A Man of Many Parts

by Edward Kendrick

  As they did, Jax wondered, Is this only sex with an interesting man or will it become more? Could what I’m feeling be love or is it only my imagination because I’ve been alone for so long. I never believed it was possible to find someone I could trust and care for the way I do him but…is it love?

  His questions were thrust to the back of his mind when Noel slid down, taking his cock into his mouth. From then on, all Jax could think about making certain he could give Noel as much pleasure as he was receiving. Their needs were sated when explosive orgasms washed over them, leaving them gasping for breath, unable to speak or think until they finally came down.

  Jax pulled out at that point, rolled off Noel, and took him in his arms, kissing him softly. “That was much more than I expected it would be,” he murmured.

  Noel tapped his nose, grinning. “Maybe because I’m not some guy you picked up at a club? We got to know each other first and became friends.”

  “Quite possible, I suppose. No, I know you’re right, or almost right, because we’re more than friends. We care about each other and that makes all the difference.” He refused to say ‘love’. He was still uncertain that was what he was feeling. Besides, I don’t want to pressure Noel into saying he loves me when he might not. We’re still too new at this, at wanting to be together.

  They held each other for a few moments more before deciding it was time to move. “Andre is going to wonder if we deserted him,” was Jax’s excuse as he sat up. One thing he didn’t have to do was strip them of condoms. Being what they were, they hadn’t needed them.

  “Uh-huh, right,” Noel replied with a laugh. “My bet is, he’s sleeping, dreaming about all the ladies at the shelter.”

  Andre was asleep, as they discovered when they washed up and went downstairs to fix a late night snack. The dog awoke the moment they came into the kitchen, greeting them licks before dashing for the front door. Jax shook his head, suggesting it was time Noel fenced the back yard. Since they’d put on their jeans and it was a warm night, they took the dog for a short walk, came back, and made sandwiches before returning to bed to get some well-earned sleep.

  Chapter 11

  Jax remained at Donovan’s house for the next four days, although as Donovan pointed out with some amusement halfway into his stay, “I don’t think you need the bedroom except as a place to stash your clothes.”

  He had a point. During the day while Noel was working, Jax did as he’d said he would to keep busy. He went through Donovan’s library, making what minor repairs were necessary on a few of the books. By morning’s end on the third day he’d run out of ones that needed his attention, so he went by the shelter to get Andre. They spent the afternoon walking, returning to the shelter just before feeding time.

  Jax’s nights were spent with Noel. They would go out to dinner, and then either go back to the house or, one evening, to a movie first. They learned more about each other including, because he’d promised to, Jax telling Noel how he’d become a thief to begin with.

  “It was a couple years after I left home. When I say home, I mean England. My father was a poor tradesman who decided our family should take a chance and come to the colonies as a part of the Oglethorpe colonization of Georgia. Everything would have been fine if he hadn’t been killed soon after we arrived by a span of runaway horses pulling a heavy cart. That left me, as the oldest son, in charge of his small shop. As you might imagine, a boy of barely fifteen was not adept at that. Instead, in order to put food on the table, I turned to thievery. When my mother remarried, her new husband took over the shop, much to my relief, only to decide a year later that he wanted to return to England. I didn’t, so the night before we were going to leave I took off, heading north to New York, got in with a gang of thieves, and survived as best I could.”

  Noel was frowning by the time Jax finished his story. “If your parents were human, why, how can you be a metamorph?”

  “Because my father was. He said my mother didn’t know, the night that he took me aside, not long after we got to the colonies, to tell me and explain what it meant. Then he taught me what I had to do to become someone else. I suppose it was rather like your parents coaching you when you did your first shift.”

  Noel shuddered. “That was no fun.”

  Laughing, Jax replied, “Neither was my first transformation, as my father called it. You and I both survived. By the time I turned thirty I’d given up my profligate ways—” he winked, “—learned a trade, and became a reasonably upstanding citizen. Then, because I’d stopped aging, I had to move on. After I had the misfortune to meet Keegan, I not only moved, I became people other than myself.”

  “Now, you don’t have to,” Noel said.

  “Thanks to you.” Jax put an arm around him, giving him a kiss. “You were my guardian angel.”

  “Only because I was there at the right time to help,” Noel protested. “It was his misfortune that he thought he could take on both of us.”

  “His ego,” Jax replied. “Even more than that, it was his hunger to make me suffer by killing someone who was important to me. But enough of this. We have better things to do than rehash the past.” He smiled, kissed Noel again with a great deal more passion than he had with the previous one. It led, no surprise to either of them, to their retiring to Noel’s bedroom to show how much they cared for each other in a very physical way.

  * * * *

  A call from one of Jax’s regular clients, four days after he’d come out to see Noel, ended their time together. “But only until I’ve finished the job,” Jax told him when he found him in his office at the shelter. “From what he said needed, it will be time-consuming, but when it’s over I’ll be back.”

  Noel nodded, replying with a smile, “Unless someone else needs your expertise.”

  “True. I’m sorry, but it is what I do. Even more so now because…” Jax paused, putting his hands on Noel’s shoulders, looking at him with great seriousness. “I know my criminal activities, or at least the aftermath, bothers you, so I’ve decided to reform. Besides, I don’t think boredom is going to be a valid excuse anymore. I have you to keep me…entertained.”

  Noel laughed, hugging Jax. “That’s one way to describe it. I’m sure the criminal world will be glad you’ve retired. I know I am.”

  “I thought you’d feel that way. I’ll call every night, I promise.” He patted Andre’s head, saying, “You behave until I get back, dog.”

  “That’s asking a lot of him,” Noel said.

  Jax grinned. “I know, but…” He kissed Noel, murmuring, “I’ll behave, too, I promise.”

  Noel had no real doubts about that. In the last few days they had cemented their relationship as a couple who wanted to be together—even if would be an on-again-off-again thing because of their divergent lives.

  * * * *

  Over the next two months, Jax spent so much time on planes that the flight attendants should have greeted him like an old friend—or so it felt to him. It was worth it, though, as he’d been able to spend quality time with Noel. He no longer stayed at Donovan’s, sharing Noel’s house and his bed instead, which was no surprise to anyone. He also became a fixture at the shelter while he was there, helping Noel and Susan with everything except cleaning the kennels. “That, I put my foot down on,” he’d told them, which rated laughs in return.

  Although his visits were too often only for a day or two, it was better than nothing as far as he and Noel were concerned.

  It was late one afternoon, going on their third month together, when a call came in about a dog running wild in a neighborhood fifteen miles from the shelter. Noel and Donovan left to search for it and rescue it if possible, leaving Susan, and Jax, to take care of the resident dogs.

  For Jax, that meant playing with some of them in the yard before returning them to their kennels so he could give the others their outdoors time. When everyone had gotten their exercise, he went inside to see if she needed help with anything else, since Noel wasn’t back yet.


  She was about to restock the shelves with dog food that their supplier had dropped off a few minutes earlier, so he set to work helping her carry everything inside and putting it away.

  When they finished, she thanked him then said, “I’ve been thinking. If I’m out of line, say so, but…Okay. We both know my brother loves it here and he’s not going to give it up, no matter what.”

  “True,” Jax agreed, wondering where she was going with that.

  She began pacing, stopped, and turned to him. “He’s never said it in so many words, to me at least, but I think he’s beginning to wonder if the way things are going with the two of you will last.”

  “What?” Jax replied in shock.

  “Oh, not that he doesn’t want them to. He does. The problem is, I think he’s frustrated because you spend more time apart than together. I know it can’t be helped because of your business. So does he. Still.” She paused, looking up at him. “Do you have to live where you are now to do it?”

  Jax shook his head, understanding what she was asking. “Not really.” He smiled wryly. “He’s not the only one who’s frustrated.”

  “I’m sure. So you could move out here, right? Maybe buy a house and—I know you’ve got a shop, too. Would it be hard to open one in the city, the way Donovan has?”

  “No, it wouldn’t and damn, why haven’t I considered doing this?”

  She chuckled. “Because you’re a man. Men get into ruts and have a problem realizing it’s possible to get out of them, because they don’t see them as ruts but just a way of life.”

  “It won’t happen tomorrow,” he said after thinking about it. “I’ll have to find a house, hopefully somewhere close to the shelter, and…” He tapped his lip. “I used to work out of my condo, before it was safe to open my shop. I could do it again. The shop is as much to give me a big workspace as it is to draw in customers.”

  “If you found a large house you could turn part of into a decent-sized workroom, couldn’t you? Maybe with a private entrance for your clients?”

  “Definitely.” He gave her a quick hug. “Thank you for showing this hidebound male that there is a solution to my—to Noel’s and my problem.”

  “Anytime. Now, let’s get the dogs fed. Who knows when he and Donovan will be back?”

  * * * *

  Noel and Donovan returned as it was getting dark, looking as if they’d spent their time wading through a swamp.

  “It wasn’t quite that bad,” Donovan said when Jax commented on their appearance. “The dog did not want to be caught so she decided to hide in a drainage pipe.”

  “A big dog?” Susan asked.

  “No,” Noel replied. “A mutt with at least some Husky in her. She was scared shitless and injured. The vet says she probably had a run-in with at least one other dog or some of the wildlife in the area, or both. If we hadn’t been wearing gloves, we’d have bites to show exactly how much she didn’t trust us.”

  “She’ll be okay, though?” Jax asked.

  “Yeah,” Donovan said. “It’ll take a while before she can be moved over here. Of course she didn’t have a chip, and if she had a collar when she ran away or was dumped, she lost it.”

  Jax shook his head, then said, “If you two go clean up, Susan and I can close up and I’ll take us all out to dinner to celebrate.”

  “I’d love to go, but I’m expecting company,” Donovan replied. “As a matter of fact, she’s probably wondering where I am.” His smile said he had no intention of sticking around the shelter a moment longer than necessary.

  “I have a date or I’d join you,” Susan said.

  “Looks like you’re stuck with just me,” Noel said as he clipped the leash onto Andre’s collar.

  Jax grinned. “I’m not complaining. I’ll meet you at the house.”

  He did, half an hour later, carrying take-out from a nearby Italian restaurant. Andre immediately started dancing around him as if he’d arrived with manna from heaven.

  “No way,” Jax said, holding the bags well out of reach as he took them in to set on the table, with Andre dogging his footsteps. “Tell me you’ve fed him already,” he said to Noel, who was trying the best he could not to laugh.

  “I have.” Noel got plates and silverware and soon they were digging into the lasagna.

  Andre sat between their chairs, watching them in anticipation, obviously hoping something would miraculously fall off their forks onto the carpet. Jax was tempted to let it happen but didn’t. Not that it would hurt the dog if he had a taste of his dinner, but he knew it would set a precedence, which would not be a good idea.

  When they finished eating and had cleaned up, they settled on the sofa with fresh cups of coffee.

  “I want to do something, provided it’s all right with you,” Jax said as a preamble to telling Noel what he and Susan had discussed.

  Noel cocked his head, a slow grin turning his lips up. “Should we be upstairs, in bed?”

  “Not that kind of something. One track mind, I swear.”

  “Always, when you’re around.”

  “I see. So if I moved out here—”

  “If you what?” Noel looked at him in disbelief. “Jax, are you serious? How can you?”

  “It works like this,” Jax replied straight-faced. “I buy a house, hire a moving company…”

  “I know that! Damn. What about your clients?”

  “You know most of them are spread around the country. A few of them are overseas. They don’t come to me, I go to them, or they ship me the book that needs restoring. Sure, I’ve picked up some local business from a couple of antiquarian bookstores since I opened my shop but not enough to warrant my having to stay there.”

  Noel leaned back, looking at him with a frown. “How long have you been planning this and why haven’t you said anything before now?”

  Glancing at his watch, Jax replied, “About three hours, thanks to Susan. I honestly never considered the idea until she suggested it.” He shook his head, saying contritely, “I suppose it doesn’t say much about my commitment to our being together for the long haul.”

  “I never thought about it, either,” Noel admitted, his expression softening. “I’m not sure I’d have said anything even if I had. I’d have felt I was trying to pressure you into doing something maybe you didn’t want to. After all, it’s a big step.”

  “Not really, when you love someone.” It took Jax a moment to realize what he’d said, and to take in Noel’s shocked expression which instantly turned to elation.

  “You love me?”

  “I do.” Taking Noel’s hands in his, Jax looked into his eyes. “It took me so long to say the words because I was afraid you might not want to hear them. I love you.”

  “And I love you,” Noel replied softly. “No ifs, ands, or buts, I love you.”

  They kissed deeply—an affirmation, as if it was needed, that they had moved beyond caring to true love. When it ended, Jax returned to the original conversation. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

  “Huh?” Noel seemed bewildered for a second. “Oh, right. The house. The move.” He leaned against Jax’s shoulder, entwining their fingers. “Are you going to look for a place close-by, or in the city?”

  “I’d rather be close, if I can find a house that will work.” Jax went on to explain what he would be looking for.

  “Guess what we’re going to do next,” Noel said when he finished. He got up, starting toward his desk in the corner of the room.

  Jax laughed, going after him. “What comes next has nothing to do with that.” He pointed to Noel’s laptop. “We’re going to walk Andre then head to bed.”

  Pursing his lips, Noel seemed to think about it. Then he grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  * * * *

  For a while, Jax thought finding a house that would work for him wasn’t going to happen. Over the following two weeks he kept the realtor busy showing him everything that was available, including ones as far away as the suburbs of the city. H
e apologized more than once when one that had sounded perfect wasn’t. She waved it off, telling him it was part of being a realtor. He had the feeling she was too polite to add, “With a client who is very picky.”

  Finally, mid-Tuesday morning, when he was certain the whole thing was an exercise in futility, the realtor called.

  “A new house just came on the market. It could be exactly what you’re looking for and it’s only six miles from where you’re staying. I can pick you up in half an hour.”

  He said that was fine and was waiting when she pulled into Noel’s driveway exactly on time. As they drove to the house, she told him it was built in an ‘L’ shape.

  “The shorter leg is a two-story master suite which with some renovating could work well for your business, I think. The main part of the house has a living room, dining room, kitchen, and library on the ground floor, and three bedrooms with their own baths, and an office, on the second floor. The basement is finished, with a family room and a laundry room.”

  Two hours later, Jax agreed with her. It would be perfect, with its hardwood flooring and walls that were painted in off-white or beige, or paneled with dark woodwork. There were fireplaces in the living and family rooms, as well as the library. There was even a terraced back yard with flagstone paving.

  “I like it,” Jax said as they drove back to Noel’s. “I want to bring my friend out to see first, however, before I make a final decision.”

  She smiled, replying, “I’m sure she’ll love it.”

  “He. And I hope so.”

  He tried not to laugh at the momentarily shocked look on her face, glad that she had sense enough not to comment other than to say, “I’m sure he will.”

  He called Noel at the shelter asking if he could get away for an hour, which he said he could, and then had the realtor drive to the shelter.

  “You found something you like,” Noel said when he was in the car and had been introduced to the realtor.

  “Yep. It’s damned near perfect and not all that far from here.”

  “Grab it,” Noel said an hour later, when Jax had shown him around while the realtor waited in the living room. “Before someone else does.”