Queermance Anthology, Volume 1 (3 page)

'Morning,' Chase replied, mortified when her voice came out as little more than a squeak.

She scrambled for her clothes. As she pulled her cargo pants back on, she glanced over to find
that Amana had not moved from where she lay on the floor, and was watching her as she dressed.

Chase paused with her pants button still undone.

'What is it?' she asked Amana.

'I never thanked you for saving my life,' Amana told her.

'It's fine,' Chase said, waving Amana's worry away.

Amana was silent as she got to her feet and also began to dress.

They were quiet for the next few hours as they continued to scavenge. Amana spoke barely more
than she had the previous day. Chase wondered if Amana felt as awkward as she did, or whether she
was reading too much into the other woman's actions and the silence that still lay between them.

She tried to remember where Amana had said that she lived. She thought it might have been
somewhere north, in completely the opposite direction to Chase's hometown. After today, they would
probably go their separate ways. What did that make the previous night then? A one night stand? A
quick, heat of the moment fling? Chase wasn't used to that sort of relationship, and wasn't sure how
she was supposed to act.

Just after midday, Chase and Amana made their way back down to the streets, where Chase's boat
was still tied up safely. She ferried Amana to where her own boat was tied down. As they pulled
alongside it, Chase searched desperately for something to say to the other woman. She wasn't ready
to say goodbye yet. She liked Amana. She really did.

She was about to open her mouth and say something she was probably going to regret when Amana
spoke.

'I was thinking of coming back in a few days,' Amana said as she climbed into her boat. 'I
thought I might search in that building over there.'

She indicated a tall building on the block next to them. Chase wondered why Amana was bothering
to tell her, and then when she realised, she felt her heart skip a beat.

'That one there?' she asked, making sure they were on the same page.

Amana nodded.

'By the time I get home, sell these items off, make preparations and then come back, it should be
four days from now.'

'Four days,' Chase said, nodding as she made a few mental calculations. Yes, that should give her
long enough to take care of everything she needed to.

'Sounds like a plan,' she agreed, smiling at Amana.

Amana smiled back, her eyes shining brightly as she looked at Chase. She then leaned towards
Chase's boat, grabbed Chase by her singlet and pulled her in for a brief but passionate kiss.

They soon parted. Amana headed north while Chase headed south towards the wider Brisbane River.
As her boat sped towards home, Chase was already counting the hours until she next saw the flooded
streets of Brisbane city and Amana, and she smiled.

Tomorrow, I was leaving.

I was sitting astride one of the farm bikes looking out toward Mt. Warning; a barely-there smudge
in the distance from the highest point of our farm. The drone of the cicadas made the air throb in a
primitive rhythm. The humidity made my shirt stick to the sweaty skin of my back. Eighteen years I'd
called this place home, but tomorrow, I was leaving. I'd be heading up to Brisbane with my best
mate, Adam. University beckoned but, to be honest, all I could think about was getting an
opportunity to repeat what had happened between us a few weeks ago.

I'd asked myself why I wasn't I more freaked out by what had happened. I'd never thought about a
bloke in that way before. I'd dated Heather since we were 15, and despite the blue balls her
no
sex before marriage
attitude had created, I'd been content to wait for a deeper intimacy with
her. I'd assumed that it - sex - wouldn't feel much different to my hand, but one night with
Adam had shown me how very wrong I'd been. The exquisite feeling of tight heat sliding against the
skin of my cock was a sensation I was desperate to repeat.

Heather had given me a too-brief preview of that sensation the one time she'd taken me into her
mouth. I'd just registered the moist warmth settling around the head of my cock when she'd pulled
away with: 'If we don't stop now, I'll take this further than I want to.'

Even Heather's refusal to finish me off didn't faze me. Perhaps I was actually gayer than I
thought? Oh, don't get me wrong, at the time I was in serious discomfort and I hustled her home
quickly so I could jack off sooner. Getting aroused has never been an issue. In fact, the vibrations
of my bike engine were enough for my dick to stand up and make his presence known.

What did trouble me was the driving urge to fuck Adam that now distorted my every waking thought.
The last two weeks had been a constant battle to keep my mind on my work around the farm. These
days, everything I did turned into a pornographic daydream.

Must remember to fix the back gate;
Adam leaning on the top bar looking over his shoulder with
a come-hither smile…

Pulling branches out of the creek. Stopping to watch the water cascading over the pockmarked
volcanic boulders;
Adam kneeling in the waist-deep water. Drops glistening like stars on his
chest as he crooks a finger at me…

Constant thoughts of me
doing things
to Adam had invaded my mind to the extent that I
needed to wank at least half a dozen times a day. The image of a kneeling Adam in the creek had made
me cum so hard my yell of completion had startled the cattle into a run.

The chirp of my phone broke me out of my reverie. Glancing at the screen, I smiled to see Adam's
name.

'Yo,' I answered, picturing a naked Adam lying back on his bed, phone in one hand, cock in the
other. Oh god! I was hard again. I eased back on the bike seat to give myself more room, adjusting
my now too-tight jeans to give my hardening cock some much-needed space.

'Ready for tomorrow, Cullen?' Adam asked, jolting me from my X-rated musings.

'Yep. I'll toss the last few things in the ute in the morning, and then I'll head over. Did you
have any hassles moving the furniture in?'

'Nah mate. All good. Mum sent up one of those sofa-bed thingies when she heard you'd be staying
with me, though.'

'Oh. Um… great.' I was aching to ask where Adam wanted me to sleep but I didn't know how to
start
that
conversation. Despite talking on the phone nearly every day since "that" weekend,
we'd both avoided discussing what we'd done. Not knowing how Adam felt about us was driving me
insane, but I didn't know how to broach the subject with him.

Adam's next comment sent a chill from my gut to my scalp where it made my hair prickle. 'I saw
Kate the other day.'

'Oh? Are you two getting back together?' I tried to say it casually but I don't know how
successful I was. Anxiety tightened my chest and caused my stomach to churn.

'No. But I kinda wanted to. Ya know?'

No, I didn't bloody know. Adam had consumed my thoughts since that weekend in Lennox. Adam, naked
and in my arms. Adam's cock hot and heavy in my hand. Adam's tongue touching mine as we shared that
one kiss. It was difficult to speak. So, instead of telling Adam all that, I simply grunted into the
phone.

Adam continued to chatter, completely oblivious to my turmoil. 'But while we were talking and
flirting and shit, well, I kinda wanted you too. Is that fucked up or what?'

'Yeah, I've kinda been thinking about what we did that weekend too;
a lot,
' I answered
quickly. Adam's snort combined with the fact that finally, one of us had broken the silence, made me
smile and I felt my anxiety ease.

'Fuck off, Cullen! You just want to get in my pants again, you dirty bastard.'

I laughed, but before I could tell Adam exactly what I wanted to do to him, he was talking again.
The voices in the background were making it hard to hear Adam's voice clearly.

'Got to go and do the family thing mate. See ya tomorrow.'

Before I could answer, he'd hung up.

Tomorrow, we'd have a place of our own with doors I could lock. The idea of getting into Adam's
pants made my cock throb. With a swift glance around to ensure Mum or Dad weren't near, I fumbled at
my zip, rushing to get my cock out. Within seconds, my hand was a blur. Memories from our one night
together egged me on. His sighs, his moans and his groans stimulated my mind as the friction on my
cock set off the inevitable slide toward orgasm. Remembering Adam's cries of completion tipped me
over the edge. As the first shot of cum arced up onto the gas tank, I heard the unmistakable sound
of my father's steady tread coming up behind me. Despite my horror, I couldn't stop. My efforts to
prevent the orgasm from continuing seemed to trigger a more intense sensation. I found myself
curling over the bike, whimpering with the intensity of the contractions and spasms as cum continued
to spurt.

Dad came to a halt beside me. I tried to shield my cum-covered hand and still-hard cock with my
body.

'Dad,' I said with a slight nod, embarrassment heating my face.

'Oh Jesus, Edward. You're worse than the bulls, mate. Every time I turn around lately, you're
flogging your log. If you'd put that much energy into fixing fences, we'd have this place bloody
perfect.'

Dad turned away, giving me some much-appreciated privacy. Quickly wiping my hand off on my jeans,
I tucked my battered and, thankfully, rapidly shrinking cock back into my jeans, its sensitivity
making me hiss.

'Sorry Dad,' I mumbled. The heat of my face told me my normally pale skin had gone a mottled
red.

Dad rubbed at his face, stretching the skin until his eyes were red and sore. 'Shit a brick,
Eddy. What would your mother say if she found you waving your wanger about?' I glanced at him out of
the corner of my eye, watching as he fisted handfuls of his hair in agitation.

'Won't happen again, Dad,' I promised.

'Yeah, yeah. Okay, Ed. Do me a favour and get yourself a woman.' I really appreciated his attempt
at humour but his use of the word
woman
made my stomach give a little jolt.

'Anyway, Mum wants you home for tea so, um, clean up the bike and head in, yeah?'

With another brief nod, I left Dad staring at the rapidly darkening view as I kick-started the
bike and idled it back toward the sheds.

****

Fastening the last tie-down on the ute, I eyed the canopy stretched tight over the
tray. It wasn't much for eighteen years of life, but as Adam's family had furnished the unit we'd be
sharing - hopefully for the next few years if Adam felt the same way about our future that I did
- I wouldn't need much.

Although I'd been eager for high school to be over, I was looking forward to the challenge of
studying at the University of Queensland to become a vet. Adam, like his dad, would study law; for
me, the idea of working inside all day made my skin crawl.

I spotted Mum standing on the veranda. Her smile was tremulous, but thankfully the tears hadn't
started yet; or rather, again.

Stepping up onto the veranda, I leaned down so she could give me a kiss. ''Bye love,' she said,
new tears streaming down her face. 'Call when you get there, yeah?'

I gave Mum a hug, briefly lifting her up in my arms before gently placing her back on her feet.
'Course, Mum. Love you. See you at Easter, yeah?'

Dad wandered up behind Mum, wrapping her in his arms as she sobbed on his shoulder. I shook the
proffered hand that he'd freed from around Mum, then raced to my ute, thankful I could escape Mum's
waterworks. You'd think I was moving to the fucking moon with all the bloody fuss she was making. I
was only going to be three hours up the coast!

Driving to Adam's was a surreal experience. These roads, and the fields they crossed, had been
the background to my life as I travelled from home to school and back again. Today, everything
seemed brighter. I wondered if I would miss the green hills, throbbing heat, heavy humidity and the
thick copses of trees choked with lantana. I'd never lived anywhere where the horizon wasn't empty.
Would I miss the space, the open sky?

An hour later, Adam and I were driving toward the Queensland border. The high cab of my ute made
it easy to keep Adam's sleek sedan in view. We'd agreed to stop at Tweed Heads for lunch, and I
followed Adam's car to a park overlooking the river. Mum had packed a picnic for us, so I tossed a
packet of sandwiches across to Adam as we walked toward a bench shaded by a banksia tree.

Before I took a bite of my sandwich, Adam piped up with, 'Did you hear that Bundy and Stick are
sharing one of the units near us?'

'No.' Thinking of our two mates, I sent up a prayer of thanks that I'd decided not to move in
with them. Their major game plan for university was getting drunk and laid as much as possible. With
the course load I'd be taking on, I'd have struggled to study in the inevitably chaotic party
atmosphere.

For the rest of the time we ate in companionable silence, watching the sluggish waters of the
Tweed River. I'd always found it easy to spend time with Adam. Unlike our other friends, he didn't
need to fill every silence with mindless chatter or constant movement. With Adam I could just
be
.

Eventually, Adam scrunched up his rubbish and lobbed it toward a bin before saying, 'Let's make
like a tree and go.'

I dutifully provided the response in an awful imitation of Biff from
Back to the Future
as
we walked back to the cars. 'It's
leave
you idiot. "Make like a tree and
leave
." You
sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.'

Adam laughed as he hopped in his car and accelerated away in a spray of gravel. Not wanting to
fall behind, I started my ute and gave chase.

****

Standing beside our parked cars as their engines ticked and cooled, I looked around
at my new home. The original, stately weatherboard - divided into two units - stood upon its
stilts with palm trees shielding its wide verandas. Parking and a utility room took up the space
underneath. The traditional quarter acre back yard held a more modern building divided into another
two, slightly smaller units. I let Adam walk ahead of me, pleased to see we'd be in one of the newer
units out back.