by Zach Jenkins
Even worrying about my crippling debt and lack of career prospects was better than thinking about Harley.
What is he up to now?
He’s probably out cruising the bars with his buddies, picking up a woman for the night. Someone who would probably replace me at a moment’s notice.
There was a commotion at the door as about a dozen people all rushed in at once and started looking everywhere at once. They kind of looked like they were in a team scavenger hunt and trying to make up lost ground, which sounded a hell of a lot more fun than the night I was having.
One of them pointed right at me and said, “Is that him?”
I looked around and started to panic.
All the men were much bigger than me. One or two of them looked familiar, but I couldn’t tell why. I had no idea how I could have wronged any of them. For a split second I dared to hope they’d all hunted me down to give them a ghost tour, but I quickly pushed the ridiculous thought away.
No one wants my tours.
I checked to see if the bar had a back door I could reach.
“There you are. We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” a familiar voice said as the group of guys split to make way for him.
Harley.
He was wearing athletic shorts and a T-shirt, and he’d been sweating. He looked amazing when he was sweaty, but I wasn’t going to base my future on lust.
He should have treated me better.
It finally clicked that the guys were his football buddies. The ones from the strip club.
His straight friends.
What I couldn’t figure out is what they were doing looking for me.
“What?” I asked Harley. “Did you come hunting me down because your parents told you one of their forks was missing? I didn’t take it. I don’t want anything from them…or you.”
It hurt to push him away again, but it was better to be proactive. It would prevent me from getting hurt again later, I told myself.
I chugged the rest of my second beer and regretted ordering the third. If I wasn’t going to pay the credit card bill anyway, it didn’t matter whether I drank it or not, though.
When I stood to leave, Harley clapped his hands together like he was praying. The move froze me in my tracks.
“Icarus, just stay and let me talk for a minute. I’ve got something I need to tell you.”
He didn’t sound mad. That was good.
I’d been very worried that they were all coming to help him tell me off one last time.
But since I did have a full glass of beer waiting for me on the bar, I sat back down to hear him out.
“I’m sorry,” Harley said.
I waited for more, but he seemed to have forgotten how his mouth worked.
One of the men, who I finally recognized from the ghost tour, pushed the back of his shoulder and said, “Come on, man. Spit it out. We didn’t walk into every open shop within three blocks of here just for you to freeze when you finally had your chance.”
Harley looked at his friend and nodded. “You’re right.”
Turning back toward me, but not taking a step to close the distance between us, Harley said, “I did wrong to you. I should have trusted you when you said you loved me. None of that is your problem, though. I’ve got to learn to trust you. I miss you. I want you back. I don’t care what that means about the money or where we live or whether I see my parents again or not. All that matters is that you take me back so that we can try to figure out how to have a real marriage together. I don’t know how I could live without you anymore. I love you, Icarus.”
His speech seemed to sap all the energy out of him. He stood before me with his shoulders drooped and his hands dangling by his side. His face was so open and vulnerable; there was no way he was playing a game with me.
Somehow, someway, the man I loved, loved me back.
Even I wasn’t a big enough fool to throw away that opportunity. If he was willing to work on our relationship, I wanted to meet him halfway.
He didn’t stay quiet long enough for me to respond. Visibly working up his courage, he added, “I’ve always had a problem with believing people could love me. Deep down, it’s just because I have trouble understanding what someone could see in me that would be more appealing than the money. I’m not a very good man. But I blew things with you because of my stupidity. It had nothing to do with you.”
“I understand that completely,” I said, barely resisting my urge to run into his arms. “I can’t imagine anybody wanting me, either. And I don’t even have enough money that people would bother to fake it for me. But you are wrong. You are a very good man. I don’t care about your money. You can have it, your parents can have it, or the IRS can come take all of it, for all I care. The money was what I thought I wanted at the beginning. That’s why I agreed to all of this. But you are so much better than your money, Harley. You’ve made me feel things no one else has ever been able to make me feel. You make me look forward not just to tomorrow, but decades down the road.”
I fidgeted with my keychain, unsure how much more to tell him. If we were going to have a chance, though, I needed to get over my fears.
I put my hands in my lap to keep them still. “The thought of just how special you are scared me. I was worried you were going to leave me, so I struck first. I always screw up everything so it felt like it would be easier to deal with the heartbreak if I could blame it on myself rather than hearing from your lips that you didn’t want me.”
My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for a reply.
“You will never hear that from my lips. My lips only want to say sweet things to you, and to kiss you.”
“Will you take me back?” I asked.
I held my breath, still afraid of his answer.
“Of course. I never let you go.”
We both rushed toward each other until our bodies met.
Harley lifted me off the ground and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he spun us and we kissed.
I couldn’t believe things were going to work out. I still didn’t understand what he could see in me, but, if he felt the same way about himself, we could spend the rest of our lives showing each other, since we were done hiding behind our insecurities.
The crowd cheered around us, reminding me that we weren’t alone.
“So, this is your football team? What exactly are they doing here?” I asked.
“Well, other than for emotional support, I thought they’d like to take one of your tours. I figured if you didn’t take me back, I could try my hand at giving the tour. But maybe you’d prefer…”
He trailed off, his eyes locked with mine as we smiled at each other.
“Sure. I’d love to give your friends a tour, and get a chance to meet them. That’ll give me a chance to start learning all the embarrassing things from your past.”
“Your tour is not nearly long enough for that,” Harley said, setting me back down on the floor. “Hey, I’ve just got to ask you one thing. Why didn’t you tell me you ordered the more expensive website? I could have been convinced. You didn’t need to hide it.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t. I’m just getting the basic one. Where’d you hear that?”
“I’m going to kill my dad.”
I shook my head, and pulled him in for a kiss. “Ignore him. He won’t have any control over you if you just ignore him.”
“Come on, guys. I’ve told you how great this tour of his is. Let’s go check it out so you can see for yourselves.”
I was surprised when every one of them followed us outside, even the guys who’d been on the tour already. I had never given a tour to a crowd that large before. The thought of it was a little intimidating, but with Harley by my side, I didn’t have anything to worry about.
Twenty-Two
Icarus
The ghost tour was over.
I was naked and straddled over Harley’s body.
He was flat on his back on our bed.
Also
naked.
He placed his hands on the outside of my arms, and I could tell he was getting ready to roll me onto my back any second and take charge. I felt his hardness against my ass and wondered how long he would be able to control himself.
I shook my head, bounced on his stomach once and pushed firmly down on his chest with my hands. “I can’t believe you didn’t say a single word during the entire tour,” I said.
“That’s your job. Interrupting would be rude.”
His short sentences and the way his eyes rolled back in his head let me know we didn’t have long before I got what I wanted, too. Until he couldn’t resist any longer, I decided to tease him by playing it cool.
“That was really a great idea you had afterward, taking everyone back to the bar. I can’t believe I never thought of it. Get everyone drinking right after the tour, and everyone will tell their friends. Plus, how cool is it that the owner is going to tell people about my tour in exchange for starting and stopping at his place.”
That had been Harley’s idea too. It was such a simple thing, but so obvious once someone said it.
I leaned forward to give him a kiss on the neck. My body shifting against his dick earned a groan from my husband.
My real husband.
My forever husband.
“Hey, I love you, Harley. More than the view of our town at sunrise from up in the mountains.”
“I love you too. More than scoring a last-second touchdown.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I love you more than a chocolate chip muffin.”
Harley’s body shook beneath me as he laughed. “Now you’re just lying to me. There’s nothing you love more than those muffins.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
Harley growled and I felt his muscles tense an instant before he moved.
Before I could even squeak, I was trapped beneath him.
Sure, he would have let me go if I wanted, but seeing the lust in his eyes as I ran my hands over his muscular chest, why would I ever want to escape my Harley?
“Are we done talking here?” Harley asked.
“Done? I was just killing time until you got yourself ready,” I taunted, faking a yawn.
Harley shifted so that one of his legs was between mine with the other on the outside. It allowed him to keep me pinned while making it easier for him to sneak his fingers between my legs to spread the lube.
“You do seem to be headed the right direction.” I practically sang as his fingers teased my opening.
He climbed back between my legs and lifted my ankles up against his chest. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this, Icarus Winfield.”
The new name still felt strange, but from his lips it was quickly growing on me.
“It hasn’t been that long since we last fucked,” I said.
He nodded very seriously as he lined himself up with one hand. “That’s true. But this is different. I’ve waited forever to make love.”
He stole any stupid responses I might have had right from my lips when he pressed inside me.
“I certainly love that.”
Trapped beneath Harley and suddenly completely under his control, I knew I was done slowing things down for the night.
“That feels so good,” I said. “But you know what would feel better?”
“What?” he asked while lazily fondling my erection.
“Harder. Harder would be better.”
He gave my dick a good shake. “You seem plenty hard to me.”
“Oh, God. You’re going to kill me by slow fucking me, aren’t you?”
He shook his head. “Not kill. And not fuck. I’m going to drive you crazy by making slow, sweet love to you.”
I needed to trick him into giving it to me hard and fast. After the last few days in particular, I needed my release.
“Are you going to sound like some sixties DJ during all of this?” I asked.
He bucked his hips roughly, once, as if to silence me.
“I mean, if this is going to turn into some kind of cheesy thing,” I continued defiantly, “I’ll just go clean the bathroom and give you some time to think up some better lines.” I wiggled beneath him, pretending to try and get away.
He drove himself roughly into me once more with a grunt that told me just how close he was to losing control.
But he wasn’t there yet.
“But I get it,” I said. “If you’re worried about not being able to last long enough, going slow is a viable alternative.”
He shoved his dick into me roughly twice more, hitting me in exactly the right spot. I needed more, but I kept my body still to hide my need.
We stayed frozen there staring at each other, each daring the other to move, a tiny struggle for control.
“What are we doing here?” Harley finally asked. “Don’t you want to get fucked?”
“Of course. I want you to fuck me silly. There. I said it. You are right. It’s been too long since we fucked. But you said you wanted to make love, not fuck, remember?”
“Who says making love needs to be slow and boring anyway?” Harley asked.
I liked where the conversation was going.
“I don’t have any idea. Probably some old couple like Ethel and Earl who don’t have the energy anymore.”
“Somehow, I don’t think the two of them have that problem, even after all those years together,” Harley said with a laugh.
“How about we follow our own rules?” I said. “Like we’ve done all along. Who would’ve imagined that a fake marriage between a guy who thought he was straight and a gay man who thought he couldn’t be loved would’ve worked out, but here we are. So let’s make love by our own rules, too. Make love to me harder, Harley.”
Harley nodded his agreement and fucked me like he was afraid he was going to lose me.
A couple of hours later I made him do it again to prove he never would.
Hours later, as we were about to fall asleep, I rolled away from Harley and tugged his arm to make him spoon me.
“I still love you,” I said.
“I still love you, too,” he said.
“I still love you, too,” I repeated.
“I still love you, too,” he said again, squeezing my body against his.
We kept repeating it over and over until we fell asleep in each other’s arms.
When we woke up the next morning, it was the first thing we said to each other.
Epilogue
Shane
Going to the bathroom and even washing my hands afterward was a pain in the ass with the crutches. Neither was as bad as trying to open the bathroom door so I could return to my lonely seat in the bakery.
I couldn’t wait until my foot recovered and I could start walking normally again.
Too bad the cast wasn’t a bigger hindrance with getting laid. I might not have screwed up as badly as I had the night before.
How in the world did I fuck…
“Sure, but give me a minute. I don’t know exactly what I want yet,” a familiar voice that hadn’t been in the bakery when I’d headed to the bathroom said.
Shit. What’s he doing here?
“I’m Echo. Are you looking for someone?” Echo asked.
“Nope,” he said. “I just need a little sugar in my life. I was going to get a slice of cake, but I actually just realized I need to get somewhere. So, I guess a cupcake would be more portable. Something strawberry?”
“Sure. Niko made some amazing strawberry cake with a lemon icing. You’ll love it. Should I heat it up?”
“That sounds delicious, but no thanks on the microwave. I’m on my way to...well, it’s complicated.”
Complicated, my ass.
He fucked up and if he thinks he can hide from me…
I realized I was the one pressed against the wall, hiding just out of sight.
I adjusted the crutches, took a deep breath, and hobbled forward to give him a piece of my mind.
But he was already gone.
�
�Hey, you just missed—”
“Yeah, I heard him. Oh well. Next time. Hey, can I cancel my coffee order? I just remembered I have somewhere to go, and I can’t exactly carry it with these crutches.”
“Sure. Where you headed? Icarus could probably give you a ride. He’s just over at the coffee shop with Harley. Want me to give him a call?”
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to interrupt their date.”
“You all right? You don’t sound okay. Worried about your doctor appointment tomorrow?”
“Yeah, along with some other things. It’s complicated.”
Stay tuned for Shane’s story, coming June 5th, 2018.
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Also by Zach Jenkins
Fox River Romance
Again! Again!
With Your Rock Out
Firefighters on the Fox
Love on Fire
Truth on Fire
Choice on Fire
or get all three Firefighters novels in one bundle
Love on the Fox
On The Strip
Unsettled
Written with E. Davies
Just a Summer Deal
Sugar Topped
About the Author
Zach Jenkins was born in the Midwest and stayed in the Midwest until the military sent him bouncing from coast to coast and even overseas for four years. Having experienced some amazing places in this small world, he eventually settled back in the Midwest close to family and friends.
He spends most of his free time catching up with TV shows on Netflix and chasing his barking dogs away from the windows so the mailman will continue to deliver the frequent packages that Amazon keeps sending him.