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“Close your eyes, Ben.”
Sunday morning in Chicago. Outside, January was doing its thing pretty spectacularly. Inside, though, Ray was curled up in his bed with Fraser, hidden away from the world of cops and bad coffee, not to mention performance arsonists, lake pirates, voodoo zombies and all the typical wacked-out stuff you saw around the two-seven.
Even the Vecchio family was out of town, thank God, so no one was likely to disturb them in this little island of time they had to themselves.
Island…yeah. It would really rock to just blink out like on Bewitched or Star Trek and suddenly appear on a tropical island. With Ben. Just the thought got Ray going: a blanket on the sand, palm trees, sparkling water, gentle warm breezes, and Ben lying there in the buff, soaking up the sun. Wow.
“Close your eyes,” he said again, but softly, not like it was a big deal.
Maybe because it was Sunday, or maybe because Ray was cupping his callused right hand over Fraser’s shoulder and moving it over Fraser’s much smoother skin in little raspy circles, which Fraser loved, Fraser was cool. He didn’t ask why, he just nodded “okay” and shut his eyes.
And if that wasn’t a trip, you know? Because Fraser was the guy who regularly hauled Ray’s skinny ass into seriously bizarre, life-threatening incidents without asking him or even warning him first. For Fraser to obey Ray without question, even in something simple like this…it was good. Greatness. It turned Ray’s crank something fierce.
It was evidence—and make no mistake, Ray was collecting the evidence—that this thing between them was right, because this thing between them was the percep—the precept—the precipitating factor that finally pushed Fraser past his serious sticking point on the trust issue.
Everything had started with the cop partnership, of course, and in the beginning they didn’t have much choice about that, because Ray had to be Vecchio, and the most noticeable thing about Vecchio was the big red partner joined to him at the hip.
But the moment he’d laid eyes on Fraser, Ray had made his own choice, and he’d quickly found himself telling Fraser they were a duet, explaining why duets were vital, and showing him how much Ray was committed to theirs. Which, if Fraser didn’t get it when Ray drove the burning car into Lake Michigan, he must’ve got it when Ray jumped in front of a bullet meant for him.
Before the week was out, Fraser was telling Ray he’d be honored to call him his friend and partner, and Ray was coming on to him—either that, or pulling some seriously weird shit, what with do you find me attractive and pretend you’re a woman and telling him his deepest secret, and all.
Yeah, Ray’d had it pretty bad for Fraser from the start, and it had made a difference right away. Because the last time he’d gone through one of his sorry-ass Stella episodes, Fraser’d been there to pull him out of the emotional swamp. Ray had stayed up all night and thought—okay, and danced, and tried not to think—and when the sun came up the Stella freakout was over. For good. Dot it, file it, stick it in a box marked “Done,” because it was the last one.
So it wasn’t only Fraser who got pushed past his barriers. Ray and Fraser kind of pushed each other.
One surrender led to another, like dominoes falling. Which, right there, was the story of their duet, how it finally came together and started to sing. It was never one big leap, but a whole lot of little steps, little lines crossed that cop-partners weren’t supposed to cross.
Each step over the line knocked down another barrier between them and made it that much easier to step over the next line. A smile, a touch, a glance that lasted too long, a shared dinner, a leap off the pier, a bullet or two in a Kevlar vest—there didn’t seem to be anyplace they weren’t willing to go together.
Late nights led to crashing together in Ray’s apartment or in Fraser’s storage room of an office, at first just near each other, and then next to each other, and then…then there was the first time they woke up in each other’s arms, hot and rubbing up against each other. Things snowballed from there and—wham!—the last barrier was flattened, and they were together, partners in everything. Now they woke up together in Ray’s bed any time they could manage it, and they managed it a lot.
Of course that didn’t mean there weren’t still a few more dominoes left standing. Stuff they hadn’t done, words they hadn’t said. Choices they hadn’t made. Yet. Ray thought they’d get there, eventually, but he wasn’t so confident that he could afford to let things slide. He had to keep knocking over a domino now and then. And now, with the two of them in here and a ton of snow coming down outside, now seemed like a good time for another domino to fall.
Ray moved his hand down to Fraser’s smooth, muscular chest and looked at him in the cold white light seeping between the blinds. God, he was beautiful, dark and bright at the same time, sprawling out on the bed, totally relaxed. Like some big, sleepy angel that Michelangelo sculpted or something.
Under Ray’s hand, Fraser’s chest was warm and alive, but it moved so slowly, like Fraser maybe didn’t even need to breathe that often, what with his extra-capacity lungs, and all. One of Fraser’s freaky abilities was to slow his heartbeat and go all limp and blissed-out just by thinking about it, and maybe that’s what he was doing now.
Whereas Ray—Ray had to be hammered out of his mind to get that relaxed, and he didn’t like getting hammered; it wasn’t good for a cop’s health—or any skinny guy’s health; he’d learned that a long time ago. He never let himself get so loose that he couldn’t defend himself if he needed to. Especially these days, when Ray also needed to defend a crazy, lunatic Mountie who refused to carry a gun on the mean streets.
Ray smoothed his hand over Fraser’s chest and stomach, making circles on that silky skin, overlapping circle after circle, just feeling how great it was to touch Fraser. Ray wasn’t good at keeping still, even on a morning like this, with a blizzard howling down on Chicago like it mistook the city for the Yukon or something, and him and Fraser tucked up cozy here under Ray’s sheets, lazing around.
Well, naked, but not doing anything at the moment except enjoying being together and not being out in the driving snow.
“Glad we’re not out there,” Ray said, finally, keeping his voice soft so he wouldn’t disturb the sweet, lazy mood they were both in.
“I’m glad, too,” Fraser said, almost whispering.
“You are?” Ray had thought so, but he hadn’t been one hundred percent sure, because, after all, Fraser talked about the freaking tundra like it was oh, you know, a beach or something. So for all Ray knew, a raging blizzard in Chicago might be some kind of pleasant day to a guy who’d grown up in the frozen North.
“Yes, Ray.” Fraser’s voice had an easy note in it that Ray just loved. “Do you still want me to keep my eyes closed?”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” Ray said, and pressed his hand a little heavier on Fraser. “I was going somewhere with this. I want us to do a—what’s that thing that Einstein called it when he imagined riding on the beam of light? A thought experiment.”
“Yes, exactly,” Fraser said, and, wow, he didn’t even sound surprised that Ray remembered something from high school, which Fraser knew Ray had almost flunked out of.
“Hey, so you don’t like the blizzard, either?” Ray said.
“I could certainly tolerate it. But blizzards in Chicago are different from what I think of as real blizzards, which last for days and can be quite deadly. This one will be over by tonight; the snow will get plowed, and the temperature will fluctuate, causing slush and ice and car accidents and short tempers.”
“Ooh. Impoliteness might result. Yikes.” Ray snickered.
“And breakdowns and potholes and filthy windshields.”
“Yeah, you got a point.” Ray had an original windshield that he preferred not to get filthy, and he had damn-expensive rally wheels that he didn’t want to wreck in potholes. “Black snow on the curbs and that salt crap everywhere that eats cars whole.” Ray shuddered. He’d have to hose off the GTO’s undercarriage pretty much every day till the roads dried up.
“Is this what I’m supposed to be visualizing?” Fraser asked. “Because so far my options are a deadly blizzard in the Far North or a messy snowstorm in Chicago, and I don’t find either one precisely relaxing.”
“Okay, right. I’m glad you don’t really like those, though, because I don’t want you to picture either one.”
“You don’t?” Fraser sounded a little surprised, which made sense, but he didn’t ask why Ray would bring up pictures he didn’t want Fraser to picture, and Fraser not niggling—that warmed Ray to the core. He smiled, even though Fraser couldn’t see.
“Nope. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to take you away from a scene you really loved and send you to the diam—the daminet—the exact opposite.”
“Diametric,” Fraser said after a moment, and it wasn’t niggling, it was just buddies.
“Right, the diametric opposite. So let’s think farther south.”
“Mississippi?”
“A lot farther.”
“Mexico?”
“Yeah, that’ll do. Or even better, somewhere in the Caribbean, one of those islands with white sand and deep blue-green water. And lagoons and tame little waterfalls you can climb around in. And palm trees.”
“Beautiful,” Fraser breathed. He sounded like he was getting into it, and that made Ray’s heart catch an extra beat and start to speed up.
“And we’re there,” Ray said, “you and me. On the beach.”
He heard Fraser’s breath hitch, and now Ray was breathing a little harder, too.
“We’re lying there on the beach. Side by side. Just like now.” He moved his hand on Fraser again, sweeping it higher on his chest, up to his collarbones and then lower on his belly, to where the edge of the sheet was, at his waist. Ray slipped his fingertips just under that edge, keeping his touch just heavy enough not to tickle, and he felt the sparse line of hair, nearly invisible, that trailed down the midline of Fraser’s belly.
“Except,” Ray added, “we don’t have a blanket on us. Just under us.” He used both legs to kick the covers all the way down so they were both stark naked on the bed.
Fraser shivered under his hand, not from cold. “Are we alone, Ray?” Like he was really getting into it, and Ray smiled again, because Fraser had the right idea, but he also had the wrong idea, and this was maybe going to freak him out. But then again, maybe it wouldn’t, and Ray had a point, here.
“No,” Ray said carefully. “We’re not.”
And Fraser moved. A little shake, that’s all, like he’d been startled. “Oh?”
“Oh.” Ray laughed. “Yep, Ben, we are on a crowded beach. Well, not jammed. But there are people around, and they’re all enjoying the beautiful weather, too, and we’re there in the middle of it all.”
“All right,” Fraser said, sounding like he was getting it, which Ray was pretty sure he wasn’t.
“And we’re lying just like this,” Ray said, and slid his hand down Fraser’s belly on the last word and cupped his fingers over Fraser’s balls.
“Oh!” One of Fraser’s legs came up, sort of protectively, like it maybe would if the scene were real and he wanted to shield himself from all those people on the beach. “Ray! Are we…er, surely we’re wearing, ah, I mean…”
“Bathing suits?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Nope.”
“But Ray. Aren’t there families on the beach? Children, and elders, and so on?”
“Nah. Not that kind of beach. Just grown-ups, both sexes, and they’re mostly minding their own business, you know, like they’d be doing, and most of them have bathing suits on. Let’s say clothing’s optional. There’s beaches like that.”
“So there are. And is your hand on my…?”
“Yup. Just like this.” Ray moved his hand gently on Fraser, lifting his balls and sweeping his fingertips over the smooth skin beneath them, and sliding back to just graze the rim of his asshole.
“I’m fairly sure that would be illegal, even on that sort of beach,” Fraser said, his voice a little breathy.
“Well, this isn’t real, Fraser, it’s just pretend, and I make the laws on that beach.”
“Oh. So you do.” Fraser settled back on the pillow, but he wasn’t loose and relaxed any more. In fact, one part of him in particular was starting to look very not-relaxed. Ray grinned and moved his hand up to wrap around Fraser’s stiffening cock. He gave it a nice, firm, loving stroke, and Fraser gasped in a good way.
“And the people can see us, you know, but they’re mostly not watching. Yet.”
A long, slow shudder rolled through Fraser like a wave coming in off the ocean.
Ray laid his palm flat over the head of Fraser’s cock, then gradually closed his hand so that he cupped the head perfectly. He reached his fingers down the shaft, and Ray had long fingers, but Fraser was getting very hard, and Ray’s fingertips didn’t make it all the way down. He twisted them around Fraser’s cock, tugging gently, keeping his palm over the head, and felt warm liquid spreading under his hand. Oh yeah, Ben liked this.
Ray gave him another twisting stroke, and just as he pulled the tips of his fingers up around the head, he leaned over Fraser and said into his ear, “There’s a couple of girls right near us, Fraser.”
“Oh!” It was kind of more a groan than a word.
“ ‘Oh’…yeah,” Ray teased. “And they are hot girls, Fraser; they are sitting not fifteen feet from us and they just turned to look and now they are watching me do you.”
“Oh, dear,” Fraser breathed, and slicked Ray’s hand with more precome, just like that.
“Wow.” Ray looked down at where his hand was still stroking and pulling on Fraser’s cock. He spread the clear fluid under his hand and pushed back the cuff of foreskin a little more so that the head of Fraser’s cock stuck out, all purple and shiny and proud. Ray ran his thumb from the slit down the underside of the head, training the drops of precome in that direction, over Fraser’s most sensitive spots.
Fraser arched his whole body up with a loud groan, “Ray!”
Ray wrapped his hand around the shaft again. “Yeah?”
“When you say they’re hot…” Fraser said. He was obviously trying to sound normal, and doing a pretty good job of it, which, when Ray had a grip on Fraser’s cock, was fucking amazing. “What precisely do you mean, Ray? I know you don’t mean they’re uncomfortable with the ambient temperature. You mean they’re attractive.”
“Very attractive. Sexy. Hot,” Ray said.
“But, well…what precisely is hot to you, Ray?”
“Besides you, you mean?” Ray smiled at him even though Fraser couldn’t see it, because he still had his eyes closed, following instructions to the letter, like a good Mountie.
“Yes, can you describe the women?” Fraser’s hips moved like he couldn’t keep them still.
So, Fraser was getting into the spirit of things, huh? Cool.
“Let me look,” Ray said. “I’ll just glance over there, and…ooh—you like brunettes, right?”
“Ye—ah, no. No, Ray.”
“Well, um, one’s a redhead,” Ray said quickly. “Dark red hair, gorgeous. The other one, uh…” he thought for a second. Strawberry blondes were out—Stella—and blond blondes were out—also Stella, when she was younger—and forget brunettes—Frannie and Thatcher and what’s-her-name the bank-robber chick, not to mention the bounty-hunter lady. Unless they’d invented a new hair color for fair girls, he’d better think more ethnic.
“The other one’s black. Light-skinned. Long—” Oops. Long hair and dark eyes would remind him of Elaine, who was a friend and fellow officer and who’d also turned Ray down enough times to hurt a guy’s ego. “Um. Short hair. Beautiful green eyes.”
“All right,” Fraser said, swallowing hard like he was having trouble talking. Ray propped himself up, got both hands around Fraser’s dick, and gave him a long, twisting stroke that made Fraser moan again and stretch back on the bed.
“Beautiful,” Fraser murmured, and Ray didn’t know whether he was talking about the girls or the feeling, but Ray was good with it either way.
“They’re watching us; they saw that,” he said. “God, what it’s doing to them. They got big, wide eyes now. The one with the green eyes…?”
“Yes, Ray?” Fraser said a little breathlessly.
Ray grinned. “She’s perky.”
“Perky?”
“Her breasts, Fraser. Full and perfect, the color of a cappuccino; I’ll bet if you put your tongue on them you’d find her sweet.”
“You,” Fraser said, turning his head and getting his lips around Ray’s shoulder. He licked a big swipe just over the tattoo. “You taste sweet.”
“Oh, yeah…taste anything you want, Ben,” Ray murmured, pushing his shoulder into Fraser’s tongue rhythmically as he jerked Fraser’s cock. “I could get off just watching you lick those tits of hers, wow. She has pointy brown nipples, and we can see them, because—oops, clothing-optional beach, and she opted for…I think that is the bottom half of a very tiny string bikini, and it’s just barely clinging to her perfect hips. The way she’s running her tongue over her bottom lip, though…”
Fraser unconsciously echoed the gesture, and Ray leaned in and dropped a kiss on Fraser’s wet lips. “…oh, yeah, she’s looking over here and is just stunned by how sexy you are and how turned on. Probably wishes she could come put her perfect mouth on you, but she can’t, because she can’t move for looking at you. She’s, whaddya call it, spellbound.”
“Yes…”
“I’m guessing that little string bikini is not going to stay on for long. Her nipples are hard and she’s kind of squirming around a little, like the bikini bottoms are…oh, yeah. Wet. She is so wet looking at you, Fraser. Looking at me doing you. If she doesn’t shove those little bottoms down in a second and touch herself—”
“Yes, Ray?” Breathless for sure, now.
“Then her friend, the redhead is going to do it for her.”
“Oh!”
“Yeah, because from where the girls are sitting, leaning against those pretty palm trees there? They got a great view. They can see everything, Frase. They heard you moan like that. They can see how much you’re leaking under my hands.”
“Oh…”
“They know you want me so bad.”
“Yes. Yes, I do, Ray.” Fraser wasn’t whistling Dixie, either, because not only was his dick hard and throbbing in Ray’s hands, but his nipples were tight little points and his chest was rising and falling quicker, with uneven breaths. His tongue darted out and licked his lower lip twice, fast.
Ray smiled. “They’re both getting so turned on watching us, Ben.”
“Of course they are.”
“You see the redhead? She is so hot and bothered; her mouth’s falling open, and there’s sweat beading on her upper lip. She’s wearing just a little scrap of a bikini bottom, like her friend, and her nipples are pink. Her tits are big and round, and they’re bouncing, she’s breathing so hard.”
“Oh, dear.” Ray could have sworn Fraser was blushing, all the way up his naked torso to his face. Cute.
“Fraser, she loves it. You don’t have to get all flustered on her account.”
“Yes, well, ah…”
“Anyway, you and I are busy, here.” Ray slipped one hand back down to cup Fraser’s balls. They were heavy in his hand, and he could feel them move and tighten, like they recognized him. Which, of course they did, he told himself. He petted them. Cuddled them. Jeez, he was such a sap.
Fraser sighed in pleasure.
“Yeah, that’s it.” He gave Fraser’s dick another long, luxurious stroke. “So, the girls? They’re both looking like they’re gonna die right there if they don’t get touched, and the redhead’s looking at you, and then…oh. She’s looking at her friend. She’s taking her hand.”
“And…her friend?”
“Is looking at her. Yeah.”
And it was kind of like Ray could really see them himself, and that was…that was something, you know?
“Yeah, Ben. She’s getting off on how hot-looking you are, too, but her friend’s right there, and her friend knows her and cares about her and…”
“Yes,” Fraser breathed.
“Maybe even loves her. They’re both so hot, and it’s not like they never noticed.”
“Oh, of course they noticed.”
“Yeah. Best friends and all. They must spend a lot of time together.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe they even fight sometimes. You know.”
“Ah,” Fraser said, but his voice shook a little. “When they’re not…communicating as best friends and partners should.”
“Yeah.” Ray smiled, and bent his head down towards Fraser’s groin. He let his breath gust over Fraser’s sensitive flesh as he said, “Maybe sometimes they hugged or held each other’s hands, or got in each other’s space all the time, like a couple of cops I know sometimes used to do accidentally on purpose—”
“Mm.” Fraser’s lips quirked up into a little smile. Yeah, he was right there with Ray. He knew. He’d always known, just like Ray had.
“Until they came out to this beach today and saw us, they didn’t think, you know, that they could be, um, together.”
“And now they know.”
“They’re starting to get the picture.” Ray couldn’t stop one side of his mouth from inching up into a smile. “And it’s some fucking hot picture.”
He curled his body up to reach Fraser’s face and kissed his eyes open. “So we leave them to it, because we got our own duet going on over here and it is even hotter.”
Ray let go of Fraser’s cock and heaved himself up and over to straddle Fraser’s legs, keeping his weight on his own knees. He inched forward until his cock just kissed Fraser’s and left a little smear of his own wetness there.
“Oh! Oh, dear, Ray.” Fraser was actually panting. His fingers were twisted in the fitted sheet, and it looked like he might actually pull the thing off the bed. “Your hand, would you—could you…?”
“Ben, that is way too polite,” Ray said. “Touch you, huh?”
“Yes!”
Ray slid his hands up on the bed and rested his weight on them, crouching over Ben, and then lowered his body slowly, slowly—there! His cock was so fucking hard, and now he was dripping, too.
He lowered himself until his cock touched Ben’s and a drop of clear fluid stretched between them. He painted a long stripe of it right down the underside of Fraser’s cock, not rubbing, just touching him, so lightly it was maddening, and Fraser heaved up under him like he was trying to goad Ray, make him thrust down on Fraser and keep doing it till they both exploded.
Which would be fantastic, but there was other stuff Ray wanted to do first. He blew his breath out and freed a hand to scrub at his damp forehead. “Just go with me, here, buddy.”
Fraser worked one hand free of the sheet and raised it to Ray’s lips. He traced them with a slightly shaking finger. “You’re in charge,” he said softly.
And oh, man, if that didn’t turn Ray’s crank and rev his engine. He lowered himself all the way this time, draping himself over Fraser’s body and fastening his mouth to Fraser’s neck. He kissed and licked and nipped over Fraser’s jaw and chin and finally found his mouth. Heaven. Hot and sweet and messy and Ben…. Ben drank Ray’s kisses in like he’d been thirsting for them forever, like Ray was water in the desert.
When he finally let Ray catch his breath, Ray slid down Fraser’s body, his open mouth trailing over Fraser’s warm, soft skin and leaving him damp, flushed, and shivering everywhere Ray touched.
Ray didn’t give him any time to think. He went all the way down, mouth first, and wrapped his lips around Fraser’s cock, taking him in as far as he could and wrapping his hand around the rest. He pulled down gently on the sheath of skin so the bare head of Fraser’s cock quivered on Ray’s tongue, sticky and musky and salty-delicious. He heard Fraser’s hands slap down on the bed again, and felt the sheets pulled so taut that cloth started to tear.
He smiled around his mouthful of Fraser. Go ahead and shred my sheets, Ben. Out of control is what we’re aiming for, buddy. He took Fraser in as far as he could, till he almost gagged.
Fraser let out a sound that was practically a whimper, and his hips jerked like he was holding back a hell of a thrust. His strong hands came down and hooked themselves under Ray’s armpits and pulled him up till Ray had to let go. Ray slid his lips all the way up till the head of Fraser’s cock came free with an audible pop, leaving wetness on Ray’s lips. He licked them, tasted salt, musk—Ben. So good.
Fraser made that muffled helpless sound again, hauled Ray all the way up into his arms, and fastened his mouth on Ray’s. His tongue pushed into Ray’s mouth and took possession of it until Ray felt there wasn’t a square inch of his mouth that Fraser didn’t own, completely and totally.
“Do my mouth, do it,” Ray whispered when Fraser let him go to breathe. “I’m yours any way you want, Ben.” And he was, that was the stone truth, and he didn’t care if every person on his beach saw it, knew it, ’cause he wanted to tell the whole damn world. “I’m yours.”
“And I’m yours,” Ben whispered into Ray’s ear just before he closed his teeth lightly, teasingly, on Ray’s earlobe. He did Ray’s ear then, pretty much the way he’d done Ray’s mouth, and his warm, wet tongue almost sent Ray over the edge right there.
“You’re incredible,” Ray panted, “and you’re mine.”
“Ray…” Fraser practically groaned. Wanting Ray so much, and what a trip that was, to see Fraser going out of his mind with wanting Ray.
Ray would make it good for him. He struggled to catch his breath and gather his wits, so he could make it last. “Oh, God, you should see yourself, Ben. Gorgeous Mountie all laid out naked on your back about to—uhn!”
Ray squirmed around till his cock was right next to Fraser’s and he thrust down a few times, which, oh God, that was outrageously good. He tilted his hips—yeah, there was his thigh rubbing the soft skin in the crease of Fraser’s leg and just grazing Fraser’s balls, and there was his belly rubbing Fraser’s cock and getting wet with Fraser’s precome, and there was Fraser’s hand on the back of his neck, pushing up into his hair and Fraser’s other hand steadying his hip, helping Ray hold their bodies together. He thrust again. “—Oh! …about to get fucked good. You feel me, Ben? Feel me, I’m going to—”
Fraser gasped. “Fucked?”
“Ooh.” Ray grinned into Fraser’s neck and mouthed the long tendon with lips, teeth, tongue. “Heard that. Got the Mountie swearing now,” he breathed under the edge of Fraser’s jaw, which was still pretty smooth and not prickly with stubble like Ray’s. Ray tasted him there—amazing how sweet a guy could taste.
“Ray…” Fraser’s voice cracked. “Did you mean it?”
Ray pushed himself up on his elbows. He’d only meant… “That what you want? I mean, you’re talking about…”
“You inside me. Yes, I want it. Now.”
“Oh, jeez…Fraser…that’s so hot.” They’d only done it once, and Ray was the one who’d gotten fucked. The question of whether Fraser might want it hadn’t come up yet, because usually when they got something going, Fraser was all over Ray like a wild man, and Ray never had time to ask.
But now, on this lazy beach, the edge taken off by the night before, Fraser was pacing himself, following Ray’s lead, and that was pretty damn hot in itself.
The thought of laying Fraser out and pushing into him made Ray’s breath catch in his throat. “Oh, God—okay, okay, yes.” He managed somehow to push himself up and off Fraser and stumbled over to the dresser to rummage in the top drawer. “Christ, where’d I put the stuff?”
“Here, Ray.” Still on his back, Fraser reached overhead into the bookshelf headboard and knocked a few items around blindly before he pulled out a little bottle of lube.
Ray was back on the bed in an instant, sliding between Ben’s spread thighs. He took the bottle and flipped up the little spout in a hurry. “Here, here, Ben, let me—” He spilled some of the slippery stuff on the sheets, but managed to get enough on his fingers so they’d slide into Ben easy. He used his middle finger and his forefinger and then he pulled them out, turned his hand over, and slicked up his thumb, pressing that up against Ben’s asshole, too.
“Ray!” Ben groaned, arching back on the bed, his knees up, the rest of him stretched out taut. He put both arms up over his head and grabbed the headboard, his knuckles going white, and he shoved his hips forward and up so Ray’s thumb slid right into him, with no resistance at all. The tight muscle clutched Ray’s thumb like it wanted to hold onto Ray, and Ben’s breathing became outright panting.
“Hurts?” Ray held very still.
“No—oh, no, Ray. Quite…the…opposite.”
Okay. Good. That was…greatness. “More?” Ray said.
“Oh, yes, more. I want you, now, I want your—”
“You want my cock, Ben?”
“Oh—” It came out on a loud groan. “Yes! Oh, God. Ray.”
Ray’d be grinning ear to ear if he had any energy free to do it, but he was focused like a laser sight on what he was going to do to Fraser. He grabbed a pillow and shoved it up under Fraser’s hips and helped Fraser ease his legs up and back and—there! Fraser’s gorgeous, muscular ass was open and ready for him, glistening with the slick. Ray pushed his thighs up close under Fraser’s ass, grabbed his own cock and snubbed the head against Fraser’s asshole, and pushed. He went into that delicious tightness so fast it almost made his head spin. He hooked his arms under Fraser’s legs and started to thrust.
“Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray…” Fraser breathed as Ray pulled back and thrust into him over and over. “Oh…” His hips jerked. “Ray. Yes.”
Every stroke out was almost tighter than the stroke in, like Fraser didn’t want to let go of him. Ray put his thighs and back into the effort and angled himself to get that place…that place inside a guy that made him go crazy—there. Got it.
Fraser moaned and curled up toward him, letting go of the headboard and grabbing Ray’s shoulders, holding on like he was going to fall into the ocean or something if he didn’t.
Ray had to stop thrusting or risk coming right there, and he thought if he held still a bit, he could maybe last a little longer. He went still, or as still as he ever got, anyway, and braced himself above Fraser, his arm muscles straining a bit. “Hang on a sec, Ben,” he managed to say, and tried to catch his breath. Sweat was dripping down into his eyebrows, but he didn’t want to free a hand to deal with it. He closed his eyes so it wouldn’t sting too bad. And he felt Fraser’s hand on his forehead, gently wiping the sweat away.
“My. Ben.” Yeah, they were a duet for real.
Fraser’s thumb brushed over Ray’s lips. Ray opened them and caught Fraser’s thumb between his teeth, gently, tasting his own salt. He went after it with his tongue till Fraser practically whimpered and started thrusting up against Ray.
“I’m close, I’m close, Ben—”
Fraser’s blue eyes were dark, the pupils dilated with pleasure. He craned himself up to kiss Ray, and when he couldn’t quite reach, Ray unhooked his arms from under Fraser’s legs and leaned in and closed the gap. Fraser’s mouth seemed to melt into his.
Their bodies must’ve taken over at some point, because the next thing Ray noticed was that Fraser’s legs were high around his waist, and Ray’s hips were thrusting again, shoving his cock deep into Fraser like he was trying to plow all the way into the core of him, and Fraser was riding the thrusts like an expert horseman, his cock rubbing up against Ray’s belly in quick delicious strokes.
“Ben—I can’t hold on any more!”
“Good,” Ben said. “Good, good, Ray…come now, come on…I—oh, Ray, I…”
Yes. “I love you,” Ray said clearly, and oh, God, that was it—pleasure hit him like an ocean wave, and he filled Fraser with his heat. Ray pushed in closer, slowing his thrusts but still spurting, and right then Fraser cried out incoherently and froze, and came hard all over himself and Ray, his ass spasming, milking Ray dry.
After a long, breathless moment, Ray sagged and disengaged, and helped Fraser get his legs down to a comfortable position. They eased down side by side on the bed, and Ray blew out a long, satisfied breath.
When he opened one eye to check on Fraser, he found him on his side, his head propped on his wrist, gazing at Ray with those amazing blue eyes. The pink flush in his face and all down his chest kind of gave him away, though. So did that goofy smile on his face. “And I you, Ray,” he said.
Ray laughed, delighted. Just before he dozed off, he kissed Ben long and hard, till Mr. Excess Lung Capacity had to come up for air.
***
“We should give them names, our two imaginary women,” Fraser said after they’d awakened and wallowed for a bit. The cold light coming in from outside was a little brighter, which meant it was almost time for Ray to haul himself out of bed and make some coffee, and the room had that hushed feeling that a big blizzard outside could cause.
“Okay. If you want.” Ray yawned, but he also grabbed Fraser’s hand and held it, lacing their fingers together.
“Well, they’re important to us, Ray; they witnessed a very intimate moment.
Ray chuckled softly. “Freak. So, you did get into that.”
Fraser grinned.
“Name ’em later,” Ray said. “Do you get it about the beach?”
“It was, as you say, ‘hot.’”
“Yeah, but there’s more to it.”
“Of course. You don’t really want people to watch us. You’re not an exhibitionist.”
“Nah. It’s just a fantasy. But it’s also a, whaddya call it, a meta-something. Something that stands for something else.”
“A metaphor.”
Ray nodded.
Fraser blinked. “You want people to know,” he said, sounding a little surprised.
Neat. He loved it when Fraser read him loud and clear. “Yeah, I do.”
“It might be very rough on you.”
“On both of us,” Ray corrected. “ ’Course, I wouldn’t say anything unless we both agreed.”
“Whom do you want to tell?”
“Well, my folks kind of deserve to know.”
“Agreed.”
“Stella. I mean, maybe she don’t deserve to know, exactly, but once my mom knows she won’t be able to keep it from Stella. And…I just want Stella to know.”
“Just wanting to is reason enough.”
“I’ll tell my brother. He gave up expecting normal from me a long time ago. I’m sure you’d tell Vecchio if he was here.”
Fraser nodded. “And if your name weren’t Vecchio.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a problem.” Ray snickered, just a little. “Right. He wouldn’t want to get a rep for…”
“Exactly. He found it challenging enough to get a date with a woman before.”
“With you next to him all the time? Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” Ray said, but he was laughing as he said it.
Ray’d had the same problem, of course, but the complication there was that he’d really wanted Fraser, and not any substitute. And wasn’t that ironic as all hell, seeing as Ray had started out as Fraser’s substitute partner in the first place.
He pulled Fraser’s hand up to his lips and kissed it. The great thing was, Ray knew he wasn’t a substitute anything anymore. He was the real deal for Fraser, as Fraser was for him, and that was beyond greatness.
“Well, I wasn’t figuring on telling any cops, anyway. At least not CPD. Except maybe Welsh, sometime.”
“That would be all right.”
“You?”
Fraser shrugged. “There’s no one else to tell. My father…”
“I know. On the trail of whose killers you came to Chicago…”
Fraser blinked. “Lovely syntax, Ray.”
“Thanks. Syn-what?”
“It’s not important.”
“Right. What is important is that you’d like to tell your dad. Even though you can’t, because he’s, uh, gone on ahead.”
“He’ll know,” Fraser said. “It’s not as though he’s not—uh, wasn’t—a nosy Parker.”
Ray waved a hand. “Professional nosy Parker, like any detective.” He smiled and pulled Fraser into a tight hug. “Yeah, I think he’ll know.”
“I know he likes, ah, would like and respect you very much,” Fraser said.
Ray shook his head. When Fraser talked about his father, he always started in the present tense, like the guy was still around and Fraser had just talked to him. But, whatever. Ray had his own freaky aspects; he had no right to make a big deal out of Fraser’s—at least, not the totally harmless ones.
The important thing was that Fraser was with him on this; he loved Ray, he was happy and proud to be with Ray, and if he could, he’d tell the world.
And since they couldn’t tell the world, because the world was seriously fucked up about some stuff, gay cops being the key thing here, they would at least tell their families, such as they were. And that was pretty big, in itself.
See, if they told people, even just a few, they weren’t on their secluded island any more. Whether people reacted well or not, this thing between Ray and Fraser would be real…well, it was already real for them. But now it’d be real to the outside world, too.
Someone out there would be pulling for them, and maybe someone would be giving them a hard time about it, too, but either way, it would be real in the outside world, as well as in their private domain.
“Ben?” he said, very softly.
“Yes, Ray?”
“Thing is, I do want everyone to know. I want the whole world to know. And I just—”
“Sh,” Fraser said. “We both know it isn’t safe to tell the whole world just yet. Nor fair to Ray Vecchio.”
“I know,” Ray said. “But I just want you to know. If I could, I’d shout it from the top of the highest mountain in Canada.”
“That could cause an avalanche, Ray.” Fraser said it with an almost-straight face, but his eyes were sparkling.
Ha. Ray tickled him, and Fraser tickled back, and in another minute they were rolling on the bed, kissing, kissing.
No avalanche today. Just one more domino, falling.
end