TopGuns Read online

  Top Guns

  Justin Whitfield, Taylor Cole, Cara Carnes

  Jason “Maverick” Ashford and Tyler “Goose” Coombs have been best friends for decades. In their youth they lived a whirlwind existence of debauchery—parties, wild antics and even wilder women. But the breakneck pace of an exotic dancer’s life wasn’t all fun and games. Looking back on it now from Shady Oaks retirement home, they revisit their past—both good times and bad.

  Jason tasted success and gorged on temptation, but to this day still wants the one woman he can’t have. Determined to be the friend Jeanie needs, he bides his time. She’s worth the wait to savor—even if it is just once.

  Tyler believed in living life to the fullest—no sexual adventure too wild to try. And he tried as many as he could. Amidst the hedonism he found his soul mate, but only after tragedy found him first.

  Inside Scoop: Includes a brief ménage, girl-on-girl scene, as well as light BDSM.

  An Exotika® contemporary erotica story from Ellora’s Cave

  Top Guns

  Justin Whitfield, Taylor Cole & Cara Carnes

  Chapter One

  Jason “Maverick” Ashford leaned back in the rocker and forced his gaze away from the scene unfolding a few yards away. Forty years ago he would’ve laid Titanium—aka Lord Drake Marsten of whatever-the-hell—on his ass and not given it a second thought. Things had changed since then, though.

  Fists once made in anger now curled for entirely different reasons beyond his control. Fighting had never been his thing. But the lovely lady with the thousand-watt smile and sparkling blue eyes would be worth the fight.

  Titanium covered her delicate hand with his and flashed the upgraded grill of pearly whites he’d gotten a couple months ago. Talk around Shady Oaks was he’d spent enough money upgrading body parts to house all the residents for a year.

  Whatever.

  Curiosity drew his gaze back when he saw the rustling of yellow as a slip of paper hung between his other hand and the subject of his earlier perusal. That gorgeous smile he’d thought of often appeared as Jeanie Wincrest accepted the flyer.

  He recognized the sunshine yellow.

  The latest community event had been announced. Shady Oaks was nothing if not punctual. Hell, you had to be around here. People died if you weren’t.

  The only thing more predictable than those yellow flyers on the third Wednesday of the month was Titanium’s immediate presence before Jeanie, requesting the “accompaniment of her beauty with him” at said event.

  Maverick’s gut churned as he listened to the same bullshit pick-up lines tossed her direction yet again. Yeah, he was a lot sick of that prick. Jeanie deserved better than that. Hell, he wouldn’t have gotten into the home had it not been for her. She was a favored resident and her pull with the management jumped his name up on the waiting list.

  “You going over there? Or are you playing your pussy card again and pining from over here like always?”

  He looked over at his longtime friend Tyler “Goose” Coombs, who paused his walk to reach a small bag perched on the hook of his cane. He pulled out a small box and tossed it to Maverick.

  It landed on the ground before his feet.

  Tampons.

  “What the fuck?”

  “I figured it was that time of the month again and you’d need them.” Tyler chuckled. “Told you last month I’d get some for you if you kept acting like you need them.”

  That time of the month when Titanium rolled up in his fancy chauffeured car and sauntered up the walk as though he owned the retirement community and everyone in it always left Maverick chafed. “Fuck you, man.”

  Jason shook his head as his longtime partner in crime shuffled toward him in black boxer briefs and nothing else. A red-faced nurse ran behind him in a flurry of frustration.

  The crazy son of a gun still had women chasing after his ass. With a death grip on a wrinkled yellow flyer, he leaned his weight on the cane—clearly favoring his left hip.

  “Mr. Coombs, you need to get dressed before you leave your room.” Her voice rose in marked annoyance. “We’ve discussed this on many occasions.”

  “Like he remembers,” Jason commented loudly. “At least he has the boxers on this time. Cut him a break.”

  “Hey, man, you see this?” Tyler asked.

  “Whatever it is, I’m not interested.”

  “Huh? You aren’t getting it? Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Turn your hearing aid on,” Jason shouted and finger-tapped his own ear.

  “Oh.” Tyler grunted and fumbled around for a minute. They both ignored the arthritic trembles—just like they never spoke of the various and sundry pops and cracks when they stood. “I had breakfast with Mira today. Must’ve forgotten to turn it back on.”

  Ha. Yeah, breakfast with Mira was a darn good reason to be grateful for bad hearing. She was pretty to look at but her shrill voice cut into one’s libido.

  “Mr. Coombs, you need to put these on.” The nurse paused a moment and took a breath as she held out a pair of flannel pajamas.

  Tyler grinned and winked. “I still make ’em breathless.”

  “Mr. Coombs, please.”

  “Ah, man. There goes the begging. I hate that shit— Makes it awkward when it’s time to go.” He looked around for a moment.

  An unseen bond tugged at Maverick when shock settled on his friend’s face. Yeah, it was one of those days. “He goes by Goose. You know that’s important to remember.”

  The nurse looked down and nodded. “My apologies.”

  Yeah, Macy was a lot better with Goose. Her vacations were always hard on him. “Put the pants on, man. Then she’ll go away.”

  “Oh. My bad.” He turned fully and grinned at the nurse. Jason looked away as she helped his friend dress and settle into the seat beside him.

  “I’ll leave you gentlemen to your afternoon.” The nurse scurried away quickly with an exasperated look on her face.

  “That was a hot one. I think she’s new.”

  “Started two days after we got here—four years ago.”

  “Oh. All the blondes look alike to me.” He held out the yellow flyer. “I thought this might be a way to lose that pussy card once and for all.”

  Jason grabbed the flyer. “A dance competition?”

  Old memories flickered to life. Man, those were the days. The world had been their oyster—and they’d sucked down more than their fair share.

  How the hell had so much time flown by? Where had it all gone? There was no way in hell the latest harebrained scheme stewing in Tyler’s senile mind was a good thing. “I don’t know, man.”

  “What the hell?” He shook his head. “We’ve got this.”

  “Man, you’re high on Viagra if you think that.” And son of a bitch, Jason was high on something worse to let the rotgut self-doubt creep into him. He hadn’t had it this bad since he’d been a teenager.

  “Hand over that card and I’ll stamp another month on it for you. Keep this up and you’ll get into the ladies’ social hour on Sundays. Maybe we should go shopping for a bonnet to match your eyes.”

  “I don’t have a pussy card. I just don’t want to waste my time. She’s got Lord Titanium to keep her company.”

  “Funny. Bet he isn’t getting personal deliveries of brownies and smiles at his door every Tuesday and Friday.”

  “She’s being neighborly.”

  “Whatever.” Tyler looked away and mumbled, “Pussy.”

  “It’s not being a pussy, it’s being pragmatic.”

  “Think about it, man. You’ve gotta see she’s the type to want a real man—not some freak who’ll set off metal detectors from a mile away. Besides, she’s known you a hell of a lot longer
and you know how to impress her.”

  Dancing again would be epic. Kicking Titanium’s butt would be the icing.

  The thought of climbing steps onto a stage made his sciatica flare. Shards of pain burst across his lower back while a dull throb radiated in his knees. Those few extra minutes in the weight room had done a number on him.

  Maybe it’s time to ease up on the weights.

  Nah. Everyone had bad days.

  No. He could remember a time when bad days were few and far between. “Wow.”

  “What?” Tyler shouted.

  Hearing aid must be on the fritz again. He leaned forward and raised his voice. “Life seems like it went by so fast. Where did the time go?”

  “Go? I don’t have to go nowhere. I just got here.”

  “Turn your damn hearing aid up.”

  He watched that punk Titanium jet off in one of those new cars worth a couple years of wages. “When you’re young, you don’t bother taking the time to stop and appreciate youth. Why do we have to get wrinkles? Why do we have to get thinning hair? Why do we have to get weak? Why do twenty-year-olds look so damn good but act so damn stupid?”

  “Wait. What does that last one have to do with getting old?”

  “The older I get, the better they look.”

  “It doesn’t take much to make that happen.”

  He ignored the jibe. “I remember when I was in my late teens. All I ever wanted was the older women. Their maturity made me feel safe.”

  Now he felt…

  Empty.

  “Huh? They made you feel gay?”

  “Safe!”

  Tyler held up his hands and leaned back in the rocker. “Oh, thought you were discussing your homo tendencies again,” he deadpanned. “My bad.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “I know what you mean. We just had this talk yesterday. Literally. We just had this talk yesterday.”

  Damn. Not much to say about that since it was probably true—which meant it was time to pay Doctor Riley another visit and increase dosages or something. “Yeah, guess I’m feeling empty inside lately…like I’m supposed to be doing something. Or I’m missing something.”

  “Sounds like Alzheimer’s,” he quipped.

  “I got your Alzheimer’s.” Jason grabbed his crotch.

  Goose looked around. “I’ve been missing something too.”

  “See! You know what I’m talking about.” Jason waved his hands for emphasis. “Something’s missing.”

  “Yeah. My bottle of Viagra.”

  “Motherfucker.” Maverick banged his hand on the table for emphasis and cursed as the pain coursed up his arm. “Quit playing. I’m being serious.”

  “So am I. I can’t get another refill on that ’til the first.” Tyler held his fingers out and started counting. “That’s six, seven, eight days away.”

  “God forbid you go a week without sex.”

  “He does forbid it.”

  A young blonde nurse flashed a smile and waved as she walked past them and down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. Jason turned his attention on Tyler and saw his friend’s gaze riveted on the woman.

  “What? She happens to give excellent sponge baths.” He winked. “I might need another couple of weeks to recover from this hip problem since she’s been so helpful.”

  Ha. Like he stood a chance in hell with her. In his prime Tyler had been a modern-day Casanova. “In your seventies and you still have enough testosterone to fill the gas tank of a motor home.”

  Goose’s eyes widened and he leaned back with a smug grin. “Speaking of motors, I got a hand job from the hair dresser the other day.”

  “How the hell do you go from motors to hand jobs…from the hair dresser?”

  “Easy. Motors…motorboat…motor boating. Titties.” He grinned and cupped his hands at his chest in emphasis. “The hair dresser had huge titties.”

  “And?”

  “I wanted to play with them, got horny. No one was around so I whipped my penis out. I looked at her, she looked at me. I smiled…” He paused as if perplexed by the turn of events at that point. “She didn’t smile so much…penis was hard…she grabbed it. Well, more like slapped it and told me to put it away or she was calling the cops.”

  “That’s not a hand job from the hair dresser.”

  “You say tomato, I say tomahto. You say no hand job, I say her hand touched my penis and that was a good job on my part to get her to touch it.” Tyler nodded. “So, yeah! Hand job.”

  “You, my friend, have a problem.”

  “After knowing me for a little over fifty years and you just now realize that?”

  They both laughed. The man had a point. They’d been through a hell of a lot together over the years and had enjoyed more than their fair share of fun. But now…

  Jason couldn’t shake the thoughts. “Seriously, don’t you ever feel like you missed out?”

  “Look around, man.” He leaned over and motioned toward the open doorway and the crowded game room. “We’re surrounded by chicks! All. Day. Long. We’ve outlived just about every husband in this place. And the ones who are alive? Can’t spit game like us. We got this place on lockdown. Bro, I bang a new chick every…single…night.”

  He laughed. “Bro, you’ve banged one chick since we moved in.”

  “Bullshit!” Tyler moved to stand but grimaced and sat back down. “I’ve been on a hot streak like no other, my brotha.”

  Something flashed across his friend’s face and Jason looked down at the table separating them. “Wow. That Alzheimer’s is really fucking you up, huh? You have sex with the same woman every night. You just don’t remember.”

  “If I’m broke, don’t fix me. I’m like a rock star here.”

  “I’d love to be where you’re at,” Jason said.

  “Yes you would.”

  “You have literally fucked one chick since you’ve been here. One!”

  “Bro, I fuck chicks all the time.”

  “We’ve been here a little over four years…and you’ve fucked one chick.”

  “I’ve always fucked more chicks than you. Who banged more chicks?”

  “Who banged hotter ones?”

  “Who banged more?” Tyler swung his arms toward the lobby in emphasis.

  “Are we measuring by the weight?”

  “I’m from the country and like ’em like that.” He held his arms out. “I like the ones with wide breeding hips. Besides, you were so pussy-whipped you had to ask permission to go to the bathroom.”

  “I still do.” Jason laughed as they both settled into their favorite pastime—sitting back and remembering. He let the silence pass for a few minutes before deciding it was time to broach the one subject he’d been avoiding for a while—even though curiosity plagued him nonstop.

  “So, you ever gonna tell me how you threw your hip out?” No doubt it was something embarrassing or he would’ve heard about it already.

  “You know I don’t talk about my ladies.”

  “Bullshit.” Jason motioned toward the rocker at the corner of the porch. “I’ll find out soon enough. It’s just a matter of time.” Tension left his body when he noticed Jeanie and her gaggle of friends returning to their daily knitting session at the other end of the porch. Titanium had moved on.

  “Speaking of ladies, I bet yours would be mighty impressed by your mad skills.” Tyler motioned toward the flyer. “It’s open to anyone so we could bring a few of the guys in.”

  “I don’t have a lady.”

  “Bullshit. I might have cataract surgery next week, but I know what I’m seeing. Besides, your pussy card’s messing with my game. I lost a chick just the other night ’cause I didn’t have a wingman.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Simple. It was meatball night and you got a case of the runs ’cause Mira always makes them extra spicy like she knows I like them. You went to bed instead of taking that shit you normally suck down like a milkshake.” Tyler shuddered. “Shit, we
hadn’t even finished Jeopardy.”

  “Crazy fucker, we have a rule, remember? We don’t talk about certain shit.”

  “Whatever.”

  “What does that have to do with you getting lucky?” Jason asked.

  “Easy. I’ve been trying to ease Mira into something but you know how those Catholic girls are sometimes. If you’d been there you could’ve kept Sheila busy and let me work my magic.” He shook his head. “Instead I got stuck playing bridge all night. You know how boring that shit is? Sheila got all pissy when I suggested making it strip bridge.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Think we’ve established that, my friend. You remember when we were like gods?”

  It was hard to forget. The rush of adrenaline, the surge of lust. The women.

  “Careful—you might be seeing him soon, so don’t go comparing yourself to The Almighty,” Jason commented as he took a sip of his drink.

  Truth told, they’d seen better days lately. Sure, they’d held up better than the other geezers rolling around the corridors of Shady Oaks. But they’d moved well out of the phase where all it took to get laid was a smile.

  There was more salt than pepper in what was left of their hair these days. The mounting memory problems and increasing ailments rapidly minimized the requisites for what could be deemed a good day.

  “I really miss those days.”

  “Yeah. We had it all. Easy money, easy job and easy women.” Not necessarily in that order either. The latter had been dished out in spades.

  “It sure as hell didn’t start off easy though.” Tyler leaned forward in the rocker and looked across the porch to where the ladies were knitting. “It’d sure be easy to go over there and chat with her for a bit. Beats sitting here yapping with you.”

  Discomfort lumbered in Jason. He didn’t like that look of curiosity on his friend’s face. Or the gauntlet he’d just thrown down. There’d always been a code between them—hands off the other one’s women. But this was different and they both knew it. Jeanie was fair game and they’d both known her for longer than either could remember.

  “How long have we known her?”