Pulling Away (2 page)

Charlie heard the lock being flung back, then the door opened. A toothbrush stuck out of Noah’s foaming mouth.

“Charlie?” Noah asked around the toothpaste.

“Yeah. Can I come in?” Without waiting for Noah to respond, Charlie pushed passed him and entered the house. “I thought maybe you’d gone to bed. It’s pretty dark in here for you.”

Noah stared at him, his hand frozen, clutching the toothbrush.

“Why don’t you go take care of that?” Charlie suggested with a grin.

The other man disappeared down the hall and Charlie glanced around the front hall. As usual, the house looked spotless. Noah was a near freakish housekeeper. Unlike himself.

Noah returned sans toothbrush, but he still looked perplexed.

“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.

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PULLING AWAY

“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.

He knew Noah would want to do some kissing. He’d been that way during their other times. Charlie didn’t object to kissing, but it did seem a bit more intimate than he wanted to be with Noah. So he tried to avoid it as much as possible without cluing in Noah that he was trying to avoid it.

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As he’d suspected, Noah tilted up his chin and moved toward Charlie’s mouth. Noah was a good kisser at least.

Charlie allowed the contact of their lips, a soft, sensual kiss that sent blood rushing to his hard cock. The other man tried to part his lips with his tongue, but Charlie broke the kiss and drew Noah to the bed.

Charlie lay on his back, ignoring the slight frown on Noah’s face. After a moment of hesitation, Noah rolled the latex over his erection.

“The lube?” Charlie asked, unable to keep the eagerness out of his voice. Over the years since he’d come out, because of his muscular build, some guys assumed he liked to top.

While he liked that position well enough, the truth was, he preferred to bottom. Fortunately, Noah preferred to top.

Noah grinned and tossed the lube at Charlie. He squeezed a generous amount onto his fingers and, lifting his ass, inserted them, spreading his entrance for Noah. The other man grabbed the lube and slathered some on his sheathed cock.

“Hurry,” Charlie breathed, suddenly desperate to feel Noah inside him.

Noah knelt on the bed, then crawled toward him. He grabbed Charlie’s legs, hoisting them up.

“Yes. God, yes. Do it now, Noah,” Charlie pleaded.

“Shh,” Noah said, dropping down to place a kiss on Charlie’s stomach. Slowly, almost too slowly, he pushed his cock into Charlie’s ass.

Charlie pushed back, rising up, trying to get Noah into him all the way as fast as possible. He knew Noah liked to take his 10

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time, but he didn’t want that now. He wanted a fast, furious fucking.

To his relief, Noah got it, and started pumping into him with hard, quick thrusts. His grip on Charlie’s legs was nearly painful and he suspected he would be bruised after, but Charlie didn’t protest. Didn’t want to. He met every thrust of Noah’s, pushing and pulling back, enjoying the way Noah’s face turned red with the exertion. Beads of sweat covered Noah’s forehead.

Charlie reached for his own cock, rubbing in the pebble of liquid, circling around the tip. He closed his fingers around the length, stroking up and down in rhythm to the thrusts in his ass. His balls pulled tight against him. He was
so
close.

Noah pulled out. Charlie felt the shocking loss. The other man flipped him over.

“What the fuck? Why did you stop?” Charlie demanded.

Noah didn’t answer him. Charlie now lay on his stomach, his face scrunched into the sheets, his legs dangling off the bed. His lover forced his legs apart, wider than before. Noah now stood next to the bed. He lifted Charlie and impaled him on his cock.

Charlie moaned, loud and long, unable to prevent the orgasm slamming through his body much the same way Noah slammed into him. Noah stiffened before releasing a hoarse groan of his own.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing, Noah withdrew, then collapsed next to Charlie. Charlie dragged himself up so he could fully relax on the bed. He wanted to calm his racing 11

PULLING AWAY

heart before he got dressed and went back to his own house.

“So,” Noah said, breaking the silence. “What made you change your mind?”

Charlie shrugged. “Just thought I was being a bit of a butthead.”

“Well, I’m glad you did.” Noah sighed and stretched.

“You hungry? I could make you something.”

“Nah, I should get home.”

Noah sat up and leaned against the top of his sleigh bed.

“You could, you know, spend the night.” His pleased, happy mood disappeared with rapid speed.

“Why?”

Noah’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Well, maybe later, we can wake up and make love again.” Charlie snorted. “
Make love?
Jesus, Noah, what are you a girl? We didn’t make love. We had sex.” But even as the derisive words were out of his mouth, Charlie regretted them.

He hadn’t meant to sound like such an ass. And one look at the crushed expression on Noah’s face told him he’d been gone over some kind of line. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Noah was already moving.

“I’m going to take a shower. You know your way out.” Noah headed into the bathroom and shut the door with a distinct bang.

“Noah, wait,” Charlie said. He grabbed up his clothes as he followed Noah to the bathroom. “Noah, I didn’t mean to piss you off. Noah?” He tried the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.

Noah had locked him out. Charlie leaned his forehead on the 12

PULLING AWAY

closed door. “I’m sorry.”

But Noah didn’t open the door or even answer. Charlie heard the shower turn on instead. He sighed. He’d talk to Noah tomorrow. He knew from experience it never took Noah long to get over being mad.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he called through the door, and then dressed and went back home to his own, lonely, dark house.

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PULLING AWAY

Noah yawned the next evening as he opened his front door.

What a crappy day he’d had.

The piss-poor end to last night hadn’t helped. He’d thought about little else all day at work.

He opened up the laptop sitting on his dining room table and turned it on, then headed into the kitchen to heat up a frozen pizza.

Oh, yeah, such a glamorous life
.

He twisted off the cap of the beer he’d taken out of the fridge and carried his pizza to the table. Already an instant message awaited on the screen.

“Hey, Sly Cat, where have you been?” 14

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“Hi, Charlie2, sorry been busy,” he typed. Took a swig of his beer.

Okay, so making up a name to talk to Charlie hadn’t been the smartest thing he’d ever done. But Charlie refused to talk to Noah.

“It’s okay, I’m glad you’re here now. How was your day?”

“Crappy. What about you?”

If Charlie found out Sly Cat was Noah he’d be pissed.

Probably wouldn’t be friends with Noah anymore, let alone sleep with him. Depressing thought. He took another sip of beer.

At first he’d just done it to see if Charlie would guess it was good old Noah. But to his surprise Charlie had really started talking to him. About his pain, his dreams. Stuff he wished Charlie had talked about with him directly. Yeah, okay, it
was
him, but Charlie didn’t know that.

“Sad. Didn’t do much of anything,” Charlie said. “I was going through the closet in my bedroom and I found some old family photos. I ended up spending hours going through them.”

“I’m sorry. Feel any better now?”

“Being able to talk to someone helps. There’s no one I can talk to usually.”

Noah bit his lip and made himself type, “Boyfriend?” His heart pounded hard in his chest; he felt far too warm for the temperature in the room. He wanted to take the word back, too afraid of what Charlie would type.

“I don’t really have one,” Charlie said. “There’s a guy in 15

PULLING AWAY

the neighborhood I have sex with sometimes, but that’s it. I don’t talk to him about anything personal. It’s not that kind of relationship. Really I’m not even sure how much longer we’ll continue. He’s a bit much for me.” Noah closed his eyes, certain the words on the screen pierced his heart. He wanted to scream. He stood and walked away from the offending computer. Insanely, he was tempted to throw it across the room. Like he could pretend it wasn’t Charlie who’d typed the words, felt them.

He clenched his fists. He wished he could punch something. He wasn’t a violent guy. It was stupid, but Noah still wanted to punch the wall.

The instant message beep sounded and then sounded again.

Noah leaned against the wall, his head back, eyes closed, trying to pull himself together. What had he expected?

Happily ever after for him and Charlie? That only happened in movies or books, and only for straight people.

An instant message beeped again.

Noah straightened from the wall and sat back down in front of the computer. On the screen were three messages.

“What about you, Sly Cat? You have anyone special?”

“Sly Cat?”

“Are you there?”

Noah typed, “I’m here. Sorry.”

“Good. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No. I thought I did.”

“What happened?” Charlie asked.

“He broke my heart.”

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“Wow, that sucks,” Charlie typed. “Do you want to maybe meet some time?”

Noah finished off his beer. He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t make himself talk to Charlie. Not now. Maybe not ever.

His cell phone rang and he pulled it out of his front pocket to see who it was. His flamboyant friend, Kevin.

Noah flipped it open. “Kev? Hang on a second.” He typed, “Charlie2, have to go now. I just got a phone call I have to take. See you.” He turned his laptop off before Charlie had a chance to respond. “Hi, Kevin.”

“Hey, girlfriend,” Kevin said cheerfully.

Noah smiled a little. “What’s up?”

“Just my usual Friday night call. I know you always say no to going out with us, but I’ll never stop asking.”

“Where are you going?”

There was a long pause, then Kevin asked, “Are you serious?”

“Sure, why not? Might be fun. You going to Buddy’s?” Buddy’s was a West Hollywood gay bar Kevin and his group of cronies often went to on Friday nights.

“Of course. You really want to come? I’ll pick you up in like an hour.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready.”

Noah closed his phone and walked to his bathroom.

Somewhere in one of the drawers he had contacts he’d bought but never bothered to wear. Now seemed like a good time.

* * *

PULLING AWAY

Noah opened the door to Kevin about an hour and fifteen minutes later. Kevin had never been known to be punctual.

Kevin’s dyed red hair had been cut short and spiked on the top with enough mousse to supply three or four beauty salons.

He wore a shirt he’d cut off at midriff length and skin-tight red leather pants. Noah rolled his eyes.

“Hey, babe,” Kevin said, embracing him and kissing him full on the lips. “Looking good! The men will be all
over
you.”

Noah frowned. He’d just put on a casual buttoned-down shirt and jeans. “Should I change?”

“What? Hell, no. You look divine. Ooh, no glasses.
I
may be all over you.”

He laughed. “Give me a break, Kev.” He grabbed his leather jacket. “You did bring a helmet for me right?”

“Sure, babe, it’s on the back of the bike.” Kevin gestured to his parked motorcycle.

When they reached the bike, Noah’s eyes bugged out when he saw a pink motorcycle helmet.

“I am not wearing that.”

Kevin laughed. “That one’s mine, girlfriend. There’s yours.” He pointed to a brown one hanging off the back.

“Thank God.” Noah shook his head. “Are you really going to wear that?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“For one thing it clashes with your red pants.” Noah put on the brown helmet.

“It does, you’re right. Didn’t think about that.” Kevin 18

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shrugged. “Oh, well.”

“Sometimes, Kev, I wonder if you’re for real.” Kevin started the bike. “Of course not, hon, what fun would that be? Be sure to grab on to something hard.”

* * *

He’d had way too much to drink and did way too much dancing and flirting. He’d even had several propositions. Noah declined those. He didn’t screw anyone he’d just met in a bar.

Charlie hadn’t tried to call him, of course. Charlie always left it to Noah to contact him. Well, not anymore. He was done with this crush or whatever it was.