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Ethan couldn’t help it, a loud laugh escaping his lips, taking him by surprise. There it was again. That feeling he’d had yesterday in the changing room. Almost as if Avery could peel away one layer after another of his armor just by his mere presence. Ethan had never met anyone like that before. Back home people didn’t just walk up to complete strangers, offering them apples and speaking in sentences with exclamations. Nah, that wasn’t the way things worked in Eden. You’d end up with an ass-whooping if you ran around hollering at strangers. Avery would’ve stood out like a decorated Christmas tree at a Fourth of July bonfire.
Still smiling disarmingly, Avery took a large bite from his crisp apple, loud crunching sounds and appreciative moans coming from his full, pink lips.
“So, what’s it going to be?” he spoke, a single drop of fruit juice escaping his lower lip and coming to a rest on his chin. A few days’ worth of dark-blond stubble covered the otherwise smooth, unblemished skin.
“Huh?” Ethan couldn’t look away from the drop of juice, lingering on Avery’s round chin. He wanted to lick it from Avery’s stubble-covered skin. Taste it on the tip of his tongue while the sweetness from the apple melted together with the taste of male. As if Ethan was almost separated from his own body, he felt the hardening of his dick behind his jeans, a distant reminder that he hadn’t jerked off for two days. He hadn’t felt comfortable doing it in his paper-thin tent or in the communal showers yesterday.
“Are you just going to sit there all day and stare at the water? Or are you going to get in there?” Avery nodded at the water basin, the green surface glistening in the noon sun.
“I’m… I’m not sure.” He managed to force the words from his lips, his voice sounding strained and awkward. “I was tryin’ to figure out if it was okay, ya know?”
“Only one way to find out,” Avery’s melodic voice swept through the clearing as he threw the rest of his apple into the underpass and began freeing himself from his sweaty sky-blue t-shirt. Ethan failed to bite back a moan as Avery’s flat, tanned stomach appeared inch by excruciatingly sexy inch while he swiftly removed his t-shirt. It was like the velvet curtains in one of those old movie theaters, being pulled aside, revealing a spectacular image.
“You won’t know until later.” Ethan got up as well and nodded out at the still surface of the water. “I mean, if it’s good or not.”
Avery threw his t-shirt on top of his backpack before he looked straight into Ethan’s eyes, the piercing blue of his irises penetrating him. Miles and miles of tanned skin and mouth-watering lean muscles spread out in front of Ethan. His gaze zeroed in on Avery’s nipples that were just a shade or two darker than the rest of his flawless skin. He settled his gaze on the naked pec muscles covered generously in freckles, but hairless.
It occurred to Ethan that he’d never found freckles hot before. In fact, he’d never really thought about freckles one way or another. But on Avery, they were.Hot. He wanted to lick each one of them. Tracing the outline with his starved tongue. Tasting them. Biting them. Whereas his shoulders were the shoulders of a swimmer, Avery’s waist was narrow as it disappeared into the green fabric of his threadbare hiking shorts. His stomach was flat and defined, but not with the kind of muscles you would get from working out. No, it was the same kind of muscles Ethan had himself from running track all the way through high school. His hips, also slim, beckoned for Ethan to wrap his large hands around them and press his thumb into the spot just below the protruding hip bone, leaving a print behind that would later turn into a purple mark on Avery’s otherwise unblemished skin.
“C’mon, man. I’ll go first. If Nessie’s out there, she’ll feast on me, and you can tell the authorities that I put up a brave fight until the bitter end.” As he spoke the final words, Avery reached a clenched fist in the air, his long blond hair brushing his shoulders.
Ethan felt the beginning of a laughing fit brewing in his stomach. What the fuck was happening? What was the deal with this guy? He was fucking crazy. Full on laughing, Ethan looked at Avery, who was now removing his hiking boots and dusty socks at a rapid pace.
“It doesn’t matter if you go first, man.” Ethan shook his head but began to remove his own clothes as well. Even though he’d stripped in front of guys before at school and in front of Matty when they went swimming at the gravel pit, he, for the first time in his life, felt self-conscious.
Avery, who’d gotten a head start, had removed his shorts and was down to his gray briefs. The muscles of his thighs were just like the rest of his body. Long, lean, and delectably golden. Ethan couldn’t help moving his gaze along the firmness of Avery’s defined thighs and down to a few wayward freckles just above his knees. He watched as Avery grabbed the waistband of his briefs with his thumbs and index fingers before he pulled them down and stood naked in front of Ethan.
Swallowing back the pool of saliva building in his mouth, Ethan removed the rest of his clothes while he tried his best to not ogle Avery. He really did try his best, but then again, he was just a nineteen-year-old guy whose sexual experience was limited to a few rushed locker room hook-ups with Jimmy Harrow or some nameless stranger from an app. There was no doubt that Avery was the hottest guy he’d ever seen. The guys on Pornhub had nothing on him.Nothing.
Avery’s flaccid cock rested against his right thigh, a nest of groomed, golden hair surrounding it. He was not overly thick like the bulky jocks in the videos who always seemed to have an anaconda swinging between their thighs. Somehow, he reminded Ethan of the Greek statues they’d seen pictures of in school in Mr. Pierce’s history class. He couldn’t recall exactly what their history teacher had called the young men, all of them naked. Some of them were warriors, stretching swords out in front of their lean torsos. Ethan had always wondered why they were naked. Who in their right mind would go fighting without any clothes on? He kept searching for the word. Something withA… He couldn’t remember.
“Ready?” Avery smiled at him, and he was pulled from his lust-induced daze. Then, without another word, Avery ran into the still blue water, screaming at the top of his lungs like some primal being from another time and place. His firm ass cheeks stood out like two milky-white globes against the glowing skin of his rippling back muscles. Two sexy dimples at the base of Avery’s spine were winking tauntingly at Ethan, as he remained frozen on the bank, mesmerized by the image in front of him.
Adonis.The word slammed into him like a freight train, hitting him in his gut like the single greatest revelation of his life.Adonis.That was what Mr. Pierce had called the stunning god-like creatures in the photos of his history book.
Ethan couldn’t pull his eyes away from Avery as he finally disappeared under the surface before emerging again a few seconds later, shaking water from his long, blond hair. Drops of water cascaded down his chest and wayward sprays got caught by the sun, glistening like tiny rainbows in the air.
“C’mon man, it’s fucking amazing!” he yelled back at Ethan, who remained stunned on the bank. “Get in here!” he grinned.
Fuck it!Ethan thought to himself as he quickly removed the rest of his clothes, throwing them next to his backpack on the ground.Fuck it.Then he took off, out into the cool blue water, green eyes fixed on the beautiful male figure in front of him.
CHAPTER NINE
Matty – Then
“THANK YOU, MA’AM.”Matty pocketed the ticket and slung his old duffel bag over his shoulder as he headed for the Greyhounds. San Diego, Washington, Austin. There it was. Saco, Maine. His ride outta Dodge.
Useless piece of shit.Those were his father’s departing words before Matty had hit him twice over the head with his old Little League baseball bat. The first time the bat connected with his father’s skull was when his old man had been about to lunge at him, angry spittle hitting Matty in the face. The second time was when this giant of a man had dropped to his knees on the kitchen floor, blood trailing down his forehead, a stupefied look in his eyes. Yeah, his old man sure didn’t see that coming. Well, better safe than sorry, right? Better safe than sorry.
Matty had never understood those chicks in the horror movies who would just hit the bad guy once and then run out into the woods in their skimpy shorts screaming their fucking heads off. Tits bouncing everywhere. Everyone knew that you always hit twice. He and Ethan had always laughed their asses off at the dumb chicks. They’d at least had that in common. Matty had always wanted to fuck the hot blondes whereas Ethan had his eyes set on the buff jock in the tight tank top named Chad or Chuck or some shit like that. It didn’t matter. Chad or Chuck or Chip always ended up dying anyway, often with their pants around their ankles while they were going at it with one of the blondes.
Matty had dumped his father’s truck in a deserted parking lot in an industrial area in Waco and then walked the five miles or so to the bus station. He didn’t have much to carry. Only a few changes of clothes, his pocketknife that Ethan had given him for his thirteenth birthday, and the photo from their first Halloween together. Mrs. Bishop had taken the picture right before they’d gone trick or treating. Man, had they felt like big-ass boys. Out on their own after dark.
The photo had been folded and unfolded numerous times and there was a deep crease down the middle. But you could still make out that Matty had been Spiderman and that Ethan had been a cowboy. Man, he’d already loved spiders back then. No matter how many times you would destroy their web—not that he ever did; no, that had been Miley Carson, that sick fucker—they would always start over again and rebuild it. Stubborn little fuckers. You could learn a lot from bugs if you just got your head outta your ass and took a close look at them. Pests, people would call them. But to Matty they were fucking heroes. Bugs would still be here long after humans were gone, that’s for sure.
If there was one good thing about being the son of a policeman, it was that you knew what to do when you wanted to fly under the radar. As soon as he’d jumped in the truck, Matty knew that the clock was ticking and that he needed to get rid of it asap. He dumped it as soon as he got to Waco where he also cleared out his bank account. All the afternoons and weekends working at the hardware store had amounted to quite a bit of cash. Enough to get him to Maine and get settled. He’d forged his mother’s signature when he took out the account. He was only fourteen then. One year ago. Was it only a year ago?
A sinking feeling settled in Matty’s stomach. They were supposed to go together. He and Ethan. After graduation. They had it all mapped out and planned. All the places they would experience together before they’d end up in Maine. Ethan would save for a return ticket. Matty didn’t need one. But he couldn’t wait no more.
