Chase of a Lifetime (10 page)

He left the house through the back door,
avoiding his mother and father in the family room. They were watching a
documentary on TV that night about the Amish and he didn’t want to answer any
questions. He’d had years to practice this kind of silence. As a closeted gay
man he knew how to avoid all compromising situations where he might be forced
to answer questions. He wrote them a note that read: “Went out to meet a
friend. See you in the morning. Love, Jim.” He added the “love, Jim” part on
purpose so they wouldn’t ask him any questions the next day. This, he knew,
would pacify them.

When he arrived at the bowling alley, he saw
Len’s huge white pickup truck parked in the back against a wooded lot. There
were no street lights, and only a few empty cars and trucks around Len’s truck.
Jim parked a few spaces away and climbed out of his car. As he loped toward
Len’s truck with his hands in his pockets, he glanced up and saw that Len was
wearing a cowboy hat. When he opened the passenger door and climbed into the
front seat he saw that Len was wearing cowboy boots, too. His face grew warmer
and his pants tighter.

He must have glanced down at Len’s tight
jeans and boots a moment too long. Len adjusted his long legs and said, “I went
for a ride tonight. I needed to de-stress. It’s been a long couple of days and
riding and being with the horses helps me clear my mind. I didn’t have time to
change or shower. I just wanted to see you again. I know it’s only been a few
days, but I missed you.”

Jim shut the door and the overhead light
went out. He laced his fingers together, set them on his lap, and said, “That’s
okay. No problem. You look nice in a hat. I like it.” Though Jim didn’t have
any strong kinks or fetishes, men in cowboy hats and boots made him stop and
stare more than once. He’d grown up in
Texas
longing for these men. He was glad Len hadn’t changed. It was all he could do
to keep from climbing over the center console in the truck to sit on Len’s lap.

As Jim started to speak, Len reached into his
pocket and handed him something. “Here,” he said. “I picked this up for you in
Austin
.”

His head went sideways. He glanced down at a
small silver bracelet with a blue stone in Len’s hand. He hadn’t expected a
gift. “That’s so nice.” He glanced up and looked into Len’s eyes. “Thank you.
No one ever did anything like that before.”

Len took his hand and put the bracelet on
his wrist. After he fastened it, he said, “It’s just something small I thought
you’d like. I saw it in a hotel shop while my wife was getting ready and
decided to get it.”

Jim glanced down at his wrist and smiled. It
made him feel safe to know Len had been thinking about him. “I love it.” He
moved forward and kissed Len on the cheek. “I really do.”

Len reached over and took Jim’s hand. “I’m
sorry about not calling. The last few days have been a nightmare.”

Though Jim’s face expressed concern, he was
growing harder by the second holding Len’s hand. “Is everything okay now?” He
didn’t want to pry. But he was curious about Cain. Though Cain had always been
a good student, there had been a rough side to him that no one seemed to
understand. He tended to get into fights, and he drove so fast and received so
many speeding tickets his senior year in high school he’d lost his license for
three months.

“I think so,” Len said. He squeezed Jim’s
hand harder and sighed. “Long story short: he got into a fight in a bar in Austin
where his girlfriend is from, got arrested, and we had to get him out. He
refused to come home with us. My wife was even thinking of calling you and
asking you to talk to him. She thought maybe hearing from an old friend would
make him want to come home again. But I talked her out of it. I don’t want you
involved in something like this. It’s time Cain started to grow up. He’s a man
now, not a child.”

Jim shrugged. “If you need me to call him I
will. I don’t mind.” He leaned closer to Len and rested his head on Len’s
shoulder. He’d been apprehensive about making any moves. Men, to Jim, had
always been off limits in this respect. He’d watched the way women casually
leaned into their boyfriends or husbands all his life and had always wondered
about what it would be like to own that kind of freedom. Sometimes he would
fill with envy and despair at the simple act of a woman holding a man’s hand.
This was a luxury he’d never been allowed, and a form of expression he’d never
been able to explore. When he realized he was with a man with whom he could do
these things, he decided not to hesitate.

“No,” said Len. “I’d rather you not get
involved with Cain. I have this feeling he’s going through something right now.
He’s always been a little strong-willed. But he wouldn’t tell us anything. He
just said he was dealing with a few problems. I have a feeling it has a lot to
do with this girl he has in
Austin
.
He met her at Stanford.”

While Len had been speaking, Jim had been
unbuttoning his white shirt. He moved a little closer to Len and rested his
palm flat against Len’s hard stomach. He rubbed him with gentle strokes,
enjoying the sheer simplicity of being able to touch a man this way. Len was
wearing a green and white plaid western shirt with small silver buttons down
the front. Jim slid his fingers inside and caressed Len’s bare chest. “If you
need anything, let me know. Cain and I have known each other for a long time.
We haven’t been close since high school. But maybe I can do something.”

Len removed his cowboy hat and set it on the
dashboard. He rested his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He
adjusted his legs and spread them apart, as if inviting Jim to reach between
his legs. “That feels so good. I should have called you before I went riding.
This is way more relaxing than bouncing around on a horse all alone.”

Jim’s hand went lower and he started to
caress Len’s lower abdomen. He slid his hand down his pants and felt his pubic
hair. “I’m glad you wanted to get together tonight,” he said. “I’ve been
thinking about you a lot since we met at the hotel.”

Len’s eyes remained closed. He smiled and
said, “I can’t think about anything or anyone but you.”

“Just relax and stop talking,” Jim said. “I
want to enjoy every minute with you tonight.” His hand went up and he began to
unbutton Len’s plaid shirt. Each time he opened a button, he leaned over and
kissed Len’s torso with a touch so light he barely came into contact with his
flesh.

“I have to ask you something,” Len said.
“Maybe it’s none of my business. Maybe I shouldn’t say anything. But I have to
know.”

Jim reached down and pulled the shirt out of
his jeans so he could open the rest of it. “What do you want to know?”

“Did you and Cain ever do anything?” Len
asked. He paused for a moment and cleared his throat. “Anything sexual, that
is.”

Jim’s head went up. He looked into Len’s
eyes. “No. Never. We were nothing more than good friends. I’ve never been with
anyone but you.” There was one time when something almost happened between them
in high school. They’d been wrestling on Jim’s bedroom floor and Cain pinned
him down and started dry humping him. When Jim realized what was happening, he
panicked and pushed Cain off his body. They moved on to something else, never
discussed this again, and it never affected their friendship. He didn’t think
this was worth mentioning.

“You must have been attracted to him,” Len
said.

Though Jim knew Len was fishing, he wasn’t
sure why. He thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes. I’ll be honest. I was
attracted to Cain.” He stopped talking and hesitated again. “You have to think
about it this way: I was a shy, plain kid who was more attracted to guys than girls.
For most of my high school years, I was invisible. I didn’t know how to explain
or understand my feelings while I was growing up. And all that time I was with
one of the best looking guys in my school…in my
city
. I think if I had been allowed to have a normal adolescence
and experience things that were normal to me at the time, I wouldn’t have been
as attracted to Cain as I was. It’s hard to explain. I think I held on to the
fantasy of Cain for so long because it was safe. I knew deep down nothing would
ever happen between us.”

Len put his arm around Jim and pulled him
closer to his side. “I know what you’re talking about. For me it was different
because I turned to women. I thought that if I tried to be a stud I’d change
who I was. That was my safety zone for a long time.”

Jim reached down and unfastened Len’s silver
belt buckle. He opened the button on Len’s jeans and pulled down his zipper.
His hand went lower and he reached inside Len’s briefs. He held Len’s erection
and inhaled the scent coming from between Len’s legs and said, “I swear to God
you’re the first man I’ve ever been with. Let’s not talk anymore. Just close
your eyes and let me do everything. I’ve never done anything like this before,
especially not with a man I have such strong feelings for.”

“You have strong feelings for me?” Len
asked. He spread his legs and bucked his hips forward so Jim could get all the
way into his pants without struggling.

Jim grabbed his balls and pulled them out of
his briefs. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”

As Jim began to tug on his balls, Len
squatted down and stretched his legs. “I haven’t either. And just so you know,
I never expected this to happen. I thought I was going to a boring graduation
party the other night.” He laughed. “I didn’t know I was going to wind up
meeting someone who would know how to make he feel this way. I don’t think I’ve
ever experienced emotions like this with anyone.”

This made Jim smile. He didn’t care that he
was with his best friend’s father now. For a short time, he didn’t care what
his mother would think. And he didn’t care what his best friend would think if
he knew. All Jim
 
knew that night, in the
dark cab of that pickup truck, parked behind a seedy bowling alley, was that he
was about to go down on a man he cared about in ways he wasn’t yet able to
express aloud.

Before he actually went down on Len, Jim sat
up and removed all his clothes. Len watched, reaching out to fondle his naked
body with each article of clothing he removed. He bent down in an exaggerated
way on purpose so that Len could play with his ass while he removed his shoes.
He even sat up, braced his hands on the dashboard, and lifted his ass partially
from the seat so Len could squeeze it a few times.

A few seconds later, he sat back and leaned
into the center console again. He reached down and grabbed the base of Len’s
shaft and pulled it forward. As he ran his thumb slowly up and down the bottom,
he wrapped his lips around the head and started to suck. Len sat all the way
back, with his fingers laced behind his head and his elbows jutting out, and
moaned in low whispers.

He could tell Len hadn’t showered; he
smelled like a man should smell, not like the flowery soap and powder, and the
strong offensive cologne his mother used that made her bathroom intolerable. While
Jim jacked and sucked at the same time, Len whispered about how wonderful it
felt and how soft Jim’s lips were. At one point, right about the same time Jim’s
head started bobbing up and down Len grabbed the back of Jim’s head and applied
light pressure. He pushed Jim’s face into his crotch and held it there for a
moment. Jim held his breath and sucked harder. His cheeks indented and he
pressed his tongue against the shaft and applied as much pressure as he could.
And when Len released one hand from Jim’s head to give him a break, Len reached
over and started to squeeze and play with Jim’s ass while he sucked.

The more he inhaled Len’s scent the faster
he worked. Jim’s right leg went up and he rested his foot on the dashboard. As
Len inserted his middle finger into Jim’s body, Jim stopped sucking for a
moment. He remained still, with his lips around the head of Len’s dick. When
Len’s finger was inside, he started sucking again. His chest began to heave and
indiscreet, vulgar slurps and suction noises came from between Len’s legs. By
the time Len inserted a second finger, Jim’s bare foot was pressed flat against
the windshield. He didn’t look up to see if anyone was watching from outside. It
wasn’t the most comfortable position, yet Len’s fingers aroused him more with
each probe and he didn’t want to move. He figured Len was keeping an eye out
for passersby.

At one point, a moment after Len had
inserted a third finger, Len pulled out fast and said, “Put your leg down. Hurry
up. There are a couple of young cowboys coming in this direction.”

Jim lowered his leg and glanced up. He saw
two big rowdy cowboys coming right in their direction. “Oh fuck, I thought you
were watching.”

Len said, “I closed my eyes for a minute.
They must have come out of the bowling alley and I didn’t notice.”

“What should I do?” He imagined all the
worst things that could happen. The cowboys would be drunk. They would see Jim
blowing a man and they would pull him out of the car, naked with red lips. They
would call him names like fag and cock sucker and sissy, and then kick him
around in the woods behind the cars. They might make him perform lewd acts on
them. After that, they would beat the hell out both of them. Jim had never been
bullied or bashed and that’s because he’d never placed himself in a situation
where those things could happen.

“Don’t do anything,” Len said. “It’s too
late to start getting dressed. They are too close and they are headed right for
the truck parked next to us. Just keep your head down between my legs and I’ll
make it look natural. Start sucking my dick again.”

“You want me to suck your dick in front of
them?”

“Just trust me.”

“Ah well,” Jim said. “I don’t know about
this. We could get the shit kicked out of us.” After all, he was still holding
Len’s dick, which would be enough to warrant a good beating.