Take Me Always by Ryan Field Read Free Book Online Page B

embarrassing scene with Kadin, Gregory
     
flatly refused to return to Atlanta two weeks early. He kicked his suitcase down the hall
     
and punched the bedroom door so hard, he broke the skin on his knuckles. He didn’t want
     
to leave without saying good-bye to Kadin first. He’d promised him he’d be there two
     
more weeks as his intern.
     
But his parents were adamant about it and there wasn’t much he could do. If he’d
     
been in love with a woman, he would have begged and pleaded for more time. He would
     
have been able to fight them without feeling guilty.
     
But because he was a man in love with another man, he couldn’t react at all.
     
His parents didn’t even mention his relationship with Kadin. It was as if Kadin
     
had never even existed. They said they were leaving Savannah for important business
     
reasons that couldn’t be ignored in Atlanta. And when Gregory suggested he could
     
remain in Savannah for another two weeks with Miles and take the bus home, his father
     
frowned and stared at the love bite on his neck. He said, “It’s best this way, son. You’re
     
starting graduate school in three weeks and you’ll have plenty to do back in Atlanta. I
     
think it’s best if we just forget about all this and put this summer behind us.”
     
But Gregory didn’t start graduate school three weeks later. A week after he went
     
back to Atlanta, he went downtown and enlisted in the Army. He made the announcement
     
to his mother and father at dinner the same night. His mother dropped her fork and his
     
father almost choked on a piece of meat. This was during the early stages of the Korean
     
War. He could have avoided the draft as a full-time student. But after the summer he’d spent with Kadin, he couldn’t go back to school as if nothing had ever happened. He
     
missed everything about Kadin, from his musky smell to the way his penis tasted after a
     
shower. All he wanted was to be in his safe arms again. And when Kadin didn’t call or
     
write that week, he just wanted to get as far away from everything and everyone as he
     
could get.
     
His mother was livid; she had other plans for his future. She slammed down her
     
knife so hard, she broke the dinner plate. Everyone stopped eating and placed their hands
     
on their laps. His brother’s eyes were wide; he stared back and forth between Gregory
     
and his mother, anticipating their next moves. But Gregory’s father thought about it for a
     
moment, then said, “I think this might be a good thing. It’ll make a real man out of you.”
     
His mother opened her mouth to protest, but his father lifted his hand, palm up, and gave
     
her a look. “He can postpone graduate school until after the service. He needs to be
     
around real men and he needs to be toughened. The military is the perfect place to do
     
that.”
     
The Army was difficult, but not as bad as Gregory had anticipated. Though he
     
was still deeply in love with Kadin, he was now surrounded by good-looking, athletic
     
young men who walked around naked and took showers together. And some of those
     
men, he quickly discovered, were just like him. His father had been right; the military
     
wasn’t such a bad thing at all.
     
During his first week of basic training, a staff sergeant took a particular interest in
     
him. His voice was deep and throaty. When he stood at attention, a round knob between
     
his legs popped out of his uniform. He was tall and dark, with a broad chest and strong,
     
powerful thighs. And he was one of those men, with a square jaw and chiseled features, who looked even better with the mandatory Army buzz cut. When he noticed Gregory
     
was having trouble keeping up with some of the bigger guys in basic training, he called
     
him aside and offered to help him out late at night. His name was Sgt. Buck and he had a
     
heavy New York accent that Gregory had always found very appealing.
     
Sgt. Buck ordered Gregory