Burning Truth Read online

  Nick rolled onto his side, hand sliding over Joey’s chest, his lips kissing a buried nipple.

  “Don’t know what kind of pie Mama Silva’s serving, but you’re all out of whip cream.”

  “Oh, I know where to find some,” he said, and just like that he turned Nick over onto his stomach, and as Nick laughed and squirmed Joey pinned him down on the bed. His face went down on his ass, his full dark beard scraping against Nick’s smooth cheeks. As he licked, Nick squirmed more, but his resistance only made Joey dive in deeper. He ate Nick’s ass, licking, tasting, thrusting his tongue inside him.

  “Oh, God, oh God…Joey, stop…oh…ohhhh, don’t stop.”

  Joey lifted his head, and with his thick arms he spun Nick back around until his throbbing cock was pointing toward the ceiling, the mirror posted up there making it look bigger, enticing. Joey drove down onto his cock, sucking it down with hearty energy. He bobbed up and down, tasting him, licking at his leaking tip. Grabbing hold of the shaft, he rubbed the cock against his furry belly, leading a trail up toward the thickest patch between his well-formed pecs. He scraped the shaft against the rough, dense fur, felt the cock throb with excitement, felt it build toward a massive climax.

  “Blow your load, soak my chest…do it Nick, let me feel your heat.”

  “Yeah, soon, I’m near…so near.”

  Joey knew just how to make him come, and at that instant he shoved a finger deep inside Nick’s ass. Nick cried from the shocking invasion but also from the body-numbing pleasure. He couldn’t hold back any longer, Joey could sense it in his grip. He pumped the cock once, twice, and then it unleashed a thick gooey string, another, and another, all of its splattering against the dark carpet coating Joey’s chest. Joey then drove his mouth back down on the cock, sucking the last of him dry, and at last, it seemed as if the two men were satiated.

  “Wow, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing we haven’t done that in a week, or a bad thing.”

  “It’s never a good thing when you go without sex for that long,” Joey said.

  “Are you ever satisfied, Joey?”

  “Why should I deny any man all of this,” he said, smiling broadly, opening his legs to reveal his hard cock, encased in a swath of black hair.

  “Uh, any man?”

  Joey tweaked a juicy nipple on Nick’s smooth chest. “Jealous?”

  In the fresh shadows creeping into the darkened room, Joey saw uncertainty cross Nick’s face. Nick looked away, the hurt still visible.

  “You are, aren’t you?”

  “Well, Joey, consider your reputation. You’re not exactly known for monogamy.”

  As much truth as there was to that statement, it still stung. Joey had been trying so hard the last couple of months to be better, to not fuck any man who turned him on. Since he’d taken on the job as interim fire chief at White Pine this past winter, responsibility had called to him, and not just in leading the troops into fiery battle but in his relationships too. Since that first night when he’d nailed Nick, Joey had been as loyal and faithful as he’d ever been. So he wasn’t sure where Nick’s sudden eruption of paranoia was coming from. He decided he didn’t want to talk about it.

  He rose from the bed, his naked body headed toward the shower. He felt light-headed, as though he’d gotten up too fast.

  “Hey, Joey…I’m sorry…hey…”

  “Not that I’ve done it, but you still think it’s going to happen.”

  “No, it’s just…I don’t know. Joey, no one man has ever been enough for you,” Nick said, reaching over to take hold of his hand, to reconnect them.

  Joey pulled away, anger fueling his action, his words. “You think people can’t change?”

  Nick’s expressions said it all. His eyes said he’d seen nothing but the same in his life.

  “I gotta go,” Joey said. “You don’t keep Mama Silva waiting too long.”

  Previously he had been thinking of inviting Nick to join him at his family’s dinner table, but he wasn’t in a sharing mood now. All Nick had come for was to be fucked and fucked hard, and he had been, three times, so now it was time for Joey to concentrate on what really mattered to him, the only thing he could trust beyond his own desires: family. That was the simple truth. So he left the room, hopped into the shower and let the hot water wash over his body, cleansing the matted whorls of his chest of not just Nick’s sticky come but his touch and his kiss and his tender caress.

  Sometimes Joey wished he weren’t in a relationship. Didn’t those always get complicated and end up dragging him down, digging at his inner insecurity? There was something so easy, so relaxed and freeing about just fucking whomever he next saw. Use his body, his big cock, it was built for fucking, avoid the temptation that was sex with emotion.

  When he emerged from the shower, a towel at his waist, Nick was nowhere to be seen.

  His car was gone from the driveway.

  “Fuck,” he said aloud, and not the way he usually liked to say it.

  § § §

  First she smacked him upside the head.

  “Oww…”

  Then she kissed his bearded cheek and said, “Where have you been?”

  “Janice, leave the boy alone. He’s got a life.”

  Dark-haired Janice Silva eyed both of her men with wariness but said nothing. Joey sat at his usual seat around a kitchen table his big frame barely fit in, while her handsome, silver fox of a husband Alex Silva leaned against the sink, finishing this last cup of coffee for the night. Empty dessert plates were scattered on the table, crumbs all that remained of their meal. She pulled out a plate covered in tin foil from the oven, set it before her son.

  “Thanks, Ma.”

  “I’m guessing you built up an appetite,” she said.

  “Ah, geez, Janice, do we really need to go there? Last I saw, Joey’s a grown man, he can do what he wants.”

  Her look suggested he rephrase that to “do anyone he wants.”

  Joey ignored their familiar bickering and attacked the lasagna with a zest he’d felt since driving over. He swallowed down the meat and pasta and cheese and his mother’s special spicy red sauce, letting it fill his empty belly.

  The food left him with the satisfaction he lacked after his sexual marathon with Nick. Nick, now what the hell was he going to do about him? Sure, Nick was right in his assessment of Joey’s perpetual wandering eye but since they’d met only his eye had wandered, not his cock, and that in itself was an achievement for Joey.

  Sure, when he’d first laid eyes on Nick, Joey was also trying—unsuccessfully--to discourage the attentions of a young volunteer firefighter named Gil who was attempting to spread his sexual wings, hoping to spread his legs too, for Joey. While nothing really happened between them, Nick had learned a valuable lesson in watching the drama play out, that Joey Silva was who he was, sexy, insatiable, never fully happy until he’d climaxed, and then always looking toward the next one. So what was tonight about, suddenly doubting him, questioning his devotion? Joey’s previous relationships had never lasted this long. Nick had insinuated himself in Joey’s life, into his soul…perhaps even his heart.

  A clearing of a throat brought Joey back to the moment. He noticed a beer set in front of him. His father sat opposite him, a look of concern on his face.

  “What’s got you in a mood?”

  “Guess I was just hungry.”

  Alex Silva nodded. “So you decided to take it out on the plate?”

  Joey noticed the plate looked like a bloody mess, remnants of the sauce scattered about. He looked away, drank his beer. He noticed a copy of this week’s White Pine Gazette on the edge of the counter, reached over for it. The headline boasted about a daring rescue by the fire department, which he had heard about through the brotherhood grapevine. Still, he perused the article if only for something to distract from his father’s prying eyes. Seems it was Austin Walker playing the hero; he was a good firefighter, Joey knew, fearless, and perhaps foolish. He was good in bed, too, open-minded.

  “You miss it?”

  “What?”

  “Running the station, being acting chief.”

  Joey shrugged, an attempt at indifference. “Good experience, sure, but Chief O’Connell and his wife are back from their second honeymoon, so I have to face reality. I knew it wouldn’t last, so there’s no sense in wallowing what can’t be.”

  “Tough guy to the end, huh?”

  “You know me,” Joey said.

  “Austin, he served under you, right?”

  Joey could have answered two ways. Yes, he’d been his supervisor but even before then he’d literally been under him, often. He’d met Austin during the last fall’s annual Hibernation Festival, where they were on opposing teams for the Fire Ball competition, and as much as they’d been rivals, there had been no denying their attraction, a desire fulfilled in the heat of the moment. Joey had fucked him and Austin, young, naïve, inexperienced, had been a good learner and willing participant. Now he was in a committed relationship with Chief O’Connell’s rocker son, and Joey was…what? He and Nick were hot for each other, they cared for each other…but was it really going somewhere? Not if tonight had been any indication. The afterglow had faded faster than an orgasm.

  “He’s a good kid,” Joey finally said. “Great instincts.”

  “No one else heard the cries for help. He rushed in, saved the man.”

  “Like I said, he’s one of the good guys.”

  “And Nick?’

  Joey’s eyes narrowed, wondering where this was going. His father usually just turned a blind eye to Joey’s sexuality, not opposing it but not exactly endorsing it either. There was little he could do about it anyway, Joey Silva had always been his own man, mature beyond his years physically at a young age, a virile pie
ce of manhood with an insatiable sexual desire from the moment of his first experience. So why then was Alex Silva delving into his personal life now?

  “Nick’s fine. Saw him earlier”

  “So we assumed, your mother and I.”

  “A man has needs, what can I say?” Joey replied, his comment as far as he’d ever gone in talking about sex with his father.

  “Your mother thought you might bring Nick to dinner again.”

  “Let’s not go overboard. I don’t want to put the pressure on anyone.”

  Alex seemed about to say something else but Janice walking into the kitchen interrupted the flow of their conversation. Joey looked at his mother, as tough a character as he’d ever met, probably more so than he and his father combined—and they fought fires for a living—and felt a soft spot burrowing its way into his heart. His parents had given him and his younger brother, Bernard, their sister, too, who lived in New Jersey, all they could ask for, even more. What Janice and Alex deserved now was the expected second stage of their life, being surrounded by grandchildren, and while Anna Maria had provided them with two, Joey didn’t see children isn his future. And Bernard—Burn, as he was called—was on an altogether different path.

  “Burn’s game is just starting,” Janice said, pouring a second cup of coffee.

  “We’ll be right in,” Alex said.

  Janice knew when to leave her men alone, so she retreated back to the living room but not without saying, “They’re the visiting team, he’s batting third tonight.” Janice-speak for hurry it up, it was the top of the inning. Left alone in the kitchen again, Joey finished the last of his beer and when he set the bottle down he sat his father still staring at him.

  “Now what?”

  “We have an appointment in White Pine tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I know, the first meeting about that calendar.”

  “Just want to make sure you’re prepared.”

  “Dad, I’ve had my picture taken before. It’s a good cause, I’m happy to help.”

  “Not that. About returning to White Pine, to the fire station. You haven’t visited since Chief O’Connell returned.”

  “I work here, Dad, in Honor Hills. Beside you, right where I belong.”

  “And Nick?”

  “I assume he’ll be there. Good looking guy like him, he’ll participate.”

  “You know, Joey, you can tell me anything.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing to tell. Come on, let’s see how Burn wins this one.”

  Alex left is at that, and soon he too had gone to the living room, where the low roar of the crowd could be heard coming through the television. Joey got up, grabbed another beer and then made his way as well. His brother, Burn, of the baseball team New Jersey Skyscrapers, was just up at bat. If Joey was the burly one of the Silva boys, Burn was the young hottie, and tonight he was sporting a thick growth of beard on his cheeks, trying to look intimidating, his strong hands wrapped around the bat. He swung and missed at the first pitch just as Joey sat down on the far edge of the sofa. His mother was in her usual chair, his father in his recliner.

  “Come on, Burn,” Janice said, rubbing her hands together.

  Burn connected on the next pitch and sent the ball flying over the fence. Skyscrapers were up 1-0. Janice and Alex stood up and cheered and then embraced in celebration of their prized son’s incredible success. Joey noticed the empty space beside him, just one of three cushions on the sofa, none which bore the imprint of another person. Which just reminded Joey of Nick, and how he should’ve been here with him, enjoying the home run with everyone else.

  Instead, Joey Silva, in the home he’d grown up in, felt alone in the world.

  It was an unfamiliar feeling for him, a man so usually in control, a man who never denied himself anything he craved. If he wanted sex, he found it, if he wanted companionship, he found it. Now he didn’t know what he wanted. The game was being played out on the West Coast, so it ended late, Burn coming up with the winning single in the top of the ninth to secure a victory for the visitors and sending the home crowd home unhappy. Joey stayed the night, wishing he hadn’t, because as much as Burn was surely celebrating his clutch hit, his parents were indulging their own, locked behind their bedroom door.

  “Oh, Alex, my silver fox…”

  Even though he was alone in his bed, Joey couldn’t help but grin. “You old dog.”

  Chapter Four

  Trent

  Trent awoke early at six, feeling deliciously refreshed and sighing contentedly. Angel continued to sleep, his body quiet in the bed after another night of endless, hot sex. This time they’d done it in the finished basement after a game of pool, Angel taking him right there with his own pool stick, rubbing his back raw from the friction of the green felt on the table top, his nipples raw too from the constant scrape of Angel’s thick chest hair on his smooth skin. They’d fucked long into the night, the cement walls of the basement containing their late-night cries, giving in one last time as they crawled into bed and made sweet love as the morning crept ever closer.

  Trent stole a look back at the sexy, sleeping form, as Angel stretched out on his back with the covers turned down, exposing his manly, fur-coated chest, his armpits and their patches of thick hair stringing together. A medallion on a silver chain lay embedded in the thicket, Angel’s link to his family. The man was hot as hell, that’s for sure, and the sight of him now had Trent growing hard just thinking about his touch.

  But he let him sleep, padding out of the bedroom and downstairs. He was dressed only in shorts, and why not, not like anyone was home. They’d been back three days now, having spent a good portion of their time at the hospital. Trudy Rodgers was set to come home in a few days, and as such Trent wanted to have the house in perfect condition for her arrival. When Angel heard the news he reminded Trent they still had a few more rooms to test out before they would need to seek more private areas for their desires. For now, Trent had the waking house to himself, so on this spring morning he opened up the front door, and then in the kitchen he opened the sliding door that led to the backyard. A current of mountain air whisked through the house and cleansed it of its recurring mustiness.

  Trent stepped out onto the back patio, breathing deeply. The smell of pine was never far from this village. It’s how it got its name, but he also detected an acrid smell. Could be as simple as someone’s wood stove, could be a remnant of the fire from the other day he’d read about, its charred embers still catching in the downwind. The thought of the fire reminded him he had yet to pay a visit to the fire house which had once served as his place of employ, and while he approached the idea of returning to the classic brick structure with mixed emotions involving his father, he knew it was inevitable. Perhaps even this morning.

  How far his life had taken him, from White Pine with its prized isolation, to the open roads of America lush and freeing.

  And now back home.

  Trent Rodgers wondered how this would all end up for him.

  His thoughts turned to Angel, the sexy, wanderlust-driven man who had come to White Pine to replace a firefighter—Trent. He’d been on a leave of absence, a result of the fire that had claimed the life of his father, and while he sought refuge at the family’s cabin further up in the picturesque Adirondacks, the department had needed to fill the roster spot. In came dark-haired, exotic Angel Montero in his sporty Porsche and stylish ways, turning the heads of men and women alike everywhere he went.

  While Trent secluded himself alone with his guilt, living amidst the secret flames of his conscience, Angel had insinuated himself into the daily fabric of the White Pine Fire Department. He’d even quickly struck up a romance, hardly surprisingly for a man as hot as Angel Montero. When finally they had met, sparks had shot forth as fast as their first orgasms, and since that time in the hills beyond the cabin when Trent had reached for the medallion and the chain had broken in his hand, they had been one team of two, living a singular life, with dreams of the future fueling their sense of adventure.