Dangerous Liaisons - 3. Chapter 3

Daniel didn’t go home that night, or the next. We spent the whole time exploring each other... mentally, physically, emotionally. He drew truth from me like I drew water from the tap. I was wholly incapable of lying to him, no matter how painful the truth was... and he had a knack of asking searching questions that got to the heart of every situation.

I couldn’t get enough of him... his voice, his smell, his touch... especially his touch. He explored every inch of my body with his hands, his lips and his tongue and in my own, clumsy way, I did the same to him. He guided me unselfconsciously to do the things that pleased him and it pleased me to comply. I could get as excited by pleasuring him as I did when he pleasured me.

The first time I saw him completely naked I was awestruck. I had thought that his hair was completely dyed but it seems as if only the blue bits were. The thick, soft fur between his legs was as black as a raven’s wing and as soft as mink pelt. His hips were narrow and his stomach flat and toned, hollowed in all the right places. It took a moment before I could even bring myself to look at his cock and it was as perfect as the rest of him. As soon as I saw it I wanted to touch it, wanted to feel it twitch in my hand, to hear him moan as I brought him to climax... and I did... oh I did and it was the sweetest sound I have ever heard.

On the second morning as I woke to the tickle of his breath on my shoulder I smiled, shivering slightly with sheer joy. His hand was lying on the centre of my chest, one leg hooked over mine and wherever he touched me I tingled.

Very slowly so as not to wake him I turned my head. Sunshine was pouring in through the window, lighting his hair to jewel bright colour. I was lost in his face. He was fast asleep and smiling a gentle sweet smile and I burned, torn between the longing to touch him and the desire to watch him sleep. His eyelashes were like tiny spider legs, splayed out across his cheeks and fluttered gently now and again with the wind of his dreams.

At last I had to move, I had to touch him. I reached over and stroked his hair and he stirred murmuring softly, still asleep. His eyes fluttered but didn’t open and I was paralysed with awe filled desire. He was quite simply the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. As I watched his lips curved into a smile and teasingly slowly his hand ran gently over my chest and belly to toy idly with my limp member which wasn’t limp for long.

I groaned and he opened his eyes, the amazing depth of colour sweeping me away as it always did whenever I looked into them. He smiled sleepily and snuggled closer. My heart stopped.

“Ah fuck. It’s not fair. No one should be allowed to look so good in the morning.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself, although you could do with a shower, you’re a bit sticky.”

“Cheeky. You were the one who was too lazy to move after the third time we made love and insisted that we stay exactly where we were and went to sleep.”

“Was it only three? It seemed like we were at it all night.”

“We were... you have some stamina and control.”

“It's a gift.” His face sobered. “Listen Josh, I’m going to have to go home today.” I felt as though he had hit me and suddenly I was panic stricken.

“What? No.”

“Josh, I have to go home sometimes. I have things to do. Our course starts Monday and I haven’t unpacked yet.”

“Oh... okay.”

“I was thinking that maybe you could come round to mine tonight.” I brightened at that, although it had not been at all difficult to do. To be honest it had been difficult to feel negative thoughts when his fingers were toying with me, tugging my fur and sliding up and down my shaft.

“That would be great.”

“It’s a date then.”

“You don’t have to go yet do you?”

“Not yet. Right now I’d much rather cum.”

Pressing him over onto his back I nuzzled close to his ear whispering, “Always eager to oblige,” before claiming his lips with my own while simultaneously sliding my hand between his legs. He moaned softly and lifted his hips into my hand.

**********************
Over the following weeks Daniel and I were rarely apart. We ate together, studied together and, most nights, slept together. Daniel had an amazing mind and a blinding personality that made him a hit with lecturers and students alike. In no time at all we were the centre of a group who were the undisputed leaders of our year academically and socially.

Time passed in a blur of studying, partying and just being with Daniel. He thrived on the work and the play and was rarely phased by anything. I quickly realised that I was falling head over heels in love with him and couldn’t conceive of life without him. He was my life. But there were two shadows over our happiness.

Firstly Daniel would never talk about ‘us’, our relationship. Whenever I tried to talk about the future he would hush me and say that we had to take one day at a time and the future was so open for us, we could go anywhere and do anything, that it was pointless planning it out at that stage. He never said he loved me or anything that gave me any idea how he really felt about me.

If I ever tried to talk about it he would laugh and say that we were there, together, having a great time, and that was enough. Well it was enough for him but not for me. I worried about it all the time, about the fact that I was so clearly a pale shadow next to him, that there were always men, straight and gay, who hung on his every word, who were so much brighter than me, better looking than me and wilder than me. It scared me that one day he would realise this and leave me for one of them.

If I mentioned my fears he always laughed and told me I should have more confidence in myself, that if he wanted to be with someone else he would have been and that I shouldn’t need him to be constantly harping on about it to know how he felt about me. The problem was he never told me how he felt.... so how could I know. My insecurity annoyed him, I knew that so I tried to keep it to myself, but it was hard.

The other shadow over my life was my parents. They came down to visit me half way through the term, with my sister, and stayed for the weekend. This meant that I had to keep a distance from Daniel. He would have been quite happy to be open with them but I knew for a fact they would have thrown a fit and I was not confident enough in our relationship or in myself to deal with that.

It was a testament to Daniel that he was so understanding and, although I did introduce him to my parents and we spent an amazing evening together during which he charmed them utterly and caused my sister to fall hopelessly in love with him, he never once did a single thing to indicate that he was anything other than a good friend. He was fantastic and revealed, as a complete surprise to me, an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the bible and certain theological concepts that utterly charmed my parents and left me slack jawed and more in love with him than ever.

As Christmas approached I began to dread the holidays. I was going home and so was Daniel and I would have almost three weeks of not seeing him at all. I didn’t know how I could bear it. When Daniel suggested that I spend a few days with him at his parents’ home in Hastings I was over the moon. I kept deconstructing it, trying to figure out what it meant. Meeting the parents was a big thing wasn’t it? This must mean that he was committed to us, to our relationship right?

Daniel’s parents were completely different to mine. Liberal and open minded they accepted me as Daniel’s partner and were totally charming and courteous to me the whole time. His younger sister was adorable and followed us everywhere and his little brother was cute enough to eat. His older sisters were not around for most of the time but came over for dinner one night and I was completely and utterly accepted into his family without question or qualm.

None of them was anything like Daniel. As he said they were straight but anything but ordinary, not to me. To me they were the most extraordinary people I had ever met. Straight, respectable, moral, courageous but open minded and loving enough to accept their children as they were not how they wanted or expected them to be. By the second night I was in love with them too and, after Daniel fell asleep in my arms I lay, staring into his beautiful face and cried myself to sleep.

Daniel’s father was a lawyer. He had his own firm and was well respected in the local community. In some ways he was like my own father in that respect but there the similarity ended. His mother was an art teacher at the local college and a talented artist. She gave me a painting of Daniel that I will treasure to my dying day. It has captured his spirit so perfectly.

While we were there Daniel took me to meet his first lover, Charlie. We had a blast. He was an outrageous queen but a very deep man with a wisdom born of experience. He had a wicked sense of humour and teased us both unmercifully. It was clear he was besotted with Daniel and that Daniel was fond of him but it was impossible to be jealous. It was the best of times.

Life settled into a steady pattern. We coped easily with the work, mainly, I have to say because of Daniel. He was brighter than I was, in every way. He grasped the complex legal concepts and rules with little difficulty and what he did not understand immediately he worked at unceasingly until he did. He by no means carried me but he gave me the confidence, space and work ethic that I needed, keeping me focussed and concentrated.

Daniel was my life, my blazing star, my confidante, my lover, my best friend. Nothing bad could touch me when he was by my side. It was the best time of my life.

Two weeks before the Easter holidays I got a telephone call from my parents that changed my life forever. They insisted that I spend some time with them during the holidays and suggested that Daniel come with me. I was terrified by the thought but Daniel was, as ever, completely un phased and, in fact keen on the prospect. I was terrified.

Needless to say we were put in different rooms and it was torture going to bed every night, knowing that Daniel was the other side of the wall but as remote and untouchable as if he had been in a different country.

I introduced Daniel to all my old friends and he was charming and courteous. Overshadowed by the glorious creature that he was I could not help but notice how shallow and empty they were. They were like children playing at living. One or two, who had also gone away to university, were more animated, more alive, had more to talk about but the realisation came to me within the first two days that I had outgrown them, moved on, left them behind.

On Sunday we went to church, three times as usual as I was called upon to do my former stint as Sunday School leader. Daniel came with me and had the children enchanted with his own versions of popular bible stories. Neither they nor the vicar realised how subversive they were. I did and I cringed at the same time as I was laughing and feeling so proud of him I could burst.

On the last day we had dinner together and I went to help my mother in the kitchen. She hugged me with tears in her eyes.

“You have grown so much since you have been away. I hardly recognise my little Joshie any more.”

“Probably because I left him behind in nursery school Mum. I’m nineteen years old now and I’m not a baby any more.”

“Practically a man.”

“Yeah... practically.”

“Are you happy at that university Josh?” She was giving me a hard look and I grinned at her.

“Yes Mum. I’m very happy. I have loads of friends, I am keeping up with the work, thanks to Daniel, and I am very, very happy.”

“I am glad to hear that Josh. I have been so worried that you would be unhappy, that you wouldn’t fit in. I know that we have kept you very sheltered here and that sometimes boys like you can find it hard to adjust to the world out there. It is such a harsh and Godless place.”

My stomach lurched at the ‘boys like you’ but I quickly realised that she meant good Christian boys who had led a sheltered life and not that she had seen through my charade to the gayness beneath.

“It’s not such a bad place Mum, and I have friends who make it easy for me.”

“Yes, that makes all the difference. Daniel seems like a nice boy. I have to admit that, the first time I saw him I was a little... taken aback. He is very... colourful isn’t he?”

That made me laugh. “Yes, he is.”

“It’s not what’s on the outside that counts though and he is so polite and courteous. Your father has really taken to him and poor Amy is besotted. Does he have a girlfriend?”

I was sneaking a sip of home made lemonade and almost choked. “No, no he doesn’t. He... he...er... he is concentrating on his studies. He doesn’t have time for girls.” How lame was that? But it was all I could think of off the top of my head. My mother gave me a penetrating look and, for a moment I thought that she suspected something.

“What about you baby? Is there anyone special for you? You never speak of anyone...”

“Um...no... no one special.”

“You know that you can tell me don’t you? You can tell me anything. I am very well aware of what it is like for young men in these kinds of situation. It is such a... liberal world out there. You don’t have to hide anything from me. I am not that naive. If there is someone and you are... worried about telling me because... because you are... well, I know it isn’t easy these days to keep yourself... pure.”

“Mum! I’m not sleeping with a girl okay?”

She beamed at me and I felt a stab of guilt. I had told her the truth but.... She patted my arm. “You’re a good boy Joshua.” Then she gave me a tureen to carry into the dining room.

Daniel gave me a strange look as I took my seat. There must have been something in my face that told him something had happened. He didn’t say anything though, he would never have dreamed of putting me in a difficult position with my parents. He carried on telling Amy one of the stories he had been telling in Sunday school at the weekend. My father was watching him with slightly narrowed eyes and I thought ‘Uh Oh’.

“That’s a very interesting interpretation of the story.”

“Yes, it is sir, which is why I like to tell it. I like anything that makes people think.”

“It somewhat changes the message it is meant to convey don’t you think?”

“It makes you think more about what message it is trying to convey.”

“And what message would that be, in your opinion?”

“That it’s wrong to make assumptions about people because of the way they look, and also that, just because someone is different from you, because they look different, behave differently, believe in different things, it doesn’t mean that they are wrong, or bad, or even necessarily that different from you at all.”

My father looked at him shrewdly for a while and my heart just about stopped. Then, unexpectedly he smiled. “You are a very insightful young man. Are you a Christian Daniel.”

“No sir. I haven’t yet found a religion that answers all my questions in a way that satisfies me. I am spiritual sir, but that’s different.”

“Indeed it is. Next time you visit you and I shall have to have a long talk and I’ll see if I can’t answer some of those questions for you.”

“It would be a pleasure, Sir.”

I started breathing again and the rest of the meal went without hitch. My parents had warmed to Daniel just like everyone always did, which was little short of a miracle given how important their faith was to them and how obviously Daniel didn’t share it. I think perhaps he is the first non religious person they had ever so completely accepted, the usually viewed anyone who is not Christian as being somehow less than human.

The meal was a blast. Daniel had everyone in stitches and afterwards he led our team to victory in every game Dad could throw at us.

“Joshua has never won so much in all his life. You must be his lucky charm Daniel.”

I choked again, this time out loud and, to cover it I laughed. “Not really Dad, he just carries me. There isn’t very much that Daniel isn’t good at.” I caught his eyes and immediately my face caught fire. “Er... can I get anyone a drink?”

Daniel followed me to the kitchen and slid his arm around my waist as I leaned over the sink, swilling my glass.

“I don’t know if I can make it until tomorrow without tasting your sweet lips.”

“Well, you are going to have to.” I tried to shrug him off, panicking, my eyes on the door. “Stop it, they’ll catch us.”

“Would it really be so terrible if they did?”

“You have no idea.”

“You keep saying that but your parents are sweeties. They have done nothing but make me feel completely at home. They like me.”

“They like you as my friend, as my boyfriend they would have you hung drawn and quartered before you knew what was happening.”

“Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? They’re sweeties.”

“Yeah well, you haven’t heard them in the middle of an evangelical rant. I thought they were going to have me shipped off to boot camp when they caught me kissing Rachel Baxter at the Church Social. That was NOTHING compared to this.”

“Idiot.” He kissed my neck and released me... just in time as my mother came through the door carrying dirty dishes.

“Don’t worry with that Mrs Stearn. Josh and I will clear away and wash up. You go and relax... you worked hard enough preparing that wonderful meal.”

My mother glowed. “Thank you Daniel. We are going to miss having you around here. It has been very refreshing.”

“Thank you. I’ve enjoyed myself very much, thanks to you and Mr Stearn.”

My mother left, a beaming smile on her face.

“Suck up.”

Daniel looked at me, his face serious. “Showing respect and appreciation is not sucking up... it’s politeness.” My eyes widened and Daniel grinned. “What? Is it a crime to be polite now?”

“It’s practically against the law.”

“No, what’s against the law is someone as hot as you not getting kissed by someone as horny as me for a whole week.”

“It hasn’t been a week. If you remember you almost gave me a heart attack in church on Sunday.”

“There was no one there.”

“There were like a hundred people outside.... any one of them could have come in at any moment.”

“But they didn’t.”

“I know that you like adventure and excitement but sometimes you go too far.”

“I often go too far... it’s the way I am... I never know when to stop and, mostly you don’t seem to have a problem with that. In fact I have heard you say so more than once....’don’t stop, don’t stop’.”

I threw the tea towel at him and he ducked, laughing, leaving the room to collect the rest of the dishes.