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Benny & Ray 36 Poker Night Dee Gilles Rated R

So Tommy deBenedetto had the guys over after work for a little game of poker--Texas Hold'Em.

His ex-boyfriend Silvio had moved out last week, so Tommy had the high rise Michigan Ave apartment all to himself. Now that the boyfriend was out of the picture, the guys pretended that Tommy wasn't gay at all and hadn't just been practically married to a man for the past few years. Everybody knew he was depressed over it, yet nobody said a word about it. I supposed they could have treated him much worse. I guess pretending that Tommy "was normal" was better than cutting him out of their lives altogether.

Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe they finally accepted who Tommy was. Or shit, for all I know, maybe they just liked hanging out at Tommy's fancy high-class digs, gay, straight, or whatever. Closest thing any one of us would ever come to living the rich and famous lifestyle.

Or maybe it was just an excuse to get out of the house, out of their own miserable lives. None of us had anything going on this week anyway, that was for sure. Vinnie's wife was out of town for the week, so he had nothing to do. Benny had class, so the only thing I had planned was sittin' around the apartment feeling sorry for myself again, and Jimmy, well... Jimmy only needed the slightest excuse to get away from his old lady and four brats.

Well, whatever the reason, it was good to see everybody. Jeez, it had been ages since I seen the guys all together. Maybe the last time all four of us were in the same room was when Benny was out of town with the Musical Ride and the Dragon Lady, on the train that the Bolt boys had hijacked.

Nah. Not true. That was over four years ago. We must have gotten together at least a couple of times since then, right? We couldn't have possibly let all that time go by without getting together. We were too tight for that.

But then again, I guess we weren't, `cause I'm dredging my memory here and I can't remember getting together with them in the last couple of years anyway. Life was funny like that I guess. Jimmy had his four little boys to drive him crazy, Vinnie was on the road a lot since he'd become a national account rep selling to Home Depot, and Tommy had his life in a different world, even though he still lived in Chicago, just minutes from the old neighborhood. He lived in the same area as Oprah, as he was always bragging about. And me, well, I had my life with Benny which, except for Tommy, the guys didn't know about. At least, I didn't think they did. Neither of them ever said anything about it to me to my face at least.

Oh, I just remembered. The last time we'd gotten together had been during Benny's trip to Canada without me, right before he came back to find that his apartment had been torched by that crazy lady, "Greta Garbo". Still--that was coming up on three years ago. Funny how I've started to relate everything in my life to whether I was with Benny or not. Everything was Before Benny or After Benny. I'm not sure exactly when I started doing that; I saw my brother Paul for the first time in years 6 years AB. I joined the force 21 years BB. My dad died 5 years BB.

That's why what was going on was hurting me so bad. Benny was the center of my whole god damned universe, and I was losing him. Nothing bad had happened, no fighting or anything like that, but I could see something unstoppable coming. Since starting college, Benny had gotten a few friends of his own. Friends that had absolutely nothing to do with me, and could have cared less who I was.

He'd been spending a lot of time with that Hugh, for starters. I was beginning to think Hugh was after Benny; he seemed to call Benny an awful lot. Now I was in a real tough spot. Not only did I have to worry about women going after Benny, I had to worry about men too. But what was I gonna do? Couldn't keep him sequestered like some nun or something.

And these new hoity-toity friends of his liked to talk about politics and Al Gore, and were getting him into campaigning for the Earth and the whales and all that stuff. Bunch of tree-hugging do-gooders. They were right of Benny's alley. These friends of his were getting him involved in kayaking and hiking, and mountain-biking. I don't wanna do all that stuff; I hate exercise. One of his buddies was also trying to talk Benny into training for a triathlon with him and Benny was actually considering it.

His professors loved him. The people in the south side community outreach program that Benny started just adored him. The people at the Consulate like Mac and Chick and Turnbull worshipped the ground he walked on. On one hand, I was glad that Benny was getting the attention and respect he deserved, but (and I'd never, ever admit this out loud) it was easier for me when Benny was a misfit. He was mine and mine alone to care for and protect.

It was only a matter of time before somebody as smart as him, and as good-looking as him came along and stole him from me. What's he doing with somebody like me anyway? I mean, look at me. Jeez. What a mug. Maybe I should have more carefully listened to the advice I gave Frannie about guys like Fraser and girls like her-- People like us. What a fairy tale that he could be with me forever and I could make him happy.

So Tommy and I lost big at poker tonight. I had lost all of my allowance, so if I so much as needed lunch money this week, I was going to have to ask Benny for more cash. Either that or put it on a credit card, but then I gotta get the third degree from Benny about "all that compounded interest" when the bill finally came in the mail. I don't wanna do that. I think I'll just brown-bag it the rest of the week and keep my mouth shut.

After Vinnie and Jimmy left a couple of hours later with $273 of my and Tommy's money, Tommy and I sat around for a while, just talking. I was in no rush because Benny's class was a late one, and he usually didn't get home until 9:30 and that was if he came straight home. Most of the time he didn't. He'd hang out at the library or the coffee shop with Hugh for a good hour or so sometimes.

Tommy was on his fourth beer. "You doin' okay?" Tommy had asked me. He was kind of slouched on the couch across from me, sitting back on his elbows after gulping down about a half a can. "You haven't heard a word I've said for the past five minutes, have you?"

"Yeah, I'm listening, I'm listening," I said.

"Oh yeah? What did I just say?"

"You said..." Okay, so he caught me.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. So what's on your mind, anyway? You were kind of quiet tonight."

"Nothin'."

"Come on."

"Nothin'. Really."

"Come on. You can tell me. Trouble at work?"

"Nah, work's fine."

"Something going on in the family? Maria ok, Tony?"

"They're fine."

"What about your Ma?"

"Tommy, she's fine."

"Then that leaves one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Boy trouble."

I just kind of laughed and shook my head.

"Yep, that's it, isn't it? What's the matter? He's not taking care of you in bed?"

"Tommy..."

"Ray. You can tell me. Everything we've gone through? You can tell me anything."

Tommy winked at me, coming off his elbows to sit forward on the couch.

"Well..."

Tommy made a beckoning gesture, like `out with it.'

"We haven't done it since he started back with his classes a couple of weeks ago. We came back from our annual vacation to Yellowknife, and his classes started the next day, and I've hardly seen him since then. I been kinda, you know...jerkin' it all week."

Tommy got this sly smile on his face, and slithered down to the floor. He crawled to me, and put his hands on my knees. He slowly began to spread my legs, which immediately got me going. Oh God.

"Ray. You know you never have to do that alone. You should have called me. I'd have helped you out." He cautiously put his hand on my zipper.

I stopped him, placing my hand on his. "No. Thanks for the offer, but..."

"You think this is charity? Please. You'd be doing me the favor. You know how orally fixated I am. How I like a..." Tommy pushed my hand aside. "Big hard cock..." Just him saying the word `cock' made mine jump. "...to suck on at night. Or morning. Or afternoon. And I haven't had one since me and Silvio called it quits." He rubbed up and down my crotch with the butt of his palm.

"Tommy. I don't know."

"What's to know? You know you want to. I want to, too." The zipper came down, and Tommy stuck his warm hand in my pants, rooting around. "It'll be just like old times, won't it?" He arched one thin eyebrow at me, and then slithered his long wet tongue out at me. I did love that tongue. It could do some pretty special things. "Come on, Ray. You're already hard." To prove his point, Tommy squeezed my cock.

"Oh, Tommy."

"Oh, Ray," he said. He kissed the head of my dick, gripping firmly.

I groaned, looking at my hardness with Tommy's fingers gripping it. This was a thrill. It was like we were in high school again, sneaking in a quick suck in his basement before his ma came home from work.

Tommy took me in his mouth, licking the head, and god damn it, it felt so good I could have come then and there. I lifted up my hips, and Tommy pulled up for a moment to pull my pants down to my ankles. He then dove on that cock like it was his last meal. Tommy deBenedetto took every inch of me down his throat. Every. Single. Inch. Clearly, many years sucking cock done him a lot of good. I thought only people in porno's could do what he was doing to me. I leaned back, gripped the back of Tommy's head, and enjoyed the ride.

VVVVVV

I awoke with a start, disoriented. Tommy's warm body was pressed against my left side, his head on my chest. Everything about this felt wrong. For starters, we were on the floor. And we sure as hell had never cuddled. It took me a few seconds to realize how we ended up here.

After I had a mind-blowing orgasm in Tommy's hot wet mouth, I had returned the favor with a hand job. At some point, we had both gotten naked. And we had stayed naked afterwards, and commiserated about our lovers. It was nice to have somebody like him to talk to. I guess we ended up on the floor together because we both were feeling lonely.

Funny thing about me and Tommy, though. In all this time we've been hooking up, we'd actually never done it in a bed. For me, doing it in a bed would have felt too much like love. I only took Benny to bed.

Benny. Shit. Shit, shit! I lurched upwards, jostling Tommy awake. It was 9:56. Okay, so if I was lucky, I would just barely make it home before Benny did. For once, I wanted him to be with Hugh.

I rooted around in the dark for my pants, underwear still in them, and yanked them on. I found one sock.

"Ray?" Tommy questioned, eyeing my sleepily.

"Gotta go!"

"Stay a little longer. This is nice, you being here with me like this."

"Nah, can't do it." I said. I had crawled to the other sock and slipped it on.

"Well. Okay. It was good to see you, Ray. Anytime you want to get together..."

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Tommy." I was back in my shirt and jacket, and draped the tie around my neck.

"Well. You got my number, if you change your mind. Or even if you want to just talk or whatever." Tommy sat up. His limp dick dangled between his splayed thighs. Tommy had classic dark olive skin, the complete opposite of his Benny's pale skin. His body was thinner than even mine. He didn't use to be so thin. I guess life had taken its toll on him. He looked up at me with sad eyes.

"Don't be a stranger," he said, not moving from his spot. I felt like such a piece of shit.

I slipped back into my loafers, and grabbed my keys from the kitchen counter on the way out. "See you around," I said without looking back.

I ran down the hallway of Tommy's building, and impatiently waited for the elevator. I was the only one to board, and used the trip down to re-tie my tie, watching myself in the mirrored panels. I tried to calm myself. Okay. What was I going to say if Benny was home?

I'd just tell the truth, that's all. That I was gambling with my buddies. I mean, I was allowed to have friends and do things with them independent of Benny just like he did so many things without me lately. It's not like we were joined at the hip. It's not like we were married.

I was in my car in under five minutes, headed toward our apartment. Benny, please don't be home. Please don't be home. Make it easy for me.

Damn it! Wait a minute. I was supposed to be working late tonight. That's what I told Benny this morning over breakfast. That Doyle and I were working on the big Alverez case. Yeah. Right. The Alverez case. So, I'd just say that we had been out hitting the streets, shaking down a few drinking establishments, trying to get some leads. He'd understand that. He and I used to do that all the time, at all hours of the day and night.

I blew through a couple of lights to get home faster. It was going to be okay, I told myself. Everything would work out fine.

I got to my front door at 10:13. Quietly slipped my key in, and turned the knob. The apartment was dark. Quiet. I was safe. I heaved a sigh of relief. I turned on the lamp on the table next to the door and dumped my keys on the table.

And Benny startled the shit out of me. I couldn't help put gasp.

Benton Fraser's red-rimmed eyes were fixed on me. He sat still as a stone on the couch. He didn't blink and he didn't seem to even be breathing as his eyes bored right through me.

I froze like a deer caught in the headlights. My heart hammered in my chest.

"Where have you been, Raymond?" He asked in a deadly calm voice.

Awww....Fuck me.

Finis