Friends and Lovers (20 page)

He removed the lids from a bread basket, the cheese, and their salads, then produced an ice bucket, popped the champagne cork, and nestled the bottle in the ice to chill.

“Your entrees are in the warming drawer, as well as your dessert. The fruit is in the drawer just above it, and the…”

Jack coughed and shook his head, and the young man, catching on, smiled.

“Yes, sir.” He placed two chairs on either end of the cart.

“Thanks very much.” Jack signed the check, adding a nice tip.

“Thank
you
, sir.” The young man beamed at him and left, and Jack closed the door.

“Ah, babe!”

He turned to see that Tom had the warming drawer open and had raised the cover of the fondue pot.

“Hey! That was supposed to be a surprise!”

“Oops.” He put the cover back in place. “Didn’t see a thing, honest!”

“Sure.” Jack pinched his ass and kissed him. “Sit down, and let’s eat.”

The food was as good as he’d hoped, and after they finished, Jack removed the lamp, clock, and washcloth tray from the bedside table and put the fondue pot beside the lube and condoms.

Tom inhaled deeply. “Dark chocolate! Ah am just so suhprised!”

Jack laughed. “Sure you are.”

“It’s my favorite kind, Jack.”

“I know.” He gave Tom a considering look. “Okay, babe, take off your clothes and make yourself comfortable on the bed.”

“Oh?” Tom stripped and left his clothes where they fell on the floor, and pulled back the bedspread and top sheet. “Does this have something to do with the surprise?”

“Could be, rabbit. Could be.” Jack took out the platter of fruit – strawberries, bananas, cherries, orange wedges – and placed it beside the fondue pot. On the platter was also a small bowl of whipped cream. He rolled the cart aside and took off his own clothes.

Tom raised an eyebrow, then smiled. He picked up a strawberry by its stem, dipped it into the chocolate, and put it between his lips and tugged gently.

Jack moaned and leaned forward to lick the juice and the smear of chocolate that was at the corner of Tom’s mouth.

“Down,” he whispered, his voice sounding hoarse and strained in his own ears.

Normally he knew Tom would have said something snarky, like “Do you think I’m Lassie?”

But Tom was hard, and his breath was coming in short, sharp pants, and he lay down flat, obeying Jack without saying a word.

Jack climbed on the bed beside him. He used a couple of fingertips to scoop up the warm chocolate, and he painted Tom’s nipples with them, going back for more when he realized he hadn’t taken enough to do the job the way he wanted it done. Then he licked the chocolate off his fingers.

“Jack?” Tom’s eyes were on the way each finger entered Jack’s mouth and slowly withdrew.

“Hush. I’m concentrating.” He took the bowl that held the whipped cream and drew two lines from Tom’s nipples to the center of his torso and then down.

“Jack!”

“I’m not done.” He put a dab of it on the tip of Tom’s cock, set the bowl aside, and sat back on his heels to admire his handiwork. “That’ll do for a start.”

“Ja…” The rest of his name was lost in a groan as Jack swallowed Tom’s cock.

Once he’d licked it clean, he went to work on the twin lines of white, alternating until he reached the chocolate-covered nipples. The bittersweet chocolate melted in his mouth, and he hummed in pleasure.

“Please! Jack, please!”

“Please what?” Jack sported his own smear of chocolate on his mouth now, and Tom’s eyes seemed to spark blue fire.

He growled and flipped Jack onto his back, and suddenly Jack was the one who found himself with chocolate on his nipples and whipped cream on his cock.

Jack writhed under Tom’s lips, under the two slick fingers that penetrated him, under the intrusion of a thick, hard cock into his ass.

Tom wrapped his fingers around Jack’s cock and stroked it in time with his thrusts, drawing sounds from Jack that once would have embarrassed him. Now he reveled in the fact that his lover… his best friend, could make him howl and whine and whimper.

Tom knew how to make it last, and Jack was flushed and shaking and sweating by the time Tom nailed his prostate one final time, gave his cock one final jerk, and bit the side of his neck. Jack exploded over his abdomen and Tom’s.

That was all Tom seemed to need. He shivered, groaned, and then went still. Jack opened his eyes and looked up into that beloved face. Tom sank down onto him.

“Tom,” he whispered and stroked his lover’s hair.

“I… I think we really… really need a… a shower now,” Tom panted, his breath warm in Jack’s ear.

“Do we… do we have to… get up now?”

“Not … not right now.” Tom nuzzled Jack’s ear. “I’m sorry, buddy.”

“For what?

“This was supposed to be your weekend to top.”

“Did you hear me complaining?”

“No, but… I just took control.”

“That you did, buddy. I didn’t even realize you had a condom on until you started knocking at my back door.”

Tom didn’t laugh. “I didn’t even ask you…” He sounded upset.

Jack angled his head around so he could look Tom in the eye. “You think too much sometimes.” Tom was upset. “I love whatever we do together, Tommy.” He kissed him. “And when you get all leather daddy on my ass…”

Tom looked shocked. “Babe, I
never
…”

“You know what I mean.” Jack leaned closer and nipped Tom’s lower lip. “Frankly, I was wondering when you were going to. Now, what do you say we take that shower before we mess up these pretty sheets? We don’t want Clinch House Inn to put us on their ‘very weird, do not ever let them cross our doorway again under any circumstances, ever!’ list, do we?”

“Okay.” Tom eased out of Jack and tied off the condom.

“And when we’re done, want to dip a banana in the chocolate?” Jack leered at him.

Tom burst out laughing. “Yeah, buddy. That sounds like a good idea.”

It was midmorning the next morning when they left the warm Florida sun. It was mid-afternoon when they arrived back in Savannah in time for an unexpected storm coming in off the Atlantic.

Jack pulled up in front of Tom’s little house and put the pickup into park, listening to the windshield wipers whump, whump, whump back and forth. “Tom…”

“Jack…” Tom unbuckled his seatbelt.

In spite of the possibility that Mrs. Wiggins, Tom’s nosy neighbor, could be peeking through the curtains on her front windows, Tom kissed him, and Jack felt his heart do back flips. It just kept getting better.

“Thank you, Jack. This weekend, spending it with you… It meant so much to me…”

“Me too.” Jack kissed him back. “I love the ocean. Sam took me to the beach once when he first got his driver’s license. We had the best day…”

“You never talk about Sam, Jack.”

He shrugged. “What’s there to talk about? He just took off.”

“It’s been a lot of years. Did you ever think of trying to find him?”

“No. If he never cared enough to get in touch with us…”

“Ah, shit, Jack, that’s your father talking.”

“Stay out of it, Tom. It happened before I even met you. You don’t know anything about it!” Jack’s mouth tightened.

“Don’t I? I know what bastards fathers can be.” Tom rarely spoke about his own father, only enough for Jack to know that the man drank a lot and wasn’t a good husband or father.

His
own father wasn’t like that. He didn’t drink, and Jack had never heard his mother complain about him. Oh, he’d taken his belt to Jack a time or two when he was young...

Jack went very still. That was one of the reasons he had made Reba agree that only the two of them were ever to punish their children.

Abruptly Jack realized Tom was right.
Those
were
Daddy’s words, every time Sarah or I ever asked about Sam. And Momma would just get that pinched look around her mouth…

“I’m sorry, buddy.”

Tom stroked his cheek, and Jack knew he forgave him.

“The thing is, I don’t have clue one as to where to start looking for him. It’s a big country.”

“Think about it, okay?”

Jack nodded. He wasn’t going to tell Tom that he never would look for his  brother. He was afraid to learn that Sam was dead, and not knowing for sure… well, it was better than knowing for sure. He cleared his throat. Change of subject time.

“
Loueller’s
on Wednesday, babe?” Usually they’d meet on Friday, but Jack didn’t want to wait that long.

For a second he thought Tom was going to object, tell him it would be better if they saw each other just once a week, but then Tom grinned and kissed him. “Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Another kiss.

“Cool!” And another.

Tom ran his thumb back and forth over Jack’s cheekbone and gave a contented sigh. “I’d better get going before I drown.”

Jack handed him the umbrella he kept under the seat.

“I’ll get this back to you on Wednesday.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He waited until Tom ran down his front walk, unlocked the door, and turned to send him a little salute before he disappeared inside.

Jack put the pickup into drive and started toward home. He had laundry to do, and it was his day for the kids to visit with him. Did he have anything in the fridge for dinner?

Teddy and Cath were going to love the gifts Tom got for them. He wished Tom would have agreed to give them to his kids himself, but he’d insisted that Jack take them, since Tom wasn’t sure when he would see them.

‘Wasn’t sure’
hah!
  Jack knew that for the excuse it was. Tom liked his kids, but…

Jack hadn’t been kidding when he’d teased his friend. Tom really did seem to expect them to bite him.

He wondered how he could arrange for his friend to spend some time with them.

He pulled into his driveway, still giving it some thought.

It really would be a lot easier if … No, make that
when
he and Tom moved in together.

1. Kira and Josh –

Tom Hansom was putting away the last of the invoices on his desk. Originally a chemistry professor at Pulaski and Jasper, he’d given up his tenured position to become office manager for his lover’s construction company. And they were doing pretty damn good since he’d taken over. Schmoozing was something he’d done as a matter of course at the college, but he found he enjoyed it more when it resulted in the coffers going ting-a-ling.

There was a tap on his doorframe, since his door was always open, and he looked up at the two young people who walked into his office.

Josh Harden stood straight, his expression concerned. Always so serious and more than conscientious, it was as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Kira Valentine, her usual sassy grin in place, propped herself on the corner of the desk, her legs crossed and an amount of bare thigh exposed.

She knows I’m gay. Is she doing that for Josh? I wonder if she realizes he’s gay too.
Or if he realizes that himself.
Tom’s gaydar had never failed him.

“You wanted to see us, DT?” Kira had adopted the nickname Catherine, Jack’s daughter, had called him since Jack had taken his children in to live with them. Short for ‘DaddyTom,’ he’d gotten all misty the first time Catherine had called him that.

“Yes, I did. Thank you for taking the time to see me before you left for the day.”

“Did… did I do something wrong, BT?” And Josh had adopted Theodore’s nickname for him, which stood for BigTom. It had nothing to do with his stature, or lack of it, but referred back to the first time Tom had wandered into the kitchen naked, having forgotten Jack’s kids had arrived the previous evening.

“No, Josh.” Tom smiled at him. Josh and Kira had been working for Sweet Construction for the past three months, and they’d proved to be even better than Tom had hoped. “Both Jack and I are very pleased with your work. But classes are over for the summer, and I was wondering what your plans are.”

“Oh, just the usual stuff, DT,” Kira said. “The beach, the mall.” Her face lost some of its sunny expression. “I’ll have to move out of the dorm and go back home.”

“You don’t seem too thrilled.”

“Are you kiddin’? Momma’ll be on my case about why Nicky and I aren’t married yet, and Daddy…” She shrugged and forced a smile. “He’ll want to know why I’m wastin’ time in college when I could be workin’ a decent job and bringin’ some money home. Not that this isn’t a decent job!” she rushed to assure him.

Some parents didn’t appreciate what they had in their children, Tom mused. Kira was very bright, but her mother and father expected her to see things their way and do things the way they’d been raised to do them. Even at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the girls were expected to marry and have babies, and the boys to marry and support their wives and the babies they’d pop out every year.