Chapter Three #5
“That’s cool. Taking lots of pictures?”
“Oh yeah,” Jeremy replies sarcastically.
“Don’t let it pass you by.”
“Hm. Well, what am I missing there?”
“My dick in your mouth,” Barry whispers.
Jeremy chews on his lip and smirks at his reflection, “You talk dirty for a guy who’s supposed to be feeding some cattle.”
“I got some time, locked up in the bathroom,” Barry murmurs, voice deep.
Jeremy rinses off his face, patting it dry as he replies, “How much time?”
“I dreamed of you last night. Been thinking of you since I got up,” Barry tells him, “Won’t be too long.”
Chuckling, Jeremy picks up his phone and carries it to the bed. Naked, he lays belly down on the bed and tells him, “Well, I just got out of the shower.”
“Are you naked still?”
“Mhm.”
“Send a pic?”
“Let’s just FaceTime,” Jeremy suggests.
“Tss, my reception’s bad. C’mon, just one picture?”
Jeremy huffs but gets out his camera app, arching his back and taking a picture over his shoulder of his lifted ass. Sending it without a second thought, he says, “There.”
“Mm, I’mma send you one too.”
Smirking, Jeremy stares at his phone screen and waits for a picture. He rubs his hips against the comforter and starts to get really hard, biting his lip and thinking he might not last long either. He tells Barry as much by saying, “I miss you.”
“Fuck, Jeremy, you’re so hot,” Barry whines, “I want to-”
He doesn’t hear the rest as there’s a sharp knock at the door. Still hard, Jeremy sits up and Barry asks, “What was that?”
“Someone’s at the door,” Jeremy tells him, getting up.
He feels awkward walking toward the door with his dick bouncing between his legs.
His cock head presses against the wood door as he peers through the peephole.
He immediately runs away, taking Barry off speaker phone and whispering urgently into the receiver, “It’s Clark! ”
“Huh? For real?”
“Jesus, Barry, I think I have to let you go,” Jeremy says as another, louder knock comes at the door again.
“What? Come on. Just pretend you’re asleep!”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he tells him, finding his towel and wrapping his dick up in it as he cinches it around his waist.
Barry groans, “Fine. But hey, Jeremy?”
“Yeah?”
“I miss you too.”
Jeremy blushes and bites his inner cheek, nodding to himself and saying to Barry, “Goodnight. Or, good morning.”
Barry laughs and says, “Talk soon. Bye.”
Jeremy hangs up as he opens the door to Clark, “Hey.”
“Oh,” Clark steps back as he takes in Jeremy’s half naked body, “Sorry.”
“Uh, no it’s fine,” Jeremy squirms, clenching his towels at his side, “What’s up?”
“Well,” Clark shrugs, holding up an incredibly expensive looking bottle of bourbon, “I figured I owed you a drink for, you know, today.”
“Um, okay. Sure,” Jeremy feels awkward as he hesitates on letting Clark in. Feeling like he has no choice with the super star, he steps aside. Clark walks in and Jeremy rushes to his suitcase, getting out some clothes and telling Clark, “I’ll just be a sec.”
“‘Kay.”
Jeremy disappears into the bathroom and closes the door behind him.
He checks himself in the mirror, eyes steady, before getting into flannel pajama bottoms and a loose, old t-shirt.
Feeling vulnerable in such casual clothes, Jeremy fusses with his wet hair for a moment.
Done procrastinating, he pulls back his shoulders and heads out front.
The sliding glass door is open and Clark is sitting outside with the bottle and two glasses on an end table between the chairs. Jeremy slowly approaches and sits down. Clark looks over, “Hi.”
Jeremy nods to him, clearing his throat, “I hope you don’t mind, I got comfortable.”
“Your house,” Clark replies, uncorking the bourbon and pouring very generously. His smile is less confident, admitting, “Uh, your phone dinged while you were getting dressed. You got a message - a blurred image. From Barry.”
“Oh,” Jeremy’s not sure how to feel about Clark looking at his phone so personally, picking up the glass but not drinking. He thumbs the rim thoughtfully, “Alright.”
“Cheers.”
Jeremy looks over, Clark holding his glass up expectantly. He clinks his glass against Clark’s, “Cheers. First day done.”
Clark smiles toothily, repeating, “First day done indeed.”
Jeremy smirks back, taking a healthy sip from the glass. He holds it in front of him, darkened waves as a backdrop, “Mm, delicious.”
“So, is Barry the ranch hand you’re seeing?”
Looking over, Jeremy’s caught off guard by the question. Clark is blatantly staring at him. His heart pounds, smile weak as he shrugs and croaks out, “I’m not ‘seeing’ him… But yeah. He’s the guy.”
“Hm,” Clark sits back in thought, sipping at his own drink as he looks out over the night. Jeremy shares in the silence, moonlight strong over the deserted beach. Clark breaks the silence, “I was careless today.”
Jeremy doesn’t look over, readjusting in his seat as he answers honestly, “A little, yeah.”
“If you hadn’t been there, I would’ve gone tumbling down that cliffside,” he states.
“You don’t know that,” Jeremy counters, “Everything’s fine, no need to dwell on the past.”
“I owe you. Jeremy, I really do.”
The words sound so passionate that Jeremy feels forced to look over just as a passing breeze sweeps by his freshly shaven cheek, cooling his damp head of hair.
Clark is looking at him again, eyes twinkling with moisture and emotion.
Jeremy feels caught up in the expression of gratitude.
He wiggles in his seat, uncomfortable, and looks off to the distance again as he answers, “Why do you keep saying that?”
“You were right,” Clark confesses, “I was the one that kissed you in the eighth grade.”
Jeremy doesn’t respond, leaning his elbows on his knees but feeling stiff. Finally he huffs out, “Why are you bringing this up again? What does it matter?”
“It matters to me,” Clark won’t let up, revealing more, “It’s the reason I didn’t want to hang out with you in high school.”
Almost laughing, Jeremy feels a little spiteful as he sips at his bourbon and says, “Make that make sense.”
“I had a crush on you. Duh,” Clark says like it’s plain as day. Jeremy looks over his shoulder but Clark isn’t looking at him anymore, continuing on to the sea, “It freaked me out, you know? So I just decided to stop being your friend.”
Jeremy chews on that, searching Clark’s distant countenance. Suddenly, those green eyes flick over to Jeremy’s gaze and locks him down. There’s an obvious tension between them, air thick and choking Jeremy. Clark finishes by saying, “That’s why I owe you.”
Sitting on that, Jeremy suddenly feels sad as he looks out to the ocean once more and asks, “Is that why you asked me out here? Out of pity or some shit?”
“No. I asked you out here so you could save my hide, like you did today,” Clark tells him.
“So,” Jeremy sits back again, drinking down the rest of the bourbon in his glass and setting it on the table between them, “How are you planning to pay me back?”
Clark looks over to Jeremy, but not his eyes; he starts at Jeremy’s bare toes, eyes working up his calves and thighs, over his torso, skimming his neck and gazing at every inch of his face before meeting his eyes.
Jeremy gets goosebumps, groin reacting to the intense observation.
Clark slowly licks his lips and Jeremy instinctually flicks his eyes down to follow the movement.
Smirking, Clark starts standing and says, “Keep the bottle. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Shaken to his core, Jeremy sits like a statue as Clark brushes past him and exits.
The door clicks closed behind him and Jeremy exhales in one big whoosh.
He inhales deeply, tipsy from the top shelf liquor and the proximity to Clark Radison’s charm.
Confused, he collapses back in the chair and with great wonder, staring up at the sky.