Active Duty

by Active Duty- Gay Military Erotic Romance [Cleis MM] (retail) (epub)

  “Gonna hold that position?”

  “Hell, no.” Freddie dropped out of the push-up, but carefully, so his full weight didn’t land on Mike. “Now what?”

  Mike didn’t bother to answer, just got his hand around both their cocks, stroking firmly. “Yeah?”

  Freddie snuggled closer, mouthing at Mike’s neck above the collar of his shirt. “Yeah.”

  The first few strokes weren’t quite right, too dry, but getting off on a ship full of people meant learning how to do it quickly. It didn’t take long before they were leaking against each other, Mike’s hand slick as he worked both of them. Freddie rolled his hips into their hands, his breath huffing against Mike’s neck. Mike was pretty sure they were going to regret doing this while fully dressed, but he was equally sure that he didn’t really care.

  “You close?”

  “Yeah,” Freddie said, sounding almost sleepy. “Yeah, close.” Mike squeezed, gasping a little at how good it felt, Freddie’s dick against his. Even with Freddie’s words, the first pulse of come over his fingers was a surprise, warm and slick and—“Fuck,” he groaned against Freddie’s hair as his own orgasm washed over him like an echo of Freddie’s.

  Unfortunately, he’d been right: hot and sticky was great for about thirty seconds, and then he was mostly dressed with come on his pants and the blanket scratchy against his bare skin. “Ugh.”

  “Yeah, that’s what a guy wants to hear,” Freddie said, but he was already climbing to his feet and reaching for a towel. “Come on, before the others rock up.”

  “So much for the moment,” Mike grumbled, swinging his right foot down to join his left, but he was smiling, and the thought of sailing away from Danny wasn’t as bad as it had been.

  Still on 4 Pride? Mike texted Danny, while trying to come up with a way to explain in the report how his team had ended up nearly drowning during an exercise.

  It took Danny fifty-three minutes to text back, which probably meant he’d been in class. Yes, if you promise not to wear your uniform. Mike only rolled his eyes a little bit at the way Danny always texted in full, perfectly grammatical sentences, which Danny said was on account of being in academia, and Mike said was on account of not being able to figure out the acronyms.

  U think im hot in my uniform. At least, Mike assumed that was why Danny’d talked him into having sex while wearing it. The buttons against Danny’s bare skin couldn’t have been comfortable.

  Why do you think I’m making you promise?

  Mike hesitated, turning the phone end over end twice. On his screen, the cursor blinked a reminder that he was supposed to be finishing the damn report, not engaging in fairly pornographic fantasies of his two closest friends. Thought id ask Freddie if he wants 2 come w/, he texted eventually. That was probably vague enough.

  Tell me what you’re planning before I say yes or no.

  Or not. Danny knew him way too well not to be suspicious.

  U’ll like him, he’ll like u, Mike sent. Then, in case Danny somehow got the wrong idea, I like both of u.

  The pause was long enough after that for Mike to check the clock, wondering if Danny could have gone back into class already. No, it was three thirty, and he finished early on Thursdays.

  You are exactly what the conservatives were worried about when the repeal went through, Danny texted back eventually, with a smiling face to take the sting out of the remark. Mike was pretty sure the conservatives had actually been worried about gay soldiers seducing their straight teammates over to the rainbow side, but thinking about that stuff still made his heart ache. Ask me again when I’ve met him.

  Mike sent back his own smiling face, knowing the sound of Danny capitulating, even if it was just in a text message.

  “So, tell me again why I’m here.” Freddie frowned at the crowds of people, the rainbow flags and glitter adorning every available surface. The noise was more than Mike could ever remember at Pride, shouting and music and those damn noise-makers going off in his ear, but the contact high he was pretty sure he was getting just by walking down the street made it a lot less painful than it could have been. “The decorating scheme could use a little work.”

  Mike stopped and stared, as much as he could in the crowd. It wasn’t like he never saw Freddie out of his uniform, but he still got a weird little jolt of surprise every time he looked at Freddie. Which may, in fairness, have been because Freddie was wearing a very tight pair of dark blue jeans, the kind that showed off every line and curve. Of course, because he was Freddie, he was wearing a checked shirt over a loose white T-shirt and his uniform boots, but the jeans were a pretty good concession to the event. Mike was probably embodying the stereotypes enough for the both of them, in well-fitted black pants and a tight white T-shirt, hair gelled like he never bothered on ship. “I can’t tell if that comment makes you so incredibly gay you should bleed rainbows, or if it makes you the least gay person I know. Who doesn’t like rainbows and glitter?”

  Freddie shrugged, hunching slightly like that would help him hide in the post-parade chaos, awkward being out in the gay community in a way that he wasn’t on the ship. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been asked to have a personal opinion one way or the other.”

  “Yeah, well—” Mike caught Freddie’s arm, finally spotting the bar Danny had said to meet at. Trust the Navy to run late the one time he had somewhere to be; he couldn’t believe he’d missed the parade, it was the best part of Pride. “I’m asking you to have one now, and it had better be that you want to get naked and drape yourself in them.”

  “I don’t think ‘drape’ is the right verb for glitter,” Freddie said, mock-seriously. “Also, if I’m naked, it’s going to get in some damn awkward places.”

  “Rainbow tattoos,” Mike told him. “More than one, and glitter nail polish. Even on your toes.”

  Freddie pressed too close, arms going tight around Mike’s waist, pulling him back against Freddie’s solid body. Mike tipped his head up without thinking about it, his breath coming short. Even lost in the crowd, made anonymous by all the people around them, this felt dangerous and obvious, sending a burst of arousal through his veins. “I’ve always been more of a glitter eye shadow person,” Freddie said, close enough for Mike to feel his breath. “But whatever works for you.”

  “That”—Mike cleared his throat—“That really, really works for me.”

  Freddie stepped away before Mike could say anything else. His grin was smug and pleased, and Mike had no idea why so many good guys overlooked Freddie when he looked like that. “Buy me some, and I’ll wear it to the company Christmas party. Come on, your friend will be wondering where we are.”

  “So, he’s the bunk-mate,” Danny said, when Freddie excused himself to use the men’s room.

  Mike glanced in the direction Freddie had gone, though there were way too many people to see him. He figured Danny had picked the bar for its selection of microbrews, or maybe because the chairs actually had backs he could lean into. Either that or he’d picked it because there wasn’t a twelve-song club mix playing loud enough to do permanent damage. He sure as hell hadn’t picked it for the quiet, not with what felt like half the gay men of San Francisco packed in with them, all trying to communicate by yelling, and an occasional holler.

  “He’s the bunk-mate,” Mike agreed, leaning in so he didn’t have to join the general shouting.

  Danny made a small, considering noise that Mike could barely hear. He and Freddie had eyed each other suspiciously for the first ten minutes after Mike introduced them. It had been just long enough for Mike to decide this had been a huge mistake, and that he likely wasn’t going to be getting any sex at all tonight, let alone sex of the hot threesome variety. Then Danny had mentioned his freshman engineering class, and Freddie had said something about working in his father’s garage as a teenager, and that had been the end of Mike’s involvement in the conversation as they geeked out over cars and engines like the total nerds they both were.

  “Taller than I thought he
’d be.”

  “I showed you a picture.”

  “Taller in person, then.” Danny shrugged. “I like him.”

  “Told you so.”

  Danny kicked his ankle. “Don’t be smug, it doesn’t suit you.”

  “I brought you home the best present ever; I deserve to be a little bit smug.”

  Danny’s expression went weird, somewhere between charmed and faintly irritated, with something else mixed in that Mike found hard to read. Danny reached over, one hand covering Mike’s. Mike couldn’t quite make himself hold Danny’s hand; he held Danny’s gaze instead, waiting. “You’ll always be the best present I can have,” Danny said, completely serious. “You don’t ever have to bring anything else.”

  It sounded closer to a declaration than they’d ever made. Mike smiled, uncertain. “But an extra present is always good, right?”

  The words broke whatever moment they’d been having, and Danny laughed, letting it go. “Sure. An extra present works.”

  “Tell me you’re not talking about Christmas already.” Freddie made a face as he threw himself back into the third chair, narrowly avoiding tipping it completely when someone bumped into him. “It’s way too early.”

  “Never hurts to be prepared.” Mike spun his empty bottle once between his hands, careful not to send the rest of the empties flying.

  “We’re not talking about Christmas,” Danny said firmly, draining his own beer. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “You want to find a quieter place?” Freddie kept one hand near Danny as they both stood, but didn’t grab for him the way some people did in crowds. It got him a grateful look from Danny that made Freddie smile, small and pleased.

  Danny shook his head. “Thinking about heading home.” He looked over at Mike with the words, checking in about the evening, about Freddie. Mike nodded back; Danny had really been the only wild card in this situation.

  “Right,” Freddie said, all of the humor and warmth gone from his voice. Even his shoulders were slumping again. “I should—you think I’ll get a cab back to the ship somewhere near here?”

  Danny frowned at him, and Mike felt the tension ratchet back up, not in a good way. He’d been so sure about Freddie. “Look, no, don’t—” Mike started.

  “Just—” Danny interrupted him with a sharp hand gesture to Mike without looking away from Freddie. “Mike’s an idiot,” he said, so softly that Mike was amazed he could hear the words over the roar of conversation in the bar. Danny was smiling though, so something must have been going right again.

  Danny grabbed Mike’s wrist, pulling him close, the edge of the table digging awkwardly into Mike’s hip. “For the record,” Danny said, still looking at Freddie, who seemed as confused as Mike felt, “Next time you decide to invite one of your shipmates into a threesome, it would probably be a good idea to actually invite him.”

  “I did!” Okay, that had come out a little high-pitched. Mike tried again. “I said, ‘Come to Pride with me and Danny.’ Did I not say that?”

  Freddie’s eyes went wide, then closed for a moment, the way they did when he got a particularly ridiculous order. “That was supposed to imply, ‘And then come home and have sex with us both?’ Yeah, I’m with Danny here. You way undershot the invitation part of that invitation.”

  “Hopeless,” Danny said, voice warm with affection, and okay, maybe the two of them had a bit of a point. Apparently Mike had been too subtle. “So, Freddie, in the interests of reducing the amount of inanity going forward: would you like to come back to my apartment and have sex with me and Mike?”

  Freddie looked between the two of them, then down to where Danny was still gripping Mike’s wrist. “If this is just because of the last guy I hooked up with,” he started.

  “For the love of—” Danny let go of Mike, shifted his grip on his cane, then leaned in to wrap a hand in Freddie’s shirt. “Let me make this very clear,” he said, and dragged Freddie down into a harsh kiss.

  Freddie’s hands flailed for a moment, then settled lightly on Danny’s hips. He tilted his head slightly, deepening the kiss. Somewhere in the crowd, someone wolf-whistled. Mike kind of wanted to echo the sentiment. The two of them were exactly as hot together as he’d imagined, and this was while they were still wearing clothes. He was pretty sure the sight of them both naked would lead to spontaneous human combustion, especially given the way Danny always relaxed completely into the first few minutes of being naked and in bed, not worried about his leg and his balance.

  Mike was totally willing to risk human combustion for that.

  Danny and Freddie drew apart slowly, grinning dumbly at each other. “Yes?” Danny asked.

  “Yes,” Freddie said. “Oh, most definitely yes.”

  “So,” Mike said, when the three of them were standing in the doorway to Danny’s bedroom, shoes and jackets discarded in the living room, glasses of water politely offered and refused. Danny hadn’t turned on any lights, just left the curtains open, so the streetlamps cast a weird, orange glow over the neatly made bed and orderly bookshelves. It felt far more intimate than Mike would have expected, especially with the street noise muffled by the windows. “How exactly are we going to do this?”

  “You didn’t think about that already?” Danny rolled his eyes before Mike could answer. “What am I saying; you didn’t actually tell Freddie why he was meeting up with me, of course you didn’t think about the actual mechanics of the successful outcome.”

  Mike put a hand on Danny’s waist, then stepped in close enough to wrap his arms around Danny, anchoring him against Mike’s body. The whole move took less than ten seconds, which was till ten seconds longer than he wanted to wait before nuzzling Danny’s neck and saying, “I love it when you get all forceful.”

  Danny laughed, sounding as utterly relaxed as Mike felt. Freddie had been designated safe since practically the moment they met, but like this, about to get naked with him and Danny, Mike felt like the last of the fear of being outed and thrown out of the Navy was physically lifting away from him. Freddie, leaning in the doorway and watching the two of them, looked like maybe he’d understand that as well, if Mike said anything.

  “We’re going to take our clothes off,” Danny said, making no move to do so. “Because there is no sexy way to get three full-grown men naked on a double bed.”

  “Speaking from experience?” Mike teased.

  Danny turned his head enough for Mike to see his quirked eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Mike hesitated, caught between two polar opposite answers.

  Danny continued before he could decide on one. “Then I’m going to lie back, and Mike’s going to ride my cock.”

  Mike made a small noise, totally unable to contain it. Somehow, Danny’s matter-of-fact tone was more of a turn-on than any attempt at sultriness.

  “Freddie’s going to suck Mike’s cock, and I’m going to suck his.”

  Mike glanced over at Freddie, who was watching them with greedy eyes, then down at Danny, who was visibly turned on by what he was saying. “Good thing you’re an engineer,” he said.

  As it turned out, even the combined spatial awareness of an engineering doctoral student, a sailor with a background in car mechanics and a sailor who specialized in navigation wasn’t quite enough to avoid a few elbows and knees in awkward places, or a couple of moments of wrecked rhythm. About the best that could be said for them, honestly, was that they didn’t manage to jolt Danny in any way that would hurt enough to lose the moment.

  When they finally got it figured out, though, it was totally worth the bruises. Mike couldn’t work himself on Danny’s cock the way he usually did, not when Freddie’s mouth was on him at the same time, but the roll of his hips, Danny deep inside him, was a whole other order of intense pleasure. Freddie was tentative at first, moving in tiny jerks of his hips, obviously uncertain of his welcome.

  Mike reached down, smoothing a hand over the defined lines in the backs of Freddie’s shoulders. He meant
it to be soothing, but it made Freddie moan around his cock, and Mike had to do it again. Freddie’s skin was so warm under his hands, damp with sweat already. Mike bent low. “He can take it. Come on, Freddie.”

  Freddie shuddered all over, but his next move was smoother. He dug his feet into the mattress, ass flexing as he rocked into Danny’s mouth, Danny groaning around his cock like it was the best thing ever.

  “You look so good like this,” Mike told Freddie, resting one hand on the back of his neck to feel the way his muscles shifted as he moved. “Your mouth is—fuck, amazing. So good.” Freddie didn’t say anything, which wasn’t a surprise at all; he was always near silent during sex, even when his mouth wasn’t full of cock. “Are you sucking me the way Danny’s sucking you? I bet you are. He’s so good at this, man, you don’t even—taught me everything I know about sucking cock, Danny, you’re so—”

  Mike bit his lip, words he didn’t say clamoring in the back of his throat. He couldn’t say them, not like this; not when he wasn’t even sure who he’d be saying them to, pinned between the two people he cared most for in the world, loving every second of it.

  “You’re so good,” he said instead, low and soft in the darkness. “You’re perfect.”

  No one said anything at all after that, too intent on driving each other to climax, spiraling up and up on the smell of sex and sweat, the sound of harsh breathing and skin rubbing against skin. Freddie came first, shuddering hard and pulling off Mike’s cock to gasp for breath.

  Mike moaned, reaching for him, pulling him back. Freddie cried out—probably Danny doing that thing with his tongue that he did when Mike was almost done coming, that made him feel like he was having his orgasm all over again—and Mike took advantage of it, dragging Freddie’s mouth back to his cock. “Don’t stop, so close,” he managed, not even caring whether Freddie was really sucking him anymore, and then Freddie slid a hand back to rub at the place where Mike was sinking down onto Danny’s cock.

  It was more than enough to tip Mike over the edge. He heard Danny keen something sharp and cracking as he went over, felt Danny’s cock pulse inside him, but he was already mostly gone, swept up by pleasure.