continued to rub his cheek, spreading his legs wider so Ed could get a good grip on his
left ass cheek. Ed’s large hands were still sopping wet. Jonathan was wearing light olive
slacks and he hoped there wouldn’t be a wet handprint on his ass. “You should be tired by now,” Jonathan said. “You painted all morning, and before that you gave me a real
workout. My legs are actually sore right now.”
Jonathan had arrived early that morning. The minute he’d walked through the
door Ed had kissed him, pulled down his pants and fucked him over the piano bench.
They’d both been tested for HIV/AIDS by then, and both tests had returned negative.
And now that Ed knew he could fuck him raw without worrying, he took advantage of
every opportunity.
“You didn’t complain while I was doing it to you,” Ed said, squeezing his ass
tighter. “I would have stopped if you’d asked.” His voice was low and deep. “Besides, I
wanted to give you something to think about when you’re with this friend of yours later
today. This so-called
straight
guy who you had sex with in college.”
Jonathan had told him almost everything about Joel, from the casual sex they’d
shared in the dorms to the fact that they’d always remained good friends. “He
is
straight,”
Jonathan said. “He’s been married so many times I lost track. And I can’t even keep up
with the list of women he dates. Trust me, Joel likes pussy. He’s a pussy
hound
.”
Ed grabbed his ass and pressed his middle finger into the center. “I’ll bet he liked
this, too.”
“He did,” Jonathan said, “but that hasn’t happened in years, and it’s not going to
ever happen again. So let’s just stop talking about it. Joel is nothing more than a very
good friend now.” He was beginning to wonder about whether or not he should have
mentioned anything about his past with Joel. He could have said they’d just been college
buddies and left it at that. He didn’t tell Ed all the details about his own sex life in college,
and how he’d taken on groups of drunken football players. He wasn’t ashamed of his past; he’d enjoyed the men he’d been with. But some details about the past were not meant to
be discussed, and he wouldn’t have asked Ed to discuss his past sex life in detail either.
He didn’t want to know.
“Is Joel good looking?” Ed asked.
The paint was off his face, but Jonathan continued to rub with gentle strokes. He
leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. It was a soft, wet kiss; his lips puffed out
and touched him lightly. He didn’t want to talk about Joel anymore. When he inserted his
tongue and pressed it against Ed’s he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
No man—not Joel or anyone else—had ever been able to make him feel the way
Ed made him feel.
Then the front door slammed shut and Lisa shouted, “Is anyone home?”
Jonathan stepped back fast and Ed turned to the sink. Ed leaned forward and
pressed his body against the cabinet and said, “We’re in the kitchen.” He had to hide his
erection. He wasn’t wearing underwear and he’d pitched a full tent in the camouflage
shorts.
* * * *
But fifteen minutes later, when Jonathan was driving the two of them in the SUV
to Market Street, Lisa said, “I noticed something strange back at the house. Maybe I
shouldn’t mention it, but I’m curious.”
Jonathan was driving, and they were heading over to The Flat Iron Building so he
could order Sees Candies and have them sent as Christmas gifts to friends back in New
York. “What did you notice?” he asked. Had she seen Ed’s erection? Maybe she’d seen them kissing. He felt a lump in his throat and he swallowed back hard.
He
didn’t care if
she knew, but Ed would be furious.
She adjusted her seat belt and turned to face him. “Well,” she said, “when we
were walking out of the kitchen, I saw a wet handprint on the back of your pants. And Ed
was standing there with wet hands. I was just wondering how you got a wet handprint on
the middle of your butt.” She sounded casual and relaxed, but she was leaning forward on
the edge of the seat, with her elbow on the center console and her chin in her palm.
Jonathan smiled. “Would you believe me if I said I backed into Ed’s hand by
mistake?”
She shook her head and said, “No.”
“Would you believe me if I said that Ed was trying to kill a bug and he slapped
me there without thinking first?” He gave her an innocent look and added, “A really big
bug.”
“Ah no, I wouldn’t. I’m not a fucking idiot, Jonathan.”
He clicked the turn signal and pulled to the side of the road. Then he looked her in
the eyes and asked, “What would you believe?”
“C’mon, Jonathan,” she said. “Give me some credit. I’m a woman. I’ve seen the
way you two look at each other. At first I thought I was reading too much into it, but last
week I stopped by the house on my way to pick Noah up from school and I saw Ed
nailing you to the garage wall. I ran back to the car so fast, I almost broke a heel.”
Jonathan squinted and made a face. He thought he’d heard a car door slam that
afternoon, but he and Ed had just found out about the AIDS tests and Ed had been so
eager to get into his pants that Jonathan could barely concentrate on anything else around them. Ed had practically grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out to the garage,
and all he’d wanted to do was spread his legs and close his eyes. Ed had been planning
this—he had lube in his pocket and a full erection between his legs. He’d pushed him up
against the garage wall, yanked down his pants, and shoved his erection into his body so
fast Jonathan thought he’d lost his hearing. It had been their first time without a condom,
and it was just as romantic for Jonathan as if he’d thrown him down on a bed of roses. Ed
had filled him with such a full load he’d had to go back to the hotel to shower and change
his pants afterward.
Lisa smiled. “So, what’s going on?”
He sighed. “I’m not totally sure,” he said. What else could he say? He wasn’t
going to get into the details about how they’d been screwing around since the first day
they’d met, or how many times they did it on any given day. So he smiled and placed his
hands on his lap. “We’re fond of each other.”
She pushed his shoulder and laughed. “You’re
fond
of each other? Ed drools
when you walk by, and you stare at him as if he’s a Greek god, and you call that ‘fond’?”
Jonathan pressed his lips together and thought for a moment, then he faced her
and said, “We really don’t know what we’re doing. Seriously. Ed isn’t ready for a
commitment, and I still have Mike back in New York.”
“Give me a break,” she said. Her New York accent grew stronger and she pointed
her finger in his face. “Don’t pay attention to what Ed says he’s ready for or what he’s
not ready for. I love him, but sometimes he can be a real idiot. I’ve known him for a long
time, and I knew how happy he was with Jake. I also saw his life crumble when Jake was
killed. But since you’ve been around, it’s like a huge void has been filled again. He’s almost back to normal. I feel like I’ve finally got my best friend back and I don’t want to
lose him again.”
Then she softened her voice and reached out for Jonathan’s hand. “And, frankly,
from what I saw last week in the garage when Ed had you pinned to the wall, he’s filling
a huge void in
your
life, too.”
Jonathan’s eyebrows went up and he blushed. “I can’t believe you just said that.
That’s just wrong.” But she was right. Ed was filling a void in his life he never thought
could be completely filled, and he wasn’t thinking about sex.
She shrugged. “Does Mike make you feel like Ed makes you feel? Because
whenever you talk about Mike, which isn’t often, I don’t even see a sparkle in your
eyes.”
He sighed again. He didn’t want to discuss Mike. “Do me a favor, Lisa? Don’t let
Ed know we talked about this. It would freak him out. And he’s really worried about
Noah. He wants to keep his life stable.”
She laughed and waved her hand. “Don’t worry about me. I know how to handle
Ed. And as far as Noah is concerned, you’ve been the best thing for him, too.”
After that, they went shopping. They parked and set off in opposite directions
because they both had long lists and wanted to do as much shopping that afternoon as
possible. Jonathan was spending Christmas in San Francisco. When Noah found out the
only family Jonathan had left back East were cousins in upstate New York, he practically
begged him to stay and spend Christmas with them. So he had to shop for Noah, Lisa,
and Ed. On top of that, he had to buy something for each crew member and a few of the
other people he’d met in San Francisco. When they finally met up again late that afternoon, he and Lisa filled the back of his SUV with so many bags and packages, he
could barely see out the back window. He had to get out and move some of them to the
back seat.
When they were in the car, Lisa said, “I’m exhausted. Did you get everything you
need?”
“I think so,” he said, starting the car, “I’ll go over my list later, but I think I’m
finished. And I was really good, too. There was this first edition of
How the Grinch Stole
Christmas
in Gumps, and I didn’t buy it for myself.”
“Why not?”
“It was too expensive and too self-indulgent even for me,” he said. “And trust me,
I know how to spend money.”
He’d spent more money on Ed than he’d planned to spend. He bought him an
expensive black leather sport jacket and a bottle of sexy, spicy cologne. And in a small
box, hidden beneath a sweater he’d bought for Lisa, there was another gift for Ed: a sex
toy he’d found in an erotic boutique that he hadn’t been able to resist. He would give
that
gift to Ed when no one was around, and he would wait to see the expression on Ed’s face
when he opened the box.
When they drove to the airport, Joel was already waiting outside the terminal with
his bags. He was wearing a black jacket, a white T-shirt, and low-rise jeans. His face was
tan and his blond hair was windblown. He looked more like he’d just come off a cruise
ship than an airplane. Jonathan pointed and said, “There he is.”
Lisa’s mouth fell open and she said, “That’s Joel? The college friend with all the
money?” “Yes.”
“You never said he was so damn hot, Jonathan,” she said. “The guy is gorgeous.”
Lisa didn’t know anything about Jonathan’s past sexual experiences with Joel.
She knew he’d been married and divorced a few times, that he traveled extensively for
work, and that he was based in New York. “I never think of him that way,” he said, “but
you’re right. He is gorgeous.”
He pulled up to the curb and got out to help him with his bags. Joel gave him a
tight hug and looked over his shoulder. When he saw Lisa sitting in the front seat, he
asked. “Who’s that in the car?”
Jonathan stepped back and said, “It’s my friend, Lisa. She’s Ed’s best friend. Ed
is the guy who owns the house where we’re filming the show. Lisa is from New York,
and she’s out here helping Ed with his son while the house is being renovated.”
Joel smiled. “Well, then,” he said, “let’s go meet Lisa.” Then he rubbed his hands
together, smiled, and went to her window without waiting for Jonathan to make a formal
introduction. When it came to attractive women, Joel had never been shy.
While Joel smiled and flirted with Lisa, Jonathan tried to arrange his bags in the
back seat. But they were so large there wasn’t any room for Joel to sit down. When
Jonathan mentioned the problem, Lisa turned and said, “I guess that means we’ll all have
to sit up front, then. I don’t mind sharing my seat for a few minutes.”
Joel opened the passenger door and said, “That’s fine with me.”
Jonathan looked up at the sky and shook his head, then he closed the back door
and crossed back to the driver’s side so he could take Joel to his hotel.
Chapter Ten
They put up the Christmas tree at the far end of the living room, beside the piano
in front of a window that faced the street. Tucker wouldn’t stop sniffing it. The poor thing
could never seem to understand why they brought a real tree into the house every year. It
was nine feet tall and Ed had to secure it to the window sill with an eye hook and a thin
cord to keep it from toppling over. He carried in boxes of ornaments and lights from the
