by Max Hudson
What would Jude have done if he hadn’t had someone like Mase in his corner? If there was a God, Andy had Him to thank for his big brother and for Jude Carter. But right now, he had to figure out a way to help Jude after what had just happened between them.
Jude was too quiet, and Andy could well imagine the feelings coursing through him. He waited for Jude to find a way to leave with his dignity intact. He knew Jude had nothing to be ashamed of, but one orgasm wasn’t enough to change a lifetime of conditioning. Andy could be patient. It would take more than a few kisses and hand jobs to make Jude comfortable with his sexuality.
Jude stood up at last, pulling his briefs and sweats up over his hips. He avoided Andy’s eyes, saying as he walked away, “I’d better go. Goodnight, Andy. See you tomorrow.”
Andy watched as his bedroom door closed behind Jude before heading to the bathroom for a quick shower, washing the sticky evidence of Jude’s passion off his hands, refusing to think about what had just happened between him and Jude moments before. Back in the bedroom, he made his bed and fell into it. He would examine his feelings about what had occurred at some other point. He had a long day ahead of him.
When he woke next morning, Jude was already up. Andy could hear him moving about in the kitchen. He washed his face, brushed his teeth and dressed for work quickly, taking the bag he had already packed out to the kitchen with him. Jude was just pouring coffee into a car mug, and Andy’s heart melted. His man may not know how to ask for what he needed in bed, but he sure as hell knew how to nurture the ones he cared for. He didn’t question the fact that Jude was his.
“Morning,” Jude said. “Thought you might like coffee to go. I toasted a bagel for you, but I don’t know what you like on it. Here’s jam, cream cheese and butter. Help yourself. And there are fruits here if you want one of those as well.”
“Thanks, Jude. Coffee and a bagel will do just fine. I’ll take fruit for later.”
Deciding that he needed to get Jude used to living with a demonstrative lover, Andy walked by him and kissed his lips.
“Bye! Have a nice day!” He didn’t look back to see the effect his goodbye had on Jude.
Sundays were busy days at the gym, and by the time Andy was clocking out at two, the place was hopping. He was glad he had taken the early shift that day, because he wanted to go home to Jude. He had no idea what they would do together in the same space for the rest of the day after they set up the living room and dining room, but he didn’t care. One evening with Jude and he was already a goner.
No one was home when he got back to the apartment, so he changed and decided to set up the living room. If Jude didn’t like what he’d done, he could always switch things around. It gave him something to do to while away the hours until Jude got back from wherever he had gone. There wasn’t a lot of furniture in the living room, but he was most proud of the leather sofa that he’d bought while he was still living in the efficiency apartment. It fit perfectly in this space, and the two side tables that Jude had bought complemented the brown leather well. The glass coffee table stood on a cherry wood base.
Andy switched the television channel to the NBA playoffs, and settled in to watch a rerun. His team were on a roll for a change, and he got caught up in the game. At halftime, he closed his eyes, imagining what it would be like if he and Jude watched the game together. Snuggled up next to each other, rooting for different teams and giving each other the business, teasing and playing… The next time he opened his eyes, Jude was crouching next to him calling his name.
“Wake up, sleepyhead! You must have had a tiring day.”
Andy rubbed his face. “Yeah…it was pretty intense.” He looked over at the clock on the television box. He had slept for almost two hours. Of course, he had also missed the second half of the game.
“Did you have a good day?”
A shadow passed over Jude’s face, but it was swiftly replaced by a neutral expression. He nodded, but Andy wasn’t buying it.
“Jude, talk to me. What happened?”
Jude sighed. “It seems that rumors have been spreading about the reasons for my departure. Aside from the bishop, no one in the church knows that I’ve left the priesthood. They just assumed I left the parish. So, when I went for a job interview at one of the local shelters, a former parishioner was there and said she’d seen me moving into an apartment on the West side. I wasn’t perturbed until she said they’d heard I was moving in with my live-in lover, and that that was why I had to leave.”
Well, that’s kinda what you did, isn’t it? Andy thought but remained silent. Jude wouldn’t appreciate his logic right now, even if it would lighten the mood.
“It’s not that I’m upset about the rumors,” Jude hastened to add. “I just wish people wouldn’t embellish to fill in the gaps in their stories.” He considered Andy’s eyes and added, “And I’m sorry I dragged you into all this.”
Andy smiled. “Do I look worried?”
Jude smiled, too, but it was a sad thing. “I guess I was too naive. It was too much to hope that everyone in my congregation was a well-wisher.”
Andy sat up in the couch, pulling Jude up to sit next to him. “Let’s forget about the people you’re no longer responsible to or for. You’re your own person now. How you live your life is your choice.”
“Technically, I’m still a priest, just not an active one. The calling is forever. I’m just concerned that these rumors might make it ahead of my job applications. I’m not naive enough to believe that anyone looking to hire a former priest will take kindly to rumors that suggest he was screwing around on the job before he left it. A counselor is expected to be a man of integrity.”
Andy reached out to touch Jude’s hands, which were clasped together between his knees, where he sat forward on the seat.
“Let’s not borrow trouble, shall we? We don’t know what anyone has heard or what they will think. And yes, some folks are going to make snap judgments about you based on rumors. But the rest are not. And there’s nothing you can do about it but trust that you’ll get the right job for you.”
Jude turned to Andy, a look of admiration on his face. “Shouldn’t I be the one making the wise noises here? Who died and made you so smart?”
Andy chuckled. At least he had managed to get Jude out of his own head, even for a moment. “Aside from the rumors, everything okay?”
What he wanted to know was if Jude was still embarrassed after his orgasm the night before. Because Andy wanted to do it again. This taking things at Jude’s pace, because ‘there’s no rush, we have all the time in the world’ — whatever had possessed Andy to make that declaration? — was going to be the death of him. He was awake and ready to begin Jude’s daily lessons in sexual awareness and fulfillment.
Jude colored faintly, so Andy knew he understood exactly what he was being asked. “Yes, everything’s okay.”
Nothing more. Just that bald agreement. Andy shook his head. This wouldn’t do at all.
“Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible ‘ask and ye shall receive’?”
Jude turned puzzled eyes to Andy’s face. “Yes. Why?”
Andy ignored the question. “And didn’t your teachers ever tell you that the best way to learn is to ask questions?”
Andy saw when Jude figured out what his questions meant. The color deepened in his cheeks, but he raised his chin anyway and looked Andy in the eye.
“It’s all a little new for me, but I’m a quick learner.”
“Glad to hear it, because I’m not always a patient man.”
Jude grinned, suddenly seeming to relax. “Ah, my idol has feet of clay after all!” He slid closer to Andy on the couch and leaned in. “Good afternoon, lover,” he said, and kissed Andy full on the lips, sending his tongue out to explore.
Andy’s grin became a laugh, which Jude swallowed in a suddenly hungry kiss. Andy welcomed his tongue, loving the feel of it against his own.
“Afternoon, baby.”
They stayed like that,
heads alone turned, kissing each other slowly and thoroughly. Then Jude stood up and pulled Andy with him.
“I’m gonna go change. Meet you back here in five?”
Andy nodded and watched him walk away. Maybe they’d watch a little television between make out sessions. He went to get two beers and some nuts, and placed them on the coffee table. Jude walked out in thin sweats and a tank top. His body was defined in all the right places, and Andy’s mouth watered for an all-over taste of him. He leaned back in the couch and beckoned Jude with a crook of his finger. When Jude reached the couch, Andy pulled him down to straddle his lap, noting Jude’s already hardening cock. Things were likely to get heated quickly at this rate, but Andy wasn’t complaining.
“I want to give you a happy ending first this time,” Jude said, kissing Andy’s jaw.
“You don’t have to. This isn’t a tit-for-tat kind of arrangement.”
“I want to…for my sanity. I confess to spending most of my downtime today dreaming about what I could do to make you come apart the way you did me last night.”
Andy grinned. “Naughty priest! Your penance is to do a hundred Hail Marys.”
Jude laughed. “Wrong denomination. I’m not Catholic. We don’t do Hail Marys or penance.”
Andy opened his mouth to make a snappy retort when Jude swept in and kissed him hungrily. Clearly he wasn't about to waste any more time on idle chatter when there was kissing to be done. Kissing and dry humping and taking his pleasure from Andy’s body.
“You feel so good like this,” Jude whispered. “I love it when your cock and mine play together.”
“It’s called dry humping,” Andy informed him, sliding against Jude’s cock a little harder. “And if we were naked, it’d be ‘frotting’.”
“How soon can we get naked?” Jude asked, smirking.
Andy felt precum leak from the head of his dick. “As soon as you take off your clothes,” he teased.
Jude backed off Andy’s thighs and stood up, reaching for his shirt. He was naked in a flash, making Andy grin widely.
“Eager beaver much?” he teased Jude, rising to undress.
“Slow poke much?” Jude retorted, dragging Andy’s shorts down his legs and pushing his t-shirt over his head.
Andy kicked off his shorts — he was glad he had chosen to go commando today — and grabbed Jude around the waist, pulling him back down to the couch on top of him. Jude’s body was smooth and hard. He had very little body hair, but what he had teased Andy’s senses, heightening his pleasure as he helped Jude set a rhythm for their cock play. Andy kissed Jude hungrily as he dragged Jude’s hips back and forth over his cock. Jude was right…he was a quick study. Before too long, he was the one setting the pace, riding Andy’s cock like a boss, sending bolts of sensation racing though Andy’s bloodstream and hardening his dick even more, sending more precum sliding out of his body.
Then he felt Jude’s hand on him, and he growled. “Yeah, baby, just like that,” he encouraged Jude. “Rub me just like that.”
Before too much longer, Jude gave up playing with Andy’s dick in favor of riding his own alongside it hard and fast, pushing them both toward a furious orgasm. He was panting as he rode Andy, and moaning about how much he loved what he was doing, and how he wished he could do it forever. Andy let his lover take the lead, though all he wanted to do was flip him and stroke his cock into Jude’s ass. The thought of fucking Jude did it for Andy, who came in hard spurts all over their bellies. Jude followed him over the edge almost immediately, and then they both collapsed against each other, panting.
Eventually, they cleaned up and returned to the lukewarm beer and nuts. Jude went to exchange the beers for two cold ones, and they watched television until they both dozed off. When they woke up, Jude defrosted dinner while Andy finished setting up the dining room. Then he broke down the rest of the moving boxes, vacuumed the rug in the living room and swept the hardwood floors. After dinner, they talked about what Jude would do until he was offered a job.
“I was thinking of going in to the halfway house on Elm to do some counseling. They’re always looking for help, and though it’d be strictly volunteer work, it would keep me busy and doing what I want to do anyway.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll bet you’ll be too busy to worry about what people are saying about you. How are you for money?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t have to spend too much of my salary while I was a priest, so I have a lot saved up. And since I have a roommate, my savings will stretch even further.”
Andy grinned. ’’Glad to help.”
The next two weeks flew by, and Jude seemed to be doing fine at the halfway house. He and Andy had discussed his coming to the gym and decided that it would be better if he ended his membership, since he was adamant that he didn’t want to switch personal trainers, but he knew he couldn’t keep being with Andy without their relationship becoming public. He didn’t think that would be wise for either of them.
“I’ve often wondered why you don't do private personal training. You’re qualified and certainly capable of doing an excellent job!”
Andy reached over to kiss Jude in gratitude. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. A move like that demands a lot of extra time for ad campaigns and building a clientele without stealing clients from the surrounding gyms. People are warier of private trainers these days, and an unknown with a criminal record is pretty much shit outta luck without major support from existing groups. And I’d need to finish my degree in exercise science to solidify my rep.”
“You never told me you had started a degree,” Jude said, looking over at him. “Why did you stop?”
Jude exhaled heavily. “I killed a man and went to prison.” There was no way to make that sound any better.
Jude reached for his hands and held them to his lips, kissing the knuckles softly. “Well, if you ever decide to give private practice a try, let me know. I’ll help with the ad campaign and do anything else you need me to do.”
Jude’s complete and unwavering acceptance of him for who he was, warts and all, floored Andy. “How did I get so damned lucky?” Andy asked, pulling Jude in for a tight hug and a deep kiss.
“You fell for me?” Jude sassed him, earning himself another, longer kiss.
“That was easy to do, babe,” Andy told him. And it was true…there was nothing about Jude that was hard to love. Which is why those rumors about him had pissed Andy off, though he had made sure not to let Jude know that.
Life happened while people were distracted. Andy knew it. Jude knew it. And their lives were about to take a turn that neither could have anticipated, and that would test their developing relationship.
Chapter Nine
A week into their new apartment, Jude and Andy had hosted a housewarming party and invited Mase and his wife as well as Mase's two colleagues whom he had met that first night, to share their meal with them. Jude had been offered part time work with Mase’s law firm, and he was still volunteering at the halfway house. Jude had cooked for the occasion, although Andy had told him Mase and his friends wouldn’t care if the food was defrosted. He made curried chicken, with cauliflower and broccoli, French-cut beans and basmati rice. Their guests loved the food, and Cindy had brought her home-made lemon cake, which was a delicious way to end the meal. Jude reveled in the peace he felt in his new home with new friends.
Now, over a month later, Andy and Jude had established a routine, and things were running smoothly. They spent their days apart, and their nights together, and Jude was learning a lot about how to please his lover, as well as what pleased him. Andy had just left for an early shift at work, after stealing a long kiss at the door on his way out. They had been careful to keep their life inside the apartment from leaking out, keeping the public displays of affection to the car, never kissing each other outside. But this morning as Andy had passed him at the open door, the scent of his cologne had kicked Jude in the groin, and he had groaned, making Andy turn to look him in the eye.
> “I can’t be late for work, Jude,” he’d said, leaning in to kiss Jude’s lips.
“I didn’t say a thing,” Jude protested, licking Andy’s bottom lip.
“You didn’t have to, tease!” Andy replied, kissing him deeply. A door opened down the hall and they’d sprung apart. No one appeared to have come out of any apartment so Jude had felt like they had a lucky escape.
He was about to walk back into the apartment when someone called out.
“You there!”
Jude turned toward the sound of the voice and saw a woman approaching him. She was one of his neighbors, a most unpleasant woman whom no one in the building seemed to like much.
“Good morning. How can I help you?” Jude, as always, was ineffably polite.
“If you found some place else to live with your faggot boyfriend, that’d be a start!”
Jude reeled as though he’d been punched in the face. “What?”
“You heard me, cocksucker! I knew you two were the scum of the earth! You need to move your ass and his out of this building. We don’t need your kind around here corrupting our kids. And you used to be a priest! Were you fucking him before you left? Is that why they fired your ass?”
Jude’s cell phone rang, interrupting the woman’s angry tirade. He reached for it automatically, but his hand shook so much he couldn't swipe to answer the call.
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” she continued after taking a cleansing breath. “Making out in full view of anyone passing by! Our kids leave for school now, asshole! You’re gonna scar them for life with that kind of nasty behavior. Get out!”
By this point, several other doors had opened, and people were poking their heads out to find out the reason for the commotion. Everyone could hear what the woman was saying clearly, and Jude’s humiliation grew with every filthy word out of her mouth. She cursed him and Andy roundly, calling down the wrath of God on them.
“You two are gonna get what’s coming to you in the pit of Hell, where all them folks like you will burn.”