Made In Manhattan (Made In Series Book 2)

by Ana Newfolk

  He’d rewarded me with his mouth on my rock-hard cock as he’d played with my balls with one hand and used the fingers on the other hand to enter my hole.

  I’d looked behind me to see Max lying on his back with his head between my legs. His erection had been standing up, ready for play, and I’d wondered how long it would take until I’d have it inside me.

  “I’m not going to last, Max,” I’d threatened.

  Max had scooted up the bed, still under me, so I’d ended up lying on top of him. He’d taken my mouth, and I’d tasted the mix of peanut butter, chocolate, and precum. It had been heady to say the least.

  I’d straddled Max, hoping he’d get the not-so-little hint that I needed to come desperately, and wanted to have him inside me when I did.

  When I’d stretched up to reach the side table to grab the condoms and lube Max had stopped me with a kiss that made my toes curl and had taken both our cocks in his hand.

  I’d gasped at the tight grip of his hand. Trying to stop my body from moving on its own accord had been a hopeless fight. One I’d not been interested in joining so I’d let the pleasure wash over me and wrap me like a blanket. I didn’t care what I’d wanted seconds before. All I’d needed was this, to be this close to Max, to feel his hardness against mine.

  The pressure had been building in my lower back and I’d known I was too close. Like a mind reader, Max had brought his other hand down to cup my ass, and had then moved it so his finger teased my entrance. I’d instinctively opened for him and let out a sigh as he’d pushed through the ring of muscles.

  The moment he’d touched my prostate it had been game over as the build-up of the orgasm had bubbled over and I’d come with a string of curses and I love yous.

  Max had still been hard against my softening cock so I had slapped his hand away and taken him in my mouth, tasting myself as I’d brought him his own orgasm.

  We’d had a slow shower after that, cleaning each other, and making out under the spray of the water. I had never felt more at home, but as we’d dried off, I’d known that I needed to bring up a topic Max was trying to avoid at all costs. Lucy.

  A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts.

  “Diogo, Fernando, how are you both? Come in, take a seat.” I pointed to the two chairs in front of my desk. “Would you like something to drink?”

  I was still getting used to the fancy coffee machine Dorian and Jean-Paul had in their office. It made the best homemade coffee I’d ever had. I was pretty sure I was over-caffeinated most days, but since Max kept me awake at odd hours, it was probably a necessity.

  “That would be great, thanks,” Fernando said.

  “Ew, not for me,” Diogo said.

  “So how are you settling in, Fernando? Have you got your bearings yet?”

  “I’m still learning my way around the city but the worst is the cold.”

  I laughed in agreement. “I’m hoping to get used to it too at some point. I don’t like the subway very much but I admit that the cold has defeated me a time or two.”

  Diogo was a little quiet, so I asked him how he was settling in at college.

  “It’s nice that I don’t have to move out to go to school.”

  “But?” I asked.

  “It’s a little hard to make friends. A lot of the students live on campus so they hang out together.”

  “How about study groups?”

  “I’m in a group but they like meeting up late and then going out to parties. It’s just not my thing.”

  I knew Diogo was still struggling with the loss of his mom. Having his uncle around was a great support, especially for the practical stuff, but it didn’t replace his mom.

  Even though Diogo wasn’t LGBT he really enjoyed coming to the Center to hang out with the other guys and girls and had made friends, but he didn’t share much about college with them. I wondered if he felt bad because a lot of the other kids didn’t even have a proper home, let alone attend formal education.

  “I tell you what, why don’t you two come over for dinner this weekend? Diogo, there’s someone I want to introduce—”

  My phone rang. I was going to silence it but then I saw it was the number for Jennifer’s mom. The friend Lucy stayed with last night.

  “Sorry, guys, I need to take this call, won’t be long.” I signaled for them to stay and walked over to the window that overlooked the street.

  “Hello, Isaac speaking.”

  “Hi, Isaac, it’s Jennifer’s mom. How are you?”

  “I’m good. Did the girls give you a hard time last night? Or did they do the teenage thing, and you didn’t see or hear from them until they were hungry?”

  There was a moment of silence so I looked at the phone, wondering if I had accidentally disconnected the call.

  “Isaac, Lucy didn’t stay the night. She sent Jennifer a text saying she wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay home. I was calling to see if she’s feeling better.”

  I froze.

  “She didn’t stay with you?” I said in a high pitch.

  “No. Isaac, is everything okay?”

  “I’m not sure, she wasn’t home last night. Oh god, I need to call Lucy.”

  “Let me know if she’s okay,” she said before disconnecting the call.

  I felt chilly all of a sudden.

  I rang Lucy’s mobile, but it went to voicemail. I left a message asking her to call me back.

  “Is everything okay?” Fernando asked.

  “I’m not sure. Max’s sister, Lucy, is staying with us. She missed her sleepover last night and I don’t know where she is.” I started pacing the office. “Oh my god what if she ran away again?”

  “Do you want us to help you look for her?” Diogo asked.

  “If it’s not too much to ask. All our friends are abroad or travelling, so it’s just me and Max. Oh god, he’s going to think this is all his fault.”

  I didn’t want to waste precious search time by waiting for Lucy to return my call so I called Max.

  His phone went to voicemail, so I grabbed my stuff, and went to the hospital with Diogo and Fernando.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Max

  I knew the universe was conspiring against me when I arrived at work and Jacki asked me to help her with the paperwork that was piling up on her desk. According to her, it was my turn to help out, plus she wanted all the gossip on Isaac.

  We spent the first two hours doing paperwork and me answering all her questions. For a moment I wondered if she’d ask me to bring Isaac to work one day just so she could interrogate him and ask his intentions toward me.

  I assured her that his intentions were absolutely unchaste. She laughed all the way to the door and then left me to finish up my tasks.

  The rest of the morning was quiet. Too quiet for my taste. I loved a busy emergency room, the rush of the activity, and seeing lots of patients. When it was quiet there was a lot of time to think. And with all the paperwork caught up on, there was not much for me to do between checking on the few patients that had come in.

  My mind kept revisiting the conversation I’d had with Isaac last night after our session of out-of-this-galaxy lovemaking. God, Isaac was so perfect, he moved when I moved; he loved when I loved, and he played when I played.

  I’d never been so in tune with another human being in my life, but that wasn’t what was playing on my mind.

  After our shower, Isaac had prepared us a snack, and had then called me out on my behavior toward Lucy.

  I’d been defensive at first but Isaac knew me too well to let me off, after all, he knew some of my history.

  “I’m terrified,” I’d confessed.

  “Of what?”

  “Of messing things up with Lucy but mostly that looking after a teenager will come between us and I’ll lose you. You never signed up for this.”

  “Max, I signed up for loving you. Whatever happens, I will always love you. Come teenagers or overprotective cats, we’ll face it all together.”


  “Thank you, baby. I love you too, so much.”

  I realized I was slowly acknowledging some of my biggest worries, and not just relating to Lucy and Isaac.

  We’d talked about my parents and the chances of them being out there looking for Lucy, what they would do if they found out she was with me, and my fear of seeing them again after all these years.

  We’d talked about the possibility that Lucy would live with us permanently and how I felt about that.

  The answer was that I was excited. I wanted to know Lucy better.

  I wanted to do what my dad had failed to do: care for her and protect her. Now her bruise was completely gone I could see how she was a carbon copy of her mother, with her darker skin, perfect nose, plump lips, and those trusty brown eyes.

  The problem was that I had failed someone once before and every time I remembered the consequences I felt like Lucy would be better off with someone else.

  “Who did you fail?” Isaac had asked.

  “My friend Ryan.” Telling Ryan’s story would bring back so many memories; it had made my heart beat faster, and my palms clammy.

  Isaac had guided me back to our room and sat on the bed with his back to the headboard. I’d sat between his legs, my back to his front, because I didn’t think I could tell Ryan’s story if I was looking directly at Isaac.

  “I met Ryan on that first night. When my parents kicked me out they didn’t give me long to take some belongings and leave the house. Joel and his parents were on holiday so I didn’t have anywhere to go. I went to the subway because it was open all night.

  “Ryan sat next to me and asked me if I was homeless too. At first I said no. I was in shock and didn’t want to believe what had happened. He apologized and left.”

  “He didn’t really leave, did he?”

  “No. He kept an eye out for me, and hours later when I’d fallen asleep in a corner he came to wake me and said it was dangerous for me to sleep like that out in the open. He took me to this abandoned building nearby. There were loads of old mattresses on the floor and people sleeping all together.”

  “Oh, Max, baby.” Isaac had tightened his arms around me and I’d steeled myself to carry on.

  “We ended up being great friends. He ran away from home because his stepdad had raped him and when he told his mom she said it was wrong to be gay and she was going to send him to one of those conversion camps. She didn’t believe what he said about his stepdad.

  “I was naïve. Ryan used to bring us food. He said he had a job that paid him some money so I didn’t question it. He said he didn’t mind sharing his food with me because I would watch over his stuff while he was working.

  “When he wasn’t working I used to stay with Joel. He and his parents didn’t know I wasn’t at home anymore. I became great at pretending. I always had a shower when I stayed with them and asked Sílvia to wash my clothes, making up excuses. Sometimes it was that our washing machine had broken down, other times I’d spill something on me on purpose.

  “There were nights when I’d bring a bigger bag with Ryan’s clothes and I’d wash everything while they were asleep. By the time they got up all the clothes were clean and back in my bag.

  “This went on for about a year until Ryan got sick.

  “He kept getting these bruises, but he said he was just clumsy at work. Then he got a cold that wouldn’t go away. He refused to go to the hospital. He said it was too expensive. I told him that Sílvia was a nurse and would help him but he insisted he didn’t need help and the cold would go away.

  “I had no clue, so I kept our routine as it was, spending nights at Joel’s, going to school, and using all my energy pretending. I was selfish and proud. I didn’t want everybody at school to make fun of me and I was embarrassed to admit to Joel that my parents hadn’t accepted that I was gay.” Tears had started flowing freely now.

  “Hey, it’s okay, you’re here now,” Isaac had whispered in my ear. “Do you want to stop?”

  “No, I need to finish.”

  “Okay, just remember where you are.”

  I’d breathed in deeply and carried on.

  “One night I woke up and Ryan was struggling to breathe. I panicked and shouted at the other people to call an ambulance. They laughed at me and said I’d be better off calling the morgue.

  “I told Ryan I was going to call for help. He reached and grabbed my hand. Even as he struggled to breathe, he thanked me for being his friend, said that I should look after myself and study hard so I had all the good opportunities. Then he closed his eyes and let go of my hand.

  “I ran outside to find help and bumped into a man who was really nice and came with me. When he saw Ryan he told me he was dead. I—”

  “That’s okay, baby,” Isaac had said as he’d wiped the tears from my face.

  “He saved me,” I’d said between sobs, “god knows what would have happened that night. He didn’t know me and he took me to a safe place. He sold himself to feed us and I couldn’t do anything for him.”

  “That’s not true. You were a friend, probably the only friend he had. You did what you could do. Max, you were a kid.”

  “I could have told Sílvia about Ryan, made him see her. But I was too ashamed. I thought he’d get better. Everybody gets better from a cold, right?”

  “He had AIDS, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. I don’t know if he knew. I only found out later.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “It turned out that the guy that came with me to see Ryan was a fireman. He called the paramedics, and they took Ryan away. He asked me questions about where I lived and my relationship with Ryan.

  “I was so tired of lying I told him the truth. There was something in his eyes and the way he looked at me, his voice. It felt safe, like a kind of dad, you know?

  “He took me in. I went to live with his family until I left for college.”

  Isaac had taken a breath like he was going to speak, but he’d turned my head to face him, and had given the most gentle and loving of kisses on my lips, and had then moved all the way around my face, kissing away the tears until I’d found myself relaxing under his touches.

  “Thank you for sharing your story with me, baby.”

  It was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

  I’d woken a couple of hours later. I’d been lying on my side and Isaac was facing me, still awake, and there was a blanket covering us both.

  “James,” I’d said.

  “What?”

  “James, that was his name. The name of the fireman that took me in. He and his wife couldn’t have children so they took me in without prejudice. When I was old enough, I changed my name in his honor.”

  “Max James,” Isaac had whispered.

  “I lived with them for almost two years. James died seven years ago from respiratory problems. He was one of the firemen that went into the twin towers and got people out. He lost so many close friends that day and was diagnosed with PTSD shortly after, but he still had time for a throwaway teenager he could have easily left behind. He was a hero in all senses of the word.”

  “I’m glad you had him watching over you, and Ryan too. Max, you’re an amazing person. Look at the work you do as a nurse. You literally help people for a living. All the work you do at the Center. I’ve seen you with the kids there, and even in Lisbon; you didn’t have to run those sessions but you did because you care and you’re an amazing person.”

  He’d pulled me in for a kiss. “Besides, do you think I fall in love willy nilly for just anyone?”

  I’d let out a chuckle. “I suppose I am quite the catch.”

  “You are and don’t you forget it.”

  “Do you really think I can look after Lucy and not let her down?”

  “Do you want what’s best for her?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then you won’t let her down. All she needs is a big brother that cares about her.”

  I could do that, I’d th
ought. I would damn well be the best big brother in the world. I just needed to figure out what that particular job entailed.

  There was also the detail of who would have custody of Lucy since she was still a minor, and that meant having to confront my parents.

  “And us?” I’d asked.

  “What about us?”

  “What will happen when Dorian and Jean-Paul are back? Will you have to go back to Portugal?” I hadn’t really wanted to know the answer, but I’d had to ask the question. “We promised there would be no more miscommunication between us. No more telenovela moments, right?”

  “Max, I have never felt more at home than when I’m with you. I came to New York hoping we could give our relationship a try, but I still have my whole life in Portugal, Max is still out there too, and I miss him.”

  I’d felt like my heart stopped beating.

  “Wait, I can see you heard that all wrong. What I’m saying is that I may have to go back there to settle things and bring Max here, but that is a problem I want to have to face. Got it?” he’d said.

  “Got it.” I’d kissed him. “Do you think Max will like it here?”

  “He’ll love it.”

  “Max!” I turned to the voice I knew better than my own. The panic I heard brought me back into the present.

  “Isaac, what’s up, baby?” Fernando and Diogo walked in behind him.

  “It’s Lucy, I think she ran away.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Isaac

  All color drained from Max’s face. I’d run from the Center to the hospital so I was struggling to get my breath back.

  “Jennifer’s mom… she called… Lucy didn’t stay with them last night—”

  “What? Shit, fuck, fuck.” His eyes were pleading for a solution, and I didn’t have one, but I knew I had to keep my head cool for Max.

  I’d made a career out of keeping kids off the streets, there was no way I’d let one back out there on my watch, especially after everything we’d talked about last night.