by Sean Michael
“That’s because it is.” He fucked Mike harder, pushing faster.
“Promise me.” Mike arched, bucked.
“I promise, baby.” As long as they were together, they could get through anything.
Mike groaned, eyes huge, watching him, body squeezing him tight. Christ, he could get lost in those eyes, was lost in them, pushing in over and over again. Mike’s cry was enough to live for, the clench of the tight body as Mike came, amazing. His own eyes rolled as the tight heat of Mike’s body sent him spinning over the edge.
“Baby,” he whispered, coming hard.
“Love you.” Mike was panting, flushed.
He nodded, head buried in Mike’s neck, breathing in the salty musk. He needed this smell, needed this. Mike. His.
Mike wrapped his long arms around Jessy. “Mmm, home. We’re home.”
“Sure are, baby.” He licked and nuzzled, touched, stayed buried deep inside Mike.
Mike stroked him, fingers drawing lazy circles. “You hungry?”
At the thought of food, his stomach growled, and Jessy chuckled. “You can take that as a yes, baby.”
Mike chuckled. “We can go have burgers, pancakes, anything you want.”
“You’re not going to make me something yourself?”
“Sure. What do you want?”
He grabbed one of Mike’s hands and nibbled at Mike’s fingertips. “Are you on the menu?”
“I don’t fit on a plate.” Mike’s laugh was sweet, husky.
“I can see that. But I could eat you with my fingers.”
“You eat with your mouth, Jess.”
He stuck his tongue out at Mike. “Brat. I was going for the play on words. You know, eating with your fingers as opposed to utensils.”
Mike leaned up, captured his tongue, and sucked.
“Ngguh.” He moaned and shivered, cock throbbing inside Mike’s body.
Those dark eyes were gleaming. His fingers started wandering, sliding over Mike’s skin. Mike moaned, shivering beneath him.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered, finding and tweaking Mike’s nipple.
“We can’t possibly still be horny.”
He laughed and rubbed his nose with Mike’s. “You bring it out in me, baby.”
Mike’s laughter made that sweet body squeeze his cock.
“Christ, so does that!”
Mike started laughing harder, eyes shining. He would have smiled down, but he was busy moaning, enjoying the squeeze of Mike around his prick. Christ, his baby looked good happy. Real good. Mike met his eyes, so warm, so good.
“Love you, Mike.” He started moving again, cock sliding within the heat and tightness of Mike’s body.
“Oh. Oh, Jess.” Mike’s head rolled, throat working.
Purring, he put his arm across Mike’s neck, pressing.
Mike’s eyes went wide, body stilling for a second. “Oh. Please.”
Jess nodded, watching the dark eyes. It had been far too long since they’d last done this. He was moaning as he pressed harder, hips working. Mike kept watching him, cheeks flushed dark. He could see so much in those dark eyes. So much. He thrust harder, pressed harder with his arm.
Mike squeezed him like a fist, hips jerking wildly.
“Show me, baby. Give it to me.”
Heat sprayed between them, Mike just flying.
Groaning, he thrust harder, really pounding into that tight heat, and then he was coming, too, sliding his arm away from Mike’s throat as he collapsed hard down onto his baby.
Mike cuddled in, holding on so tight.
He purred, panted, trying to get his breath back, just exhausted. But happy. Oh, Christ, he was happy.
“Love you. So much.”
“Yeah, baby. Love.”
He nodded, breathing deeply, breathing Mike in.
Mike stroked his arms, his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re better.”
“Me too. Christ, I hate being sick. I hated letting you down, being dependent on you instead of taking care of you.”
“You didn’t let me down. You didn’t.”
He nuzzled Mike, fingers stroking. If he hadn’t let Mike down, how come his swimmer was quitting? He wasn’t willing to get into it, though. Not right now, not while he was still glowing.
“We’re going to have to testify in court about him, you know? And Hank keeps calling Jeff in Austin, trying to apologize.”
“Hank’s hoping not to get sued. He’s hoping in vain.” He pulled out of Mike and shifted over, gathering Mike into his arms. “My biggest concern is that Anderson is going to plead temporary insanity and get away with it.”
“He’s been doing it for a year, Jess. That’s not temporary.”
“Oh, I know that, Mike. And you know that. And Jeff and Hank and the ISO know it.” He nuzzled Mike. “I don’t think that’s how it will go down; I just worry that’s how it will.”
Mike nodded. “Yeah. I worry too.”
“Now see, if you were still swimming? I could tell you to just focus on the wall and leave the worrying to me.” He gave his boy a wink.
“Yeah? I wish it worked like that, still.”
“It could, baby.” All Mike needed to do was say the word and they’d pick the training back up again.
“I’m… I’m scared.” Mike’s eyes met his. “What if… what if it happens again?”
He shook his head. “You can’t live life like that, baby.”
“What if it’s never good again?”
“Baby, it only won’t be if you let it. You have to own your life. The guy that did this? He’s going to be locked up. The ISO is going to toughen up security. We’re going to find a place out here to live, and if we get so much as a letter we don’t like the looks of, the cops are going to take us seriously. In fact….”
He bit his lip and looked at Mike. “I’ve been thinking. About moving to Australia. Sort of starting over. I even called Carlisle, and he said they’d be interested in having you train with their national team.”
Mike blinked, the look seriously stunned. “Can I do that?”
“Yep. They’re willing to facilitate our getting there and getting the paperwork taken care of. You can name your country, Mike—everyone is hoping to have their national team train with you. We can live and train there and still represent the US. It would mean a lot of travel coming back for meets here, though.”
“Oh.” Mike tilted his head. “Can I think about it?”
Well, that was the closest they’d come to discussing going back to swimming in weeks. He nodded. “Of course. It’s a big decision. I only just started thinking about it, called Carlisle a couple days ago, just to see what was possible.”
Mike nodded. “Do they know I haven’t been training?”
“The rumor going around everywhere is that you’ve retired.”
“I-I know.” Mike sighed. “It’s all screwy.”
He kissed Mike’s forehead. “So we’ll unscrew it, baby.” Things didn’t have to be complicated.
Mike nodded. “One way or the other, yeah?”
Jessy nodded. He really wanted Mike to swim, had a pretty strong hunch that Mike would eventually regret it if he really retired now. “Yeah, baby.”
“I love you.” Mike gave him a quiet little smile.
He purred. “Oh, that’s what I like to hear, baby.” He smiled back. “I love you too.”
“Oh, good. So. Food?” Mike winked. “I’m craving burgers and fries.”
“Sure. You can take me out to a greasy burger joint. One last meal before you’re back on your swimming diet.”
“Who said I was going back on the diet?” Mike leaned forward, kissed him.
“You aren’t?” He went for innocent.
“Nope. Soda and greasy burgers and bacon at every meal.”
He shook his head. “Swimming or not, you don’t want to make yourself sick, baby.”
“Man, I am so not being good if I’m not swimming.”
“Does that mean if I feed
you the right food you’ll swim?” He gave Mike a wink.
“May… maybe. Yeah. Maybe.” Mike almost smiled. “Although, I might have forgotten how.”
“Oh, don’t say that! I need you to help me with my therapy in the water.”
“Oh, yeah. I bet the pool will feel amazing, Coach.”
“Almost as good as being inside you, baby.” He leaned in and kissed Mike softly, still so in love it hurt.
“So long as it’s only almost.” Mike’s dark eyes shone. “Only almost.”
“Yeah, baby. Only almost.”
“Cool. Let’s take a shower and go eat french fries.”
“Anything you want, baby.” He gave Mike another kiss and then rolled to get out of bed, limping a little as he made his way to the shower. He’d be back to his old self in no time, and they’d get this whole thing sorted out. Find their focus again.
Chapter Thirty
THE SAND was sliding through his toes, the water too cold to swim in, so he walked the edge, whistling under his breath. He needed to make a plan. It was almost February. He couldn’t just spin in circles.
“Hey, baby,” Jessy called out, waving at him from the condo porch.
“Hey.” He waved back, heading back up to the house, shrugging his jacket against the wind.
“You wanna give me a hand with my physio, baby?”
“Sure, Jessy. What do you need?” He was getting better at this whole helping thing.
“You think we’ll freeze our asses off if we do it in the pool?”
“No. It’s cool, but the condos keep the wind off and keep things warmer.” He grabbed Jessy’s arms, dragged his lover up.
Jessy chuckled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. The limping was almost gone. “It’s easier in the water, yeah?”
“Everything is.”
“I know. The water, you, and the wall. No complications, no problems.”
He chuckled, leaned against Jessy a little. “It’s not that easy anymore.”
Jessy slid his hand along Mike’s arm. “Sure it is. It’s as complicated or easy as you make it, baby.”
“I don’t think anything’s going to be easy again.” Growing up sucked.
“Hey. I’m not going to be a gimp forever. Hell, I’m almost back to normal. And then the team’ll be back and watch out world.” Jessy’s blue eyes looked right into him.
“I’m retired, Jessy.” He hated this. Hated it.
“I thought we’d agreed you were going to consider swimming again?”
“You know I didn’t do that.”
They hit the deck of the pool, and Jessy tugged off his shirt, leaving just his swimming shorts. “You’re at least thinking about it, right?”
“How could I not?” He slipped in the water, reached up for Jessy.
Jessy slid into the water with him, coming right into his arms. “Okay, baby. As long as you’re thinking about it.”
“I am. Come on. Stretch.” He relaxed, the water swirling around him.
Jessy went through his stretches, loosening his muscles. “I think I’ve almost got full mobility back. And the stretching doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“Good. The doctor said you would heal well.”
“I have to. Can’t take care of my baby if I’m not well.”
He turned toward Jessy, heart aching a little. “I miss our life, Jessy.”
Jessy tugged him in, holding him close. “Me too. I’m almost there, though. We can have it back, Mike. We just need to want it enough.”
“I don’t…. I can’t deal with all that right now. I just want you well.”
“Shh. Shh.” Jessy’s mouth covered his, lips warm, tongue hot.
Oh. He pushed close, both of them hiding in the shadow at the edge of the pool. Jessy’s hands were hot compared to the water, sliding over his back.
“Hey.” Mike cuddled in, sliding his fingers over Jessy’s belly.
A low groan sounded, Jessy’s hand landing on his ass beneath the water, massaging. “Shit, we haven’t made love in the water in forever.”
“I know.” His cock was so hard it hurt.
“You think that nosy old biddy in one twenty can see us?” Jessy pushed his hand into Mike’s shorts, fingers hot on his ass, one sliding along his crack, pressing against his hole.
“Probably. I hope not.”
“I hope not too.” Jessy didn’t seem to be inclined to stop, either way.
The tip of the finger at his crack pushed into his hole, wiggled there as Jessy’s other hand cupped his prick. He moaned and moved, sliding in the water, just about as happy as he could be. Jessy split Mike’s lips open with his tongue, pushing into Mike’s mouth. This wasn’t therapy for Jessy’s leg, but it sure felt good, didn’t it?
“I want you to blow me,” Jessy told him.
“Fuck, yes.” He nodded, heart starting to pound viciously. Yes. Yes, here in the water. He took a deep breath and tugged the front of Jessy’s shorts down.
Jessy’s fingers slid over his head, guided him down to the hard prick bobbing under the surface. He opened up, sucking hard, his lungs burning almost immediately. Jessy touched his head and shoulders, as Jessy pushed the thick cock in deeper. Yes. His own cock was throbbing as he swallowed around Jessy.
His lover. The water. So good.
So hot, so wide, Jessy’s prick split his lips, nearly choked him as it pushed deep. He bobbed up for the barest gasp of air, then went back down, sucking and jacking himself off furiously, the water moving all around him. Jessy’s hands landed on his head, hips thrusting, cock fucking his mouth hard.
Fuck. Fuck. Yes. Things got distant, sparkly, wildly erotic. Prick growing even harder, Jessy pushed deep and shot, spunk shooting down his throat. Everything went gray, and he bobbed to the top, throat working.
Jessy slid his arms beneath Mike’s, holding him up. Then Jessy slid one hand slid down and grabbed Mike’s prick, jacking him.
“Jessy. Jessy, please.” He gasped, jerked, muscles going tight.
“Take a breath,” growled Jessy, and as soon as he had, Jessy pushed him back under, going down with him to work his prick.
His lungs were screaming, his cock hard as nails as he shot, eyes rolling back in his head. Jessy brought him back up, tugging his swimming suit up so they were decent as they floated in the water.
He reached out, fingers twining with Jessy’s.
Hand squeezing his, Jessy tugged them so their shoulders bumped. “That felt amazing, baby.”
“Uh-huh.” His heart was pounding, nerves just thrumming, and he wanted to swim.
“Better than therapy.” The grin was right there in Jessy’s voice.
“Yeah? Feeling stretched?” He started moving in the water, body needing to work.
“Something like that.” Jessy chuckled. “Go ahead, baby. I’ll just do some lengths on my back, work the muscles.”
“’Kay. Take it easy.” Mike turned, striking out, letting himself just go. He passed Jessy over and over, Coach taking it easy, just working his leg, strengthening the muscles.
He missed his music.
He missed his life.
He fucking missed everything.
Damn it.
Chapter Thirty-One
JESSY THOUGHT maybe he was wearing Mike down.
He wasn’t lecturing or hassling or otherwise haranguing Mike about going back to swimming. Instead he was slipping it into conversations, mentioning it whenever he had an opening. He got Mike into the water. He was slowly weaning Mike off the caffeine and back to something resembling his swimming diet.
And they were making love.
Okay, so that had nothing to do with swimming, but it meant they were getting back to normal, back to how things were supposed to be.
He was feeling stronger every day.
Jessy went through his drawers, looking for where Mike had hidden the toys. They’d only brought a few to the hotel with them all those months ago, but he assumed they’d been brought along. He finally found
them in one of their bags in the back of the closet. He took them all out and slid them into the bedside table drawer.
There.
Now all he was missing was Mike. And he had a hunch he’d be able to find him out at the pool. He went out, heading straight there.
Sure enough, Mike was in the pool, moving easily, not thinking, not counting. And that was fine. That’s how he was going to talk his baby into ditching this whole stupid retirement thing. Mike had just been stressed. Things were better now that he was almost back to his old self, and he knew Mike was beginning to itch to be back in the thick of things. Or at least he would be soon.
He knelt by the end of the pool and whistled, waiting for Mike to come down to him.
Mike popped up, not even breathing hard. “Hey, Coach. Jessy. You okay? I was just fucking around.”
“I know. I thought maybe you’d like to come back inside and fuck around with me.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Mike’s laugh sounded good, relaxed. His baby needed to be in the water. Needed to swim. Grinning, he held out his hand to haul Mike out of the water. His jeans were getting tight, Mike so damn sexy it was impossible not to be turned on.
“You look happy. Feeling good?”
“I’m feeling great.” He bumped their hips together once Mike was out of the pool, his arm around Mike’s waist guiding his baby back to their condo. “You’re looking good. Feeling happy?”
“Yeah. Not bad at all.” Look at that smile.
“Good. You hungry? You need anything?” He was planning on occupying a good portion of Mike’s evening.
“Huh? You don’t have to take care of me, Jessy. I’m supposed to be helping you.”
“Hey, I’m almost back to rights.” He couldn’t imagine not taking care of Mike, whether or not Mike went back to swimming. It was just who he was.
“Yeah.” Mike’s gaze trailed all along his body. “You look good.”
He stood a little straighter, his cock pushing even harder at his jeans from Mike’s appraisal. “Yeah? This old man still do it for you, baby?”
“God, yes. I need you like nothing else.”
“Good.”