Chapter 21 #2
He continued as the clattering of Jack’s self-appointed search fell away.
“That day there was no ice cream in the house. So, like they’d done hundreds of times before, they went out to the store to get some. They were so lovey-dovey then that Cal and I decided to stay home, joking around that it was all too much for us kids.”
His parents had laughed at that.
It wasn’t a detail that was needed for what happened next.
“The rain really picked up. It was as dark as it was now and, well, everyone seems to think they never saw the truck going the wrong way.”
Benny took a moment.
He knew he wasn't going to cry, but that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.
“They died instantly, is what we were told,” he continued.
“Same as the truck driver. The sheriff came and told us in person but, to this day, I can't remember what he actually said. Do you know the real reason why I love Ms. Peggy the way I do? She stayed with us for a month after that. Right here in the house. She took my room and I bunked with Cal. He became my legal guardian after that. I was fifteen, he was eighteen, and we were lucky that the life insurance paid off this house and covered the bills until I left for college.” Benny trailed one hand from his arm to the tile of the countertop.
Even in the dark he knew exactly how it looked.
“Before I left, I told Callum he could leave too. Sell the house, use the money for college, chase his dreams, all of it. As you probably know though, he didn’t do any of that.”
Benny told a truth he hadn’t ever told anyone before. Not even his blog.
“Which, I hate to admit, I'm grateful for,” he said. “This house was the last place we ever saw our parents, and I know it might sound silly, but sometimes I can walk by the kitchen sink and still hear them giggling like schoolkids. Even when it’s dark like this, it’s not hard to imagine they’re here. ”
Benny hadn’t heard Jack moving in a bit.
He was surprised he didn’t jump when the man reached out and touched his shoulder.
“I didn’t ever think anyone would read my blog when I started it, but I still never wrote them into it,” Benny admitted.
“I guess part of me wanted them to stay just mine. One woman who loved ice cream, even if it was melted, and one man who loved his wife, even if he never really cared about ice cream.”
Benny felt his smile come back.
The rain was still going.
Thunder was still booming.
But Jack was there too.
“And I’m not sure why I told you this now, but you said you like noise and, I don’t know Jack, I guess I’m kind of sad you won’t ever get to hear theirs.”
Sometime within his retelling, Jack found a flashlight.
He clicked it on with his free hand.
The beam poured into the sink and illuminated the bartender’s silhouette.
Benny couldn’t tell if he was smiling or not.
His voice, however, was soft.
What he said was also simple.
“If you’re the apple, then I’m sure I would have loved the tree.”
The rain continued.
Jack’s hand was warm.
The light stayed an afterthought.
Benny let himself be kissed right where his parents used to stand.
It was a long, deep twirl through the pain of living.
When Jack ended it, Benny could still feel his breath against his face when he spoke.
“Can I take you to your room?”
It was a beautifully simplistic question.
Benny nodded.
“Please.”
The flashlight was enough to get both men back to the bedroom.
It was enough to close the door behind them.
It was enough to see the bed.
What Benny couldn’t see just outside of the limit of its light were the details of his life before now.
The Smallville poster on his wall that Ethan had bought him for a birthday, the family pictures his mother had taken and hung on nails he and his father had bought at the hardwood store, the rocks he and Cal had painted like superheroes one summer when it had been too hot to go outside years before they had become the only family they’d had left.
And, as Jack dropped the flashlight and it rolled somewhere under the bed, taking the light with it, something deep inside of Benny took the moment to appreciate that fact.
The proof of his existence surrounded him but, as the light strobed until it became trapped beneath his childhood bed, all Benny saw was Jack.
He took Benny’s face in his hands and pushed him backwards onto the bed. Jack came with him, a kiss dragging him along the downward slope.
He opened Benny’s mouth and he closed it, all at the command of his lips and tongue.
Benny could breathe but he would have gladly given the effort up if it meant he could have more of this. More of Jack.
He filled the small space between them with a moan he hoped let the other man know that this—this meant something to him.
And that he wanted more.
Benny wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck and pulled him down, until he was flush against him, to emphasize the point.
Jack readjusted his hold. One hand went from gently cradling his face to a dance down to his hip. The other twisted up into his hair. The heat from Jack’s touch was nothing compared to the heat that started to roll in Benny.
They continued this series of tangling for a while, their own surprisingly soothing background music.
But then the shift between wanting to be close and needing to be close happened.
And Jack was the one to mark its change.
He broke their kiss, took off both of their shirts, and landed his lips against Benny’s collarbone.
Benny would have done more, but his attention melted as Jack slid a hand down to his jeans. With deft fingers, he worked double-time. Benny’s pants were unbuttoned, unzipped, and in the process of being slid down, at the same time Jack’s lips danced across the skin of his chest.
Benny could only respond by helping kick his jeans and boxers off.
It seemed to be exactly what Jack wanted though.
The second Benny was undressed from head to toe, Jack slid his hand down and took Benny in his hand.
Benny couldn’t help but arch to the touch.
His moan, however, was muffled by Jack’s mouth, coming back up to envelop his.
The kiss was deep and hungry. In time with his strokes, a maddening slow rhythm. Benny’s body pushed up at each pump.
It felt like Jack was teasing him.
And, a few seconds later, he realized Jack’s plan had never been his hand.
His lips and tongue made their way down Benny’s chest and stomach until they left the area completely.
The noise Benny made when Jack’s mouth took him in drowned out the sound of the storm outside.
The bartender held one hand splayed on Benny’s stomach while the other wrapped around his thigh. His mouth and tongue and head moved up and down, down and up, and sucked and slid, as Benny moaned and squirmed and lightly cussed into the dark.
Before he knew what he was doing, his hand wound its way into Jack’s hair.
He pressed down lightly, wanting more but not daring to force it.
Thankfully, Jack seemed to understand the unasked request.
And he wholeheartedly obliged.
He pushed Benny’s dick deeper into his mouth and repeated the new depth and speed until Benny’s quiet groans became anything but.
“I-I—Oh, Jack,” he yelled out. “Oh, Jack, I’m-I’m about to come.”
Benny tried to push the man off before it was too late, but the bartender held fast.
Benny didn’t have time to worry after that.
He came loud and fast, a moan of pleasure carrying him from excited to red hot release. Jack slowly lifted his head.
Benny heard him swallow after he sucked the tip of his head.
Even though he couldn’t see the bartender’s face clearly, when he spoke, Benny heard the promise that he wasn’t at all bothered.
And that he wasn’t done either.
“I want to hear more of you, Benny De Carlo,” he said, voice low and filled with gravel. “Do you mind if I try and make you yell my name again?”
Benny was already panting.
He didn’t mind.
He said so.
“Did you—Did you bring anything for that?” he barely managed.
When Benny had come to Arbor Bay, he’d never in a million years expected sex to be on the table of potentialities. All of his supplies were at home under his bathroom sink. He doubted his brother had any of what he wanted hidden under his own, ready to grab in a pinch.
Benny heard Jack chuckle.
The sound was still so low it stirred something primal in him.
“After the sunburn incident, I decided I’d rather be safe than sorry. Let me run out to the truck.”
Then Jack was up and gone, leaving Benny bare and hot on the bed. Exposed but not at all unwilling.
It was only after the worry of the rain outside hit him that Jack was back. He set something down on the bed next to him and must have ducked low to get the flashlight. He repositioned it so the new direction against the baseboard opposite gave Benny enough light to see two things.
One, Jack was smiling.
“Good,” he ground out. “I want to see all of you for this next part.”
And, two, Jack’s erection might have been a sight to see while wearing jeans, but the second he stripped off the rest of his clothes, it was a mag-fucking-nificent sight to behold.
It was also a little alarming.
Jack must have caught his concern.
His smile turned into a smirk that Benny believed could make the devil blush.
He nodded to the bottle he’d just placed on the bed next to a condom.
“Don’t worry. This isn’t Dewey’s homemade lube.”
He got back onto the bed, sliding himself up against Benny until he was flush with him.
Jack ran his thumb against Benny’s cheekbone and kept that smirk going as he looked down at him.
“And don’t worry. What I’m about to do to you is going to erase that bitch Derrick right from your memory.”
Benny didn’t get a chance to respond.
To be fair, he wasn’t sure he would have known what to say.
Jack might have been talking, but the monster between his legs seemed more than ready to get started.