“Oh, fuck me,” Chad said. Then he lifted his hand, gave Carson the middle finger, and
shouted, “You’re a big man, Carson, waving that gun around like that. What are you gonna do
now, kill us all?”
“Oh, this is rich,” Leyland said. His face had turned a pale shade of grayish white by then.
“I’m supposed to be working on a project for school, at home in my quiet suburban New Jersey
neighborhood, and I’m being chased by Carson the pimp through midtown Manhattan.”
The light changed and Ricky smiled. He’d never felt this strong or confident in his life.
He heart raced with excitement; he clenched his jaw and focused on the road. He knew the
Porsche could leave the huge SUV in the dust. He looked back and Leyland and said, “I can take
him. I know it can.” Then he hit the gas, sped through the red light, and headed toward the West
Side Highway.
Carson the pimp followed them, through side streets, back alleys, and down main venues.
Because they were in Manhattan Ricky had to play it safe so he wouldn’t hit any pedestrians or
slam into any other vehicles. But he knew how to maneuver the Porsche well. When he made a
fast right into a dark alley and the SUV followed him, Ricky kept the car steady and balanced
while the SUV banged into buildings and trash cans. At the end of the alley, Ricky slipped
between a taxi and a bus and made a hard left onto Eighth Avenue.
“I’m going to puke,” Leyland said. Ricky ignored Leyland. His goal was to reach the Lincoln Tunnel, but he had to lose
Carson first, so he took Carson in a few more circles, turning down narrow one way streets and
ducking into alleyways, until he finally lost him two blocks away from the tunnel. It happened at
the end of an alley. Ricky was way ahead by then. He turned right, pulled between a bus and a
truck, and switched off his headlights. When he looked into the rearview mirror, he saw the
black SUV turn left and continue in the opposite direction. When Ricky finally knew it was safe,
he put the car in gear and headed toward the tunnel.
He drove slowly now, moving through the streets with the rest of the traffic as if nothing
unusual had happened. He even turned and smiled at Chad. He looked into his eyes and asked,
“Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” Chad said. He returned the smile and placed his palm on top of Chad’s hand.
“I like the way you drive. You always seem to surprise me, Ricky. You shocked me last night
more than once, and I can’t believe what you just did.”
Ricky shrugged. He liked the way Chad’s hand felt against his. “It was nothing.”
Leyland sat back in his seat and rolled his eyes. “Fuck you both.” He was drenched in
perspiration and the thick brown hair that framed his forehead had formed tiny little ringlets.
Chapter Eight
Before they left Manhattan, Chad asked Ricky if they could make one quick stop. Now
that Carson was after him, Chad couldn’t go back his apartment and stay there for any length of
time. It was too dangerous and Carson couldn’t be trusted. But Chad said he couldn’t leave his
pet Sparky there all alone either. So Ricky took a deep breath and drove downtown to a small
narrow brick building on the west side. He figured Sparky was either a cat or a dog, and he
couldn’t refuse Chad anything even if he’d wanted to. Chad jumped out of the car and said he’d
only be a minute while Ricky and Leyland waited at the curb in a fire zone.
“I can’t believe what just happened,” Leyland said. He looked around and raised his arms.
Ricky smiled. He couldn’t believe it either. “What do you think of Chad?”
Leyland sighed and shook his head. “Let’s just say that after seeing Chad in person, I can
understand why we’re sitting here waiting for him. You don’t run into guys like him every day,
that’s for sure.”
“No you don’t,” Ricky said, remembering a few of the things he’d done with Chad the
night before. He’d always thought having a man of his own would be a novelty. And now he
realized it was more like a dream come true. Because while Chad was getting Sparky, all Ricky
could think about was how he was going to get back into Chad’s beige pants later that night.
When he imagined Chad’s dick in his mouth, he looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.
“I wonder what kind of dog Sparky is,” Leyland said. “I hope he’s not too big. It’s tight
back here.”
Ricky shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. He didn’t mention a pet last night.” They found out soon enough that Sparky wasn’t a dog or a cat. When Chad came loping
out of the building carrying a rectangular box covered with a black cloth, Ricky and Leyland
gave each other looks. When he pushed the front seat forward so he could hand the cloth-covered
box to Leyland, he only said, “Try not to let him tip sideways. Keep him straight and balanced.”
Leyland took the box and said, “What the fuck is this? It feels like an aquarium.”
Chad slumped down in his seat and closed the car door. “It is an aquarium,” he said. “It’s
where Sparky lives.”
Ricky blinked.
Leyland’s eyes grew wide and his head went back. “This had better not be a snake. I
don’t like snakes, Chad.” He tapped the back of Ricky seat. With panic in his voice he said, “It
had better not be a snake.”
“Relax, dude,” Chad said. “Sparky is an iguana, not a snake. And he’s still young so he’s
not very large. He’s totally harmless and very friendly.”
Leyland lifted the dark fabric and peeked inside to see what was living in the aquarium
on his lap. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “This night is getting weirder all the time.”
After that, Ricky left New York and headed back to his house in New Jersey. On the way,
they stopped off at a large pet store so Chad could pick up a few grasshoppers and crickets for
Sparky’s dinner. Leyland waited inside the car with Sparky while Ricky and Chad went into the
store. Ricky just stood there in amazement, watching as the pet store clerk scooped crickets and
grasshoppers out of aquariums and placed them in large clear plastic bags. At the cash register,
Ricky offered to pay. But Chad reached out, held his wrist, and said, “I’ll pay for them myself.
But thanks, buddy.” Then they all headed back to the subdivision and dropped Leyland off at his door.
Leyland practically ran from the car all the way up his front walk. When he reached his door, he
turned, waved, and told Ricky he’d pick him up for school in the morning. Ricky smiled and
waved back, then drove to his house with Chad’s hand on his knee the entire time.
They didn’t even bother putting the Porsche inside the garage that night. Before Ricky
had a chance to switch off the headlights, Chad’s arms were around him and he was kissing
Ricky’s neck. Chad told Ricky he liked the way he smelled. He said Ricky reminded him of
cedar chips and hot chocolate and apologized if that sounded silly. They kissed long enough to
fog up the windows and loosen Ricky’s pants. Then Chad suggested they go inside so Sparky
wouldn’t freeze to death. While Chad’s tongue explored Ricky’s ear, he told Ricky that Sparky
needed to be kept at a certain temperature at all times and he had a heated rock inside the
aquarium that had to be plugged into an outlet.
Ricky pulled up his zipper and carried the two bags of bugs. Chad carried the aquarium
inside and placed it on the kitchen island. He didn’t even pull the cover off. He just tossed a few
bugs inside, plugged the heated rock into an outlet, and said goodnight to Sparky. Then he turned
and walked to where Ricky was standing beside the kitchen table and placed his hands on
Ricky’s hips. He pulled Ricky closer and kissed his forehead. “Let’s go upstairs now,” he said,
with the same low voice that had made Ricky’s knees weak the first time they’d been together.
Chad kept his hand firmly planted to the small of Ricky’s back, guiding him gently
through the front hall, up the stairs, and all the way into Ricky’s bedroom, until they reached
Ricky’s bed. Then Chad stepped back and started to remove his clothes while Ricky stood there
watching. Chad reminded Ricky of a movie star in clothes and a porn star naked. Ricky’s lips
parted when Chad unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it onto a chair, exposing his round chest muscles and elevated abs. He pressed his palm to his chest when Chad removed his shoes, socks,
and slacks. By the time he was down to his briefs and Ricky saw his erection poking through the
fabric, Ricky couldn’t control his urges. So he went down on his knees and buried his face
between Chad’s legs and inhaled as deeply as he could. He still smelled damp and tweedy, only
stronger now.
While Ricky kissed, licked, and rubbed his face up and down between Chad’s legs, Chad
took the back of Ricky’s head in both hands and guided him gently. Chad spread his legs and
leaned back. He closed his eyes and whispered, “I don’t know what it is, Ricky. But there’s
something about you that makes me hard as a fucking rock. I’m gonna start calling you V for
short when we’re alone together. I haven’t felt like this since I was sixteen.”
Ricky looked up and gazed at him with large, innocent eyes. “V?”
Chad nodded. “V, for Viagra,” he said. “I told you the last time, remember? You know
how to get me hard without even trying.”
“But you’re young,” Ricky said. “Why would you even need Viagra?” Ricky knew his
father took Viagra. He’d seen the bottle of blue pills in his parents’ medicine cabinet. But Chad
wasn’t much older than Ricky. A guy his age shouldn’t have needed anything to maintain an
erection.
Chad frowned and said, “You’d be surprised how many times I’ve had to take Viagra. In
my line of work an erection is everything and I have to perform whether I feel like it or not. All
the guys I know take it. Age doesn’t matter. If a guy isn’t turned on and he’s not excited about
who he’s with, it’s just not going to work. But with Viagra there aren’t any problems. It’s made
my life a lot easier.” Though Ricky hated to think about Chad with other men, he wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t
looking at this situation with an unrealistic viewpoint. Chad was a prostitute and it was as simple
and as complicated as that. But he wanted to make sure Chad wasn’t faking it with him, so he
lowered his eyebrows and said, “But you’re not taking Viagra now.”
Chad laughed. “No way, Ricky. I don’t need it with you. You are my Viagra.”
Then Chad guided Ricky up to a standing position so he could undress him. His large,
strong hands worked gently to remove everything Ricky was wearing. He even squatted down
and pulled Ricky’s socks off, massaging each foot. Though Ricky enjoyed this attention, and
Chad’s competent hands made him feel warm and secure all over, he couldn’t wait for Chad to
lower him to the bed, lift his legs up high, and enter him again. He was a beginner; like most gay
men who had missed a good deal of their teenage years, he had to work hard to control all those
pent-up urges he’d been experiencing since the onset of puberty.
But Chad had different plans that night. He reached down and rubbed his hands up and
down Ricky’s bare ass and smiled. “You’re going to bottom from the top tonight.”
“Huh?”
Chad laughed. “Just follow my lead, Ricky.” Then he went down on the bed, flat on his
back, and threw his hands behind his head.
When Chad did this, Ricky licked his lips and climbed onto the lower half of the bed.
Being naked with a man like Chad made his heart race and his body shiver. Ricky even felt like a
porn star in the many porn films he’d watched on the Internet. He knew Chad was watching
everything he did. So he leaned forward slowly, spread his legs wide, and arched his back so his
bare ass would be high in the air. His goal was to be gentle with Chad, like a sinewy alley cat
slithering around a dark alley searching for a mouse. When he was in position and his legs were as far apart as they would go, he placed one hand on Chad’s firm thigh and reached for Chad’s
dick with the other. He wrapped his fingers around Chad’s shaft, made a loose fist, and started
sucking the head of Chad’s erection. Then he started jacking Chad off while he sucked. His face
went up and down, with the top of his fist pressed to his lips, jacking and sucking until Chad
began to moan and grunt aloud.
Chad’s legs wiggled and his pelvis bucked. Though he wasn’t obnoxious, Ricky heard
him murmuring things like, “Oh yeah. That’s good. I like that, baby.” At one point, while Ricky
was sucking pre-come, Chad placed both hands on the back of Ricky’s head and whispered,
“Nobody ever sucked my dick as good as you are doing it right now.”
