STORY EXCERPT

“You’re still single?”

“Yes,” Tanner affirmed, feeling his throat tighten. Where is this heading?

“Seeing anyone in particular?”

If he answered “Yes,” he’d be subject to questions he didn’t want to answer, although if he answered “No” he felt he’d be being untrue to Rob, whom he had grown very close to. “Why do you ask?” he finally responded.

“I have a friend. She was divorced about three quarters of a year ago, and she’s finally ready to get back in the swing of things. I was thinking of introducing you to her. I think you two would do very nicely together. She’s an intelligent girl, the right age for you, with a broad range of interests but always eager to expand her horizons. She’s a fun person. You’re always so serious. She’d be a good balance for you.”

“Well, I—uh—”

“Here. Let me show you her picture.”

Before Tanner could stop her, Layla had pulled out her cell phone, clicked a few buttons, and now passed the phone over to Tanner. Displayed on the screen was a picture of a young woman who clearly enjoyed eating. Her girth was evident despite the small screen, though there was no denying her facial beauty or the warm smile she beamed at the camera.

“She’s—she’s got a lovely smile,” Tanner said, passing the phone back to Layla.

“Well, shall I give you her number, or would you rather I give her yours? These days it doesn’t have to be the man calling the woman, you know.”

“Uh—I don’t think so.”

“Are you prejudiced against fat people?” There was a sudden decidedly hard edge to Layla’s tone.

“No. Not at all.” Tanner hated being on the defensive, but that was right where his colleague had put him.

“What other reason would you have for turning her down after seeing her picture?” Layla was challenging him.

Because I’m gay, and I don’t date women! There was a part of Tanner that was longing to yell out those words. But of course, he couldn’t. That was exactly what he couldn’t do, and this was exactly the wrong place to let that information come out.

“I never go out on blind dates, or fix-ups.” It was the best he could come up with on short notice. “It’s nothing to do with your friend personally, and certainly nothing to do with her weight.” He exhaled carefully. Maybe he had dodged that bullet…?

But no. “If it’s not her weight, prove it by going out with her. You certainly have to have a reason for dodging blind dates.”

I have every reason for dodging blind dates. I just can’t tell you the truth.

“Let me give her your number here at school. Not your home number! Talk to her when she calls. See if you don’t find you like her and she strikes a chord with you. Once you’ve talked on the phone for a while, it won’t seem like a blind date. You’ll know her already. See?” Layla chirped this last bit cheerily. As for Tanner, he felt anything but cheerful.

Gritting his teeth and picking over the words he was about to say, he looked Layla in the eyes, and in measured but insistent tones, declaimed, “It would still be a fix-up, and I—don’t—do—fix-ups.” He felt his eyes blaze with righteous indignation. Why was this woman backing him into a corner? And yet at the same time, he knew that if he said, “Listen, it’s nothing personal against your friend. It’s just that she’s a woman, and I’m gay,” he could resolve the whole problem there and then. But those were words he was totally unwilling—totally unable—to say.

Layla glared at him throughout the rest of the evening, and she gave it one parting shot as they rose to leave at the end of the evening. “If you’re really not against chubby people, prove it by going out with Melissa. Just once.”

Feeling trapped, cornered, and therefore combative, Tanner snarled, “You heard what I said!” and whirled around to firmly turn his back to Layla. As he did, he stubbed his toe on the leg of the chair. It smarted, but he tried not to let the pain show in his face or in his reaction. Thrusting his chin up into the air, he marched out of the room in a quick step, eager to get away from Layla.

If only he could have just told her the truth, he thought.

He avoided telling Rob of the incident. He didn’t want to give him more ammunition to use in his own intermittent campaign. Rob didn’t bring up every day the subject of Tanner leaving the closet. Not even every week. But he did mention it more weeks than not.

They saw each other the next day, and when Rob asked, “So, how was the faculty dinner?” Tanner answered only, “Those things are never fun. But the food was the worst.” He then went into a diatribe about the awful food but made no mention of Layla’s campaign to fix him up with her friend, or her assumption that he was prejudiced against fat people.

Rob was back to a previous subject himself—their attending a dance together. But this time, the dance he had in mind was in Portersburg, not in Salt Marsh Shores.

“Welllll…all right,” Tanner finally assented. “We’ll go. I’m not much of a dancer. You may be disappointed.”

“I’ll be with you. How disappointed can I be?” was Rob’s reply.

“I’m beginning to get the idea that you like me,” teased Tanner, giving Rob’s arm a friendly pinch.

“I’m beginning to think I might actually love you,” was Rob’s unexpected reply.

Tanner stopped short in midpinch. Neither of them had mentioned love before this. He stopped a minute to consider, then carefully answered, “I might just love you, too.”

Rob kissed him long and deep then. When they finally broke for air, Tanner said, “I still think you might be disappointed in my dancing, though.”

“What makes you assume I can dance that well, either?”

“I didn’t—since I don’t dance well. But I don’t mind stumbling around the floor with you and even making an ass of myself—as long as we’re not dancing together here in Salt Marsh Shores.”

“Ah, yes. People might actually figure out you’re not what you’ve been pretending to be all these years. Pretense is a bitch to keep up, isn’t it?”

ADULT EXCERPT

Opening his mouth, Tanner eagerly approached Rob’s hard-on. As he did, Rob punched his hips forward, and his dick thrust suddenly into Tanner’s mouth. Instinctively, Tanner closed his lips and entrapped the erection, compressing his lips around the spongy dick, and began to suck. He drew Rob’s warm, living flesh as deep into his mouth as he could get it and followed the old familiar rhythms from there. Rob’s dick felt so fine to him as it pressed its way deep into Tanner’s mouth.

As his suckling lips fastened tighter around Rob’s beefy cock, Rob chuckled contentedly and said, “I thought you’d enjoy that.”

Tanner certainly did like it! As much as he enjoyed fucking and being fucked, there was no getting away from the pure pleasure inherent in sucking a nice, thick, firm erection. It had long been one of Tanner’s pleasures, and he was enjoying it right now to the utmost. He took it even deeper into his mouth, swallowing greedily, sucking harder, enjoying himself more than he could remember in a long time.

Rob began ratcheting his hips back and forth, feeding Tanner deeper and filling Tanner’s gullet with his swollen cock. As Tanner sucked ever lower, ever farther down on that bloated dick he was so enjoying the feel and the taste of, his nose approached Rob’s coarse pubes, which ringed the base of his hard-on.

Easing off his dick until just the tip remained in his mouth’s grip, Tanner slathered his tongue round and round Rob’s dickhead. His tongue probed for the recessed slit, dipping into it to taunt him time and again. Inspired, he reached for Rob’s balls and began rhythmically squeezing them the way he sometimes enjoyed having done to himself. Glancing up, Tanner saw that Rob’s eyes were half-lidded, pure pleasure painted across his features.

Smiling to himself, Tanner basked in the glow of accomplishment. He was obviously pleasing his new lover. That in turn pleased him.

He tightened his lip-lock and ratcheted up the suction a few notches. Speeding the motion of his lips, he sucked Rob faster as he sucked him harder. Rob’s dick speeded in and out of Tanner’s mouth, and Tanner’s mouth hastened up and down the length of the dick. There was nothing fancy or delicate about his sucking. He was sticking to the basics, not trying any intricate maneuvering, but his mouthwork was earnest, eager, and insistent. And Rob was obviously having one hellaciously good time.

Now, to keep things interesting, Tanner began varying his action. First he sucked on just the cockhead, so his tongue could run circles around Rob’s crown and probe his slit. Then he took as much as he could into his mouth and tried to swallow Rob clear down to his belly. Then he took a middling amount in and tried to suck with a bit more finesse, varying the suction and trying other tricks. He held the side of the cock’s shaft in his mouth and played it like a flute. He trilled his tongue up and down the underside. He tried every trick he could remember ever using before.

A few minutes more and he glanced up again—just in time to see Rob’s smile broaden as he had a new thought. “Stand up, now,” he directed.

Tanner hesitated. He didn’t want to release his lip-lock on that delicious, prime piece of dick, loving the way it filled his mouth and fulfilled his needs.

“Please.” Rob’s voice was more than just requesting—it was almost begging. Tanner didn’t want to let him down. He stood, letting go his dick, feeling terribly disappointed as the spongy erection slid out of his mouth and left it empty.

“Now bend over, grab your ankles, and spread,” Rob directed. “Bend your knees a little.” Then Tanner heard a spitting sound, and a nanosecond later, something wet made contact with his asshole. Rob’s thumb followed his spit, rubbing it well into Tanner’s rim, slipping into his asshole’s grip and tantalizing not only the nerves he was used to feeling down there but even a few he hadn’t known he had.

Suddenly the void in his mouth, which had just lost its hold on that wonderful hard cock, was nothing compared to the emptiness he felt in his asshole, which yearned to be filled with that same hard-on. Then there was another sound—a foil packet being torn open.

“You ready?” Rob asked solicitously, waiting for an answer before proceeding. He stood behind Tanner, thumped his cock against Tanner’s asshole, positioned the now-rubbered cockhead against the wrinkled opening, and pushed forward. As his cock breached Tanner’s tight entryway, Tanner’s asshole caught fire in the best of all possible ways. Warmth spread throughout him, and every single nerve in that nerve-rich passageway shouted to glorified life. Up inside, a whole phalanx of nerves greeted the welcomed invader as Rob scratched the old familiar itch.

The more Rob thrust his dick in and out of Tanner, and the more he scratched that itch, the more it itched. But it itched so good! Even as it itched more, it began to feel satisfied at the same time.

Tanner felt truly stuffed. Rob’s swollen dick spread Tanner’s inner walls and filled every inch, every centimeter, every available area inside him. It felt as if he were plunging impossibly deep, deeper than an ordinary dick could account for. Then Rob relaxed whatever minimal restraint he had been exercising, and he rabbit-fucked Tanner’s welcoming asshole with lightning-rapid, quickly darting strokes.

“Ready for me to really let you have it, dude?” he huffed as he energetically ratcheted in and out of Tanner.