CHAPTER ONE

They moved together in a rhythm familiar even in sleep.  Easy, slow, that’s the way to do it, gently bringing each other to a shuddering climax and falling glistening in sweat into each other’s arms.  It had never been so good…so right.  Sighing with contentment, Val reached for David’s mouth for an all-consuming kiss, only to grab David’s lower lip playfully and tug and nibble until they were both ready once again.  Laughing softly, Val got on top of David and the magic started all over.

“What are you doing?”  David moaned, thrusting his hips uncontrollably against a body that was, after years of exercise, lean, muscular and athletic without an ounce of fat.

“I’m making love to you,” Val replied.

“That’s fine.  I like the aggressive type.”

“Me, too.”

Soon they were too busy to talk.  Val gloried in the feel of David’s hard body.  There was the perfection of muscle moving beneath skin.  There was an easy way they fit against each other in harmony as if there were no others capable of creating the song of love.

Val knew that David loved getting his nipples licked and was susceptible to light pressure on the head of his penis.  Val knew this and took advantage of it.  Soon Val had David where David loved to be, back arched, face strained, hips thrusting in ecstasy.

“I love you,” David groaned.

“I know,” Val said and swallowed David greedily.  Val loved the feel of David’s powerful, straining body.  Val loved to make David feel good.  Val loved David.  Their love was all consuming and unconditional.  They had been roommates before they became friends.  Friends before they became lovers.  Lovers before they knew they were in love.

It happened a long time ago. Back then, before David’s first book had sold, they had lived in an old apartment.  It was their first apartment after four years of campus life.  The neighborhood wasn't the best, but their building was clean, spacious and most importantly, cheap. They picked it because it was the only thing David could afford at the time and it was essential for him to pay his way.  Money hadn’t been an issue for Val.  But Val wanted David happy.  That said, they had moved into the apartment.

There was only one bathroom in the apartment and Val had been in the shower.  On that particular morning David had awakened late.  David had just graduated from the police academy and it was his first day on the job. 

“Come out of there will you?  I’m going to be late,” David had said as he knocked on the Plexiglas shower door.

“I’m taking a shower,” Val had called back. 

“Well, hurry up.” 

“If you are in such a goddamn hurry, get in here with me,” Val had said and opened the shower door.  Not giving much thought to it, David had slid out of his pajamas.  He only wore the bottoms.  Val lounged in the tops. Before either of the two had known it, David had gotten into the shower with Val.

David had seen Val naked and Val had seen David naked.  But they had never been naked together. Suddenly, there had not been enough room in the shower.  They could not attempt to get clean without touching.  Arms, legs, hips, thighs and buttocks fought for space in the shower, which suddenly seemed only large enough for one.  Like most men, David had awakened with an erection.  Embarrassed, he had tried to hide his condition from Val.

“Do you have to keep the water this hot?” David had asked.

“Look, I’m just tolerating you,” Val had replied, reaching around David and adjusting the temperature of the water.

“Give me the soap.”

“Turn around.  I’ll wash your back.” 

David had followed Val's orders as Val had begun to wash his back.  Smooth hands, soapy and wet had glided over his skin.

“That feels good,” David had said.

“Uh-huh.”  Val had continued washing David's back.

Val hadn't planned on seducing David and David hadn't planned on being seduced.  But when David had presented that body, hard, masculine and morning time erect, Val had been shocked by the foreign emotions that came into play.  Until then, Val had not thought of David as a sexual being.  David was just David, friend, confidant and pal.  David with a penis and a perfect body was something else. 

Slowly Val’s hands had traveled over David’s body, soaping under arms, chest and thighs, avoiding buttocks and genitalia, but in a sensual caress just the same.  During Val’s ministrations, David’s penis had developed a mind of its own, throbbing and straining for release.  It was as hard as steel and had pointed towards his navel.

“What are you doing, Val?”

“I don’t know.” 

Val’s hands had slowly glided from David’s thighs to his ass.  They had soaped, caressed and separated the cheeks gently, oh so gently.  David had thought he was going to die.  The tip of a soapy finger had grazed his opening.  Quickly, he had reached behind him and grabbed Val’s hand in an airtight grip before Val could move another finger and embarrass them both.  But Val had another hand.  While David held the original offending hand, Val moved the other one.  The urge to explore David’s body had been stronger than the urge to breathe.

“What are we doing?” David had asked again in a voice growing hoarse with desire.

“You know, David.  You know.”

And David had known.  They had been traveling down this road taking this inevitable journey since the day they had met.  So the only thing David had been able to  do was release Val’s hand.  Val had turned David around so that they had faced each other. 

Hazel eyes had stared into dark brown ones trying to convey the message,  “ I'm digging you”.   Val was tall, but David was taller. That didn’t stop Val.  Val kissed David and then David had done the unthinkable, he had kissed Val back.  With the touch of their lips, the interplay of their tongues, it had started.   Val had blazed a trail of fiery kisses from David’s lips to his hard nipples and down his well-defined stomach.  Then faced with David’s penis, Val had done the only thing there was to do.  Val’s mouth had opened and swallowed the whole of David. 

David had braced himself against the walls of the shower as he had given in to the sensation.  He had been big, bigger than he had ever been and filled with wanting.  Wanting only Val and the sensation of that sweet sucking mouth.  He hadn’t wanted Lequita or Brandy or Helen.  He hadn’t wanted even Patti, his first love who was the model to which he held all others.  David had wanted only Val.  So when it was time, Val had swallowed David’s seed because it had been meant to be.  Afterwards, the only sounds heard in the room were those of their heavy breathing and the running water.  David hadn’t known what to do with his hands, which had been entwined lovingly in Val’s shoulder length auburn tresses.  Val hadn’t known where to look.  Val had wanted to look at David, but did not want to see in David’s eyes the hatred, the anger, the denial, and the contempt. COCKSUCKER!!!!  It hadn’t been there.  None of that was there when David had pulled Val up to face him.  In David’s eyes Val had seen only David.  There had been no hatred.  There had been no anger.  There had been no denial.  There had been no contempt.  There had only been love.

“You had better hurry or you’ll be late,”  Val had said, stepping from the shower.

“Yes, I’d better hurry.”

Neither one of them had mentioned what had happened between them.  They had known that everything had changed.

VAL

Watching him get up and walk to the bathroom I marveled at how sexy he still was to me.  Tall, six four, built solid but lean, his muscles were well defined and flowed with his movements.  A configuration of browns he had just shaved that coal black tight curly mass atop his head and was now sporting a bald dome.  Eyes the color of coconut hulls with skin a smooth maple syrup he was a fine ass.

I remember the first time we had touched like lovers.  I had been as shocked as he had.  I couldn’t believe that the initiator of the act had been me.  Me!  Until that morning, I had been secure in my heterosexuality.  I had indulged in the desires of the flesh by finding my gratification between the thighs of so many women, so many women, so many, many, women, always women.  There had been Felicia, May, and my personal favorite at the time, Angela, petite Angela, my dark little nymphet with the pointed little breasts and greedy, greedy mouth. 

But when I had found myself getting hard as my hands had glided over David’s skin I hadn’t been thinking of Angela.  I had been thinking of David.  Only David and I had wanted him with an intensity that had made me week.  Yes, I remember the first time David and I had touched as lovers.  I had stood in the bathroom as he had walked away from me, head held high, back straight, refusing to turn around and see me.  I had wanted him to see me like he had when he had cum deep in my mouth.  Wanted him to look at me erect.  See me wanting.  See me wanting him.  See my hand grasping my penis, stroking it, calming it, and trying to ease the tension in my flesh.  I had been twenty-one years old at the time. David had been twenty-two.  We had just become men.  Now, being with him seemed so natural, I know our meeting had been fate not happenstance.

“What are you smiling at?”  He asked as he crawled back into the bed. 

“You, baby.  Only you,” I said as I pulled him to me and kissed him.  I could think about our meeting at another time. Right now, I was too busy to think.

CHAPTER TWO

Up on point.  Leg kicked high.  Back arched.  Silhouette tense.  Even after living together for over a decade David didn't know all the technical terms for the movements Val performed with such fluidity.  He just knew that he liked to watch Val whenever he was experiencing writer’s block.  After three and a half unproductive hours at his computer, David had gotten up from his desk in frustration and wandered up the stairs to Val’s dance studio.  The house that David and Val shared was high in the Hollywood Hills and had been built in the 1930’s.  Prior to moving in they had done extensive renovations on the six-bedroom Mediterranean.  Now housing both a complete gym and dance studio it was better suited for their lifestyle. 

Low jazz was playing over the speakers while Val exercised against the bar against the wall.  David took a seat at the baby grand piano and watched his lover. Val was in his element when he was in the studio.  He was an extension of the music, a visualization of the song.  At thirty-three Val had moved into his prime gracefully. He was a good-looking man possessing the kind of super model attributes that turned heads.  Standing a shade over six feet, he wasn’t as tall as David, but he was still tall.    He was the color of freshly baked Mrs. Baird’s bread covered in melted butter with hazel eyes that sometimes looked more brown than green and vice versa.   Possessing the best features of both his West Indian mother and French father he was a study in contrast,  straight Caucasian nose, full, sensual, generous mouth. His smile was perfect.  He wore his shoulder length auburn hair long and unbound.  He was so handsome that he was pretty, but there was nothing soft about him.  He was muscle and sinew with sculptured veins.  He was a very pretty MAN.

“Don’t stop,” David said.

Val grabbed a towel and wiped at the layer of perspiration covering his body.  Dressed in a pair of tights his washboard abs were well defined underneath the slickness.    

“You don’t want me to stop?”

“No.”

“Sure?”

“Yes.”

“Positive?”

“Yep.”

“Really?”

“Enough already.  Dance,” David said amused at Val’s silly teasing.

“Dance?”

“Yeah, dance for me.”

Without saying another word Val dropped his towel and began a dance of seduction for David.  

The first time he and Val had done anything sexual David had walked away conflicted, confused and afraid.  He hadn’t wanted to admit how much he had liked what they had done because to admit it would be to make a confession he didn’t want to utter. As a young man he had done more than was ever expected of him. He had not been to jail.  He did not have any illegitimate children. He was not on drugs, selling drugs, or around people who used drugs.  He wasn’t unemployed.  He had graduated cum laude from S fucking M goddamn U, the Harvard of the southwest.  He was a macho, dark skinned warrior, symbolic of all that was phallic with a nine-inch dick and a prowess with women because he was “packin'”. 

So to come from all that to now, a man, who accepted what turned him on and made his dick hard without conflict or remorse was saying a lot. David dug Val.  Val turned him on.  Not men.  David didn’t dig men.  David dug Val.   Val was the only man David could be with because with Val the fact that they were both men was irrelevant.

Had there been another man in the shower so many years ago, the outcome would have been different.  David might just have ended up in jail.