Mark

Later that Sunday night Mark, Paul and I went to dinner together at the local Steak & Ale off base. Mark mentioned going off base and Paul mentioned steak. Within minutes we all had a craving for Prime Rib. Over dinner conversation was moving along nicely. Once we finished eating however the talk just thinned out. It very likely had much to do with Mark's leg brushing up against mine the whole time we were at the restaurant. Every time I looked in Mark's eyes I saw mischief. We finished our beers while my anxiety level multiplied logarithmically. Paul never said a word but I got the feeling he felt like the odd man out for a while there during the drive back to base. I certainly didn't mean to make him feel that way but after more than an hour of Mark playing footsies with me under the table there was just too much adrenaline rushing to form any words.

We got back to base and Paul ducked inside his room for the night. Mark and I walked down the hall towards his room and he peeked in the TV room to say hi and stopped to check out some basketball game on TV. He stepped in the room and I followed. He knows damn well that I have virtually no interest in basketball. What the hell was he doing anyway? We only had a few more hours before he went to work and I had to crash for work the next morning. Mark was talking about the game and carrying on with the other two guys in the room while I sat there practically quaking in my seat. It may have appeared as if I was quietly watching the game but actually I was watching the clock above the TV. 6:55... 7:00... 7:05... 7:15... Finally at 7:25 he stood and asked if I wanted to play a game of backgammon or two as he walked out of the room. Backgammon, huh? "Ok, sure" I managed to say.

He and I walked down to his room and as soon as the door was closed my arms were open reaching for him but he was sidestepping my every advance.

"Wait a second, where the hell are you going?" I asked.

"To get the backgammon board." He giggled.

"Screw that," I said, "we can do that later. We've only got a few hours."

"Backgammon first, nookie later." He laughed reaching for the game board.

"Dude you've been making me crazy for almost two hours." I complained.

"Pay back's a bitch ain't it?" He laughed.

"So your gonna tease me to death is that it?"

Mark looked down at my tented shorts then back up into my face. He wrapped one arm around me and kissed me, nibbling and sucking on my lips and tongue. I hung off him almost lifeless while he painstakingly searched my mouth for hidden treasures. He broke our kiss then walked over and sat on the bed, opening the backgammon board while I stood there swooning. I could not believe he was seriously gonna play backgammon! I sighed and sat down on the bed in front of him with the board between us. I examined him closely while he set up the pieces. He's not sweating or breathing hard or anything. Cool as a cucumber.

"New rules for this match." He said.

"Okay?" I asked, eyeing him uncertainly.

"Strip backgammon."

"Cool!" I exclaimed, stipulating "You've got to really play though. No leaving guys open on purpose."

He nodded agreement and asked, "How much clothes have you got on"

"Shirt, shoes, socks, briefs and shorts. Five." I answered.

"Haha! You lose already buddy! I got three; shorts, shirt and sandals. Lose the shoes and the shorts." He demanded.

"Of course you realize this means war!" I exclaimed kicking off my shoes and dropping my shorts. "You'd better pray to Christ you win dude."

We settled down and started the game. Mark and I were pretty equal in backgammon skills and made the most of every move as safely as we could. We'd usually play best of three games and neither of us seemed to be able to get more than a two-match lead. This game was the same. Thanks to 3 very lucky rolls of mine Mark had lost his sandals and shirt early in the game but that's when my luck ran out. In a few moves he was doubled up and I was forced into breaking up some of my pieces, leaving them open to attack. And that's just what he did. In one move I lost two pieces as well as my shirt and socks. No sooner did I get both pieces back on then he set another one back to the bar. The only advantage to losing my briefs was watching Mark get shaky. He was over-throwing the dice and fumbling with the pieces as he marched them off the board, winning the game.

"You win." I whispered.

"I won two nights ago, baby." He said closing up the game board and moving it out of the way.

"Ya want your prize?" I asked.

He crawled over me slowly, my hands tracing their way down his chest and stomach as he did. He looked down at me with the most sensuously composed expression on his face while I unbuttoned his shorts and pushed them off his ass. Working my way from his scrotum I groped my way up his six and a half-inch shaft before he finally lowered him self on to me and kissed me deeply. The warmth of his body against mine and the magic of his kisses brought me to the very brink of climax but thankfully it was a false alarm.

Breaking our kiss he whispered in my ear, "No baby, not just yet," and he started sucking and nibbling by earlobe. "This... nibble is gonna take... suck... all... nibble... night." And it did too. For hours we teased each other with hands mouths and bodies, always stopping just short of the final moment. It was by far the very best sex we had yet. The few words we spoke teased each other more. Eventually we crawled into a sixty-nine lying side by side and gave each other the release that had been denied for so long. It was the most intense feeling in the world. Mark whimpered like a soprano and his cock must have throbbed ten times in my mouth before he finally shot his warm load. What a shot it was too! I tried to swallow it all but he just kept cumming like the dam had burst wide open and some dribbled out of my mouth. My own orgasm was just about as intense. My cock throbbed and twitched so many times in his mouth that I couldn't believe I wasn't already shooting but when I finally did it was a gusher that drained me completely. After we had sucked each other dry we couldn't move. We just lay there with softening dicks in our mouths for a long while, nursing gently. I started to get hard again and I released him from my mouth to turn around and face him but he held me down and in place. My cock was really sensitive after all that teasing and the tremendous orgasm. I started to thrash around, almost shouting, begging for him to stop but he held me tightly with both arms. My arms flailed around the bed as he sucked me harder and deeper into his mouth. He rolled over on top of me, holding me down with his weight. His once flaccid penis was now erect and twitching inches above my face. I had two intentions when I took him back into my mouth; a) to bring him over the edge with me and b) to muffle the blood curdling scream that was about to escape from my mouth. He deep throated me the second I took him into my mouth. I could feel his chin on my lower abdomen and his nose puffing hot air against my balls. I don't remember a whole hell of a lot after that. The next thing I knew Mark was sitting by my side dressed in fatigues, lightly shaking me awake.

I smiled warmly and reached out for him. He leaned down and kissed me softly, sucking my lower lip into his mouth. Every moment I was near him made me want to be nearer to him more often.

"I gotta go to work now baby," he said after breaking our kiss.

I held onto him and tried to sit up but barely moved before collapsing back onto the bed. He covered me up, kissed my forehead and said something about the morning before I drifted back off to sleep.

Around five thirty Monday morning he came back to his room during his lunch break to wake me up for my own day of work. We talked until the last possible moment before he was late for work and so was I. More than anything else I wanted to stay there cuddled up next to him but alas work and responsibility took over once again.

It was a vicious week too. First thing Monday morning I was handed a pager for a week. Oh no! Absolutely not! There was no way in hell I was gonna screw up this coming weekend by having the pager and staying on base to baby-sit a machine. The pager interrupted Tuesday night's time with Mark not once but twice. Wednesday morning I went to work and begged the one person that had no plans for the coming weekend to please take the pager. Finally by Friday afternoon she gave in and accepted the pager (as well as forty dollars). What did I care though? I had the next two days and two nights to spend with the one guy that made me feel every bit as fantastic as I made him feel. That last hour at work dragged on for an eternity. The anxiety level kept building with every passing second, the butterflies in my stomach got larger and larger until I began to get nauseous. By the time I got out of that cramped little computer room I was sweating bullets.

I walked down the hall to Mark's room and the door was open. "Hey, bud." I said smiling wearily.

He turned around to face me smiling but he saw how pale I looked. "You did get the weekend off, right?"

"Yeah," I replied, "just barely in time. Then the clock seemed to stop, my stomach went into an uproar and now I'm a bit tweaked is all." I closed the door behind me saying, "I'll be fine in no time."

Mark walked up to me, wrapping his loving arms around me and we held each other silently. Within minutes the butterflies had vanished and I looked up at him with all the love in my heart beaming out. He kissed his way down my forehead past my nose (which I waited for him to take a bite out of) and covered my mouth with his. No one had ever created the great feelings in me that he could with a kiss. We started to sway gently wrapped around each other.

"I can't wait to get this weekend started." He whispered. "Are you ready to split this dump?"

"Yeah, let's hit the road." I eagerly replied.

I gathered up some stuff from my room, got changed into civvies and we raced each other to the Jeep. Soon enough we were on the 91 freeway headed west. As we crossed into Orange County traffic got heavy, then heavier, then stopped completely. We started playing our little hand stroking game for a while as we crawled down the freeway. It still gave me one hell of a rush. We looked at the map for a while hoping to find a way out of the traffic jam but it would be a few miles before we had the chance to do that. We wondered aloud how long it would be before we finally made it to Huntington Beach. There were so many places to go and things to see and finally we would have the chance to make love slowly and passionately whenever we wanted without worrying about who might hear what.

Mark looked at me with a deep, sensuous desire written all over his face. I loved that face; it captivated me so much I couldn't blink. "I bought an extra bottle of mineral oil at the BX this morning." He said then turned to watch the road and drive forward another few yards. "We're gonna drown each other with it and slide around and have the greatest sex ever."

My dick went from completely flaccid to diamond cutting hard in seconds. We had spent some time together over the past week but hadn't had sex since Sunday's wipe out sessions. I was more than ready to fulfill his every fantasy. The sun had set, the temperature had fallen and I was sweating one second and shivering the next. I never stopped gazing at his profile as he went in and out of first gear inching down the road. When he could go not further Mark turned to me and giggled. "Cat got your tongue? Lucky cat!"

"Ya know Mark," I said looking forward, "I really love you. Everything you are I wish I was. I'm gonna rip your clothes off and devour you the second we get into the hotel room. For the next two days and nights I'm gonna make your every dream come true." I looked over at his lust filled face and grinned. Looking down at his tented jeans I started to laugh. Mission accomplished, I thought to myself.

For the remaining two hours of what turned out to be a four-hour drive we verbally teased each other and loved every minute of it. Around 9PM we got to the hotel registration desk. I asked the lady what time checkout was. Three in the afternoon was a good time for Sunday. I paid the lady cash for two nights then asked her where there was a nice quiet pub with pool tables and dart boards. She and her partner had two suggestions and I took addresses and directions for both while Mark fidgeted around wondering what in God's name I was doing. The registration clerk was a nice middle aged woman with the gift of gab and I didn't want to be rude.

"You boys military?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am." I answered noticing Mark's increasing impatience.

"You're not gonna do anything we're going to have to call the police for, are you?"

"No ma'am." Mark replied.

"Good. We had some Marines here last weekend that really created a commotion." She said.

"We're Air Force ma'am. Slightly less high strung." I said as Mark guided me towards the door.

"You'll hardly know we're here. We promise nothing will be destroyed." Mark said shoving me out the door. His eyes shot flames at me as we walked briskly around the pool to our room. He was still smiling though as I shifted my glances between him and the room numbers.

I unlocked the door and we stepped inside turning on the lights. There were two double size beds in the room. "Do you want to push the beds together, bud?" I asked dropping my backpack to the floor. I heard the door close and before I could turn around his hands were all over me. Spinning me around to face him he engulfed my mouth and proceeded to try to reach my tonsils with his tongue. Valiantly my own tongue battled the invader and slipped into his mouth. I broke our kiss and quickly unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it on the other bed never breaking eye contact. We undressed each other and made love for the first time in five days. For the first time we could do what we wanted without worrying so much about anyone hearing something. There was something special about calling out your lover's name and hearing him call out yours that made the experience so heart warming. It was much like I was acknowledging verbally like I hadn't done before that it was him making me feel that great. The words he spoke to me while I pleasured him made my heart race and my mind spin with joy.

When we were finished wrapped in each other's arms and legs our stomachs reminded us of the hour and that we hadn't eaten since much earlier in the day. We went in to the bathroom together, had a not so quick shower together then got dressed and walked out into the crisp late February night. Taking the slip of paper with the pub names I asked for out of my pocket I said, "How about we try this place out Mark?" I pointed out the name on the paper to him. "Her Majesty. That sounds like my kind of place."

"Why that place?" He asked.

"Several reasons. First of all with a name like that it better be an authentic British pub. Which means at the very least fish and chips and good beer. Maybe pool tables and dart boards. AND."

"And? What?"

I sighed and said; "You really don't know your Beatles very well. I'd think by now that I'd have it burned into your brain."

He laughed at my mock annoyance and took my hand in his. I was both shocked and pleased that he would hold my hand in public as we walked down the street. Part of me wanted to pull away but the part of me that didn't won out. For a block we walked hand in hand then looked at each other grinning as if we'd just accomplished some major undertaking. To run across a major street we had to release our hands. There were all varieties of stores, shops, nightclubs and bars all along the street. One bar we walked past was named "The Happy Pickle". How subtle, I thought. We promised each other we would stop inside at some point before we left Sunday.

Dinner at "Her Majesty's" was a good start to the night out. The place was everything I thought it might be. We had our fish and chips and a Guiness each then played pool until they closed for the night. On the way back Mark said he was still hungry so we stopped by the Denny's we had passed earlier. I laughed at the amount of food he was packing away. He ate his bacon cheeseburger and fries as well as half my turkey club sandwich.

"I gotta keep my strength up," he said through a mouthful of fries. The way he put the next French fry in his mouth with his tongue twirling around it made my heart race and my dick get hard.

Is it possible, I wondered that three hours is all we can wait before something some sexual innuendo creeps back into our conversation? For the remaining time at Denny's we held an intense glare deep into each other's eyes. At least three times I saw him blush and I know damn well I was blushing most of the time (and shaking, and sweating and wanting him in every way). We paid the waitress and started walking back to the hotel. Our pace quickened to a race by the end of the first city block. At three thirty in the morning we were tearing ass down the hotel driveway. Mark waved at the registration clerk as we went bye and I busted up laughing. I could here her now, "Call the police and fire department, Eleanor," or whatever the hell her name was.

We practically attacked each other as soon as the door was closed. Clothes went flying and we made love until dawn then took a nap for about an hour and started all over again. Afterwards Mark walked over to the window and peeked out through the curtains. "It's looking pretty nasty out. It must've rained sometime during the night." He said.

I got up to take a look saying, "I'll bet that away from the shore it's sunny. Why don't we take a ride to Anaheim later? I can introduce you to my Aunts and cousins. If it's nice out we could go over to Knottsberry Farms."

"Knottsberry sounds okay if it's gonna be nice." He said then paused to ask, "Do you really want me to meet your family?"

I wrapped my arm around his waist. "Course I do. I want to show you off to the whole world."

"You'd tell them about us?" He asked.

"I didn't say that."

He paused for a moment then said, "I've got an idea," leaning down to nibble on my ear.

I giggled, "Yeah? I can tell what you're idea is!"

"Lets just stay here... naked and alone all day..." he whispered in my ear.

"And have sex as many times as we want to."

"Sounds like a plan to me." He said leaning me against the door then kissing me. Omigod, does anyone else have the power to make heartbeats quicken like he does with a single kiss, I mused. He kissed, licked and nibbled his way around my face and neck turning my whole body into pudding. He was making me hard again and he started giggling then paused looking at my face, all dreamy eyed and submissive. I needed him to kiss me again like he hadn't just kissed me a minute or two earlier and he knew it. Inching his face nearer to mine I prepared myself for liquefaction. He kissed me deeply then looked at me with a gigantic grin on his face and then he BIT MY FRIGGIN NOSE!

"What is it with you and my nose?" I shouted and pinched his ass hard. He fell against me laughing then unexpectedly there was a knock on the door and the doorknob turned. "Housekeeping," a woman said. Totally surprised that there were life forms outside the door we looked at each other bug eyed and whispered simultaneously, "Oh fuck!" Mark lifted the do not disturb sign off the doorknob waving it around in disbelief.

There was another knock on the door. We were standing there naked, the one bed we had been using for everything but sleeping was a shambles while the other bed had our stuff on it and the last I saw the bathroom it was a disaster area. This was not a good scene.

"Can you come back later please?" Mark shouted through the door.

"Okay, later." The housekeeper said.

Mark went and sat on the bed leaning against the headboard while I opened the door slightly and slipped the do not disturb sign on the outside doorknob. I sat on the bed next to him and started chuckling. "I was not prepared for that!"

Disgusted he said, "Me neither. Is there anywhere we can go where we won't be disturbed?"

"Soon bud, we'll have an apartment off base and we'll finally have some peace."

One hand reached for his and the other for the remote control and turned on the TV flipping channels. It was Saturday morning. Time for Bugs Bunny! There wasn't a whole heck of a lot on so we settled on watching CNN for a few minutes.

They played a video clip from during the week and neither of us had heard or seen a thing about it. Doctor Koop was talking about this newly identified sexually transmitted disease that seemed to only affect IV drug users and gay men. They went back to the discussion with some group of doctors laying out the facts, as they knew them to be. They were recommending condom usage repeatedly. We hadn't ever used them. Forgetting all about Bugs we watched the entire program sitting naked in the bed of some rinky-dink hotel in Huntington Beach. This was some serious shit; hemophiliacs, drug users and gay men were dying from coast to coast and all around the world. Looking at each other from time to time we could see the fear building in each other's eyes. Then the politicians and theologians had their say. Some worthless, self-righteous bastard said "It's God's judgement on them," and I damn near threw the remote control at the TV. "Do you believe that shit-head?" I ranted. "What a fucking idiot!" Mark said nothing for a long time. "The God I know would never do that. He calls himself a man of God? And look at the politicians. All they seem to care about is how much it's gonna cost for research and education." I rambled on and on about the so-called 'moral majority' building my soapbox higher and higher then I heard Mark sniffle. When I turned to look he was wiping tears away from his eyes.

"What's the matter bud? Did I say something wrong?" I asked.

Mark gulped back a big sob and said "No, not you. I'm just scared."

"Of getting sick?"

"Yeah."

"I am too." I said wiping another tear from his cheek.

"What do you think we should do?"

My heart and brain began a major struggle. They new so little at the time. "Buy some condoms. Other than that, nothing." I replied.

"Do you think it might be too late?"

"I hope not. Do you?"

"I hope not too. Every question the doctors answered seemed to open a dozen new questions."

I sighed. "All we can do is wait, watch and learn all we can."

A short discussion of whom we had been with, when and what happened began. I know now that we were as safe as we could be but we didn't know that then. Then we talked for a while about some of the implications this might have in society. For the better part of the next three hours or so we talked until we could talk no more. We tried to sleep but just lay there looking at each other, afraid to touch each other that it would lead to more. I rolled over on my other side facing away from him and closed my eyes but I couldn't rest so I got up to take a long hot shower. It was all so whacked out I couldn't believe it. I fell in love last week with another guy and here we are on our first weekend together and now we were afraid to touch one another. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. I wasn't meant to love anyone or to feel love returned. I held back my wailing still and a huge knot developed in my throat making it hard to swallow. I turned my face under the water, opened my mouth and tried to wash the nasty taste away.

"Lonely?" Mark asked from beyond the shower curtain.

"Uh huh."

"Can I come in or would you rather not."

It was so great the last time we stood in this shower together just a few hours earlier. I wanted him to come in but would he? So I left it up to him. "If you like, sure." I replied.

He pulled back the shower curtain and stepped into the tub. The second he stood in front of me with those big sad puppy dog eyes and touched my arms I could no longer contain my tears. The tears led to sobs and the sobs led to wails. God only knows how long we stood there holding each other crying like it was the end of the world. When finally there were no more tears to cry we got out of the tub toweled off and went for a walk on the beach. Then we went for a ride to Anaheim to say hi to my Aunt and made it to Knottsberry Farms. We had a great time there and stayed until the park closed. Thankfully by the time we had stopped for dinner at Charlie Brown's the mornings dark cloud had all but completely dissipated. We were smiling and touching and eating and touching and talking and touching. On the way back to the hotel we were holding hands and everything was just about back to normal UNTIL...

Mark pulled up in front of Longs Drugs a few blocks from the hotel. I knew what we were there for. He had mentioned getting condoms and KY jelly earlier in the afternoon. We walked back into the hotel room and saw the mess that obviously never got cleaned up by housekeeping. It was a reminder that neither of us needed to see and it made us both feel a little awkward for a few minutes. All we did the remainder of that night was talk, dance for a while to a soft jazz station and eventually put ourselves to bed falling quickly and deeply to sleep.

The dreams I had that night were of Mark and I doing all sorts of things that we had already done together. Volleyball games on base, dinner at the chow hall, walks on the beach, talking for hours on end, Saturday morning Bugs, basically all the things I loved to do with him or around him. I woke up remembering enough of what I had dreamed to realize that I loved being with him all the time. It was still dark when I rolled over, wrapped my arm around my sleeping boyfriend and drifted back off to sleep again. A while later I woke up to Mark spooned up behind me with his arm wrapped around me. Yeah, that's what I needed; only he could give me the warm secure feeling that everything was going to be back to normal very soon.