shoulder. “Shut up.”

  “I’m just saying,” Ari said, whacking him back. “He’s young and very impressionable. Holy shit, T, look at you blushing.”

  “Shut up,” Jav said again, his face flaming.

  “Since you’re already embarrassed, I’ll remind you to practice safe sex. A different condom every time, remember?”

  “Karma’s such a bitch,” Jav muttered.

  “I just don’t want anything happening to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. AIDS or something.”

  Another eye-rolling shut up was on Jav’s tongue, but he bit it back, peeking underneath Ari’s joking to see what was really going on. Hearing the echo of a lament sobbed into his shoulder, not all that long ago.

  I can’t take losing anything else, T.

  “You don’t have to worry,” he said. “We’re tested, we’re monogamous and we’re very careful. I’ll be around a good long while to give you shit. Okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  A quarter mile went by in silence.

  “How is it?” Ari said.

  “What?”

  Ari’s hand made a little circle. “The sex.”

  “You really want to know?”

  “No. Kind of. I’m curious. But no, I don’t… I don’t know why I even said it. Never mind. It was stupid.”

  “A bit of life advice from a whore? Think before you speak.”

  Ari groaned and slouched down in his seat. “I said I was sorry about that.”

  Three Things

  Leaning against the brick parapet, snug between Jav’s knees. A cold beer in hand, fireworks above, the air soft on his skin. Stef sank into the moment, humble and grateful and amazed at what life could be.

  Jav’s hand slid through Stef’s hair, fingers folding and pulling a little bit. His mouth nuzzled at Stef’s temple. His breath exhaled at Stef’s ear. His thighs drew in, cradling Stef tighter.

  “I’m getting a hard-on for you,” he whispered.

  “Good.” Stef leaned back against Jav’s chest, smiling. He felt the party’s eyes turned in their direction. Some gazes curious, others loving. He’d never been happier in his life.

  Jav’s forearm slid across Stef’s collarbones as his mouth closed around the top of Stef’s ear. “Want you so bad.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah.” Jav’s tongue lightly touched Stef’s neck, just for a second. “Want to make you see a different kind of fireworks.”

  Stef gazed up at the sky, lolling under the soft caress of Jav’s hand and the harder stroke of his words. He slid his free hand into his front pocket, casually arranging his growing erection.

  “Come on,” Jav whispered, breath warm on Stef’s earlobe. “Let me take you home and fuck you.”

  Stef’s chest swelled thick. “Right now?”

  “I can’t wait,” Jav said. “I want to feel your heartbeat on my cock.”

  Heat swarmed Stef’s face. Burning red, he gulped back laughter. “Jesus…”

  “Come on.” Jav’s voice like ice cream melting on Stef’s skin, hoarse with desire.

  Stef leaned and looked up at his lover. A hundred sparkling colors in his eyes. Smile glistening with lust. “I’m getting the feeling you like me.”

  Jav’s hand slid along Stef’s jaw, then he kissed him. “I love you like hell, Finch.”

  “Damn, Landes. I’ve never seen you like this.”

  “You’re the only one who’s seen me like this.”

  “Get a room,” someone yelled.

  Jav didn’t blink or blush, didn’t break his gaze. “Come home,” he said. “Come home and see more of me like this.”

  Stef smiled, shaking his head. He’d never been so turned on his life. So electric and alive and happy. He could’ve grabbed a chunk of the sky and crunched down on it like an apple, juice running down his chin.

  To hoots and catcalls they waved goodbye and left. It took them ten minutes to get down the rooftop stairwell, stopping to kiss and grind on every other tread. Stef practically swallowed Jav’s tongue in the elevator. It cost a monumental effort not to rip their pants open in the back of the cab. They were drooling by the time they got to Cushman Row, unbuckling and unzipping as they stampeded down the stairs. Stef was sure he’d be face-down over the kitchen counter before the door closed, but Jav found some last shreds of patience to lead him into the bedroom.

  “Now,” he breathed, getting Stef up against the wall. “Where were we?”

  “Something about your cock and my heartbeat.” Stef wrapped his arms around Jav’s neck and pulled their open mouths together. “Unless you were just sweet talking me?”

  “Dude, I’m gonna fuck you so slow,” Jav whispered. “You won’t come until tomorrow.”

  “No, don’t. Need it tonight.” He nearly whimpered as Jav pushed his pants down.

  “Listen to you,” Jav said. His voice soft. His hand rough. He kissed deep, then held his palm by Stef’s mouth. “Wet it down for me.”

  Stef worked up some spit and slicked up Jav’s hand.

  “Take your pants off,” Jav said, closing up Stef’s cock in his wet hand. His other hand tugged at Stef’s shirt. “This off, too. Want you naked.”

  Stef pulled at his collar, heeled off his sneakers and kicked his jeans away. “I love when you tell me what you want.”

  “Three things I want.” Jav’s kiss turned tender, softly pulling Stef’s mouth apart. “Just be mine forever.”

  “I’ll do that yesterday.”

  “Take my clothes off.”

  Stef stripped him down in thirty seconds, shoes pegged against the baseboards, phone and wallet thudding onto the rug and spare change scattering across the floor. “What’s three?”

  “Let me fuck you all night.”

  “Done.”

  Jav drew Stef off the wall and pushed him toward the bed.

  It started wild and got outrageous. Things came spilling out of them, raw and torrid, the air hissing with filth. One minute Stef toyed with ideas of soap and mouths and teaching lessons. The next he was the one being taught, flipped over and pummeled onto his hands and knees. Jav nudged him apart, pressed up against him and pushed slowly inside. Slow like he was intent on waiting until morning to breach it.

  “Fucking tease,” Stef said, gasping.

  “You love it.”

  “I’ll get you for this, you bastard.”

  “Shh… I love watching you open for me.” Jav’s lubed thumbs stroked around the delicate ring, easing it further apart, getting it to relax and stretch.

  “Fuck me or I will kill you,” Stef said. Or tried to say. It was sexy in his head but came out as babble on his tongue.

  Jav was having no such issues. As he moved a millimeter further, he fucking purred. “There. I love when it gives way.”

  Stef bit down on his lip. I am going to lose. My fucking. Mind.

  “God, look at that tight ass open for me.”

  “Put it in,” Stef said, incoherent now. “Put it in me. Jesus fuck, please, Jav…”

  “Shh.” His hand curled around the back of Stef’s neck and pushed his head toward the pillow. Face down. Ass up. Mouth open and knuckles white.

  “Hold still,” Jav said.

  Not moving, Stef considered all options, including crying. “You’re killing me.”

  “Shh. Just let me do this.” His hand held Stef’s head and he sank in more. Pressed down and pushed deep. Slow. Slower than death. Stef’s fingertips curled into the sheets. His throat dissolved and he groaned his lungs empty as Jav filled him up to his eyes.

  “So tight, baby,” Jav whisper
ed. “So fucking hot and tight in your ass. It’s unreal.”

  Then he stretched out along Stef’s back, nudging their bent knees straight. “Lie down,” he said. “All the way down.” His mouth closed on Stef’s nape and his hands twined with Stef’s. “Hold still, honey.”

  Honey was sweet on Stef’s skin. Dripping and dabbling in ribbons down his back and all at once the room was clean and bright and pure. His mouth scrupulous with truth. His heart immaculate.

  “God,” he whispered against Jav’s wrist. “What are you doing to me?”

  “Nothing.” Breath like warm velvet between his shoulder blades, followed by the drag of Jav’s tongue. “Everything.”

  “Don’t ever stop.”

  Jav trembled, his next exhale choppy and anxious. “You know I love you, right?”

  “I know.”

  “Even when I fuck you hard and say raw shit like that. You know I love you more than anything in the world.”

  “I never doubt it. It all feels the same to me. It all feels like love.”

  A long, breathless moment, then Jav inhaled sharp through his nose. “Shit...”

  “Hey.” Stef curled a hand back to hold Jav’s head on his shoulder. “There’s no crying in fucking.”

  “I’m not crying.” Jav laughed softly, then sniffed again. “You always do this to me.”

  “I love it. You can only fuck me like this because you love me. I know.” He pushed up against Jav’s weight a little. “I need to turn over,” he said. “I need to face you. Let me up.”

  Jav carefully withdrew and moved back on his knees. He applied the last of the lube and tossed the empty bottle aside. Their third in a month.

  “Now come here,” Stef said, reaching up. “Get back in here.”

  Jav pressed in, all the way in, sliding along Stef’s chest and burying his face in Stef’s neck. “It’s so much.”

  “I know,” Stef whispered. “Just be in it, Jav. Love me and fuck me. There’s no fucking difference. I trust you with my life.” Stef held his brow against Jav’s. “And you don’t scare me.”

  Jav closed his teeth on Stef’s bottom lip and slowly let go.

  “Can’t be too much,” Stef said, “because it’s never enough. Come on now. Show me. I love when you’re raw. I love when you’re sweet. I love when you talk dirty and I love when you cry. I love all of it.”

  Jav held his head tight and kissed him, tongue dipping and sliding and curling. His hips made long, slow thrusts now. Slick and slippery. Grinding deep at the top then easing back to the tip, holding the ring at its trembling peak.

  “So fucking tight,” Jav said. “Better than any pussy I had in my life, I swear.” He slid forward again, then back, the length of him dragging within, making the air bump out of Stef’s lungs in a stuttering cry.

  “Feel good?” Jav whispered.

  “God, I never had it so good.”

  Propped over Stef, Jav’s eyes seemed to harden. “You ever gonna let anyone else fuck you like this?”

  “No way. Never.”

  “Who do you belong to?”

  “You.”

  “Who will you always belong to?”

  “You. I’m fucking yours.”

  Jav kissed his mouth inside-out. “Want to make you come.”

  “Keep doing this, then,” Stef said. “Keep talking to me. Keep kissing me and fucking me.”

  Jav took Stef’s hand, licked the palm and slipped it between their bodies. “Jerk yourself off,” he said. “Come with me.”

  He leaned hard. One hand on Stef’s shoulder, the other pinning Stef’s wrist, he fucked Stef clear through the bed down into the earth, while Stef stroked himself off and over, straight up into the sky.

  “Right there, Jav,” he said in a hiss. “There, there, right there, Jesus fuck don’t stop…”

  White crackled in his peripheral like a lightning strike. Then he went dark. The master switch shut down for a pinprick of blackened silence.

  I’ve been fucked senseless.

  The circuit panel flicked back on and the world poured into his eyes, ears, nose, skin and mouth. Quintuple sensory overload.

  “God,” Jav cried, his head thrown back.

  Stef bucked and sputtered while Jav thrust and cursed. They toppled in a tangle of sweaty limbs, gasping and groaning, trying to kiss but barely able to pant in each other’s mouths. Jav’s voice twisted around Stef’s name, something between a laughing sob and a sighed moan.

  “Shh,” Stef said, his hands pressing on Jav’s back. “Come down now. Come down.” The electric pleasure crackled away, leaving the ache behind.

  “Holy fuck,” Jav said.

  “I know. Hold still. Don’t move anymore.”

  “You all right?”

  “I’m fantastic but you need to get out now. Nice and easy.”

  Jav got off the bed, took a few stumbling steps and then paused with a hand on the dresser. “Whoa. Head rush.”

  “You okay?”

  “Got up too fast.”

  “Careful.” He lay sprawled in the bedclothes, pulse pounding at his temples. Jav had fucked the shit out of him. His rump burned and his hips howled. He’d be hurting tomorrow and thinking it seemed a good idea at the time...

  He’d never been happier in his life.

  Stones

  In Maplewood Cemetery, Javier Landes sat cross-legged on the grass in front of his father’s gravestone. He didn’t acknowledge the stones of his uncles. Only gave the briefest glance to his cousin’s marker. He had unfinished business there, but today was about him and Rafael.

  From the inside pocket of his jacket he drew out a lottery ticket. He tucked it between the stone and the flower arrangement.

  “Conocí a alguien, Papi,” he said softly.

  I met someone.

  At Beth David Memorial Park, Geronimo Caan placed rocks on his parents’ headstones. He’d painted a red hen on Analisa’s, and written the word “kindness” beneath. He put a little hunchback on Nathan’s, and wrote “sanctuary.”

  Last he drew a rock from his pocket, painted with a single star. It took him a few minutes to set it on his brother’s grave. A few minutes more to open his hand and leave it there.

  “Nos,” he said inside his mouth, letting no sound escape.

  He turned to go, then turned back to tell his family something.

  “I met someone.”

  At Guelisten Village Cemetery, Roger Lark sat on a bench before his parents’ headstone. They’d died together, suddenly and tragically in a car accident. Roger and his sisters had consoled themselves with the knowledge that one parent would never have to live without the other. They left together. They’d be together forever. Faithful for all the years left in time.

  Roger rested his elbows on his knees, fingers clasped and thumbs tapping.

  “Dad, I met someone,” he said.

  In Baron Hirsch Cemetery, Stavroula Kalo knelt before a small marker stone, flat in the earth.

  JACOBS

  1997

  Dear little one

  It was a baby boy’s remains beneath the rock. He would’ve been named Sam. Stavroula rendered the body to the earth but kept the name. The dream of another little boy she could name Sam kept her alive and hopeful.

  “I met someone,” she said, tracing the chiseled letters.

  “Pony?”

  “Hey Dad,” Steffen Finch said. “Can you hear me?”

  “I can hear you fine,” Marcus said. “Where are you?”

  “I’m on the Queensboro Bridge.”

  “You are? What brings you back to the old neighborhood?”

  “Nothing. I just like this bridge. How are you?”

  “Good, good. Can’t complain. How are things with you?”

  “Not bad,” Stef said, leaning elbows on the railing and staring at the olive-green depths of the East River. “I met someone…”

  Thank You

  If you
enjoyed Tales from Cushman Row, I’d love to hear about it. Please consider leaving a review on the sales platform of your choice (Amazon, Goodreads, iBooks, B&N, etc). Honest reviews are the tip jar of independent authors and each and every one is treasured.

  You can read more of my little stories at suannelaqueurwrites.com. Stop by Suanne Laqueur, Author on Facebook or tweet me at @Suannelqr.

  All feels welcome. And I always have coffee.

  About The Author

  A former professional dancer and teacher, Suanne Laqueur went from choreographing music to choreographing words. Her work has been described as "Therapy Fiction," "Emotionally Intelligent Romance" and "Contemporary Train Wreck."

  Laqueur's novel An Exaltation of Larks was the Grand Prize winner in the 2017 Writer's Digest Awards. Her debut novel The Man I Love won a gold medal in the 2015 Readers' Favorite Book Awards and was named Best Debut in the Feathered Quill Book Awards. Her follow-up novel, Give Me Your Answer True, was also a gold medal winner at the 2016 RFBA.

  Laqueur graduated from Alfred University with a double major in dance and theater. She taught at the Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts in Croton-on-Hudson for ten years. An avid reader, cook and gardener, she started her blog EatsReadsThinks in 2010.

  Suanne lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two children.

  Also by Suanne Laqueur

  The Fish Tales

  The Man I Love

  Give Me Your Answer True

  Here to Stay

  The Ones That Got Away

  Venery

  An Exaltation of Larks

  A Charm of Finches

  Tales from Cushman Row