by Julian Bloom
“There may be some like that. But for ordinary folk; not for us. Only the best for us. Only the best for you, my love, for you are the best.”
“How can I ever thank you?” murmured Jake, his eyes tearing up. I never dreamed I’d see a place like this in my whole life.” He gazed around the suite in wonder. There was a king-sized bed, a balcony with practically a 180-degree view over the bay, a lounge area with an over-sized couch, a shower and toilet. “Fabulous! Absolutely fabulous!” He turned back to Reggie and put his arms around him and, standing on tiptoe, kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you!”
Unwilling to let things stop there, Reggie bent over and nuzzled Jake’s neck and nibbled his earlobe. “You know,’ he said, “In the Episcopal church, a couple isn’t really wed until they consummate the marriage.”
“I don’t know what “consummate” means,” Jake murmured.
“Lover, you may not know the word, but you certainly know how to do it. Actions speak louder than words. Let me show you.” He put his arms around Jake’s shoulder, led him over to the bed, and began by pulling Jake’s elaborately embroidered shirt over his head, revealing a slender but beautifully toned coffee au lait torso.
“Oh,” said Jake, catching on quickly. “If that’s what “consummate” means, I’m more than willing.” Sliding his hands under Reggie’s matching wedding shirt, he pulled Reggie against him, nibbled at Reggie’s nipple through the silk, and caressed his back while Reggie kissed his forehead.
“This is only the beginning, love. For a proper consummation, the couple have to be naked.”
“No problem!”
Without delay, Jake undid Reggie’s belt and encouraged his trousers to fall to the ground around his feet. That Reggie was already anticipating the full consummation was made obvious by the bulge in his Y-fronts. There was no need for further explanation. Jake reached inside to cup Reggie’s package, but Reggie pulled away and remonstrated with him. “Not too fast love, or this will be over before it’s begun. Let’s enjoy the journey without straining to the destination.”
Reggie pulled his own shirt over his head and leaned down to deal with Jake’s trousers. This time, the torso revealed was very different - bone white and bone thin and many inches longer. Reggie was a beanpole of well over 6 ft., a whippet to Jake’s miniature dachshund. The two torsos were alike only in being essentially hairless – Jake’s made so by nature, Reggie’s by regular depilation. Reggie was totally aware that his body was not his greatest asset, but he did what he could to make it attractive. Unfortunately, with his redhead’s complexion, there was little he could do about the color. In any case, by now, he was completely comfortable with Jake, whom he knew would be his even if he looked like Quasimodo.
When they were both free of clothes, Jake scrambled onto the bed and lay supine upon it, seductively posed. “Do you like what you see? He grinned, knowing the answer.
“More than I have words for, as you well know.” Indeed, Jake’s body was one of his greatest assets. Reggie had often tried to think of some way in which it wasn’t perfect, but always failed. It was without excess fat, but not at all boney, beautifully muscled but not muscle-bound. With a loose articulation inherited from his mother’s ancestors, he somehow never managed to be less than graceful and now he was the epitome of invitation without being in anyway vulgar. Reggie gazed at him for a moment in admiration and then climbed on the bed and began to kiss the soles of his feet, moving slowly up the inside of his leg with butterfly kisses until he reached ground zero, where everything was ready for him. There he began to lick his way up, never hesitating but never hurrying, until he reached the pinnacle of Jake’s remarkable organ, now standing rigidly erect. With the tip of his tongue, he flicked Jake’s frenulum, causing him to cry out, and took Jake into his mouth just in time to catch his seed, working his tongue to make Jake writhe and groan until the moment passed, and he lay with his arms and legs around him until the boy was completely relaxed.
“If that’s “consummation,’ I think I want to marry you many times.” Jake was grinning merrily. “It’s not over yet, you imp, as well you know.” Without demur, Jake began to minister to Reggie with his hands until Reggie’s quickened breath and near groans made it obvious that to delay with the mouth would cause an accident, and then finished him off with a flourish.
“Now we are we truly wed,” whispered Reggie when he recovered his breath. “Until death do us part.”
Chapter 2 The Wedding
It had been a full day, with many delights: the wedding ceremony itself in a side chapel of Grace Episcopal Cathedral, a sumptuous and convivial wedding brunch for 100 people in the ballroom of San Francisco’s Prescott Hotel with an endless receiving line and the usual collection of speeches. Reggie, as you would expect of the scion of one of San Francisco’s oldest and wealthiest families, had many people eager to wish him well, and to congratulate him on his long-awaited marriage. If all the congratulations were less than sincere, that was very carefully concealed, and all were especially cordial to Jake, standing at Reggie’s side, as Reggie was sure they would be, whatever their feelings were. It was, after all, San Francisco. Reggie’s family, if some were less than pleased at his choice of partner, were delighted that there was a partner and were comfortably assured that by hook or by crook, there would be an heir in due course. If some faces were missing, there were so many present that they were not missed. Then, uncomfortably close to departure time, Reggie and Jake rushed by limousine to the dock where The Star Princess, the grande dame of Princess Cruises’ fleet of ships, was waiting to take them on a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska on their honeymoon.
Soon after the consummation, both Reggie and Jake fell asleep until the steward’s discrete knock woke them up. The liner had left the dock by then, and the steward, pretending to be unaware of the hastily donned semi-undress of his listeners, delivered his standard introductory spiel. When he had shown them all the features of the suite and explained the procedures for acquiring room service, he wondered if perhaps they would like to order dinner served in their cabin, a suggestion that suited them perfectly, so they ordered a light dinner of salmon mousse, artichoke hearts and asparagus tips with brandied peaches as dessert. Reggie quizzed him about the wine available, and found one that seemed to him to be perfectly suited to the menu. When he had received their orders, Juan left, but returned amazingly quickly with a meal tastefully served under covers and suggested that as the evening was warm, they might like to eat on the balcony to enjoy the sunset. This too, as all his suggestions had, found favor, and they enjoyed a leisurely meal gazing at a Technicolor sky with brown pelicans and gulls to supply an orchestral background.
When he had sipped up the last few drops of peach-flavored brandy, Jake leaned back and said, “It’s been a perfect day, hasn’t it, Reggie.”
Though his more sophisticated perception had noted a number of small imperfections, Reggie was loving enough to agree entirely. The last thing he wanted to do was take the shine off the day in Jake’s eyes.
“When I think where I was when you rescued me, I can’t believe how far I’ve come. Entirely thanks to you. I’m so lucky! I do love you more than I have words to express.”
“I know you do, Jake. And I love you too. You are a greater blessing to me than I can ever possibly be to you.”
As soon as they had finished the meal, they summoned Juan to clear up, and as soon as he had turned down their bed, they soon retired to it, entwined in each other’s arms. While Jake was asleep almost at once, Reggie lay awake and reminisced about the beginning of their relationship six years before.
One of the charities which Reggie’s father had been instrumental in establishing was Hope Home for street boys. As soon as one of their charges left, either by adoption or reaching the age of 18, another was found. All the children in the family were expected to spend time helping at the home, doing whatever they had the skill or the talent to do. Reggie’s sister, Susan, who was a gifted musician, we
nt to the home and played the piano and sang. Reggie’s elder brother, a star basketball player, trained a basketball team which competed in local tournaments. Reggie, who was neither musical nor athletic, took some time to find his niche at the home, but finally realized that he had a special empathy for the disadvantaged and soon adopted the role of a kind of elder brother. The boys sensing that he was in some way wounded as they were, especially those who had some history of betrayal by someone they loved and trusted, were willing to let him get closer to them than most adults, and shared with him things which they hid from others.
Reggie, who was an introvert by nature and had felt himself to be an outsider even before his sexual preference became overt, basking in their acceptance, found that he too could love the wounded boys more easily than he loved even his family, who were in any case not close knit or demonstrative. Even with Susan, the one closest to him, he played his cards close to his chest. He was never happier than when he was chatting with the boys, listening and sympathizing, or taking them on excursions, when his peculiarities were never an issue. Although he had to be careful not to cross the line into professional counselling, for which he had to have academic qualifications, he could suggest things that he intuitively understood they would benefit from. If questioned about his role, he would describe himself vaguely as a “brother figure” but privately, he thought of himself as an empathizer.
At first he had no trouble about offering “brotherly love.” He hugged them when they needed hugging and often held their hands when they needed assurance of sympathy and there was not a hint of sexuality in any of it. Unfortunately, establishing sexual identity had become an obsession in San Francisco, and all boys at school were encouraged to consider how they felt and whom they liked to be around and thus make a lifetime decision.
Reggie was perplexed by this. Certainly he was not obsessed with girls as some of his friends seemed to be. When they talked about sexual adventures, duplicitously for the most part, he pretended to feelings he didn’t have, just to fit in. At the same time, he began to see that he had feelings for his classmates which he had never thought of homosexual, but perhaps might be. As with all boys’ boarding schools, there was a certain amount of experimentation with masturbation, sometimes solitary, sometimes in pairs or groups, and although everybody seemed to enjoy this, Reggie began to wonder if for him it didn’t have a special significance.
His closest friend, also something of a misfit, lived in Sacramento, and sometimes spent weekends at Reggie’s. Quite naturally, what was merely experimentation with a new ability became overtly homosexual, and hands they had kept to themselves began to stray to the other, and eventually mouths came into play, and Reggie decided to accept that he was gay. He kept it a secret at home, though not at school, and it made hardly a ripple in his life.
Except at Hope Home. Quite suddenly, his “brotherly love” for his boys became less brotherly. He exercised rigid control over his behavior: he knew that anything else would lead to disaster. Anything even a millimeter across the line between brotherhood and homosexuality would leave him open to accusations of “abuse.” The thought horrified him. Not only would it bring out into the open things he wanted to remain covert, it would bring a sudden end to the activity in his life that gave him the most profound emotional satisfaction. The result was that an element of strain entered his relationships with the boys and he became less “hands on” with them. The ones he spent the most time with sensed the change and withdrew slightly, but in general, things on the surface went on as usual for nearly two years.
Then Jake was found on the street, emaciated, wracked with the signal TB coughing spasms and, as the physical exam given to each newcomer revealed, more than one STD. He had had to choose between starving and using his chief asset, his body, to get food. As his physical condition deteriorated, so did the attractiveness of his body; he remained, however, a remarkably cheerful and outgoing lad with a ready smile and a talent for clowning.
At first, Reggie related to Jake in exactly the same way as he related to the other boys. But that happy situation couldn’t last.
Chapter 3 Unspoken Courtship
Reggie and Jake awoke to another beautiful day. They were just entering the strait that would take them to Vancouver, and the view of Vancouver Island from their balcony was spectacular. It was tempting for them to lie in bed and enjoy the entertainment they could give each other, but Jake, particularly, was keen to see what the part of the liner outside their suite, which they had neglected the day before, had to offer. So they went on line to see what the possibilities for breakfast were, and found that the main dining room offered a spectacular buffet breakfast. That seemed a good place to start, and indeed, they found an amazing array of delicious foods to choose from. Neither Reggie nor Jake had any need to watch their food intake and returned to their table with plates piled high with all sorts of delectables. Jake had a taste for what Reggie called fruites de mer: succulent Pacific scallops, fresh razor clams and oysters, refusing such mundane things as bacon and eggs as too mundane for the occasion. Reggie’s choices were more ordinary, though he did succumb to British kippers, which were not often served at home. When Jake accepted an offer of a bite “just to try them” he was entranced and determined to have some the next morning, if indeed, he wasn’t up to having seconds when he finished what was on his plate.
There were superb melt in your mouth croissants and Danish pastries and the enjoyment of their food was uppermost, taking precedence over conversation. They could converse, after all, anytime they wanted.
Jake found people-watching enjoyable too. There was such an array of the famous and the wealthy all around them that he felt he must be watching a film. Of course he and Reggie had been out in society in San Francisco as Reggie had undergone a program of introducing his friends to Jake, and Jake to the behavior expected in that company, but this was more like “the cast of thousands” finale to a Hollywood musical.
Unless he was mistaken, there was one woman who seemed interested in him. She was a petite but still attractive middle-aged woman sitting alone at a table across the room. She had caught his attention almost from the first because of the amount of jewelry she was adorned with and caught his eye as he was staring and wondering how much it all must weigh. He tried to ignore her after that, but couldn’t help an occasional glance, during one of which he found her looking at him. He wondered what was going on, but said nothing to Reggie.
After breakfast, they explored around the liner. Both were quite taken by the adults only sunbathing deck where clothing was optional and agreed that sunbathing was exactly the activity to occupy them until lunch, after which they would be docking at Vancouver, and it was there, with Jake attractively displayed on the deck chair next to him that Reggie’s thoughts turned once again to the early days of their relationship. So absorbed was he with his reminiscences that he suddenly realized that if he didn’t pull his beach robe across his middle everyone would know what he was thinking about, which, even if they were on an adults only deck was not desirable.
Jake and Reggie had sensed an affinity from the first time they met. Jake on the street was flexible; all that clients needed was money for Jake to take them on. But once in the home, surrounded by males, the need for flexibility had fallen away, and as the affection for Reggie grew, he felt no desire for variety. Jake, of course, had developed the sixth sense any sex worker has to identify customers which had enabled him from the beginning to figure out Reggie’s sexual tastes. He had no intention of using his knowledge for his own benefit, but it did incline him to seek out Reggie especially as a confidant, because he could predict that Reggie would be sympathetic.
Reggie, possessor of knowledge about Jake that no one else at the home knew, was specially equipped to empathize with him. But being a dispenser of “brotherly love” only, was particularly stressful. He longed to express sexually the affection he felt. Of course he felt that with all the boys, but with Reggie, whom he was sure would
not react with horror or repulse him, it required all the will power he had to resist.
Moreover, Jake, whose father he had only known for a short time, and whose mother was a crack addict, had little experience of affection that was not expressed sexually. He would with no untoward intentions, sit closer, hold on to hugs and Reggie’s hands longer than the other boys, and use caresses that crossed the line from manly physicality. He sensed – how could he not – when he had gone too far and Reggie tensed and drew away, and knew that he had to be careful, but it was a strain. Thus they both longed to establish a fuller relationship and at the same time tried to avoid each other lest they lose control.
Reggie even considered leaving his work at the home. He had graduated from high school and was headed off to UCLA in the fall anyway, and was trying to be enthusiastic about it. But he couldn’t manage it. A couple of months ahead, he might feel differently.
A couple of months later, he felt much the same, except that his frustration was greater. It was Susan, the member of his family whom he was closest to, who provided the catalyst for change. She knew Reggie through and through and had long been relatively sure about Reggie’s sexual orientation. In fact, she had been fairly sure about it before Reggie himself was, and had sensed when he finally accepted it. She was ready and eager to give counsel and comfort, but couldn’t bring herself to be frank. She loved Reggie enough to feel that if he wanted to keep it secret, that was his business. She knew only too well the cost of upsetting their father and for him to learn about Reggie and his connection to Jake would be an upset of major proportions. Nevertheless, she intuited the tension between Reggie and Jake and guessed the cause. And as the summer after Reggie’s graduation wore on, she became convinced that the situation must be resolved one way or another before Reggie went off to university – for Reggie’s own good. So one day she invited Reggie out for lunch. It was characteristic of the family that any intimate dialogue had to be set up carefully; it was a big event, not a casual one. Susan pretended that she wanted to ask Reggie’s advice about something because she was afraid that Reggie would back out if he knew it was about him.