An Extended Family Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Book Details

  Dedication

  The Regular

  Being a Novice

  Meeting Dexter

  The First Meeting

  Preston

  Head of the Line

  The Paradox

  My Boy

  The Attack

  Meeting Leonard

  The Move

  The Class

  Thoughts of Coming Out

  The Confession

  Jake's Story

  The Punishment

  Jake and Robert

  The Dinner

  The Bar

  The Guest

  Wrench in the Works

  Then There Were Three

  The Discussion

  The Check

  Commitment

  The Incident

  Confessions

  Looking Back

  About the Author

  An Extended Family

  AUSTIN DANIELS

  Kyle and Preston are far too busy for romance. Having recently signed with his first agent, Kyle spends all of his time writing.

  Preston is attending medical school, and barely has time to sleep, let alone anything else. To ensure they have no distractions, they agree to a daily meeting to meet each other’s needs, but Preston becomes distracted by his new friend Dexter.

  In a moment of weakness, he finds that while he might be too busy for romance, he’s clearly not too busy to fall in love a second time, putting his relationship into jeopardy…

  An Extended Family

  By Austin Daniels

  Published by Less Than Three Press LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

  Edited by Nicole Field and Laura Gaurland

  Cover designed by Jennifer Gavens

  This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

  First Edition September 2018

  Copyright © 2018 by Austin Daniels

  Printed in the United States of America

  Digital ISBN 9781684313433

  Print ISBN 9781684313969

  I’d like to dedicate this novel to all the boys and girls who go through their childhood feeling different, being bullied and wondering if their families would love them if they knew who they were. Our society is cruel to children who don’t meet the expectations of what we’ve all been raised to consider ‘normal.’

  In my life I’ve gone from being told I wasn’t insane to marrying my partner of almost forty years. It gets better… It gets a lot better.

  The Regular

  Kyle

  As I sat thinking in my home office, I began to smile. I was sipping on a glass of Merlot, holding my glass as if I were about to give a toast. This time the toast was for me. I'd passed a personal milestone, something I'd wished for since my first short story. Even now it's hard to believe.

  The mental recording of my father telling me there was no way I'd ever make a decent living as a writer played once again through my memories as it had a thousand times when money was tight or sales were slow. He'd urged me to always make sure to prepare myself for a 'real' job, and he'd succeeded in that effort. My 'real' job would have been teaching. It was always there as a fallback, but so far it hadn't been necessary for me to teach a single class. While waiting for an opening, I'd secured a job writing manuals for a manufacturing conglomerate. The engineers would write the original manual, and I would translate it into words that real people would be able to understand.

  Sitting down in my armchair, I allowed the events of the day to slowly sink in. On my desk sat my copy of the contract with Glenn Bass, who was about to become my very first agent. I was more than just a little frightened because he expected me to produce a lot more than I had in the past.

  I jumped at the opportunity, carefully digesting the contract, signing it, and running to the post office as though he might change his mind. The idea that a person would be working to sell my books to publishers so I could spend my time writing was well worth the cut he'd be taking. Marketing took a lot of my time. Between writing novels and translating manuals, I didn't have much time to sell my work. Marketing just wasn't my thing.

  Glenn had a pending acceptance of the manuscript I'd sent him and was "excited by my prospects." I suspected he said that a lot, but it still felt good. The best part of the deal was my ability to work from home, but it was going to require a big sacrifice on my part.

  I sat back to imagine what changes I needed to make to meet my new challenges. I knew I'd have to be practical and thrifty with my time. I'd pick up groceries once a week to avoid the crowds. I'd buy prepackaged meals, freeing up time I'd spend cooking.

  I had a gym in the third bedroom. I didn't want my body to suffer because I'd be spending so much time at my keyboard. I could exercise while I worked on a plot at the same time. The nice thing about writing was that plot ideas came to me on their own schedule. It wasn't uncommon to be deep in thought about my characters while I was on the exercise bike or doing dishes.

  I'd grown used to heading down to the local bars or hopping online to see who else was there when I was so inclined. That took up a lot of time. If I ignored that, I knew it wouldn't be long before my concentration would wander away from what I should be doing and into my pants instead.

  The answer to my dilemma was obvious. I needed a regular. I didn't want just any regular. I had to be able to rely on this guy. He had to want me as much as I needed him, and it had to be often, real often. Knowing this was the only way I'd be able to keep my concentration where it belonged, I went online, logged in to my favorite site, and modified my personal information, creating a whole new profile.

  The headline read: 'Busy Dom seeks regular.'

  'I'm a busy man and have little time for socializing. I'm looking for someone in a similar situation. I am only interested in meeting a submissive. Sessions will be daily. Only submissives need answer my ad. In your return email to me write 'submissive' on the subject line and tell me what you are looking for and what you consent to.'

  The website provided a forwarding email, so I didn't have to release mine to the public. It wasn't going to be easy to find someone acceptable and willing to visit daily, but for me that was the only way. It would keep me from thinking about what I'd be missing. I preferred someone around my age or possibly a little younger.

  Then I hit the publish button and waited.

  The following morning, I started the first of what would be many twelve-hour days. This had to work, and dedication was the only way. Oddly, working this hard promised to save me a ton of money. One of the things you can't do when you're writing is shop. My needs seemed to somehow be less. My meals were reduced to warming frozen dinners or toaster pancakes. I wasn't going out to bars to meet guys, so a lot of minor expenses vanished overnight.

  *~*~*

  Preston

  It was time to come out. Watching my friends and soothing their broken hearts made me cautious as hell. When my roommate Jake went to the bars, I stayed in, because I was afraid. I'd never done anything with a man before, and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. It wasn't long before my mind began to wander to things having nothing to do with my studies. Unfortunately, I had no experience to fanaticize about, but it was time I did. Rather than go hunting, I did what I knew best. I turned it into a project. This time I was researching gay lifestyles and gay sex. After reading some of the clinical stuff, I started going to the pickup sites and occasionally watching porn
. It's amazing what a novice can learn from that. Each site I visited was different and some catered to specific preferences.

  I was amazed at how many activities a gay person could pursue. There were people who were tops and people who were bottoms. Other people were completely flexible. I read posts of men who only liked younger guys and other men who only liked guys who were a lot older than they were. Some men liked fat guys and others liked doing things outside of the box, something I'd never given much thought. After that, the fantasies I drifted off to sleep with each night tended to be about guys kneeling, blindfolded or tied. They were always of an unusual nature. Being held in place and made to perform was my favorite.

  While all of it was unusual to me, some of the less traveled sites drew me back time after time. Before long, every time I sat at my computer to research my own sexuality I ended up reading about leather, submission and dominance, and pretty much anything else I could find that didn't fit what I'd always thought was the norm.

  Submission sounded comfortable and easy. As a person with zero experience, the idea of letting someone else tell me what to do was comforting. It would take the pressure off me. After a lifetime of struggling to excel, having another person guide me, who actually wanted to do that, sounded perfect. Besides, dominance seemed to be a characteristic of the guys I was attracted to the most. It was obvious that reading about relationships like this had a profound physical effect on me that I couldn't ignore.

  One day I was looking at one of the personals adds on my favorite site. The guy was not far away, he wanted someone everyday and he was a Dom. It sounded perfect to me, so I wrote my first response.

  "You sound ideal. I am a medical student and study around the clock. I just need a guy I can see for a short time each day. I've researched being a sub, and it certainly sounds like me. I've never actually subbed before. I would ideally just come to you and follow your instructions, taking care of your needs and leave. If that works for you, I suggest we meet. I am 22, blonde and have a swimmer's build. I have no time for relationships, but like you, I think I need this. If this is what you want, you know what to do."

  *~*~*

  Kyle

  As I sat at my computer, a little box opened up on top of my manuscript signaling me that a new email had arrived. The name was unfamiliar, and it didn't strike me as junk mail. After reading the title 'Submissive' I was happy to see the first words of the reply were, "You sound ideal."

  I wrote back. "I work from home and because I do, I can vary my schedule to match yours. Please let me know when you want to come over. I look forward to meeting you."

  Within seconds, a reply hit the screen. "How about tonight at seven?"

  I replied with my address and mobile number, reminding him once again that I was only interested in someone who was available to meet daily.

  Looking at the clock, I realized I had just enough time to grab a shower. That would give me a couple hours to get rid of the right-out-of-the-shower smell.

  Being a Novice

  Preston

  I made my first real friend in high school. His name was Jake. My experience with boys my age had not been a good one. Somewhere along the line I'd developed a fear of them. I met him in the library where I habitually went to avoid the embarrassment of being pulled into boy's activities I was terrible at. In that way I avoided the inevitable ridicule. I was cautious with Jake, but once we started talking I knew he was friend material.

  After a while, we became tight friends. I valued his friendship so much that I was afraid if he knew too much about me I might lose him. My secret was my own and at the time, I couldn't share it because I wasn't totally convinced myself.

  Jake and I talked about almost everything. While I thought he had secrets of his own, we never discussed them. I suspected he also hoped he had more in common with me than his love of swimming and literature, but at the time, I didn't know why I thought that.

  Our plans for the future were similar. We both planned to go to college, and when the time came we chose the same school. I majored in pre-med and he majored in business. We roomed together at the dorm and while we worked to fill our 'core' it was easy to plan some of our classes together.

  Years later, he began to pull away. I found myself alone more often than not, realizing that my social life had been seriously restricted. One day he came to me, sat me down, and said he had something to tell me. Before he even started, tears filled his eyes. In all the years I'd known him I'd never seen him cry. Trying to compose himself, he finally spoke. "I suppose you wonder where I've been lately. I know I've been busy a lot and before you start to think we're not friends anymore, I owe you an explanation.

  "Preston, you're my very best friend, so this has been bothering me a lot. It's just that I've discovered something that… I mean I was going to… Well… I sort of came out. I'm gay."

  He was quiet a minute. I think he was trying to gauge my reaction.

  "I just couldn't tell you," he said. "I didn't know how you'd take it and early on I wasn't really sure. Anyway, I'm sure now and since you're my closest friend, I thought you should know. I've been seeing a guy I met online. I just got off the phone with him, and he told me it wasn't working out for him."

  Jake started to sob. He was my best friend so, even though we hadn't spent time with each other in what felt like ages, I couldn't help but feel for him. The combined stress of losing that guy and telling me about it was obviously too much for him. We were sitting in our dorm room with the door closed, so I pulled him to me as he buried his head in my chest and let it all out.

  "Well," I said, wanting to interrupt his meltdown before I started crying for him, "I think I can easily handle you being gay because…" Taking a deep breath I blurted it out as fast as I could, "I think I am too. I've thought so since we were kids. At first, I wasn't sure either, but even though I've never done anything, I'm sure now."

  His eyes grew wide with surprise. "I was kind of hoping, but… well I had no real… let's just say I'm relieved."

  We looked at each other differently for a moment, each of us wondering if we wanted to experience the other.

  He was the first to speak. "Not with my best friend. We don't want to complicate what we have…right?"

  I was thankful. I didn't want to be the first to say it, and with no experience I'd have died if we'd tried and I was bad at it. I'd always thought he was kind of hot, with a full head of thick blonde hair and those piercing blue eyes, and trim body. I hoped he saw me as somewhat attractive, too, but I knew, at least for now, we were just too close. After hearing his reason for not letting this go any further, I had to agree. If only one of us got emotionally involved with the other one, it could ruin everything and having never done anything before I was afraid that might be me.

  Besides, the guys I spent my time admiring tended to be bigger than us and dark. If they had chest hair I couldn't keep my eyes off them. Looking back, I had to applaud our decision. If anything had happened at that time, I think it would have ruined everything. Without that complication our friendship lasted.

  Neither of us had a lot of time to invest in pursuing our newly announced sexualities. I wanted to get into the University of Arizona College of Medicine and there was a lot of competition. Jake wanted to do well in his business classes so he could turn that into a successful career. On the other hand, he reserved Friday and Saturday nights to go on the prowl or meet someone he'd been chatting with online.

  I thought at first that someday I'd go with him when he hit the town, but after watching him go through one disappointment after another, I realized I didn't want to make the same mistakes I saw him making. More than once, he was deeply hungover on Saturday and I seemed to be continually dealing with his broken heart. Once I had to drive him down to the health center because he had a healthy case of gonorrhea.

  I couldn't see myself going down that same path and frankly I was afraid. I'd never actually done anything sexual before. My fear of failure kept me from exp
erimenting, so I concentrated on my studies instead. We both graduated, and I was accepted into medical school and Jake was going for his master's in business administration. It seemed that we were studying all the time.

  Meeting Dexter

  Preston

  One day Jake came home with a friend. I thought he was going to introduce him as a boyfriend, but that didn't happen at all. His name was Dexter; I recognized him as one of the guys from my med school. He was shorter, had dark brown hair, and a big set of horn-rimmed glasses covering a pair of light brown eyes. He was decked out in clothes that must have been two sizes bigger than he was. Jake had befriended him while out prowling at one of the bars he visited on weekends. Since Dexter was becoming a friend of Jake's, he thought we should meet.

  Dexter was very outgoing and liked to talk. To my surprise, he seemed to know something about everything. He was easy to like and fit in really well.

  *~*~*

  In the next few years, Dexter, Jake and I became a close albeit small inner circle. Dexter hounded me to go out with them on weekends, but I resisted, as I had with Jake. Not only had I never had sex, but I'd never even had an orgasm, at least not when I was awake. Self-gratification seemed… kind of demeaning to me for some reason. When I brought myself to try, it didn't end well. My hand just didn't seem to do it for me.

  I decided that one way or another I needed to get the experience I'd avoided so long. After all, I rationalized, if I actually did need medical help I should get it sooner rather than later. In reality, I also didn't think I could stand to wait much longer. I was afraid that if I did, my fear of ever starting a sex life might control me forever.

  That was when my research started, and I found the ad from the busy Dom I'd hoped for. I knew with my studies I'd be doomed to failure if I tried to add romance. Quick sex was something I thought I could handle for now and this guy didn't seem to mind that I didn't have experience as a sub. I wanted someone who was dominant and would show me everything I needed to know.