Authors: Maris Black
I get out of bed and pull my underwear on, not wanting to be naked if he’s not. “You don’t look very happy.”
He jams a hand through his hair and growls. “I am very happy about what happened between us. I just don’t want you to be ashamed of it… of
me
.”
He heads to the front door, and this time I follow him. I’m not letting him leave again like he did earlier. “Where are you going? It’s late.”
“I need some fresh air.” He unlocks the door and swings it open, and goes suddenly still. “Who’s there?” He runs out into the yard in nothing but his jeans.
Even worse, I run out after him in my boxers. If any neighbors are peeping out their windows tonight, they’ll definitely get an eye-full. We may even see blurry cell phone photos of ourselves in the newspaper this week, knowing the nosy bastards in Blackwood.
“What is it, Corey?”
“Someone just ran out of the bushes.”
We both run to the side of the house nearest the road just in time to see a man opening the door of his car and climbing inside.
“Was that the man from the bar?” I ask. “The one who bought us drinks?”
Corey shrugs, but he looks really worried. “Too dark to tell.”
“I got his tag number.” I hurry back inside to write it down before it escapes me. My adrenaline is really pumping, and I’m freezing to death. After I write the number on the dry erase board on the side of the fridge, I grab the remote and turn on the gas fireplace in the living room and lean over it rubbing my hands together.
Corey comes up behind me and wraps his strong arms around me, moving them up and down mine to create friction. “You’re freezing. You shouldn’t have followed me into the cold in your underwear, Ben. I was just being stupid.”
“I didn’t want you to leave again.” I lean my head back against his chest and close my eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere unless you kick me out, okay?”
I nod, unable to speak around the lump rising in my throat.
“But I will stay in the pool house if you need your space.”
“No,” I whisper. “There’s no point in that. I’ll just be in here alone, thinking about you.”
“So you do really like me? I’m getting a little confused.”
“Corey, I’m not ashamed of you, alright? But the truth is, people in this podunk town won’t understand. There are a lot of elderly people here who are set in their ways, and I’m their doctor. They expect me to be a certain way. If they find out our dicks have been anywhere near each other, they’ll run us both out of town. If they don’t fill us full of buckshot instead.”
“Buckshot? Jeez, it’s not that bad, is it?” His eyes widen in alarm.
“I’m exaggerating about the buckshot. I hope.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have come here.” He lets go of me and heads back to the bedroom. I turn off the fire and join him in the bed, where he’s lying on top of the covers still dressed in his jeans.
“We’ll figure something out. We’re safe for now, I think. You’re new in town, and everyone is bound to know by now that you’re renting my pool house.”
“Yeah, and there’s at least one guy in town who knows more than that. The one who just saw us both come running out of the house half-dressed.”
“That guy’s ass is about to be grass, because I’m gonna have Possum run his tag. Where was he when you walked out the front door?”
“He was in the bushes in front of the porch.”
“Peeping outside my house, buying us drinks at the Bottom... What could this asshole possibly want?”
“How should I know?” Corey turns over, putting his back to me. “Let’s get some sleep. I’m pretty tired.”
I pull the covers up over me, feeling really awkward. “Yeah, we need to get up in the morning and make the most of our last day off.”
I don’t know how long it takes me to go to sleep. It couldn’t be long, because the next thing I know, my alarm is blaring, and the sun is blinding me.
13
“GET up sleepy head.” I cover Corey’s belly with tiny kisses until he stirs. He’s still on top of the covers, and still in his jeans, but he’s sleeping so hard he’s drooled a little on the pillow.
“Morning, Ben. Forgot where I was for a minute.” He smiles and swings his long legs over the side of the bed.
“You’re not disappointed, are you?”
“Hell, no.” He stands and runs a hand through his disheveled black hair, looking just as sexy first thing in the morning as he does every other minute of the day. “In fact, I’d like to jump you as soon as I take a piss and brush my teeth. Why are you dressed?”
“Because I have other plans. Get your clothes on. I’m taking you shopping.”
“Shopping? You don’t like the way I dress?”
I laugh and grab him by the loose waistband of his jeans. “I’m not buying you clothes. As far as I’m concerned, you can wear these jeans and nothing else every second we’re together— in private.” I lower my head and nip his nipple lightly with my teeth, making him suck in a sharp breath and fist his hands in my hair.
“Keep doing that, and we’re not going anywhere.”
“Alright, get ready then.” I push him toward the bathroom and rummage in my closet, emerging a moment later with a black Rush t-shirt I bought at a concert a few years back. “Here, this ought to fit you.”
As he takes it from me, he smiles and runs a finger under the collar of my turtle neck. “Got something to hide?”
“Yeah, I burned myself with a curling iron.” I knock his hand away point toward the bathroom. “Now hurry up. The day’s a-wastin’.”
While he gets ready, I make both of us coffee, feeling all warm and fuzzy because I already know exactly how he likes his. We’re both living in a magical alternate reality right now, and I’m dreading going back to work tomorrow evening, because the spell will be broken. At least I can enjoy it while it lasts.
After we drink our coffee and wolf down a couple of whole grain bagels, we head to town.
“Hang on a minute.” I swing the car into the parking lot of the police station. “I need to drop this tag number off so Possum can look it up for me.”
“Why do they call him Possum?”
“Hell if I know. He’s just always been called that. Might have something to do with staying out late, but I’m just guessing. Are you coming in?”
“Nah, I’ll just wait out here.” I have a suspicion that Corey is a tad shy of law enforcement, but then I probably would be too, if I’d been homeless at one time.
Possum, an enormous black man in his forties, stands to greet me when I enter his office. He can look extremely intimidating if you don’t happen to know that he’s really a big teddy bear at heart.
“Hey, Ben.” He claps me forcefully on the back, nearly knocking the wind out of me. “Look man, I really am sorry about last night. I had that motorcycle in my sights, and I didn’t really put two and two together until I was already pulling you guys over. However…” He gives me a stern look, and his black mustache twitches. “You know better than to be going that fast, don’t you?”
I hang my head. “Yes, sir. I’ll try to keep it down.”
Possum has been policing this town since I was a teenager, and I still feel like one every time he chastises me.
“So how have you been, son? Your mama would roll over in her grave if she knew it’s been almost a year since you and I sat down and had a talk. I promised her I’d look out for you.”
“A lot of people promised her that. During her last months, I think she asked everyone she knew to look after me. I’m a thirty-three-year-old with a town full of babysitters.”
“Well, I take my promise to her very seriously. She had a lot of friends, and we all care about you, boy. Are you doing well? I hear you’re dating that blonde that works in the hospital office.”
“Nope. We broke up.”
His brow creases and his lips dip into a sympathetic frown. “I’m sorry to hear that, Ben.”
“Don’t be. I’m fine with it.”
“Come to think of it, I guess you must be fine, tearing up the streets racing at over a hundred miles per hour. Who was that guy on the bike, anyway? That new EMT?”
“Yeah. I think he expected to go to jail.”
Possum laughs his hearty rumble of a laugh. “I could tell by the look on his face. I thought about teasing him a little, but it was too damn cold. I hear that one is a real ladies man. Already plowed through half the women at the hospital.”
I have to clear my throat, because I’m suddenly choking on my own saliva. I wonder if my face has betrayed anything.
“He’s very popular.” I will my voice to remain steady. “I think you’d like him.”
“Hmmm… maybe. There’s something shifty about him if you ask me, but then I never have trusted a man who rides a motorcycle. Always think they’ve got something to prove.”
I laugh. “You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised once you get to know him. But I’m not here to talk you into liking Corey. I actually have a favor to ask.”
“Whatever you need, Ben.”
I slide a piece of paper across his desk. “Can you run this tag number for me? I caught this guy lurking around my house late last night.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Really? What time was that?”
“I don’t know, it was late. I’d already gone to bed.”
“Where was he? Was he actually on your property?” He puts on his reading glasses and starts taking notes on my paper, biting his lip and worrying his mustache with his bottom teeth.
“By the time I got out there, he was already around the corner on the sidewalk and almost to his car. I couldn’t exactly chase him down in my underwear, you know? That’s when I took down his license plate. But Corey said he ran out of the bushes right up next to the front— ”
Fuck.
I think I just accidentally outed myself.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Possum stops writing mid-sentence and looks at me for a long moment with narrowed eyes. My breathing stops cold, my heart slamming thickly against my ribcage as he assesses me for what feels like an eternity. Then he resumes questioning as if nothing is amiss, and I can breathe again. “He was in the bushes near the front door, you say?”
“Yeah. Front door. Bushes.”
Corey. Underwear. I am so cold busted.
“And you were already in bed? Any idea what he might have been trying to see in your house?”
A loaded question if I’ve ever heard one.
“No, sir. I have no idea. Not sure if he was trying to see anything. Oh yeah, and he bought us drinks at the bar the other night down in the Bottom.”
Hey, if I’m going down, I might as well go down in flames.
“Alright, Ben.” He waves me away one-handed, fiddling with some papers on his desk and failing to make eye contact. “I’ll get this thing figured out. Call you later, bud.”
That’s definitely my cue to leave. I’m not at all sure what just happened, or if Possum even realizes the extent of what I’ve inadvertently admitted to. All I know is our exchange has turned awkward, and I’m just as ready to leave as he is to get rid of me.
Back in the car, Corey is listening to some rap song I’ve never heard. “How did it go?”
“Shitty.” I put the car in reverse and tear out of the parking space as if I’m anywhere other than a police station.
“He’s not gonna do it?”
“Oh yeah, he’s gonna do it. I told you, he’s an old friend. He’ll do pretty much anything I ask. The problem is, I think I just outed myself to him, and I haven’t even been gay for twenty-four hours.” I slam my hand against the wheel before turning out into the lane of sparse Sunday traffic.
Corey’s mouth drops open. “Really, Ben? What did you do that for?”
“Dammit, it wasn’t on purpose. I told him what happened last night, which if you will remember involved you and me running around my yard in our underwear after hours.”
“I was wearing jeans.” He flashes a smile that makes it really hard for me to stay upset.
“Yeah, well, fuck it.” I drive a little too fast to a small shopping center a few blocks away.
Corey stares at the salon directly in front of us. “Are we getting our hair cut?”
“No, we’re going there.” I point to the cell phone store next to the salon. “You’re getting a cell phone. After yesterday’s fiasco, I decided you needed one.”
“Ben, I don’t have the kind of credit it takes to get a cell phone. I’ll have to pay a huge deposit, which I can’t afford right now. You really don’t have a clue what it’s like to be poor, do you?”
I rest my hand on his thigh where no one outside of the car can see, especially through my dark tinted windows. Just the simple touch sends a current through my body all the way to my balls. “I’m getting you one on my plan, silly. I didn’t mean for you to pay. It’s a gift.”
“I don’t know, Ben. I feel strange accepting gifts from you. It’s just—”
Sliding my hand up his thigh until I feel the bulge I’m looking for, I bend over and press my lips to either side of his dick through his jeans. It grows instantly, filling out his pants, making him have to shift to reposition it. When I pull back, a slight wet mark darkens the denim where my mouth was. I lift my gaze to meet his, and he stares back like he could eat me alive.