by Sky Winters
Jake buried his head into Lewis’ neck, kissing him gently as he moaned with pleasure, nodding in approval at the warm liquid in his hand. It provided lubrication, adding an extra layer of bliss as he stroked Lewis, tugging him gently as he began rocking his hips in a slow, rhythmic motion, gently prying into Lewis and pleasuring them both with his body.
Lewis succumbed to the bliss of Jake’s nimble, experienced fingers. He knew exactly how to work a man’s body. He cried out in ecstasy when Jake squeezed the shaft of his penis and finally shoved himself wholly inside of him. Jake took it as a sign of encouragement and continued to unleash short bursts of his whole power, until Lewis was used to his force.
Lewis moaned out loud, and gritted his teeth as Jake dragged his nails down his back. Lewis had to brace himself against the wall as Jake, still somehow able to multitask and pleasure Lewis with his incredible fingers, provided him with the most gratifying fuck he had ever had. He found himself already looking forward to the next time.
But that was presumptuous. He couldn’t let himself get swept up in fantasy just because he had done one impulsive thing in his life by getting on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle and letting him take him in his living room. Jake broke into his thoughts by lifting Lewis by the hips and throwing him into the couch so that he was bent completely over. He released his grip on Lewis’ shaft and Lewis gripped the edge of the couch, gasping in pleasure as Jake’s body jackhammered into his.
Lewis exploded with burst after burst of pleasure as Jake’s urgent thrusting created a delicious friction inside of him. The burning inside of him grew to a fever pitch, until he felt the rocking of Jake’s hips pause. The sensitive nerves inside of Lewis were at the height of their pleasure. Jake lunged forward and gripped Lewis’ pulsing member, squeezing it tightly. He suddenly felt Jake’s cock shudder inside of him before it unleashed a hot torrent of cum.
Jake hissed in pleasure and Lewis groaned as his body was overpowered and Jake’s hand was filled with Lewis’ orgasm. Jake continued thrusting inside of him until every last drop had been spilled.
When Jake finally pulled away, he looked Lewis in the eyes and grinned. “Want to do it again?”
Lewis looked Jake up and down, not believing his luck. He had never seen a more attractive man. His powerful chest was heaving as Jake struggled to catch his breath, and his cock was already starting to get hard again. His body was full of tattoos, and his chest covered with thick black hair.
Lewis nodded without a word and Jake grabbed his hand, leading him down the hall to his bedroom.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Lewis woke up in confusion. He was used to this feeling, traveling all over the world to get the best stories, but this time, something was different. His entire body was aching, raw with the results of the pleasure he had shared with Jake the night before. But where was Jake?
Lewis sat up in bed. His head was pounding and Jake was nowhere to be found. He crept tentatively from the bed, wrapping a sheet from the bed around. He had never had such a wild night of passion in his life. None of his lovers had been able to muster the stamina that Jake had.
“Jake?” he called. But there was nobody there to greet him.
Lewis shuffled through the house, frowning as he tried to find the man from the night before. When he glanced at the grandfather clock in the living room, he cursed. He was going to be late for his meeting. And he hadn’t even brought his rental car with him. He was stranded.
Lewis discarded the sheet on Jake’s couch and retrieved his clothes from the night before. Why had Jake left him there like that without even bothering to wake him up? Had he done something wrong? He couldn’t imagine ever just leaving after being intimate with someone, or leaving a perfect stranger in his house for that matter.
He dressed quickly, feeling a little bit like he had just swallowed some kind of stomach bile. Maybe Jake was ashamed of what they had done. Lewis couldn’t help but feel cast aside. Why was it that nobody ever really gave his feelings the thought that they deserved? He was always going above and beyond for everybody else. Even Larry, his boss, knew that.
Shit, Larry! Lewis reached into his pocket and felt a surge of relief when he found his cell phone. If he could get reception in the mountains, which was unlikely, he might be able to call for a cab without being too late for the meeting.
When he turned the phone on, his stomach dropped. He didn’t have any bars. He would have to go outside and try to find a spot with reception. He grumbled to himself as he left Jake’s house. He might as well just walk into town himself.
By the time he found a spot with reception, his foul mood was cemented. He hadn’t felt like setting up the meeting so soon, but since they would be expecting him, it would be rude to miss it. He called the taxi service and within a miraculous fifteen minutes, Lewis was on the road.
He wished that he’d had time to prepare. Maybe if he hadn’t gone to the bar that night to drown his sorrows he would have been able to grab his briefcase from the rental car. It was full of prompts that Larry had hoped he would work on to get an angle on the story. Then again, he usually ignored the prompts anyway and was able to get to the heart of the matter without much help. That’s why they always hired him. He was the best at what he did and everybody knew it.
Unfortunately, that didn’t leave him immune to the first case of wanderlust he’d had after his break up. And it infuriated him that he had succumbed to his desires for a man who would be willing to leave him stranded in the woods as if he didn’t exist. Wouldn’t most normal people leave a note or something?
It was infuriating how some men just treated others like they were objects to be used and disposed of at a moment’s notice. Everybody was constantly trying to just move themselves up in the world and they didn’t care whose heads they stepped on. At least Lewis had a noble career. He couldn’t step on anybody’s head. He had gotten there with sheer persistence and hard work, dedicated to refining his craft and becoming the best at what he did.
When the cab finally made it to the Missouri Department of Conservation to meet his contact and the guides who were going to help him through the wilderness, Lewis sighed in relief. He wasn’t even five minutes late. He must have overestimated how far away Jake’s house had been. He felt a twinge of guilt for not locking up the man’s house after he left, leaving it open to who knew what kind of burglars and animals, but he justified it by thinking that if Jake had just used and abused him for the night, then he had brought it upon himself.
“Good morning, Lewis,” a jovial man said, coming forward to shake his hand. “I was told to be expecting you today. Come, come. Let’s go to my office and discuss your plans for the article.”
Lewis was glad he had gone over all of his briefing documents on the plane, otherwise he wouldn’t have had anything to say to the kind man, whose name he discovered was Melvin Blake. He was the head of activities there, and seemed very enthusiastic about all things wilderness. It was a breath of fresh air after being stuck in Mexico, where many of the people he spoke to didn’t give a damn about the contamination so much as they did how they could profit off of the cleanup efforts. Still, that was the case in every environmental issue he covered. That was probably why everybody trusted his reporting. He was never one to mince his words and he called things as he saw them.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like,” Melvin was saying toward the end of the meeting. He led Lewis out of his office and had insisted on giving him the grand tour of the facilities. “We will make ourselves available to answer any questions that you might have. Now if you really want to get up close and personal though, and track the progress of the black bears as they begin to adjust to the reintroduction efforts, you’re going to want to cozy up to one of our bear specialists.”
Melvin beamed proudly at a door before opening it and gesturing for Lewis to walk inside. When he did, his heart started hammering wildly in his chest. There was Jake, bent over a large table with a hug
e map sprawled across it, staring closely and tracing a line with colored pencil.
“Jake! Come say hello to our guest,” Melvin exclaimed, slapping Lewis on the back. Jake glanced up from the table and gave Jake a brief nod, as if they had never met before. Or as if they had met and it had been so inconsequential that it didn’t even warrant a hello. Lewis couldn’t help but feel hurt.
“Jake here’s busy with the project, of course. Excuse us, Jake.”
Jake nodded again, this time without looking up from his map, and Melvin led Lewis through the door once again.
“At about three o’clock, Jake is scheduled to go out into the forest and check on the bears’ progress. He does good work, so I’ve scheduled you to follow him and be his shadow for the rest of your time here. It should give you a firsthand account of the efforts that we’re making to allow this species to thrive in what used to be their natural habitat. I think you’ll be very pleased!”
Yes, Lewis thought grimly. Very pleased indeed.
***
By the time that three o’clock rolled around, Lewis was a nervous wreck. He hadn’t slept enough the night before, and he wasn’t sure he was prepared to ride through the forest in the little off-road vehicle that the Department of Conservation had commissioned for the project.
But before he had the chance to back out, Jake emerged from the office, a pencil tucked behind his ear. He was dressed in a white dress shirt and snug black pants, and Lewis couldn’t help but gawk when he remembered how good Jake’s body had felt pressed against him the night before. Lewis hated himself for still being so attracted to Jake, after how the man had treated him but nature was nature, he reasoned. It couldn’t be helped.
Jake silently got behind the wheel of the car and, without a word, headed into the depths of the mountains. Lewis could take a hint and he knew better than to speak. Jake paused every so often to scribble down some notes on a clipboard that he had wedged between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat, and then tuck the pencil behind his ear once again.
The white shirt hugged his muscular body tightly, and Lewis couldn’t help but stare at him. Finally, Jake sighed and caught his eye.
“What?”
“I just…I didn’t expect to see you here,” Lewis replied. “You didn’t tell me about what you do for a living. I just assumed…”
“What, that I’m a biker?” Jake asked, a smile playing across his lips. “Not hardly. But I know a lot of guys who are. And they respect me up there. I keep to myself for the most part thought. That’s how I like it.”
“So you really like bears,” Lewis said, trying to make the excruciating ride a little bit less awkward. He knew that Jake had to be regretting the choices they had made the night before. He had all the signs of regret. And although it hurt his feelings, Lewis couldn’t blame him much. What if he thought Lewis might blab about him being gay to his friends.
“I don’t ‘really like’ bears,” Jake said edgily, stopping the car abruptly. “Get out. We have to walk from here.”
“Oh,” Lewis said, his cheeks burning red.
He couldn’t remember the last time a man had been able to make him so flustered so easily. It was a little bit embarrassing. If he had known that Jake was a bear specialist he would have to work with for the duration of his time in the Ozark mountains, would he still have wanted to sleep with him? He liked to think that he would have had more sense than that. But the truth was that he probably would have done it anyway. It had been too long since he’d felt truly wanted.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Jake said, turning to glance at Lewis as he led the way through the mountains. “But I take my work here very seriously. I’d appreciate it if you don’t interrupt me.”
“All right,” Lewis said quietly. He couldn’t tell if he was being reprimanded or if he should consider it a half-assed apology for the cold way that Jake was behaving. Maybe they would be able to sort that out after work. He was going to need a ride back to his rental car, after all.
“Stop,” Jake said suddenly, holding his arm out in front of Lewis. Lewis stopped abruptly, and was shocked to see two bears just ahead of them. “Don’t move.”
Lewis didn’t need to be told twice. The bears were playing amicably, rolling around on the forest floor and eating something off the ground lazily. They were fairly large, but Lewis got the feeling that they were just babies.
“Cubs,” Jake confirmed into a voice recorder once they had gone. “Adolescents. Seem to be adjusting well to their new surroundings. Already found a food source and feeling comfortable enough to play.”
Jake rolled his sleeves up and jotted down a note on his clipboard before proceeding. Lewis couldn’t help but marvel at the man. Outside of work, he seemed like a completely different person. But when he was working, he was so focused and attentive to detail. Maybe he really was just trying to do his best for the bears. He had left in the morning because he didn’t want to be late for work. Maybe Lewis was just being over sensitive.
To test his theory, Lewis took a deep breath and walked abreast Jake. They didn’t speak, and finally Lewis gathered the courage to reach out and touch Jake’s hand. Jake’s fingers tensed up when Lewis wove his own through them, and they held hands briefly before Jake stopped walking.
“Look, I know it’s romantic being here by yourself where nobody’s watching, but I’d really like to focus on my job right now. I already asked you not to interrupt. Please respect that. This is important to me.” He pulled his hand away from Jake’s and walked on ahead.
Lewis sighed. This was going to be a long assignment.
Chapter 6
Lewis had been working with Jake for the past two weeks. He had made himself as comfortable as he could possibly be in the hotel that Larry had provided for him. His first impression of the town had been wrong. It was much bigger than he’d thought originally. He’d simply followed the GPS to the bar nearest the airport, which, coincidentally, was far outside of city limits. He had been spending his time exploring the area and found that it was a surprisingly nice little haunt. He wouldn’t mind a few more months of exploration.
Everything about his job was perfect. Except for Jake. Things had been awkward between them since the first day. Neither of them dared to speak about what had happened between them, and had to pretend that nothing happened, especially when other people were around. The tension in the room went up sevenfold whenever others were in the room with them, and Jake usually found a corner to hide in while Lewis had to make small talk about the progress of his article.
It was a lucky thing that he was comfortable with strangers, and kept himself armed with questions to ask when things got awkward, whether with Jake or with anybody else. It was part of the gig as an investigative journalist. He just couldn’t figure out what it might take to crack Jake.
Whether he liked it or not, he was wildly attracted to the man, and the longer he spent out in the isolated mountains with him, watching the professional and distant way he handled his work, the deeper his lust for Jake grew.
He thought for a while that his feelings might have just been one-sided, except that one day, while they were deep in the woods, Lewis felt like he was being watched. It was a feeling he was used to in the forest. Sometimes the animals would spot them and flee. But when he looked cautiously around for the source, he met eyes with Jake, who was staring at him with a hungry, shameless look of lust.
But when Lewis approached him after catching him in the act, Jake moved quickly away, as if it had never happened. Still, the incident had left Lewis with the hard-on from hell, and he spent the rest of their time together trying not to do anything foolish. Especially because they had agreed to take out an inexperienced field scientist named Mindy to check on the habitat.
It was encouraging. Jake was constantly on Lewis’ mind. The night they had spent together had been the most erotic of his life to date. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move past it. And even though Jake was prete
nding like it had never happened and trying to play it cool, the animalistic lust in his eyes confirmed what Lewis had suspected all along—Jake wanted him just as badly. But something was holding him back.
Finally, in the third week of research, Lewis decided enough was enough and confronted Jake about it..
“Jake,” he said, trying to keep his voice even and confident. He didn’t want Jake to look down on him somehow.
“Yeah?” he asked, glancing into Lewis’ eyes. Lewis frowned, detecting a hint of sadness in them.
“I know work is important, but can I ask you something?”
Jake sighed in response, but Lewis didn’t let himself get deterred.
“Would you like to go out and, I don’t know…get drinks with me after work or something?”
Jake looked abruptly into Lewis’ eyes, with the same hungry look of longing that Lewis had caught him with a couple of weeks prior. But before he could answer, a loud rumble pierced the air.
“Fuck,” Jake whispered. “The bears!”
The men ran at full speed toward their destination—an intimate looking post where they had been observing the bears in their natural habitat. Once in a while, Lewis would get good pictures from the area. The bears had settled close to the site. But nobody was supposed to be driving this deeply into the forest. They weren’t even allowed to take the off-roader.
When they reached the site, Lewis’ chest was burning with the effort of exertion and he gasped out loud. A group of drunken rednecks were whooping and hollering, aiming their rifles at one of the bear cubs.
“No!” Lewis exclaimed, running forward to try to save the bear.
“Lewis!”
The rednecks cackled when they saw that there were two human targets and turned their barrels on them. Lewis saw an evil glint in the eyes of the man closest to him as he prepared to empty a round into Lewis’ stomach. He knew for certain that he was going to be a goner.
Suddenly, a vicious roar shook the foliage around them and the men paled, scrambling backward in fright. Lewis was shocked when the biggest bear he had ever seen, black and beautiful, leapt over him and lunged at the redneck who was aiming at Lewis. He mauled him with his giant paw, sharp claws ripping into the man’s flesh, leaving his corpse lying on the ground. He emitted a mighty roar and the three other rednecks tried to scramble away and load their weapons at the same time. But they were too drunk to do either one very gracefully.