Chapter 5

With Lily gone, John felt like a wire with the insulation removed. Every touch, every glance between him and Frank created a spark that jumped the gap that Lily had left. The sizzle in the air was unlike anything he'd ever experienced with anyone before.

"Thank you for staying," Frank said into the silent tension as he drove them home from the airport.

John didn't trust himself to speak and just nodded. Testing the sensation, John kept reaching over to touch Frank's arm. Zap

At the next stop light, Frank turned and put his hand behind John's head to pull their lips together. John thought his hair was going to stand up as the rough skin around their lips touched. His heart was pounding in his chest as his hands gripped Frank's shirt to hold them close. Then a horn sounded behind them when they missed the light change.

"Fuck," Frank muttered as he accelerated with a loud scratch.

John panted. Soon. He needed to taste his skin, to swallow his seed. He craved it like a drug. His hard cock was caught in his underwear and he had to adjust it to get comfortable.

"Having trouble?" Frank asked with a sly grin.

"Not for long." His voice sounded rough to his own ears.

They got John's bags from the trunk and walked inside with hurried steps. Frank killed the alarm, then locked the door and set it again for the night. His eyes sparkled as he led them to the lift to the second floor bedroom.

"Are you feelin' it?" Frank asked.

"Fuck," John groaned. "I've gotta have you."

They dropped the bags after arriving and began to strip quickly, eyeing each other as their skin was exposed. John dropped his boxer-briefs and stepped close to speed Frank up, pushing at his undershirt and forcing his arms up. There was the scent, that amazing, addictive smell that only Frank seemed to possess.

"I want to fuck your mouth," Frank growled as he pulled John close.

John got Frank's underwear down far enough to fall the rest of the way and clutched his hard shaft in his hand. "Get on the bed."

Pushing Frank backwards towards the bed, John let him lay down, then climbed in after him, pushing his legs apart to get complete access. Gripping the shaft in his hands, John took the slippery head between his lips. Frank flexed his hips as he held John's face loosely between his hands.

"You want this, don't you," Frank murmured. John's only response was to suck harder and twist his hands around the shaft as Frank set the rhythm with his hips.

John felt the hot cock on his tongue, allowing Frank to push further than he was comfortable with to keep that humming pleasure in Frank's voice.

"I want this," Frank continued. "I want to give you this. Oh, fuck, I love your mouth. Eat me. Eat me!"

The slick precum filled John's mouth as Frank held his head still and fucked his lips rapidly. Being used like this made him nervous, but only because he was astonished by how thrilling it felt. Letting spit and precum drip out of his mouth, John twisted his hands around the slick shaft and massaged his balls.

"Now," Frank warned. "It's so good..." The long groan announced the flood that that filled his mouth. The angle was perfect and John felt the pulses in the back of his throat, swallowing the bitter seed to satisfy the hunger he'd felt for hours. Frank slowed, then stopped. John took over keeping the motion going slower and slower as Frank relaxed completely against the sheets.

He released Frank's head with a wet pop. The flavor still on his tongue, John crawled up to kiss Frank's lips, his own body demanding its reward. The kisses were rough as their fingers pinched and pulled to keep their bodies together. John pushed his shaft against Frank's wet mess, his soft shaft and balls giving him a place to rub his aching erection against. After a few strokes, John whimpered in frustration.

"Wait," Frank whispered as he pulled John between his legs. "Try it like this."

Rubbing in the slick gap between his balls and thigh, John kept kissing as he panted his way towards release. "I think this'll work. So good."

"Cum on my stomach," Frank begged as he moved with John to stimulate him better. "This is so fucking hot."

John kept the sensitive underside of his shaft pushing into Frank's sparse hair. The slick remainder of precum and spit allowing him to slide with a coarse friction. Pushing his face into Frank's neck, he kissed and licked to get the wonderful scent in his nose.

"Bite me," Frank begged. "I want to feel your teeth on me." When John did as he asked, Frank pushed harder and groaned.

That was all John could take. When the orgasm started he pointed his toes and gripped the sheets in his fists, biting down on the cords between Frank's neck and shoulder. The hot mess between them grew in stages. The sweat that already made them slippery was joined by a pulsing rush from John's cock.

"Oh," Frank gasped as he opened himself to mouth and mess, pain and pleasure. He pulled at John's back, holding close with trembling arms until John was spent.

"I had no idea," John whispered in wonder. "That was so good. I never knew it could be so good."

Frank rubbed his back as he panted. "I wonder if we could do that at the same time."

John chuckled as Frank's cock stirred against his own. "I need to get a drink and recover a bit, but I wouldn't mind trying."

Rolling off his friend to cool down, John lay on his back and continued to laugh quietly. Frank rolled to face him and raised up on one elbow. "What's so funny?"

"This. You. Me." He looked over at the wet hair hanging over Frank's brow and smiled. "If someone had told me last month that I'd be in bed with a guy, his cum in my mouth, my cum on his belly..." He shook his head. "Insanity."

"Maybe," Frank admitted. "Maybe, but I think I'm done with doing the same old things. I haven't felt this alive in years. It's so different with you."

"So you're not going to get tired of this and blow Lily and I off in a month?" The question was asked lightly, but John was seriously worried about it happening, especially after hearing horror stories from Sammy.

Frank's expression turned serious. "You're really worried about that?"

John gave him a half smile a shrugged. "You do have a certain reputation."

"I know this probably sounds conceited as fuck, but I haven't asked a girl out since college. I'm a workaholic, game playing, musician. And I suck at relationships because I've never had to work at one. But I want this. I want you. And damned if I don't want Lily as well, but don't tell her that. I don't want to scare her off."

"Greedy fuck," John teased as he ran his fingertips across his muscled chest. "I know what you mean, though."

"I'm sorry I got jealous of Sammy. It's not fair to ask you to hide what we have and still expect you to stay alone." Frank looked at the sheets. "I mean, if you still wanted to date her..."

"Dude, shut the fuck up." The irritation he felt came out the wrong way. "I may not know what I'm doing, but I couldn't hurt you like that again on purpose." Frank still had a hurt expression. "Besides, Lily is better in the sack than anyone I've ever been with."

Frank raised a single eyebrow and collected some of the cum still on his stomach and wiped it on John's chest with his finger. The shape he drew was a question mark.

John laughed. "Okay, any woman I've ever been with."

"Let's get cleaned up and unpack you again. I want to show you my game setup down stairs before bed."

Frank seemed almost manic in his attempts to play and deflect attention from the fact he was going to lay off his employees in the morning. The men sat around in their underwear, drinking beer and playing video games until midnight when Frank seemed to run out of steam. It happened all at once, like a balloon zooming around the room that suddenly ran out of air.

"You okay?" John asked, hoping Frank would open up again.

"As well as I can be," he said and finished off the beer. "Let's see if we can get to sleep. I've got Roger meeting me in the office tomorrow at seven."

"Want me to come?"

Frank stood up and collected the bottles they'd drunk. "Yeah," he whispered.

"Then I will." He stood next to Frank and took some of the bottles to carry them to the recycle bin in the kitchen together.

Frank was quiet as they rode up the lift, so John took his hand to lead him to bed. The men climbed up from the bottom and came together on the pillows, John pulling him close to hug him from behind.

"Thanks for staying," Frank said. "and forgiving me."

John took a deep breath from the base of his neck, the short hair tickled his nose as he drew his scent in. "I'm with you."

John was cold when he woke alone in the bed. Frank was sitting at his computer in his home office. Glancing at the bedside clock told him it was almost five. Stretching and yawning, John sat up then padded over to the bathroom on bare feet.

After a long pee, he turned on the shower, cranking the heat up to make steam in the little grotto. He took off his underwear while the water warmed and pulled on his shaft. Thinking of Frank's hot mouth made it stir and stand on its own, which gave him something to chuckle about as he walked into the warm shower.

He washed his hair in the waterfall made by the sculpture in the center of the shower. He was still rinsing the soap out of his hair when Frank slipped his arms around from behind and pressed his erect shaft between his cheeks.

"Guess who," Frank growled in his ear while he rubbed his hands up and down John's chest and stomach.

Pushing back a little, John finished rinsing, then turned in his arms for a good morning kiss. Their shafts batted at each other as their lips met. "Good morning."

"You missed a spot." Frank's fingers massaged his scalp to let the water rinse away the last of the soap.

"Doin' okay this mornin'?"

"It's gonna be a long day, but it's starting off pretty good." Frank's eyes searched John's face, lingering over his eyes and mouth. "You're a good looking man."

"Says the guy who eats my cum." John laughed, but the compliment made him a little uncomfortable. He'd always considered himself average at best.

"No, I'm serious. Some guys are objectively good looking but they've never done anything for me. When I look at you I get ... hungry. I don't know. It's just so weird."

John blushed and nodded. "I know what you mean. You really are good looking, objectively and otherwise, and you make my pulse pound."

"You need to shave," Frank said, running his palms across John's face. "Let me get my razor and soap."

"Do we have time for that?"

"It won't take that long," Frank said.

"Yeah, the shaving itself won't, but what it does to me will..." John gave him a significant look. "Today's gonna be tough enough on you. Let's get on with it and I'll show you what a massage therapist I dated taught me about stress relief tonight."

"Promise?" Frank gave him a half-smile.

Nodding, John said, "Promise."

The tension starting showing after they got out of the shower and got ready for the day. Frank got quiet as they shaved, then dressed together. The manic evening gave way to a depressed mood by the time they were ready to drive the short distance to his office.

"I'm with you," John said as Frank locked the door behind them.

"It helps," Frank sighed as they walked to his car.

Lambert Consulting was in a light industrial park with other engineering companies. Most were in the computer field, but there were some mechanical and electrical engineering firms, as well as one architect and a freelance civil engineer according to the sign. Frank pulled in to find Roger leaning against his truck.

"Right on time," he said as they both got out of the car. "John, good to see you again."

"I'm just here for moral support," John said, answering the question he saw in Roger's face. "Frank told Lily and I what was up."

"Let's go over the packets before everyone gets here," Roger told Frank with a remorseful expression on his face.

The office space opened in a simple lobby with comfortable couches and chairs. There was a door Behind a small reception desk that led into a meeting room surrounded by small individual offices. Frank continued past the large table that dominated the room into a slightly larger office at the opposite end of the room.

His office decor was similar to his home, with stainless steel, exposed brick and glass shelving. The large desk was a sheet of opaque glass set on steel legs with metal cable running between the legs to provide support. Behind his desk was a chrome and white cabinet with what appeared to be an assortment of acrylic awards of some kind lining the top.

While Frank and Roger went through the stack of layoff packets, John studied the pictures and artwork on the walls. There were pictures of Frank and Emma, Frank and his mother, but not a single photo of his father. He had framed his diploma and various news articles featuring his business success, but nothing more personal.

Other employees began arriving and heading into the small offices around the meeting room. He smiled and nodded at each one, ignoring the question in their eyes about who he was or what might be going on in Frank's office.

John stepped out to examine the whiteboards positioned around the room. Like most software firms, the boards had conceptual diagrams, notes from meetings, bug descriptions, task lists. It made his mind itch seeing Frank's attempts at project management outlined on the boards. There was a large calendar that took up a whole section of the wall with features or code names written on it. But he could see the ghosts of where they'd been erased from earlier weeks or months.

"You new here?" John jumped when the young man spoke. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Raj."

"John," he said and shook the hand Raj had extended to him.

"So what's your story?" he asked, obviously sizing him up like a new employee.