Better Red

by Tara Lain

Mr. M. held up a finger. “The thought has crossed my mind.”

  “Oh wow, that would be fantastic. I’ll bet you could get a job—”

  Mark hugged Red’s shoulders. “Let’s let Mr. M. decide himself. But you’re welcome to come visit anytime. You can stay with me.”

  Red’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t you mean with us?”

  “Mr. M. can stay in my apartment. We still have to discuss the house situation with your gran.”

  Red breathed out. Right. Just because he felt like someone had handed him a fairy tale didn’t mean anyone else would feel the same way. “I guess we better get to that.” He wiped a hand over his face. “There’s a lot she doesn’t know.”

  They both gave Mr. Merlinson hugs and then hiked the stairs to Elbey’s.

  On the landing outside the door, Red looked up at Mark. Really looked. Five-o’clock shadow smudged his jaw and he looked tired and stressed, but man, was he gorgeous. “I wouldn’t mind a kiss.”

  “Oh yes.” Mark gathered Red in his arms and his lips were somehow both gentle and consuming. The kiss managed to console Red for the shit he’d been through and promise a lot of good stuff to come. Red wouldn’t have minded some of that good stuff right then and his leg slid up Mark’s thigh.

  Suddenly, the door burst open. “Oh!” The sound came from a very surprised Elbey.

  Red glanced at Mark who stared at Elbey with wide eyes. No wonder. They wore skin-tight pink jeans, a flowered blouse, and the bunny slippers.

  Elbey planted fists on their narrow hips. “This had better be Mark.”

  Red laughed. “Oh, it is. It is. Mark, this is Elbey.”

  Mark extended a hand, and Elbey said, “Please, darling.” They threw their arms around Mark’s neck and hugged. He laughed and hugged back.

  When Mark released Elbey, Red threw himself at them like a flying squirrel. “You’re amazing and phenomenal, and I can’t believe you did that for me, and in my whole life, I’ll never ever be able to thank you, and if you want to come and live with us, I’ll work to support you forever.”

  Elbey stepped back, spread their arms, and widened their eyes. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

  Gran’s voice came from inside. “Are you all planning on staying in that hall all night?”

  Red laughed, and they all walked inside the apartment. Gran lay on the couch covered with a blanket. She still looked pale and a little gray, and Red intended to change that right away.

  Mark gave a little gasp, hurried across the room, and knelt on the floor beside her. “How are you, Mrs. Ridley?”

  “Oh, Mark.” She looked shocked and concerned. “How did you get here?” She didn’t say why, but the suspicion was in her voice.

  Red rushed to Mark’s side and knelt down. “Gran, there’s a lot you don’t know.”

  “Obviously.” She pressed her hand to her chest.

  Red wiped a hand over his face. “Where to start?”

  Mark said, “For one thing, the reason you got a demand to pay from the mortgage company was because Brock Wolfe bribed Hansen Hefferson to contact the mortgage holders and tell them you were unable to pay at all. They called the note.”

  “What?” She turned whiter. Wrong direction.

  Red said, “Brock was using the mortgage plus a lot of other threats to get me to be his boyfriend—” He made air quotes around the euphemism. “And he came to the apartment last night to tell me what he’d do to you if I didn’t come through.”

  Suddenly, she sat up, a fierce frown on her face. “I’ll kill the bastard!”

  Red laughed. “That won’t be necessary, since we have good friends who have already taken care of that.” He smiled at Mark and Elbey. “First, someone who just happened to be in this apartment last night just happened to videotape the whole sordid encounter with Brock giving us a decent case for sexual harassment.”

  “Someone?” She looked at Elbey who gazed at the ceiling and hummed.

  Mark said, “At the very least, we’ve been able to threaten BrandFace with a lawsuit.”

  “And I made a pretty good case for them letting Wolfe go. Of course, assholes like that always end up on their feet.”

  “I can’t believe he was so awful.” Gran shook her head, a battle of anger, disappointment, and despair on her face.

  “He’s got the charm.”

  “You never believed him.” Gran looked from Red to Mark. “I don’t think you did either.”

  A phone rang and Gran looked around until she spotted her purse. Elbey handed it to her, she pulled out her phone, and clicked. “Hello.”

  Her eyes widened. “Hello. Why are you working on Sunday?” She smiled tightly and listened. “But I don’t understand. How could that happen so fast?” Tears sprang to her eyes. “That doesn’t make sense. Is it for sure?” She listened some more then said. “Okay. Thanks for telling me.” With a sob, she clicked off and threw the phone on the blanket. “Oh Red, the house has been sold. That was Hansen. Apparently, someone came in and—”

  Mark put a hand on her arm. “It was me, Mrs. Ridley. I bought the house for cash. When I found out about Wolfe, it was the only thing I could do that would stop the foreclosure process and take it off the table as a tool to manipulate Red.” He shrugged. “That was before I knew how much worse Wolfe could get. But I’ll give the house back to you and Mark.”

  Red frowned. “Wait, you said—”

  “That was for Wolfe’s benefit. I wanted him to think I’d be there with you night and day.”

  Red’s turn to tear up. “Does that mean you don’t want to be with me night and day. You don’t want to live with me?”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  “No!”

  Red wiped his cheeks as Mark glanced at Gran and then back at Red. “But I don’t want you to think I was just looking for some way to get leverage over you, and—”

  Red held up a hand like the royal queen. “Did that no you just said mean no wait, or no you do want to live with me?”

  Mark spread his arms. “Well, of course I want to live with you—”

  Red rose up on his knees and kissed Mark full on the lips. “I’ve now been manipulated by experts, and I’ll take your brand of leverage anytime.”

  Gran looked at Mark soberly. “So, you own my grandparents’ house.”

  “Well, the papers aren’t signed yet, so I’m thinking we can do the reconveyance back to you two at the same time.”

  “No. That’s your house money. You can’t give that up.” Red looked at Gran. “Mark used everything he saved for a house to buy ours.”

  Mark smiled softly. “It’s a house.”

  Gran shook her head. “I can’t let you do that. You bought the property when I lost it. It’s yours.” She hung her head. “After the way I’ve treated you.” She looked up and met his eyes. “I’ve always liked you, Mark. And admired you. But I started to see you as a threat to my dreams for Red, never acknowledging that they weren’t his dreams. I genuinely apologize. You’ve been so good to me. Far better than my behavior ever warranted. I’m truly sorry.” She took his hand and squeezed it and he smiled. Mark seriously needed a grandmother.

  Elbey said, “Hey, you three, if you’re going to catch the train back to Ever After, you need to get a move on.”

  Red asked, “What about you, Elbey? What are you going to do?”

  They shrugged. “Same old, same old. I’ve never been exclusive with BrandFace, so I’ll keep stomping out my passion in my high-heeled boots!”

  “I’ll say the same thing I said earlier. If you need a place to live or want to start over, you know where to come.”

  They cocked an arm behind their head. “How do you think I’d go over in Ever After, New York?”

  Mark laughed. “I think you’d fit right in.”

  * * *

  What felt like days but was actually several hours later, Red and Gran, with tons of help from Mark, hauled the bags into the house. Mark’s house. Red and Gran had both slept most of the way home on th
e train, Red resting on Mark’s shoulder and Gran resting on Red’s. But despite the shut-eye, Red was exhausted. It felt like a year since he’d had a good night’s sleep. Still, after Mark had left, Gran was in bed, and Red stared at the ceiling in his room, he still couldn’t sleep. Too much was unsettled.

  He slid his legs to the floor, grabbed his jeans, and pulled them on, then put on a sweatshirt, picked up his phone, and crept out the front door. He had an old bicycle he didn’t use much since usually walking or the bus were more convenient, but there weren’t a lot of buses that late. With a screech of the shed door, he found the bike, checked the chain—AOK—and hopped on. Here goes.

  It took a half hour, but he pulled into the parking lot at Woods Auto only moderately sweaty since the evening was cool. Leaning the bicycle against the wall of the building, he walked up the stairs to the apartment above, not sure whether to be quiet or noisy. He rapped on the door.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again. The second time he raised his knuckles, the door flew open and Mark stood there, gaping at Red.

  But Red won the gaping contest.

  Mark was wearing boxer briefs. Period. Holy total shit. Considering that Red had never seen so much as Mark’s chest before, all this perfect skin amounted to sensory overload. Acres of six-pack, below mountains of chest, under expanses of shoulders. But my oh my, what happened beneath. Mark’s muscular thighs bulged, then narrowed to his hips and, crap on a cracker, there it was. The bulge that ate Rhode Island. The bulge that Red wanted to eat.

  Red raised an arm and pointed inside. “Get in that bed and take off those totally unnecessary briefs.”

  Mark’s look of astonishment slowly morphed to a lazy smile. “Yes, sir.” He turned, and as he walked, he slid the white cotton over the most awe-inspiring pair of buns ever observed in human sight, let the briefs drop, and stepped out of them. Then he disappeared into a door that Red hoped like hell led to a bedroom.

  Oh God, here goes. Still, it was hard to be scared when you were so turned on you could a hardly see.

  Inhaling confidence, Red kicked off his shoes, took off his socks, and walked to the door Mark had disappeared through, and then peeked inside.

  His knees went weak.

  Mark lay on the bed stroking an erection that would have made King Kong jealous. At that moment, Red was glad about his big feet.

  Before he could think, Red leapt and landed on the bed, then crawled to Mark, grabbed his cock, and, with zero finesse, shoved the thing in his mouth. Mark made a very satisfying groan that prompted Red to remember the lessons he’d learned when he googled blowjobs. Curving his lips, he held Mark’s erection at the base and began to suck up and down it, letting his tongue explore the ridges and valleys, the smooth-as-silk skin, and the interesting hole at the tip.

  The process was so fascinating, he forgot to be scared or nervous and just kept applying the lessons he’d absorbed that night of research. He smiled around Mark’s dick. Wow, look at me. I’m a gay guy with a mouthful of cock and happy as the proverbial clam.

  As his mouth enjoyed, his brain ran ahead. Hmm. More gayness. He stuck a finger from his free hand in the corner of his very busy mouth. When it was wet and silky, he stroked down to the smooth part behind Mark’s penis and rubbed.

  “Holy crap.” Mark’s hips were already bobbing under Red’s sucking, and that caused a huge lift. Red pulled on Mark’s leg until he got the idea and lifted it. After wetting the finger again, Red slid it across the frenulum to Mark’s pucker and started to play.

  “Oh yes, yes.”

  Red giggled. “Oooh, you like that?”

  “Love it. Love it.” Mark was thrashing his head.

  Brainstorm. Did he dare? Red pulled on his own jeans and Mark got the idea and helped until Red was bare-assed. He stopped sucking and slithered up beside Mark’s ear. “Do you like to be fucked?”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed like crazy and he nodded.

  “Realize I’ve never fucked anything in my life, but if you want me to try, I will.”

  “Oh, hell yes.” He thrashed an arm toward the nightstand.

  Red slid over, opened the drawer, and found a bottle of lube. “Hmm. Should I be jealous?”

  “Only of my right hand.”

  Red laughed. “What about condoms?”

  “I don’t have any, but I haven’t been with anyone in a year and have been tested twice in that time.” He swallowed hard again. “But we can wait.”

  “Oh, hell no.” Red grabbed the lube, squirted so much in his hand he could have oiled one of Mark’s cars, and stroked it on his own cock. “Hell! That feels way too good. Let me in there.”

  Mark stuffed some lube in his hole and pulled both legs up beside his ears.

  Oh God, this was really it. Red positioned his dick at the pucker, then looked at Mark’s open mouth and expression of pure anticipation. Red pushed.

  Oh. My. God.

  After a couple seconds of effort getting past resistance, he slid in like coming home. Tight, hot, and welcoming. Oh God, he couldn’t catch his breath. His lips rested near Mark’s ear as he gasped, “You naughty boy. You’re not very tight.”

  Mark chuckled. “You should see the size of the dildoes I use on myself.”

  “Let’s see if we can’t do better.” Red began to pump in and out like he’d seen in the little bit of porn he’d managed to watch, but quickly, his whole brain fried and instinct took over. He thrust straight, then more at an angle, then the other way, then back to center, each approach squeezing and scraping his dick in some new and exciting way.

  Mark had gone from moaning to shouting, and their bodies rose and fell together in a wild two-backed dance. Nothing ever felt better. Not even close. His cock sang, his balls squeezed, and shots of pleasure like lightning zipped up his spine and burst in his head.

  He pressed his body down hard so he slid along Mark’s cock as he thrust. That got a shriek. “Holy shit, I’m coming. Oh God, Red, I’m—”

  Red never heard the next word because his brain exploded along with his balls, and spunk shot out of him so hard it almost hurt. Hurt good. The next two bursts shuddered through his dick, his mouth opened, and a long cry emerged like a wail of joy. Man, it was good that auto shops didn’t have neighbors at night.

  Finally, his body quit shuddering and shaking, and he fell hard against Mark, realizing then that they were stuck together by a gallon of semen.

  Mark chuckled. “Sweet Jesus. You sure make up for lost time.”

  Red giggled against Mark’s neck. After he caught his breath, he whispered, “I want to do that all the time.”

  “We can give up working for fucking.”

  Red raised his head. “I’m serious.”

  “So am I.” Mark’s dimples showed in the light coming from the one lamp he’d turned on.

  “I want you to move into our house. I mean your house. There’s the big attic room that we mostly use for storage. We can renovate it and turn it into a bedroom, bath, and a master closet. It’s all the way on the opposite end of the house and two floors above Gran’s room.” He snuggled closer. “We can fuck all the time.”

  “Oh man, that sounds so good.” He was quiet for a minute. “How do you think your gran will feel about that?”

  “If she doesn’t like the idea, then I’ll move in here. I realized in this whole mess, I love her more than life, but I’ll never try to live someone else’s dream again. I want to be with you. End of story.”

  “Okay. Me too. I’ll stop telling myself that you’re better off with someone else. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I accept that I did and we belong together.”

  “Let’s tell Gran tomorrow night after I finish at Mom and Pop’s.”

  Mark grinned. “Oh, are you working?”

  “Yep. At least tomorrow. I texted Pop that I was coming back and was available to work on Monday. He said to come in for lunch shift.”

  “Okay. I’ll come and get you after work.”


  “Deal.” Red’s hand slithered down Mark’s rock-hard belly to his relaxed but still huge cock. “Until then, how about we practice for our new life?”

  Mark chuckled and slid down to Red’s dick.

  * * *

  Red sat across the desk from Pop, actually feeling a little nervous. “So, I’m home to stay. I’m so sorry I ever left, but—”

  Pop held up a hand. “No need to explain, Red. I heard a few of the details and I always thought you were making your gran happier than you were making yourself.”

  “Did you give my shifts away?”

  He leaned back in his squeaky desk chair. “I did actually.”

  “Oh.” He looked down at his hands. Maybe he could get a job as a supermarket checker.

  “Here’s what I think. I think I need a manager slash bookkeeper for the restaurant, and I need my manager slash bookkeeper to be going to college at the same time.”

  Red raised his head. “Wait. Are you saying you’ll make me manager?”

  “Yes, sir. That’s my proposal. Now, I’ve heard via the grapevine that you may be helping run another Ever After business as well, so we’ll have to work out a shift schedule that will give you time for everything. By the way, you’ll be sharing the manager’s job with Kimmie.”

  “Are you serious?” His smile was so wide his cheeks stretched.

  “Yep. Mom and I haven’t had time off in years. You guys have worked so hard, you’ve made it possible for us to save enough money to hire some good managers. Namely yourselves. I’m proud of you.”

  Red wiped at his eyes. “Thanks, Pop. I really love working here and I want to make Mom and Pop’s a restaurant people come from everywhere to visit.”

  Pop laughed. “Red, you’ve always had a bigger vision for this place than we have. I think it’s time you put that vision to work.” He stood. “Get your school schedule worked out so we can set up yours and Kimmie’s hours and responsibilities.”

  “I barely know how to thank you, Pop. I’m honored by your trust.”

  He blinked hard but still laughed. “You may not thank me when I’m working your butt off. Now get out there and feed your hungry customers.”