Always Conditions

“Whateryoudoin’ home at this time, Ken? Aren’t you ‘supposed to be in school?”

“I told you, Ma, I’m taking the semester off.”

“Taking a semester off? Coach is letting you do that?”

“No, I told you about that too, Ma. I’m taking time off from the sports too. Coach will take me back, I’m sure.” But Ken couldn’t be all that sure of that. His close friend, Lawrence, had taken his position on the team after Ken had dropped out. And Ken couldn’t be sure he’d get it back the next semester, even if he could get back on the scholarship. And if Lawrence liked it at that position, Ken wasn’t sure he wanted to take it away from him again.

“Why’d ya do that?” Laurie asked. “School don’t suit you? You was so high and mighty about that. And you was goin’ a get a great job and take care of me. You find it too much to chew off?”

“No, Ma, I told you. There’s a litter of pups I have to get weaned up at Clyde’s. He was going to put them down—Daisy’s litter—and I promised I’d take care of them. But that means I have to be up there and feed them and clean up after them every couple of hours. So, that and taking care of you means I’ve had to put school aside for a semester.”

“That Daisy. She was the only one you could talk about,” Laurie snorted. She turned the volume of the TV down a bit with her remote, took a puff on her cigarette, coughed, and put the cigarette in the ashtray on the table next to her La-Z-Boy. “You would’a thought you were shackin’ up with her or something. You and that dog. And what do ya mean havin’ to take care of me? Don’t you go blamin’ your wantin’ to drop outta college on me. I can take care of myself.”

He didn’t tell her that his intentions to avoid Clyde’s conditions had run out just the night before, when lights had gone on in the house as Ken had done a 2:00 am feed, his mother having been dead to the world and not knowing he’d been slipping out at need to feed the pups.

Clyde had come into the barn in just his sleeping pants and with a blanket over his arm that he spread over a couple of bales of hay while he was telling Ken in no uncertain terms that the pups would be put down the next day unless Ken gave into his conditions right then and there. Again, Ken had come down just in his jeans, and while he was still trying to sweet talk Clyde out of his “conditions,” Clyde pushed Ken’s back down on the covered hay bales and was unzipping the jeans and flaring them out to expose Ken’s cock. Ken moaned and buried his fingers in Clyde’s hair as Clyde worked up his cock with his mouth.

Clyde was good as sucking and when he rolled Ken’s pelvis up and moved his mouth down to Ken’s hole while pumping Ken’s cock with his hand, Ken came quickly. Then he just laid back and whimpered, having no will to fight it as Clyde coaxed his thighs apart and moved his hips between them. The first thrust was hard and deep, and Ken involuntarily arched his back toward the floor at the far end of the hay bales. Clyde’s powerful chest followed him down, and Clyde’s lips and teeth went for Ken’s nipples as the older man pumped Ken hard and deep and fast—giving Ken less time to adjust to the cock inside him than Lawrence gave him. And it was all over in just a few minutes and Clyde had turned and flipped his sleeping pants over his shoulder and was heading back up to the house with no further word to Ken.

Ken laid there, dazed, for several minutes more. Clyde didn’t last like Lawrence did, but while he was in there he churned harder and faster. And from what Clyde was mouthing and the grunts and groans he was making during the fuck, Ken knew this wasn’t the last time Clyde would want him.

“Sure, Ma. I left some dinner for you in the microwave,” Ken said in answer to Laurie’s question. “I’ve got to get up to Clyde’s for a feeding of the pups.”

“Well, don’t forget to drop by the drugstore on the way home and pick up my prescription—and at the gas station and get a carton of Virginia Slims. I’m about out, and they’ve got the best price in town.”

“Yes, Ma, I’ll do both of those things.”

“And the Laundromat. Did you get the wash back you put in the machines this morning?”

“Yes, Ma. I’ve already brought those home. Folded and in the drawers.”

“Well, then . . .” The volume went back up on the TV. “Grab me a Coke from the frig on your way out.”

“Sure, Ma. Coming right up.”

Ken hoped he could get in and back out at the kennel before Clyde even knew he had been there, but he was out of luck with that.

“Not a bad job with these pups,” Clyde said from the doorway to the barn. And he said it with a bit of admiration in his voice. “I sure as hell didn’t think you could manage. But you did. Another couple of weeks and they’ll manage on their own.”

“Yep, it looks like all three will pull through,” Ken said. He was busy petting the runt, a male he’d named Dusty and exercising him by making him follow his hand with his nose. This one had had the toughest time to survive—and it had been the one Clyde had picked up to drown first that panicked night. So, naturally it was the one Ken was attached to the most and also the one who gave him the most loving in return. He’d named the female Daffodil, to complement Daisy, although of course he quickly went to calling her Daffy. And the other male he’d named Dexter, although he felt he might as well have called him Dopey, as this was the slowest of the pups to pick up anything—but the quickest to the food and bottle. And, of course, he was the biggest and the most robust.

“Well, I guess they’ll turn out OK,” Clyde said. “The two biggest there should be worth something. The runt, though, I don’t know.”

Ken pulled Dusty to his breast protectively. “Dusty’s the smartest of the bunch, Clyde. He’ll do fine.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Clyde answered.

Ken thought that no time to ask was better than now—now when Clyde was actually acknowledging that Ken had made something worthwhile of not putting Daisy’s pups down. And he’d been thinking about it for some time. What he made from Clyde was just about enough to keep a puppy—so he asked.

“You want one of the pups?” Clyde asked.

“Yes. I figure leaving you with two you weren’t counting on should be enough to justify me taking one,” Ken said. “So, what do you say?”

“I guess it would be possible to do that,” Clyde said after glowering a bit and looking like he’d given it some thought. “But not for free, of course.”

Ken was afraid of this. It was with a bit of trepidation that he asked. “How much, Clyde?”

“Doesn’t have to be a ‘how much,’“ Clyde said softly, coming closer, crouching down by Ken’s side, and putting an arm around his neck. “It could be how often. You know what I want. I’ve told you what I want from you. I liked it last night; you’ve got such a nice, sweet little ass that I’ve been thinkin’ about it all morning. Give it to me twice a day when I want it, and I’ll give you one of the pups.”

Ken shuddered and looked up into Clyde’s face, trying to keep his composure. “How much in money, Clyde?”

Clyde paused, not appearing to like how the conversation had been deflected. “$800, Ken. These are purebred Labs, Ken. I’d get $1,200 for one on the market. I can’t just give one away. Is what I really want that much of a deal next to $800? Think about it. Those are my conditions.”

“I’ll think about it,” Ken answered. And he guessed he should think about it. It wasn’t like it wasn’t the same thing he was doing with Lawrence—although certainly not twice a day. But somehow Ken didn’t think it would be the same—as easy—with Clyde. Clyde had a mean streak in him. Ken didn’t really want to have a relationship like that with Clyde; the conditions were just too dire for him.

“I’m keyed up, Ken. You done that to me. I’ll let you think about the deal but only if you’ll put out again right here and now.”

The blanket was still on the hay bales, and Clyde pushed Ken down on them on his belly this time and took him like a dog, holding Ken’s head down with a strong, veiny hand on his neck. Again, a searingly fast and hard and deep first thrust. And this time Clyde was able to pump him a bit longer than the previous night before he ejaculated.

Clyde stood away from Ken when he was done and said, “There that was nice,” Again he turned and walked away, adjusting his pants, and left and Ken, unable yet to move from the position Clyde had left him in, looked over at Dusty, squatting on the dirt floor of the barn. The pup was nosing his muzzle into Ken’s hand and licking him and wagging his tail like he was on cloud nine.

“Where am I going to get $800?” Ken thought. But he knew something had to be done. The pups were getting old enough to either sell or turn loose in the general kennel population. Ken had to do something.

Later, he told Lawrence something of his dilemma out in the woods behind Clyde’s barn. They had met and driven into the woods there in Lawrence’s car and gotten in the backseat and worked the tension out of each other with Lawrence lapping Ken to a mutual release.

Ken was facing Lawrence and using his knees and forelegs on the seat on either side of Lawrence’s hips to raise and lower himself on Lawrence’s staff, which was considerably longer than Clyde’s but possibly not as thick. Ken liked running his fingers through Lawrence’s tight, kinky curls and down along the milk-chocolate muscle curves of his lover’s well-develop arm and chest muscles. Lawrence was playing with Ken’s nipples with his mouth, which Ken found a bit painful after the brutal attention Clyde had given them—but was arousing enough under Lawrence’s more gentle touch that Ken didn’t want him to stop—while his broad palms cupped, squeezed, and separated Ken’s butt cheeks to give Lawrence’s cock maximum depth inside Ken.

“I don’t see the problem,” Lawrence said as they were finished and Ken felt Lawrence’s cock softening inside him—knowing full well that Lawrence would be ready to go again in just a few minutes. “Just give him what he wants. Clyde is old but he’s got a good body. And you know what to do with a willing body.”

“I don’t know, Lawrence,” Ken answered. “I don’t really want to get into anything like that with Clyde. He scares me a little. And twice a day. He’s already fucked me—twice, so it isn’t that. It’s the being at his beck and call whenever he wants it.”

“So, what’s the problem?” Lawrence asked.

“He’s cruel and twice a day . . . and I’m not at all sure he’ll live up to his side of the bargain in the end anyway.”

“You take me fine more than twice in a day.”

“Yeah, I can feel another one rising even now,” Ken answered in a breathy voice.

And there then were no more words beyond “shit” and “fuck” and “yes, like that,” for the next half hour, as Lawrence pushed Ken over on his side on the seat, with Lawrence’s body cupping Ken’s from behind and one of Ken’s legs draped over the back of the front driver’s seat as Lawrence’s cock mined his channel deep and for what seemed like forever.

“He intrigues me,” Lawrence murmured after they both had recovered from the heavy breathing from the effort of a second fucking so soon after the first.

“Then you can have him,” Ken said. Months later Ken was reminded he’d said this and was to regret that he had. But for now, he knew he had to get back home and make sure his mother had gotten her lunch. And then it was time to check in on the pups again.

“Sorry about taking your position on the team,” Lawrence said as he drove Ken out of the woods.

“Someone had to take it,” Ken said. “I’m glad it was you.” And he was glad for Lawrence. He just hoped there would still be a position for him to come back to when he started back to college in the next semester—assuming the school and Coach would take him back. It had been quite a sacrifice to put school on hold to save the pups—but each time he went to the kennel to feed and groom them, he knew it had been the right decision to make.

Lawrence left him off on a corner two blocks west of his house so that no one would be the wiser what they had been up to. This wasn’t a big town. Gay and black on white would be a double-whammy problem here.

As Ken approached the house, he, first, saw the fire engine on his block, and then, as he broke into a run, he saw the ambulance. It was in the driveway to his own bungalow.

They were bringing Laurie out on a stretcher as he got there. The medics were apologetic when Ken identified himself, and they said they were doing all they could. But Ken knew just by looking at his mother that she already was gone—that the fast trip to the ER and pronouncement there were just formalities.

They were very good to him. Let him go along in the ambulance and spent as much time with him as they were with the woman on the stretcher—probably knowing that the living needed them more than the dead did. And Ken spent the entire time with jumbled thoughts on just where he was now and where it could go from here. He was coming up empty on both counts.

[To be continued.]