“It’s okay, honey. I know it’s… it’s not ideal, you know? But I’ll deal. I always do,” Seth said, then realized what he’d actually sounded like when Leaf’s expression changed into hurt. “No, no, I didn’t mean it like that, I swear!”
“I know,” Leaf said after a pause. “It doesn’t help that sometimes Ifeelit, though. I should try to get more jobs around home.”
“You’ll try. But if they need you elsewhere, you’ll have to go. I won’t let you sit here and do nothing if there’s someone out there who needs your expertise.” Seth’s impassionate speech wasn’t a new one by far, and it made Leaf grin.
“I know you won’t. I love you, baby. So much.” Leaf’s tone turned into a low murmur, one Seth loved more than anything.
“I love you too. Please come home, okay? When you can. And call me tomorrow?”
“I’ll always call you. Sleep tight. Don’t let the students drive you mad. Love you.”
“Scratch the babies for me. Drive safely. Love you.”
They disconnected the call after the ever-so-familiar last words, as was their routine.
When Seth had met Leaf fifteen years ago at a sports bar, he hadn’t quite expected to have a one-night stand with the guy. What surprised him even more was meeting Leaf again five years later, by chance. The last ten years? As they said, history. The second time they’d met, they’d realized they were meant to be. So, they never really parted again.
Even though Leaf was almost fifteen years older than Seth, everything just… fit. They’d carved a place for themselves in Colorado Springs when Seth had gotten the job there, and they were happy, mostly. It was the nature of Leaf’s job training dogs all over the country that made things rough for them.
But with the way Leaf had spent his childhood, Seth would never tell Leaf he should stay put in one place for too long. Even if that place was home. He knew it wasn’t in Leaf’s nature to stay still, as much as he loved to have a place and a person to call home and to come back to periodically.
Normally it took a few weeks at most for him to get antsy and want to get on the road again, whether he admitted it or not. Seth had become good at seeing his moods change and kicking him out of the house.
Leaf lived out of his small RV most of the time. Their three dogs followed along with their daddy. It was mostly done so they wouldn’t have to be alone in the house during the workday, but Seth also knew they would help with some cases, showing scared dogs how to trust again and such. He’d seen Leaf and the dogs work with shelter dogs before, and it was impressive to him how well it all ended up, most of the time. Even Seth’s little simpleton, Missy, helped in her own goofy ways.
THE RESTof Seth’s evening went as it always did when Leaf wasn’t home. He watched a documentary about Matisse, graded a few papers that had been returned way in advance and were in no rush to be graded at all, checked emails, called his mom, and then went to bed to read for a while.
He liked detective stories a lot, and so Leaf tried to find him the most obscure titles he could from his travels. Because of Seth’s semester in Europe during his graduate studies and the way his mind could pick up languages, he was currently reading a book in Swedish. Of course, he wasn’t fluent or anything, so he had the English version of the story on the bedside table and consulted it every now and then. In any case, Mr. Lapidus was a great storyteller, even in translated form, but there was always something about reading a book in the language it was meant to be read.
When he felt his brain tiring in that pleasant way he knew signaled being able to fall asleep, he put the book away and made sure his alarm was still set. He went and brushed his teeth and stripped. Sleeping in the nude had been something Leaf always did, and the habit had caught. Somehow it made Seth feel less alone too. Especially when, like that night, he slid under the covers and took himself into hand, his head resting on Leaf’s pillow.
He missed the man he called husband in his head, despite the fact that they weren’t married. It hadn’t been something either of them were ready for, and then later, Leaf’s stories about his childhood had put them both off marriage.
By this point in their relationship, after so many years, they knew each other through and through. Seth touched himself, smiling lazily at the image of Leaf he conjured in his memory. Leaf liked to watch him masturbate. Or maybe it was more wanting to let the pressure build and then jump in. He’d often let Seth get truly carried away and sneakily prep himself, then wait until Seth was ready to blow and demand to be fucked right there and then.
Seth’s hand moved faster over his cock, the other hand pinching his nipples roughly. There were things he liked that Leaf couldn’t give him, and vice versa. They’d learned to cope, and sometimes one gave up things to be able to be with the person who otherwise completed them.
Right at that moment, Seth would’ve given anything to have Leaf there. He couldn’t make the image of Leaf in his head do things the real man wouldn’t, so when his brain insisted on more specific fantasies to send him into an orgasm, he hissed and tried to redirect the thoughts.
Except it didn’t work this time.
Suddenly there was a new film running against his closed eyelids. He was being fucked, roughly, yet oddly lovingly at the same time. A long-fingered hand wrapped around his cock and another around his throat. “Be a good boy and come for me,” a voice said, and Seth’s eyes flew open, his hand squeezing his cock almost painfully as his orgasm hit him hard.
The voice had been Devin’s.
Chapter Three
LEAF WHISTLEDthe dogs back to the RV. They were parked at the edge of a field belonging to an old acquaintance, and it was time to get some sleep. They’d head out early to Salt Lake City, which would be a few hours’ drive, give or take. It would be fine, and when he got bored with only the dogs as company, he could always call his sister. Rain worked from home, so she had made him promise to call when he needed to.
There were questions rolling around in his brain, having risen to the surface because of the friend whose land he was on, and he wanted to talk to his sister, Rain, about it all. But not that night. He needed to let the questions formulate themselves in his mind. Otherwise, the whole conversation would be a lot of hemming and hawing on his side.
The dogs galloped to him from the darkness, making him smile. “Okay, guys. It’s bedtime, but first, paws.”
They lined up based on their reverse order in the pack. Missy first, because she was lowest on the totem pole. The bull terrier looked at Leaf, then licked his face as soon as he let go of the last paw he’d wiped with a towel.
“Oh eww. I know you miss your daddy, but behave, girl,” he scolded her, but knew she didn’t understand and his tone was all wrong if he wanted her to learn anything.
“Next,” he said, and Husky, who was a husky, approached him, and regally stood in place, lifting one paw at a time like a horse would for hoof-picking. He then went and plopped down on his dog bed behind the driver’s seat.
