“You still know how to touch me.” Clay’s head fell back, mouth open. Bottoms around his knees, Clay resumed his confident exploration of Daniel’s cock and his balls.
“And you learned a few new tricks,” Daniel managed, pulse pounding in his ears.
“You like?”
Chewing his lower lip, he gazed into Clay’s eyes and nodded fast. “I do.”
Both on their sides, close, they stroked with one hand and touched everything else with the other. Clay slid a hand up the front of Daniel’s shirt then leaned in to kiss him. Gasping around his mouth, Daniel moved closer, wrapping his top leg over Clay’s solid thigh. Clay took advantage and pulled Daniel’s balls.
The throaty growl that escaped Daniel’s lips surprised him. “Oh, more….” Thrusting and begging, he arched into Clay, not embarrassed at all by his need or the feral grin on Clay’s face as he watched Daniel come unglued.
No one but Clay had ever made Daniel lose his control so easily.
The ghosting of a finger tickled Daniel’s taint. He whimpered, “Yes” and squirmed, raising his knee to give Clay greater access to a place only Clay had been allowed. When a finger slipped inside him, Daniel shuddered. “More….”
Daniel knew then, Clay was the only person he ever wanted to touch him there or anywhere else again.
Mouths gaping, cheeks together, they writhed and pressed closer, sweat sticking their flesh together as each of them stroked the other. Tension mounted within Daniel as Clay probed and stroked deep inside him. He was close… so close.
Hoping Clay still liked it a little rough and wanting Clay to come with him, Daniel tugged on his big, warm balls.
“Oh, Danny,” Clay moaned, arching into him.
“Say it again.” He loved the sound of Clay calling him Danny. “Again, please….”
“Oh, Danny!”
Then they lost themselves to pleasure, moving fast but with a rhythm so easy it was as if not a day had kept them apart.
Coming with a frantic cry, Daniel writhed against Clay, his entire body throbbing. Clay joined him and in a daze, Daniel imagined they were right where they were supposed to be. He should’ve been afraid of the intensity, of the speed with which he followed Clay back down this trail.
But he wasn’t.
Not even a little.
Chapter Eight
LOOKING DOWN at their hands washing their dicks in the master bath sink, Clay chuckled as memories came flooding back to him. “Remember that supply closet?”
“The one with the sink?”
“Yeah.”
Their hungry gazes caught, desire still simmering below the surface, though they’d both come already.
The supply closet had been their go-to place at the fort, the only location with a door lock so they could have more than five minutes together. Kissing, fucking against the wall, on the floor, on their knees, Daniel riding him, Clay bending over to take him deep. They’d had no inhibitions back then, no roles, no drama. Just a desperation to be close, to be together.
Time had not dampened their shared passion.
Leaning over, Clay gave Daniel a gentle peck on the cheek.
Tonight felt so different. The same, but different.
Better.
Maybe because Clay was a different man, a stronger man, no longer broken. Daniel had changed too. But deep down, he remained the same old Danny.
Chuckling and blushing in the most adorable way, Daniel shook his hands dry and grabbed a towel. These towels had the little black bears like his rugs—which Clay found as adorable as the man who decorated with forest critters.
Filled with warmth and affection, Clay kissed Daniel again, taking the towel and drying Daniel’s perfect, thick cock. Groaning, Daniel closed his eyes and grasped the air behind him, questing for another towel.
Clay stepped closer, pressing their bodies flush, and teasingly stroked their cocks with the one towel.
“That feels so good…,” Daniel murmured, face lost to passion once more.
The one thing Clay had never forgotten and desperately missed was Daniel’s wanton begging and hungry expressions. Nothing had ever been hotter or driven Clay so wild with need than watching Daniel lose himself to pleasure. Clay’s heart ached and his cock throbbed witnessing it in real life once again and not in his dreams.
“How can you do this to me?” Clay dipped his head to nibble on Daniel’s neck.
Hazel eyes fluttered open, and Daniel gripped Clay’s shoulders. “What am I doing to you? You’re the one with the towel,” he said, voice thick with lust.
Clay let the towel drop to the floor, desperate for flesh-to-flesh contact. “You’ve always made me so fucking horny.” He thrust against him and french kissed him. “Always have….”
“You’re insatiable, always have been,” he managed around Clay’s kisses. Daniel ran his hands all over Clay’s naked back, his hips rocking closer.
“Let’s get back into bed.” Clay lined up their groins, humping against him. “I’m not done with you.”
Smiling, Daniel pressed his hands onto Clay’s chest, resisting another kiss. Their eyes met. “Yeah, but I’m exhausted,” Daniel admitted through a yawn. “I don’t know how much use I’d be. I’d just fall asleep.”
Kissing him, Clay smiled and massaged his ass. “Okay, sleep first. Then we fuck.”
Daniel gave a sleepy chuckle. “Deal.”
In all honesty, the Sandman called Clay too. His cock might think it was eighteen again, but his mind and body were more captivated by the prospect of sleeping with Daniel—a rare treat during their relationship.
They returned to his bedroom, hands and lips not staying to themselves. Crawling under the covers, they found each other at once, cuddling close. Clay settled into Daniel’s arms, kissing his chest and loving how Daniel held him tight.
So much of their love life had been rushed, in a hurry. The friendship had been powerful, intensely loyal. Friendship created good relationships, and Clay liked to think they were still friends. But back then sex had been everything, so important. Clay even suggested they fuck in a dumpster once, but they’d found a privy instead.
Good decision, there.
“We didn’t get to do this very often, did we?” Clay coiled their legs together.
“No, we didn’t.”
“Remember the Humvee?” he whispered.
Memories of that night often drifted through Clay’s mind. They’d been the escort detail for a visiting officer while he conducted business on the base, and ordered to stay in the vehicle and wait. The officer was gone a long time, late into the night. They’d talked about their hopes, their dreams, their plans for the future—a future together despite the odds stacked against them.
“I’m so tired,” Danny said around a loud yawn. “What the hell’s taking him so long?”
Clay glanced at the building where the Major had disappeared several hours ago, then back at Danny. “Here.” He gestured Danny closer. “Lay down and put your head in my lap.”
Barely able to keep his eyes open, Danny yawned again. “You sure?” But he was already stretching out.
“Yeah, I’ll keep a look out,” Clay promised.
Danny rested his head in Clay’s lap, a hand on Clay’s knee. For an instant, Clay thought about suggesting Danny do something else while he was down there, but instead he gently scratched Danny’s scalp as they got comfortable. It felt so intimate, so sweet having Danny trusting him this way, special too, despite the risk of being seen.
Eyes peeled for a random passerby, Clay played with Danny’s blond hair, imagining how beautiful it might be if he grew it out.
Purring a little, Danny sighed at the caressing. “That feels good.”
Dividing his gaze from Danny’s contented face to the building, Clay continued to massage and scratch his head as his lover slipped away to dreamland.
Oh, if only they could stay like this forever.
His heart gave a pang and a tear trickled down his cheek.
Overcome, he brushed it away and whispered, “I love you, Danny….”
After that night, Clay had never been the same.
Daniel owned Clay’s heart.
Still did.
“Yes, I remember the Humvee,” Daniel said around a yawn. “That’s when I knew I loved you.”
At those words, Clay hugged him, letting the tears of gratitude fall. His shoulders shook, and he couldn’t believe he’d finally come home. To the only home that had ever been real. Not some fantasy hometown Daniel used to talk about, not home in the Army or even with his parents.
Home was Danny.
Daniel shifted, coming awake. “Are you crying? What’s wrong?”
Sniffing, Clay kissed him clumsily, then buried his face into Daniel’s chest. “Don’t worry. I’m just happy. Happy to be here with you, for Christmas.”
Daniel stroked his back. “I’m glad too.”
Chapter Nine
SUN STREAMED into Daniel’s bedroom, glaring bright off a heavy blanket of snow. He blinked himself awake. When he stirred, he felt something, someone behind him.
He flinched… then it all came back in a rush.
Clay.
Was this a dream?
How many mornings, lost between sleep and awake, had Daniel felt Clay with him, breathing on his neck, touching his thigh? Only to awaken, and the ghost of his memory slipped away with the morning light.
But this was no dream.
Clay was spooned up behind Daniel, those big arms wrapped around him, one leg between his. Sighing, Daniel shifted into his embrace, peace settling inside him. Lips nibbled his ear and Daniel shivered.
“Mornin’,” Clay whispered in a voice rough with sleep, his breath warm and seductive on Daniel’s neck.
“Good morning.” Daniel stretched his legs to the coolness of the sheets below.
Clay nestled his cock against Daniel’s ass crack. Fully erect, he humped against him. “Can I make love to you?”
Daniel groaned in want. Clay had been the only man he’d ever allowed inside him. And his word choice—making love not fucking—stirred more than Daniel’s cock.
It stirred his heart.
“Yes, please….” He shifted back in welcome.
With a hungry sound, Clay trailed his hand down Daniel’s chest to stroke his morning wood. “I missed this.” He clutched Daniel harder, then thrust against him with purpose and promise. “I missed being inside you.”
“You’re the only one I’ve ever….”
Stilling his hand, Clay rolled him over, his expression one of surprise. “Am I the only man you’ve been with?”
He blinked, startled a little by the change in Clay’s tone of voice, from lust to seriousness. “No, there were others, after the divorce.”
“Boyfriends?”
Daniel liked the jealous glint in Clay’s eyes, but he wouldn’t tease him. “Not really.”
His face scrunched in thought. “You meant that you’ve never bottomed for anyone else?”
“Just you, Clay,” he vowed, reaching up to touch his cheek. He wanted nothing left unsaid between them again. “That was just ours.”
A flash of emotion crossed Clay’s face, and with a strangled sound, he kissed Daniel hard, pressing into him.
Then Daniel realized something.
He really had to pee.
He pushed his amorous lover off. “I gotta pee.”
On cue, George whined.
Clay laughed. “Someone else does too.”
Not bothering to get dressed, Daniel slid from the warmth of Clay and his bed. Then he called George to follow him.
Outside, the sun twinkled like diamonds on the snow and George—after another pee on the porch—quickly bounded into the fresh powder. Daniel left him to play and hastened to the bathroom where Clay was pissing. His sleepy lover stepped to the side to make room and just like he’d done with Clay a million times before, he joined him at the bowl and emptied his own bladder, their piss crossing streams.
“I could use coffee,” Clay said through a yawn. He gave his cock a shake and stepped back to wash his hands.
Daniel kept a hold of his cock to keep it from rising as he watched Clay’s magnificent tattooed body disappear into the kitchen on a quest for coffee.
Finishing up in the bathroom, Daniel joined him. Clay had let George in, and the dog pranced around his food bowl. Daniel fed him while Clay made himself at home—buck naked—making a pot of coffee.
Leaning against the counter and more comfortable with his own nudity after last night, Daniel let his gaze drink its fill of Clay’s naked perfection. He wanted to pinch himself.
Clay is here, in Gilead, with me! Something that had once frightened him to his core, now made Daniel the happiest man alive.
Smiling, Clay handed Daniel a mug of perfectly creamed coffee—he remembered how I take my coffee!—then wandered over to the fireplace and windows. Outside the winter wonderland glistened, the sun shining nature’s apology for the violence of last night’s storm.
“Deer,” Clay announced.
Daniel looked outside, and sure enough, a line of deer was cutting through his property. He counted them, surprised to see eight. “Must be hungry after all that snow. Probably headed to the field behind those trees to pick for corn.”
“Or they just delivered Santa,” Clay mused.
“Um, those would be reindeer.”
“It’s beautiful out here.” Clay wrapped both hands around a mug of steaming black coffee, his gaze on where the animals had disappeared into a cluster of white-draped pines. “I can see why you always talked so fondly of Gilead.”
“Yeah, wait till you see the town,” Daniel said. “And the Shiloh. Maybe we can go fishing this summer.”
Clay studied him for a long moment. “That would be nice.” Then he wandered over to the fireplace, peeking into the stockings hanging on the mantel with care. “Did Santa stop by last night?” he asked, obviously in a playful mood.
“I already gave Jared and George their gifts,” he said, chuckling at Clay’s silliness. Christmas morning had a way of bringing out the kid in everyone.
Then a light went off above Daniel’s head.
I can’t believe I forgot!
He shook his head at himself. “Actually Santa did come.”
“No, that would be you,” Clay said with a wicked grin.
“I’m being serious.” After a fortifying swallow of coffee, Daniel stretched out his hand. “Come with me. I have a gift for you.”
“You do?” He smiled at Daniel, then set his coffee down and took his hand. “Have you turned into one of those people who keep spare gifts for random holiday visitors?”
Shaking his head, Daniel led him toward the bedroom. “Nope, this really is for you.” Before he made it to the door, lips and naked body pressed against his back.
“Mmm.” Clay’s groan left hot breath on Daniel’s neck. He humped against Daniel’s ass, and Daniel shivered. “I can’t wait to be inside you,” Clay whispered. “That’s all I want for Christmas.”
“Yes, but presents first,” he replied, leaning back as those big arms wrapped around him. Locked together like that, they synched their legs and awkwardly walked back into his room. Untangling himself, Daniel insisted Clay sit. His hard cock jutted up between those powerful thighs, and Daniel almost forgot what he was doing.
From the back of his closet, he withdrew an old shoebox. Clay watched him as he removed the rubber band.
Heart racing, Daniel pushed aside the rock he brought back from Kuwait, his dog tags, a lock of his mother’s hair inside a small plastic baggie, the collar his first dog Buddy had worn, and the first Father’s Day card from Jared. Everything that ever meant something to him, all wrapped up in one old shoebox. Beneath a napkin where Clay had doodled C+D inside a heart—I’ll keep that memento to myself for now—was something he’d been waiting to give Clay for a very long time.
At the bottom of the shoebox were two small felt stockings, one r
ed and one green, both with a white cuff and a plastic sprig of holly. The red stocking still held a gift from Christmas past—waiting for someone Daniel loved.
He removed both stockings, watching Clay’s eyes get huge.
“Are those…?” Clay gaped at the two stockings he’d bought at a gas station somewhere in Georgia.
Daniel handed the red one to Clay. “Merry Christmas.”
Clay wiggled it, the weight of its contents making the stocking swing. “Is this really what I think it is?”
Feeling teary-eyed, Daniel could only nod.
Clay’s hands shook as he reached inside the stocking.
“You copycat,” Clay declared, his face splitting into a grin and his eyes misting over. He stared at the gift in the palm of his hand, then at Daniel. “You got me a Swiss Army knife?”
Laughing and brushing at his tears, Daniel set his green stocking on top of his dresser where he kept his wallet, car keys, and a well-loved red knife with over two decades of use. “Yeah, but I got you a better one than you got me, ya cheapskate.”
Clay stood and grabbed him in a sudden, fierce hug. “Thank you, Danny. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” he said, squeezing him in return. “I’ve never left home without mine.”
“I can’t believe we got the same thing for each other,” Clay said, eyes wide and shaking his head in shock. “Or that you opened your gift, and kept mine… I just…. You kept our stockings.”
“I opened them after you left.” He couldn’t confess to Clay that he’d cried for an hour over the duplicate gifts, but the tears fell now. “I thought about taking yours back, but I just couldn’t. And I use mine all the time. And every time, I think about you.”
Clay kissed him with such passion and love it took Daniel by surprise.
“Thank you, thank you,” Clay muttered around laughter and tears. “I love it.”
And I love you. But he said, “You’re very welcome.”
Then Daniel took Clay’s knife and stocking and set it beside his own. “We’ll have to hang them on the mantel next year.”
“Oh, Danny,” he cried, kissing him again.
Welcome Home, Soldier Page 7