Knight of Ocean Avenue (34 page)

“No one else would ask, but you’d rather know what you don’t want to know than remain ignorant. I admire that a lot.” He sat up straight and planted his feet. “And of course, you already know the answer. Shaz is my boyfriend. My partner. I’m gay.”

Her gasp was barely audible. Then she frowned until her eyebrows touched. “That’s nonsense. Don’t say those words to me.”

“You asked. I answered. Not saying it doesn’t make it go away. That’s what I discovered, anyway.” He looked back at Shaz and smiled. Shaz leaned forward and placed a hand on his back.

She shook her head. “That’s blasphemy.”

Shaz spoke for the first time. “Forgive me, ma’am, but Billy isn’t showing lack of reverence for God. He’s just telling the truth.”

Her eyes widened. “My son committing the sin of Sodom is blasphemy.”

“Most scholars agree that the sin of Sodom was a lack of hospitality and had nothing to do with homosexuality.”

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination.”

Shaz sighed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t count the number of times someone has fed me that Old Testament crap.”

Rhonda slapped a hand over her mouth just as Teresa walked in wiping her hands. “Whoot! That’s so the truth, Shaz.”

His mother looked up, shocked.

Teresa shook her head. “Christians pull out Leviticus to prove anything they want to and ignore all the rest.” She gazed levelly at her mother. “I’ve never seen you stoning Billy for working his butt off on Sunday.”

Shaz looked at Billy’s mom. “You’re a Christian. What did Jesus say about homosexuality, ma’am?”

She stared back at him. No backing down this woman. “In Corinthians, Paul said—”

Shaz held up a hand. “Paul wasn’t divine. He was an idiot human, just like you and me. He told the followers that Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. He clearly didn’t have a corner on the truth. No, I asked, what did Jesus say?”

She glared at him.

Billy leaned forward. “Mom?”

“Nothing.”

Shaz nodded. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing. He said nothing, but we all know he thought it was a sin.”

Shaz’s turn to frown. “Just as we all know that Jesus never intended the kingdom of heaven for people with black skin? Or for women? Both things have been taught by religious groups who called themselves Christian.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“Then isn’t it nonsense for God to create an entire group of people and then declare them anathema? Would the prophet who said ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’ add the footnote ‘unless they happen to be gay’?”

She shook her head back and forth. “Billy can’t be gay. He’s always liked girls. He’s been engaged three times. He’s always wanted to give us grandchildren.” Her head fell back against the chair, and she kept shaking it. Billy wanted to hold her head to make it stop. She opened her eyes. “I can’t believe the irony. God is punishing me. I send my son to improve his appearance and he comes back this! A joke! Vanity, all is vanity.” She pointed at Shaz. “You did this. You’ve lured him away from the path of righteousness.”

Billy stood up. “Mother, you’re not stupid, so if you’d say something that ignorant, then it’s just out of plain meanness. You can call me any name you want, but no one is mean to Shaz when I’m around. Including you.” He turned and took Shaz’s hand. “Let’s go.”

Shaz held up a finger, then turned to Marie Ballew. “Mrs. Ballew, I have one more quote for you. ‘If I must have a son who is an abomination, I’d rather have no son at all.’”

She glared at him, but her eyes flicked back and forth to Billy standing beside Shaz, ready to leave. “That’s not in the Bible.”

“No.”

“Then who said it?”

“My father, right before I walked out the door and have never seen him again.”

Her lips parted. “I would never say such a thing about Billy.”

“I know. So don’t let him think that’s what you believe.”

Her eyes flashed to Billy. “Do you? Do you think I believe that? That I’d rather not have a son?”

“Don’t you?”

She leaped to her feet. “Good God, no.”

No?

She covered the few steps between them. “I might fight like a tiger to get my way, but I love you, Billy. I love you no matter what you do. You’re one of the best men I’ve ever known, and while I might show you the error of your ways, no one else better.”

He smiled, though she didn’t. “I’m gay, Mom. That’s how it is. And I’m happy for the first time in my life. Having Shaz.”

His dad came up beside him. “It’s about damned time.”

Billy turned, and his father hugged him. That didn’t happen a lot, so he stored it in his memory. His dad stepped back and extended a hand to Shaz. “Anyone who makes my boy happy is good with me.”

“Thank you, sir. I know we make an unlikely pair, but we’ve discovered we belong together.”

Wow, he would have gone through all this twice just to hear Shaz say those words. Billy reached out a hand, and Shaz intertwined his slim fingers with Billy’s.

The room got quiet.

Billy turned and looked at his mother, who was staring at their clasped hands. She glanced up at him with a stern expression. “So what you’re telling me is that you’re, uh, gay, and if I don’t like it I can lump it?”

There wasn’t much to say to that. “Yes, ma’am.”

She looked up at Shaz. “And what I get in return is a son-in-law who gets you to dress nicely, inspired you enough to finally pass the contractor’s exam, and makes you happy.”

Billy squeezed Shaz’s hand. “Yes.”

Her lips pressed into a line. “Gentlemen, this isn’t easy for me. It goes against what I’ve been taught to believe. But I understand what you’re saying to me. I can cling to my beliefs or I can have a family.” She whirled. “Rhonda, Mitch, what do you think?”

Rhonda spoke firmly, holding her husband’s hand. “We think it’s great.”

Mitch smiled at his wife. “Some of my best friends are gay.”

“Fred? Clarice? How will you feel about coming to dinner with a gay couple?” She waved her hand at Billy and Shaz.

Clarice, usually a woman of very few words, opened her mouth. “We love Billy. I don’t see how this would change that. And I think Shaz is very cute, so I won’t mind having him around at all.”

Rhonda and Teresa laughed. His mom looked at Teresa. “I don’t even have to ask you, you radical.”

“I’ve always believed that love is love, Mother. You know that.”

She turned back to Billy and Shaz. “Very well. I don’t believe God intends me to drive away my son. I hope you’ll be very happy together, and I expect you both here to dinner every Sunday.”

Shaz nodded. “Maybe sometimes you’d like to come to our house. You could teach us both to cook.”

Marie Ballew crossed her arms. “You see, Billy. I was right. You do need a good woman to take care of both of you.”

Very tentatively, Billy reached down and gave his mother a hug.

B
ILLY
LAY
on his back on the bed, a half-empty jar of lube beside him, trembling. Barchiel stared down at him from the night table, and the boys wound together on the chair and glanced at him idly. He raised his head. “Bet you guys could give me some pointers if you wanted to.”

“I have a pointer you might enjoy.”
Holy shit
. Billy looked over at Shaz standing in the doorway. He wore a flowered kimono, closed except for several inches of redheaded cock poking out through the gap. Shaz held champagne glasses in both hands. He walked into the room with the “pointer” swaying. “Ready to celebrate your survival?”

“Oh yeah.” He might be scared, but his cock was fed up with the action getting postponed. It was ready. “And I think we did survive, thanks to you.”

Shaz sat beside him and handed him a glass. “Not me, Billy. Your mother’s a smart woman. She knew that she was finished running your life. She did a good job, and now you’re a man who will make his own decisions and live his own way. She may never like or understand us as a couple, but she doesn’t want to lose her son.”

“That’s good enough for me. Plus she may not like that I’m gay, but I think she really likes you. Who else can best her in a battle of scripture?”

Shaz grinned. “No, she just wants to get her hair done on the family discount.” They clinked glasses. Shaz picked up the lube. “Holy crap, did you shove all this inside you?”

“It was already partly used.” Billy propped up on an elbow and sipped.

“Still, you may help the US compete with the Middle East in oil production.” Shaz slipped off the kimono over his lean body and, still holding the glass, sat on his heels beside Billy. One finger dipped in the champagne, then he drizzled it on Billy’s half-hard cock. He leaned down and licked it off.

Billy fell backward. “Umm. That’s nice.”

Shaz poured a little bubbly into Billy’s innie bellybutton and sipped at the liquid, then sloshed some more onto Billy’s bobbing dick and swallowed it.

“Shit!”

Shaz swallowed twice more until Billy’s cock could hammer nails, then pulled away and set both glasses of champagne aside. He scooted to Billy’s ear. “So, my knight, I understand you’re looking for a sassy princess to fuck your ass.”

Billy swallowed hard. “The sassier the better.”

“Oh, I’m sure that can be arranged.” Shaz pushed until Billy’s legs bent at the knees and he rested his feet on the bed.
Oh God, this was it.
Shaz smiled softly. “I want to try this face-to-face so I can be sure you’re enjoying it, okay?”

Billy nodded. It was all he could manage.

Shaz pulled a condom from the nightstand, rolled it on, and lubed it thoroughly. Just watching him get ready was a sex show. Billy nodded at the glistening rod. “That—uh, that’s going inside me.”

“Yes, darling.” Shaz got between Billy’s legs, grabbed one of them by the knee, and pressed back toward Billy’s chest. He rode with it until he was gazing into Billy’s eyes. “Do you know how excited I am about fucking you? It’s like a beginning. A moment for me that marks the celebration of the first love of my life.”

Billy closed his eyes and absorbed the beautiful words—and the feeling of Shaz’s cockhead pressed against his pucker.

Shaz whispered, “You’re an old hand at this anal stuff, my knight. You conquered the exam dragon with your beautiful ass. This will be no different.”

Billy felt Shaz’s warm hand grasp his cock and begin to stroke. “Oh, so good.”

“Umm-hmm.”

As heat filled his groin, the pressure on his hole increased until that push was a pleasure all by itself. Then in it went. Billy gasped.

“Does it hurt?”

“Noooo.”

Shaz pressed his advantage, and that hard and soft intruder slipped deeper inside Billy. “Oh!”

“Did I get the spot?”

“Yes. But you were so wrong.”

“Wrong? About what, my knight?” He pulled out slowly.

“This is so different from the butt plug or the dildoes. This is hot and throbbing with life. Oh God, Shaz, this is you.”

“Yes, darling. Yes.” He pushed in again, pulled out, and again. His hand kept cranking Billy’s erection until every nerve wailed in one giant plea to come, but he just kept going. Deeper and deeper into Billy’s body. And soul. “Look at me, let me see.”

“See what?”

“I want to know that I’m in the right spot, giving you the most enjoyment, not hurting you.”

His cock hit the spot again and again. Stars danced in front of Billy’s eyes and shots of electricity lit up his balls like ornaments on a holiday tree. “Baby, you’re in the right spot. Oh God, everything is so right. Oh—oh—Shazzzz!” Like a sneak attack of total bliss, Billy’s cock shot spunk up onto his chest, chin and one eyebrow.

Shaz laughed. “Gotcha!”

Waves of ecstasy washed up Billy’s spine as more shots landed on his chin, and he laughed. “Oh yeah. You have so got me.”

Shaz threw back his head. “Goooooood. I love your ass.” His hips stuttered and pounded twice more. He froze in a tableau of the agony of perfect bliss, then breathed out slowly and fell forward onto Billy’s sticky chest.

Billy’s chuckles started deep.

Shaz shivered and giggled. “That tickles. Did you like that?”

“Oh yeah.”

“So do you think you want be a bottom?”

“I want to be whatever makes you happy.”

Shaz raised his head and gazed into Billy’s eyes. “You make me happy.” He snuggled against Billy’s neck, his voice vibrating through Billy’s chest. “I never believed you’d come, my knight. I thought even Barchiel couldn’t find you. But I should never have doubted the power of love.”

Billy touched Shaz’s hair. “Who’d ever believe the two of us belong together? You need to know how much I love you. Like you said to God, thank you for never giving up on me.”

“Giving up on you would be giving up on my own dreams. On myself. You’re my knight.”

Billy laughed. For once, in this moment of perfect satisfaction, he might actually believe it. Well, just a little. “Yeah, that’s me. Your knight of Ocean Avenue.

Knave of Broken Hearts

Love in Laguna: Book Two

By Tara Lain

Jim Carney has a full time job—running from himself. Since he walked out on his wealthy family at sixteen because he’d wrecked his best friend’s life over some yaoi graphic novels, Jim has lived a macho, blue-collar existence of too much booze and too little responsibility. Then Billy Ballew, the man Jim most admires, gives Jim a chance to come through as his construction supervisor. For once, Jim is determined to make someone proud. Then Jim goes in for a physical for his new job and his yaoi dream comes to life in the form of cardiologist Ken Tanaka. Jim discovers he has two heart problems—a wonky mitral valve and a serious attraction to his doctor. But Ken is a major player, and Jim might be just a notch on the doc’s stethoscope. To Ken, Jim is unforgettable—but the living embodiment of his traditional family’s worst nightmares. How come the minute Jim decides to be responsible, he finds himself taking care of his kid brother, getting a proposal from a wealthy woman, making a deal with the devil, and winding up in the hospital—when all he really wants is the Knave of Broken Hearts?