“Christ, Ade. What happened then?”
“I ended up living on the streets. This would have been back in the early nineties. I fell in with other homeless kids. Homelessness is still an issue in this country but was huge back then. A group of us turned tricks to survive, which was dangerous but put food in our mouths. Not sure if you remember, but that was back when Colin Ireland, the serial killer, was on the loose, killing gay men he picked up from the Coleherne leather bar. Makes me shiver when I think about it, because that place was one of our haunts. They warned me some clients could get a bit rough, but I had size and muscle on my side, so nobody tried to mess with me. I didn’t drink alcohol back then or take any of the drugs they offered, either, so always kept a clear head. Honestly, Lenny, I’m not proud of some of the things I did, but I had to get by somehow. Not just that, but doing what we did was illegal—the age of consent was still twenty-one—so any clients were also committing a crime.”
Leonard stared horrified at Adrian, trying to imagine a scared fifteen-year-old version desperately trying to survive on the city streets. He took a mouthful of beer but the liquid tasted sour on his tongue. However futile the idea, he couldn’t help wondering what might have happened if he had confronted Adrian about the name-calling at school and found out the truth. Would they have become friends? Would Adrian’s life have taken a different turn?
“Eventually this old guy, Felippe, asked me to move in with him. There used to be a traditional pub called the City of Quebec behind Marble Arch—not sure if it’s still there—where elderly gay men would hang out at the weekends. A friend introduced me. Somewhat unkindly, he labelled the place the elephant’s graveyard. Young boys like me could make fast cash, often for very little work. For some reason, Felippe took a shine to me. The few times I went home with him, all I ever did was pour him drinks, listen to him tell stories about his life during the war—he served in the Royal Navy—sponge him down in the bath and sleep next to him for the night. Not once did we do anything remotely sexual. He lived in the heart of Marylebone, in a beautiful studio apartment. I’ve no idea exactly how old he was, but I guess he must have been in his early eighties. Anyway, the four or five times he invited me back, I suppose he was trying to gauge whether he could trust me. One Sunday he asked me to be his full-time houseboy—buying food, keeping the apartment tidy for him—he had an old Irish woman who came in and cooked and cleaned every other day. His eyesight wasn’t good, so I’d read newspaper articles, books and sometimes letters aloud to him—he’d help me with words I didn’t know, and explain what they meant, so we both benefited. I also made sure he took his medication, bathed and dried him. Sometimes he had dinner parties at home with these other old gay men—got professional cooks in for that—and I used to act as a waiter wearing only tight shorts and a tight vest. The old boys loved that. I even had a front door key, new clothes to wear and an allowance.”
“How old were you?”
“When I started there? Sixteen. Seventeen, maybe. I stayed with him for about four years. One of his nieces came round from time to time to look in on him. She clearly came from money and always turned her nose up at me as though I’d dropped off the bottom of her shoe. And then I came home from the shops one day to find Felippe in his favourite leather chair by the fire. Thought he’d fallen asleep but when I touched his hand, he was as cold as stone. I phoned the niece, who called her doctor friend, and they confirmed he’d died. Peacefully enough. After that, other people came in and took over, and I was tossed back out on the street with the black plastic rubbish sacks.”
“Bloody hell, Ade.”
“All in the past. And it wasn’t not like you, Lenny. You lost a lover. I only lost a job. A cosy one, I grant you, but that’s all it really was. The problem was that by then I’d lost touch with my street mates. Began to find out many were either in hospital or had died. One West Indian friend, Tommy, got me into this gay escort agency at night as well as selling the street magazine for homeless people, The Big Issue. Those were some of my darkest days. I was doing exactly that on Christmas Eve, freezing my arse off outside St Martin-in-the-Fields when a man stopped across the pavement and called my name. Uncle Pat. You know, you asked me if I was religious and I told you I’d had some special moments? Well, that day, a miracle happened. Yeah, maybe you could call it coincidence, but there he was. Said he recognised me from my hair, even though I was a lot older and had lost a lot of weight by then. Told me he’d heard from my mother what happened and she’d asked him to keep an eye out, in case I’d made my way to London. We went for a coffee, and he insisted I come home with him, and stay with him and Aunt Penny for Christmas. Turns out they lived in Hither Green. Got me an apprenticeship with his building company and that’s how I started in the building trade. I stayed with them until they retired, then rented my own flat locally. And that’s where I remained until I got the call from Mum, to tell me Dad had been diagnosed with dementia. At first I told her to stick him in a home—I still hated the man—but my aunt talked me round. She’d been a nurse before retiring, and I remember her words to this day. She said, ‘There is no cure for dementia, Adrian. I know he turned his back on you once, but you are a better man than that. In his time of need, don’t be the same man as your father. Go and help your mother.’ So I came back to the town I hoped never to see again, and between the two of us, my mother and I took care of him until he passed away.”
Thankful for the fading light, Leonard felt warm tears welling. He always considered the way Kris’ family had treated him to be unjust and unfair, but compared to Adrian’s life, he had been living in a comfortable cocoon.
“Your aunt was right, Ade. You are an extraordinary man, a better man than anyone I know, and I’m not just saying that because you’re helping me. I wish I’d gotten to know you at school, wish we’d been friends then, and maybe all those dreadful things might never have happened. But then I might not be sitting in front of the same Adrian.”
At those words, a smile curled Adrian’s lips.
“No, maybe you’d be sitting in front of an ex-England international rugby star. Begging for my autograph.”
Leonard laughed aloud. Despite everything, Adrian could still crack jokes. The simple act of surviving what he had been through would have crushed most men.
“Yeah, okay. You just keep telling yourself that. Do you still see your uncle and aunt?”
“Of course. As often as I can. They’ve retired now and live in a bungalow in Hastings on the south coast. Honestly, Lenny, they showed me more love and understanding than my parents ever did. Uncle Pat wanted me to get back into rugby, but that ship had sailed. Wow, it’s getting a bit nippy now. Do you want to go inside? Or shall we head back?”
“Do you mind if we head back?” said Leonard, pressing his fingers into a sore spot on his left shoulder. “My muscles are starting to ache. I think I’m ready for a long, hot shower and a good night’s sleep. Do you mind taking the empties back while I bring the car round?”
“Of course.”
Leonard studied Adrian as he headed towards the pub door, the way he moved, so carefully for such a big guy, before he disappeared inside.
All this time and he had considered Adrian a homophobic bully. Before his father’s funeral, if anyone had asked him if he’d ever known Adrian Lamperton, he would probably have dismissed him as a dim-witted sports jock he went to school with, who probably ended up having everything handed to him on a plate as a professional rugby player.
How wrong could he have been?
But somehow their lives had collided, and Leonard had grown not only to admire Adrian but to feel an undeniable attraction to him. Maybe Adrian had been right about fate. Both were approaching fifty, both having resigned themselves to being alone, both having given up hope on finding anything—or anyone—lasting for the rest of their lives. Although Leonard was rarely given to such whimsical notions, he had to wonder if their various meetings—at the local pub, by his father’s broken-down car
—had not been chance at all. Maybe they were both being given a second chance.
His friend, businessman Kennedy Grey, had once mused to a group of friends that ‘opportunities alone are merely choices that happen to fall into our laps. It’s whether we have the balls to act on them, and what we decide to do with them that changes the course of our lives.’
Leonard had not been fooled. Everyone had thought he had been talking about business, but Leonard had known full well Kennedy had meant every word about how he had managed to snag his prize husband, Kieran.
After standing and dragging out his car keys, Leonard took a bracing breath of cold air and headed for the car.
Time to take a chance.
Chapter Twelve
Together
In the front bedroom, Adrian sat on the edge of the bed, the damp towel still wrapped around his waist, feeling an odd mix of embarrassment and craving at what had just happened. At some point, as soon as Lenny had finished showering and his bedroom door had closed, Adrian would need to take care of business. From the aching in his balls to the painful erection he sported, that refused to go away, he would need to take care of business soon, to stroke his cock until all his tension had been released. He only hoped the poor old bed frame didn’t complain too loudly.
At any other time they might have laughed off the incident. Having no lock on the bathroom door hadn’t helped. Or the fact that Adrian had accidentally left the door ajar while under the shower. Probably hearing the water no longer running, Lenny had burst in naked while removing the towel from around his waist. Adrian had been standing there equally naked drying his hair. The shock on each other’s faces might have been comical for an onlooker, but both had frozen in horror until Adrian’s lustful eyes had taken over. How could he have resisted drinking in Lenny’s naked body, the dark hair matted across his chest pouring down in a single line to the beautiful cock nestled in a mound of equally dark pubic hair? Buried memories of things he had learnt, of how to arouse a man’s body into a finely tuned instrument, and echoes of his own shuddering climaxes, flickered to life. Mere thoughts became foreplay and Adrian had felt his obedient cock filling, readying for action. What had not helped was when he had raised his eyes to Lenny’s and noticed him checking Adrian out in the same way.
The ensuing stuttered apologies, self-blaming, clumsy covering up and hurrying to get away from each other had been bordering on farcical.
Adrian scrubbed his fingers through his short hair and clamped them around the back of his thick neck. He had poured his heart out tonight outside the pub—told Lenny more than he had ever told another living soul—and Lenny had listened sympathetically to every word. What was it about the man that made him open up? He looked up when he heard the door to the bathroom open and close, and let out a deep sigh until he noticed the footsteps along the corridor getting louder.
Lenny stood in his open doorway, wash bag dangling from his hand, with only a towel wrapped around his waist, his bare chest exposed.
“Mate, I think we need to have a little chat. Don’t you?”
“Look, I’m sorry, Lenny. I thought I’d shut—”
“It’s not about that, Ade. Can I come in?”
“Of course.”
Lenny stepped cautiously into the room but did not look directly at Adrian or approach him. First of all, he went to the window and pulled back one side of the curtains, stared out into the night sky.
“Look, Ade. I’m no good at this—out of practice, I suppose—but I’m also too old to beat around the bush. We both are.” Lenny let the curtain go and turned around, perching his backside against the windowsill. “I’m into you. I mean, really into you. I’m sure you know because I’m pretty bloody hopeless at trying to be subtle when I’m checking you out. So I’m sure you’ve noticed. I just don’t want to make an arse of myself, misread the situation and do something I regret that ruins our friendship.”
“Oh shit, Lenny. Of course I fancy you, too.” Adrian lowered his head, stared at his feet and scrubbed his hands through his hair again. While he sought for the right words, Lenny’s bare feet appeared before him. “But you’re not like my other casual hook-ups. You’re so much more, and I didn’t think someone like you could ever—”
With his eyes still lowered, his words stopped short when Lenny’s wash bag and towel dropped to the floor around the man’s feet. Before he had a chance to look up, Lenny’s gruff voice sounded.
“So stop thinking. If you want me, Ade, I’m yours.”
When his eyes rose slowly, studiously, to take in all the muscles and crevices and beautiful hairy contours of Lenny’s naked body until they reached the darkened gaze, the tension in his body all but exploded. Lenny’s eyes widened slightly as Adrian lurched to his feet, ripping his own towel away before wrapping his arms around Lenny’s waist and almost pulling him off the floor. At first Lenny grunted with surprise, but then wrapped his legs around Adrian’s waist and brought his head in to kiss him. Adrian returned a chaste peck on the lips before nipping his jawline as he clamped his hands tightly onto Lenny’s smooth backside.
Turning around with Lenny still held tight, he lowered his body onto the bed. Pausing for a moment, he straightened up and eyed his prey. Lenny’s face gleamed with wonder, open and vulnerable, his eyes wide. As Adrian stood there, drinking in the body below him, Lenny began to sit up. But Adrian stopped him by placing a single hand in the middle of his chest and pushing him firmly back down again. Lowering his own body on top, he grasped hold of each of Lenny’s hands and held them down above his head. After brushing his lips along the skin around Lenny’s throat, then kissing beneath each ear he pulled his head away and waited for Lenny to open his eyes.
“Are you sure you want this?” whispered Adrian.
Words appeared to have escaped Lenny. With his pupils dark with desire, he simply nodded.
“All of it?”
A gulp and another round of nods, more urgent this time. Adrian smiled.
“Then you do exactly as I say. And right now, I want to explore you. Shift yourself onto the bed and grab onto the bed frame above your head. Both hands. Then lie perfectly still for me until I tell you otherwise, okay?”
Without a word, Lenny nodded again and did exactly as told.
Adrian took his time. He straddled his friend’s waist, his erection resting above Lenny’s navel. After squeezing his thighs either side of Lenny's torso and noting the deep but slow rise and fall of his friend's chest, he began running his fingers down both arms from his hands to his shoulders, before drawing his fingertips across the furry chest, thumbing the nipples and producing a gasp. Lenny never once dropped eye contact. When Adrian ran his tongue across the gooseflesh skin around this sensitive nipple, Lenny arched his back off the bed and groaned again, and Adrian felt a hot cock tap him on his backside. When he nipped one of the hardened nubs, the erection knocked repeatedly. Adrian brought his mouth away and smiled down.
“Someone likes that.”
When he shifted farther down the bed, positioning himself in between Lenny’s legs, he carefully spread them apart. After drinking in the musky scent of the aroused man, he smoothed his hands down his sides to his waist, down to his outer thighs before moving in towards his shaft. Lenny’s squeezed his eyes shut, his chest rising and falling rapidly now, his body seeming to react to every breath, every small touch, maybe in anticipation of Adrian’s final destination. But he never once let go of the bedframe.
“Beautiful.” Adrian’s breath caressed Lenny’s erection, making the poor thing twitch and leak precum.
Eventually, Adrian used one hand to grab the base of Lenny’s cock, the other cupping his balls, rolling and squeezing gently. Lenny’s eyes flew open then, and Adrian grinned up at him, his mouth an inch from the head of the erection. Wetting his lips with his tongue and not once losing eye contact, he licked the length from base to the sensitive tip, his tongue tracing every bulging vein, every inch of the man, until his hips jerked upwards, needing
more. Without hesitation, Adrian took all of him into his mouth, deep into his throat. Lessons learnt on the streets had stayed with him. And if the filthy, tortured groans leaving Lenny’s mouth told him anything, Adrian had not lost his ability to give a memorable blowjob. Pushing both arms underneath Lenny’s knees, he lifted his legs into the air, releasing his cock from his mouth. This time he ran his tongue along the perineum, sucked on his balls, then licked leisurely up to the top of Lenny’s shaft before taking him in his mouth again. With his arms hooked around the knees, Adrian’s hands reached to pinch each nipple, something Lenny seemed to enjoy, if the soft gasps and whispered expletives told him anything.
But he still wasn’t done. Pushing his hips forwards, Adrian drew the length of his own cock along the crack of Lenny’s backside while continuing to suck him down, a trick he had mastered. This time he felt the body beneath him tremble at the touch and smiled while still taking his length into his throat. When he eventually pulled his mouth away, Lenny’s eyes bored into him, waiting to meet his gaze.
“I want you to fuck me.”
Adrian felt a smile curl his lips.
“You prefer to bottom?”
Lenny frowned slightly, and appeared conflicted by the question.
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, I like both. But right now, I want you inside me. There are condoms and lube in the wash bag.”
“Like I said. Well organised.” Adrian knelt to the floor, opened the bag and pulled out a box of condoms and a tube of lube, both still in their plastic wrapping. Adrian snorted as he ripped the plastic covering off. “So you were planning to get lucky with me this weekend?”
Any Day Page 15