This was the start of many similar days over the next few years. Ryan and Craig seemed to have no trouble finding two or three friends for me to entertain each day. Sometimes it was a friend I had already met. Nearly all the friends were black which in the end I preferred because they tended to be better at shagging than the white guys who had little or no finesse in sexual expertise.

There was one night each week which I had to myself. I had asked that this was the same night as Alan so that we could go out together. I became very close to Alan and we used to sleep together most nights. My initial feelings of love for him were still there and although he didn"t speak of it I believed he loved me too. It didn"t matter that we were rentboys we still had normal feelings.

About every three months Ryan and Craig arranged a party at their house for business associates who were mainly friends that Alan and I had previously entertained. Dale and Carl were usually there too. Alan and I were there because the party was only an excuse for an orgy of sex. The guests were chosen because they were known to have no sexual inhibitions and were into group sex.

They didn"t pay for it either because Ryan and Craig were using the party as a form of thank you for the business the guests had put their way. Alan and I though got a reward from them for our services which was another form of thank you. The result was that everybody had a good time and got something out of it. This sort of arrangement was typical of how Ryan and Craig looked after Alan and me.

Before I had arrived on the scene only about eight guests were invited because Alan could not be expected to entertain more than that. With me being there the number increased to about fifteen. Alan was known for liking to be spit -roasted and he spent a lot of the time on his knees with a cock in his arse and one in his mouth. With me however word had got around that I liked being double fucked and also fisted. My arse was permanently stretched in this way throughout the whole evening.

Both Alan and I liked eating cum and many of the guests satisfied our appetites. Alan had developed a liking for felching and we both ate the cum out each other"s arses whenever possible.

We had a blissful existence. But this all happened in the early eighties then something completely unexpected occurred that caused the whole situation to change. That something was AIDS. When the first indications of a deadly disease hitting the gay population first came to light little notice was taken of it. But then the deaths of people we knew started happening and it had to be taken seriously.

Ryan and Craig insisted on our using condoms at all times with friends. It became noticeable that fewer guys were cottaging and if they did it was only for a wank, I took condoms with me but despite my liking for cum I had to make do without swallowing. My supply of cum to swallow was limited to guys I knew were safe and even then I could not be sure if they had become infected or not. My addiction had to be curbed and in the end I had to stop cottaging altogether.

I was twenty-one when my university degree course ended and was still sufficiently young looking to carry on as a rentboy so I continued to stay on at Ryan"s and Craig"s. They knew I was capable of other things now that I had qualified and asked me to join their business. In fact both Alan and I became directors of their company and our lives as rentboys gradually came to an end.. They were after expanding into making porn videos which they asked me to look into. They had contacts in the industry and knew how lucrative it could be. They suggested that Alan and I might want to apply to an existing studio as actors. Using their contacts this was not difficult and shortly after we were contacted by a director of a small production company.

The director asked Alan and me to an audition where he made several test films with us having sex together and then each of us with other actors. It was the first time either of us had indulged in sex in front of a director two cameramen, a lighting specialist and a sound man. It was a bit daunting at first but after a few takes we forgot the other people around us except for the director who asked us to get in certain positions and not to block the shot he wanted with an arm or leg in the wrong place. With a bit of practice we could work with the cameraman so that the director got the horniest shots of the two of us shagging.

We saw the result of the test films afterwards and the director made comments and suggestions as to how we could make our performance better. The most important things to him were to ensure he always got a good picture without anything getting in the way and for the actors not to look directly at the camera unless it was intended. He said that, based on the auditions we had given, we were both what he wanted and offered us work on the next film he was making.

The other actors we worked with were all about the same age as us and over the course of a couple of weeks I made about six short films in which I was with a different actor each time and sometimes more than one actor. We always wore condoms when fucking but there were plenty of sucking scenes which were without. One of the most difficult parts of the process I found was to try and remember not to come in a person"s arse but to pull my cock out just as I was about to come and to aim it either at the other guy"s face or somewhere on his body. Even if I was sucking someone they had to pull out rather than let their cum shoot in my mouth. It made the sex seem unnatural to me but it did produce the results that the director, and presumably the public, wanted.

Alan and I had acted only in a research capacity but we got a lot of enjoyment from it too and when we met up with Ryan and Craig afterwards our recommendation was to get into that business. They had enough cash to buy out the film production company and I was put in charge of financing the operation. Alan, who had more of a flair for acting, was put in charge of scenarios. We both helped in the casting of actors in which we had a vested interest. We didn"t shag every new actor but a lot were quite happy to give us a practical example of their talent. The director I had worked under came along as part of the production company as well as many of the other technicians and they alongside Alan stated to make films.

There was no such thing as the internet in those days and so advertising in magazines aimed at the sex market was the only way of getting custom. It also made distribution more difficult as every order had to be mailed. The sex shops under Ryan"s and Craig"s control stocked the films and so the company made money from retail sales as well as mail order. The demand was so high that it was making more money than had come from our rent activities. It was also accounted for legitimately and so we stayed the right side of the taxman..

Alan and I still lived and slept together. Although we both had sex with other guys there was a difference. It was always safe sex with the other guys including Ryan and Craig. Between Alan and me it was bareback since we trusted each other and both had regular check ups at the hospital. But tragedy struck in the least expected place.

Ryan and Craig had gone on holiday to Amsterdam and one of them contracted HIV although they had always been fastidious about safe sex. They didn"t know who had contracted the disease because it was soon obvious that they were both infected. Medication was not very advanced in those days and the condition of both of them deteriorated rapidly. They spent a lot of time in hospital but much was spent at home as well and Alan and I nursed them as best we could. We all knew what was going to happen eventually and when Alan and I could no longer ease their suffering they went to a hospice. It would have been fairer if they had both died at the same time but it doesn"t work that way and Craig succumbed to the illness first. Alan and I were with him till the end and Ryan was also in the same room but too weak to get up and say goodbye to Craig.

"I didn"t need to say goodbye because I will soon be with him," Ryan said in a whisper. He had tears in his eyes but he held back his grief as best he could to spare Alan and me.

Within a week he was dead too. The two guys, who had been like the fathers we had either lost or never had, were taken away in the space of a few weeks. We were devastated, especially Alan who said he owed his life to them. Because they had died within days of each other they were both cremated together. There were hundreds of people at their funeral many of whom Alan and I knew from their being Ryan"s and Craig"s friends whom we had entertained although that fact was never mentioned. That they were so popular was some consolation for our loss but their passing left a gap in our lives which nothing could fill.

Not even the knowledge that the whole of the business and their house had been left to Alan and me could lift the depression we felt. Money does not replace love and friendship and we had lost two of the best pals anyone could have hoped for. They had treated us like their sons. Although to some that may seem incongruous since they encouraged us to go on the game but we were thankful to them for their love as well as security even in the unconventional way it was given.

The business thankfully could run itself as Ryan and Craig had put managers in charge of all of their shops. The film company continued but without Alan"s or my input and the full-time crew including the director continued in his job. After about three months Alan and I made the decision to sell the sex shops side of the business. It was the area where we had least knowledge, it was also the one aspect of the business that reminded us of how much we missed Ryan and Craig. We kept the film company though as it was less complicated to run and, at the time, only employed the director two camera men and a sound man. All the rest of the crew and actors were freelance.

Gradually we returned to work and built up our lives again but this time having to do everything ourselves. In the end this turned out to be a good thing. The business kept our interest and flourished during the eighties and nineties. Alan and I had been together now for fifteen years and still loved each other deeply. I often used to think about what would have happened to him if he had not been rescued by Ryan and Craig. I do not suppose he would have been alive. A lot of people believe in there being life after death. I am not one of them but I do think that a person"s goodness can live on after them and that was how I saw Alan. He was the goodness that sprang from the lives of Ryan and Craig.

By the end of the nineteen nineties the internet began to be the main means of communication, Alan became an expert in understanding how it could reach not just the British population but worldwide. He managed to set up a website to market our films and our business grew massively. We could still make the same number of films, about six a month, but they were being sent to a much larger market.

We also use the internet to recruit new actors. The demand from the public was mainly for young lads of about eighteen and so we were constantly looking in that age group. But as we made it possible to apply to be a star through the internet, we didn"t have to do the legwork anymore. In fact sometimes we had more applications than we could handle.

By the year two thousand and six the business had grown so much we were both millionaires. We were still only in our thirties and still very much in love. We became one of the first gay couples to form a civil partnership.

The following year we decided to live abroad and have been in the South of France ever since. We continue to own the film business and have now diversified into opening and running saunas. I suppose these might be looked at as the modern day cottages. I often visit them and so does Alan. I do not let on to being the owner of the establishment as I just want to have sex like the other guys who go there. It is on these occasions that I remember my long hours spent in cottages sucking cock and being fucked through gloryholes. I still love eating cum and now that it has been found that this is a relatively safe practice I indulge myself from time to time. However it is no longer an addiction but more a pleasure to be enjoyed sometimes.

Perhaps we will someday find a couple of lads who need helping in the same way that Alan and I were given help. It would be a tribute to their memory and gratifying to emulate what Ryan and Craig did so unselfishly for us.