STORY EXCERPT

Slade wearily got up again when he realized he hadn’t yet fed his tropical fish today. But as he fed them, he kept wondering, just what was Tanner’s story?

He didn’t find out immediately on Tuesday, either. He and Tanner connected at the coffee shop. They had no difficulty recognizing each other and grabbed a table in the garden out back since the spring weather was just perfect, neither too warm nor too chilly. Sensing Tanner’s reticence to open up, Slade backgrounded the younger man on Roger’s death, Slade’s deep mourning and subsequent piling-on of work to keep his mind occupied, and his starting the mobile DJ business as a further attempt to keep busy.

“The money is nice, but that’s not why I do it. I mean, I’m not rich, but the radio business earns a comfortable enough living, especially given that I’m not living high on the hog. I wouldn’t have to DJ at birthdays and weddings and sweet sixteens and anniversaries and stuff. At least, not for the money I wouldn’t have to. But I had to keep my mind occupied. I did it to stuff my grief away. I wasn’t dealing too well. Can you understand that? Have you ever had a partner die on you?”

Tanner took a deep breath and seemed to be considering his words carefully. “I can understand it, but no, I’ve never been in that position.”

“How did your last relationship end?” Slade finally asked him bluntly.

“Divorce.” Tanner seemed to be studying Slade’s face for a reaction.

Slade was confused. “Divorce? What were you—married in Massachusetts or one of the other states that allows gay marriage?”

“No. I was married to a woman.” He said it so quietly that Slade had trouble hearing him.

“A woman? What happened? She found out you were gay?”

“No.” He said it just as quietly. “I found out.”

“You mean—you were married to a woman, and you just recently realized you were gay?”

Tanner nodded solemnly while holding Slade’s steady gaze.

“Then have you ever…?” Slade let the question hang in the air.

“Been with a man? No. You’ll be—I mean, if you and I hit it off—you’ll be my first.” Now the words came out in a torrent. “That’s why I needed the help of the dating service. I don’t have good gaydar. Even in a gay-friendly town like Surfspray, there are plenty of straights, and I don’t want to come on to the wrong person and get a black eye. I don’t know how to approach a man, anyhow. I wasn’t even that good at approaching women. When I met Roz—that’s my ex-wife—she came on to me. I’m even clumsier with men. Or would be if I tried,” he added.

“I guess I suspected I was gay for some time before I really admitted it to myself. I knew I got turned on by certain men. I got erections over guys and not girls in movies and stuff. But I still managed to have a sexual relationship with my wife. We didn’t have the most active sex life in the world, but we did—you know—get together in bed sometimes. We even had a child together. My daughter, Amy. She’s three now. She’s the light of my life. I absolutely adore her. Roz and Amy live over in the next county. I used to live there, too. I came to Surfspray seven months ago and bought Bella Cucina Catering from its previous owner. That and the house I live in. That was his, too. It’s just a half-hour drive to go pick up my little girl every other weekend. That’s not bad.

“Roz still isn’t reconciled to the divorce. I told her why I was leaving her. Once I faced my gayness myself, I was honest with Roz. I told her I couldn’t stay married to her. Told her I’d be living a lie. Told her I wasn’t being true to myself, and it wouldn’t be fair to her either, but she refused to accept it. She pointed to Amy as proof that I’m not gay. She said I couldn’t have gotten her pregnant if I weren’t turned on by women. She’s still trying to get me back. It won’t work, though. I know who I am now. I know who and what I am, and there’s no turning back.

“I’ve never—you know—done anything with another man, and I admit I’m still nervous about it and not quite sure I’m ready yet, but I definitely want to. I need someone who’s gentle and patient. I don’t think I can just jump into it.”

“I will admit I’m the kind of man who tends to go after what I want with decisiveness. You can’t get very far in the business I’m in—I mean radio, not disc jockeying—being wishy-washy. But I’ll try to rein in my impatience and handle you gently. On the other hand, you probably need someone who’s firm and just a little pushy to keep you from chickening out. What do you think?”

Tanner remained silent for a few minutes but seemed to be considering what Slade had said. Finally he spoke up. “You may be right.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“When you imagine yourself in bed with another man, what do you imagine doing?” Slade asked. His hand moved up from Tanner’s balls and clasped his cock, which was rigid and huge.

“I—I don’t know.”

“Come on. What do you see yourself doing? Sucking? Being sucked? Fucking? Being fucked?” Slade’s hand moved slowly up and down on the steely thickness of Tanner’s shaft. Then, while he waited for Tanner to answer him, he exhaled softly and warmly into Tanner’s ear.

“All of it,” Tanner finally answered.

“What turns you on most?”

“They all do.”

“What do you want to do now?”

There was a momentary silence before Tanner finally, hesitantly said, “What we’re doing is fine.”

Not ready yet. But Slade wasn’t one to take no for an answer that easily. He began squeezing Tanner’s cock insistently, though for the moment he left it within the confines of the shy virgin’s pants. Moving his head, he kissed his way from the ear he’d been paying attention to all the way around to Tanner’s mouth, moving in small increments and bestowing soft kisses on every eighth of an inch of skin that he traversed.

When he reached Tanner’s mouth, Slade kissed him fiercely but immediately let up on the pressure, keeping his lips glued against Tanner’s, but at the same time keeping the kiss light. Then he slithered his tongue between Tanner’s lips and probed his way into the moist recesses of Tanner’s mouth. Tanner’s teeth were already parted a little, but a little was all Slade needed to make his way inside.

His tongue explored the unfamiliar interior of the young gay virgin’s mouth. Tangling with Tanner’s tongue and dancing across the ridged contours of the roof of his mouth, Slade’s serpentine tongue probed into every recess and then began rapidly darting in and out. Slade was emulating what his cock wished to do to Tanner’s mouth or even his ass. He tongue-fucked Tanner’s mouth, stretching to gain access to the farthest reaches. In and out his tongue moved, pulsing inward and retreating, pulsing inward again and retreating again.

Finally Tanner began to respond. Cautiously, his mouth began to suck at Slade’s tongue. Then, as Slade’s tongue continued to dance in and out of his mouth, Tanner’s tongue began to tryst with it, to entangle it, to probe at it and toy with it.

Progress! Slade was overjoyed.

Now that Tanner was finally reciprocating Slade’s advances, Slade cautiously snicked down Tanner’s zipper and tried to extricate his cock from his fly. That cock was so engorged and so stiff, however, that he could not pull it free from its confines. At last Slade unsnapped the snap that sat above the zipper. Fortunately, Tanner wasn’t wearing a belt, so although it still took some tugging and yanking, Slade was finally able to free the dick from its fabric prison. The red bikini undershorts Tanner had on did little to restrain his cock, and it was soon standing upright, nearly parallel to Tanner’s belly.

Slade knew better than to try to swoop down and immediately begin sucking. That would spook this gay cherry for sure. Instead, he rubbed his thumb across the tip of Tanner’s dick, spreading the thick, syrupy pre-cum that was emanating from the slit there. Next, he got his other fingers wet with the pre-cum and then used that fluid to lube Tanner’s dick for easier handling.

Wrapping his hand around the shaft, he began a slow, gentle, rhythmic up-and-down motion that encouraged Tanner to greater heights of excitation without inciting him to climax. As Tanner got into what Slade was doing, he began to groan with his rising fever and then, finally, to hunch his hips up and down in coital thrusts. He was still sitting on the couch, so his range of motion was limited, but clearly he was no longer able to sit motionless and quiescent.

Slade took that as his cue to move the action up a notch. Bending his head to Tanner’s dick, Slade extended his tongue and laved Tanner’s corona with the raspiest part of that tongue. From the crown, he moved down, licking the vein-ringed stalk and describing circles all around it.

Now he inserted his hand into the open fly and lightly grasped his new lover’s balls, gently squeezing the sac and adding new thrills to Tanner’s pleasure. Bet your wife never did that for you. And still, he was licking, licking, determinedly licking.