by Max Walker
His face twisted into a smile before a wave of pain crashed over him. He winced, coughed, blood covering the hand he held over his mouth. “I can’t give up all my secrets.”
I put a hand on his neck. Squeezed. He coughed, sputtered. Jonah put a hand on my shoulder, but I didn’t let go.
“No more kids are going to die because of you. You hear me?”
Pierre’s eyes were turning red. His face purple. I let go. He wasn’t about to think this was some kind of game.
“If I even see one more of those Dragon pills on the street, I swear I will reach out to whatever contacts I can and end your little drug kingpin cosplay fantasy right in your jail cell. All right?” I motioned toward his neck again. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes, please, I do.”
“Good.” I leaned back in the seat, my head gently throbbing.
From the distance, I could hear sirens getting closer and closer. The coast guard was making their way toward us, and just in time, because my vision was starting to go.
“Jonah… I don’t, I don’t feel so…”
The darkness swallowed me whole before I could finish my sentence.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed between passing out and waking up. All I knew was I had woken up twice on the way to the hospital, and once right before I went into the surgery room.
Every single one of those panic-filled moments, when my eyes would snap open and consciousness would rush back into me, I’d always look first for Jonah, for those reassuring blue eyes that told me we would make it through, that we’d be okay. Every single time I snapped to, it was Jonah I looked for, and it was Jonah I found.
He rode with me to the hospital, never letting go of my hand. He rushed down the hall next to me as they wheeled me to the OR, and he was there when I had woken up in that sterile, cold hospital room. He was sitting in a wooden chair that seemed to be made specifically to be uncomfortable, and he was reading a comic book.
It was an Uncanny X-Men volume, the superheroes posing on the cover that he had held up in front of his face.
I coughed, getting my hero’s attention. He put the comic down and looked over at me, startling and then running to my side the second he realized I was awake.
“Gabriel,” he said, using my real name since probably the first time we met. I felt the warmth of his hand wrap around mine. In another he held a Styrofoam cup. “Here, you must be so thirsty.”
I was. My throat felt like someone had dumped an ashtray down it. I grabbed the cup with a shaky hand, managing a scratchy thanks and taking a sip of the refreshingly cold water, feeling it travel down my throat like it was some kind of magic, bringing life back into me.
“How long?”
“The surgery took one hour; the bullet grazed an artery. Guess you’ve got my luck when it comes to being shot.”
“That’s good. Let’s just not test it again.” I managed a smile, coughing. Jonah grabbed a soft towel and dabbed at my forehead, which was sweaty even though the room had felt cold to me. There were a couple of painful IVs in my hand, so I couldn’t move as much as I wanted to.
“You scared me, Fox.”
“We did it, though. You did it. If you hadn’t taken that shot, blown the gas tank, we may not be here.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you. You helped me find that confidence I had lost for a while. If it was pre-Fox Jonah who had to take that shot, I don’t think he would have made it.”
Jonah leaned in and kissed me. “Sorry,” I said. “My lips must be chappy as fuck.”
“No apologies.”
“Unless it’s toe stubbings or hallway bumpings.”
“Exactly,” Jonah replied. I saw a tear slide down his cheek. He looked away as he wiped it dry.
“I love you, baby.” I sat up on my bed. The pain in my leg was down to a distant throb, most likely made that way from the pain meds I’d been given.
Jonah looked my way, his eyes glistening. “I love you, too, Fox.”
He kissed me again.
“Let’s never work together again, all right?” he said, chuckling, his lips brushing my lips, his nose tickling the tip of mine. “I can’t handle the stress.”
“We make a great team, though.”
“Yeah, so did Bonnie and Clyde. Look how they turned out.”
“Good point,” I said, chuckling. “All right, we’ll stick to spending every other waking second around each other, outside of work. I’ll cover you in kisses the second we’re off the clock, and you promise to do the same to me.”
“Promise.” His blue eyes glowed, even under the crappy fluorescent hospital lighting. “God, Fox, I’ve never been so happy than when I look into your eyes. I need you to know that.”
“I do know that. I’d never doubt it.” I cleared my throat and drank a little more water. “And you need to know the same. You’re like the rarest bird I could have ever spotted, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, and I get to keep you. I feel so insanely lucky.” I motioned toward my bandaged thigh. “Case in point.”
Jonah laughed, the sound filling the dreary room. There was a window, but it looked out to another hospital room window.
“When we get out of here,” I said, “I want to cuddle up on the couch with you, put on some cheesy show on the TV, and spend the entire weekend laughing and kissing you.”
Jonah’s smile was so wide, his eyes were wrinkling at the corners. He leaned in for another kiss, this one sweet and warm. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Of course it did.
Anything involving me and Jonah was bound to be a good idea.
Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
JONAH BRIGHTLY
Today was a big day. I had a lot ahead of me, and it was Fox who was going to be there with me through it all.
Hell, he had a big day ahead of him, too.
There was some movement next to me on the bed, letting me know my alarm had also woken up Fox, who was stretching under the sheets and rolling over, putting an arm around me and drawing me in close to him. He was so warm, I swore Fox turned into a furnace in his sleep. Somehow, someway, the second his eyes shut, he let go of heat like a broken radiator.
And I loved it.
I melted into his shape, feeling the curves and lines of his body against my back, my ass.
His morning wood was hard against me, making mine throb against my briefs.
“Good morning,” I said, rolling so that I was facing him. Between us, our hard dicks were pressed together. He kissed me, a tired smile on his face.
We were in our bedroom, the morning sunlight filling the space.
Since I’d pretty much moved in, I had added a few touches to the room that made it feel like it was mine as well. There was the pile of dirty clothes next to my hamper, along with a couple of socks I had left next to the closest. And there was a cheap painting I’d been meaning to hang up, but instead was just sitting in its thin black frame against the wall.
Fox had welcomed me into his home with open arms from the second I came over, all those months ago, the night we played Ring of Fire and hooked up for the first ever time. Since then, Fox had made me feel like all that was his was mine, too. He was generous and kind and sweet and funny and gorgeous.
Fox was fucking perfect.
I went in for another kiss, pushing my leg between his so that my thigh was sandwiched in his legs, his heat wrapping around me. We were both shirtless, his chest feeling so good against mine.
“You ready for today?” Fox asked in a break from our morning make-out session.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“What time are we supposed to get there by?”
“Not until the afternoon.” More kisses. More smiles. “We’ve got time.”
I could feel how excited that news made Fox, his cock throbbing against my belly as I pushed against him under the sheets. God, how I loved waking up like this, having my man next to me and wanting me from the second the day s
tarted, in the same fiery way I wanted him.
And to think, that was almost taken away from me, all before it ever really began.
Our boat chase with Pierre had been risky, and Fox paid for it with blood, but we managed to close the case and lock the bastard up. The DEA was able to track down his lab and shut it down permanently. We were worried his formula for Dragon would still leak, but it turns out that worrying wasn’t needed.
Two weeks after being in prison, Pierre was stabbed and killed by another inmate in a prison riot. Dragon died with him that day. Meanwhile, Dylan and Lucien were both dealing as well as they could, considering they were in love with a sociopathic, drug-dealing monster that was betraying their trust every waking second of every day.
It was difficult, but we could all take some peace in knowing that the Dragon problem was done for good.
“You’re extra awake this morning,” Fox said, greedily sucking on my bottom lip.
“And so are you,” I said, feeling his hardness against me.
My hand snuck down under the covers, over Fox’s side, gliding over his hip. I slipped under the waistband of his boxers and started to massage his ass as our kiss began to gain even more steam. I kneaded and massaged, slipping a finger between the two globes, loving how he felt when he squirmed with pleasure against my touch.
The same way I had been squirming for him.
Ever since he popped my bottoming cherry, I couldn’t get enough. I loved having Fox inside me, stretching me open, filling me up with his size, with his seed.
I loved it, and I wanted it more than anything.
Fox moaned as he pushed me up onto him so that I was straddling him, looking down at the man who was able to so thoroughly capture my heart, his hazel eyes burned away of any sleep and left with a devout passion. He bit his lower lip, looking my body up and down, his hands moving up my chest, over my hard nipples, and then down again, down toward my throbbing cock, my white Calvins strained, the fabric darkening where I was leaking.
“God, you’re so sexy, Jonah.” His hand rubbed over my bulge, his thumb focusing on the soaking wet tip. I dropped my head back, a moan being pulled from my throat, my hole quivering as Fox pushed his hips up and rubbed his hardness against me.
I threw the sheets to the side before I passed out from a heat stroke. I then kissed my way down Fox’s body, kissing his tattooed chest, paying close attention to his pebbled nipples, sucking them in between my teeth, feeling his cock pulse in pleasure as I did so. It made me all the more hungry for him.
Down I went, over his pleasure trail, kissing at the soft hair, loving the feel of it against my lips.
I went down and lowered his boxers, revealing that thick, juicy dick I was obsessed with sucking on. He was already leaking at the tip. I moved past it, kissed down his thigh, taking care to be extra gentle around the quarter-sized scar that Fox would carry with him forever. Down to his feet, I then kissed my way back up, worshipping every inch of my man. I licked the clear drop of precome, loving the taste of it on my tongue as I took the rest of him in, rewarded with a deep moan. Fox opened his legs and made himself comfortable as I sucked him greedily, saliva dripping down his shaft, his balls growing tighter and tighter as I tugged and rolled them in my hand, my lips working up and down his cock.
He tasted so fucking good.
I kept blowing him, working him until I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to put him inside me. My hole was quivering, cock leaking all over the bed. I didn’t even need lube; I knew he was wet enough from the blowjob, and I was horny enough to not need any more foreplay.
I held him by the base and sat up, lining his wet cock up with my needy hole.
His hands came up to my chest as I started to sit down on him. Fox looked up at me, his mouth turning into an O, his eyes rolling back as he sunk into me, his cock filling me up in the exact way I needed.
It was bliss.
I rode him hard and fast, already knowing how to roll my hips so that I hit my spot and blew his mind in the process.
“Fuck, that’s it, baby. You’re so hard,” Fox said, grabbing me in a tight fist as I rocked back and forth on his cock. I reached around and played with his balls, feeling him swell inside me.
“Yeah, just like that,” I moaned, dropping my head back as Fox lifted me and started to drive himself up into me, fucking me hard, a clear thread of precome falling down and pooling on Fox’s belly, sliding down into his belly button.
“Oh fu—” Fox’s eyes rolled back, his head dropped, and his hips thrust up and locked in.
I felt him filling me up, his cock jerking inside me, spilling himself in me, pushing at my walls.
It brought the vise of an orgasm down around my own body, my cock twitching and jerking as I shot come all over Fox, covering his heaving chest with myself, managing to even hit the headboard behind him.
I rose, feeling him pop out of me, feeling his come trailing down my taint, down my tight balls.
We kissed, both our bodies spent and our hearts soaring. It was the best way to start the morning, considering that the full weight of the day ahead was beginning to hit me. At least now I was nice and relaxed before heading to my parents’ house instead of showing up as a big knot of tension.
“Want a bacon and cheese omelet, babe?” I asked as we started to get up and out of bed.
“I’d love one, thank you,” Fox replied, showing his gratitude with a kiss on the back of my neck as he followed me into the bathroom.
“We can’t get too full,” I warned. “My mom’s cooking and she tends to overfeed.”
“That’s never been a complaint for me,” Fox said, patting his perfectly toned stomach in the mirror. I looked at us in the mirror, emblazing the image in my head for the rest of eternity. Two smiling, naked men were reflected back at me, happiness and love radiating out from the both of them. It was a sight I never really thought I’d see in my lifetime.
Now, it was all I ever wanted to see when I looked in the mirror.
GABRIEL ‘FOX’ MORRISON
Sex with Jonah always left me feeling like a pile of mush in the best way possible. I’d never had such a strong sexual chemistry with anyone I’d been with. Jonah, holy shit was he different. I was down to fuck him at a moment’s notice, and at the same time, I was also down to bathe him in kisses.
It was what made me so sure I was in love with him.
This morning had been no different. I had woken up and my first thought was to pull Jonah into me.
And then the rest was blissful history
Now, the both of us were pulling up to Jonah’s parents’ house, the driveway already packed with cars.
“Oh no,” Jonah said, as he squeezed his car onto the grass between two big SUVs.
“What?”
“I told my mom I wanted to keep things small today.”
Judging by the number of cars parked out front, this wasn’t about to be small.
I reached across the central panel and grabbed Jonah’s hand in mine. “You’ve got this. If anything, I’d say this is better. Get the news all out at once. That way you won’t be dealing with coming out at every single family event that pops up.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Jonah took a couple of deep breaths as he looked out to the two-story house, a fresh paint job making the dark brown walls seems imposing almost.
Just then, my phone buzzed between my legs. I glanced down, Andrew’s name flashing on the screen.
It was a message, and the photo that had been attached filled up my phone screen.
“Holy shit.”
“What?” Jonah asked, leaning over. “What happened?”
“Holy fucking shit.”
I handed the phone to Jonah. “What the…”
The photo was of the front of our Stonewall offices, the pale yellow walls bright under the afternoon sunlight. On the wall was a message, spray-painted in a thin black paint: “You aren’t welcome here”. Underneath the message was a halo, the circle drippin
g black paint, down onto a hastily drawn outline of an angel, the hands held together as if in prayer. The window had been shattered, and the door had scuff marks from being kicked.
“Oh my God…” Jonah handed me the phone back, his hand shaking. “Who?”
I called Andrew, who sounded rightfully distraught. He told me that no one in the neighboring business had witnessed anything, and that nothing from inside was taken either. This seemed to have been an attack based purely on hate. There had been a new church that opened down the street, and while I knew the majority of them were kind, good-hearted people searching for a place to worship and pray, I also knew that a few of them may not have had the kindest of hearts. They may have spotted our rainbow flags as they walked to their church and felt the need to lash out. The painted angel at the bottom only strengthened my theory.
“Shit,” Jonah said, dropping his head back on the car. “The church?”
We’d only been together for around four months, and we could already read each other’s thoughts. I nodded. “Could be anyone, but it is a coincidence that this happens a few weeks after that church opened its doors,” Jonah pointed out.
“Andrew’s getting cameras installed today. This shit won’t happen again.”
“Do you think they’ll try to do it again?”
I shrugged. “I hope so, because then we’ll catch the fuckers.” I shook my head. “Why? All we’re trying to do is help those who need help. Isn’t that one of the biggest lessons religion tries to teach?”
Jonah looked out the window. “I tend to believe, especially in our more modern days, people who hate us under the veil of religion have a bigger problem with themselves than with where we stick our dicks behind closed doors. If it was really about religion, then they’d stop going to Red Lobster and they’d stop pulling out, which, by the way, is also a smiteable offense in the bible… And isn’t even a great contraceptive method either, so they probably should stop doing that anyway.”
I laughed loud. “Well, let’s forget about bigots and homophobes for a little. We’ve got a family to come out to.”