Promises: The language of love. (I see so many of you shuddering!)
The Quiz Department is on Holiday and management is pissed cause they weren't invited along.
Beta Reading by Dyevka, the *eclectic* vacationing one. Hey! How come *everybody* seems to be going somewhere but me?
 

"Get in there," Ray ordered gruffly as he shoved the less-than-sober Mountie through the door of 221 West Racine, apartment 3 J.

Fraser felt himself glide smoothly into the dimly lit entry of his spacious and tastefully minimalistic apartment. Beautiful Ray closed the door behind them and Fraser took the opportunity provided by the solitude to wrap his arms around his pliant lover. Ray sighed with heated desire which gave Fraser another opportunity. He tasted Ray's tongue. "Mmmm, I like that."

"Well, I don't," Ray complained as Fraser leaned heavily against him. The tipsy Mountie unbalanced him with a sudden thrust and Ray found himself up against the apartment door, causing the Mountie hat the detective still wore to tip back. "Benny, stop that. I'm not in the mood."

"Oh, but I'm in enough mood for the both of us, Ray," Fraser explained in as romantic a tone as he could ever imagine. "I adore you. You're-- oh Ray. I need you," Fraser gasped the words as he pulled Ray's silk shirt open.

"Benny! Stop this. You're still drunk but I swear--" Fraser captured his love's charmingly faint protests with his lips. His trousers were down around the tops of his boots by the time his coyly protesting lover drew a loving breath. Then Fraser had his hands on his goal.

"I haven't even gotten my jacket off yet. Would you slow down?" Ray whined.

The Chicagoan's lilting tone enflamed Fraser with desire. "There's no time, Ray. I need to . . . oh. I have--"

"Oh no you don't, Benny. You're not ruining any more of my clothes." Ray frantically began tugging at Red serge held in place with straps buckles buttons and Velcro. He had the tunic off and pulled it between them.

Fraser buried his face in the crook of Ray's neck and inhaled the musky scent of his lover. Armani fragrance, faint because Ray respected its potency, filled Fraser's sinuses. He preferred Ray au naturel but he had yet to convince his lover of that. He licked at the warm flesh and tasted smoke. "You taste like the fire."

"That's another thing. Did you notice I came through that with not a smudge on my suit? How come? Is there some secret about this hat I was wearing that you need to tell me?"

"You're bravery in the face of the fire was inspiring, Ray." Fraser traced sensual arousing patterns across Ray's shoulders and chest. He thrust his manhood gently against Ray's compliant body.

"Hey, cut that out with your thumbs. I'm ticklish you know. And stop humping me so hard, Benny. You're gonna knock a hole in the door."

"Oh, Ray. Licence my roaving hands*," Fraser quoted as he pressed his hot flesh against the man in his arms. "--and let them go,"

"Go where, lover?" Ray asked but half of his words were lost as Fraser thrust against him pumping his lungs too.

"--Before, behind, between, above, below--" Fraser snaked his hands down and gripped Ray's hips and thrust forward oblivious to all but the sensation of Ray and his needs for him. Completion found him again.

Benny melted in his arms and Ray almost let the Mountie puddle at his feet. His good sense got the better of him and he hauled the sated man to his bed.

As he leaned over and tugged the uniform pants closed the apartment door burst open. Ray whirled around so fast Fraser's hat fell from the detective's head and landed discretely covering the unfastened waistband.

"Ah. I see the two of you have returned safely."

Ray stood there with Benny's soiled red serge in his hand, his drunken lover passed out on the bed behind him, and Sergeant Buck Frobisher eyeing him intently.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded. At least he had tried to demand it. The words came out as more of a squeak than an authoritative demand. Ray tried to glare at the intruder. That seemed to work.

"I came by merely to check on the state of your well-being," Buck explained.

"You mean *Benny's* well-being. You're at *his* apartment, after all," Ray pointed out. Then he realized the state of the tunic he held. Folding the moist part inside he tucked the garment over the end of the bed.

"Certainly," Buck agreed as he stepped further in the apartment. "Or, ah . . . the both of you, actually. The small altercation at the dry cleaning establishment seems to have made the evening news. Your mother--"

Ray blanched.

"--seemed convinced that the two of you would be all right but I thought I'd take the opportunity to check on you on my way to the consulate."

"So what're you doing here?" Ray demanded and was pleased to find that this time he managed to sound much more demanding. "This isn't exactly on the way to the consulate."

"I suppose you'd know that better than I. But still, I wanted to see how the both of you were. I worry about Constable Fraser sometimes."

"You do?" Ray couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Yes. I suppose it's been a bit hard for him to adjust to life here in the city."

"Yeah," Ray agreed. "But he's fine. Just had a little too much to drink. Now if you don't mind?" He tried a subtle hint that the Mountie should leave but of course he didn't take it. "If you'd beat it I could get Benny in bed so's he can sleep it off."

"Oh, of course," Frobisher said as he backed out of the door. Halfway through he stepped on something soft.

The moment he turned his back on Frobisher a blood chilling howl rent the air. Ray whirled to see Dief wrenching his damaged paw from under Frobisher's left boot heel.

"Serves you right for trying to sneak in behind him, Dief. Didn't Benny forbid you to go out today?"

Ray received a wolf glare for his troubles but the sound of the door closing with Frobisher firmly on the other side of it cheered him immensely.

"I don't want to have dinner with the man."

"But your mother--"

"Benny . . ." Ray managed to prevent himself from shouting at Fraser. In the confines of the Riv it would be painful for them both and Ray didn't think his nerves could take any more jarring right now. He reached out and grasped Benny's hand and pulled him closer. The darkness gave them a little privacy. Ray stared glumly over Benny's shoulder at the lighted windows of the Vecchio home.

"I am aware that you feel a certain reluctance to have dinner with your family and Sergeant Frobisher--"

"--A certain reluctance? Benny, does the word understatement mean anything to you?"

"Why, yes Ray. It's from the Latin-- Ah, as is hubris, and sarcasm, I believe. Ray, Ray, Ray. Must you always play these games with me?"

"That's the problem, lover." Ray stroked the inside of the Mountie's thigh. "I don't seem to be getting to play *any* games with you lately. "We've got a few minutes. How's about a little-- Ahh!" Ray shouted in fright as a rapping on the driver's window startled him.

Buck Frobisher's smiling face appeared from out of the dark.

"I believe your mother's other diner guest has arrived, Ray."

"I can't tell you how sorry I am that I behaved so deplorably, Ray,"

Fraser apologized to him again as Ray closed his bedroom door and locked it. They were on the inside and once again Buck was on the outside. But still close. In fact, downstairs in the kitchen with Ray's mother and his sisters.

"Yeah, yeah, Benny. I already accepted your apology three times today. Now we got a good twenty minutes before supper is ready so would you shut up and get over here?" Ray demanded patting his bed suggestively.

"But how can you? I was *drunk*, Ray. Drunk as a skunk. I took advantage of you while I was inebriated and--"

"--And left me high and dry is what you did. So get over here and show me how sorry you are." Ray unbuttoned his trousers and let them slip down around his ankles.

"I certainly did. And I can't imagine how you must have felt. Do you know it took me almost two hours to get that stain out of my tunic? Such--"

"Benny! Time's wasting here and so am I in case you hadn't noticed!" Ray pointed at his hard shaft that had until seconds before been trying its best to point to the light fixture on the ceiling.

"Oh, forgive me Ray!" Fraser pleaded as he rushed forward and stopped short inches from his lover. "How can I make it up to you?"

"Surely you can think of something. But think quick," Ray said with a smile as Fraser, with a bright grin, sank to his knees.

"Boys," Buck's gruff voice called through the wooden door. "The meal is ready."

"Nooo!" Ray bellowed. It *can't* be. Pasta Lentoro always takes at *least* twenty minutes to chill to the right temperature to serve." He clutched at Fraser's shoulders for support.

"Usually, yes," Buck continued completely unaware he wasn't meant to hear Ray's tortured objection, "But I was just showing your mother a little trick I picked up on the shore of he Kunwuk river--"

"Oh, God." Ray collapsed across his bed. "An Inuit story. I'm gonna die of blue balls while listening to Buck Frobisher tell an Inuit story."

Fraser removed his hat, sprang onto the bed, pinning Ray beneath him and kissed him hard and deep. He pulled his mouth away and saw Ray's dazed look. Fraser lifted Ray's head, smushed his Stetson on his lover's head and laid him back down. He wrapped Ray's aching and now hard penis in the warmth of his fingers and cradled his balls as he lay atop his lover and moved him to ecstasy. He breathed the words of John Donne in Ray's ears.

"License my roaving hands, and let them go, Before, behind, between, above, below. O my America! My new-found-land. My kingdome, safeliest when with one man man'd.
 

And thus we reach the end of this delightful bit of poetic torture. Has Buck figured out why Fraser was discussing his derriere? Has Buck figured out why the two boys are always together? Has Buck figured out anything? Ever? Tune in again for the next episode of, A BUCK & CHANGE Episode 14 or Getting Low.

1 'Fraser had his hands on his goal.' Is this a reference to: a Football b a spiritual quest c an Inuit talisman d Ray's talisman

2 Conjugate a Latin sentence with the words 'hubris,' 'sarcasm' and hyperbole.'

3 Why does Ray taste of smoke? a Benny has been testing out smoke signals again. b He has been elected Pope. c He's been through a fire d He's about to spontaneously combust e Benny likes his lover smoked and well done f He's smoldering with desire.

4 Fill in the blank. I came by merely to check on the state of your ______.

5 How long does Pasta Lentoro take to chill?

6 How long does it take Ray's testicles to chill?

WARNING Do not attempt these questions while asleep. Protractors may be used at your own and Ray's peril. No computers were hurt in the creation and posting of this quiz.

1 None of these. It is a reference to ice hockey...

2 *&&*%%$%£&^(&*)* Oh dear - e-mail malfunction.

3 Now that's just silly, readers. The answer is c.

4 well being

5 Twenty minutes

6 Medical experts assure me the correct answer is nine minutes. Constable B. Fraser has confirmed this.