Chase of a Lifetime (8 page)

After the clerk handed Len a key to the
room, Len set his palm on the small of Jim’s back. As they turned to leave, the
clerk smiled and said, “Can I get someone to help with you
boys
with your luggage?”

Jim knew the little cunt had asked this on
purpose. It was as if the clerk could sense this was a booty call; he knew they
didn’t have luggage. He was trying to make them feel awkward. So Jim stopped,
looked back over his shoulder, and said, “We don’t need help. We sleep in the
nude, thank you. And, just for the record,
lady
,
we’re not boys we’re
men
.” He
felt like double-snapping, but thought that would over the top.

Len smiled and applied a little pressure to
the small of his back. He guided Jim to the elevator and didn’t say a word
until he pushed the elevator button. He glanced at Jim and said, “You surprised
me. I thought you were going to bitch slap that nasty little clerk right in
front of me. I’ve underestimated you.”

Jim shrugged and took a deep breath. Though
he was still nervous about going up to the room with his best friend’s dad, he
felt good about what had just happened. He smiled and said. “I almost did bitch
slap him. It would have taught the little asshole a good lesson about the
meaning of discretion. He works in a goddamn hotel.”

In the elevator, there were a few people on
their way up to higher floors. But Jim didn’t look at them. He kept his hands
buried in his pockets and stared down at his shoes the entire time. Len’s hand
went down and he rested it on Jim’s bottom a few times when no one was looking.
The first time it happened Jim lurched and grabbed a bar to his left. Len
laughed and didn’t say anything. The second time it happened they were alone.
This time Jim stood still and he let Len squeeze him a few times. He couldn’t
deny it made him feel wanted and needed, in a way he’d never experienced
before.

When the elevator came to a halt on the
sixth floor and the doors opened wide, two older men were standing outside
waiting to board. They glanced at Jim and Len and smiled. Jim figured they were
there for the gay weekend event. The taller of the two set his palm on the
shorter guy’s back and guided him into the elevator the same way Len guided Jim
into the hallway. Len and the two guys exchanged smiles, while Jim walked
forward without turning or blinking.

The room turned out to be less than either
of them had expected. The view looked out to the brick building next door, the
bed pressed to the wall in such a way you had to turn sideways to squeeze by,
and the bathroom was nothing more than a beige tiled closet with a toilet, a
sink, and a shower.

Len switched on the lights and tossed his
keys on the small dresser. “I guess this was the best they had. I’m sorry. I
wanted it to be nicer for you.”

Jim shrugged. He turned off the lights.
“It’s not that bad. It’s not like we’re moving in here.” He wondered how long
they would be there. Did people have sex for hours? Did it last all night?
Would Len just fuck him like he’d seen in porn films and then go back down to
his car?

Len crossed to where Jim stood beside the
bed. He put his arms around him, leaned forward, and took in the scent of Jim’s
hair. Jim’s legs felt shaky; his mouth felt dry again. But he was determined to
go through with this no matter what. With one quick move, he grabbed the back
of Len’s head and pulled it toward his face. He kissed him so hard their teeth
smacked together. Then he stepped back, took a deep breath, and said, “Okay. I
guess we’d better get undressed now.” He wanted to turn off the lights, but
didn’t want to sound inexperienced.

Len caressed the side of Jim’s face and
laughed. “I know you’re a little nervous. It’s going to be okay. I’d never do
anything to harm you, Jim.”

He’d always imagined his first time would be
with someone his age, and with someone like Cain Mayfield, not Len Mayfield. Jim
turned to face the wall. “I know that. I’m not nervous. It’s just a little
awkward because you’re so much older.” He regretted saying this this the moment
the words exited his mouth. He didn’t want Len to think he wasn’t attracted to
him or that Len’s age mattered to him in a physical sense. He figured he’d
better keep his mouth shut from then on so he wouldn’t say anything else that
was stupid.

Len shrugged, as if he didn’t know what to
say. “I’m thirty-seven.”

Jim’s head went up. “You’re only
thirty-seven. I thought you were my dad’s age, forty-nine. Cain and I are the
same age.” He tilted his head and said, “You’re not
that
old.” He felt like kicking himself. He should have stopped
when he was ahead.

Len laughed. “I was confused as a teenager.
In those days it was even worse for men like me. I thought that if I fought my
attraction to men and dated girls I’d eventually grow out of it. I actually
once thought being attracted to men was a stage I was going through. I wound up
getting my wife pregnant when we were both sixteen. That’s how we wound up in
Texas
and how I became a
fake cowboy. Our families moved us here to live with friends because they
didn’t want anyone back east to know I’d knocked her up, so to speak. We liked
it so much we never left. And, on a certain level, I think we both resented
them sending us down here. We actually remained here to prove a point. If they
were going to shun us, we’d shun them right back…forever.”

At least this explained why Len looked so
much younger than Jim’s father. Though thirty-seven was still ancient to
someone who was twenty-one, it made Jim
 
breathe a little easier knowing Len was sixteen
years his senior instead of twenty-six years. “You look like you’re even
younger than that.”

Len smiled. “Thank you. That’s the nicest
compliment anyone has paid me in years. Trying to recapture what I lost all those
years isn’t easy. It’s not really possible. A happy ending is the chase of a
lifetime for men like us. Few ever really get one.”

“Are you out of the closet?” He wasn’t
trying to pry into Len’s personal affairs. He wasn’t out of the closet and he
was wondering if they had this in common.

“Only with my wife,” Len said. “No one else
knows about me except you. I don’t see other men unless I’m out of town. I
promised my wife that as long as we remain married I wouldn’t embarrass her.”
He laughed. “But that was a while ago. Lately, with this tennis instructor
she’s been seeing,
she’s
starting to
embarrass me.”

“I’m sorry,” Jim said. He didn’t know what
else to say. “I’m sure she’s not doing it on purpose.” Now that he’d heard
this, he didn’t feel so awful about sleeping with Mrs. Mayfield’s husband.

“I’m not mad,” Len said. “We have an understanding
and I support her. The only reason why we’ve pretended this long is because of
Cain. We wanted to keep things stable until he graduated from college. And,
we’ve grown comfortable with each other and I don’t think my wife minds our
situation. We rarely discuss it anymore.”

Jim had to ask the next question. “Why me?”
He just blurted this out, not thinking about it. “You could have anyone.”

“When you opened the door the night of the
graduation party my heart literally stopped. I hadn’t seen you since you were a
teenager. At first I didn’t even recognize you and I wondered who you were.
And, just so you know, I never had any strong feelings about you when you were
growing up. It wasn’t as if I was watching you and planning ways to seduce you
back then. I prefer real mean. And from what I can see now, you’re all man, Jim
Darling.”

This made Jim sigh with relief. He’d been
wondering about this but he’d been afraid to ask. He’d heard about men who were
predators and he wanted to be certain Len wasn’t one of them. He still wasn’t
certain why someone as successful and attractive as Len Mayfield would want to
be with him. But he just smiled and said, “I see.”

A minute later, Len turned and removed all
his clothes. When he was naked and his dick was almost fully erect, he walked
over to the bed and helped Jim remove his shirt. Jim was still wearing his
pants and his socks. He wasn’t sure where to look. He felt Len’s dick against
his bottom. As Len ran his hands up and down Jim’s naked torso he gulped a few
times. And when Len reached down to unzip his pants, Jim jerked forward and
said, “Maybe we should do something else. I’m starting to feel awkward about
this. I can’t stop thinking about Cain and all the people we know.”

Len took a step back. He leaned into the
dresser and grabbed his dick. “We’re two consenting adults. We’re both men. We
aren’t doing anything wrong, Jim. It took me years to realize that. I told you
I have talked to my wife about exploring my sexuality. We haven’t shared the
same room in years. We’ve worked things out in an amicable way. I’m not
cheating on her.”

“I know you said that,” Jim said. He knew this
wasn’t really cheating with some woman’s husband. Len had been clear about all
this from the beginning.

Len shrugged. “It’s all true. I took over the
guest rooms a long time ago. I hate sleeping alone so I switch rooms. My
marriage is, indeed, a marriage of convenience.”

 
 
This made Jim feel a little better. But he
still couldn’t help think of what his parents would do if they found out he was
having sex with Len Mayfield, a man who played golf with his father. “Maybe we
could go out for coffee or something and talk a little more.”

Len stared at him for a moment and said,
“You’ve never done this before, have you? I know you’re in the closet. But I
didn’t know you were a virgin.”

Jim’s head jerked back. “Well, of course
I’ve done this before. I’ve done this sort of thing many times. Many, many
times.” He didn’t see how his being a virgin mattered one way or the other. He
was so embarrassed to still be a virgin he wanted to disappear into the gray
carpet and never be seen again. Most guys his age were jaded from too much sex.

Len stood up and walked over to him. He put
his arms around him and said, “Don’t freak out on me. It’s okay. Just because
you’re a little backward doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. I
started having sex
too
young, obviously.”

For some reason, Jim took offense to this.
He jerked sideways and said, “I’m not
backward
. And there’s nothing
wrong with me. If this is what you want, let’s do it. I’m tired of playing
games.” He pushed Len; he wound up on his back in the middle of the bed. Then
Jim removed the rest of his clothes and climbed on top of him.

It didn’t take long for Len to turn Jim over
and lay him out flat on the mattress. The room seemed to grow darker; the air
conditioner vent in front of the window pushed the sheer drapery forward. When Jim
was on his back, Len spread Jim’s legs, crawled between them, and leaned
forward so they could kiss. Jim’s arms went up and he rested both palms on
Len’s shoulders. Len’s arms went beneath Jim’s and he wrapped them around Jim’s
body with such force the pressure made Jim gasp for a second. When they kissed,
every nerve ending in Jim’s body exploded. Nothing before had ever felt so
natural to him. Though Jim had experimented by kissing girls on occasion, he’d
never been kissed…or been held…by a man. Len’s lips were soft and smooth. But
his body seemed wider and sturdier than Jim had imaged a man to be. Just
touching him was an experience Jim could compare to no other. He smelled like
soap and spicy deodorant mixed with a natural masculine scent. The muscles on
his shoulders and back seemed to rise and fall each time Jim caressed him with
his fingertips.

As they kissed, Jim forgot his fears and
disappeared into a world he’d only been able to dream about before that night.
This time he didn’t think about Cain Mayfield. He didn’t fantasize about Cain
or imagine Cain getting undressed in the high school locker room. This time he
concentrated on the man he was with. Before he even realized it had happened,
his naked legs were wrapped around Len’s waist and he was running his fingers
through Len’s thick hair. He felt freer than he’d ever felt in his life. He let
down his guard and allowed a gentler side of him to surface. He squeezed Len’s
biceps and his scrotum tightened. His own erection rested flat against his
abdomen and pulsed each time Len’s tongue went into his mouth. He felt Len’s
erection pressing into his groin; Len’s testicles rubbed against the bottom of
his ass.

 
Jim
couldn’t seem to open his legs wide enough. He started to feel naughty and
submissive…willing to do whatever this big strong man wanted. They kissed and
hugged and explored each other for so long Jim lost all track of time. If he
hadn’t glanced at the clock on the hotel nightstand and seen it was after one
in the morning he wouldn’t have believed time could pass so quickly. At one
point, while they were sideways in a tight embrace, Len licked Jim’s ear and
said, “Do you want to take me in your mouth? I don’t want to push you into
anything you’re not ready for. I want this night to be the best memory you ever
have.”

Jim stretched his legs and arched his back. He
decided it was pointless to deny his virginity. He nodded yes and said, “Okay. I’ve
never done it before, but I can do that.” He knew Len was referring to a blow
job in a polite way. Everything about Len was a combination of rough and
gentle. He was a man Jim could trust.

While Jim remained on his side, Len turned
all the way around until his face was adjacent to Jim’s genitals. When he took
hold of Jim’s dick, he held it with care and wrapped his lips around the head. Jim
gaped at the huge erection that was only inches from his mouth. This is what
he’d been obsessing about since he’d been in junior high school and now he
wasn’t sure what to do with it. He decided to play it safe and mimic what Len
did, so he took Len’s shaft in his hand and wrapped his lips around the head.