Don't Read in the Closet volume one (91 page)

“Jonah.” Laurie took a step toward him. His hazel eyes
were pleading. “Don’t—”

But Jonah didn’t wait around to hear what Laurie had
to say. He spun on his heel and fled the room.

****

“Shit,” Marc muttered into the silence Jonah left
behind. “I really fucked that up. I wasn’t even thinking.” He glanced over at
Laurie. “I’ll go after him.”

Laurie shook his head in a quick, jerky movement. “No.
I’ll go.”

Marc sighed. “Sorry, man.”

“God, we both handled that badly. I should’ve told him
that you and I talked.” Laurie rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. “I’m
gonna go.”

He was halfway down the hall when he realized his fly
was still open. He paused to do it up quickly. “Christ.” Five minutes ago Jonah
had been pressed against him, looking so blissfully happy Laurie had been
willing to give him anything he wanted. But the expression on his face when
he’d realized that Marc had known about them all along…
God,
that
was going to stick with Laurie for a while.

****

It took him over half an hour to find Jonah. Laurie
checked his bedroom first, then the guesthouse and the gazebo. He’d just
started to get
really
worried when he
saw the glow of Jonah’s white T-shirt down near the lakeshore. When he got
closer he realized that what he’d seen from a distance was just a pile of
Jonah’s discarded clothes.

Laurie looked out over the water, growing more and
more alarmed as he searched for a sign of—
there
.
Out on the floating swim platform in the middle of the lake, he could just
barely make out Jonah’s silhouette. “Shit.” Jonah
would
pick the most inaccessible location on the property. Laurie
sighed. The air was still warm, but he knew the water would be different story.
Well, no sense in delaying the inevitable. He had two choices: go to Jonah or
wait for him to come back—and Laurie wasn’t feeling patient enough for the
latter.

He stripped down to his boxers and treaded into the
lake without another thought. Gooseflesh broke out over his skin as the chilly
water closed around him. He probably would’ve won some kind of medal for how
fast he made that swim, but Jonah didn’t even look at him as he hauled himself
up onto the platform.

“What do you want?” Jonah’s voice was raspy. From the
sound of it, Laurie could tell he’d been crying, and it made his stomach twist
with remorse.

“We have to talk, Jo.”

Jonah sighed softly and sat up. The moonlight was
bright enough for Laurie to see that he wore a pair of skintight blue briefs
with a red waistband and the Superman symbol on the crotch. Under different
circumstances, Laurie would’ve thought it was adorable. Right then, he was too
wet, too cold, and feeling too damn guilty. And the look on Jonah’s face wasn’t
helping.

“I’m tired of talking,” Jonah said flatly.

“Well, just listen then.” Laurie brushed sopping bangs
off of his forehead and scooted a bit closer to where Jonah sat. “I know you’re
upset, and I don’t blame you. I should’ve told you that I talked to Marc. But
it didn’t happen the way you think it did.”

Jonah made a scornful noise.

“Look, I have too much respect for your brother—
and
you—to try to keep this a secret
from him. He could tell something was on my mind, and when he asked me about
it, I couldn’t lie to him.”

“And, so, what? He asked you to do me a favor?”

“He did tell me he wanted me to do what you asked,”
Laurie admitted. “But because he trusts me, and he loves
you
. I know we were wrong not to tell you, but—”

“So that’s the only reason you did it?” Jonah asked
thickly. “Just because he asked you to?”

“No, Jonah, I—”

“And did you lie when you said you loved me, too? Or
did you just mean you love me as a friend?” Jonah’s voice rose with every word.
“Did you say it back because you felt
sorry
for me?”

“Jonah!” Laurie gripped Jonah’s bare shoulders and
shook him lightly. “
Stop.
You have to
let me finish, okay? Don’t keep jumping to conclusions.”

Jonah’s eyes gleamed with moisture, and he looked like
he wanted to say more. After a moment, though, he bit his lip and nodded.

Laurie kept their gazes locked as he said, “Your
brother didn’t ask me to have sex with you as a favor to him. He
asked
because he could tell I wanted you
too.”

Jonah blinked. “You did?”

Laurie nodded. “I did. I
do.
I told you not to doubt it.”

“How could I not doubt it, Laurie?” Jonah reached up
and grabbed his wrists. “The way Marc said it…well, what was I supposed to
think?”

“I know. It sounded bad.” Laurie sighed softly. “It
was my fault for not telling you. We thought you’d be embarrassed if you knew,
but that’s no excuse.”

Jonah seemed to consider his words for a moment.
“Yeah, I…I probably would have been. I get your reasons, I just…” Jonah trailed
off and released Laurie’s wrists. His arms wrapped around Laurie’s waist and he
leaned in to rest his head on Laurie’s shoulder. “We both should’ve been more
honest with each other.”

“Yeah.” Laurie ran his hands down Jonah’s back and
drew him closer. “I do love you, Jo. As a friend, yes, but more than that, too.
I was thinking, when we get back to Wisconsin, maybe you can move in with me
and Marc. You could share my room.”

Jonah lifted his head and looked at Laurie, surprise
clearly written on his features. “You want me to move in with you? You want to
be with me even when we get to school?”

Laurie laughed quietly. “Yes to both. Don’t look so
shocked. Isn’t that what you want, too?”

“Of course!”

“So then move in with me. We’ll save your parents some
money on room and board.”

Jonah grinned. “I bet they’ll love that.”

“It’s not going to be free, though,” Laurie said,
keeping both his tone and expression serious.

“Oh, no?” Jonah’s eyebrows went up. “You’re gonna charge
me?”

“Yep.”

“And what’s it gonna cost me?”

“I have an entire list of acceptable forms of
payment,” Laurie answered with a smirk. “We’ll go over it when we get up
there.”

Jonah burst out laughing. “You know, you still haven’t
claimed your prize. Are you adding that to the list?”

Laurie grinned. “Oh, no. I’m claiming that right now.”

Jonah gave him a smile that was both nervous and
excited. “Yeah? What are you going to make me do?”

“First, I’m going to make you swim back to shore
because I’m freezing out here.”

Jonah nodded. “Me, too. It was kind of an impulsive
decision.”

Laurie snorted. “No kidding.”

“Hey, I’m allowed a little teenage angst, right?”

Laurie rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling.
“Guess so.”

“So, what are you going to make me do after we get to
shore?”

Laurie leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Jonah’s
mouth. “How about I tell you when we get there?”

Jonah was out of his arms and in the water in a flash.
For a second, all Laurie could do was sit there and blink. Until Jonah splashed
a handful of cold water in his direction and laughed.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Jonah called before
vanishing under the surface.

Laurie shook his head and got to his feet. “What,
indeed?” he murmured. And then he dove off the platform and went to claim his
prize.

FIN

Author bio:
Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at
eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form
was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing
more than getting lost in a great book—Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, she loves
them all (and has a thousand book library to prove it!). She grew up in
Chicago, in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, and loves to put faces and
characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as
colorful as the real one. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little
true love in their life…even if it’s only in a book.

Visit Piper at:

Website:
http://pipervaughn.com

Facebook:
http://facebook.com/pipervaughnn

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/pipervaughn

And her joint blog
with M.J. O’Shea:
http://mjandpiper.blogspot.com

Selected by Silvia
Violet

Dear Author,

We grew up together,
best friends and all that. Joined the Army, damn the "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" crap! We almost lost one another on a special mission....how does
our story play out?

[PHOTO:
Two muscular
men in an army locker room are locked in a tight, passionate, face-to-face
embrace. Camo pants around their ankles, faces buried in each other's bare
shoulders, they press together. One man reaches over, arms braced on the
lockers. The other, knees bent, clutches his lover's ass and pulls the man
against his waiting erection.]

Sincerely,

Patricia

Genre
: Contemporary

Tags:
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, military,
friends to lovers, first time, coming out, anal play

Words:
3,183

TIME TO TELL

By Silvia Violet

Marty had
relived the moment a thousand times. If he’d hesitated for even a second. If
he’d been reluctant to blow a hole in the man who appeared like a part of the
night itself, his best friend would be dead.

He and Jacob
joined the army together when they were eighteen. They both wanted to escape
from the podunk town they grew up in, and the army was their best choice. But
for Marty being a soldier meant hiding who he really was.

Jacob knew
Marty was gay. He’d known since they were in high school. When Marty came out
to his best friend, Jacob hadn’t cringed or told him to get lost or punched him
or any of the other terrible things he imagined. Of course he hadn’t done the
one thing Marty longed for, pull Marty into his arms and confess that he was
gay too and that he wanted Marty like he wanted air to breathe. Not that Marty
expected that fantasy to come true.

More than once,
he’d caught Jacob watching him with heat in his eyes when he thought Marty
wasn’t looking. And he’d seen Jacob look at other men in a way he never looked
at women. But if Jacob was gay, he’d never admitted it, and Marty hadn’t been
willing to risk their friendship by revealing his true feelings.

But now
everything had changed. He’d almost lost Jacob last night. For that split
second when he hadn’t know whether Jacob was dead or alive, his heart shattered
as he imagined his friend dying without ever knowing how much Marty loved him.

When he
realized he and Jacob were pinned down with no chance of back up, he knew that
their chances of surviving were low. His life had been in danger plenty of
times since he signed up, but he’d never been so certain that he looked death
in the face. Regrets crashed down on him, nearly making him come unglued. If he
hadn’t been able to hold it together, they would both be dead. Marty swore that
if he lived through the night, he was going to do his best not to waste another
second pretending to be someone else.

He was going to
tell Jacob how he felt. He’d either screw up their friendship or have a chance
at a real relationship with the man he loved. Once he told Jacob, he was going
to apply for a discharge. Living in the closet was no longer good enough for
him.

Marty paced,
his boots slapping against the concrete floor of the barracks. He hadn’t been
alone with Jacob since they were rescued. Jacob’s wounds, though not serious,
needed to be cared for, and Marty had spent hours giving his report of the
evening’s proceedings to his superiors. Now that Jacob had been released from
the doctor’s care, it was his turn to be questioned.