“I’m worried I’m squishing you,” Aaron said, and Kreed grinned as he ran his nose through those silky strands. He liked Aaron worrying about him. Proved he cared.
“You’ll never squish me. In fact, I love the feeling of your weight against me,” Kreed said and lifted his hands to rub Aaron’s shoulders. “Relax. It’s supposed to be soothing, remember?”
“Talk to me,” Aaron said and started to relax against him.
“About what?” He slid his hands along Aaron’s shoulders, down to his chest, stopping to tease the small metal ring in his nipple.
Aaron inhaled sharply. “Stop trying to distract me. Tell me about your life.” Aaron leaned his head back on Kreed’s shoulder.
The request confused him, and he narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to get a closer look at Aaron. The kid’s eyes were closed, but he opened them and gave a sideways glance in Kreed’s direction.
“You’re fascinating. Sue me for being curious.”
That earned Aaron points right there. Very nice comment. He liked knowing Aaron was into him enough to want to know more.
“Let’s see. I don’t really know where to start. No one’s ever asked me that question before.” He sat back against the tub to think, his hands manipulating Aaron’s strong shoulders again.
“What kind of kid were you?” Aaron lightly brushed his fingertips up and down Kreed’s thighs.
“Normal, I guess.” Kreed continued to rub Aaron’s shoulders, moving down to his upper arms, then back up again, losing himself in the question. He hadn’t thought about his childhood in more years than he could remember.
“Let’s see. Well, I was an only child for most of my formative years. My brother didn’t come along until I was starting my teens. So I guess the best way to describe my childhood was that I was bad when I was little. My mom was kind of a pushover. I’d get in trouble, but she’d let me off the hook. Then I was the definition of bad when I was a teenager because they weren’t paying any attention to me after they had Derek. They tried for a long time to get that boy.” The thoughts of his brother caused a dark void that he wasn’t strong enough to face right now, so he quickly changed the subject. “What was your life like?”
“No, we’re not changing the subject. Bad, like how?” The conversation seemed to loosen Aaron up, or at least redirect his thoughts, because he rolled over in the water, Aaron’s chest now pressed to his. Kreed looked down at Aaron’s upturned face, then bent in to kiss his full lips.
“Like bad enough that it was go into the military or one of those six-month boot camps. I chose the military,” Kreed answered. When Aaron stayed silent, Kreed figured he wanted more of that story. Since he wasn’t too proud of that time in his life, he didn’t want to rehash the events. “I wasn’t always comfortable being gay. Or wait, it wasn’t necessarily that back then. I didn’t understand it. I wasn’t exposed to too many homosexuals in my life. I didn’t get why I was so focused on cocks while my buddies kept talking about all the girls they were hittin’. I acted out some. Did you ever go through that?” Kreed asked.
“Stop changing the subject. You’re fascinating. Keep going. So you went in the military…” Aaron prompted. Kreed stared for a couple of long seconds, but Aaron looked truly interested. Kreed lifted a foot and flipped the switch to turn on the jets. The water came to life in a gentle roll of soothing air bubbles.
“I did. I enlisted, and it was perfect for me. Gave me something to think about besides men, which is weird because I was around nothing but hot as hell guys. It should have been just more of the same as high school, but it wasn’t. I came into my own there.”
“And you moved around a lot. I read that in one of your reports.”
“I love that you were digging around to find out things about me. I knew you were into me,” Kreed said smugly, lifting Aaron slightly so he could scoot lower in the tub, aligning their chests. Kreed grabbed Aaron’s thick hard-on and urged him to shift positions so both their cocks slid deliciously together between their bodies in the slick water.
“Keep going, big guy,” Aaron encouraged, moving Kreed’s hand from between their bodies. Kreed barked out a laugh at the double meaning, but Aaron kept going, “Your career’s fascinating. It’s like a real life Call of Duty.”
“There’s a reason that information isn’t anywhere,” Kreed explained, and when it looked like Aaron was going to persist, he put his fingers to his guy’s lips. “I really can’t talk about it, for my safety as well as my family’s. Even you, Stuart. Everybody in my life. But I did leave the military about ten years ago. It wasn’t necessarily my decision, but it was time to go. I left with an honorable discharge and chose the marshal service. I moved up quickly. It was Skinner who talked to me about the US Marshals Service Special Operations Group—SOG for short. He introduced me to Mitch. By then, I had calmed down quite a bit.” When he felt the vibration against his chest, he goosed the man on top of him. “Stop laughing. I did, and Mitch was up-and-coming. Skinner couldn’t say to us that we fit because of the gay thing, but it definitely helped to pair us up. We did better with the staff. It was important, I guess. Skinner’s a good guy.”
“Did you ever doubt him in the Redemption Tabernacle deal? Because you had to suspect everybody once Agent Langley’s involvement came out.”
“Never him. I was talking to Skinner behind everyone’s back almost from the beginning. Well, at least since the Grayson kid went down. I never doubted him one time,” Kreed said.
“What about Connors or Brown. Did they set off any red flags?”
“Of course. What about you? What did you think?”