I glanced at my phone, then looked again, more closely.Recognizing the username on the notification, even if it took me a moment to place it.
“You back in town?”CityShowboy101 had sent, what could only be minutes after I’d started swimming.“Fancy round two?”
I could imagine William grinning at the screen as he tapped that out.Wondered whether he’d told Flynn that my name had appeared in the “nearby” list; whether, because I’d been given the green light once, that meant he had carte blanche to hook up with me again.
My fingers itched to unlock the phone, to reply.Worried, suddenly, that in the time it’d taken for me to tire new muscles, William would’ve moved on; figured out a different partner for the evening’s performance.
I forced myself to drop the towel, to step into my boxer-briefs.Turned, then; some distant part of my brain noting that this handsome stranger’s conspicuous stare down at the heft of my junk felt flattering, but not quite exciting.Not compared to the thought of Flynn watching me, anyway.
“Not gonna shower?”The smirk suggested I’d have no trouble finding someone to wash my back.
I shook my head.“Running late, gotta meet an old friend.”
A moue of disappointment, quickly squashed.“Pity.Maybe I’ll see you around, then.”
That was the truth of it, of course, the reality.I’d been a good prospect, but then life was full of good prospects; no point getting sad over nameless trade.
“Enjoy your workout,” I told him, with a wink, and then tried not to look like I was racing to pull my clothes back on.
#
“I’m down,” I tappedout in reply, having impressed myself with my restraint at waiting until I was in the elevator before opening William’s message.If he responded to say I was too late, I could rebrand that restraint as self-sabotage.
“Oh good.”The reply came a minute or so later, complete with a winking emoji and a photo.William on all fours, bare ass facing the camera, back a bottom’s perfect arch.
I felt myself stiffen; resisted the urge to push a hand into my pocket and squeeze myself through the lining.Not so much at the sight of his spread cheeks, and the knowledge of what he was inviting, but at the thought of what was outside of the frame or, more exactly, who.My imagination filling in the periphery, adding Flynn, and his mask, and his white-knuckled restraint in a chair in the corner.Mute and wide-eyed, watching me as I hefted my cock and prepared to perform for him.I wanted him to approve of me.
No, I wanted him to want me, too.For me to be the lure that cracked that resolve, that dragged him out of that chair, hands outstretched.
He’d tried to explain why he did it, the addictive charm of something he could control in a world that otherwise felt off-kilter.I could appreciate that; begin to understand it, even.Only there was a part of me - one I wasn’t entirely sure I was proud of - that saw it as a challenge, too.A competition.
Flynn and I had always been competitive, when we were little kids.It was just that, now, the stakes were different.
Chapter Fourteen
Afledgling sort ofdeja vu, as I rode the elevator in their building.I’d only been there once, but my imagination had conjured so many variations.Auditioned a hundred different ways for Oli to feel, as he walked down the hallway toward the cracked door.
