by A R Steele
He thought of Lucas on the stage again, and something clicked in his mind.
Shade had to be a cop.
Six
Shade threw his phone into his locker, hoping Jesse hadn’t heard too much of what he’d said. He should have known he was taking too much of a risk by using his recorder. His notes could have waited for later, but he’d worried he’d forget his idea. He’d been taking too many risks lately.
Losing his phone was sloppy in the first place. His whole mission could have been ruined by that one stupid mistake. He needed to yell at Krista for sending such obvious text messages, too. They should have planned for the possibility of his phone being compromised.
He’d been getting so much great material, and he didn’t want to miss anything. It was all going to be amazing once he came out with his article. The exposé on the Tool Shed was going to shine a light on all the darkness in this place. Shade planned to pull out all the dirt and tell the world about it.
Women were fascinated by male strip clubs, and men were quietly curious. He had gold on his hands if he could just keep quiet and fly under everyone’s radar long enough to get it out there. He was close. He just had to be careful.
“So, having a good night?” Shade, trying again to be friendly to Jesse. His smile was weak, though, and his mouth twitched a little as he tried to smile. He wasn’t sure exactly what and how much Jesse had heard. He had to be more careful.
“Great,” Jesse said, pulling on his silky boxers. “Just made an easy hundred with the champagne lounge.”
Watching with a shiver, Shade imagined sliding those boxers down Jesse’s legs. “You charge a hundred? I only ask for fifty.”
Jesse shrugged, his nipple piercings gleaming at Shade. “Sure. At fifty, you hardly make a profit. You have to ask for what you want, or you won’t get it. The higher you aim, the more you can get. I’ve been raising my prices steadily since that lounge first opened.”
“I never would’ve thought about that,” Shade said, wishing he could scribble it down in his notebook. “How much is the most one of the strippers has charged a girl?”
“I don’t know.” The funny look Jesse gave Shade told him he’d pushed too far. “You’d have to ask all the strippers.”
“Okay, well, I hope you enjoy the rest of your night.” Shade scratched his head under the bandana. Be extra-friendly. “Are you going to Ace and Gabriel’s place tonight?”
“Naw. Are you?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Although Jesse had been looking wary up to now, he gave Shade a broad smile. “Do you want to hang out?”
Shade licked his lips. If he wasn’t undercover, he would have taken the opportunity in a heartbeat. Jesse was so fucking sexy. Spending time with him would lead to crushing on him, and Shade couldn’t have that.
“I shouldn’t,” he said. “My… my boyfriend is sick, and I have to take care of him.”
“Take care of him?” Jesse seemed to be finished changing. He leaned against the locker, shirtless in his jeans and do-rag, and crossed his arms. “Making him some chicken soup and putting a hot towel on his head?”
Shade’s cheeks heated up. The tough, cool attitude that he’d been putting on since he came here melted away when it was just him and Jesse. Even when he was with one of the other strippers alone, he could keep up the act. Jesse just threw him off.
“That’s about right,” he said.
“It’s a shame that he’s sick,” Jesse said, his tone meaningful. “We should really hang out. I feel like I hardly know anything about you.”
“Maybe another time.”
“Like tomorrow?”
Shade froze where he stood, not wanting to be pinned down to a specific date and time. He shouldn’t hang out with Jesse at all. It was just not going to go well.
“We’ll see about tomorrow,” he said. “Chris will probably still be sick.”
“I’ll text you and find out.”
The rest of the night passed without incident, which was a great relief to Shade. As he woke up alone the next day, made lunch, and went to the gym, his phone stayed quiet.
The message arrived in the group chat around two, just as Shade was sweeping the kitchen. His heart skipped as soon as he heard the vibration, and he pushed the broom against the wall.
Jesse: Afternoon, guys.
Cooper: Hey Jesse.
Lucas: Hey hey.
Jesse: S, you up yet?
Lying on his bed in the little apartment, Shade scrolled through the messages. Since he was only in town for six months, he’d chosen the cheapest place available. Everything in the building was breaking down, but the bed kept him off the ground and the kitchen worked well enough for him to feed himself.
As he looked at the conversation, he considered simply not answering. Jesse was a little too curious, and it made him worry. Even if he was just being friendly, it could lead to nothing good.
But at this point, Jesse would be able to see that he had read everything. These damn smartphones made avoiding people impossible. He quickly typed out, Yo, what’s up?
Jesse: Just wondering what’s up with you and if Chris is feeling better.
Cooper: Oh, Shade, your boyfriend is sick?
Lev: Hey, when are we going to meet this guy?
With a grimace, Shade rolled onto his front and propped himself on his elbows. What could he say to take the heat off?
Don’t know, he typed. He works all the time. I doubt you’ll get to meet him.
Lev: How about a picture?
Fuck, these guys didn’t give up. I don’t have one on my phone, Shade wrote.
Jesse: So is he still sick?
Shade: He’s not too bad. It was just a little food poisoning.
Cooper: That’s good to hear.
The conversation seemed to stop there, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Jesse was getting seriously nosy, and the other guys were just following his lead. This was seriously worrying. Shade had to nip it in the bud.
Maybe he had been wrong to make up a fake boyfriend. It had just seemed like a good way to keep people away from him. He had turned down a number of customers by saying he was taken. He’d also assumed it would help him fit in with the others. Who would have thought that every stripper at a straight strip club would be gay or bisexual?
And the guys just got more curious over time. He should find a picture of some guy online. Surely that would shut them up. If they kept pushing, that was what he’d do… except that spinning a web of lies would only get him in deeper.
A better option might be faking a break-up. The only problem with that was Shade’s coworkers might be overly sympathetic. They were such a great group of guys. He hated to mislead them like this.
With a sigh, he flipped onto his back again. A pile of old Snap That issues lay on the side table, and he reached for the top one. He needed to remind himself why he was doing this.
His words were going to be in this magazine. Not just sidebars that didn’t have his name on them. Not even just a fluff piece. He’d been so excited that one time Krista said he was going to have a byline… until she told him it was an article about a celebrity’s botched boob job.
This time he would have the feature article. It was slated to take up a large portion of the April issue. Thousands of people would read his words. It would be the biggest moment in his career so far. Possibly ever.
Shade exhaled, thinking about the monumental task before him. Even just halfway through the undercover assignment, he already had no idea how he was going to condense all of this into a magazine format. He could have written hundreds of pages about what he’d already experienced.
He flipped through the old issue. He’d studied all of these so much that the pages were wrinkling. The magazine was full of clever social commentary and incisive wit. Well… it got downright mean at times, but that was why readers liked it.
Just being a lackey at Snap That was a dream come true. Shade had been a fan for years befor
e being hired. Writing the feature article was a whole other level. Shade wondered if he could really write something that readers would enjoy.
Closing his eyes, he went over the potential opener he’d thought of. The Tool Shed is at the end of a nondescript side street in a midsize city. Looking at it from outside, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a warehouse or perhaps a small factory. Only the neon sign with half the letters burnt out gives the slightest indication of what’s actually inside.
That paragraph was pretty decent. Now he just needed to write about a hundred more like it.
The phone buzzed again with another notification, and Shade reached out to grab it. A message from Jesse popped up, one for just the two of them.
Jesse: So, if you’re not taking care of him, you want to grab some pizza after work?
Shade: I might be tired.
Jesse: Pizza is the best thing for when you’re tired. You’ve never had late night pizza? You’re missing out.
Shade: Maybe if you have the munchies.
Jesse: Yeah, maybe that’s why I like it. I pretty much live with the munchies.
Shade: I’ve never had them before.
Jesse: Then we have a lot of things for you to try.
Shade put his phone down, wondering if he had just agreed to hang out with Jesse.
It couldn’t be that bad. He could keep a lid on his secrets for an hour or two. That was part of the package in this job.
He’d known going into this gig that he’d have to be secretive. He and Krista had gone over his made-up story for hours at a time. He’d read everything he could get his hands on about journalistic techniques and biographies of famous investigative reporters.
It was just that his brain stopped working when he was around Jesse.
Seven
Jesse had lived in this room all his life, which meant the walls were still covered with posters he’d put up in his teen years. He paid no attention to them as he lay in bed with his laptop propped up on his knees. The ripped athletes and busty supermodels had nothing on a certain pirate-like stripper, anyway.
None of his favorite time-wasting websites had anything new to offer, so he opened up the app he sometimes worked on. Numbers and letters filled the screen, and Jesse looked at the code for the millionth time. He had been working on this for months now. It was something of a hobby for him. Even if he was just fucking around, it was coming along pretty nicely.
He had learned programming on his own. After getting started with online tutorials, he’d progressed through trial and error. The app was a video streaming service that picked up free videos, and he enjoyed fiddling around with it to make it better. It even had some features that premium video apps didn’t have. He was just screwing around with it, though. He wasn’t planning to show it to anyone.
A mistake in the code became clear, and he spent a few minutes fixing it. The troubleshooting was oddly satisfying. It felt good when he could figure out what was wrong with the app, and even better when he could find a simple, elegant solution for it.
“Jesse!” his grandmother called. “Time to take out the trash!”
He got up reluctantly, saving his work and closing the window. He would come back to it later. For now, he should help his grandmother. She did so much for him. His parents worked a ton, and his grandparents were there for him much more. His whole family was cool, he couldn’t complain, but he was closer with his grandmother than to any of the others.
So he went downstairs, where she gave him a pat on the back and then put the bag of trash in his hands. “Take it outside for me,” she said. “Your grandfather doesn’t have the strength for these things anymore.”
“I know, Gran. I do this every week, and I never complain, do I? You know I’m here to do all these things for you.”
Even though Jesse sometimes thought about moving out, he hated the thought of leaving his grandparents in the lurch. He knew they needed him more than they wanted to admit. They were proud people. Living with them made sense for him as well. He saved on rent, and they had a strong young man around to take care of the heavy chores like this. He doubted they would ever get the lawn mowed without him.
He grabbed the garbage bag and took it out to the garage. As he pushed the trash can to the edge of the driveway, he wondered what Shade was up to and what he was thinking about. They were finally going to hang out tonight, and Jesse was cautiously excited.
He had almost been sure Shade would keep saying no to him. It was getting to the point where he thought Shade just didn’t like him. Jesse wanted to hang out because he was curious, but Shade probably had better things to do with his time. He had to be a busy guy between his job and his relationship… and, of course, whatever secrets he had going on.
Whatever reason Shade had for agreeing, Jesse was just glad he had finally done so. He wondered what he and Shade would talk about when they did get the chance. He would have to try to get more information out of him. If Shade was, by any chance, a cop, Jesse would figure it out.
The more he thought about it, the more his suspicion made sense. Shade was always asking questions, usually weird ones. He seemed especially intrigued by the illicit activities that he never partook of himself.
Jesse had never seen Shade snort a line or even smoke weed with the others. He seemed to be on the straight and narrow. Then there were the interrogation tactics he had told them about, and the way he’d been talking on his phone when Jesse walked in on him.
The theory made more sense the more Jesse thought about it. He wondered what Shade was doing if he was a cop, though. Shade had known about Elijah’s drug dealing and nothing had happened from it.
Jesse had no great affection for the police. The ones in Bridgehaven were fine, but when he’d visited larger cities, he’d been hassled a few too many times for it to be a coincidence. He’d definitely be turned off if Shade was a cop… but he’d still be into him.
Again, Jesse reminded himself that they were just going to hang out as friends. For all he knew, that was all that Shade would want from him anyway. Even if Jesse was attractive, he couldn’t just assume that everyone was into him. Look at how things had never clicked between him and Elijah.
He came back into the house empty-handed and sat down with his grandparents for dinner. By the time they were done, it was just about time to get ready for work. Although he had showered in the early hours of the morning, he had a particular reason to do it again.
After locking the door, he turned up the radio and got under the pouring stream. Hot water ran down his limbs as he squirted body wash into his palms. He rolled his head back, soaking his close-cropped curls.
As the hip-hop beat filtered through the shower curtain, he exhaled. By the time he looked down again, his cock had completely hardened. He brought his hands up his calves, scrubbing the body wash in circular motions. He took his time, imagining that Shade was in here with him. “Mm…” He let out a soft sound at the idea of Shade’s fingers on his body.
As he moved up to his thighs, he allowed the fantasies to get dirtier. He worked the suds into one leg, then the other, as he pictured Shade’s soaking body next to him. Straightening up, he ran his fingers lightly over his stomach. He added more body wash and lathered up his chest, wishing Shade was here to do this to him. His palms brushed over his pierced nipples, and he let out a sigh.
Only then did he drop one soapy hand to where he needed it. He couldn’t tease himself any longer. His lips formed an O as he took himself in hand and grasped his cock hard. The vision stayed with him. As he played with his nipple with his free hand, he pictured Shade nibbling it instead.
He inhaled sharply, closing his eyes against the reality of the situation. As he stood with his face to the showerhead, it felt like the water would wash away anything that was illicit about this. It wasn’t his hand stroking his cock with ever-increasing intensity. It was Shade’s. He imagined pulling that lean body against him. Shade…
Climax overtook him. He almost e
xpected to see Shade there with him when he opened his eyes.
He turned off the water, feeling slightly guilty. Shade was off-limits. They were even supposed to hang out tonight. Could Jesse really act normal around him now that he’d masturbated to his image?
As soon as he got to the club, he ran into Shade in the change room. Jesse gulped as faintly as he could, hoping he wouldn’t show a sign of what he’d been thinking about earlier. Shade was still fully dressed, for which Jesse was thankful. He didn’t know what he would have done if he’d had to look at Shade’s toned arms and wiry chest right now.
“Hey,” Shade said with a grin.
Jesse’s chest tightened at being so close to the object of his fantasies. “Still on for tonight?” he asked, avoiding Shade’s eyes.
Jesse was prepared for the possibility of Shade finding some excuse to back out. Before, he had seemed so determined to not get together with Jesse outside of work. That would probably have been for the best, given Jesse’s raging hormones.
But somehow, things had changed. “After work,” Shade said. His voice was casual, as if he had never tried to avoid their meeting. “Pizza.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Jesse attempted to go about his night as usual, although he kept an eye on Shade as they worked. He couldn’t suppress his curiosity about that guy. He was just mysterious… enigmatic. Jesse wanted to find out everything about him.
If Shade was a cop, he was clearly looking for something bigger than pot. He’d seen the guys smoking a hundred times before. Jesse probably got high more often than any of them, and Shade hadn’t busted him yet.
Maybe Jesse could test Shade a little, though. A cop should show some reaction when someone smoked in front of them. Jesse decided to watch Shade’s reaction next time he lit up a joint. Hell, he’d ask him flat-out if he was a cop and play it off like he was joking.
Through the night, all he could think of was the greasy burst of pizza on his tongue… and the chance to finally figure Shade out.