by Willa Okati
Adriano made a rude noise and sat back heavily. “Some hungers can wait, and some cannot. You make me hard, Rick.”
“Jesus mercy.”
“That sounded more promising.” Rick could almost see the accustomed quirk of Adriano’s eyebrow. Without warning, Adriano’s warm, bare hand dropped to rest over Rick’s groin, kneading lightly. Rick hissed, his cock threatening to rise and fill. “Ahh, yes, much better. I can remember this,” he mused, stroking up and down Rick’s zipper. “Or I wish I could. Perhaps I need to refresh my memory.”
“Not ‑‑ now,” Rick said between gritted teeth, grasping Adriano’s wrist as carefully as he could and putting it away. “This car’s already miserable; it wouldn’t take much for me to swerve off the road and I doubt either of us wants that.”
Adriano sighed. “Then I will leave you alone, as much as this ‑‑” he snuck back in to pet Rick’s half-hard cock ‑‑”would prefer otherwise, and when we are home, then…” He trailed off suggestively.
“That’s another thing you still remember how to do,” Rick said, needlessly changing lanes again. “Drive me crazy without even trying.”
Adriano’s laughter filled the car and warmed Rick from within.
If only it had been like this all along, he thought, allowing Adriano to rest his hand more chastely on his shoulder. But perhaps that’s the charm of second chances. If all your lucky stars shine down on you at once, then you might have an actual chance at making good on your what-might-have-beens.
“Keep a watch out for the turn-off sign, would you?”
“Of course. Rick?”
“Hmm?”
“Cows, cypress trees, road sign, and boot,” Adriano said, radiating pride.
Rick couldn’t help it. He reached for Adriano’s hand without looking and raised it to his lips, kissing the knuckles. “Brilliant, love. Brilliant.”
And on they drove.
* * * * *
Adriano still stretched the same way he always had, like a cat, shamelessly full-bodied with his hands reached to heaven while he nearly stood on his toes before lurching gracefully forward with a sigh of relief. “Much better,” he approved, sniffing the air. Rick had to admit, the odor surrounding the trattoria was heavenly.
“This is perfect,” Adriano enthused, grasping Rick’s hand and tugging him toward the modest restaurant’s entrance. “Caffeine and calories, exactly what we need.” His smile turned sly. “Almost all we need in one place, and if you cared to adventure around the back…”
“Incorrigible.” Rick allowed himself to be drawn forward in Adriano’s wake. “Not here, please. I don’t mind a bit of exhibitionism, but I draw the line at full-out fucking in front of the locals.”
“You, my heart, are no fun sometimes.” Adriano blew him a kiss before, as Rick was growing accustomed to seeing, metamorphosing rapidly to serious. “Rick, forgive me for not knowing this. Are you…open?” He gestured vaguely. “Do I embarrass you with affection in public? Perhaps this is something you have chided me for, and here I show you how stupid I am, and ‑‑”
Rick chose the best option ‑‑ and, he had to admit, seized the chance to do what he’d ached for at the same time ‑‑ and pulled Adriano to him in a kiss that he intended to be gentle. His plan failed almost immediately when Adriano threw his arms around him and clung tight, palms sweeping eagerly over his back and clinging to his shoulders from behind. Adriano’s lips parted on a gasp and it was only natural for Rick to taste the man’s surprise by sliding in his tongue.
Technically speaking, Adriano tasted of lingering traces of sex and sleep, and his lips were clumsy at first. That didn’t matter. Kissing Adriano was, as ever, akin to drinking deeply of strong, hearty burgundy, easy to become drunk on, to lose his head over after the first taste.
Adriano released one of Rick’s shoulders and worked his hand between them, sliding straight and sure down the front of Rick’s slacks. Rick jerked out of their kiss at the first brush of fingertips along the head of his now painfully engorged cock and took three quick steps back.
“What’s wrong?”
“I told you,” he said as kindly as he could, already loathe to prompt the woebegone, downturned frown so new to Adriano, “not in public, love. At least not here.”
Unlike before, his reassurance didn’t comfort Adriano right away. Instead, Adriano turned aside so that Rick could only see him in profile, and bit his lip. “Do you want me at all?” he asked quietly. “You say one thing, and you explain yourself with fine words, and your body, perhaps it does not object. But your heart and your soul. Do they dislike me so much?”
“Adriano…no. How can you even ask such a thing? Are you not still physically sore from being fucked every possible way all the night long?” Rick fought to find a way to make him understand. Finally, sighing, he caught Adriano’s hand and kissed it again. To hell with anyone who might be watching and decide to take offense. It wasn’t as if he’d ever, ever hidden his preferences. “Adriano, look at me. Adriano?”
As if fearing what he might see in Rick’s face, Adriano slowly obeyed. The vulnerability in his eyes tore at Rick’s heart, simultaneously stinging him with guilt and spurring a sure and certain knowledge that he might as well give up now, for he’d do anything to bring back Adriano’s smile and the sooner he admitted that to himself, the better.
Rick took Adriano’s cheeks in his hands, holding him steady without a chance to look away. “Listen to me, Adriano,” he whispered. “I love you. I have always loved you. I have never been more miserable than I was when I thought I had lost you. When I first saw you’d found your way home to me, I could have died from happiness.”
“Truly? I have a memory, only a vague one…you were angry.”
Of all the things to recall, at all the times.
“Give me some credit, love; I was startled. It’s not the way I’d pictured our reunion.” He stroked his thumbs over Adriano’s cheekbones, a fresh rush of heat pooling in his groin immediately when Adriano’s eyelids slid shut and he turned ever so slightly to brush his lips against Rick’s lifeline. “You are the love of my life and that’s all there is to say about that. Except, now your memory has turned on you, it’ll be my job to revisit all the good memories until it’s as if we were never apart.”
Rick blushed crimson from the emotional intensity of his speech, but pressed forward, as the contentment wreathing Adriano was nearly audible as the rasp of a purring lion. He laid his lips lightly over Adriano’s, drawing back right away; the kiss was meant to comfort rather than titillate.
Adriano hissed, opening his eyes to plead silently with him. “I know you will, and I trust you, my heart, I do. But can you not see? Memories are good, if they are happy, but they are of times gone past.” Almost shyly, he clasped Rick’s waist. “I need something new, something now, to anchor me here. Something I cannot forget even if the rest escapes me. I need it moment by moment, so I can etch these things in my mind. Do you understand?”
Rick did. The tiny scrap remaining of his rational mind protests were drowned out by the raging need for bare skin and the taste of Adriano’s cock between his lips. “Get back in the car,” he breathed against Adriano’s mouth. “I’ll not fuck openly in a parking lot, but I’ll be damned if I don’t take my best shot at fucking in the automobile itself, likely damage to my spine notwithstanding.”
Adriano’s glee could have set the world on fire, to say nothing of what it did for Rick’s own enthusiasm. He pressed his mouth to Rick’s in a hard, quick kiss and nearly dove for the Peugeot, tucking himself in the passenger side.
He’d leaned on the horn three times, urging Rick to hurry, before Rick managed to catch up.
* * * * *
Urgency aside, the logistics of fucking in the backseat of a Peugeot weren’t exactly manageable for two full-grown men. Rick wasn’t sure whether he was more relieved or irritated at knowing there was no possible way they could properly have at one another, bare skin on bare skin and his cock
in Adriano’s arse.
Dear God, he hadn’t ever thought he’d want it so badly, generally happy with bottoming, but the thought of once again watching Adriano orgasm while riding his erection had Rick swearing under his breath and gripping the base of his cock to keep from creaming his slacks like a horny teenager.
Beside him, Adriano laughed wickedly, no doubt knowing exactly what he struggled against. The canny bastard didn’t help matters, draping himself over the cracked vinyl of the seat and letting his legs fall apart. “Do you see something you like?” he taunted eagerly. “Come and take it, if you like.”
Rick wiped sweat out of his eyes and gave up on crouching in the footwell by the door in the hopes of more room to maneuver the rest of Adriano. He reached for the fastenings on Adriano’s slacks, fully intent on getting rid of them as soon as possible. As Adriano was more than willing to help, he soon had them rucked down around Adriano’s knees.
He sucked in a breath, shuddering to a stop at the sight of Adriano’s long, lean legs and his stiff cock curving toward his stomach. Adriano hissed, arching his hips; the movement brought the head of his cock into contact with his belly. When the spasm of need passed and he relaxed, a thin strand of precum connected his erection to a spot below his navel.
“Oh, fuck me sideways,” Rick groaned. Unable to wait any longer, he pressed a hasty kiss to Adriano’s hip and crawled over the man’s legs, sliding his lips around Adriano’s cock. He fought not to come from the sound of Adriano’s desperately appreciative moan alone, though he couldn’t put off the need for some friction on his own cock. Not even bothering to open his slacks at first, he thrust his hand down their front and found his stiffness, tugging from base to head.
Never had it been so wonderful, driving Adriano out of his mind. Adriano, letting himself go like this, thrashing his head and urging him on with filthy gutter talk, jerking his hair and thrusting into his mouth. Rick took it all, everything Adriano had to give and then some, urging Adriano on by kneading his hips with the hand he didn’t have ferociously working his own cock and bobbing up and down Adriano’s tumescent cock.
“Close,” Adriano warned, short of breath. He pushed weakly at Rick’s shoulder. “Close…”
Adriano had never, ever thought to warn Rick when he was about to come. Rick had had to learn the tells for himself. He considered, for a half-second, pulling off and letting Adriano paint his face with his cum, before deciding he was far too greedy for that and wanted to let it all slide down his gullet.
“Rick!” Adriano hiccupped, thrusting up hard. The spit-or-swallow question became suddenly moot, Rick’s throat automatically working to take the spurts of cum deep inside him. After the first shock he forgot how to think at all, greedily guzzling and begging in low grunts for more. He worked his own cock harder, the fat head slipping in and out of his fist, sure that at any moment he’d soak his slacks.
Adriano slumped back, inhaling raggedly. “Come here,” he rasped, barely audible. “I want to taste you, too.”
Damn! Rick lost it, humping into his fist, thick bursts of cum lubricating his grip. He let Adriano’s cock slip from his mouth and buried his forehead in Adriano’s inner thigh, swearing his way through his orgasm and biting his lover’s soft skin.
They were silent for a moment save for the noisiness of their breathing, chests heaving for fresh air. The Peugeot smelled like a bordello now, a cheap fuck-with-a-view; powerful Italian sports cars zipped past them on the road beyond the parking lot; no doubt they’d caused the carriage to rattle and squeak enough to alert every single casual diner in the trattoria to exactly what they were doing. It was wonderful.
The multiple absurdities of the situation struck Rick as hilarious, drawing a near-giggle out of him.
Adriano laughed, too, not asking what the joke was. Rick thought he might perhaps already know, at least in part. He stroked Rick’s head until they both calmed, Rick lazily kissing the angle of his hip. “Now,” he said, sounding deeply satisfied, “now, I think we should eat. Yes? I could happily eat an entire horse, down to the hooves.”
Rick made a face. He wasn’t picky enough to disdain common horsemeat, but it certainly wasn’t his favorite. “I’ll settle for a Panini sandwich, thanks.”
“And for dessert? Spumoni?”
“Mmm. I think I’ve already had my treat for the day.” Rick licked up the side of Adriano’s softening cock. He glanced at Adriano, surprised and pleased to see him taken slightly aback and faintly pink in the cheeks but smiling broadly.
The growl of Adriano’s stomach interrupted anything he might have said, as did Adriano’s burst of laughter. “You see? It agrees with me,” he observed.
“You’re on the road to recovery, all right.” Rick patted Adriano’s knee as he leaned in for one more taste. He hummed softly in appreciation and hitched up a little where he circled his tongue around Adriano’s navel, teasing him, before regretfully lifting away. “Once you’ve had your fun, I’ll lead you directly to the food. If you don’t feel like Panini, what would you say to some fine fat mushrooms in sauce?”
Adriano twinkled darkly, clearly catching every not-so-subtle nuance of Rick’s innuendo. “I’d ask it to march directly into my mouth,” Adriano said firmly, awkwardly sitting up. He caught Rick’s hand and squeezed it. “I love you, my heart. Thank you for coming to find me.”
Rick’s throat contracted. He compressed Adriano’s fingers between his own, forcing a smile. “I only wish I’d known where to look sooner,” he said. “Come on. Time we ate.”
Chapter Fifteen
Rick shook his head in fond amusement as Adriano undulated in the passenger seat of the Peugeot, massaging his stomach and moaning as only a truly satisfied man could. “You sure you don’t want a third dessert?” he couldn’t resist teasing.
Adriano cracked one eye half-open and grinned lazily, looking like the embodiment of Puck himself, if Puck were to have gorged himself on four types of pasta, salad, nearly a full loaf of crusty herbed bread straight from the oven, and a double helping of tiramisu. “If you would not mind waiting here perhaps an hour for digestion, we could go back in and begin again…”
“Tempting, that is, truly tempting.” Rick patted Adriano’s overfull belly just to hear him laugh and groan. “I think I’d rather get you home, though.”
“Really? And why is that?”
“For one, so you don’t disgorge that horrific display of greed all over my fine upholstery ‑‑”
Adriano snorted, then groaned. “Ah, don’t make me laugh, or I will do as you fear.” He lolled his head to one side and picked at a crack in the ancient vinyl seat. “And that would be a shame indeed. But I think you prevaricate. Why else should you want me to come home?”
“Not much of a reason, really. I’d just had an itch to see if I could get you so strung-out and desperate to be spitted on my cock that you’d beg for it, that’s all.”
“You, signor, are the devil.”
“Damn proud of it, too.” Rick inserted his key in the Peugeot’s ignition and revved the rusty motor. “I take it that means you’d ‑‑”
“Drive.”
“Yes, sir.” Careful despite his joking around not to jostle Adriano too much, Rick navigated them out of the trattoria parking lot and out onto the roads, deserted as usual. He clicked his tongue. “That’s rural life for you, innit? No idea how they not only stay open, but can whip out a meal fit for a king at the wish of two raggedy men at a moment’s notice.”
“There were other guests,” Adriano pointed out.
“Two or three of them.” And they’d minded their own business, for which Rick was no ends glad. One local laborer who’d been in raptures over homemade spumoni and two strangers, tourists from the look of them, who’d nearly sung the cook paeans of thanks over their spaghetti Bolognese.
He’d gotten one-half of a curious look from the laborer, wondering who the crazy Scotsman had hauled with him to dinner, the tourists couldn’t have cared less, and the waite
r was a silver-haired gentleman of the old school who’d never, ever dream of something so crass as inquiring about Rick’s personal business while he served their meal.
That didn’t mean as soon as the trattoria closed rumors wouldn’t fly thick and fast as mosquitoes, but Rick put the thought aside for the time being. He’d pay that particular piper when the piper came a-calling. Besides, no one would properly care about Adriano’s ties to the Dominicis, not around here. Or should that be ex-ties? Regardless, they’d not make a huge fuss, and even if they did, Rick didn’t plan on being around to suffer through much of it.
He turned from the simple road leading to the trattoria onto the main stretch ‑‑ so to speak ‑‑ which would take them home. Home for now, that was. Rick had a fancy to build some castles in the air and then damn well make them real, and take Adriano to stay in each and every one.
“Tell me, love. How would you like to go to Venice?”
Adriano perked up. “Truly?”
“My hand to the heavens.”
“I would adore that. When? Could it be soon?”
“Tomorrow, if you like. I’ll throw some clothes in a bag and we’ll leave at dawn’s first light.”
“You can do that?” Adriano seemed mystified.
“‘Course we can. There’s nothing holding us here. And after Venice ‑‑ though we’ll stay as long as we like ‑‑ how about, oh, the Caribbean? I could fancy seeing you naked on a bed of white sands, the blue surf tickling your toes.”
Adriano shivered with apparent pleasure. “Maui, perhaps?”
Rick wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think Adriano had ever made it there. “Why not?” He warmed to his plans. Lord, there was nothing to stop them, right? Cash Juliano’s check with a nice little note thanking him for enabling the worldwide exposure of his son as a happy, thriving homosexual, and set sail. “Alaska, maybe? Got to balance out all that sun with some snow.”