9. The More You Know

NINE

THE MORE YOU KNOW

The blizzard was the heaviest to hit the country since weather records began. It became so unpredictable that the forecast changed by the minute.

‘It will get better in about twelve hours.’

‘If this low-pressure front hits us here, the blizzard could last a whole week.’

‘Today’s snow was only the first taste of what’s coming.’

If we didn’t run out of food in a few days, I wouldn’t mind if it never ended. It had only been about thirty-six hours that I had been with Jack, about twenty-four of them snowbound, and we had already accepted that we were what could be called a blizzard couple, even though we never officially labeled it that. We were just two people who liked each other enough to make the best of the situation.

It helped that we knew each other from before, and it also helped that I remembered more of our college days together. I even found an old picture of our study group from when we went out for drinks after a presentation. We looked terrifying in it. Jack, without a beard, looked like an adult Boy Scout. I only had a three-day shadow on my face, but my mane was shaggy because I hadn’t been to the hair salon in over a year.

Whatever Jack had seen in me back then to have a crush on me, I was glad it was still there. From the first time we kissed, he looked at me with a softness in his eyes that I had never seen before. Spending every minute with him made me learn more about him in that short time than I had learned about any of my ex-boyfriends in previous relationships.

For starters, Jack only liked coffee when diluted with sixty percent milk. Although he initially said he would eat anything, he can’t stand the taste of bell peppers, and he grinds his teeth when he sleeps, which he only does naked.

“Because I feel so hot,” he explained when I asked him about it as he climbed under the blanket with me on our second night.

“I can assure you, you’re always hot.” He was, at least in my eyes. It took him a second before he blushed and pulled the blanket over our heads.

Dogs were his favorite animals, as were mine. That was why every time I came back into the room, his hands were stroking Maggie’s fur. He told me he needed to take advantage of every opportunity he got since he hadn’t lived with a dog since his early college days when he shared an apartment with a friend who lived with her pug.

“Why not adopt one?”

“If you ever see my apartment, you’ll understand why.”

We both lost touch with everyone from college. We both hated the same chemistry professor but loved the same cafeteria food (they made a killer vegetable lasagna and a surprisingly good meatless burger).

Jack was also always concerned about other people’s well-being. Whatever we were doing, whether it was making breakfast or fucking like rabbits, he always made sure I was comfortable and having fun.

On our third morning, he even asked my permission to call some of his clients to check on them. “It will probably take a few hours. Once they start talking, I can’t bring myself to end it prematurely.”

I was sure that if I’d told him it would make me uncomfortable, he wouldn’t have done it. But that he cared so much about everyone was what I found most attractive about him. “You don’t need my permission. Please take all the time you need,” I assured him. “I can entertain myself.”

As soon as he picked up the phone and started talking to them, I couldn't stop watching him. During the first call, he stood by the front door. When it ended after twenty minutes, he got a chair from the kitchen and sat on it cross-legged. Whenever he noticed me staring, a smile would creep across his face, and he would blush, but after the third time, he started blowing me air kisses that turned into real ones between calls. Meanwhile, Maggie alternated between sitting next to him to get her ears scratched and lying next to me to get her back rubbed while we watched Jack together.

After the fifth call, he came over and petted Maggie and, when I gave her an envious look, me, too.

At first, he just stroked my hair, but when that made me purr like a cat, he got more into it. Both of his hands crawled from my crown to my beard, working their way to my chin and then down my neck back to my crown again. “Is that good?”

“M-hm,” I replied, surrendering to the magic of his hands. I had already experienced that wherever they touched my skin, new life was infused into me, but this was even more addictive. He caressed my shoulders, reached through the top of my sweater, and crawled through the five hairs that grew on my chest, only to start the entire process over again.

After three rounds, I couldn’t even squint both eyes at the same time.

He leaned his head over mine, his fingers crawling through my beard. “Who’s a good boy?”

My whole body tingled at his words. But unfortunately, that was the end of this heavenly bliss.

He withdrew his touch and grinned at me. “I’ve been clogging up the line all morning. You want to call someone?”

I opened my eyes up again. “I already sent my parents a text, which I think went through.” I fumbled for my phone, which had fallen into the crack at the side of the couch, and opened the Messenger app to show it to him. Two gray checkmarks below the message let me know it had at least reached their end. “They don’t like to talk much on the phone, in case you were wondering. If I called them, it would be over in a minute anyway. And besides them…” I stopped. My eyes sank to the floor. “...besides them, there is no one else I could call.” I lifted my head again, smiling as if I didn’t care. “Is that sad?”

His eyes lingered on me before he shook his head. “No, just a little reckless. Great people like you shouldn’t have to go through life alone.”

I had never thought of it that way, but he wasn’t wrong. Once I started vet school, it became harder to keep in touch with people. I learned better on my own, and through all the rotations and internships, I was constantly meeting new people and growing apart from others.

Jack kissed me on the cheek. “Well, you can call me from now on. I will always be happy to hear from you.”

“Even if we haven’t talked in years?”

Jack opened his arms like a talk show host greeting the audience. “This is exactly our situation, and look how close we are. Who cares about five years?” He put his palm on my head and left it there for five seconds, just like I did when the dogs at the clinic needed their emotions acknowledged, and it had exactly the grounding effect I was told it would.

“How many people do you have to call?” I asked, now wanting his hand to stay on my head longer.

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, the fingers of his right hand twitching as he counted. “Four, no six if I count my friends. But they’re a couple and as chatty on the phone as your parents, so it’s only a short fifth call.”

“Then I don't want to keep you from it.”

“You want me to be done so I can get my hands back on you,” he said, sticking out his tongue. “I saw it in your face, and I will gladly oblige.” He shuffled back to the landline. His smirk lit up the room as he continued to eye me for the next hour he was on the phone.

The next day, my list of things I learned to love about Jack grew longer when he told me he was a ‘total softie,’ as he put it. I had suggested we could watch a movie, and when I say movie, I usually mean something from the horror genre. Strangely enough, they calmed me down, probably because the characters had a harder time than I did.

As soon as I suggested it, his ears flicked back as if trying to hide, which they couldn't, given their size.

“You’re the first gay guy I’ve met who doesn’t like horror movies,” I teased him.

“Well, if it helps, my friends are crazy about them. They have amassed quite a collection over the years. I bet you’d have a fantastic evening with them.”

“I want to have a fantastic evening with you, so let’s do something else.”

“No, no. We can watch one. Just know that I will look away half the time.”

The image of him hiding his face on my shoulder every time he got scared made me blush and want to go through with it now. How darn cute would that be? But the urge to do something we would both enjoy was stronger.

I let my eyes wander around the room, trying to think of something else, when the gay cowboy book Mrs. Candice had given me caught my attention. I walked over to the coffee table and held it up. “How about this instead?”

His ears turned red as he stared at the bare chests of the two cover models.

“From one horror to the next, huh?” I joked, turning the book over to take in their six-pack abs. They were what most people would call good-looking, but oddly enough, they didn’t turn me on half as much as Jack did fully clothed.

“Have you ever read anything like this?” Jack asked.

I hadn’t read fiction in a long time. I loved novels when I was younger, but they were replaced by textbooks in college and by doom-scrolling Instagram at night in veterinary school. “I found a similar book in the library not long before I moved out of Glenn’s Creek.” I was still at the point in my life where I was figuring things out. “It was a fascinating read.”

“I knew it,” Jack laughed.

The one I had read back then didn’t have any scenes in it that would justify such a reaction. The hottest scene mentioned only a kiss and a hand sliding under a t-shirt. I still masturbated to that fantasy for days. Judging by the cover, Mrs. Candice’s book would not fade to black.

“I’ll read it to you,” I said jokingly.

“Out loud?”

“Why not? Afraid it’ll turn you on?”

He blushed, making me wonder how red his face would get when the hot cowboy friends got down to business. But a grin wiped away the reddish flush as he clapped his hands together. “Let’s see who gets turned on first.”

“Really?”

“Go ahead.” He planted his ass on the couch and sneered at me, ready to see if I would go through with it.

“I'm going to give you the performance of your life.” As if we were in a theater with him as my only audience member, I positioned myself in front of him. I certainly would not chicken out. I opened the book and flipped to the first chapter. “One. Damian.” I cleared my throat. “When you live in midwestern Texas, you learn two things. How to survive the scorching hot days and how not to get distracted by your scorching hot coworker.” A mocking laugh escaped my mouth and made me pause.

Jack’s ears wiggled as he hung on my lips. “Have you had enough already?”

“No. I was just surprised they didn’t wait a second,” I commented, turning my eyes back to the page and continuing to read. “The problem with my colleague Chance, though, was that he took his shirt off whenever he got the chance like he wanted to make his name proud.”

Paws clattering on the floor made me pause again. Maggie was shuffling toward the kitchen as if she had decided that wherever this story was going, it should stay between Jack and me.

He leaned back and spread his legs wide, the outline of his dick now visible through the gray sweatpants.

I stared at it for a moment. “Is that getting you hot?”

He leered at me with a smug smile. “We’ll see.”

Shaking my head, I continued reading. The story only needed three more paragraphs before the main character, Damian, was already fantasizing about what he wanted to do with his flamboyant pal, Chance. To my surprise, Jack didn’t blush, but he couldn’t take his eyes off me. I concentrated on the page until Jack’s right hand disappeared into his pants. I gave him a mischievous look, but he just nodded at me to keep reading.

I had to admit that I was unexpectedly turned on by this. My eyes wandered between Jack kneading his dick and the book, and the longer I read, the more aroused I became.

After another page of Damian fantasizing about Chance and masturbating in the stables, the very man who had lit that fire within him caught him.

“Who could have guessed?” I commented, not that I minded, because it was exactly what I wanted to happen.

Jack sat up, licked his lips, and reached for my bulge. He pressed his palm into it, making my legs flail as his touch was always enticing. “Keep reading,” he ordered as he kneaded my dick through the fabric.

I gasped but followed his lead. I read to him how Chance had been wary when he saw what Damian was doing but then had a change of heart and told Damian to finish the job so he wouldn’t get distracted when they went out to bring in the cows.

As my words filled the room, Jack released my dick and wrapped his lips around it. His tongue engulfed me, but when I stopped reading to watch the show, he stopped sucking me, his eyes twinkling at me to let me know he would only continue if I did.

I opened my mouth, and as the first word of the next sentence came out, Jack’s mouth was moving down my shaft again.

Chance was not shy about offering Damian some help and did not even wait for an answer before he got down on his knees in front of him.

What had been written by someone publishing under a probably fake name was now happening live in our living room. Jack copied everything Chance did. When I read to him about Chance licking up Damian’s shaft, Jack did the same to me. When Chance swirled his tongue around Damian’s glans, Jack’s tongue followed suit. He sucked on my balls a second after I read about it, and he pressed his thumb against my perineum, making my legs shake just like in the book. The only problem was that when Damian unexpectedly sprayed his load all over Chance’s face, I wasn’t even close to doing the same. I was aroused, hard, and not too far away, yes, but it would be at least another minute or two before I could come.

Jack wrapped his index finger and thumb around my shaft, now jerking me off as he slid my dick in and out of his mouth. I groaned and looked past the pages, searching for Jack's face. He fixed his eyes on me, but this time, he kept going, making it clear that it would be okay if I stopped reading now as long as I gave him the same ending as in the book.

The sight of Jack working my cock while still fully clothed was to my taste. His hard dick was pressing against the inside of his sweatpants, but he ignored it, having more fun taking care of me instead.

He jerked me faster, tilting his head back as he opened his mouth wide and stuck out his tongue. The tip of it brushed against my glans with every other stroke, making me want to give him what he had worked so hard for. I couldn’t believe he was about to do that. Every time we had fucked, he had been the one on top, but to take control like this while changing positions was... breathtaking. My shoulders slumped forward, and even though my knees were getting weak, I managed to keep myself upright. I put the book on the coffee table and stabilized myself by placing my hands on his shoulders.

I panted, getting closer and closer until the first drop leaked out of me. He pulled my foreskin back as far as he could without hurting me and pressed his thumb against my perineum. My load shot all over his face and hair. Three thick ropes painted him white, and the more cum dripped onto him, the wider he opened his mouth.

A smile spread across his cum-soaked face.

He wrapped his lips around me again and sucked me in one last time. My knees buckled so badly that I leaned forward to hold on until he let me go, grinning like he got his wish.

“We did a live-action adaptation,” I said.

“With you in the lead, I can honestly say it was a hit,” he replied, squeezing his left eye shut as cum dripped from his forehead.

I searched the room and found a box of tissues on the sideboard that came to his rescue. He wiped his face, and when it was clean, he stood up. His mouth hovered in front of mine, teasing me as if the blow job was merely a prelude to tonight. He put his hand on my head, ruffled my hair, and after an intense kiss that made me hard again, he said the words that made me fall completely for him.

“Good boy.”