Bewitched by Bella's Brother (11 page)

A few minutes later, there was the knock on his own

door, and he had a plan. Unashamedly, he put the book

down, turned off the lamp, and stretched out, bare back to the bathroom door, before he called, “Come in!”

He heard Asa’s quiet “Hmmm…” as he walked in. “Not

embarrassed about not wearing a shirt now, are we?” he said quietly as he closed the door.

“Be quiet—you’re ruining the illusion of spontaneity and seduction,” Sebastian told him, annoyed.

“You’re not wearing a shirt, Sebastian, and I want to

touch you. Consider seduction achieved.”

Sebastian turned his head then and found that Asa was

disconcertingly close, his blue-gray eyes more fierce than his mild voice had implied.

“Seduction isn’t achieved until I get laid,” he said

shortly, and Asa clamped his lips together in quiet laughter as Sebastian continued.

“And you’re a man-virgin, so I assume that’s going to

take a while, because there’s going to be that whole ‘This is a man, it feels so weird, do I really want to touch him, maybe it was just the alcohol talking, I’m not really gay, this is just a summer thing, or a rebound thing, or a my-ex-wife-was-a-skank thing blah blah blah’ bullshit, and if it’s not that there’s the whole ‘maybe I’ve been gay my whole life’

realization, and that’s always traumatic, so I figured I’d just go slow, and let you touch me, and—”

And Asa kissed him.

Open mouth to open mouth, hot, wet, tangling tongue

invading him, big, rough hands framing his face, and that Bewitched by Bella’s Brother |
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satiny, coarse curtain of hair draping them both. Sebastian made a sound of surprise, and then he saw that Asa’s eyes were closed so he closed his own, splayed his hand against Asa’s chest and fell into the kiss like a princess fell onto a swan’s down mattress.

Oh… oohhhh… oooooooooooo….

Asa tasted like dinner, and like Scotch, and like comfort and sanctuary and all of the big, warm, man-things that

Sebastian had craved pretty much most of his life. The man breathed softly through his nose when he needed air and

slanted his head like he knew how to kiss and he knew how to kiss anyone who wanted to kiss him back.

Without breaking the kiss, he put his weight on one

shoulder and turned Sebastian on his back. Sebastian

sighed and sank into the mattress, and opened his mouth a little wider. Asa grunted and pulled away, sucking on his tongue at the last. Asa pressed his forehead against

Sebastian’s, and Sebastian tried to get a hold on his own words.

“But… but….” He couldn’t even get hold of his own

breath.

“I know I’m a man-virgin,” Asa panted in response, “but

I’m almost forty years old. I do know how to get to second base.”

“Ungh…,” Sebastian managed. “Will you need help

getting to third?”

Asa’s chuckle reverberated through his chest, and

Sebastian felt it through his fingertips. “I’m pretty sure we’ll figure it out. I assume you’re willing to help, right?”

“God!” And where did his words go again? Asa didn’t

care, it seemed. He rubbed his palms over the smooth skin of Bewitched by Bella’s Brother |
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Sebastian’s chest, and Sebastian arched against him like a cat. He did it again, slowly, and then a little rougher, and then a little faster, and Sebastian made a soft keening

sound, and Asa laughed and kept rubbing him. The rough

skin of his palms caught on Sebastian’s nipples, and

Sebastian undulated his hips and moaned, and then, oh

God, too good to be true, that hand moved with certainty down to the biggest happy of happy places.

Asa lowered his head for another kiss, and while

Sebastian opened his mouth and just accepted Asa’s

invasion, that hard hand palmed his cock through his sleep shorts, and Sebastian groaned against his mouth.

“Feels like mine,” Asa mumbled. “How’s it feel when I do this?” He closed his hand and squeezed, and Sebastian

grabbed both his shoulders, muffled a long groan against his mouth, and thrust into that hard pressure convulsively. Oh, God… oh God oh God oh God oh God….

“Is that a yes?” Asa asked, and Sebastian barely

managed a “God, please…” as Asa kept stroking him through his clothes. The soft cotton of his boxer-briefs became a rough, pleasurable torture, and Sebastian’s hands were

shaking, and so were the muscles in his biceps as he

clutched Asa closer, and so were the muscles of his lower back as he thrust up against that hard-palmed, sure-handed grip. Asa
did
know what he was doing, and it occurred to Sebastian like a gray light in a cloudy brain that even

straight men played with a gay man’s favorite equipment.

The end came far more quickly than Sebastian had

anticipated, and Asa muffled his groan/scream of orgasm

with another kiss, and the inside of Sebastian’s underwear became warm and sticky as he shot. Asa’s thumb played

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with the growing wet spot on the front of Sebastian’s shorts until Sebastian managed his first word in ten minutes.

“Tender,” he hissed, grabbing Asa’s hand, and Asa

stopped immediately.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. God. Was that only second base?”

Asa smiled smugly and slid an arm under Sebastian’s

neck so that when he cuddled, from his kneeling position on the side of the bed, he
really
held on like a lover, and Sebastian was such a slut for touch at this point that he cuddled up to Asa without shame or worry.

“Yeah. I might need a little coaching through third, but we’ll save that for another night.”

Sebastian fought back a whimper; he didn’t want Asa to

leave. The snuggling was good, but he was sleepy, and

dammit, this man had just taken care of him through a

handjob of epic fantastic-ness.

He was going to say something—something shameless

and pleading—but Asa looked at him regretfully with those lovely blue-gray eyes. He planted a hard, firm kiss on

Sebastian’s lips, then disentangled himself and stood up to move toward the door.

“I’d stay for a little while, Sebastian—I would,” he said softly. “But Jordan crawled in with me last night about this time. He’ll be looking for me in a couple of minutes—I should be there.”

Sebastian wasn’t the baby in this relationship. He

should have known that. Shouldn’t he have known that?

Well, he did now. “Of course,” he said, trying to look like he really did get it and wasn’t saying that to seem like a good guy when he wasn’t. “I… I don’t have kids. I’m not used to Bewitched by Bella’s Brother |
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thinking like that….”

Asa smiled. “It takes a while. I’m sorry I have to go.”

With that he walked out, closing the door behind him,

and left Sebastian to clean up the aftermath of an

unexpected homerun.

The next day was Saturday, and they had to work. On

the way, Bella asked him when he was going to kiss her

brother. It’s a good thing she was driving, because he

probably would have hit a tree if he’d been at the wheel.

“What makes you think I’m going to kiss your brother?”

he asked, playing for time.

Bella caught her breath and looked sideways at his face

before shifting for the next curve. “Oh my God! Se
bastian
!

You already
have
!”

Sebastian didn’t say a word.

“Come on—you always spill! I mean, I’ve known you

through four guys; you always spill the beans! ‘Dishing’ is what we do!”

Sebastian looked at her unhappily. Four guys in five

years was not that many, he reflected. Bella had only had three. “It’s not what we do,” he answered quietly. “We don’t

‘dish,’ Bella. We communicate. But this is your brother. It’s not Scotty, the rebound guy from Starbucks.” Scotty was

apparently living in monogamous bliss with some hotshot

lawyer in Sacramento now.

Bella looked at him again and shook her head. “You’re

right, Sebastian. We don’t dish. But we don’t keep secrets, either. This is sounding serious, and it hasn’t even gotten serious yet. Talk to me!”

Sebastian sighed and leaned his head on the window

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again. “Bella, what does this place look like in August?”

“Same as it does now—brown. You’ve seen it on the way

to my parents.”

“Yeah. I don’t think it registered,” Sebastian muttered. “I only saw the green—you know, like it is in April.”

“It’s pretty in April.”

“Yeah. You know, August is going to be here way too

fast.”

Bella’s hand on his knee was comforting. She did

know—and apparently she understood. They were

uncharacteristically silent for the rest of the way.

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SEBASTIAN loved Bella’s parents’ house.

They had an extensive backyard, and long years of

gardening for pleasure around giant boulders and cattle wire had produced a creatively landscaped, pleasantly green

space of nearly an acre through which to chase children, play horseshoes, set up a doughboy pool, barbecue, or (on the concrete porch) play cards.

Bella’s father, Bjorn (Bjorn and Brenda Bryne…

Sebastian never got tired of saying it) liked to tinker; he’d laid out one of those misting hoses from the rafters of the porch overhang, and even though the temperature in the

foothills that day had been in the high nineties, under the porch, it was a cool eighty.

Sebastian spent a good hour or two chasing Jenna,

Jason, Jeff, Jessica, Janelle, and Jordan (he
loved
this family!) around the soft-sided pool. He splashed, he threw soft Frisbees, he gave rides around the outside edge on

floaties, and, to the tiny Janelle, who was not quite four, he
was
the floatie for most of the time.

Eventually, though, the kids were ushered out—the pool

was in the shade and had no heater—and most of them had

blue lips and fingernails, but they were still sorry to get out.

Sebastian clambered over the ladder and grabbed his towel off the cattle-wire fence that separated the backyard proper from the quarter that was sectioned off as the dog pen. Four Bewitched by Bella’s Brother |
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dogs were climbing over the granite rocks and tree roots that made their run interesting, barking with excitement. Later, when the kids weren’t quite so rambunctious, they’d be let out to play too.

“Yeah?” Sebastian called to his favorite, a yellow lab

named Killer, “You think you’re bad? Yeah? C’mon, Killer—

come get me!”

The dog looked at Sebastian with soulful eyes. Mostly,

that big yellow animal was a cuddler; the reason
he
got locked up was that when he got too excited, he’d run to

somebody
through
whomever was in his way. He was always contrite, but that didn’t help the person lying flat on his or her back and trying to suck in a lungful of wind.

Asa—who had spent most of the afternoon being grilled

politely and charmingly by his mother—wandered over,

hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt, hanging loosely over a T-shirt stretched tight across his lovely, muscular chest, and Sebastian tried to keep his starry-eyed looks to himself. The family did
not
need to see him drooling over the eldest Bryne, and the

oldest Bryne did
not
need to come out because he’d developed a crush on his houseguest.

“Jordan,” Asa called, “your clothes are inside by the

bathroom. Make sure you get changed; dinner is in a few

minutes, and I think the kids eat inside tonight.” He looked at Sebastian and shrugged. “Flies,” he explained.

“Apparently grownups can fend them off, but the kids get to eat fly-free.”

Sebastian grinned, toweling off his dark hair and

slinging the towel over his shoulders. “Excellent. Guess who eats at the kids’ table tonight!”

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Asa grinned back. “Lucky bastard. I’m stuck with the

adults, and so’s Bella. I want a do-over.”

Sebastian thought about two nights before and flushed.

Then he thought about the night before and flushed harder.

They’d simply talked quietly when Asa came in—nothing
heavy, nothing groundbreaking. But Asa had kissed him on
his way out, and if Sebastian had been standing when the
kiss had started, he wouldn’t have been when it ended.

As Asa’s hand had touched the door, though, Sebastian
had found his voice.

“Asa, what are we doing?”

Asa turned to him. “Dating,” he said decisively.

“Are you straight or gay?”

Asa rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Sebastian—where angels

fear to tread! I’m bi. I’ve always known it, okay? You keep
trying to frighten me with the fact that I’m kissing a man
goodnight. Trust me. I know.”

Asa leaned closer to him now, and when he spoke, it

was almost in the hollow of Sebastian’s ear. “What are you thinking about?”

Sebastian smiled faintly and looked away. “I’m thinking

I’d better get dressed,” he lied, and Asa lightly touched shoulders with him. He met those ocean-blue eyes almost

involuntarily, and grimaced. “This is your parents’ home, Asa. It’s one thing to be all brave in your own; but you want to keep this quiet here, trust me. Besides—when I leave in August and only come back during holidays, you can

pretend we were never a thing.”

Asa’s brows pulled in, and for the first time, Sebastian could really see their age difference. “Stop telling me how to Bewitched by Bella’s Brother |
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