AUTHOR'S NOTE:
If you like what you're reading, let me know: SellarDhor@gmail.com. And let me know where you want the story to go and who you want Jake to end up with. And if you have any ideas for the future, let me know, I might include them.
JANUARY 22nd
I woke up sometime in the morning still just as we went to bed, with him holding onto me just as tightly as before, even though he was fast asleep. His dick was as hard as ever, ands still buried inside me. Feeling completely contented, I fell right back asleep.
I felt warmth on my body, and the light shade of my eyelids told me the warmth was coming from sunlight. I opened my eyes, feeling beyond refreshed.
I was lying on my back on top of the covers of our beautiful bed, naked. The octagonal shaped room was practically all windows. The night before, it felt like we were making love under the stars. In the morning, it felt like were outside, our bodies being caressed by the sweet sunlight.
Parker was laying naked to my left. He was on his right side, his body tucked against me. He had his strong left hand on my chest, and his huge dick was draped over his body. He noticed my eyes opening, and he looked straight into them with the sweetest smile imaginable.
"Good morning, my love," he said to me. "Don't feel like you have to get up just because I'm awake. You could sleep all day long, and I'd never get tired of watching you."
"That's very romantic, and I'm tempted to fall back asleep here in your arms, but I feel completely refreshed this morning."
"Well, you slept a long time," Parker said. "I was worried that I might have tired you out last night."
"Absolutely not," I said. "Last night was incredible, Parker."
He smiled with sweet relief. "I promise I didn't nefariously pull these covers off of you just to enjoy the glorious splendors of your naked body. Believe it or not, you threw the covers off as soon as the sun came in. Oh, I made us breakfast in bed," he said, motioning to a tray of nicely presented food on the nightstand. "It was unbearably hard forcing myself out your touch in order to accomplish this. It took so much willpower, now that I'm holding you once more, I may never be able to let go again."
"Thanks for breakfast, that's so sweet of you. But you know you'll have to give me some love, Parker, before I can eat anything."
I turned over onto my left side, pressing my naked body into his, feeling his marvelous warmth. I put my arms around him and kissed him, while he used his manly hands to cradle me ever so sweetly.
"Mmm, I have more love for you than you'll ever be able to stand, Jake. And it's all here for your taking."
He kissed me again, with such adoration, as we held each other in our arms. Before long, both of us were had major erections, Parker's of course, was leaking.
But Parker pulled away from the embrace with a slightly worried look on his face. "I inspected the front of your body while you were sleeping, but didn't get to check the back."
I rolled over onto my stomach. "What are you looking for?"
"Any marks that might indicate I was too rough with you last night."
Once I heard what he was looking for, I rolled my eyes and tried to get off my stomach. "Parker, I'm fine, really."
"Just let me have a look at you," he said.
"Alright, but don't mistake any marks I had before for something you caused."
I felt his hands move over my center back half, touching me lightly and sweetly. Finally, they settled on my butt, and he winced.
He very gently touched my butthole with the tip of his finger.
"Mmm, sweetheart, your beautiful little hole looks swollen and raw. See? I knew I hurt you." He had real hurt in his voice.
"It barely hurts at all, Parker," I said.
He rubbed it gently with his fingers, trying to soothe it. "Ah, sweet, adorable hole, I'm so sorry I was so rough with you in the night prior. I most certainly didn't mean to hurt you. I know you were never built to have something so large and unyielding inside you. You gave me so much pleasure, and all I gave you was pain."
He leaned in and kissed me there gently with his lips.
"I promise not to hurt you ever again, little hole. There's no need for me ever to do this a second time."
"Parker," I said. "It really doesn't hurt that bad. I don't want you beating yourself up over this."
"But Syd tells me beating myself up is what I do best," he joked.
"He's absolutely right for once," I said. "Last night was wonderful, and I don't want you to blame yourself for anything that happened, because it was me pushing you into all of it all along. I'm the only one to blame for any after-effects I have this morning."
"I'm not agreeing with you, but I'll agree to put it out of my mind and just enjoy the morning with you."
"Great. What did you bring for breakfast?" I asked.
He jumped over to the nightstand, and brought out a tray filled with egg-filled crepes and fresh, sliced fruit. "I'm glad you made something healthy this morning after last night's decadence. You know me perfectly."
"Of course I do, my love. But, I hate to tell you, there's a Logan law in effect in the Territory that you are flagrantly ignorant about."
"Uh-oh, what is it?"
"Once a man willingly submits himself to be used as his partner's human serving dish, he must serve that purpose forever and ever. By consenting to have me eat chocolate off you last night, I'm afraid you've inadvertently sold yourself as my permanent food plate."
Smiling huge playfully, he grabbed some of the sliced fruit and lay it down on my stomach.
"Hmm, given that Cornelius is the resident legal expert in Mareshead, I wonder what he would say if I asked him about your interpretation of this peculiar Logan law?"
"Oh, Cornelius would be the first to concur with me."
He licked a blueberry into his mouth from my abdomen, and then kissed me sweetly there before swallowing the berry.
"Well, if I'm fated to a life as a human serving dish, I hope you consider me something a bit more refined than a paper plate."
"You are a one of a kind, my love. Vastly superior to the finest gold dish ever crafted by man." He ate the rest of the fruit off of me.
"How much time do I get to have you before Della starts demanding your presence in the lab?" I asked as I bit into the crepe, which was simple and very delicious.
"I cleared my schedule to spend the day with you," he said. "I'm supposed to have a late dinner with Della, and that's it. You see? When I threatened to stay here in bed with you all day long, it by no means was an empty one. Just tell me how you'd like to spend the day with me, my love."
"Well, given that certain events have kept me from practicing for the rodeo recently, I wanted to devote the entire day to one hardcore training, to make up for it."
"Yes, of course," he said. "Look, I'm in heaven being with you, and sometimes it can make me forget that there's anything else in this world but the two of us. I'm bringing my head back down to the ground right now, and of course I'd be the first person to tell you that the most important thing for you to do with your time is to practice rodeo, for your family's sake. No, let's go out there and get you trained."
"But there's no need for you to be with me all day, Parker," I said. "How about if you join me for an hour or something, and then you let me train on my own?"
"If you'd rather not have me around the whole time, I totally understand," he said. "I am not someone who would ever be offended when a loved one tells me they need space."
"That goes for me too, Parker, but no, I don't need space, I just don't want to bore you to death all day long for nothing."
"No, Jake. We could be eating dirt all day long, and I'd still enjoy myself just getting to do some activity with you."
"That's sweet. Gross, but sweet."
"I mean it."
"And if you work so hard to train me all day long, how can I ever repay you?" I asked suggestively, raising an eyebrow.
"The entire day will belong to the horses," he said. "Just let our lunch hour belong to me. That's all I ask."
"Sounds nice," I said, and kissed him. "I don't even know why I'm bothering to train. With Syd dying, what good will it do me?"
Parker lost his smile. "My brother is not going to die."
"But he has AIDS! Della said the virus is fatal in vampires."
"But Syd isn't like most vampires. He's a resilient survivor. Just watch, I promise you, he'll be the first vampire to survive the disease. And he'll be there to compete with you in the rodeo, when that day comes."
"Alright," I said, but I really didn't agree with him at all. Clearly Syd was dying, and clearly Parker was just going through some serious denial. I supposed it wasn't unusual, considering how close he was to his brother, but it was the first time I had ever heard him say anything the least bit irrational. "I'll give you that he's anything if not a resilient survivor. Not unlike a cockroach, in that regard."
"Sadly, I'm afraid my brother has more in common with a cockroach than just the creature's imperviousness. Including some of his choice cleanliness skills."
I laughed. "Yes. And I have to say, anytime I can remember talking to Syd about cockroaches, he somehow turned that into a dirty word. But like I was saying, he's a survivor. Heck, he managed to survive fake integrating into the lives of my crazy family without killing all of us. Parker, how come it couldn't have been you assigned to investigate my family instead of him? It would have been a dream having you in my life then."
"Well, first of all, my father knew he could play on Syd's pride to do that job by telling him ahead of time that he didn't think Syd was good looking enough or charming enough to succeed. And then, of course my brother made it his mission to prove my father wrong. Those kinds of mind games would have never worked on me. And heavens, even it had been me, that idea doesn't appeal at all to me. Because if I had known you as a minor, I never could have fallen in love with you romantically as an adult. I'm incapable of ever developing anything beyond paternal love for anyone I've known as a child, it just seems wrong to me. That's why I can't figure out how Syd could ever be attracted to you now."
"It's because Syd only plays the part of a caring adult for minors, but he doesn't really care about anyone but himself," I said. "He never even really knows the minor, though he pretends to. So when the minor becomes an attractive adult, he never looks at them and sees who they used to be when they were young and unattractive, because those are faded memories."
"Anyway, if I had been assigned that job, you know I wouldn't have been able to lie to your family. All I would have been able to do is use my invisibility to spy on your father, hoping I would see some sign that he was bisexual. You would have never known I was there."
"You're right, I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe it was best having Syd there after all."
After breakfast, we got dressed, Parker put together a picnic basket for lunch, and we went outside.
"Whew, it's warm out here," I said.
"Feels like a summer day, practically. We've been having some bizarrely warm days here recently."
"Maybe it's global warming," I said.
"I wouldn't doubt it."
The stables had managed to sink into an even worse kind of decay than from before Polly was brought in to clean things up, with manure everywhere, hay all over the place, and the horses in sad, hungry shape. Patches looked like he hadn't been fed in days, and it was good for Donnie that he was nowhere to be found, because I might have picked a fight with him. Abderhalden was almost as neglected. We got them fed and cleaned up before we did anything else.
We spent the morning training, and it was interesting to me how little Parker's techniques changed from the last time we practiced together. Even though we had spend the night being as intimate as two men can get, he didn't ask me to start practicing in the nude, like Boyd had, and he never undressed himself either. He certainly was a gentleman; that much I knew already.
When it was time for lunch, Parker hooked his picnic basket to the back of Patches and I followed him on horseback towards the creek. "If we're going back to our fishing stream, you'd better have packed this picnic basket with guns instead of food, in case the Pawnee are looking for a rematch."
"The Pawnee live to the east of Mareshead. We're going west today, to a part of the creek that makes for horrible fishing and therefore is the one the only spots that no one goes to but me. We'll be totally safe there."
We rode for a half hour or more along the banks of the stream, and it actually led to a place where the water had carved a little canyon for itself into the plains. We traversed along the streamside deeper and deeper into that canyon, and Parker told me that our way would end up in a dead-end, and that anyone who was traveling along this part of the creek would know to stay up on the plateau and quickly bypass the impassible canyon floor.
I heard our destination before I saw it, and at the same time, could see a subtly pleased smile on Parker's face. "Here we are," he said finally as he led the horses over a pile of rocks.
"Oh wow, we're at the top of a waterfall! It's gorgeous here," I said as soon as I saw it. The water here was separated into two sections: on the opposite side of the water from us, to the south, the water went over swift, white rapids as it tumbled over the high cliff into the canyons down below. On the north side, closest to us, there was an idyllic blue pool carved out from the waterfall by stone walls, a perfect swimming hole, and the creek banks were dry and sandy here instead of wet and muddy like the rest of the creek. The water collecting in the pool seemed to just blend into the horizon.
"I love it here," he said, getting off Abderhalden. He pointed at the calm pool. "That's nature's take on an infinity pool."
"It's so beautiful," I said, getting off Patches. I knew I didn't need to tie him up; he was too loyal to run off. "Why didn't you show me this the first day I was here?"
"Because you seemed to me like someone who liked partaking in some activity with your excursions. And there's really just one reason to come here. Let me show you."
He opened his picnic basket and pulled out a blanket. I helped him spread it neatly over one of the soft, sandy banks. He lay on the ground over the blanket.
"It requires you lying down and looking skyward."
I lay down next to him on the blanket, and he put his arm under my head as a pillow, which I thought was very gentlemanly. I looked up, just as he was doing. "What are we looking at?"
"The sky," he said. "Nothing more beautiful in Texas than the big, open, blue sky."
"It's very beautiful," I said, meaning it.
"My favorite thing to do in this canyon is just to look up at that marvelous creation up there, sometimes for hours at a time. You're the first person I've ever done this with." He used his free hand to grab mine, holding onto it lovingly, and I knew that unlike when Boyd had made similar false promises, Parker was completely genuine.
"That's real sweet of you, Parker. I could get real used to this."
After a few minutes of lying there looking up together, holding hands, I rolled over and started to kiss him.
"Mmm, you taste so good, my love," he said.
"Aren't you hot in all those clothes? I'm going to get you more comfortable." I started unbuttoning his dress shirt.
"Better not, I'm all dirty from the riding this morning," he said.
"I don't care how dirty you are. I care about you too much to let trivial things like that get in the way. But, since I'm just as dirty as you are, I have a brilliant solution. It's a hot day, and we have this beautiful pool all to ourselves. Let's get washed up together."
I pulled off his dress shirt, leaving his wonderful upper body unobstructed.
"I'd love nothing more than to do that with you, my love. And before my accident, I would have gone for it in a heartbeat. But I can't take my false leg in the water."
"We'll leave it here then," I said.
"Are you sure that wouldn't bother you?"
"Totally sure."
I pulled my own clothes off quickly, and Parker looked down at my body. "Did I ever tell you have the most splendidly radiant naked body I've ever seen?"
"Time to get these pants off," I said.
He removed his shoes, and I undid his belt. I pulled down his trousers, and he stepped out of them, leaving him only in his white boxers, which totally showed off his huge package underneath. I happily grabbed them and pulled them down, his wonderful, flaccid penis bobbing out at me, looking irresistible.
"Time to take off the leg, Parker," I said.
"Here it comes, my dear."
He unfastened his false leg and set it aside, his face turning just the slightest shade of pink.
"Much better," I said. "Let me help you to the water."
He put his naked arm around my neck, and I led him straight for the pool. The water had turned pretty warm and actually felt inviting as we stepped into it. Once we got until the water was up to my chest, he pulled his arm off of me.
"I can actually swim pretty well when there's enough water like this," he said, splashing around, clearly enjoying himself.
"When was the last time you went swimming?" I asked.
"There's a swimming pool at Mareshead that's only open in the summer," he said.
"Oh, do you go there often?"
"That's where I went swimming once not long after my accident," he said. By the tone of his voice, I could tell there was something he wasn't telling me.
"What happened?"
"Well, a group of women heckled me so much about my leg, I never went back."
I groaned. "That's because ninety-nine out of a hundred people in Mareshead are bat-crap crazy, Parker. If you went out into the real world, people wouldn't treat you like that." At least, I hoped they wouldn't.
"I'm the last person you need to sell the riches of the outside world to; I've experienced all of it firsthand."
I swam toward him and wrapped my arms around his thick, warm upper body. "Let's escape from all this. Just you and me."
I kissed him deeply.
"You don't know how much I'd love for us to have a life together, far away from the madness of this life. I want so badly to show you all my favorite old cities. Boston, New York, London, Paris, Rome."
"Yes, I want you to show me every nook and cranny. I want to see it all through your eyes.
I felt his gigantic dick get firm in between our bodies, and mine quickly followed suit.
"In a week, when you've beaten Jericho in the rodeo, your family will be secured. Then, you'll call off your engagement, and I'll make my deal with Jericho to save your life as well. You'll be free then to leave the Territory for good."
"What about you?" I asked. "I'm not leaving you here."
He kissed me. "You won't have to, my love. Jericho used to require I stay in Mareshead, but my use to him has long since passed. Being around is just a painful thorn in his side. He won't care if I leave with you, and we'll be free. Just the two of us. If ever the Governorship should fall into my hands, I'll let you decide what we should do. I could refuse it, and spend eternity alone with you. Or, we could come back here if you'd like, to try to improve affairs. As my partner, we'd make every decision together. We'd think everything through thoroughly, two minds jointly."
"I promise you, I will never get tired of you or desire you any less," I said. I reached down between us in the water, and took both of our dicks in my hand, stroking them together with both hands. "See how crazy I am about you, Parker?"
"If hardness was a true measure of one's desire, I'd venture to guess I desired you more, my love," he joked. "You've got me so hard, my phallus could cut through diamond. I never knew I could get so rigid until you came along."
I kissed him again, and while I did, I moved my hands all over his wonderful body underwater. He had been rubbing my back and shoulders with his hands sweetly the entire time he had been holding me, but I pushed his hands down to my butt, letting him know I was okay with him touching me there. His kisses turned even more impassioned as his strong hands began cupping my buttcheeks, which clearly exciting him to no end.
My hands moved down to his legs in the water, and this time, instead of finding his false leg, I got to his stump, just past his knee. I put my fingers there.
He broke off the kiss. "You don't have to touch me there, Jake."
"I know I never have to touch you anywhere, Parker. You'd never make me do anything I didn't want to. And right now, I want nothing more than to touch you here. Because I love this part of you just as much as I love the rest of you."
I rubbed my fingers into his stump, and he shut his eyes and groaned in delight, giving in to me. I left my hand there, and he kissed me again, harder than before. "I love you so, so much," he said to me in between kisses.
I noticed that we had been drifting closer and closer to the edge of the waterfall. "Let's not get carried away with each other and end up going over the cliff," I said.
"You can't," he said. "I've swum this hole hundreds of times, and there's actually a wall at the edge that keeps you from going off. Come on, I'll show you. I promise you'll be safe with me. You know I'd never, ever let anything happen to you."
I certainly wouldn't ever have explored such a pool on my own, but with Parker pushing me back towards the edge of the cliff, I absolutely knew I was safe as could be. Parker was a safe person by nature, especially concerning humans, and when it came to my safety, he was doubly precautionary. In fact, he might have crossed the line into overprotectiveness.
Parker pushed me until he had my back pressed against the rock wall that kept this pool from falling over the cliff. "See? It's like we're swimming at the edge of the world."
I wrapped my legs around his waist and kissed him passionately. He continued to cup my butt with his hands. I could feel his rock hard erection searching my buttcrack, giving me shivers.
As swept away by Parker's love as I was, I wanted to get a better view of the cliff, so I turned around in his arms until I was facing the edge.
"My goodness," I said, losing my breath for a moment as the view hit me. The cliff ahead fell down perhaps fifty feet into the canyon below. The waterline in the pool we were in went up to the very top of the protective rock wall, making it appear quite dangerous, as if there was no wall there at all, when it was in reality totally safe. "The view is incredible."
"Yes. But no majesty of nature could ever compare with the once in a lifetime beauty of you, my love, and I'm referring to your body, mind, and soul. All three."
"I feel the exact same way, Parker. Your loving touch is better than any of this, but it doesn't compete with it, it heightens it somehow."
"Yes, I've been here many times before by myself," he said. "Now that you're here with me, its magic seems quadrupled."
As I floated at the end of the cliff, Parker embraced me from behind. He held me lovingly with his arms, but kept his dickhead a good distance from my hole, as if he was still unsure if that kind of contact would be appreciated by me. I wanted to answer the question for him, so I pushed back against his hard manhood.
He realized what I wanted, and he leaned forward and stuck his face just to the left of mine. I turned my head to the left to meet his sweet lips, while at the same time, I felt his dick rubbing up and down against my crack.
"I want you so bad," I moaned. "Take me, Parker."
But he pulled back instead of being urged on. "I feel a little odd, us doing this now, when I know you promised yourself to my brother tonight. I know it's petty of me, and I don't blame you for doing what you're doing, I support you in all your decisions. I just feel like I can't give every last part of me today, the way you absolutely deserve, because a piece of me feels bothered by this."
"Parker, I totally understand. Listen, just this one more night, and then I'm through with Syd. I'm all yours. I've wanted to be in a monogamous relationship with you from the second I got to know you, and I knew beyond a doubt we were absolutely perfect for each other."
He looked at me with his eyes getting misty. "You don't know how much that means to me," he said. "Tomorrow, we'll start our life together. And the first thing we'll do as a new couple is we'll come back here, and I'll give your body every ounce of love I held back today. Deal?"
"I'm already counting the minutes."
"Now, we have a lunch to eat and an afternoon of rodeo ahead of us," he said, and started swimming towards the shore.
Instead of following him, I went to the side of the pool that bordered the top of the waterfall, and looked down over the rock wall to where the water poured over the cliff just a few feet down from the safety of the pool. It was quite beautiful.
"Whoa!" I said, feeling a large boulder that I was leaning against in the pool tremble under my weight.
"What is it?" Parker asked, concerned, swimming over to where I was,
"I just feel like this boulder is about to fall over."
I started to move back, and the boulder again shifted, this time feeling like it was about to break free off into the pool. Since the boulder formed a huge chunk of the barrier that held this pool up, that would not be a good thing.
Parker quickly moved in and used his strength to keep the boulder from falling. "I'd say we shouldn't swim on this side in the future," he said, concerned.
"I agree."
Crisis averted, we swam out back to the sandy creek shore. I was happy when Parker didn't bother putting his clothes back on once we were back on our picnic blanket, and I certainly wasn't about to put my own on either.
Parker pulled out a nice assortment of healthy culinary delights from his picnic basket, including some meats that he was able to keep in a small cooler. As we began the fine feast, he pulled out a bottle of champagne and extracted two fine glasses for us. He poured us each a glass.
"To our new life starting tomorrow," he said.
"Yes," I said, clicking his glass and taking a drink. "Hmm."
"What is it, my love?"
"Either there's no alcohol in this, or I've been drinking so much lately, I can't taste it anymore."
He laughed. "It's sparkling grape juice. Do you think I would let my greatest love drink and then ride a horse? Not likely."
As we ate, I asked, "Parker, how come you never brought Annie here?"
"Because she never would come," he said. "She always hated nature." Something came over his face. "Come here, I need to hold you," he said.
I turned around and sat up in between his legs. He sat there with me, holding me in his arms, and I sat back into him, feeling my naked body totally surrounded by his from behind, leaning back into him like he was my personal chair.
"That's better," he whispered into my ear. "Look, I want to pledge to you that what ensued between Annie and I will on no account happen between us. I know from the bottom of my heart that I was meant to be with you. With Annie, even at the start, I had a strong intuition that I was making a bad choice. We were wrong for each other from the very launch on so many levels."
"Was it like that with all your past relationships?" I asked.
"No," he said. "Before Jericho took over as Governor, when I was free and roaming around all my favorite cities, all of my relationships were well matched and healthy. Syd described the women as all being painfully dull, of course, but I loved them dearly. Back then, we didn't have the blood packets like we do now, so vampires were left with four options. Most chose to stay in their Blood's domain, where they'd have access to human blood daily "
"Either willing or unwilling, I'm sure," I said.
"Quite right. Vampires who were in the outside world didn't have that convenience. Some would hunt their victims, feed on them, and kill them to keep them from talking. These vampires I most despised."
"Are there still vampires like that in the world?"
"Oh yes," he said. "Thirdly, we could be like Syd, who seduced a new human every night, drank their blood, and then glamoured them into forgetting the feeding. But I was never cut out to be a playboy, so that meant if I were to survive out in the world, I would require a human companion--usually a girlfriend--that knew about my true nature and was fine donating their blood to me daily."
"So, what changed after Jericho took over?" I asked.
"He made me come to Mareshead and serve his needs, as I told you. And during all those years, no matter how much I longed to love again, I knew it was too foolish to start anything with anyone. I was not my own person, I belonged to him. And how could I offer myself like that to someone else?"
"I understand."
"And after my accident, then my life turned upside down. For the first time in decades, I no longer was owned by my father, and I was free again to love. But at the same time, I was lost in depression and self-loathing then due to my disability. Even after I pulled myself out of the depression, others looked at me completely differently. No one would touch me with a ten foot pole, it seemed. And I didn't blame them."
"They were all crazy. They didn't know what they were missing."
"When Annie came along, she was the first person to show any shred of affection towards me. I had given up on love, and then she inserted herself into my life. Of course, in hindsight, I knew she never truly loved me, even though she lied and told me she did. I sensed how wrong we were for each other, of course, but I was seduced by the possibility of love. I had previously believed I would never get to love again, but I was absolutely certain I had so, so much love to give. So, I gave her all my love in spite of her faults. The whole time, she treated me like half a man, reminding me of my disability every second we were together. And I just loved her back, knowing I had chosen her as my partner, for better or worse, and nothing could make me stop giving her love."
I felt myself growing spiteful towards Annie as I heard Parker's confession. Even though I personally never saw her selfish side, I had heard enough about it from others to rethink any desire to be friends with the woman, and now that I felt Parker was my guy, I got the urge to protect him from this clear abuser. "You should have known that you can't love enough for both partners of a relationship on your own."
"Yes, precisely. But we all have our breaking points, and mine came only recently. She and I are through now, as it should have been long before we ever said our vows. And I've learned from my mistake, and it will never happen again. You are the total opposite of Annie in every way, and I don't want you to doubt for an instant that you and I will ever go down a similar path."
"That's nice of you to say, but something here really makes me worry," I said. "And I need to make sure of something before I commit to you. I'm concerned that the only reason you think you love me is because I'm so much nicer to you than Annie, or because I seem to be the only one who doesn't have any problem loving you with or without your disability. Because as soon as we leave the Territory, I think you'll find plenty of very good people who would love nothing better than to be your partner. You very well could end up feeling like one of them is better suited for you."
"I'm glad you brought this up and didn't let doubt fester inside your heart," he said. "I need to assure of two things."
I swore he was going to try and refute me about the likelihood that attractive, available people would be throwing themselves at a man with a missing leg, which I knew was wrong.
"First, I'm not just fond of you because you can stand to be around me. That's the exact same trap I fell into with Annie, and like I said, I'm not ever going to fall for that one again. I know for the rest of my life, if the person isn't an excellent match to me personality-wise, I'm not interested. There are plenty of kind people out there who I might have dated before I had my Annie experience, but that would have been a mistake, because although kindness is a great quality, it alone does not build a lasting relationship."
"Okay, but you're talking about people whose only strength is that they are kind. What if we left here and you were to meet someone with all the strengths you could ever dream of? What if you were to meet your absolute perfect match?"
"Sweetie, you don't understand," he said. "I've already met my absolute perfect match. You're him. I know that from the bottom of my soul. Enough said."
I felt myself melting at his sweet words. "And what if you met someone more perfect for you?"
"Impossible," he said.
"Well, what if you met someone just as perfect as me, then?" I asked, not letting him sidestep my question.
"Though I think that's impossible, I don't want you to worry about me ever developing feelings for someone else. That's the second part I needed you to know. Once I pick you, my sweet, I shut off any possible desire for anyone else. It's like I don't even see them. If anyone were to make a move on me, they would be quickly stopped and dissuaded."
"Somehow I know deep inside me the truth in your words, Parker. I accept you, totally."
We kissed for a long time, tenderly and sweetly, and I was so, so happy as I felt all my reservations melt away. I knew for sure that he was my ideal match, and now I knew that he felt the exact same way about me.
He held me for a long time before urging me back to Mareshead. We put our clothes back on and mounted our horses, and rode back to the training grounds. We practiced until the last moment of sunlight, fed and comforted our horses before putting them away, and went into the mansion.
As we entered the Great Room on our way back up to the new apartment, I realized the room was occupied with a number of people, including Jericho on his throne, Cornelius, and oddly enough, Della. We seemed to interrupt a heated argument between the two siblings.
"...all sorts of maladies," Della was saying. "Many of them haven't even had their inoculations."
"I told ya before, any quick fix ya can keep them from getting viruses, I'm for."
"Uh-huh, we both know if they get sick with something contagious, you won't treat them humanly and quarantine them, you'll just kill them."
"Damn right," Jericho said. "And so I support them gettin' their HPV shots, or whatever. But my folks found you treatin' injuries, stitching up wounds. They got no right to that shit, they're just goddamn slaves."
"Look, we both know I think you destroyed this Blood the second you legalized slavery, that I absolutely detest the practice. And, way I see it, unless ya want your entire slave contingent to die off, you'll let me treat them. Hell, prisoners are given more medical care that your slaves, and these poor folks never were guilty of no crime."
"Fine, as long as you are here, you can do what you want," he said.
Cornelius caught my eye. "Oh, Mr. Groves, I've been looking for you all day," he said. "I have something of serious urgency to report."
"Hi Cornelius, what is it?"
"The Governor assembled the Cabinet this morning to take a vote over a matter he suggested. They decreed by majority decision to agree with the Governor's directive. That is, because Syd's illness is imminently fatal, it was decided that my earlier motion to delay the rodeo event until Syd was in better health would be terminated and reversed immediately."
"No, that's not fair!" Parker said.
"It's not up for debate. It's been decided."
"So, that means we'll be competing on the same date that was originally assigned?" I asked.
"Yup, tomorrow morning," Jericho said. "Hope you're as ready as me and Donnie. `Course, ya can always back out now if ya want, and I'll just go ahead and have yer family killed tonight."
"No, I'm not backing down," I said.
"But Syd can't even get out of bed, let alone compete in a rodeo," Della said.
"Given the circumstances," Cornelius said, "Syd wouldn't have to. The contract only names Mr. Groves by name, and just as the Governor has, he's free to choose any partner he wants for tomorrow."
"Anyone I want?"
"Well, anyone who agrees to it," Cornelius said. "And as this is a couples' competition, it is expected that the two of you display physical intimacy which would suggest an established couple. I already spoke with Syd earlier, and he suggested you pick Boyd as an alternate."
"Boyd Slade?" I asked for clarification, not able to think of any reason Boyd would ever help me. "He's married."
"Yes, but his vows do not prevent him from being physically close to you," Cornelius said. "Syd said some tidbit about you having something to offer Boyd that he might not be able to resist."
I saw Parker shudder in disgust, and I realized that Syd was suggesting I agree to prostitute myself out to Boyd, for who knows how long, so that he would agree to be my rodeo partner. It made logical sense.
"Absolutely not," I said, remembering that I had just told Parker that this night would be the last time I slept with anyone besides him. "I choose Parker."
I heard Jericho guffaw.
Parker gasped. "No, out of the question," he said. "I'm missing a leg, remember?"
"I'm fine with that."
"No, it's idiotic," he said. "Pick someone with two legs."
"What about you, Cornelius?" I asked.
"I've never performed any of the rodeo events in my entire life," he said. "Not me."
"What about Arlene?" Parker suggested.
"Ha, like anyone would ever believe anything physical would go on between those two," said Jericho, clearly making some sort of dig at my strict preference for men.
"She already lost to one Logan," I said. "She doesn't have what it takes to win. No, I pick Parker."
"What's wrong with Parker?" Della asked.
"This ain't the Special Olympics, ya moron," Jericho said.
"Parker's not your average disabled person, either," Della said.
"Parker, I've practiced with you more than anyone."
"But I was training you during those practices," he said. "We weren't practicing together."
"I'm sorry, Cornelius, whose decision is this?" I asked.
"Yours," he replied.
"Then I pick Parker. Enough said."
"And what if I refuse to participate?" Parker asked.
"Then Jake will be forced to forfeit," he replied.
Parker shook his head angrily.
"Oh, I think you'll be fine," Della said.
"Well, I guess with Parker competing, I won't exactly be needing to burn the midnight oil tonight preparing myself for the rodeo," Jericho said, laughing. "Oh, and I'm telling you right now, there's a slight change being made to the Bull Ridin' and Pole Bendin' events."
"Wait a second, that's not fair," I said. "I thought he had to tell us about the changes at the same time he learned of them."
"That's only if the changes will affect the game play or the safety of the contestant," he growled back. "I got the Cabinet to agree that my changes are purely cosmetic, so it's fine not to give advanced notice." He looked like he was trying to hold back a smile.
Della, Parker, and I walked out of the Great Room and into one of the hallways.
"You should not have chosen me," Parker said. "The smart thing would have been to pick Boyd."
"I shudder to think what kind of deal with the devil I'd have to make to get Boyd on my side," I said. "And even if I had sold myself to him, I'd still never really trust him. Parker, you're the only one I trust."
"Well, all the trust in the world isn't going to make my leg heal," he said.
"I thought it was a damn fine choice, Jake," Della said. "Parker, you owe me dinner, you ready? I figured we could eat in our lab, away from all these fools. Jake, you coming?"
I wanted nothing more than to eat dinner with Della and Parker, but I remembered that those two were probably still grieving and processing Syd's condition. I didn't want to get in the way. "I'll pass," I said.
"Suit yourself, kid, I can't force you," she said. "Oh, that's right, I think Syd is waiting for you. Got me to promise not to bother him for the entire night, or the nurse. But since you'll be there, if he needs anything at all, you come get me, ya hear?"
"Yes, of course," I told her.
I grabbed a quick dinner at the mess hall, trying not to be nervous about importance of the next day's events. Then I went back up to the apartment and took a long bath, getting all cleaned up from the long day's practice.
I decided to use the time to myself to call my family. I called first my mother, who was mad at me again for not calling her sooner, and then Ahmad, who still seemed doubtful about the truth of my whole Montana excuse. Both of them wished me happy birthday, and I told them that I had an absolutely wonderful birthday, but missed them a lot. It felt so good to hear their voices and have them fill me in on their lives, and I got teary eyed a couple times with homesickness. But when they asked me what I was doing, I kept things as succinct as possible, absolutely hating that I needed to lie to them.
I pulled out one of Ahmad's books and read for a long while, not wanting to leave the apartment at all. Finally, as it started to get late, I knew I couldn't delay any longer.
Knowing I'd be gone for the night, I knelt down and said a prayer, asking God to look after Parker and me the next day. I packed an overnight bag, and headed to Syd's apartment. Like Della had said, there wasn't any sign of anyone being nearby. No guards or nurses in the halls.
I knocked gently on the door.
"Come in," I heard Syd's sick voice say.
I let myself into the dimly lit apartment and shut the door behind me. He was in his bed, under the covers, the medical equipment beeping away.
His eyes met mine. "It's about time, Jakey. Way to keep a dyin' man waiting."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from showing any agitation.
"You won't be needing any of those clothes tonight," he told me.
I started to remove my clothes, while he ripped off his heart and breathing monitors from his chest. He had an IV line going into the back of his hand, and he kept the needle taped to his hand but detached it from the tubing, until he was totally free.
"Get yer beautiful body over here, Jakey," he said.
As I walked over to his bed, I almost didn't recognize his face. It was sad to see: bizarrely gaunt, deathly pale, a light beard due to him not shaving, and his skin covered with reddish purple blotches.
"What was that look ya gave me, Jakey?" he asked. "Somethin' the matter with my face?"
"No, it was nothing," I said, angry at myself for being so transparent.
"Hand me a mirror."
"There's no reason to--."
"Please don't make me quote Jack Nicholson anymore than I already did. Just give me the mirror."
Syd had more mirrors littered around his room than he usually had used condoms. I grabbed a hand mirror from his dresser and gave it to him.
"Hello handsome!" he said ironically. "Oh my lordy, when did all these sores appear?"
"I think it's a possible symptom of the late stage virus, Syd," I said.
"Jakey, Jakey, always using reason to make it easier to accept the severely sucky." He set the mirror down. "Well, I'm sorry I went from havin' the world's most handsome mug to the ugliest motherfuck in Mareshead, but let's not pretend that you didn't have all the opportunities in the world to get fucked by me for weeks, when you'd a been able to look up into my Adonis face. I'm sorry I can't offer that anymore for our first fuck, but you'll just have to shut your eyes and try to remember me as I was. Now, get in here."
He pushed his covers back, and this time I tried to hide my shock as I saw his naked body. His skin had gone from hot, sweaty, and red to cold, clammy, and sickly yellow. He must have lost thirty pounds since I saw him last, which would have put him around one sixty to one seventy, just a bit heavier than I was. He had never had any fat on his body to lose, so it was all muscle he had burned away. His muscles had always been vascular, but his skin was so tight now, showing every little vein on him, that it looked like he had been starved for weeks.
Worst of all, those purplish blemishes covered his entire body as well; only his hands, feet, and genitals seemed unaffected. His huge dick lay limp between his legs, looking mostly normal.
"Yeah, my body ain't exactly what it once was. Lucky for you, there ain't any sores on my Johnson yet, and that's the most important part of me. Now get in before I freeze to death!"
I jumped in the bed next to him, and pulled the covers back over the two of us. One comfort was that his sheet and blanket were no longer wet with sweat; at least his fever seemed gone. But when he touched me with his hands, I realized how sickly cold they were. It was like being touched by a dead person.
"Let me just hold you for a while," he said.
He turned me on my side, facing away from me, and spooned me from behind, his floppy, sweaty dick slapping against my butt. His skin pressed against my back and the rear of my legs, and it felt strangely cold. I could feel the texture of his sores against my smooth skin. His breathing was labored and wheezy.
"Oh, you feel sooo good, Jakey. I've been waiting for this forever. I know you have yer doubts bout my intentions here, I know ya think my make a wish was just a screwed up way to manipulate ya into bed with me, cause that's always what I did before. But I swear to you, this is the one and only thing I want before I die."
"How could the one and only thing be sex?" I asked.
"I don't expect ya to understand, Jakey. You'll just have to believe me. Oh, Jakey, the lube. We don't wanna make this any harder for you than necessary, do we? It's on your side in the nightstand."
I pulled off the covers, reached over and extracted his bottle from the drawer.
"Good, why doncha rub it on my huge Johnson, wake up the sleepin' dragon for me."
I poured some lube in my hand, and then rubbed it into his soft dick vigorously. But no matter how long I stroked, his dick continued to show almost no response to my touch.
"This ain't workin,' and damn, my cock's too greased up now for you to suck on. Just turn around and let me play with yer world class hole, that always gets the juices flowin' fer me."
He spun me around again so I was lying on my side away from him. Next thing I knew, I felt his short beard on my buttcheeks, and I felt his lips on my hole, and soon, his tongue inside me.
I heard him squeeze lube onto his hand, and next thing I knew, I felt his slimy fingers moisten my hole.
"This still ain't workin, Jakey."
I felt him spoon me from behind, felt his still soft dick inside my crack, his soft dickhead pushing against my hole with nothing but futility.
"Come on, little Syd, you never let me down before," he said. "And look what's being presented to you, right before your one eye. The prettiest hole you ever laid eye on. Just harden up enough to get in."
Somehow, I started to feel sorry for him. "Even soft, I bet I could get you inside me, Syd."
"You can?"
I turned so I was face down and he was on top of me, I reached behind me with both my hands, grabbed onto his hefty flaccid penis head, and started to push it inside me manually.
Once I had accomplished that, Syd was able to push the rest of the way himself, and I could feel his sizable but flaccid unit inside me.
"Oh my lord, that feels so good," he said. "God, how long I've lusted after this, and now it's finally all mine."
He started pulling inwards and outwards with his unit, but I could feel that even after more than a dozen thrusts, he still wasn't hard inside me.
"No, Jakey, this can't be happening. No, no, no. I do NOT do this, I am not made like this. Goddamn, my dick is dead, Jakey, it's dead!"
Then the impossible started to happen. The man who I thought was incapable of any emotions save for self-satisfaction and lust started to cry. I had never heard or seen him get close to crying, ever. Not even when I was a kid. I wouldn't have been surprised if this WAS the first time he cried. He hadn't even shown the slightest bit of depression about the prospect of dying of AIDS or leaving his loved ones behind.
And yet here he was, in tears not because he was facing his death, but because he couldn't get an erection.
"The one thing I always could count on has left me, Jakey," he said in between tears.
"I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but why don't you try biting me, Syd? That always seemed to get you excited before."
I heard him sniffle and stop his tears. "Okay, let's try."
I braced myself for being bit into, but nothing happened.
"It's no use, Jakey, I can't get my fangs to come out," he said, crying all the more.
His crying was too much for me to take, I could feel his tears on the back of my neck. I noticed a sharp looking pair of scissors on his nightstand, and picked those up. I looked away as I used the blade to cut into the skin of my hand. People on the shows Jerry had always watched were always cutting their palm like it was nothing, but doing it hurt like crazy and knowing I was bleeding disturbed me and made me feel woozy. Luckily, I was lying down.
I tossed the scissors aside and then reached my bloody palm behind me towards Syd.
"Oh, Jakey, yer blood tastes so, so good," he said as he lapped up the blood, closing the wound. "Wait, there they go, there are my fangs!"
Before they disappeared again for good this time, he quickly sank them into the side of my neck as he spooned me from behind, with us both on our sides.
And that was apparently the magic touch: as soon as he was drinking my blood, as soon as that euphoric pleasure started to pulse through me, I could feel his dick inside me start to twitch and pulse to life.
"Oh yeah, lil' Syd, I knew ya had it in ya!" Syd hollered. "All ya needed was a taste of the sweetest blood in the world."
Syd's mouth returned to my wound, and his dick got ever harder, soon so big that it painfully stretched my insides. Soon, he added in thrusts, and started to screw me with more ferociousness than Parker ever had. Thank goodness he was biting me, or I'd be in serious pain.
By the time he finished drinking my blood and licked my wound clean, his thrusts still came fast and steady. As the euphoria left my body, the pain became sharper, and his callous treatment became hard to bear.
Luckily, I didn't have to bear it long, for all of the sudden, Syd stopped thrusting.
"Syd?" I asked, nudging his body behind me.
The only response I got back was his snores.
Since he hadn't climaxed, I figured he had just worn himself out temporarily and would resume the session. But when his dick softened and fell out of me, I gave up on him for good, and fell asleep along with him.