Steve and Stacy exchanged worried glances, but Stacy told Matt, “He’s probably shacked up with a girl or something. Just because you’re being all chaste and sexless, that doesn’t mean everyone is. Don’t worry about it. In fact, we need a blanket. Steve? Where would a good one be for Matt to grab for us?”
“Linen closet in the hall by the bathroom,” he told Matt, but as soon as Matt was gone to fetch it, he leaned over and harshly whispered, “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Something’s wrong, I feel it, but we can’t let him know that. Not yet.”
“I don’t want to lie to him! That goes against everything I’m trying to do here, Stacy!”
She pulled him into the laundry room and hissed, “Shh! Shush, will you!”
“I can’t, I just can’t lie to him.”
“What truth are you gonna tell, Steve? That you and I have some hunch? That’s not the truth, it’s a feeling. Until we know something concrete, why worry him? He’s got enough on his plate for seventy people. He doesn’t need this unless it’s real.”
What she said made sense. Too much so. “Just until we know something. How do we find out?”
“We go to Farmington and ask around. We can’t do that today, but as soon as we can, we’ll go and do some digging.”
“Fine,” he resolved. “Okay, fine.”
When Matt came back with the blanket, Stacy was set to change the subject and keep his mind off his stepbrother. “So, tell me a little more about courting, Matt. It sounds so romantic.”
Matt blinked over at her, and Steve wanted to groan with how fake that was, her question. “Romantic? I guess.”
“I thought most of the men on the compound like put in an order for their new bride. Where does the courting come into it?”
“Mostly courting is done for the first wives. The younger men get permission to court their possible new bride, and since they don’t have a lot to offer the prophet and compound in general, the first wife has more of a say. They meet with their families watching, talk some, maybe take walks, nothing private, of course. Then, if the girl says she’s okay with it, the prophet gets the final say and they’re sealed.”
“Sealed? I’ve heard that before. How is it different than marriage?”
After shrugging one shoulder, Matt explained, “Basically, I guess it’s just that being sealed means they are married in the afterlife as well and this life. See, we’re supposed to make those connections in this life. That’s pretty much all this life is for, and then we go on to the next life with those people we’ve been sealed to. We’re sealed to the spouse or spouses, and the children born of that are sealed to us, so we are all together in the afterlife.”
“That would be kind of beautiful, if it wasn’t going along with all the rest of it, I guess,” Steve said, watching Matt’s face cloud with hatred.
“Yeah, they think gays are sinful, Steve, so don’t get too excited. I’m not in that church anymore. I don’t want any church.”
“But you’re…following their teachings, in a way,” Stacy pointed out.
“Because I don’t want to give my body to Steve right off? Does that have to be religious? Can’t I just want to get to know him first?”
Put in perspective, they both nodded to him as Stacy said, “Of course, that’s not religious. A lot of people like to wait for that. I’m sorry, Matt.”
“No, it’s okay. I guess I think they got some things right, is all. By accident, I’m sure. Are any couples all that happy when they just jump into bed and don’t take the time to know that person, even a little?”
Slumping, Stacy admitted, “Charlie and I barely knew each other outside of work. I guess, if we’d gotten to know each other better, we may have known what our careers meant compared to a relationship, or any of it.”
Matt went to him, taking his hands. “I want to know everything about you. I know, if it works out, that I have a long time to learn, but I want to know a little bit at least before we…you know.”
“I know. I feel the same, Matt.”
“God, you guys are killing me. I’m without my significant other right now, ya know! Can we bench the PDAs while I’m around?”
Steve laughed guiltily. “No. You’re our chaperone, so you get to see all of them.”
“Ugh, that sucks. Well, pack up the car for this picnic.”
“Car? We’re walking. Better change your shoes,” Matt said, pointing to her high-heeled leather boots.
“You’re always complaining about how much you’re eating,” Steve reminded her. “This will help. Get you some exercise.”
“Yeah, goodie.”
An hour later, they were trekking through the woods behind Steve’s home, seeing parts of his property he hadn’t explored in years. He’d been over every inch of it when he’d first bought the place, but since, he’d stayed to a few spots he particularly loved.
Matt was reminding him of why he’d fallen for the place. It was beautiful, serene, filled with trees and shrubs, beautiful boulders and patches of purple and yellow wildflowers he’d learned the names of just to know his land better. They peeked through the little patches of snow that held on in the shadier parts of the landscape.
The creek that wound through the property was usually dry, but they’d had enough snow that winter in the mountains and enough rain so far that spring to let it flow. There were three huge elms near a soft patch of dirt close to the bank, so they decided to lay out the blanket there, Stacy setting out the jars they filled with lemonade.
Steve sat against the closest tree, watching Matt as he walked along the bank of the creek, kneeling to the water to wash his hands, reverently picking up a stone and turning it in his hand. He was a child of nature, that was for sure. Steve knew he’d feel like a fish out of water in the city. He’d adjust, sure, as he was adjusting to not being on the compound, but he’d never truly be happy anywhere except the country.
It fit him. He looked peaceful, beautiful with the backdrop of nature surrounding him. The sun’s rays shining through leaves lit him like a god.
“He’s beautiful,” Stacy whispered to him while they both watched Matt’s slow exploration of the small area.
“Yeah. Yeah, he is.” Steve got up and went to him, calling back to Stacy, “We’re going for a little walk.”
“Just stay where I can see you,” she called back, teasing.
Matt hooked his forefinger into Steve’s, and they started walking away from the creek, past a patch of juniper trees. “This is a great place you have.”
“Yes, it is. I fell for it the moment I saw it online, but when I got here, man, I made an offer an hour after I got here. I didn’t haggle a bit.”
Matt’s shy smile that he’d cast over at him had Steve’s heart hammering in his chest. Everything he imagined he’d feel when he was a young man, Matt brought that out in him. The wondering…Will he kiss me? Is he feeling the same way? Like he could run screaming with the joy of it, it was all there. Sick, happy, scared to death, it was there.
“What’s your favorite color?”
The question caught him off guard. Steve thought on it, never realizing he had one. “I guess dark blue. The blue I painted my room in, like Navy, or cobalt.”
“I like that too.”
The innocent way he spoke, how their fingers were hooked together. Steve hadn’t thought since he’d grown up that he could still have a relationship so childlike. “Matt?”
“Yeah?”
“I like this. I like courting with you. In case you ever thought this was weird for me. I mean, it is weird for me, but in the best way possible.”
Matt stopped them and faced him, shy smile gone as he grew serious. “I’m glad, Steve. The rest of everything going on, this is the only thing keeping me from going crazy.”
“You know that I’d do anything for you, and maybe that’s how this courting thing started, but it’s not what it is now. I’m enjoying this. I never got to have th
at young love thing when I was a kid. I’d watch my friends, and I’d be so jealous! You’ve given me something I never thought I’d have.”
He was taken into Matt’s arms, held there, no words between them. As he was wrapped in the man, he felt like crying with his happiness. Matt was warm, sweet, strong, and Matt was his. And there was no doubt at all that he was Matt’s.
“I want to kiss you so bad,” Matt whispered. “I want you so bad. This may be good, but I’m dying to make love with you,” he admitted, laughing a little.
Matt pulled back to see his face, the guilt and humor there. “Believe me, I do too, but when we finally are together that way, it’ll be better for us waiting.”
When they embraced again, Matt did kiss him, letting his lips brush along his neck, telling him how much he loved being there with him, how glad he was that he found him. Steve let his eyes close so he could surround himself in those words, Matt’s touch, the way his fingers were clawing gently on his back, emphasizing each of his words.
Every good moment for the rest of his life would be in hard competition to that one. He and Matt, in the woods, the sound of the creek gurgling in the distance, the little breeze blowing Matt’s hair against his cheek. It was a love song, a romance novel, and the plot of a perfect movie all at once.
They walked back, their fingers hooked again, and Stacy was lying on her back, staring up through the branches of the tree.
“I need to bring Charlie here.”
“He likes it here,” Steve said as he sat on the blanket with Matt. “I invited him out when I first got the place. He took a few days off and walked the whole place with me. Said he’d like to have one when he finally retired.”
“So, when he’s in his seventies,” she grumbled.
“I don’t know,” Matt said. “I think Steve and I could live anywhere together and be just as happy as here. It’s not the where, it’s the who.”
She rolled over and leaned up on her elbows, staring at him. “That’s profound.”
He laughed shyly, but quipped, “I know I am.”
They spread the containers with the food out and Matt’s moan over the first bite of the chicken made Steve start to rethink waiting for sex. If that was how he sounded tasting food, he could imagine how sexy he would sound while making love.
The day was perfect, though Steve worried about Dean and what a stark discovery could do to Matt. Matt lay his head over Steve’s thighs and Steve took care to brush the hair from his forehead, tenderly running a finger over his healing bruises. “Do they still hurt?”
“Not at all when you’re doing that.”
“Good.”
“You two are so sweet, it’s making me sick. I don’t know how much longer I can chaperone.”
Steve smiled over at her, asking, “Are you thinking of telling Charlie you’ll have to wait before you have sex again?”
“Yeah, right. We’re way far past that stage. Now I have to talk him into putting a ring on it.”
Steve sat up and Matt fell over on his hands at they both stared agape at her. Matt giggled, “You?”
“Married?” Steve finished for him.
Her eyes moved up to the branches again and breathed, “Yeah. Marriage, kids, all of it. If you find the one, you might as well tie that shit down, right?”
Chapter Fourteen
When they were alone the next morning, Stacy asked, “I need you to stay here and keep Matt busy. Not getting busy, but you know what I mean. I’m going to make an excuse to go into town and do some digging on Dean.”
He sat hard in the kitchen chair, groaning, “More lies. Dammit, Stacy, I can’t keep doing this.”
She sat next to him and pled, “Just this. I don’t want him worried until there is actually something to worry about. Neither do you.”
It was true, but the thought of Matt’s reaction if he found out scared him. “What if you find something did happen to him? Or if you see him, and it’s fine. Matt will know we kept this from him.”
“No, I can just say that I thought of going to see him while I was in town to tell him to give Matt a call. And that’s what I will be telling him if I find him. Just this, then we can share our concerns with him. Okay?”
“Okay. Okay, fine. But after today, no matter what you find, we’re talking it over with him.”
“Deal.”
When Stacy left, Matt surprised him with coming up behind him as soon as the door closed, whispering, “While the cat’s away, the mice will play?”
Steve spun around, laughing, accusing, “You’re trying to seduce me!”
“No, no sex, but I am going to kiss you, right here, right now.”
And he did. Matt moved him against the door and held his face, so he could take a long, deep kiss from Steve, moving their tongues together slowly, seductively, until Steve knew his legs wouldn’t continue to hold him.
“There’s something totally not fair,” he whispered against Steve’s lips. “You’ve seen me naked. I haven’t seen you.”
“God…” Steve was losing his mind, his body trembling with need for the man. “Stop, Matt, oh, shit, stop.”
“No. My rules, remember?”
Matt kissed him again, moving his hands down to grip his waist, rubbing his body against Steve’s. His lips and tongue were moving slowly, but without a bit of hesitation. He was in complete control over the kiss, over everything.
Steve’s thoughts were gone, his mind along with them. All he could think of was the day he had seen Matt’s beautiful, bare body, his perfect dick, full, dark pink, standing straight and letting its shadow fall across Matt’s smooth, flat stomach.
Like he read Steve’s mind, Matt asked, “Are you thinking about me? My body?”
He remembered every line of it. Thinking of dressing him, how he’d been so close, running the briefs over Matt’s legs, each hair displacing as he went. The scarred knees from childhood play, the muscles, his soft, curled pubic hair that was a full shade darker than the hair on his head…
“Yeah. I can see it all.”
“That’s not really fair, is it?”
Matt’s fingers curled around the hem of Steve’s shirt, dragging it up, exposing his stomach. “Not…not fair. No, not fair.”
Steve’s phone went off and it made them both jump. He reached into his pocket, which wasn’t easy with his hand shaking. He saw it was Stacy, showing Matt, who backed off him, laughing.
He said to Stacy, “Yeah?”
“I knew it! You two were messing around!”
“N-no we weren’t!”
Matt was laughing heartily, taking a seat on the couch as Steve had to take the brunt of Stacy’s lecture. “I knew you two couldn’t be trusted.”
“We were the ones who asked you to chaperone us! How did you figure we couldn’t be trusted?”
“You are out of breath, and I doubt you were taking a jog. Tell Matt to be in a different room than you are, and right now!”
Her voice was full of sadistic humor, but she was right. “Fine! You’re a bitch, you know that?”
“Yeah, I take great pride in that. Bye!”
He ended the call cursing under his breath. “We’re to position ourselves in separate rooms,” he informed Matt, who was still laughing. Steve didn’t see the humor. “This is your fault!”
“Yeah, I was testing your stamina. You failed,” he teased, getting up from the couch and rushing over to him, pecking his lips as he said, “I’ll be in your old room, reading up on how to dominate you. Too bad you can’t be in there for me to practice on.”
He hurried away, laughter following him, while Steve watched him go, frustration crowding him. He tossed the phone to the couch and sat there next to it, flipping channels until he came to a harrowing documentary about spoiled food and food poisoning. “This should do it.”
Stacy was taking a long time, and Matt hadn’t come out from the room for two hours. Steve had been living at his house alone a long time, so he should be used to it, but since St
acy and Matt had been staying there, he found he liked the company.
Not to mention, he missed Matt terribly. On top of the fact, he was seeking a little revenge.
Strolling casually to the door of the bedroom after turning the heater up a few degrees, the idea was ticking off in his head. He smiled before he knocked, letting Matt know he was making lunch. When he went back to the kitchen, he heard the door open and footsteps in the hall, so he quickly took off his shirt and threw it over the back of one of the chairs, setting the oven on 450˚, then taking the fish from the freezer.
In the short time it took Matt to appear, Steve was already getting a nice sheen of sweat over his bare chest. “Oh, hi!”
Matt’s eyes were glued to his chest as he returned the greeting. “H-hi.”
“I thought fish would be nice for a change. What do you think?”
With the back of his hand, Matt wiped his mouth, nodding drunkenly. “Sure. Sounds…sounds fine.”
The lemon was cut into thick wedges, the garlic chopped as Steve stood unmoving. Flexing when it looked natural enough, the exaggerated bend he did as he set the pan in the oven, he knew he was getting to Matt.
When he turned, Matt smirked at him, and Steve knew his scam was uncovered. “You’re trying to tempt me.”
“Is it working?”
Slowly moving around the island, Matt went to him, grabbing his chin in one hand, staring into his eyes. “Put your shirt on.”
Knowing his role in their budding relationship, Steve moved from his place and grabbed his shirt, slipping it on quickly. “There. Better?”
“No. I want to see your body. But it’s not the time. And next time you try to tempt me, even when our courtship is over, I’ll keep you chaste.”
So, that meant that Matt had read up on punishments. He learned fast. “Sorry, Matt. I was returning the favor, but I shouldn’t have.”
Matt nodded. “I understand you were getting retribution, but don’t. I’ll do what I want to you. You have to listen to me.”
The Principle (Legacy Book 2) Page 13