He let Galen lead him like a well-trained pup to the path that went along the front of the team leads’ tents.
Of course they could have gone through the woods and not risked being seen, but Galen seemed eager. It was just as well, for by the time they reached Galen’s tent and tiptoed up the wooden steps to the platform, Bede was more than ready to devour Galen, or be devoured by him.
Galen had just about pulled Bede’s snap-button shirt out from the waist of his blue jeans, when Bede started doing the same to him. The dark evening air cooling on his skin made him shiver, then Bede soothed him, stroking his sides, his waist, with warm fingers, leaving Galen breathless.
“Did the stuff get here?” Bede asked, peppering a light kiss to Galen’s mouth, to his neck, along his collar bone.
“It did,” said Galen, boldly as he turned on a flashlight and placed it on the small shelf so the light spread itself on the ceiling of the canvas tent.
“Amazon to the rescue,” said Bede with a smile.
Galen’s answering smile and the sparkle in his eyes were as bright as if he’d been showered by moonlight. Only there was no moon, and no stars, just the quiet shadows of the green canvas tent as they undressed and tumbled into the clean-sheeted cot.
Galen let Bede lead the way, as though he was standing on the edge of something and might fall.
But Bede would not let him fall. Rather, Bede took the stuff that Galen pulled from the shelf, and opened the small plastic bottle of lube with one hand and dexterous fingers, not even looking down.
Then, hugging Galen close, their breaths mingling, the warmth between them rising, he prepped Galen from behind, lubed finger going in, then two. Gentle and sweet. Slowly, slowly, as though he might be anointing Galen for some holy ritual. As though only the most careful of touches was allowed, the lube cooling on his skin, the ease of his fingers inside of Galen, causing a low groan to build inside of him.
“Face to face,” said Bede in a whisper. “It’s better this way.”
With a sweep of his hand, Bede trailed his lube-cool fingers across Galen’s cock, sweeping along its hard length. More shivers, more slick-soft sounds as Bede slid the lube down his own hard cock. Then, when Bede reached for the small, foiled condom, Galen gasped out loud.
“Don’t,” he said. “Don’t use that.”
All of this went against Bede’s normal protocols, but in that moment, he wanted skin-to-skin and nothing less. His bodysurged forward, demanding it. He felt his eyes blazing as he silently demanded it, looking right at Galen, into his dark eyes.
“Okay,” said Bede, a little breathless himself as he hugged Galen close and then released the tension in his muscles, his hand going between his legs, guiding himself to Galen’s anus. “Okay.”
Bede felt the sweat drip from his forehead as he lifted himself above Galen and eased Galen back on the pillows.
The night air, sweet with coolness, swept across the side of his cheek as Bede eased himself inside of Galen’s body. Eased and withdrew, eased and withdrew, the cadence mesmerizing, the rhythm slow. As if they had all the time in the world. As if Bede’s patience was endless, but endless only for Galen in this moment between them.
He picked up that rhythm, feeling joyous, triumphant when Galen tossed his head on the pillow and arched his neck, his whole body seeming to beg for more, and then more.
“C’mon,” said Galen, guttural, low, a sound meant only for Bede’s ears. “Don’t hold back.”
Cupping Galen’s hips in his hands, Bede moved even closer, shivering at the feel of Galen’s warm thighs on his own, spreading for him, then clasping him. Which urged him to move faster, his hips snapping as he drove himself into Galen’s body.
The moment when the world collapsed around him, his seed spilling inside of Galen’s body, his heart was full. Full of the push of desire and the thick, soul-deep urge to hold Galen to him and never let go. Never let go of this feeling of connection, the sorrow of its imminent passing, the sorrow of the future tomorrow when he and Galen would be separated at summer’s end.
Heat washed over him, taking with it those soft feelings, replacing them with his body’s own urges, then he pulled out so he could curl his fingers around Galen’s cock and worship it with his mouth, and feel and taste Galen’s hot, sweet release.
As they settled in the cot, breathing hard, and then softer, twined together like warm ribbons, with only the soft cotton sheet pulled up, Bede felt himself relax for the first time in hours. They had something together, and this was now. Tomorrow could not be counted on, but then, it never could be. At least not in Bede’s world.
He twirled Galen’s hair around his fingers as Galen traced lazy swirls across his chest. Then Galen sighed, and Bede looked down.
The only light they had was a flashlight, which gave them light enough to see by, but left shadows to hide in, so he couldn’t see Galen’s expression, only feel his soft breaths across his skin.
“This was good,” said Bede, drowsy in the dark, but focused on Galen at his side.
“You seemed stressed earlier,” said Galen, then added, “But when I asked, you didn’t say.”
“Okay.”
That was fair. Galen seemed like Winston in that way, that the sharing should happen in balanced measures. Tit for tat.
This made Bede’s heart ache all over again so, braving his own internal warnings that he should just shut the fuck up, he told Galen about Winston. Not just about how much he missed him, but about all of it. The years they spent together.
