Bay City

"You're older than I am, Dex. You're what.... thirty five? Thirty six?"

I shrugged and said "Thirty two. I look older than I really am. There are some things in life will do that to you."

He nodded, his thumb still rubbing up and down the line of scar tissue on my hand. It never really occurred to me to pull my hand away. His skin was soft and warm and the pressure of his thumb caused little tingles of feeling around the area. I hadn't actually had any sensation in that spot since that night on patrol. Nothing other than pain, anyway.

"Someone a little older than me." Michael said. "Someone who has been places and seen things. I've never been anywhere besides here and back home in Roseburg. Not really, anyway. Someone who could teach me things and learn about things with me. Someone smart and kind and gentle and sure of them self. Someone who would appreciate me for who I am." He looked me right in the eyes and repeated himself. "Someone like you."

Michael shook his head again. "It's true that I don't know you, Dex. I just met you for the first time, what? Two hours ago? But I've been attracted to you since I first saw you sitting here. I was so nervous I almost walked away twice before I worked up the nerve to ask you if I could sit down. Ever since I realized that I am attracted to men, you are the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on."

I actually pulled my hand away at that point and laughed aloud. Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out a clean handkerchief and tossed it on the table. "Here, kid." I said. "You need to clean your glasses." My hand went up and unconsciously rubbed the scar on my cheek. "I am anything but beautiful. I wasn't all that pretty before I got all banged up and I sure as hell aint now."

Michael reached out and recaptured my hand in both of his and squeezed it. "Dex....." he said "Those scars don't make you ugly. They make you look proud and strong, like a lion. Most people try to hide things like that away. But not you. You have a look on your face that says 'This is me. Take me as I am.' And that makes you beautiful in my eyes." He paused and took a deep breath, then blurted out "If I was undecided before about my sexuality, I'm not anymore. Whether I'm actually gay or bisexual doesn't matter. I am attracted to you in a way that I have never been with anybody before in my life." He paused and looked into my eyes again and said "I want you, Dexter Ford."

I started to say "Look, kid..." and stopped. His warms hands on mine were feeling really good and I had come to the sudden realization that I was pretty aroused. Never having been in this situation before it was understandable if I was a little confused. Love another man? Make love to another man? Sure, I knew the mechanics of it. I read books. Magazines like Penthouse and Playboy were full of stories about it. I'd just never considered it as a viable alternative. And now all of the sudden this guy had gotten me all hot and bothered.

I said "If this is a pick-up line, it's a good one."

Michael looked a little hurt. He said "I never said any of that to anybody ever before. I meant every word of it."

I squeezed his hand and said "Sorry. My job makes me a little cynical. Hell, my life has made me a little cynical." This time I looked into his eyes. "Did you really mean all of that?"

He nodded and said "I said so, didn't I?" a little defensively.

I waved my other hand and said "Look, Michael. I'm sorry. This is all just a little new to me. You know? This wasn't how I expected my night to go. Not at all. I expected to go home and type up my report for work and maybe eat a frozen pizza and crawl into bed alone. Now all of the sudden this...." I paused and looked at him again. "This cute guy.... has got me all worked up... and incredibly horny... and I don't quite know what to do next." I paused again and squeezed his soft fingers in mine.

"I don't know whether to run away or take you home and fuck your socks off."

The flush on Michaels face spread all the way down past the neckline of his shirt. He gulped visibly and said "I hope you don't run away."

"Are you sure this is what you want?"

He nodded, his eyes still locked with mine.

"Let's go, then."

I returned my handkerchief to my pocket and flipped a few bills on the table to cover the drinks as I stood up. Michael struggled out of the booth and I held his crutches still while he climbed up on them. I hadn't realized until I was standing next to him that that Michael was only a little over five feet tall. He made me feel like a giant. I walked slowly and broke a trail through the noisy crowd as we made our way out of the bar. We walked the half a block to my car in silence, our ears still slightly ringing from the noise. I unlocked the passenger door and held it open. Michael slid his crutches into the back seat and turned back to me, his hands on top of the door, his face only inches away from mine. There was this awkward moment as we both moved imperceptibly closer and finally his lips came up to meet mine. At first it was just a hesitant peck, then he slid an arm around my waist and opened his lips to me and I kissed him hard and deep. The feel and taste of him made me slightly dizzy and I had to stand there for a second and recover my senses as we broke away and he clumsily climbed into the passenger seat.

I walked around to the drivers side and realized that I had a raging hardon. It was a little embarrassing. I felt like a teenager with my first dirty magazine. Even Olivia had never gotten me that wound up with just a kiss!

But my mind was still whirling. I had never ever in my life been this confused. Even being in combat hadn't made me this nervous. I briefly considered just dropping him off at the dorm and telling him I'd made a mistake. That I wasn't attracted to men and this whole deal was a bad idea. Then Michael reached out and laid his hand on my thigh as I drove. He didn't stroke or squeeze, he just laid it there. But the heat from his hand spread out from there straight to my crotch and I felt my prick get even harder in my pants. It felt like it was going to rip right through my pants and smack into the bottom of the steering wheel. I had to roll down the window to get a little air, even tough the night was rainy and cold. I heard somebody groan with pleasure and I'm pretty sure it was me.

It only took ten minutes to drive out to my place. As he got out of the car Michael stopped and said "Wow. You can hear the waves from here! This is a great place! Is it all yours?" I told him that it was and helped him up the three steps and through the front door. Once inside I helped him off with his coat and got him seated on the couch. He started asking questions about the mobile home (having never been inside one before) and I ended up telling him the whole deal with my mother and how I ended up owning the place. As we talked I puttered around in the kitchen and ended up making a pot of coffee that I really didn't want or need. I was doing things just to cover my nervousness. Walking away from the coffee pot, I got us two big glasses of ice water and carried them to the couch. Michael took his gratefully and drained half of it down in big gulps. When he set the glass down he said "There's something about beer that makes me thirsty as hell. Thanks."

As I sat down, I looked at Michael and said "Since you told me your secrets, I guess I should tell you mine." I looked down into my glass and took a big drink. "The truth is.... I've never done this before either. Not with a man, anyway. Hell, until a few minutes ago in the parking lot, I'd never kissed another man before." I paused and shook my head. "As a matter of fact, I have never even considered it before until tonight. But there's something about you.... I don't know for sure. You've gotten into my head like nobody ever has before. I'm a little spooked by it."

Michael took the glass from my hand and set it on the coffee table. Then he laid his hand back on my thigh and I felt that delicious warmth again. My cock, which had laid back down, sprung back up inside my pants. How did he do that?

He scooted a little closer and propped his cast up on the coffee table. "Do you want me to leave?"

I shook my head and grinned. "Hell no." We leaned together and we kissed for the second time. His lips were soft and sweet and opened immediately to me as my hand slid to the back of his neck, pulling him closer. Michael moaned softly into my mouth. His hand, which had been laying on my thigh, began sliding up and down my leg, getting a little closer to my crotch each time. I felt like if he didn't touch me soon, I would explode. But I knew that if he did, I'd still explode. Just in a different way.

My other hand had slipped up inside Michaels shirt, my hand roaming all over his smooth belly and firm chest. He had the build of a swimmer, smooth and sleek instead of being overly muscled. It was a different feeling, touching a mans body. Different, but not bad. And I was so horny he would have felt good to me no matter what.

Michael shifted his weight a little and his foot fell off the coffee table with a loud 'clunk!' He pulled his lips away from me, grabbed his leg and said "Owwwww.... shit." He rubbed his hands up and down the cast and said "That really hurt."

I took this as a sign to gather my wits about me. Maybe step away from this crazy thing I was doing and get a handle on what was going on. I was in another one of those places I never intended (and surely never even dreamed of) to be.

I patted his other knee gently and said "Maybe I should just take you home so you can get some rest."

"No!!" His hand gripped my arm as I started to get up off the couch. Michaels eyes were large and tragic as he looked up at me. He said "I don't care about my leg, Dex. I would cut it off if it meant I could stay here with you." He placed a small warm hand in the middle of my chest. "I don't want to go home. I don't want to go back to the dorm and crawl into that ridiculous twin bed by myself. I want to be here with you." He leaned forward and kissed me quickly and whispered "If you want to put me to bed, then put me to bed here..... with you."

There was something about his soft words and soft lips and his soft hands that made me get hard all over. I felt my body flush with heat and desire and I wanted nothing more than to get this incredibly sexy man into my bed as quickly as possible. I stood and took his hand to pull him to his feet. He stumbled a bit getting up. I could tell that the impact with the floor had really hurt him. A quick glance at the path we would have to take around the couch and through the kitchen to the bedroom was going to be difficult with his crutches. So I just leaned down and lifted him in my arms with one hand under his legs supporting the cast and the other around his waist. Even with the cast, Michael only weighed maybe a hundred and sixty pounds. It was a bit of a strain to carry him very far, but my expectations made him seem so much lighter. As we came around the end of the couch, Michael grabbed his crutches and carried them along. Even in the heat of the moment, he was thinking. You had to admire that.

I had to turn us sideways to make it down the narrow hallway into the bedroom. Michael flipped on the light as we went through the door. My bedroom wasn't much. Just a king sized bed and a dresser. No decorations or posters or anything. My only addition to the room was a large thick down comforter that I had bought from a place online. It came in handy when I left the windows open at night. The covers were still flipped aside from where I had gotten out of bed this morning, so I laid Michael down in my place. As I laid him on the bed, Michael grabbed the back of my head and pulled me down for a kiss. The crutches hit the floor with a clatter, but I barely noticed. His warm lips and hands took up my whole world at the moment.

An eternity later as I finally pulled my mouth away from his, Michael said "I'm sorry, Dex. Do you have any Tylenol or something? That damn leg is just throbbing and it's distracting me." Then his voice softened. "I don't want anything to distract me right now." I nodded and headed down to the kitchen for a couple of painkillers and to refill our glasses of water. While I was at it, I made sure the front door was locked and set about turning off the lights. I was about to turn off the kitchen light when my eyes lit on the top of the fridge. One of the things of my mothers that I had kept was an elaborate glass candelabra with four candles. For the most part I had kept it because I didn't want to try taking it anywhere for fear of breaking it. I had never really thought about using it for anything before. But this seemed like a perfect time.

Juggling the stupid candelabra and two glasses of water down the hall made me feel just a little ridiculous. But there are just some urges that tend to supersede rational thought. I made it into the bedroom and set the glass doodad down on the dresser just as I was about to drop something. I lit the candles and turned to flip off the light. Two glasses of ice water in hand, I turned to walk towards the bed and nearly dropped them on the floor. While I was down in the kitchen, Michael had stripped out of his clothes and was now laying in my bed completely naked.

Oh..... my.....

Through the flickering candle light, the young man looked like a statue of a greek god laying there. Except for the cast, of course. I doubt that Hermes or Apollo ever had their legs broken. Not that they ever told in the stories, anyhow. He lay there with his hands behind his head, the one bad leg propped up on the folded over comforter, his legs slightly spread. Like I said, he was smoothly muscled like a swimmer. Not one of those over inflated muscle boys. He had a small patch of hair in the center of his chest shaped like a little vee that pointed down to his crotch like a directional sign. My eyes followed it down to his curly patch of dark pubic hair where a plump semi-erect prick lay across his hip. Not ever having been an aficionado of mens cocks before I'm not sure how he would have measured up but it looked like a nice size and it fit him perfectly. I wondered what it would be like to touch it. And other things. My own prick twitched in my pants and I felt a little sticky spot where some pre-come had leaked onto my leg. I could tell that he had posed that way on purpose and it was having the desired effect.

Almost in a daze, I slowly walked over to the side of the bed, unable to tear my eyes away from his nude body. I think I said "Oh my..." aloud, but I'm not sure. After a few moments the light came on in my head and I fumbled the bottle of Tylenol out of my pocket and handed it to Michael and set the two glasses of ice water on the nightstand. While he swallowed the pills and got a long drink, I sat down on the edge of the bed and started unlacing my boots. I always wore my old Army boots to work, whether with the agency or at the factory. I had grown accustomed to their support and excellent traction. Tonight I would have traded them for a pair of tennis shoes that I could just kick off. I fumbled with the laces and got a bit frustrated and threw the first boot across the room. Michaels arms came up around my waist and I felt him lay his cheek against my shoulder. "Take it easy, Dex." he murmured and squeezed me gently. "Slow down. I'm not going anywhere." I took a deep breath and relaxed and the second boot came off much easier. The socks followed them to the floor. Michaels hands were on the hem of my shirt, tugging it up. I put my hands over his and looked down at his perfect little body. A twinge of self consciousness hit me and I said, somewhat sadly "I hope you aren't too disappointed."

With that I stood up and tugged my shirt over my head and tossed it to the side. A quick motion sent my pants and boxers to the floor and I kicked them away and stood there naked in front of him. I hadn't spent a whole lot of time in front of a mirror since I had left the hospital, but I knew that I wasn't centerfold material by a long shot. As I had told Michael in the bar, I wasn't all that pretty before I got chewed up by a Czech-made mortar. Not in my opinion, anyway. The smallest scar on me was on the right side of my rib cage, about the size of a silver dollar. The longest was almost two feet from my right hip almost to my left nipple where they opened me up to remove the deeper fragments. When the blast came it caught me as I was turning and it spun me around and just peppered my whole body with holes. My back and legs were criss-crossed with lines of scar tissue. I was just damn lucky I didn't lose anything important other than skin and a few inches of intestine. I had been in pretty good physical shape when I was in, and I tried to get back into shape when I got out of the hospital. The physical therapists had shown me exercises to do and when I worked at the factory nights I mapped out a two mile path through the building that I walked every night I was there.

But I wouldn't have blamed Michael a bit if he had gotten up and left. I just wasn't pretty to look at by any stretch of the imagination.

Michael turned and sat up on the edge of the bed and looked at me. I could see him looking up and down, his mouth slightly open. I closed my eyes and hung my head, slightly. All of the sudden I didn't want to see the look on his face. Didn't want to see the look of revulsion or even worse, pity, that I was sure must be there. I sighed deeply and waited for him to say he was leaving. I heard a noise and suddenly there were warm arms closing around my ribs and I felt his hands caressing my back as he laid his head against my chest and held me tight. I let my breath out slowly as I put my arms around his back and held him to me. Eyes still closed, I lowered my head and kissed the top of his head as it lay against my chest.

Then he said the nicest thing anybody ever said to me in my entire life.

"You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen." I think I loved him from that moment on.

He stepped back and took me by the hand and pulled me onto the bed with him. Michael shifted us around until I lay on my back and he curled up next to me. The cast kept whacking me in the leg until I took a pillow and set it down between my knees. He rested the bad leg on the pillow and we got comfortable. Michael laid his head on my chest, his soft hands slowly stroking my scarred flesh and he said softly "Tell me what happened."

We lay there on the bed, my arm around his back and his head on my chest, his small warm hand making circles across my belly and ribs while I told him the tale. I didn't hold anything back. I told him about the waste and the poverty and the cruelty I had seen over there. The dead in the streets and the mass graves we had found and the friends that I had lost. And I told him about that last patrol and what I remembered of it. And I told him about the hospital and the letters and coming here and becoming a private detective and my short fling with Olivia and working at the factory.

I finished it up with "And then I met you."

Michael turned his head up and placed a hand on my cheek gently. He said "And here I am, in your bed." He stroked my cheek again and kissed me quickly. "I want to make some happy memories for you, Dex. I want to see you smile again."

I kissed him back and smiled at him. It was the first genuine smile I could remember for a real long time. I said "You have already done that, Michael Bernstein. Even if you got up and left right now this night would be a happy memory for me that would last the rest of my life."

Michael laughed and shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere, Dexter Ford." He laid his head back down on my chest and his small warm hand reached down and wrapped around my cock which rapidly started getting hard in his grasp. "I'm not going anywhere until you fuck me."