A Forest of Corpses (15 page)

At one point I stirred to find Alex gently wiping me down with one of the wet cloths we had packed. I mumbled as he stroked the cum off my chest and soft dick. He paused long enough to kiss me lightly before I slipped back into a deeply satisfying sleep that I didn't wake from until the strident call of jays woke me the next morning.

The space beside me was empty when I finally struggled awake. I dragged on my clothes and stumbled outside, blinking against the sudden rush of light. Alex had taken down the bear safe and breakfast, in the form of dried fruits and jerky. After taking care of business, I returned to find Alex had dismantled the tent and draped our sleeping bags and long johns over nearby tree branches to air them out.

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A Forest of Corpses

by P. A. Brown

We ate quickly and packed our gear in companionable silence. I was pleased that Jason didn't feel the need to chatter away when there really wasn't anything to say. I was content. This vacation was proving beneficial beyond anything Jason had promised when he asked for this. I was glad now that I had ignored the niggling doubts I'd had.

New energy filled me as we set out on our fourth day of hiking. My grip on my walking sticks felt surer than they had since we'd started out. I still followed Jason, though it was a position I didn't like. But he knew how to move out here. I didn't. Not liking it wasn't going to change that simple fact.

We'd be home soon enough, and things would go back to the way they should be.

One thing I didn't mind, I had a fine view of Jason's tight butt, remembering how it had felt last night and so many other nights before that. I'd never had a more enthusiastic lover. Before Jason there had been a lot of others. Not one of them stood out in my mind. There were only a handful I ever returned to for encores. I hadn't even been aware how empty my life had been until Jason stumbled into it. I still remembered the first time I had seen him, waking up in bed with a dead man he didn't know, then being arrested by my partner and me. How vulnerable he had looked. Scared. With good reason, too. He'd spent nearly two weeks in jail going through God knows what—I had never asked and he didn't volunteer—before I realized he couldn't possibly be our killer.

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Most men would never have given the cop who put them through that the time of day afterward, but Jason wasn't like that. Even then I had known there was something there I wanted to know better. Something special.

He had felt the same thing. The memory of our first date lingered even now and had the power to make my knees weak, and my cock hard.

Jason glanced back over his shoulder and the look he gave me was full of what I could only describe as joy. I couldn't help it, I smiled back. Where did he get it from? That boundless fucking optimism that allowed him to get knocked flat on his ass, get back up and bounce back. Without being bitter, or full of rage at the unfairness of it all. I always used to wonder whether I could be so good, and I knew the answer. It wasn't one to be proud of.

Ahead of me Jason stopped and brought his binoculars up, peering up into the canopy full of light and shadow. I followed his look and saw movement. Something larger than most of the birds we had seen so far. I could see his excitement through the set of his shoulders.

I came up behind him, and without speaking, let him know I was there. After a few minutes he dropped the glasses to turn glowing eyes on me.

"Did you see it?"

I nodded, then admitted ignorance and asked, "What was it?"

"Great Horned Owl. I've only seen one other before."

"Rare?"

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"No, just not urban birds. Nocturnal, too." He held up the binoculars. "Want to take a look?"

I took them and raised them to my untrained eyes. At least I had an idea where to look. And there it was, a big mottled brown lump staring balefully back at me as though it caught me looking and was not impressed. I pulled away and met Jason's quizzical look.

"Is that something else I need to watch out for? He going to come down dive-bombing me too?"

Laughing, Jason took the binoculars back. "No. Trust me hon, he's not interested in you or me."

A jay screamed nearby and Jason perked up. "Oh, look.

The jays found it."

I looked up in time to see the brown lump being attacked by a trio of angry birds that weren't even a quarter the size of the owl. It didn't take long before the bird fled the screaming jays and vanished on silent wings deeper into the forest. I didn't blame it.

"That's what they were screaming about this morning, I guess," Jason said as we resumed our hike. "Told you they were a good early warning system."

We fell into what Jason assured me was a ground-eating pace. It seemed slow to me, but he insisted it would conserve our energy—we'd cover more ground if we didn't wear ourselves out by overdoing it. So we hiked up forested hills and down into twisting valleys, dodging low branches and tangled roots. Heat built as the day lengthened, bird calls were replaced by the hum of insects. They flew around my head. I kept my mouth shut, remembering Jason's story 141

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about eating bugs. Instead they went for my eyes and nose and buzzed in my ears, ignoring me when I shook them away.

Something slithered on the path in front of me. I froze, staring at the ground, trying to see what was under the round cover. When nothing moved, I prodded the ground with my walking stick.

Then I stopped. Shit, was I actually letting fear control me? Letting a sound send shivers through me and make my heart race? I didn't back down from armed
cholos
. Was I so out of my world I was overreacting to every little thing?

My anger made me snap, "How much longer are we going to walk today?"

He stopped and faced me. His face wore a look of concern.

"Are you tired?"

"What? No! I was just wondering."

"I'd like to go another couple of hours. That okay?" he said it cautiously, as though afraid of offending me. Is that what we had come to?

I took him in my arms. "We'll go as long as you want. Just so you know," I brushed a strand of hair off his sweating brow, "I intend to fuck you hard tonight. If that's okay with you."

His smile was blinding. When he raised his face to me I kissed his open mouth, holding nothing back. His response was immediate, and left me wanting him then and there. I broke away and stroked his cheek.

"You do that again, I won't be waiting till tonight."

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He blushed and pressed his face against my chest.

"Whatever you want, Sir."

Satisfied, I put him away from me. "Two more hours, then we make camp."

"Yes, Sir."

I heard the rush of water just over an hour later. We traded looks and the same thought must have crossed our minds. I reached the first pool just after Jason. He knelt down on a flat rock and dipped his hand in the clear water.

Standing, he shook his hand and looked over his shoulder at me.

"It's not too bad."

That was good enough for me. I dropped my backpack and hat and started stripping. Jason watched me, making no move to follow suit. I was down to my skivvies; his eyes became pools of desire, almost as deep as the water I was about to enter. When I slid my fingers under the waistband he licked his lips. I stopped, my fingers brushing the smooth, wet head of my swelling cock.

"Am I doing this alone?"

He hurried to strip, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and did a cannonball into the middle of the pool. I counted to three and followed him with a yell. I came up flinging my head to clear my eyes of water and found myself staring into Jason's face, inches from mine.

Without a word I grabbed him and yanked him against me.

The water around us was cold, but he was furnace hot. I plunged my tongue down his throat, then covered his face 143

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and throat with kisses. He moaned, grabbed my ass, pulling me tight. His heart hammered against my chest.

Something crashed in the bushes behind us. We jerked apart and looked around. Nothing. The next look we shared was bemused, and a little bit pissed.

"How 'bout we wash up and get to the top," I said. "It's about time to make camp."

Like always, he obeyed. After splashing around and washing as best we could with no soap, we dressed and made our way to the top of the ravine. It took another twenty minutes to find a suitable site to pitch our tent. After looking around, Jason said we could have a fire tonight, then he went in search of firewood. I went through our packs, digging out the cooking gear and a freeze-dried beef stew, and laid out the tent for Jason to put up when he returned.

While I waited for him to come back I moved around our camp, studying the forest around us. I tried to see it through Jason's eyes. What was it about this place that he loved so much? Why did he come alive here in a world that was so alien to anything I'd ever known? From the first time we had met I had always feared another man would come between us. Had I been looking in the wrong place for my rival? Was it out here? In a world I didn't—couldn't—understand?

While I stood at the edge of the clearing something moved in the shadows. I tensed, my hand automatically drifting over to where my shoulder holster would have been if I'd been carrying my piece. It closed over air. I cursed under my breath.

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Then, like a ghost, a deer emerged from the forest and paused at the edge of our clearing. Long legs moved delicately over the short foliage, big ears swiveled around nervously. I held my breath as a second, smaller deer followed it. This one was spotted. A fawn.

The two of them moved like wraiths across the open space, freezing when there was a sound from the direction Jason had gone. Both of their narrow heads shot up. In a heartbeat the deer vanished with a flip of their long, white tails.

Seconds later, Jason was back with an armful of wood. His face lit up when he saw me, and my earlier fears faded like the ghost deer. I caught him before he reached the fire pit and took the wood away from him. After dropping it beside the earthen pit I took him in my arms.

"What's this all about?" he asked.

I pressed my erection against his belly. "You have to ask?"

"No—" he gasped when I nipped his lip, then licked it. He moaned. "Alex."

"You missed the deer," I whispered, my voice shaking with my need. "I want to fuck you."

"What about the fire—" He narrowed his eyes. "What deer?"

"Forget about them. Forget the fire, too. It can wait. I can't. I need you."

With that I wrenched his jeans open, and dropping to my knees, took him in my mouth. He cried out as I ran my tongue up his shaft, sliding over the slit, lapping up the musky fluid leaking out. Then I swallowed him, suppressing 145

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the gag reflex, reveling in the familiar taste and feel of him.

This was mine and no one else's. Something buzzed around my ear. I hoped it didn't bite me. I could tell from the sounds Jason was making that he was close to coming and I pulled off him. I wasn't done yet. I stood up and pulled him back into my embrace, wanting a lot more than having him come in my mouth, as pleasurable as that would be.

"Get that tent up, boy. I told you I'm going to fuck you and I'm not doing it out here where the damned bugs can eat my ass off."

"Yes, Sir."

I don't know if he moved faster knowing what was coming, but in no time the tent was up and the wood stacked for the fire. "Later," he said, with a soft smile.

Even so, I was in a fever by the time we crawled inside and sealed the flap behind us. We stripped fast and I pulled him down on top of me. He straddled my hips, our cocks sliding together over my stomach. Reaching between us, he wrapped his hand around both of them. Even in the dim light of the tent I could see the glazed look on his face as he massaged us, his thumb stroking the bulbous head of my cock and his. I shuddered with my need for him.

I urged him up on his knees, and at my hoarse whispers he impaled himself on my dick. He rocked on me while I pumped his cock. He was moaning now, soft sounds that turned into grunts as I drove myself into him again and again until I filled him with cum and he jerked and came in my hand.

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Sagging, he fell into my arms, covering my face with kisses. He paused with his mouth over mine and whispered,

"I love you, Sir."

Outside, an owl called a plaintive who. I rolled Jason over and kissed him before slapping his ass and pulling my jeans toward me. "Let's go build that fire. You can feed me now."

"Yes, Sir."

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147

A Forest of Corpses

by P. A. Brown

At dawn the next day I rebuilt the fire while Alex took care of his business. I got breakfast started;. freeze-dried scrambled eggs and sausages. After last night both of us had a heavy appetite. Following breakfast, we cleaned up the campsite, repacked and hit the trail again while it was still early. If we could keep the pace we had yesterday we might make twenty miles, our best day yet.

I also noticed a shift in Alex's attitude. When we had first got here, despite pretending otherwise, I knew he wasn't really happy. I think it was so alien to him that he felt out of place. I should have expected that. But I had really wanted him to love the same things I did. A ridiculous hope, I realized now. In fact, I think I always knew it had been wishful thinking on my part, but I wanted him with me anyway.

But now, now he seemed to be enjoying himself. He had even helped me get the fire going this morning and was out looking for more kindling to feed it so I could prepare our breakfast. When he came back with an armful of wood, his flannel shirt dusted with tree bark, a streak of dirt on his face, he was laughing. When I asked him why, he said, with wonder in his voice, "I think I saw a turkey. Are there really turkeys out here, or did I just hallucinate?"