He smiled that beautiful pearly smile, and I gave him one in return. He scooted over close to me, and I rested my head against his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around me and kissed the top of my head.
“I’ve seen you before,” he admitted. “A few times at parties. You’re always the center of attention.”
“I wish you’d have said hello.”
“Not me. I’m shy.”
I laughed out loud. “You grabbed me in the men’s room at the Balinese trailer and kissed me like your life depended on it. That’s not shy.”
“But we’d already spoken. At the Publix and at the party. I knew you were interested.”
His right hand -- attached to the arm that was wrapped around my back -- began tickling my right nipple. At first just the very tip of his index finger grazed the nub; then he increased the pressure, and I responded. Then his left hand did the same with my left nipple. When both were tough little buds, I twisted out of his grasp and turned to face him.
We kissed again, lying there on the plush white carpet, our clothes and the wet washcloths scattered around us. That first flush of animal passion had faded, and in its place was growing something stronger, something I hadn’t felt with many guys before.
I pulled away from his lips and kissed his collarbone. His back arched, and his neck tilted back. I began slowly kissing my way down his chest, but I hadn’t gotten more than halfway when he grasped my head in his hands and pulled me off. “I have a bed, you know,” he said.
“Really?” I looked up into his eyes and smiled.
“Yes.” He smiled back. “Let me show it to you.” He stood up, pulling me with him, and put his hands around my waist, then directed me down a hallway lined with framed photos of modern-day Havana.
“Did you take these?” They were gorgeous sun-washed images, colors so vibrant that it was like looking through a window rather than at a photo.
“I go once a year on an exchange program. I help build houses in poor neighborhoods, and in my spare time I take pictures. But come, let me demonstrate my other hobby to you. You can look at the photos later.”
I turned my head and kissed his cheek, just for a moment; then we continued into the bedroom. French doors that opened onto a broad balcony ran the length of the spacious room. The centerpiece was a king-size sleigh bed, made of mahogany, with the rolled ends on the headboard and footboard that made it seem like you were in a magical carriage.
I stopped in the doorway and took a deep breath. “I’ve always wanted a bed like this.”
“Funny, I’ve always wanted a man like you in this bed with me.”
I turned around to face him, and we kissed, our bodies nestling together. He was an inch or two taller than I was, perhaps six-three to my six-one, but we fit together well. I have a good body -- not the greatest, because I refuse to get up before noon, and my only exercise is with an amateur swim club I belong to, but my metabolism is fast, and I don’t have any fat where it matters. I’m slim and mostly hairless, just tufts under my arms and around my groin. While not as muscular as Javier, my body was still a man’s, with strong calves and thighs, flat stomach, and rounded biceps.
Javier seemed to like it. He kept roaming his hands over me, nuzzling my shoulders, pressing his dick -- hard again now like mine -- against me. Gradually we made our way to the bed, which was elevated by short legs and a pillow-top mattress. The whole thing was covered by a duvet patterned with palm trees and tropical haciendas.
I turned and bent over the bed, presenting him with my ass, and he knew what to do. He opened the drawer in a side table, removed lube and a condom, and suited up his dick. Then I heard a plop noise as he squirted some lube onto his finger. He began running his finger up and down my ass crack.
The lube was cold, and I shivered, but quickly all I felt back there was warmth and desire. First one finger penetrated me, then two. And then -- his dick.
I had never felt so full, so complete, so loved. His dick up my ass was everything I dreamed a man could give me. Then he began fucking me, slowly at first, then harder, with longer strokes, and I knew there was more to love than I had even dreamed of.
“Mi amor, mi corazón, mi cielo,” he murmured, caressing my body with his work-roughened hands as his dick plowed my ass. I didn’t need a dictionary to know he was calling me his love, his heart, his sky. I wanted to say the same things back to him, but I couldn’t speak; I was absorbed in the act of receiving his love.
I don’t know how long he fucked me. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. All I know is that it seemed to lock in something that had begun when our eyes met over the stargazer lilies at Publix. He alternated a rhythm of long, slow strokes with a hard, fast pistoning, and then he made a noise that was half a cry of passion and half a scream of pain, and the movement stopped. He slumped against me for a moment -- his smooth, hard body resting against mine -- and then he pulled back.
I climbed up on the bed and lay on my back, facing him. My dick stood at attention. I expected him to get on the bed with me and blow me again -- but he had other ideas. He pulled another condom out of the drawer and rolled it down over my dick, then squirted some lube on his fingers.
Facing me, he lowered his hand to his ass. Not breaking eye contact with me, he began lubing his own hole as I watched. It was an incredibly erotic experience -- watching him prepare for me. I expected he’d want me to stand and fuck him over the bed, as he’d done to me, but when I went to get up, he pushed me back down.
Then he climbed on the bed and straddled me. Again, facing me, our eyes focused only on each other, he slowly lowered himself onto my dick. The awesome muscles in his thighs and calves contracted and expanded as he moved up and down over me. Then, with me inside him, he slowly leaned forward to kiss me, balancing his hands on my shoulders.
The muscles of his ass worked my dick like none I’d ever experienced. All too quickly, I felt myself building toward climax. I usually close my eyes, focusing only on my dick -- but this time I kept my eyes open, locked on Javier. The feeling of connection was incredible, as if we were two parts of the same person. My body shuddered, I began to pant, and then in a massive spurt my cum began to fill the condom’s reservoir. Javier leaned forward, and we kissed, and I felt like he was transferring a life force back into me.
I closed my eyes after he’d pulled out of me and left the bedroom. What a wild day it had been, from the drama of the ruined flower arrangements to my flirtation with Javier at the Publix, through all the steps that had brought me here to his bed. And looking at the clock, I could see it was barely midnight. For me, the night was just beginning.
I was wondering which club Javier would want to head out to when he returned with fresh washcloths and two snifters of golden brandy on a glass tray. He cleaned himself and me, then got into bed next to me as we sipped the snifters. “Vlad is having an after-party at Privé,” I said. “Do you want to go over there?”
He laughed. “This is already past my bedtime. I have to be on-site at seven thirty. Will you spend the night with me?”
I considered, for just a moment. The crowd, the fun, the bar, the dancing. All the wild night life that waited for me. It didn’t take more than that to roll over, snuggle up to Javier, and say, “I thought you’d never ask.”
The morning of our wedding, Javier and I were up at first light. We went for a run together along the beach, then out to brunch, where we toasted each other with mimosas. “This is probably the last time today we’ll have time to ourselves, mi amor,” Javier said. “So I have some things I want to say to you.”I sipped my mimosa. “Yes?”“I love you, but you know that. You encourage me, you frustrate me, you make me see things differently, you force me to open up my heart and confront my emotions. I am so glad that you have come into my life.”I felt myself tearing up. “I love you too, Javier. When I was cruising along without much direction to my life, you came along with a strong hand and a warm heart. You looked beneath my surface the way few people have been able to do. Every day I want to be a better man so that I can deserve you.”We lifted our glasses again and clinked them together. “Then let’s get married,” Javier said.We drove up to the Ancient Spanish Monastery, a beautiful sma
A few weeks later, I was in the living room when Liana called Javier. He put the phone on speaker so I could hear. “That doctor Papi was going to in Hialeah,” she said. “He’s been arrested for Medicare fraud! The clinic closed down. Mami is so frightened the police are going to come for them.”“As long as she doesn’t expect anything from me,” Javier said. “They’ve both made it clear that they don’t want Adam and me in their lives.”“They’ll come around eventually, Javier,” she said. “Unless they die first,” he said.“Javier!”I was as surprised as Liana was. I knew that Javier was upset that his parents had shut him out, but I hadn’t realized how deep his feelings ran. They talked for a few more minutes, but he wasn’t willing to budge on his parents.If they didn’t approve of our marriage, I didn’t want their names on the invitation. So I found an invitation template that didn’t mention parents, brides or grooms. Just Adam Beller and Javier Marisco invite you to join in the celebrati
I woke up early on Sunday morning to find the house empty. Where was Angus? Why was everyone in my life abandoning me?Whoa. I needed to stop pitying myself and figure out what to do. A few minutes later, Angus came in, sweaty from an early morning run. I thanked him for his hospitality and said I needed to get back to Javier’s.“Take things easy,” Angus said. “Give Javier some time, and I’m sure he’ll come around.”There was little traffic on I-95 so early on Sunday morning, and I made good time back to the beach. I parked in one of the guest spaces at the Madrigal, and noted that Javier’s BMW was in its regular spot. That didn’t mean much, of course. He could have gone off on his scooter, or on foot.Or he could be upstairs.I took a couple of deep breaths. I couldn’t go on in limbo like that, not knowing how Javier felt.I rode up in the elevator and used my key to unlock the apartment door. Javier was sitting at the kitchen table, nursing a mug of coffee. I could smell the fragran
My mouth dropped open. He was kicking me to the curb? Where would I go, at nine o’clock on a Saturday night? To a hotel?I hadn’t wanted to tell Javier because I knew he had his own money problems, but I’d been running through my savings at an alarming rate as I sustained both of us until money began to flow in from Wynwood Columns. I had credit on my plastic, but very little in the way of ready cash.I called Jean-Jacques, but went right to voice mail. He was probably out on the town somewhere, or maybe cuddled up with that new boyfriend of his. I ran through my list of old friends. Most of them had moved on, or were likely to be out partying on a Saturday night. Then I remembered Angus Green.He picked up the phone after one ring. “Hey, Adam, long time no see. How’s everything?”The kindness in his voice broke something open inside me, and I began to cry, telling him how stressful the last months had been, about my botched attempt to talk to Javier’s parents, his anger with me.“Com
“I have something I would like to show you about Javier, if you would allow me,” I said, when she and I were in the living room with Javier’s father. They didn’t seem to know how to say no, so I hooked everything up, chatting nervously in a mix of English and Spanish, until I had a picture of Javier as a little boy up on the screen.“Ay, mi hijito,” his mother said.I launched into my story. Javier as a boy, cleaning up at construction sites, playing baseball, graduating from high school with honors. His parents were smiling and happy, adding in their own comments to each other.The last pictures were of Javier and me together—dancing at a party on South Beach, walking barefoot on the beach during one of Javier’s summer visits to New Jersey, us posed together in front of the Wynwood Columns sign.I left that last picture up on the screen. “Javier loves you very much, and I know he misses having you in his life right now. Wynwood Columns is his biggest success so far, and it would be s
I pulled up in front of a thrift store run by an Episcopal church, only open two days a week for a few hours at a time. Jean-Jacques made a beeline for the jewelry counter, where the sweet old lady who looked like a gerbil, with white hair and pink skin, seemed to know him well.I browsed the rest of the store, coming up with a couple of items for Jean-Jacques to consider: a pair of commemorative coins issued by Masonic chapters; a belt buckle with an airline slogan from the 1960s; a wooden box covered with colorful labels that had once held Cuban cigars. Jean-Jacques nodded approvingly and bought all of it.We worked together all afternoon, driving from store to store, and by the end of the day he had a decent haul. I researched and wrote descriptions of the items as he photographed them. Around six, I texted Javier that I was with Jean-Jacques, and we slumped in his living room over a bottle of wine, a box of crackers, and a log of goat cheese.“I’ve been thinking about how you appr