by Andy Gallo
Harper started left, then changed course and went behind the wide leather seat, far too late to catch his tormentors. The door to their room slammed shut before Harper made it four steps.
“I’m going to fucking kill you, Dorgan!”
Harper’s scream brought their incredibly lazy house monitor out of his room. Knowing his friends were safe, Jack didn’t bother to listen to the exchange. He stopped at a mirror and examined his neck. Other than a small scar he’d gotten in football years ago, he didn’t see anything. Checking the other side, he laughed. “I’m never playing cards with either of them again.”
Early next morning, Jack stumbled toward the bathroom. One—maybe the only—good thing about an early class on Friday was the abundance of free showers at this time of the morning. None of that awkwardness where you brush your teeth and wait, ready to pounce the moment someone vacates one of the small individual stalls.
It also left plenty of time for him to take care of business. No one would be pressing him to get out.
Adjusting the knob to warm, he set his soap and shampoo on the shelf, shucked his boxers, laying them on top of his small black bag, and hung his towel on the hook outside the shower. His morning wood refused to behave, standing proudly in front of him.
Again he thanked the hour for his limited privacy.
He stepped into the smallish stall and swept the cheap white vinyl sheet closed. Water flowed over his head and down his body. He slicked his hair back and soaked in the drumming warmth.
He picked up the soap and ran the white bar between his hands, rubbing under each arm, across the dark hairs on his chest, and finally down his tight stomach. His cock strained for attention.
He let his hands drift toward his groin and soaped the area. He grabbed his dick and stroked. The warm spray washed the soap away, and he leaned back against the white plastic wall.
He’d barely closed his eyes when Ed appeared in his thoughts: a vivid image of them lying in the back of the truck as they kissed. Several times they’d moved enough to rub each other through the fabric of their jeans. Jack had fought the urge to unzip Ed’s jeans, but in his fantasy, he withdrew Ed’s cock.
Pulling his foreskin back and forth, Jack thought about Ed’s naked body against his, imagined pressing kisses down Ed’s stomach. He only made it to the patch of hair surrounding Ed’s hard dick when his own twitched and he came hard—two, three shots hitting the adjacent wall.
If he’d been on his back, it would have been an epic display. At least two or three shots would have hit the wall behind him. Too bad it ended up against the wall barely a foot in front of him.
He dropped his hand, his breath hitching.
Damn, he really needed to see Ed again, and soon.
Ed directed Jack off a side road that dead-ended at a small parking lot.
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “This looks….”
“Like a scene from a cheap horror flick?”
“I was going to go with secluded, but yeah. Do many people come here?”
“Don’t know.” Ed unbuckled his belt. “I’ve come here to hike, and when I get back late, it’s always deserted, so I thought we could come see if anyone else was here.”
Jack released his seat belt and reached for Ed. They hadn’t managed to align their schedules for a week, and texting every morning and night only partially made up for it. Their lips met in a frenzied need to reacquaint, mouths parting, teeth bumping, tongues tying together. Deep kisses that made his veins and dick throb.
“Why do you have to be an amazing brother?” Jack said between kisses along Ed’s jaw. “Taking your sister out and helping her with her school projects? Volunteering to help your pregnant neighbor go shopping?” Jack pulled back an inch, a grin quirking his cheek. “Was your decency worth missing this?”
“Nope. Becky can do her homework alone from now. Mrs. Penn can go into early labor.” Jack laughed as their lips collided again. They tried to twist into a better position. Ed’s knee slammed into the parking brake. Jack banged his elbow against the center console.
“Hang on.” Jack reached under his seat and pulled up the lever. The bucket moved up a few inches, and he motioned for Ed to move back. “Let me try something.”
Crawling onto the center console, Jack squeezed between the two high-backed seats.
“What are you doing?” Ed had to lean against the door to avoid getting kicked.
“Give me a second.” He pulled himself into the back seat, which had very little room, and turned to face the front. “Lean over and pull up the handle while I push.”
“What?” Ed looked confused, and Jack pointed to the lever he’d used to inch the seat up.
“Work with me here; this will be better.” He put his hand on the back of the chair and leaned in to help Ed find the metal bar. When the tension on the bucket relaxed, Jack pushed it all the way forward. “Now, climb back.”
“What are you doing?” Ed didn’t let his question stop him from heaving himself over the console and into the back. He sat behind the driver’s seat and looked at Jack. “How are you going to get my seat forward?”
“Watch.” He reached around the side, found the black metal handle, and pulled up. The back leaned toward the windshield and the whole seat shot forward. With an extra push, Jack created even more room in the back. “Before you ask, I’ve never had an occasion to use my Jeep this way, but I’ve had to get back here and vacuum the carpet.”
With the front seats pushed up and its high roof, the back of the Jeep had plenty of room. Jack put one knee on the cushion, one foot on the floor, and stood up. Even in the dim light it was impossible to miss Ed’s amused smile.
“You could have told me.” Ed imitated Jack. Fully extended, his frame didn’t reach the soft top. “This is better.”
Jack put his hands around Ed’s waist and pulled them closer. “I’ve got tinted windows, and back here there’s no chance we’ll hit the horn.”
“Got this all figured out, don’t—”
Jack kissed him and Ed responded, pushing their bodies closer. Jolts rocked Jack’s body, his groin so damn hard. It strained against his jeans as Ed ground his body and equally hard cock against him.
Applying gentle pressure, Jack leaned Ed back onto the bench seat. He straddled Ed, pinching his thighs together as he kissed Ed’s neck. Ed wiggled and moaned beneath him. Jack tongued his ear and Ed bucked. Jack smiled to himself and darted his tongue out once more, relishing the way their cocks surged together when Ed thrust up again.
“Sensitive much?”
“It’s one of my buttons.”
Filing that bit of information away, Jack slowly tugged Ed’s shirt out of his pants. Once he’d created an opening, he slithered his fingers under the fabric to touch the skin beneath. That evoked another round of squirming under him, and Jack sucked in a hiss of pleasure.
Jack jammed a hand between their hard-ons, cupping Ed through his soft jeans, tracing the length of him down his thigh. Impressive. Jack couldn’t wait to get a proper introduction.
He thumbed the outline of Ed’s crown as he sucked Ed into another kiss. Ed let out a sharp cry of surprise, and Jack felt the throb under his fingers.
Fuck that was hot.
“Christ, Jack. I couldn’t hold back.”
Jack smirked as he kissed Ed again before grabbing some napkins from the center console.
“Your touch drives me crazy,” Ed said, cleaning himself up. “I could make out with you all day.”
“Might need to eat eventually.” Jack’s hard-on ached, and Ed caught him staring at his lips.
Ed tossed his used tissues to the floor and yanked Jack’s thigh, urging him to lie on the back seat. “Let me help you with that.”
“I meant real food, but….” Jack peeled open his fly and groaned when Ed shifted his hands away and hooked his fingers at the waistband. Cool fingertips pressed against his hips and ass, and then Ed lowered his face and nuzzled him through his cotton boxer-briefs.
Ed laughed, the heat of his breath leaking through to his shaft. “It’s worth a shot.”
Jack’s cock twitched as Ed ran his nose up its length and teasingly lingered at his tip.
A pair of high beams moved slowly down the narrow road. Ed jerked back from Jack and slunk low in the seat. “Someone’s coming.”
And it wasn’t Jack.
Painfully, he tucked himself back into his pants. “They’re probably here for the same reason.”
“I… you don’t know that.” Ed kept himself down while Jack kept his eyes on the newcomer. He sighed. “C’mon, get back in front and let’s go.”
It took a bit of maneuvering, but he managed to slip enough of his body forward, release the catch, and slide the front seat back. As he crawled into his seat, Ed pulled the passenger seat back but didn’t climb forward.
Taking that as his cue to leave, Jack started the engine, slowly backed up, and eased his way past a white Toyota compact. Its bewildered teenage driver probably didn’t understand his good fortune, but nevertheless moved into the newly vacated space.
Jack retraced their path until he reached a place where he could pull over and let Ed back up front. “Lift the handle on the side and you can push the front seat up.”
Ed did as instructed, and when the seat was pushed up against the glove box, he reached up to open the door. It took another minute for him to unwrap his body from the back and move it to the front. Once he’d buckled in, Jack pulled back onto the road.
“Sorry,” Ed said once they’d turned onto a busier road. “I didn’t expect anyone to be there.”
“It’s fine, but they weren’t cops. Even if they were, we weren’t doing anything illegal.”
Ed never turned his gaze from the road in front of them. “No, but they might have looked in.”
Jack shrugged it off. At least he’d managed to make Ed see stars as he’d promised himself.
“Sorry, Jack. I….”
“You don’t need to apologize. I get it.” He did. Totally. Maddeningly totally.
They rode quietly for a minute, and Jack slipped a hand on Ed’s thigh and squeezed. “What are your plans for the weekend?”
“Saturday is hiking day. We have a lazy breakfast, then drive out, well—” He hitched a thumb in the direction they came. “—back there and enjoy nature.”
“You do that often?”
“At least once a month. Bit of a tradition.”
“Cool. My dad and I used to go yard sale-ing on weekends. We’d hunt for old books mostly. Sometimes we found first editions practically being thrown away. I still have the books.” He shook his head and kept it together. “I really miss doing that.”
Jack lifted his hand off Ed and rubbed his ring through his shirt as his mind reeled through the memories.
“I think you were right,” Ed said, breaking Jack out of his reverie.
“Hmm?”
“Eventually we need to eat.”
“Now?”
Ed shook his head. “Not tonight. Another date.”
Jack bit down on a warm sigh. “How about Friday? We’ll do dinner. Or we could make it a daytime thing and do brunch on Sunday?”
Ed’s throat worked with a nervous swallow. “How about both?”
Chapter Nine
Jack returned home well after midnight. He went past the graduate photo of ’89, polished it, and then all but bounced up the stairs toward his room. Making out was incredible, but he wanted to rip all of Ed’s clothes off.
Definitely needed to get some privacy. Thinking about it was returning his hard-on. Good thing the lights were off up here.
Climbing the second flight of stairs, he heard movement on the third floor. Maybe Marcus was waiting for him to come home. He smiled at the anticipated cross-examination his brother would throw at him. Strangely, he welcomed the questions. It felt good to have someone to talk about with him for a change.
His smile vanished when he saw who made the noise.
“Look, it’s Jack ‘Can’t Keep a Date’ Murphy.”
Ignoring Harper and his cronies, he kept walking to his bedroom. Ed being closeted complicated things. So much he didn’t want to talk to Harper about it.
Almost to his door, he heard footsteps coming closer rapidly. “Where were you this late? Trying to keep your date interested?”
“Seriously,” Jack said as he spun around. “What’s your problem? Are you mad cause I won’t go out with you? I mean, there’s no other reason for you to be this obsessed with my sex life.”
“In your dreams. You and all the gay boys wish I played on your team.”
“Actually, we don’t. What we want is for you to stop hitting on us.”
Harper got up in his face and smiled. “Such brave words from my soon-to-be homeless boy.”
“Right, I’m going to lose.” Jack rolled his eyes. “You do realize I just came home from a date?”
Harper raised an eyebrow and turned toward Greg. “You mean the ‘boyfriend’ no one has seen? Including your brother Marcus?”
Jack glared, fists balled as Harper walked down the hallway. He watched them disappear before he forced his legs to move. “Fuck.”
“You sure this is okay?” Jack scanned the crowded restaurant. He hadn’t expected the Olive Garden to have a twenty-minute wait in a packed lobby. Every time the door opened, Ed tensed.
Ed bumped shoulders, nearly knocking Jack off the seat they shared. “My mom loves this place. We come here when she wants to eat out.”
Jack stared at the black pager the hostess gave him. “It’s not as cool as the diner you showed me on our first… the first time we caught up.”
Ed’s knee pressed against his, forcing him to turn. “It was easier pretending to want friendship.” Ed rubbed his thighs, little finger sliding down the seam where their legs met. “But it was a date.”
The black square shook and red lights flashed. With a goofy, ridiculously happy grin, Jack handed over the pager. A tall, skinny guy about his age eyed him up and down. The host smiled and Ed cleared his throat, then stepped next to him. A touch closer than a friend might.
“Follow me, guys.”
Ed scanned the restaurant, glancing away when other customers looked toward them.
Their two-person booth wasn’t in the very back, but out of the way enough to give them some privacy.
“Here you go, guys. My name’s Jacob and I’ll be your server.” Jacob’s eyes darted between the two of them, a question in his eyes. The guy guessed they were together.
Jack snorted the moment he’d set the menus down and was out of earshot. “Do you think he asked the hostess to let him have our table?”
Ed lifted his head from the menu. “Why?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “He totally figured us out. Didn’t you catch the look?”
Ed stiffened.
“Relax. He’s definitely gay too.”
Jacob smirked at Jack when he took their drinks order and Ed not-so-subtly scowled.
Twice their server looked about to sit next to Jack to help with the menu.
“The eggplant parmigiana,” Ed sharply ordered, and Jacob scooted away. Probably cursing himself for jeopardizing his tip.
After they’d eaten, they opted to stay for coffee. Jack sipped, leaned back in his booth, and dared to brush his foot over Ed’s. Ed almost knocked over his coffee but didn’t jerk his foot back. Once he’d stopped his drink from spilling, he even pressed back.
“Marcus wants to meet you.”
“To make sure I’m suitable?”
“More like curious.” Jack shrugged. “He says I smile so much whenever you text. Says I talk about you so much he needs to put a face to the name.”
Ed idly fingered the smooth rim of his coffee cup. “I understand, and Marcus sounds really interesting, too, but—”
Jack’s heart skipped. Ed didn’t want to meet his brothe
r. Whatever they were doing was moving too fast in a direction he didn’t care for. Ed liked him, wanted to have a great time with him, wanted to get off with him—but he wasn’t up for being boyfriends. Wasn’t in this for any emotional investment.
Heat clawed up the back of Jack’s neck. His laugh scratched his throat. “Forget I asked.”
“Jack, stop.” Ed’s hands snaked across the small table, snatching his when Jack tossed bills on the check. “Let me process it overnight?”
“There’s nothing to process. We’re just having fun. Why complicate things by introducing my friends?” Jack plastered on a large smile and waved Jacob over.
Jacob collected the check and money. “I’ll be right back with change.”
“Keep it.” Jack’s voice was low and flat. “You were great.”
Ed put his napkin down. “C’mon. Let’s talk outside.”
Jack snatched his wallet from the table and followed his date toward the exit. The walk back to the Jeep seemed endless. Should he wait until they were inside, or was it okay to talk in the parking lot? His eyes darted to the small magnet he’d placed over the sticker to make Ed feel more comfortable.
Ed opened the passenger door. “I still can’t believe you don’t lock your car.”
A dispassionate shrug later, Jack slipped into the driver’s seat. “It’s a Jeep, not a car. The plastic windows zip out. What’s the point in locking it when anyone can just let themselves in. Better to not leave anything valuable inside than to lock it.”
Swiveling in his seat, Ed examined the side and back. “Good point. I usually have more than a few tools inside my cab.”
“Anyway.” Jack caught a hint of Ed’s scent, clean but not overpowering. He wanted to reach over, but now wasn’t the time. “Maybe Sunday brunch is a bad idea?”
“Whoa, hold on, please.” Ed put a hand on Jack’s thigh. “I told you, I’m not out. Certain people figuring me out could make things harder at work than I’d like, and I need the job.”