The Professionals Circuit Archive - Quiet Efforts	  Quiet Efforts

 

by Shoshanna

  
 Doyle lay curled up against his lover's side, his head tucked into the
curve of Bodie's neck. Bodie's arm was lax across his shoulders, his
breathing quiet, but Doyle was uncomfortably awake in their dark bedroom.
He shifted, tapped a finger restlessly against Bodie's chest. "You're
awfully quiet."

Bodie languidly nuzzled at his hair. "'M asleep."

"I don't mean now."

Silence again, but Doyle could tell the difference, knew by his sudden
stillness that Bodie was as awake as himself, now. He shut his eyes a
moment, opened them again.

"Yeah," Bodie acknowledged finally. "Bother you, does it?"

Doyle was silent for a while, thinking. Their lovemaking had been good
from the beginning, and tonight had been no exception. But Bodie was so
soundless, always, his breathing regular and deep, until Doyle began to
feel uncomfortably self-conscious about his own moans and murmurs. It made
it hard to judge his lover's state of arousal, with no clues until the
very end, when Bodie's hands would tighten on him in orgasm. And more than
that...

"Well," he said finally, making a joke out of it though it wasn't really
funny at all, "a fella likes to hear he's appreciated, y'know."

Bodie's arms came down and tightened around him. But still, he said
nothing.

Doyle hugged back, then freed himself and propped himself on one elbow.
"You like to hear me," he pointed out reasonably. "Stands to reason I'd
like the same, don't you think?"

Bodie turned to look at him, dark eyes shadowed in the dimness of the
night, then turned his head away against the pillow. "I know, Ray. And you
know I like to hear you--turns me on something fierce. But I-- I'm just in
the habit of being quiet. Always have been."

Doyle poked him in the ribs. "Her folks asleep upstairs, were they? Had to
keep still for fear of wakin' 'em?"

Bodie lifted a hand and brushed it slowly through the curly hair above
him. "No. In the jungle-- Had to be quiet, Ray. You never could tell how
close they might be. Had to be quiet, always."

Doyle considered this, then lay down again and pulled Bodie into his arms.
"There's no one here but me, mate. No one lurkin' to jump you." Bodie
snorted at this, and Doyle shut him up with a kiss. "Knock it off, you
know what I mean. Just--I'd like to hear you, Bodie. Like to hear what I'm
doin' to you sometimes. It turns me on to know I can do that to you." He
pulled the other man's head close and kissed him deeply and thoroughly,
lovingly. Bodie's arms came around his shoulders, his hands rubbing the
muscles of Doyle's back, kneading his spine as their tongues met. Doyle
murmured in pleasure, arching back into the capable hands, then smiled as
a tentative, clearly self-conscious, husky sound came from Bodie.

"'S'all right," he grinned, breaking the kiss, "don't strain yourself,
love, it'll come to you. Let's get some sleep, though, shall we; Cowley's
gonna want us bright and cheery tomorrow."

Bodie seized on the change of subject with clear relief. "Bloody
babysitting jobs," he grumbled, settling Doyle's head on the pillow beside
his own. "As if we didn't have anything better to do--"

Doyle poked him again. "You know we do, an' I know we do, but I think the
Cow would not take kindly to our havin' it off on CI5 time. So put a sock
in it and go to sleep."

Compliantly, Bodie proceeded to do just that. Feeling considerably better,
Doyle wrapped an arm around Bodie's broad chest and fell asleep himself.

The next day was exactly as boring as Bodie had gloomily predicted, as
they kept a wary eye on a nervous East German defector with terrorist
connections who were not likely to be pleased with their erstwhile
compatriot's new choice of friends. He slunk about the safehouse and
questioned them in broken English time and again about CI5's precautions
for his safety, until Doyle found himself half-wishing someone would try
to take him out, if only to provide a change of pace. Catching himself on
that thought, he told himself firmly to relax and got up to make a cup of
tea. Stirring it absently, he watched Bodie reporting in on R/T in the
next room, and began to smile. They'd left things a bit up in the air the
night before...

Jax and Marriott were fifteen minutes late to take over for the night
shift, and were arguing ferociously as Bodie went to meet them at the
door. They brushed past as Bodie exchanged an amused look with Doyle and
caught the jacket his partner tossed to him. "Hoy, you two, knock it off a
moment!'

"--and how you could forget to *notice* you're running out of
petrol--what, Bodie?"

Bodie laughed. "Ought to take better care of your partner, Marriott. Now
Ray, here, he'll do anything for me: drive for me, make me supper if I'm
feeling poorly--"

"Starch your shorts," added Doyle genially. "Hi, Jax. Got a ride with your
partner, did you?"

"*Temporary* partner," emphasized Jax fiercely. Marriott finished
reporting in for duty, switched off his R/T and glowered at the older
agent.

"You don't like it, buddy, you can walk the next time you find yourself
short of wheels. Besides, I wasn't the only one in the car, you could have
said something if you saw we were runnin' short!"

As Jax drew breath to respond, Bodie caught Doyle's arm and pulled him
out. "Let's get out of here before they pull guns, sunshine. Almost makes
me appreciate you, it does!"

"Look on the bright side, at least they won't be bored. Gimme the keys."

Bodie unlocked the passenger door for himself and tossed the car keys over
to his partner. "Playing chauffeur, are you? I told Jax, you'll do
anything for me--"

"Nah," Doyle interrupted, "just didn't trust you to check the petrol.
What're you makin' for supper?"

They compromised on Indian takeaway, with beer already in the flat, and
left nothing of the meal but a litter of cartons in the kitchen. Doyle
came back from stacking plates in the sink to find Bodie ensconced in
their old armchair, pushed against the wall to compensate for the broken
strut in its back, his feet propped on the low, wide stool before it. He
grinned to himself, remembering the idea that had come to him earlier that
day, and perched on the chair's padded arm, handing Bodie the bottle of
beer he had brought.

"Thanks." Bodie took it and drank deeply, then looked up. "You're not
having any?"

"We're sharing this one." Holding Bodie's eyes, Doyle took the bottle back
from him and put its neck to his own mouth, feeling the glass still warm
from Bodie's lips. He knew Bodie was watching him as he tilted his head
back and drank, his throat bobbing, and handed the bottle back. Bodie met
his eyes as he took it, somewhat confused by Doyle's intensity.

"Ray?" he asked, but Doyle leant down across him and stopped Bodie's
half-formed question with his lips.

Opening his mouth gladly to his lover, Bodie was only half-aware of the
hand that took the bottle from him, setting it on the floor as Doyle
slipped his arm around Bodie's shoulders and his tongue into his mouth.
Kissing deeply, hungrily, Bodie reached up to embrace the other man,
fingers twined in his hair and a hand snaking into his half-open shirt.

"Mmm...yeah," Doyle broke the kiss to whisper in a half-moan. Bodie's
fingers found a nipple, brushed it lightly, then pinched the erect tip.
"That's nice...like that."

Bodie freed his hand from the loose cloth of his partner's shirt. "Let's
go to bed," he said, and began to push himself up from the chair, but
Doyle pushed him back down again. "Ray?"

Doyle sat up, balanced on the arm of the chair, and ran his thumb over
Bodie's lips. "No, Bodie. Stay there." While his partner watched, bemused,
he stood up and began, slowly, to unbutton his shirt, his eyes never
leaving Bodie's. "See, mate," he offered, "I want to hear you, this time.
And I figure, if I get you crazy enough, I will. 'Cause you won't be able
to help yourself." The shirt fell open. With one hand he pulled it free of
his jeans, while the fingers of the other drifted to the nipple Bodie had
toyed with before. It rose to his touch, and he teased himself, lightly,
gaze locked on his partner. Bodie shifted awkwardly in the chair, his
erection pushing at the cloth of his trousers. His hands rested on the
arms of the chair, but Doyle saw with satisfaction the tension in them.

"C'mon, Bodie." He drew the shirt off, tossed it to the floor, and ran his
hands down his ribs. "Two can play at this...'s more fun that way." He
licked a fingertip, ran it over his nipple, then put it to Bodie's lips.
Bodie sucked it in at once, nibbling at the tip, his tongue working over
it, and Doyle moaned, knowing exactly how Bodie could duplicate the
caress, elsewhere on his body... He pulled his lover from the chair to
stand in front of him, and ran his hands under Bodie's pullover, along his
stomach and sides. "Why d'you always have to wear these ruddy polonecks,
then?" he asked in frustration.

"'Cause you're sexy when you're exasperated," Bodie answered, grinning
slightly. "Take it off, then, if you're plannin' such a seduction."

Doyle planted his hands on his hips. "Nah. I did mine, only fair you
should do yours." He managed to keep from smiling, and timed his motion
perfectly; just as Bodie's face was covered, his arms trapped over his
head in a tangle of cloth, Doyle ducked forward and sucked hard at his
left nipple.

"Yah!" Bodie yelped, genuinely startled, and pulled back, freeing himself
hurriedly from his shirt. Doyle cracked up. "Gotcha!" he crowed.

"Yeah, well, I thought you wanted me to moan, not yell. Stick me with a
pin and I'll jump, too."

"Not exactly the reaction I'm looking for, sunshine." Doyle's eyes were
serious again, watching Bodie intently, and Bodie shifted a little under
the relentless scrutiny. He looked down, away from the clear green gaze,
and fell silent again.

"Okay," Doyle murmured, half to himself. He stepped forward and pulled
Bodie into his arms, feeling the smooth chest against his own, running his
hands over the muscled back and slipping his tongue between parted lips.
Bodie responded immediately, arms tightening around him, his mouth working
against Doyle's.

Doyle kissed him for a long time, then worked his way with mouth and hands
down his lover's body. He stripped off Bodie's trousers and underwear when
they got in the way, then stood back to pull his own off before returning
to Bodie, who was leaning against the wall, watching him and breathing
heavily. When Bodie tried to pull him toward the bedroom, he resisted
gently. "No, mate. This is for you, and I'm gonna drive you crazy, right
here..." One hand slid down to his lover's cock, hard and throbbing in his
hand; he rubbed it slowly with a licked palm and Bodie quivered, but held
his silence.

Intensely aroused himself, Doyle racked his brain for all the ways he had
learned, in four months of living and loving together, to arouse his
partner. Sinking to his knees on the soft carpet, he nuzzled Bodie's cock
and balls, licked him wetly, then turned him to face the wall and gently
tongued at the entrance to his body. Hearing Bodie's breath catch at the
unusual caress, he smiled to himself and did it again, determined to break
through the other's reserve. But Bodie kept silence after that, though his
breathing rasped slightly in his throat. Doyle slid a finger into him,
probing gently, and Bodie pushed back against it. Doyle moaned at the
response and reached for himself with his other hand.

"Do you like it, Bodie, mate?" he whispered. "Tell me you like it." But
Bodie's only response was his breathing, deep and harsh, as he stood with
both hands braced flat on the wall, head down.

"Ah, mate," Doyle sighed, and got to his feet again, somewhat disturbed.
Bodie seemed to be fighting, not him, but his own response, and though
there was nothing Doyle wanted more than to hear Bodie let go all control,
he felt something amiss in their lovemaking. Wanting to be closer, as
close as possible, he reached out one foot and hooked the low hassock to
him. Nudging Bodie's feet apart, he pushed the stool behind him and stood
on it, reaching around Bodie's hips to caress his stomach and cock.

"C'mon, then," he murmured into the bowed neck before him. "You're a bit
too tall for this normally, but I've got just the thing..." Bodie reached
behind himself and stroked one hand down Doyle's flank, then brought it
between them and curved his palm around Doyle's cock.

Doyle gasped in pleasure, pushing forward into the warm grip. "Oh,
yeah...touch me, Bodie, love..." he muttered, his own hands growing more
urgent on his partner. "God, I want you so much...want to make it good for
you..." Bodie was still silent, and despite his arousal, worry nagged at
Doyle. He was doing everything he could think of to excite his lover, and
it didn't seem to be enough, and soon there would be nothing left to try.
"D'you want this?" he asked quietly, concern edging the huskiness of his
voice.

Bodie's hand tightened on him, and he muffled a gasp in the smooth skin of
a shoulder. "Yeah," said Bodie, without looking around. "Do it, Ray..."

Relief welled up in him; he hugged the broad chest and nibbled at the
sensitive earlobe before him. "All right," he whispered, "but give me a
minute. Don't wanna hurt you..." He sank to his knees again, pulled
Bodie's cheeks apart and began to lave him with wide, warm strokes of his
tongue, wetting him thoroughly in preparation for what was to come.

"You haven't...done that before." Bodie's voice broke slightly, and Doyle
smiled. He hadn't been sure he wanted to, but Bodie's tiny, involuntary
reaction of several minutes before had decided him. Anything, anything to
break through that reserve... He pressed a kiss to Bodie's left buttock
and stood up again. "Lick your hand," he instructed, and when Bodie
obeyed, he took it and rubbed the wet palm over his own cock, while Bodie
supported himself against the wall with his other hand. Then, one hand on
Bodie's hip, steadying him, he used the other to guide himself slowly into
the warm, tight recess of his lover's body.

"Oh, christ, mate...feels so good..." Bodie was leaning forward slightly,
nails white with pressure against the wall, his head bowed; Doyle slipped
his hand around to cradle the heavy testicles, and felt Bodie shiver in
response. He pulled out and thrust in again, slowly, deeply, his legs
trembling with the effort to hold back, to drive Bodie ahead of him into
ecstasy. But even using all his skill, hands ranging over all the secret
pleasure places he had sought out and discovered on his lover's body in
the past months, Bodie's harsh breathing was still the only sound his
partner made, exhalations in time with the powerful thrusts into his body.

Finally, Doyle slowed his motion, drew his partner back into his arms,
crossing his palms over the hairless chest. At a loss, he stroked his
hands gently over Bodie's skin, not knowing what else to try. Moving his
fingers up to his neck and face, he felt, with surprise, the desperate
tension there, the jaw muscles clamped, the eyes screwed shut.

"Bodie?" His fingers repeated the question over the taut skin. "Bodie,
mate, what is it?"

Bodie leant his head back on his partner's shoulder, accepted without
response the kiss Doyle pressed onto his cheek. "'M sorry, sunshine," he
muttered.

"Sorry? What for?" Doyle's hand touched the dark hair in an utterly
unsexual, gentle caress.

"I can't...do what you want, Ray. It's not you, it's me. I'm just
not...comfortable with it."

Doyle was silent for a moment, then reached out and gently pulled Bodie's
hand from the wall, holding it in a gesture that was as intimate, in its
own small way, as his cock still buried in Bodie's body. He rubbed his
thumb softly over the fingers twined with his own.

"Ah, mate," he said ruefully, "been goin' at this all wrong, haven't I? 'S
not somethin' I'm tryin' to drag out of you, love. It's something I want
to share with you...don't you know how you turn me on?" He kissed Bodie's
cheek again. "What makes you uncomfortable?"

Bodie shut his eyes. "Feel a ruddy fool..." he mumbled indistinctly.

Doyle almost laughed, feeling a great, soaring happiness, a giddy relief
sweeping his body. He hugged Bodie close, and said in his ear, "God, mate,
d'you think I don't, sometimes? Don't you see, Bodie, that's part of it,
that I let down the defenses with you--I know I don't need 'em, not here.
And you don't either. Here with me, there's just us, mate, no one else..."
He slipped a finger into Bodie's mouth, ran the damp fingertip down his
chest and stomach to circle his erection, beginning a slow, teasing
movement that had Bodie, slowly, moving to follow it.

"Yeah, Bodie, that's it...let yourself go with it...mmm, like that..." If
Bodie was feeling self-conscious, well, it was no more than Doyle had at
times. Judging from his own experience, he thought it likely that Bodie
had felt alone, conspicuous in the face of Doyle's waiting, expectant
silence. So he began to talk, keeping up a constant, low-voiced stream of
encouragement, murmurs of pleasure, soft instructions--"yeah, like
that...christ, you feel so good...so hot and tight round my prick...oh
god, squeeze me again, like that...so beautiful, love...sexy...jesus,
Bodie, I love you..." thrusting into Bodie's tense, shaking body, letting
his partner fuck the slick tunnel of his palms, until, under his own
voice, he heard a gasped moan, a choked, inaudible word. He smiled, and
without pausing in his own litany of pleasure he stepped up the pace of
his ministrations to his lover's body, making them faster and lighter,
more teasing, reaching up to finger the erect nipples, moving his other
hand away from the jutting cock so that Bodie had to strain forward to
reach it, to sheathe himself in its grip, then push back and impale
himself on Doyle's rigid erection. "Oh yeah...love this. Fuck yourself,
Bodie, feels so good...tell me you like it, tell me how it feels. Does it
feel good, Bodie? God, you're incredible...oh, oh christ, Bodie, you're
gonna make me come..."

And, hoarse and uncertain, Bodie began to answer him, in quieter
counterpart to his gasping cries, gaining confidence as Doyle drew him
along with hands and words: "Yeah...yeah, Ray, feels good. In me...c'mon,
push in me...harder, oh christ..." and then trailing into wordless rapid
grunts of pleasure as Doyle suddenly abandoned his teasing and thrust hard
and deep, hands tightening and pumping faster on the stiff cock; until the
moans blurred into one inarticulate yell of ecstasy and anguish as he
throbbed and spurted through Doyle's fingers, body shaking with the force
of his release.

Doyle's eyes were shut, his teeth sunk in Bodie's shoulder as he pulled
his lover's buttocks hard against him, feeling the anal muscles close
around him in unbearable pulses, and hearing with deep joy Bodie's
helpless cry of surrender; and losing utterly his own control he shouted
Bodie's name and came, fiercely, deep inside the other's body.

They stood for a long moment, swaying slightly; then Bodie pulled away. In
answer to Doyle's muffled sound of protest he said, "I want to hold you,"
and turning around pulled the other man into his arms. Doyle was still on
the stool, and Bodie rested his head on his partner's shoulder, relishing
the oddness of being the shorter.

Doyle's hands stroked his back. "How're you feeling, love?"

"A little foolish," Bodie answered honestly. "But not too much."

Doyle bent and kissed him. "You'll get used to it. I'm rather pleased with
the result, myself." He stepped off the stool. "C'mon, let's get layin'
down before my legs give out."

Bodie's hand on his arm stopped him turning toward the bedroom. "Ray? Did
it bother you that much?"

Doyle considered the question. "Yeah, I guess it did. Not all the time,
and I'm not askin' you to bring the neighbors knockin' every night to find
out who's stranglin' the cat. Just...'s nice to be appreciated. And--" The
green eyes twinkled. "With you so quiet, and me moanin' and yellin'--I
feel a ruddy fool sometimes."

"We'll be fools together then."

Doyle took his hand, the same intimate caress of before. "Nah. We'll be
lovers, an' share it. C'mon, mate. Time for sleep." Hand in hand, sharing
a silence that was no longer awkward, they went together into the bedroom.

-- THE END --

*1989*

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