Well That's What Neighbors are For

As with all of my stories, there will be an element of truth wrapped in a bit of literary embellishment to enhance the fantasy. Names and places, of course, have been changed.

After you've read my tales, please leave a comment of encouragement, or of critic, I welcome them both.

*****

I've held up well, physically, over the years. I'll turn 50 on my next birthday but I'm still in pretty good shape; I'm tall, 6'1", broad shoulders, a fit build...no extra weight around my midsection like most men my age acquire...I don't have bulging biceps or rippling abs, but I still have pretty good muscle tone. I'm told I'm good looking enough times to believe that I'm perceived that way, even though I don't much feel it.

Emotionally, that's a different story. I've had my share of the typical gay relationships; cheaters, liars, manipulators. Most recently, I was unfortunate enough to fall in love with a true sociopathic narcissist. Over the five year relationship, he did a real number on my ego and self-esteem, leaving me with a smattering of social anxiety, self worth issues, and a general fear of any further committed relationships.

I've been single for a few years now, keeping to myself and just trying to work on me for a while. I've had the sporadic bouts of loneliness and I've thought, maybe it's time to "get back out there,'' as they say, and I signed up on one of those online dating apps to give it another go only to realize again why I've stayed single. There were times when I would hook up with an old acquaintance for a booty call, two different guys that I've known for several years, but those happenings are few and far between.

I live in a small rural town in western North Carolina, and even though the general mindset towards gays has much improved over the years, there are still little pockets where it's not always best to be openly out and all that. I've never really been the rainbow flag waving, pride parade organizing type of gay man in the first place, but after I finally came out to my family and friends I've always been proud of who I am and never denied being gay if someone were to ask, but neither have I ever just thrown it out to people that I am. Being gay is my sexual preference, not what defines me as a person, and being that most people would never automatically guess that I am gay, most people in my neighborhood or at work have no idea that I am gay.

That changed recently.

If you've ever lived in one of those quaint little neighborhood developments where all the houses are somewhat close together and everyone knows everyone else you'll understand that when one person learns something unexpected about a neighbor, soon the entire neighborhood knows it. This is what happened to me when the "Neighborhood Karen" was driving past my house one evening and saw my booty call friend leaving my house and I kissed him goodbye on the front porch. I just resigned myself to the fact that before long everyone would know my business and I would be effectively outed to the entire neighborhood, and waved at Neighborhood Karen as she drove by gawking.

Several weeks passed before I began to notice that anything was off. I didn't expect anything of a hostile nature, being that I was the age that I was and that all the neighbors liked me and we all got along really well. I did notice many sidelong glances from the women in our comings and goings, a few of the men as well, but nothing more. I just continued on with my life as normal. I have already sorted out and dealt with who I am, now it was up to them to do the same for themselves.

One neighbor, in particular, became more friendly than he had previously been. That's not to say we weren't already on good terms, just that he seemed to go a little out of his way to offer a greeting, a wave, and a friendly smile whenever he saw me. I took it that he, too, had learned my "secret" and that he was overcompensating the way many straight men do in order to let you know that they were indifferent to the fact you are gay and they don't want you to feel out of place. I couldn't have been more wrong.

His name is Luke, though I referred to him to myself as Project Man. He lives directly across the street from me and his garage was basically a small woodworking shop and he was constantly working on some project or other. He made a lot of the farmhouse style furniture that was so popular at the time, and a few months back I had him build me two nightstands with doors and a drawer on them. I always imagined it was the typical situation of the husband avoiding the wife by hiding himself in his safe place, or whatever, and I'd sometimes sit on my porch with a coffee and a cigarette and watch him work.

He was an average looking guy, with that every-guy look to him, someone you'd see and imagine you knew him because he just looked familiar. He was average height, slim build, sandy blond hair, a nice little tush on him. I think he was around forty years old, but I'm not certain. His wife, on the other hand, had gone beyond her prime. They had three children, and it was obvious she wasn't pained to regain the pre-baby figure. She was a pretty woman, she'd just let herself go, as they say. She was also a part of the Karen Network so I knew she and he both had heard the news about the gay neighbor.

He began walking out to the curb on my side of the street when he would notice me coming in or out of the house and chit chatting for a few minutes about innocuous things; the weather, this neighbor putting in a new pool, his new project, or any number of things.

One afternoon I had come out to the porch with a coffee and was sitting watching him work and generally enjoying the warm day. He noticed me as he was walking out of his garage to grab a plank of lumber from his truck and smiled and threw his hand up in a wave. I returned the wave and the smile and he went on back into the garage.

I sat there, glancing at him when his moving about caught my eye, and drinking my coffee when I notice he was standing at the garage door looking at me looking at him. He had a faint smile on his face as he reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. He wiped the sweat from his face and neck with it, all the while looking over at me, then propped his hands on his hips and just stood there.

Naturally, my eyes roved over his torso, noting his chest and shoulders. He had a very nice muscle tone, but wasn't all bulky and ripped. He looked damned good.

My eyes scanned down his belly to the little trail of hair running from his navel down into the waistband of his pants. As if he knew where my eyes were looking, he looked down at himself, caught his thumbs in the waistband and pushed them down in the front, just enough to reveal more of his waistline and the beginnings of his pubic mound.

I wasn't really sure what to think about this. He was obviously displaying for me, but it was very confusing and I wasn't sure how to process it...was he taunting me, flirting, or was it some other hetero male display I was unaware of?

My dick certainly had no trouble processing, as it stiffened a little in my pants.

I cocked my head to the side in a questioning gesture and he grinned back at me, then glanced to the side as if looking to see if anyone could see him, then he looked back at me and made a swiping motion down the front of his pants as if he were wiping away sawdust or something and then rested his hand over his bulge. With that, he turned and went back into the garage and started working again.

I have to say, I was intrigued wondering what that was all about. I finished my coffee, all the while watching him as he worked and occasionally looking over to me and smiling, and then I went back inside my house.

I didn't give it much more thought and then that weekend I was piddling around the house doing a little cleaning when there was a knock on the door. I made my way to the front room and glanced out the window beside the door and there stood Luke.

I opened the door and said, "Luke, hey."

He smiled at me and said, "Hey neighbor!"

He was wearing a tank top and a pair of loose basketball shorts, and very obviously, no underwear; his dick laying down the inseam of the shorts and making a very noticeable print.

"Come in," I said, stepping back from the door. "What's going on with you?"

"I've been working on some furniture, I'm making another set of nightstands like the ones I made you and I found some soft closing hinges that I'm using on them and, well, I thought I'd come over and offer to switch yours old ones out for a set of these." He held up a small plastic bag with the metal hardware in them for me to see.

I looked from the little bag to him, and noticed he was flushed from his neck up into his cheeks. I pointedly looked at the bag again, then let my eyes drop to his crotch, taking in that nice little dick print in the front of his shorts, making sure he saw where I was looking.

"Um, well yea, sure!" I said. "That's really thoughtful."

He shrugged, blushing a little deeper. "That's what neighbors are for, eh?"

We stood there for an awkward second, then I offered him something to drink.

"I've been doing a little cleaning and having a beer, would you like one?" I hadn't been having a beer, but I would if he wanted one.

"Oh yea, that sounds great, actually."

I nodded my head towards the kitchen and turned head in there and he followed me. I grabbed two bottles of beer from the fridge, handed him one and popped the top on my own. He twisted off the top of his and turned it up and took a long drink from it. It seemed he was a little nervous and the beer helped to settle him or something.

He stood there with his beer in hand looking around the kitchen like he was cataloging things, but he also kept glancing at me and when he would see that I was looking in his direction he would fumble at adjusting his crotch.

We chatted for a few seconds about the layout of my kitchen, him tweaking his crotch a few more times, which I pointedly watched as he would do it and then he said, "Hey, if you ever want to renovate your kitchen I can do the cabinets for you and help you to install them."

I glanced around, the kitchen was a little dated, and I had been thinking that very thing for quite a while now, so I nodded and looked back at him. "Yea, for sure. I've been thinking of replacing all the cabinets anyway. I even had someone come give me a quote a few months ago, but their price was pretty steep."

He scoffed then twisted his hand in a dismissive wave, "Naw man, don't do that. I can make them for you for the cost of materials and we can install them. No worries."

While he was talking he was steadily shifting his crotch around and I smiled at him and nodded, looking at his hand on his crotch and said, "That sounds like a plan! I may just take you up on that." Hoping my comment came through as pointed as I intended it to.

I stood there smiling at him for a few seconds while he stood smiling back. It got a little awkward, and he was blushing again. He broke eye contact and downed the rest of his beer. I took the bottle from him and threw it away then grabbed him another from the fridge. I twisted off the top and handed it to him and said, "Here, let's go take a look at those nightstands." As I walked past him to head towards the bedroom, I couldn't help but test the waters and let my hand slowly graze across the front of his shorts before I walked down the hall towards my bedroom. If all of his crotch grabbing and shuffling his junk around was his form of an invitation, I wanted him to know I was picking up on it and was down for whatever.

He followed behind me after a second and when he came into the room I was sitting on the bed looking at the nightstand.

As he approached, I glanced up at his crotch; was his dick print a little bigger than it had been? It definitely looked like he was pushing against the front of his shorts more than he was before.

He walked over and set his beer on the nightstand then knelt down and reached to open the door. I smiled to myself because I knew what he was going to find inside.

He pulled the door open then froze for a second, then turned to look at me; his face burning red with embarrassment.

I acted like nothing was wrong as I looked at him, then turned to look inside the nightstand.

"Oh shit." I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. "Let me get those." I gripped his shoulder and pulled a little to get him to stand up. He stood and stepped to the side of the nightstand as I knelt down in front of it and pulled out a tube of lube, a vibrating prostate dildo, and my fleshlight.

"Sorry about that." I said, placing everything on the bed beside me. "I forgot those were in there. That single life, ya know?" I said, chuckling.

As I turned back towards him, I purposefully leaned forward a little as I turned so that when I was facing him my face was directly in front of his crotch. I stayed there for a few seconds then tilted my head up to look him in his eye. His breathing was a little off as he stood there with his hands hanging at his side, and his dick print was absolutely bigger than it had been before.

My dick started growing in my pants knowing that Luke was getting hard while I knelt on the floor in front of him.

Luke just stood there staring down at me while I stared up his body at him, his chest heaving with each breath. I caught sight of a twitch from his growing dick and turned my face back towards his crotch. My face was mere inches away from his growing dick.

"Oh wow." I said, reaching my hand up and tapping his dick with a fingertip. "I guess I should be sorry for that too."

He instinctively flinched back slightly but said, "Don't be." His voice going husky with arousal.

I rubbed my finger up and down the length of his nearly hard dick then wrapped my hand around the cloth covered shaft and squeezes his dick through his shorts. "I said I should be," I said as I pulled his dick up, dragging it across my lips. "But I'm not."

I stroked his dick a few times through his shorts, then let it go and looked up at his face as I ran my hand up his thigh underneath the leg of his shorts. I found his smooth shaved balls hanging below his dick and cupped them in my hand. His eyes closed and he let out a sigh as I rolled his balls in my hand. I waited for him to open his eyes again before I let them go and wrapped my hand around his dick. It was warm and smooth, his foreskin covering the head and I took a grip and pumped it in my hand, rolling the sensitive foreskin back and forth over the head a few times. His eyes turned glassy and he panted as I played with his dick.

"How far do we go with this Luke?" I asked him, keeping a slow, steady rhythm as I played with his dick.

His glassy eyes locked into mine before he looked behind him at the door then over to the window, which was covered with blinds and curtains.

"I don't know." He answered, looking back down at me.

"How about you stop me if anything makes you uncomfortable?" I asked him.

He stared at me for a moment then nodded his head several quick times, still panting.

At his approval, I wanted to rip his shorts off and attack his dick, swallowing as much of it as I could, but I restrained myself from ravaging him.

Instead, I smiled up at him before I let go of his dick and pulled my hands out of his shorts leg. "Then how about we take a look at what we're working with here." I said as I reached up for the waistband of his shorts and slowly pulled them down.

His dick sprang free of his shorts and bounced right in front of my mouth. I leaned back a little so that I could get a better look at him. His pubes were trimmed short, the area just above his shaft shaved smooth. His balls, hanging low under his dick, were also shaved smooth. His dick was about seven inches, veiny, and with a nice thickness that promised a mouthful. The hood of his foreskin gripped loosely to the head of his dick, leaving just the rosy tip exposed.

I gripped him at the base of his dick and pulled the foreskin back exposing the head as I reached forward and kissed the drop of precum at the slit, tasting a warm saltiness on the tip of my tongue. Luke whimpered and his back arched, pushing his hips forward and his dick right into my lips.

"Are you okay with this Luke?" I asked him, giving him a chance to back out. He nodded his head quickly so I parted my lips and slid the head into my hungry mouth, wrapping my lips tightly around the crown and pushing my tongue up against the underside of his glands. I let my saliva wet his dick as I pushed forward, sliding him into my mouth all the while keeping my tongue pressed against the underside. I drew my mouth up and down his dick several times then pulled him out of my mouth, drawing his foreskin up as I did so. I pushed my tongue into the fold of foreskin and dragged my tongue in a circle around the head of his dick, keeping his foreskin pulled up over the head as I licked between them. The sensation of stimulating the sensitive head and his foreskin at the same time caused Luke to gasp and moan. Pulling my tongue back, I drove his dick as far into my throat as I could, pushing my mouth forward until I had his entire dick buried in my throat and held him there as I licked my tongue out and lapped at the base of his balls.

Luke braced his hands on my shoulders and pushed his hips forward, trying to push his dick in further. I began backing off a few inches then driving him back into my throat as fast as I could and still take small breaths in between thrusts.

"Oh god." Luke gasped and his legs started trembling.

I drew all the way back to the head, then swallowed him back down. I swallowed his dick three or four times and then I grabbed his balls in my hand while dragging the finger of the other hand into the crevice between his ass cheeks, teasing across his puckered little hole.

As my finger grazed across his puckered hole he grabbed my shoulders tightly, pushed his hips forward and yelled, "Oh god!". I felt the hot ropes of his cum shooting into my mouth so I slowed myself down, sliding just the first few inches of his dick in and out of my mouth slowly, savoring the taste of his cum on my tongue.

"Oh god." He said again as his orgasm washed over him and I held him in my mouth.

"Oh god," He said in a whisper, a hint of shame, or fear, in his voice.

Before I knew what was happening, Luke pulled his dick out of my mouth, quickly pulled up his shorts. "I'm sorry." he said as he turned and bolted for the door. "I'm sorry." I heard him say again as he fled down the hallway. I was left there, crouched on my knees with the taste of his cum still in my mouth when I heard the front door open and close as he left my house.

Confusion settled over me for the first few hours after Luke had left so abruptly. Those old feelings of rejection, of self-worth, of not being good enough tried to surface but I squashed them straight away. There was no reason at all for me to feel rejected, my straight...if not bi-curious...neighbor had wanted to see what it was like with another man, he had freaked out and fled once he'd gotten his nut. It was nothing more than that. The only thing to consider now is how Luke would process it. Would he let his shame bring him to vilify me as some evil seducer who took advantage of him or something along those lines?

I had tossed the forgotten hardware in the drawer of the nightstand and went on about my day. A house doesn't clean itself, after all.

The days of summer continued to pass as they had been. Luke still waved and offered a greeting whenever we crossed paths, even if he avoided eye contact and blushed more often than not, but at least he didn't let his confusion lead him to going out of his way to avoid me.