Beginnings and Ends (Short Story) Read Free Page B

as enormously as Robin enjoyed those gymnastics, it soon became clear that he loved it just as much—and quite possibly even more—when he knelt just like this before him, while Jules used his mouth only to speak.
    “God, I love you,” he managed to say now, all in a rush, because he was too damn close to being unable to utter even a poorly enunciated variation on the word
yes
.
    Of course, Robin loved
that
, as well. A big part of the turn-on, Jules knew because Robin had told him, was watching Jules come undone. And yeah, when it came to their relationship,
Jules
was definitely the lucky one.
    He yanked his T-shirt over his head, tossing it onto the floor as Robin looked up at him and smiled. If Robin had his way, Jules would walk around the house shirtless. Jules knew that, too.
    Robin’s smile was beatific, his eyes a flash of heaven and heat as he continued to gaze up at Jules, as he used his extremely talented mouth and creative tongue to say
I love you, too, babe
, in ways that made Jules marvel.
    “You’re my life,” Jules tried to tell him, and apparently it came out clearly enough, because Robin responded by taking Jules more deeply into his mouth as he wrapped his arms around Jules in an embrace that pulled him even closer, hishands touching, stroking, exploring, even as Robin looked up at him with another flash of those blue eyes.…
    And Jules was done. With a shout of Robin’s name, he came in a rush of pleasure that rocketed through him, and made him laugh out loud.
    And Robin was laughing, too. He hugged Jules tightly before sitting back, except his laughter triggered a more complicated emotion, and his eyes filled with tears—eyes that still looked haunted.
    Which made Jules stop laughing, fast, and crouch down beside him to touch his hair and his beautiful face. And even though the last time he’d brought the subject up, Robin didn’t want to talk about it, he said, “Have you thought more about ending the series? About doing something else for a while?”
    Robin kind of laughed as he wiped his eyes. “Funny you should ask, because … Yes. Lately, it’s all I’ve been thinking about. You know, what would I do if I didn’t do
Shadowland
.”
    “Movies,” Jules suggested. Robin got sent hundreds of scripts, and some of them were actually really good.
    “Small roles,” Robin said, nodding. “Nothing that would put me on set for more than a few weeks at a time.”
    “I could transfer to California,” Jules said. “And you could take bigger roles and come home every night.”
    “But you hate L.A.”
    Jules kissed him. “I love you. And living closer to Sam and Alyssa wouldn’t be a hardship.” Jules’s best friends lived in San Diego. And Robin’s sister Jane and her family lived there, too.
    “But Prop 8—”
    “We’d keep our house and our Massachusetts residency,” Jules said. “Until it’s overruled. It’s just a matter of time.”
    Robin nodded, still so serious. “You know what I really want to do?” He swallowed, as if whatever he was about to say was a secret he was nervous to share. “I’ve been thinking about it. A lot. Ever since you, you know, first brought up my doing something else. Besides
Shadowland
. I started thinking about what I really, really,
really
wanted to do. I mean, I love acting. I do. And I know how lucky I am to have the career that I’ve had. And I know that if I completely take time off, I’m in danger of disappearing. Out of sight, out of mind.”
    Jules interrupted him. “There’s a difference between disappearing and simply choosing, for a while, to play a character a little less demanding than Joe Laughlin.”
    “Yeah, I do know that,” Robin said. “But I
have
thought about taking that kind of a break—two or three years. Although, if we lived in L.A. I could still work enough to stay on the radar, even while the”—he cleared his throat—“baby’s still just, you know, a baby.”
    “Baby,” Jules said. Holy