"Rise and shine, gentlemen, the day is wasting."

"What the hell?" Steve growled as we both rolled over in bed to see who was speaking.

It was Sammy, standing in the open door of our room. He was wearing only a pair of light blue shorts and looking cute as hell. The shorts were skimpy and tight and they showed off his body to full advantage. The pale blue color contrasted with his rosy skin and gave him an appealing little boy look. Sammy stood about five-seven and weighed about one hundred and forty pounds. He had a slender but very well defined body and a head of shocking red hair. Apart from the hair on his head his body was almost completely smooth, adding to his almost prepubescent appearance.

"It's time for breakfast, guys, and then we hit the beach."

"What time is it?" I moaned.

"Almost nine."

"How about checking back at noon?" Steve said as he rolled over on his stomach and covered his head with a pillow.

"Come on, guys," Sammy whined. "We came to Gulfport for the sand and sea and sun. Besides, Daniel and I have breakfast ready."

I groaned and rolled out of bed. I was naked, of course, and hard, but I figured Sammy had seen it all before.

"So what's on the menu," I said as I headed for the bathroom.

"As if you didn't know," Sammy said, his voice almost a giggle. "You guys did the shopping, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," I managed to say as I slammed the bathroom door and headed for the toilet. My bladder was full and my cock was stiff. I wanted to pee but it took a minute to get the various anatomical parts to cooperate. When they did, it was a gusher.

When I came out of the bathroom Sammy was sitting on the edge of our bed talking with Steve, who had rolled over on his side with his head propped up on one elbow.

"Don't worry about it, Steve," I heard Sammy saying. "We're still friends." Did he know he was playing with fire?

"Thanks, Sammy," Steve said, his voice as slow and sweet as honey. "I just want it to be a great week for all of us."

"The bathroom is all yours, big boy," I said, grinning at Steve. He gave me an innocent look and rolled out of bed. He was also naked and I noticed at once that he was very hard. I guess we both had good cases of the morning wood but it was also clear that Sammy was looking him over. The head of Steve's cock was large enough to border on the abnormal and it was obvious that Sammy was staring. I wondered if his gaze was a result of curiosity or lust or fear. It was probably a mixture of all three, I decided.

As Steve stumbled into the bathroom I found my duffle bag and extracted a jockstrap and a pair of white tennis shorts. With them covering my nakedness, I gave Sammy a friendly slap on the back and headed for the kitchen.

"Come on, lover boy," I grinned, "let's see what you two have cooking."

He blushed and got up to follow me.

"What do you mean `lover boy?'" he asked as we joined Daniel.

"Well," I said, "I figure the two of you couldn't have spent all night in bed together without becoming at least a little more acquainted."

Now both Sammy and Daniel were blushing. I laughed and said, "well, I guess I was right."

"Well, you know . . ." Daniel said.

"Yeah, I know. Two knock-out guys like you, how could you have not gotten friendly?"

Sammy was squirming and looking all the cuter for it. Daniel just grinned and began putting sausages and eggs on the four plates he'd laid out on the counter.

"Is Steve nearly ready?" Daniel asked. "I don't want his breakfast to get cold."

"He'll be right here," I said, "as soon as he can get his hard cock under control and stuffed into a pair of shorts."

In fact, it took Steve quite a while to finish what he was doing and join us on the deck were Daniel, Sammy and I were having our breakfast around the picnic table.

"What took you so long?" I asked him as he finally come out of the house, "as if I didn't know."

"Yeah, right," he snarled as he settled into the remaining chair and dove into the hearty breakfast.

"So what's the plan, gentlemen?" I asked when I'd polished off the last of my food.

"The best beaches are east of town," Sammy said, but the action is right here between Teagarden and Cowan Road. At least that's what friends of mine who were down here last year told me."

"So," Steve chimed in, "do we want action or quality sand?" He looked around the table at each of us and added, "it looks to me as if there's plenty of action right here to keep me happy."

Daniel tossed a piece of toast, hitting Steve squarely between the eyes.

"Hey," Steve laughed, "I'm just expressing my own opinion."

"Well we can walk to the beach here or load up the car and drive out east along Beach Boulevard," Sammy said, stating the obvious.

"I say we walk," Daniel chimed in. "We need to shop sometime today so let's get some sun and check out the local action. Maybe tomorrow we can pack a lunch and do some exploring."

"Sounds good to me," I said and it was agreed we had a plan.

As we left the bungalow half an hour later and turned south, the sound of several thousand college kids was heard from the beach a few hundred yards away.

Beach Boulevard was a seemingly endless strip of hotels, motels and apartment buildings. At that time of year they were all crowded with college students intent on partying as hard and as long as possible. We soon learned that the guys definitely outnumbered the girls.

There was some stiff competition among the men who were looking for female companionship and when the four of us walked across the wide thoroughfare and onto the endless expanse of sand, we received a lot of appraising looks from guys who probably regarded us as serious competition. We were, after all, four honed jocks, each of us in his own way an excellent example of our gender. As I saw the looks of other guys and the interest of the women I tried to judge us as we were seen by them.

Sammy was definitely the "cute kid" of our quartet. He was small but he had a gorgeous body and appealing good looks. Even though his involvement with the football program was in the specialized role of a place kicker, he worked out as energetically as any of the rest of us in the program and had gained the team's respect for his dedication. At nineteen he'd reached his maximum height of about five-seven and weighed about 140 pounds. Over all the years I knew him he never seemed to change, retaining his youthful charm well into his forties.

Daniel was larger than Sammy in both height and weight, standing a good six feet and weighing about 170 pounds. Like Sammy, he was also slender but very well built and he had a handsomeness which was undeniable. He'd insisted he wasn't going out for track that year but his body showed his long history of athletic activities and his still frequent visits to the weight room at the university gym.

Of the four of us, Steve and I were the largest, taller than Daniel by two or three inches and more or less equally matched in weight. At that point, after months of heavy weight training and running we both weighed a little over 200 pounds. The tough training we'd endured had left us with heavily muscled, well defined physiques. Despite our differences, we were all clearly athletes.

I should also say that while we might kid around together, none of the four of us was at all effeminate in our actions or speech. So far as the world was concerned, we probably looked like four horny straight guys looking for women, looking to get laid.

We walked through a maze of near naked bodies spread on blankets and towels. The men watched our progress with interest and, I guessed, some envy. The women looked us over like we were prime beef. I had no doubt that each of us could have been very successful with the ladies if that had been our interest. It was fortunate for the men that our interests lay elsewhere.

When we reached the water we turned west, walking along the firm, wet sand at the tide line until we came to an open space, which we staked out as our own.

We'd brought a big blanket and a beach umbrella, as well as towels and a cooler of drinks. The umbrella was mostly for Sammy but Steve and I also had to be a little careful of the sun.

I knew from past experience that I could develop a nice tan if I took it slow and didn't allow myself to get too much sun too quickly. Steve had told me he also tanned well if he took it slow.

Daniel was the only one of the four of us who really didn't have to worry. He had darker hair, not very dark, but a rich brown which over the next few days bleached with the sun in appealing golden streaks. His skin was naturally darker, an almost caramel color which quickly became bronze and glowed in the sun. He could spend hours outside and never burn.

Sammy, like most redheads, had to be very careful. He wore a t-shirt whenever he was out of the water and kept himself covered with protective lotion. He managed to get through the week without a serious burn but when we headed back to Oxford at the end of the week he was pink and freckled and more adorable than ever.

"Hey, guys," a big guy I didn't at first recognize greeted us as he walked by a few minutes after we'd settled in.

"Bill Randall," he said, introducing himself. "You're from Ole Miss, too."

"Yeah," we all four said in unison.

"Thought so," he said as he squatted down between us and the water. "So where are you staying?"

"We rented one of the bungalows over on Teagarden," Steve volunteered.

"Sweet," Randall said. "A bunch of us are at the Seahorse Inn."

"Yeah," Steve said. "I hear that place is expensive."

"It is, but we've got six guys in one room."

"They let you do that?"

"They wouldn't if they knew." Randall stood up, looked off down the beach and said, "there's a party Wednesday night at Chester's Bar on Washington. You guys should come. Everybody from Ole Miss is welcome."

"Thanks," we all echoed.

"Maybe we'll make it," Steve said. Randall walked on down the beach. He seemed to be on the lookout for anybody from Oxford.

"Not likely," Steve said, grinning at us as he stretched out on more than his share of the blanket.

We played in the water, not really swimming, but tossing a ball and chasing each other in the waves. About noon Sammy said he'd better get back to the house before he turned as red as a lobster, and we all agreed we'd had enough for our first day on the beach.

Back at the house Daniel made sandwiches while Sammy took a shower. Steve and I took a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator, found four glasses and settled down to wait on the rear deck.

"So how has the day gone so far?" Steve asked as we sipped the sweet tea.

"Great," I said, "we all seem to be getting along real well."

"Yeah, I think I did the right thing last night."

"Being a rude piece of shit, you mean?" I asked, grinning at him across the picnic table.

"Well, if you want to put it that way, yeah. I just think it was a good idea to get the obvious out in the open. You know, set the ground rules."

"The first ground rule being that Steve expects to make it with me and Sammy and Daniel and anybody who objects or gets in his way had better be prepared for trouble."

"Hey," he shot back, "if you don't want to play, feel free to sit on the sidelines."

"It's not as if it came as a surprise, Steve," I said, trying to keep it light. "I knew what you wanted from the moment we first started talking about our plans for this week."

"And you never objected, right?"

"I guess not, but more because I knew it wouldn't do any good."

"You don't like the rules?"

"For this week, I'm okay with it. I still don't know if I like living like this full time."

"What do you want that you're not getting?"

"Well, maybe a faithful relationship with a guy I know wants the same thing."

"Boring!" Steve said. We lapsed into silence and a few minutes later Sammy came out to where Steve and I were sitting. He had a towel wrapped around his slender waist and asked Steve if he'd spread lotion on his back.

"Sure, kiddo," Steve grinned, "I'll spread lotion anyplace you like."

Sammy grinned and handed Steve the plastic bottle. As I watched, Steve spread the white cream over the smaller guy's shoulders and then worked it down over his back until he reached the top of the towel. He then turned toward me and winked. With one quick motion he jerked the towel loose. As it fell away, leaving Sammy naked, Steve ran his well lubricated hands down over the pert mounds of the boy's ass.

Sammy yelped but couldn't react quickly enough to retrieve the towel.

"Relax, the yard's private. In fact," Steve went on, "I was thinking I'd get some seamless sun out here myself after lunch." Sammy relaxed and seemed to submit to Steve's touch. I wondered if the little guy had really planned for it to go that way when he asked Steve to spread the lotion on his back. "Now turn around and let me do your front," Steve crooned.

"You wish," Sammy laughed, looking back over his shoulder.

Steve put his hands on either side of Sammy's hips and spun him around. The boy wasn't hard but his cock was clearly warming to the attention Steve was giving him.

"Oh, you big bully," Sammy laughed again, struggling in feigned resistance.

"Now you're wishing," Steve laughed. He turned to me and said, "would you mind if I took this boy in the bedroom and gave him a little instruction in Greco-Roman wrestling?"

"Help yourself," I laughed. "I know you've been wanting to teach him a few lessons for months now."

"Come on, Sammy," Steve said, grabbing Sammy by the shoulders and marching him, still naked, in through the patio doors.

"Are you sending me to bed without my supper?"

"No," Steve laughed, "I'm taking you to bed without your lunch."

A few minutes later Daniel stuck his head out the door from the kitchen. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "I think Steve is going to fuck your bedmate."

"I wondered how long it would take him to do that."

"You don't mind?" I asked.

"No, I don't mind," he said, setting down at the table by me. "I sort of figured you might. . . Mind I mean."

"No, not really," I said. "I think getting Sammy in bed was one of Steve's main goals for this trip."

Daniel and I sat there in silence for a minute.

"Well," he finally said, getting up. "I made lunch so we may as well eat." He went into the house and returned a moment later with a platter stacked high with sandwiches.

As we ate we looked out at the little garden and its high surrounding fence. "Did I hear Steve say he was thinking about a little nude sunbathing?" Daniel asked as he finished the last of his lunch.

"Yeah," I responded. "Interested?"

"Yeah," Daniel said. "Do you want to join me?"

"Sure."

Daniel carried the remaining sandwiches back to the refrigerator and returned a moment later with the blanket we'd used on the beach as well as a couple of towels. I picked up the plastic bottle of suntan lotion Sammy and Steve had left on the deck and we proceeded down the steps to the rather small patch of green lawn.
We spread the blanket and, standing on one side of it across from Daniel, I slowly lowered my shorts and jock strap together and stepped onto the blanket. My cock and balls were bunched into an uncomfortable clump from their confinement in the damp jockstrap. I ran my hands over my crotch, pulling my cock loose from the surrounding hair and giving it a little stretch. Daniel watched me, a slight smile on his face, but made no move to remove his own shorts.

"Come on, Lipscomb, strip," I said, my eyes still on him.

He lowered his shorts and I saw at once that he was excited. His cock wasn't hard but it was showing every sign of getting that way.

We lay down side by side on the blanket, on our sides, facing one another. Daniel reached for the lotion and spread it over his muscular chest and then down over his legs, being careful not to touch his cock. He didn't want to get it even more excited, I suspected. When he'd spread lotion over his shoulders and arms and wiped what was left in the palms of his hands up over his forehead and into his hair, he tossed me the bottle and lay down on his back, exposing his naked body to the intense midday son.

I tossed the bottle back and said, "I think I got enough sun on my front while we were at the beach. Would you mind doing my back?"

Daniel sat up in a graceful, fluid motion and grinned. "I'd do your back anytime you want, Mr. Ballinger."

I laid down on my stomach, resting my head on my crossed arms and relaxed as Daniel spread the lotion over my back. He didn't just spread it, he worked it in, giving me a wonderful rubdown in the process. He worked it up over my shoulders and down over as much of my upper arms as were accessible. I felt my muscles instinctively flex under his touch, then gradually relax as he continued to knead and rub them. After a while he changed directions and worked back over my back, then, pointedly skipping over my buttocks, spread the warm lotion over my legs. He worked the muscles of my thighs and calves, even taking time to rub the lotion gently into my feet. When he'd finished he put the bottle down between us and lay back down.

"Didn't you miss something?" I asked.

"Do you want me to do your butt?"

"Do you mind?"

"No, I'd love to do it," he said. I noted there was a break in his voice. "I just didn't want to get more personal than you wanted."

I rose up a little and looked at him. "You can get as personal as you choose, Daniel," I whispered. My own voice wasn't behaving properly either. I took a quick look down the length of his body and saw that he was fully erect. His cock was hard and pulsing and a little damp, rising sharply from a small patch of pubic hair that was a little darker than my own. Lying on my stomach, I could conceal the fact that my cock was just as erect as his.

Daniel picked up the plastic bottle again and squirted a generous amount of lotion into the palm of his left hand. He worked his hands together and then moved over me, straddling my thighs. He put his two outstretched palms on the mounds of my butt and slowly, seductively rotated them, gently spreading the warm lotion over the pale skin, so rarely exposed to the tanning rays of the sun.

I could feel Daniel's balls pressed against my thighs, sliding with the slow movements of his body. I couldn't feel his cock but imagined it was standing rigid against his own stomach. I moaned.

"Is that too hard," he whispered.

"No," I tried to respond but my voice was still not working like it should. "It feels wonderful."

As he continued he became bolder, letting his opposing thumbs slide into the crack of my butt, lubricating it with the lotion, leaving it wet and slick.

"Yeah," I managed to say. "Deeper."

His thumbs spread the crack of my ass wider and pressed in further until, with each forward and backward movement, they ran over my puckered ass, sending a jolt of pleasure through my entire body.

"Yeah." I moaned again.

"You like that?"

"It's wonderful."

He stopped and I lay still waiting, missing his touch. I heard the slurping sound of more lotion being squrted from the bottle and then his hands were back. This time he used his left hand to press my buttocks apart. Then one greased finger pressed against the puckered opening of my ass, moving slowly into it.

"Oh, yeah, Daniel," I said, yielding to him, wanting more.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, oh yeah."

As he pressed further in he said, "I wasn't sure if you liked that or not."

"I love it."

"I wondered if you enjoyed having your ass worked or if you insisted on only doing other guys."

"The top - bottom thing?"

"Yeah. Some guys want to do all the fucking and can't deal with having another guy mess with their ass, let alone taking a cock up there."

"I like it both ways," I said, my voice now little more than a low groan. "I could never understand how some guys are exclusively tops or bottoms."

"I know what you mean," Daniel said. "It's so good both ways that it's a shame to miss either one."

"Yeah," I said as his index finger pressed against my prostate, reducing my speech to a pattern of moans. His finger was deep in me now, pressing in, slowly withdrawing, then sliding smoothly in again. He kept it up, increasing speed and pressure. Soon I felt him withdraw and a second finger joined the first. He began slowly again, letting my body adjust, then sped up again as I moaned my approval. When I had fully accepted two fingers he added a third, slowly twisting them to spread more lube over the interior walls of my ass. Then the slow, easy penetration began again. When he'd spread my sphincter until I was able to take three fingers easily he began to thrust in hard and I felt my body instinctively buck against him, wanting everything he could give me. Our bodies were sweating in the hot afternoon sun and I felt my shoulder muscles bunch and relax with each inward stroke of his hand.

"You want more?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah," I groaned, tossing my head from side to side.

"Four fingers?"

"Yeah, unless you are ready to fuck me."

"I am fucking you, Rob," he laughed, "it's just a question of with what."

"Want to give me your cock?"

"Here in the yard," he asked, a note of disbelief in his voice.

"We figured it was private enough for us to be naked and get away with it."

"What if Steve and Sammy come out and see us?"

"What if they do?"

"You wouldn't care?"

"No, doing it here, being seen, it's a real turn-on."

"Okay, Robby, you asked for it." He slid his bunched fingers into me a few more times as he squeezed more lotion into the crack of my ass. His fingers carried the pooled lotion into me, making an obscene squishing sound. "How do you want it?"

"Hard and hot."

"I mean what position? Are you going to stay like that or do you want to turn over?"

"Turn over. At least if I'm doing the fucking I like to see my lover's face."

"Me too."

Daniel withdrew his fingers and slid over me to my left side. I rolled onto my back and my cock jumped up against my belly. It was wet and had left a damp spot on the blanket which now pressed into the small of my back. I looked toward the back of the house and saw no sign of Steve or Sammy. They were probably still in one of the bedrooms. I looked up at Daniel standing above me. He looked magnificent from that perspective. His body was statuesque and his cock stood out hard and pulsing. Like the rest of him, his cock was smaller than mine, not as long, barely average in length, and slender. I knew he would be an easy fit after all the stretching Steve's big cock head had given my ass. I couldn't wait to have Daniel in me.

"Come on," I begged as I held my hand out to him. He took my right hand in his left and gracefully knelt between my legs.

"I've thought a lot about this," he said, his voice low.

"Me, too." I kept my eyes fixed on his as he lifted my legs and placed them over his broad shoulders. "I figured you'd be thinking about Steve, having sex with him."

"No," he said, a brilliant smile illuminating his handsome face. "It's you I've been dreaming about ever since we were together in Memphis."

"Yeah?" I said as he positioned his cock against my ass.

"Definitely." he was pressing in.

"That's very flattering," I managed to say. Then conversation stopped. Speech became impossible as I felt the length of his cock slide slowly into my open, wet, welcoming ass.

"Oh, Rob," he moaned and lowered his body onto mine. His chest pressed against mine and my legs grasped him, locking our bodies together.

He moaned incoherently as he pressed in and retreated, our bodies falling into our own rhythm, gentle, slow, destined to last for ever.

"Oh, Rob," he moaned again and I heard myself repeating his name over and over again.

"Daniel, Daniel, Danieldanieldaniel . . ." it had become a chant, a mantra. I repeated it slowly, endlessly as our bodies merged, as his body and his will and his manhood overtook me, invaded me.

"Oh, Rob," he moaned again, but this time his own chant went on, just as mine had done. "Oh, Rob, oh, Rob. I love you, man. I want you, must have you. I need you more than Steve could ever need you. I need you with everything in me, to the exclusion of everyone else. If you were mine, Rob, I would never want another guy. I'd never want any other person. I'd never want to have sex with Sammy or Steve or Star. I'd only want you."

I came out of my own daze to listen at last to the words he was saying. I was startled by their meaning, by their implications.

"You're too good for Steve," Daniel was whispering in my ear as his cock pressed deep into me, driving me toward one of the most powerful climaxes I'd ever experienced. "I know you're too good for me. But I love you, Rob. I love you in ways Steve never could."

I felt the repeated stroking of his cock against my prostate, driving me wild. Steve's cock, I realized, overshot that most sensitive part of me, hitting it only on the inward and outward stroke. The slightly shorter length of Daniel's shaft was just right to reach that spot in me. He remained rather still, not driving in and pulling out, but staying there in that one place, the head of his cock pressing into me with a subtle power I could not resist. I found myself panting, trying to hold off the impending climax, trying to make this last. I wanted it to last for ever. At the very least I wanted it to last just a little longer.

"Oh, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," I chanted again and my body exploded with such force that I felt as if my soul would be ripped from me. I felt my body clench and looked up to see the wide-eyed look of amazement in Daniel's eyes. Then his own body convulsed and I felt the hot flood of his seed shoot into me.

"Yes," I moaned, "yes."

Daniel held himself above me, his arms extended, his chest heaving. His head was thrown back and his mouth was gaping open in a silent gasp of release. Then, as his passion ebbed, he lowered himself and I felt the hard, muscular weight of him on me. He kissed me, squarely on the lips and I opened to him. His tongue came into my mouth like a gentle breath of air, his air, shared with me. I gave him back my own and felt a peace settle over our still linked bodies.

We lay there for some time. I don't know how long. Daniel shifted his body a little and rolled onto his side. He looked at me and smiled. We dozed, the hot sun still weighing down on us, on our skin, making us warm and damp and very much at peace with the world.

"My, you two look happy." I heard Steve's voice and woke to look up at him, past Daniel's shoulder which was somehow shading my eyes from the harsh sun. "I guess the neighbors must have enjoyed the show."

"I don't think there are any neighbors tall enough to see over the fence," Sammy said as he came up behind him.

"Well, for this show they'd have sold space on a step ladder," Steve said. There was a chuckle in his voice.

"What some do in the dark, some do in the light," Daniel said as he rolled off me. "What some do in the secret places, some proclaim to the world."

"Is that scripture?" Sammy asked.

"Yes," Daniel said. "The Second Book of Daniel."

"Me thinks ye blaspheme, Mr. Lipscomb," Steve laughed again as he sat down beside us on the blanket. I felt suddenly uncomfortable by his closeness, by our nakedness, although Steve and Sammy were as bare. He moved over a little and stroked my sweaty chest with his right hand as he moved his left over the angular muscles of Daniel's shoulders.

When Sammy took a step closer Steve moved again, making a little room at his side. "Come on, Sammy," Steve said, "join the party." He said it as if it were his party and his right to invite anyone he pleased. Sammy sat down and the four of us were suddenly pressed into some sort of odd intimacy by the limits of the blanket.

"Can you take this sun for a few minutes, Sammy?" Steve said with apparent concern.

"Yeah, for a few minutes, but not too long," Sammy said, his skin already looking more rosy than it had just a few hours earlier.

"We stood on the deck for a moment," Steve said, "just watching you."

"So did you like what you saw," Daniel said with just the slightest edge in his voice.

"Well, I can't speak for Sammy, but I loved it. You two looked like a pair of wood sprites in some Arcadian grove."

"An Apollonian or a Dionysian grove?" Daniel fired back.

"Does it make any difference?" Steve said, lying down and stretching out full length beside me.

"Yes, a lot of difference," Daniel said.

That seemed to silence Steve and the four of us sprawled together for a while, our bodies still caught in that amazing glow which only comes after sexual climax.

For those few minutes we were all four at peace with one another and at peace with the world.

To be continued.