A Tangled Truth (Stonewall Investigations Book 3) Page 10

  “Oh, you guys, this is making my heart so full. I watched you both go through such formative years together, and I could always tell you both looked at each other differently. Not in the same way I see other friends look at each other. Not only that, I’d always notice the stolen glances between you two, and that was the real tell.” She was smiling in that sad way that told me she was replaying all those memories in her head. Her lips quivered. “I was devastated when you moved away, Liam. I really was. Mark came into the store the day after, and he had looked to me as if he crawled out from a grave. He looked so empty; he just wasn’t there. It wasn’t for a few months until I got him to laugh again. Really laugh.”

  I looked over to Mark. He had his eyes on Lucy, and he was smiling in the same way she was. “I was lost for a while there,” he said. “And I couldn’t even admit to myself why I had been so messed up. Even though I knew I was gay back then, I had never once said it to myself, much less to anyone else. So I couldn’t even confront how sad I was because that would have meant confronting how much I loved you.”

  The words took my breath away for a moment. Hearing those words from anyone else would have had me running. There would have been a smoke trail rising from where I was sitting. But obviously, this was different on so many levels, because I loved Mark, too. Back then and now. It was a certainty nestled right in my chest, and I knew it would be there permanently.

  “You two,” Mama Lucy said, clapping her hands together. Her big brown eyes jumped between both of us, tears welling up in the corners. “I really can’t believe this. And I’m so honored to be your maid of honor at the wedding. Thank you, guys, for choosing me. It’s the least you could both do.”

  This had me almost spitting out the gulp of water I’d just drank. “You know we’d have you be maid of honor, flower girl, ring bearer, and of course, the cake maker.”

  “Oh honey, I’m there.”

  We laughed and kept joking around for some more. It was a little weird; the fact that talking about marrying Mark wasn’t weird. I knew Lucy was just throwing around some jokes, but wherever there was a joke, there was always a kernel of truth lying around. It was about an hour later that I realized we must have been holding Mama Lucy from closing up shop and heading home for the night.

  “All right, Mama Lucy, I think it’s time we call it a night,” I said, drinking the last of the water in my clear plastic cup.

  “Aww,” she said, putting two wrinkled hands up to her chest. “You two have warmed my heart so much. I’ve never had a better surprise than seeing you two standing outside.” She was getting teary-eyed again, which was pulling at my heartstrings like a cat playing with yarn. I had to look away because I felt tears of my own beginning to develop.

  “We won’t be strangers, okay, Lucy?”

  “I swear on Dolly’s theme park, if I don’t see you two again at least once a month, I will be a very upset woman, and you don’t want to see that.” She scrunched up a fist and shook it in the air, showing us that Mama Lucy didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

  As we said our goodbyes, we walked out to the front of the street with Lucy. She sent us home with a dozen donuts each, so we were both holding big pink boxes. When she had gone back inside the shop to finish up closing, I turned to Mark, realizing we were at the end of the line for our night.

  Except, I didn’t want it to be the end just yet. Today was too much fun, and I felt like there was the potential for much more before the sun came up.

  “Wanna come over?” I asked, not even knowing if my place was clean or not but also not really caring. I just wanted to spend more time with Mark, whether that was in a mouthwatering donut shop or my messy place.

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan to me.”

  We started down the street toward the corner, where I thought it would be a good spot for the driver to pick us up. I lived in Greenwich Village, so it was a short drive from where we were. If it were a nice sunny day, then I would have suggested a walk. But it was already the middle of the night, and the walk was way too long for that. Especially when there were monsters creeping around out there, killing people’s pets. Nope, waiting for a car sounded like the better option. We were chatting and batting our lashes at each other as we waited, both of us so absorbed into the other.

  We were so lost in conversation that neither of us ever noticed the pair of eyes watching us from afar as we got into the car and took off.

  I lived in a penthouse on top of one of the newest buildings in Greenwich Village, the part of town with one of the highest concentration of gay guys. In fact, down the street from my place was the original Stonewall Inn, a historic site that had birthed an entire revolution.

  Inside, my place was a mix of modern and classic. The architecture itself was all modern, with plenty of glass and marble and treated wood. It was made up of sharp angles and polished gray bamboo floors. There were four bedrooms, one of which I’d converted into a private gym, and an outdoor area with my own private pool and lounge. It was my sanctuary, and I was currently watching Mark in it, his bare feet resting on the coffee table, his lips curled up into a smile as he looked up at the ceiling and recounted a story from back in the day.

  We had been at my place for about half an hour now, and we had knocked out a bottle of wine. I was already feeling the effects of that. My fingertips were tingling, along with the tip of my nose, while my feet were feeling a little cement filled.

  “And then you totally ended up ratting me out,” Mark said, laughing.

  “Not on purpose!” I interjected, remembering exactly what he was talking about. “I didn’t know you were being serious. When I said ‘sure, you’ve got a lizard in there,’ I had no idea Ms. Trout was behind me.”

  “And then she didn’t believe it, either.”

  “She was real surprised when she had you empty out your pocket.”

  Mark was cracking up. “Two of those things shot out of there—one climbed up her pant leg, and she started jumping around the class like the floor had caught fire.”

  Now I was busting a rib laughing. “That’s right,” I said, “Detention was worth it.”

  “Totally.”

  “Why did you have those lizards anyway.”

  Mark smiled, his head dropping to the side so he could look at me. “Because a few days before, we were watching The Crocodile Hunter and you said something about how cool you thought he was.”

  My eyes opened a little wider. “I didn’t realize you did that to impress me.”

  “Pfft, everything I did was to impress you.”

  I licked my lip and looked away, smiling. The wineglasses were resting on the smooth gray concrete table, the rims stained red where we had drunk from them. The lighting in my living room was set on a low level, and I had lit a few candles an hour or so earlier, not even realizing the effect it would cause. Really, I was just scared my place might smell bad, so I thought a few eucalyptus and honey candles would settle that fear. Only after I was done lighting them did I see just what kind of mood I had created. And could you blame me? Whenever I’d had a man over in the past, it was a quick wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of situation. Never once did I light a candle or set the lights down low. So really, I couldn’t have foreseen the intense romantic wave I would feel as I sat inches from Mark on the couch, staring into those beautiful eyes of his as they reflected back the light of the nearby flickering flames.

  Fuuuck, I’m really falling hard for him.

  Nah, scratch that.

  I’d already fallen for him.

  “Want some more wine?” I said, leaning over and grabbing the two glasses. I couldn’t sit there much longer without getting up and stretching my legs. If I looked into those eyes for another second, I would have melted right into the new leather couch.

  “Sure, I’ll take some.”

  And on my way to the kitchen, that’s when I realized something. I was actively delaying myself from jumping across the couch and smashing my lips against Mark’
s. Why? I’d never done that before, and tonight, I was acting like a nervous high schooler before prom night. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to kiss Mark, and touch Mark, and lick Mark, and suck Mark, and—okay, okay, you get the point. I wanted to do all those things and more with the man, but I was running away like a scared kid.

  That’s how much he meant to me… I didn’t want to fuck this up.

  I poured a generous amount of the vintage merlot into each glass and recorked the black bottle, setting it back into the wine display before grabbing the glasses and making my way out of the kitchen. Mark was no longer sitting when I got back to the living room. He was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the twinkling lights of the concrete jungle below us. You could see the entire skyline east of the Empire State Building, which we could also see from where we stood, her peak stretching up into the night sky, blinking almost like one of the stars much farther above us.

  I set the glasses down on the table and walked over to his side. “Remember when you came over to my apartment for the first time and you asked why there were so many bug traps? And I said because of the cockroach breeding farm we lived in?”

  “Yup,” Mark said, his gaze turned out to the city. “Crazy how far you’ve come. I’m so proud of you, Liam. I really am.”

  “Thank you, Mark.” I felt very moved in that moment. I never thought hearing those words from Mark would make me feel like I was suddenly on top of the world, but they did. It filled me with a euphoria that not even the finest view in all of Manhattan could give me. I remember being a kid and always looking up to Mark, because he seemed to have his shit together even back then. So to hear him say that he was proud of me now? Shit, it made everything seem all that much brighter.

  That’s when I decided. No more running. No more avoiding. I was going to give in to what my body had been aching for since the second I walked into Mark’s office at Stonewall. I turned to him and grabbed his hand. He faced me, those hypnotic eyes casting his spell on me as I moved in, locking our lips together in an attempt to ease the building pressure inside of me. The aching that stretched through every single one of my muscles, making me taut with need. Between us, I could feel we were both rock-solid, our hard, full bulges pressed against the other’s. I wasn’t shying away this time. I thrust my hips forward, rubbing myself on him, eliciting a moan from the both of us. I had to have Mark, and a kiss wasn’t going to cut it.

  I reached down between us, and for the first time ever, my wildest wet dream fantasies came true and I had Mark’s massive bulge in my hand. There was a strong heat radiating from the heavy package, and it made my mouth fucking water and my cock leak into my briefs. I squeezed and massaged him over his jeans as our tongues whipped around like we were locked in a duel to the last fucking breath. The passion between us was generating enough electricity to power the entire damn New York electrical grid. It was obvious this tension between us had been building up for years and years, and now it was threatening to snap.

  “Fuccck,” I hissed when I broke for a gulp of air. Mark was pushing his hips forward, pressing his hard cock against my open palm as I continued to rub, feeling it pulse against the fabric of his pants, relishing in the heat it gave off.

  “God, I’ve wanted you for so long,” Mark said, his hands encompassing my face as he looked into my eyes, our lips inches apart. He pulled me in for another kiss. I let go of his bulge, replacing my hand with my own full crotch, and reached around so that I could slide a hand under his waistband and squeeze his bare ass. He felt so soft, and the moan it drew from him as I slipped a finger between his cheeks drove me fucking wild.

  I had to have him, right here—fuck moving to the bedroom. I broke from the kiss and pulled my hand out from his underwear. I got to work unbuckling his belt while Mark got to work on his zipper.

  See? We were always the perfect team.

  With his shoes thrown to the side and his pants unzipped, belt hanging undone, I was even closer to what I desired the most. I tugged his pants down and dropped to my knees as I did it, pulling harder around those muscular thighs of his and finally getting his pants down to his ankles. I was going to finish the job and pull them off, but I instantly got distracted by the magnificent sight that literally took my fucking breath away.

  Mark was standing in front of me with his rock-hard bulge at my eye level. He was wearing a playful pair of bright blue briefs with a thick black waistband and cartoon bananas printed across it in various states of being opened. The outline of his cock was way bigger than any of the cartoon bananas, and the head was already leaking through with precome. I couldn’t stop myself from what I did next even if I tried. And maybe I would have tried to stop myself with someone else, but with Mark… fuuuck, I just lost it.

  I normally would have torn off the briefs and stuffed Mark’s hard dick down my throat, but I did something else instead. I leaned in and rubbed my face on his throbbing bulge. Just rubbed, like a fucking dog in heat. I rubbed against the hard shaft, against his heavy, full balls, pushed against it all with my cheeks and my nose and my forehead. Mark’s scent filled my senses, sending me into sexual overdrive. My hands were holding on to those muscular thighs as I looked up and locked eyes with the man that set my entire universe on fire.

  14 Mark Masters

  Seeing Liam rub his face in my crotch almost made me come on the spot. I had to look up and bite on my lower lip until the wave of pleasure subsided. When I felt like it was safe to look down again, I felt Liam’s fingers slide up under the legs of my briefs and up past my cock, teasing me as they brushed against me. I throbbed, more precome leaking out from my cock and through my underwear, the dark spot spreading. Liam smiled and licked the spot, looking up at me as he did it.

  Again, I went to biting my lower lip. Liam was working me in a way I hadn’t even known was possible. Before I could look down again, I felt him pull my underwear down and suck the head of my cock into his warm mouth. It was ecstasy, a potent kind of pure euphoria that had me instantly wanting more. I wanted my entire cock in his mouth. I wanted him taking me deep down his throat, wanted to feel his lips wrap around the base of my cock. I started to push with my hips, my fingers sliding through his short, messy blond hair. I tugged, earning another moan from Liam as he swallowed more of me. He was so wet, there was some spit sliding down my shaft and trailing down my balls. He brought a hand up and used it as lube, massaging my balls and then working the saliva around the part of my cock he hadn’t swallowed yet.

  “That’s it, yeah, take that hard cock. That feels soo good, Liam.”

  I was getting so close. My balls were drawn tight against me as Liam bobbed his head up and down, sucking on my dick like he wanted nothing else in the world. He reached down and started rubbing on his own bulging cock, the outline clearly visible against his shorts. I pulled him off my cock and looked down at the shorts. “Take those off,” I said, “I want to see you jerk it.”

  “Since you asked so nicely,” Liam said, a devilish tone in his voice. He grinned up at me as he worked his shorts off, dropping them and his boxers down to his knees.

  “Better?” he asked, looking up at me as he licked the head of my cock while he grabbed his own with two hands.

  “So much better,” I said, groaning with pleasure as I pulled his mouth back onto my dick, the intense heat and wetness making me see an entirely new fucking color spectrum. I watched as Liam jerked himself off, his huge cock hanging between his legs, his balls swinging back and forth with his strokes. It only took a couple more minutes of that to feel my orgasm start hitting me with the force of an erupting volcano. I grunted and shouted like some kind of animal as a way of letting Liam know I was about to blow. He looked up at me, smiled around my cock, and took me in even deeper, one of his hands coming up to squeeze on my balls.

  Then I blew, coming down Liam’s throat with shot after shot of come. I was spasming and moaning, my eyes were rolling, and my knees trembled as they tried to steady me. As it all s
ubsided, I was able to open my eyes and see a satisfied-looking Liam getting up onto his feet, wiping his lips with a thumb. I must have come quite a bit because there was still some dripping down his chin and onto his shirt.

  So, I did the only thing I could think of doing: I leaned in and licked his chin, cleaning him up. We were both smiling from ear to ear when we fell into another kiss, his stiff dick pressing up against my swollen one.

  “Come on, let’s hop in my shower,” Liam said. My body was Jell-O. I felt like I had been dropped in a sauna and massaged for an hour, and that was all from a five-minute blow job. But damn, did that orgasm rock my entire world. Having Liam on his knees, swallowing me whole like he had been starving for it—god, just thinking about it was getting me hard again. We wound our way through the living room and into a hallway that I assumed led to the bedrooms. I was following Liam as he led us through one door, my cock getting stiffer and stiffer with every step. Liam was wearing only a T-shirt, and wow was that sight sexy. I loved seeing the way the shirt rested on his juicy ass. I couldn’t stop myself from rearing my hand back and then going in for a slap, the crack filling the room, his ass jiggling from the impact.

  “Ooh,” he said, bouncing slightly. I was rock hard again, and Liam noticed. “Round two, huh?” He licked his lips and grabbed me by my cock, walking me into his bathroom. For a second I thought we should make a U-turn and head to the bed, but then I saw Liam’s bathroom, and holy shit, I didn’t want to leave it. It was huge and had to have been designed by some kind of famous designer. It was mostly all white and light gray marble with copper and gold highlights. There was a beautiful ivory-white curved tub that sat in a small nook, which had a window that looked down at the city below. And then there was the walk-in shower that seemed big enough to charge rent for. There was an extra-long showerhead that ran the length of the shower, the ones that made the water cascade down like we had brought in a waterfall from an exotic rainforest. It smelled great, too, like clean linens and minty eucalyptus.