Burning Truth, page 7
For a split second he thought about the man who said he was his father.
Would he approve of having produced a gay son? Would Austin have been gay if he’d had a strong male authority figure in his life?
Austin didn’t know why he was having these thoughts. He was usually just a quiet man who let his actions dictate his mood. He should have been inside Tucker already, he should have been pounding his ass with thrusting hips. He should have been hearing Tucker’s pleasurable cries echo in the deep canyon. Yet he remained poised, ready, locked into position. He stared at himself, at his sheathed cock, anxious to go but someone unable to. Was his mind even focused on this moment, was Tucker really what he wanted, was a man what he even desired? Was his life just an illusion?
“Austin, hey, you okay?”
Austin heard the words, but his brain refused to process them. He felt a tender hand on his cheek, blinked and saw that Tucker was no longer positioned in front, rather he was facing him, worry spread across his scruffy face. Austin shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and when he focused all he saw was Tucker, his sexy body with that great chest of hair, his pulsing cock, still hard, ready again. Desire swept over him, and a second later he had lifted Tucker onto the hood of the car, spreading him open. And then he plunged inside him with a fierce grunt, one hard push that had them both grunting, animal sounds that nature knew all too well, heat building them that only served to spur them on further, deeper.
Austin fucked him hard, pounding him, planning his hands against Tucker’s chest.
He pushed, he grunted.
He shoved, he bellowed.
Tucker took every inch, pleading for more.
Tucker took every thrust, begging for him to not stop.
“Fuck me, Austin, fuck me like you never have before.”
That’s what was happening, Austin’s body finally having taken control. His skin was hot, heated, sweaty, his hips bucking, his hard cock burying itself so deep it widened Tucker’s ass with its thick shaft. He continued to ram him, possessed as he was by a demon inside him that only sought release. He grabbed at Tucker’s lush chest, pulling at the coating of hair, relishing its downy softness. Tucker’s hands reached around to his ass, pulling at the patch of hair that grew at the small of Austin’s back, curling down into his crack. Austin reacted with another powerful thrust of his hips.
“Oh yeah, fuck me…fuck me…”
Austin cried out suddenly, his body in the throes of powerful orgasm.
He felt the release begin to shoot through him. He pulled out, removing the condom as quickly as he could, stroking his cock again, again, feeling his balls boil over.
“Aahh….aahhh,” he cried out and then suddenly the tip of his cock exploded, streams of come shooting onto Tucker’s chest and belly, hot gooey whiteness singing his mat of hair, like a fireman in reverse, fanning the flames rather than putting them out. Austin felt like his lungs were on fire, and he craved air, oxygen, and he breathed deeply the mountain air, not unlike the other day when he’d rushed into a burning building to save the life of the last man on earth he’d wanted to.
He fell to the hard ground, the grass a wet blanket. He lifted his legs, and waved Tucker toward him.
“Your turn,” he said.
“Austin, what’s gotten into you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Just fuck me, Tucker. Fuck my hairy ass, and don’t stop until morning comes.”
Chapter Six
Joey
Natural instinct nearly had him pulling into the chief’s designated parking spot at the White Pine firehouse, and even though it was empty at the moment, Joey Silva spun the wheel of his fiery Mustang at the last minute and parked in the slot next to it. As he unfolded his large frame from the confines of the sports car, he stole a look at the “Reserved” sign with a mix of remorse and pride, for both his achievements while performing as interim chief as well as having had to give it up once Chief O’Connell returned from this second honeymoon. Not that Joey didn’t enjoy working beside his own father in Honor Hills, he’d done so for over fifteen years and he would continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but having tasted independence and authority, he did miss what he’d had.
At that moment, he also missed Nick.
The sound of his voice, his touch, the way his body writhed beneath him.
The way in which he achieved orgasm, the taste of his come.
As he made his way toward the brick building, he noticed one of the two engines missing. He’d had the morning off and as such hadn’t been plugged into the radio. If there had been a fire in White Pine, normally he’d hear the call in case they needed back up, and the same existed the other way. As much as they were rivals during the annual Hibernation Festival and at other fun competitions throughout the year, when it came their mutual enemy—fire—there was no denying the strong bond of brotherhood.
He wished he and Nick had such a thing, but even as the sex between them was fierce, a lack of trust had formed between them. Before arriving in White Pine, Nick had endured some personal issues—he’d been married, and watched it disintegrate as he admitted his sexuality, and then he’d witnessed his wife being screwed by one of his fellow firefighters in his own bed. His first gay relationship had also ended badly, and a wounded Nick so much he had retreated to the wintery mountains of White Pine to heal. The last thing on his mind was meeting someone else, but the sizzling attraction he’d had from nearly the moment he had seen Joey, and vice versa, had been too devastating to resist. Once they’d licked at the flame that fueled them, there was no dousing the spark.
Until the other day, when Nick’s paranoia had killed the afterglow.
They hadn’t spoken since, even though they had seen each other at the meeting with that effete photographer, Ellis Van Pelt. A ridiculous name, Joey thought, sounded made up. After the meeting, Nick had excused himself immediately, and with a quick, passing glance at Joey, his eyes filled with a raw sadness, he’d disappeared somewhere within the fire house. What his eyes said revealed everything about the state of their relationship: don’t come after me.
But Joey was back today because he’d agreed to be the representative from Honor Hills on a fielding expedition. He, Austin Walker, and that Ellis guy were going scouting for locations for the calendar’s photo shoots. He was here to ensure they got some good shots in Honor Hills and didn’t just choose places in White Pine.
“Hello, anyone around?” Joey asked, his booming voice echoing in the empty side of the garage.
He heard a voice come from upstairs, followed by a figure sliding down the pole.
It was Nick. He’d recognized his firm ass from afar, and for a moment his mind drifted back to how they’d been the other night, naked, Nick’s exposed, smooth ass taking Joey’s thick, hairy cock. He’d been open, willing, begging to be plowed, again, again. The expression on his face now was quite the opposite of the passion they’d shared just forty-eight hours ago, closed off to any advance, sexual or not. Joey mused how fast two people could go from fiery lovers to cold strangers.
“Oh, hey, Nick.”
“Hi, Joey,” he said, his voice flat.
He looked away, as though hoping someone else was around. It was just the two of them, and frankly, Joey felt as odd as did Nick. He hadn’t expected to run into him. It was Thursday, usually Nick’s day off. Uncomfortable silence fell between them, emptier for what had once pulled them in close to each other.
“Change of schedule?” Joey asked.
He nodded. “Austin had some personal issues to deal with, so he asked me to take his shift. I’ve got nothing better to do.”
His comment cut at Joey, but he hoped his face didn’t betray him. “Austin was supposed to join me on this location expedition.”
“I know. You and your former lover.”
“Nick…why are you doing this?”
“You planning to have a threesome with him and Ellis?”
“Wow, you’re really mad at me.”
“Joey, let’s just realize it’s over. No reason to be antagonistic.”
“I agree with the second, not necessarily with the first.”
“Look, I got caught up in the heat, the release…you’re very convincing, Joey, very sexy. In bed you’re more than any man could ask for, perhaps even handle. But I’ve been doing some thinking and I’m just not ready to jump into a serious relationship. You’ve been asking me to go to dinner at your parents for a few weeks now and I’ve resisted. The previous night…I had the feeling you weren’t going to take no for an answer. Maybe that’s why I got so…”
“Crazy? Stupid? Paranoid?”
“Joey, don’t make this harder on me, okay? I freaked.”
Joey took a step forward, more hesitant than he was accustomed. Always the aggressor, it felt odd for him to be so uncertain about approaching another man, especially one who’d he had taken into his arms and his bed. Nick had nowhere to turn, so he just stood his ground when Joey reached out a hand, caressing Nick’s fresh-shaven cheek.
“Freaking out is okay, shutting me out…that’s different.”
“Joey…”
Joey pulled in closer, tighter, so much so he could feel Nick’s breath on his face. Leaning in, he kissed lips that remained closed. He rubbed his heavy beard against Nick’s cheek, something that had in the past sent shockwaves of desire through Nick’s body. Joey’s hand snaked down to Nick’s crotch, rubbing a growing cock. He locked eyes with Nick and he could see the confusion in them, as though desire lived in one, shame in the other. Was he on the verge of giving in, were they soon to be in the throes of make-up sex, Joey pumping him with his thick cock, Nick’s nails digging at his hard, furry flesh. Joey wanted to take him now, here at the firehouse, and he didn’t care who witnessed what. Heat still danced between them. That hadn’t changed.
“Let me take you downstairs, Nick, where it all started…”
Nick’s eyes were saying yes. He leaned in and kissed Joey, Joey feeling his hand on his beard.
“Why can’t I resist you?” Nick asked.
Their hands connected, fingers laced. Joey pulled him in tight, his thick crotch grinding. He felt his cock lengthen inside his pants, threatening to tear the fabric with its sizable bulge. Only an intrusive sound from behind snapped them out of their rising sexual interlude.
“Well, boys, what do we have here? Should I snap a photo?”
Joey pulled back, turning to see a smiling Ellis Van Pelt standing just beside a grease spot on the floor of the fire station. A camera was in his one hand, the other straightening the scarf around his neck.
“How long have you been here?” Joey asked.
“I just got here, though had I been a minute later I might have seen how firefighters really relax. And I thought your job was to put out fires, not start them. Very sexy, by the way, boys, even I could feel the heat pulsing in the room. Put a shot of the two of you hunks in action in the calendar and you’ll probably triple your sales.”
Joey gave him a rueful smile. “Jealous?”
“Perhaps,” Ellis said, with a wide grin as he took note of Joey’s crotch. “But maybe later. We’ve got work to do and I don’t want to waste what’s left of the daylight.”
It was Nick who took charge, leading the way outside, first reaching for his jacket that hung on the wall with his firefighter’s gear. As hot as it had been inside, scouting the land around White Pine on this early April day was decidedly chilly. “Then let’s get a move on.”
It wasn’t the only thing that had cooled down.
Joey watched as Nick slipped away from him again, Ellis following behind him, leaving Joey time to adjust his crotch for public. His erection might have dissipated, but he was hardly satisfied by not giving it its desired release. Were it not for Ellis Van Pelt, he and Nick would be grunting downstairs, he’d be thrusting with a power that still breathed within him. Would sex with Nick have resolved the issue between them, or would it have been a band-aid, protecting Nick’s wounded self for only so long? Joey let out a heavy sigh, then forged ahead and joined the two men in Nick’s Jeep since there was only room for two in Joey’s Mustang. As he was the last to get in, they’d saved the back seat for him, Ellis having taken the front passenger seat.
“So, boys, where to first? Got any ideas?” Ellis asked.
“What do you say we just drive around White Pine and look for some inspiration,” Nick said. “Joey, that okay by you?”
“Sure, sounds like a plan,” he said. “But let’s not forget this isn’t just about White Pine being represented. Ellis, have you visited Honor Hills yet?”
“Haven’t had the pleasure,” he said. “Perhaps you’d give me a personal tour, Joey.”
There was a decided suggestion in his voice, and coupled with the grin he showed in the rearview mirror it wasn’t lost on Joey, or for that matter, Nick. Great, the fancy-pants out-of-town guy was flirting with him, and in the presence of the man whose embrace he’d been caught in. Joey tried to show Nick a look of indifference, but Nick was focused on the road, his lips tight. Joey fell back against the back seat, sighing again.
Ellis Van Pelt was staring at him.
Hunger in his eyes.
§ § §
For the next half-hour, Nick Lynch drove through downtown White Pine, past storefronts and businesses, past Shiner’s Diner and the offices of the Gazette, but nothing struck them as a likely spot for eleven firemen to strut their stuff. They also agreed downtown was too public..What was the point of selling the calendar if they were going to give out free samples? Anyone with a cell phone could snap away and be content with the photo; did people even look at the bottom page of a calendar when above the marked out days were hunky fireman in various stages of undress?
Nick turned up a side road, and eventually they found their way on a dead end road. An old sign staked to the shoulder announced that the land up ahead was the property of the Lucky Scent factory, and as they rounded a curve the old building came into view. The size of a city block, it was really just a shell of its former self, having burned over a year ago. It was the place that had claimed Paddy Rodgers’ life.
“I don’t think this works,” Joey said. “Bad karma here for the White Pine brothers.”
Nick hadn’t been part of the team then, but he’d heard the story and agreed with Joey.
“Why haven’t they just torn that thing down?” Ellis said. “Such an eyesore, even more so being set against such a nature’s lovely backdrop. This early in April, your mountains are still snow peaked and the flowers are just beginning to bloom. That I could photograph, but not this old factory.”
So they drove on, with Joey offering up a suggestion.
“The bridge,” he said. “It’s got the views, plus it means something to us.”
Nick nodded. “Perfect.”
Ellis was suddenly clapping with enthusiasm, the effusive artist in him emerging. “I can already picture it, fire trucks parked on the bridge, you hot men with your shirts off, holding hoses…ooh, I think it’s getting all hot and bothered,” he said, and then with a flash of his eyes in the rearview mirror, said, “Again.”
The Paddy Rodgers Memorial Bridge suddenly loomed before them, its grand expanse catching the falling sun perfectly, and Ellis began to coo even further about the potential of this site for the photo shoot. Nick pulled to the side of the road just before the bridge opened up to them. To their right was Memorial Park, site of many village holidays, as well as the annual fall celebration, the Hibernation Festival. Joey suddenly recalled last year’s, where he and Austin had battled it out for the ultimate victory between the two firehouses. It had been like a sexual dalliance played out in front of the two villages, both of them having ended their relationship just that morning, and to the victor went the spoils.
Austin had defeated him. Joey looked away; he never liked to lose, not in love, or war.
Ellis was the first out of the Jeep, and he grabbed his camera with the long lens, and he immediately began to scope out the land. The beauty of White Pine surrounded them, from the wide canyon that the bridge stretched over to the jutting mountains in the near distance, to the rush of water from the river below. Ellis clicked away out of sheer enthusiasm, and only when he was finished did he look back at the two men.
“Okay, one of you, get in the shot. Pick a place…here, against the rail.”
Joey and Nick looked at each other, and Joey stepped forward. He wasn’t accustomed to having his picture taken, so when he stood before the rail he was uncertain what to do. He just stared forward, putting his hands in his pockets.
“Not even your mother’s going to buy the calendar with that kind of pose.”
Joey shrugged and he heard Nick laugh.
“Hey, you want to be the guinea pig here?”
“Come on, Joey, be yourself. Forget the camera,” Nick said.
“Good advice, actually. You should never think about the camera. Let it find you.”
So Joey reconsidered his approach, removing his leather jacket, as he felt too constricted. Nick came and grabbed it from him and for a moment the two men locked eyes. Nick nodded, as though to tell him to do what came naturally. Joey thought of the state of undress he should have been in had Ellis not appeared, and so, suddenly inspired, he undid a couple button of his shirt. He leaned against the rail, one foot propping him up.
“Nice, good, show me more,” Ellis said.
Joey attempted a smile.
“No, don’t force the smile. Give me more of what’s under that shirt.”
