Like the Seasons Read online

  I’m living my life for ME now. I really don’t care what any of you think anymore. Until you all can accept me for who I am, leave me alone. I won’t allow your bigotry to control my life.

  When it vibrated again a few minutes later, he was prepared to see an angry response from her, but instead it was a text from Ella.

  He’s home. :) I told him I’d text you. He’s already asleep.

  Relief filled him.

  Thanks. :)

  At least that was one worry off his plate.

  When he returned to Boyd’s that evening, he smiled at the sight of the moving truck parked in the driveway with Ella’s car on the dolly. He supposed that meant Boyd was still asleep.

  When he let himself in, she was sitting on the couch with her laptop and confirmed it. “He hasn’t been up. How about I call in pizza for dinner tonight? My treat.”

  “Thanks.”

  He quietly let himself into the darkened bedroom and stripped, carefully sliding into bed next to Boyd to spoon along his back.

  The man stirred, reaching behind him and grabbing Caleb’s ass before he ground against him. “Mmmm. My boy.”

  Caleb buried his face against the back of Boyd’s neck and deeply inhaled. “Welcome home, Sir.”

  Boyd rolled over to face him and kissed him, his hard cock rubbing against Caleb’s. “Go bring me the cane.”

  Caleb felt himself melting, the sweet spin into subspace already starting. Of course Boyd wouldn’t forget about the five.

  He didn’t want him to forget, either.

  Climbing out of bed, he went to their closet and grabbed the cane Boyd kept there just for this purpose. When Caleb returned to bed, Boyd was sitting up, waiting.

  He handed it to him, unable to keep the smile off his face.

  “I think you enjoy strokes a little too much, boy.”

  “Only when they come from you, Sir.”

  His sleepy, throaty chuckle made Caleb’s cock twitch. “Assume the position.”

  Caleb bent over the side of the bed, legs spread, hands flat on the mattress, ass in the air.

  Boyd stood and walked around him, planting his left hand in the middle of Caleb’s back. “Fast and hard. No counting needed.”

  That was all the warning Caleb received before the strokes sliced into his ass and upper thighs like stripes of fire flashing across his flesh. He bit down on the sheets to hold back his moan even as his cock throbbed, trapped between his body and the bed.

  Boyd dropped the cane onto the bed and folded himself over Caleb’s body, lacing fingers with him, his full weight pressing Caleb into the mattress. “Good boy,” he whispered, nipping the back of his neck. He felt Boyd’s hard cock nestled along the seam of his ass. “All better.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  But Boyd didn’t let him up. Caleb felt him reach for something, then cool lube drizzled down the seam of his ass. He arched his back and moaned, needy, desperate to be fucked.

  He hadn’t come all week despite not being ordered not to.

  He knew Boyd wouldn’t, so he wouldn’t, either.

  When the thick head of Boyd’s cock pressed against his rim, Caleb rocked back, wanting him now, hard and fast and the man’s body rubbing against the welts already rising on his flesh from the cane strokes. The sound of flesh slapping flesh filled the room, Boyd’s balls lightly smacking against his sore ass at the bottom of every thrust.

  “Good boy. Hold it.” Boyd grabbed Caleb’s hips and used him hard. Every deep stroke bottomed out inside him, and Caleb had to bite down on his lower lip to hold back his own climax.

  It didn’t take Boyd long to fill him, biting down on Caleb’s shoulder to stifle his own moan. After catching his breath, he straightened and pulled Caleb up with him, his left hand cupped around the front of his throat and the right around Caleb’s needy cock.

  “Make it fast, boy.” He jerked him hard, roughly, nothing tender about this at all and exactly what Caleb desperately needed after nearly a week apart from him. No stray thoughts made it into his conscious brain past the feel of Boyd’s fist on him, the man’s cock still embedded inside his sore ass, his warm breath against his shoulder.

  Perfection and exactly how he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

  Caleb didn’t hold back, quickly exploding. When he moaned, Boyd shifted his hand up, covering Caleb’s mouth to muffle the sound. Caleb sucked and licked his fingers as much as he could, reveling in the sheer pleasure exploding inside him as his cum filled Boyd’s hand.

  Boyd nuzzled his ear. “God, I fucking missed you.”

  If Caleb could press against him any harder, or get any closer, he would. “Me, too,” he mumbled behind Boyd’s hand.

  He chuckled and released him, pulling out and turning Caleb around. “Quick shower.” He wore a sated, satisfied smile.

  “Yes, Sir. Ella’s ordering us pizza for dinner.”

  “Perfect.” He led Caleb into the master bathroom and they stood under the spray for a moment after cleaning up. “She told me about yesterday.”

  Fucking reality. “Yeah, well, there’s a part two.” He told Boyd about the text from his aunt.

  “Hmm. Okay. Let me think on the best way to handle that.”

  * * * *

  Sure, Boyd had dealt with bigots in his life, but never someone supposedly close to him like Caleb’s family. This was totally new territory for him.

  While logically he knew Caleb’s family would likely never have some magical transformation in their thought patterns, he still didn’t want to openly and deliberately antagonize them and create a permanent, irreparable rift.

  “Anything else I need to know?”

  “That’s it, Sir.”

  “Let me think about if we should be responding in some other way. Don’t do anything else without talking to me first. Don’t answer their calls or respond to texts without my input.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  They finished their shower and threw on shorts and T-shirts to join Ella in the living room.

  “I have a doctor’s appointment for next Wednesday,” she told them.

  “What time?” Boyd asked. “I’ll come home and drive you.”

  “Uh, no, you won’t. You’ve missed enough work.”

  “You shouldn’t be driving yet,” he insisted.

  “And I won’t. I’ll call an Uber.” When Boyd started to protest again, she cut him off. “Dad, I’m not an invalid. I’ve got this. I can use crutches. Please, you’ve gone above and beyond already. I appreciate everything you’ve done, but let me adult.”

  He looked to Caleb for backup.

  “Sir, she’ll be okay. She wouldn’t put herself or her baby in jeopardy.”

  Boyd scowled. “I should beat you for using logic against me.”

  Ella giggled. “Nah, that’s just not fair, Dad. What do you guys want on your pizzas?”

  She placed the order while he and Caleb headed out to start unloading. They got her car off the dolly and unhooked that so Boyd could turn the truck around and back it up to the garage. By the time the food arrived, they had the garage rearranged and about half the truck unloaded, including taking her boxes of clothes into the guest room.

  Sitting at the table, the three of them, Boyd felt an unexpected prickle of tears hit him, forcing him to blink them away.

  Ella and Caleb both noticed.

  “What’s wrong, Dad?” she asked.

  “Nothing. I mean, seriously, nothing. Ever since I learned about you, I wanted…something. This, maybe, I guess. And now you’re here, with us. I just…” He felt at a loss for words. “I can’t wait for the baby to arrive.”

  She smiled. “So when are we marrying you two off?”

  The only drawback right now. “We need to be careful because of work. Once we can get Cay transferred, then we can do it.”

  “It sucks you guys can’t be more open right now.”

  “It is what it is.” He reached over and squeezed Caleb’s shoulder. “The important thi
ng is we’re a family, and we know it, even if no one else can know it right now.”

  By the time Sunday evening rolled around, Caleb hadn’t received any more calls or texts from his aunt, or from other family members. They’d unloaded all of Ella’s things and turned in the truck and car dolly. In addition to that, they’d retrieved more of Caleb’s belongings. Except for Caleb’s furniture, which they didn’t have room for in the house with Ella’s things in the garage, his apartment was empty.

  Boyd was under no illusions that this uneasy silence from Caleb’s family was simply a break in the hostilities. They likely would make another play.

  The problem was, they couldn’t live their lives anticipating it. Caleb was an adult, his family lived in a different state, and there literally was nothing they could do to him now.

  Especially with his secret out.

  All Boyd could do was sit back, try to keep Caleb distracted from thinking about them, and buffer him as best he could while they worked their way through being a new family together.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Monday morning, Boyd left home for work over an hour early to try to get caught up somewhat. He’d spent a chunk of yesterday evening in bed with his work laptop and Caleb curled up next to him while he went through his work e-mails and tried to clear things out. It still left a lot of ground to cover after having been out of the office for two weeks, most of the last week spent unable to do more than skim e-mails on his work phone at gas stops and reply only to the most urgent items.

  He’d also marked his calendar that he wasn’t available for any meetings that morning in an attempt to slog through the worst of everything before lunch, which he intended to eat sitting there at his desk while he—spoiler alert—worked.

  That’s why it surprised him when Ed Thorton, his boss and head of Planning and Zoning, summoned Boyd to his office a little after ten that morning.

  Shit.

  He was even more surprised to find Caleb already sitting there and looking shell-shocked.

  “Shut the door, please, Boyd,” Ed said from where he stood behind his desk.

  Hoping he could spin whatever fuckstorm this was into something that would leave both of them with their jobs, Boyd slowly shut the door. “What’s going on?”

  “I need you to sit down, please.” Ed took his seat behind his desk.

  Boyd slowly crossed the room and rounded the other chair, glancing at Caleb before focusing on Ed. “Why does this sound serious?” He wouldn’t offer anything more than that without knowing what they were dealing with.

  “Because it…might be.”

  “Might be?”

  “I received a very interesting and borderline hysterical call this morning from a woman named Elenora Prevost.”

  Oh, fuck. “And?”

  “Says her sister is Caleb’s aunt, and she went to see him last week. And, long story short, that Caleb is gay and apparently not living at his apartment, but with some guy he works with or for.” Ed sat back in his chair and leveled a gaze at Boyd. “Care to take a guess the name she gave me?”

  Inwardly, Boyd winced. But he refused to blink, to cower, to react without knowing the full story. “Should I?”

  “This is a serious allegation, Boyd.”

  Boyd glanced at Caleb, who now sat staring at the floor. “I’d like to hear the full allegation before I respond,” Boyd said, swinging his gaze back to Ed.

  “She said her sister went to Caleb’s apartment and a woman there said she was subletting. They snooped on Facebook, saw that Caleb had liked and commented on a bunch of your pictures, and the aunt recognized your daughter. That’s how they got your name.

  “The aunt cruised by your house, after they used county property tax records to find out where you live, and saw Caleb’s car there. Then, because our county website is so helpful, she Googled your name, found your name on our county website, was able to run up the phone tree to puzzle out what your position was, and that I’m your boss.”

  The man leaned forward, his hands clasped together on his desk. “Let me tell you something—that crazy-ass phone call was not how I wanted to start my Monday morning.”

  Fuck.

  Except Ed wasn’t done. “She demanded I fire Caleb because he’s gay, so he can move back home ‘and be a good boy,’ as she put it. Now, honestly, the woman sounded like a total nutjob to me, so I’ll leave it at that. I told her truthfully that employees’ personal lives were none of my business, and that I would not discuss them with her. When she wasn’t happy with that answer, I informed her that Sarasota County is an equal-opportunity employer who doesn’t kowtow to bigots. Then she hung up on me.

  “However…if her allegations are true about a workplace romance, that the two of you are involved with each other, then we actually do need to have a serious discussion. Caleb refused to answer my questions without you here.” He leaned back in his chair and swept a hand at Boyd. “Now you are caught up, and this is where you and I need to talk.”

  Boyd pulled in a slow breath and then reached over to clasp Caleb’s hand, gently squeezing. “It’s a long story. Parts of it are very private, and I refuse to tell them. This started outside of work, and we didn’t recognize or realize who the other was when our relationship…grew intimate. Ever since then, however, I’ve been watching for a lateral position to open up to transfer Caleb into outside my department.”

  “How long’s this been going on?”

  “Only a couple of weeks,” he fibbed, squeezing Caleb’s hand as he did to make him pay attention and hoping Ed wouldn’t do the math. “He’s not officially living with me, but only because we were putting that off until he could transfer.”

  Ed rubbed at his forehead. “I’m going to ask a stupid question—how could you not recognize each other when you met outside of work?”

  “Let’s call it a costume party and leave it at that.”

  “Okay.” Ed leveled a gaze at him. “Have you talked to Calvin, then?”

  “Not yet. I was going to, then with the trip out to Oregon, and my daughter nearly dying, it got away from me. It was on my list of things to do early this week.” He realized Caleb’s hand was trembling in his and he gave him another gentle squeeze.

  Stay strong, boy.

  “All right. Boyd, I need you to return to your office for a little while, please. Stay available, because I’m going to talk with you again shortly. Caleb, you stay. I need to speak with you. Alone.”

  Now Caleb looked at Boyd, wild fear filling his sweet green gaze.

  Boyd couldn’t help it—he turned in his chair and gently palmed Caleb’s cheek with his other hand. “Answer his questions,” he softly said, hoping Caleb had processed he’d said it’d only been a couple of weeks. “You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to.”

  Fortunately, Caleb only nodded and didn’t let a Yes, Sir slip out. After giving Caleb’s hand one last squeeze, Boyd stood and returned to his office.

  * * * *

  Caleb thought he might be sick when he heard the office door shut behind Boyd. He still couldn’t bring himself to look Ed Thorton in the eyes and instead focused on his desk.

  “I’ll keep this short—how did your relationship with Boyd start?”

  “Outside work, just like he said. We didn’t recognize each other at the party.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Help me understand this. He hired you in and you work with him. You see him every day. How could the two of you not recognize each other?”

  “It doesn’t have to make sense.” Caleb drew in a breath. “Mutual friends didn’t know we worked together, and they introduced us to each other at a…costume party. No one was using their real names. We didn’t know each other’s real identities until nearly a week later. Even then, when Boyd found out who I was, before I knew who he was, he wasn’t even going to have a relationship with me, at first.”

  “At first?”

  “I talked him into it.” It was close enough to the truth.

&n
bsp; Thorton leaned forward. “At any time did Boyd pressure you for a relationship, or make inappropriate advances toward you, or use his position of authority to manipulate you into a relationship?”

  “No, never. We had lunch the day before I found out it was him I’d met, and I still didn’t know it was him until after the fact. I didn’t even know he was gay, if that tells you anything.”

  Ed’s brow furrowed. “I thought everyone knew he was gay.”

  “Well, I didn’t. I’m rarely on Facebook, and I wasn’t Facebook friends with him at that point. We never discussed things like that because, hello, work. We were both professional. That’s another reason we didn’t put it together at first, because he didn’t know I was gay, either. Ever since, we’ve been careful at work. If anything, he’s way tougher on me now than he was before. I’m expected to be here earlier and work later, and harder, than anyone else. I’m not cut any slack. We were planning on keeping things secret until after I changed positions, then we knew it’d be okay.”

  Thorton picked up a pen and twirled it in his fingers. “Do you want to file a sexual harassment complaint against Boyd?”

  Now Caleb found his courage and met Thorton’s gaze head-on. “It’s not a good situation, but we were trying to remedy it without letting anyone know. That should mean something. If you try to file a report about this, I’ll lie and say I have no idea what you’re talking about. That, and that my mother really is a religious whackadoodle trying to cause trouble for me just because she’s mad that I’m gay, which is absolutely the truth. I will claim I feel that you are persecuting me and Boyd because of our sexual orientations, and Boyd and I will probably have a damn good lawsuit against the county for it since there is nothing in either of our personnel records that would show we’re anything other than exemplary employees. I don’t want to do that, but I will not let you ruin Boyd’s career, or mine.”

  Thorton rubbed at his forehead. “Okay, okay. Point taken. I’ll talk to Calvin Estes and transfer you over to Zoning without a swap. They have a bunch of heavy stuff coming up over the next couple of months with the comp plan work the BCC has to do. It’d make sense to move you in there early to get you up to speed. Plus you already have an extensive background in zoning. If you and Boyd keep things on the down-low for a while, it shouldn’t raise any questions.”