Love Means Courage - Andrew Grey

Geoff up. “Come on, I’ll take you upstairs and get you ready for a swim. Daddy and Len have things to do.” “Simmin, yay!” he called as she carried him inside.
“What do you have to do?” Len started to rattle off the things on his list, but Cliff stopped him. “Steve’s starting tomorrow, and 218 Andrew Grey
he’s going to need some things to do. Besides, I think we need to go for a ride.”
“I’ll saddle the horses.”
    “We won’t need the horses.” Len’s eyes widened as he realized the kind of ride Cliff had in mind. “Come on.” Cliff led him through the barn and around the riding ring to a trail that cut around one of the pastures. Cliff took Len’s hand and guided them into the trees. The trail led to the creek and then turned, the water babbling as they walked. “I know I don’t say what I’m feeling very often.” They found themselves in a small clearing and Cliff stopped walking, dropping the blanket he’d grabbed on their way through the barn. “But I need to tell you now. You have to be the most patient man I’ve ever known. You waited five years for a second kiss, and you waited weeks for me to come to my senses and realize how important you are.” Cliff spread the blanket on the grass, tugging Len down next to him as he knelt. “Just so you know, with no prodding and no drama, I love you, Len Parker, with everything I am.” Len leaned forward, but Cliff stopped him with a touch and a smile. “I want to ask you to live with me, with us. The bed, the house, my life, they’re all too lonely without you.” Len swallowed and nodded, unable to speak at that moment.
    “Was that a yes?”
    “Yes.” Len looked down at the blanket. “I can hardly believe it.” He looked up and saw Cliff’s eyes gleaming in the sunlight. “I had a huge crush on you, ya know. Even before you kissed me.” Len scooted closer, their knees touching as Cliff pulled their chests together. “I volunteered for the play because you were in it and that way I had an excuse to watch you.”
    “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Sheila hadn’t interrupted our first kiss.”
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    Len smiled and ghosted his lips over Cliff’s neck. “I’m grateful to her.” Cliff pulled back, looking into Len’s eyes. “If she hadn’t, who knows what might have happened. Instead, you married Ruby, loved her, and had Geoff. Everything happens for a reason.
    And if you had it to do over again, knowing how things came out, would you change anything?”
“No.” Cliff shook his head gently. “I have everything I could ever want. Well, almost everything.”
    Len waited suspiciously for a second, and then his lips were taken in an earth-stopping kiss as Cliff guided him back on the blanket. “I love you, Len Parker. I’m not very eloquent when it comes to things like this, and I don’t have flowery words to tell you how I feel.” Cliff’s fingers worked the buttons on Len’s shirt, pulling it open and baring the smooth chest to his hot gaze, and instead of words, he let his lips talk in other ways.
    Len hissed softly as Cliff’s lips sucked gently on one of his nipples, pulling more and more insistently as the suction grew more intense. “Cliff. God, Cliff.” Len arched his back into the sensation.

    Eyes shining, Cliff’s eyes shifted to look up at Len. “You really like that, don’t you?”

    Len nodded as his other nipple was subjected to the same delicious torturous treatment. “Love you, Cliff.” No one made his body sing the way his lover could. A few touches of his hands or hot lips on his skin, and he was soaring with delight.

    “Love you, too, but talk is cheap. Let me show you how I love you.” Len nodded again as Cliff opened Len’s belt and slipped his pants off his legs, with his boxers following soon after.

    “I know how you feel, Cliff.” He felt his skin heat beneath his lover’s almost feral gaze, and he throbbed against his stomach, knowing that he could put that look on his lover’s face and that no 220
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one else would ever see that look except him. That piece of Cliff was all his.
    “But you deserve to feel it.” Len jumped slightly as he felt Cliff’s hands on his leg, skidding lightly on the hair, lips following the hands, kissing the skin as it heated beneath Cliff’s palms. He felt his legs stroked along his hip and up to his stomach. Len was so close; he thrust forward, trying to get Cliff to give him some attention.