My Island

 You might read Edgings, Exploring the Edge, Falling off the Edge books first. My Island is set a couple years after Falling off the Edge. These first seven chapters of My Island, establish the new time, a few new characters, but will eventually bring back many old characters and I honestly have no idea where it will go, so hold onto your sexy asses!

Chapter 4

CASS

I could see Dad had a slew of questions for Chris, but as he gave the flight attendant a very short interview. I kept my eyes on them, marveling at my father. The man was forty and he looked thirty, if anything. Tanned, glowing with health, with an unconscious attractiveness I could feel, even though I was his son. 

Jake was watching them too, when I darted a glance at him. Jake hadn't said a thing to me, and I wasn't going to say anything to Jake if that's the way he wanted it. Still, I glanced long enough to see that Jake was even more awesome and amazing than I remembered. If Jake was here with my dad, then it stood to reason Jake had followed up on my suggestion he seek out my dad for a job.

Why hadn't Jake written and told me, emailed me, texted me? Anything? And why hadn't dad told me such an important part of my life was there, home, at the resort at Key Mark? What the hell was that about?

finally, as we got to baggage claim and were waiting for my stuff to come tumbling off the ramp, I stepped to his side, taking in the hint of his musk and those invisible pheromones that made anyone horny just standing near Jake. "Hi Jake." I said to him.

"Hi Cass." Jake said his bass voice low, with a half grin, eyes wary, those incredible pale blue eyes that had so hypnotized me for three months, two summers before, putting me under a spell, pulling me into love for the first time in my life. It had been a forbidden love. Jake was married at the time to two other men, one of them, my own cousin Alex. Their three way was pretty open, with few boundaries, and I had been sucked in. Literally. 

I looked down at his hands. No ring. "Your here with Dad? You have a lot to explain," I said, thinking that one hell of an understatement.

"Yeah, guess I do." Jake allowed in that drawl of his that made my spine tingle and my cock stir.

"Well do you mind explaining it?"

"Later, in the car. Not here." Jake said to me with quiet firmness, a look that suggested the answer might well have a lot to it.

Not wanting Jake off the hook, I said, "I hope the wait is worth it." Then I turned away from Jake to go chat with my Dad, but I didn't want to turn away from Jake. Who would? Even now, as I nursed a sort of peevish anger at Jake, I wanted to go wrap myself around that sexiness that was Jake Saunders and bite and tear those clothes off that incredible body. My dad, I saw, was studying his phone.

"Your friend Chris sent me his resume and data. Its impressive. I just sent him the info on Key Mark, and he'll meet us down there in a couple of weeks. Dad looked at me and glanced over at Jake. "Something going on between you and Captain Jake, son?"

I shrugged. "I had no idea he would be here, or that he took my recommendation to contact you. He... we were really close two summers ago, in Rehoboth beach, you know when I went to stay with Alex for a couple of months. Then nothing. It was like I was cut off. It hurt, Dad."

Dad studied me for a moment and then said, "Jake hasn't been at the Island long, son. At my invitation six months ago, he changed his base of operations from a rented Warf at Key West to Key Mark. I get to have a reputable ship and Captain around to offer our tourists all gay sailing cruises out to the Bahamas or just back up the Keys, and Jake gets a ready list of passengers. It's a win, win. Just before I headed up here to meet you, I mentioned it to Jake, and he volunteered to keep me company."

Oh. Oh well that made me feel better. Jake hadn't been avoiding me, then. But he had effectively shut down any communication between us for two years.

"What about the Island? Mom still causing trouble?"

A crease appeared on Dad's forehead, and I regretted my question. "Your mother and her new man brought their yacht into Key Mark just six days ago, and as usual, she is trying to assert authority. No one is paying her any attention, but she is being a royal pain, as usual, and don't try to get me to make up with her."

"Dad!" I haven't been after you to do that for years now." I said, exasperated. "Did the divorce go through?"

"She's been stalling as usual." Dad said with a sigh.

"Well damn. Anyway, please forget I ever asked you to get back with her, ok?" I said.

Ok yeah, until I was fourteen, I kept pushing Dad to make up with Mom. I was a kid and missed my mother, and resented Dad for her leaving him. But then I read just some of the crap she had sent him on Dad's computer. No letters there, just tons of abusive emails, and pictures of her with her various boyfriends. My mother, to put it mildly was a bitch/slut, or slut/bitch, you pick. From what I read; she had been abusive to my dad almost since they married. If I hadn't gone out to get my DNA tested on my own, I would never have been sure I was Dad's.

I blamed the crease in my dad's forehead to mother. Sick and tired of the hell my mother put dad through, I had taken sides long ago, falling out of love with my mother at fourteen when I saw for myself her own self-proclaimed history of cheating, willing abandonment of me, and her demands for more money from Dad. She had proven herself faithless, a manipulator, greedy for one thing, money and other men. 

My mind snapped back to my dad, looking at him wondering how mother could have cheated on such a beautiful stud. And yes, gods, but he was beautiful. I realized that were I not looking at my own dad, he would have wanted desperately to meet this man, to flirt with him. It shocked me, and for a few minutes I stood there as Dad started walking over to Jake, and I wondered at myself. I had heard that among cross generational gay families, that fathers and sons often strayed into incest. For the first time I thought I could understand that. Not that dad and I would go there. Hell, far as I knew my dad had never had sex with a man, though I often wondered. He had surrounded himself with men who were gay at Key Mark, the last few years, most notably, Jake.

I jerked out of my stew and went to help them, soon, gathering up both suitcases, and the coat bag. My computer was with me. We put them down close together, and Jake took the keys to fetch the car and bring it round. Watching him walk away, staring at that incredible sexy ass, I decided now was the time and said, "Dad, in case you hadn't guessed. I'm gay."

Dad opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. Oh God, he really is surprised and stunned, maybe this was not a good idea!

 "Well, I am shocked, shocked, shocked," Dad said, and I gulped, before I saw an unmistakable twinkle in my dad's blue eyes. 

I was still wary, and I said, "I ...I wanted to tell you before but... what do you mean shocked. You're not really shocked, are you?"

My dad arched a brow. "Oh, come Cass, I am not blind. In all your teen years you have never once brought a girl home, never once mentioned one, resisted all your mother's prying, all her attempts to set you up with rich girls, or any girls. Nothing. Nada. But you brought home plenty of boys, friends mostly, though I could see you had a crush on more than a few. And then last summer, I do believe I walked around the icehouse and found you necking with one of the dock boys."

"You did?"

"I did. I know you didn't see me. I just stepped back and moved off at the time. But it was very clear it was more than a wrestling match," his dad said dryly. "I still wasn't positive you were one hundred percent gay. I mean lots of otherwise straight boys play around a bit, but I thought, well, that's it, so long as he is happy.... and left it at that."

"Ohhhh," I said, eyes widening. "Now I remember ... you stopped asking me about girls after that.

His father nodded. "I just want you to be happy son."

I hugged him again, hard. "Amazing. You're the best, Dad. I don't know what I would have done if you had acted like I know mom will."

"Let's not tell her just yet." His father suggested quietly.

"I wasn't planning too, but why?"

"The divorce settlement. Let me get that out of the way first."

"Oh. Smart. Right." I was clearly thinking. "You got it."

Then I asked, "So, why the shock?"'

"Well, because I realized it was time to tell you a secret of my own."

I looked at my dad.

"Just that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree it seems. You have taken your preference for the male sex from one of your parents."

I gave him a wry look. "Oh, please half the male population of Florida knows that about mom."

"I wasn't referring to your mother."

I stared at him and then said in a droll tone. "Well, I am shocked, shocked, shocked."

Dad stared at me and then laughed. "Why?"

"I never thought you would figure it out. Oh Dad, I am so happy for you." I hugged him again.

Jake got out of a Ford Taurus out, waving at us. We took the luggage out to him, loaded the trunk.

"Boss, why not let me drive. You can catch up with Cass on the way home."

Dad shook his head. "You forget Cass and I wrote and phone each other all the time. I think all the catching up needs doing is between you two. Backseat, Jake... with Cass. I will drive."

Jakes protests were cut short by a glare from Dad, while I stood there trying not to feel embarrassed. Sheepishly, Jake got in back. I had been about to sit in front, but one look from dad and I got in back too. 

Jakes long legs had to extend into my side of the back seat. Our lower legs tangled. I tried not to notice but I couldn't help it. You could not sit touching Jake and not be very aware of it. Jake looked so damn sexy, and I felt my cock swelling in my shorts at the sight of him. Even though I tried to keep my gaze out the window I couldn't help glancing back.

But then I noticed Jake growing in his tight jeans and I couldn't help feeling smug. leaning back, letting Jake see my erection in the sheer stretchy shorts I wore. I might not understand Jake's problem, but I could tell Jake wanted me. 

All three of us were silent all the way to route ninety-five. But then dad finally had enough. "Alright, let's have it out. Why, Jake, did you not tell Cass you were working for me? What's going on with you two?"

I said nothing, just looking at Jake.

Jake took a deep breath and said, "Well it's like this. I er... um Cass ... um did you ...tell your dad?"

I narrowed my eyes in thought at him, trying to figure out where he was going. Then it struck me. "OH, yes, dad knows I am gay, is that what you're asking?"

Not that Jake ever looked particularly tense about anything, but now he relaxed even more. "Well damn, phew. That makes it a bit easier. See, thing is I wasn't going to out you, Cass to your dad. That was for you to do. And, well the truth is, boss, your son and I were more friends. We were sort of lovers."

"Sort of?" Dad and I both said at the same time.

"Well, you know, nothing anal, though damn if I didn't want to. But though Dan and Alex, my x's were pretty open. I guess they still are... I was worried about hurting what I had with them..."

"Yup, Jake and I were sort of lovers." I repeated a bit sarcastically. jake was right though. He'd never fucked me... dammit.

"I am figuring that out, yes." dad said, dryly.

"Well, but the reason I didn't tell Cass anything was that I wanted him to be free of me, to enjoy his life without worrying about what I might think. I was still with my husband Dan, and his best friend, Alex, you might say our consort, who is, of course your nephew and Cass's cousin. With the yacht captaining jobs I was running, that three-way marriage wasn't the most stable, and Cass ended up right in the middle of it. The marriage was open but still... Anyway, I wanted Cass to be free of that mess, free to date guys, free of my troubles. He didn't need all that."

"That wasn't your decision. I would have dated anyway." I said, but even as I said that I heard the lack of conviction in my voice. I mean, after all it hadn't been my marriage. Jake had the right to set his boundaries. " Well alright, maybe I wouldn't but ..."

"Did you?" Jake asked.

I looked away. "No."

"Which means being rude to my son and hurting him was to no purpose." Michael snapped and both of us flinched."

Jake sighed, and sort of groaned. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I was still locked in a quandary. I have a big problem."

Both Alexanders waited.... without much patience for him to go on. Finally, dad said, "Well?"

Looking at me, Jake answered , my father. "I fell in love with you."

I smiled a smile that could have lit up Florida, and asked in wonderment, "Then why the long silence? If you fell in love with me, I mean, I love you too, Jake, I could have come home during Spring Break and seen you. I would have found ways to visit. I wouldn't care if you saw other men. I..."

Jake held up a hand quickly, his look gentle. "No Cass. I love you too, but what I meant was... I fell for your dad. No sex. Just... working with him, talking to him. being around him. I love your dad, so much it hurts. That's why I didn't write you. I love your dad, and I don't know what I am going to do about it."

But for the soft sounds of road and the nearly inaudible purr of the jag's engine, you could have heard a pin drop.