TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

It was definitely not the sort of thing that he would normally do, go to a wedding of a woman he didn’t really know to a groom that he had never even met. But Luna looked beautiful, and she seemed genuinely happy, and Justin couldn’t even regret coming.

Jade was thrilled, of course. She got a sappy look in her eye that filled Justin with foreboding. He almost felt sorry for anyone that she would eventually fix her eye on, but he supposed that was a bridge to cross when it happened.

Meanwhile, she was just being a kid, chattering and laughing and running around in a pack with the other kids around, hair ribbons and dress flying as she giggled and dashed madly around.

In short, she was being a kid, and Justin realized, as he watched her, that he probably hadn’t brought her to enough of these sort of things. She was so happy, so in her element, and she would have her new friends eating out of the palm of her hand in no time.

“Wow. I didn’t even know that you had clothes that weren’t sweats,” Ken commented, grinning at him as he slipped an arm around Justin’s waist. A bit self-conscious, Justin gazed down at himself. Truth was, he’d had to buy a suit just for this event, he hadn’t even owned one before, and it definitely felt strange.

Before Justin could comment, though, he felt Ken’s body stiffening up beside him. When Justin followed his lover’s gaze, he thought he understood all too well. Maria, Ken’s mother, stalked toward them, her eyes burning and fixated on them both.

She had thought that Justin was safe because she had learned that he had a kid, but clearly she was having somewhat of a rude awakening on that subject.

Trying to exercise something like tact, Justin slipped his arm from around Ken’s waist, or that was the idea, anyway. But Ken captured his wrist and drew it right back around, and it was a pretty clear sign that he didn’t want to hide it.

That didn’t exactly break Justin’s heart, actually. He would have been willing to try to be subtle, but he didn’t want to. He was well and truly in love, and while it wasn’t his style to scream it from the rooftops or take out a billboard about it, he didn’t want to hide it.

“Justin.” Maria’s voice and face were tight, her brows furrowed into two deep canyons between her eyes. “How lovely to see you again.”

Justin just nodded, standing beside Ken, offering his support but this was really Ken’s decision to make, how he wanted to deal with all of this. Whatever he did, Justin was there to support him as best he could.

Not that he was best at dealing with overprotective mothers, not given his own history.

“What’s up, Mom?” Ken asked, and Maria’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at him, somehow far more imposing than her height would usually suggest that she be. This was a woman to be reckoned with, for sure.

“That nice girl that I wanted you to bring to the wedding? I got Luna to invite her and her parents so you can meet her. I’m sure Justin has better things to do than hang around with you, dear …”

“Actually,” Justin interrupted, his voice pleasant enough despite the anger, “I don’t. This is exactly where I want to be.”

That sort of bluntness took the wind right out of her sails, deflated her. She had been pointing over at a lovely little family, with a girl just about Ken’s age, but that finger dropped with Justin’s abrupt comment.

“Yeah, not gonna happen, Mom,” Ken said, and there was frustration in his voice, and anger, and sadness, but also love. Whatever her methods, this woman did just want the best for Ken, but it was a very narrow definition of best, one that fit into her world view.

“Ken, please,” Maria whispered, and there was no faking the fear in her eyes. “You don’t want to do this. I want more than this life for you.”

And she probably did. That was the hell of it that she really did think that she was doing the best for her son.

“This is the life I want, and it’s my life,” Ken told her, and while he wasn’t cruel about his words, they were firm, direct, and to the point. Incontrovertible.

“Daddy!” Jade ran up, with probably the most impeccable timing of anyone that Justin had ever seen before. She was joined by another little girl with thick, straight black hair and eyes so dark brown that it was hard to see the pupils. “This is Arya. I want her to come over sometime.”

Justin looked down at the other child, giving her a bit of a nod of greeting. She nodded back, obviously a bit shy, and that made sense. Shy children had a way of latching on to the more gregarious ones. Only maybe it wasn’t just kids, because Justin had sort of done the same thing with Ken, hadn’t he?

Looking into his daughter’s eyes, he realized that she expected him to make some sort of excuse. And he realized, too, that that wasn’t fair. That it was her house, too, and that he was going to have to open it up at least a little. He probably wasn’t going to be hosting any huge parties anytime soon, but he didn’t need to be a complete hermit.

“Yeah, we can probably do that,” he said, making his daughter grin up at him, then take her new friend around the waist and tug her off into whatever complicated games the children were playing. Before she left, though, she looked at Ken, grinned at him, and then turned her attention to Maria, who was almost visibly biting her tongue.

“Hi!” Jade chirped at Maria, and then she was off, but it was probably the best possible thing that she could have done. Maria looked a little bit like she’d been hit in the stomach by a two by four, but not in a bad way.

A woman like her loved kids, she hadn’t had so many of them for any other reason. In that one word, Jade had added Maria to her string of admirers, that much was clear.

It probably wasn’t going to be entirely smooth sailing from here, but Justin had the idea that it wasn’t going to be impossible, either. And that was something, anyway.

Maria wandered off, a look of not entirely discontent on her face, her eyes fixed on the roaming gang of kids.

“She wants grandkids,” Ken told him, bringing him over to one of the tables that had been set up in the big outdoor venue where Luna had decided to hold her reception. It was a nice area. Too damn hot, especially in the stuffy suits, but nice.

“Yeah. Well, Jade hasn’t had a lot of family around,” Justin admitted, only that wasn’t quite accurate. It was more like she’d had no one, other than Justin, of course.

“Huh. Well, I have too much family.” Ken grinned at him, then leaned in to kiss Justin briefly, no matter who was around and might see. “I think this might actually end up working out perfectly.”

It might just end up working out perfectly, indeed.

 

* * *

 

The wedding stretched on into the evening, and there was dancing, which Ken and, of course, Jade, got into. They even got Justin onto the dance floor a few times, which was a pretty major accomplishment. As the hours wound on, as the heat finally started to fade from the sun-baked earth, Ken got a soccer game going to use up the last of the energy that the preteen set had.

There would be some parents sleeping soundly tonight, with their kids thoroughly exhausted. Jade was going to be one of them, too, because she flung herself into the soccer game with a passion that was only surpassed by the enthusiasm that she showed for dance.

Finally, she was rubbing her eyes, and Justin had to face facts. This party would go on and on, but it was far past Jade’s bedtime, and the rest of the kids were slowly starting to disappear, dragged off to bed by parents and most of them actually not complaining about it that much.

“Jade and I gotta go,” Justin told Ken, and they faced each other, just gazing into each other’s eyes. A lot had been fixed between them in a very short time, but Justin was still a little bit unsure of where they stood.

When he looked up at Ken, he saw that same uncertainty in his eyes, and that helped.

“Come home with me?”

Would Ken say yes? Justin was ready to trust, but that didn’t mean that Ken wanted what Justin did. But the only way to figure that out, he’d realized finally, was to do something novel. To open his mouth and ask the question.

“Sure.” Ken grinned at him, then waved at his sister, who looked blissfully happy as she swayed in her new husband’s arms. There were no big, long goodbyes to make, most people had already left or were getting to the stage of the evening where they got shitfaced drunk.

Time to go.

Even in that short time, though, Jade had started to fall asleep, resting her head against Justin’s side, and Ken smiled and reached down, scooping the little girl into his arms as easily as Justin could with a toddler. With a soft sigh of pure contentment, Jade rested her head on Ken’s shoulder, and the three of them made their way to Justin’s car.

They drove home, and the tension spun between them. They got Jade to bed, tucked in and already in dreamland, and that tension grew thicker. By the time it was all done, Justin had found that he couldn’t look away from Ken, not for anything, and the best part was that Ken was looking at him right back.

“So, are you going to take me to bed or what …” Ken started and then cut himself off when …

… At the same time, Justin spoke, “Do you think it’s about time to …”

They grinned at each other, and for two men who were very different on the surface of it, Justin had to admit that he and Ken had the same thoughts enough of the time that it was almost disturbing. Or it had been before he had made the decision to trust this man.

“Yeah,” Ken agreed. “I do think it’s about time to drag your sexy ass to bed and ravish you all night.” He swept Justin up into his arms suddenly, so strong and sure, and Justin couldn’t remember the last time he had been picked up. He really didn’t. Probably when he was a child, too young to have any memory of it whatsoever.

He would have thought he would hate it. And indeed, there was a moment of sick uncertainty, a whirling in his head that made it hard to think, that almost had him struggling to get down. But then his eyes caught on Ken’s and held there, and he rested his head on Ken’s shoulder and just let himself be carried.

It was okay to let himself be taken care of a little bit.

Through Justin’s house to the bedroom, to the huge, soft bed that awaited them, Ken took Justin, and as he did, Justin grinned suddenly and started to kiss at his throat, nibble on his ear, and brush his lips along Ken’s jawline. After all, if he didn’t have to walk, he could definitely think of fun ways to drive Ken crazy for him.

With a soft groan, Ken put Justin down on the bed, then slowly, piece by piece, stripped Justin of the nice suit that he wasn’t sure when he was ever going to wear again. His own hands were busy tugging at Ken’s clothes, revealing his body bit by bit, hands and lips and tongue worshiping every bit of it that he could get at.

“So I got tested,” Ken admitted suddenly, his lips brushing over Justin’s cheek, his hand slipping slowly down his body to where his cock waited, hard and eager and ready for that touch. “I’m clean.”

Justin took a second to realize what Ken meant by the seeming non sequitur, but he smirked a little bit when he did.

“I’m clean, too,” he assured him, and he knew that he was. He’d been tested since the last time he’d been with anyone, and even then, he’d always been pretty big into using condoms, at least since he’d grown up. Jade was great, but she had been a surprise.

“Okay. Do you wanna?”

Justin’s smirk widened, and he considered teasing the other man, but he didn’t make him clarify. He just nodded, then rolled onto his back. This was a trust exercise for him, and if he was going to do this, he wanted to do it all the way.

“I wanna,” Justin assured him, pulling Ken on top of him. He kissed him thoroughly and then whispered up into his ear, “Fuck me.”

Ken was already reaching for the lube, pushing Justin’s legs apart and pouring the cool, slippery stuff between the cheeks of Justin’s ass. His fingers pressed it inside of him, delving deep, getting him slick and ready.

“No,” Ken murmured back, somewhat to Justin’s surprise. “No, baby, I’m not gonna fuck you. I’m gonna do something else.” His fingers pumped slowly, slowly inside of Justin, rubbing over his prostate, opening him up, spreading the lube deep inside of him. “I’m gonna make love to you.”

It was, by far, the most romantic thing that Ken had ever said to Justin. Or anyone. He wasn’t used to men being comfortable with those two words, and honestly, he wouldn’t have expected them from big, strong, athletic, Ken.

It seemed like maybe Justin wasn’t the only one who had learned to trust here.

They kissed, and Justin let himself be prepared, but Ken was too good with his hands. He had to be doing it on purpose, right? The pleasure rolled through him, starting to build up, and he groaned as Ken’s fingertips grazed over his prostate again and again.

He could come from this. But that wasn’t how he wanted to come. He wanted to feel this first time together with no barrier between them, and he wanted to come with his inner walls clenched tight around Ken’s gorgeous, thrusting cock.

“Now,” he growled, almost demanding, and luckily, Ken didn’t seem like he was inclined to argue. Ken’s hand settled on the jutting hardness of Justin’s dick, stroking him as he positioned himself at Justin’s entrance.

“I love you,” Ken admitted, and just like that, he started to push inside of him. As it happened, Justin realized that this really was a first for him. He’d never had anyone take him without a condom, had never felt the heat of skin to skin, bare and open and vulnerable to each other.

“I love you, too, baby,” Justin groaned, and he writhed up, his body rising off of the bed to try to get closer to him. Slowly, slowly, they rocked together, and it seemed like, from the very first thrust, Justin was almost at his release but only got more and more wound up until what happened was not even exactly what he would term as an orgasm.

It was like his whole life, he had thought that a pale pink was actually bright, crimson red, and he hadn’t known any better. But now he did. This was red, vivid, soul-searing, more intense by far than anything that he’d known before as pleasure.

No one was ever going to be able to do anything like this to him, not like Ken had, and with that thought, he started to come. He spilled it all over himself, and onto Ken’s grasping hand, crying out into their kiss as he felt the first jet of hot come as Ken came inside him, filling him up for the very first time.

For a moment, they just held each other, gazing into each other’s eyes, and then Ken rolled off of him. Justin, smiling like he was never going to be able to stop, rested his head on his shoulder for a long moment, letting himself come down from a high unlike any that he had ever known before.

“Hey, baby?” Justin finally asked, and Ken grunted, which Justin took to mean that he was listening, but he probably wouldn’t be for long. It had been a long day, and Ken was probably going to pass out soon. “The song is finished. The one we wrote? I have it on my computer.”

It was just the rough version, of course. There had only been that one take of it with the rest of the Lost Boys, but the song itself was done. As Ken propped himself up in bed, long, muscular body wrapped up in sheets, Justin reached out and snagged his laptop.

“Justin …” Ken started, but Justin shut him up with a kiss before he started to play the sound file of the song that he had poured his heart and soul into, the song that Ken had helped him to write.

It was the most intimate, raw, bare song that he’d ever written, but as he cuddled close to Ken, he had to think that that also made it the best.