“Your father?” Hugo squeezed Kevin’s hand.
“Yep. Heart attack. Stress-related hypertension that never could be managed because he refused to make any changes to how he lived. I think he was a stress junkie. You know, the type of person who lives off stress-induced adrenaline rushes?”
Hugo nodded, immediately thinking of an ex-boyfriend.
“He collapsed at work while yelling at some guy on the phone. The guy got on another line and called dad’s assistant, but nothing could be done.”
“That’s rough. I’m sorry,” Hugo said in a low voice, knowing firsthand how hard it had been losing his own father, even if he’d had years to prepare rather than no time at all like Kevin.
“Thanks. We were never close, but still, it’s really weird how losing him made me rethink nearly everything about my life. I almost feel like it pushed me into a midlife crisis five years too early. I mean, isn’t a midlife crisis supposed to happen at forty?”
“Not necessarily.” Hugo chuckled. “I think it’s fairly individual, and I’m sure external factors play into it.”
Kevin laughed deep and warm in his chest and stopped walking, pulling Hugo to a stop with him. “God, Hugo. I missed you. You always did know what to say to make me feel better. How the heck did we ever lose track of each other after everything we discovered together?”
Hugo shrugged, not knowing how to answer after their gradual drift from talking on a regular basis during their first month in college to nothing by the time winter break came. Hugo’s mom and sister had moved to the Twin Cities mere months after Hugo left for college, and that certainly hadn’t helped matters. But it was more, he realized.
“We just had different lives, I think,” Hugo said with a shrug. “We went our separate ways after I said good-bye to you in your driveway.”
“I still regret not kissing you that day. I should have just said ‘screw it’ and kissed you like I wanted to, even if my dad was right there.”
Hugo looked up the few inches to meet Kevin’s gray eyes and tried to smile, but it probably came across more as sadness than a smile. He couldn’t believe Kevin still thought of that day too. He wondered if Kevin’s mind ever drifted to the kiss in the wooded meadow when he was bored in a meeting or like Hugo’s had that very afternoon in the car. Slowly, he felt the corner of his mouth turn into something akin to flirty, and he asked, “Oh?”
“Yes,” Kevin said as his warm thumb trailed across Hugo’s jaw toward his chin. “I’ve thought about that day a lot, about our last kiss and how I wish it never would’ve ended. Damn the rain. Would you mind if I showed you how I’ve always imagined that moment in the driveway would’ve happened? Or are you with someone?”
“No. I mean, yes, you can show me,” Hugo stammered, his heart beating hard against his chest.
Kevin’s smile lit up his face, and he looked so young just then, the careworn lines that had appeared between his brows while talking about his father smoothing.
“Okay, so maybe this isn’t exactly like I would have said things back then, but this is how I wish I would’ve done it. Ready?”
Hugo nodded and licked his lips, drawing Kevin’s attention to his mouth.
“So pretend we’re standing next to my open trunk,” Kevin directed as he led Hugo near the tail end of a car parked in a driveway close to the roadside. Kevin tilted his head left and right, shaking his hands out loosely next to his body as if trying to get into character.
“Hugo,” he started, somehow pulling youthful nervousness into his voice, “we should plan on getting together in a few weeks.”
“Sure,” Hugo answered, ready to play along with the conversation he barely remembered. He recalled the feelings he’d had, though: excitement about leaving Austin but sadness about leaving Kevin. “I can get a ride down to St. Peter, or you can come up to Minneapolis. It’s not that far.”
That drive never ended up happening for either of them because Hugo auditioned for a play in the U’s theater department and got a lead role as a freshman, something unheard of. He had no time to get together on weekends because he had homework to do and lines to memorize and blocking to learn and sets to help build.
“Seventy miles or so.”
That’s where Hugo vaguely remembered Kevin’s dad clapping his big hands and telling Kevin he’d better hit the road. Now there was just the sound of far-off waves and traffic from the highway on the other side of the trees peppered with exploding fireworks.
“I’d love that,” Hugo said, regretful he hadn’t taken the time to find a ride and just go. “I’ll make it happen,” he promised, and he wished he’d kept it.
Kevin looked at Hugo with such intensity; even in the darkness surrounding them, Hugo could see how blown Kevin’s pupils were.
“It’ll happen this time,” Kevin whispered against Hugo’s mouth, lazily closing his eyes as he spoke.
Hugo tasted Kevin’s breath on his tongue, remembering it, even with the faint scent of lemon lingering. A silvery thread of his memory seemed to actually weave this moment to the moments in his past, pushing Hugo back into that world, filling him with all those emotions he had for Kevin when they were just boys. Kevin was the only man Hugo had really and truly been in love with. He was the ruler every single boyfriend since had to unwittingly measure himself against. And none, not a single one, had ever gotten anywhere near.
Hugo took in a quick breath and pushed forward, capturing Kevin’s mouth with his own as his fingers threaded through thick blond waves and shorter razor-cut strands; his hands landed on Kevin’s neck. Hugo thumbed over Kevin’s ears, allowing the pads of his fingers to tease the fine hair along his earlobes.
They fused their mouths, opening and closing with lips caressing, teeth nipping, and tongues pushing against each other in an attempt to taste the familiarity that was new again.
Kevin trailed his hands down Hugo’s back, kneading his fingers against Hugo’s ass once he got there, then pulling them closer. Hugo felt Kevin starting to firm up beneath the thin material of his shorts, and he wanted so badly to thrust. He barely restrained himself.
They stood on a darkened road and kissed how they both wished they would have years ago, giving to each other more than they took away. But by doing it that way, Hugo felt more content than he had in years.
“Come back to my place?” Kevin panted against Hugo’s temple. “Please, Hugh?”
Hugo nodded as he tried to catch his breath and then nodded again. “Okay. Let me text Summer.”
He tapped out a quick message as he blindly followed Kevin back in the direction they came, and by the time Kevin was opening the door to his house, Summer had messaged back.
I’ll put the key under the terracotta flowerpot by the door. Don’t worry about me. This will give Auntie Karla and me a chance to catch up on what happened with Jason. Be safe.
Hugo read the text as he climbed up the stairs behind Kevin. He sent back a quick
I will
and then found himself being pushed back against a soft mattress in a beige room.
Kevin climbed on top of Hugo and started to kiss him again, his breath loud and hungry in Hugo’s ears. It took Hugo a moment to catch up, but soon he was kissing back as they both pulled at shirts and shorts. They were quickly down to soft cotton underwear and thrusting against each other, feeding their obvious desire as Kevin sucked and bit against Hugo’s neck and shoulders.
“It’s been so long,” Kevin groaned, breathing deeply into Hugo’s neck. “God. You still smell the same.”
Hugo laughed as he skimmed his hand up Kevin’s smooth, muscular back. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
Kevin rocked his hips into Hugo. They were both so hard, and Hugo felt fabric catch at the tip of his cock as wetness spread.
Hugo allowed his hands to travel, to explore Kevin’s back, pushing beneath underwear so he could hold on to the firm muscle of Kevin’s ass. That bubble butt fit his hands just like he remembered. He clutched his fingers, finding a perfect hold, and he drew Kevin in closer.
They thrust and pressed together, opening mouths wherever they landed, on chins and shoulders, lips and Adam’s apples, armpits and nipples. Hugo growled as he planted his forehead on Kevin’s shoulder, using the firm body as a counterpoint so he wouldn’t fly away and lose control.
Hugo pulled a finger to his mouth and wet it before heading back under Kevin’s underwear. He slipped between Kevin’s ass cheeks and found the tight pucker he remembered Kevin being so greedy with.
Kevin gasped, his neck thrown back. “Yes! So long, so long,” he said in a desperate voice as Hugo pressed his way into Kevin’s willing body. Hugo circled around, helping Kevin open so he could push deeper.
Kevin pulled up to his knees, shoving his underwear messily over his hips and down his thighs, kicking them off in haste before he drew Hugo’s wet finger into his own mouth and sucked, covering it with more saliva. He straddled Hugo’s hips, directing that wet finger between his legs, under his balls, and back to his ass.
Hugo’s eyes widened as he saw how desperate Kevin was to be touched like this, so he took over, fingering Kevin, touching his prostate, stroking over it. Hugo lost himself watching Kevin, easily enraptured by his reactions. He wrapped his other hand around Kevin’s thick, uncut cock, pushing the foreskin back so he could see the pink head all glistening wet.
Nothing could have prepared Hugo for what he felt as he saw Kevin coming undone above him. He still burned for this man all these years later. How? He didn’t know, but he knew passion when he saw and felt it.
Kevin’s eyes were blazing beneath his heavy lids, which he seemed barely able to keep open. Noises, unbidden and primal, were released loudly into the room, echoing off the high ceiling as Kevin thrust into the circle of Hugo’s palm and back against the finger in his ass, riding hard and fast.
Very carefully, Hugo slipped his body farther down between Kevin’s thighs so he could draw the pink mushroom head between his lips. He sucked gently, tonguing around the ridge as he kept looking into Kevin’s gray eyes. He pulled Kevin’s foreskin back over the head and slipped his tongue in the pocket, licking all around.
Stuttering movements of Kevin’s hips informed Hugo he was close, so he plunged another finger into Kevin, continued to stroke his shaft, and watched as Kevin’s eyes clamped tightly shut. Warm wetness covered Hugo’s lips and chin and cheeks as he milked every drop from Kevin’s body.
He was a mess.
And it was fucking perfect.
I
T
DIDN
’
T
seem to take long for Kevin to come back from his boneless, blissed-out state to notice how hard Hugo was beneath him. The sound of fireworks going off outside may have prompted consciousness a bit quicker than if it had been quiet, but that didn’t matter. Hugo was glad to have Kevin back in the moment. Kevin leaned back and reached for Hugo’s firm cock, giving it a gentle stroke when he got to it, and then quickly propelled himself toward the bedside drawer, urging Hugo to get his underwear off.
“Will you fuck me, Hugh?” Kevin asked with lube and a condom in his hand.
Hugo was surprised but silently assented with a slow nod from the pillow he was propped against.
Kevin made quick work of sheathing Hugo and using the covered head of Hugo’s cock to spread the slick lube where he needed it, his eyes drifting shut in what had to be pleasure. And then the glorious feel of Kevin surrounding Hugo came as he eased down and started to slide.
Hugo was rarely a passive top, but for the moment, he was content to watch Kevin fill himself in the way he wanted. It was a slow process, but soon Hugo was trapped in warmth.
Even though they had only gone this far a handful of times in high school—sticking with blow jobs because a mouth was always ready—Kevin had always enjoyed being penetrated. Hugo loved that.
Hugo’s hips responded to his thoughts, and he thrust up hard, upsetting Kevin’s precarious balance and causing him to tumble forward, so he had to catch himself with strong fingers splayed on Hugo’s chest.
“Hold on, ’cause I may just fuck you through the ceiling at this rate,” Hugo said, only laughing after he realized what words had actually come out of his mouth. Kevin joined in, but rather than bracing himself, he started tenderly kissing Hugo.
“Do that. Fuck me through the ceiling, Hugh. Please.”
By that point, the ridiculousness of the words had fallen away, and Hugo focused all his energy into pleasing Kevin, giving him exactly what he wanted.
Their rhythm was synchronized in moments as Kevin seemed to ride a wave, tilting his pelvis at the crest of each of Hugo’s thrusts. Muscles on his chest, stomach, and shoulders flexed and contracted, and Hugo loved watching Kevin move. Kevin sat back and took more control, but he grabbed both Hugo’s hands, threading their fingers together, and held on. It was such a familiar, intimate gesture.
Deep rumbling groans escaped from Kevin, first tightly restrained, but then the more they rocked, he just let go. He was noisy, and as Hugo looked up at Kevin losing himself to that moment, he felt his heart open up. He remembered the love he had for this man, the tenderness they shared as fumbling teens, the trust they had in each other as they each discovered there was another person in their small town they could be true with.
Kevin mumbled as he squeezed Hugo’s fingers tighter. It sounded like “So good. So long,” repeated on a loop.
Kevin pulled a hand away and lazily started stroking himself back to hardness in long, sensuous pulls. Hugo tried to help, but Kevin redirected Hugo’s fingers down to caress his balls. Hugo cradled the heavy orbs but then slipped back farther, feeling the slip and slide of their bodies moving together. He eased a finger in alongside the underside of his cock, giving each of them another sensation to try to process.
It didn’t take long before Hugo shouted out his warning. “Close.”
Kevin leaned forward, still lazily stroking himself and kissed Hugo with those flushed, full lips.
Hugo came with Kevin’s tongue in his mouth, that familiar taste everywhere. “Christ, Kevin. Christ,” he breathed into Kevin’s mouth. He drew Kevin closer, as close as he could, pressing their chests together so he could feel their hearts still racing in tandem. “That was amazing.”