Friends and Lovers (13 page)

Jack had a feeling that wasn’t what Tom was originally going to say. “You think I’ll leave you for another guy, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “Or maybe you’ll decide you prefer seafood after all and go back to women.” The elevator opened on the third floor, and they got out. He looked around. “I think our room should be this way.”

It was obvious Tom considered the conversation over, and Jack was too stunned to say another word.

His lover – his
best friend –
was expecting him to leave him?
Damn
Tom for being so insecure.

And damn him for being the reason why, even after all these years, Tom was so insecure.

Tom swiped their keycard through the lock on the door and pushed it open. He turned and  grinned at Jack. “Carry me?” He batted his eyelashes at him.

Tom was kidding, but Jack wasn’t. He tossed the suitcase into the room, scooped him up, and carried him over the threshold. When he put him down, he bent him over his arm and kissed him deeply.

“Wow!” Tom’s eyes were dazed when Jack finally straightened.

Jack nodded to himself in some satisfaction. He picked up the suitcase, placed it on a chair, and unzipped it.

“Can Ah interest you in a… shower, Mistah Sweet?” Tom’s voice was husky.

“Why don’t you start the shower? I’ll unpack.”

“Babe?”

“It won’t take me long. I’ll join you before you have a chance to miss me.”

Tom gave him a puzzled glance, but took their shaving kits and went into the bathroom. He left the door open, and Jack heard a low whistle. “Oh, Jack, you have to come see this!”

“Be right there.”

His mind working furiously, Jack put underwear into a drawer, hung up shirts and trousers, placed shoes neatly side by side.

He loved Tom. He’d loved him almost from the time they’d met, although it had taken him all these years to realize it wasn’t just platonic.

He knew Tom loved him, probably more than platonically from the start, although he’d kept his dick in his pants for the sake of their friendship.

Okay, he was just going to have to show Tom that he wasn’t going anywhere. Ever.
One good thing about having your best friend as your lover,
Jack thought smugly,
you know what lights his fire.

That kiss was only the start. Tom had no idea what he was in for.

Jack pulled the covers off the bed in readiness of what was to come, stripped off his clothes, and went into the bathroom. He mimicked Tom’s whistle, and Tom looked around, grinning.

“Is this unbelievable or what?”

“Unbelievable!”

There was a marble-topped vanity with double vessel sinks. In front of a mirrored wall was a whirlpool tub big enough to party in, and in an alcove shielded by glass blocks was a walk-in shower.

“Hmm.”

“Jack, are you planning on remodeling your bathroom?”

Jack gave him an innocent look.

“You can’t be thinking about remodeling mine. You just did it!”

Jack just smiled and said, “Let’s try the shower, buddy.”

Tom already had the water running, and he nodded, and they got in. The temperature was perfect.

A shelf contained body sponges and a variety of bottles of bath wash and shampoo.

Jack washed quickly.

“What’s the rush, buddy?” Tom looked disappointed.

Jack didn’t say anything, just kissed him and turned him to face the spray, letting it hit Tom’s torso. He poured a dollop of shampoo into his hand, worked it through the thick strands of Tom’s hair, and massaged it into a rich lather.

“Mmm.” In obvious bliss, Tom let his head tip back, allowing Jack’s fingertips to work their magic. “Who would have thought?”

“What, babe?”

“That my scalp could be an erogenous zone.” He brought Jack’s hand to his groin. “You do intend to take care of this, don’t you?”

Jack took a moment to rub his palm over Tom’s erection and cup his balls. “Did you doubt it?”

“Just making sure.”

Jack gave a soft laugh and turned him around so he could rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

Once he was rinsed off as well, Jack turned off the water, stepped around the wall, and grabbed a couple of towels off the warming bar. He wrapped one around his waist and used the other to dry off his lover.

“Thanks.” Tom arched into the warmth of the towel as Jack moved it over his body, and he sighed with pleasure. “This is very nice.”

“It’s more than very nice.” Jack dried Tom’s hair, and his lover closed his eyes, the smile on his face telling Jack all he needed to know how much he was enjoying this. He kissed Tom’s ear and nipped the lobe. “One day I want to have a warming bar in our bathroom.”

“
Our
bathroom?” Tom raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t be a pain in the ass, Tommy. You know whichever bathroom we’re using is ours.”

“This is true.”

“Damn straight.” He ran his fingertips over Tom’s cheek, feeling the roughness of his incipient beard. He lowered the lid of the commode and draped it with the towel.

“What are you doing?”

“Sit.”

Tom sat.

Jack took a can of shaving cream from Tom’s kit, shook it, and squirted a handful into his palm. He smoothed it over Tom’s cheeks and neck, and reached for his razor. With precise, unhurried strokes, he began to shave him.

The only sounds in the room were the rasp of the razor over Tom’s cheeks as it removed the stubble, and his slow, measured breaths.

Tom’s eyes were slitted, and he was practically purring by the time Jack finished. His cock was hard against his belly and oozing precome.

“Are you hungry, Tom?”

“Oh, yeah!”

Jack removed the remnants of the shaving cream with a moist washcloth and dropped it in the sink, then dragged him back into the bedroom and tumbled Tom face down to the king-size bed.

“My own chew toy.” He nibbled on Tom’s toes, his ankles, the spot behind his knee.

Tom gave a full body shudder. “Please, Jack. You know how that… Oh, god, do that again! Please!”

“Again, what, Tom?” Jack’s tongue flicked out to taste the soft skin. He worked his way up until his mouth was on level with Tom’s ass. His broad palm on the small of Tom’s back kept him in place, and he sank his teeth into the taut muscle.

Tom jerked and twisted, not really trying to get free.

“Again,
what
, Tom?” He’d always been good at multitasking. He slid a lubricated finger into Tom’s ass, searching for his prostate, and Tom yelped.

“Why did I ever agree to let you top me? I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t stop screwing around and fuck me! I’m gonna…”

“You’re not gonna do anything, babe, because you know you love what I do to you!”
And I’m gonna make sure you know I’m not going anywhere.

“Jack! If you don’t fuck me…” Tom was getting desperate, panting and humping the sheets.

“Tommy, Tommy, Tommy.” Jack removed his finger and rolled on the condom. “You know I won’t do that.” He could hear his lover’s teeth grinding together in frustration, and he sucked in a patch of skin where shoulder and neck joined. When he was satisfied with the color he’d raised, he flipped Tom onto his back. Tom’s legs parted naturally, making a space for him, and he placed his palms on his lover’s ass cheeks and parted them, and lined up his cock with the puckered opening. A single, smooth thrust, and he was buried balls deep in Tom’s body.

For long seconds they lay still, Tom panting but unable to move because of Jack’s greater weight, although Jack had no doubt that if Tom really didn’t want to be where he was, he’d have no trouble getting him off.

Jack took slow, deep breaths, almost mindless in the pleasure of feeling Tom’s cock like a heated brand against his belly. 

“Jack.” There was a threat in Tom’s voice. He rocked upward, a contained motion that let Jack know he was at the end of his patience.

“Okay, buddy. Let’s ride.” Jack kissed him and began to make love to him, his strokes slow and deliberate. The hot grip of Tom’s inner muscles as they clenched and unclenched, caressing his length, made him want to pound into him – it always did – but more than that, he wanted this to last longer than the five minutes Tommy had teased him about that morning.

Blunt nails dug into his back, strong thighs wrapped around his waist, and Tom arched into his strokes, his breath coming in thready gasps. “More.
More
!”

Somehow, Jack got his knees under him. He angled Tom’s ass up and began to plunge forward with faster thrusts.

Tom’s grip on the sheets had his knuckles turning white. His face was flushed and sweating, his teeth were sunk in his lower lip, but his eyes were open and fastened on Jack’s. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack felt his heart roll over, and for a second, he couldn’t move. He would never get used to hearing those words from this man. “Oh, babe. I love you so much!”

Tom cupped his cheek in his hand, ran his thumb over the cheekbone. “Kiss me.”

Jack leaned forward, the change in angle causing Tom to gasp and writhe beneath him. He wrapped one hand around Tom’s neck, wrapped his other around his cock, and kissed him, swallowing the sounds he made as he jerked him off.

Jack held back until he felt Tom hovering on the edge, and then his movements sped up. He slammed in one final time, and they both groaned as they came.

Tremors ran through Jack’s arms as he kept himself from collapsing onto the body beneath his. He looked down into his lover’s face, flushed, shiny with sweat, and supremely satisfied, and he grinned.

It took a while for him to catch his breath. He eased out of Tom, removed the condom, and rose to dispose of it.

“Come back here, you.”

“Coming back, Tommy.” He had a washcloth with him, and he cleaned the semen off his lover’s chest.

There was a small tray on the round table beside the bed, and Jack dropped the washcloth onto it. Had the management placed the tray there for this purpose? He grinned at the thought as he settled himself on the bed.

“I wish… I wish we’d done this before, Tommy.”

“We didn’t have the room before.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” Tom brushed his lips back and forth over Jack’s in a soft, open-mouthed caress. “If wishes were horses, babe. But yeah. What would our lives have been like if we’d…” He shivered, and Jack reached down to pull up the sheet to cover them. “But we’ve got each other now, and that’s what’s important.”

“Yeah.”

Tom yawned and pulled Jack close against him. Within seconds he slipped into a light doze.

Jack lay there, holding him tight. He considered Tom’s words, ‘We’ve got each other now, and that’s what’s important.’

And he remembered how close he’d once come to losing his best friend.

“Reba’s gonna have a baby, Tom,” Jack told his friend. He’d just turned twenty-one, and knowing that his wife was pregnant made him feel as if he were on top of the world.

Tom’s face lit up. “That’s fantastic, buddy! You’re going to be a daddy! And I’ll be his uncle!”

“Uh, no, buddy.”

“Okay, semantics.” Tom waved it away. “
Her
uncle.”

“Neither.”

“Jack, there’s only the two sexes.”

Damn, but Tom was making this difficult. “You see, it’s… Shit.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes. “It’s like this, Tom. I can’t have you for a friend.”

“What?”

“I can’t…”

“Because I’m gay.” It wasn’t a question. Tom knew Jack’s father had almost gone through the roof when he’d learned that his son’s friend was not only Jewish, but was queer as well.

Jack didn’t have to tell him that Reba agreed with her father-in-law. The few times they’d met, she’d made it more than plain. If he wasn’t straight and had never,
ever
given her cause to doubt him, he would almost have sworn from her attitude that she was jealous.

“Tom, I took vows to be a good husband, and now with the baby coming...” He tried to explain, hoping he wasn’t coming across as a wuss. “Reba needs all my attention.”

“I need you too, Jack. You’re my best friend, and I…”

“Tom, I just… I can’t be your friend any more. Please accept that.”

“Fine, buddy.” Tom’s eyes were very bright, but he blinked, not letting a single tear fall. “Have a good life.”  He walked away.

Jack waited for him to look back, at least once, but Tom didn’t.

He tried to tell himself that it was for the best. He really wanted this baby, and Reba had stated plainly that her doctor had warned that stress and conflict at home could cause her to miscarry.

Besides, Savannah wasn’t that large a town. Tom couldn’t be his friend, but he’d be in the same city. Jack was sure to see him now and again.

Only he didn’t.

He didn’t question it. He was busy, and he was sure Tommy was too. After all, Jack thought proudly, he was in his last year of college, even though he was a couple of years younger than most of the seniors in his class.