OffsideChanceFormat2 (39 page)

“Anything
to keep his mind off what was missing in his room,” Tracy explained as he took the
cooked bacon up from the skillet and set it on the table. “Could you hand me
the skillet?” Tracy nodded to the pan rack over the sink. “Is scrambled okay?”

“Sure.
Fine.” Will loaded the toaster with bread while he listened for footsteps on
the stairs.

“He
doesn’t blame you, in case you were wondering,” Tracy said as he whipped eggs
in a bowl. “He told me a bit about your cousin and the history the three of you
have. He’s upset that Aaron turned out this way, but he doesn’t blame you.”

“He’s
probably the only person who doesn’t blame me. Aaron’s stepmother blames me. My
grandmother blames me. Everyone blames me as if I somehow got the man hooked on
crack back in college and tricked him into washing out.” He was exaggerating,
but nonetheless he still felt as though the whole world, including Aaron, was
just waiting for Will to wave some magic wand to return Aaron back into the
same attractive and grounded young man he was when they left for school all
those years ago. “I did everything I could for him. I paid for rehab. I got him
job after job. I’ve burnt bridges trying to do for him. I can’t…I’m tired. He
came between me and my family. And now he’s coming between me and
my…everything. I’m afraid he won’t be happy until he destroys me completely.”

Tracy
nodded, “I have brothers. Some days I’d like to punch them both in the face.
They both fucked up their lives one way or another. But both of them have the
time to criticize me and my choices. To them, I could be more than just a high
school English teacher. I could have gone on to medical school. I should have
married whatever girl they thought was perfect for me and had a couple of kids.
I shouldn’t do this, and I shouldn’t do that, and God is going to punish me for
loving the most wonderful man ever put on this planet.” Tracy didn’t look up
from the stove while he talked. “But I learned that I had to stop thinking
about what they thought I should be doing, and now I only worry about me and my
business. It’s all I can do. And that’s all you can do, Will. Aaron isn’t your
responsibility. If your family thinks you didn’t go above and beyond to help
him, then screw them. Take care of you, and do what’s right for you.”

“That’s
not really an option. Family is family. I can’t just turn my back on them.”
Will sipped his coffee and waited for the toaster to finish its job.

Tracy
scraped the pan of eggs into a bowl just as Jude and Levi walked into the
kitchen. Levi had his arm around Jude’s neck. Will’s heart skipped several
beats when Jude smiled at something his brother whispered in his ear, his face
turning faintly pink as his gaze met Will’s.

“Breakfast
is ready. And just so that we are clear, the two of you do the cleanup.” Tracy
pointed his spatula at the brothers.

After
breakfast, they finished loading up Tracy’s Cherokee and Will’s Rover with the boxes
Levi wanted to take back to Alabama. Will wouldn’t swear to it, but this felt
permanent. Like Levi was moving on. For the last few years, this house and Levi
had been such a large part of his life. He couldn’t help feeling that the end
was coming. But the end of what?

Jude
didn’t speak much as they drove out of the city, following Tracy and Levi back
to the small town the brothers had grown up in. He fell asleep before they crossed
into Mississippi, leaving Will with just his thoughts for company.

What
Tracy had said back in the kitchen about his brothers stuck in Will’s mind, the
idea of Tracy’s family still condemning him for loving
Levi.
Will wondered how his own grandmother would take similar news, news that wasn’t
ever going to be news. But still, what if? He’d been raised in a strict
religious home with rules that had been meant to keep him in line. But like his
father, Will was wild, and with Aaron along as his accomplice there, wasn’t a
whole lot that the two of them had left undone.

Yeah,
they had tried drugs, pot mostly. And to this day, Will still preferred beer to
just about anything else, but Aaron obviously had developed different tastes.
He and Aaron had dated the same girls, drove the same car, played the same
sports, took the same classes. In college, all that changed when Levi came into
the picture. Levi quickly came to replace Aaron in Will’s life in every way
that mattered. Maybe everything really was his fault. If he’d noticed then that
Aaron was heading down the wrong path, maybe he could have helped him before he
became an addict. Maybe if he hadn’t abandoned the friendship back then things
would be different now.

“Stop
thinking so much, you’re going to hurt the steering wheel.” He jumped at the
sound of Jude’s voice in the quiet of the car.

“I’m
not…” He loosened his hold on the wheel and turned on the radio. Jude reached
for his hand and linked their fingers.

“You
are thinking too hard and blaming yourself. Tracy was right this morning. The
only person blaming you is you. Levi doesn’t blame you. And Will, I don’t blame
you. It happened. A junkie broke into our house and violated us. All of us. He
did that on his own. And you handled it.”’

“Not
before he hurt you.”

“I’m
fine. I’ll be up for anything in a couple of days.”

“I’m
thinking about running the New York Marathon, you think you’ll be ready for
that?” Will asked just to see what Jude would say.

“Fuck
no. Do I look like I’m ready to run a marathon? Do I look like I run? Nobody’s
got time for that.” Will cast a quick glance to the slim man who never seemed
to work out. “So what do you do to maintain that gorgeous body of yours?”

“Marathon
sex. Nightly. I’m into tantric.” Jude said straight faced.

Will
snorted. “I’ll take your word for that.” He remembered the long sweet
lovemaking from earlier this morning, and how Jude rode one orgasm into
another.

Fuck,
maybe he could… “Or better yet, you can prove that as soon as we get to ‘Bama.”

“As
soon as? Wouldn’t it be better if we waited until we got to my house? I’m
pretty sure the rest area is a little too public for something like tantric
sex, or any kind of sex for that matter.” Will had forgotten Jude owned a home.
Somehow, he liked the fantasy of the two of them being stranded in that narrow
townhouse in the French Quarter. And judging by the bulging bags Jude brought
with him, Jude was ready to forget about the townhouse and their time getting
to know each other. “Yeah, that would probably be for the best.”

“Absolutely.
Damned straight. Unless the restroom is empty. Then maybe.” Jude looked
straight ahead, his face didn’t move, no twitch of a smile or a frown or
anything to clue Will in to whether or not he was kidding. Holy fuck, sex in a
road side restroom, maybe Jude had a few hidden kinks after all. Will had no
idea if he wanted to find out or… He looked at the road as the mile markers
flew past, wondering how fucking far it was to the Alabama state line.

Chapter
Twenty-One

For
a Sunday in the middle of February, the day was turning out to be nice, sunny,
and almost warm enough for short sleeves. Jude stretched from the hours sitting
in the car. His side ached, and the stitches pulled as he moved, but for the
most part there was no real pain. The first rest stop in Alabama was a nice
place nestled in a small wooded area. He must have stopped here a million times
in his life, but until today, he’d never really noticed how secluded this stop
was. They’d parked in the far back near a picnic pavilion at Levi’s request. The
place was almost deserted when they’d pulled in, the break to stretch and walk
around had been welcome.

He
was alone at the cars enjoying the sun after the weeks of almost constant rain
when Will came meandering down the sidewalk from the main building. Levi and
Tracy had wandered off to parts unknown a while ago.

The
smile Will wore only grew wider the closer he came. Stopping to check for
traffic, he jogged across the lot and kept jogging until he was in front of
Jude.

 
“You should have followed me to the john.
There’s no one here, we could have…” Will didn’t finish his thought before he
pinned Jude to the side of his SUV and nuzzled his neck. “You smell so good.
Why the fuck am I so obsessed with how you smell?”

“Because
you’re a horndog, and you think flattery will get women to drop their panties
for you.” Jude wrapped his arms around the shorter man and tucked his nose into
Will’s neck. “God, you smell nice.”

“Nice
enough to drop your panties for me?” Will laughed into his neck. Scraping his
chin over Jude’s jaw, he slowly kissed a path to Jude’s mouth.

Jude
opened at the first brush of tongue over his lips. “I’m not wearing any,” he
whispered against Will’s mouth, smiling at the groan that had the man groping
him in public. “Jesus, Slayer, we’re outside.”

“You
shouldn’t tease if you can’t handle the consequences.” Will slipped his hand
down the back of Jude’s jeans. “Fuck, Jude, you aren’t wearing any underwear.”

“Didn’t
I say so? Or should I ask why this shocks you?”

“Nothing
about you shocks me anymore. Let’s just say I’m pleasantly surprised.” Will
continued to nibble at Jude’s mouth while pressing him to the car. They were
blissfully alone, and just something about being outside made this all so much
better. Will eased his Jude’s zipper open, and before Jude could think of a
reason to protest, Will had his dick in his calloused hand. He was so fucking
hard, and no one was around to see or care that he was exposed in public.

“That
feels good,” Jude whispered leaning into Will’s hand.

“Mmm,
it does.” Will gripped him with his whole hand, palming him from root to tip as
if he did this every day. “This will feel better.” Before Jude could blink,
Will dropped to his knees on the pavement and swallowed Jude’s dick down his throat.

“Fuck.”
Jude pressed his hands flat against the car door to steady himself. Will looked
up at him, his violet eyes glimmering in the sunlight. The tip of Jude’s dick
slipped from between his lips, only to be swallowed back inside Will’s hot
mouth. “Oh, fuck, Slayer.” He was so fucking dead. His whole body responded to
the sight before him. Will on his knees…for him. Jude cupped his lover’s jaw
and swiped his thumb over Will’s lips. “That’s good. Suck me just like that.
Mmm, Will, feels so good.”

He
heard voices, as someone approached the cars but he didn’t care. All that
mattered right now was this. Him and Will. The rest of the world could go fuck
themselves. He ran his hand through Will’s hair, holding him gently as he
watched his dick slip between Will’s lips, deeper with each dip of his head,
setting off a chain reaction in Jude’s entire body. He needed this. Fuck, he
craved this. He wanted this…He wanted strings attached, he wanted the happy
ever after. He wanted this man just like this for the rest of his… without
warning electrical fire seemed to shoot from his balls, and all he could do was
ride out the pleasure—pleasure that seemed to go on and on.

When
he could see straight again, Will stood before him, tucking Jude back into his
jeans and zipping him up. “What about you?” Jude fell against Will as if he
were boneless. He licked his way into Will’s mouth, tasting his own cum. He
shouldn’t enjoy this. But, oh god, he couldn’t get enough now that he knew.

“I’ll wait until we
get to your house. Somewhere nice and private before I whip out my junk, if you
don’t mind.” Will bit his lip, his eyes gleaming with laughter.

“Have
I ever told you that you’re an asshole.” Jude pushed him away and took an
unsteady step toward the back of the car, but Levi and Tracy blocked the way.
Each leaned against the opposite vehicle looking as if they were absorbed in
conversation. Levi looked up and caught his eye briefly and looked away.

“Right,
so if we’re all set, let’s hit the road.” Tracy stood tall, stretching his long
arms over his head. “You drive.” He tossed the keys to Levi, and that was it.
Not a word said about anything.

“Are
you okay?” Will said to Jude as he leaned against the driver’s door looking
mildly sheepish. “That was stupid. I know. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s
fine. I’m fine. Let’s just go.” Jude turned to go around the front but Will
thumbed the locks open.

He
tossed Jude the keys and before he went around to the passenger side, pulled
him in for another kiss. “Why don’t you drive the rest of the way?”

Jude
didn’t have to be asked twice.

*
* * * *

“This
is a nice house,” Will said for probably the tenth time since they’d arrived
the day before. Levi and Tracy had both rolled their eyes and tried not to
snicker the first time. Even Jude looked at him a bit strangely after the third
time. “It needs furniture sure, but I like the style.”

Jude’s
house really looked nothing like him. Considering his interest and taste in
architecture, the brick monstrosity with a couple of gables and a turret surprised
him. Jude was more the industrial loft down by the river type or the type to
own a stylish row house, much like Levi’s place in New Orleans. This was a bit
more feminine than anything. And late Monday night he Will finally realized why
the strange looks. “You built this for her didn’t you?”