The Ties That Bind Read online

  “The Ties That Bind”

  M/M Gay Romance

  David Horne

  © 2020

  David Horne

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is intended for Adults (ages 18+) only. The contents may be offensive to some readers. It may contain graphic language, explicit sexual content, and adult situations. May contain scenes of unprotected sex. Please do not read this book if you are offended by content as mentioned above or if you are under the age of 18.

  Please educate yourself on safe sex practices before making potentially life-changing decisions about sex in real life. If you’re not sure where to start, see here: http://www.jerrycoleauthor.com/safe-sex-resources/ (courtesy of Jerry Cole).

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Products or brand names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders or companies. The cover uses licensed images and are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are simply models.

  Edition v1.00 (2020.02.10)

  http://www.DavidHorneauthor.com

  Special thanks to the following volunteer readers who helped with proofreading: RB, JayBee, David and those who assisted but wished to be anonymous. Thank you so much for your support.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Free Book “Princes of Westlake”

  Chapter One

  While moving to a new town is always something stressful to me, on this occasion everything is even more difficult to handle. Right now, I am on my way to my new home for the next couple of months, at least. My mother got a new job and she has decided to move across the country and take the job, dragging me along with her.

  To be fair, I’ve only moved once in my life before and it was five years ago when my father died. At the time, it became unbearable for my mother to live in our old house. It had too many memories connected to it.

  Five minutes ago, my mother told me that we were almost arriving. After a thirteen-hour long trip, I can’t wait to finally get some rest. It is warm inside the car, but I could see that it’s snowing outside and I’m already dreading this move. I can enjoy some winter weather, however, moving to a city where it’s constantly raining and foggy all-year-round, will be an adjustment.

  “We’re here!” Announces my mom.

  She begins to park the car in the front yard of this beautiful luxurious house at the end of the street. It’s two stories high, made of stone and painted in light grey. By the windows and doors, it has some black accents that complement the modern look. The windows are huge high glass panels, like mirrors on the outside.

  I would expect such an expensive house to have a huge garden, but this one only had some simple fake grass surrounding the premises.

  “Wow,” My mom whispers, looking at the house.

  Then, she gets out of the car, and I can immediately feel the extremely cold breeze coming from the outside. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I open the door. This cold is excruciating. I swear that I can hear my bones freezing inside of me.

  My mom starts to unpack the trunk of the car and I hear the house door opening. From it, comes a middle-age man heading our way.

  “Hello guys,” he says to us nicely.

  He’s a tall man, probably almost in his fifties. I can see that his hair is almost entirely grey. He has some breathtaking blue eyes and is wearing somewhat of a basic straight guy outfit. Just a sweater with some blue denim jeans. It does look like an expensive outfit though.

  “You must be Max!” He greets me, grabbing my hand and squeezing it tight.

  “I am,” I reply, cracking a slightly forced smile. “And you must be John!” I announce.

  “Indeed, I am,” he confirms, while smiling and still squeezing my hand tight.

  He finally redirects his attention from me to my mom.

  “So glad that you decided to join us,” he greets her.

  Part of the reason my mother decided to take this job and move across the state, was because they know each other. John and his wife used to live close to my parents when they were little. Recently, his wife died, and we even came to the funeral. Since my mother is a house maid and John just got a big job promotion, he called her to come and work for him. He even said that there would be space for me here.

  “Max, I’ll unpack the car with your mom,” he informs me. “You still remember my son, right?” I nod positively. “Go meet him upstairs, you’ll know which door,” he assures me.

  To be honest, I barely remember his son. His mother died about six years ago, and I only saw him at the funeral. He was a pretty kid back then, but I wasn’t paying too much attention to him because of the circumstances.

  As I’m stepping into the house, I can feel the warmth coming from the inside. Right in front of me, is the living room. It’s a big open space that connects to the kitchen on the left and upstairs on the right. Right at the center of the living room, is the fireplace, which I can tell is burning real wood by the smell.

  On top of the fireplace, mounted on the wall, is a huge modern TV. One of those models that have colored LED lights on the back. He has some news channel playing on it, with the volume considerably low.

  Right in front of the fireplace is a white couch. Underneath it, a big white fuzzy carpet. The walls of the living room are all painted cream, but it’s quite difficult to discern it from white. There is a small square glass table on the right side of the couch, with the TV remote and some magazines on it.

  By the right side of the fireplace is a vine basket with some wood in it. Besides that, there’s not that much stuff in here. It’s a very minimalist space.

  The kitchen is connected to the living room by a huge ceiling arch. It doesn’t have walls or even doors separating the two different spaces. The walls in the kitchen are painted in the same color as the living room, but the cabinets are all black with white handles. Very pretty, I have to say.

  I take a quick glance at the stairs. Do I really need to meet his son? Part of me wants to just leave the house and run off somewhere else. But I guess I must meet him at some point, so it better be now.

  The stairs are made of stone, and they are so clean that I can literally use them as a mirror. Just above the stairs, there’s a corridor with five doors. Despite being a long corridor, there is a huge window by the stairs and another at the end that really makes it feel on-brand with the rest of the house. Here, the walls are painted in grey and the doors are white with black handles.

  The first door on the right is open, and I can see a huge, mostly white, bedroom on the inside. I am assuming that it belongs to John. The bed is probably a super-king-size, centered on the room, placed on a window wall. It’s literally a huge window glass covering the entire wall. Again, the room is very minimal, with just a bed, one nightstand a walk-in closet.

  On the left, there’s another door, and I can tell that it belongs to his son, just like he said I would. It’s graffitied with some weird signs in so many colors, carved with numbers and words like “fuck” an
d “pussy”, and has a bunch of porn stickers on it. Straight and lesbian porn, nonetheless.

  I am shocked at how his father even allows this to be here in such a minimalist home. Unless he thinks this is a work of art, which I don’t think is the case.

  I think it’s safe to assume now that his son is not a child. I knock on the door, but I can’t hear anything from the inside. A part of me doesn’t want to open it and go inside, but a bigger part of me is saying that he probably just has his headphones on.

  Quickly, I open the door just a little. It was unlocked. I knock again, and still no response. I stretch the door all the way open, and what I see makes me immediately regret it. The bedroom is filled with clutter, the opposite of his dad’s room and of the rest of the house. The walls are black, but they are graffitied with weird signs, just like the door. All the furniture looks old and broken.

  Since his bed is placed horizontally in front of the door, the first thing I see is that he’s on top of it, naked, jerking off with his headphones on. He finally glances over at the door, realizing that I’m here and screams.

  “What the fuck?” He screams, covering his hard dick and getting up from the bed. In the process, his phone falls on the floor with a porn video still on and I recognize it as gay porn.

  He is an extremely attractive guy. His hair is brown but almost blonde and big enough to fall over his eyes sometimes. However, the hair was shaved on both sides of his head and on the back, being only somewhat longer at the top. His skin is light brown and looks to be exceptionally smooth. He is also fit, like a lot. I would even call him a jock since I am seeing his naked physique. It is possible that he even has an eight-pack of abdominal muscles instead of six. His eyes are grey. His dick is uncircumcised, with almost no hairs and with some smooth skin and balls. The size is standard, but a bit thick. It is honestly one of the most gorgeous cocks that I have ever seen.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asks me, shouting.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

  He starts to put on some clothes and the only reaction that I have is to leave and close the door. I take a few moments to breathe just outside his door. Did I seriously just catch him wanking? On our first encounter ever? I am so embarrassed!

  “There you are,” says John, just climbing up the stairs, “Have you met Jimmy already?” he asks, getting seriously close to me.

  “No. I was just about to knock,” I answer.

  “Oh, you must ring the doorbell. Here,” John points to a doorbell device on the right side of the wall, just next to his door. He presses a button and the red light turns green.

  Weird. Who has a doorbell on their bedroom door? Well, apparently Jimmy. I just hope that he doesn’t call me out on my little lie. I just want to forget what happened seconds ago.

  Jimmy opens the door. He is fully clothed now.

  “Hey dude,” John greets him. “There’s someone here that I’d like you to meet,” He pulls me over to Jimmy. “This is Max. He’s Elise’s son.

  “Nice to meet you,” I say, struggling to get the words out of my mouth.

  He takes another look at me and then nods.

  “Nice to meet you, man,” he says, offering me his hand to shake.

  “You guys should catch up,” John suggests. “Can Max go inside your room?”

  Jimmy nods and then John goes into the bedroom to unload my mom’s luggage. Jimmy closes the door just behind me and I can look around his room a little more. It seems like he has cleaned up just a little, since our previous encounter. Maybe, all he did was hide everything in his closet or under the bed.

  The tension inside the room is palpable, but neither of us wants to bring that subject up. And I mean, should we? I begin to think about something else to bring up, just to start a conversation.

  “About that…” He begins.

  He’s standing just by the door, with his eyes glued to the floor and his head facing down.

  “Please don’t tell anyone,” he asks.

  “Oh, of course. I would never do that,” I assure him.

  “I’m serious,” he insists. “I’ll do anything.”

  “It’s okay Jimmy! I will never mention that. Promise.”

  He glanced at me and I could swear that he was about to start crying at any moment. I was filling shitty, but I meant what I said. I had no business telling anyone.

  “Everyone jerks off. I do too. It’s not that big of a deal,” I say, trying to make him feel better.

  “Yeah. But just don’t tell the other part… about the porn.”

  Suddenly, it hit me. He’s not out yet. I still remember when my mom found out about me, and I am so grateful for her understanding of the whole thing. But I see where he's coming from, and I respect it.

  “Oh. Listen, that’s none of my business. That’s completely up to you.” He was getting more comfortable talking with me by the second. He was now sitting on the edge of his bed. “I am gay myself, so I understand.”

  “You are?” He asked surprised.

  “Yes.”

  He was just about to ask me something when his doorbell rang. It was a weird drum noise and I had no idea where it was coming from.

  “Come meet Elise downstairs,” John shouted from outside the door.

  Jimmy got up from his bed slowly and started walking towards his bedroom door. I quickly followed him, even closing his bedroom door on my way out. I am only halfway down the stairs, but I can already hear my mom screaming about how gorgeous the place is. And she is right.

  Jimmy suddenly changed his attitude and was now speaking to my mother using rebellious vocabulary. His posture was also more aggressive. This version of him made much more sense after seeing his room. I just wonder why he let down his guard when talking to me. Maybe he was still shocked about what I caught him doing.

  My mom finished chatting with Jimmy and John and we both went upstairs to unpack all our stuff. I haven’t seen my bedroom yet and I am quite curious to see how it is decorated. Since I am crossing this hallway again, I decided to take a mental note of what’s behind every single door as I pass by them. The first door on the right is John’s bedroom. Just a few steps ahead, on the left side of the hallway, is Jimmy’s bedroom. Now, there are three more doors. One on the right and two others on the left.

  “Here’s the bathroom. It belongs to everyone upstairs, so we are all going to share it,” explains my mom, pointing to the second door on the right.

  “This is your bedroom” she begins, opening the second door on the left.

  The room was not excessively big, but it also wasn’t small. It had a mirrored, sliding-door closet on the wall, a king-sized bed, and a nightstand. Following the minimalist vibes of the place, there was nothing else in my room. It did have a smart display by the door though, which my mother told me is in every room and lets us control the room temperature, the bulb’s colors and so on.

  There was one more door, which my mom told me belonged to his ex-wife, but it’s now going to be hers.

  I picked up my bags and I walked into my room, closing the door behind me. It was peaceful to finally have my own room again. When my father died, my mom had such an unbearable pain that the only solution she found was to leave our house. The house was built by my father since he worked in construction, and my mom helped him along the way.

  However, my mother was unable to sell his house, so we were paying for two homes but only living in one. This second one was just a studio apartment, so my mom and I didn’t have privacy at all. Nevertheless, that has made us closer to each other.

  Since I don’t want to unpack my stuff now, I am just lying in this comfortable bed instead. The smart display made that strange drum noise and lighted up. On the screen, the word «dinner» is now flashing. I was as impressed as I was hungry, so I took off into the kitchen.

  John had prepared a delicious meal for us and my mom is just finishing setting up the table. Jimmy is nowhere to be seen, so I am assuming that he’s locked up in his bedroom upsta
irs.

  “I hope you’re okay with vegan food,” John says.

  “Of course! I admire you for that,” I reply.

  “You’re so kind. I am just vegan because of my son. He turned vegan first.”

  “Where is he?” Asks my mom.

  “Oh. Sometimes he doesn’t eat,” John whispers. Despite his serious demeanor, I could tell that it was hard for him to talk about this, but he kept going anyway. “I want to take this moment to talk about something with you, Max.” He says.

  “Sure.”

  “After Jimmy’s mother died, he was never the same. He is somewhat damaged by her passing. Just a few months ago, he tried to take his own life. I just want you to be gentle with him and, most importantly, to have patience dealing with him.”

  As he’s talking, I realize that I am not surprised about any of this. His room and his mood swing are indicators that something isn’t right with him. However, I feel sad for him. Since I also know that he is probably gay, it makes the whole situation even more unbearable for him. A part of me wonders if I should talk to him about all of this. Another part of me, on the other hand, knows that I just got here to his house, so I should probably give him some more time and space first.

  The dinner that John cooked for us is delicious. Not only is it rare for me to have a full vegan dinner, but this meal is also luxurious. I am talking about quality, fresh vegetables, and top-notch spices. He also poured me and my mom a sweet rosé wine that tastes so good that I could even drink the whole bottle at dinner, just by myself.

  ***

  I don’t think that I have ever slept so comfortably in my life before. The mattress, the sheets and the warm temperature inside my bedroom made for a much-needed night of rest. It’s Monday, which means that I will start my first day of college here. My mom planned the entire move in advance so that I could transfer to a university nearby just in time for classes to start.

  I am getting a bachelors in interactive digital media and marketing. Only time will tell if that was the right decision, but I am enjoying it so far. It will take some time to adjust to a whole new university, but at least I will have Jimmy there to help me out. We are going to school together today, and probably forever since he has his own car. It’s clear to me by now that whatever John does for a living, he can afford the best stuff.