17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Jake

" Y our—your parents?" Max sputtered, eyes wide, face turning faintly pink.

I couldn't stop the grin that spread over my face. "Calm down, it's not that serious."

"Jake, I'm not sure about what you do in Port Grandlin, but where I come from, meeting the parents is serious."

I ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to tame it. "It's not like that. I want to tell them about the letters. Since we know they're not going on the show, I want to get my mom's perspective on what we should do with them. They're from her grandfather, after all. I'd also like to hear the rest of the story, to see if she knows anything."

He finished dressing and came to me, kissing me gently. "If you want to do that, I'm all for it. But do I have to do it wearing yesterday's clothes?"

I let out a surprised laugh. "Of course not."

"Good. Then let me at least take a shower and put on something clean."

"Only if I get to shower with you."

Max smirked and winked at me. "I don't know… you might be too distracting to shower with."

"I'll behave," I promised, knowing I had no intention of doing any such thing.

"Sure you will." He rolled his eyes and led the way out of the bedroom.

A few minutes later, we were at Max's rental and Sterling was nowhere to be found. "No roommate?"

Max shook his head and grinned slyly. "I told him I was coming home to change and I needed the place to myself."

I snorted. "And that worked?"

"Clearly. Now about that shower…"

Max led the way into his bedroom, and to my relief, there was a large, luxurious en suite bathroom attached. The shower was large, a tiled stand-up shower with glass doors and two showerheads on opposing walls. He reached in and turned on the spray, cranking the temperature to a nice, just-below-scalding heat, the bathroom quickly fogging up.

"Get in there," he murmured.

I scrambled to comply, stripping quickly and stepping in. As the water hit me, I faced the showerhead and let out a deep sigh, my normally tense shoulder muscles relaxing. Max followed just after me, sliding a hand around my waist. His hand was slick against my wet skin, and he reached up from behind to caress my chest, his fingers lightly stroking the hair there. He was a little shorter than I was, but he was tall enough to press a kiss to my shoulder before dragging his lips up to the juncture of my neck, opening his mouth and scraping his teeth along my skin.

My cock reacted with a heavy twitch, thickening quickly. Between his insistent hold on my chest and the kisses he was leaving on my neck and shoulder, it was clear that Max had intentions other than just washing yesterday's sweat off. His hardening cock slotted in the cleft of my ass and he rutted against me, my breath hitching. Max dropped his hand to my growing erection and hummed.

"You like this." It wasn't a question.

I nodded and groaned, pushing back into him to feel the heat of his length and rocking forward to chase the friction of his hand.

He withdrew his hand from my cock. "You want more?"

"Yes. Fuck yes."

"Are you going to bend over and let me take this incredible, tight ass right here in the shower, where nobody can hear you scream my name when you come?"

The broken whimper that escaped me was decidedly not in line with my tough guy image, but I didn't care about that at the moment. "God, yes." A shiver racked my body despite the hot water running over my skin.

"Good." Max pulled away, leaving me gasping and confused.

I looked back at him, furrowing my brow. "What…?"

His smirk was impossibly self-confident. "I told you, you're distracting. I need to clean up first."

A frustrated groan escaped me, but instead of protest, I played along. I grabbed the shampoo and lathered my hands before I turned to Max. "Let me help," I murmured. I ran my fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp as I washed, scraping my nails against his skin and drawing little shivers and groans from him. When that was complete, I poured soap onto a washcloth and worked it in until there were suds. I ran the cloth over his chest slowly, then up along his shoulders, washing his neck. When I'd soaped him up well enough, I made a spinning gesture with my index finger. "Turn around."

As I scrubbed Max's back, he let out soft sighs of appreciation, relaxing into my touch. I lowered the cloth to his ass, cleaning him carefully, and then lowered it further still, washing his legs. Soon I was kneeling on the tiled floor, helping Max wash his feet. Once he was clean, I guided him to turn around again with my hands.

"Rinse off," I murmured, and he nodded, tipping his head back into the water, letting the soap run down his body and swirl down the drain. His erection was directly in front of me, jutting out toward my body, and I knew what I wanted to do. I wrapped a hand around the base of his shaft and opened my mouth, leaning in to take him inside.

Max groaned and ran his fingers through my hair, tilting his head to watch me. My stomach was a bundle of nerves, but I craved the experience, so I sucked him deep, stroking his crown with my tongue, the salty precum sliding down my throat. I knew I wouldn't be any kind of expert, but I knew what felt good, so I did my best to replicate that. I stroked his shaft as I sucked, using my free hand to gently caress and tug at his balls. Max's hand on my head urged me on, as did the sounds he made while I worked him, taking him as deep into my throat as I could. After several glorious minutes of this, Max tugged my hair, gasping my name.

"Jake."

I looked up, not stopping.

His pupils were wide, his breath hitching with every inhale, and I knew he was loving it. "You've got to…" He groaned again as his crown hit the back of my throat and I moaned around him. "Stop. I'm so close. I want to fuck you."

His words sent electricity crackling through me and I did as he asked, pulling away and standing. I stepped forward to kiss him and he opened his mouth to me, groaning when our tongues met. We kissed for several minutes, groping each other as we did, both eager for our bodies to come together again.

When he pulled away, he leaned close and whispered in my ear. "Turn around and bend over."

I moaned and nodded, doing exactly that, pressing my hands to the shower wall as I braced myself for him to invade me. I looked back to see Max grab a tiny bottle of something that had to have been lube and pour it on his hands before stroking himself. He caressed my ass before using his slick hand to tease my hole, sliding a finger in. When I groaned and nodded, he pushed a second inside me, slowly prepping me for his cock. After what felt like an eternity, a third finger joining the first two and my ass aching for more, I thrust my hips back, desperate for him, not wanting to wait any longer.

"Impatient," he murmured, but he gave me what I wanted. The next thing I knew, Max's cock was sliding inside of me in one quick stroke.

When he was all the way in, I moaned again, spreading my legs wider and thrusting against him, practically begging him to fuck me. Max wasted no time, gripping my hips and fucking into me again and again, tugging me back onto his cock as he did. Each thrust got me at just the right angle to make me see stars, Max hitting my prostate over and again. This wasn't the slow, drawn-out session of the night before. This one was fast and filthy, the slick sounds of our skin slapping and our harsh breathing audible even over the shower spray, both of us making desperate noises as we careened close to the edge together.

I didn't know how much longer I could hold out, my cock aching to be touched, precum leaking from me in sticky strands, my erection slapping my stomach with each of Max's thrusts. His groans became more feral, more insistent with every passing second, and he pounded into me relentlessly.

"Now," he gasped out. "I want to feel you come."

I reached a hand down to my cock and stroked myself fiercely, desperate, chasing my rapidly building orgasm. Between the insistent pounding of my prostate and my hand on my cock, it wasn't long. I came, crying out Max's name as I did, just as he'd wanted, thick ropes of cum splattering against the shower wall, my ass clenching around his cock over and again. Max's thrusting stuttered and he drove in hard, rocking me up on my toes as he came deep inside me.

My chest heaved as I slowly came down from the high of my orgasm, my cock still twitching in my hand. Max stayed deep inside me and leaned forward, kissing the nape of my neck again.

"You're incredible," he murmured before pulling out slowly.

I groaned softly, missing the fullness as he pulled out, a part of me wishing he could stay there forever. I held still for a long few moments while my breathing evened out before turning to face him and capturing his mouth in a kiss. "So are you." Once Max turned off the water, I smiled teasingly at him. "Now, are you ready to meet my parents?"

He smirked, quirking an eyebrow, dropping his voice to a sexy murmur. "Are you ready for me to meet your parents? My cum dripping out of your ass the whole time? Knowing what we've been doing the past twelve hours and knowing how badly I want to do it again?"

I groaned and tilted my head back. "Fuck, that's hot."

He shrugged and changed his tone to a lighthearted one. "Time to go, sweetheart."

An hour later, I pulled my truck into my parents' driveway, Max's hand firmly gripping mine. "Nervous?"

"A little," he admitted.

I took a deep breath. "Me too."

"Do they know we're coming?"

I hesitated a beat before answering. "I texted earlier." What I didn't say was that I hadn't mentioned Max coming along. I knew they wouldn't mind having an extra guest, but I was still nervous to introduce him as my boyfriend. I opened the truck door and climbed out, leading the way to the front porch of my parents' little blue rancher. The house was on a tiny lot, one among the rows of single-story houses that all looked nearly identical.

I knocked twice on the door before opening it and stepping inside, Max close behind, the box of letters under his arm. "Mom? Dad?"

My mom came around the corner from the kitchen, drying her hands on a little towel. "Oh!" She paused when she saw Max. "I didn't know you were bringing a friend."

"I'm so sorry to intrude, Mrs. Young. I hope it's not an imposition."

"Don't be silly, any friend of Jake's is a friend of ours."

My heart pounded in my chest. She'd given me the perfect opportunity to come out and I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. "Actually, he's my boyfriend."

Mom hesitated only a second before she smiled widely. "Well, it's good to meet you… I didn't get your name."

"Max." He gave her his winning smile, the one I'd called his Hollywood smile all those weeks ago. I realized how wrong I'd been, how genuine his smile really was.

Mom reached out to take his hand. "Max. You call me Joan." She turned to peer down the hallway. "Norman? Jake's here, and he's brought his boyfriend, Max."

My face heated but Max looked at me and smiled and my nerves began to settle.

A moment later, my dad ambled down the hall from their bedroom. "Boyfriend, huh? Well, I'm glad to meet you. Why don't we go into the dining room and get started on some lunch? You never come around anymore. It's good to see you again."

Mom and Dad headed in and we followed behind slowly. Before we got far, Max stopped me and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I thought you said you didn't have a great relationship with them."

"We're not close. We get along fine, but… I don't know."

"Boys?" Mom called from the other room. "Are you coming?"

"Yep, on the way." I took Max by the hand and led him into the dining room.

As we entered, Mom's gaze flickered down to our joined hands and back to our faces. "I'm so glad Jake finally has someone special in his life."

" Mom ," I said, sounding more like a whiny teenager than a fully grown adult.

"What?" She placed pitchers of tea on the table and pulled dishes out of the cabinet before she began to set the table. "It's true. All this time we've been worried about you not having anyone. We weren't sure if you even wanted a relationship, but if you did, we wanted that for you, too. I know your dad's just as happy about it as I am." With the table set, she brushed her hands off and stepped into the kitchen.

"Sure am," he said. "Now, let's eat."

"Come help yourselves," Mom called.

We each took a plate and headed into the kitchen, where Mom had made a huge pot roast, complete with veggies, salad, and rolls on the side. Once we were all settled and eating, Dad cleared his throat.

"So what brings you two here? I know you didn't just come by to visit."

"Norman," Mom chastised. "Leave them alone."

"Actually, no." I put my napkin on the table and took a deep breath. "Max and I have been working together and we found something I thought Mom might find interesting."

Mom's eyebrows rose. "What's that?"

"Mom, how come you never really talked about your grandpa? You always told us stories about your grandma, but you barely mentioned him."

She was quiet for a long moment. "He wasn't around much. He was sort of the black sheep of the family, if you know what I mean."

I shook my head. "Not exactly."

"Well, he was… different. I got the feeling he and Grandma didn't really get along well. They had my mom and then… well, they lived together, but they weren't ever really a happy couple."

"His name was Freddie, right? Frederick?"

Her slow nod and furrowed brow made her confusion clear. "Jake, what are you getting at?"

Max cut in. "We found a box of letters in the house we're working on. They were all addressed from Nathan to a man named Freddie."

"Love letters, Mom. They were love letters."

She laughed uncomfortably and shook her head. "No, that could have been anyone named Freddie. That was a very common name back then."

"We tracked the deeds to the home, Mom. And the census records. We… we did a lot of digging. I'm sure this Freddie is your grandpa. Do you know who Nathan was?"

Her voice was very soft when she spoke again. "His best friend was named Nathan, I believe. Grandpa Freddie spent a lot of time going up into the mountains to work on his uncle's farm, even after he married Grandma."

Certainty washed over me and I swallowed hard, nodding. "That's got to be them. Mom, they were in love. Really, really in love."

Mom closed her eyes briefly and when she looked back at me, they were filled with tears. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that he wasn't able to live truthfully with the man he loved. Everyone deserves to be in a happy relationship, if they want to be."

A lump in my throat, I swallowed again. "It's true. They really do." I took Max's hand under the table and squeezed it.

Max turned to me briefly before looking at my mom. "Do you think… Joan, do you think Nathan's family still lives out there?"

She shrugged. "I haven't the slightest idea. Why? What are you thinking?"

His face was alight with possibility. "What if we go up there? Find Nathan's family? Maybe we could get permission to display the letters somewhere. Donate them to the historical society or to the museum."

"That's a lovely idea, but I don't know that they'd approve."

"Well, now, you never know. Times are different these days," Dad said. "Let them give it a try."

"If Nathan's family approves, would you give permission for the letters to be donated and displayed?"

This time, she didn't hesitate. "Of course. I'd love for their love to be shared for the world to see. This world needs more love in it, don't you think?"

I was warmed by their openness, relieved that they'd accepted Max so quickly and that they weren't afraid to embrace change. Now we just had to find Nathan's family and see if we could convince them to do the same.