FWF Labors of Love: “Josh”

A few years ago, I wrote about the adventures of a tattoo artist named Rack. A couple years after that, I wrote about Rack and his lover Daniel going on a whirlwind tattoo tour.

Along that journey they met Josh, a veteran who thought he’d found what he was looking for with Daniel, and when he learned differently, traveled on.

Many, many readers wanted to know what happened next for Josh. This is it (click the link to read). I hope you enjoy. :)

Cheers,
Willa

Josh spends most of his time traveling, these days. The roads all blur together after a while in vague gray streaks of memory. Highways choked with cars or empty as a winter sky, trees both leafy and skeletal, straggling flowers planted in medians and single shoes with sad laces trailing over the center line.

Still, he figures that everyone has to start somewhere, right? So he might as well start here.

Even if “here” is the middle of nowhere.

This could be Anywhere, U.S.A. The faded sign swinging outside the bar doesn’t give any indication of city or state. There’s no one around to give him strange looks when they hear him thinking out loud. There’s pretty much no one around, period — except for one man — which is just the way he likes things.

He has an odd urge, the mental picture flashing in his brain, to take off his shirt and drape himself over the bar’s cool-looking wooden porch, rough-edged planks be damned. It’d feel great to stretch his long, long legs and tuck his hands behind his head.

It’s relaxing to rest in a place where life flows like a breeze.

He thinks he could get to liking it here for more than the odd time or two a month he stops in on his way to and fro across the country.

Rack’s shop is still home base. It’s where he goes when he needs an anchor, or when the world gets to feeling too big.

When he feels able to wander again, he picks up his rucksack and goes as far as his truck’ll take him before it breaks down.

Funny how it always makes it at least as far as this weather-beaten watering hole, if no further. He’s wondered before if motor vehicles don’t have their own sort of intelligence, the way horses used to. People talked to their cars, didn’t they? Coaxed them on or damned their engines.

Maybe his truck knows this is as far as he needs to go, and gets him here when it’s the right time to stop by.

‘Cause as much as he’s grown fond of Rack and he still carries a small torch for Daniel, there’s another man out here who’s taking over his heart.

He’s falling fast. Fell from the first time he laid eyes on Drew, to tell the truth. Drew knew it too.

Josh guesses it’s about time he did something about moving on with his life.

Drew always gives him all the space he needs to think. When Josh is ready, that’s when Drew pushes open the creaking doors. He’s got a crooked smile and one eyebrow shaped like an arch, one like a triangle, and it gives him a forever wicked-boy twist. His accent is Texan, slow and lazy and molasses-rich.

“Figured I’d see you again, sooner rather than later.”

Josh nods. He’s not much on talking, even with Drew. Daniel was different.

“It’s Labor Day, you know,” Drew says, jerking his thumb at a hand-printed notice tacked to the door of the bar.

Josh shrugs.

“Doesn’t mean I’ll turn you away. Come inside. Got some Coronas iced down, or there’s a bottle of Cuervo we could tear up.” Drew watches Josh while he rambles, assessing him from top to bottom. “Ah. I see. Didn’t come here for the tequila or beer, did you?”

Josh looks down at his feet.

Drew thumps down the rickety wooden steps and presses full into Josh’s personal space, not that he wants any distance between them. Drew knows Josh’s whole story — part of it told to him, and the rest guessed — and he can read Josh better than any book.

“You figure you’re ready for the big party now?” Drew asks softly, rubbing the backs of his knuckles over Josh’s cheekbone. ”

Josh had thought he was. Now he’s uncertain, wanting to pull away and wanting desperately to stay at the same time. “D-don’t know if it’s the r-right time. Wanted t-to see you, is all.”

He hates his stutter with a fiery passion, and he appreciates it so deeply that Drew never seems to take notice, and hasn’t interrupted or tried to “help” him once since they met. A dark and lonely night when Josh’s truck broke down in front of this deliberately down-at-heel bar in the middle of nowhere and he’d had to go inside for help.

A night that changed Josh’s life. For the better.

“Hey.” Drew nudges Josh’s chin. “Doesn’t have to be more than what it is. I’ll give you a taste. You can see what you think, and we’ll go from there. Deal?”

Josh works up the nerve to look at Drew.

“That’s my boy.” Drew’s closer than he thought, near enough to press a kiss to the side of Josh’s lips without moving more than a few inches. He takes it slow, not closing his eyes. Neither does Josh, wanting to watch it all.

It’s good, but they’ve been here before and Josh knows for sure now he wants more.

Drew sees what he wants, and doesn’t embarrass him by asking for specifics. Only, one last time: “You sure about this?” He mouths small, breath-warm kisses up Josh’s neck, moving an inch at a time. The trailing edges of his rough-cut hair tickle Josh’s sweat-dampened skin.

His cock’s uncomfortably full behind his zipper, and all of a sudden Josh wants nothing more than the touch of Drew’s hand.

No sooner wished for than it’s there, cupping him and bearing down, the friction just enough to light a fire in Josh.

When he reaches the nape of Josh’s neck, Drew inhales deeply. “So good, Josh. You smell so good.”

“D-don’t. I’m not. I–.”

“You are.” Drew nips the freckled skin at the join of neck and shoulder, soothing the stinging spot with a sweep of his tongue. “I’ve waited a long time for this. Reckon you know that, though.”

Josh has asked this before. “W-why me? W-why do you care ab-about me?”

“Because you are something special and rare.” Drew draws a thin line up Josh’s throbbing hard-on, the tip of his pointer fingers only brushing the worn denim stretched so tight. “Because I cared for you the moment you walked in. Don’t ask me ‘why’. Sometimes it happens that way.”

Like it did for Daniel when he first saw Rack, Josh thinks.

He finds he’s smiling.

Drew presses his mouth to Josh’s. Josh opens for him, letting Drew slowly stroke his tongue between his lips, an unhurried taste of what’s to come now that Josh is ready.

Josh hesitates.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t ever hurt you. I swear.” Drew coaxes Josh’s fly open and works his hand inside, teasing the crisp, curling hairs around Josh’s cock before grasping the shaft.

Josh hisses and grips Drew’s arms. “You need this,” Drew says, licking delicately at his mouth while his thumb works over Josh’s cockhead. “I can be who you need, if you’re ready to let me.”

He rolls his hips, rocking into Drew’s hand. He lets — no, helps — Drew bring him off that way, with languid, steady pulls that make him feel like he’s on fire inside. It’s almost a surprise when he comes, as well as a relief. Tension even Josh hadn’t known he was carrying melts away.

Though he’s orgasm-dazed, Josh knows enough to know he should return the favor. He reaches for Drew.

Drew bats him away, but playfully. “It’s not the usual kind of labor,” he says, licking smears of come off his hand. “I’d say your being ready calls for a celebration, though. Come inside with me.”

It takes courage, it does, but Josh knows it’s time to either do this properly or not at all. He pushes Drew’s hand away before he comes right then and there, and then takes it, lacing their fingers together, be damned to anyone who might see and take offense.

“After you,” Josh says, without a trace of a stutter. “I’m ready.”

(A/N: The other Rack & Daniel “Stranger” stories can be found here: http://www.torquerebooks.com/zencart/index.php?manufacturers_id=76&zenid=b5e2c4c75bf7bc1a0e83c6e46a48aad1&main_page=index)

Written by Willa Okati

Possesses an abundance of crazy ideas, writes constantly, always tries new things, and drinks an insane amount of coffee. Manlove (and femmelove) is more than a passion -- it's a way of life. You can find Willa at http://www.willaokati.com or at her newly-renamed Yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/got_ink_willaokati
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