Don't Read in the Closet volume one

by Various Authors

  “We still have time, Jesse, see what this therapy….”

  “I’m quitting. It’s time for me to hang it up.”

  “What? Why? Why now? Is it this thing on your brain?”

  “No. Well, maybe. Listen, I know it’s nuts, but… maybe I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to do it anyway. Just trust me.” Jesse held out his hand. “We’ve been together a long time, Corry. Wish me luck, okay?”

  Corry was up, wrapped his arms around Jesse’s big shoulders. “Of course I wish you luck! You’re a knucklehead. You don’t think I’m gonna blow you off you’re not my boxer anymore? I’ve loved you since you were a kid. We’re family. Whatever you want to do, I’ll be at your side.”

  Jesse hugged him back. “Good. Let’s set up a press conference.”

  Evan was in a good mood when Jesse got to PT. “Hey! Just to let you know, I washed the sheets. Wanted to get all ready, you know. Standing by. Waiting for the word.”

  “You’ll be the first,” Jesse said, and stripped down to his shorts and tee shirt.

  “Integrative therapy today, followed by the whirlpool. Oh, I want to check your blood pressure, too. I forgot the other day. Do you know what your cholesterol is?”

  “My LDL is 68.”

  “No shit? Must be all that pizza abstinence.”

  “Well, abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  “That’s what I’ve heard.” Evan got the blood pressure cuff, wrapped it around Jesse’s biceps, then got the large cuff when the regular one wouldn’t fit. “88/56. I think you might be in a coma.”

  “It’s possible. We’ll see if you can wake me up.”

  After the therapy they repaired to the hydrotherapy room, and Evan climbed into the tank with him. “You’re distracting me,” Jesse said, when he felt Evan’s hands sliding up and down his back, curving around his shoulders. “I’m supposed to be working here.”

  “This is my A game,” Evan said, propping his chin up on Jesse’s shoulder and taking a nibble on his ear. “You just keep doing those exercises. I bet I can get you to stop.”

  “Bet you can’t. Who do you think you’re dealing with? I’m not an amateur.” He felt a hand sliding up the inside of his thigh, light fingers dancing along his skin.

  Evan sighed, his warm breath tickling Jesse’s cheek. “No, you’re not. You’re the heavyweight champion of the world. How bizarre is that, for me to find myself here with you?”

  “Pretty bizarre,” Jesse agreed. He finished the series, ignoring Evan’s arms around his neck, the fingers moving across his skin. “I just keep thinking, pizza, pizza, pizza. If I do these exercises, I’ll get some pizza.”

  “Kiss me.”

  “What?”

  “Kiss me. Don’t make me wait without a kiss.”

  Jesse pulled Evan into his arms, slid wet hands down his back. Evan wrapped his legs around Jesse’s waist. “I’m finding it strangely difficult to resist you.”

  “So don’t resist.” Evan was murmuring against his mouth, so close, a millimeter, such a tiny space. The size of a lesion on the brain, or the size of the space between lover’s lips, about to kiss. It was nothing, a millimeter. Evan smiled, eyes shining like stars, and it was the smile that pushed him over. Who could resist a sweet mouth, smiling eyes? No one was that strong, not even the heavyweight champion of the world.

  The corner booth was empty, and Jesse slid in, balancing a paper plate full of slices. Evan came after him, holding a couple of bottles of beer. They sat thigh to thigh, not speaking, just grinning at each other and stuffing their faces. Jesse was on his second slice when Evan elbowed him, pointed to the TV with his thumb. “You were on TV today?”

  “Yep.”

  Evan climbed out of the booth, turned the sound up.

  Jesse’s voice from the TV was answering a reporter’s question. “…no, I’m only retiring from boxing. I’ve got my next career, and that will be just as tough in some ways.”

  “Champ, what are you going to do now you’ve retired?”

  “I’m going to medical school. I want to be a doctor.”

  The room was still with shock, reporters standing with mouths slack, microphones dangling from their hands. Jesse grinned at them. Then the shouting started, the flash of the cameras, reporters crowding around the podium. Jesse stood there, let them get their pictures, then he was out the door before the stunned reporters could rally.

  There was a panel of sports analysts on next, discussing the implications of the sudden, shocking retirement of the current heavyweight champion of the world, but Evan turned the sound back down and moved into the booth until he could sling an arm around Jesse’s shoulders. “Well. How about that.”

  “Thanks for waiting.” Jesse looked at his watch. “For 23 hours.”

  “It just about killed me,” Evan admitted. “My place, right? You’ll have reporters hanging around your rich-guy pad? You’ll want to save your money for med school. You can bunk with me if you want to sell that place.”

  “George is gonna have to sleep in his cat bed.”

  Evan stood up, pulled him out of the booth by the hand. “You’ve never had a cat before, have you? Another new challenge. I’ll let you explain to George why he can’t sleep on the bed.”

  THE END

  Author bio: SARAH BLACK is a fiction writer living in Boise, Idaho, and a retired Naval officer.

  Visit Sarah at: www.sarahblackwrites.com

  Blog: http://sarahblack5.livejournal.com

  email: sarahblack5@yahoo.com

  Scarlet Blackwell – BREAKING WAVES (Surfing/Angst)

  Selected by Scarlet Blackwell

  Dear Author,

  See the muscled surfer in picture one? Let's call him Alain. He just walked onto the beach right after dawn and realizes he made the biggest mistake of his life when he sees the guy in picture number two, let's call him Jay, walking out of the waves. Alain dumped Jay a year ago to explore all his other options. Jay still hates his guts.

  [PHOTO: Two pictures of young men wading in the sea, surfboards in hand. One is heavily muscled with blue and white shorts slipping low on his lean hips. He has a strong jaw and curling dark wet hair. The other is leaner, smoother, wearing dark blue shorts, his classic all-American features set off by wind-blown light brown hair.]

  I am hoping for a rousing argument amidst pounding waves.

  Sincerely,

  Marleen

  Genre: contemporary

  Tags: angst; ocean; surfing; love rekindled

  Words: 5,366

  BREAKING WAVES

  by Scarlet Blackwell

  Cameron squinted into the coming dawn as he shrugged on his wetsuit. One of the smallest, most secluded beaches in Echo Cove, this one got busy in the height of summer but despite it being the weekend, he knew he still had a couple of hours before the tourists arrived. It would be cold; the wetsuit was advisable.

  There was one black car parked a little way down from him, no driver visible. He guessed he could handle one person on the beach although he couldn’t see anyone down there.

  The sky was streaked pink, chasing the purple away. Some people thought Cameron was crazy to get up so early just to catch some waves, but he was a solitary soul anyway, preferred his own company. Other surfers on the beach irked him. Of course, it hadn’t always been that way. Once upon a time he would have surfed with Jay by his side. Until he threw Jay away of course.

  He scowled in memory, pulling the wetsuit over his shoulders, zipping up, leaning into the car to pull his board free. Just because he’d come home to Echo Cove on vacation for the first time in three years, now was not the time to start reliving memories best left forgotten. He’d made his choice. College in New York or Jay. Jay had come a poor second, their summer fling over.

  In quiet moments of introspection, Cameron still regretted it.

  He slammed the trunk shut, failing to force his thoughts away. Jay was the reason he hadn’t visited his folks in three years. Too scared to f
ace his ex and see what he’d done to him and how Jay must hate him. This time he manned up though. He couldn’t stay away from his home forever and who said Jay was even still here?

  Their affair had been a secret, both men in the closet but he guessed people talked about them anyway. Cameron cowardly waited until he was safe in New York and then he wrote his mother a letter telling her he was gay.

  After her initial shock, she was positive about it, his father not so much but at least they were still on speaking terms. When his mother visited, his father didn’t come with her. Their first meeting the previous evening had been strained, but he didn’t imagine the warmth in his father’s hug. It was still there and he was okay. One hurdle down, one to go. That of bumping into Jay somewhere in town and not going completely to pieces.

  Bare foot, he took the steep steps down onto the golden sand and looked across the crashing waves with satisfaction. Yes, it was still as he had imagined. You couldn’t beat the surf on the Californian coast. He was glad to be back.

  He dropped his towel to the still-damp sand and stepped forward to the shoreline, before he froze.

  A figure appeared from beneath the waves carrying a surfboard and wearing nothing but a pair of tight black shorts, his cropped dark hair glittering with sea water.

  Cameron knew it was him even before he recognised the lean, tanned body, the washboard abs, the muscular shoulders.

  He lost his grip on his board and it tumbled to the sand.

  Jay saw him at the same time and was the first to recover.

  “Well, well, well, look who it is. The college boy’s deigning to grace us with his presence.” Jay had to raise his voice to be heard over the pounding waves. His hazel eyes glittered in the first rays of sunshine. Cameron heard the spite, the loss, in his tone and let anger mask his own emotions.

  “Deigning? That’s a big word, sure you know what it means?”

  Jay dropped his board, fury on his face, one fist clenched. “You haven’t changed, you prick. Always thought you were better than me, better than this didn’t you?”

  Cameron regarded him a moment. Was that really what Jay thought of him? Cameron had never thought that. He had only wanted to aspire to something more than this sleepy town and its self-satisfied, unmotivated inhabitants.

  Fulfilling his dreams had cost him Jay and it had taken him until this moment to realise it was the biggest mistake of his life.

  He bit his lip. Pointless to let Jay see how much this encounter hurt him. Better to finish the war of words and then crawl away somewhere to lick his wounds. He tilted his chin arrogantly.

  “That’s right. Hardly the sharpest tool in the box, were you Jay?”

  Jay rushed at him with rage twisting his handsome features. He punched Cameron in the face and Cameron stumbled back over his board and fell heavily, his jaw smarting. Jay was on him in an instant. He pinned Cameron’s wrists above his head, leaning his weight on them, snarling into his face.

  “I’ve wanted to do that for so fucking long, you’ve no idea.”

  Water dripped into Cameron’s face. Rogue waves slipped beneath his body, the tide coming in swiftly. He stared up into the glittering green-brown eyes. He was taller, more muscular, stronger than Jay. He tossed his ex off him.

  Jay grabbed his ankle as Cameron tried to stand and then they were back in the sand, amongst the incoming waves, tousling furiously, Jay raining blows on Cameron and Cameron trying his best to defend himself without resort to his fists because Christ, even now, even after all the water under the bridge, he didn’t want to hurt Jay.

  It was a bit late for that now wasn’t it? What had he done three years ago? He’d watched the tears stream down his lover’s face. He’d watched Jay beg him not to leave, promise him anything, if only he said this wasn’t the end.

  God, what had he done? In three years, he’d never found anyone to replace Jay and now, with that still-familiar body pressing down on his, coiled with rage, he knew he never would.

  He shoved Jay off him again and scrambled to his feet. Jay tripped him, punched him in the back and as Cameron fell face first, Jay was on him again, pressing his face into the water.

  “You son of a bitch, you fucking lousy son of a bitch, I don’t know how you dare come back here after what you did to me.”

  Cameron coughed and spluttered, breathing in sand and salt, trying to twist away from the heavy hand on the back of his neck.

  But Jay obviously didn’t have murder in mind because he let him go soon enough.

  Cameron rolled over, eyes streaming, tasting grit between his teeth and crawled up the beach, grabbing for his towel which remained dry a few feet away, wiping off as best he could. Jay climbed up. His jaw was clenched tight, face pale beneath his summer tan.

  Four months was all they’d spent together. Enough for Cameron to know Jay was the one.

  Jay bent to grab his board which was slowly being dragged back into the ocean by the incoming tide.

  Cameron splashed through the water to grip his arm.

  Jay whirled around to shove him back. “Get the hell off me.”

  “Jay.”

  Jay started to walk away, out of the waves.

  “Jay, wait. Please.”

  Jay stopped. He stood with shoulders slumped and head bowed. Cameron moved up behind him, close enough to smell the ocean on Jay’s glistening skin and for him to remember a hundred times of doing the same with Jay in his bed.

  “Oh Christ, I didn’t want it to end, you have to believe me. I didn’t think it was fair to ask you to wait three years for me and I knew you didn’t want to leave here and so I didn’t ask you to come to New York with me. I thought it was fairer for me to finish it. That in the long run, I’d be doing you a favour.”

  The taste of sea water was strong in his mouth. Cameron felt nauseated. His heart beat louder in his ears than the crashing waves. He had fantasised a dozen meetings with Jay and all of them had ended up this way – in violence, in recriminations, in desperate hurt.

  Jay turned around. “A favour? When you ripped my heart out and took it away forever, what sort of favour were you doing me? Spoiling me for every other man who came calling, yeah, some sort of favour that was.”

  Cameron swallowed the bitterness in his throat. Jay’s teeth were pressed hard together but it didn’t stop his lip trembling or the shine across his golden eyes.

  “Jay.” Cameron put a hand on his forearm and remembered that long ago feel of Jay’s silky skin. “I broke my own heart when I did it. I know you can never forgive me and I’ll never forgive myself.” His hand tightened. “I’m sorry.”

  Jay’s eyes met his for the longest moment. Then he rubbed a rough hand over his eyes and shrugged away from Cameron’s touch. “No.” Instead of walking away up the beach, he left his board and instead, ran into the ocean.

  Cameron stared after him as Jay plunged beneath the waves. This was futile, he knew it, but he couldn’t go. He couldn’t go without just…touching Jay once more.

  He waded into the foaming water. Spray splashed his face and stung his eyes. For a moment he felt the ecstasy of the ocean, the same buzz he always got when he came surfing but swiftly checked himself. There was no ecstasy to be had here. All that was done. For a moment he felt his love of surfing had been forever dented by the events of that morning.

  It would serve him right.

  He plunged forward, following Jay at a fast crawl. Christ, where was he going? Jay was dozens of yards up ahead, swimming towards a far out buoy.

  Both of them were fit, this long distance swim wasn’t going to tire either of them quickly but God, Jay had to stop soon, didn’t he? An icy hand gripped Cameron’s heart without warning. Jay could just keep going. Swim into sharks or dangerous tides, be stricken with cramp. Perhaps that was his idea. Perhaps it was more preferable to life without Cameron.

  Cameron’s throat felt full of bile. He cried Jay’s name and was swept under by a furious wave. For a moment he was upside down, flailing
, water in his lungs before he came retching to the surface, searching for Jay through stinging eyes.

  “Jay, please.”

  Another wave slapped him hard. Suddenly the ocean felt like his enemy.

  Jay had stopped at the buoy, holding with one hand, chest heaving, face flushed. “Go away.”

  Cameron reached him. He treaded water, catching his breath, then he leant forward.

  “Don’t. Get off me.”

  Cameron cupped Jay’s wet head and brought their lips together. He tasted salt on Jay’s mouth; he tasted the love he had thrown away three years ago.

  Jay gave a soft moan against his mouth. Rather than shoving Cameron away again, his arm curved around his neck. Their bodies pressed together beneath the water and they both went under.

  Cameron spluttered back up, gripped Jay around the waist before he had chance to protest and kissed him again. He felt the instant force of Jay’s desire, his tongue in his mouth, his sweet, sweet lips. Kissing Jay was sometimes just as good as making love to him. Cameron remembered their first kiss, after a month of dancing around each other and wondering if Jay felt the same. They were sat in his car at the furthest point of the Cove, overlooking the lighthouse. He’d brought some beers, drank one while Jay had drank three and been merrily tipsy. Cameron hadn’t waited for him to get any drunker. He intended for Jay to remember what he’d done. He’d leaned over, taken Jay’s chin in his hand to turn his face to him and laid the smooch on him.

  It had been the greatest night of his life without doubt.

  Jay had responded then as now, with a soft moan, his fingers pushing into Cameron’s hair. They’d kissed for ten long minutes before Jay had crossed the divide between them, straddling Cameron’s lap with his ass pressed against the steering wheel, honking the horn loudly.

  They’d both giggled like children and Cameron had fumbled with the lever to push his seat backwards. Then he’d slid both hands up Jay’s shirt to touch the satin soft skin, trailing his fingers down the glorious curve of his spine as he fell in love.

  Jay pulled away and brought Cameron back to the here and now. He stared at him with his pupils huge in his hazel eyes and diamond drops of water on his thick lashes, his sensual lips kiss-swollen and pink.