The Retrieval (7 page)

While Charlie secured the lead, Jake said, “At least I have a great excuse to leave early now. It’s not like I wanted to spend more time around Mrs. Lowery after Laura not-so-subtly warned her off.”

“Will that cause you problems?”

“Hell, no. It’s amazing how you two believe my being lousy at faking also means I can’t tell a lie or hide anything I’m feeling. The ‘My dear, I think too much of you to let you dig your own grave any deeper’ speech is easy to deliver, especially when it’s true.” Jake snorted. “And I first learned it from the master.”

Jake’s words sparked a disturbing prickle of heat along Charlie’s skin that made him change the subject. “I hope Mr. Lowery’s gift wasn’t damaged. I’m not sure if Ducky’s breed is as soft-mouthed as retrievers.”

“Those lamps might help us check.”

They started toward the pool, and Ducky made a noise that threatened to evolve into another wail. Charlie sighed and doubled back.

“Maybe if we give him something to do?” Jake hazarded.

“Right.” Charlie rummaged through dim memories. “Guard,” he tried, hoping he sounded more certain than he felt.

Ducky sat bolt upright, ears alert.

Charlie shook his head. “Now you have an even better excuse to leave early since I’m not sure how, exactly, he guards. Let’s examine this decoy and get back to the house before the birthday candles set fire to what’s left of Lowery’s party.”

“Don’t worry. If we miss anything, someone will get pictures,” Jake told him as they walked over to the nearest lamps at poolside.

The lamps proved to be lanterns hung from wrought-iron poles set into the decorative tiling around the swimming pool’s edges. These particular lanterns were positioned to also illuminate a chaise longue and the small table that went with it, so Jake had a place to put down the decoy. Beside them, the pool water shimmered and the colored tiles gleamed softly in the mixture of lamplight and moonlight. Their surroundings were a ridiculously romantic setting for examining a wooden duck -- teal -- for damage. Charlie rubbed his arms against another surge of that heat.

“I see a tooth mark,” Jake said mournfully.

“Only the one, though. Remind me to check Ducky’s teeth for damage later.”

Glancing up, Jake asked, “So you’re going to keep him?” This time his grin was visible. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

“Yes, I do seem to have a weakness for young rogues who are, at root, virtuous.”

“I guess that lets me out. I’m not sure how virtuous my root is.”

Charlie straightened slowly. “Not very. Although I never thought it was or would be. Nor did I want it to be.”

Jake also straightened, more abruptly. “You could’ve fooled me.”

“Oh, I did.” Charlie hadn’t even known he was going to move until he felt his own hand gripping Jake’s chin. Fine stubble shifted beneath his fingertips as he said, “I truly believe I did fool you. But that’s all over now. Do you want me?”

It was Jake’s look of astonishment at the question that destroyed the last shreds of Charlie’s common sense. To hell with the setting, the timing, the need to ask carefully, all the long and aching years of restraint. He wanted Jake, and he wanted him now. “Come here. Closer to me.”

Ducky could have taken notes on proper obedience. Jake’s lips parted slightly even as he stepped forward with obvious eagerness. Charlie tilted his head then and kissed Jake, first with a brief softness and then with all the sustained, aggressive skill he could bring to bear.

Jake replied with a bruising grip across Charlie’s back. Only his tongue, responding, was soft and languid. He tasted like lime juice and decent gin, smelled of a citrusy cologne, felt, with all those tensed muscles, as if he was restraining himself through willpower alone.

Charlie didn’t waste time. He had no patience left. Working a hand between them, he found the bulge in Jake’s trousers and gripped the hardening cock through fine fabric. Jake freed his mouth to make a noise and Charlie told him, “Quiet, you. Be quiet and keep still.”

For a minute, Jake seemed about to tear loose, as he ran his hands frantically up and down Charlie’s hips while leaning in for urgent, biting kisses. But then he pulled away and almost stumbled the foot or so backward to the chaise longue. Reaching behind himself, Jake grabbed the tilted back with both hands, gripping so tightly that Charlie could see the strain against Jake’s suit coat.

Charlie paced forward before going down onto one knee in a way that might have been graceful. He truly didn’t care. This time, when he found Jake’s cock, he saw Jake grit his teeth. Charlie smiled. He shifted the cummerbund and starting undoing Jake’s fly.

Standing was overrated for cocksucking, but Charlie liked a challenge. After he’d freed what Jake had to offer from his drawers, he didn’t part his lips at once. Instead Charlie leisurely nuzzled at hard, flushed flesh, enjoying the familiar smell of Jake’s sweat combining with the unfamiliar, welcome scent of arousal. When he licked skin at last, Jake drew in a quick, sharp breath above him. That made Charlie press one hand flat against Jake’s stomach above the cummerbund. He could already feel trembling beneath the dress shirt’s fabric.

“I’ll probably, eventually, sodomize you,” Charlie said, keeping the words quiet and calm.

Jake’s eyes visibly widened, but he also nodded, twice.

With his free hand, Charlie delved further into Jake’s trousers, sliding fingertips along Jake’s tightened balls through the muslin of his drawers. Then he measured out Jake’s cock with his hand the way he’d considered doing for years. As he’d thought, impressive.

“Right now, I think I’ll settle for sucking until you spend,” Charlie told Jake. “In my mouth, mind you. Every bit.”

This time, Jake’s nodding verged on frantic. Charlie smiled at Jake, leaned forward, and slowly confirmed Jake’s measurements with his tongue.

The noises Charlie made as he enjoyed himself might have been mistaken for lapping pool water, but the creak from the chaise longue a minute or two later was unmistakably Jake tightening his grip. Small signals of scent and touch told Charlie that Jake’s climax was approaching.

Leaning back once more, Charlie said, “Lovely, but this angle is terrible. Sit down.” He was pleased when Jake managed to obey.

When Charlie knelt between Jake’s legs once more, he was done with leisure. He opened his mouth, tucked his lips over his teeth, and relentlessly claimed what was in front of him. As he worked his mouthful with suction and tongue, Charlie put a hand on each of Jake’s hips to make clear exactly what was expected.

The sex wasn’t gentle, but Jake was desperately willing. He managed to keep quiet but only in theory; his breathing came in needy, ragged gasps and fabric slid on fabric as his hips worked. When he came, Jake had to choke back guttural noises all the time he spent. Then he sagged forward, almost draping himself over Charlie.

This position was graceless, awkward to the edge of discomfort. Even so, Charlie blinked back a momentary stinging in his eyes to which he would never admit. Instead he reached out to firmly stroke his hands across Jake’s suit jacket, along the small of Jake’s back, until he felt the shudders beneath his fingers stilling. Then Charlie freed himself from the near embrace, leaned back onto his heels, and stretched his jaw. This view of a dissipated Jake was exquisite.

For a few, heated seconds Charlie considered rolling Jake over on the chaise longue and hauling those dress trousers out of the way, but common sense reasserted itself. Instead, Charlie stood up, shifted the silk of his own cummerbund, and undid his fly. Working his cock free, he fisted himself a few times. Good Lord, he was close.

At some point during all of this, Jake had sat up straight. Now he was watching intently. As Charlie tried thumbing the tip of his cock, Jake licked his lips before saying, “I…”

Jake bit off the rest of his words, but Charlie smiled and nodded for him to continue.

His voice rough and dark, Jake said, “I can try. I mean, I’ve already--”

“Oh, yes,” Charlie told him, stepping closer. “Try. Do.”

Taking a deep breath, Jake leaned in. As heat and wetness blessedly, if awkwardly, closed around him, Charlie tapped Jake’s distending cheek with a forefinger. Somehow he managed to say, voice hoarse, “Don’t swallow. Later. You can impress me later.” Then Charlie carefully, briefly fucked Jake’s mouth, his grip both as gentle and as firm as he could make it.

Inexperienced but promising, so very promising, was Charlie’s assessment later. At the time, all he could think about was how Jake’s mouth felt, and the sounds and the scent of what they were doing. He nearly didn’t pull out soon enough, and Jake almost didn’t let him go. There was a slightly sloppy interval that ended with Charlie spending while both his own hands and Jake’s were entangled awkwardly around Charlie’s cock. Somehow he left spunk on both Jake’s shirt and skin. It only made Jake’s eyes widen and look hungry again.

Afterward, Jake’s eyelids fluttered closed. His pulse was pounding at his throat where his bow tie had been yanked awry, and he was still breathing heavily. Jake’s pomade had given up the ghost; his hair was a mess. His clothes were almost past saving. He had never seemed more appealing. Charlie hauled Jake up onto his feet and then pulled him close.

For a soothing interval they leaned together like that, their arms around each other. Charlie felt rumpled and sweaty but too pleased to move. The firmness of Jake’s hands, the warmth of his skin against Charlie’s, was deeply reassuring. So was the soft, wordless noise Jake was making, almost a hum. He sounded happy. Charlie stroked his hair.

But even through their pleasant daze, they both heard the noise when Ducky started barking. They sprang apart. When Charlie turned, he saw flashes from an electric torch being waved around back toward the courtyard side of the parked cars. Obviously, someone was coming to search this area.

***

Charlie felt his eyes widen as he turned back to examine Jake. The evidence of what they’d been up to was unmistakable: rumpled hair, disarranged clothing, the spattering across Jake’s collar… Was Charlie’s fly still undone?

Once more, swift wits saved the day. Even as Charlie’s hands dropped to his trousers, Jake whirled, grabbed the decoy, took the few steps, and went into the swimming pool with a tremendous, graceless splash.

Charlie sputtered. Then he dashed pool water from his face before hastily kneeling on the pool’s edge. “Did you find it?” he called out loudly over all the thrashing noises, his hands busy.

“Yes!” Jake yelled back, splashing more water around. “Where the hell is the ladder?”

“To your right!” His suit was now officially ruined, but at least Charlie had managed to get his cummerbund back into place and run fingers through his hair. “Why didn’t you just fish it out? Or find the ladder before you went in the hard way? This is my good suit!”

“It was getting away!”

“How could it get away? It’s a wooden mallard! I mean, teal!”

Jake just splashed some more, deliberately this time, the monster.

Two of the attendants galloped up to the pool. The taller, the one he’d bribed earlier, anxiously asked Charlie, “Can he swim?” A nice youngster.

“Supposedly,” Charlie told him, sounding resigned even to his own ears. “But perhaps you could give him a hand getting out? He found Mr. Lowery’s antique decoy. It looks like the dog returned the counterfeit teal to its natural habitat, a counterfeit pond.”

The shorter attendant with the flashlight was the only one who snickered, but at least they both made haste to assist Jake. By the time he was out of the pool, Jake looked a lot less like a satiated lover and a lot more like a half-drowned sable.

“Help me dry off the decoy,” Jake told them as he emerged, and damned if he didn’t manage to tie up everyone for a few more minutes with a search for towels in the pool house. After the ineffectual dabbing, when they all trooped back onto the veranda at last, there was an air of the successful safari about their group that made trysting the last image that would come to anyone’s mind.

However, Laura seemed to be the exception proving that rule. After they sent the attendants inside with the decoy, she came out to speak with Charlie and Jake. She studied them in the light from the open French doors, and her eyebrows rose dramatically. But all she asked was, “Are you two coming in or do you mean to stand there dankly?”

“I think we’d better head back to your place, so we can change,” Jake told her. “Good thing for my upholstery that I keep a couple of driving rugs rolled up in the rumble seat.”

She shrugged. “It’s not as if the Lowerys wouldn’t provide a place for you to dry off more thoroughly, even considering the tooth mark. After all, your adventures added plenty of vim to their party.” They could all hear the laughter and lively conversation from inside as the attendants answered the guests’ questions.

Charlie said, “Nonetheless, I’d hate to squelch pool water across their parquetry, not to mention those rather fine carpets.”

“So you’ll be taking Ducky home instead of me?” Laura asked him.

“I’m afraid so.”

“As well as my errant brother.”

“That does seem to be what I’m proposing, yes.”

“Why not? He’s going to share my house, so he’ll eventually be stuck with me anyhow,” Jake said, and elbowed Charlie in the ribs. As Charlie eyed him balefully, Jake ignored the look to blithely ask his sister, “Will you give Fran a ride?”