Henry's End Read online

The dimple reappeared as Cody put a hand around the back of Henry’s head. “I think you just topped from the bottom.”

  Laughing, “Maybe I did.”

  “Don’t get used to it.” Cody pulled him in for a kiss.

  Waking from an uneasy, alcohol-induced sleep, Henry couldn’t turn over and his left leg was asleep. The heavy arm of the big Marine spooned behind him, held him firmly in place and he needed to move.

  A spooner. Never would have guessed that. And dead to the world, too.

  Rubbing back into him, he could feel the tip of Cody’s cock on the crack of his ass. Slowly he moved up and down, pressing himself firmly into the sleeping giant. Henry could feel himself growing hard just feeling Cody’s cock on his ass. Still in a deep sleep, the big Marine began to harden and Henry kept up the motion until he felt Cody starting to grind into him.

  “Mmmm,” Cody’s moan was filled with sleep as he thrust himself against Henry’s crack. “What a perfect way to wake up,” his morning voice was gravelly.

  “Do you want a condom and some lube?”

  “In a few minutes.” Cody swung a leg over Henry’s, pulling him even closer and moving his hand down to Henry’s waiting cock. Wrapping his large fingers around Henry’s girth, he slowly began to stroke him. “First, I want to feel how hard you get for me. Only me.”

  Henry began to move with the motion of Cody’s hand, loving that this hot guy was jerking him off.

  “You like that, don’t you? You like me stroking your cock and jerking you off.”

  “Yes, I do.” He pumped more voraciously into Cody’s hand.

  “Then come for me.” He sank his teeth into Henry’s shoulder.

  “Oh God.”

  And Cody bit harder. “Come for me,” he hissed.

  “Yes,” Henry cried, spasming and spurting into Cody’s hand.

  “Good boy,” he whispered into Henry’s ear. “I like when you listen to what I tell you to do. For that you get a reward.”

  Barely coming down off one sensation, Henry was immediately lost to another as he felt a wetness at his anus.

  “Oh God,” he moaned again, as Cody continued to massage his come into his ass.

  With lips grazing Henry’s neck, while his fingers continued to play. “I’m going to fuck you with your own come.”

  “Oh fuck, if I hadn’t just come that would have made me come,” Henry’s voice was barely a low moan.

  “Get me a condom and lube and then get on all fours.” The Marine Captain commanded, totally in control and spitting out orders.

  Henry did as he was told.

  Cody’s large hand came down in a stinging slap across Henry’s ass. The unexpected assault had a delicious burn, Henry thought, his brain trying to keep pace with the onslaught of sensations. He heard the top of the lube bottle click open, followed by a wet stream of viscous solution slowly tunneling its way down his crack. When it reached the opening, Cody massaged it into the rim in a sensual, slow clockwise motion.

  Pressing the tip of his finger in elicited a moan of “Oh God,” from Henry.

  “Mmm, you are sensitive,” there was amusement in the Marine’s voice, as he thrust his finger in deeper, “and so, so tight. God, my cock is going to love being inside you.”

  Henry felt more lube running down his ass just before Cody inserted a second finger and began a smooth languid motion of thrusting them in and twisting them to massage Henry’s prostate, causing his spent cock to begin hardening almost immediately.

  “Fuck, Cody. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  “Are you ready to be fucked by a real man and not some fag?” his voice was hoarse and deep.

  Henry moaned and immediately felt a sharp tug on his hair.

  “I asked you a question, fag,” his tone serious and threatening.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” He yanked Henry’s hair sharply again, pulling his head back.

  “Yes, I’m ready to be fucked by a real man,” Henry choked out, wildly anticipating the painful burning of Cody’s entry.

  “And only I fuck you.” Cody withdrew his fingers slowly and spread Henry’s ass cheeks wide. “None of those fags anymore, got that?”

  “Y-Y-Yes,” Henry stuttered, “only you fuck me.”

  Holding his breath at the delicious feeling of pressure the head of Cody’s thick cock created against his ass, Henry thought if he doesn’t fuck me right now I will beg for it, I will literally beg this man to fuck me.

  As he had flippantly warned, the big Marine was not a gentle man. He took what he wanted. Forcefully. Deriving extreme pleasure from his conquest, knowing his total sexual domination of Henry fully met both their needs perfectly.

  Before returning to the base later that day, he would take Henry’s ass another two times, once with Henry’s legs over his shoulders so that he could watch his face as he deeply plowed down into him and the final time lying on his back, with Henry sitting on him facing away. “You’ve earned controlling the depth and rhythm this time,” he told Henry. “You’ve given me what I needed.”

  Henry was glad to have pleased him, hoping he’d want to come back for more. Like Jimmy. Maybe they could actually build something, be more. Be something. Something real this time.

  As Cody began to spend all his base leave at Henry’s apartment, he let himself dream for the first time since he was nine, a dream he’d buried so deeply, he really wasn’t sure he’d ever dreamed it.

  He wanted that someone. That forever someone.

  “Seriously, are we ever going to meet him? I would like to meet him before I die.” Stephen was the only one who could get away with saying that. Although he did so tongue-in-cheek, both Henry and Edwin inwardly winced, already feeling the deep pain in the knowledge that time with their special, new friend was rapidly drawing to a close.

  “I’ll ask him. He’s kind of private. It’s the whole military thing and being discreet.”

  The weeks had now passed into months and their routine was comforting to Henry. Nights at his apartment when Cody could get off base, dinners out, dinners in, the occasional drunk, wild night dancing. Cody taking him. Roughly. Sometimes almost savagely. Meeting both their needs perfectly.

  This was their rhythm and Henry let himself believe that as much as he was Cody’s, Cody was his. Letting himself believe that was a place he’d never ventured before, not with his college relationships or those that came after.

  “I want you to meet my friends.” Henry was almost timid in his request, not sure of the response.

  Cody looked up from the cutting board where he was chopping carrots. “Which friends?”

  “Just Edwin and Stephen.”

  Cody remained silent and Henry forged on, “We’re going to lose Stephen soon and he really wants to meet you.”

  Turning to face Henry, “What exactly do they know about me?” Cody stuck the tip of the knife into the butcher block cutting board.

  “That your name is Cody and you’re hot and you’ve done two tours in Baghdad and I’m insanely crazy about you.” Henry smiled.

  The one dimple appeared and the big Marine shook his head as he turned back to the task at hand, “Sure, I’ll meet your friends.”

  Grabbing two plates from the cabinet to set the table, Henry felt his heart lighten. That had gone better than he’d anticipated. It was difficult to gauge how Cody would react.

  Sitting down to eat, Henry filled their wine glasses. “To meeting my friends,” he toasted with a smile.

  Cody leveled a steely-eyed glance at Henry over the rim of his wine glass. “You understand I need to be discreet.”

  “I do, but I don’t see how this is any more threatening to your privacy than walking into The Hole.”

  “No one knows a damn thing about me at The Hole. Not even people I went home with. You’re my first actual relationship of anyone I’ve met there. I never saw any of the others again.”

  Henry looked down at the suddenly unappetizing food on his plate. They’d never discussed th
e past. It was one of the parts of Cody’s world that was locked in a bunker. Henry knew a man this beautiful and charismatic had been around the block a few times, but thinking about him picking up other guys at The Hole made him sad and evoked both feelings of jealousy and insecurity. He could be gone tomorrow. Like Jimmy.

  “Don’t get like that, Henry. I can’t deal with that shit. Who am I here with? All my leave is spent with you.” It was clear Cody didn’t have a lot of tolerance for sulking.

  “I know. I’m just being a jealous bitch.” Henry forced a smile.

  Laughing, “Yeah, but you’re my bitch. And I like that.” Stabbing his fork into his food, “OK, so what do I need to know about them before we meet? Edwin’s the old guy, right? What’s his story?”

  Stephen’s death was upon them before that meeting ever had a date attached to it. As Henry left a client meeting, his pager buzzed and he recognized Edwin’s number.

  Heading directly to the Beamer for his car phone, “He went into cardiac arrest last night and he had a DNR,” Edwin’s voice was thick with emotion.

  “Oh fuck.” The pain stabbing acutely through Henry’s heart riveted him to the seat. Did I do enough? Did he know how much I cared about him? Was I there enough for him? Really there? “His family is in Indiana. Are they flying his body back?”

  Edwin was silent for a moment and Henry could feel the bile rising in his throat.

  “They don’t want to have anything to do with him. Apparently they disowned him when he was seventeen.” Edwin could barely speak the words.

  “So, who is taking care of this? Who is taking care of Stephen?” The air in the Beamer was starting to disappear.

  “We’re starting a fund…” Edwin began.

  “No. No. No,” Henry screamed. “Stephen is not getting stuck in some refrigerator for God knows how long, while we beg strangers for spare change. He’s not,” a distraught Henry continued to scream.

  “Pull over, Henry. You shouldn’t be driving,” Edwin chastised. “I don’t want to lose you, too.”

  “Where is he, Edwin? Did they take him to Mercy Hospital?” Henry pulled a U-turn.

  “Yes.”

  “Ok, I’m headed there now.”

  “I’ll meet you. I’m headed to his house first to gather his papers. Drive safely, Henry, I’m not kidding.” Edwin warned.

  Stabbing the numbers into his phone for Cody’s pager, Henry left his number followed by a 911, their code for call me ASAP.

  He didn’t hear back.

  A man takes care of his family. That is what Henry thought. It was what he aspired to do. When his father left his mother with two small children, he knew right then that if he ever had a family, he would never cause such sadness and stress by not owning up to his responsibilities. When Stephen’s family didn’t own up to theirs, and shirked the duty of burying their own, Henry was not going to let his friend’s send-off be marred by prejudice and hate.

  The money to bury Stephen with respect and dignity amounted to a month’s worth of sales commissions for Henry. He never thought twice about what was the right thing to do. Stepping in to make sure everything was done properly and with the right amount of glitter and flourish to honor their friend, was Edwin, seeing to all the details and making the arrangements.

  It had been three days and an innumerable amount of pages and still no word from Cody. Had he been shipped back to Baghdad on some middle of the night covert mission? Called on to help take out a high value target? Henry had no clue. With Stephen’s loss tearing deeply into him, he ached for the big Marine, needing to find solace in his arms.

  For three long nights, he laid in bed, imagining the feel of Cody’s warm body spooned against his, giving him the strength to make it through the next few days until the burial.

  Where are you? Please be safe. I can’t lose you. I can’t, were his last thoughts as he fell asleep at night and his first when he opened his eyes in the morning before grabbing his pager off the nightstand to see if he’d slept through a message from Cody.

  But there were none.

  “Dress is San Diego surfer dude casual,” Edwin informed him.

  “For a funeral?”

  “No, for the celebration of the life of a brilliant Midwestern fabric designer who loved hot surfer boys. So we’re all going as surfer boys. He’s getting sent off by the hottest surfers in San Diego.” There was pride in Edwin’s voice at the event he was orchestrating in Stephen’s memory.

  “So, like board shorts and flip flops?” Henry couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it, but just the thought of a beach themed send-off versus a heavy funeral lifted the dark anxiety that had been pressing down on him, choking him for days.

  It felt more than a little weird entering a church in yellow board shorts, flip flops and a tank top with a funky drawing of a rainbow colored surfboard, a guitar and a VW bus that said, ‘surf, jam, live in a van’. It was light and fun-hearted and Henry didn’t comb his hair after his morning shower, so that he’d be sporting a tousled, just out of the ocean look.

  “You look stunning and so gay in that,” Edwin kissed both his cheeks and ran a hand through Henry’s mussed-up hair. “Stephen is sporting a hard-on in Heaven for you right now.”

  Standing at the front of the church, they greeted guests that milled in. People who had known Stephen for years, volunteers from the Fluff and Fold, neighborhood shopkeepers, gays, lesbians, transsexuals – all looking like they were heading out for a day at the beach. Instead of the heavy perfumed fragrance of flowers that overwhelmed the senses at funerals, wafting through the air was the light scent of Coppertone and Hawaiian Tropic.

  As the minister began his eulogy, Henry closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, picturing sitting on the beach next to a healthy Stephen, toes dug in the sand, rating the surfer boys as they approached the shore. Yeah, he’s hot. What do you think of that one? Eww, when was the last time he washed his hair! Look over there. Oh my God, he just gave me a semi. How about that one? He has worked hard for that six-pack. I want to lick those abs.

  “Henry, go up there.” Edwin was elbowing him out of his reverie. “It’s your turn to speak.”

  Disoriented, one minute he was on the beach with Stephen and now he was in a dark church, Henry stood to make his way to the altar, trying hard to regain his bearings after being ripped from his daydream.

  “Hi everyone. Thanks for coming. I’m Henry Clark and I was a friend of Stephen’s.” He looked out at the packed church and thought Stephen, who was so isolated at the end, would have been blown away by the turnout. “I met Stephen Bennett a few months ago, yet I would swear that I’ve known him my whole life. That we’d gone to school together and gotten kicked out of Cub Scouts together and been each other’s wingmen on Friday nights in bars. But none of that ever happened. The truth is, I met Stephen Bennett halfway through the final act. By the time we met, this insidious disease had already ravaged Stephen’s body, leaving him weakened and unable to do the simple things that are a part of everyday living. As the months went on, the disease continued to take its toll, and Stephen required more and more assistance to get basic things done. It was hard to watch and not just because of what it was robbing from him, but because of what it wasn’t. Stephen never let this disease define who he was or allow it to steal his spirit. Last Wednesday, he was still fighting with me over critical matters. Who was hotter – Brandon or Dylan? Was David really in the closet? If I were straight – Kelly or Brenda?” he paused as the audience erupted into laughter hearing about the TV show, 90210. “Right until the end, he never lost his essence, never allowed it to be taken away and he taught me a lesson I am sure I will revisit for the rest of my life. I’m so proud and thankful that I got to call Stephen Bennett a friend. I only have but one regret,” Henry’s voice cracked, “that we didn’t have more time. I’ll miss you Stephen. I already do.”

  When he reached the pew, Edwin was there with open arms as Henry cried openly into his shoulder. “Do not snot up this shirt
. It’s Versace,” the older man bitched.

  Laughing, Henry lifted his face from the white silk shirt. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Edwin squeezed his hand and held it tightly as they sat and listened to the other send-off speeches, before ending the service with a rousing sing-along of The Beach Boys’ iconic classic, Surfer Girl.

  “I’ve never been to this place,” Henry said to Edwin as the crowd of about a dozen very gay surfer-boy-wannabe-dressed-funeral-goers entered the beachfront restaurant.

  One of their party turned around, “It was always one of Stephen’s favorite places to come for lunch on weekends. His favorite dish is called ‘Man Pleasing Meatloaf’. How could you not love something with that name?”

  They all laughed as they attempted to negotiate through the closely-positioned tables to a long reserved one set up for them by the window.

  The glass wall looking out over the ocean, where the sun glinted on the waves, made Henry feel less overwhelmed than he’d been feeling. The ocean always had that effect on him, and it brought back the feeling of the daydream he’d seen in his head in the church. Stephen would have liked this, and he would’ve liked that they were all there together. People from different facets of his life, meeting for the first time, through him.

  Still focused on the ocean, Henry was not watching what was going on right in front of him, and didn’t realize the line of people in their party had stopped, as they started to take their seats. Practically plowing into Edwin, he placed a hand on the back of the chair next to him to steady himself.

  “So sorry,” he said to the tow-headed little girl who looked up, startled by the jolt. As his gaze rose to take in her family, the shock and proximity caused the knee-jerk reaction as he stared into the cold eyes of his lover just a few feet across the table. His name just tumbled from Henry’s mouth, the shock evident. “Cody?”

  The woman whose back had been to him looked up and smiled. A pretty blonde with wide blue eyes, she reminded him, in looks, of his friend Schooner’s wife, CJ. This woman had definitely been a sorority girl and prom queen.