A Fluffy Tale (19 page)

Linis was trilling, so was Pyon. Zachary
had his eyes closed, an expression of contentment on his face. Julian could
guess the reason, from the little bursts of pleasure
he received from the man’s hands on Pyon’s body.

He looked down at the beautiful kem in his
lap. Linis looked disgustingly smug.
Oh
yes, you know exactly what you’re doing, you pair.
But it was hard to resent something that made
him feel so good—and wasn’t exactly harming Zachary either.

It was a curiously intimate, sensual
experience, sharing vicarious strokes this way. They didn’t speak, didn’t need
to. They both knew what was happening, how it felt—and they both wanted it,
which made the difference.

A taxi to the hotel, check-in for two
adjoining rooms, and up in the old, cramped lift. Zachary stared straight
ahead, not saying a word. His expression had lost that lovely contentment, and
Julian wondered what was going on inside that handsome, inscrutable skull.
Second thoughts? Third, fourth and fifth thoughts? He
tried to ready himself for the almost inevitable. Zachary getting cold feet
wouldn’t break his heart, he told himself firmly. They’d still be friends and
that was all that mattered.

At Zachary’s door, Julian smiled brightly.
“Bright and early then. See you at seven.”

“Yes.”

Zachary put the keycard in the door. Julian
shouldered his backpack and wondered if the man would even be speaking to him
tomorrow. Maybe they should talk now? “You know I could—”

“You could stay if you—” Zachary stopped.
“Sorry, you could…?”

“Stay. Talk. Um…and, you know…talk.”

“Like we did on the train? With the kems?”

Julian flushed. “Um…we don’t need the kems,
not exactly.” Pyon squeaked and Julian stroked his tail. “No offence, little
fella.”

“You, ah…?”

Julian sighed, grabbed the keycard off his
friend, and opened the door. “Just go inside, Zachary.” Otherwise they’d be
dithering all night.

He dropped his pack and took Zachary’s from
his hand, setting it on the floor. “Come here,” he said firmly, holding his
arms out and hoping like hell he hadn’t read this wrong.

He hadn’t. Zachary had only been waiting
for the invitation, and the arms that went around Julian’s shoulders were eager
and affectionate, almost desperate. “I…I…had the strangest feeling all day. That I needed to do this. But I didn’t know how to ask you.”

Julian pulled him down for a gentle,
unassuming kiss. “Next time, just do it, okay? Because I
wanted it too. You’ve been stroking my…kem…for over an hour. Man, I
really
wanted to hold you.”

“My…kem…was rather stimulated too.”

Julian pressed against him, felt the proof
hard against his stomach. “It sure was. I'm sleeping here tonight. Is that all
right with you?”

“Uh…” The man’s eyes darted nervously
towards the bed.

“
Sleeping
,
Zachary. Maybe some more of this…” He kissed him again, this time with a little
more energy. “And a lot more of this holding stuff, but we’ve got nine hours to
get eight hours sleep and I want more than an hour to…um…”

“De-virginise me?”

Julian blinked in shock. “You…you want
that? Now? Here?”

“Julian, I might not be experienced but you
and Leo have been force-feeding me romantic films for months. I do know what
usually comes next…uh…doesn’t it?”

He was so damn
cute
when he was confused. “Usually,” Julian said, grinning up at
his companion. “But not necessarily, and not necessarily this weekend. Right
now, bed and sleep.”

“And…this,” Zachary said, bending and
giving Julian a clumsy, sweet kiss that did weird things to the pit of his
stomach.

“Yes—and that.”

Considering Zachary’s many issues, if the
man had come out of the bathroom wearing a neck to ankle nightshirt, Julian
wouldn’t have been surprised, but he emerged wearing nothing but spotless
underpants and a bashful expression. Pretty much what Julian was wearing, only
a cheaper brand of underpants.

And Julian didn’t have all the scars on
that flat stomach. He went to Zachary and placed his palm carefully over the
worst of them. “They must have hurt,” he whispered.

“Yes, at the time. It’s fine now. My leg
and arm ache in the cold but I'm told that’s normal. The ribs…sometimes too.”

“Too close.” He bent and kissed the
puckered, imperfect surface—shivers rippled under the skin, under his lips.
“Don’t do that again.”

“I hadn’t planned on doing it the first
time. Still, I don’t think that driver will run over another lawyer in a
hurry.”

“She damn well better not.” The woman had
been drunk and unlicensed and was looking at jail time. Zachary’s insurers were
handling the civil suit against various parties. Zachary professed a complete
lack of interest in the outcome, since he was now well and the woman was no
longer a danger to any other pedestrians, but Julian wanted maximum retribution
for what had been done to Zachary. “Come to bed.”

It was a huge bed, about the only luxurious
thing in an otherwise ordinary room, so if Zachary’s fear of physical closeness
overwhelmed him, he had plenty of room to escape. But right now, he didn’t seem
to want to, and when Julian took him into his arms, he cuddled close as if he’d
done it for years.

Julian kissed him, still besotted with the
feel and shape of those perfect, kissable lips. Zachary was still rather
passive, but willing just the same. There’d be time for him to take the upper
hand later, if he wanted.

An indignant squeak came from the foot of
the bed. Pyon sat there next to Linis—one of them was bitching, but Julian
didn’t know which. “Uh uh—you arranged it, you don’t get to complain now.”

“Linis? Come here.”

Julian groaned to himself as Zachary’s kem
strolled over and Zachary cuddled him close, nuzzling and petting him. Romance
was finished for the evening…

But then Zachary sat up and firmly set
Linis down at the end of the bed, giving Pyon a pet as he did so. “You two, go
enjoy yourselves over there, and quietly, please. Yes, Pyon, you’re a good
fellow. Thank you.” To Julian’s amazement, the two kems leapt off the bed
together and onto the armchair where they proceeded to curl around each other
and look for all the world like they were kissing.
Zachary turned around to face Julian, who was still gaping. “You only have to
ask nicely.”

“Would it have worked with you?”

Zachary smiled. “You’ll never know, will
you.”

Julian held out his hand and tugged Zachary
back to his side. “I do now.”

He kissed Zachary again, because kissing
was good and they both liked it, while Zachary’s hands roved over his back,
hesitantly gentle.

“Your skin…so soft.”

“Uh, that’s not usually something you say
to a guy, Zachary.”

“I don’t care, it’s true. And not as flabby
as it was when I met you. Ow.” Julian had tugged his earlobe. “It’s true.”

“It’s rude. It’s also stopping me kissing
you, so decide if you want to talk about my former flab or be kissed.”

Zachary went very still and quiet.

“Well?” Julian demanded.

“I don’t want to
talk
. I spend all day doing that. I’ve spent all day…thinking about
you kissing me. Please?”

Grinning, Julian turned off the light and
obliged. Zachary tasted…clean and sweet and his clumsy style just felt so
right, though it might have had something to do with the way he ground himself
against Julian, almost unconsciously. Julian endured it as long as he could,
but finally he pushed away, a little breathless. “Hey. If you keep that up, I'm
going to need to change my underwear.”

“Oh, sorry.” Zachary sounded out of breath
too. “We should stop.”

But he was hard, and Julian was horny, and
no bloody way could he just go to sleep right now. “I’ve got an idea. Lie on
your back and put your hands above your head.”

“Why?”

“Because then you won’t rip my hair out.”
He threw back the covers, and put his hand over Zachary’s erection, trapped
behind crisp cotton. “I'm going to take care of you, then I'm going to jerk off
and then we’re going to sleep. Okay?”

“No.”

The light snapped on again, and Julian
blinked against the glare. “What’s wrong? It doesn’t hurt.”

“I can’t see. And…uh…I could just
masturbate. If you let me up…”

Julian put his hand firmly on Zachary’s
stomach. “Stay,” he growled, but then laughed as one of the kems whined. “Shut
up.”

“Julian, you don’t need to—”

“Look, Zachary, it’s not about need, it’s
about me
liking
to.”

“Oh. Can I try it, then?”

Zachary giving him a
blowjob. Julian nearly came on the spot at the
thought. “Uh…better idea.” He put his hands at the waistband of Zachary’s
underpants. “Coming off, okay?”

Zachary nodded, though he looked less than
enthusiastic. Julian tugged the underwear down, and the trapped cock sprang to
attention. Zachary, face flame red, went to cover it with his hands, but Julian
pushed them aside. “No, let me look. Wow. I mean…
wow
.”

“You’re making fun of me.” Zachary tried to
cover again, but Julian blocked his hands.

“No, I'm not.” He pulled the underpants all
the way off so he could really appreciate the view. “Hello, gay person here. I
like
penises. And yours is…wow.
Gorgeous.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Julian couldn’t stop staring. It
was thick and long and man, those legs…he couldn’t see Zachary’s arse but he
could imagine it…

Zachary was doing his best to hide, lifting
his knee and turning, although all it did was show off his legs and set up a
peekaboo show that turned Julian on even more. “Julian, this is incredibly
embarrassing.”

Julian came back to himself and realised
he’d been staring for well over a minute. “Oh. Oh, right.” He sat up, stripped
off his own underwear and tossed both pairs onto the side table. “Now you can
look.”

He even spread his legs, stroked himself a
couple of times to give the man a show. “Well?”

Zachary sat up on his elbows, frowning at
Julian’s erection in a way he didn’t find all that flattering. “I don’t have
anything to compare it with. Sorry.”

“Oh right. Uh…okay.” Now he felt like an
idiot. He reached for the light switch, realising he’d just moved far too soon,
but Zachary forestalled him.

“Wait. I didn’t say I didn’t
like
it.”

“No?”

“No. I just…don’t know if it’s magnificent.
Objectively, I mean. There might be others which are
nicer. I don’t know.”

“Want me to find you some pictures so you
can draw up a scale and a little bar graph?”

“If you like.”

Julian opened his mouth to yell but then
saw the grin. “You’re a prick, Mr Ledbetter.”

“No, I
have
a prick. So do you. Uh…it’s very pretty.”

Julian rolled his eyes as he lay down next
to his irritating companion. “I need to give you a lesson on the top ten things
never to say to a man you want to have sex with, Zachary. ‘You have soft skin’
and ‘your penis is pretty’ are numbers one and two, okay? Followed up by ‘you
look like your sister’ and ‘the doctor says it should clear up in no time if I
keep using the cream.’”

“I’ll make a note. I’ve never met your
sisters and I don’t have any diseases, so I think I'm safe.”

“Only if I don’t murder you before
morning,” Julian muttered. And this had seemed such a
good
idea a few minutes ago.

“I'm sorry,” Zachary said, putting his arm
over him and kissing him on the corner of his pouting mouth. “What was your
idea?”

“Idea? Oh…um, well, masturbation. Only you
do me and I’ll do you.”

“Put my hand on it?”

Julian couldn't tell if he was revolted or
surprised. “Obviously we didn’t show you the
right
romantic films, did we? Yes, Zachary, you put your hand on my
cock, and I put mine on yours and…well, if you tell me you don’t know what to
do then, this isn’t going anywhere.”

“I…hadn’t really thought about the
mechanics. Just the…holding and kissing bit. I should
have looked it up,” he said, mouth turned down sorrowfully.

Great.
I'm in bed with a gorgeous man who thinks gay sex is icky. Sex full stop is
icky.
Julian did his best to smile. “Hey, it’s not
a big deal. We could just go to…oh, oh…”

Zachary had wrapped his big hand around
Julian’s cock and given it an experimental stroke. After months and months of
celibacy, it was almost too damn much.

“Oh…don’t…d-don’t stop!” Julian gasped out,
arching his back against the too wonderful sensation.

Either Zachary was a natural or Julian was
just damn desperate, but it hardly seemed any time at all before the firm,
capable strokes from that warm, dry-skinned hand had him coming so hard he
could do little but grab at Zachary’s arm and hold on as he rode it.

He came back to himself as Zachary reached
for the complimentary tissues on the side table to wipe his hand. He blinked as
Zachary cleaned up, dropped the tissues into the bin and then turned to look at
Julian with an anxious expression. “Was that okay?”

“You’ve really not done that before?”

“Well, not to someone
else
, no. I didn’t…uh…think people did that. It felt good?”

“No, dreadful. You need to practice lots
and lots. On me, because I’d hate anyone else to suffer like
that.” Zachary looked worried. “
Joking
,
sheesh.” He tugged him down to kiss him and stroke his arm. “It was really,
really nice. How did it feel for you?”

“Uh…odd? But…right, too. Like…yes, this is
how it should be. Is that…what it’s normally like?”

“No. Because there’s no ‘normal’, and
you’re nothing like any guy I’ve ever slept with. That’s not a bad thing. Lie
back.”

“Why?”

“Because people can say what they like
about me but they can’t say I leave anyone hanging. Lie back, and if you pull
my hair I'm going to bite you.”