“Shower together or separately?” I asked, rooting in my overnight bag for some clean underwear. I was lucky that the bathroom off the kitchen had a shower, since the rest of the house was off-limits.
“Do you even have to ask?”
“Well, come on, then. I want to get down to Zayde’s house before dark.” We hadn’t been back since Frank had turned up the heat, choosing to spend all our time here, and I was anxious to check on the place.
We hurried through the shower and a couple of soapy handjobs. We’d spent every night together for the last week, sometimes at his place, sometimes here, but our intimacies were usually quick affairs dulled by exhaustion. I wanted to fuck him, or have him fuck me, but while I wasn’t the most sentimental guy in the world, it didn’t seem right to rush that. I wanted to take my time with Nick. Time to explore each other’s bodies without our other worries getting in the way. I just hoped that time would come soon.
After a run through a fast-food drive-thru, we got to Zayde’s house. As I worked my key in the lock, a voice called out.
“Hey there, Sasha.”
I turned to see the old guy from next door standing in the yard. I couldn’t remember his name, but he and my zayde used to stand across the back fence and discuss things like weed control and whether the Packers would make the Super Bowl.
I lifted my hand in a wave. “Hi.”
“Say, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve seen you over here cleaning up the place. I thought you should know your mother was here this morning trying to get in. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but she got angry when her key didn’t work.”
Shit. The blood ran out of my head all at once. Why’d she have to come back? Couldn’t she go somewhere else to screw up her life?
“Was she alone?”
The man shook his head. “No, she was with a girl. ’Bout your age, brown hair. The girl wanted to bust through a window, but your mom said she knows someone who’s good with locks.”
Nick and I exchanged a glance.
“Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate you letting me know.”
The neighbor began to turn away, but stopped himself. “Listen, Sasha. I’m sorry about your grandfather. He was a good man. I think he’d be proud of you for helping out around here like this.”
All I could do was nod my thanks.
Nick took the keys from me and let us inside.
I dropped into a recliner and buried my face in my hands. The news of my mother combined with fatigue nearly overwhelmed me. “What am I gonna do? She’s gonna come back here and turn this place into a shithole again. And God help the place if she starts cooking meth in here. She’s been busted for it before. The house will end up condemned if she doesn’t blow it up first.”
Nick paced back and forth the length of the room. He really didn’t need my drama to amp up his anxiety. After a few minutes of silence, he knelt in front of me and took my hands.
“You’ve been killing yourself over this place, Sash, and I’m afraid it’s going to all be for nothing. Your mom’s going to come back in and mess up your hard work. I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe it’s time for you to walk away. Let her do with it what she wants.”
He was right, but when the atmosphere in the room rippled and swirled at his words, I wasn’t sure I could simply walk away. This house might just be a cleverly pieced together stack of building materials to Nick, but to me it was sentient. It had a personality. I didn’t necessarily want to live here—it was too far from the city center for a guy with no car. And anyway, it was too big for me. But I still felt a responsibility to do right by the place.
“This is so frustrating!”
“I know, babe, but the way I see it, you only have two choices . . . turn over the keys and walk away, or stay and fight. And while I’m not really one to shy from a fight, as long as Rina owns this place, you don’t have much to stand on.”
An invisible pull began to yank on me in the direction of the back bedroom. “Not this again,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. The house is all agitated from this talk of Mom coming back, and it’s trying to pull me into the back room.” I looked around. “House, just relax. We’ll find a solution.”
“Does that help? Talking to it?”
“Not lately.”
Nick stood. “Well, we should get on with what we came here for. I’ll clear out the back bedroom and you can do your magic in here. If your mom shows up, we’ll deal with her then. Is it going to bother you if I make noise?”
“I should be all right. It’s not a deep meditation or anything.”
“And everything goes?”
I thought over what I’d seen in the room. “Yeah, everything except the mail. I better go through it. Looks like Mom was stacking up whatever she didn’t want to deal with. Let me know when you get to the heavier furniture, and I’ll help load it on your truck to take to the dump.”
“Sure thing.” Nick gave me a kiss on the forehead and walked away. As he did so, the pull of the house shifted from me, and probably over to him. I rolled my shoulders, grateful for the reprieve. The house could tug on Nick all it wanted, he’d never know.
With both Nick and the house occupied for the moment, I moved down to the floor, hoping to get at least one cleansing completed before my mother showed up. I tried to clear my mind, to concentrate on what needed to be done, but it was impossible. Instead, I considered what Nick had said about walking away. I probably should. After all, if Zayde had cared so much about this place, he would’ve written a will and left it to me or to charity or to anyone but his derelict daughter.
I shook my hands out and rested them on the floor. No sense getting frustrated over what he should’ve done. I deepened my breathing and tried to relax. Just as I began to tap into the house though, a sharp wave of elation rolled through me. My heart jumped and my cheeks flushed. Then, the house’s tension began to fade away.
What the hell?
“Sasha!”
I opened my eyes to see Nick rushing down the hall with an envelope and letter in his hand. “What is it?”
“The reason the house wanted you in that room.”
I shoved the Past Due notice at Sasha, my heart racing. I’d had no intention of going through the mail—only wanted to stack it out of the way so it didn’t get lost in the shuffle. As soon as I saw the top envelope, though, my stomach had dropped. I’d bought and sold so many properties over the years that I’d realized immediately what I held.
“So,” Sasha said. “Mom hasn’t paid the property taxes. I would’ve been more surprised if she had.”
“That’s not it. Look who it’s addressed to.”
“Dear Mr. and/or Mrs. Michaels . . . Did Zayde forget to tell them when Bubbe died?”
Frustrated, I stepped forward and pointed. “Not that, this. See the address. Bernard and/or Sasha Michaels.”
His brow furrowed, and he didn’t say anything.
“What was your grandmother’s name?”
“Elizabeth.”
“So not Sasha.”
“Of course not. Where we come from, Sasha is a male name, you know.”
“Yes, but don’t you see? The property taxes come in the name of whoever is titled on the house.” I held up my phone. “I just checked the City Assessor’s website on my phone. Your grandfather put your name on the title. It’s been like that for at least ten years.”
“But he didn’t have a will.”
“It doesn’t matter. You own this property. Without a will, everything else he had goes to your mom. Everything except the house. Once he died, it became yours alone.”
Sasha’s face paled, and he steadied himself with the wall. “I own it? Not my mom?”
“No, Sash. It’s yours. She has no rights here. All you have to do is take a copy of the death certificate downtown and have his name removed from the deed.”
“Shit, I don’t know what to say.” He tugged at the crown of his hair.
“I know! It’s wild, huh?”
“I own a house. Without a mortgage. No more sleeping on the streets!”
I drew him into my arms and placed a kiss on his shoulder. “Never again, baby.”
We held each other for a long moment, both reeling from this turn of fortune. I was so damn happy for him.
“Oh, no!” he exclaimed suddenly, eyes growing wide. “I’ll have to come up with something to pay the taxes. How am I gonna do that?”
“Don’t worry about that now. It’s only one year of taxes, and you aren’t far behind. The city isn’t like the banks. They don’t want to foreclose on properties unless they have no other choice. Too much hassle. I’ve seen homes with a decade of unpaid taxes, and the pencil pushers downtown don’t do anything about them. Call the Assessor’s Office on Monday. Explain the situation. I’m sure they’ll work with you on some sort of payment plan.”
Sasha placed a hand on the wall. His lips moved silently as if in a private conversation with the house. I averted my gaze to give him a moment. When he again turned to me, unshed tears had welled in his eyes and a smile split his face.
The naked emotion tugged at my chest. I’d seen this man as low as anyone could get, and rather than turning to crime or drugs, somehow he’d kept finding the strength to pick himself up and plunge forward. And now, finally, something good had happened. His grandfather hadn’t forgotten about him. The man had actually taken steps to ensure that Sasha always had a home. The heaviness that weighed on him was gone. He stood straighter, his head held a little higher. Before me stood, I suspected, the real Sasha.
I grinned and held my arms out to him. He rushed at me so hard he had me pinned against the wall with his tongue in my mouth before I could think about it. There was nothing sweet about this kiss. It was desperate and rough. Exactly how I liked it.
My hands snaked around to grab his ass and pull him tight against my groin. We were both growing hard. When he wrapped his leg around mine and rutted against my hip, that was all I could take. I needed him. He needed me. Our lives weren’t perfect, but fuck, he’d just gotten some incredible news, and we deserved to celebrate. BJ’s and handies were nice, but we both needed more.
“Ever have a guy over in your bedroom?”
He laughed. “Not since I was a kid. Once Zayde found out I was gay, that put an end to the sleepovers. Why do you ask?”
I scraped my teeth along his neck, making his skin bump up. “Because I want you, and I don’t think I can wait until we get back to my house.”
“Mmm . . . well, you’re in luck. I know where there’s a bed.”
I locked the dead bolt on the front door in case Rina returned, and followed Sasha down to his basement bedroom. As I descended, my anxiety rose. It had been a long time since I’d felt like a virgin when it came to anything with sex, but suddenly, my guts hummed with self-doubt. Not about Sasha. No, I wanted to be with Sasha in every way possible. But what if I wasn’t good enough in the sack to keep him happy?
Sasha turned on a bedside lamp, rather than the harsh overhead light. I’d seen the room before, but now it was clean, mostly bare of personal belongings, except for the poster on the back of the door. A pale man with wild black hair stood on a stage holding a guitar. He was beautiful, and had a bit of the same brooding expression Sasha got whenever he concentrated on something hard.
“Who’s this?” I asked.
“Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes. He’s solo now. My favorite guitar player.”
I’d heard of the band, but wouldn’t recognize any of their songs. Truth was, my musical knowledge stopped right around the time Nirvana had. All Melissa had ever wanted to listen to had been Top 40 bullshit, so I’d gotten to the point where I hated the radio.
“I know he’s cute, but are you gonna stare at him all night, or are you gonna come down here with me?”
I turned away to see Sasha stripped to his boxers and lying on the light-blue sheets of his narrow twin bed. Christ, his body looked like it’d been chiseled from marble by one of those ancient Greek dudes. I wasn’t a religious man, but in that moment, I wanted to worship him.
I shucked my shoes and pants and stretched out on top of Sasha. The bed was way too tiny for the both of us, but when he lifted his legs and wrapped them around my hips, I set that aside to resume the fierce kissing we’d started upstairs.
Sasha pulled on the back of my shirt. I yanked it off and knocked my elbow into the wall, sending a zing up my funny bone.
“Sorry. This bed sucks,” Sasha said.
“I don’t care how small it is as long as you’re in it.” I bent to his neck and sucked on the skin above his collar.
We hadn’t talked about things like who would top and who would bottom, but I’d been giving it some serious thought these last few weeks. The easy thing for me to do would be to ask to top. I’d had anal sex a couple of times with women, and I knew the drill, though I’d never gotten the feeling that they’d enjoyed it. Not like the guys I’d seen in porn. Yeah, yeah, porn wasn’t like real sex, but I did happen to know a bit about biology and prostates, and I had an older brother who’d assured me many times that getting fucked by another man was sexy as hell. There was something in the way those guys in the videos looked when they were getting plowed by another man that made me hot . . . and made me want to try it.
I took my time touching and kissing Sasha down his chest to his belly. He smelled like salt and soap from his shower, and tasted like clean man. He filled my senses, and my anxiety began to ebb. This was Sasha, and there was no one in the world I’d rather be with. When my exploring mouth reached his waist, I bit the band of his shorts and pulled.
“Here,” Sasha grinned, “let me help you with that.”
We both stripped our shorts off, and I went back to traveling his body. Hip, thighs . . . When I licked his knee, Sasha squirmed and bucked.
“Stop that!” he laughed. “You’re not the only one who’s ticklish. If you don’t behave, you’ll have to leave.”
“You wouldn’t make me go home,” I said, my bravado coming back. I moved up to kiss along his jaw. “Not when I’m about to give you the best night of your life.”
“Pretty confident there. Sure you’re ready to fuck a man?”
I rocked my hips so our cocks slid together. Sasha moaned and pushed up against me, chasing friction.
“As much as I would love that,” I said, pausing to gaze into his eyes, “tonight, I want you in me.”
I froze and stared Nick in the eyes. “Are you sure? I can go either way.”
His cheeks flushed, making the fading bruises stand out. “Yeah. I’m ready. I trust you.”
My chest swelled, and I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I’m . . . honored, I guess. I mean, I just hope I can make it good for you.”
“I’m sure you will.” He smirked. “Now, shut up and have your way with me.”
With a little awkward maneuvering, I flipped us over, positioning myself on top. Nick grinned up at me. Damn, he was gorgeous. And he wanted me. How did I ever get so lucky? I sucked his full bottom lip into my mouth and gave it a playful nip. Nick answered by grasping the back of my head and drawing me into a deep, almost frantic, kiss.
I was painfully hard, and judging by how Nick was rutting against my body, he was as eager as I was to move things along. I tried to retrieve the condom from my wallet and almost fell off the tiny bed.
“Damn it,” I muttered, standing up. I found the condom, and then got out the economy-sized bottle of lube from the nightstand drawer.
“Thought you never brought guys here,” Nick teased, looking pointedly at the huge bottle.
“I didn’t, but after I chafed myself beating off, I learned pretty quick how to take better care of my equipment.”
“The Jack White poster?”
I grinned wickedly. “You wouldn’t believe how he handles a guitar.” I tossed him a fat pillow. “Here, turn over and lay your stomach across this.”
The position sent his ass into the air, open and exposed. I kneeled on the bed behind him and gripped the globes of his cheeks. His ass was perfect. Muscular, but squeezable. I kissed down his lower spine to the top of his crack, making him squirm. I sure hoped Nick was up for this, because I was so ready to be inside him, to finally make him mine.
I flipped open the lube and slicked my finger. Then I began to massage it into his hole. He was tense at first, the ring of his muscles tightening at the invasion. I whispered and massaged until he relaxed. Then, he bore down on my finger eagerly.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, give me another one,” he said, his shaky voice betraying his nerves.
Slowly, I added a second finger and scissored them to open him inside. His muscles loosened around me. Then, I curled my fingers to press against his gland. I could almost feel the zing go through his body, and he made a sound that was a cross between a groan and a yelp.
“Holy shit . . . Yeah, do that again.” He pushed back onto my hand, but I withdrew. I needed to be inside him. To show him how much I wanted him.
“You ready for me?”
He peered over his shoulder to see me lubing up my condom-sheathed cock. “If you can do that with your dick, you may never get me out of this bed.”
I leaned over his back to kiss his shoulder. “Challenge accepted.”
He reached behind to spread himself wider.
“Fuck, you’re hot,” I muttered. With great restraint, I pushed inside inch by inch, until I was fully seated. I didn’t move, giving him time to acclimate himself to the invasion. “Breathe, Nick. Relax into it.”
He took a deep breath and the tension in his body eased. “This is so weird. And perfect. But weird.”
“Does it hurt? You gotta tell me if it hurts.”
“A little. Mostly, it’s just different.” He rocked back onto me, stretching around my cock.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I began to move, shallowly at first, then when I sensed he wanted more, deeper, but still slow. With every thrust, he grew bolder, pushing back to meet my strokes. I wound my arm around his chest and bit into the meat of his shoulder, letting the taste and scent of his clean sweat fill my senses. Being inside Nick was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. His body was so strong and powerful and, god, I needed him. Even pressed against his naked back, I couldn’t get close enough.
Surreal Estate Page 18