Brian finds out he's not the only one who enjoys the nicer things in life.
The Next Morning...
"Well, look who decided to get up before noon," Justin teased me as I shuffled, barefoot and bleary-eyed, into the kitchen. Justin was actually about three hours off; it was just past 9:00, but already he and my son were hard at work on dyeing the eggs for tomorrow's hunt. Before coming down, I had peeked into Gus's room to ensure that "Snowball" was still confined to his cage; I was relieved to find that he was. Other than some cedar shavings being thrown onto the large-size beach towel that Gus had placed underneath the cage, everything else appeared to be normal. The bag of carrots was lying nearby, looking suspiciously less full than last night.
I had to smile at my son, who was kneeling on a padded counter stool next to Justin in front of the granite cooking island. Apparently Justin had not only dyed the eggs, but my son as well; he was currently sporting a clown face, complete with black, button nose, white, outlined, oversized mouth, and a daisy on the apple of each cheek.
"Hi, Daddy!" he chirped out happily as he twisted his head to peer over at me. "Look what Justin did to my face! I'm a clown!" His teeth gleamed against the painted face and his eyes sparkled with excitement.
I laughed as I walked closer. "Yes, you certainly ARE a clown," I told him as I smiled over at my partner, who grinned back at me. "I hope that's water-based paint, by the way," I whispered in Justin's ear. "I am not going to have my son parading around the Pitts as an unpaid advertisement for the spring performances of Ringling's Barnum and Bailey Circus."
I leaned in to kiss Justin on the lips, having given them a thorough exploration last night in between a fucking session in bed and one in the shower afterward. Even now, every time we kissed my body reacted accordingly as my pulse quickened and my heart fluttered. From the first moment we had exchanged spit years ago, I knew Justin was a consummate kisser, and even today, I craved no one else's kisses but his. But then why should I, I figured? I had the best already.
Justin grinned as he nuzzled my nose briefly. "It'll wash off," he assured me as I nodded in relief. I looked over his shoulder to view the eggs that were ready to be hidden, and of course, several of them were miniature works of art that had obviously been done by the house artiste; there was definitely an advantage to having a creative soul in the family when it came to attractive eggs. I noticed to my satisfaction, though, that there were also several eggs that my son had clearly designed with one of those wax pens you use to draw pictures and words with. I reached down to hold up a pale, yellow one to see a rudimentary drawing of a family - what appeared to be a small child holding hands with two adults, anyway - noticing that Gus had scrawled his name and "D" and "J" beneath them. My heart swelled up with emotion and I bit back tears that threatened to bubble to the surface as I cleared my throat. "Is the Easter Bunny going to hide those, Sonny Boy?" I asked as I placed one hand each on Justin and my son's shoulders as I stood between them.
Gus nodded vigorously as I briefly wished he would stay this innocent age forever; I realized, though, that the days of my child's most favorite, imaginary characters were quickly coming to an end - as invariably happens, someone at his school would eventually, maybe quite soon, divulge the real, unvarnished truth behind the fantasies that his childhood had nurtured and the real-life world would intrude instead. For now, however, I was determined to savor it - and let Gus enjoy it - for as long as I could.
I smiled. "I hope you have a big enough Easter basket for those."
Gus pointed over to the counter where a large basket was perched. His name had been written in large, white and black letters on the front, no doubt by our artist-in-residence. "Oh," I replied in understanding. "That should be plenty big enough." He nodded as I smiled, my heart warming at the obscenely domestic scene between my son and my partner. But you know what? At the moment I didn't give a shit; I fucking loved it. Of course, I would never say that aloud in front of Justin, but honestly it didn't matter, because both he and I knew that he realized how I felt anyway.
"Well, I'll let you boys get back to work, then," I told them as I leaned down to kiss Justin on the cheek in a silent thank you for taking such good care of the 'other' boy that I loved so deeply. "I'm going to go take a shower."
Justin nodded as he reached back to tenderly cup my jaw with his hand before I turned and left them to their festivities.
Sunday Morning - Easter
Sounds akin to a banshee screeching woke me from my sleep as I groaned; flopping over onto my back, I turned my head after a few seconds to notice Justin was gone from our bed; the clock on the nightstand read 8:30 a.m. Deciding I wasn't going to get any more sleep, I rolled to a sitting position and padded over to the bathroom to study my reflection in the mirror. I gaped in horror as I thought I noticed a lone, gray hair near my left temple. A quick retrieval of the tweezers out of the top left drawer a moment later, I quickly dispatched the sign of 'distinguished aging,' vowing to never divulge what I had found to my partner or anyone else as I turned on the hot water and slipped into the glass shower stall.
Dressed shortly afterward in a pair of well-loved jeans and rubbing my head briskly with one of our Egyptian towels, I wandered over to the window that overlooked the backyard. I couldn't help smiling as I watched my son stooping down to pick up a colored Easter egg from our cement fountain out in the garden area. Justin had hidden another one in the mouth of the cocker spaniel statue that sat next to one of our shade trees and accompanied a stone bench. I thought the dog statue was one of the ugliest adornments I had ever seen, but it had come with the house and for some reason that I couldn't fathom Justin had taken a liking to it; reminding me it was a lot better than having the real thing running around in the house, leaving hair everywhere. Once he put it that way, I decided it was quite attractive as an outdoor feature.
Grinning at my son's excitement over finding the eggs - he literally jumped up and down in glee before he put his latest treasure in his basket each time he discovered one - I walked out of the bedroom and down the hall to Gus's room in search of a favorite sweater that I had hung in his closet along with some other extra clothes that wouldn't fit in the master bedroom space.
As soon as I entered his room, however, my eye was immediately drawn over to Snowball's cage. The cage was still there, all right, only there was no Snowball. "What the fuck?" I murmured, perplexed. The door to the cage was securely fastened, though, so there was no way the rabbit had gotten out on its own this time. That meant only one thing - I hoped.
"Gus..." I sighed, hoping he had followed my directions previously. Walking over to the adjoining bathroom, I pushed the door open a little wider to peer inside.
Sure enough, sitting in the middle of the marble-encased, beige-colored bathtub was Snowball, his nose twitching back and forth and his mouth sliding from side to side as he idly chewed on a baby carrot, swaddled by a piece of bunched up, dark blue cloth. I was relieved, at least, to know that he wasn't running loose this time. Thinking the cloth looked familiar, though, I walked closer until it dawned on me exactly what it was: the precise sweater that I had come in search of. "What...the...hell!?" I yelled as the rabbit abruptly jumped straight up in the air before landing back down, startled by my outburst.
My brows narrowing in disgust, I reached down and snatched the bunny's security blanket out from under him; his little paws scrabbled for purchase before he hopped onto the light blue, rubber mat a few inches away and sat there, his beady, pinkish eyes staring at me for a few moments before he resumed his nonchalant munching on his carrot. I held up the sweater and scrunched up my nose at the acrid, telltale smell of urine that assailed my nostrils. "Shit," I growled as I held it out as far away from my body as I could like it was a dead rat; I knew there was no way I could possibly resurrect it now. One of my favorite, well-loved cashmere sweaters was about to travel to the Great Drycleaner in the Sky - or at least to Goodwill.
I sighed heavily; being a father certainly had its pleasurable moments, but this was definitely not one of them. "Good thing I love you so much, Sonny Boy," I muttered as I dropped the now-ruined cashmere sweater into the bathroom wastebasket and walked over to the sink to thoroughly scrub my hands before, with one last look at the furry perpetrator, I walked back out in search of something else to wear.
"Daddy! Look at all my eggs!" Gus shouted as soon as he saw me emerging from the back of the house. I smiled in amusement as Gus struggled to tug the container closer to me so I could see them; the basket was almost brimming over with eggs that he had found, and it had to weigh a ton. Apparently my son was quite the detective when it came to Easter egg hunting - or else Justin was a horrible Easter Bunny impersonator.
"That's great, Gus!" I told him warmly as I grinned over at him, my previous irritation regarding Snowball now evaporated. "You've got quite a haul there." I noticed besides the eggs that the basket now held a couple of chocolate Easter bunnies, some gold money coins, a generous smattering of jelly beans and a couple of die cast, metal cars nestled within the accordion strips of green paper meant to resemble grass. I raised an eyebrow curiously as I surveyed his bounty. "Did the Easter Bunny leave you all those goodies, Sonny Boy?" I asked as my eyes lifted to meet my partner's and I noticed a slight blush of guilt appear on his cheeks when he realized he had been caught. I had distinctly told Justin no junk food last night; apparently someone hadn't listened very well. No worry, though; I would make sure he was sufficiently 'punished' for that little crime later.
Gus bobbed his head up and down excitedly as I reached to help him heave his treasure up onto our glass-topped, oval patio table.
"Hmm," I replied noncommittally as I surveyed his stash. "Must be two million carbs in there. You'll be bouncing off the walls at some point, no doubt. Well, no eating candy for you until later, young man."
"Aw, Daddy...Not even jelly beans? Beans are a veg'table."
I grasped my son's wrist gently but firmly as he tried to reach out to grab some of the loose candy lying in the folds of the paper grass; I knew he was heading straight for the cherry beans since those were his favorite. "Uh, uh, uh," I told him with a laugh. "Jelly beans are NOT a 'veg'table' and you know it," I gently chided him as he grinned impishly back at me and giggled. Little rascal. I couldn't help admiring his spunkiness, though, as I reached out and tickled him at the side of his waist, making him chortle as he squirmed under my control.
"Daddy, cut it out!" he managed to sputter out as I finally let go of him with a grin.
I shook my head with a smile. "All right, Sonny Boy, let's go in and find some breakfast, okay? And then we can do some horseback riding."
"Yeah!" my son squealed as he promptly grabbed his two die-cast cars and rushed toward the back door, leaving the basket temporarily forgotten. I watched him pull on the handle to open the glass sliding door to no avail. "Daddy, come on!" he urged me impatiently, wanting to get his breakfast over with so we could saddle up the horses, one of his favorite pastimes when he came to visit.
"I'm coming, Sonny Boy," I assured him as I turned to eye my partner. "I assume you're going to tell me that all this candy just appeared magically overnight."
He nodded back at me solemnly. "By a giant rabbit named Harvey."
"Uh, huh," I answered dryly. "Well, tell 'Harvey' that I'm going to paddle his big, furry ass later tonight in bed and then he and I will be doing some private riding of our own afterward."
Justin grinned. "I'll be sure to pass that along to him. I think he'll be looking forward to it," he divulged. "I happen to know that he's a kinky little bastard."
I swatted Justin on his ample bubble butt for emphasis as he turned to tag after Gus, earning an "ow!" in reaction as I smirked back at him. "Later," I promised as he rolled his eyes before smiling back at me, making my heart skip a beat.
Later that Evening...
"Remind me to replace my cashmere sweater the next time we shop downtown," I told Justin as he lay nestled in my arms in our bed, my fingers slowly stroking the smooth, soft flesh of his shoulder as we came down from our post-sex high a few minutes earlier. Gus and his furry charge had long ago retired to their own bedroom, and we were at last alone to savor some much-needed privacy.
Justin twisted his head to peer up at me through his incredibly lush, golden lashes; some wisps of his bangs were hanging in his eyes and making him look especially fuckable. Of course, to me he was always fuckable, but I especially loved seeing him sporting longer hair. I knew he actually did it to indulge me, because he normally preferred to keep it a little shorter for maintenance purposes, so that just made me love him even more.
"Are you talking about your dark blue one?"
I nodded as I continued to slowly caress his shoulder. "Yeah," I said through pursed lips, recalling what had happened earlier.
He frowned. "Why would you need to replace it? You're always so meticulous when it comes to your clothes, and you love that sweater. They normally look like they just came off the rack."
I snorted. "Yeah, normally they're impeccable; except when someone's using it for nesting material for a rabbit in the bathtub."
Justin lifted his head as his eyes grew wide. "Shit, are you kidding me?"
I huffed. "I wish. I went into Gus's bedroom earlier to look for my sweater in his closet, and when I noticed Snowball wasn't in his cage I looked in the bathtub, and there he was - chomping away on a carrot right smack dab on top of my Armani sweater. Looked pretty smug about it, too."
Justin laughed at the disgusted look on my face. "Oh, my God! Does Gus know?"
I sighed as I shook my head. "No," I admitted.
"Why didn't you tell him?" he asked me softly, his hand lying palm down on my chest as he peered up at me. I had a suspicion, though, that he already knew the answer.
"I didn't want him to feel bad," I told him honestly. "I'm sure he just picked something out of the closet that felt soft; he couldn't have known how expensive it was. So what would have been the point?"
Justin smiled slightly as his palm slowly slid up my chest toward my neck. "You're not going to tell me you weren't pissed to see your favorite sweater being used as a cedar shaving replacement?"
"Of course I was pissed," I admitted readily. I grimaced. "The damn rabbit had already pissed on it, too, by the way," I retorted in recollection as Justin's mouth hung open in surprise. I shrugged. "But it's just a sweater; a fucking designer sweater, but it's still just a piece of clothing. It can be replaced; my time with my son cannot."
Justin raised his head to look into my eyes, his blue eyes boring into mine. "You're really something," he murmured as his roaming hand stilled on my shoulder.
"Yes, I am," I agreed, tongue-in-cheek, curling my lips under as I smiled down at him.
Justin grinned at the predictable response before his expression transformed into something more serious. His blue eyes studied me for a few seconds before he whispered to me, "You're a good father, Brian. Gus worships you, you know. And he's so proud of you."
My heart swelled at my partner's words; it was so important to me that I serve as a good role model for my son. Oh, I would never be a saint or a PTA parent by any means, but I could at least provide my son with plenty of love, support and attention, qualities that had been sadly lacking in my own upbringing. It had taken me quite some time to overcome the fear that I wasn't much better at being a parent than my own father, but over time I had realized I was nothing like him. I LOVED my son; I wanted him in my life. And I planned on proving that to him until I was cold in the grave.
The side of my lips curved upward as I pulled Justin closer to me and opened my stance until he twisted his body to lie on top of mine. "He's a hell of a boy," I told him, unable to keep the pride out of my voice as my hands reached up to slide around Justin's waist and he placed his hands on my biceps to steady himself. "And you're a hell of a partner," I whispered sincerely as Justin's face flushed in pleasure. Even now, I had no trouble evoking that reaction in him, and it still gave me immense satisfaction to know that I could do that. Justin always had treasured the smallest of romantic gestures on my part; granted, it had become a little easier over the years for me to do it, but it was still difficult for me. And the reaction I always received - not to mention the great sex that came with it - was well worth it.
Justin smiled as he let out a soft sigh of contentment. "I love you," he whispered back to me as he rubbed his thumbs back and forth across my upper arms, his warm body covering mine. I could feel our mutual desire between us as our lips came together of one accord for a deep kiss.
We finally broke apart to obtain some much-needed air as I quipped, "Care to show me how much?" Just in case there were any doubts as to my meaning, I slid my hands down to glide over the swell of his ass and cup the rounded globes, slipping one index finger in between his crack to lightly run it between the cheeks and receiving an appreciative hiss in response.
Justin grinned. "I think that can be arranged," he assured me as we began to kiss once more. Our passion soon flared anew as arms and legs tangled together, my hands kneading the fleshy skin between my fingers as I made my intentions quite clear. Between Justin's abundant, thick, cock, his wondrous bubble butt, and those provocative, talented kisses, my partner was perfection to me, and I could think of nothing more perfect than our making love.
"Brian," I heard him whisper against my lips as we broke off our latest kiss, his breath ghosting over me as he spoke. "I want to ride you."
I gazed into his eyes, my heart accelerating in anticipation. "Well, then, giddy up, horsey," I responded with a smirk as Justin smacked me on the upper arm in reaction. "Saddle that ass up."
He grinned as he sat up on my thighs, bending his legs to straddle me. My cock stirred at the sight; I had long ago abandoned the ridiculous lighting that I had felt the need to highlight my bed with at the loft, but at the moment I wouldn't have needed it anyway. The full moon shining in through our expansive windows cast my partner in a virtual spotlight, his paler skin almost glowing under the attention. He was - and still is - so fucking beautiful that he takes my breath away even now.
I watched with rapt fascination as Justin leaned over to pull the tube of lube out of our bedside table and squirt some onto his hands, rubbing it between his palms to warm it up before he reached down and sensually slid it up and down my rock-hard shaft; I grunted in a jolt of pleasure as he briefly flicked the tip of my head with his thumb before he grasped my cock with his skilled hand and dug his heels into the mattress to rise slightly from my body. I held my breath, knowing what was to come, just before Justin lined his body up with mine and promptly sank all the way down to my balls.
"Agggghhh," was my slightly coherent reply as my partner grasped my waist for balance and squirmed slightly against me to shift the angle of penetration. "Fuck, Justin!" I growled as a wave of pleasure roiled through me.
Justin grinned smugly as he rose up from my cock and promptly sank back down, twisting his body so he could impale my dick right on his sweet spot. I moaned loudly in reaction like an inexperienced virgin as he began a slow, rhythmic motion up and down on my bare cock and I lifted my hips up to deepen the sensation. Justin periodically leaned over to steal a kiss or two from me, his quite willing captive, as he continued to ride me mercilessly. Sweat pouring down into my eyes, I blindly reached up to grab his biceps in the throes of our passion, my fingers digging into the tender flesh for purchase and knowing I would be leaving marks of possession tomorrow, but finding myself unable to prevent it.
As I felt my climax approaching, the need for Justin to join me down that same, pleasurable path culminated in my reaching out to stroke his cock in time with our movements, and it wasn't long before my body clenched like a well-coiled spring before erupting into a rush of ecstasy, my come gushing into the hot, slick channel. A few more tugs of Justin's cock and my lover cried out with a guttural shout, his milky seed spurting copiously between us.
Later, as we lay in bed side-by-side, my arms clasped around him protectively as I spooned up against him, just before I could tell he was drifting off to sleep, I managed one more of those 'romantic gestures.' "By the way," I whispered as I cradled my head in the crook of his shoulder. "I love you, too." A soft sigh of acknowledgment was the only response I received, Justin inherently knowing not to make a big deal of it, as he reached up to cup his hands over mine before we both drifted off to sleep.
