Daniel shook his head, still glaring at the lamp. “Believe me. I’m wide-awake.” He pointed and gasped, “There, it moved again.”
Elliot examined the lamp. “It looks like it’s in the same place, and I didn’t hear anything.”
“I don’t think it made any noise. It only wiggled a little.” Daniel spared a glance at Elliot but returned his gaze to the offending light fixture as soon as possible.
“Well, if there is a ghost”—Elliot was trying to give Daniel the benefit of the doubt—“he doesn’t really seem to be trying to hurt us. I can live with a wiggly lamp.” He smiled at Daniel and tucked himself between the sheets again. “Come on. Lie back down.”
“Elliot. Aren’t you going to do something?” Daniel was a little more concerned. “Tell it to behave or something.”
Elliot looked at the ceiling. “Behave, Ghost.” Then he pulled Daniel toward him and nestled him in his arms. “Better?”
Daniel shook his head but stayed where he was. Elliot stabbed the button on the base of the lamp, turning off the light so they could go back to sleep.
THE NEXT
morning, Daniel woke up first. He had been promised sex, and he was going to have it. He tried waking Elliot up, but all he got for his trouble was a couple of grunts. So he wriggled down under the blankets and pulled at pajama bottoms and underwear until he had the sought-after part of Elliot. Exposed and vulnerable to his attack.
And attack he did. He swallowed him down in one gulp. It wasn’t difficult to do since Elliot was still soft. Daniel rolled Elliot’s flaccid penis around in his mouth until it started to grow, and he heard Elliot groan.
“Dammit, Daniel, you scared me half to death.” Elliot was wide-awake now and responding nicely to Daniel’s ministrations.
Daniel only hummed in response when he made Elliot groan again. Elliot flung the covers out of the way and grabbed a handful of Daniel’s hair. Daniel was torn between pushing into those strong hands at the back of his head and continuing to burrow into the wiry curls in front of him. Before Daniel could decide, Elliot took the choice away by pulling Daniel toward him until Elliot’s cock was buried deep in Daniel’s throat. He knew Elliot would release him if he gave any indication that this wasn’t what he wanted. But it was. He wanted it more than he could believe. He adjusted his angle so he could breathe through his nose, and he let Elliot’s long, thick length rock back and forth.
It didn’t take long before Elliot exploded deep within Daniel’s throat. Daniel slowly relinquished his prize, letting it gently slide out of his mouth and onto Elliot’s bared groin. Daniel licked him clean and crawled up his body, peppering kisses along the way, to capture his mouth in a morning kiss.
ELLIOT TOOK
charge of the kiss, then took charge of Daniel. He grabbed Daniel by his wrists and rolled them over until Elliot was covering Daniel’s body, inch for inch, with Daniel’s wrists pinned above them near the headboard.
Daniel looked blissed out already, and Elliot wondered if that was just from giving head, which he remembered Daniel said he loved to do, or because he liked the light bondage. Theorizing it was the bondage, Elliot moved Daniel’s hands around the slats in the headboard.
“Keep them there,” Elliot ordered and knew he had guessed correctly when Daniel’s smile widened at the command. “Don’t move.”
Elliot moved slowly down Daniel’s body, licking and nipping at his ears and neck, then at his chest and nipples, moving even farther to dip his tongue into Daniel’s navel.
Daniel squirmed beneath him but followed the command and kept his hands on the railing.
Elliot continued down Daniel’s legs, skipping the quickly hardening member between them. Daniel groaned and raised up to look at Elliot, so Elliot spared a hand to push at Daniel’s chest, making him lie back down. “I thought I told you not to move.” Elliot spared a glace upward. The totally destroyed look on Daniel’s face caused an eruption of warmth and movement in Elliot’s groin. He thought that if he were younger, he might be able to come again from that sight alone.
Daniel groaned and wriggled his hips toward Elliot. “But you’re killing me. Can’t you—”
“Do I need to gag you too?” Elliot growled and kicked the sheet and cover away from his feet so he could settle in even more snugly. If he’d thought he could come from the sight of Daniel coming unglued, the sound of it convinced him of it. “God, if you keep that up, you’re going to have more come all over yourself.”
Daniel made the sound again. Elliot knew it was on purpose this time. The little brat.
Elliot stopped playing around. He sucked the end of Daniel’s cock into his mouth but stopped there, twirling his tongue around the end, just to hear that sound again.
He wasn’t disappointed.
He licked and slurped and finally swallowed until Daniel was a writhing mess beneath him.
“I’m gonna….” Daniel tried to warn, but Elliot sucked that much harder.
Daniel didn’t last long after that. Elliot released Daniel’s penis and licked his own lips to catch the last of Daniel’s essence. He kissed his way up Daniel’s body. When he was stretched out beside him, Elliot murmured into Daniel’s ear, “You can let go of the bed slats now.”
Daniel purred, and they fell back to sleep side by side.
ELLIOT WOKE
first a little later. The sun’s angle told him that not much time had gone by, but he desperately had to go to the bathroom. As he disentangled himself from Daniel, Daniel mumbled, “Five more minutes, Mom.”
Elliot chuckled. “I don’t even want to know what your family dynamics were that you’re thinking of your mother right now.”
Daniel laughed. “You know I wasn’t really thinking of my mother, old man.” Daniel curled to his side, trying to capture Elliot as he sat up on the side of the bed. “It was just something to say.”
“Well, so is this.” Elliot reached back and slapped Daniel’s bare rump. “Get your pretty little ass out of bed.”
“Why?” Daniel pulled Elliot’s abandoned pillow over his head. “I don’t have anywhere I have to be.”
Elliot smacked Daniel again. “Well, I do. Get up.” Then he padded across the hardwood floor and into the hall.
The toilet had just finished its flush and Elliot was about to turn on the water, when he heard a thumping noise from the next room. He opened his mouth to ask Daniel what he was doing and heard Daniel gasp.
“Dammit, Elliot. There it goes again.”
There was fear in Daniel’s voice. Elliot heard the thump again and rushed back into the bedroom.
“What’s going on?” Elliot asked as he rounded the corner.
“The lamp is dancing around on the dresser.”
Elliot looked at the lamp, but if it had been dancing, it declined to let Elliot see it. “Dancing, huh?”
“Okay, not dancing, just moving. But it’s still not natural.”
Elliot looked pointedly again at the offensive lamp. Nothing. “Why don’t I ever see these things?”
Daniel was still concerned, but he seemed less fearful now that Elliot was here. “Because the ghost wants me to look crazy?”
“Well, he’s doing a good job,” Elliot quipped, but taking all the heat out of the statement. He’d heard something, and even though he didn’t know Daniel all that well, he was pretty sure Daniel wouldn’t purposely make noise with the lamp to back up his delusions.
Daniel smacked Elliot’s arm. “I’m not making this shit up.”
“Okay,” Elliot said blandly.
“You don’t believe me.”
Elliot sat beside Daniel on the bed and patted his knee. “I believe you believe it, and I did hear something that time.”
Daniel screwed up his face in disgust and pointed toward the lamp. “It’s right there. Every time you turn your back, it moves.” He ran his hand across the meticulously clean bedside table. “If you were like normal people and there was a layer of dust on the furniture, you’d be able to tell by that.”
“Now it’s my fault and I’m a neat freak?”
Daniel turned back toward Elliot. “You
are
a neat freak. But no, it’s not your fault you have a ghost.”
“I don’t have a….” Elliot shook his head. He couldn’t really rule out that possibility, though, and come to think of it, he didn’t have the dreams last night. But no, there was definitely something going on. As much fun as it was to tease Daniel about it, he didn’t want him to think Elliot thought he was crazy. “I do think there might be something here. Later I’ll tell you about some of the dreams I’ve been having. But I’m not sure I believe it could move furniture.” When Daniel started to protest, Elliot ran his hands up and down Daniel’s back. “But I do believe you’re seeing something. Ghost or settling house or some other phenomenon, I do believe you.” Elliot felt Daniel’s tension ease away as Daniel melted into Elliot’s embrace. “Let’s forget about it for now. Come take a shower with me and we’ll get ready.” He patted Daniel’s back, then straightened up, signaling that he wanted Daniel to stand up now. “You staying for breakfast? I’m meeting Cher later, so I’ve got to go by about ten.”
“Yeah, if breakfast is offered, I’m staying.” Daniel glared pointedly at the lamp, but just the fact that Elliot said he believed him seemed to have taken most of his apprehension away. “Ghost or no ghost.”
ELLIOT WALKED
into the little coffee shop and saw Sheri waiting for him at a corner table.
She had to start cooking later that day for her event the next, so morning was the only time she had to meet with Elliot.
The place wasn’t packed, but it was doing a steady business. A couple of businessmen, judging by their suits, sat at the table just inside the door, and an elderly lady sat by herself a couple of tables down. Three men, maybe truck drivers, were at the counter. The waitress, whose nametag proclaimed her to be Beverly, bustled over almost before they were seated.
“What can I get for y’all to drink this mornin’?” she asked as she handed them menus.
“We won’t need the menus,” Elliot told her. “We just want muffins and coffee.”
“What kind of muffin can I get ya, darlin’?”
Elliot had forgotten how thick the Southern accent could get in SC. Sheri was a transplant from the north and had never picked up the colorful phrases the South was known for.
They told Beverly what they wanted and she sashayed away behind the counter.
As they ate their breakfast, they talked about a little bit of nothing until conversation eventually made its way back to Elliot’s possible ghost, or at least the weird Civil War dreams.
“So, I didn’t have the dream last night.” Elliot wiped crumbs from his mouth. “Darrell kept going on and on about the ghost again. Saying the lamp moved.”
“His name is Daniel,” Sheri retorted as she sipped her coffee.
Elliot smirked. “I actually do know that.”
“So why call him Darrell?” She took another sip of coffee.
Elliot chuckled. “Not really sure, but it’s kind of a thing now. I don’t want to give it up.” He debated leaving it there but decided to tell her the rest. “In fact, I asked him if he minded. He seemed to like that I have a nickname for him.”
Sheri looked concerned and set down her cup. “You sound like you’re getting serious about him.”
“I’ve slept with him four times and he’s stayed over once.” Elliot dabbed crumbs from his plate with his index finger. “How is that getting serious?”
“For you? That’s practically engaged.” Sheri wiped a dribble of coffee from the lip of her cup. “You don’t do relationships.”
“And he knows that. The kid’s half my age.” Elliot abandoned the crumbs and met Sheri’s eyes. “He knows I’m only in it for sex. But the sex is phenomenal, and he’s good company. What’s wrong with that?”
“Ellie. Nothing’s wrong with it.” She brushed her fingers across his. “Just be careful. He’s young. He might get the wrong idea.”
“I’ve talked to him about it. He seems okay with it.” Elliot turned his hand over and took hers. “And for all that I call him a kid, he’s twenty-six. That’s not that young. He can make his own decisions.”
“Yeah, and you’re forty-one.” She squeezed his fingers.
“I’m not asking for his hand in marriage. We’re playing around.” Elliot looked stern but then patted her hand and moved his away so he could pick up his coffee cup. “And how much older than you is Malcolm?”
Sheri smiled and went back to her own coffee. “Okay, I see your point. We’re not serious either.”
“Seems serious. For you.” Elliot turned the tables. “You’ve been seeing him what? Three months?”
Sheri looked sheepish. “Four.”
“Four! That’s practically halfway down the aisle.” He grinned over the top of his mug.
“All right, all right. I’ll leave you alone about your boy toy, if you stop hounding me about my sugar daddy.” Sheri upended her cup and returned it to the table.
“Deal.” Elliot pretended to spit into his hand and held it out for Sheri to shake.
She gave him the evil eye. “I’m not touching that now.”
He chuckled as Beverly brought the check over to the table and engaged them in conversation about the weather.
THAT NIGHT,
Elliot got ready for bed in the bathroom and stopped when he caught who stared back at him from the mirror.
God, I need to stop eating out with Cher so often. I’m gaining weight.
The puffiness to his face came with a gray sheen. Ankles and knees seemed swollen and his shirt looked a little tighter around his shoulders. The weight had come on in the past week or so. Dark shadows under his eyes reflected how tired he felt. No matter how much sleep he got or how easy his day was, by the end of it, he could barely support his weight. The exhaustion had had been going on periodically for the last several months. He couldn’t quite figure it out.
He put it out of his mind for now though and finished getting ready for bed. His mattress was calling his name and he didn’t want to keep it waiting. He had been half-afraid that Daniel would come over again tonight. He was glad he hadn’t. The only thing he wanted to do was sleep.
Falling into bed, the pillow welcomed him as he pulled the ugly bedspread over his shoulders, musing absently that he might not replace it after all if it continued to provide this much warmth and comfort. He felt the pull of Morpheus and surrendered to his arms.