Free Active Duty: Gay Military Erotic Romance by Neil Plakcy Page B

close?”
    “Yeah,” Freddie said, sounding almost sleepy. “Yeah, close.” Mike squeezed, gasping a little at how good it felt, Freddie’s dick against his. Even with Freddie’s words, the first pulse of come over his fingers was a surprise, warm and slick and—“Fuck,” he groaned against Freddie’s hair as his own orgasm washed over him like an echo of Freddie’s.
    Unfortunately, he’d been right: hot and sticky was great for about thirty seconds, and then he was mostly dressed with come on his pants and the blanket scratchy against his bare skin. “Ugh.”
    “Yeah, that’s what a guy wants to hear,” Freddie said, but he was already climbing to his feet and reaching for a towel. “Come on, before the others rock up.”
    “So much for the moment,” Mike grumbled, swinging his right foot down to join his left, but he was smiling, and the thought of sailing away from Danny wasn’t as bad as it had been.
    Still on 4 Pride? Mike texted Danny, while trying to come up with a way to explain in the report how his team had ended up nearly drowning during an exercise.
    It took Danny fifty-three minutes to text back, which probably meant he’d been in class. Yes, if you promise not to wear your uniform. Mike only rolled his eyes a little bit at the way Danny always texted in full, perfectly grammatical sentences, which Danny said was on account of being in academia, and Mike said was on account of not being able to figure out the acronyms.
    U think im hot in my uniform. At least, Mike assumed that was why Danny’d talked him into having sex while wearing it. The buttons against Danny’s bare skin couldn’t have been comfortable.
    Why do you think I’m making you promise?
    Mike hesitated, turning the phone end over end twice. On his screen, the cursor blinked a reminder that he was supposed to be finishing the damn report, not engaging in fairly pornographic fantasies of his two closest friends. Thought id ask Freddie if he wants 2 come w/, he texted eventually. That was probably vague enough.
    Tell me what you’re planning before I say yes or no .
    Or not. Danny knew him way too well not to be suspicious.
    U’ll like him, he’ll like u , Mike sent. Then, in case Danny somehow got the wrong idea, I like both of u.
    The pause was long enough after that for Mike to check the clock, wondering if Danny could have gone back into class already. No, it was three thirty, and he finished early on Thursdays.
    You are exactly what the conservatives were worried about when the repeal went through, Danny texted back eventually, with a smiling face to take the sting out of the remark. Mike was pretty sure the conservatives had actually been worried about gay soldiers seducing their straight teammates over to the rainbow side, but thinking about that stuff still made his heart ache. Ask me again when I’ve met him.
    Mike sent back his own smiling face, knowing the sound of Danny capitulating, even if it was just in a text message.
    “So, tell me again why I’m here.” Freddie frowned at the crowds of people, the rainbow flags and glitter adorning every available surface. The noise was more than Mike could ever remember at Pride, shouting and music and those damn noise-makers going off in his ear, but the contact high he was pretty sure he was getting just by walking down the street made it a lotless painful than it could have been. “The decorating scheme could use a little work.”
    Mike stopped and stared, as much as he could in the crowd. It wasn’t like he never saw Freddie out of his uniform, but he still got a weird little jolt of surprise every time he looked at Freddie. Which may, in fairness, have been because Freddie was wearing a very tight pair of dark blue jeans, the kind that showed off every line and curve. Of course, because he was Freddie, he was wearing a checked shirt over a loose white T-shirt and his uniform boots, but the jeans were a pretty good concession to the event. Mike was probably