by Ariel Tachna
Lee had already jumped through the credits when Michael returned so they could start watching immediately. They fell back into the same routine of quoting the film, but the heat of the day had sapped their energy, and as the film continued, they spoke less and less. Michael’s last thought before he fell asleep was that he ought to offer Lee the guest bed down the hall.
Sunlight through the blinds he hadn’t closed last night woke Michael the next morning. He blinked a couple of times to clear his thoughts and remember why he was sleeping on his couch instead of in his bed. As his vision cleared, he saw Lee on the other end of the couch, his mouth slightly open as he snuffled in his sleep. The sight was too endearing to resist. He shifted on the firm cushions so he could lean over and kiss the slack lips.
Lee stirred beneath him, his eyes fluttering open. Michael lifted his head enough to give Lee space to pull away if he wanted, but Lee’s arms encircled his neck, pulling Michael down on top of him instead. It was all the permission Michael needed.
Their lips met, a familiar sensation now, but Michael lingered, all of their conversations about taking the time to really look at things playing back through his mind. The day before, there had been no stubble on Lee’s upper lip, but Michael felt the telltale roughness now. He didn’t mind—he liked the reminder that he was kissing a man—but it served to remind him of the day and night they’d spent together, even if the night was unintentional. That, in turn, drew his attention to the slightly stale taste of his own mouth. Wanting to spare Lee his morning breath, he nuzzled his way across the stubbled cheek instead, enjoying the rasp of day-old beard against his lips. Lee turned his face into the caress, assuring Michael that he enjoyed the gesture as well. His hands stroked encouragingly up and down the length of Michael’s spine.
Letting his lips wander over Lee’s face, Michael relaxed into the moment, wanting to be here and nowhere else with Lee quiescent beneath him. Even as he brushed his lips across Lee’s forehead, he took in the sensation of the muscular body beneath his, its wiry strength as much of a turn-on as the scent of his skin or the way his body moved beneath Michael’s. He worked his way down to Lee’s ear, brushing the hair away from the elegant curve of flesh. Lee shivered beneath him, the movement rubbing them together from head to toe. Surprised and aroused in turn, Michael licked the smooth whorl, wanting to see if the reaction would repeat.
It did.
“Tell me if it gets to be too much,” Michael whispered, his breath sending another shiver through Lee’s body.
“It won’t,” Lee gasped, turning his head to give Michael better access.
Michael took his time, licking and sucking on Lee’s ear, blowing into it, even slipping his tongue into the canal and back out again. Lee moaned and writhed beneath him, clearly as delighted with Michael’s actions as Michael was with Lee’s reactions.
When he had finally exhausted his creativity with that swath of skin, he moved lower, thinking of the spot on his own shoulder that he loved to have sucked or bitten. He pushed aside the collar of Lee’s shirt, tantalizing the juncture of neck and shoulder. Lee subsided beneath him, not pulling away, but definitely without the same enthusiastic response attention to his ear had garnered. “What else do you like?” he murmured.
Beneath him, Lee chuckled. “Take your time and find out.”
Michael rolled his eyes teasingly, but his body thrilled at the idea. Like everything else he’d done at Lee’s side, sex suddenly seemed new again, exciting in a way it hadn’t been since he was sixteen and making out on the couch with his first boyfriend.
Michael rocked back onto his heels for a moment, stripping out of the T-shirt he still wore from the day before and then pulling Lee’s shirt off as well. He’d gotten glimpses of the other man’s arms and shoulders and the top of his chest when he wore his leather vest at the con, but this was Michael’s first chance to see him fully shirtless. Lee’s chest was completely smooth, making Michael hope Lee wouldn’t mind his own pelt of chest hair. Lee didn’t seem to mind at all if the way he dug his fingers into the thick mat was any indication.
Michael let him play, taking his time exploring the vine tattoo that ran around Lee’s bicep and up across his chest. Lee rocked beneath him, urging Michael to linger. Michael’s fingers traced the edges of the ink, teasing around the circle of one aureole, wringing a hoarse cry from Lee’s mouth. Smiling, Michael bent his head and kissed Lee swiftly, his lips wandering from Lee’s mouth down his neck to the hollow at the base of his neck. He had intended merely a meandering journey on his way to his lover’s nipples, but the sudden intake of breath when Michael’s tongue teased the slight indentation changed his mind. He stretched back out full-length along Lee’s body, his fingers continuing their teasing as he licked and sucked at Lee’s skin.
Lee’s hands tightened in Michael’s chest hair and on his back, the pressure nearly painful. “Are you telling me it’s too much?” Michael asked, lifting his head.
“I’m telling you I’ll hurt you if you stop,” Lee gasped.
Michael grinned. “Then don’t tug quite so hard, or you’ll be hurting me while I try to continue.”
Lee’s hand flattened immediately, his fingers loosening their grip on Michael’s chest hair. Michael returned to the very enjoyable process of driving Lee wild, his own body thrumming with desire as he wondered what other surprises he could discover. Lee’s ear, the hollow of his throat… two things he had learned already from focusing completely on his lover rather than assuming he knew what Lee would like.
Lee rutted against him like a teenager as he continued, giving Michael ideas. He’d had his first boyfriend at sixteen. They had shared hand jobs and rutted against each other like wild men, but it had been a couple of years and a boyfriend later before Michael had been ready for more. Shifting so he was lying on top of Lee again, he ground his erection against the other man’s.
“You’re going to make me come in my pants,” Lee gasped.
“I know,” Michael said. “How long has it been since you wanted it so badly you couldn’t even wait?”
“Years,” Lee said. “I learned finesse somewhere around the time I learned the joys of anticipation.”
Michael rocked harder against Lee. “Forget everything you learned and remember what it felt like the first time.”
“I don’t have a clean pair of shorts.”
“I’ll lend you some,” Michael said, feeling his own climax bubbling in his blood as Lee started thrusting back up against him. “I know I’m not alone feeling this way.”
“No,” Lee said, his head falling back. Michael dove onto the offered neck, nibbling and sucking at the tendons of Lee’s throat as he continued to drive them toward release. It tore out of him at the hoarse shout that escaped Lee’s mouth along with the rush of wet heat between their bodies.
Lee collapsed beneath him, all tension gone from his body as the aftershocks continued to rack Michael.
Michael lifted his head finally. “I think a shower is in order, and then maybe some breakfast. Will you stay?”
“I can’t go anywhere without a shower,” Lee said with a laugh.
“That didn’t answer my question,” Michael pressed. “Will you stay?”
Lee smiled, his expression shyer than any Michael had ever seen on his face. “Yes.”
“Would you like to come out to my place this weekend?” Lee asked as he and Michael chatted on the phone on Wednesday night. They had spent all of Sunday together as well, although they hadn’t, somewhat to Michael’s surprise, ended up in bed. Instead they’d finished their movie marathon, played basketball, and caught up on the work Michael needed to do in his yard. Michael had tried to argue that was hardly a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but Lee had made it fun, laughing and teasing and tackling Michael at random intervals for light, playful kisses that could easily have turned more passionate and yet didn’t.
Since then, they’d talked on the phone every night but hadn’t managed to see each other again.
>
“For the whole weekend?” Michael asked hopefully.
“I hope so,” Lee teased. “I spent all of last weekend at your house.”
“I’ll pack a bag,” Michael said, smiling at the simple thought of another weekend with Lee. “Anything in particular I should bring?”
“Comfortable clothes,” Lee said. “I wasn’t planning on anything fancy. I thought we’d meet somewhere for dinner on Friday and then you could follow me home. I live out of town a bit, and it’s sometimes hard for people to find it.”
“So where do you want to meet?”
“There’s a new sushi place I’ve been wanting to try,” Lee said. “Feeling adventurous?”
Michael hesitated for a moment, not entirely sure how he felt about sushi, but Lee hadn’t led him wrong yet. “Sure, I’ll give it a try. I’ve never had sushi before.”
“If it’s good, there’s nothing to compare,” Lee said. “If it isn’t good, it’s pretty much awful. If it isn’t good, we’ll try somewhere else, and I’ll take you to Miyako’s for good sushi another time.”
Lee gave Michael the address, which he noted in his phone so he wouldn’t lose it. They talked for awhile longer before it got late enough that Michael had to hang up so he could go to work the next day.
On Friday, Michael arrived at the restaurant early, but he’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to get home from work and to the restaurant on time, so he’d taken his bag with him that morning. That had put him at the restaurant a good thirty minutes before he was supposed to meet Lee. He took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer to sip while he waited. His stomach was tied up in knots, despite his internal lectures to the contrary, but it seemed even their two dates had not completely eased his nerves about Lee’s profession. Other than that first impression, nothing Lee had said or done had given Michael any reason to worry about Lee’s inclinations. Hell, Lee had given in completely to Michael last weekend on the couch, lying beneath him, not passively, but without any attempt to take control of their interactions. It seemed almost too good to be true.
Michael decided that was what was bothering him, even more than the leatherwork Lee did. He couldn’t be this wonderful all the time, could he? There had to be some quirk, some flaw to make him human rather than the ideal Michael had built up in his mind. He shook his head at himself. This train of thought would bring him nothing but more nerves and a headache.
“You’re early.”
Michael jumped, unprepared to hear Lee’s voice already. “So are you,” he said, glancing at his watch.
“I thought I’d check out the place before you got here so we could go somewhere else if it didn’t look good,” Lee explained.
“I didn’t want to be late,” Michael replied, “so I came here straight from work. I haven’t even changed clothes.”
“I noticed,” Lee said with an admiring glance at Michael’s dress shirt and slacks. “You look good dressed up.”
“They don’t make us wear ties unless we have a meeting with a client,” Michael said, “but they do expect one step up from business casual.”
“That makes sense for an advertising agency,” Lee said. “You never know when a new client will come in unannounced, and if you were all sitting around in shorts and T-shirts, it wouldn’t make a very good first impression. Shall we get a table?”
Michael nodded and paid his tab at the bar.
The hostess seated them immediately.
“You’ll have to tell me what to order,” Michael said, “because I have no idea what’s good.”
“Why don’t I order a combo platter and you can taste a little of everything?” Lee proposed. “There’s very little I don’t like, so you can have what you want and I’ll eat the rest. And if you don’t like any of it, they have tempura and other things you might be more familiar with.”
“I’d like to try the sushi,” Michael said. “I have friends who get it all the time, but I’ve never had anyone to introduce me to it, and it doesn’t seem like something to jump into without a guide.”
“But jumping into things is so much fun,” Lee grinned. “Where would we be if you hadn’t taken that leap and asked me to share your table at the con?”
“That was different,” Michael said. “It was a table in a hotel restaurant. There wasn’t any risk.”
Lee raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Given what you told me about your ex and what you thought you knew about me at the time, it could have been a huge risk.”
“You weren’t wearing leather then. You aren’t nearly as intimidating in jeans.”
Lee laughed. “Intimidating?”
“Probably not to anyone else,” Michael agreed, “but everything about you in full leather set my nerves on edge. If it hadn’t been for the kids, I wouldn’t have taken even the risk I did.”
“Maybe coming to my house isn’t such a good idea after all,” Lee said slowly.
“Why not?” Disappointment filled Michael at having the invitation rescinded.
“Because I have a lot of leather at my place,” Lee said. “The workshop is out back, and sometimes I bring stuff in the house to work on while I’m cooking or watching TV at night or whatever. You aren’t going to be comfortable there.”
“As long as you aren’t trying to use anything on me, I’ll be fine,” Michael insisted. He couldn’t let this be an issue if they had any hope of having a relationship. He couldn’t very well demand Lee change jobs because Michael had a bad memory of a leather bar from college.
“I’m vanilla through and through,” Lee reminded him, “but that’s not going to help if the stuff is lying around.”
Michael shrugged. “I’d really like to see your house. If it’s too much, we can take things back out to your workshop. I’ll get past this. Please?”
“All right, but tell me if it gets to be a problem,” Lee insisted. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“I’ll tell you,” Michael promised as the waiter came to take their order. Michael let Lee order for both of them and breathed a sigh of relief when Lee changed the subject after the waiter had left, asking instead about Michael’s week and his new account at work.
The platter of sushi, when it arrived, was both colorful and copious, making Michael glad they were sharing it rather than each ordering something different. Lee picked up his chopsticks with obvious ease and started pointing out the various kinds of sushi. After only a moment, Michael shook his head. “Information overload. How about I decide which one looks good and ask you what it is?”
“We can do it that way,” Lee agreed. “This is wasabi. It’s pretty spicy. I mix it in with soy sauce and dip my sushi in it, but you may want to stick with the soy sauce the first time out, particularly since I don’t know how much wasabi the chef put on the sushi to begin with.”
Michael poured some soy sauce into the dish but didn’t add any wasabi. Picking up his own chopsticks with somewhat less flair, he pointed to one of the pieces of sushi. “That’s obviously shrimp.”
“Yes,” Lee said. “It’s cooked, so it’s a good start for someone who isn’t sure how they feel about the uncooked stuff.”
Michael picked it up precariously, dipped it in the soy sauce, and ate it, the flavor exploding over his tongue. When he’d managed to swallow, his eyes watering slightly, he said, “I think the chef was generous with the wasabi.”
“Eat some of the ginger,” Lee suggested. “It helps break the oil in the spices. Or I could order some sake for you.”
“No, it’s fine,” Michael said, blinking away the moisture. “It’s delicious. I just wasn’t expecting quite that much heat.”
The next bite was easier, and the rest of the meal passed in easy conversation.
When they’d finished eating, Michael followed Lee out 290, past Cypress Fairbanks and into the country. They turned off the highway and onto little country roads that made Michael glad he wasn’t trying to find the place on his own. Finally they pulled into a long driveway and up to a
country farmhouse. “This is beautiful,” Michael said, getting out of his car and looking around at the house.
“My great-grandparents built it,” Lee said. “The barn is my workshop now, but other than that, and a few modernizations in the plumbing, it looks pretty much the way it did when it was new. Come inside. I’ll give you the nickel tour.”
Michael followed Lee across the wide, wraparound porch and into the house. The inside was exactly what the outside proclaimed: a turn-of-the-century farmhouse, with all the rustic charm of such houses. He could see the little touches Lee had added: new windows, a fresh coat of paint, refinished floors, but much of it could have been original.
Lee led Michael through the ground floor and into a small bedroom. “I didn’t want to presume, so I put clean sheets on the bed down here for you. I want to spend the weekend together, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend it in my bed.”