A Simple Truth

by Jamie Craig

  “You think? I guess I’m going to have to make sure that you know by the time I’m finished.” He pulled his hand free and positioned the dildo at Charlie’s opening. The tip was so cold, Charlie tensed and tried to resist the intrusion. Bryce responded by grasping Charlie’s cock and stroking it with slow jerks of his wrist. As soon as Charlie began to relax, Bryce pushed the thick dildo past his clenched muscle.

  He’d fucked himself quite a few times with the toy, usually when he was so horny jacking off wouldn’t suffice. But in Bryce’s hands, it felt different. Bigger. Thicker. Impossible to take. Charlie’s blood pounded in his veins. Even now, his first instinct was to push it out, but if he did that, he’d never be ready for Bryce. For that thick, gorgeous cock, he needed to be as stretched as he could get. He didn’t want this first time ruined because he got a little anxious.

  It helped that Bryce kept stroking his cock. Everything he did seemed to make it better.

  Charlie was panting by the time Bryce stopped pushing it in, sweat beading his brow. “Is that all of it?”

  “Yes. All of it.” Bryce rotated the toy, slowly spinning it in his tight channel. A cascade of pleasure rolled down his spine, and his eyes rolled back as the dildo began its second rotation, and then its third. “God, Charlie…it’s amazing to see you like this.”

  “Now you know how I felt.” The burn ebbed into something more manageable, a flame that licked through Charlie’s body in long, slow undulations. Without thinking, he pushed against Bryce’s hands, ready to fuck the dildo himself if Bryce wasn’t willing to do so. “You can be rougher now. I can take it.”

  Charlie caught his breath as Bryce eased the toy out, and just as slowly pushed it forward again. Bryce was captivated by his own actions, his gaze locked on the disappearing shaft as he pumped his wrist. His other hand moved in time, and Charlie felt like he was being torn in two different directions, his cock throbbing, his muscles tingling, his blood racing through his veins.

  “I won’t be able to go slow when I’m finally inside you.”

  “I won’t want you to.”

  Bryce’s breath quickened. “Do you feel good and stretched?”

  “God, yes.” Charlie let go of his thigh to grab Bryce’s wrist, pushing so that the dildo slipped out. “No more of this. I want you.”

  Bryce fumbled with the condom, ripping the foil open to pluck out the prophylactic. It probably didn’t take more than five seconds for Bryce to unroll the condom down his shaft, but it felt like an eternity. Charlie throbbed, his skin prickling with sweat and heat. Once Bryce settled between his thighs, he clawed at him, trying to pull Bryce against him—and into him.

  For all his warning about not being able to go slow, Bryce took his time angling his body. He propped himself up, firm against Charlie’s desperation, and dragged his cock down the length of Charlie’s, across his balls, to his waiting hole. But even there, he didn’t slam inside. They both quivered with need, but Bryce still took his time, aligning himself perfectly before finally letting himself go.

  Charlie watched, enraptured, and never took a single breath. He held it, even as Bryce began to push. He held it until his ears throbbed and his lungs burned, but those were nothing compared to the exquisite stretch of his ass. His legs hooked automatically around Bryce’s hips, and his hands kept touching anywhere they could—the furred chest, a nipple, that angular waist. He didn’t even care as much about his own cock. Just the need to get Bryce into him as deep as he could possibly go.

  Bryce stopped once he was fully sheathed, and Charlie could feel each twitch, even the steady rhythm of Bryce’s pulse. “Charlie…oh my God…I…” Bryce cut himself off by slamming their mouths together, pushing his tongue past Charlie’s lips as he began to slide backward.

  Charlie didn’t let him go far. He wrapped his arms around Bryce and held on with everything he had. He sucked on Bryce’s tongue, raked nails down his back, and dug his heels in when Bryce tried to pull out too far. If he let him go, it would end too soon, and Charlie wasn’t ready for that. Not by a long shot. Even with his aching cock trapped between their stomachs, his balls practically blue from needing to come, he wasn’t ready for this to be over.

  Despite their earlier words, the rhythm they fell into was almost excruciatingly slow, Bryce shuttling into his ass with deliberation. The only time Bryce lifted his head was to gasp for breath, and then their mouths were fused again. There wasn’t an inch of space between them. Charlie couldn’t remember the last time he had been so close to another person—the last time he had felt another’s heart pounding against his chest, the last time he had shared his oxygen, his lungs expanding and contracting with Bryce’s air.

  Could it really be this easy? The questions tumbled inside Charlie’s head. The answers were there, too, but he didn’t dare believe them. Nothing had been easy. He’d spent most of his life in a lie. Sharing himself with Bryce now was supposed to be a lesson learned, not a doorway to everything he’d always wanted.

  But with each stroke into his body, Charlie thought it might just be. When he touched Bryce, the other man made sounds of such pure pleasure, they reverberated through Charlie, too. And each time Bryce found a new place to claim, Charlie was convinced it couldn’t get any better than that. His lips were raw from Bryce’s stubble, his skin was slick with their sweat, and all he could think about was how next to drive Bryce crazy.

  “Charlie…”

  The soft word took Charlie by surprise. Mainly because Bryce barely took his mouth away from Charlie’s lips and face. He strained to hear more over his own pounding heart and rapid breaths.

  “You’re perfect. God. You’re so perfect.”

  “I’m not,” he denied, though he wasn’t so sure Bryce heard him. He slipped a hand up to cup the back of Bryce’s head and deliberately moved his mouth closer to the man’s ear. “I just think this is the way it’s supposed to be.”

  “You’re right. I’ll prove it, every day if you let me.”

  Everything in Charlie quivered. He pressed his lips to Bryce’s neck and tightened his hold, squeezing as hard as he could around the cock pistoning in and out of his ass.

  “Starting with tonight. Now.” Charlie gasped when electricity shot through his veins, and again when Bryce slammed into his hole and across his prostate. “Oh, fuck, don’t stop. Do it, just like that.”

  Bryce didn’t shift the angle, but he did quicken the tempo. Charlie had no choice but to cling to Bryce, holding him as tight as he could while his cock scraped across Bryce’s stomach. The friction created between their two bodies was intense, but Charlie barely felt it when compared to the heavy pressure against his prostate.

  “Charlie…I need you to come…need to feel it…”

  Maybe it was the permission he’d been waiting for; Charlie didn’t know. All he understood was that fire—white-hot and blood-red—laced in and around his body, tightening and squeezing and suffocating until he didn’t know up from down, left from right. Bryce’s mouth skimmed his shoulder, and Charlie did the same, hoping for some semblance of control to return, or if it was gone for good when it came to this amazing, surprising man.

  But it didn’t. It only escalated and careened out of his reach, and he had to bite down on Bryce’s neck in order not to scream when his orgasm ripped through his flesh.

  Bryce’s nails dug into Charlie’s flesh, holding tightly as he shuddered again and again. Both of them were shaking so hard, moaning so loud, that for a moment, Charlie was sure they were experiencing the same climax. Bryce’s cock jerked against Charlie’s walls, and come coated their stomachs and chests, mingling with the sweat, spreading on their skins as Bryce continued to rock into his body.

  “I…I…God, Bryce…if I’d known it could be like that…” Charlie swallowed. His throat was too dry for speech, his head too much of a mess to form a coherent thought. The best he could manage was an open-mouthed kiss over the section of skin he’d bitten when he came.

  “Hell, I didn’t even
know it could be like that.”

  Charlie chuckled. “You’re supposed to be my training wheels.”

  “I’m not too bad with the physical stuff. But you might need to be training wheels for the other side of things.”

  His hands stilled where he’d been stroking down Bryce’s body. Slowly, he unwrapped his legs and groaned at the ache in his hips. “Other side?”

  “Yeah. The emotional side of a relationship. You know. Since I’ve never been in love with anybody before.”

  “Is that…” Charlie nudged at Bryce until his softening cock slipped out, and he held back his slight wince as he rolled them onto their sides. A heavy, sated glow was in Bryce’s bright eyes, one Charlie had never seen before. One he couldn’t look away from. “Is that what’s going on here?”

  “Yeah. It is. And don’t think this means I need you to say it now or anything. Because I have had a long time to think about this and you haven’t. But I’ve decided I need to be honest with you, so…”

  So. Charlie couldn’t lie to himself and say Bryce was caught up in the moment. He knew every word was true. Bryce had been more than clear when he’d come over before his non-date with Dean. Their night together had gone fabulously well. The sex was phenomenal. It made sense Bryce would go there.

  It was just more than a little scary to actually hear.

  “No, honesty is good.” And he meant it. “Which means I should probably tell you that was the most amazing sex I’ve ever had.”

  Bryce paused a beat, his gaze locked on Charlie’s face, before nodding. “Well, you know me. I aim to please.”

  Resting his head on his pillow, Charlie caressed Bryce’s hip, drinking in every detail. “You do more than that,” he murmured, and leaned closer. The kiss was soft and almost sweet in comparison to their more frantic fucking earlier, and Charlie sighed at how good it really felt.

  He just wondered if it felt a little too good.

  Chapter 6

  Charlie’s stomach growled as the chopped vegetables sizzled in the bottom of the omelet pan. He’d woken up starving, and not even the warm body sprawled next to him was enough to keep him in bed. In actuality, that warm body was further reason for him to get out of the bed. He wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to face Bryce after the events of the night before.

  Bryce loved him. He’d never said the words again, but the proof had been there in every kiss, in every touch. They had finally fallen asleep around three, and while Charlie’s body had been glutted on pleasure, his emotions weren’t nearly as quiescent. There was no doubt Bryce was his best friend, or that they’d had a great time together. But how could Charlie commit to anything as serious as love when he’d only been on the scene for a few weeks? True, he’d never been looking for a fling. It wasn’t in him to be so completely casual.

  But he’d literally had one date as a gay man. Coffee with Dean didn’t count. Bryce had been his only encounter in fifteen years, and the fact that they had been friends for so long beforehand had simply made it almost inevitable. Charlie had no realistic way of knowing what it meant to be gay if he committed to Bryce so soon. What if he’d reacted to the sex so strongly just because it was his first time? Because he’d waited so long for it? Because Bryce could read him so well and knew how to push his buttons?

  He felt like an asshole for even thinking of such questions, though. Bryce had been honest with him from the beginning, and here he was, making the man a huge breakfast in hopes that he could bribe him with food in order not to look so bad when he laid it out. Because he knew he had to. He owed Bryce that much.

  “I really think I could eat a horse,” Bryce said as he entered the kitchen. His arm went around Charlie’s waist and he rested his chin on Charlie’s shoulder. “Are you frying up a horse?”

  “Too tough first thing in the morning. I thought omelets might go down easier.” He gestured with the spatula toward the other end of the counter. “There’s fresh coffee if you want some. This will just be another minute or two.”

  Bryce tightened his arm and pressed his mouth to Charlie’s neck. He stopped himself from stiffening in response, but he didn’t move to return the caress.

  “Fresh coffee is good.” Bryce released him before reaching for a cup. “Omelets are good, too. Can I have mine with extra cheese?”

  “Sure. I’ll just put more on top and pop it under the broiler.”

  Cooking gave him something to do with his hands, and an excuse not to look in Bryce’s direction as he focused on the food. Bryce’s gaze weighted every one of his steps, though. Charlie knew the moment he looked up, he’d be a goner. He’d end up blurting out how he felt, or Bryce would see the truth, and that would be it.

  The killer was this was what he’d worried about all that time before, when he’d deliberately held the truth back from Bryce. He didn’t want to lose his best friend, and yet, at the very first chance he got, it looked like that was probably going to happen anyway.

  “You want to watch the morning news while we eat?” he asked as he dished up.

  “No, not really. It’s Sunday morning. There are only political talk shows, and I can’t watch those jerks and eat at the same time.”

  So much for stalling. Charlie grabbed some silverware and picked up the two plates, jerking his chin at the cup sitting next to the stove. “Can you bring my coffee for me, please?”

  “No problem.”

  Bryce followed right behind him. Close enough that if Charlie stopped, Bryce would probably slam into his back. Was he purposefully crowding him? Or was it just his imagination? He suspected it might have been a little bit of both.

  As soon as they were both seated at the table, Bryce inhaled with an obvious look of appreciation. “This looks great. Thanks.”

  It smelled even better. Charlie picked up his fork and dug into the eggs. “I’m starving after last night.”

  “Me, too. We definitely burned off all that heavy Italian food from dinner.”

  “To say the least.”

  They lapsed into silence as they ate. Charlie tried not to notice how stiff the distance was between them. Before this weekend, Bryce would have been chattering away. Now he seemed to be waiting for Charlie, though for what purpose, Charlie had no idea.

  The longer it stretched, however, the worse it got. Charlie knew he had to say something. Bryce deserved honesty. Hell, he deserved a lot more than that, but there was no way Charlie was in any kind of place to give it to him at that moment.

  He cleared his throat. “Isn’t Thursday night queer night at the Oasis? I was thinking I might try it out this week.”

  Bryce had been chewing, but his jaw slowed, and then stilled as Charlie spoke. “By yourself?”

  “Yeah. I think. I mean, it seems like a good idea.” He tried to smile but he knew it didn’t work. “The training wheels have to come off some time, don’t they?”

  “Yeah.” He took a swallow from his coffee. “Yeah, I mean, if you’re comfortable going out by yourself, you should.”

  “Well, I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable, but if I don’t do it now, I’ll never find the nerve.” Charlie looked down at his half-eaten omelet. He should’ve waited to talk about this until after he’d finished. He’d lost his appetite now.

  “No, I guess you won’t.” Bryce dropped his fork and pushed his plate away. “I’ve got some errands to run this morning. I’m gonna go get dressed.”

  When Bryce stood up and turned away, Charlie’s instinct was to stop him. Don’t go, he wanted to say. Let’s talk about this. But he didn’t want to talk about it. He hadn’t wanted to bring it up in the first place. He watched Bryce disappear down the hallway, listened to the bedroom door open and shut, and all the while wondered, Why did you have to say you loved me?

  Because that made all the difference.

  * * * *

  Charlie had never actually gone to Oasis before. He’d only discovered its existence from his research about what was available to gay men in Denver. Its Queer N
ight was supposed to be one of the better weekly events in the city, with live bands, a slightly older demographic, and good reviews online. Dancing and lots of sweaty men looking for sex wasn’t exactly what Charlie had in mind, but in his desperation with Bryce Sunday morning, it was the only thing he could think of.

  Bryce. Just thinking about him hurt. They hadn’t seen each other since Bryce had rushed out of the house while Charlie was cleaning up, and though he’d picked up the phone more than once to call him, Charlie had always set it back down again. What was he going to say? He would end up ruining things even more than he had. As it was, he was pretty sure it was going to be a long time before Bryce would even speak to him again. Charlie had taken his feelings and stomped all over them.

  He didn’t even really want to go to Oasis. If Bryce couldn’t see his driveway from his house, Charlie would have just stayed in. But that would be even worse. Oh, yeah, that story about going to Oasis? All a lie. I’m just a bastard who doesn’t know what to do when the first man he fucks says he loves him. Sorry about that.

  No, he had to go. He had to do this. It was why he’d shut Bryce out, after all. He didn’t come out of the closet to then never experience what it was like to actually be gay. Going to Oasis was exactly what he needed to make that step.

  Except it wasn’t anything like he’d anticipated. He’d dressed casually, in jeans and a nicer T-shirt, but the second he stepped inside the club, he was assaulted from every angle. The DJ played some techno dance crap, and there were bodies everywhere, people of every shape and size laughing and touching and looking at him as soon as he came into view. Eyes raked over him, hot and hungry. Apparently, subtlety got checked at the door. Charlie had never felt more conspicuous in his entire life, and he hadn’t even made it to the bar yet.