CHAPTER TWENTY

Sunlight streamed through the windows, warming the bed. Rousing, I began to swim toward the light and the waking world it represented. As I neared it, I grew aware of labored breathing.

That made no sense and I opened my eyes with a start.

Paul lay on his back sprawled across the far half of the bed, his mouth open and his legs spread. His dick was hard and his chest heaved. He was covered with dried jizz and he seemed paler than I remembered.

I wagged my head slowly. Sam had moved onto Paul after I'd exploded and imploded all at the same time. I'd fallen asleep pretty fast after that, but I had no doubt that they'd continued to fuck until the stars began to fade. Yet, Paul still sported an erection and sounded like he was just this side of an orgasm.

His ball sack, however, hung loose between his spread legs and I revised my guess of a pending eruption. Still, his chest heaved and he sucked hard to get air into his lungs.

"Old Mr. Sam had a feast last night," Henry said conversationally from the foot of the bed.

I jerked instinctively at the sound of his voice. "I didn't hear you come in," I told him as I lay on my back so I could look at him. "How'd you find out we'd come in last night?"

Henry laughed. "Who else? He woke me up just before dawn."

"And you hurried right up the road, right?"

"Naw. I do have a few chores to do at home, Sammy." He looked Paul over closely. "I decided to shower and shave before I came up."

"Why aren't you in school?"

Henry turned his face slightly as it began to form into a grimace but he stopped it before it was complete. When he turned back to face me, he was smiling. "I decided to skip ... And don't you even try to tell me you never skipped school."

I remembered his comment about Sam feasting then. I asked him what he'd meant.

"Sammy, Sammy, Sammy, what am I going to do with you?" he groaned. "Don't you know anything about vampires?"

"They stay out of the sun, fuck forever, live forever, and suck blood..." I stared up at Henry. He nodded. I looked back at Paul and listened to his breathing. I sat up and, spreading his legs even wider apart, started to check the insides of his legs.

Henry came around the bed and lifted Paul's balls. The two puckers were right where mine had been a week ago.

"He sucks our blood?" I mumbled, finally grasping the real nitty gritty of what Taylor Mountain was all about. I was almost sick. I turned white.

I felt Henry's hand grip my shoulder and looked up.

"Sammy, he has to eat, just like the rest of us do. He just doesn't take much at a time."

"But he..."

"He gives us back some of his blood, and that makes us immune to a lot of things."

I'd heard all this before. Only, now, I was assimilating what it really meant. I got great sex, I gave up a little blood, and got total immunity from the common cold. Sure why not?

It didn't sound bad -- not really. As long as I didn't get into the specifics -- like those two puckers about an inch and a half apart and what they meant. I mean, even one cold laid me a lot lower and a lot longer than I'd felt after he'd bitten me. Shit! It was a real deal.

But, still ... That was my next door neighbor lying there trying to get oxygen to his lungs to get out to every cell in his body -- and he didn't have enough blood to carry it comfortably. I was suddenly unsure that non-stop sex and immunity was worth really labored breathing.

"So, this is my fucktoy?" Henry asked.

That brought me out of my contemplation of things vampiric.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Old Mr. Sam told me you'd brought me a boy for when you're here -- or when I'm in Atlanta." He looked at Paul again. "He's a little old but..." He grinned. "I reckon I'll keep him."

"Henry!"

He bent over and nuzzled one and then the other of Paul's nipples. A smile touched my next door neighbor's lips and spread across his face. His hands moved to Henry's shoulders as he opened his eyes.

"God!" Paul groaned. "I could get used to waking up like this." He studied the top of Henry's head for a moment as he sucked air in. "Who's this, Sammy?"

"Henry meet Paul -- Paul this is Henry. He lives in the first house on the access road."

Paul's smile broadened. "You sure have some friendly relatives, Sammy. I like Taylor Mountain a lot."

Henry stood back up and returned Paul's smile as they shook hands. Paul reached to the button on Henry's jeans.

"I think I'll go make coffee and see about breakfast," I said to no one in particular.

"Yeah, I'll take two eggs, sunnyside up," Paul said as he sat up and began to unzip Henry.

"Make mine hard," Henry said as his jeans began to slip over his hips. "And grits would be real nice."

I pushed off the bed and padded to the door. I looked back and saw that Henry was slipping his jeans over his feet. His pole was at full mast and Paul was staring at it. I'd reached the bottom on the steps when Paul cried out. "Sweet Jesus!" he groaned a moment later. "Slower, Henry. I'm a little sore down there."

They had left Sammy at the house after cleaning the breakfast dishes. Paul followed as Henry led him deeper into the woods.

Paul had thought he was falling for Sammy back in Atlanta. Now, after that blond had plugged him half the night and this brunette had done the honors this morning, he realized that it didn't matter. He'd never felt so completely satisfied.

"Didn't Sammy say that you were a senior in high school?" Paul asked.

"Yeah," Henry answered without looking back. "Only one more year of that shit."

"How come you're out of school today?"

Henry stopped and turned. "Sammy asked me that this morning," he said. "I told him I was skipping to be with him..." He tried to smile but it didn't work. "And you."

Paul saw that there was something eating at the boy. "But that isn't the real reason, is it?"

Henry looked down at his feet, the toe of one sneaker digging into the leaves on the ground. "Not really."

"So, what was it?"

"Things are getting pretty bad at school."

"What kind of things?"

"You've got to understand that we don't mix with the kids from the hollow, Paul. We go to school with them and that's it. We take our moms' cars to school and to come back home."

"That's got to be pretty boring for guys your age."

"You ain't seen Seneca."

"Backward little town in the sticks?"

Henry smiled then. "Pretty much."

"So, how does not associating with the other kids at school make things bad enough for you to skip school?"

"There's a lot of shit that's started going around about us -- my cousins and me -- about us being queers and into incest and stuff."

"This is just happening?"

"Yeah, it started last week -- ever since all the churches in Tugaloo county started going on about this revival that's supposed to start in Mountain Hollow the end of next week."

Paul didn't like what he was hearing. It connected only too well with what Rastus Reed had told him during his session. "How does a revival connect with the crap about you kids on this mountain?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know -- exactly. They're talking some sort of evil -- abomination -- existing right out here on the mountain. All of the kids at school are talking about it -- and pointing at me and my cousins. There were a couple of them who called me a faggot a couple of days ago. Most of my cousins are avoiding me at school now."

"Do you know who's going to be doing this revival?"

"No. Just some preacher down in south Georgia."

The kid may not have fingered Rastus Reed out of a police line up, but Paul had no doubt this revival that was already stirring up a hornet's nest of homophobia was the same one Reed was going to head up. It was just too pat, otherwise.

He also knew Rastus Reed wouldn't be coming into north Georgia without a reason. The man was greedy as homemade sin. He'd do a revival if it made him money. The only other way to light a fire under Rastus was if his daughter worked him into it. Mountain Hollow wasn't anywhere in Reed's league. Paul Estes suddenly wished that he knew which of Sammy's files Brenda had been going through when his cleaning crew caught her.

"Maybe we ought to head back and talk this over with Sammy," he told the boy.

"I thought you wanted to see the waterfall," Henry said and reached out to caress a buttcheek.

Paul grinned at Henry. "I do. Lead on. We can talk to Sammy later."

Henry chuckled and moved his hand to his crotch. "I've got something that'll make you like the waterfall a whole lot more."

Paul arched a brow. "Isn't it a little chilly out here to get naked?"

Henry laughed. "I'll warm us both up." He reached out and Paul took his hand.

* * *

"I think you ought to bring Henry back to Atlanta with us," Paul told me as they entered the living room. His breathing was still rough but it wasn't as labored as it had been when he woke up.

I was standing at the mantle, trying to decide where I could set up an office in the log house. The idea of setting up an office on the mountain had hit me after breakfast. I'd liked the idea -- especially if I was able to look out at the woods and mountain beyond the French doors.

"Oh?" I looked from one to the other of them. They both looked flushed, and I suspected that it wasn't just the chilled mountain air that had given them their ruddy appearance.

"Just for the coming week," Paul explained.

"Don't you have school this week?" I asked Henry.

"Sammy, something is going on around here," Paul continued before Henry could formulate a reply. "Or it's going to happen here -- but there's a connection to Atlanta."

I looked at him then, not knowing what to suspect.

"Sammy, my men found Brenda rummaging through your files at the office Wednesday night."

"What?" I cried.

"My crew found her there. She had some files out but put them back before the boys could see anything. She said some nasty things to them."

I was all ready fuming. Nobody went through my files. There was confidential information there. Shit! The SEC would be all over my back in a heartbeat if they found out.

"Why didn't you tell me while we were still in Atlanta?" I demanded, feeling strangely empty inside at the same time I felt like I was in a vise pressing against me.

"I wasn't sure what you were letting her do." He looked out at the mountain beyond the open doors. "I didn't want to come across as looking like I was trying to drive a wedge between you two if there was something there, you know?"

"I'll change the fucking locks Monday."

"Better change the ones at the condo too."

"Jesus!" I groaned, remembering she had a key to that, too.

"There's more."

I stepped to the French doors and stared out at the woods that began fifty feet beyond the house. "Tell me," I told him.

"Rastus Reed, Brenda's father, is one of my clients."

I turned to stare at him. "You send a cleaning crew down to Brunswick?"

"My other business, Sammy." He paled and turned to look at the books on the far wall. "I have a dungeon up in Marietta. I have clients who want to be punished. You know, whips, canes, and stuff."

"Jesus!"

"It's an extra two thousand a month; I can't give it up yet."

I could see Paul in a leather vest and pants holding a whip and watching some stupid moron who wanted that shit strip.

"Rastus Reed is one of my clients, Sammy."

My eyes bulged. Brenda's father? The bible-pounder who preached God's hate for democrats and gay people?

"He's queer?" I mewled.

"Yeah, and he gets two hundred dollars of punishment every week." Paul grinned. "He's got a hustler he keeps in Jacksonville he needs to be punished for. He let drop that he's going to be up here the end of next week preaching a revival."

"Lovely!" I mumbled. "That's just what these people need."

"Brenda's going around at work suggesting that something big is going to happen in her life after next week. Her co-workers think it might be an engagement ring."

"Who?" I cried before I could realize that I didn't really care because it wasn't going to be me.

"That's anybody's guess. I sort of thought she was thinking of you, though -- unless there's been another guy there I haven't heard about."

"It won't be me if I have anything to say about it," I growled. I remembered then that she'd been pretty possessive and showing me a side of her that I'd never known existed before I kicked her out. She could have gotten a wild hair up her ass and convinced herself that she and I ... I didn't want to think about it.

"Let Henry tell you what's going on up here."

I turned to my dark-haired cousin and watched him shift from one foot to the other. "What's going on?" I asked, forcing myself to stay calm.

"They're building up this revival at the Tugaloo Baptist Sanctuary. It's all over the school."

I looked from Henry to Paul. "A revival that starts the end of next week, and it's all over the county all ready?" I groaned.

"It gets worse, Sammy," Paul said. "Go on, Henry."

"The kids at school -- they're picking on us kids from the mountain."

"Since when?" I demanded.

"Since this revival talk started."

"Go on."

"They're calling us queers and saying we practice incest. The other Taylor kids have started avoiding me because of that. Some of the kids at school are saying that the revival's going to be aimed at the evil here on Taylor Mountain."

"I think Henry needs to get out of this mess for a while, Sammy. And quick."

"Is this the reason you skipped school today?" I asked.

Henry looked embarrassed but nodded.

"It's okay with me if you stay with me next week, but I think we'd better tell Sam about this shit -- all of it." I smiled as the nude image of the blond popped into my mind. "And get Ralph's permission for you to come back to Atlanta with us."

* * *

"Good sermon, Reverend Troy," Johnny said as he stepped through the doorway of Troy's office.

"So, you liked all that hell and brimstone, did you?" Troy asked, looking squarely at the football player as Johnny crossed the room.

Johnny grinned. "You're as good as Reverend Reed, piling that shit on." His voice lowered, his grin becoming a leer. "And you're a hell of a lot better looking. I'd fuck you in a New York minute."

"You already do that on a daily basis."

"You complaining?" Johnny asked as he sat down across the desk from Troy.

"I'd like it to be consensual and it sure wasn't that -- not in the beginning. I'd also like for it to be less one-way."

"There ain't no way something that big gets anywhere close to my naked butt," Johnny growled.

Troy was no longer frightened of the football player or of being seen talking to him. Johnny had been to the small house Gospel Baptist was providing Troy every night since he'd moved in. He'd gotten used to the boy -- almost comfortable with him. He'd gotten to know him, too -- especially the six inch coke bottle in his pants. And he'd come to accept that he and Johnny had a relationship, one-sided as it was.

If he was to tell the truth, he'd also gotten comfortable bottoming for the boy. But he wasn't about to admit that. Even if he could tell somebody, he sure as shit wouldn't. Only, he had to reckon that Johnny had already figured it out. He'd come to accept that it was all right for him to be a queer, as long as Johnny was the only other person in Brunswick who knew about it.

"Are you going to come over tonight?" Troy asked.

Johnny grinned wickedly. "How about a double dose -- tonight and this afternoon?"

Troy rolled his eyes but his dick started to lengthen. He could almost swear that an itch start up his ass. "I thought Sundays were family days at your house."

"They are, but I convinced Mom that you'd help me with my English."

"Your mom?"

"She's the religious one in the family. Dad knows what kind of scam Reed's pulling and figures you are into it, too."

"And what do you figure, Johnny?"

"That sermon you gave today ought to scare twelve- and thirteen-year-old boys out of even thinking of experimenting with their buddies." The boy laughed. "I know you, Troy. You were a whore, selling your body to anybody who came along..."

Troy blanched. He didn't like that image of himself. "I don't do that any more," he mumbled. "I'm making a new life for myself."

"You're still a whore, Troy," Johnny told him, his voice low and serious. "You're still selling folks what they think they want -- only, now, it's big, angry daddy with a big paddle. You're probably making more with this kind of whoring than you did when it was your body you were selling."

"If that's what you think of me, why're you -- uh..."

Johnny looked down at his hands. "At first, it was just to get a nut. But I've grown to like you this past week," he said quietly. "I like being around you when you aren't trying to sell Reed's brand of hellfire."

Troy's phone rang and he picked it up to find Rastus Reed on the other end. He asked Troy to come to his office.

Johnny stood up before Troy could hang up. "I'll come by in a couple of hours," he told Troy. "That'll give you time to give that sleezeball whatever he wants and me time to have lunch with the folks." He grinned then. "Just don't give him yourself." He leaned across the desk, his face close to Troy's. "Your body's mine, and don't you forget it."

* * *

"Sammy?"

I pulled onto the entrance ramp of I-985 outside of Gainesville and speeded up. "Shoot," I told Paul who had settled into the back seat.

"I don't like this mess."

"Old Mr. Sam said it wasn't anything we couldn't handle," Henry said from the seat beside me.

"I'd just be more comfortable if I and some guys I know were up here next weekend -- just in case things get hairy."

I shrugged. "How many guys are you thinking, Paul?"

"Maybe five -- I'd make six."

"What do you think is going to happen?" Henry asked, turning in his seat to look back at Paul.

"I don't know. But I do know that the men I'm thinking about aren't about to be run over by a bunch of hillbillies." He grinned. "And all of them will know how to handle somebody like Rastus Reed."

"Bring them up then," I told him.

I didn't know what Paul was worried about. Like Sam had said, Taylor Mountain was private property. Nobody was going to bother us there. The only problem was for the kids at school, and Sam had suggested letting them skip this next week -- until the hoopla had blown over and things had settled down. The frenzy built up around even the biggest revivals never lasted more than a week or two. Hell! If we had to, the parents could go over to home schooling for the rest of the year to keep Taylor kids safe from the kids in the hollow. Besides, the Foundation had more than enough money to build a school on the mountain if that became necessary.

I allowed myself to chuckle. Sam and Ralph had both suggested that the mountain secede from the county so our tax money would stay with us.

* * *

Even as she neared Atlanta Sunday night, Brenda still couldn't understand how her Daddy had figured out she'd been a bad girl with Sammy. She'd been so careful, but he'd still seen right into her heart and knew her sin.

He'd questioned her so hard, even getting right in her face to do it. He kept accusing her of giving herself to Sammy. And doing so when she knew that Sammy wasn't even a God-fearing Christian.

Maybe she shouldn't have told him about entering Sammy's condo and finding him being nasty with that queer Paul. That had almost given Daddy a heart attack, her mentioning Paul being a woman to Sammy.

Daddy had grabbed his chest and turned pale as a ghost when she told him the queer's name. He'd collapsed in his chair behind his desk, his breathing a loud, grating gasp. She'd thought he was having a heart attack, but he sent her out of his office and told her to shut the door behind her.

That had been Friday. Daddy wouldn't even see her alone after that. He hadn't even explained to her how to exorcise the devil out of Sammy so she could save him for herself and his soul for Jesus.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I let myself into the condo Monday evening expecting to find Henry draped over my couch watching MTV or something else equally as uninteresting to me. I'd started rehearsing lines that would justify turning the idiot box off when I left the car.

There was no sign of Henry anywhere. I finally found his note on the counter - just before I called the cops to report a missing teenager loose on Atlanta.

He was at Paul's for a little while. Okay, no problem.

I fixed a drink and turned my thoughts to what to have for dinner. As I drained the last of the Famous Grouse from the glass, I decided on Chinese. But I did want to discuss it with Henry before I ordered. I changed into something comfortable and came back to the living room to read the paper.

It was eight o'clock and another drink before I'd had enough. I got up and went next door. I knocked and waited. Three minutes later, I used the door knocker and waited. I'd just reached for the knocker again when I heard the door being unlocked.

It opened just enough for me to see Paul's face as he looked out at me. His foyer and living room were dark. He was hiding the rest of his body behind the door.

"Is Henry still here?" I asked, figuring I knew the answer all ready.

"He - Sammy, I'm sorry," my neighbor said, his face reddening. "We sort of lost track of time."

"I was getting hungry-"

"I fed him hours ago, Sammy. You go ahead and eat."

"Send him home when you get tired of him," I told him and started toward my own door.

I was mildly pissed as I waited for the Chinese delivery man. I didn't know what I'd expected when I came home from work, but waiting two and a half hours for Henry to finish fucking Paul wasn't it. I started planning out nice ways to tell the kid that he had to be considerate of other people - me especially.

By the time midnight rolled around, I knew Henry wasn't coming back that night. That irritated me more than I wanted to admit, and not just because I'd wanted a piece of the kid's ass, either. I stopped thinking of nice ways of talking to Henry when I saw him again. When I got through telling him what I expected, I doubted he'd ever want to come to Atlanta with me again. That would suit me fine, the way I felt when I went to bed that night.

The next morning, Paul was picking up his paper as I let myself out. He looked like shit. "Henry still with you?" I asked, my voice probably telegraphing my irritation.

"Yeah. He's asleep." He yawned. "That kid stays hard, Sammy - like that blond up on the mountain."

"Just tell him to be waiting for me in my house when I get home tonight."

"Make it six?"

"Okay, six it is."

"I'll personally walk him over and put his leash in your hand," Paul said, making a half-hearted attempt at humor. If he had looked more rested, it might have worked.

"Don't plan on him coming back out to play later. Henry's got to learn how to be responsible."

Paul laughed. "Good. That means I can sleep tonight."

Even with the dive that the economy had taken since Bush re-instituted Reagan's voodoo economics, there were a few bright spots offering returns. Technologies were looking better all the time. There were also European stocks that looked both bright and solid. I spent most of the day investigating them.

I barely noticed when the locksmith put in new locks. I forgot to eat lunch. I didn't think of Henry at all. By five o'clock, it had been a productive day.

My stomach growled when I was locking up. I thought of Henry then and quickly remembered there weren't many groceries around the house. I figured I was going to have a hungry boy waiting for me at the condo. On the drive home, I tried to decide where I ought to take him to eat. There was a diner over on Memorial that served Southern cooking. The thought of that much grease turned me off, however; besides, I figured Henry got enough fried chicken at home. I remembered the little Mexican restaurant beside the sandwich shop where Paul and I had eaten. The kid would probably go for Mexican; I knew I could.

Henry wasn't there when I arrived home, and it didn't look like he'd been home during the day. I was starting to boil until I remembered that I had told Paul to have the kid back by six. I was still irked but accepted that I was going to have to wait. I fixed a drink and changed into jeans and a knit sweater. I heard the door open as I was pulling on my sneakers and glanced at my clock. Henry had made it with three minutes to spare.

"Hungry?" I called out and stood up.

"I could eat a horse," Henry called back.

"Good," I said as I entered the short hallway that led me into the living room. "We're having Mexican, that okay with you?"

He shrugged and pushed the door closed. "Never had it, but I'll try anything once." I stopped at the entrance to the living room and watched him.

His face flushed when he saw me looking at him, and he quickly walked into the kitchen. "I need some water," he explained over his shoulder.

I didn't realize that he was avoiding me as I stepped into the living room. "It's probably a couple of miles up to the restaurant. Want to walk or take a cab?" I asked.

"What's the matter with your car?" he asked and looked at me from behind the counter separating the two rooms.

"Nothing. It's just a real bitch to find parking around here in the evenings - especially with the pub next door."

"You've got a car, though, and you'd still walk two miles to a restaurant?" he asked, looking at me strangely.

"It'd build up our appetites," I retorted. "Besides, you do a lot of walking on the mountain."

"Yeah. That's because I have to, Sammy. I don't have wheels - either I hoof it or I beg good old dad to let me use the car." He wagged his head slowly. "It's easier to walk it."

I laughed.

"You think it's funny?" he growled, rounding the counter and entering the living room. "I guess you had a car given to you on your sixteenth birthday."

"I did, Henry. But I get your point." I picked up the phone. "I'll call a cab."

We went down to the street to wait for the cab. "I'm sorry about last night, Sammy," he said as I held the door open and he passed by me.

"It wasn't very responsible of you," I told him, keeping my voice calm as we walked out to the sidewalk. "I kept waiting for you to come home before I ate."

"I know and I'm really, really sorry. Next time I do something with Paul, I'll be back home by nine, I promise."

"It's okay. Just think of others besides yourself next time." I grinned and turned to face him. "I guess you were - uh - pretty wrapped up with Paul last night-" I arched a brow theatrically in question.

He turned red. And looked anywhere but at me.

"Paul suggested that you'd worn him out," I supplied.

"I couldn't believe it, Sammy," he groaned. "We kept going until my dick was like rubber."

"You fucked him that long?"

"Shit, yeah! He wouldn't get off and I wouldn't go down. Neither one of us even came the last thirty minutes we were doing it."

"I guess you're pretty proud of your endurance-"

"Nah, not really-" He looked at me. "Well, yeah - a little, I guess." His gaze dropped to the curb. "It was good to find out that I could last that long, you know? But it'd have been a whole lot better, I think, if we'd just cuddled up together afterwards - like we do, you and me. We were so worn out, we just crashed."

I saw a yellow cab pull into the local lane and slow down as it approached us. "I think we've got our ride. Hope you're hungry."

Henry looked up and noticed the park across the road. "What's over there?" he asked.

"Piedmont Park. That's where I run in the mornings. We'll have to check it out tomorrow before I go to work." I stepped between two parked cars as the cab stopped and opened the door. Henry was right behind me.

* * *

"I've been wanting this all day," Henry said as he stood next to my bed and pulled his tee-shirt over his head.

"What's that?" I asked, sitting on the other side of the bed and pushing my jeans down my legs. I was already hard and tenting my boxers.

"Your dick where it belongs, Sammy," he said and leaned over the bed to nuzzle my neck.

"You didn't get enough with Paul last night?" I asked, pulling his leg a little. I turned and our lips met.

He pulled back a moment later and smiled at me as he unbuttoned the waist of his pants. "I got enough of fucking him last night," he answered, quickly pulled the zipper down. "But I want you in me."

"Poor Paul." I chuckled and pushed my underwear past my knees. "Sam doesn't like it when an outsider is plugging one of us, does he?"

His hands went to him hips as he studied me. "It isn't just that," he said slowly, thinking through his words. "I like fucking him. I like being with him. I like learning things from him. But I don't want him fucking me any more than I want any of my cousins on the mountain in me - not any more."

"Oh?" My underwear puddled at my feet and I stepped out of them.

"Yeah. There's something about you fucking me that makes it more than just fucking - and that's what I want now."

"What about Sam? I haven't heard you complain about bending over for him."

"Shit!" Henry pushed his pants and underwear over his hips and sat on the bed to pull them off. "Sam'll fuck me but he doesn't really want anybody but you - not since that first time you came up to the mountain," he said over his shoulder.

"Yeah?" My gaze moved slowly down his back to his buttcheeks.

I saw them then - welts crisscrossing his fanny from his tailbone down to the sheets. "What the fuck?" I growled.

"What?" he asked as he turned to face me.

"Your ass, Henry. Who's been beating you?"

His face turned red and his hands covered his butt. His eyes got bigger and rounder and they met mine - like a deer caught in the headlights of an on-coming car.

"Henry?" I asked, staying a lot calmer than I thought I could.

"Sammy, don't get mad at me." He looked away then.

"What happened?" I asked and I slid across the bed and cupped his chin in my hand to turn him back to me.

"Paul-"

"Paul did this to you?" I demanded. "I'll-"

"No, Sammy, don't." His eyes pleaded with me, even more than his voice did. "I went with him to his warehouse this morning - his dungeon."

"His dungeon?"

"Yeah. He ties guys up - with chains and ropes and everything."

"Jesus!" I groaned.

"They pay him to punish them."

"Punish?"

"Yeah. They all dress up in leather chaps and stuff, leaving their butts naked - and he ties them up to this big X-shaped cross standing in the middle of the room. He's got all sorts of stuff - you know, whips and paddles-"

I understood then. Typical kid, Henry had seen Paul's layout, and that was all she wrote. He had to know about everything there then - and try it out. I just hoped that he hadn't enjoyed himself too much. I didn't know how I'd explain that to Sam or Ralph. Shit! I didn't know how I'd explain it to myself.

I mean, I'd gotten to be more than a little fond of this cousin of mine with the big-assed dick and very willing ass. But I sure as hell didn't want to see him or his privates decked out in leather or his butt covered in welts. Ralph would throw a conniption fit if he found out his son liked that shit. And I didn't want to think about what Sam would do about it. The kid could have a lot more reminders than a few ugly welts across his heiny.

I forced myself to stay calm. I told myself that what Henry had done was no different than the first time a boy got drunk - or even the first time he jerked off. It wasn't anything more than his exploring a little niche of the world around him.

"Did you enjoy it?" I asked quietly.

"No - well, a little, I guess." He pulled away from my fingers and looked down at his hands that had found their way to his lap. "It hurt just like when daddy used to whip me when I was a little boy - so, I didn't really like it," he explained. "But Paul carried me all the way through it beforehand." He looked up, his gaze meeting mine again. "Like, we had to agree on just how far he'd go and come up with a safeword and a whole bunch of other shit. The weirdest thing was I had to come up with a fantasy for why I was being whipped."

"Ouch!" I yelped, trying to imagine any such fantasy for me and coming up empty. "Did you come up with something?"

He blushed again, his ears were almost brown they were so dark red. "Yeah."

"What?"

He looked away quickly. "I don't want to say, Sammy," he mumbled.

I crawled around behind him and encircled his chest. I nuzzled his ear. "Come on, what?"

That ear got hot as well as dark red suddenly. "It was just playing, you know?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you and me, we were supposed to be lovers, real ones - you know, living together and being sort of a family."

"Okay-" I wasn't letting anything on, but I found that I was beginning to like this fantasy of his. Not the whipping, but the lovers part.

"And you caught me fooling around - the very first time I'd done something that stupid in the three whole years we'd been lovers - it was a fantasy, you know?"

"And you had to justify me spanking you somehow, right?" I nibbled at his earlobe and his whole body shivered against mine.

I moved my hand down his chest and over his abs to wrap my fingers around his hard dick. It was slick and wet, it was drooling so much.

I brought my other hand up to his shoulder and guided him down onto the bed. He grinned up at me and spread his legs wide. I climbed in between them and bent over to kiss him. He raised his head to meet me, both his hands going over my arms and onto the top of my head to pull my face to his. Our lips locked and our dicks dueled between our bodies.

Henry used his knees to move his legs up along my sides. As soon as he'd moved them into my armpits, he locked his ankles over the small of my back, his heels digging into the tops of my asscheeks.

Our tongues dancing to their own music, I brought my free hand around his hip and, taking hold of my pole at its base, worked it down past his balls to wedge its knob at his puckered opening.

He opened his eyes and, breaking our kiss, grinned up at me. His hands moved over my shoulders and onto my sides on their way to my fanny. He cupped both buttcheeks and, still grinning, began to pull himself up toward me, impaling himself on my dick.

"That feels so fucking good, Sammy," he whispered hoarsely as his heels began to push my body against his faster. He sighed when my pubes pushed past the bottom of his ball sack. "Now, fuck my ass good."

I began to pull my hips back, sliding inches of my pole out of him.

"Yeah!" he moaned, laying his head back on the bed and arching his neck. His eyes closed and his head began to move from side to side.

His hands continued to cup my cheeks and his heels continued to spur my butt forward as he relaxed his body, surrendering it to me.

I found a rhythm that felt good and which my fist on his meat could match. His fuckchute spread open as I pushed into him but gripped at me as I began to pull back. Ripples of muscles pulled and tugged at my dick.

I lost myself to the rhythm and tension and surrender of his body. Of my body. Of our bodies working together to become one. We were united, together, as we rode each other. The universe consisted of only the two of us. For all time. We were perfection.

I was beyond thought and, even, emotion. I was the densest feeling, expanding to reach critical mass.

But perfection didn't, wouldn't, last.

Pressure increased until even feeling became nothing. And everything at the same time. Feeling exploded across the universe. Stars blinked into existence in that eternity. And winked out of it. We were creation.

Henry came. Gushes of his jizz slickening our chests. The gripping, tugging of his fuckchute became a vise, heated past imagination.

I rammed into that heated vise one last time - and froze. And exploded.

I ceased to exist for that moment in time. My face rose and my eyes shut as I cried out silently in my release.

I continued to kneel over him, frozen in rictus as my dick throbbed and Henry's assmuscles spasmed along my pole over and over to milk me dry.