Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 19:06:17 From: tim tim Subject: chapter 16 of coaches assistant <> Chapter 16 of "Coach's Assistant" There I was, at the point I hoped I never would be. There was, in fact, only one thing I could do: I had to go back to Mike's place. I still wasn't able to answer Alexei, and I just stared into nothingness. Could I do it? Could I cope with it? It had only been a week ago and I knew I hadn't thought about it very much during the last two days, but still... "Nick, are you OK? Is there a problem?" Alexei asked. "No problem, Alexei. I was just thinking," I said as I slowly became more and more aware of the world around me. "When do you want us to leave, Nick? Mike said we could come at any time." Of course he would have said that, I thought, but I didn't dare put that into words. "I want to be back on time, Alexei. I'm not sure when Francis is going to be here." "I understand that, Nick. We can leave right after lunch if you want to. If there is enough equipment for both of us to use, you can join me and we'll work out for an hour or two. Then you'll be sure to be back on time to meet Francis." Alexei's last comment was made with a big smile on his face, and I knew that he approved of our love and was not treating it with contempt. "OK, that's fine by me. We'll leave right after lunch." "Good. I'll see you then. I'm going to answer some e-mails now." With that, he left the room. Maintaining a conversation had been good for me, but now that he had left, I felt the whole room closing in on me. It was very hard to breathe. Horrible pictures of what had happened last Sunday came back to haunt me, not slowly but with a sudden, crushing force. Was I going to be able to do this? Could I face up to what might come? I wasn't sure what happened to me, but I must have fallen asleep again because I was awakened by a knock on my bedroom door and a someone yelling from the hallway. "Lunch is ready, Nick." I quickly got up and walked towards the bathroom to look in the mirror. I only hoped that fear wasn't apparent in my face. I didn't look too bad but I must have been crying because there were some tear tracks on my face. I slowly washed up and then, when I was satisfied that I looked a little better, I went downstairs to join the rest for lunch. I didn't talk very much during lunch. I could only think about how I was going to manage the visit. I knew that I had to keep up appearances until later that night when Francis was here. He wouldn't mind if I broke down. Lunch was over before I knew it and we got our bags and started off to Mike's place. When we arrived, his mom was outside beside the car and she told us to walk right in. Mike was in his room getting ready to leave. As we arrived at the door to the basement, it opened and there was Mike. I felt my legs trembling as we walked into the hallway and came closer and closer to that fateful door. "Hi, Alexei, you're here early." "I know, Mike. I hope you don't mind." "No, of course not, Alexei. I'll be leaving so you can use the basement." Right behind Mike I saw another boy exiting from the basement. I hadn't seen him before here. I knew Mike didn't have any brothers, so I was curious to find out who he was. Mike looked at me. "Glad you could join Alexei and show him my stuff, Nick." "No problem," I said without a lot of enthusiasm in my voice. "I don't believe you two have met before. This is James, my cousin who is two years younger than I am." I said hi to him and introduced Alexei. They started to talk quite easily and it appeared that James must have been a gymnast, too. He looked quite cute though. He was tall with a beautiful face and, in his red shorts, he looked like a stud in the making. Mike gently maneuvered me off to the side of the hall. He did it so skillfully that I didn't even notice that we were separated from the others. "Are you OK with this, Nick? I can stay home if you want." "No, Mike. I have to get through this eventually, so why not now?" "Well, I'm glad you came. I was afraid you would never want to talk to me again. As I said before, I am really sorry about what happened." "I still don't want to talk to you, Mike. I am here because Alexei wanted to come, not because of you. So please leave me alone." "I'm sorry, Nick, but there is something you have to know. The doctors sent me an e- mail recently and they said that if we weren't going to continue, they would somehow inform Alexei of what is going on. They saw that he was in town and I think they want us to be humiliated in front of him. I just can't believe they would do that, but I don't want to take the chance, so please come and join me tomorrow afternoon after gym. Otherwise you and I are going to be in real big trouble." I looked into his face to see if he was telling me the truth or was he just making this stuff up. I could hardly believe that the doctors would do something like that, but Mike's face was fearful, so I knew he was speaking the truth. What could I say to him? "Well, Mike, I'm not sure but perhaps if it doesn't take place in the basement, we can do something that would satisfy them. I'll have to wait and see how this afternoon goes." I was upset with myself. Was that really what I intended to say? I saw on Mike's face that he was quite relieved by what I had said ... Did I really want to be humiliated by Mike again, now that Francis had entered my life? "Well, that's fine by me too, Nick. I will think of something to do tomorrow afternoon." I wasn't able to say anything because Mike's mom called him and James to come along. I looked at Alexei and saw that he was staring at me. Did he hear any of that conversation? "Are you all right, Nick? You look pale to me." Ah, there was the problem: the basement was already taking its toll on my face. I knew there was only one way I could survive going downstairs. I started to concentrate with all my might on Francis and on his face. "I am fine, Alexei. Let's go downstairs." With me in the lead, we went down into the basement. I still had the image of Francis on which to focus my mind. "Wow, this is really great! What a collection of equipment," Alexei enthused as we entered the basement. "Yea, Mike has really committed himself to his gymnastics." "He sure has, but I don't think he is that talented, so he'll need this stuff if he wants to get anywhere." When he saw me looking at him, Alexei got a little confused. "Oh, shit, maybe I shouldn't have said that, Nick. Don't tell him or any of the other guys I said that." "Don't worry, Alexei. I won't tell any one; it is going to be our secret." With Francis's face firmly fixed in my mind, I decided to place myself with my back to the bed. Maybe if I were in this position all the time, I could get through this. "Well, Nick. Shall we start over there?" He pointed to the rear of the basement, and I knew I would have my back to the dreaded bed, so I said that working out there would be a good idea. We did routines for almost an hour and a half and we'd used all the equipment at the rear of the basement. We were moving closer and closer to the other side of the room. I knew I was going to have to face Mike's bed soon, but I kept on looking in the other direction. As we worked out, I helped Alexei and he helped me, so in no time we had worked up quite a sweat. I had touched his body several times, and he had touched mine. But until now, I hadn't had any trouble avoiding getting excited. The fear of having eventually to face the bed had to be a big part of that, too. "So, there are only two more things to do, Nick, and then we'll be finished with our workout." "That's fine with me, Alexei. I do not think I have ever done such a long and complicated workout before." "Well, you're keeping up with me very well. I would have thought that you had been doing a lot more of this." "Only for the past few months, and then for no more than an hour, never more. That is usually long enough for me." "Do you want to quit then, or do you want to do the last two parts of the workout?" "No, I'm still game, so let's get on with it. Probably my muscles will say `no more' at some point, but that is what the equipment is for, to test you to your limits." He smiled at me and we started to do the last two sets. We chatted a little and I was almost finished my last exercise with Alexei helping me when, somehow, I managed to push myself a little too hard. My muscles were really tired and that last sequence was just too much. "Oh, no you didn't tear a muscle, did you, Nick?" "No, I don't think so, but I am feeling every muscle I have after these two hours of exercising. I don't want to know what I'm going to feel like tomorrow." I stood up from the equipment and I knew I was only inches away from the bed with my back to it. Alexei walked towards me and, before I could do any thing, he pushed me backwards. "Lie down, Nick. I'll give you a massage so you'll feel a little better." I felt the bed beneath me and the wall beside it at the same time. The tidy fantasy my mind had created crumbled as the image of Francis's face dissolved and all the memories of last Sunday came back to life. I know that Alexei didn't notice anything because he started to massage my legs. He instructed me to lie on my stomach so that he could do my back. As I did so, I know I was on automatic pilot. I started to shake really badly. I was not sure what I was doing but then a hand caressed my shoulder and I heard some one call my name. "Nick, what's happening? I didn't hurt you, did I?" "Nick, please say something." I still couldn't look up but I became aware of the fact that I was crying uncontrollably. I felt Alexei gently take hold of me and he held me against him. "Just let it out, Nick. I am here ... help you." Well, this could only be a dream ... Alexei Nemov! But at that moment, this was not the thing my mind focused on. I was in another world, and I am not sure how long I cried but it took me some time before I started to calm down a little. "I am not sure what happened, Nick ... when I just about stopped crying and he pushed me a little back so he could look into my face. "No, nothing you did, Alexei," I said with a deep gasp of breath. "Well, it must be something important, or do you cry easily?" he asked. "No, I don't, but ... "Shush, if you don't want me to know, you don't need to tell me. You're safe with me." I kept crying for at least another minute or so. "Is it because you're gay, Nick?" "Well ... can't handle them at the moment." I knew I could tell Alexei what had happened right now as we sat in the place where my humiliation had happened, but I didn't know if he would tell my Dad. "Well, I think your family should be fine with it. I know David will; he has spoken to me already about you being gay." "He did?" I asked, surprised. "Yes, he wanted to know if I would tell your Dad that I found you and Francis in bed together." "Oh, and what did you tell him?" "That I didn't mind and that it was up to you if you told your Dad or not. We talked about it for a while and David told me he was glad that you found Francis." "Ah," was all I could say at that moment. I felt my face turn pink in embarrassment when he said Francis's name. "Oh, you are so in love, Nick, if you react like that merely at the sound of someone else saying his name." "I know. I just can't help it." "Well, talking about Francis has at least taken your mind off of what was bothering you. Is everything OK now?" "I am not sure if I can tell you, Alexei, but something happened in the past in this room that just crept up on me and I couldn't handle the pain for a moment." I thought that was a good way to bring that part of the conversation to a close, but I was wrong. "I think you're not telling me everything, Nick. There is more to it than that. I saw how you reacted when I asked you yesterday to come along, and I saw you when you found out that Mike was still at home and how you reacted when he left you to go to the car. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, but I am here for you if you want." I looked at him. "I am not sure, Alexei, that I am ready to tell you what is wrong but at least let me say that I am getting past all that now." "Are you sure, Nick?" "Yes, for now I am. Let's just change the subject, shall we? I just want to feel OK again and get on with my life." "OK, that's fine by me, but if you ever want to talk with me about it, just let me know. Wherever you are, just send an e-mail and I will contact you." "Would you do that for me, Alexei?" "Why not? I am really feeling quite comfortable with you and your family. I want to be your friend, if you'll let me." "Thanks, Alexei," I said and, without thinking, I put my arms around his neck and gave him a little more than tender embrace. When I felt him tighten a little, I quickly let him go, realizing what I was doing. "I'm sorry, Alexei. I suppose I shouldn't have done that." "No problem here, Nick. I was just taken by surprise. Well, we'd better try to find a shower and get out of here. I was going to shower at your place, but you need a wash before you go home; otherwise, everyone will want to know why you have been crying and you don't want to raise those questions right now." "Thanks, Alexei, you are great. I know where the towels are and where the shower is, so let's go." We went upstairs and took a shower. Well, he did first and, when he was finished, I stepped in. After we finished, we decided to walk home to take advantage of the good weather we'd been having. I was a bit afraid that we'd be late arriving, but it was only 4 p.m. and Francis was not there yet. My Dad was in the kitchen when we entered. "Hey, did you guys have a great workout?" "Well I did, Dad, but I will certainly feel my muscles ache tomorrow. I've never had such a long workout before, but Alexei was a great help." "Hmmm, I thought you went along to help him instead of the other way around?" "Oh, don't worry, sir," interjected Alexei. "He helped me as well, and I was very pleased with the work we managed to do. I'm going upstairs to have a little nap, if you don't mind." "OK, dinner will be served in about two hours, I think." Alexei left and I stayed behind in the kitchen. "Did Francis call, Dad?" I asked, a lot of anticipation in my voice. "Yep, he did. He will be around for dinner." "Oh, terrific," I said with a little more enthusiasm than I was supposed to show. I saw my father look at me but I decided it was better to leave now before he could say anything else. I left the kitchen quickly and walked upstairs. When I passed David's room, I saw that the door was open and he was sitting behind his desk. "Hey, what are you doing?" "Just a little bit of homework," he responded. "That has to be done too, you know." `Well I finished mine yesterday, so I have the whole evening off." "Well, good for you because I know that, when Francis is here, you two are not going to be doing a lot of studying." I started to blush again. "Don't worry, Nick. I was just teasing you a little. You'd better get used to it, now that I've found something that embarrasses you so easily." "I just wanted to thank you for what you said to Alexei." "Oh, did he tell you that?" "Yes, somehow that came up and he told me how protective and supportive you've been." "Well, I'm really glad that you joined the team and found such a good friend. I was afraid you were dying inside, bit by bit, all by yourself." "Thanks, David." "Well, what else are brothers for? I heard that you had a fight with Dad. Are you OK?" "Did he tell you that?" I asked, trying to avoid answering his question. "No, Francis told me when he called to say that he would be here before six for dinner." "Well, you could say we had a little set to, but he and I had talked about this before. He just has to learn that I need his attention and his love as much as you do. I don't think I'm jealous or anything, David, but he just seems to talk with you easier than he does with me. And he's been planning a lot of things without even bothering to ask me. He has to understand that he can't order me around as if I were a little kid. I think things are getting better." "I think it's a good thing you told him that, but communication is a two-way street: you have to make the effort to talk with him, and with me a little more often, Nick. I hardly know what's going on in your head most of the time. For example, I found you and Francis kissing, but would you have ever told me about that yourself?" "No, I know you are probably right, David, but I'm just not very comfortable talking about that kind of stuff." "Well, whenever you want to chat, just let me know. There is always at least one ear ready to listen to whatever you want to tell me." I just walked over to him and gave him a big thank you hug. I couldn't say what I felt. I just wanted to show him that I loved him very much for being my brother. "Now, get out of here so I can do a little more homework, you little twerp." I left his room and walked into mine. I just lay down on my bed. I had to think a little about what had happened. Being around people helped me to try to forget the awful things that had happened to me but, as usual, being alone brought it all back. Having nothing else to think about brings back memories and stuff I'd rather not think about. I did promise Mike we would do something again together as long it was outside the basement. I had to be honest with myself: I liked what we did together at the beginning. I liked being treated as a little slave, but then Francis came along, the light of my life at the moment. He had been a true friend at the time when I needed one. And I really wanted to get involved with him. But what if the doctors sent some of those pictures to Alexei? There was no way that he would be my friend if he found out something like that about me. I was just not sure what to do. I knew I had almost 24 hours to make up my mind. Whatever I did, I had to make sure that it was something that Francis would not find out about. That was a promise Mike had to make: that only a few people - the doctors for example - would be a part of this. And then there was that good-looking cousin of Mike's who followed him up the stairs today. What was his role in all of this? James didn't look too pleased when he left the basement. Could they be involved somehow? I was doing far too much thinking again, I decided. I just had to go one step at a time and see what would happen. As long as I had Francis in my life, I could handle anything. I started to read a little more of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. I had started reading it earlier and I really liked it so far. There was that sweet Hobbit, Frodo, and his little helper, Sam. Pepijn and Merijn ... they found many enemies on the road, they had found a way of getting through it all so far. Because, beside the enemies, they had some friends like Tom Bombadill. I must have read a considerable amount because I was totally into the book when suddenly I felt that someone was watching me. I looked up to see who, and there was Francis. "Hey, you're here already!" I said. "Yes, but it is almost 6 o'clock, so dinner should almost be ready if your Dad is keeping to his schedule." "Have you been standing there a long time? I didn't hear you come in." "I was just enjoying the view. I've only been here for a minute or two. I loved the way you were totally absorbed in the book with that tiny smile on your face." "Oh, well, come here so I can give you a warm welcome kiss." He came to the side of the bed and sat down beside me. He just leaned forward and we kissed. First only with our lips but then slowly we opened our mouths and our tongues got some nice touchy interaction with each other. Just sucking on it a little, I felt I had to stop because I was almost out of breath. "I've missed you," I said. "Not as much as I've missed you, Nick." Francis answered. A long, more passionate kiss followed. This time it was even better. I felt my dick start to rise. I knew I had to control myself because dinner would be soon. "I think we had better stop this, otherwise I am going to lose my appetite for food completely," I said when we broke our kiss and I had managed to get some air back into my lungs. We just lay there and looked at each other. I didn't want to say anything more but the magic silence was broken when we heard Dad shouting that dinner was ready. We went downstairs and ate supper. Nothing special went on during the meal. Francis and I tried to be in contact as much as possible. We played with each other with our feet and our hands lingered when we were handing each other the salad or the potatoes. After dinner, Dad said that because Alexei and Francis were guests, David and I had better do the dishes, so we both got up and went into the kitchen. I looked one more time to see if Francis was still at the table as I went through the door to the kitchen. "You'd better be careful, Nick. You two are getting pretty obviously involved with each other. When Francis is talking to you, you listen raptly and you blush every once in a while." "Oh, dear, were we that obvious?" "You two were quite blatant. I believe Alexei saw every time you touched each other." "We only touched each other a few times, David, nothing more." "Well, maybe nothing else happened, but the smiles on both your faces while doing so said enough." I felt my cheeks blush again and I quickly looked away. "Now, that is exactly what I mean, Nick. There you go again. Not that I mind but if you want this to be a secret, it is not going to remain one for very long if you behave like that." "Ummm ... be appropriate. "You don't have to say anything. I don't care, Nick, but if you want to keep this a secret, you'd better learn to be a little more discreet when you two are in the same room." "Thanks, David. I'm sorry, but it is just the way I feel when I'm around him. I can't stop thinking about him. I can't stop touching him. I can't ... "OK, Nick, stop right there. I don't need to know more details. Let's just finish the dishes so you can go back to Francis as soon as possible." We quickly washed and dried the dishes and went back into the living room. Dad was nowhere to be found, and Francis and Alexei were sitting on the couch. Before David could sit down, I jumped right between them. "Be careful, Nick! Couldn't you have asked us to move a little?" Alexei said. "No, I wanted to be the first one there and who knows which way you would have moved if I had asked?" "Well, I can figure that out after your behaviour over dinner, that you didn't want me in the middle." We both blushed this time. "Why don't you two go up to your room, Nick. Your Dad just left to get something for me to read but he'll be back soon and there is no way you two can keep your hands off each other." "Didn't I tell you, Nick? I knew Alexei would notice what was happening." "Well, that wasn't too difficult, David, I was between the two of them. I don't think they realised that sometimes they were rubbing the wrong foot." "Oh, no, not with their feet, too!" David said a little louder than necessary. We started to laugh at his remark, and both Francis and I felt a little embarrassed that we had been caught so easily. "We had better get upstairs, Francis, before these two start giving us a really hard time." We went upstairs to my bedroom. I let Francis walk in front of me so I got a good view of his beautifully shaped ass. I felt my dick start to stir. We sat down on the bed. Francis picked up the book I had been reading. "How can you read such a thick book? It must take you weeks before you can finish it." "Well, that depends, I guess... "Depends on what, Nick?" "How much time you're going to spend here, Francis." "Oh, I see. Well, when you want to read, just let me know and I will leave," he answered me, trying to outwit me. "Come here," I answered. And I started to slowly kiss him. "There is nothing I would rather do than kiss you and look at your beautiful face. Reading can't compete with that." "Oh, Nick... where our tongues kept touching each other and exploring every little part of our mouths. For anyone looking at us, the scene would have been boring to watch, but it was glorious to be there. We kissed for a long time, just stopping every now and then to catch our breath. I felt my dick getting very hard in my pants. I wanted to feel more of Francis, touching his body, running my fingers through his hair, but I just didn't dare to go that far yet. At last, we needed a break. We just stared at each other for a moment. We made our selves comfortable on the bed, linking our arms together, holding hands. I could feel his well-formed fingers, his soft skin. I was still curious about one thing that I hadn't yet asked him about. I was a little bit afraid of his answer, but I had to know. "How did it go with your parents yesterday?" I saw his smile fade from his face and he went a little pale. "I hope you don't mind my asking," I hastily added when he didn't respond to the question. "Well, let's just say it didn't go very well. They were glad that the coach called but when I told them that I would be coming over here again tonight, they were very suspicious. They said over and over that they didn't want to have to move again and, if necessary, they would find me a new shrink to work with." "Oh, no. I'm so sorry, Francis." "Well, don't be sorry. We would never have met if the past hadn't happened." "But, still, it's all been so hard on you." "Don't worry about it, Nick. As I said before, they will find out soon anyway. I can't keep this up for very long. They will only become more and more suspicious about it. They'll not leave it be, so we'd better be careful when we're in public." "OK, but here we can do what we want." I leaned into his face and start to nibble on his earlobe, moving from there to his mouth, making a path of small kisses on his cheeks. We kissed again for a moment, but Francis stopped a little quicker than the last time. "And how about you, Nick? Did you talk to your Dad again? It seemed that you were talking to each other again." "For now, yes, we've cleared the air. I think you were right: he really loves me but we just have a difficulty communicating with each other. We talked about it and we agreed that we would try to be a little more open about things. First, I'm going to need to trust him again, but I think time will get us there. He was totally unaware of what he was doing, so just pointing out to him what was happening got him thinking about things." "Did you tell him what was upsetting you at the beginning of the week?" I just looked at him, surprised. We hadn't talked about this over the past few days. Why did he bring it up like that? "No, I didn't," I said firmly, and with such a tone in my voice that Francis had to know I didn't want to talk about it. "Come on, Nick. You have to talk about it. Or do you want to have another breakdown like this afternoon or in some public place?" Then it struck me that Alexei had talked to him about what had happened earlier. I didn't want to discuss this at all, but there was no way that Francis was going to drop it. I already knew that he could be quite persistent if he wanted to be. I looked into his face, where I saw a flood of concern about what had happened. "It just got to me over there. That doesn't mean I will break down again." "Why are you so sure about that, Nick?" Shit! He knew how to ask just the right questions, the ones I had to answer, even when I didn't want to. I looked at him and I felt my resistence start to crumble. The love and concern on his face made me trust him completely. I started to cry and he took me in his arms. "You can tell me if you want to, Nick. I won't say anything. Is it something Mike did? I know you two are not talking any more." When my tears slowed, I looked at Francis again. "You have to know that I trust you, Francis, but it's really hard to talk about it." "Well, just remember, I am here for you whenever you want to talk. OK?" "I know that, but I just don't know how to say it. I hardly understand it myself." Francis didn't ask me to explain. He slowly started to nibble on my ear this time. During our talk my erection had subsided, but when Francis touched my earlobes with his lips and slowly licked them, my dick instantly became hard. He kept on licking them and then slowly brushed my cheeks with his mouth. Though I ached for him to kiss me again, he just passed by my lips and went for my other earlobe. I moaned a little and then I felt him against me. To reach my other earlobe he had to lift himself up and twist his body a little to the side. In the meantime the front of his pants had touched my arm and I could feel that he was more than a little hard himself. I slowly brought my other hand up to his hair and I gently caressed its softness. I let it slip through my fingers. "I love you, Francis," I whispered, not even completely aware that I had said it. It was just the way I felt at that moment, with his lips at my earlobes and my hands in his hair. He stopped licking and, at the same time, I put my hand back down on the bed. "I know, and I love you even more, Nick," Francis answered. I looked at him and softly asked, "Is it OK if I touch you a little more, your beautiful hair, your soft skin?" He nodded while he returned to my earlobe. This time he blew on it softly. I had never felt like this before. I felt my dick harden more and I let out a small moan. "Ah, you like that," and he again blew softly against my lobe. I put my hand back to his hair and softly ran my fingers through it. When my hand lowered to his neck, I decided I wanted more. Slowly I got my hand into the back of his T-shirt. I felt his warm skin, and I continued to rub it slowly as reached as far into the back of his shirt as I could get. He drew his head back and he started to kiss me again, this time more passionately and more deeply than before. Releasing each other a moment later because we needed the air, I said to him, "lay back Francis, let me be the one." He leaned back until he was on his back again. I started to run my fingers through his hair again and, at the same time, I decided to do what had created such electrifying feelings when he did it to me. So I gently blew a little air into his ear, with the same response: he also softly moaned. I started to suck on his earlobe a bit and I touched his chest with my hands. Not wanting to remove his shirt yet, I rubbed his chest through the fabric, feeling his left and then his right nipple. They felt strong and a little hard. He moaned again. "You like that, don't you, Francis?" There was only a soft groan to answer my question. I backed off a little, but kept on gently rubbing his nipples. I looked at his face and saw that his eyes were closed. He was enjoying this tremendously, I could tell that from the smile on his face. I looked down to his jeans and saw that he had a really hard member there. It was outlined against the fabric. Should I touch it? I'd better not, I thought to myself. I felt hard myself, very hard. I slowly started to move down towards his belt. I wanted to lift his T-shirt but as I did that, I accidentally did what I hadn't planned on doing: I touched the top of his dick with the back of my hand. I quickly looked up to his eyes but he hadn't opened them, not even when there came a louder moan out of his mouth as he felt my hand against his erection. I started to lift his T-shirt. I felt his hard stomach muscles and slowly raised my hands towards his chest. Oh, the feel of his soft skin and of his strong muscles beneath it! I was about to lose control of myself. There I was, feeling his soft skin at last! I slowly moved my mouth over to his nose and this time I lightly bit it as my hands found his nipples and softly stroked them. More moans came from Francis. I felt my dick start to throb in my pants; I had never felt such sensations without touching myself. I was afraid that we were making too much noise; that someone might hear Francis's moans, so I put my lips over his and when we touched, I saw him slowly open his eyes. Then he opened his mouth and we kissed again. This time the kiss lasted much longer, our breath intermingling. I could smell Francis. Somehow he moved just a bit, I don't know why. But at that moment he brushed his arm that was between us across my dick, and that was all I needed. His kisses, his touch, and the feeling of being almost out of breath made me cum right there in my underwear without my even touching myself. I quickly let go of Francis, a little embarrassed by what had happened. I hoped he wouldn't notice it. I looked at his face as he opened his eyes. I drew my hands back from under his T-shirt and, as I looked down to see his abs, I noticed the front of his trousers. A wet spot was just forming right where the top of his dick had been a moment ago. Had Francis cum also? I looked from his crotch towards mine and saw a similar spot forming on my pants. I looked back at him. "Hmmm, Nick, that was great. I'd never felt like that before. Did you cum too?" he asked. "Well, to be honest .... "Oh-oh, we'd better take care of that before anyone else sees it." We slipped off the bed and rushed at the same time towards the bathroom. I took the spot in front of the mirror and sink, while Francis stood beside the toilet. I heard him unzipping his trousers. I wanted to see him revealed, but ... future, there would be lots more times to do that. Both of us were a bit embarrassed by what had happened, but we also enjoyed it, at least I did, and Francis hadn't left, so he must have liked it, too. We cleaned up, keeping our pants on, only lowering them as far as we needed to, so I couldn't see too much of his ass. We finished quickly. There was still a small dark spot on the crotch of both of our jeans, but at least it wouldn't get any worse. We walked back into my room and sat down on my bed. We just looked at each other and we both knew that there were no words to express our feelings. "Thanks, Nick, that was unbelievably wonderful." "I know how you feel. It was incredible. I've never felt anything like that before. I love you, Francis." "I love you too, Nick. Don't ever forget that, and I'll make sure to return the favour soon." "I know you will, but I must be honest: I don't want this to go further too quickly. I just want us to enjoy ourselves and to take it slow. Is that OK with you?" "Yes, of course. We're just getting to know each other and there's no need to rush things." I bent forward and I kissed him again. I felt my dick begin to stir. This couldn't be happening, not so soon. "We'd better stop, Nick, or it'll happen all over again." "I know. I feel the same way." I slowly let go of him and put my head on his broad shoulder. I looked up and smiled at him. I felt truly safe now. There were no problems on that account. "I think I want to tell you something about what is bothering me, Francis. I'm not sure if I can tell you everything, but I feel the need to share it with someone." "That's OK by me." "You have to promise you won't tell anyone else, Francis. I won't be able to face that for a long time, I think." "It depends, but I think I can keep that promise for now." "OK, I'll trust you with it. Last week, when I was at Mike's house, something not very nice happened to me." "Well, I knew something like that was going on. Did Mike have something to do with it?" "No, he didn't. You can't hold him responsible for what happened." "But was he there or not?" "No, he wasn't there." "Can you tell me a little more, Nick?" I wasn't sure how much I wanted him to know. I was afraid he would turn his back on me despite what we had just done. "Let's just say that someone found me in a somewhat compromising position and they took advantage of it." "Oh, no. Did they hurt you? Did they rape you?" Francis asked, shocked, while he lifted my head from his chest to look into my eyes. "Well, I was hurt, yes, but you knew that already. Otherwise, I would have never thought of killing myself when I was holding those pills." "Oh, I am so sorry, Nick." Tears started to roll down his cheeks, and that pushed me over the edge too and I joined him. We just hugged each other until we could stop crying. When I looked at his face, I saw that Francis was going to ask for more details. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but I knew I didn't want to tell him any more right now. "I just don't want you to ask anything else at the moment, Francis. This is all I can tell you. I'm not sure if I can say any more, so please, leave it at that. When I'm ready, I will tell you more. OK?" `That's fine, as long as you know that I'll be here for you. As I said before, if you need to talk, just call me, even at night." "Thanks, Francis. Your trust and friendship mean a lot to me." "What do you want to do now, Nick? We have almost another hour before I have to leave." "We can watch some TV." For the next hour, we just sat together on my bed, enjoying another episode of "Dawson's Creek." We did actually watch the program occasionally but most of the time we were just enjoying each other's company, kissing, touching, staring ... Just before he left, we had some more passionate kissing but then he really had to go or he would face too many problems at home. I just stayed in bed, relaxing and trying to keep every moment of that evening alive. Then there was a knock at the door. "Nick, are you awake? Can I come in?" I recognised Alexei's voice. "Come on in, Alexei. I'm still awake." "I thought you would be, Nick. I just heard Francis leave, and I wanted to see if you were OK after this afternoon. I hope you're not mad, but I just felt that it was only proper that Francis should know what happened. You needed help and I think that he was the best person to do so." "No, I'm not mad, Alexei. I was a little taken aback that Francis knew, but we talked about it and that helped a little, so don't worry about it." "Hmmmm. Normally, I don't interfere like this, but I thought it was the best thing to do in this case. I didn't want to violate your trust." "No, that's all right," I said. I wanted to change the subject, so I asked, "Did you enjoy the evening?" "Yes, I stayed downstairs with David and your Dad. We talked about all sorts of things but, as you can imagine, most of the time we chatted about gymnastics, so you didn't miss anything. I'm going to bed now; see you tomorrow at practice." "Sleep tight, Alexei." "Thanks, and sweet dreams for you, too, Nick," he said with a huge smile on his face. Well, as you can imagine, my dreams were sweet and I had no trouble sleeping. When I woke up, I just knew I had a big smile on my face. I hope Dad or David wouldn't notice it. As I suspected, Alexei was not up when I came down for breakfast. It was just too early for someone who didn't need to do anything for another few hours. I felt David looking at me several times with a question mark on his face, but I could see that he liked the fact that I was happy. I thought that Dad saw the change in me, but I couldn't tell. I kept on smiling until I got to school. I just couldn't believe how I felt. I was on a cloud. When I saw Francis, I knew we couldn't be too obvious, so we just said hi and went our separate ways. During the first hour I ran into Mike again and I immediately remembered what had happened the day before. I knew I had to see him after practice. I started to worry a little bit and, when he nodded to me, I knew he hadn't forgotten about our deal. I didn't see Mike for the rest of the morning, and I didn't think about our meeting. I had agreed not to approach Francis, that I would join him only if the guys on the team got together. We didn't want to become too obvious about our relationship. But our arrangement meant that Mike, as my master, could approach me whenever he wanted. At one point, he did come up and started to chat with me. First he asked how the Sunday afternoon had gone with Alexei and if we had enjoyed our workout together. I told him we did and didn't say much more about it. I also thought that he'd forgotten about our meeting later when he suddenly brought it up. "You're going to meet me after school, right?" "I'm not sure, Mike. I'm not sure if I can do this." "Well, if you don't want us to get into any more trouble, you'd better be there. I'm not sure what my Dad would do if he were to find out, and I know the doctors would do something if we didn't show up." "Well, I'll think about it." "You can trust me, Nick. I'll be there all the time and I'll make sure you're not hurt. We'll not go down to the basement and we'll be outside all the time, so nothing too scary is going to happen, but I must make sure that the doctors know we are still playing their master/slave game. I knew it would be difficult, but there had to be a way that we could get back at them, but for now, I just wasn't sure how. I saw the look on Mike's face. I knew he regretted what had happened and that he was really afraid that his Dad would find out. "I'm sorry, Mike, but I really need to think this over." "OK, I can understand that, Nick, but please join me after practice. Please do this for me." I just left him there, begging me. I knew I had to think about it, but I suppose I had already made up my mind yesterday when I said that I would come with him. All afternoon I acted as if everything was normal, and I tried not to think too much about what was to come. Practice was difficult. Alexei made us work in a way that was a lot more intense than my Dad did, so I was really tired by the time we finished. We all showered and, when I was dressing, I saw that Mike had already finished and was waiting for me. He walked past me and said, "see you outside in a few moments." I didn't have time to answer him because he continued to walk towards the door. I knew there was no chance of getting past him. I didn't want him to get in trouble with his Dad and I didn't want to get into trouble with my own. It would come out eventually that I was gay, and I wanted to tell Dad soon, but if he found out about my activities with Mike, I wasn't sure what he would do or say. When I got outside, I walked over to Mike and said, "OK, I'll come along with you as long as we are not going to have to go to your basement." "Thanks, Nick. You're going to enjoy yourself, so don't worry." "Where are we going, Mike?" "I can't tell you yet, Nick. I want you to follow me on my right side about one or two meters behind me, OK?" "Yes, Mike." This wasn't going to be too hard. No one would suspect anything was going on, and there was no danger in what we were doing. We walked for about 25 minutes. At first, I didn't know where we were going but, after perhaps 15 minutes, it became clear that we were going to a large park in the western part of the city. We went into the park and continued to the more heavily wooded area in the center of it. Mike stopped and turned around. "OK, this is what the doctors want. Your challenge is going to start here. I'm sure you'll do what I say because the doctors said they would be in the area, watching us. They said they might be here to make sure you obeyed me again." I quickly looked around to see if I could see anyone, but there seemed to be no one nearby; not the doctors, not any one. At this time of the day, this part of the park was usually nearly deserted. I had heard rumors that this area was visited frequently by gay guys who wanted to meet. But I supposed that it was a little too early for that. "You don't have to look around," Mike said. "They would be out of sight." "OK, what do you want me to do?" "Well, you're going to compete in a little contest. In a moment, I want you to start walking down this path. After a minute or two, you'll see another path on the right hand side about 25 meters over, with some bushes in between. Five minutes further along, there will some benches on both the paths facing each other. That is your destination. On the other path James, whom you met yesterday, will appear. You do remember James, don't you?" "Yes, he's your cousin." "Yes, that's him. Well, you will have a contest with him. At the end of the contest, you will both sit down on the benches and the loser will walk over to the winner and will be spanked by him for 2 minutes in public. Any questions so far?" "No, Mike, but what is the contest about?" "OK, the contest will be to see which of you is going to be the more daring. You are going to take off as many clothes as possible as you walk from here to the benches. The idea is to at least try to take off as much as your opponent does and, if possible, try to take off an item of clothing ahead of him. I've already explained this to James before we arrived. If there is a tie, I decide who wins. I have one other way of determining the winner, but I'm not going to tell you what that is until afterwards. Any questions? "Well, I'm not sure. Do you want us to get naked? Wouldn't that be awfully risky?" The humiliation of undressing in public ... possible revelation of what Mike and I had done together ... who I wanted to see naked ... too much. I didn't know that I could go through with this. "The doctors said that is what they want you to do, and if some one enters the area who might spot us, they will let us know. But I think you're right: you might be seen from a distance." I was scared. I knew I had dressed this morning in my briefest white underwear. If we stripped down, they wouldn't hide much. I might as well be naked. But I wasn't sure how far I could go. "What do I have to do with my clothes when I take them off?" "You could leave them where you take them off, or you can carry them with you as long as you make sure not to hold them so they cover your crotch. OK, you will have to wait another two minutes and then you can start walking. Keep an eye out for James and try to undress as much as possible." I didn't say what I was thinking, that I was sure that he wanted us to get naked quickly. It would be exciting to see James and maybe even be allowed to give him a little spanking. I thought he was very cute when I saw him yesterday. It seemed that I was right about something else: James was Mike's slave, too. "OK, go ahead, start here." I didn't want to do this, but I felt I had no choice. I started to walk and kept a close eye on the place where the paths came together. I saw that James was waiting there and, when he saw me, he smiled and started to take off his coat, which he left there and kept on walking. I knew the rules: I had better keep up with him, so I took off my jacket, too. I felt my dick start to harden a little bit. There were some benches between us ahead and, when I saw James again, he looked at me, stopped and got rid of his T-shirt, which he also dropped where he stood. I had to do the same. I didn't think James would be willing to strip, so I was surprised and started to worry that I was going to lose. For the next minute, we walked along, stripped to the waist. When we came to another set of benches, I decided to challenge him, so I stopped and took off my shoes and socks. As I did this, I looked around to see if any one was around, but I only saw Mike about 100 meters behind me. I looked up and saw that James had done what I had done. We walked again for what seemed like a minute or so. I wasn't willing to lose my pants until I reached another bench, but James was more adventuresome. He stopped, looked around, and got rid of his trousers. I looked around and decided I had better follow suit. I got mine off and looked to see what James had done with his. I though he would carry them with him but I saw that he had dropped them on the ground. I looked around again and I just left mine there and started to walk again. Now I looked at James a little closer and could see that he was wearing white briefs, but his were not as revealing as mine were. We walked a little more and, as we rounded a corner, I could see the benches that were our destination. Just before we were there, I saw out of the corner of my eye that James had stopped again. No, he wouldn't go any farther, would he? I was already scared to be walking around a public place in my briefs and couldn't face the humiliation of being nude. I turned around slightly and saw him pulling off his underwear. I couldn't believe he did that. I turned around towards Mike and saw him looking towards me in anticipation of my decision. I just thought, what the heck. It is only ten meters to the bench and there was no one around. I looked down and saw that I was very hard. I slowly pulled my shorts off and I stepped out of them. I looked to see if James had left his, or whether he had carried them with him. As he walked along, he had them in his hand. Because he was a little ahead of me, I couldn't see his dick. He sure could see mine: it was hard, standing upright. He sat down on the bench and I did the same. I looked at Mike to see what we had to do now. Then I looked around again and saw in the far distance a man on a bicycle, watching us. He watched for a few seconds. He was some 150 meters away from us but he couldn't see James, he could only see me. Then he got on his bicycle and rode towards us. As he passed, I looked at James, who was stroking his cock. I looked at Mike again, but he just pointed at James and I knew I had lost the contest. I am not sure why I knew that, but I did. I looked again at Mike. He walked across the lawn towards James. He jerked his head, indicating that I was to join them. I put on my underwear and started to walk towards James. He was still stroking his cock and, when I was almost there, he came. His body shook and there was a lot of cum flying around. Mike and I got to James at about the same time. Mike was carrying my clothes. I reached to get them when he said: "Oh, no, you don't. You'll have to be spanked first. You lost badly. You only got one point because you took off your shoes and socks before James did. Who told you to put your underwear back on? You lost, so get them back off." I dropped my briefs again. I looked at James, who was cleaning up his stomach with his hand when he suddenly surprised me by licking the cum off his hand. "OK, when James is finished cleaning up, you will bend over his knee so he can start to collect his prize." I looked at James and could tell that he was very happy at having the opportunity to spank me. He winked to indicate that I should get in position. His dick was getting hard already and, when I bent over his knee, his dick touched my belly and even rubbed a little against my dick. Mike pushed me down a little further and now I was lying completely on James's legs. "OK, James, go ahead." I knew I had to bear being spanked for two minutes. I was not sure how many strokes he could give me in that time. But, when he started, his spanks came slowly and methodically, first to one cheek, then to the other. When I heard Mike say, one minute to go, James started to speed up. He was also making sure that they were hard. I felt my cheeks getting red and tears were starting to form in my eyes, but I just kept myself under control until the two minutes were over. My dick had gone soft during the spanking. "OK, you two can get dressed now," said Mike. I saw that he was putting away his digital camera, so he had captured images of my punishment. He gave me my clothes. James hadn't said anything during this time, but on my stomach I could feel some of his cum that he hadn't caught in his clean up. "OK, James, you know what to do now." James nodded and started to walk back along the path to collect his clothes. I looked at him as he put his underwear back on and started to walk around the corner. `He is quite good, don't you think?" "Well, you have him now, so you can leave me alone, Mike." "Well, I do have him, I know that. But I'm still being blackmailed by the doctors." `Well, we'd better try to find a way out of this. Can we turn the tables on them somehow?" "I'm not sure, Nick. We should think about it." "I'm sure you don't want to be blackmailed by them, Mike." "No, I don't. James would stay with me even if we weren't being blackmailed into doing this and, as for you ... you'll not be my slave any longer after the blackmail ends. You've already found some one else, haven't you?" I started to blush and I didn't know what to say. "I think your reaction is answer enough. Is it Francis, Nick?" I looked around to see if some one could have heard us, but that was stupid because there was no one nearby. "You can tell me. Your secret is safe with me. I've noticed that you've been spending some lunch periods together, and you smile a lot at each other." "Yes, it is Francis, and we are truly in love ... "Well, then, we have to come up with a way to get out from under the influence of the doctors." "We might need Francis's help with that, Mike. Do you mind me telling him?" "I'm not sure about that. Would you tell him what happened on Sunday, too?" "To be honest, Mike, I think he already knows. He found me when I was kind of a mess at the beginning of last week." "Oh," he said. "Well, don't worry. He won't do anything I don't want him to, and I will tell him everything soon. OK?" "Yea, I guess so,' he said a little timidly. "So, can I go now, Mike?" "Yes, you can. Did you like it, Nick? I saw you getting hard." "To be honest, Mike, yes, I liked it. But I think I'll enjoy myself even more when I do such things because I want to, not because I've been blackmailed into it." "I'm sorry, Nick, but we have some time now to figure out what to do. I think I can hold them off for another week at least." "That should give us enough time to come up with something, Mike." "OK, bye, Nick. I have to go get James." With that, he turned away and started to walk back. I started to walk in the other direction, which would lead me to my house more quickly. <