Gay Erotica from His and His Kisses - Three friends on the cusp of adulthood in 1968 spend a final camping trip together before their lives separate along divergent pathways. One night in the caverns of a state park, sex, mystery and death blend in an erotic dance that changes their lives forever.
Ben, Brad and Tim, best friends since junior high, spend the summer between high school and life on a camping trip in the Caves, the local state park. Ben adores Brad, who is brash and athletic, while Tim plays the loyal, if dull, companion to both. In secret, Brad accepts oral sex from Ben, but rejects the notion of love. Ben seeks more and might find what he needs when he meets a mysterious stranger in the caves.
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Late afternoon sunlight scattered through the canopy of trees in The Caves state park. A carpet of dead leaves and brush crunched as the three buddies trudged along the yellow limestone trail. Wearing short shorts and psychedelic t-shirts, their attire echoed what college guys wore that summer, the Summer of Love. For these three, this camping trip celebrated the end of high school and the start of life.
"Hey, Ben, hurry up!" Brad jittered in the lead, impatient and demanding as always.
"Yeah, yeah, just a minute." Ben knelt by the trail cradling a tiny tree frog in his hands. The musky scent of decaying vegetation and wildflowers tickled his nose and he muffled a sneeze. With loving care, he buried the frog back within the leaves, stood and brushed his hands. "Wait up!" He trotted ahead toward his friends. A halo of curly, blond hair bounced about his head and his shirt flapped against his skinny torso.
"What the fuck were you doin'? Lookin' at a fuckin' frog, I bet." Brad's voice exuded scorn. He brushed ebony hair from his eyes and his wrestler's muscles bulged under his t-shirt.
"Yeah, the fuckin' Frog King strikes again." Tim, as always, followed Brad wherever he might lead. Tim was a wrestler too, but his form was shorter and lacked the lithe definition of his friend's.
Ben's grin shrugged off the taunts. He was used to his buddies mocking his amphibious obsessions. "This little tree frog hopped across the trail. I wanted to see what genus he was."
"Jesus, what a fuckin' geek you are. You should be the professor not the frog king. Or maybe the frog professor." Brad was the One Who Granted Nicknames, that critical badge of belonging in high school. His nickname, when anyone dared to use it, was The Swordsman. It had nothing to do with fencing.Ben caught up and hiked on with his friends, through the Natural Bridge and upward toward the Balanced Rock. Every summer since junior high, the trio spent a week camping at The Caves. All three sensed that this summer, the summer after graduation, would be their last together. Brad would stay nearby for pre-engineering at State and Tim already labored in his father's hardware store. In another month, Ben would fly away to Cornell, the Ivy League and zoology.
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Author Bio:
Max Griffin writes horror and science fiction stories, often with a dark twist. Authors as diverse John Updike, Dean Koontz, Richard Matheson, and Lawrence Block inspire and inform his literary style.
Max Griffin is the pen name of a professional mathematician who is the author of a textbook and numerous research articles. When he is not writing fiction, his days are filled with teaching mathematics and statistics, research, and administrative work at a major comprehensive university in the southwest. He is the proud parent of a daughter who is a librarian. He is blessed to be in a long-term relationship with his life partner, Mr. Gene, who is an expert knitter.
The two humans in Max's household are the pets of an Abyssinian cat named Mr. Dinger, short for Erwin Schrodinger the Cat. Mr. Dinger graciously lets them live in his home in return for food and occasional petting. Oh, and there's that litter box thing they do for him too.
