Belovéd - 34. Chapter 34

My Belovèd is mine, and I am his.
Song of Songs 2:16

 

From the back seat of the Camaro, Kevin Stoltz's eyes lingered Cam MacKenzie's face in profile. Tears ran down Cam's cheeks as the two of them, along with Carl Emrick riding shotgun, and little Casey, asleep in his car seat, pulled away from what had been a very happy home in San Rafael for them all. The great relationships, the joy of their extended family, somehow seemed to be slipping away. Cam was obviously already worrying about Catherine.

Reaching forward from the back seat, Kevin gently put his hand on Cam's neck, giving the boy's head a little shake as the latter steered the car and trailer down the familiar street for the last time for awhile.

"Mom's gonna be all right, buddy," Kevin said, certain that Cam was thinking about leaving his mother alone in the big house. "You know that Ian and Mary Carson and Rosa and Yolanda and all the guys are going to take good care of her," he added. "She won't be alone."

"Yeah," Cam said, knowing what Kevin said was true.

Carl reached down to a box of Kleenex at his feet, grabbed a couple of tissues, and handed them silently to Cam, who wiped his face and then struggled to put on a smile.

"Thanks," Cam told Carl, glancing over at him. "Uh, are you and Andy gonna be okay?" Andy Helder and Carl had become really close since the trip to New Orleans in the late spring with St. Andrew's youth group, and now they'd be four hundred miles apart.

"Have to be," Carl said philosophically. "He's gonna come down to Malibu with Ian to visit as often as he can after the three of us get settled. Actually, the four of us, I mean," he said, glancing back at Casey.

Cam nodded. "Are you guys gonna date other people while you're separated?"

"Not right now," Carl said. "We think...well, we think what we have with each other now is too good to throw away, and that could happen if we date." Carl dropped his eyes. "We love each other."

"Cool," Cam said.

"If Andy and I hang in with each other this year," Carl added, "one of us is going to transfer schools so we can be together."

"That sounds good," Cam said. "Make him come down to L.A. and live with us." He grinned. "Kevin and I don't mind all the noise you two make when you have sex, do we, Kev?" Cam adjusted his rear view mirror a little so he could see his partner's face in the back seat.

Kevin smirked. "Not at all. I just wish Cam and I knew all the sex techniques you and Andy must use to get that kind of reaction from each other. F.Y.I., we could hear you all the way upstairs from the poolhouse when you were doing the deed. You should film yourselves and publish a sex manual."

"Bullshit!" Carl said, blushing a little. "All the guys know you two are the real masters when it comes to novel sex techniques. By the way, do you drug Casey so he doesn't wake up and cry when you go at it?"

"No drugs are necessary," Kevin said. "Casey understands that his daddies have needs, and he sleeps right through our modest little whimpers. It's not like the roars of pleasure and pain we used to hear from the poolhouse. 'Beat my ass with your belt again, Andy!'" Kevin mimicked Carl's voice perfectly.

Cam and Carl broke up, and Carl gave up on that particular topic, knowing he could never win with those two.

Cam fired up the radio, and they listened to tunes and talked on their way down toward the Big Sur. When they had planned the trip, they decided to give themselves an easy first day's travel and stay at Alex's cabin. They wanted to get an early start the next day.

Casey woke up, and needed to be changed just as they exited the Golden Gate Bridge going south. Kevin was so adept at changing diapers on the fly that Cam didn't even have to find a place to pull the car over. The diaper change was aromatic, though, and Carl and Cam opened their windows in self-defense. Once the soiled diaper was encased in a plastic bag and a fresh diaper in place, Kevin fed the little boy, talking and crooning to him. Casey dozed off after Kevin burped him, and Kevin put him back in his infant car seat.

The hours passed quickly, and the boys started to get hungry. Cam suggested that they stop at a Taco Bell in Seaside, the town where Carl and his brother Dan used to live before Carl was molested by his father.

"Not this Taco Bell!" Carl protested. "The last time I ate there, tacos shot out of my ass like fire trucks the next day."

Cam and Kevin roared, and they stopped instead at a Mickey D's to eat.

Kevin, with Casey, staked out a booth while Cam and Carl waited in one of the lines to get food for all of them. Kevin watched Carl as the latter scoped out one of the cashiers, a tall, muscular blond kid with straight hair down to his shoulders. The boy looked like a surfer. When Cam and Carl reached the front of the line, Kevin saw Carl and the boy bump fists. They apparently knew each other. Carl paid for all the food, just to keep things simple.

When Cam and Carl came back to the table, they sat down, removed their caps, and Cam said a quiet grace. Then they pitched in.

"Do you know the blond kid behind the counter?" Kevin asked Carl.

"He was on Seaside High's football team when I lived here," Carl said.

Kevin grinned. "You seemed to like what you saw."

"Yep," Carl said without a trace of embarrassment. "The guy's a stud. I don't s'pose you looked away."

"I only have eyes for Cam."

The three of them laughed.

After they ate and fed Casey again, Cam and Kevin got the child and his car seat strapped on to the back of the passenger seat again, and Kevin took over driving. Cam let Carl continue to sit in the death seat, and got into the back with Casey. Having been given a bottle in the restaurant, the little boy fell asleep quickly as Cam stretched out as much as a six footer could across the back seat of a Camaro. Before too many miles, Cam soon joined Casey in dreamland.

Carl called Andy Helder on his cell at that point, and the two of them talked quietly for awhile about nothing in particular. The week before the boys left for L.A., Ian Carson had changed Carl's cell phone plan so that the boy had unlimited calling, including unlimited long distance. He told Carl that it was so Carl could call him and Mary and Catherine as often as he wanted. But Ian knew that Andy Helder was the one Carl would really be wanting to talk to. Carl understood well the kindness of his foster father. The boy felt Andy's absence in his gut each time they hung up from a call.

Kevin twirled the dial on the radio until he found a station he liked after Carl was off the phone. He set the volume lower than normal so Cam and Casey could sleep, and he and Carl rode along without talking as the scenery became more rustic.

"Can I ask you something, Kev?" Carl finally said.

"Maybe." He smiled and gave Carl a quick glance before returning his eyes to the road.

"Uh, this might sound like a stupid question, but how did you and Cam know when it was the right time to make a long term commitment to each other?"

Kevin feigned outrage. "You want me to WHAT? Talk about my sex life with Cam? I'm stunned!" He kept his voice down so as not to awaken the baby.

"Forget it," Carl said.

"I'm just screwin' with ya, bro. I really don't know how to answer your question," Kevin said after a long moment, staring out at the road. "I've never thought about it."

"I know you don't like to talk about your feelings, but give it a try," Carl goaded his friend. "I have a reason for asking."

"And that would be...?"

"Andy and I..." Carl stopped talking.

"You've only known Andy for a couple of months, Carl. Every relationship has to start somewhere, but you're just getting to know each other."

"I know. But I've never felt this way about anyone before. I'd just like to know when you knew Cam was 'the one.'"

"When we were babies in the same playpen," Kevin said facetiously. "I knew even then he'd be a good lay."

"Asshole!" Stony-faced, Carl turned away in annoyance and folded his arms across his chest.

"I'm sorry, dude," Kevin said apologetically.

"Well, answer the fucking question, then."

Kevin pressed his lips together, brow wrinkled. "I'll try," he said. "I didn't know Cam was 'the one' because suddenly one day there was a flash of light that revealed the truth. It was a process. I began to understand my real feelings for him even before puberty, when I gradually realized that no day was a good day unless I saw him and spent some time with him, or at least talked to him on the phone. When we were kids, we did sleepovers at each other's house long before either of us was thinking about sex, and it was like heaven to be close to him when we slept in the same bed. I just really liked it. The way he looked, his face, his mind, his smart mouth, his body, his loyalty, everything was and is perfect from my perspective, and things between us just kept getting better. That's true even now.

"But maybe the decisive thing that made me know that he was the one was how Cam stuck by me through Heather's pregnancy and getting beat up by her brothers and ending up in the hospital. I know I would have died if Cam hadn't been by my side. I kid you not. That was all I needed to know, and I was so right. Look at the way he has accepted Casey and cares for him!" Kevin paused. "I'd have to say the love between us was there long before I finally got up the courage to admit to myself and to him that I loved him mentally, physically, spiritually, in every way that it's possible for human beings to love another person. When Cam told me that he felt the same way about me, it blew me away. And that was when sex stopped being just for gratification--it was always great, don't misunderstand me--and became a real testimony to a real relationship."

"Oh," Carl said, and began chewing on that. "But Andy and I started out our process, if that's what we're in, with sex."

"I'm not saying that can't work," Kevin said. "It might take some extra effort, that's all. Cam and I just took a little different path to commitment."

"What about you and Heather, and Cam and Teri? What about your commitment to Cam when you were both dating girls?"

"We were committed to each other even then," Kevin insisted. "We just didn't know it completely. But even when I was having sex with Heather, I was thinking about Cam."

"No lie?"

"No lie. I'm gay. Totally. I can tell you that it's always been love between Cam and me. I can't explain it. It just is what it is."

Neither of the boys said anything for a long minute, when out of the silence of the back seat they heard Cam's voice.

"Carl, Kevin loves me because I have a big dick. That's pretty much it."

The three of them started laughing so hard they cried, and they woke Casey up.

An hour or so later they arrived at the cabin, hoping that Mr. Anderson, the caretaker, had done his usual good job of lighting the furnace and stocking enough food for supper and breakfast in the morning before they resumed their trip.

Cam's eyes were glued to Kevin's tight, muscular bubble butt, packed into his 501's, as the boy carried Casey up the stairs to the deck and went inside the cabin. Cam had seen the naked ass of practically every jock at San Rafael High in the locker rooms at one point or another during his time in school, and in his scholarly opinion, none of them compared to Kevin's butt. Sweet!

Cam grinned. He had to own up to himself. The psychologists are right about what guys think about the most. Sex. Sex is on my mind all the damned time. And when it comes to Kevin, the only thing better than the fantasy is the reality. Things will be good tonight--he and Kevin never said no to the other when it came to sex. Cam grinned wider, and followed his partner as the latter carried Casey into their usual bedroom. Kevin put the little boy, still sleeping in his car seat, down on the bed, and Cam set down the single bag that he and Kevin had packed with overnight essentials. That way they didn't have to unload their big bags from the car and trailer at the end of every travel day.

When Kevin turned around, there was Cam right in his face, nose to nose.

" 'Sup?" Kevin demanded, trying not to laugh.

Saying nothing, Cam put his arms around his partner's butt and pulled him close. He kissed Kevin on the lips, giving him a little tongue in the process, swaying slightly as he pressed his crotch against Kevin's. They each started to get hard.

Kevin initiated a second kiss, and they frenched one another gently but thoroughly. When they backed off, Kevin was smiling.

"How was I lucky enough to find a horndog like you?" Kevin asked.

"It was luck. I'm perfect for you."

"I wouldn't wanna go that far."

"You should. You know it's true."

"All right," Kevin admitted. "What are we gonna do about it."

"Do about 'it?' We've been doin' 'it' almost every night for many moons. I suggest more of the same."

"You make me crazy!"

"Same here."

"And hard..."

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing," Cam opined, pulling Kevin back into his arms. They stood there cheek to cheek, holding each other.

"I love ya, dude," Kevin said softly into Cam's ear, kissed it, and then rubbed his nose on the peach fuzz on Cam's cheek. "Can't help it."

"Yeah," Cam said, pulling back and kissing Kevin on the lips again, then reaching up to give the boy's crew cut a rub. "I'm gonna go down and get the ice chest, and then let's check out the food situation."

" 'K," Kevin said, feeling that familiar love and lust for Cam in his gut. "I'll bring Casey into the great room so we can hear him if he wakes up."

"Cool."

Carl walked by their bedroom door just as the two guys were letting go of each other, and glanced inside.

"Don't you guys ever take a break?" he bitched, wishing Andy were with him.

"Fuck, no," Kevin said. "Life's short, and there's not a moment to waste."

"True dat!" Carl admitted.

When they got out there, the great room was warm and felt good, given the cold breeze off the ocean. Cam brought up the ice chest from the car, and put the baby formula and soft drinks out of it into the refrigerator. Then he checked the larder, and there were T-bone steaks, some potatoes, and lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions to make a salad, and milk, along with bacon and eggs for breakfast. Cam washed his hands and got busy preparing the steaks after getting Carl to go light the grill out on the deck. When Carl came back, he washed the potatoes, nuked them in the microwave for a few minutes to give them a head start, and then took them out to grill and put them on it before the meat was cooked. Then he went back and fixed a big bowl of salad while Cam took the steaks out on the deck and sat down to wait for the grill to hit the optimum temperature.

Casey woke up, and taking him out of his carrier, Kevin held the child's hands and walked the boy around the great room, steering him away from the furniture's sharp edges when necessary. The boy loved it, and babbled a lot of verbal encouragement to his dad that made absolutely no sense. When Casey wore out, Kevin put him on the coffee table in front of the couch, sat down in front of him and played patty cake, moving the boy's arms and legs around. That got old pretty fast, and Kevin put the baby in his lap, stroking his head and kissing the fine black hair on it until the child conked out before long.

"Carl, do me a favor, will ya?" Kevin asked in a whisper, looking over at his friend sitting at the other end of the couch.

"What?"

"Go down to the trailer and get Casey's crib out. It should be right in reach when you open the door."

"Okay."

Carl came back in with the crib, unfolded it, and Kevin put Casey down in it gently as the baby continued to sleep.

"Set?" Carl asked Cam, who walked in from the deck just then, carrying the steaks and baked potatoes on a platter to the table in the dining area.

"Yeah. Just grab some glasses, plates, napkins, and some silverware. I'll get the salad and the drinks."

A few minutes later, and the three boys were sitting down to a tasty meal after Cam offered grace.

"Thanks guys," Kevin said as he cut and speared his first piece of steak and practically inhaled it. "Hmmm. You done good."

"Thanks. You guys excited about this move?" Cam asked as they all chewed away on the food.

"A few butterflies, but yeah, I'm excited," Carl said. "It's gonna be good to be on our own for a change."

Kevin took a swallow of milk, and nodded. "But you're not gonna be on your own," he told Carl. "Ian gave Cam and me strict instructions about what you're allowed to do and what you're not."

Cam grinned and shoveled some salad into his mouth, saying nothing at first.

"You're so full a' shit it's comin' out your ears," Carl finally told his tormentor. "But why don't you flap your gums and make up some details about these 'strict instructions?'"

"Now, why do you want to give me attitude?" Kevin said in a patronizing tone of voice. "Ian knew this would happen, didn't he, Cam?"

"Yep," Cam said, swallowing some food. "I guess he did."

Carl knew there wasn't a word of truth in what these guys were saying, but it would be interesting, he thought, to find out what lies they would make up.

"Well, do fill me in," he said. "You'll have to excuse my skepticism, but I don't think Ian would trust you two sex fiends to supervise me."

"You just hurt my feelings," Kevin said. "But I won't let that keep me from my responsibilities. It's funny you should mention sex, though."

"Really!!?" Carl said.

"Yeah," Kevin said. "One of our jobs is to make sure that you don't jack off until you and Andy are together again."

Carl's face reddened. "And that's because...?"

"Ian thinks you should man up to being horny all the time, and not give into your base desires," Kevin said.

"I'll abstain if you will," Carl said.

"It's different for us," Cam interjected dismissively. "We're almost married."

"Jeez, why are you guys so interested in my sex life?"

"We're not. We just want you to be the best person you can be, that's all," Kevin said, forking the last piece of his steak and popping it into his mouth.

"Go fuck yourselves," Carl said, laughing.

"Maybe later," Cam said as they all laughed.

They sat around a few more minutes just talking, and then cleaned up the dining area and the kitchen. Cam rinsed off the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, and started up the machine.

They spent a few minutes keeping Casey occupied so he'd sleep most of the night, and then Kevin went down to the Camaro and got the Wii setup out of the trunk of the car. He hooked it up to Alex's big flat screen TV with no problem, and the three boys bowled and played golf first. Cam had the touch that night, and beat Kevin and Carl handily at every game they tried.

When they all started to yawn, they decided to get to bed.

"Are we gonna run in the morning?" Kevin asked.

"We should," Cam said.

"What about Casey?" Carl asked.

"He's stubborn. He won't run," Kevin cracked.

"One of us can run first, and then can watch Casey. I'll run first," Cam said, "and then you guys can run."

Carl and Cam bumped fists, and they stood up to head for their bedrooms. Carl would be sleeping in the master bedroom with his own bathroom..

"'Night, bud," Kevin said to Carl. He surprised everybody, including himself, when you gave Carl a hug, and kissed him on the cheek. "Sleep tight."

"You, too," Carl said. "What was that for?"

"For awhile," Kevin said.

Cam knew Kevin was feeling sympathy for Carl because the boy wasn't with Andy, and wouldn't be for quite some time.

Cam went over to the thermostat on the wall and turned it down a couple of degrees, and then carefully picked up Casey, who was sleeping by then, from his crib. "Bring the crib into the bedroom, will ya?" he asked Kevin.

Kevin nodded, folded the crib up, and carried it into their bedroom. Opening it back up, he took Casey from Cam, checked the child's diaper, and finding it dry, put the little boy down in the crib gently and carefully covered him with a baby blanket. Bending down again, Kevin kissed the baby's head.

When he stood up and turned around, Cam was right there. Reaching down, he pulled Kevin's T-shirt out of his Levi's, and pulled it over the boy's head, leaving his chest exposed. Bending his head, he licked Kevin's nipples and then kissed them.

"What's with you tonight?" Kevin asked facetiously, knowing full well what was on Cam's mind.

"You're such a stud!" Cam said. "Do I really need to spell that out for ya?"

Kevin grinned without answering, and they went to the bathroom across the hall to clean their teeth and empty their bladders. Once back in their room, they stripped down and slid into bed. Before starting anything with his partner, Cam reached over to the bedside table and picked up his cell phone.

"Mom," he told voice recognition, and heard the phone select and dial a number.

"Hello," he heard Catherine say.

"Hi, Mom," Cam said. "We made it to the cabin. I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No," Catherine said. "Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering. I hope you had a decent supper."

"The basics," Cam said. "Steak, potatoes, salad." He glanced over at his partner. "Carl and I had to do everything, of course. Kevin didn't help at all."

"Give me that!" Kevin said, snatching the phone out of Cam's hand. "Hi, Mommy. How did a nice woman like you raise such a perfidious rat like Cam?"

Catherine laughed. "I'm proud of you for your language skills, Kevin. Your physics reports are going to be positively eloquent when you use that good English. And colorful, too!"

"All thanks to you and the big words you use all the time," Kevin said, grinning. "I'm trying to teach Cam, but it's such a daunting job. He's indolent!"

Cam gasped indignantly, and snatched the phone back from his partner.

"You know better than to listen to Kevin," he told his mother. The best vocabulary in the world won't cure a sick mind like his!"

"I get it," Catherine said, laughing. "How's Casey?"

"He's handling the trip well so far," Cam said, glancing over at the crib. "He's a good boy."

"Good," Catherine said. "I love all you boys. Tell Carl I'm thinking about him."

"I will, Mom. We'll talk to you tomorrow night."

"Goodnight, sweetheart," Catherine said.

"'Night, Mom. Love ya!"

Cam snapped the phone shut and slid down under the sheets. He turned on his side toward Kevin, but rather than starting anything overt leading up to sex right away, he just pulled his partner up against his body, their heads now on the same pillow facing each other. Cam ran his free hand up and down Kevin's beautiful, sculpted back, lightly stroking the unblemished skin of it. Nose to nose, they each looked deeply into the other's eyes without moving, the sweetness of their breath commingling..

They were perfectly still for long moments, and then Kevin cleared his throat.

"When you and I hold each other," he told Cam quietly, "I'm holding the best part of myself. I know that. Without a doubt."

Cam's face and body went totally relaxed as he looked into Kevin's eyes.

"You know I'm not very good at sweet talk," Kevin continued. "But sometimes you really do take my breath away." He smiled. "In a good way."

Cam was silent.

"You're a gift," Kevin added. "To me. To Casey. Pretty much to everybody who knows you."

"What brought this on?" Cam asked, surprised.

"I dunno. Sometimes my good luck just hits me. I love you so much, man."

They kissed gently and just lay there looking at each other as they drifted off, not getting around to having sex even though they were both horny.

Casey woke them up about 4 a.m., though, wanting a bottle. Kevin got up, naked, padded into the kitchen, pulled some mother's milk out of the refrigerator (he had switched from formula), heated it, and came back to the bedroom with the bottle. Scooping Casey up out of his crib, he sat down on the side of the bed, holding the boy and feeding him.

The care with which Kevin fed Casey reflected the love he felt for the child. Kevin lowered his face and kissed the baby's head after the child had drunk his fill. Putting a hand towel on his shoulder, he held the little boy upright against his shoulder and rubbed and patted his back until Casey burped, and then dropped off to sleep immediately. Kevin held him a few minutes longer, rocking him gently before putting him back in his crib

Cam had studied his partner's profile as he held Casey on his lap. Kevin's face had its usual incipient beard, needing a morning shave badly already. The boy's developed pecs and chest rose and fell rhythmically as he breathed, the baby pressed against his corrugated eight-pac abs, his muscular butt solid on the edge of the bed and his sturdy legs steady down to the floor. The long lines of that beautiful, muscular back which Cam had rubbed earlier completed what could only be described as an outstanding physique. Cam raised his head off the pillow for a moment to look between his partner's legs at the familiar, ample dick hanging there, and he wanted to put it through its paces. Sooner rather than later.

Kevin covered Casey with a light blanket, and came around the bed and climbed back in with Cam. Throwing back the sheet, Cam rolled over and straddled Kevin at the waist. He bent down, his face hovering over his partner's, first looking into his eyes, and then kissing him thoroughly for a long moment. Moving deliberately down the beautiful body under him, Cam took Kevin's nipples in his mouth one at a time, sucking on them and grazing them with his teeth.

"You're trying to take advantage of me!" Kevin whispered to him, grinning, and Cam could feel his partner's penis spring to life in the crease of his own ass.

"You don't know that beyond a reasonable doubt yet!" Cam responded, immediately sliding his butt down on to Kevin's legs, bending down and taking Kevin's dick in his mouth. He moved his head slowly down the shaft, taking it all and letting Kevin's now-stiff cock travel down his throat. By dint of much practice, there was no gagging as he swallowed it down. Then he pulled off slowly until the boy's cockhead was back in his mouth, tonguing the head of it briskly as Kevin groaned with pleasure. Then Cam took him all the way down his throat again as Kevin exclaimed in pleasure, "Oh, fuck! That feels good, man!"

Cam continued to bob slowly up and down on Kevin's big dick as a drop or two of sweet pre-cum was squeezed out into Cam's mouth. By this time Cam was hard. Kevin took Cam's dick in his hand and gave it a stroke, and then gently rubbed his thumb on the head of it, making Cam take his turn groaning with pleasure.

Kevin flipped his partner on to his back, lifting and pushing Cam's legs back, and began licking the boy's balls. They were too big to take both of them in his mouth at once, but he gently sucked one, and then the other, into his mouth, holding each of them there for a minute. Releasing them, he licked the perineum thoroughly, continuing on down to put his tongue in the crease of Cam's ass. Using his hands to spread the muscular globes of Cam's butt, he first circled the boy's sphincter with his tongue, and eventually plunged inside. Cam smelled earthy and clean down there. Kevin continued pushing his tongue home as Cam groaned with pleasure. Kevin finally lay down on the boy momentarily, kissing him deeply and then grabbing the lube off the bedside table where Cam had left it in reach when they'd gone to bed. Pulling Cam's legs up again, he lubed his partner's rectum.

"Do me," Cam instructed in anticipation, and Kevin put his hard dick against Cam's hole, pushed inside, and immediately stopped to let Cam adjust. Cam's grimace quickly disappeared, and he held his own legs back, staring into Kevin's eyes. "Do me," he told his partner again.

Kevin buried himself inside his partner slowly until the latter felt Kevin's pubes against his ass.

"You feel so good inside me," Cam whispered. He smiled. "Sometimes I think I'm a born bottom. But only for you, dude."

Not responding, Kevin began to pump slowly, reveling in Cam's tightness around his penis. Cam involuntarily clutched the bed sheet.

Kevin got into a regular rhythm. "Yeah!" he said, lying down and sliding over Cam's penis and abs as both guys began to sweat despite the cool air in the bedroom. Thrusting deeply with long strokes, Kevin tried to occupy his mind with other thoughts so as to delay his ejaculation. He slowly and deliberately got into what would turn out to be a vigorous and prolonged copulation. He lowered his mouth on to Cam's as they celebrated this union to the max. It was not until many, many minutes later, when he felt Cam's sphincter clench his dick as the boy's cock spewed his load between them, that Kevin himself went over the edge and began to pump his semen into his partner.

Now relaxed, Kevin left his member inside Cam, leaving his body prone on his partner and rubbing his nose on the fine hairs of the boy's cheek.

"Holy shit!" Cam whispered, his eyes closed and his body now at rest. "That was awesome! Thank you."

Kevin kissed his cheek. "Don't be thankin' me," he told his lover softly. "You're the best."

Kevin eventually pulled out and lifted himself off Cam, and grabbing a handful of tissue from a box on the bedside table, he cleaned both of them up a little. Throwing the kleenex to the floor, he nestled down beside his boy, and kissed him again, pulling him to his body.

They held each other silently for a few minutes as Cam quickly slid into his usual post-coital coma, which would soon be followed by sleep. Kevin studied his partner's handsome, chiseled face in the dim light as he breathed in Cam's breath and thought about their relationship, pondering how he could have been lucky enough to find this boy out a whole world full of young men. True, they'd been next door neighbors, but still...

Among the whole host of reasons he loved Cam, there was one at the top of the list. Cam has no anger in him. None. Even though he's a jock and capable of vigorous physical action when so inclined, he's never anger-driven in what he does or says. I can be a real prick when I'm angry, Kevin admitted to himself, but Cam never is.

Kevin wondered idly why that was. It had to be something about the way they were each raised, something about what each of them had experienced in the midst of their birth families during their formative years, with maybe a little heredity thrown into the mix. Despite the trauma of their divorce, Alex and Catherine MacKenzie had somehow laid the foundation for a calm, loving soul in their son. And Kevin was the beneficiary of it. Maybe I have some of my dad's anger in me, Kevin thought.

Cam was fully asleep by then, snoring softly.

Kevin glanced over at Casey in the crib--the baby was still covered and sleeping peacefully--before he reached down, grasped the bed sheet, and covered Cam and himself with the sheet and a light blanket. He kissed Cam's face once again, and soon, snoring softly himself, he was asleep in the arms of the love of his life.

They woke up two hours later, and did it again. Cam did the honors this time.

* * *

Cam was surprised when his eyes popped open early the next morning, given the strenuous, two-fold workout that he and Kevin had enjoyed in bed making love the previous night. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was only 6 a.m. Cam slowly turned his head on the pillow he was sharing with his partner, and looked at Kevin. The boy's chest, a work of art unencumbered at the moment by sheet or blanket despite the chill, was rising and falling regularly as he continued to sleep soundly. Kevin's face, handsome and virile with its usual dark shadow of incipient beard, set off waves of love in Cam's mind and body as he remembered how they had pleasured each other earlier.

Casey was still sleeping soundly, too, and there was no noise yet from Carl's room down the hall.

Moving ever so slowly, Cam eased out of bed and dressed in his jock, running clothes and shoes. Going into the kitchen, he put on a pot of coffee, and left a cryptic note for Carl and Kevin saying, "Running." Cam, by running alone, would enable Carl and Kevin to run together later while he watched Casey, as they'd planned..

Fog and chill greeted him when he stepped out on to the deck, and he went back inside to grab a sweatshirt, and put it on. He took a leak on a tree at the edge of the yard, and after doing his stretches in the driveway, he headed out, not for the beach, but down McCallister Road toward the main highway. Two miles down and two miles back would give him a pretty good run. McCallister Road. He thought about the hundreds of times that he had ridden down that road in the car with Alex and Catherine for a great weekend. The good old days.

Getting into stride, Cam soon began to sweat despite the cold, and then the familiar feeling of endorphins began coursing through his body after the first mile and a half or so, giving him his usual morning high.

It's a good way to start my first day of semi-independence from home and family, he thought to himself as he kicked the pace up a notch. The realization that he and Kevin and Carl would have the opportunity to make their own decisions, independent even of the most benign control exercised by Catherine and Ian and Mary Carson, made him feel exuberant about the challenges of school and life in general which lay ahead.

Then his thoughts shifted to what Kevin's likely reaction would be when they reached Malibu and he saw his Mustang. Alex had told Cam that the car would be hidden under a tarp in the garage. Cam couldn't wait for the cover to be pulled off. Cam knew how much that car had meant to his partner. And yet Kevin had given the vehicle up without a second thought in order to provide Heather Butler money for her first year in college in exchange for his taking custody of Casey. That was integrity, and that was love, Cam thought to himself about Kevin. He smiled when he thought about Kevin and Casey still sleeping peacefully in bed back at the cabin. Waiting for him.

The two border collies, Alice and Samantha popped into his mind. Maybe he could persuade Ian and Mary to bring them down to Malibu at some point and leave them for a few months. By now, where one dog went, the other had to go. They were a matched set, and didn't like to be apart. He wished he were running with them now.

The fog was still thick and eddying around him when Cam reached the highway and circled around on the road to head back. Cam was feeling so good by then that he quickened his pace to a dead run instead of his usual, somewhat slower pace. He body responded well to the demand for extra speed, and legs churning, the gravel passed ever more quickly under his running shoes. Cam wished he had clicked a stop watch because he was pretty sure he had shaved some time off his record for four miles.

Despite the good condition he was in, his chest was heaving when he reached the cabin again and began his cooldown and final stretches so he wouldn't cramp up. He was breathing normally when he finally bounded up the steps to the deck, quietly opened the door, and went inside. All was still silent there. It was chilly inside, so he threw some kindling and a log on the coals in the fireplace, replaced the screen, and walked quietly to his and Kevin's room. Kevin and Casey were sleeping. Stripping off his running clothes and shoes, Cam climbed back into bed with his partner, and moved his sweaty body close to the boy. Cam's hands were cold, though, so he put them between his own legs to warm them before touching his partner with one hand to Kevin's chest. Kevin's eyes opened slowly. He smiled and turned his head and looked at Cam.

"Hey," he whispered. "You run?"

"Yep. Your turn. I'll watch Casey."

Kevin's expression softened, and he pulled Cam's body closer to his own and buried his nose in the hair of the boy's head. "Even your sweat smells good, dude," Kevin said softly.

Cam smiled. "Thanks, I guess. Let me grab a quick shower, and you and Carl can get your run in while I cook breakfast. It'll be ready when you get back."

" 'K. Was it cold down on the beach?"

"I ran down McCallister to the highway and back, not on the beach. It's chilly out, though. Wear a sweatshirt."

Kevin nodded, and stretched his body out to the max in bed, his limbs trembling from tensing his body.

"Last night was great," Cam said softly when his partner relaxed again. "You always make me feel good, and that's an understatement," he added. "Thanks."

Kevin rolled over on top of him and looked down into his face. "It's mutual." Kevin lowered his head and lightly put his lips on Cam's, leaving them there for a long time. The two boys hardened up, but neither of them made a move to do anything about it. Kevin eventually put his feet on the floor and stood, his dick pointing at the ceiling. Pulling on his boxers, he walked down the hall and knocked on Carl's door, then opened it.

"You awake, bro?" he asked.

"No, but I'm 'up,'" Carl said.

Kevin smirked at at the sight of the bulge in the blanket. "I can see that. Sort of. It's so small. Anyway, haul ass, and let's get our run in before we take off," Kevin said before heading back down the hall toward the bathroom.

Carl groaned, giving his tormentor the finger. Sitting up, he got his bearings before heading into the master bath and using the toilet. When he was finished, he splashed some cold water in his face and went back into the bedroom to put on his running clothes. He met Kevin at the front door.

"Cam says it's cold," Kevin said. "You might need a sweat shirt."

Carl turned on his heel, went back to his bedroom, put on a Seaside wrestling sweatshirt, and went back to the front door.

"Where's Cam?" Carl asked.

"He's taking a shower. He already ran so he could watch Casey while we're gone."

"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting we don't have anybody to help us with Casey anymore."

The two guys did their stretches at the bottom of the stairs, and Kevin led the way to the road and headed toward the highway.

"Hey, you're going the wrong way," Carl said, stopping in his tracks.

"Let's run to the highway and back today," Kevin said. "The fog's starting to lift, but it'll be really cold down on the beach yet this morning."

Carl nodded, and they took off up the road. The two of them ran at a moderate pace, unlike Cam, who had run full out that morning.

As they got into stride, Kevin watched Carl out of the corner of his eye. The hunky little jock had faced so many challenges over the past months, and yet had never given up. That Carl was out here running this morning had been a typical response to the personal adversity he had faced. He had always done what he needed to do to make things better. Before he had met Cam and Kevin, he had given into his father's sexual abuse of himself rather than take the chance that his brother Dan would be molested. He had always been a good friend to all the boys in the extended family as their relationships had developed in the MacKenzie household, and Kevin admired him a lot. No, it was more than admiration by now. Kevin loved this boy like the brother he was, and would always try to protect him--because it was Kevin's nature to be a protector. When Carl and Andy Helder had found each other and become lovers, Kevin had been delighted, and hoped that the relationship could endure despite the challenge of distance. He knew that being apart from someone you love wouldn't be easy, and couldn't imagine being away from Cam for any extended period. Kevin resolved anew to help Carl cope any way he could in facing any new challenges in L.A.

When Kevin and Carl got back to the cabin, feeling good, they did their cool-down routine. As they went up the steps to the deck, Kevin patted the Carl's butt and put his arm around the boy and gave him a sideways hug, and the latter looked at his running partner quizzically.

"What's that for?" Carl asked with a little grin.

" 'Cause you're my bro, and I love ya. You've never quit on yourself or on any of us," Kevin said. "And I admire that. A lot."

"Well, thanks." Those words made Carl feel good, especially because Kevin was not in the habit of throwing around gratuitous compliments, and he gave Kevin a big smile.

Cam had already bathed and fed Casey, and had packed up himself and Kevin except for a change of clothes for Kevin after he showered. And breakfast was ready. The three boys ate their bacon and eggs right away, and then Kevin and Carl showered and dressed. Cam put the dishes in the dishwasher, started it up, cleaned the kitchen, and was talking to Casey as he walked the little boy around the great room when Kevin showed up from showering, hair still damp. Casey was talking to Cam in his own language.

"Thanks for doing so much this morning," Kevin told Cam as he joined him.

Cam grinned and picked up Casey and kissed him. "This boy is so smart," he said. "He's almost talking. When he does, he'll be able to give you your marching orders, and you better carry 'em out, Dad."

"I'll be ready," Kevin said, taking the little boy from his partner.

Cam telephoned Mr. Anderson, and told him he could close up the cabin when it was convenient. Carl came into the great room with his overnight bag. He and Cam packed up the car while Kevin watched Casey, and they were ready to go by 8:45. Not bad, Kevin thought, as he got into the driver's seat and started up the Camaro. They pulled away. Cam looked back at the cabin, wondering when they would get back to it again.

Cam sat beside Kevin with a big atlas in his lap. He had planned the next lap of their trip so that Kevin and Carl could see Hearst Castle down the coast. Alex and Catherine had taken him there a few years back, and he thought it would break up their trip a little to stop there. There was no wind, so Cam thought it would be safe to continue down Rt. 1, right on the craggy coastline even though they were pulling a trailer. Kevin kept his speed down and used the transmission to slow them down on downgrades as they traversed some of California's most beautiful vistas of the Pacific Ocean. The sun had burned through the fog, and they stopped at several pulloffs so that traffic could get around them and Cam could take pictures of the huge rocks rearing up out of the ocean just offshore. After the first hour, Cam pulled a motel directory out of the glove compartment and used his cell phone to make reservations in Cambria, just south of San Simeon where Hearst Castle was located. The three of them had decided they could all share one room.

About midmorning Kevin suggested that Carl call Andy back in San Rafael again, and when they stopped at a turnoff and got out of the car, Carl did so. It was warm enough outside to change Casey, and Cam used a picnic table to do that, dumping the dirty diaper in a trash can. Kevin took the baby in his arms as he and Cam walked around, with Cam snapping pictures of the huge rocks rearing up out of the surf before they got ready to leave. Carl and Andy must have had a good conversation, because Carl was all smiles when they all headed headed for the car.

"You drive for awhile," Kevin told Carl, and flipped him the keys to the Camaro. Carl grinned, and slid behind the wheel.

"What did Andy have to say for himself?" Cam inquired from the back seat.

"He's good," Carl said.

"And...?" Cam said.

"We're gonna stay together and tough it out," Carl repeated more or less what he had said the day before.

"We'll help ya," Kevin said. "If we see that you're attracted to anyone, we'll drive him away so you'll stay true to Andy."

"Thanks," Carl said wryly. "I knew I can count on you two."

Driving down the highway, Kevin located a radio station playing some Rufus Wainwright. Carl started moving his head in time to the music.

"Don't change the station," Cam said from the back seat. "Rufus is one of us."

Kevin laughed and took his hand off the radio's selection knob and turned up the music.

They stopped to eat in another hour, and fed Casey. After filling the gas tank, they took off again and a short time later arrived at Hearst Castle, parking in one of the lots at some distance from the residence. The three of them bought tickets for the tour, and caught a shuttle which wound its way up to the Castle. The place was massive, and Carl and Kevin gaped at it when they got off the bus.

"I'm just gonna walk around outside here with Casey," Cam told them. "I've seen everything inside. I'll be quizzing you two on the contents when you get back."

Kevin smirked. "What if you get bored out here?" he asked.

"I'll call you on my cell, and I'll be rejuvenated the minute I hear your voice," Cam said.

"That's a given," Kevin told him, and bending his head down, he kissed Casey.

"Laters," Carl said, and he and Kevin took off to join a group. Showing his ticket to a guard, Cam asked if he could take Casey up to the massive outdoor pool off one wing of the mansion rather than go into the house, and looking at the baby, the man said he could. Cam had put Casey in a sling around his neck, and they went up the path toward the so-called Neptune pool, which along with a huge indoor swimming pool, had accommodated the elite guests back in the day. Classical Greco-Roman statuary on pillars surrounded the outdoor tile and marble pool. Avoiding several groups of tourists, Cam strolled around the circumference of the pool with his little charge, who stayed awake and appeared to be interested in everything.

Eventually, Cam sat down on a bench in the sun with Casey still in the sling around his neck, and Casey went to sleep. Cam himself dozed off for a few minutes before waking up and walking around on a large patio at the front entrance to the house. At that point, Casey started fussing and Cam noticed that the baby's diaper was damp. Sitting down on another bench near the entrance, he pulled his cell phone off his belt and sent Kevin a text message:

"back to car to change diaper. meet me there. C"

Cam caught a shuttle bus back to the parking lot. He unlocked the Camaro and climbed into the back seat with Casey. Opening the diaper bag, Cam pulled out a fresh diaper, cleaned the child up with baby wipes, and put the clean diaper on the boy. He put the dirty diaper and the used wipes in a plastic bag and sealed it up.

"There, my little chicklet! How's that?" Cam held the child vertically, the baby's face right in front of his face, touching his nose with his own. "You're way cuter than you're supposed to be, buddy!" he crooned to Casey. "If you get any cuter, I don't know what we're gonna do with ya. No, I don't. What do you have to say for yourself?" The baby stared back to Cam without a sound. "Nothing to say, huh? I hope you follow that policy when you get to be a teenager. Don't get a smart mouth like Daddy Kevin!"

Putting Casey back in the sling around his neck, Cam got out of the hot car and sat on a fender in the breeze off the ocean, waiting for Kevin and Carl. It wasn't long before a shuttle pulled up, and the two boys disembarked, separated themselves from the crowd, and started walking toward the car.

Cam watched the two guys. Anybody who had studied boys the way he had since puberty would have known immediately that they were jocks, moving along confidently, smiling and talking to each other. Handsome as hell, and walking like they owned the earth. What no one would have guessed was that they were gay. Cam's eyes focused on the flies of those 501's they were wearing. Packed. Their jeans weren't skin tight, but it was clear these guys were hung. Cam focused on Kevin's crotch, and felt a tingle between his own legs as he thought about his partner's equipment. Then he slid off the fender of the Camaro and stared at the ground as he waited for them, knowing that Kevin, at least, would give him some shit if he caught his partner staring at his package.

"When you texted you went to the car to 'change diaper,' I didn't know whether you meant Casey's or yours," Kevin said as he walked up.

"You're a funny man," Cam said. "Where do you get all your crap?"

"From you. You inspire me," Kevin retorted. "Give me the baby. He's probably had enough of you."

"No, we've bonded," Cam said, handing over Casey in his sling. "You're only a distant second in his life now."

Kevin held the boy in his arms. "We know that's not true, don't we Casey. Why does your Daddy Cam lie like that?"

"Quit tormenting the kid," Carl said. "Let's book. I wanna swim before supper."

"Jeez, you're bold!" Cam told Carl as they opened up the car. "I'll fucking drown you in the pool when we get to the motel!"

"You'd hafta catch me first, lardass."

Cam claimed driving privileges, and Kevin sat beside him, with Carl in the back with Casey.

"I want you to make some coin and buy me a place like this," Kevin told Cam, looking up at the mansion as they pulled away.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Cam said. "I could buy you something like this, but you and Carl would have to live in the basement. Neither of you is fit to be seen in public."

"That's kinda mean, doncha think?" Carl said.

"Word!" Kevin agreed.

"You both need to clean up your act, that's all I can say," Cam said. "Or need to say."

They continued to bicker as they continued driving on down to Cambria, where they quickly located their motel and checked in. One room, two queen beds. Cam drove around to the side door nearest their room, and they grabbed their overnight bags and Casey's crib and went in. Following Carl's lead, the three boys stripped, put on swimming trunks, and headed toward the pool with the baby. The water felt great as they took turns swimming and holding the child. No one else was there, and Kevin and Cam held each other at the deep end, treading water, and kissed tenderly and repeatedly.

Invigorated by their swim, they eventually toweled off and went back to their room. After showering, they dressed and walked to a restaurant next door to the motel and ate. Cam had shrimp, Kevin swordfish, and Carl a huge taco salad. They all had pecan pie a la mode for dessert. Once back at the room, Kevin pulled out a jar of strained carrots, a first for Casey, and began to feed the little boy. After a little uncertainty at first, Casey chowed down with no problem. Kevin then gave the baby a bath, and put him down in his crib. Casey crashed almost immediately.

Cam pulled out his cell phone and checked in with Catherine. Ian and Mary and all the boys were still in San Rafael, she said, so Ian was driving into San Francisco every day. Catherine said he had finally caught up with his work a little bit after being away from his desk for so long and so often. After Cam hung up, the boys watched some television until bedtime. The three guys stripped down to their boxers, cleaned their teeth, and hit the bed, Carl in one and Cam and Kevin in the other. They watched a CSI they hadn't seen before, then the news, a little of Leno, and then it was lights out.

Kevin woke up in the middle of the night, thinking he heard Casey whimpering. But it was Carl who was thrashing around in his sleep, crying. Kevin turned on the bedside lamp, got up, and went over to Carl's bed, waking him gently.

"Oh, shit!" Carl said, looking dazed, squinting into the light.

"You all right?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah. I had a flashback of...you know, my dad. I don't have them very often anymore, but..."

"Come on over and get in bed with us, dude," Kevin said.

"I'll be all right," Carl said, putting his head back on the pillow.

"Go on over," Kevin said quietly but firmly, gesturing with his head toward his and Cam's bed.

Carl looked at him for a long moment, and then threw back his covers and taking his pillow, went over to where Cam was still sleeping and climbed in. "Thanks, man," he told Kevin.

Kevin quickly checked on Casey, who was all right. Then he climbed back into bed after Carl, and covered the three of them up. Reaching over, he snapped off the light.

I love these guys, Carl thought to himself as the warmth from each side of him soaked into his body. They really are my brothers.

Kevin and Carl soon joined Cam in restful sleep.