“That feels good. I feel like I’ve sweat off twenty pounds in this damn suit,” he groaned, yanking the zipper down to his waist.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Bas asked as he turned toward the base gate.
“Not particularly. In part, because I’m not quite sure. And the other part is that my damned head hurts like hell.” Ryder grimaced. “I’ve only ever punched out once before and it wasn’t pretty then either. I’d forgotten how bad your body can feel afterward.”
Bas drove through the gate and out on the main road. Five minutes later when he turned down the narrow two lane road that led to Forza, he yanked the truck off the road onto the shoulder. Thrusting the gear shift into park, he swiftly popped his seat belt off and twisted in his seat to slam his mouth down on Ryder’s. One hand came up to gently cup the back of his lover’s head as his lips and tongue demanded a response from Ryder. The kiss held a note of frantic worry in it and Bas ran his free hand over Ryder, just to make sure he was all in one piece. Ryder’s tongue flicked out to tangle with his and Bas moaned. Pulling away, he stared into Ryder’s dark blue eyes.
“Fuck, you scared me. I heard the boom and saw the smoke and I knew it was you,” he rasped. His eyes blinked closed for a second on a wave of pain. “I took off for the base right away and when I got there it dawned on me. I looked at my phone and I knew that even if it was you…if something bad had happened…my phone wasn’t going to ring.”
Bas could hear his voice shaking with fear and pain as he relived those moments when he realized he had no rights where Ryder was concerned. The sense of helplessness and injustice rose within him once more. He wanted to lash out at someone for the position he’d been put in. The person he loved most in the whole world was someone he couldn’t live with openly, couldn’t marry legally, and whose employer would court martial him and take away his retirement if their relationship was found out. He gritted his teeth at the unfairness of it.
Ryder’s hand stroked down his cheek. “We can fix that. And we will. Without admitting a thing to anyone,” he whispered. “I want you to have rights where I’m concerned and I’d like to have them in return. What the hell are they gonna say to me anyway? I’ll just tell them it’s ‘cause my mom is so far away and in poor health. Who the fuck are they to say I can’t have a durable power of attorney for health care giving you the right to make decisions about me? In fact, now that today’s accident happened, they probably won’t think anything of it at all, which is how it should be.”
Catching Ryder’s hand in his, Bas kissed his fingers briefly then put his seatbelt back on. He pulled out onto the empty road and reached out to take Ryder’s hand in his again, threading their fingers together. They drove in silence the rest of the way home.
Bas helped Ryder into the house, letting the younger man lean on him to take weight off his sore knee. He steered them toward the master bath and helped Ryder strip off his dirty flight suit and undergarments. Once Ryder sat in a tub of hot swirling water, Bas went into the kitchen. He poured Ryder a glass of ice water and checked out his prescriptions. A pill for his head and one for his knee, nothing out of the ordinary. He took the glass and pills into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub, holding them out to Ryder.
As Ryder swallowed the pills, Bas looked at the bruise that bloomed on his lover’s right shoulder. Already it was black and blue although Ryder said it looked worse than it felt. His right knee had swelled up and appeared to be turning the same violet shade as his shoulder.
“One’s a pain pill. The other’s for the swelling on your knee,” Bas told him. “You’re not to fall asleep for at least another hour.”
Ryder grimaced. “I’m not sleepy. Just achy. And hungry.”
Bas leaned over and brushed a kiss over his lover’s lips then stood. “You soak the aches away. I’ll order a pizza. Then we’ll watch that game we taped last weekend, okay?”
“Sounds good to me.”
By the time Bas had ordered the food and found the game on the DVR, Ryder had hobbled into the living room dressed in a pair of loose sweat shorts and an old Air Force Academy t-shirt. Bas eyed his lover’s swollen knee.
“That thing looks like shit. How about we adjourn to the bedroom so we can prop the knee up under some pillows. Besides, the TV’s bigger in there,” he added with a wink.
Ryder’s brows rose. “You’re willing to risk pizza in bed?”
“Anything for you.” Bas chuckled and turned toward the bedroom.
He’d pulled back the covers, exposing the navy blue sheets and was rummaging in the closet for a body pillow when Ryder limped in. He gestured toward the bed and Ryder got in, sitting with his back to the headboard. Bas carefully lifted his lover’s leg and slipped the big pillow beneath it, elevating the knee and lower leg.
When he looked up, he found Ryder gazing at him with dark, emotional eyes. He leaned over and cupped Ryder’s head in his hands, feeling the bump on the right side just above his ear.
“I know you can’t promise not to scare me like that again, and God knows, I can’t make you those kinds of promises either when I go back to flying in air shows, but Ryder, just try harder please,” he whispered and then brushed a soft kiss to Ryder’s mouth.
As he pulled his hands free of Ryder’s head, his lover reached up and wrapped his hands around Bas’s wrists. Ryder pulled Bas’s hands around so he could place a kiss in the palm of each hand, closing the fingers over the kiss as if to hold them.
“I’m going to make you this promise, Sebastian Marchetti,” he murmured, his blue eyes alight with emotion. “I love you. I will always love you. And I will always do my best to come home to you.”
Shaking from the force of his emotions, Bas said, “I love you too. Never so much as when I thought I might never be able to say those words to you again. All these years, I thought I’d made my choice, jets and the Air Force over love and a relationship. I never thought I’d fall in love. Never thought I’d have the chance to be with someone permanently. I don’t know how you manage to pull it off but I admire you for even trying. I was always too afraid to try.”
Ryder rubbed Bas’s hand against his cheek and smiled. “I’m kinda glad you didn’t really try. It’s like you saved yourself for me.”
Bas’s heart turned over. “Maybe I did,” he whispered and caressed Ryder’s face.
The loud ringing of the doorbell broke their reverie. Ryder chuckled and Bas pulled his hands free. He went to the door and signed the slip for the pizza then grabbed a roll of paper towels and a couple of sodas from the fridge. By the time he got back to the bedroom, Ryder had cued up the football game on the DVR. They sat on the bed, backs to the headboard, pizza balanced on Bas’s lap, Ryder in charge of tearing off paper towels for them.
They spent the rest of the afternoon eating pepperoni pizza out of the box while watching football. The swelling in Ryder’s knee had slowly gone down as the bruise on it bloomed. Eventually, as night fell, his shoulder, knee and temple were all a nasty shade of purple. His second pain pill of the day had his head nodding and Bas helped him to lie down without jarring the knee too much. As Ryder fell asleep, Bas went in to shower.
He came out to find the bedroom dark, lit only by a spill of silvery moonlight through the window. Ryder lay on his left side in his briefs, the body pillow tucked between his thighs and cushioning his sore knee. Bas dropped his towel into the hamper and quietly opened a dresser drawer, pulling out a pair of loose cotton boxers. It wouldn’t do to go to bed naked when obviously Ryder wasn’t up to any sort of sexual shenanigans.
Bas eased into bed, pulling the sheet up over his legs and Ryder’s. A soft whuffling sound came from his lover. Bas curled onto his side facing Ryder and admired how the moonlight turned his tawny hair to silver. He acknowledged to himself that he loved Ryder so much he was content to lie there and stare at the guy and breathe in the scent of soap and Ryder.
“If you stare at me too hard, you’ll bore a hole in my skin.”
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The whisper soft words held indulgent amusement. Bas inched forward on his pillow until he could touch his lips to Ryder’s forehead.
“Go back to sleep. You had a rough day.”
Ryder snorted. “Oh yeah. Ejected from a jet only to spend the rest of the day lazing around in bed eating pizza and watching football and letting my partner turn me on with his sexy smiles and tight ass.”
“I was not turning you on. I’d have noticed your erection if you’d been turned on,” Bas protested.
“Oh, but you were. The stupid pills just killed the physical evidence. My brain was turned on,” Ryder assured him.
Bas rolled his eyes. “I’ll believe that shit when I see it. Now go to sleep!”
“Don’t wanna.” Ryder turned onto his back, jerked the sheet off and flipped the big pillow under his knees. “Does this look like I’m not turned on?”
The plain white briefs he wore strained at the front with the evidence of Ryder’s arousal.
“Jeez, Ryder. I can’t fuck you. You were shot out of a plane at nearly 20 Gs!”
Ryder made a rude sound. “All the literature says 20 Gs. I don’t think it was that much. Besides, look at me. I’m in pain, Bas,” he said plaintively.
Bas had to admit, the huge erection did look painful. Maybe a gentle hand job would do the trick. No jarring of the shoulder or knee or head involved in a hand job. He pushed the sheet away and reached for the front of Ryder’s briefs. His fingertips stroked over the hard ridge that strained against the cotton. Ryder moaned.
“You fucking tease.”
Carefully, Bas pushed the briefs down enough to get his hand around Ryder’s cock. He stroked it gently, his thumb finding the wet tip. Ryder moaned again.
“I’m not made of glass and neither is my dick. Don’t. Tease.”
Ryder grasped Bas’s wrist and forced his hand to roughly stroke the length of his swollen cock from base to tip. His hips thrust upward and he moaned with each movement.
“Ryder! I can’t do this! You have a concussion. You’re supposed to take it easy,” Bas hissed as his own cock began to swell. He gritted his teeth against the rising tide of his desire.
“Then you do the work, babe. Suck me.”
The seductive tone of Ryder’s voice as he said “Suck me” sent shivers down Bas’s spine. Wriggling down the bed, carefully avoiding Ryder’s sore knee, he eased the white briefs from his lover’s taut body. Arranging himself between Ryder’s thighs, he breathed in the musky scent of Ryder’s balls.
“Damn, Ryder, you have the most beautiful cock I’ve ever seen,” he whispered reverently as he watched Ryder slowly stroke himself.
“If you love it so much, why don’t you show me?”
The sly tone in Ryder’s voice made Bas chuckle. Maybe a little sex was just what they needed after the scare they’d both had. A reaffirmation of their feelings for each other. Bas brushed aside Ryder’s hand, replacing it with his own. Ryder tossed his head on the pillow.
“Oh, yeah. Stroke it, babe.”
Bas cupped Ryder’s balls in one hand while his other hand pumped his lover’s thick cock. In the moonlight, Ryder’s blue eyes gleamed like silver and Bas pushed up, positioning his body so that he could bend his head and take the full length of Ryder’s erection into his mouth. The instant his wet heat closed around Ryder’s flesh, his partner moaned loudly.
“Oh, fuck yeah. God, you give head like a slut, Bas. Suck me harder.”
Torn between laughing at Ryder’s uninhibited dirty talk and being turned on by it, Bas briefly wondered if the pain meds were the cause of his loosened tongue. But the twitching of the cock in his mouth brought his attention swiftly back to Ryder. He sucked hard, drawing every inch of Ryder’s shaft into his mouth. The head pressed the back of his throat and Bas let the muscles milk the invading flesh as he swallowed.
Cheeks hollowed, he swirled his tongue around the shaft, teasing every inch. His fingers kneaded Ryder’s balls, feeling them tighten in his grasp. He pulled them a little and Ryder rewarded him by squirming and tossing his head. Bas let his fingers brush Ryder’s tender rosette and he felt the slight clench at his touch.
Oh, you want to be fucked, don’t you, Ryder? he thought as he sucked rhythmically on his lover’s cock. Too bad. I won’t do it tonight. But tomorrow, after the meds have worn off, then you don’t stand a chance.
Bas eased a finger past Ryder’s sphincter. He probed, searching for the bundle of nerves that would drive his partner crazy with lust. When his fingertip brushed Ryder’s prostate, they both moaned. Bas felt and tasted the spurt of pre-cum that heralded his stroking of Ryder’s most sensitive spot. He fucked Ryder with one finger then two as he sucked. The balls in his hand tightened even more as the tension in Ryder’s body built.
Then, before Bas was actually ready, Ryder came. Hot bursts of cum filled his mouth and he swallowed quickly, nearly choking at the rush of fluid. Ryder’s hands dug into his thigh muscles as Bas continued to finger fuck him, teasing his prostate. With each pulse of Ryder’s cock in his mouth, each spurt of fluid onto his tongue, Bas felt his heart expand with love.
As his lover’s cock softened, Bas lifted his head, licking gently as he released the tender flesh from his mouth. He looked up to find Ryder staring at him with a hard expression of lust riding his features despite his orgasm.
“I want you,” Ryder growled. “But my body doesn’t want to cooperate so you’re going to have to do all the work. Ditch the boxers and kneel over me.”
Bas wanted to protest that Ryder shouldn’t be offering to service him. However, the lust on his partner’s face did him in. He’d never met a man who so totally got off on sucking cock, but Ryder did.
He got up and stripped off the boxers as Ryder propped himself up against the headboard. Bas knelt, carefully straddling Ryder’s hip, mindful of the extensive bruising on his lover’s right knee and shoulder. With his stiff cock dangling above Ryder’s face, he balanced himself with his hands braced on the wall above the headboard. Fingers teased his balls and he moaned. The fingers drifted to the crease of his ass and he sucked in a breath. One finger breeched him, then another. Involuntarily, his hips thrust. His cock brushed Ryder’s face and then the wet glide of a tongue traced his length.
Mindless lust overwhelmed him and before he fully realized his own actions, his cock was in Ryder’s mouth. He thrust with shallow strokes, fucking his lover’s face and from the sounds that vibrated against his shaft, Ryder loved it. Bas recognized the deeply primal sensation of having his lover supine beneath him while he retained all the control.
Ryder’s mouth enveloped him like wet velvet. His tongue and throat worked every inch of Bas’s cock in such a way that his enjoyment of the act could never be in doubt. Ryder very obviously liked sucking Bas off. And Bas couldn’t resist Ryder’s talented tongue on his erection any more than he could resist the press of Ryder’s long fingers against his prostate. Within a few minutes, his cock jerked and erupted into Ryder’s avid mouth.
Braced against the wall, chest heaving from an orgasm that left him weak and shaking, Bas tried to gain enough control to move his body carefully away from Ryder’s. Mindful of his partner’s injuries, Bas inched back and then managed to swing his leg over Ryder, collapsing onto the mattress. Instantly, Ryder’s hands reached for him, pulling him closer.
Bas curled into Ryder’s uninjured side as his lover held him tightly with one arm. He nuzzled Ryder’s neck, pressing hot open mouthed kisses to his flesh.
“When Mike came out to meet me, his face had this grim expression and for a moment, I thought you were dead,” Bas whispered hoarsely. “And in that same moment, I knew that if you were then I wanted to be too. I didn’t want to live without you. I can’t imagine having to go on and live my life without you, Ryder.”
His lover sighed and his arm tightened around Bas’s shoulder. “I know that the moment I pulled the handle to eject, I prayed I wouldn’t be taken from you. I didn’t want to leave you.
My fierce desire to live was because of my fierce love for you, Sebastian,” Ryder whispered.
Emotion finally got the best of Bas. Hot tears spilled over, wetting Ryder’s shoulder. He’d been so afraid. Even when he’d found out about his father’s illness he hadn’t felt that much fear.
“It was so fucking awful, Ryder. I thought I’d puke when I saw the smoke,” he rasped out, his voice shaking. “I’ve never, ever been so scared.”
Ryder’s hand stroked his head soothingly. “I know, babe. I know. I was scared too. Scared I’d never see you, be with you again. But it’s all over. I’m okay. We’re okay. We made it through this and we’ll make it through anything else life throws at us.”
“Together,” Bas said, his voice thick with emotion. “We can do it together…always together. Always forever.”
Their lips met in a kiss so achingly sweet, Bas thought he’d melt. Instead, he and Ryder held each other and slipped into a peaceful sleep.
Chapter Five
Ryder dragged Sebastian out of Cristiano’s house and away from the masses of Marchettis who were celebrating Bas’s niece’s engagement. The whole evening, Ryder had seethed. Bas, who knew his lover very well indeed, could easily see that something had upset Ryder. They walked down the drive to the Mustang. As they reached it, Ryder stopped and put a hand on the hood, staring down at the pale blue painted metal. Finally, he made a frustrated sound and his head jerked up, his eyes seeking Bas’s in the dim moonlight.
“Look Bas, I want to marry you. I could give a good goddamned what the United States Air Force would think of that. It’s none of their business,” Ryder said angrily, his words full-blown as if they were in the middle of a conversation instead of at the beginning, which pretty much indicated to Bas that he’d been having the argument in his head during the party. “I do a good job for them. I’ve done a good job for more than nineteen years. But it’s a fucking job. It’s not my life. You are my life and I’m not about to let their peccadilloes about sexuality separate me from the only man I’ve ever loved enough to want forever with.”
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