When Ben was shirtless, Hudson ran his hands down the furry expanse of his chest. Ben stood with his arms at his side. Ben took one of his hands and placed it on his own chest. Ben looked at it, as if he was unsure if it really belonged to him. Then he moved it, slowly, to the open neck of Hudson’s shirt. When his fingertips touched bare skin, he drew them back slightly, then replaced them.

Hudson resisted the urge to help him by removing his own shirt. He let Ben do it, however fumblingly. When it was done, Ben touched Hudson as if he were a statue, lightly and with a sense of fear, as if at any moment someone would tell him that he was violating a clearly posted rule. His fingers brushed Hudson’s skin, pausing at a nipple, barely grazing it as they passed over.

Hudson drew him closer, placing his hands on Ben’s lower back so that their torsos were touching. He kissed him again, this time with greater passion. His tongue sought Ben’s, found it, drew it into his mouth.

He kissed Ben’s neck, moved his mouth down his collarbone to the cleft of his throat. He kept going, his lips closing around a nipple, biting gently as Ben let out a gasp of surprise. He was tempted to go further, resisted it, returned to Ben’s mouth and kissed him some more.

Ben allowed his pants to be undone, offered no resistance when Hudson pushed them down. And when Hudson stepped out of his own jeans, it was Ben who led him to the bed and watched while Hudson lay down on it. Then he sat, looking down at Hudson with desire and fear, a fear Hudson answered by reaching up and putting his hand behind Ben’s neck and drawing him down.

Now Ben’s hands touched him more surely, exploring Hudson’s body with the eagerness of a boy. He paused only a moment in the space below Hudson’s navel before slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of his shorts and seeking out his cock. When he touched it, he kissed Hudson, hard, and drew away to bend his head down.

He took Hudson into his mouth, and as he did Hudson found himself thinking that only a man really knew how to pleasure another man. Whereas women sucked cock, men adored it, like the relic of a saint or the symbol of their own power. He suspected that women gave attention to the penis because they loved what it could do for them, while men worshiped it because they loved what they could do for it.