Ravenous

by John Inman

  Terry’s breath caught and his dick swelled up even more. “Because I’m about to come!”

  “Already?” Jonas gasped.

  “Some people are never satisfied,” Terry carped. In the same moment he arched his chest against Jonas’s back, and to Jonas’s full-throated delight, drove his cock into Jonas’s innards to the deepest point yet.

  Both men bellowed with glee as the juices exploded from their bodies. Terry’s, thanks to a quick withdrawal, exploded in a solid stream across Jonas’s back clear up to his hairline. And Jonas’s splattered in white blobby smears across the shower-stall wall.

  When he was certain his heart wasn’t going to pump him into an early grave, Jonas slipped around in Terry’s arms and faced him. Their mouths came together in a gasping kiss as Jonas clutched Terry to him as tightly as he could.

  “Wow,” he managed to mutter within the kiss.

  “Wow,” Terry muttered back, a grin creeping into his voice.

  Jonas blinked his eyes open and tried not to slobber. “Feeling funky. I think we need to shower again.”

  “Good idea,” Terry said, and again without any seeming action on Terry’s part, the showerhead burst back to life and both men bellowed yet again, this time because the water that cascaded over them was icy cold.

  “You need a b-bigger water heater.”

  “B-blow me.”

  They made quick work of their showers, then dried themselves off. Still naked, Terry banked the fire in the fireplace while Jonas cooed over Bruce, who was looking offended that he had been left out of the lovemaking.

  With the fire safely managed, the dog placated, and the last of the day’s sunlight streaming through the slatted cabin windows, Terry and Jonas climbed the stairs hand in hand and slipped into bed. Immediately Jonas rolled into Terry’s arms. The action was as natural as breathing to Jonas now. Terry seemed to accept it as the proper order of things as well. And that pleased Jonas very much.

  He opened his eyes to study Terry’s face. He saw worry there, and he knew immediately what it was about.

  “You’re thinking about the girl and her mother,” Jonas said, his voice soft, still ragged around the edges from what had taken place in the shower.

  Terry gave a faint nod. “I hope they made it out all right.”

  “We did everything we could.”

  Terry’s eyes found Jonas and a little of the worry left his face. He slid his thumb across Jonas’s bottom lip, then leaned in to lightly kiss the same spot. “I know we did,” he said. His gaze slipped to the window, so Jonas’s did the same.

  In another thirty minutes it would be completely dark. As usual, the starlings and the wrens were chittering in the eaves outside the window. Once in a while, a pair of wings would thud against the glass, smearing the dust and leaving a feathery imprint.

  Bruce took the opportunity to burrow under the blankets at the foot of the bed. He emitted a great sigh, snuggling happily between their four feet, sharing his warmth like a hot-water bottle. He instantly fell asleep. Jonas tucked his toes under the little dog, enjoying the heat. For even more enjoyable heat, he snuggled close to Terry, pressing his face into his furry chest.

  “I’m glad I’m here with you,” he whispered. “I’m glad you let me in.”

  “Into the cabin?” Terry asked. But he was smiling when he said it.

  Jonas rolled his eyes for effect. “You know that’s not what I meant.” He tapped a fingertip to Terry’s chest, right over the spot where his heart should be. “I meant I’m glad you let me in here.”

  Terry grinned. “Oh, that. Yes. I’m glad I let you in there too.”

  “You were more romantic when you had me nailed to the shower wall. I can still feel you inside me.”

  Terry’s eyes grew bright in the fading light. Sweetness seemed to radiate from them. “Can you really?”

  “Yeah.”

  Terry’s eyes softened even more. “You were incredible.” Heat rose to Jonas’s cheeks, but he didn’t respond. Not in words, at any rate. Inside, his heart ramped up to a flurry of tiny beats, and Jonas figured that was response enough. He stroked a hand across Terry’s cheek. Terry was clean-shaven at the moment, but that wouldn’t last long. He’d have a ginger-colored five-o’clock shadow before the night was half over. By tomorrow morning he would be back to being a Yeti, or close to one.

  Their eyes remained locked on each other.

  Again Terry slid his thumb across Jonas’s bottom lip. He opened his mouth to speak, then appeared to think better of it. He simply quieted, pulling Jonas closer against his chest.

  “I can hear your heart,” Jonas whispered.

  “Good,” Terry whispered back. “I want you to hear my heart.”

  They fell silent then. Jonas concentrated on the thudding of Terry’s heart and the cacophony of birdsong outside the cabin window. He wondered what Terry was thinking, but since he had no way of knowing and was too lazy to ask, he tried not to worry about it. Even if it was about the two of them, Jonas felt sure Terry wasn’t about to throw him out on his ear. Not if the elongating dick brushing Jonas’s thigh said anything about it.

  Both men tensed at the distant thump of helicopter rotors, throbbing in the evening sky. It didn’t sound particularly close, but it wasn’t that far away either. Terry was the first to climb from the bed, still naked and aroused, and patter down the stairs. Jonas traipsed along at his heels, enjoying the view of Terry’s bare ass descending in front of him.

  Without hesitating, Terry flung open the cabin door and stepped out onto the porch.

  The cold evening air struck Jonas’s naked body like a splash of ice water. It was the first time either of them had been outside in the open air without protective clothing since Jonas came to the cabin.

  Unsure they should be doing it now, Jonas reached out and laid a tentative hand on Terry’s shoulder. Terry seemed to understand what Jonas was silently asking.

  “It’ll be okay, babe. We’ll go back inside in a minute.”

  Jonas stood at Terry’s side. They lifted their heads and gazed over the treetops to the south. Terry could see the helicopter perhaps half a mile away, its port and starboard lights blinking. It was making back-and-forth sweeps across Terry’s side of the mountain. They could see a flurry of white stuff fluttering in the sky in the helicopter’s wake, slowly sifting down through the air to land among the trees.

  “What the…?”

  “They’re dropping flyers,” Terry explained. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Jonas gave his head a shake. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, you have a bad feeling about this? Why? What’s the problem? Why are they dropping flyers?”

  “Just wait,” Terry said, the muscles in his jaw working, his eyes riveted on the reeling helicopter in the distance.

  The helicopter was drawing closer now. Unless it veered away entirely, it would be over the cabin in less than a minute.

  Terry clamped a viselike grip around Jonas’s wrist. “Let’s go inside. I don’t want them to see us.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it!” Terry snapped. Without waiting for a response, he pulled Jonas back through the cabin door and slammed it shut. He moved immediately to the little window beside the door, while Jonas pressed his nose to the glass on the other side. Their vision was impeded by the metal slats Terry had nailed across the panes.

  Outside, the throbbing of the helicopter grew louder.

  “They’ll know we’re here anyway,” Jonas said quietly. “They’ll see the smoke from the chimney.”

  Terry nodded, still peering through the glass. “I don’t care. I want to see what the flyers say.”

  The men stood naked, one at either window alongside the cabin door. The room was cold, and a rash of goose bumps crawled up Jonas’s back. He could hear Bruce growling from the bed upstairs.

  The throb of the distant helicopter became a sudden roar, and Jonas knew it was directly overhead, buzzing the cabin. He waited. Breath he
ld. Wondering what would happen next.

  He moved to Terry’s side, figuring he would much rather wait there. Terry accepted him into his space with a worried smile. He reached out and tugged him close. Together, cheek to cheek, they stared through the same window.

  In the waning light, specks of shadow skittered across the ground beyond the cabin porch. Hot in the shadows’ wake, like great, fat snowflakes, white sheets of paper wafted down to pepper the yard, rustling and fluttering as they came. Catching in the trees. Settling on the porch steps. Sailing past the windows all around.

  While the sheets of white paper still drifted down, the scream of the hovering helicopter rose to a fevered pitch. The machine tilted off to the south, rotors blatting. In moments it had disappeared into the southern sky, back toward the tiny town of Spangle. Back from where it came.

  Without waiting any longer, Terry pulled open the cabin door and stepped outside, Jonas at his side.

  Flyers were everywhere. They still danced across the ground, tossed in the wind, drifting against the cabin walls, fluttering through the hole in the Jeep’s roof. The trees surrounding the cabin were decorated with them.

  In a single motion, Jonas and Terry knelt down and scooped flyers off the ground. One for each of them. They stared at the words written on the paper.

  Then they turned and stared at each other.

  This time when Terry looked worried, Jonas understood why.

  Chapter Twenty

  “THREE DAYS!” Terry spat. “Three fucking days! Then they’re going to blow everything sky-high. The town, the mountain, everything!”

  Jonas pawed at Terry’s arm. “How can they do that? What about your house and the cabin?”

  Terry gave his head an angry shake. “I guess they figure we’re dispensable. They’re determined to keep the creatures contained no matter what.”

  “You mean wipe them out.”

  “Yes. Wipe them out. I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the fact they don’t seem to mind wiping the rest of us out with them. Or blowing up our homes.”

  Jonas stared down at the flyer in his hand. “They don’t call them creatures. They call them parasites.”

  “Can’t argue with them on that point.”

  Terry had read the flyer a dozen times already, but he still couldn’t believe it. “They don’t say what kind of weapons they’re going to use.”

  “No. They don’t,” Jonas said.

  Terry could feel his face getting hotter by the minute. Everything he owned was here. On this mountain. Back in town. And it wasn’t only Terry who had something to lose. Terry planned on Jonas playing a part in his future life. He planned on making this place a home for both of them.

  His heart climbed into his throat when he uttered the words for the first time. “We love each other. We both want to stay here. We can’t let them do this.”

  Quietly, Jonas said, “You really do love me, then.”

  Terry’s anger softened. “You know I do,” he said, his eyes distracted now, studying Jonas’s face. “And you love me, right?”

  Jonas swallowed hard and said, “You know I do.”

  They shared a look for perhaps three seconds, then Terry crunched the flyer into a ball and flung it to the ground. Reaching out, he raked his fingers through Jonas’s hair, soaking up the warmth of his skin. The air was cold. He could see the goose bumps across Jonas’s chest and feel them across his own. After all, as cold as it was, they were still buckass naked. He massaged Jonas’s ear with his thumb. Even with the world about to fall apart around them, he bit back a smile when his cock began to fill with blood. When Jonas glanced down at it lengthening in front of him, and his own cock began swelling in response, Terry smiled even wider.

  Jonas didn’t stare at Terry’s dick for long. He looked back at the flyer in his hand, then lifted his gaze to Terry’s face. “We can’t let this happen. We have to find the creatures first and destroy them before they do.”

  Terry blinked. Incredulous at what Jonas had said. “How are we supposed to do that?”

  Jonas shrugged like the answer was simple. “They must be in the last cave. It’s the only place we haven’t searched.”

  Terry frowned. His mind on other matters, his dick beginning to wilt. “So we just storm in and kill them? You don’t really think it’ll be that easy, do you?”

  Jonas shrugged again. A stubborn light ignited his eyes. Like the fuse on a firecracker, they started spitting sparks. When the sun began to dip below the horizon, Terry noticed that Jonas’s eyes had gone a deeper hazel. The cognac color had mellowed. The whites gleamed astonishingly white. Shimmering with health. So fucking beautiful.

  A grin played at the corners of Jonas’s mouth. His very posture seemed to resonate with hope as Terry witnessed a new determination taking hold of him. A new confidence.

  “We’ll find them, Terry. I know we will. And we’ll figure out a way to wipe them out.”

  Terry cupped his hand around the back of Jonas’s neck and pulled him close. He pressed his lips to the soft skin under Jonas’s ear and breathed in his scent. His dick started rising again. And once again, it wasn’t the only dick on the move. Jonas was getting hard too.

  “We have to do it,” Jonas whispered, his lips now in Terry’s ginger mop of hair, their bellies pressed together. “We don’t have any other options. We have to find them, and we have to destroy them.”

  Terry listened to the words, but he had trouble matching Jonas’s moxie. To think they could actually kill the creatures. Save the town. Preserve the mountain.

  Live happily ever after.

  The very idea of accomplishing all that made Terry so tired he wanted to sit down and cry. Then he saw the hope in Jonas’s eyes blossom again, and he decided on the spot that he at least had to try.

  “What makes you so sure we can find them?”

  Simple,” Jonas said. “Because we have to. And because failure isn’t an option.” His hand came to rest on Terry’s stomach, burrowing through the fuzz to reach the skin. The tip of his fingers pointed south, bristling through Terry’s thatch of pubic hair, nudging the base of his cock. Terry figured one more nudge and he’d be on his knees taking Jonas into his mouth. Jesus, he had no self-control at all where Jonas was concerned.

  “How will we kill them?” Terry asked, trying to concentrate on the problem at hand. The real problem.

  Jonas’s teeth nipped at Terry’s collarbone. It tickled.

  Jonas spoke calmly, like he was planning dinner. “Wherever they’re hiding we’ll set an incendiary bomb.”

  “Huh?”

  Jonas sighed. “We’ll burn them out. I reported on an arsonist once. Interviewed him through prison bars. He set some amazing explosions. Firebombs from hell, he called them. I know exactly how he did it.”

  “Using what for fuel?”

  “Gasoline.”

  “We’ll blow ourselves up.”

  “Better than the government doing it.”

  Terry stood there while their two hard-ons bumped against each other down below. It was a pleasant sensation. Heavy rods of flesh poking straight up into the air, swollen heads bumping together, making both men’s knees begin to quiver. Bruce came padding down the stairs to join them finally. Terry thought about what Jonas had said. What it would all entail, finding and killing the creatures. Except for his dick, which wasn’t tired at all, a bone-crushing weariness settled over him again.

  No, it was impossible. They probably would blow themselves up.

  “Maybe we should just leave,” he said. “Let the authorities do what they have to do.”

  Jonas pulled back far enough to study Terry’s face. “But you’ll lose your house. This cabin. Your whole life, everything you’ve acquired, will all have been for nothing.”

  “I’ll still have you,” Terry said. “You won’t be a charcoal briquette. Neither will I for that matter. Or Bruce.”

  They looked down. Bruce was licking his butt. His priorities we
re simple.

  Jonas leaned his head in and laid a kiss to Terry’s forehead. With his mouth still on Terry’s skin, he whispered softly, “Inside my head, I can see us together. It’s like an eight-millimeter home movie scrolling past my eyeballs on a continuous loop. It’s the future I see for us. It’s the future I want us to share.”

  “We can’t share it somewhere else?” Terry asked, biting back a smile. For a minute there, he could almost see the home movie too. He swore he could.

  Jonas shook his head. “No. That future takes place here. In the cabin on this mountain, and in your house down the hill in town. I want a return address with “Spangle” on it. I want a wedding ring on my finger. And I want the ring to look exactly like the ring you’ll wear on your finger. I want to be married to a notary public with red hair who part-times as a substitute schoolteacher and has a dick like a telephone pole. And I want to win a Pulitzer.”

  Terry grinned. “That’s a really imaginative movie you’re watching there.”

  Jonas blushed. “I’ve had it for a while. I worked out all the kinks and supplemented some other parts with wishful thinking.”

  “So I see.”

  “You wouldn’t leave this place anyway,” Jonas said. “You know you wouldn’t. Not unless there was no way around it.”

  Terry sighed. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.” He cocked his head and studied Jonas closer. “So you really think we’re getting married, huh?”

  “Even if I have to trick you into it. Yes.”

  Terry laughed. “What if I don’t need to be tricked?”

  “All the better.” Jonas smiled, a wicked, sexy glint in his eyes.

  Terry brushed a kiss across Jonas’s mouth. Pulling back, he stared off through the trees. Out to the horizon. In his mind’s eye, he skimmed along like a drone, analyzing the terrain. The mountain. The town. The surrounding desert. Seeking the place where the fucking “parasites” were hiding. Searching. Trying like hell to sniff out their location in his mind’s eye.

  Perhaps Jonas thought he saw doubt on Terry’s face. Or perhaps he just wanted to have the last word.