Placing Out Read Online Free Page A

brushing mine. He sucked on his cigarette. One of his hands brushed my thigh. A jolt of raw pleasure smacked me like a bolt of lightning. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't resist. I slid my right hand over the swelling between his legs, cupping the length of it. He felt firm in my hand.
    I wanted to see it. Caleb made a soft sound in his throat when I teased open the buttons of his trousers and slid my fingers inside. Thick hair surrounded the rigid pole that filled my hand. I stroked him a couple of times and was startled when he yelped and jerked, exploding his stuff all over his clothes and mine.
    "Shit!" He pulled away from me. "Look what you did."
    I was still hard and wanted to pull out my own so he could do the same thing to me, but one look at his face and I fled. I rushed into the barn. Without thinking, I stepped into the feed and tack room. I pulled down the team's harness, sat on a bale of straw and fell to cleaning the leather like Mister Chatterfield showed me. I kept throwing glances at the open door, waiting for Mister Chatterfield or one of the older boys to come in and whale on me. What I had done to Caleb was a sin. I didn't need no preacher to tell me that.
    But if it was so wrong, why did it feel so fucking good? That couldn't be right. Just thinking about Caleb's prick in my hands, hearing the sounds he made, the smell of his stuff made me hard again. This time I didn't hesitate. I drew my now stiff dick out and closed my eyes as I brought myself off. The whole time images of Caleb burned in my brain. I wanted to be alone with him, just Caleb and me, naked. What I meant to do after that I didn't know. I only know every time I thought of it I grew feverish and shaky.
    What was wrong with me?
    I wasn't going to be able to stay here. I knew that now. Not that I knew where I could go, only away from here. But another two years passed and I just kept getting bigger and Mister Chatterfields found harder and harder things for me to do. I was filled out now, but still skinny, which pissed the Mister off real bad.
    Every Saturday, when the morning chores were done, the Chatterfields would go to the nickelodeon. They invited me and I got all gussied up in the new suit the Resident Agent bought for me when he visited on my sixteenth birthday. The collar made my neck itch and the tie they made me wear felt like a noose, but the moving pictures were so terrific it was worth it. It was even better when I got to sit next to Caleb. We could giggle at the silliness of Keaton or Chaplin, our heads bent together so the Missus and Mister Chatterfields wouldn't catch us or we'd feel her switch for sure. I was usually close enough to feel his warm breath and see the light fuzz on his cheek like I knew I had on mine. I shaved every three days now and it looked like Caleb might not shave at all. His face hair was like peach silk. I wondered what it tasted like.
    Two months after my seventeenth birthday, we drove twenty-two miles into North Platte to watch The Delicious Little Devil and I first saw Rudolph Valentino. I sat frozen in my seat, not feeling the usual chafing, or sore feet from too tight shoes I'd grown out of already. I watched Jimmy Calhoun fall in love with the phony Gloria Du Moins. I never saw the actress, Mae Murray. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Valentino. Was it possible for a man to be so beautiful? His lips and his eyes spoke of things I had only ever guessed at. Things that made what I had done to Caleb seem like children's games.
    That was when I knew where I had to go. To Hollywood, to meet Rudolph Valentino.

    * * * *
    Los Angeles, February 22, 1933
     
    Things were quiet after what the papers called the Whiskey House Massacre. Ben wrote up his report. He had gone by the hospital to check on Cody, who was already cursing the doctors and trying to get the nurses into his bed. Heading out on patrol, he was stopped by Captain William Roach, the guy who had put together and ran the Red Squad. Set up to