One mile into the run, the pack felt like a lead weight on Gideon’s back. After two miles, he felt like he’d strapped one of those ridiculous little Smart cars onto his shoulders. His entire upper body ached with the strain of carrying the heavy backpack, and he was sucking wind like he hadn’t done since he first decided to go out for track in high school.
The day was scorchingly hot, the sun high overhead in a cloudless sky, and he was pouring sweat inside the combat camo shirt he’d picked up at the Army surplus store along with the backpack. Not the smartest time to take a run, but Gideon kept telling himself it wasn’t as hot on the track as it would be in Afghanistan. It had been his stupid idea in the first place to enlist in the Army at age twenty-six, and he damn well wasn’t going to Military Entrance Processing Station with a bunch of kids right out of high school without getting his body into better shape.
A few high-school kids were running on the track with him. Or rather, passing him by, all long, sleek muscles beneath lightweight running shorts and tank tops designed to let skin breathe. At least none of them made fun of him as they zoomed past. One kid, a tall black boy who had the grace of a natural athlete, even ran next to Gideon for a few strides before he said, “Semper Fi,” and resumed his faster pace.
Gideon appreciated the sentiment, even if his chosen branch of the service was the Army, not the Marines.
He decided to stick it out for five miles then take a break. Technically, he was within weight range for his height. He had no medical issues that would get him disqualified, temporarily or otherwise. He didn’t need to be out here for any other reason than his own pride, but that was enough to keep his feet pounding the track.
He was into mile four when another runner came up beside him. Gideon was running in the outside lane, taking his time. Most of the other runners on the track were using the inside lanes, but this guy paced alongside Gideon in the lane right next to his.
Gideon snuck a glance at the guy. Crew cut, muscular build, but not body-builder muscular, he was just little taller than Gideon and maybe about five years older. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and running shorts and well-worn running shoes. He’d worked up a sweat, and the dog tags he wore around his neck were plainly visible through the damp, sheer fabric of his shirt.
“What company are you with, soldier?” the guy asked Gideon.
He wasn’t looking at Gideon, just staring at the track ahead.
“Haven’t been assigned yet, sir,” Gideon said, trying hard not to sound out of breath.
The guy glanced at Gideon, one eyebrow raised. “Huh,” he said, then he went back to looking at the track.
Gideon expected the guy to go back to his own run and leave Gideon behind, but the guy kept pacing him.
“When do you report?” he asked, after they’d rounded the far end of the track.
His voice sounded annoyingly normal. Gideon was staring hard at the finish line a half lap away. That was his goal. Once he crossed the finish line this time, that would mark five miles, and he could quit running and shuck the damn pack off his back.
“Two weeks,” Gideon said. He didn’t bother to try to mask how out of breath he was.
The guy nodded. “That ought to give you just about enough time to recover.”
Gideon didn’t say anything. None of the high-school kids out running had given him shit. He didn’t need to take any from some soldier he didn’t know. He would have pulled away and left the guy in the dust if he’d had any oomph left in his legs.
His legs felt like rubber when he crossed the finish line. The lawn in the center of the track was lush and green, and Gideon collapsed on it in an undignified heap when he tried to sit down. He slipped out of the backpack’s shoulder straps and swung the thing around next to him. He had two liters of water inside along with enough dumbbell weights to equal fifty pounds. His goal was seventy pounds, but he knew enough to take that slow. He hadn’t been lifting anything heavy on a regular basis since his last warehouse job went south.
He had one liter of water nearly empty when the soldier walked over to where Gideon sat. “I wasn’t trying to be a smart-ass,” he said. “Basic’s going to be hard enough. You don’t need to go in still recovering from a last-minute attempt to pull yourself into shape.” He gave Gideon an obvious once-over. “Besides, you don’t look all that out of shape to me.”
“Thanks,” Gideon said. “I think.”
The soldier stuck out his hand. “Doug Evans, private first class.”
Gideon’s surprise must have shown on his face. The guy looked far older than someone who’d still be a PFC.
“I enlisted late, too,” the guy said with a grin.
Gideon shook his hand and introduced himself. “Where are you stationed?” he asked.
“Fort Bragg, airborne forces, currently home on leave.” He plopped down on the grass next to Gideon. “Staying with my sister. She just had a kid, and she wanted to introduce him to his Uncle Doug.” His grin got bigger. “I’m not much into babies, but I have to say, this kid is the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen. Looks too much like me.” He rubbed a hand across his scalp. “Even has my hair.”
Gideon laughed. Now that he wasn’t running and had a chance to really look, Doug wasn’t half bad up close. His short hair was dark blond tinged with red, and he had the kind of skin that freckled instead of tanned. His eyes were deeper blue than the washed-out color of the summer sky, and his voice was pleasantly deep. Doug wasn’t exactly Gideon’s ideal kind of guy, but it had been long enough since he’d dated anyone that he couldn’t help but imagine what Doug looked like beneath his clothes.
“I guess I’m going to be getting that kind of haircut soon, too,” Gideon said. While his hair wasn’t exactly long, he’d never had a crew cut in his life. First time for everything.
“You get used to it. Pretty easy to take care of, at any rate, and you never have to worry about having a bad hair day.”
They settled into a comfortable silence. A couple of kids were still running on the track, and at the far side of the lawn, three girls sat on a blanket, their heads close to each other, talking about whatever it was that girls talked about. Gideon had never understood women, so he supposed it was a good thing that he had no interest in them whatsoever. The day was still hot, but a little breeze had kicked up from the west, and it felt good on Gideon’s sweaty skin.
“So how come you’re out running today when you’re on leave?” Gideon asked when Doug made no move to leave.
“Same reason as you.” Doug leaned back on his elbows and squinted up at the sky. “I’m older than most of the guys in my company. They go on leave, go out drinking and picking up women and still come back in the same kind of shape they were in when they left. Me? I have to work at it.”
“What, no drinking and picking up girls?” Gideon teased. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Doug arched one eyebrow and glanced at Gideon. “Don’t get me wrong. I can drink most of those guys under the table. As for women?” He shrugged. “Not my thing, if you get what I mean.”
He kept looking at Gideon, almost like he was testing whether Gideon was going to make a big deal out of what he’d just said.
“I get exactly what you mean,” Gideon said. “Women aren’t my thing, either.”
Doug nodded. “I thought so.” He grinned again. “And before you ask, no, you’re not obvious, which is good. It’s just that a couple of the girls I’ve seen out here today would have drawn the interest of half my company, but you didn’t give them a second look.”
Gideon thought about what Doug had just said. “How come it’s good not to be obvious? I thought—”
“That things would be hunky-dory for guys like us now? Look”—Doug rolled over on his side, his head propped up on one hand—“Yeah, the brass won’t discharge us anymore for engaging in a homosexual act, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to catch the same kind of shit in the Army that you’d catch in a backwoods bar down South. People are people, in uniform or out. Drill sergeants aren’t going to call you a fag—they don’t call anyone a fag or queer anymore—but you still have to watch your back until people get to know you.”
The demise of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was one of the reasons Gideon had decided to enlist. That, and the fact that jobs were few and hard to come by these days. A few of the younger guys who’d lost their jobs along with Gideon when the warehouse went belly-up had already enlisted.
“That change your mind about enlisting?” Doug asked.
“No. I mean, I guess I was naïve to think things were different now. Back when my buddies were enlisting right out of high school, I didn’t even think about it. I couldn’t imagine serving an entire tour pretending to be something I wasn’t.”
“It was tough.”
Gideon blinked. “I thought you said you were older when you enlisted?”
“I was, but I still went in when the Army was only pretending not to care I was queer. They didn’t ask, I didn’t tell, and I kept my dick to myself when I went out with the other guys in my company and they were hitting on anything in a skirt.” He shrugged. “Danced a few times with a few pretty girls just to avoid a lot of questions, and got used to the feel of my own hand.”
“So what’s it like now? Do you date?”
“Nope. Not while I’m on base.”
Gideon understood what Doug was telling him, and for a moment, the immediate future looked grim. Sure, Gideon didn’t date much himself, but the idea of not fucking anyone at all for the next two years? Bleak.
Doug leaned closer. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t have sex, especially when I’m on leave.” His eyes traveled down Gideon’s body, then back up again, slowly. “You interested?”
Gideon allowed himself a long, slow look at Doug’s body in response. He had the kind of narrow hips Gideon liked, and the muscles of his legs were lean and hard, which probably meant the rest of him was muscled the same way. Gideon generally liked guys with longer hair, but he was going to have to get used to military haircuts, even on himself, and now was as good a time as any to start.
When his eyes made it back to Doug’s face, he saw the man’s smile had taken on a playful glint, and there was a good-humored twinkle in his eyes.
“You sure this is a good idea?” Gideon said, with a teasing smile of his own. “You do outrank me.”
“You don’t have a rank yet,” Doug said, and he leaned in and kissed Gideon, quick and hard, on the mouth.
Gideon’s legs might still feel like rubber, but his cock had no problem stiffening in response to the kiss. He was glad he’d worn track pants instead of skimpy little jogging shorts.
“I should probably take a shower,” he said, when Doug backed away.
“Me, too. Plus my sister’s expecting me back. How about I pick you up tonight around seven? We can go catch a movie or something first if you want.”
Doug produced a cell phone from the pocket of his shorts, and he had Gideon type in his phone number and address.
When Doug got up off the grass, Gideon stood up. His back twinged in protest, and his legs felt crampy and unsteady.
“Do yourself a favor,” Doug said. “Take a long, hot bath instead of a shower. In fact, take all the baths you can before you ship off to Basic. You’ll miss them. Even if you’ve never taken a bath before in your life, you’ll miss not being able to.”
He gave Gideon another quick kiss, and then he jogged off the track in the direction of the parking lot.
Seven o’clock tonight. Gideon actually had a date, and with a private first class at that. He wondered if Doug took his dog tags off when he fucked.
Gideon picked up his backpack with a groan and headed off toward the parking lot at a much slower rate. With any luck, he’d find out about the dog tags tonight.
Doug showed up at five to seven with a pizza box in one hand and a six-pack of beer in the other.
“We can still do a movie,” he said, when Gideon let him into the apartment. “I just haven’t had pizza like this in a while, and I had to drive right by the place on the way here.”
The pizza was from a locally owned Italian restaurant that was one of Gideon’s favorites. Even still in the box, it smelled delicious. His stomach rumbled. It seemed like he’d worked up a pretty good appetite with all the exercise.
“Pepperoni,” Doug said, as he put the box down on the little coffee table in front of Gideon’s sofa. “I figured that was a safe bet.”
“Sounds great.” Gideon sat down on the sofa next to Doug. “So what’s the food like in the Army?”
“Not as bad as you’d think, but not as good as you’d like.” Doug opened the lid of the pizza box and grabbed a slice. A long string of cheese dripped off the end. “Nothing like this, though,” he said, and caught the end of the cheese with his tongue.
Gideon chuckled and grabbed for his own slice of pizza.
“I’ve been wondering,” Doug said, after he finished off a second slice. “Gideon’s kind of an unusual name. Is there a story that goes with that?”
“Not a very interesting one. I was named after the Gideon Bible. Apparently I was conceived in a motel room on prom night.” When Doug raised an eyebrow in surprise, Gideon shrugged. “There’s something to be said about not over-sharing. I could never convince my mom of that.”
Although, to be fair, Gideon’s mom and dad had both been more than supportive when he’d told them he was gay. For a while, he’d thought they were going to be militantly supportive, but he’d finally got them to agree not to march in any gay pride parades on his behalf. He didn’t want to be special because he was gay. He just wanted to be who he was, like everybody else was free to be who they were.
“I was named after General Douglas McArthur,” Doug said. “My dad’s greatest hero.”
Something about the way he said that made it sound like a phrase he’d heard often in his life, and not under happy circumstances.
“So I guess he’s happy you’re in the Army then,” Gideon said.
“I get a Christmas card and a birthday card from him each year, and that’s it.” Doug took a long drink from his beer, then put the can down on the table next to the pizza box. “He didn’t react well when I told him I was gay.” He turned toward Gideon and smiled. “But enough about that. Are you going to want to catch a movie? Or are we…?”
Doug let the end of the sentence trail off, but Gideon knew well enough what he meant. They were both here for sex. The food and drink and conversation had been a happy surprise, as far as Gideon was concerned.
“I think I’m good,” Gideon said. “What do you have in—” Doug didn’t let him finish the sentence. He leaned in and kissed Gideon hard, but unlike the kisses at the park, this one wasn’t quick.
The man knew how to kiss, Gideon had to give him that. Doug kissed with barely banked passion, all hungry lips and thrusting tongue that Gideon sucked eagerly into his mouth. Doug’s hands cupped the sides of Gideon’s head, and his body pushed against Gideon until he was flat on his back on the sofa with Doug on top of him.
By the time the kiss ended, Gideon was as out of breath as he’d been at the track, and his cock was rock hard.
“Wow,” Gideon said. “They teach you that in the Army?”
“I learned a lot of tricks in the Army.” Doug nipped at the skin on Gideon’s neck, not enough to hurt, just enough to make him shiver. “Want to see?”
“Looking forward to it.”
“Okay, then.” Doug got to his feet in a smooth, athletic gesture that Gideon’s sore body envied. “On your feet, soldier.”
It took Gideon a little more effort to get off the sofa, but he managed.
“Take that hot bath?” Doug asked.
He had. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a bath instead of a shower, but soaking in hot water had done wonders for his sore legs. His back was going to take a little longer before it quit being angry at him.
“Great suggestion,” Gideon said. “Thanks.”
“You might need another one later. I intend to teach you what being a hard-bodied Army grunt is all about.”
Gideon blinked. “Are you serious?”
Doug grinned at him. “Nope. I just don’t get to use lines like that too often.” He took Gideon’s hand and squeezed it. “Now where’s your bedroom?”
Gideon had changed the sheets on his bed that afternoon after he got out of the bath, just on the off chance that Doug wanted more action than a blow job on the sofa. He hadn’t had another guy in his bed in a long time, and he’d gotten in the bad habit of washing his sheets only when he remembered, which wasn’t all that often.
“Smells like fabric softener,” Doug said, when he flopped on the bed to pull off his shoes. “You do that just for me?”
“Better than how it normally smells in here.”
“Hey, I normally live around a bunch of sweaty, smelly guys,” Doug said. “Which, by the way, doesn’t hold a candle to what a poopy diaper smells like. Babies, man. I don’t know why anybody would want them.”
By now Doug had both his shoes off and had stripped off his shirt. His upper torso was as well muscled as his legs, with only sparse hair across his chest and a narrow treasure trail leading down past his naval. His dog tags still hung around his neck.
“Why are we talking about babies?” Gideon asked, stripping out of his own clothes.
Doug stood up and unzipped his pants, shucking them and his underwear down his legs in one fell swoop. “Because I babble when I’m nervous, and I’m always nervous when I undress in front of a guy for the first time.”
From where Gideon stood, Doug had nothing to be nervous about. His belly was flat and tight, the notches of his hips looked like something out of a fashion magazine and his cock was thick and heavy and beautifully cut. He could have been a marble statue of a Greek god, had the Greeks actually let their gods be well hung. And well freckled.
“Yeah, I see why you would be,” Gideon said. “You don’t tan at all, do you?”
He smiled to let Doug know it was just a joke, in case Doug was sensitive about his freckles.
“Hey, rubber legs, I’m just glad I’m stationed in North Carolina these days. When I was in Afghanistan, I had a permanent sunburn.”
Gideon made a mental note to ask Doug what it had been like overseas. He wanted to know, just in case that’s where he ended up, but for right now he had other things on his mind.
Like finding out what Doug’s cock tasted like and exactly how big his hard-on would get.
And paying Doug back for teasing him about his legs.
“Rubber legs?” Gideon arched an eyebrow.
“Better than chicken legs. Half the kids coming out of high school have these little sticks for legs. You, on the other hand…”
Doug bent over like he was going to inspect Gideon’s legs up close and personal, which would have put his head level with Gideon’s cock—not a bad prospect, considering Gideon’s cock was at about half-mast—but then he grabbed Gideon around the waist and straightened up, and Gideon found himself bare-assed in the air over Doug’s shoulder with his head hanging down Doug’s bare back.
“Hey!” Gideon said, laughing in spite of his odd position. “You want to put me down?”
Doug smacked him on the ass with one hand, again not enough to hurt, just enough to send shivers through Gideon’s body. “Just wanted to show you that if you’re going to practice carrying around a lot of weight, there’s better ways to do it.”
“Okay, I get it. Can you put me down?”
This time Doug caressed his ass, his palm smooth on Gideon’s skin. The shiver that coursed through Gideon’s body was more pronounced this time, and he was pretty sure even Doug could feel it.
“That’s one trick I learned,” Doug said, as he dropped Gideon on the bed and crawled in after him. “The smack sensitizes the skin for the caress that follows. Just like this”—Doug nipped Gideon’s neck again—“sensitizes the skin for this.” The soft lick with his tongue produced another shiver.
Doug pressed Gideon back against the sheets as he moved his way down Gideon’s body, nipping the skin and following each gentle nip with a soft lick or kiss. When he got to Gideon’s nipples, the nips were followed by sucking that shot shivers of excitement straight through to Gideon’s cock.
By the time Doug had worked his way down to Gideon’s navel, Gideon thought he might come before Doug even got to his cock.
“You’re driving me nuts, here,” he said. “I want to taste you.”
“And I want to feel the inside of you,” Doug said. “You got any lube?”
“Nightstand drawer. Condoms are in there, too.”
While Doug reached over to grab the supplies, Gideon shifted around on the bed until Doug’s cock was in his face. It looked as hard and needy as his own cock felt. He wrapped his lips around it and took it deep in his throat, and was rewarded when Doug’s body shuddered in response.
“Slow down,” Doug said. “I want to fuck you, not come in your mouth. That work for you?”
Gideon let the thick cock fall from his mouth. “Yeah. Oh, yeah, that definitely works for me.”
He hadn’t been fucked in a long time. Usually he was the one doing the fucking, but he had no objections to another guy’s cock inside him. Especially when the guy knew what he was doing, which, by the way Doug was playing with his ass, was definitely the case here.
Not only was Doug finger-fucking him like a pro, he was sucking on Gideon’s balls and pressing the fingers of his other hand in just the right spot to make Gideon see stars behind his closed eyelids. Gideon couldn’t help himself. He grabbed Doug’s balls and started kneading, and took Doug’s cock back in his mouth. He felt like he was going to come any second, and he wanted to make Doug come, too.
“God, you’re a vacuum cleaner,” Doug said with a groan.
He jerked his hips away from Gideon, and the next thing Gideon knew, he was on his back with his feet up in the air on Doug’s shoulders. He watched as Doug rolled a condom on his own cock, still wet from Gideon’s mouth.
“You ready?” Doug asked.
Gideon nodded. He was more than ready. He was so ready he felt like he might fly apart.
Doug didn’t thrust in hard, but took it slow, adjusting both their bodies until Gideon arched his back and cried out. “Oh god, yes,” Gideon said. “Right there.”
“Hang on,” Doug said, his voice tight with tension and need. “Here we go.”
Doug took two more easy thrusts to let Gideon get used to his girth, and then he starting pounding away in earnest.
Gideon couldn’t remember the last time he’d been fucked like that. Maybe he’d never been fucked like that. Doug kept hitting the right spot inside him over and over and over again until Gideon felt like he was nothing but sensation and need and the tight, hot feeling of an incipient orgasm that would be the best of his life if it ever got there. He realized at some point that Doug had a tight grip around the base of his balls, and he wondered if that was another trick Doug had learned in the Army.
He wanted to come so bad. He opened his eyes to look at Doug. That muscular, freckled chest was glistening with sweat, the dog tags bouncing around his neck, and Doug’s face was flushed with effort, but still he kept pounding into Gideon.
“I need to come,” Gideon told him. “You’ve got to let me come.”
Doug grinned at him. “That’s all you had to say.” He let go of Gideon’s balls and wrapped his fist around Gideon’s cock.
Three solid strokes later, Gideon came. His entire body seemed to clench as he grunted his way through the most intense orgasm of his life. He was dimly aware that Doug had quit thrusting and instead had buried his cock as deep inside Gideon as he could get.
“Shit,” Gideon said, once his brain started working again. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
Gideon felt Doug slide out of him, and he dropped his legs off Doug’s shoulders. He watched as Doug tied off the condom and threw it in the wastebasket next to the bed.
“That was pretty incredible,” Gideon said, as Doug flopped down on the bed next to him. “I think you’re right. I am going to need another bath.”
“Me, too. You gave me a workout.” Doug leaned over and kissed Gideon on the shoulder.
“My tub’s pretty big,” Gideon said. “If you want to share, that is.”
“I could do that.” Doug turned over on his side like he had at the track. “When did you say you’re going to MEPS?”
“Two weeks.” Gideon turned toward Doug. “How long’s your leave?”
“Another ten days,” Doug said.
Gideon trailed a finger down Doug’s chest, playing connect the freckles. “Anything else you think I should know about Army life as a not-so-young, gay enlisted man?”
“Yup.” Doug grinned. “A lot of stuff.”
“Sounds like it might take some time to teach me.”
Doug’s grin got wider. “About ten days, I think. You good with that?”
“Yes, sir,” Gideon said with a smile.