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X Universe - Book 3

I Promise Forever - Chapter 4

I woke to an odd, rocking motion that seemed familiar and yet not what my brain was accustomed to. My body was telling me I was having sex, but my brain was still trying to figure out the unfamiliar, but quite enjoyable sensations. I opened my eyes to find a strong, beautiful, muscular man above me. He had straddled my hips, his eyes were closed and he was lightly chewing on his lower lip as he slid slowly up and down my shaft. I couldn't help but chuckle. I'd done this to him several times. I guess he really had enjoyed last night. Jeff's eyes met mine and he smiled.

"I couldn't wait." It came out a low, shivering moan as he shifted and sank down again.

"I don't mind." I grinned as he held my eyes. "I guess this means we can swap out?"

"Oh yeah," he groaned. Damn, that was an erotic sound. "I could really get used to this."

We shut up as he tried to pogo his way to nirvana. He was sweating up a storm, his body was flexing and straining, but he wasn't getting there. I reached up and pulled at his hard nipples. It made his ass clench and his dick lurched. "Oh God, so close..." he sat back at a slightly different angle, grunting, "I can't..." up and down, "seem..." up and down, "to find..." Gods he was working for it, "the right..." he grunted again, "spot."

I leaned up, pressing his torso back as I gripped his pecs. "Lean back."

He did, rising up and back, and whimpered. "Oh yeah... that's it."

He did it again, and his legs began to shake and his breath was ragged. Then again, and again. The fifth time was all he could take. I'd thought last night had been the most erotic thing I'd ever seen. I'd been wrong. Having Jeff's hot, sweaty, muscular body shaking with release as he shot torrents of jiz into the air was absolutely incredible. I wished I could have had a picture or painting of it. His hands were all the way back, gripping his ankles and his body was bent back. All that power and beauty releasing in total ecstasy was a wonder to behold.

Oh yeah, I came too. I guess I was so caught up in Jeff that I hadn't realized he'd taken me right along with him. His bouncing through his release actually had him bounce right off my shaft, and I slipped out and slapped myself while still shooting the last of my release. We were both a mess as he rolled forward, his hips still straddling mine, and he kissed me. I could definitely make a habit of waking up to that.

His eyes were still glazed from pleasure, but they also sparkled with a happiness I hadn't seen in a long time. "How's my, Mr. Perfect, this morning?"

I grinned. "Hot, sweaty, and ready for another nap." Then I realized the time. "It's only eight-twenty." My eyes locked on him and I asked, "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"

Jeff whined. "I was horny." He nuzzled my neck, trying to distract me from his unnatural cheerfulness. "I've gotten up early for sex before."

I grunted, but I had to concede that each time we'd taken another step in our intimacy; Jeff was usually insatiable for the few days following. The first week after he'd taken my cherry, I thought my ass was going to be able to accommodate a jumbo jet before he'd calmed down. Our first "bloody" session not withstanding, the boy loved to fuck. Fortunately, so did I.

"Ok, you're my husband. You'd better get off my bladder soon or I'm going to be returning to bed wetting in short order."

Jeff was off me quickly and I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I wasn't prepared for the pain when I stood up. My legs gave out entirely and I hit the floor with a loud, "Shit!"

Jeff was off the bed and holding me before I could figure out what had just happened. "Dan?"

I moved my legs. They weren't paralyzed, but there was a distinct feeling of tension in my thighs, especially near the knees. Jeff helped me stand, and I tested my weight again. It felt like my knee cap wanted to rip off my leg. I groaned. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

Jeff set me back on the bed and looked at me with concerned eyes. All the spark and delirious happiness was gone. I grabbed his face and held his gaze. "I'm going to be fine, Jeff. I think the 'on my knees' fucking was a bit more than I was ready for. This isn't going to change anything."

He nodded. I could see he was blaming himself, so I bit his nose. "Stop it."

He blinked, shocked out of his stupor by the bite. "Stop what?"

"Trying to take the blame. We both wanted it, Jeff. It wasn't the fact I topped that did this. It's the fact I didn't think about what position we fucked in. We've always been careful about too much stress on my legs when I bottomed." I smiled and licked the tip of his nose I'd just recently bit. "I got a little carried away. With a hunk like you begging for it, how couldn't I?"

He nodded. He was still concerned, but the guilt seemed to have defused a little. "So, what do we do now?"

I shrugged. "My husband could spend some time paying attention to muscles other than my cock and ass?" He looked like he was about to object, and I laughed. "Yeah, I know. You love all of me. I think a slow, gentle leg massage with some of the sport's cream might help. Then maybe a hot shower." I grit my teeth, but I added, "And then I should probably put on the fucking braces to give my legs a rest."

Jeff grinned. "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"

"He's in the same place mine is... where ever you go when you've been fucked to the point of no return."

He smiled as he got up to retrieve the cream. "Oh, well, welcome home then."

I smiled and sighed as I lay back. "Yeah, I knew that."

Bryan and Justin had initially grinned at the slightly stiff gate of Jeff's walk and my own. Their grins failed them when I got around the tables and they saw the braces. Bryan was standing before we got to them.

"Oh my God."

I waved at him to sit down. "It isn't as bad as it looks, Bryan, chill."

Jeff held out the chair and I sat down. The questions were just burning behind their eyes, and I shrugged.

"All part of the 'David is the reason I can walk'. I'm still in recovery and yesterday I just pushed a bit further than I should have."

The relief on their faces was palpable. I laughed before the waiter got to our table. "See, we're still only human after all."

Bryan recovered his humor quickly enough and shot Jeff a critical look. "Ok, we've got his excuse. Why are you walking like a bronco-buster this morning?"

Jeff smiled defiantly. "I'm not one to 'bust-and-tell', so you're just going to have to remain curious." After a few moments, he frowned at the café table and grumbled, "Wish they had better padding on these chairs."

Bryan busted out laughing and pushed his hand across the table toward Jeff. "Welcome to the club."

Jeff shook it cheerfully. He was blushing, but he grinned at me and slid his hand across the table to hold mine. "Yeah, it's been a long time coming."

Justin put up his hand in warning. "Hey, TMI. I have no desire to know how long you were cumming."

"Okay, okay. Enough sex jokes. I'm the damn busted bronco here. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse." The table settled into a moment of silence as they all looked at me. Then we all busted up laughing. The waiter must have thought we were loons, but we didn't care.

We ended up on the beach for the day. Jeff introduced Bryan to "Dan's portable gym" while Justin and I discussed literature, the arts, and how good our guys looked – when we knew they weren't listening. We were both incredibly lucky guys. The nice thing about being on the beach was I didn't have to wear the braces, but I did have to wear Jeff's favorite green suit.

Justin was looking at me oddly while I watched the boys playing Frisbee. I looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You must have been through hell." He was talking quietly, but not so much to keep his voice down but as if he were touching a topic he wasn't sure he could.

I blinked. "Why would you think that?"

He shrugged, but didn't look away. "David's powers generally leave a person without scars and such. Yours aren't very visible, but you've got them on you chest, around your throat, and your arm and leg. It's more because the pattern of your freckles change, but I'm guessing those are scars from something bad."

I looked away. "Yeah, it was bad." I knew, like Jeff, the more I talked about it the easier time I would have recovering. "I suppose you could say it couldn't get worse. I died."

Justin just looked at me. "You mean you died on the table or in the EMS unit, and they resuscitated you?"

I shook my head. "No, I mean I died. Killed, murdered. If it wasn't for Kate, I wouldn't be here at all."

"Who's Kate?"

I smiled. "My best friend. She wouldn't accept it and she used her powers to make my body keep functioning till they could get me back to the school and on the machines." I looked at him. "You don't say no to Kate. She literally beat my heart and breathed for me for almost five hours." I had tears in my eyes. "How do you thank someone who loves you so much that she'd do that? I know Jeff would have, but he didn't have the power. Kate nearly burned herself out to bring me back." I smiled a little, thinking about how many people had worked to save me. "A lot of people did, actually. I guess I never realized how much of a family we were until it all came to an end." My eyes wandered to where Jeff was standing, and I smiled. "I'm so glad I got a second chance."

Justin had tears in his eyes when I looked at him again. The guy really wore his heart on his sleeve. "Damn, I can't decide if I want to cry because of the pain or because of the beauty of that."

I smiled. He understood. I was usually caught up not knowing for which reason I was crying as well. "Yeah well, now you've got an insight on how we got here. So if we flake out every so often, it's probably got something to do with our pasts and nothing at all to do with what's happening today." Before he could respond, I added, "And don't think you have to walk on glass around topics. If we have an issue, we'll tell you guys."

Justin smiled as his eyes looked past me. "I think you're about to have an issue."

I was shadowed briefly by a large, muscular body, before that same body hefted me up and was jogging towards the water. What was it about the whole life guard rescue thing that made Jeff feel so good? More importantly, why did I get such a thrill by the fact he kept doing it, even though it made me feel like a 'damsel in distress'?

We splashed into the green-blue of the waters and he waded out until we were much further from shore than his apparent "walking" made it seem. I couldn't help but feel we'd done this before. This time, he just held me to him instead of setting me down on a sand bar. I grinned.

"Another suit around the neck moment?"

He shook his head and slowly let me float on my own. "I've been having fun with Bryan, but I still like doing stuff with my guy. If I remember correctly, swimming is non-impact and you should be doing it anyway."

Laughing, I splashed him. "How romantic... I'm in 'husband-therapy'."

"Hey!" He splash back, and we ended up in a full fledged war of water. It wasn't some small, kiddy pool level of splashing; this was a mutant water fight.

Jeff would scoop loads the size of his body at me, and I'd spend my time laughing and deflecting it while trying to stay out of his reach. When he'd get too close, I'd send a jet of water at him, and he'd be launched out of the surf, never very far, but it was still fun to watch, before splashing down in the least graceful of manners. After one particularly creative blast, I sent him corkscrewing into the air and skipping along the surface before he vanished in the foam. He sputtered up to the top and didn't retaliate. Instead, he seemed to be treading water and looking around. I swam closer, not sure if he was trying to lure me in.

"What's up?"

Jeff frowned. "Well, I was –up-, but that last skip pulled my damn suit off. Now I'm a bit... exposed, and drooping fast."

I let my senses expand, and I realized he wasn't lying. "Uh oh."

He stuck out his tongue as I treaded closer. "Uh oh is right. How the heck am I supposed to get out of the water?"

I started to laugh, and he scowled. "What's so funny?"

"Jeff, if you haven't noticed, we 'Americans' are the only people on the beach who seemed all that concerned about 'exposing ourselves'." This was where Jeff and I were total opposites. Jeff was more than happy to put himself on display "for fun", but just being totally naked without it having any "meaning" was not something he did often. I, on the other hand, saw nothing about myself worth "displaying" or to "tantalize" someone with, but being naked really wasn't an issue. I'm a witch... the naked body isn't all that shocking to us.

"Yeah, well... I'm not giving anyone a free show."

I laughed and couldn't help grinning at him lovingly. "Honey, you've shown it all to them. Just because you have that thing of yours covered in a little piece of black cloth doesn't mean a thing. Unless you come out, get it up, and start stroking to the music, no one is going to think more than 'damn, his husband is a lucky man'."

I pulled off my suit and balled it up in my hand. "I'm going in."

He looked horrified. I don't think he'd seen me take off the suit. "You aren't going to help me find my suit?"

"Nope, I already felt about and it must have been carried on a current because it isn't below us." Ok, I probably -could- have found it, but I didn't find a small piece of cloth worth the effort.

Jeff followed me in until we were in waist deep water. Then he stopped and stood, apparently torn. "Dan..."

"Chicken," I walked slowly up the slope. It took him a moment to realize there was no "green" showing as my ass crested the lapping water and I continued onto the beach. Sure, trying to walk smoothly and confidently in shifting sand and moving water was tough on my over stressed quads. I managed it, and proved my point. Other than Justin, whose eyes nearly popped out of his head, there was no particular reaction to my emerging "sky-clad".

Bryan grinned at me. "How 'un-American' of you."

I settled back down on the towel and tossed my suit to the side. Jeff was still waist deep in the water when I looked at him. It was so funny to watch the best looking guy on the beach, who was willing to put it all out as long as he had some skimpy little thing between him and curious eyes, look like a man between a rock and a hard spot. He wasn't going to get off the hook all that easy. The boy was willing to show off, tease, be sexually provocative and basically act like a stripper, but he couldn't do something as basic as walking around in the buff when it had nothing to do with sex.

Bryan leaned over and nodded at Jeff. "Is he going to come out?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It isn't like his mutant ability is having a monster dick." I grinned. "I mean, he's got it where it counts, and don't I know it, but it isn't like he hangs to his knees."

Justin started laughing quietly. "No, you can't pack that much into a suit as small as his. It isn't like we couldn't tell he was 'packing' anyway."

Bryan smiled. "You know what?"

Justin and I looked at him as he stood up and slipped off his suit. Ok, so maybe some guys did have the eye catching effect when their suit dropped. I'm not sure whether Bryan or Jeff was bigger, but they were definitely in a close contest. Just like Jeff, he stretched and let himself be well admired before he did anything else. Yeah, I admit, I was admiring too.

"We've never been skinny dipping." He said as he smiled down at Justin.

Justin blushed. "Oh God."

Bryan squatted down and talked low to Justin. "Come on, Just. For me?"

Justin gave me an evil look. "You are so going to pay for this. I don't know how, but you will."

He stood up, looked around nervously, and shucked his baggy trunks. Ok, now I -was- impressed. No wonder Bryan walked funny after a night of Justin reminding him why he was with a guy. The small guy had us all beat.

Bryan grinned. "Race you to the water."

They took off, running past Jeff on their way into deeper water. I know Bryan said something, because Jeff scowled and then walked, no stalked, out of the water. I must admit, I'd really just wanted to have the memory of him naked, dripping with sea water, and walking up the beach with the sunlight glistening off his muscles.

He plopped down on his towel, frowning, and brought his legs up to his chest.

"That wasn't nice, Dan."

"I thought it was very nice." I grinned at him mischievously, but his irritation didn't ease.

"It's wrong."

I blinked. "Really?"

"Yes."

Ok, now I was getting mad too. "So you're saying that it's okay to wear a skimpy little black piece of cloth over your dick while showing off, strutting, and moving like Eros incarnate. But it isn't okay to just be comfortable with what 'God gave you' and not think of it as a temptation or sin?"

Actually I was really angry. I don't know where it came from, but I was boiling. I rolled off my towel and picked up my stuff. I'd had enough of the beach. "Get a grip, Jeff. There is nothing wrong with the human body, naked or clothed. It's what you choose to do with it or think about it that makes the situation right or wrong. Let your bigoted, catholic mind chew on that for a while. I'm out of here."

I stalked off the beach, using my powers to make my movements easier. I'd have flown, but that would have been bad. Jeff didn't come back to the room for over an hour. I'd know where he was, in the back of my head, but I ignored it. I hadn't realized how angry I was at him; no, not at him, at myself. I'd spent so much time trying to live to his ideals of what was "right or wrong" that I'd begun to go against some of my own beliefs. It wasn't so much that he was "leading me astray," but it was that I was willing to sacrifice who I was to be with him.

The worst part of it was, as I thought about the situation objectively, that I was doing it because I was scared he wouldn't love me if I didn't "fit his ideals". I was angry because I knew better. I knew he would love me for all of me. We'd already proven that. Yet somewhere along the line I had begun to conform to what "I thought" he wanted, instead of letting him love me for whom I was.

I didn't realize I'd been crying until Jeff got back. He looked at me and sank to his knees next to my chair on the balcony.

"I'm sorry." We said it in unison, and reached for each other. We spent a few moments nuzzling each other's necks and wiping our wet eyes. He sat back, and I frowned.

"What are you sorry for?"

"For being a bigot," he mumbled, looking at the floor. "I hadn't thought about it like that. I just thought it was fun and that you enjoyed it."

I pulled his chin up. "I do, Jeff. I love looking at you. I find you sexy whether you're clothed, in a bikini or naked." I swallowed down my pride and kept going. "I'm sorry for going off on you. I realize that I've been trying to conform to some bull shit idea I had about what you wanted. You never once asked me to be anything but myself, and I thought I had to change my ways for you to love me."

Jeff stroked my cheek. "I love you just the way you are. I love you for being an opinionated, stubborn, jerk as much as I love you for being one of the most giving, courageous, selfless guys I know. I don't want you to believe the way I believe. You've challenged my beliefs from the start, and that was one of the things I found most fascinating about you. You weren't like anyone else."

I sniffled. "I know, but I was scared to take the chance. I didn't give you credit or have faith that you loved me, flaws and all. That's what I'm sorry about."

He smiled. "You know, I think this is our first 'fight' as a married couple."

I couldn't match his smile. "Yeah... and it's making me a little sick." I hadn't realized until the tension had subsided, but my stomach was a little queasy.

He leaned in and brushed my lips with his. "You know what comes after the fight, right?"

Ok, I was getting the hint. Not to mention, his towel had fallen open and he was lengthening by the moment.

I whispered against his lips as I closed my eyes. "Make-up sex."

"Yeah," he kissed the word into me, and then pulled back only a hair to ask, "Wanna make up?"

I didn't answer in words. I didn't need to. He got his answer... more than once.

My fingers were playing with Jeff's left nipple as I lay curled against him, my head resting in the hollow between his chest and shoulder. I loved having a warm, muscular body pillow to sleep with. Of course, I wasn't asleep. I was in the afterglow of "make up sex", and had been for the last half hour.

"What time is it," Jeff asked drowsily as his fingers continued to make more cowlicks in my sweaty, irrepressible mop of hair.

"A little after six." Tyler was the only other person I knew who had an absolute sense of time. It was another thing that made him my "little brother". For a moment, his absence from our lives hit me, and I stopped petting Jeff's chest while I wrestled with it. Gods, I missed him.

"What's up?" Okay, he'd felt me tense.

"Nothing, it just struck me that Tyler's the only other person who can answer a question like that without looking for a clock." I shrugged, and twisted so I could get to Jeff's lips. "I miss my little bro, you know?"

Jeff grinned. "You are so adorable." He kissed me while I made an "ick" face.

"Adorable?"

He rubbed our noses together. Damn his silly little expressions of affection. They always made me feel three years old and unreasonably happy.

"Yes, adorable. You were so scared of him when you realized how important you were to him. Now you can't think of life without him."

I sighed, laying my head back on his shoulder. "Sue me. If I hadn't already loved him before 'the Bitch', I would have loved him afterwards. You didn't see him, Jeff. You didn't watch how he put everything he had against her and kept coming back when she'd knock him down." I felt the tears stinging my eyes. "It was the bravest thing I've ever seen."

He held me tighter, and I tried to find the words that would make him understand.

"Remember the sound I made when I found you, helpless and being raped by JAS and Derek?"

Jeff flinched. He didn't say anything for a few minutes, and then he kissed my hair and I could feel he was crying. His voice was cracking and just above a whisper when he spoke. "It was the most horrible thing I've ever heard. I think the pain in it is what yanked me back from where-ever I was retreating to in my head." He pulled me tighter. "It sounded like your soul was dying."

I nodded into his chest. He understood. He knew what I'd felt. I pulled up and met his eyes. "That's what Ty was screaming when he fought 'the Bitch'. We're all he had, and she was taking it away. How could I not love him after that?"

Jeff just smiled at me, and his eyes sparkled behind the tears. "We've got a great family, don't we?"

I smiled back as the tension released its grip on my heart. "Yeah, we sure do."

Jeff sighed, it was both content and a bit like a "final resolve". He mussed my hair and began to sit up. "We need to get washed up."

I blinked at him. I wasn't ready to give up my muscle-pillow yet. "Why?"

He grinned and rolled his eyes playfully. "Because, Mr. Magazine Model, and, Mr. Hung, are expecting us for dinner in under an hour."

I laughed. "You noticed Justin too, huh?"

Jeff made an obscene gesture of size and laughed. "How could I miss it? No wonder Bryan hobbles about after he's given it up to that thing."

I shook my head and smiled as he came around and scooped me up into his arms. It was both romantic and annoying because I knew he was doing it because he enjoyed it and to protect my legs. "Yeah, if you'd been sized like that... I'm not sure I'd have had the guts to 'force the issue'."

Jeff nodded. "I like 'us' the way we are: above average, but not 'gifted'."

I grinned. "I think you're 'gifted'."

His aura turned on the shower as he held me while the water temp was adjusted. "You're longer."

"You're thicker."

"Sounds like everything else about us."

"I guess we're just a pair of puzzle pieces, because as far as I'm concerned you're just right."

He stepped into the shower and nipped at my neck as he set me gently on the tiles. "Ok, Goldilocks, I'll be your porridge."

I leaned in, pulled on his lower lip with my teeth, and mumbled. "I've already had my porridge, beef steak, let's get washed and get some fuel for later. I think I'm going to want another helping."

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, but being the good catholic boy he was he did what he was told.