by Neil Plakcy
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
HOME IS THE SAILOR
MY FRIEND ZEKE
LANDLOCKED SQUID
LET US GO DOWN TO THE SEA
ANGEL
BOOTS FOR THE GODDESS
HEAT LIGHTNING
RED ALERT: WEAPONS OF MASS ERECTION
CROATIAN SAIL
RIVER RAT
SHANGHAI SURPRISE
SAILING LESSONS
CRUISING
RIVER GUIDE
THE FERRYMAN
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Copyright Page
INTRODUCTION
The British poet John Masefield wrote, “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.” That poem expresses the yearning so many men have, to strike out for unknown waters in tall ships steered by stars. There’s a romance to the water-borne life that comes from our longing to see new ports and to challenge ourselves in new ways.
From mariners on huge yachts to river boatmen to recreational boaters, the combination of men and water is irresistible. All the guys in this collection have fallen under the spell of the open water, and when you read their stories, you will, too. You’ll sail from the canals of Britain to the crystal-blue tides of the Caribbean, from the ancient walled cities of Croatia to the San Francisco of the Gold Rush, and to many ports of call in between.
Masts, yardarms, jack lines—the language of sailors seems tailor-made for men who love men. Who hasn’t admired a naval officer in his dress whites, or a lithe, tanned young man skimming across the water in control of a huge sail? And the water provides a convenient way to get men into (or out of!) tiny bathing suits as well.
The sexy sailors in this collection run from college boys seeking boyfriends to naval officers to older yachties with silver flecks in their hair. There are lots of well-worked muscles grinding winches to set and control sails, steer from the helm or tack to starboard as these stories veer from history to fantasy to present-day action.
Enjoy!
Neil Plakcy
October 2012
HOME IS THE SAILOR
Emily Moreton
Danny! Hey, Danny, over here!”
It took Danny a second to figure out which direction the voice was coming from, the San Francisco dock being crowded with people. It didn’t help that he had to squint into the bright sun just to make out individual faces. Even when he managed to zero in on the general area, it took a raised hand gesturing him over to pick out the exact person who’d called him.
“You made it!” Mike threw his arms around Danny in a suffocating hug the moment Danny was close enough. Danny returned the embrace as well as he could with his cane in one hand, drinking in the feel of Mike’s warm, muscled body against his, the familiar smell of his deodorant and shampoo.
“Like I was going to stay away?” Danny drew back, taking in the man he’d been friends with since high school. Mike’s hair was still as short and neat as Danny remembered it from college graduation two years before—he must have cut it in honor of coming into port—but he was darkly tanned, making his eyes seem startlingly bright. Standing next to him, Danny wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have done more with his own blond hair than drag a comb through it. He definitely should have made more effort with his clothes—in jeans and an old UC San Francisco T-shirt, he really stood out amongst the uniforms. “You look good.”
Mike laughed, warm and affectionate, same way he sounded on the phone calls that had been the only contact they’d had since Mike joined the navy right out of college. “Everyone looks good in uniform.”
They were surrounded by Mike’s fellow naval officers, by friends and family welcoming their boys and girls home, but the crowd provided a kind of anonymity, a secrecy. “You look really good,” Danny said, low and quiet in Mike’s ear, ducking his head to compensate for their slight height difference.
He felt Mike shiver, they were standing so close together. “Yeah?” Mike asked, looking over Danny’s shoulder—at the huge ship, maybe, or at the ocean that had always captivated him.
“Hell, yeah,” Danny agreed.
Someone pushed against him before he could say anything else, and for a second, his balance was a precarious thing. Mike’s hand wrapped around his elbow in the same moment as Danny shifted his weight, leaning into the cane. Danny had to close his eyes, overwhelmed by the familiarity—the relief of having Mike home and close again.
“I’ve got you,” Mike said quietly.
“I’m good.”
Mike didn’t let go, his hand hot against Danny’s bare skin. “It’s so good to see you,” he said. “I wanted to—last time we got leave, I would have come.”
Last time Mike had gotten leave, Danny had been up to his eyeballs in his master’s thesis, barely surfacing for food and water. He’d been the one to say that Mike should spend time with his family, instead of his friend with occasional benefits. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks after Mike shipped out again that Danny had realized—and regretted—what he’d missed out on.
“You’re here now,” he said. “So, do I get to see this ship I’ve been hearing about?”
Mike made a weird face. “There’s bits of it you can’t go to because you’re a civilian.”
“Okay,” Danny said gamely. He’d gotten used to hearing “it’s classified” from Mike’s mouth.
“And, um…” Mike actually shifted from one foot to the other, something he hadn’t done since the time he’d told Danny he was joining the navy. “Most of it’s not—with your cane, you won’t be able to get around much.”
It was an old hurt, now, being told he couldn’t go somewhere because of his disability, worn soft with age, enough so that Danny could shrug it away. “Can you take me on deck?”
Mike’s eyes drifted closed, just for a moment, his expression something Danny had never quite been able to read. It didn’t entirely matter—he knew it meant that if they hadn’t been in public, Mike would have kissed him. “I can do that,” Mike agreed.
“I thought there’d be more people,” Danny said when they made it on deck, most of the crowd left behind on the dock.
“Usually there are.” Mike’s bearing had shifted the moment they set foot on the ship, become more formal or something. He looked like he fit there in a way that made Danny very conscious of how Mike didn’t quite fit on land anymore. “Most of the families come for the proper open session in a couple of days.”
“So I’m a special case?”
“In so many ways,” Mike teased. “No, we’re allowed guests right now, it’s just most people don’t want to come up.”
Danny’d seen enough home-from-war movies to figure that one out, even if Mike’s ship hadn’t actually been in any wars, just gone a long time. “Go on, then. Tell me a bit about this thing.”
Mike, it turned out, knew a lot about the ship and its history. That didn’t entirely surprise Danny—they’d met in AP History, after all—but he pretty quickly lost the thread of what Mike was saying. It didn’t really matter. He didn’t want to know the story behind the ship’s name, or its dimensions, he just wanted to watch Mike talking about it and hear Mike’s voice wash over him, be certain of Mike standing there, familiar and safe.
And, okay, maybe it was a little bit that listening to Mike, the sure, confident way he talked, was a pretty big, if unexpected, turn-on. Though it probably helped that Mike looked so damn good in his uniform.
What could Danny say? He’d watched a lot of old movies as a kid; apparently the whole dashing naval captain thing had seeped into his unconscious in ways he hadn’t anticipated.
“You’re staring,” Mike said, sounding like he was about to laugh.
“I’m listening with rapt attention to what you’re saying,” Danny corrected.
“What was I just saying?”
“Something about…winches? I don’t know, man, you started talking about getting your hands on a stiff piece of metal and working it, my mind took a short vacation.”
It was hard to tell with Mike so tanned, but Danny thought he might be blushing. It was absurdly, adorably cute. “I was talking about equipment for keeping watch, actually.”
“Does that include a periscope?” Danny asked innocently.
Mike cracked up. “And a telescope. Lots of telescopes.”
“Are you keeping one in your pocket or are you just—”
“Happy to see me,” Mike finished with him, still laughing. “I am.”
“What, keeping a telescope in your pocket?” Danny eyed the tailored fit of Mike’s uniform. “’Cause, honestly, it doesn’t seem like you really have room.”
“Happy to see you,” Mike corrected patiently. His eyes flicked to Danny’s crotch for a second, then back up to his face. “Happy to see a lot more of you.”
“Well, you are here all week.”
“Danny,” Mike half groaned. “As much as I’d love to stand here and exchange witty banter all evening, I’ve been on a ship with no privacy for seven months. I haven’t even jerked off in three weeks.”
Danny bit down on the urge to ask if any of Mike’s fellow sailors had taken care of him, not sure if he wanted to know the answer (possible extremely hot fantasy material) or not (possible extremely jealousy rendering material, especially if the guy was a friend of Mike’s).
“What kind of friend would I be not to welcome the conquering hero home with proper honors?” He shifted slightly, his leg stiffening from staying in one position too long. “Come on, we can get a cab on the street.”
Most of the cab drivers Danny’d dealt with were perfectly content to drive and ignore him. It was just his luck that, pressed thigh to thigh with Mike, sex a near prospect, he got one who wanted to talk.
Or, well, to be strictly accurate, Mike got one who wanted to talk. Danny was pretty much just along for the ride, so to speak.
“You came in on the Louisiana?”
“Yes, sir.”
Danny rolled his eyes, not sure which of the two of them it was directed at. Next to him, Mike turned his hat slightly, resting it on his own left knee.
“Staying in town?”
“What, I’m invisible?” Danny muttered. Mike patted his knee and left his hand there, warm through the old denim, even when Danny shifted, trying to dislodge him.
“I am. My friend lives here.”
The cab driver’s eyes flicked to Danny in the rearview mirror for a moment, then dismissed him. “Always glad to have our boys in uniform in the city.”
Danny rolled his eyes again. In response, Mike squeezed Danny’s knee, making him jump slightly. He startled even more when Mike’s hand traced up his thigh, coming to rest halfway up. “The hell are you doing?” he hissed.
“I’ve never spent much time here, I’m looking forward to a chance to get to know the city better,” Mike said, like he wasn’t feeling Danny up in the back of a cab while dressed in his full uniform.
Mike’s fingers tickled the inside of Danny’s thigh a little, making his other knee, the bad one, jump in response. Danny rested his own hand on it, trying to work out the misfiring nerves.
“I’ll give you my card,” the driver offered. “You need someone to show you around the city, give me a call.”
Mike pressed his thumb into Danny’s leg, his eyes intent on the driver’s mirror. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m pretty sure Danny here will be playing tour guide.”
Danny caught the driver eyeing him again, a look that said pretty clearly he’d be eyeing Danny’s cane if it wasn’t tucked down the side of the seat. He frowned back until the driver looked away. “Or, you know, a cab anywhere. Restaurant or something.”
Mike squeezed Danny’s leg hard enough to make him gasp, more than just his bad knee twitching with the contact. “I’ll bear it in mind,” he said. “But I think we’ll mostly be eating in.”
Danny pressed a hand over his mouth, stifling his urge to laugh. The driver’s eyes flickered between the two of them for a second before settling firmly on the road. “Yes, sir.”
“What were you thinking?” Danny demanded as the door to his apartment swung closed behind them. “Seriously, I know Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell got repealed, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t make it okay to feel me up in a cab.”
Mike pressed close, hands on Danny’s hips, probably as much to help him keep his balance as to get his hands on Danny. “You objecting?”
“Expressing concern,” Danny corrected. “You want the guided tour?”
Mike groped Danny’s half-hard cock through his jeans. “How about we start with this?”
“How about we start with the kitchen?” Danny countered. “Or maybe the guest room?”
“You’re going to make me sleep in the guest room?” Mike let go of Danny, moving around to stand in front of him, so Danny had to fight to keep his face straight. “Weren’t you the one talking about how good I look in my uniform?”
“Eh, that was before I had to deal with you and the obnoxious cabbie.” Mike’s face fell into exaggerated hurt, and Danny couldn’t keep his game face on. Instead, he got his free hand on Mike’s shoulder and leaned in to kiss him.
Mike deepened it, drew it out, hands carefully at his side— there’d been more than one moment that had ended in the two of them on the floor, back in high school, when Mike had touched Danny in a way he wasn’t balanced for. It felt good to kiss Mike, good to kiss someone he knew and knew cared for him.
“How about now?” Mike asked quietly, drawing back.
“Now I’m thinking about how good you’ll look out of that uniform.”
“And asleep in your bed?”
Danny shrugged. “As long as you don’t snore.”
“You know I don’t.”
“I do know that,” Danny agreed. “So come on.”
Mike hesitated partway down the hall toward Danny’s room. “You got a bathroom I can use quickly?”
“Gotta brush your teeth?”
Mike shrugged a little stiffly. “Thought I’d take a quick shower. If you want.”
Mike looked pretty damn clean, and he smelled amazing, which could really only mean he was asking about one thing. To which Danny was sure as hell not going to say no. “Through there. Shower makes a weird noise sometimes, just hit it if it doesn’t stop.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” Mike dropped a mocking salute, already turning the bathroom door handle with his other hand.
Danny collected Mike’s duffel and stowed it in the corner of his own room, fairly certain he’d made up the guest room for no reason, then sat on the edge of the bed to take off his shoes and socks. After a moment’s hesitation, he stripped off his T-shirt and pants as well, shoving the covers to the foot of the bed. He lay back, arms behind his head, as he heard the shower shut off.
The carpet muffled the sound of Mike’s feet until he was right outside the door. He stepped inside, his hair still damp, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. It was the first time Danny had seen him naked since college, and two years in the navy had been damn good to him: every muscle was toned, his tan going surprisingly far down. Apparently, sailors really did spend a lot of time walking around shirtless.
Danny let out a low whistle then, unable to resist, said, “Hello there, sailor.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Danny confirmed. “You want to get your ass over here, or you want to stay there and pose?”
Judging from how fast Mike was crawling over Danny, he wanted to get his ass over there, a sentiment that Danny could happily get behind. Mike was heavy, warm and a little damp against Danny’s bare skin, his hands skating everywhere now that their ability to touch wasn’t hampered by Danny’s always-precarious bala
nce.
Danny wasn’t going to let Mike be the only one to take advantage of being horizontal. He dug one hand into Mike’s hair, dragging him down into a kiss, all slick tongues and teasing nips. His other hand he traced down Mike’s spine, dipping under the towel, working it loose. Mike moaned a little at the first brush of Danny’s finger over the skin there.
“Feel good?” Danny asked.
Mike’s hips flexed, making his hard-on obvious. “Really good. Like the first time, Danny…”
Danny’s hand stilled as his heart tripped over itself. Mike’s first time had been with him, and though they’d both had other partners in the intervening period, he had no idea if Mike had let anyone else do this to him.
Probably not the moment to ask, but he made a mental note to come back to the question.
For now, he was getting too caught up in the way Mike felt on top of him to let much distract him. The towel finally came loose, letting him get his hand on Mike’s ass. Mike’s whole body shuddered as Danny brushed a fingertip awkwardly over his hole, dipping just the tip inside.
“Do it,” Mike said against Danny’s neck, adding a sharp brush of teeth that took care of getting Danny fully hard.
“Nightstand drawer. Lube and a condom.”
“I can take it.” Mike’s hips flexed again, settling into a slight rocking that dragged his cock against the cloth of Danny’s boxers, drawing the material over his own erection in a way that was almost painful.
“Lube,” he said firmly, trying to keep his breath even. “It’s sex, not endurance training.”
“Could be both,” Mike said, but he was already moving to retrieve the supplies, so Danny ignored that. Instead, he shifted as well as he could, managing to shove his boxers halfway down his thighs. Mike took care of them as he climbed back onto the bed, tossing them over his shoulder, probably in the same direction the towel had gone.
The way his muscles flexed as he straddled Danny made something in Danny twist with an envy that was never going to entirely go away. He wouldn’t ever be able to do that, same way he’d never be able to go on his knees and suck a guy’s cock, or kneel in the middle of the bed and take it. Not that he didn’t have plenty of ways to compensate and work around, but sometimes he just wanted sex to be a little bit easier than it was.