Pulling Away

PULLING AWAY

…“Listen, I changed my mind. Sorry about before. I guess I was a little grumpy. Is it too late?”

“For?”

Geez, Noah was going to make him spell it out?

Charlie held up the condoms and lube he’d been holding.

“What do you suppose?”

“Oh.” Noah blinked behind his glasses, then grinned.

“Oh.”

Charlie laughed. “Yeah. So, is it too late?” Noah seized the condoms and lube and simply walked down the hallway. Charlie guessed that meant it was not too late. He pulled off his T-shirt as he followed Noah to the bedroom.

He watched Noah pull the quilt, blanket, and sheet off his sleigh bed in one swift motion. Charlie kicked off his deck shoes, all the while noticing Noah had tugged off his jeans. He licked his lips, waiting for Noah to remove his snowy white briefs. Noah made short work of it. Last, but quickly disposed of, was Noah’s shirt. Though it was true Noah wasn’t all rippled muscles, he had nicely defined pecs. Charlie’s mouth went dry.

Noah ripped open a condom package and glanced at Charlie. “Aren’t you going to finish undressing?” Charlie nodded and removed the remainder of his clothes, a strange warmth filling him when he saw the clear admiration in Noah’s gaze. He stepped closer to Noah, reached out and took off the man’s glasses, then set them on a nearby nightstand. Noah really did have pretty eyes…

ALSO BY SHAWN LANE

Sorcerer’s Lover

The Squire

PULLING AWAY

BY

SHAWN LANE

AMBER QUILL PRESS, LLC

http://www.AmberQuill.com

PULLING AWAY

AN AMBER QUILL PRESS BOOK

This book is a work of fiction.

All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Amber Quill Press, LLC

http://www.AmberQuill.com

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

Copyright © 2008 by Shawn Lane ISBN 978-1-60272-432-7

Cover Art © 2008 Trace Edward Zaber Layout and Formatting provided by: Elemental Alchemy PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For Zack and Isaac

PULLING AWAY

Noah Riggins wondered if he ought to just walk into Charlie Banks’ house or knock. He’d been standing outside the closed door for a good three to four minutes thinking about it.

He’d known Charlie practically all their lives. They’d grown up in the same neighborhood, gone to the same schools.

They hadn’t been best friends or anything. They were the kind of friends you did stuff with when your normal friends weren’t available.

In truth, Charlie had been popular when they were kids.

Good looking and athletic, he’d been a pitcher on the high school baseball team. Noah hadn’t been
unpopular
, but they’d 1

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definitely had a different set of friends.

Now, as adults, they both owned the houses they’d grown up in. Noah’s mother and stepfather had sold him the house when they retired to Arizona.

Whatever their relationship growing up had been, it had changed recently. In the five years since high school they’d both come out as gay. It had shocked the hell out of Noah when Charlie came out. He didn’t guess it had surprised anyone about himself, though.

Anyway, Noah’s relationship with Charlie had changed last weekend when they’d had, what was to Noah at any rate, mind-blowing sex. It had been fantastic. He couldn’t even remember who’d made the first move. He’d been at Charlie’s house, in the kitchen, and before he knew it, they were going at each other. And they’d had sex two times since then.

Of course, they hadn’t really talked about it, but to Noah, Charlie was sort of his boyfriend now. Wasn’t he? So should he knock or just walk in?

Noah sighed, pushed his eyeglasses back into place, and knocked on the solid oak door.

“Yeah, come in,” Charlie’s muffled voice called from within.

Noah turned the knob and entered the front hall of Charlie’s house. The house was fairly dark. Charlie didn’t turn on many lights. He could see Charlie sitting at the desk in the corner of the front room. He found a switch nearby and flicked it, illuminating the living room.

Charlie glanced at him briefly, before turning his attention 2

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back to the computer screen. “Hey, thanks, I’ve been meaning to turn that on.”

Noah clicked on a lamp nearby. “I know you like living like a mole, but I like light.”

“Hmm.”

Noah sat down on the couch next to the desk. “What are you doing?”

“Playing an online game.”

Charlie’s dark curly hair looked tangled, as though he’d been running his fingers through it while he played. His perfect, sensuous lips were turned down in a frown. Noah guessed maybe he wasn’t doing so well in the game.

He watched the man in silence for a while, just enjoying looking at him. Charlie had movie-star looks. Besides the dark curly hair, he had chocolate brown eyes framed by long, thick lashes, high sculpted cheekbones, and a long, never-broken nose. Really, if you wanted to be technical, Charlie was pretty.

Beautiful, actually. If he didn’t have a killer muscular body to go with it, he probably would have looked like a girl.

Charlie had it made, too. His parents had been well off before their accident. Their will had left him a substantial amount of money. He didn’t even have to work. He did some freelance accounting crap on the side. Because, yeah, besides being too beautiful for words, Charlie was smart, too.

Noah, on the other hand, was an average guy with an average brain who had to work hard at everything he did to succeed. He even had an average office job.

Charlie had all the luck. Unless you counted having both 3

PULLING AWAY

your parents die in a drunken driving accident, of course.

Noah squirmed with discomfort. Life wasn’t perfect for anyone.

“Why are you frowning?” Noah asked after a while. “You losing?”

“No. I was looking for someone.” Noah leaned forward. “Oh yeah? Who?”

“A gamer I sometimes play with,” Charlie said. “We’ve been instant messaging each other lately. He’s gay, too. But I don’t think he’s on right now.”

“What’s his name?”

“Sly Cat is the name he uses.” Noah watched the screen for a second. “Well, since he’s not on, why don’t you close out of that and we’ll order a pizza and watch a movie or something.” Charlie just ignored him.

Noah got up and took the yellow delivery notice out of the pocket of his jeans. “My package was delivered here while I was at work?”

“Uh, yeah,” Charlie said, glancing behind him. He pointed at a small brown box on a dining room chair. “Over there.” Noah picked it up. Inside was a butt plug he’d ordered. He wondered if he ought to mention that to Charlie. Would that take his attention away from the damn computer?

“You know what’s in this box?”

“Nope.”

Noah grinned. “A sex toy.”

Charlie just nodded and reached for a can of soda he had 4

PULLING AWAY

next to the computer.

Noah blew out a breath. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Sure, you bought a sex toy.” Charlie finally turned to look at him. “Look, Noah, I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I’m kind of tired tonight. I just want to veg in front of the computer, okay?”

Noah swallowed disappointment. All right, so Charlie had dismissed him two nights in a row. No big deal. “No problem,” he somehow managed to say.

Charlie smiled. “Thanks. Call me tomorrow.” The pathetic thing was, Noah probably would. He sort of waved, but doubted Charlie even saw it because he’d gone back to the damn online game. Noah was really starting to hate that thing.

It was only just after six, but being December it was already dark outside. Not that Noah was afraid of the neighborhood or anything. Having lived in this particular Los Angeles suburb for so many years, he knew it was safe. But it was also unusually chilly, so he ran to the house across the street and two doors down from Charlie’s.

He threw the butt plug package on the couch, no longer interested. What he was, though, was hungry. He headed for his freezer in the hopes some frozen dinner might actually look appealing.

* * *

But with himself mostly. Sly Cat hadn’t shown up, and he’d 5

PULLING AWAY

been stupid enough to send Noah away.

He knew why Noah had come by and it wasn’t to pick up his package. Ever since last weekend, when Charlie had practically attacked Noah in the kitchen, Noah had been coming back for more. Last night Charlie really hadn’t felt well, so when Noah called, he’d told him he was sick. But tonight, Charlie had just been stupid.

Sex with Noah was good. He liked it. A lot. Sure, it was a little surprising how good Noah had been in bed. Charlie hadn’t expected that. He guessed he’d expected it to be somewhat average. Like Noah.

Charlie went into his kitchen and took out another can of soda. That wasn’t entirely fair. Noah kind of looked like the clichéd boy next door. Or what Clark Kent looked like with the glasses. Clean cut, neatly trimmed hair, pert nose that didn’t hold those glasses well at all. Sort of short for a guy.

Like maybe five-foot-eight in shoes. If you looked behind the glasses, you could see Noah had very striking hazel eyes.

Charlie had once asked him why he didn’t wear contacts, and Noah had mumbled something about laziness.

Charlie liked Noah. He was a afraid Noah was getting a little too involved, though. More involved than Charlie wanted to be. He didn’t feel like getting close to anyone right now.

Even though two years had passed since the death of his family, the pain was still so raw it clawed at him. He just couldn’t handle a full-on thing right now. Not with someone he’d known all his life. He didn’t want to hurt Noah, though, so he wondered if he shouldn’t keep the distance between 6

PULLING AWAY

them.

Too bad he was now horny as hell. Charlie leaned against his kitchen counter and tried to decide if his horniness could be taken care of by his own hand. Not his preference, but until the recent sex with Noah that’s all he’d been using for a while.

He didn’t do gay bars or any of that.

He’d been able to keep himself carefully hidden away in his house and in his mind pretty well until he’d started talking with Sly Cat a couple of weeks ago. What started out as just a gamer conversation had soon turned to be so much more. Sly Cat understood him and his pain and loneliness. Or he seemed to. He’d told Sly Cat things he hadn’t told anyone since his parents’ death.

Charlie knew Sly Cat had a day job because he never came on until evening. But usually he showed up eventually. Not so tonight and Charlie felt the loss.

He could continue to be stupid and go to his empty bed with his hand, or he could walk across the street and tell Noah he changed his mind and wanted sex. He didn’t even need to get into his car. How difficult would it be?

Charlie tossed his now-empty soda can into the recycle bin and went to his hall closet to take out a windbreaker. Did Noah have condoms and lube? They’d always had sex at his house, so he didn’t know for sure. If Noah was into sex toys it was likely, but there was no point taking any chances. He walked to his bathroom, opened a cabinet and scooped up the supplies.

A short time later, when he stood in front of Noah’s house, 7

PULLING AWAY

he paused. The house looked dark, which was unusual for Noah. Charlie glanced at his watch. 8:30. Surely Noah wasn’t already in bed? He rang the bell.

Charlie heard footsteps approach, then Noah pulled back the front curtains and peered out the window.

“It’s just Charlie,” he called.