17. DANNY

As I stepped out of the cab that had brought me from JFK, anticipation surged within me, electrifying the air around Bruno's apartment building. With a sense of familiarity, I punched in the code to access the entrance and ascended the flights of stairs, each step bringing me closer to the moment I'd been eagerly awaiting.

Finally, I reached the door to Bruno's apartment. The key now felt familiar in my hand as I slid it into the lock, connecting, fitting with a thud. It turned, the door swung open, and I felt like I was home.

Entering the apartment, I was greeted by the now-familiar sights and sounds. As I made my way through to the living room, I could hear the blare of cartoons that must have covered the sounds of my arrival. Excitement, anticipation, and nervousness mingled together deep within me.

Entering, I paused, allowing the scene to wash over me before they had even realized I was there. I could not see them yet but could hear Evan's cheerful chatter to his father and Bruno's reassuring murmurs in response.

As the scent of delicious cooking wafted through the apartment, I realized they were in the kitchen, which was why I could not yet quite see them. For a second, I pictured myself as just a regular dad returning home from the office, an end-of-the-day, everyday kind of feeling, coming back to his other half and their kid. But that was stupid, a foolish way to think.

It was just my hunger for a sense of belonging, I guessed, the wonder of being welcomed into a family life that I had never truly known in my own childhood. My own upbringing had been marked by emptiness, devoid of stability, my dad's absence, my mom's chaos.

Growing up, my parents had been absent figures, lost to me, leaving a kid to navigate the complexities of life on his own. And as an adult, my focus had been consumed by work, leaving little room for the simple joys like this. Like that therapist had said, I had worked hard and not left time for much of a personal life. Through Bruno, I was seeing what I might be missing out on.

At that moment, I felt the true meaning of family very closely – a simple love, real support, as I had shown him, I supposed, but also shared moments, just really ordinary moments, that transcended boundaries like blood. It was people choosing to be together, all wanting to be together, as well as bonds like parent and child. I had been wondering if I wanted sex with Bruno, but maybe I wanted something much deeper than that. Sex would be part of it, but not all of it.

I breathed in and decided to shift the moment.

"Hey, I'm back!" I called out as I stepped into the room more properly.

I heard Evan's exuberant whoop of happiness, followed by the patter of his feet as he raced toward me, shouting my name.

"Daaaaaannny!"

In an instant, he was in my arms, his laughter filling the air as we embraced, and I was shouting, "Best buds! Best buds!" in his ear.

"Best buds!" he shouted back in mine.

With Evan perched on my hip, he started to tell me about his day at school. "Tell me all about it, buddy," I said, but I was looking at Bruno, whose blue eyes met mine. He looked so cute, standing there, with his blond hair and slim body, dressed in a T-shirt, sweatpants, and white socks. I gave him a soft smile, and he returned it.

Evan launched into a lively retelling of his day, recounting something Miss Taylor, his teacher, had said about his latest drawing – a sketch of a towering building. His words gushed out in a rush of excitement, his eyes round with excitement. I walked toward Bruno, Evan securely on my hip, his arms loose around my neck.

"I am so pleased for you," I said to Bruno about the book. Evan jumped a little against my body.

"Hey, Danny, aren't you listening to my story?"

I turned and grinned at him.

"Sure I am."

He chattered for a little while, then grew bored of it himself, slipped down off me, and ran away to go and find a toy car he wanted to show me.

"It's incredible news," I said.

Bruno shrugged.

"It's just the agent so far. I haven't got a publishing deal yet."

That image passed through me again, that I was that regular head of the family coming home from work to his partner's good news. I would embrace them, kiss them, ruffle their hair, let them put their head in the crook of my neck. But we didn't do that, of course.

"Come on, man, don't downplay it," I insisted, my admiration not shifting. "This is huge!"

"Yeah, thanks."

Our gazes were locked. Then I turned aside. Evan was running back over with a dark blue police car toy, hardly four inches long, with tiny wing mirrors and to-scale rubber tires.

"Look, Danny, look!"

I took the car from him.

"Wow, this is awesome, bud."

"Yeah!"

"Is it new?"

He looked at me as if I was asking a stupid question.

"No, Danny, I just wanted you to see it."

I grinned at Bruno.

"Oh, cool," I said. We went to sit on the couch as Bruno said he would make some coffee. "Hey, I have an idea for tomorrow," I exclaimed, talking to Evan but loud enough for Bruno to hear. "I thought I could take the afternoon off, and we could go see the construction site of that building I'm working on. I could come and pick you up from school. What do you think, Evan?"

His eyes lit up with excitement.

"Oh, cool!"

I turned to his father.

"What do you think, Bru?"

"Please, Daddy!" the boy exclaimed. Bruno glanced at me, a mixture of surprise and curiosity dancing in his eyes.

"Is it safe?"

"Oh, yeah," I said. "We won't go near the actual construction work."

"Will I have one of those hard hats?" Evan asked.

"I doubt they have it in your size, bud."

He accepted this. I looked back at Bruno.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked. I nodded, my decision made.

"Yeah, I've decided to stay an extra day in New York this week, so the firm is fine about it."

I was smiling, my gaze drifting between Bruno and Evan.

"You're here an extra day?"

He started smiling, too.

"Yeah, is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's great," Bruno replied. Then something passed over his face. "Oh, by the way, I moved all of Evan's stuff out of your room."

"Really, why?"

He shrugged.

"It's better if it's an adult space for you. Plus he likes sharing a room with me. He doesn't want to go back in there."

I paused for a moment.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

"Of course. You're giving me five hundred bucks a week. You don't need a kid's stuffed toys and Superman sheets in there. It's your space now."

"Cool," I said.

We settled into the familiar comfort of an evening routine. Evan and I nestled on the couch, watching the television, finding classic episodes of Ninja Turtles while his father prepared dinner.

We discussed the plotlines in great detail and talked about our favorite characters after Leonardo. Evan enthusiastically proclaimed his list of best turtles. I chimed in with my own choice, and then we shifted our reptiles around so that different ones switched between numbers two and three. Nothing could ever touch Leo's place in our hearts, though!

Usually, Evan would have a change of heart, opting to align his choice with mine. With a mischievous grin, he turned to Bruno.

"Daddy, me and Danny like all the same turtles," he announced proudly.

"That's good," he said.

Bruno glanced over at me, a subtle smile playing at the corners of his lips.

"He really likes you," he mouthed.

I winked at him and whispered back, "That's because I'm great…"

He giggled at my guys'-guy front, his face crumpling in a beautiful, joyful laugh.

After eating a snack, Bruno took Evan off to bed. I realized that he had prepared a grown-up dinner, just the two of us. As they chattered in the big bedroom, I took the opportunity to settle back into the small bedroom and unpack my things. I hung my suit up from a hanger on the wall. I thought about getting a steamer here just to clean it up a little.

The now-familiar surroundings of Bruno's apartment felt good. After a shower, I emerged from the bathroom, the steam dissipating into the air as I dried myself off in the bedroom with deliberate care. Droplets of water glistened on my body, the contours of my physique. I wiped them all away. I changed into some shorts and a sweatshirt. I dried off my hair but didn't style it. I just let stand up in thick dark curls. Maybe I could have shaved – I was a five-o'clock shadow guy – but I didn't. I just let myself be manly. I liked feeling that way, around him.

I made my way to the living room. Bruno was back in the kitchen, the tantalizing aroma of Mexican spices wafting through the air.

"What are we having?" I asked.

"Tacos. Do you like them?"

I didn't tell him I had had them for lunch the other day.

"Yeah, love them, great." Bruno began to carry food out to the table, a spread meticulously arranged before us. "Let me get the silver and plates," I said.

I asked about pouring some wine, and Bruno nodded yes.

"Yes, it's in the fridge," he said.

I made my way to the refrigerator, the cool air hitting me as I opened the door. I retrieved the bottle of white wine and then a pair of glasses from the cupboard. I uncorked the bottle and poured the wine.

I took him a glass to where he was cooking, and we each took small sips. It was then I realized what this was. It was a date; I was on a date with Bruno. And the strangest thing of all was it felt so good to be there, as if this was our home, and this was a regular couple's date night, with the kids tucked up in bed.

Turning to the table, my gaze moved over the tacos arranged artfully on the plates: the vibrant colors of the fresh vegetables and the golden tortillas, the snow-white sour cream and the bright green of the avocados and limes. A dollop of creamy guacamole sat beside the zesty salsa and mounds of grated cheese.

"This all looks delicious," I said.

"It's not that much. I am afraid it's a pretty quiet life at the moment."

I laughed.

"I'm not exactly partying in Manhattan," I said. My response was genuine. "I'm happy like this."

He smiled at me, very tenderly.

We settled into our seats and began to eat. We chatted about his book; I had wanted him to tell me everything the literary agent had said. But I also talked about what I loved about it. I told him about how real and universal the tragedy of the first relationship was, how it touched our hearts as we watched it slide inexorably to its end, but then the surprise – the redemption and hope – of the second relationship suddenly, unexpectedly appearing. I didn't say anything about it being about us. I guess I didn't need to.

"I couldn't have done any of this without you, Danny," he said softly. "You really pushed me to send it. It was madness that you just made me do it, but it looks like it's paying off."

I raised my glass, the crystal catching the light as I offered another toast. "Here's to your success," I cried.

He had a toast to give, too.

"And here's to your new life in New York," he said.

Our glasses chinked.

"I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would," I admitted. "Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to coming here. But now…now it's like it has this magnetic pull for me. I spent all week waiting to come back."

His eyes were shining as I said it.

Once the meal was done, we tidied up together, the clinking of plates and glasses as I loaded his dishwasher. Bruno wiped down his kitchen work surfaces. Once it was all done, Bruno turned to me.

"How about a movie?"

My smile broke at the invitation.

"Sounds perfect."

"I am not sure what's on."

"Have you got Netflix?"

He pulled a face.

"I let it go."

I rolled my eyes.

"What, to save ten bucks a month?"

He shrugged.

"I know. I'm punishing myself."

"I've got it," I said. "I can enter my password, and you can use it, the two of you, from now on."

I had a note of it on my phone. As Bruno settled onto the couch with his glass of wine, I accessed the streaming service. With a few clicks, we found ourselves perusing the endless list of movies. We settled on a hit romantic comedy from the 2010s. As the opening credits rolled, I threw my arm around the back of the couch, in the same way I had the other night. But this time, rather than run away, he relaxed and gradually moved back against it so we were not quite cuddling.

Throughout the film, we laughed and joked about the bad jokes and the obvious setups. But still, we found ourselves drawn into its whimsical, easygoing pleasure, the characters' dilemmas, the clever jokes, and the fun, good-hearted acting. In the soft glow of the television screen, Bruno and I just relaxed. As the credits rolled and the final scene faded to black, I suddenly realized he had moved his body entirely against mine. I was almost cuddling him.

The air crackled with newfound electricity as my arm moved further against his body, falling across his shoulders. Neither of us moved. We kept our positions. We didn't pull away.

In the hushed silence as the film finished, Bruno turned to meet my gaze, our eyes locking.

"Danny, you have your arm around me," he whispered, his voice barely above a murmur.

I gazed into his beautiful blue eyes.

"Do you want me to take it away?" I asked, my voice tinged with my nerves. He blinked once, heavily.

"Nope, I want you to keep it there."

Now we were staring at each other.

"I want to kiss you," I said.

A pause.

"Then kiss me."

I leaned in. At first, it was just tender pecks of two people who wanted to show affection as well as desire. But then our mouths opened, and we started to kiss more deeply. I drew him toward me, our tongues exploring.

I felt every part of my body grow urgent, filled with adrenaline, excitement, arms, legs, shoulders, biceps, throat. My cock was instantly rock hard; I felt it throbbing, trapped in my underwear, longing to be released.

I pulled back from him.

"I want to fuck you," I said.

His eyes grew wide. My cock grew even harder just by saying the words.

"Are you sure?" he asked nervously.

I laughed a little.

"I don't think I have ever been more sure."

We started to kiss again but also to undress there on the couch. I pulled my shirt over my head and then began to pull down my shorts.

"No," he whispered. "Evan."

"Shit," I said, and he laughed.

"You have to think of these things when you have a kid."

I caught his hand and pulled him up from the couch, sweeping him into what was now my bedroom. He told me to wait. I watched him scurry away to the bathroom and then come back with something in his hand. It was his bottle of lube. He grinned at me.

"You"re big," he whispered, then laughed shyly, and let his head fall against my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair, and kissed his scalp. It was a tender moment; he looked back up at me.

We went to the bedroom. I pushed the door shut behind us, and we stopped a moment, staring at each other. We smiled, and then we started to undress. As he pulled down his bottoms, I put my hand carefully around his waistline to help him free. He lifted one leg, then another to pull them over his feet, and finally, he was naked before me. His body was lean and pale, so slender compared to mine. His stomach was still boyishly flat, but he had hard runner's legs. His penis stood upright, very hard. I had undressed, too, and he looked me up and down.

In the kitchen the night he jerked me off, there had been so little light, but now, in the bedroom, we were fully illuminated. He stretched out his hand and took my erection in it, closing his fingers around the shaft. "You're so huge, Danny. I knew you were big, but you're really huge."

Sometimes in the past, women had complained I was too big.

"Is it okay?" I asked.

His eyes flickered over mine.

"It's amazing."

I went to kiss him, and he raised his mouth to mine. As we broke free, I nodded to the other side of the room.

"Lie on the bed, Bru. Lie on your back."

He turned and glanced at the mattress.

"Why?"

I put my mouth to his ear.

"I want to eat you out."

He glanced back at me, his eyes wide with wonder. My cock was so hard just looking at him. He turned and walked to the bed, his cute little butt like a peach. He lay on his back, as I instructed, and I walked toward him, his eyes hungrily on my cock.

"Can you pull your thighs up to your chest? I want to rim you."

He nodded and did as I told him. He slid his hands to the back of his knees, lying on the bed, and pulled his thighs up. Their fronts rested against his trunk. His feet were up in the air, and I could see his ass, the pink hole, almost hairlessly blond.

I dropped down to my knees at the end of the bed. I put my hands on his ass, gently pulling his buttocks apart. I started to kiss their skin, a flicker of my tongue over his exposed taint. He gasped as I did it, as a woman does when you lick her clit. I stuck out my tongue more fully to touch the pink skin of his hole. At once, his body rocked. I looked up briefly to see his toes were curling.

"Oh, God…" he whispered. "Danny…"

I have always loved to eat a woman out, to do it long, until she hardly knows her mind and is dying to be fucked. Now I put my tongue flat against him, right against the sensitive skin. I felt his legs and his stomach twitch.

In rhythmic waves, I started to push my tongue harder against him. Then I started to flicker my tongue around his hole, teasing the entrance to his body. He groaned and pulsed, his breathing grew shorter, and then I did it all over again, shifting the techniques, mixing it up. Each time I changed what I was doing, he would moan, "Yes, Danny… Oh, yes…"

My cock was so hard I just wanted to fuck, but he said he wanted to suck me. I stood up at the end of the bed, and he scooted to sit in front of me, his eyes on my crotch at waist level.

He took my cock in his hand and opened his mouth. I wondered if he might struggle with it, but he just started sucking it very deeply along his tongue. Moving in waves, he looked up at me with his bright blue eyes as the head of my penis nestled easily into the back of his throat.

I put my hand on his head and gently began to fuck his mouth as if it were a vagina. We picked up the pace, and my cock moved a little deeper, until eventually it opened his throat.

He gasped as it opened, and I looked down at his naked body, his toes wriggling with pleasure, his cock rock hard and a glistening pearl of precum hanging from it. With one hand, he jerked my cock into his mouth; with the other, he reached down around his butt to touch his own hole. Now I understood what it meant to be a bottom, as he had confessed to me he was.

But now I just wanted to fuck him, to be inside him. I pushed him back on the bed.

"I want to fuck you," I said.

He nodded.

"I need you to, Danny…" he murmured. "I need you to…"

I leaned forward to kiss him. Our tongues didn't touch; it was a tender kiss, a lover's kiss, maybe even the kiss of those who are falling in love. With my mouth close to his, he whispered, "I want you to fuck me. I want you to come inside me."

Yet more blood rushed into my cock, and my balls tightened against my body. I didn't think I could get any harder, but here I was, my dick like a knife, with my desire for him. I moved down onto the bed, kneeling back on my haunches as he pulled his legs up to show me his hole again.

Moving forward, I put my cock to his body. He spat in his hand and smeared it over its head and then gently against his own hole.

"Do you need some lube?" I asked, trying to think how it might help him, but he shook his head.

"I think I will just open for you naturally."

I grinned at him, and he smiled beautifully back at me as I tilted forward and started to push myself inside him. He tensed a little momentarily. I was a big guy. I knew that I could push inside him, and I knew that if I was in him right up to the hilt, he would really feel it.

"Trust me," I said.

He blinked.

"Okay, Danny."

I pushed inside him. To my amazement, his ass opened completely, his hand delicate against my chest as I moved over and inside him. He looped his legs around my back, and my cock pushed inside his hole, as far as it could. He gasped, let out a low grunt.

"Jesus, you're huge, Danny."

At first, I used long, slow, tender strokes so that his body relaxed around the size of my cock. His body relaxed, and soon, I was fucking him quite easily. The look on his face changed, growing euphoric, happy.

My desire for him felt overwhelming. I just wanted to put a load in him, not to be crass or corny, but I wanted to connect to him that way. I wanted him to know that my sperm was inside him, swimming around his body, becoming one with him.

I started fucking him harder. With each thrust, I could see the effect of the weight of my body, a wall of muscle, beginning to hit him, hit his prostate, hit his skeleton and shape, too. I knew I was gonna come fast, and I knew I would be ready to go again in, like, two minutes. I wanted him so much. I desired him so much.

"Is it okay if I just cum quickly and then cum again, Bru?" I asked. "I just need to…" I felt dizzy, almost blinded with lust. "I just need to…"

"Nut inside me, Danny," he said. I looked into his eyes. "Please nut inside me."

And him saying it just like that, I couldn't hold on. I felt my own pleasure so intense, from my cock, into my balls, into my thighs, belly, shoulders, and biceps. I felt my whole body rushing to unload in him, to mark him as mine.

I couldn't look at him enough. I was drinking him in, in his pale beauty. He looked so beautiful, his body pounded with the power of my thrusts. And then I felt it: my balls tighten, my cock throb, and the moment when you lose all knowledge of yourself, the world seems nothing for a moment, it's just the two of you, no one else in the world. The semen is rushing from your testicles, up the shaft of your cock, bursting out of its slit, and into the body of your lover. As my warm cum hit his insides, his eyes went very wide, and I could feel his body rolling and twitching with the intensity of it.

"I can feel you," he was saying. "I can feel you inside me."

I felt his ass pulsing around my cock. I knew what was happening. It was his anal orgasm. My cock remained hard inside him. Then, gradually, I started to push inside him again, and he looked at me in amazement.

"Are you gonna keep fucking me, Danny?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said.

He gulped.

"I can feel your cum. You're fucking your cum into me."

I nodded.

"I know. It's going deeper into you."

"Fuck," he said.

As I kept fucking him like that, big, hard thrusts, my six-three muscular frame banging into him, his body went loose, almost limp, as he let his body absorb each and every thrust.

He tilted his head back, opening his mouth, groaning. I could see his eyes roll back, could see the whites. I could see the muscles of his belly rolling in time with how his ass twitched around my cock.

"Fuck, it feels so good," he murmured. "Danny, please don't stop."

If I came fast on the first load, on the second, I could take as much time as I needed. We fucked like that long and slow, tender at times, then by turns passionate, me making small movements, turning him over, then back. Or we would lie on our sides, me holding his body to my chest, fucking him from behind, pulling him into my body, and I could feel him losing himself in pleasure in that position. Finally, I turned him onto his back again, and I moved my body up a little so that now not just my cock but my whole weight was pounding his hole. He looked up at me very directly.

"Danny, you're gonna make me cum if you keep doing that…"

He arched his back, staring down at his cock, which he wasn't even touching. "Danny!" And then semen spurted out of his cock, up his belly, as far as his nipples. Seeing it, I couldn't hold on either.

"I am gonna cum again, Bru."

He tilted his ass up to let me very deeply inside him. I felt his legs grip my body, the muscles of his ass grip my cock. And then I felt it again. The semen shot out of me the second time, hot inside his body. I let out a huge groan as I nutted.

"Shh!" he went. "Shh!" He put his hand over my mouth, and then we were both laughing, even as I was still inside him, still pumping sperm inside him. I fell forward on top of him, our bodies so sweaty, and we started kissing, and he ran his hand over the back of my hair, just gazing at me with his beautiful, glistening eyes.