“That’s right,” Mav told him as he did it again and then again. “Keep up, Duke. Come on. Want you right there with me when I shoot. When I fill you up with my come.”
Duke’s eyes blazed. “Harder then,” he rasped, jerking his hips as Mav thrust into him. “Thought you were gonna fuck me, Mav. Do it right.”
Mav had no words for a reply. Instead, he used his body to answer his lover’s challenge. With a snarl, he pulled out again and pushed forward, ramming his shaft into Duke’s body, filling him hard, pounding into the man he loved. A wordless shout was his reward. Duke gripped handfuls of the cover on either side of him and pressed up to meet him, giving himself completely, opening himself so Mav could fuck him as hard and as long as he wanted to. As he needed to.
God, feels incredible! So hot, so tight! Mav felt like the top of his head might explode. He’d never made love like this. Never felt so free to let go and give in to his own emotions, his own needs. But something told him that Duke could take it. He was no frail, waifish girl that had to be handled with care. The body under Mav’s was as muscular and strong as his own. Duke could take all his pent-up emotions, his lust, his desperation to come deep and hard. More than that, he wanted to take them. Mav could tell by the way he bucked his hips, daring Mav wordlessly to fuck him harder, to take him higher. It was like they were fighting toward orgasm and the trip was made a hundred times better because they were together.
Mav felt the pressure building in his balls and knew he couldn’t hold out much longer. It simply felt too good—the tight grip of Duke’s body around his shaft along with the knowledge that it was his best friend that he was fucking was too much. He fisted Duke’s now completely hard and throbbing shaft faster, wanting to take his lover with him when he went over the edge.
“Duke,” he gasped. “Gonna…can’t hold out. Have to…”
“Me too. God, Mav. Do it. Fill me up.”
It was like Duke’s words snapped something inside him. Mav groaned as the orgasm took him, building in a rush from the base of his balls and erupting from the tip of his cock. As he came, he felt Duke’s shaft pulse in his fist and the warm wetness of Duke’s come on his fingers.
“Yes!” he moaned in Duke’s ear. “God, yes. Come with me, Duke. Want you to. Love you so much…”
“Love you too.” But Duke’s voice was low and strained and when Mav looked in his lover’s eyes, he saw pain as deep and wide as the ocean haunting his lover’s face.
“Duke, man, what is it?” he murmured, coming down from his high with a thump. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, I just…” Duke shook his head and pushed at Mav’s chest.
Mav took the silent hint and pulled back, withdrawing reluctantly from his friend’s body. “Is everything okay?” he asked when they were lying side by side in the bed.
“Fine.” Duke nodded stiffly. “I just…I have to go.”
“Go? Wait a minute. What are you talking about? You can’t go yet. We just—”
“I know what we just did and we shouldn’t have done it. That’s why I have to go.” Duke was already up and struggling into his clothes. Mav watched him with concern. What was wrong with his friend? Why hadn’t the incredible sex they’d just had made everything better?
“Where are you going?” he demanded, as Duke pulled his shirt over his head and buttoned his shorts.
“I dunno.” Duke shrugged dejectedly. “Back to Evan and Ethan’s place I guess. I just…I need to go now. Okay?”
“Okay, I guess.” Mav sat up and reached for his own shirt now. It occurred to him that Duke wasn’t just talking about leaving just for the night. He was about to walk out of Mav’s life forever if Mav didn’t do something. He still doesn’t believe me. He thinks I only said what I said because we were in the middle of fucking. How could he make his best friend and lover believe him? How could he make him understand that Mav wanted to be with him forever? “Duke, wait.” He reached up and grabbed Duke’s hand but Duke shook him off.
“I really need to go, Mav. This is already messing with my head. I hope…hope you have a great time in Tallahassee.” Duke’s voice nearly broke on the last word and Mav felt his heart thump painfully in his chest.
“Duke, please. I meant what I said.”
“When?” Duke’s eyes flashed. “When you were saying you loved me just now or a week ago when you told Enslow that what we did didn’t mean anything to you?”
“Duke, man…” Mav was out of words. He’d hurt Duke too badly, he realized with a sick feeling in his stomach. There was no way Duke was going to believe he really wanted them to be together unless he could take away that pain and make him see that Mav was for real. But how could he do that? Suddenly he had an idea. “Duke,” he said, standing and reaching for his jeans. “Look, at least tell me you’ll be at the end-of-the-year team party tonight. At least promise me that.”
Duke looked surprised. “You’re going to that? I figured you’d avoid it like the plague after Enslow found out about the pictures. I had them taken down, by the way.”
“I know,” Mav said quietly. “Evan told me. You didn’t have to do that, you know. Where did you get the money to do it?”
“I borrowed some here and there.” Duke shrugged. “I didn’t want you to have to deal with it—the whole having-our-pictures-on-a-gay-website thing. Thought it would be better to just try and forget it ever happened.” He frowned at Mav. “But you know there’s no way Enslow has forgotten. You go to that party tonight and he’s gonna light into you for sure.”
“Yeah, I know,” Mav murmured. “But I don’t care. The only thing that matters to me is that you come with me. Will you?”
Duke sighed. “Well, yeah, if you really want me to. I guess it would be a shame to pass on our last end-of-the-year team party, especially since I’m the captain and you’re the goalie.”
Mav grinned. “True. How can we brag to the lowerclassmen about our amazing victory if we’re not there?”
“As long as you’re prepared to talk about more than the championship.” Duke looked at him seriously. “I really can’t take another scene like that one in the drugstore the other night with Enslow though, Mav. I’m not ashamed of what we did even if you are.”
“I’m sorry about that.” Mav shook his head. “More sorry than I can say, Duke. But just…promise you’ll come with me tonight and I’ll try to make it up to you.”
“Okay.” Duke nodded. “Let me go grab a shower and I’ll meet you back here at eight. Then we can go together. Is that good?”
“More than good.” Mav had the urge to pull him close and kiss him again but he had a feeling that Duke wasn’t up for that right now. If he wanted to kiss his best friend and lover again he would have to earn the privilege by healing the hurt he’d caused Duke. He just hoped he was up to the task.
Chapter Seven
“Okay, you ready to do this?” Mav looked at his friend, watching Duke carefully to see what kind of mood he was in. Ever since leaving campus Duke had been quiet and withdrawn, making Mav worry that he would change his mind about going to the party at the last second.
“Yeah, I guess.” Duke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Might as well get it over with.”
“Get it over with? What are you talking about? We’re gonna have a blast. Why else would they pick the Bull Pen to host it? You know what a wild place this is.” Mav gestured to the college sports bar they were standing outside of. Strings of chili pepper lights in green and gold, the official USF colors, crisscrossed the ceiling and from the sounds floating out into the warm Florida night, the party was already well underway.
“Yeah, it’s wild all right.” Duke sounded completely unenthusiastic. “And it’s gonna get a whole lot wilder once Enslow tells the rest of the team what he saw on the Str8te Boys site—if he hasn’t already.”
“Aw, most of the guys on the team know Enslow’s full of it,” Mav said with more bravado than he felt. “Don’t sweat it, man. Let’s just go try to have f
un on our last night.”
“Sure. Right.” Duke nodded but he looked like he was going to a funeral, not a party.
Mav frowned. “Hey, do you mind telling me what’s wrong? The Duke I know loves this kind of thing—or was that just part of your ‘straight guy’ act?”
Duke scowled at him. “That wasn’t all an act, Mav. I like to party. I just don’t like getting shitfaced constantly.”
“Oh yeah, then why do you do it all the time?” Mav demanded. “You can pound half a keg in no time flat—I’ve seen you do it.”
“I’m always drunk at parties so I can stop thinking about you hitting on whatever girl you’re with, okay?” Duke yelled. “It drives me crazy, thinkin’ about you with somebody else. Kissing somebody else. Fucking somebody else. Damn it…” He glared at Mav. “Why are you even here with me at all? You shoulda brought a date—some hot little blonde bimbo to prove you weren’t the least bit gay no matter what Enslow decides to say when he shoots off his mouth.”
“I did bring a date.” Mav grabbed his hand and entwined their fingers firmly. “You. Now are you coming or not?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Duke looked down at their entwined fingers doubtfully. “I mean, there’s no way we’re really gonna walk into the Bull Pen like this.”
“Sure as hell are.” Mav lifted his chin. “If this is the only way to prove to you that I’m serious about us, to prove I meant what I said while we were…making love, then this is what I’m going to do.”
“Mav…” Duke looked at him seriously. “You don’t have to. Really, you don’t.”
“But I want to. Come on.” Mav squared his shoulders and pulled his best friend and lover into the noisy sports bar.
Inside it was packed with USF students doing shooters and eating the twenty-cent hot wings that were the usual Friday night special. Something loud was blaring from the speakers and flat screen televisions covered every square inch of the walls, broadcasting different sporting events. It wasn’t hard to find the rest of the USF men’s soccer team—they were sitting under a particularly huge flat screen that was replaying the championship they’d won earlier that season.
“Woo-hoo! Here they are, guys—our fearless leaders!” The voice belonged to Mugsy, a junior who was going to be the team’s goalie the next year.
“Hey, Mugsy. Hi, guys.” Mav raised his voice over the noise of the bar as he towed Duke forward. He was wondering what the other guys on the team would say when they saw him and Duke holding hands, but most of them appeared to be too distracted watching the championship game to notice.
“Hey, Mav, Duke. Sit anywhere you can find a seat.” Mugsy either didn’t notice their linked hands or was too drunk to put two and two together. He gestured at the three scarred wooden tables that had been pushed together and then went back to his own seat, weaving a little as he walked.
Mav checked out the seating arrangements and saw only two empty chairs together—right beside Enslow. He had a sudden flash of Enslow saying, No wonder Duke tried to kick my ass when I took a swing at those two little faggot friends of his—“the two gay Es”. It’s because you guys are just like them. If they wanted to avoid a confrontation, this was probably the worst place they could sit. Mav lifted his chin, Well maybe I don’t want to avoid a confrontation. He started forward to the two chairs only to feel a jerk on his hand.
“Mav, don’t.” Duke was frowning and shaking his head, casting meaningful looks at Enslow’s narrow back.
“Why not?” Mav demanded.
“You know why not. Come on, let’s just leave.” Duke was almost pleading now.
“Why the hell would we leave? The party just started.” Mav frowned at him. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were ashamed of us.”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you, man. And since when are we ‘us’?” Duke hissed.
“Since I fucked your brains out two hours ago!” Mav didn’t really mean to yell but his voice came out louder than he’d intended. A lot louder.
There was a sudden dead silence in the area all around the soccer team. Heads turned to look in their direction and the championship game babbled on with no one paying any attention to it. Mav saw himself block a goal from the opposite team on the flat screen TV in front of the wooden tables. On screen, the crowd went wild, shouting and waving huge foam fingers that were green with gold lettering. But no one was shouting here and now. Mav realized the entire team was staring at him and Duke as though looking for some kind of an explanation. Puzzled glances were being thrown at their linked hands and Enslow was nudging the guy next to him, apparently saying something along the lines of “I told you so.”
“Hey, man. What’s going on?” Mugsy mumbled. “Am I seein’ what I think I’m seein’?” He focused owlishly on their hands. “It looks like you two are holdin’ hands.”
“We are holding hands. We—Duke and I—are together.” Mav held up their linked hands as proof.
“Dude, wait a minute.” Gordon, the team’s striker, stared at them. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”
“If what you thought he said is that he and Duke are gay faggot fuck buddies, then, yeah, you heard him right.” Enslow stood and pointed at Mav and Duke. “I told you guys. Nobody would listen to me but I told you—those two are a hell of a lot more than roommates.”
“So what if we are?” Mav dropped Duke’s hand and stepped forward aggressively. “You have a problem with that, Enslow? Does anybody have a problem with that?” he asked, raising his voice and looking around at the faces of their other teammates.
There was a long, uncomfortable silence in which nobody said anything at all, not even Enslow. Then Duke was tugging at his arm, pulling him away from the rest of the team.
“Mav,” he murmured. “Don’t do this. Don’t push it—you’re just makin’ everyone feel weird.”
“So?” Mav looked back at the team, some of whom were still staring at him and Duke and some of whom were concentrating a little too hard on the game still playing on the flat screen in front of them. “I don’t care who knows. I’ll tell anybody we’re together as long as it convinces you to stay with me.”
“Will you tell your parents? The people you meet in pharmacy school in Tallahassee?” Duke asked in a low voice, searching Mav’s eyes with his own. “Because those are the people that matter. These guys are great but we’re leaving tomorrow and we’ll probably never see most of them again. It’s the future that matters, Mav. Not the past.”
Mav stared at him. “We. You said we. We’re leaving tomorrow. Does that mean…?”
“Yeah.” Duke grinned at him. “I’m comin’ with you to Tallahassee. Can’t lose the deposit I put down on that great apartment—especially considering what we had to do to make rent after I spent it.”
Mav had no words. His friend, his lover, the person that mattered most in the world to him was going to be part of his life forever. Duke wasn’t going to walk away—Mav wasn’t going to lose him. A stone that had been sitting on his chest rolled away and his heart felt like it was going to burst.
Suddenly, he didn’t care that they were in public or that the rest of the team was watching. He grabbed Duke and pulled him in close for a passionate kiss. “Love you,” he murmured in his lover’s ear when they came up for air. “Love you so damn much, Duke.”
“Love you too, Mav. I have since the minute I saw you.” Duke was grinning from ear to ear and Mav knew he had finally done something right.
“Hey you two, get a room or something.” The voice belonged to Patel, one of the team’s best midfielders and it startled Mav into remembering they were still in public. He pulled away from Duke a little, though he kept his arm around his lover’s waist, and turned to face his teammates.
“We are getting a room—an apartment anyway. In Tallahassee, together,” Duke said, still grinning.
“Now there’s a big surprise,” Enslow muttered. “See, I told you guys they were fags.”
“So what if they are
?” Patel shrugged. “You’re an asshole, Enslow. Everybody knows you’re just jealous because Duke got made team captain instead of you.”
There were murmurs of agreement and Mav was amazed to see that most of the team seemed to want to ignore or downplay what had just happened between him and Duke. He’d been prepared to cause a scene—maybe even one that ended in violence—when he let it be known that he and Duke were together. What he hadn’t expected was acceptance.
“So that’s it?” He looked around at his teammates, most of whom had gone back to the game and their beer and hot wings. “You guys don’t even care?”
“Look, Mav, what do you want us to say?” Gordon shrugged his bony shoulders. “It’s not like we didn’t already suspect you guys. I mean, you’ve been living together for four years, you have lots of gay friends, and you’re always all over each other. What were we supposed to think?”
“Uh…” Mav was at a loss for words but Enslow wasn’t.
“Fucking faggots. I’m outta here.” He got up and threw the rest of the team a dirty look as he left.
“Good riddance,” Patel muttered.
“Yeah, guy’s a downer, anyway. Hey, Mav, how ’bout you buy a round for the team seein’ as how you two are passing the torch tonight?” Mugsy grinned at him.
“Sure, I guess.” Mav sat, pulling Duke down beside him, and raised his hand at a passing waitress. “This one’s on me,” he said, giving Duke’s hand a squeeze. “Me and my boyfriend.”
Duke shook his head with a smile. “Hey, dude, don’t look at me. I’m broke after getting those pics pulled off the Internet.”
“Too bad.” Mav smiled back at him and dropped his voice to an intimate whisper. “I guess we’ll have to find a new way to earn money from now on. Because we can’t pose for Str8te Boys anymore.”
Duke frowned. “Why not? I thought you didn’t care who knew anymore?”
“I don’t.” Mav grinned at him. “But we’re not straight.”
***
“Well, it’s been a month now in the new place. Whaddaya think, Mav? You like it?” Duke turned over in the big king-sized bed they’d bought to go in their single bedroom apartment to look at his lover.