Anton and Daniel 3

“Joder, perra, estoy tan jodidamente cerca de reventar una nuez aquí."

Something, something, I’m so something close to busting a nut here, Something is lost in translation. Daniel’s powerful gyrations behind him, in him, make the message clear. Fourteen gets the point, if the pun can be forgiven.

Fourteen is sweating testosterone in Anton and Daniel’s Master Stateroom. It has been a chicken sandwich since Anton sent Daniel to fetch-lure him into their first grupo de tres. “Your turn,” Daniel informs Fourteen. Fourteen grins uncertainty about a threesome. The invitation from Daniel is welcome, though. From his bed in the pilot berth, the naked youth kisses-slithers his way from Daniel’s proud cock to Daniel’s sardonic lips. The beach north of La Paz was just a start between these young muscles.

The three shipmates are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at a wink-whim from Anton Schroeder. Anton is the submissive-master of these moments as he is Master of Surocco. Sweet Daniel cloaks himself in machismo for his punta-lover. This is what his dominating-submissive boyfriend wants. Daniel is Master in the Stateroom.

Daniel has leisurely fucked Fourteen up the Baja coast and down Sonora. Anton wants his Daniel-lion. Daniel is still not sure what young Fourteen wants, beyond a respectable length of cock up his adolescent ass. That suits Dr. Jekyll-Daniel, just fine. In the narrow gangway, he is ravishing Fourteen’s pre-naked body before they step back through the bulkhead into the lover’s stateroom.

Fourteen is sure what he wants in the now. He is always wrestling above his weight class on this long journey West, Far East (deflected South). As Daniel takes him in hand (what he wants). Fourteen is not conscious of what Levi Fisher saw. The colt at the August Fair has grown. Daniel dropped him in the drink off Bahia Berrendo, told the cabin boy to swim. Muscles sprout at fifteen. It is a lazy voyage around the Sea of Cortez and Fourteen’s hardening body. The pair have explored every bay and inlet.

There is nothing discrete-illicit in the young men’s coupling. Cordell Faulkner and Inez Montreal would understand the openness of this relationship. Anton and his Daniel share Fourteen like a mixed plate of appetizers. “Try this love!” Savour the flavour of that. They can spice up a coupling with reconture about the many men they have had-shared-wanted. Monogamy is for the straight and boring. “I want to see you fuck him!” Anton finally decides.

So Daniel stalks proud to where Fourteen lies in adolescent heat. Fourteen slithers his Bobcat up the Lion’s breast and there is a new (old) thing in Surocco. This is Fourteen’s first threesome since after the Gifford Pinchot State handoff. Patrick Hunter and John Cannon raping a boy into Patrick’s dark pussy-boy after; very much wrestling out of Fourteen’s weight class. Unsettling that, but Fourteen is hungry for inclusion.

“He’s a dirty boy, Daniel. Make him cum for me.” Anton simpers on the bed, memories of Fourteen’s devil-delicious dominance exciting harmless revenge. Anton quivers with anticipation. His Daniel is magnificent with the young Twink. Male animals entwined, muscles and sinew are already leveraging for advantage. Daniel is growling threats and predictions in Spanish. “English please,” Anton pleads. He needs to hear the sex talk Fourteen scorns.

“Gonna screw your ass boy.” Daniel grates for Anton’s benefit. Fourteen can almost hear the dangerous flat inflections of (fucking) Cordell’s voice. He is pinned against Daniel’s harder body. One rippling forearm has him across the chest. A practiced hand knife-blades between Fourteen’s clenched buttocks. Fingers spread him so the latex-lubed cockhead can push past his sphincter defences into his waiting heat. The height advantage is going to leave Fourteen suspended for a moment; not a problem.

Anton is watching Fourteen’s face intently. He is fascinated with the way Fourteen’s face transfigures as Daniel’s cock slides in. Anton nearly self-destructed at this young man’s age. Young fool, Anton smiles at the memories. Eighteen, trust-fund rich, and free of his mother, Anton took a walk on the wild side. He turned to Pink and Marilyn Manson. Clubbed in insane places with a fuck-you attitude.

His dangerous boyfriend had a heroin addiction. Fourteen’s face relaxes into Daniel’s fuck the way Anton’s junky boyfriend let the smack wash through his veins. Fourteen mainlines cock up his ass. The boyfriend’s smack was stupid-self-annialation. Anton never understood the allure of a libedo-anialating high. What a waste of sensation. Eighteen-year old Anton needed a hard fuck and the pretty junky just lay there comatose. It was a short relationship. Fourteen’s face says, “Oh Yeah, bring it on.” Capturing manhood in your depths, Anton understands that addiction all too well. Anton relates to Fourteen’s look of fulfillment.

“Give it to me, Fourteen. Give it to me Pretty Boy. I feel your pussy telling me you want it,” Fourteen’s heart is in his throat, there is something too familiar-disturbing about this coupling in the Master Birth. Eyes watching the penetration, the scornful words, Fourteen dismisses the disquiet. He is the boy-toy here. He is the creamy-salty chicken salad toasted for Anton’s pleasure.

Still tiptoed, Daniel’s one arm glues Fourteen to a sweating chest, the other hand holds his inner thigh right at the scar Levi slashed along his femoral artery. His body is presented to Anton on the bed. Anton’s long tongue reaches out to lap Fourteen’s erection down his throat. It is feeding time. Fantastic twists of tongue accompany a considered anal grind. Fourteen is huffing-sacrificial between the two men. Anton’s wrist saws across Fourteen’s hung scrotum as Anton’s fingers capture Daniel’s bull-balls. Anton is almost tugging his lover into the Cabin Boy.

Anton is delighted. The proud little cock likes to deny Anton his reward. The silent begging for Fourteen’s spunk, Anton loves that game. Wicked little prick! Daniel will snatch a mouthful for him. Some choice consonants escape Fourteen’s parted lips. Anton pulls off cut-cock. A silver strand of saliva connects him to the young man’s member. Daniel’s shaft passes Anton’s fingertips as it delves into Fourteen. Anton strokes Fourteen’s erection to the beat of Daniel’s thrusts.

Sexy Daniel will not release Fourteen until he has made him cum. Made Anton take his spunk. “Do it, Fourteen. I can feel you want it. You want this man-cock up your pussy ass, don’t you. Jizz for me, let it come in Anton’s throat. Choke him with your flood. This,” and Daniel jolts Fourteen’s rectum with a thrust, “is all you need. Oh, you are such a beautiful boy. Anton loves your cock, Pretty Boy, don’t you? You love the Pretty Boy fucking your face, my beautiful man.”

Good boy, Pretty Boy, Fourteen remembers the self-satisfied growl. Oh God damn! Daniel’s meat and the juxtaposition of soft lips and beard on his shoulder and neck. Anton is about his groin, stripping nerves with skillful teeth. Fourteen is easily overcome. He will be overcum very soon. “So good, you’re really special. Everyone is going to love you.”

“No!” Fourteen protests.

Anton shifts onto his back, mouth open off the edge of the bed. Daniel knows what his lover wants. “Fuck his face, Pretty Boy!” Daniel shifts position. Fourteen is pistoned into Anton’s open throat by Daniel’s hard thrusts. A firm hand on Fourteen’s neck suggests the cabin boy should suck Anton’s cock. It is hard to reach, until Fourteen’s cock floods Anton’s mouth, and then Daniel pulls Fourteen’s hips back so the youth can bury his face in Anton’s groin.

The fucks get harder. Sweat mingles in the compact stateroom. Anton lets Fourteen’s belly pummel his face as Fourteen gets drilled. So many variations on a theme since Anton was a teenager. Daniel is bruising both of them. The young man stood on the dock in San Diego. Shabby clothes, Padre’s ball cap squared on his head, Fourteen grinned tangerine. It flowed off the dock and onto Anton’s ketch. Daniel is going to love him, Anton knew. Perfect gift-distraction for Anton’s Daniel.

Fourteen lies between the men full and drained. Afterglow radiates off his spent body. The men pet him as they kiss over his body. “He’s a pretty boy, I told you, Daniel.”

“Hot cunt,” Daniel agrees with another peck. It is harmless self congratulatory talk between the lovers. They have shared a selfish meal. Although, being digested has its own rewards. “But Anton, I expect to see what he does with you.”

“I know! You’ll show Daniel, won’t you Pretty Boy.” Anton kisses Fourteen on the lips.

Fourteen breaks free, forcing the kissers apart. Fingers trail off his body as he rises. “I’ve just got to …” Then he is through the bulkhead.

Daniel and Anton catch a last glimpse of firm (fucked) bum on slender legs. “Nature calls?” Anton raises an eyebrow at his lover. Daniel shrugs. They go back to kissing.

The Stateroom bulkhead is open, so Anton can see Fourteen, who has not returned to them, has not retreated to his pilot’s berth in the gangway. Fourteen slips his mind as the men resume a gentle post-coutal twine. There is body-appreciation, but also the communion of two men who bare-share themselves and find admiration. Daniel is one of the most grounded partners Anton has ever taken.

After their first time together, Anton lay beside the young architect, fingering his construction. “Are you seeing someone?” It was their second date. Daniel was, he always was. “Tell me about him.” They were so open about their mutual promiscuity. The pornographic conversations as they lay together cemented their relationship.

Oh sweet Jesus, Fourteen and Daniel both in wetsuits. Watching them swim to some secluded beach or face of rock. Knowing that the youth scaling the face of unforgiving rock was going to be pinned beneath his lover before they returned to Anton’s ketch. No jealousy, just the pleasure of watching your lover across a well appointed table appreciate an artful dish. “How does it taste?” Anton asks. “How does yours taste?” Daniel replies.

And he won’t think of Chicago, Anton reminds himself. His young stallion will mount him if he asks. Don’t think about Chicago or half a dozen other firms that would snatch you from me. Anton kisses Daniel passionately, afraid to lose him to the world.

“Is he okay?” Anton finally asks Daniel. “I should see what the stud is up to.” Anton feels his age around Fourteen. Fourteen echoes that brash young Anton body and soul. I’m moving to L.A.! Anton declared his independence. Next thing, he lives in dangerous times with a heroin addict courting HIV. Anton is older-wiser now, doesn’t really trust anyone under thirty. Eighteen is adult, not mature. “Were we a bit much for the boy?”

“Oh Anton, you just want his cock again.” Daniel grins indulgently. It has been three weeks since Fourteen threw himself at Daniel on the beach north of La Paz. The Twink is a cat-like predator pouncing on Daniel at opportune moments. Cat-like because the young man will cat’s-paw Anton as well. Fourteen might give Daniel head in the well-named cockpit, then (all keyed up) abandon Daniel for Anton puttering over the charts at the map station. “Perhaps that blue dildo he keeps in his berth.”

“Jealous much?” Anton has to laugh. “Never fear, my love. You’ve shagged me thoroughly tonight. We’ve both Dim Summed on his spicy menu. This was the first time we shared his plate between us. Too much, perhaps?”

“I’ll check on him.”

“It’s a quiet night.” Daniel begins. The step is not wide enough for both of them, So Fourteen slides down to the broader second step that lies so close to the moving water. His feet go into the cool wash and he paddles them a little. Daniel does not join him. He sits behind on the step Fourteen vacated.

“Are you okay? Anton wonders if we came on too strong. Was that your first threesome?” The matter is serious enough that Daniel has kept to English. Spanish is a lighthearted, sometimes erotic game between them.

Fourteen’s playlist continues on forgotten in a high pitched whine behind them on the desk. “Solo algunos malos recuerdos.  Me ponen triste.” Fourteen shares. After a silence, he adds, “At the beginning, two men took turns on me. Patrick liked to watch John do me. You and Anton sort of brought that back. What you said in there, while you fucked me, I didn’t like that either, bad memories.”

Fourteen twists around to look at Daniel. “I’m okay, just the memories.” He turns back to the dark waters. “You sounded like my boyfriend.” This is said very bleakly.

“And you miss him.”

“And he was a bastard.”

It’s complicated, Fourteen thinks desperately. Keon King or Sophie Wright would set him straight, but they are not here. Fourteen cannot escape the self-accusation that he is just like Taun. Daniel whispering Pretty Boy in his ear as the semin was fucked-sucked out of his cock made him remember. Fourteen betrayed Cordell in San Diego, like Tuan betrayed Levi in Da Nang so many years ago in Levi’s before. Fourteen had to wonder if years after San Diego, an old Cordell will look back and remember his frightened lover-betrayer in just the same way Levi did. Fourteen ruined Cordell’s dreams in San Diego. Will Cordell find some boy to take back to San Ysidro to make his end?

He was using you, girlfriend, Sophie would reply. He tried to remember her calm conviction, Good on you, Jeremy Gates. He spent less than two days with Sophie, and he misses her like he misses Keon. Keon and Sophie, a person knew they could trust them. Fourteen understands he was protecting himself. It does not stop the guilt. “I feel like shit.” Fourteen tells Daniel, or the ocean.

“You’re a good kid,” Daniel assures Daniel. He is thinking about the harmlessness of their recent sex. Fourteen is less jaded-adult-experienced than Daniel thought.The Freshman 15, the Freshman spread: for Daniel, that was not about weight gained. Fifteen different men during that liberated first year from home. Daniel spread his spunk around liberally before he settled (somewhat) into his second year. Daniel had suspected Kale Euler liked the nickname Fourteen because he counted cock. That makes the little cock hound sixteen now, Daniel smiled into the night.

“No I’m not. If I were a good kid I would go home. I would call home. If I were a good kid, I would not have …” Fourteen cannot go on to explain he killed a man. He feels a bit derailed, lost. If Levi could come back, they would talk it out over a glass of wine. Levi would have loved Sophie Wright. Maybe between the two of them, they could convince Jeremy Gates he was not selfish like Nguyen Huu Tuan. If Fourteen could find Cordell, he would explain, apologize.

“I’ve had to do some shitty things. I’m a shitty person.” Fourteen concludes.

“So I read,” Daniel begins.

“So I noticed.” It is a teasing answer. That is good, because Daniel wants Fourteen to be okay with the threesome in the Master Stateroom. Anton and Daniel want more. Naked youth perched on the edge of Surocco’s stern, damn right Daniel wants more. This is not that, at the moment. The boy’s not stupid. Fourteen has something-Kindle-Kobo on his phone. So Daniel knows the young man reads as well.

“Sea of Cortez, I’ve been reading up on that. Places to go, what it is about.”

“Makes sense,” Fourteen agrees.

Daniel is coaxing his companion away from the gloom. “Good and bad are confusing realities. I’m reading John Steinbeck.”

“Oh yeah, his show is funny. “Master of your domain, that cracks Shane up. He’ll say it and we both can’t stop laughing.” Simpler times, Fourteen remembers his before. Not so simple, Shane and his friends also liked to drop the gay line. “Not that there's anything wrong with it.” Fourteen murmurs this quote to himself. Not so funny, really; it was like calling something gay, it shut the door on honesty. Not that there's anything wrong with it, contradicts itself.  The before-memory weighs down Fourteen’s now. He does not want to think of Shane and Chillicothe.

“Not Jerry Seinfeld, John Steinbeck.”

“Okay,” Fourteen responds cautiously.

“You never heard of John Steinbeck? It bugs me that you never finished high school. You have a good mind. We should do something about that,” Daniel decides, and one thing Fourteen learned in La Paz is that when Daniel thinks something should be done, it gets done. “We will set something up.”

Fourteen’s eye roll goes unnoticed.

“So Steinbeck wrote this book, The Log from the Sea of Cortez. It was not what I expected, but whatever. He pointed out people think some things are good or bad. We think wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility are good.”

There is a silence between them. Fourteen reaches down into the water and swirls his cupped hand in the brine. “Okay,” he prompts. This might be his dad warming up to some life-lesson summation. Fourteen ended a life, he is sure Greyson Gates has some ideas on that subject now that Sophie has told him.

“The qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are all considered undesirable.”

“For sure, rape’s bad, for sure.”

Daniel lets this comment pass. “Steinbeck points out the good qualities lead to failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success in our society.”

“The bad asses get what they want.” Fourteen thinks about Franklin King, gunned down in the Bronx. Fourteen thinks about John Cannon trapped with Patrick Hunter.

“We are a two-legged paradox, Fourteen. So, maybe we are all shitty.”

“Okay,” The self-interest of others hurt him badly. Fourteen was thinking of himself when he ended Elvis Parker’s life in San Ysidro short of the Mexican border. Fourteen would rather be like Sophie and Keon, generous and good. Surely there is success in that too. “That’s not very funny.” Fourteen decides critically.

“John Steinbeck was not a comedian.” Daniel replies with asperity. “Maybe you needed to be shitty. It is not a free pass, but it is something you need to consider. The lesser of two weevils,” Daniel references a favorite movie of Anton’s. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Secrets will eat you up, it takes a lot of effort to keep it together. Fourteen cannot trust the truth to Daniel. Sophie knows, his parents know. Fourteen realizes that is a strange comfort. “You, me and Anton, that was chill.” Fourteen turns on his step so they can see each other now. Tangerine lights Fourteen’s face and there is the twisted smirk that always gets Jeremy Gates out of trouble. Daniel has to kiss the audaciousness off his lips. Fourteen continues when they break free. “I like it, but the memories you see.”

Daniel palms Fourteen’s neck, feeling the young man’s contentment to be touched. Fourteen looks out over the water at the running lights of the nearest yacht. “I hooked up for my first time. Two older guys, so it got a little cringy. I don’t want to be extra about it, but the memories are not good.”

Raped, two guys? Daniel’s hand moves down Fourteen’s back. “That’s not okay. Rough start?” Daniel prompts.

“The two of you, the words, it was a flashback. A bad trip, Levi would call it.” Fourteen adds, “I’ll be okay.” More than okay, Fourteen thinks. He has thought about this since Daniel stepped on board in San Diego. He is so stupid, always thinking with his cock. Fourteen knows this, but he is helpless. “Next time?” He tries to read Daniel’s face. The man smiles in agreement, which is encouraging, “Next time, just …”

“Don’t talk?”

Fourteen nods his head, leans back slightly into the palm between his shoulder blades. He wants to lean back against Daniel, offer his body up to the young man again. Fourteen clears his throat. “I tripped up in San Diego, the law is after me.”

Daniel pulls his hand away from the hot stove. Fourteen absorbs the rejection, stares off into the night. “It’s good. The passport is good. Don’t tell Anton. I need to get to Antigua.”

“What’s in Antigua?” This is not the question Daniel should be asking. It just comes out that way. “Oh man, Kale, your parents! The shit you have landed Anton in.”

“He knows I’m running. My parents know I’m okay. I’ve talked to them.” Fourteen breaths deep. Best to stretch the truth, “They know where I’m going. What happened to me, what I did, it won’t come back on you.”

“Drugs?”

“Not that, hooking, some guys, some gang wanted me to work for them. Gonna lay some tats on my back like I’m a slave. I don’t think so.” Bobcat slips into Fourteen’s voice. Jackrabbit heart? Not hardly. There is guilt, and there is stupid. God damned sexy biker hot sex, Fourteen concedes. He can forgive Elvis Parker (and John Cannon) more easily than (fucking) Cordell Faulkner. Then there is twenty-four year old Daniel Ayers muscle-madness just a twist away. Dizzy boy, Levi would say.

It was what Anton suspected. Kale Euler worked his way across America. In his way, Fourteen was running riot in his fresh manhood like Daniel’s first year at university. It was a wonder young men survived to twenty-four. “These guys raped you? ”

“God no!” Fourteen finds a way to roll his eyes at the suggestion. “Guess I just don’t like getting dissed during sex. Boyfriend called me pretty boy, I don't like that either. He was a bastard.” Fourteen needs a reassuring kiss. He needs to get Daniel off this conversation. He said more than he should and knows he wants to say more.

Fourteen twists around, like he did on the beach north of La Paz and plants his lips on Daniel. Daniel has a thought for his lover in the Master Stateroom. Anton is likely sleeping, shagged out by Daniel’s ardour, and Fourteen’s sweaty ejaculation. Anton was content to catch Fourteen’s spill and dream of next time. Anton will rouse enough to hold Daniel for a moment when the young man returns to bed. At the moment, Daniel has frenzy all over his chest and mouth; not another threesome.

Fourteen is one foot in the water, the other twisted with his hips into Surocco’s first step. His fingers grip Daniel’s head and draw it down onto his mouth. The movement tips Daniel over into a curl. Lips locked, Daniel pivots off the stern of the ketch gripping Fourteen’s shoulders. Daniel hits the cool water on his back with Fourteen on top.

The partners sink down, both pretending they are not immersed and sinking into cool darkness. Salt invades their mouths. They are weightless as the Pacific waters tingle-touch their everywhere. Daniel opens his eyes. They have stopped sinking, he is no longer sure which way leads up. Fourteen’s hand holds him close, a strong leg twines about his. Daniel breaks the kiss. Bubbles escape from the youth’s lips and slither away. Daniel pushes Fourteen up to follow them to the surface.

The air escapes Daniel’s lungs in small releasing bursts. He gives himself a moment to float beneath the swell. Surocco is his Lotus Land respite. Ambition and failure fade as Anton cruises about the Sea of Cortez. Three men in a boat with passing neighbors. The busy Mexican shore intrudes, but life is the inselor rhythm of Surocco, the sensations of ocean and wind, and male bodies twined together. Each of them is escaping something. Anton flees his business, Daniel tries to turn his back on Architecture. The young man, who calls himself Fourteen, flees mistakes. Fourteen is perhaps the only one fleeing towards something at the moment. That bothers Daniel.

Daniel propels his body up. When he breaks the surface, he sees Fourteen is hanging off the stern, chin resting on folded arms. Daniel swims up behind the youth. One arm encircles Fourteen’s folded arms. Daniel lets the other explore the submerged body. Sensations of water rippling along his flesh as his palm and fingers rub up and down Fourteen’s chest, belly, and groin. “No words,” he promises in Fourteen’s ear.

The timeless, live-aboard orgy, motion through wind and wave, ship work and private contemplation, passing distractions, then ready-willing flesh to take or share. Daniel can nestle up to Fourteen’s length, feel the slippery skin against his body. Cock and balls gravity-free in the salt-lift water. Daniel bites an earlobe, then the cord of salty shoulder. His hard cock loves the firm ass it rubs against. Daniel loves the way Fourteen’s feet try hooking him to bring them closer.

“You gonna fuck me?” Fourteen asks.

“Fuck you hard, no words.”

“That’s okay then,” The tangerine is back, filling Daniel’s nostrils with the youth’s allure.

There are no words, but there is sunscreen lubricant in the cockpit. Daniel makes Fourteen worship his cock before he takes his pleasure. Daniel pets the young man as Fourteen tongues and teeth’s Daniel’s manhood. Since High School, it has been like this. Men come for Daniel. They never seem to see past his frame or their need for his cock. Fourteen listens, that is good. Anton took him seriously that first date. Anton hears Daniel’s architectural dreams and takes him seriously. He wants to tell Fourteen that he is doing well, but the young man wants silence. So Daniel pets and feels the electric strength growing in his pleasured cock.

The teenager gives it up to Daniel, paying his passage on Surocco, like he probably fucked his way west to his imagined Hollywood stardom. Fourteen will only be a star in someone’s bed. They have fucked face to face. Fourteen loves to claw Daniel’s back, bare his teeth between bouts of kissing. It is good, Daniel concedes. Good is fucking a sub from behind. It is like the bottom wants to crawl away from your punishing assault. Fourteen has one foot up on the cushion ass Daniel strokes. Fourteen claws his response into the fake teak deck. “Augh!” Fourteen begins. No words or sounds, Daniel clamps a hand over Fourteen’s mouth.

Daniel wants to tell the youth below him to take his meat. Anton and Fourteen come to him in different ways, but they both need his cock. Daniel needs that. Anton is his partner-lover, Fourteen is a nice kid. About the ketch, Fourteen is his kid brother. His horny kid brother, who wants a good fuck now and then. Fourteen is making noises through Daniel’s fingers. Anton would love to see him cum again, Daniel grins through his own pleasure. “Take my cock, bitch.” That is just a whisper on Daniel’s breath. Anton loves words, it is hard to keep his silence. Fourteen bites a finger. His young body jerks appreciatively against Daniel’s pelvis. “Yeah, that’s it. I’ll take care of you.” Daniel breaths.

Club de Yates, Topolobampo another KOA Walmart parking lot where Surocco could rest while Anton and Daniel explore inland. Just an overnight destination with seventeen boats occupying their slips. Anton and Daniel are ten miles inland at Los Mochis so they can do the Copper Canyon on their own. Anton is paying for the controlled security gates and 24-hour guards. Fourteen is taking advantage of the free WiFi and the laundry. The laundry reminds him of the Alburquerque KOA where Rookie Blue intruded on his solitary waiting. He scans the slips looking for a likely Scott Beck to seduce.

Fourteen and Daniel hiked up Cerro de la Calavera in La Paz to stretch their legs. Parched land, but very different from the Pueblo box canyon hikes, and there is no chattering Vondell or steady Keon to accompany him. Supie’s sedimentary steps that the three boys scaled are replaced with melted sandstone faces. One spot looked like an angry wraith screaming out at Fourteen. Water-weather bowls were hollowed out from the sun bleached face to give the impression of eyes and gaping mouth. One small hole provided a cadaverous nose. It was very Revenge of the Mummy. It was Elvis Parker screaming out at Fourteen from biker heaven. Fourteen snapped a picture with his fresh bought phone. He would have liked to SnapChat it to Shane. Shane had a pirate Lego set with a skull island. Not much chance the dark hollows held stashed treasure.

The trails were not easy to find, Daniel and Fourteen had to climb at times, but finally, they stood on split white rock looking down on the quiet ocean. At their back was the rolling hills covered in herds of low scrub watched over by sentinel souara cactus. A nearby tree had been eaten away by hard living. It was the first of many adventures Fourteen and Daniel shared in the cruise around the Sea of Cortez.

Fourteen stays in Topolobampo while the partners take the four-hour Copper Canyon Train Tour to Chihuahua and a night at the Hotel Boutique just off Plaza de Armas. Daniel wants to see Chihuahua’s Baroque cathedral and art Nouveau Quinta Gameros. Anton plans a night on the town which ends with machaca a la Mexicana tortillas. Anton’s near-adolescent enthusiasm reminds Fourteen of Levi Fisher’s San Francisco stories. Fourteen stirs jealousy, but he is the third wheel in Surocco. Third wheel in the battered Bronco heading toward Hershey, Pennsylvania. From the glances Anton and Daniel throw at each other over Fourteen’s casual breakfast in the cockpit, Fourteen suspects the town will be on the men after a night in some Gay bar.

Fourteen does not really envy them. He has Surocco to himself for two days. They sail on to Puerto Vallarta in one long cruise. He sits in the cockpit under an awning with a cold cactus juice he found in town. Somewhere about Club de Yates and the boats moored in their slips another Scott Beck might fill Fourteen’s afternoon. Dusty Topolobampo seems unfriendly. Jackrabbit keeps Fourteen close to the ketch and Bobcat is a bit disgusted with his caution. Surely, there is a cute Latino Cameron Kruger out beyond the security fence. Fourteen might flirt-search him out. Practice my Spanish and my Tango, Fourteen smirks at his perspiring glass. Then Fourteen frowns. Topolobampo feels more like (fucking) Cordell. The last thing Jeremy Gates wants is to be punched into the trashy floor of another battered Bronco. He sips his cold cactus juice and scans the marina for Scott Beck.