by Blake, Leta
“Sure, sorry. I—I don’t remember the place.” He started to open the door, but Zach put a hand on his arm.
“Wait—we’re not getting out here.”
“Why not?” Leith asked. He wanted to get inside to face the apartment, and the people, and just get it over with. He hoped they hadn’t planned a celebration, but something about Zach told him that he shouldn’t be surprised if they had.
“I have a surprise for you,” Zach said.
“A surprise?” Leith was confused. Didn’t a surprise party lose its effect if the person was told beforehand to expect one?
“Yes,” Arthur said, turning the car off and handing the keys over his shoulder to Zach. “Zach and his plans—”
“Uh-uh,” Zach said, grabbing the keys. “None of that.”
Arthur smirked a little and then said, “Have fun, little brother. I’ll see you in a few days.”
“A few days?” Leith asked, helplessly. As Zach crawled into the front seat and Arthur slammed the door shut, waving to them as he crossed in front of the car, Leith rubbed his face. “Where are we going?”
“Away. Someplace where the eager but annoying masses of friends and family will leave you alone for a while, and I can have you all to myself. A quiet place in the woods. A cabin.”
Leith didn’t know what to say. Part of him was glad, excited even, to get back to nature. The woods had always been healing to him, but another part of him was frustrated. He’d been ready to dive in—tear off the Band-Aid and get the hardest part over with. His mixed feelings must have shown, because Zach put one hand on Leith’s knee and turned Leith’s face to him with the other.
“I think this will be best for you, Leith. You’ve been through so much. You need some time to cope. We both do. But if you don’t want to go, of course we don’t have to.”
Leith looked in Zach’s eyes, so sincere and persuasive, and he said, “Sure. It sounds great. I haven’t been to the woods since before prison.”
Zach’s eyes darkened, and he turned away from Leith, fumbling with the keys as he started the car. “Well, it’s about time then.”
Leith nearly strangled on the sigh he held in, not wanting Zach to know that he’d seen his pain, Not wanting to admit to himself that he had been to the woods more recently than two years ago, and that memory was of course lost with all the others.
For just a moment or two he wanted to pretend that this was all there was. That they were going to the woods together for the first time, and it was new—something sweet and precious—for them both.
EARLIER THAT MORNING
VLOG ENTRY #7
INT. APARTMENT – COUCH
Zach perches on the edge of the cushions, grinning.
ZACH
Hello, my darlings! Thank you for the flood of comments and emails. I appreciate your support more than I could ever tell you.
I just wanted to let you know that Leith is indeed being released today. Operation Surprise Getaway is in full effect. I need to finish packing since we’re headed to the wilderness. Well, it’s a cabin with electricity and running water, so don’t let me make it sound like we’re truly roughing it.
But there’s no wifi. Not even a phone line, and the nearest cell tower is not near enough. So I’ll be going incommunicado for a few days, and I didn’t want to worry you. Leith and I really going to be alone for the first time since this whole mess started, and…
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair.
I’m nervous as hell. Everything went so well yesterday. Kissing him again…touching him again…it’s incredible. But now he’s leaving the hospital, and we’re going to be back in the real world. And maybe part of my reason for taking him away is that I’m afraid of what will happen once reality sinks in.
Will he still want me once he’s out in the real world? Right now he barely knows anyone. What if he meets someone else? What if he likes him—or her—more than me? He said he was straight when he came out of the coma. Am I just an exception? Nothing more than muscle memory?
He takes a deep breath and blows it out.
No. I don’t think I am. Before the accident, Leith had come to terms with his sexuality. He’s not straight. And I have to believe that what he feels for me now is real, and not just some…echo.
He’s silent for a few moments, his gaze distant. Then he shakes his head and claps his hands.
Sorry, I left the building there for a second. Okay, I’d better get moving. Leith’s waiting. Catch you on the flipside, darlings.
He salutes the camera.
Chapter Eight
Forty minutes outside the city, the countryside sped by in a blur of green, blue, and yellow, with a hint of brown and gray now and again. They’d driven in silence for a long time, until Leith turned on the radio. He tried to stop on a station playing showtunes, but Zach pushed his hand away from the dial.
“Oh no you don’t. Never again. I already suffered through one trip like that.”
Leith said nothing, but he wondered if Zach was also allowing himself a moment to pretend that things were different—to believe even for a second that Leith remembered. Leith let Zach pick a top forty station.
The cabin was small and situated on a small glimmering lake. The view of the mountains was stunning. Leith stood by the car, leaning against it as he took long, deep breaths. He stared at the green trees around him, so lush in their late summer glory, and the source of the sweet, new air that he took into his lungs.
“Well?” Zach asked, pulling their bags from the car.
Smiling, Leith spread his arms wide. “It’s amazing. I feel like I could fly right up into the sky.”
Zach dropped the bags and grabbed him around the waist. “Sorry, but I can’t allow that. You have to stay earthbound. With me.”
Leith wrapped his arms around Zach and tucked his face against Zach’s neck, breathing in his scent. He rested his chin on Zach’s shoulder and whispered, “How is this happening? How is it possible? How can I feel these things for you? You’re a stranger to me, yet I’m so…happy.”
Zach sighed and turned his face to Leith’s neck. His eyelashes fluttered against Leith’s skin, giving him goose bumps. Leith rested against the side of the car, his eyes on the mountains against the sky, and his arms around Zach’s shoulders, feeling the hard, strong line of where their bodies touched.
While Zach unpacked their groceries, Leith stood in the doorway of the cabin, Leith watching the shimmer of light on the lake. There was something about Zach’s busyness that made Leith feel safe, as though simply by moving in the world Zach took charge of it, and made everything somehow easier.
Zach glanced up at Leith, and his eyes narrowed a bit. He scolded, “You could help out a little. From what I understand you lost a few years and some fine motor skills, but you can probably still figure out how to unload the groceries.”
Leith shrugged, trying not to smile. “I like the view.”
Zach waggled his brows suggestively and bent over to put some things in the bottom of the refrigerator. “This view? Or the one out the door?”
Leith swallowed as he got hot and flustered. He grinned and ducked his head, getting a better look at Zach’s ass. It was the first sexual overture Zach had made since they’d kissed on the bed that morning, and Leith found himself feeling suddenly shy, like an inexperienced teenager who didn’t even know where to start. But who was he kidding? He wasn’t that experienced—not anymore.
When Zach stood and turned to face Leith he leaned against the kitchen counter and said with quiet speculation, “You always did like to make me come to you.”
Leith didn’t know what to say, but Zach’s words felt like a challenge. He took a step forward, leaving the door open behind him. Zach’s smile and tender expression were like a reward for his effort, and he stayed on course. Leith pressed him back against the counter. “Is this close enough?”
Zach laughed, his gaze flicking down to Leith’s mouth. “What do you think?”
The kiss was hot. He lifted Zach onto the counter, dragging his hips forward until he could grind against Zach’s crotch. Leith’s physical reaction was immediate, and he found himself riding the accompanying waves of affection and lust with very little grace at all. His mouth dragged down the side of Zach’s neck, seeking the soft spot he’d found so intriguing. When Zach gasped and shuddered in his arms, he grinned, tightening his hold.
“Leith,” Zach said, pushing at him. “There’s a bed.”
“It’s far away.”
Zach laughed. “It’s less than ten yards.”
Leith considered. The counter was hard, and the bed would be soft. Zach wasn’t going anywhere—he could have him in his arms again in only moments, and it would be better on the bed. They could take longer, and—yeah. The bed. It was a good idea. Zach was full of good ideas. He thought he must have loved Zach for having so many amazingly good ideas.
The path to the bed was slow, because he had to take off Zach’s clothes, and his own shirt was left on the kitchen floor, and his jeans by the bedroom door, and then he’d had to stop and examine Zach’s body in the light from the window, exploring the curve of muscle and dent of bone with his mouth, leaving wet spots that shined in the sun. Zach clung to him, his expression a mix of amazed tenderness and underlying surprise, like he nearly didn’t believe what was happening.
Leith could barely believe it either, but it seemed that bodies had their own memory, because his fingers found the exact places that made Zach go weak, and his nose and mouth seemed to recognize the taste and smell of Zach’s skin, making his heart thud and his cock jerk.
By the bed they rubbed their cocks together through their boxers, and Leith grabbed Zach’s ass to grind their hips together, loving the startling hardness pressed against his own. He shook his head, his breath shaking and labored, confused and turned on by the battling feelings of newness and familiarity.
The fall to the bed was fast, and Leith rolled Zach onto his back, looking down into his face and laughing softly. “This is crazy.”
Zach’s face seemed to shutter a little and Leith wanted it open again, open like it had been when Leith had kissed his shoulders and chest in the sunlight. “Zach…” He didn’t know what to say, but Zach seemed to know, and he brought Leith down for another kiss.
Zach pushed Leith onto his back, and Leith gasped as Zach mouthed his way over Leith’s chest, sucking and biting his nipples gently, making Leith arch up and grab hold of Zach’s head. His stomach muscles tensed and his legs began to shake as Zach moved down, kissing toward his cock.
Leith’s hands fell to the curve of Zach’s neck as Zach bent over, and Leith shuddered at Zach’s hot breath. Then it was Zach’s hair under his fingers, and his hot, hot, hot mouth on his cock. Leith wanted to watch, but it was too good, and his head fell back on the pillow, his eyes shut.
He whimpered as Zach pulled off, and the rush of air against his cock felt shockingly cool. Leith pulled Zach up, kissing him and dragging his body onto his, thrusting his wet cock alongside Zach’s. The scratch of their pubic hair and the drag of skin wasn’t enough, but still so incredibly good.
Leith didn’t know if there were words to describe how he felt—how his skin tingled and burned, nearly aching with want, or how his heart hurt with emotions that confused him and compelled him. It all drove him to want to consume Zach in every way—to please him and penetrate him, and somehow break it all down into the truth that his body knew and his mind denied him.
Zach’s hands were on his face, and Leith opened his eyes to gaze up to Zach’s, and he groaned at the heat and lust he saw there. Zach’s answering smile made Leith push him over, instinctively hooking Zach’s legs over his shoulders as he covered him, and he angled his hips so his cock dragged over Zach’s ass, making a clumsy stab toward his hole.
Zach pushed against him as Leith kissed his neck, saying, “Wait, wait…hold on.”
Leith steadied himself and backed off, watching as Zach rolled away.
“Let me just get—” Zach muttered. “Hold on. Don’t go anywhere.”
Laughing, Leith shook his head. He wasn’t going anywhere, unless it was to drag Zach back to where he belonged—underneath Leith and grinding against him.
Zach dug around in a bag and came back with a condom and lube. Leith pulled him down, kissing his mouth, tasting his tongue, and holding him tight enough that it might have hurt, but Zach didn’t complain.
The scratch of the edge of the condom wrapper against his arm brought Leith back to the plan, and he tried to take it from Zach’s hand. But Zach broke free from their kiss and slid down Leith’s body. Leith had a hard time not bucking his hips to thrust his cock toward Zach’s mouth again. The condom felt cool as Zach slid it on Leith’s aching cock, and he was breathless when Zach added lube to his entire shaft.
Then Zach knelt over him. “Leith, could you hold it for me?”
Leith nodded, his hand shaking as he gripped the base, the ridge of the lubed condom slick against his palm. He aimed it up.
Zach knelt there a moment, and Leith gazed at him—the lean muscles of his arms and chest, the dark thatch of pubic hair, and the hard cock sticking straight up, strangely pretty, with a small glistening smear of pre-come at the tip. Leith remembered the length of it in his hand the night in the hospital, and he wanted to lean forward and lick it.
He pushed up to do just that, but Zach pressed him back, leaning forward, his elbows on either side of Leith’s face.
“Is this okay? Is this good?” Zach whispered.
Leith blinked up at him, unable to even process that Zach was asking him a question, every fiber of him was focused on somehow getting more. He wanted more of Zach’s cock, more of Zach’s ass, and more of Zach’s mouth, so he kissed him and ran his hands up Zach’s thighs, hoping Zach would understand his answer.
The press into Zach’s ass took his breath away. It was so tight and hot, and he’d never felt anything like it. He moaned and bit his lip, trying not to shove up for more, letting Zach sink down on him slowly in small hunching movements that made Leith grip Zach’s hips. He shuddered, his balls already drawn tight and his cock jerking.
He realized he’d closed his eyes, so he opened them, wanting to see Zach’s expression, and it was amazing. Zach’s mouth was open, his eyes far away and yet focused on Leith’s face, and the soft look of lust and pleasure made Leith’s hips buck up.
Zach gasped, pushing down until Leith was all the way in. His instinct was to move, to roll Zach onto his back, and fuck him hard, but he held very still, letting himself take in the sensations—Zach’s pulse thudding against his cock in a steady but frantic rhythm; the hot, velvet sensation of his ass, and the grip of his anus around the base of Leith’s cock, squeezing him.
“Is it good?” Zach asked.
Leith growled and pulled Zach’s head down, kissing him and sucking on his lips, as he thrust up, driving into Zach’s ass.
Zach’s hands were in his hair, and they rocked together hard and fast until Leith couldn’t fight it anymore, and rolled Zach onto his back. He needed to be in control. Wanted to be on top of Zach, protecting him, fucking him, holding him open, and driving into him. It all felt so natural, so right to be doing this with a man—with Zach.
Zach’s eyes were closed and his head thrown back as Leith fucked him, and Leith greedily looked down at where his cock was sliding in, loving the tight grip and incredibly turned on by the way Zach’s ass seemed to cling to him as he pulled out. Zach’s noises were incredible, and Leith wanted to bottle them and own them, and never let anyone else hear them. They were so intimate and wild, and the small whimpers and pleas drove him on.
Zach’s hands gripped Leith’s forearms, and his legs shook on Leith’s shoulders. Leith licked his lips, looking down at Zach’s cock as it bobbed between them, the tip of it slick with pre-come, and a trail of it through the dark hair under his belly button. Leith wanted to taste it, but he didn’t want to stop fucking Zach, so he l
et go of Zach’s leg and ran a finger over the tip of Zach’s cock, bringing it to his mouth to lick.
Zach’s eyes went smoldering and dark, and he whispered something that Leith didn’t hear over the slap of their skin together. The taste was familiar and right. Leith licked his palm and took Zach’s cock in his hand, jerking him in time to his thrusts. Zach threw his head back and seemed lost, his hips bucking up, and the low, wild noises building in his throat and gaining pitch as Leith continued to increase momentum.
“Leith,” Zach moaned.
Leith bent down, sucking one of Zach’s nipples into his mouth, shuddering when Zach bucked up and cried out, and hot, wet come shot all over Leith’s chest. Leith gasped at the tight clench of Zach’s ass, and he lunged to kiss Zach’s neck as he rode Zach through the aftershocks of orgasm. He continued to thrust as Zach caressed his back.
He whispered into Leith’s ear, “I love you.”
Shaking and trembling, Leith took a deep breath, smelling Zach’s cologne, and shampoo, and the fresh air from outside, and the familiar scent of Zach’s come. He slammed into orgasm, whimpering and spending load after load as his mind exploded with all of the stars of the observable universe.
Zach’s head rested on his chest, and Leith ran his fingers lightly through Zach’s hair. The sex had been good, no it had been incredible, and he almost felt as though he’d never had sex before, because if it was supposed to be like that…well, it hadn’t. He wanted to laugh, and he wanted to thank Zach, but he didn’t know just what to say that wouldn’t seem odd. Especially since for Zach this wasn’t the first time they’d done this.
That thought made Leith uncomfortable, and he shifted restlessly, surprised to find himself asking, “Was it always like that with us?”