Hobbled (15 page)

“I really love being with you.” And the moment he said them, his heart started hammering again. He wasn’t exactly sure why.

But Danny calmed down when he felt Luke’s smile brush against his pubic hair. Luke’s breath tickled him there. He reached around to stroke Luke’s back and pull Luke’s body even closer. That way it tickled a little less.

“I know,” Luke said, pulling Danny closer too. Snuggling in for all he was worth. Pushing his face into Danny’s stomach. Inhaling Danny’s scent, just like Danny had done to him. “I feel the same way.”

“We’ve got a couple of weeks before our dads get back,” Danny ventured. “Why don’t you and Granger move in here until they do? I like it better when I can see you naked without using binoculars. Makes me feel like a perv doing that.”

“Some people might say we’re pervs just doing what we’re doing right now.”

“Screw ’em. What we’re doing right now is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t care what people think about it. I only know what
I
think about it.”

“And what’s that, Danny?”

But Danny couldn’t say what he truly felt. Not yet. Maybe not ever. So he simply stated the obvious, and let it go at that.

“I like it.”

Luke turned around and scooched up in the bed, dragging his lips along Danny’s belly and chest as he went. When the two of them were head to head, Luke pressed his lips to Danny’s forehead, then he kissed Danny’s eyelids, first the right one, then the left. And finally he gave Danny’s nose a quick peck as he dragged his fingertips though Danny’s shoulder-length hair.

“Profound,” he said.

While his face was getting all the attention, Danny nibbled at Luke’s neck. “Thanks.”

Danny was still waiting for an answer to his suggestion about the two of them moving in together on a temporary basis. He had dredged up the courage to mention it once. He wasn’t sure he could ever find the guts to mention it again. But he needn’t have worried.

Luke seemed to be thinking out loud when he said, “Somewhere across the way, I’ve got a box packed full of telephone stuff. In that box are enough phone extension cords to drag our house phone halfway back to Tucson if we wanted. Shouldn’t be anything to drag it through the hedge and across the yard over to here. That way when my dad calls, he won’t know I’m here instead of there. Pretty smart, huh?”

Danny’s heart did a flip-flop. “So you’ll do it? You’ll move in?”

Luke cradled Danny’s face in his hands and scooted his lips down to press them against Danny’s mouth. Then he pulled back to study Danny’s expression. “Sure I’ll do it. Did you think I’d say no?”

“Well, I—”

Luke glanced over to the bookcase by the window. Frederick’s ass was hanging off the shelf. He was sound asleep.

Luke gave a tsk. “Your poor cat doesn’t know what hell he’s about to be in for. Granger will drive him nuts.”

“Fuck the cat,” Danny said. “Let’s have sex again.”

Luke propped himself up on one elbow and stared down into Danny’s eager eyes. “What, already?”

Danny’s hands slid south. One cupped Luke’s balls, the other stroked Luke’s fuzzy ass.

“Yes, please,” Danny said.

And Luke grinned. “Well, as long as you say please.” He felt Danny’s dick twitch against his leg. He liked feeling it there. Luke thought Danny looked as if he pretty much liked feeling it there too. Luke grinned, getting caught up in Danny’s enthusiasm. “Just give me a minute to catch up.”

Danny grinned back, as happy as he had ever been in his life. “Take all the time you need.”

Chapter 8

D
ANNY
dragged half his clothes out of the closet and flung it all under the bed to make room for Luke’s stuff. Luke didn’t bring
everything
over to Danny’s house, of course. Hell, he had just schlumped it all out of the moving van and stuffed it into his
own
house, so he didn’t want to move it again. Besides, while he was staying with Danny, Luke figured he wouldn’t need that many clothes anyway. At least he hoped he wouldn’t. He and Danny seemed to get along just fine wearing nothing but a couple of smiles and maybe an occasional layer of sweat.

There was also the fact this was a temporary arrangement and they both knew it. Their dads would be arriving in a couple of weeks and that would pretty well throw a monkey wrench into the whole shebang.

Still, for two weeks, he and Danny would be on their own. And Luke was thrilled.

He was also beginning to wonder if maybe he wasn’t falling a little bit in love. Danny was absolutely the best thing that had ever happened to Luke. And Danny’s body was exactly the kind of body Luke found most attractive. Long, lean, responsive. Danny’s sweetness was a big draw too. And his innocence, which Luke was doing everything he could to cure the guy of. Tee hee. The only drawback Luke could see to Danny at all was the cast on his left leg and the ankle monitor on his right. But even working around those impediments was kind of fun. Just took a little patience and ingenuity is all.

The most astonishing thing of all was the fact Luke was pretty sure Danny was falling in love with him too. Danny certainly got some loving looks in his eyes sometimes. And God, he was sexy when he got those looks.

Luke found the packing box with all the telephone stuff in it and hooked together one telephone extension cord after another until they stretched all the way across two lawns, from Luke’s kitchen outlet to where they snaked up the side of Danny’s house and through his bedroom window. Luke still had his cell phone, too, but he never knew if his dad would call on the cell or the landline, so having both phones available at Danny’s house took care of that little problem. Now Luke’s dad would never need to know Luke wasn’t home at all. Of course, Luke would still be close. When he wasn’t working on getting the house ready for his dad’s return, he could easily keep an eye on the property from Danny’s bedroom window at night. If he could drag his face out of Danny’s crotch long enough.

So the days passed. And they were happy days.

He and Danny settled into a strange but ultimately satisfying routine. They each managed to accomplish everything they needed to do as far as their own chores went and still find plenty of time to be together. They took their meals together, spent each idle minute together, and found lots of time to lay by Danny’s pool and sunbathe. Even if Danny couldn’t go in the water, Luke certainly could. And he enjoyed the hell out of it. And Danny enjoyed the hell out of watching him.

They both loved the hours they spent by the pool. Eyeing each other’s bodies as they lay together in the hot sun, and occasionally reaching out to share a touch, they found themselves talking for hours on end. On those lazy afternoons, with the summer sun pounding down on them and their tans quickly deepening, they talked about everything that popped into their heads. They talked so much they discovered just about everything there was to learn about each other. But it was the secrets they didn’t mean to share, but eventually did, that were the real eye-openers.

They were astonished to learn they both enjoyed writing stories. After overcoming a certain reluctance about sharing their talents, they finally showed each other everything they had written from grade school on. They laughed over some of the plotlines and groaned over some of the really bad writing, which took another pair of eyes to spot.

They talked about the angst of being gay, and
knowing
you were gay, but being afraid to share that truth with the world and with the people who love you. Danny was still astounded that Luke, whose father was openly gay, had not had the courage to tell his dad about his
own
gayness. Even Luke couldn’t really explain why that was.

One afternoon, Danny lay at the apron of the pool on the hot concrete, merely dragging his arms through the cool water because he knew if he actually dove in, he would sink like a rock, thanks to his fucking cast. Luke floated in front of him on the inflatable raft, flat on his back, eyes closed against the sun. Their hands came together in the water and they vowed to each other that the very day their two dads came back into town, they would sit them down and tell them the truth about their homosexuality.

Luke supposed his dad would be understanding about it. Why wouldn’t he? He was gay himself. But Danny had no idea how his own father would react.

Still, it was something that had to be brought out in the open sooner or later. And now that Danny had spent time in Luke’s arms, and he could honestly say his days of being a virgin were happily over, he knew he could never really be himself until his dad knew who he truly was. He wished, too, that he could tell his dad how nuts he was about Luke. But Danny hadn’t even said those words to Luke yet, although the time was drawing near when he knew he probably would. They were on the tip of his tongue every day now. Soon they would come spilling out whether he wanted them to or not.

So swallowing back the words for now, both he and Luke fell a little more in love with every passing moment they spent together. Savoring the summer and the hours they shared, they relished every single day.

But, oh, the nights! The nights were
revelations!
Holding hands in front of the TV. Giggling through their dinners. Then reaching out to each other like two innocent children, leading each other up the stairs where their childish personas fell away and they became what they truly were. Men. Men driven by need and passion and consuming curiosity. Those hours in each other’s arms were more fulfilling than anything either of them had ever expected to find in their young lives.

But they did find it. And they found themselves protecting those precious hours together above all else.

Small imaginings began to creep into their minds as they lay naked, sated, cuddling. Imaginings concerning what it might be like to
really
live together. To
really
commit
to each other. Perhaps it was fear that kept the words from being spoken out loud. For neither could bear the thought of scaring the other away.

So the days went by. The sex got better and better. The longings grew exponentially. But still the words were left unsaid. It wasn’t time yet, they both thought. They hadn’t been together long enough. Hell, it hadn’t even been a week since they first came face to face.

But still, Danny and Luke knew in their individual hearts that only one word could convey the way each of them felt about the other. That word was love. They just couldn’t find the courage to say it out loud.

And while they waited for that courage to show itself, they still had to deal with real life.

It was a simple cry in the night that first lured their attention away from each other.

But it was Frederick the cat who finally brought reality crashing down upon their heads.

T
HEY
lay spooning in the bed, watching the gibbous moon through Danny’s bedroom window as it climbed ever so slowly up the star-spattered California sky. A nice breeze had come up and found its way through the darkness to cool the sweat on their skin as they lay in each other’s arms. Cozy and contented, they listened to their pulses hammer down to normalcy after simultaneous orgasms had put their hearts into thundering hyperdrive about two minutes earlier.

Danny pushed his face into the back of Luke’s ginger hair and breathed in his scent. It was a scent he knew as well as his own now. And it was a scent he was crazy about.

He could still taste Luke’s come in his mouth, and he knew Luke could still taste his. While their lovemaking had in no way become rote, one unchanging pattern did seem to have come from the many times they had now explored each other’s bodies. That was the cuddling they enjoyed afterward. The gentle stroking of the other’s skin, the lazy kisses, the twining of fingers, the pulling together to hold each other close. Lying in each other’s arms, they could barely restrain a tandem euphoric sigh.

Luke reached behind his head and laid a hand to Danny’s cheek as Danny continued to nuzzle his nose into Luke’s hair. Danny’s breath was hot against Luke’s scalp. Hot and comforting. Luke twisted his head around to kiss Danny’s luscious bicep, which he was using for a pillow.

“I love the way you hold me,” Luke whispered. He was too relaxed to raise his voice to anything higher than a contented murmur. If he were a cat, he would have been purring. “I love the way you do
everything
.”

Danny smiled. “Except cook,” he said.

“Well, yeah. That you suck at. And I mean not in a good way.”

Again, Danny found himself fighting back the words he wanted to say more than anything in the world. Swallowing vows he wanted to make. Burying declarations of love beneath a mundane layer of mindless discourse that didn’t really express the way he felt at all. “I love everything you do too,” he said, and immediately felt guilty, as if those simple words were really a lie. But they weren’t a lie. They just weren’t the words he wanted to speak. They didn’t even come close.

Luke squirmed and shifted around on the bed until they were lying face to face. Danny’s face was lit by the moonlight streaming through the window, his long hair all over the place. Luke brushed his lips across Danny’s mouth and pulled him tight when Danny kissed him back. Their thighs lay hot against each other’s, their tummies firm and satiny. Their cocks, soft and sated, lay warm and contented next to each other just as Luke and Danny were lying. Their pulses beat slower now, thumping softly inside their heads. Luke and Danny felt lazy and comfortable and as happy as they could ever remember feeling.