15. The Hotel In The Woods

FIFTEEN

THE HOTEL IN THE WOODS

Jack made me wear a blindfold as he drove me to our first official date. It was the third Saturday in January, and it was a shame we hadn’t found the time sooner.

We had three turbulent weeks behind us, filled with me visiting the clinic (it was everything Dorian had promised), signing a contract two days later (with a start date of January 15th), frantic phone calls with my parents (let’s not get into that), driving to Glenn’s Creek together to get the most important things (more clothes, documents, and my coffee maker), and a lot of one-on-one action with Jack.

After finishing my first week at the clinic yesterday, we both finally had enough headspace to go out on a date. Jack spent the whole day preparing (he insisted) while I stayed at our modest home and let it all sink in.

It took me much less time than I thought to adjust to working as a veterinarian again. Even though I was seventeen years younger than the youngest assistant working there, everyone treated me and my training with respect, which, to be honest, surprised me a lot. Dorian looked over my shoulder for a few appointments, but on my third day, he patted me on the back and said, “You’ve got this, doc.” The best part was that everything I feared would go wrong didn't. I clocked out after eight hours every day, and Dorian made sure that everyone respected that boundary from the start. That meant I could head home to Jack, my evenings free of after-hours calls and sleepless nights. Even though my decision to stay was basically a knee-jerk reaction, and those three weeks were packed, I never felt more at ease.

Until I sat in Jack’s car, blindfolded and sweating, that is. Seastone was so cold that I bought a new winter jacket with some of the money I earned from the McCormacs. I wore it every time I left the house, and so far, it had served me well. I shouldn’t have worn it in the car, though. The heater filled Jack’s pickup with so much warm air that I regretted keeping it on.

Jack hadn’t told me what we were doing. All I knew was that he had parked somewhere and was now shuffling around.

“How much longer?” I asked, eager to get some of my clothes off.

“Just one more second.” He leaned over me, and I could hear him putting some things on the dashboard. “ And another... now .” His fingers slipped under the blindfold and pulled it off my face.

We were high in the mountains with a view of the snowy valley that was home to Seastone. The setting sun painted the sky in a magnificent gradient, from deep red on the horizon to pitch black behind us. The trees in the distance swayed in the wind, and the surrounding mountains looked like something out of a painting.

“Wow.”

Jack pursed his lips. “This is Seastone’s make-out spot. Well hidden from outsiders and not very crowded thanks to not many young people.” On the dashboard was a charcuterie board with various cheeses, crackers, and salami. “I hope this is okay. I didn’t want to go to Ashbourne for dinner because we have to be somewhere in about thirty minutes and...” He looked down at his lap and bit his lower lip before his eyes searched for mine again. “And...”

“...and you wanted to spend some time making out before we go to this mysterious somewhere ?”

“I just want to sneak a few kisses. I swear.”

“Just a few?” I asked, acting indignant.

“Okay, you got me. A lot.” He leaned over the center console and stole the first of what I hoped would be many. Our lips met for only three seconds at first, but when he tried to pull away, he shook his head and leaned in for another, this time accompanied by his hand caressing my cheek. Our tongues met for a minute before he eased out of the embrace. “I hope this has satisfied your appetite for a few minutes. Because I want to stuff your mouth with some food so we’re not late for the movies in half an hour.”

My eyes went wide. There was only one place he could have meant. “Does that mean I get to meet your friends? Um, Jason and...?”

“Nick. Yes. But only briefly. They were kind enough to let us use their home theater.”

Jack had talked about them from time to time, but whenever I suggested we could meet with them, he said he wanted to keep me to himself a little longer. They owned the gas station, and the word around town was that they had a bit of a spooky vibe about them, but Jack assured me they were good people. Besides, they were gay and apparently three times more into horror movies than I was, so it only made sense to befriend them.

“I’m looking forward to meeting them,” I said, finally slipping out of my jacket.

Jack put some cream cheese on a cracker and held it out to me. I threw my jacket on the backseat and opened my mouth. He shoved it in so far that it was too much for my mouth. When I closed it, I bit off half of the cracker and barely caught the half that fell out.

I had to laugh hard, but with my mouth so full, I had to choke down the laughter so the garlicky taste wouldn’t go down the wrong pipe.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Jack said, holding his hands toward me as if he were preparing to do the Heimlich maneuver.

After some chewing, I swallowed and could finally let out my laugh. “No worries. I know you like to stuff things deep into my mouth.”

Jack’s ears turned red as he joined in my laughter. “Did you at least like the cheese?”

“It’s one of the best I ever had. I love garlic.”

“Me too. I got it in a little delicatessen store near Ashbourne. They had ten brands! I didn’t know which one to choose, but the saleswoman said this was her favorite. Imported from Italy, apparently.”

“Imported? You don’t have to spend your money on fancy things for me.”

“It’s our first date. We’re not even going to a restaurant, and the movies are free. I definitely didn’t overspend.”

“Sorry. I’m just used to not having any money, and it’s going to be a while before I get my first paycheck.”

We continued to feed each other, and fifteen minutes later, the charcuterie board was almost empty, and we were stuffed.

“I love this ,” I said, pointing toward the valley. “The view, the food,…” I turned to him and took a deep breath to find the courage to say what was on my mind. But when he smiled at me, I knew I could go on. “And I love you .”

His smile turned into a grin that was so wide that his head tilted back as if his teeth were too heavy for him to hold his head up any longer. “Did you say what I heard, or is my mind playing tricks on me?” He raised his head again and beamed at me.

"What did you hear?" I asked, feigning innocence.

“The L-word.”

“Lasagna?”

“No, the other one.”

“Oh, yeah. Then I guess you heard it right.”

His cheeks reddened as his dimples rose higher than I’d ever seen them. “I love you, too, Noah.”

Since I had said it first, I thought I’d be calm and collected when he said it back, but hearing those words sent a flutter through my chest and heat into my cheeks. Jack Norlander loved me. “How about we honor the name of this place then and spend our last ten minutes here wisely?”

Jack nodded and leaned in closer. We didn’t have long before we had to pack up and leave, but we were going to make every second count.

When Jack drove past the gas station, down a road with a big dead-end sign next to it, I thought nothing of it at first. But the deeper we got into the woods, the more the trees grew over the road and the weirder my stomach felt. Who on earth in their thirties lives so far away from the action? When we finally reached what I could only assume was Jason and Nick’s house, my forehead hurt from all the frowning. The road ended in a cul-de-sac that had a roof over it leading up to the building. Was this for real? It didn’t look like a house, more like an abandoned hotel. A floodlight came on automatically as Jack drove under the roof, shining down on a white Honda and a gray minivan parked there. The light cast long shadows across the path that led to the double glass front doors.

“Tell me this place isn’t haunted.”

“It is. By Jason and Nick.”

“But they are alive, aren’t they?”

“Yeah,” Jack laughed uncertainly. “I think so. You should have heard their wedding vows, though. They decided that death would not do them part, and instead, they would haunt anyone who tried to live in this place together. It was strangely sweet.”

“They sound fun.”

“I promise you’ll like them.” He yanked the door open, and I followed his lead. The air outside reminded me to bring my jacket, so I rushed to the back seat to grab it while Jack made his way to me.

I rubbed my neck and pointed at the house. “After you.”

“They are nice people. There is nothing to be afraid of.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “Though I had the same reaction when I first came here.” Jack grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him toward the entrance.

I peered through the glass doors and could see a red carpet but not much else. Jack rang the bell on the right, and five seconds later, a chandelier in the middle of the foyer came on, bathing everything in a bright yellow glow. Turns out, I wasn’t wrong about this being a hotel. Two dark wooden staircases, one on the left and one on the right, led up to the second floor. A reception desk on the right had a golden bell on top and a board with thirty keys behind it.

A guy in his mid-thirties with an eye patch appeared out of nowhere, a big frown on his face when he saw us. He unlocked the door and yanked it open. “Look what the cat dragged in.” The one eye that wasn’t covered studied me, but the frown quickly gave way to a small smile. “You must be Noah. The whole town is in cahoots because of you. It’s already echoing through the trees that there’s a new vet in town.”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Jason. Good to finally meet you.” He said with a grin, eyeing Jack. He held out his hand, and when I put mine in, he shook it with the strength of a professional wrestler. “Can we make a deal, Noah? I won’t ask you what brought you here, and you won’t ask me about the eye patch. You must be as tired of explaining as I am.”

I was curious, but I understood where he was coming from. He wasn’t wrong in assuming that every new person I met would ask me why someone as young as me would willingly move here. “Deal.”

He let go of my hand and opened the door wider to let us in.“You know the way, Jack. I need to get back to the kitchen. Nick is cooking dinner, and I don’t want to watch my house burn down tonight.” Without waiting, he turned and walked to the right down a hallway I hadn’t noticed from outside.

“Thanks for letting us use your place,” Jack called after him.

“Anytime,” Jason said without turning around.

Jack headed for the stairs. “Shall we?”

“Shouldn’t we spend more time with them?”

“This is our first date! Maybe after the movie, if you want to.”

He led me through the foyer, up the right staircase, past some paintings of mountains and people who must have been dead for at least a hundred years. The second floor looked completely different from the entrance hall. The part to our left had been remodeled in a Scandinavian style with light wood tones, and the part to our right was under construction, covered with a plastic sheet to protect the wood from the paint.

“They’ve been renovating for a year,” Jack said. “Nick actually does most of it himself. He’s the handiest guy I’ve ever met.”

“So they want to open up the place again?”

“Yeah. They said they might be ready in a year or so. Let’s see if it works out, though. There’s a reason it was closed years ago.”

Jack led me down the remodeled part of the hallway into the second room on the left. The inside of the door was plastered with black acoustic panels. Red curtains adorned the walls, and a fancy new red carpet shimmered in the dim, indirect light. To the right were very comfortable-looking modern reclining seats for thirty people on three levels so that everyone had a good view of the large screen that was the centerpiece of the room.

“It’s a real movie theater,” I exclaimed. “Who would have thought?”

“Yes. It’s part of the hotel concept. Something about digital nomads and stuff. They explained it to me, but I honestly don’t remember all of it.” Jack laughed. He closed the door behind him, and as soon as we were alone, he grabbed my head and kissed me. “But for now, we have it all to ourselves. That means we can make out as much as we want.”

I grinned. “Is this why you brought me here? First, the make-out spot, and now the private movie theater?”

“Can you blame me?”

“Blame? Put on a movie and take your pants off,” I laughed.

I didn’t have to tell him twice. He walked around the seats and pushed into the wall to reveal a hidden shelf containing at least a thousand Blu-rays. My eyes went wide. I had expected a small basement with a couch—something regular people would call a home cinema—not this .

“Nick’s quite the enthusiast,” Jack said. “Name the movie, and if it’s horror, he probably has it.”

I scanned the shelf. Most of the movies were classics, and half of them were ones I’d never heard of. “We can watch something softer.” Jack had agreed to watch some horror comedies the last few weeks to ease him into the genre, but even they were too scary for him. He still closed his eyes a lot. Every time he did, his ears wiggled around, hoping for audio cues to tell him when it was safe to look again.

“But you love horror movies. That’s why I brought you here.”

There was a small section on the right labeled ‘Not horror.’ I looked at the twenty movies in that category, and as soon as I found Titanic, I pulled it out.

“How about this one?”

“Are you serious?”

“The ship sinks, people die, Twink-Leo draws naked women… It basically is a horror movie.”

“Whatever you want,” Jack said and came over to take the Blu-ray from me. He made his way to the projector in the back, making it clear that this, in fact, wasn’t his first time here. I settled into the chair in the middle row because it seemed to have the best view and was one of the three double seats they had.

A minute later, the screen came on, showing sepia-toned images of the ship, and the lights dimmed enough that I could still see the room but not be distracted by it. A deep bass filled the theater, and a light female voice sang over it, coming at me from all sides. They didn’t skimp on the sound system, either.

Jack threw himself into the seat next to me. “I never thought you were into movies like this.”

“You want to know why I chose it? Because we’ve probably both seen it so many times that we can make out without missing anything.”

Jack shook his head with a grin but leaned forward and pulled me into a kiss. Our tongues met as the submarines descended into the depths. We made ourselves comfortable in the seats. I didn’t care about the movie. All I cared about was lying in Jack’s warm arms, feeling his tongue slowly caressing mine and his hands wandering down my back… under my waistband. He squeezed my bum briefly before his right hand continued to wander between my ass cheeks, sliding through my crack.

My dick doubled in size in seconds. I didn’t expect him to go that far in his friend’s house.

“Are we…?”

“They won’t bother us. Jason knows this is a date. He told me himself that there is no better way to get into Nick’s pants than a movie. But if you feel uncomfortable, we can stop.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to stop. I just thought this was the foreplay, and the rest would happen at home. Hence, my surprise…”

“Do you want to do it at home?”

“Sure, why not? I don’t mind doing it twice tonight,” I teased him.

Jack’s mouth fell open as he realized what I had just told him, and I took the opportunity to stick my tongue back down his throat. Even after all the sex we had over the past few weeks, I was still hungry for him. Sleeping with him was the antidote to my fatigue, and I loved watching his face when he came. I reached down with my right hand to feel his raised bulge.

Jack didn’t need to be told again to get back to playing with my ass. His finger swirled around my pucker, dipping several times against the entrance, and as he worked his index finger inside me, my groin rubbed against his leg.

My mouth fell open, ready to moan as I usually did, but I held it back and just exhaled slowly. Our eyes locked, and the harder I tried to hold back my moans, the deeper he pushed his finger into me. His eyes sparkled with lust as he enjoyed watching me slowly lose control.

“Do you enjoy teasing me much?” I asked.

“You bet.”

I couldn’t wait any longer. My fingers fumbled with his jeans, and as soon as I got the zipper down, I pulled his hard cock out, wrapped my palms around his shaft, and stroked it. He was already leaking some pre-cum. I leaned down, pushing my ass up so he could continue to play with it, and took his cock in my mouth. The sweet and salty taste of his pre-cum was the perfect dessert. I licked up his shaft, hungry for more, but a blowjob would not be enough tonight. As I continued to suck, I reached down to my pants, unbuckled my belt, and pulled it off along with my underwear. Jack pulled his finger out, reached into his jacket, which had landed on the couch next to us, and revealed a bottle of lube.

“Someone’s prepared.” I let go of his dick and chuckled as I pushed myself up. “Not that I’m complaining.”

He stuck out his tongue as he popped the bottle open. He poured some lube on his hand and applied it to his dick. I put my right leg on the seat, now towering over him, ready to sit on his cock. His hand reached for my crease, and as he lubricated me, he pulled my groin up to his face. He opened his mouth wide and wrapped it around my dick. His hands and mouth worked in unison to make sure I was ready and horny enough for the next act. He licked over my glans so intensely that I could have come if he’d kept going, but I knew there was only one way I would accept shooting my load tonight. So I pulled my dick out of his mouth and slowly sat down on his cock.

We’d done it so many times that the first little sting I felt when he slid in made me hornier than anything else.“I fucking love your dick inside me,” I whispered. “Just like your hands on my body, your tongue in my mouth, and being with you in every way.”

“Me too,” Jack whispered back. “I can’t get enough of you.” He moved his hips in rhythm with me as I rode his cock. This was my favorite position because I could see his face, feel his chest, and kiss him deeply whenever I wanted.

We fucked for half the movie. We switched positions several times and eventually ended up with me on my back and Jack plowing me missionary style—my second favorite position for the same reasons.

I wrapped my arms around him and held him close, feeling his breath on my neck as he panted.

“Can I come?” he asked, ready to hold back if I wasn’t satiated enough.

“Fill me up,” I whispered.

He thrust into me three more times and then stopped, his mouth open but holding back his moans. His cock throbbed as he shot rope after rope. My own dick twitched violently, and just the feeling of him coming inside me was enough. I shot my load onto my stomach as well, unable to hold back the moans anymore. I let them out, and when Jack heard me going wild, he joined me.

“Fuck it, the room’s soundproofed,” he said, moaning and thrusting his dick into me again. I dug my fingertips into his back and pulled him onto me. I didn’t care that this would also smear my cum on his chest, making the mess even bigger. Being with him, doing this, was just too damn hot to give a fuck what I would think about it in ten minutes. His friends knew what we were doing here anyway, and I bet they didn’t choose leather seats by accident.

Jack thrust into me one last time before lifting his head. I reached for his cheek to make sure he was looking at my face, but before I could say what was on my mind, the sound system blasted it through the room.

"I love you, Jack," the female lead in the movie said, and we both burst out laughing.

“Don’t steal my words,” I yelled at the screen before I turned my eyes back to him. “You know, that’s what I was just about to say, right?”

Jack gazed at me as if the words had come out of my mouth. “I do.” He kissed me again and then pushed himself off me, taking in the sticky mess on his chest. “What do you think? Should we leave it and walk out of here like that?” He bit his bottom lip, glancing at me.

“Okay, now I have to say it myself.” I stood up, stepped in front of him, put my hand on his shoulder, and pulled him into another sticky hug. “I fucking love you, Jack.”

“I love you, too.” His hands searched my shoulder blades. “But I have to admit I only suggested staying like this to tease you.”

I let go of him and found his face as red as a tomato. "I know." Even if he didn't mean it, it didn't change what I had just said or why. I just loved how he spoke so freely around me, how we could be vulnerable and playful with each other, and how every minute with him felt like the most precious gift.

The story of how we cleaned up is one we vowed never to tell anyone. (It didn’t include us sneaking through the hotel—naked and covered in cum—to the restroom on the other side of the corridor. And it definitely didn't include me getting so turned on by this that my boner wouldn't go down, which didn't lead to Jack getting horny again and giving me another blowjob right then and there.)

By the time we got back to the cinema, the credits were already rolling. We got dressed again, made sure there was no evidence left on the seats, put the Blu-ray back where it came from, and made our way back downstairs.

Jack called out for Jason, and only after three full minutes of waiting by the main entrance did he stick his head through a swinging door—now, for some reason, without his shirt on.

“Let’s get together for a double date soon,” Jason said, winking at us, and then disappeared without another word.

“He knew what we were doing, right?” I asked.

“I bet we weren’t the only ones, to be honest.”

We stood there for a moment, letting that sink in before Jack squeezed my shoulder. “Wanna go home?”

I nodded. I couldn’t wait to get back to the small one-bedroom apartment we shared. It wasn’t much, and if my parents saw it, they would probably hate it. Still, I couldn’t care less. it felt more like home than anywhere else I had lived before. The reason for that was no secret. Wherever Jack was, it felt like home to me.

He put his arm around my shoulder and led me back to his pickup truck. The air was still chilly, but being close to him, I didn't feel cold. It was as if his warmth radiated to everything he touched.

“Thanks for a great night,” I said as we reached the car. I turned to him, my grin as wide as the night sky. “It was the best date I have ever been on.”

Jack’s cheeks glowed as his eyes met mine. “Best date yet .”

He was right. This was just the beginning. There were thousands of dates to come, a lifetime of days I wanted to spend with him, and I couldn't wait to savor every one of them.