Page 39 of Any Given Lifetime
“Oh. That’s a long story.” Chris smiled and looked off into the distance. “I guess it’s obvious I’m not from around here, huh? I grew up in Nashville. A much bigger city. But love brought me a long way from home.”
“Are you happy here?”
“I’m happy, yes.” Chris turned back to him. “You know what? I think I can help you.” Chris glanced toward the corner of the building where Declyn was talking animatedly to his girlfriend. “I know a certain someone who could use a time out, actually.”
“Wait, are you—?” Neil asked. “You just met me. I’m a complete stranger, and you’re going to have your son drive me to Nashville? I could be a serial killer for all you know.”
Chris shrugged happily. “But you’re not. And Declyn, my stepson, should get out of Scottsville for the afternoon. It would do him good.”
Neil felt a weird rush of anxiety at the thought of being trapped in a car with Chris’s kid.
“You remind me of someone I loved who died a long time ago,” Chris said, rather cheerfully considering he was discussing death. “And I’d feel like I was doing him a favor if I helped you out.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Neil said, suddenly hot and uncomfortable, because Chriswouldbe doing his Neil a favor, and the layers of weirdness were suffocating.
“Yep,” Chris agreed. “You sound just like him. Okay, hold on. You stay right here, Neil. Wow, that sounds so weird to say. I’ll be right back with Declyn.”
Neil watched Chris grab the phone from Declyn, tell the girlfriend something that looked rather unpleasant, and then disconnect the call. Declyn’s hands on his hips and shocked face gave away that he wasn’t too pleased by his stepfather’s behavior. Part of Neil wanted to stay and see how it all played out, curious about the man he’d once cared about. But another part of him could think of few more disastrous ways to end this already dreadful day than getting into a car with Chris’s stepson.
He darted back inside the Barren River Resort before Chris could stop him. He prepared himself to face Dr. Peters at least long enough to blow him off again. He’d spend the rest of the evening and night in bed.
With any luck, the blanket that Joshua had touched would retain his scent, and Neil could torture himself all night long with that, before he headed back to Atlanta with Dr. Peters the next morning as planned.
Nearly twenty hoursafter landing back in Atlanta, and fifteen hours after convincing Alice that he would be happier returning to campus, Neil’s body was exhausted, but his mind wouldn’t shut down. He’d worked in the labs, trying to keep away from painful, wrenching thoughts of Joshua by focusing on his project before their cash flow dried up, but it was useless. After he’d given up, he stalked home to the apartment irritable and wrung out.
He glanced around at Derek’s mess, the half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table and the litter of food wrappers around the couch. He muttered “I live with an animal” under his breath and stalked into his own room, where he kicked off his jeans and pulled his T-shirt over his head. Neil rubbed a hand over his face and then jerked down his boxer shorts.
Without a word, he walked from his room into Derek’s, startling Derek out of a pretty sound sleep. But Derek didn’t stop him, only whispered “Yesssss” as Neil flipped Derek onto his stomach and yanked Derek’s sweat pants down to his ankles, revealing his round, tight ass.
Neil might not have been able to concentrate on work, and he might have felt like he was about to come apart from the intensity of the renewed pain and unresolved longing for Joshua, but he could drown that out for now with a good, long fuck. Derek was a messy roommate who was annoyingly close with Neil’s mother, but his body was pliable, eager, and always open for business.
Derek looked over his shoulder, while Neil grabbed a condom and rolled it on. Derek’s blue eyes were wide with lust, and his mouth gaped. Neil was grateful he didn’t ask questions.
Neil squirted lube onto Derek’s hole, lined up, and roughly shoved inside. Derek’s head fell forward as Neil slid into him hard and fast, with no time for adjustment or warming up.
“Jesus,” Derek gasped, clenching at the sheets and biting his pillow. “Fuck, Neil.”
Neil closed his eyes, concentrating on the tight, gripping pull of Derek’s ass on his cock. The hot slide in and out was almost enough to block the aching, horrible pain that seemed to have opened in his chest since seeing Joshua in person.
Neil pounded into Derek roughly, leaning down to sink his teeth in sharp bites along Derek’s shoulders and neck, feeling the delicious response of Derek jerking and tightening around Neil’s plunging dick. He didn’t let up, angling to hit Derek’s prostate and burying his face in Derek’s already sweat-damp hair, as Derek shivered and crooned beneath him.
It felt good to fuck Derek. He was in control ofsomething, at least, as he drove Derek to the edge of orgasm and then held him there, not quite pushing him over into it. Derek writhed and begged, and Neil felt a surge of reassuring power. He couldn’t be with Joshua, but he could fuck Derek, and he could make Derek scream, and he could feel something besides pain. He rubbed Derek’s back, knowing by the way that Derek moved that he was going to come, and sensing Derek’s shock and even fear at the intensity of the orgasm about to slam through him.
Neil grabbed a fistful of Derek’s hair, used it for leverage, and fucked Derek impossibly harder. Derek made wild, animal noises as Neil rode him, and then Derek scrambled against the sheets in a desperate and yet half-hearted attempt to get away from Neil’s cock, before Derek’s straining movements popped the fitted sheet off the mattress, and he jerked beneath Neil in shuddering surprise.
“Fuck!” Derek cried, his asshole clenching rhythmically as he shot his load without even touching himself.
Neil continued to fuck Derek’s spasming ass, and he ran a soothing hand through Derek’s hair, vaguely grateful for Derek’s willingness as he fought his own orgasm, holding it back, preferring to keep on screwing so that he didn’t have to remember how Joshua had looked at him, or the sound of Joshua’s voice saying his name.
Derek jolted and squirmed underneath him, crying out every time Neil stroked in and raked against his prostate, obviously too sensitive, but it wasn’t long before Derek was thrusting back, up on his hands and knees, calling out for harder and faster. He fell forward onto his elbow as he screamed and jerked his cock to orgasm again, his asshole clenching so hard that Neil had to momentarily stop his thrusts to ride it out.
“Holy shit,” Derek gasped when Neil started pounding him again, and he melted into the mattress, a limp body taking Neil’s cock without resistance, and Neil grabbed Derek’s hips, hauled him up a little for a better angle, and didn’t let up.
Derek drooled and occasionally convulsed in pleasure, his eyes rolled back in his head. Neil carried on, delaying his own orgasm for as long as he could, before finally shoving into Derek all the way to the root. Falling onto Derek’s sweat-slick back and shaking as he finally filled the condom, he saw nothing but Joshua’s brown eyes.
The pain that swallowed him was enormous. Desperately, Neil pulled the condom off, tossed it on the floor, and rolled on another. Shoving into Derek’s slick, spasming hole while his cock was still sensitive from orgasm hurt, but it was better than the emotional pain that engulfed him when he stopped. Derek whimpered but didn’t ask him to pull out.
Neil fucked Derek until they were both too fatigued to move. They lay panting and twitching helplessly, both of them covered in sweat and Derek’s come. As Neil rolled away, exhausted and hoping to fall asleep, he noticed that Derek was smiling deliriously, high as a kite from the intense fucks. Neil, though, was drained of strength, and instead of Derek’s happy humming, he heard Joshua’s angry voice, saying, “You’re just a kid!” as he dropped into an exhausted, miserable sleep.
