“What did you think I was going to say?”
“That I had good taste because, I’d chosen you.”
Keith lowered his head and looked away. He didn’t know how to handle flattery. He either got completely flustered or he would scoff cynically, hardly believing that someone would sincerely praise him. Most of the men he encountered had trouble appreciating how such a well-built, handsome stud could be so insecure. They often assumed that he was being coy. Playing a game with them. But playing games was something that was he was not very good at. He wore his emotions on his sleeve.
“That’s very nice,” he said in response. He almost got lost in blondie’s eyes. They were dilated and looked gorgeous. Keith had the feeling that he could have stayed on the couch staring at this beautiful man for hours, days, months. Such beauty would never tire him.
The two men began kissing and clawing at each other’s clothes.
Keith loved the rough feel of the blondie’s hands against his face and chest. He loved the strength and sense of control his companion exuded. But things were going a bit too fast for him. He didn’t want this to be all about sex. He wanted to take things slow. To get to know each other.
Finding a hook up in this city was the easiest thing in the world. But finding a mate, a companion, someone who could be both a lover and a fried, seemed next to impossible.
Keith slowly and gently pushed the blue-eyed stud away from him.
“I think we should take it slow. I’m not ready to go all the way,” Keith said.
There was a look of fear in the blond man’s eyes. Or maybe it was guilt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…it’s just that today in the gym…”
Keith shook his head and clasped the man’s hands.
“Please don’t apologize,” he said. “It’s just that I need to know that this is about more than sex. That’s the easiest thing to get in this neighborhood.”
The blond man squeezed his hands and smiled.
“I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “But I didn’t know if you would like that. I prefer to take things slow as well.”
“Really?” Keith said. He couldn’t quite believe it. So far blondie had been moving pretty fast. And it seemed like he’d done that before on plenty of occasions.
“Yes, really,” blondie said. They kissed deeply for a few more minutes and explored each other’s body with their fingers.
Keith savored a few more soft kisses on blondie’s full lips.
Then he asked, “How about we take a walk? A romantic stroll down sunset.”
Blondie didn’t answer at first. He seemed a bit disappointed that they would be leaving the apartment.
“Is this some kind of test?” He asked.
Keith shook his head no. But then a smile broke out on his face and he was unable to contain his laughter.
“You want to see if I’m really about more than just a hookup?”
Instead of answering Keith stood up and grabbed his keys. You coming? He asked.
A few minutes later they were out in the night air. The energy of the busy LA street buzzed around them. They walked hand in hand past throngs of gay guys chatting outside bars. Many eyes turned and watched them as they walked by. They were some sneers and snickers from the guys who had no time for love, affection, or tenderness.
But Keith noticed plenty of guys staring at the couple longingly. Their eyes revealing their desire to be in a couple. Their eyes revealing a desire for something more than the clubs offered. Keith squeezed his companion’s hand and held his head up high.
He had the feeling that this was the beginning of a great new relationship.
--THE END--
After the Gig
After attending a concert a few states away from their hometown Liam and Freddie begin to make the lengthily journey home only for Liam’s car to fail halfway. After a weekend turns into a week the pair begins to get frustrated with one another but Freddie’s bottled feelings are the tipping point when he openly questions Liam’s agenda wondering if this was all a ploy to get the straight jock into bed with him. Offended by the insinuation Liam parts ways with Freddie but after worrying about his friend finding a place to stay Liam eventually puts his anger aside and goes looking for him. Nothing could prepare him for the reunion Freddie had planned.
****
“They were a lot better than I thought they’d be,” Liam said as he exhaled, waiting for the mechanic to finish fixing his car as they stood by the motel.
“They haven’t toured in like five years, right?” Freddie asked.
“Yeah, I think we went to their farewell tour, I barely remember anything from that year,” Liam laughed.
“I know what you mean,” Freddie shot him a grin as he remembered all the booze-filled good times they had back in high school.
“Didn’t I meet Lisa at their last gig?” Freddie asked referring to his ex that was part of the reason the two decided to get away together.
“I thought we weren’t mentioning the L word anymore?” Liam responded after hearing Freddie rant about his ex several times.
“Car’s fixed,” The mechanic said as he wiped down his hands on an old rag hanging out of the back of his truck.
“Thanks,” Liam responded as he turned and looked at Freddie. “Finally,” Freddie muttered.
“I swear, you need a new car man,” he added.
The pair had been on the road for a while, travelling home from a gig a few states over and thinking it’d be ‘fun’ to do the whole journey there and back by car however Liam’s car had extended their journey home by three days due to constant failing and whilst the pair enjoyed having the time away from home they were beginning to get frustrated.
“Just get in,” Liam said as he walked around to the side and pulled open the door, hearing it creek and fearing it might snap off in his hand.
“Oh man,” Freddie began to laugh.
“Shut up and get in!”
“If you say so princess,” Freddie often mocked Liam but it was usually all in good fun.
Liam looked at his best friend of seven years. Freddie was tall and muscular with thick, dark hair and a sharp jaw whilst Liam was short, slim and had stylish blonde hair that he used too-much product on each morning. The two were opposites in every way, growing up with different cliques in high school yet somehow remaining friends throughout the entire process. Liam had gone off to college and graduated whilst Freddie had dropped out in his second year opting to work for his dad as a mechanic in their family business.
Their next destination wasn’t a middle-of-nowhere motel by the side of a desert road but a humble, four-star room in a charming hotel on the seaside. A population of a few thousand occupied the town, with tourists and travellers filling up most of its shops and markets. It was a quiet place that Liam enjoyed passing through, a rarity amongst the age of dirty diners and cheap booze. Instead the hotel offered luxurious coffees, teas and biscuits and homemade pies that were some of the best that Liam had ever tasted.
Despite its wonderful reputation the hotel hadn’t been attracting much attention through the early-summer, so when Liam planned his journey he was told he’d be given their best, brightest and biggest room on the top floor with a clear view of the sea. Of course, this also meant he was getting a couples room and although he’d warned Freddie in advance he already began to feel a little tense the closer they got to the room.
“So, none of that gay stuff, you hear?” Freddie laughed as he checked his phone in the passenger’s seat.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Liam turned innocently to his best friend who also happened to be the hottest, straightest jock he’d ever met.
“Oh man,” Freddie said as he shook his head.
“I just meant… no offence but like…” He seemed to have trouble finding the words.
“Go on then, say it,” Liam was getting annoyed.
The start of their trip had been nothing but laughs; it was all about friendship, about conne
cting and about having fun. Whilst Liam had stared at guys in bars Freddie had flirted with women but both of them were putting each other first. However, after their gig had ended and when the car started to delay their journey their fun weekend turned into a tiresome week and with day-old underwear and dirty shirts on their backs both of them had started to take out their frustration on one another.
“I just meant don’t get any ideas when we’re sharing a bed at this next hotel,” Freddie tried to tip toe around the eggshells he’d scattered across their conversation but Liam was already about to crack.
Liam hit the brakes, stopping in the middle of the road but luckily there wasn’t any traffic.
“You think I’d just force myself onto you or something?”
“Well, I don’t know how you work Liam,” Freddie tried to defend himself.
“How I work?” Liam got even angrier.
“I’m a guy; I work the same as you which hopefully means only coming onto people that are interested back.”
It had been years since Liam had come out to Freddie and for the most part that wasn’t an issue however when Freddie did make it an issue it always seemed to result in a heated argument.
Freddie held his hands up like a white flag.
“Okay, okay, just forget it man,” but Liam couldn’t forget it.
The entire trip to the next hotel was spent in silence, Freddie had swapped between sleeping and grunting and Liam had swapped between trying to get Freddie’s attention to not wanting his attention at all. By the time the pair arrived the tension was boiling and when Freddie took one look at the flowery hotel he turned tail and began to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Liam asked as he grabbed their bags out of the back of the car.
“To find somewhere else to sleep,” Freddie shot back.
“I’ve already paid for a room here.”
Liam couldn’t understand why his best friend was acting this way or why their friendship suddenly felt frail. They’d rarely fallen out but when they did it happened in a massive way.
Freddie stopped and turned around, pacing back to the car and leaning over the roof of it as he stared at Liam.
“I don’t want to share a fucking room,” he muttered.
“I’m not interested Liam.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Liam shot back as he felt his heart beginning to pound rapidly.
“You’ve been weird about things for days now, why?”
Freddie scoffed and folded his arms.
“I know this is all some ploy to get into my pants or something Liam,” Freddie said the words harshly.
“What?”
“Oh come on!” Freddie began to yell.
“The car trouble, all these extra nights in hotels, most of which only have double beds, I mean, Liam, man…”
“Freddie I don’t know what you’re thinking but I’ve never tried it on with you…”
“Well now, that’s not entirely true is it?”
The pair both began to reflect back on when Liam first came out, three years ago at a college party the pair got drunk on the roof of their dorm, Liam came out there and then and Freddie decided to kiss him, he’d had a curiosity but the kiss seemed to scare him and he shot back from Liam, turning and running away from him. It took the friends a year to move past that.
“Hey, that night you kissed me Freddie!” Liam began to get angrier at his ‘friend’ as Freddie stood there and grunted.
“Yeah, well I don’t want that stuff happening again, you got it?!”
Liam took a moment to gather himself as Freddie vanished down a side-street from the main road. He slowly walked towards the hotel and took a deep breath.
“Jerk,” he muttered to himself before entering.
Liam had dealt with uncertainty in men before but he thought that his friendship with Freddie was beyond that and never expected his long-time best friend to abandon him in a tantrum.
After Liam had checked in and made his way up to his room he lay on the comfortable bed, glaring out at the beautiful view and found himself drifting off to sleep.
***
By the time Liam woke up it was pitch-black out, he grabbed his phone and saw that it was eleven, he tried to call Freddie only to hear Freddie’s phone ring in their luggage.
“Idiot,” he muttered as he jumped up and checked himself in the mirror making sure his blonde hair was still presentable.
Liam headed for the door carrying Freddie’s phone with him, he was still angry at him but he couldn’t leave him not knowing if he’d found a place to stay or not.
The town the two had arrived in was small enough for Liam to walk the entire length of it three-times before finally entering the last, open bar filled with cheers of regulars that had been going there every night for as long as they could remember. That’s why it was so easy to spot an oddity like Freddie slumped on his stool, elbows on the wet surface of the bar with one hand holding his chin and the other holding a glass of whisky.
Liam went next to his best friend of seven years, slamming down the phone between them as got on the stool beside Freddie and ordered himself a beer.
“You forgot this,” Liam hissed.
Liam was fully prepared to argue, to shout and yell until they were thrown onto the streets and then he’d continue until Freddie admitted his faults however as Freddie turned to face him he noticed the sadness in his watery eyes, the lifelessness of his tired body that swayed to face him as if it was the wind pushing him and not his own actions and the final straw had to be the weakness in his voice.
“Sorry,” Freddie muttered.
“What?” Liam was taken aback; he’d never seen Freddie look so defeated.
“I’m sorry,” Freddie repeated himself before swaying forwards once more and placing his now-empty glass down on the bar.
Without a word being exchanged the bar tender came over, filled his glass and walked off again.
“How many of those have you had?” Liam asked.
“Not too many…”
Freddie started to hiccup after he finished his sentence.
“Okay, like five or six,” he said as he pulled himself up a little from the counter.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Liam asked as he looked at his defeated friend.
“I just don’t know…” Freddie responded hesitantly.
“You don’t know?”
“What I am.”
Liam was confused, Freddie wasn’t making any sense to him and he didn’t know how to get past whatever it was they were dealing with if Freddie wasn’t going to be honest with him.
“You’re being pretty cryptic,” he said.
“Just tell me what’s wrong, did I do something?”
It was at that point that Freddie slammed down his drink and glared into Liam’s blue eyes.
“That night,” he muttered as he looked around to see if anyone was listening in.
“That kiss did something for me,” he said before picking his drink back up to down it.
“It did?” Liam wanted to smile but he could see that now wasn’t the right time.
“Yes, it did,” Freddie replied.
“And that’s a bad thing?” Liam questioned.
Liam wanted to smile, his insides tingling with joy as his straight-best-friend admitted that a guy between them meant something but now wasn’t the time for celebration.
“It’s just complicated for me,” Freddie replied.
“Well it’s not exactly a walk in the park for me,” Liam protested.
“You’ve done the coming out thing, you’ve gone off to college, you’re living your life and I’m just…” Freddie went quiet towards the end of his sentence.
“You’re just?”
“I’m living in a tiny apartment around the corner from my dad’s… I’m working a job that my dad gave me… I’m not going anywhere and the only good thing I’ve had in the last few years was a girlfriend that cheated on me, I’m pathetic.”<
br />
“So you got mad at me because you like me?” Liam asked as he tried to figure things out.
“I guess,” Freddie looked towards his empty glass.
“I’ve always liked guys, alright,” Freddie suddenly claimed.
“You have?”
“Yeah, I mean, I like girls too but I’ve always had this itch that I’ve ignored.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I don’t know, I was scared what people might think of me,” Freddie began to ramble as he took another sip of his drink.
“You’ve never feared it but I play on sports teams man.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So how do you think that’ll look?” Freddie said.
“I mean, I could sleep with a thousand women but the moment I try anything with one guy they’ll brand me gay.”
“It doesn’t matter what other people think Freddie,” Liam couldn’t get it because he’d never cared what anyone thought of him, anyone but Freddie that is.
“Besides, being gay isn’t really an insult,” Liam smirked.
“I’m quite proud of who I am.”
“That’s the difference between us, you’re confident,” Freddie protested.
“And you’re not?” Liam asked as he reached over and squeezed Freddie’s bicep.
Interracial Romance: Gay Romance: Bound By His Own Desires (MMM Endowed Black Men Bondage Threesome Romance) (A Billionaire's Freedom Book 3) Page 22