It was a beautiful day to be walking along the Thames in London, heading for Blackwell's Bookstore. Nancy was walking up ahead with Carson and I could tell that something was wrong. George was striding along by me. "She's telling her dad that she knows about the two of you."

I froze and turned panicked eyes to hers. She smiled and shook her head. "Long story but we've both known since your graduation day."

I swallowed hard and started walking again. "Did she freak out?"

"A little." George grinned and stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. "I was able to get her calmed down and see that you two were in love ... just like we are."

I finally chuckled out loud. "I suspected you were a good influence on her. Are you two happy?"

"Very," we exchanged smiles. "She calls me her rock in the storm. I like being that for her. Of course, she keeps me going with that combination of brains and beauty that make most of the boys in college pant. How about the two of you, are you happy?"

"Absolutely." I sighed and watched Nancy's hands move while she talked. Carson's shoulders had relaxed so she couldn't be hurting him with words. "He fills up all my empty spaces, takes me seriously and gives me a place to land. I guess he's my rock."

She chuckled and linked her arm with mine. "Good. Look, we both want the same things. She needs to know that she has a secure place in his heart and that you're not going to push her out. And you need to know that she doesn't hate either one of you and it's okay for you to love each other. Just like it's okay for her to love me."

"Of course, she has a place in both our hearts." I looked down into brown eyes that sparkled. "She's the sister I never had. But Carson has all of my heart and always will. It looks like I just gained another sister, George."

"Thanks, I appreciate that." She squeezed my arm. "Now before we get all mushy, I'm curious about a few things. Are Carson's nipples as sensitive as Nancy's are?"

I just about swallowed my tongue. "What?"

"Ned, we're all adults here. I'm just wondering if you've had as much luck with nipple clamps as I have." She smiled up at me while I tried to come to terms with her question.

Nipple clamps?

"Um, I've never heard of nipple clamps." I looked at her in time to catch a very self-satisfied grin.

"My Aunt Helen over in Paris has a few kinks that she's passed along to me. Not to mention the address of a sex toys store that stocks all kinds of fun items." George arched an eyebrow. "Interested?"

Carson does have very sensitive nipples, I thought to myself. What would nipple clamps do? Okay, I was curious. "All right, explain."

The next ten minutes ranked right up there with getting fucked for the first time, painful but with pleasure to come. I couldn't believe that I didn't know about some of this stuff. Some of it sounded painful but some sounded like fun. We got to Blackwell's and separated to look for different books. Carson cornered me in the back aisle on the third floor.

Before he could tell me, I pulled him close and kissed him hard. "I know. George told me that they've known for a couple of months. Are you okay?"

He nodded and hugged me tight. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. She doesn't hate either of us. She and George are together."

His voice was hushed but I just smiled at him and smoothed my hands over his chest. "I know that, too. George was telling me a few things that sound pretty interesting. You want to skip the book buying and go back to the bed and breakfast so I can fill you in on some of the ... intimate details?"

He chuckled and let his hand caress the rock hard erection trapped in my pants. "I was thinking more along the lines of the bathroom about two aisles over to which I just got the key."

"That's very forward thinking of you, Car. Let's go now." I tugged his hand and pulled him to the door of the 'loo', as the Brits so quaintly call it. Taking the key from his hand, I unlocked the door and pulled him inside with me. It was about five feet square, but clean both in looks and smell.

He was already unzipping my pants and going to his knees in front of me. I leaned against the wall and let him pleasure me with that hot mouth of his until I had to let go. Carson drank me down like I was his favorite ale and I went limp. He chuckled and stood up, turning me to the wall and whispering for me to get ready. Water ran in the sink for a moment then two cool, wet fingers slid inside of me. I quivered all over and rested my head on my folded arms against the wall. This was going to be good.

And without anymore preparation, he slid inside of me until his balls hit my ass. The burn was extreme but welcome. It reminded me of what George had said about a little bit of pain making the sex even better. Maybe she had a point but I'd have to think about that later, because right now, Carson was taking me hard, just the way I needed him.

I had to bite my hand when he came because it felt so good that I needed to groan. He buried his groan in my shoulder, biting hard enough that I felt it through my shirt. That felt good too and I decided to find out more about that pain/pleasure response thing. Later. Right now, I just wanted to enjoy it.

"My dearest love." Carson's whisper was right by my ear and I smiled at his endearment. "Are you all right? I was a little rough."

"Never too rough, Car. I love you." I turned my head and shared a kiss with him until my body forced him out. He cleaned me up carefully and tucked my half-hard cock back into my navy slacks.

"Tonight, I want us to celebrate no more secrets. All right with you?" He slid his arms around me and hugged me tight.

"Absolutely perfect, Car. Then we'll go back to the room and you can fuck me right through the mattress. Okay?" I grinned at him.

"Well, if you think we should?" He pretended to think about it until I attacked his ticklish sides with my fingers. "Absolutely, Ned, dine then fuck. I'll put in on my agenda."

We both smiled and he checked to see if the coast was clear before leaving the bathroom. I headed for the architecture books on fourth floor and discovered the erotica one aisle over. Trust the Brits to put those two completely divergent subjects side by side. I was grateful, however, so I didn't have to ask at the front desk. Actually, that was a good move on their part, it gave a cover to those who needed to be discrete.

One of the Kama Sutras caught my eye and I leafed through it while picturing Carson as one of the Indian Lords of Love. I was definitely feeling like his wanton love slave and one of the scenes started getting me hard again. A woman was being restrained by a large eunuch while her lord of the giant cock plundered her treasures. Something about that made my temperature rise until I had to close the book and put it in the pile with my books on European architecture.

Carson was so going to get loved tonight.

******
Carson
******

I browsed the mysteries and thought about Nancy's confession. She and George were together and they knew about us, about Ned and me. She seemed to be okay with that and I felt pounds lighter with the dreaded conversation out of the way. I'd reassured her of my love and she'd told me that she loved me, too. We hadn't said that in a while and it felt better than good to be saying it again.

When she went away to college, the distance seemed to grow greater than it should have. I was glad to have us back to our old relationship, although it wasn't exactly the same. She had grown up and moved on, soon she'd be off on her own with George. Moving into her own place or maybe even keeping the house in town while I moved out with Ned. I liked that idea a lot.

Smiling at the bookshelves, I settled in to pick up some good English mysteries, Dorothy Sayers, Manning Coles, Edmund Crispin, Cyril Hare, Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr and last but not least Edgar Wallace. I had two rather large stacks by the time I'd gotten to the W's so I carried them down to the counter and went back to pick out some more. They had titles by Wallace that I'd never heard of before even though he'd been dead since 1931.

And I wanted to check on P.G. Wodehouse, too. I had a sneaking liking for the ridiculous Bertie and Jeeves, not to mention the whole Lord Emsworth series. I came across some of his young adult books and got interested in a series with a young man by the name of Psmith. They looked like fun so I added them to the pile. I was going to need another suitcase if I kept buying books.

Making my way carefully down the staircase, I found Ned waiting for me by the neatly wrapped stacks of my first selections. He was grinning and shaking his head when I appeared but he helped me unload my last choices onto the counter and told me the girls had left for Piccadilly Circus to do some Wedgwood shopping. I chuckled and handed over my American Express card for the books.

Ned told me quietly that he'd found something interesting next to the architecture books. The gleam in his eye told me that I'd enjoy it, what ever 'it' was. I could hardly wait. Four full shopping bags were filled to the brim and once outside the bookstore, I hailed a taxi to take us back to the bed and breakfast. The manager was pleased to see us and he escorted us to the tiny elevator, which barely held two people.

I took the bags in with me and Ned told me that he'd meet me at the top. It creaked and groaned all the way up to the fifth floor and sure enough he was there to take back his share of the bags. He had his key out and the door open by the time I got there. I had the feeling that he was in a hurry. Once the door was shut behind us, he tackled me to the bed almost before I could set the bags down.

"God, Carson, I want you again." He kissed me passionately as if I hadn't already taken him three times today all ready.

I chuckled and rolled him beneath me while kissing him back. He was my magic elixir of youth and I drank from his fountain like the water I needed to survive. It seemed to take forever to get us out of our clothes but finally ... finally I had him naked beneath me with my fingers testing his heat while he shook at my touch. I was the luckiest man in the world to have such a sensitive lover.

Sliding into his heat was like coming home for me. He moaned and came almost at once while I held on through his spasms until he was limp. Then I began the gentle rocking that warmed us both, body and soul. He sighed and flexed around me, almost but not quite getting hard again. I took him slowly but surely until I could hold out no longer, flooding him with my seed.

I sighed his name and rolled us to our sides so his legs didn't cramp. He kissed me sweetly while I shrank and left his hot channel. We both groaned when that happened. Holding him never palls so we lay there, in each other's arms while we talked softly about our car trip the next day to the Salisbury Plains. We'd be staying in Salisbury for a couple of days while we took in the sights.

Ned wanted to see Stonehenge and so did I. The girls had agreed since Nancy had a pen pal in Salisbury who they wanted to visit. "Ned, do you think that Nancy really understands about us?"

He chuckled and pulled back far enough to look into my face, his green eyes sparkling. "Yep, I think she's pretty clear on it and so is George. When are we meeting for dinner?"

"At six we'll meet down stairs to walk to Simpsons. I wonder what we could do until then?" I smiled at him and watched his eyes light up.

"We'll come up with something." He gloved my cock and I felt it stir, the way it always does when he's around. "We should share a bath."

I kissed him gently and agreed.

*****

We drove into Salisbury the next day, the girls oohing and ahhing at the ancient city. Ned was almost as excited at the buildings of varying ages and styles. Signing in at the bed and breakfast where we had our reservations. Nancy called her friend right away and within the hour she and George were on their way for a long visit at the manor house of the Wenton family.

I met young Sabrina and she seemed to be a nice young thing, very polite and very British. She seemed very taken with Ned and she glanced back at him rather longingly before taking the girls away. He just smiled at her and waved goodbye to them all with a sigh of relief when they were gone.

"I didn't think they'd ever leave. Do we have time to go out to Stonehenge tonight?" He asked hopefully.

"Let's ask." We went back inside and asked the proprietor, Mrs. Muffenstomp for her advice. She gave her opinion that we had time to spare and she gave explicit directions to get us there and back again.

Putting our bags in our room, we washed up and went back downstairs to our hire car. The drive was fun since we could hold hands without worrying about the girls. Slowly the great stones came into view, growing larger and larger as we drove closer. The car park was across the road from the stones and we paid admission at the small booth before heading for the tunnel that ran under the road to the grassy plain where the temple stood.

It's hard to describe the ancient monument if you haven't seen it. Of course, most everyone knows that it's a circle of stones, some with caps and some fallen down that was built thousands of years ago. Nobody quite knows why or how and I watched Ned begin to walk around the tall saracens that made up the outer circle with that look in his eye that spelled the detective in him.

I'd never tell him how much he looks like Nancy when he does that but he does. I can see his analytical brain go to work on figuring out how a primitive people could have engineered such a magnificent feat of stone moving. I was more captivated by the why of this equation. Why spend months and maybe years setting each stone in precisely this configuration?

Was there some mystical significance of this plain and this exact spot? I followed Ned as he made his way around the outer perimeter of stone. They towered above us, the lintels that capped two of them stretching out to the sky. The sun was sinking fast and the bright light threw long shadows around us. Ned hadn't said a word since we gotten here and I had the odd feeling that he'd forgotten that I was with him.

I quickened my pace and joined him. He acknowledged me with a distracted nod, his eyes going right back to the stones. Once we'd made a complete circuit, he took a deep breath and walked between two of the standing stones and into the inner circle. For some reason, I felt a flicker of fear and I hastily followed. And that's when something rather odd occurred.

There seemed to be a thickening of the air that I had to fight my way through. And for just a moment, the light disappeared completely. But then I was through and by Ned's side.

***********
Ned
***********

I could feel Carson near me. But something was pulling me into that circle of stone, something that I couldn't see or hear but that urged me on just the same. A tingle had started at my feet the moment I caught sight of the stones. It intensified with every step around the circle until I literally had to enter the gate into the sacred center.

Sacred center, where had that come from? I shook my head and felt Carson's hand on my shoulder with a start of relief. "Ned? Are you all right?"

"Carson. Do you hear anything?" I strained to listen to something just on the edge of my hearing.

"No, nothing but the wind." His voice grounded me the same way his hand did.

"Don't let go of me." I approached the center stone and knew that it had never stood upright. That wasn't its purpose. It was supposed to be flat -- like an altar.

"I'll never let go, Ned. Tell me what you're feeling right now." He moved closer until he had both arms around me in a gentle hug.

"Age. Strength. Worship." I shivered. "Power. Raw power deep within the ground that's ... sleeping ... for now."

"Power," he hesitated. "What kind of power?"

I struggled to find the right words while the sun turned into a ball of orange and pink just at the edge of the world. "Energy. It's not good or bad ... just immense amounts of energy. Like a well drilled to the center of the earth."

"And Stonehenge is the physical part of that well?" He tugged me closer and I laid my hands over his.

"Yes, it's a place where the priests could come and draw on the power of Earth. Draw it up to use for their people." I stilled and listened again. "It sounds like chanting from very far away."

"Some church is probably having evening service. Sounds can carry quite a distance out here." He began to move us from the circle and I almost resisted but I didn't know why.

"Carson, we need to come back here." I turned to him and pleaded. "Please."

"Tomorrow, Ned. Right now, we're going to drive back to the hotel and have a nice hot dinner. There's a chill in the air." He shivered and I wondered why. It felt like a normal summer day to me.

"All right, but we will come back?" I needed his promise.

"Yes, we'll come back." His blue eyes met mine. "We'll find an expert on Stonehenge and bring him or her along with us next time."

I nodded and let him lead me back to the car, taking one final look at the tall stones. Funny, but they seemed so familiar to me. I'd never been to England before but it had felt like home, from the moment I'd set foot on British soil. And this place called to me somehow. There was an ache deep inside of me that I'd never known was there before. I really needed to return.

Kind of like that old song, 'returning to a place I'd never been before'. Odd but I was glad that we'd have some time here. I got in the car and watched Carson get behind the wheel. He shot a worried look at me and I smiled at him, not wanting him to be concerned.

"I'm fine, Car. Really." I reassured him. "Let's go get some dinner, it was probably my stomach that I heard growling."

He finally smiled and started the car. "We'll find the best restaurant in Salisbury and eat a nice relaxing dinner without the girls."

"Good, then I'm going to make love to you until you scream." I said with an innocent air, or as much of one as I could manage. His laughter was my reward.

"I'll hold you to that, Ned." He backed out onto the highway and I watched the stones disappear behind us.

That was okay. They were in my mind now and soon I'd be returning.

*********************
The end for now